Page 45 of As the Rain Falls
It’s getting ridiculous.They once made me drive up to the station at seven in the morning just to confirm that Lucia’s car was really hers. It’s baffling how incompetent they can be.
Whose else’s car would it be if not Lucia’s?
She was the one to crash it!
“What… What is it about?” I press, my jaw clenching.
The more I start to overthink this, the worse it is going to get. If I try too hard to control it, I start to get nervous, which is never a good thing. I just have to let it go and say the words.
Just let it go and say the words.
“I can’t really say, sir,” he explains. “You’d have to talk to the detective to really know.”
“Alright,” I sigh deeply, trying to keep myself from snapping at him. “I’ll be, argh, I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Thomas is telling you to be here in the next ten minutes.”
“Thomas needs to stop being an idi—” I roll my eyes, trying to remember that the poor man has done nothing to deserve my rudeness yet.Ah, his time will come eventually.“All I’m saying is, there… there might be traffic on the way.”
“That’s okay, Beckett. Take your time.” The officer takes a sharp breath. “Just don’t take too long, you know?”
I’m actually impressed that he feels comfortable enough to use my name when I can’t even recognize the sound of this voice. Then again, I’m kind of a celebrity around town these days. It’s hard to go to the grocery store without getting weird glances thrown at me.
“Yeah.” I turn the car back around, and the engines make a loud noise in protest. “I do.”
Thomas Leblanc is some big city dude with a fancy diploma who somehow became a detective shortly after moving to Le Port a couple of months ago. Read: He probably screwed something up overseas, and this gig was his last available option.
This whole situation irks me. I find it hard to respect someone who didn’t grow up here getting so much power in so little time. I know his father had everything lined up for him upon arrival; after all, he’s the chief. I’ve seen things like this happen far too often around here, especially when it comes to prissy guys like him.
Major Leblanc once showed me how to shoot a gun back when I was a kid because he thought it’d be funny to scare me. I haven’t tried talking to the guy since, but he’s been on my ass about Lucia’s drunk driving, and like, not to sound like a complete asshole about it, but what the hell am I supposed to do about that? Last time I checked, she’s already dead.
The only reason why I’m not telling him to fuck off is because his son is taking the time to dig into what happened before the crash. Thomas might be the only person who can give me the truth—which is far more than anyone else has done for us so far—and honestly, at the end of the day, I just want to shake this gnawing sense of wrongness away.
My sister is gone.
Nothing’s worse than that.
Not in my books, anyway.
***
Thomas waits for me by the door, and somehow, his face—God, his face alone—annoys me to no end. He doesn’t even have to try that hard to make me want to scream: existing seems to be enough.
I roll my eyes, watching him sneak glances at his wrist like he is timing down the seconds to see just how late I can be. His knockoff Rolex catches the streetlights, flashing like it’s something worth showing off, making him seem more important than he actually is.
I can’t help but laugh internally.
Like, it’s so funny seeing such a prideful man wear a fake. I know the public paychecks aren’t all that rewarding, but I didn’t think things werethatbad.
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Evans.”
He reaches out, going for a handshake.I raise my hand up with a tight smile on my lips. My sweaty hand doesn’t need to be touching his sweaty hand.
Thomas drops his arm to the side, pretending not to mind, but I know he does. People who don’t struggle with the same things I do think I’m condescending, and maybe I am.
Still not touching his hand, though.
“I didn’t have much of a choice, sir,” I snort as I follow him inside. “You need to stop doing this. I have a life, you know?”
