Page 52 of The Kings of Kearny

Officer Sanders rose from the chair behind it. He was a tall white man in his midforties with sandy-brown hair and bright blue eyes. He had the kind of build that was well suited to his profession: trim but muscular. If someone tried to take off on him during an arrest, I had no doubt that he could run them into the ground.

He looked me over, wincing when his gaze fell to my leg, but at least he managed to greet me without any pity in his voice. “Officer Sanders,” he said, offering his hand.

I limped forward and placed mine in his. The handshake was firm and professional.

He let me go and turned to Katherine, and his face shifted into a sort of resigned, weary expression. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, leading us from the room.

I glanced at the guy from Magnolia as we left. He was still staring at me. I didn’t spook easily, but this guy made my fucking guts roil.

I stared straight ahead from that point forward, following Officer Sanders and Katherine back through the rabbit warren that was the police station. The three of us crowded around a small table in an interrogation room, and from that moment on, Katherine dominated the interview. It turned out there weren’t cameras in the elevators. The entire case would be hearsay after all. That revelation terrified me for a few minutes—what would happen to Gran if I was convicted?—but my fear soon evaporated. For every accusation lobbed against me, Katherine had a rebuttal. Every quote Sanders read aloud, Katherine refuted with the kind of steadfast doggedness that would wear down even the most fanatical cop. She never raised her voice. She was never rude. She simply sat there, speaking in a calm, logical tone that somehow made the entire case against me look absolutely ludicrous. I almost felt bad for Sanders toward the end. He hadn’t done anything to deserve being made to look like a fool; he was just trying to do his job. It was simply bad luck that my case landed on his desk.

I sat there throughout it all and kept my happy mouth shut. Whatever Liam Larson was paying Katherine, it wasn’t enough.

Once she’d finished destroying the criminal case against me—it turned out the guarddidwant to press criminal charges—she slid my phone across the desk and showed Sanders the wreckage of my apartment. He perked up as he thumbed through the photos.

“Can we get copies of these?” he asked.

“I’ll email them to you,” Katherine said.

His gaze rose to mine. “How long were you gone?”

“Five hours,” Katherine answered in my stead.

This was how the entire interview had gone. Sanders, bless him, kept addressing all his questions to me, either because that was protocol or he hoped I might break rank and actually open my mouth. I wasn’t stupid. Katherine told me to keep it shut, so I kept it shut.

“Isn’t it interesting,” she said, “that on the same day my client went to Magnolia Hills with the intent to expose what she believes is prescription fraud with one of the doctors there, that doctor never comes back from her lunch break, my client is attacked in an elevator by a guard she’s never seen before, and then afterward she arrives home to find her apartment vandalized?”

“Interestingisn’t the word I’d use,” Sanders said. “We’ll look into it.” He handed my phone back to me. “Where are you staying now?”

“With the family of a close friend,” Katherine answered.

He held my gaze. “I’d advise you not to leave the local area.”

Katherine rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “And why is that? She hasn’t done anything to warrant that order.”

Sanders’s composure slipped a little as he turned to face her, his brow furrowing in frustration. “It’s not an order. It’s advice. We’ll probably need her to come back in and answer more questions after we open an investigation into her apartment.”

“I think my client has been beyond helpful already,” Katherine said, her tone as calm and placating as it had been throughout the entire interview. “She was gracious enough to come down here of her own volition to address these patently false accusations against her. Any other questions you have, you can direct toward me. She’s been through enough already.”

Officer Sanders sighed, a long-suffering look on his face. “Fine.”

“If that’s all?” Katherine asked, rising from her seat.

Sanders leaned back in his chair and nodded. “That’s all.”

She smiled at him with the same warmth she’d shown me earlier. “We’ll see ourselves out. It’s been a pleasure, as always, Officer Sanders.”

He snorted and waved a hand in dismissal. “Sure it has.”

I rose from my chair and followed her into the hallway. “I really want to high-five you right now,” I whispered.

A small, victorious smile spread over her face. “Wait until we get outside.”

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