Page 16 of The Inmate
Caleb. Thank God.
I sprint over to him as briskly as my too-tight Louboutins will allow me. Caleb is getting out of his car and I throw myself into his arms before he can even get the door closed. I bury my face in his chest, the tears gathering in my eyes. This is the worst day ever.
“Hey.” His large hand strokes the back of my head. “It’s okay, Nat. I’m here.”
“Something terrible happened to her,” I murmur into his shirt. I’m probably getting tear stains and mascara all over him, but he doesn’t seem to care.
“Don’t say that.” He squeezes me to his chest. “I bet she’ll turn up.”
I pull my face away from him to stare up at him. Even in my heels, he’s nearly a head taller than me. I’ve always liked tall guys. “What are you basing that on?”
“Um…”
“Because if you saw how much blood was in her living room, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
“Look, I don’t know.” He offers a helpless shrug. “I just think the best we can do is hope she’s okay. You know?”
I feel guilty for snapping at him. He didn’t deserve that after running out here for me. “I’m sorry. I’m just so shaken by everything.”
“Yeah,” he breathes. “I know. It’s awful.”
I rest my head back against his chest. His heart thumps reassuringly in my ear. We remain that way for a good two minutes—me pressed against him, him gently stroking my hair. More points for Caleb—he’s kind to me during a tragic event. This is taking our relationship to the next level.
“Hey,” I say.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“You need a ride home?”
I would love a ride home. But my car is here, and there’s no way I’m going to leave it here. So I have no choice but to get back in there and drive back through the treacherous rush-hour traffic. “No, that’s okay.”
“So what do you need? Anything you want.”
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear as I pull away from him. “I need you to tell the police we were together all night last night.”
Caleb stiffens. “What?”
“It’s so stupid.” I shake my head. “The police were asking me where I was last night. Like I need an alibi or something… As if I could have done something to Dawn! It’s just a formality, I’m sure. I was there, so they had to ask me. So anyway, I told them we were together all night last night.”
“But…” He scratches his chin. “Weweren’ttogether all night last night. I left around 9:30.”
“Well, so what? We were together most of the night. That’s good enough.”
“So that’s what I’ll tell them. That we were together most of the night and I left at 9:30.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Is it that big a deal? I mean, you work with Dawn too. It helps you also to have an alibi.”
His eyebrows scrunch together. “But it’s a lie.”
“It’s a white lie. Neither of us did anything to hurt Dawn. So it will just confuse the investigation if we don’t have an alibi.”
“I don’t know, Nat.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t feel right lying to the police. Why is it so important that we have alibis? They’re not going to think either of us did anything to hurt her.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “Right, but I already told him we were together. So if you don’t go along with it, I look like I’m lying.”
“But youwerelying.”
