Page 55 of Not the Bodyguard's Princess
“Then let’s play.” Jordan took the dry-erase pen from the whiteboard on the side of the fridge and drew and 8 x 8 grid on the table. She drew a squiggle every other square.
Andrew opened the bags. “Great idea.”
“Plagiarized from Hearthfire Kids. We did it in a snowy-day episode when I was nine. I had to lose that game. Chocolate or lemon?”
“Chocolate.”
Jordan grinned and set twelve lemon cookies in the nonsquiggled squares. Andrew did the same with his chocolate and snuck a look at his phone. No alerts.
“Set it on the table. We will both want to know if there are new messages.” Jordan started the game.
Andrew followed. Jordan waited patiently, then jumped two of his cookies. She removed them from the board and ate one.
“Hey, that was my cookie.”
“Wasis the operative word. The only way to keep the chocolate cookies is to win.”
Andrew was determined not to give up another cookie. Unfortunately, he lost the first game.
They were setting up the second when his phone rang.
“Hello, Ben.”
“The police detective would like to speak with you and Miss Lee tonight as soon as you have time. He says wherever you are or the station will do.”
Jordan froze, holding an Oreo over the board, listening. Andrew changed to speakerphone. “I’d rather not have them here. We can meet at the station.”
Ben relayed the message to someone on his end. “Tonie is responding to treatment. They have her on IV fluids and are flushing out her system. Apparently it was a cocktail of things.”
Andrew closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer of gratitude heavenward that the drugs hadn’t been fatal. “Do they have a timeline for her release?”
“Probably in the morning. The detective can’t have a coherent conversation with her yet. He mentioned Princess is receiving similar treatment.”
Jordan set the cookie on the table and closed her eyes, her relief as palpable as the earlier stress.
“Thanks, Ben.” Andrew ended the call. “I guess we should turn off the pies before we head to the station.”
Jordan turned the stove off. “They still have twenty-seven minutes left.”
“I promise we will eat before the night is over.” It was a promise he hoped he could keep.
21
“The one thingmovies and television can’t capture is the smell of police stations.” A veteran actor had imparted that wisdom years ago, the first time Jordan appeared in a crime show. This was the only real station Jordan had ever been in, but she agreed. Stale smells of all types accented with the scent of pine cleaner assaulted her as they followed the detective back to his office. With all the clutter on the desk, she assumed it couldn’t be an interrogation room.
“Thank you for coming to the station. Mr. Hastings, if you’ll wait outside my office, I’d like to question Miss Lee. We don’t want to contaminate witness stories.”
Andrew locked gazes with Jordan for a moment before exiting. The detective closed the door. “Tell me, in your own words, what happened.”
“We dropped Tonie and Princess off, then ran out to pick up some dinner.”
“Do you know what time that was?’
“I didn’t look at the clock. Oh, but I did do an internet search––” Jordan checked her phone, “––at 4:52 while we waited for our burgers. When we got back to the hotel, we rode the elevator. There was no one in the hall, but Hearthfire is short on guards tonight, so that wasn’t unusual. Everyone wanted to go to the game. I had a bag of food, as did Andrew. I used my phone to open the door.”
“Your phone?”
“Yes, the hotel has the app, so you don’t need a keycard. Ben went first and started the room sweep. Anyway, Princess didn’t meet me at the door, and I had food, so that was doubly unusual. I thought Tonie must have taken her on a walk. I should have waited for Ben to finish, but the bag was ripping, so I took it to the kitchen. That’s when I saw them. I screamed, and Mr. Andrew had me out of the kitchen so fast I didn’t even have time to think.”
