Page 49 of The Kings of Kearny

“What is it?” I asked.

“Sanders shouldn’t have told you that,” he said. “It’s against PD policy. They like to bring people in and then tell them what they’re being accused of so they can get something out of the reaction.” He sounded like he was speaking from experience.

“So why did he?” I asked.

“He’s not a bad man,” Jakob said. “For a cop. He doesn’t like the Kings, but he’s fair, even with us. He probably told you because he smells bullshit. Be grateful. This will give Katherine a chance to work up a defense in advance.”

I mulled that over while Jakob called his father to let him know what had happened since we’d left his house. After he hung up, he called Daniel King, repeated the story, and then called Katherine Jenkins, my new lawyer. We spent forty minutes replaying the day’s events to her. When we finished, she gave us a long list of instructions and told us to meet her outside the police station in an hour.

Chapter Twelve

The engine of the Mustangrumbled to life as Jakob pulled out of my parking lot.

I turned toward him in my seat. “Is there something going on between you and Daniel King?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, like he hadn’t seen that question coming from a mile away.

“Is there a rift between you two?”

He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. Why?”

I stared at him. Seriously? “Oh, I don’t know. I guess I was just curious because he broke into your place the other night, made cryptic comments about some dude named Mike, and was just a complete asshole to you on the phone.”

The man had ripped Jakob a new one when he’d told him what happened today. Jakob didn’t have him on speaker, but I still heard his angry words, which meant he’d been yelling.

Jakob shrugged. “Don’t read into what happened at my apartment. Nothing Daniel King does makes any goddamn sense to anyone other than Daniel King. Questioning him only makes it worse. And he has a right to be pissed that I broke the chain of command and talked to my dad before him about what happened today.”

There was more going on, I just knew there was, but Nina’s caution from the other night whispered through my mind, and I decided to let the conversation drop. She was right. Despite my curiosity, I didn’t need to get any deeper into Kings business than I already was. After I got some vengeance for my apartment, I’d do my best to let it all go.

“There’s one thing I keep coming back to in all this,” I said.

Jakob eased the car to stop at a red light. “What’s that?”

“Why weren’t you able to figure out who the dealer is by asking someone in town who bought drugs off them?”

He shook his head. “We’ve asked. No one wants to admit to buying drugs inside Kearny, let alone tell us who they bought them from.”

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