Page 9 of One Last Chance

“So? You ready to hear?” Her eyes sparkled the way they always did when she was about to spill some gripping gossip.

“I meant what I said about coffee.”

“Ugh, fine.”

The coffee shop was close enough to walk to. Everything was, which was one reason why I hadn’t bothered to try and buy a car yet even though I’d gotten my license at fourteen. Rural laws and all. But Lizzie was determined to get her money’s worth out of the little red piece of junk, so we drove.

Only when I had my coffee in hand did I let her speak.

“Okay, so check this out,” she said. “Do you know why Kash never presented an alibi at the original trial?”

“I assumed it was because he was guilty,” I said, though, to be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought. My brother was dead, the love of my life was wrongfully accused of his murder. And then convicted of his murder. And then did all the things a guilty man would have done. Needless to say, I was a mess and there were a lot of other things I had on my mind.

Lizzie shook her head. “Nope. It was because he was at the scene of a different crime at the time and didn’t want to implicate himself. Stupid idea, really. Like selling crack is gonna get you more time than murder? Idiot.”

I frowned. It didn’t really make sense. “How do you know that?”

“Remember old Raff? The guy with the eyepatch who used to sleep at the bus station?”

“Yeah, I remember him. What happened to him?”

She brushed the question away swishing her hand to the side. “Don’t know, not relevant. Anyway, back then I was working at Spinner’s. Every night Raff would come by and I’d give him anything that we couldn’t keep overnight, like burgers and stuff that we had made but didn’t sell. The night that Hunter died, Raff was late. Super late, like I was about to throw the food away kind of late.”

“So?”

“So, I didn’t think anything of it until I heard what happened to Hunter. Then I started wondering, if, I dunno, one had to do with the other. Or maybe he saw something. I dunno. The next time he stopped by, I asked him why he was late that night. He put up a fight—you know how paranoid he was—but eventually he came out with it.”

She paused dramatically and I frowned at her. This was taking way too long and I didn’t want it to turn into one of those things where she stretched the story out over a course of days. Usually, that wouldn’t have been a problem. I was never really that invested in her gossip. But now, well, this gossip wasn’t just gossip, it was a chunk of my heart.

“Okay, okay. He told me he was late because there were a couple guys arguing over the price of a bag, and it came to blows. He liked to hang around fights because stuff would fall out of people’s pockets and they wouldn’t notice. He didn’t get anything that time, though.”

“What is the point of this story?”

“The point is that when Kash was arrested, his face was messed up like he’d been in a fight. The cops figured that he and Hunter must have fought. But I think it was the crackhead he was fighting with on the complete other side of town from where Hunter died.”

She smiled smugly and sipped her own coffee with triumphant flair. I waited, but she was finished talking.

“Are you serious? That’s all?”

“What do you mean, that’s all? That’s everything! Kash is obviously innocent.”

I shook my head in frustration. “It’s nothing, Lizzie! Kash was beat up. Hunter died. Some random hobo watched a fight. They found the murder weapon in Kash’s shed! Your theory is nothing. Thanks for wasting my time.”

I expected her to get huffy, but she was still smiling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You know, for an aspiring librarian, you’re really not good at details.”

“What are you talking about?”

She sighed like I was stupid. “Think about it. Six years ago, how many people were selling crack in Danton?”

I frowned. “I don’t know.”

She held up two fingers. “Hunter. And Kash. That’s it. Don’t you remember? Dayle Jenkins was trying to edge in on their territory, but they shut him down when he tried selling to the kids at the bus stop. They kicked his ass. Nobody else had the balls to try after that.”

I frowned and shook my head. “No, there had to be somebody else.”

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