Page 11 of Mistletoe and Malice
“I certainly will. As I do with all my cases. And, yes. I’ll see Mr. Devers after church.”
Avery and Detective Stapleton stared at each other before he cleared his throat again. “So, this is where you appeared on the scene? After Miss Hudson used her … creative self-defense tactics?”
“Yes, sir.” Avery’s blue-green eyes sparkled with excitement, which Riley would take any day over the shadow of guilt they’d held a few minutes ago.
Content to let her take center stage, Riley let go of the ring, sat back, and clasped her hands in her lap. The officer scribbled in his notebook as Avery gave her rundown of what she witnessed. Perhaps a dramatic embellishment here or there in her Avery way, but otherwise accurate.
“How tall would you say he was?”
“Hmm.” Avery’s perfectly sculpted brows furrowed. “Maybe a head taller than Riley, and she’s five-four?—”
“Five-six,” Riley said. As the shortest of their quartet, she was territorial about every inch.
“Five-six—five-nine with those heels—and he was lanky. I would say thin but fit.”
Riley nodded. “Agreed.”
“Anything else, Miss Sanders?”
“You can call me Avery. And, no, nothing I can think of.”
He returned to Riley. “Do you have the clothing you were wearing today?”
“The officer by the door bagged it all up.”
“Good. Do you have anything to add about the perpetrator?”
“Nothing Avery hasn’t already told you. I didn’t see him until he let me go, and that wasn’t much.” She pulled her arms tight across her stomach. “I never expected somebody to grab me in broad daylight.”
“It does happen, unfortunately. Do you think this attempt may have been for a ransom?”
“I guess it’s possible, but nobody’s ever tried anything before.”
“Why don’t you have protection with you?”
Her eyes widened. “Like a gun?”
“Like a bodyguard.”
“A bodyguard? That’s a hard no. I had one until I went to college.” She gestured at her friends. “We all went to Stanford together. Being half the country away, nobody knew who I was. So, I told Daddy no bodyguards. Ever again. Besides, I always carry my trusty pepper spray.”
Though a heap load of good that did today.
“And you’re a …” He consulted his book again. “Lawyer?”
“Yes, sir.”
“She’s a fabulous attorney,” Frances said. “Third in her class at law school, and so far, a one-hundred percent win record in court. She could be making a fortune but does it allpro bono.”
Riley shook her head. “Detective Stapleton doesn’t need to know all that.”
“Sure, I do,” he said. “What kind of law do you practice?”
“Probably your least favorite kind.”
“A defense attorney?”
“I head up a group that considers cases of possible wrongful conviction. We investigate, collect new evidence, do DNA tests through private labs, and so on. Once we have enough incontrovertible evidence, we file for new hearings and then try them.”
