Page 13 of Promise Keeper

After the three of them had their microphones in place, Andy led them outside. I followed behind, and stood on the porch watching Liam rummage through the flower bed.

Alexis stood the three of them in front of Ben's driver's side door of his truck. The words Metamora One stood out behind and between them. "I'll ask questions and direct one of you to answer," she said. "Any questions before we go live in one minute?"

Andy had his camera trained on them, and earphones on, listening to the audio. Bigger stations had a person to do each, but ours could only afford Andy to do both.

Soon, Andy was counting them down. "In five, four, three..."

Before he got to motioning for action, a cop car from Brookville turned into our driveway.

"Everybody wants in on the action," Ben said, cocking his head to see who was in the car.

"It doesn't look like Sheriff Reins," I said.

"It's not. He hired a new deputy."

Ben headed toward the patrol car, then stopped dead in his tracks. "You have to be kidding me."

"What is it?" I asked, hurrying off the porch.

"Mia."

"What?" Then I saw her sitting in the backseat of the car.

The deputy got out of the car and greeted Ben. "Mia Hayman's your daughter, Ben?" he asked.

"Depends," Ben said. "What did she do?"

"Shoplifting."

Ben shook his head and put his hands on his hips. "What did she take?"

"Makeup. It wasn't worth much and the owner of the store isn't pressing charges."

"I'll have to thank him for that."

The deputy opened the back door and let Mia out. Ben shook his hand and he got back in his car and left. Mia hung her head and her shoulders shook as she cried.

"Get in the house," Ben said. "I'm in the middle of work. We'll talk later."

"Dad, I'm sorry."

"Get inside," he repeated.

Mia shuffled toward me, scooping up Liam as he ran up to her. Since I already had the inside scoop on the bones, I followed her inside.

"Hang on," I said, as she started upstairs. "The movie was a while ago. Have you had dinner?"

She shook her head. "I was in the manager's office at that store for hours."

"Why didn't the deputy call us?"

"I asked him not to unless I was in trouble. He said he'd have to tell you guys, but he'd take me home and do it here."

"Come in the kitchen. I'll make you a taco salad."

She sat at the kitchen table while I made her dinner. "Can you help me understand why you did that?"

"Steph and I met a couple other girls from school at the movie. They were giving me crap about being a cop's daughter."

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