First Girl Gone(50)

“Right. Anyway, after Jason dispatched Mr. Martin with the pool cue, he swung the splintered butt at anyone who tried to get close. When the deputies arrived, they said it looked like he was trying to stake vampires or something, waving this sharp wooden stick around, you know.”

“Wow. I watched him storm out of his house a while ago. He seemed upset, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”

Zoe sighed.

“Yeah, well, it could be more trouble for a family who already has more than their fill of the stuff at the moment. He thunked the guy pretty good over the noggin. Concussed him. He seems OK for now. Awake, alert, at the hospital for observation, but you never know. I’ve read about cases where someone goes home from a fight, after getting hit in the head like that, and they end up dying like eighteen hours later or something.”

“God, I hope not.” Charlie closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “The family already has enough on their plate, like you said.”

“You just never know when it comes to head wounds like that. Either way, you’ve got to figure this guy, the victim, he’ll want to press charges. The attack was supposedly unprovoked.”

“Have you given Jason his phone call yet?”

“Nah. Chief wants to let him stew for a while. Think on his actions.”

Charlie nodded, though she knew Zoe couldn’t see her.

“Well, thanks for letting me know.”

“Yep. Catch you on the flip-flop.”

“Later.”

Charlie went back to staring into the laptop monitor. By this time, there was only one person still awake. Her eyes once again focused on Todd Ritter in his playroom. He was back at his train set, fiddling once again, removing a piece of track to replace it with another. She watched him through slitted eyelids, unblinking.

“God, how could he be so oblivious to what’s going on in his own home?” Allie said, voicing Charlie’s precise thoughts at the moment.

Charlie didn’t answer, though she couldn’t disagree.

“I mean, I can’t help but feel bad for the guy. But what are you going to do? There are a lot of suckers like him in life. They never get a clue as to what people are really like.”

Confident that the excitement in the Ritter house was mostly over for the night, Charlie closed the laptop and set it in the backseat. She flipped on her headlights and put the car in gear.

“Where are we headed?” Allie asked.

“To bail out Jason Spadafore.”





Chapter Thirty-Seven





“You sure you want to do this?” Zoe asked, moving behind the front desk of the police station and plucking a large set of keys from one of the drawers.

“Yep.”

“It’s your five hundred bucks,” Zoe said with a shrug. “I’ll be right back.”

Charlie milled around the waiting area, arms crossed. A few moments later, Zoe returned from the holding area with Jason in tow. When he saw Charlie standing there, he scowled.

“What are you doing here? Where’s my mom?”

Uncrossing her arms, Charlie spread her hands wide.

“She’s not here. It’s just me.”

“She sent you?”

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly,” he mocked her. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Hey, pal, you should watch your tone,” Zoe said. “This lady just did a nice thing, bailing your ass out. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be sitting in that cell until morning.”

Charlie appreciated Zoe jumping to her defense, but if she wanted Jason to talk to her, she needed to find a way to de-escalate the situation.

“It’s OK, Zoe. I’ve got this.”

Stepping closer to Jason, she tried to steer him away from the front desk with a gentle hand on his elbow.

“Could we talk a minute?”

He jerked away from her.

“About what?”

“About Amber. You didn’t have much to say today, but I imagine you’re close, being only a year apart.”

He angled his chin away from her, staring at an empty corner of the room.

“I guess.”

“So why don’t you tell me about her? Did you know if she had any plans to meet up with anyone aside from her old school friends while she was here? An old boyfriend?”

He shook his head.

“She didn’t say anything like that.” His eyes squinted as he studied her. “You know my parents only hired you for appearances, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean no one takes you seriously. My dad says your whole business is a racket. But the other family had already hired you, so my mom said it would look like they didn’t care as much about their daughter if they didn’t hire you too. The whole thing is a fucking joke.”

Charlie felt her hackles rise at the insult and then realized that was exactly what he wanted. He was trying to bait her.

“OK. If you don’t want to talk about Amber, then why don’t you tell me about tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. The fight at the bar. How did that start?”

Jason’s brow twitched.

“Didn’t like the way some townie trash was looking at me.”