The Reckless Oath We Made(25)

“Sure,” I said. My first choice would have been curling up in a little ball somewhere, but my second choice was definitely just pretending that my sister wasn’t maybe dead.





CHAPTER 13





Zee



At Marcus’ school, I realized I didn’t know how drop-off worked, because I was always picking him up. I almost pulled in the wrong drive, and in the right drive, there was a sign that said NO PARKING, but I was already late. I got Marcus unbuckled and grabbed his book bag and the lunch Charlene had packed for him.

“You can’t park here, ma’am,” the school resource officer said. He came down the sidewalk with his gun belt rattling. I never knew what to think about that. Was Marcus any safer because a cop with a gun was on duty at the front door?

“I’m sorry. I don’t usually drop him off, so I don’t really know what I’m doing.” I gave the cop what I hoped was a friendly smile.

As soon as I got his book bag strapped on and his lunch in his hand, Marcus ran up the sidewalk to the front door. I was going to call him back and hug him, but the SRO was frowning about where I was parked, so I yelled, “I’ll see you at three-thirty!”

As I was pulling away from the school, my phone rang. Mom. I’d missed a call from her while I was getting Marcus out of the car, too.

“The police are here again,” she said, as soon as I answered.

“They came by again? Or they’re there now?”

“They’re here now.”

“What do they want?” I put on my signal and got into the turn lane to go to Mom’s house.

“I don’t know. I didn’t answer the door.”

I wanted to say, You can’t hide in your house like a turtle and hope this all goes away, but she’d pretty much done exactly that since Dad died. Instead, I said, “Okay, well, I’m on my way to your house, so I’ll talk to them.”

When I got there, two patrol cars were parked in the street, and a police van was parked at the bottom of the driveway. Two guys in suits and three uniformed cops were standing on the front porch. I think I was too exhausted from worrying, because I didn’t feel anything as I got out of the car. As I came up the sidewalk, though, I saw that one of the cops was holding a goddamn battering ram, which I guess they were planning to use to knock the door down. I broke into a jog, wishing I didn’t have to do the whole day on nothing but two stupid ibuprofen pills for the pain. One of the uniformed cops turned and held up his hand.

“Miss, you can’t be—”

“I’m her daughter. Is there a problem?” I said.

I’d thought it would be the police coming to give Mom bad news, but when the guys in suits turned around, it was the U.S. marshals, Mansur and Smith.

“Miss Trego,” Mansur said. “We’re a little concerned about your mother. We’ve been here almost twenty minutes, knocking on the door, and she hasn’t answered.”

“She’s fine. I talked to her on the phone. It’s hard for her to answer the door. She’s an invalid, okay? You met her.” I didn’t intend for it to come out like an accusation, but it was. They’d met her. They had to know how difficult it was for her to get up and come to the door.

“We’re going to need you to let us in.” Mansur had an ink stain on the pocket of his dress shirt, and I focused on that. On remembering that he was a federal marshal, but still just a person.

“Do you have some news for us?” I said, even though my mouth had gone totally dry. I mean, how could they not know? LaReigne was thirty and a petite blonde. The other woman, Molly, was fifty-something and a brunette. I could have looked at the hands for two seconds and known if it was LaReigne. As soon as I thought that, I was glad I hadn’t eaten any breakfast.

“I’m sorry, we don’t,” Mansur said.

“Then I’d rather you didn’t come in. You’re just upsetting her.”

“I’m afraid that’s not an option.” The whole time, Mansur had been holding a sheet of paper folded up in thirds. He held it up real casually, like it wasn’t any big deal. “We have a warrant to search the house.”

“A warrant. To search this house?” I pointed at the screen door that was still canted off to one side. “This house?”

“Miss Trego, is there a problem?”

“You saw it yesterday, and you want to search that mess? What do you think is in there?”

“The search warrant explains what we’re looking for. Now, if you’ll unlock the door, I’d prefer to do this with a minimum of distress for your mother.”

“That’s not even possible. Just wait here,” I said, but when I unlocked the door and pushed it open, Mansur stepped in right behind me.

“Zhorzha? Are the police still here?” Mom yelled.

“You remember the marshals? Mansur and Smith?” I said. “They’re here with me. They have a search warrant.”

I waited in the front hall, because I wanted her to have a minute to pull herself together before she had to face the cops, but also because I didn’t want to see the look on her face once she knew what was about to happen.

Mansur was getting impatient, so I started toward the front room as slowly as I could, with him following me. When I got to Mom, she was sitting upright in her chair with her inhaler in her hand.