Page 94 of Out on a Limb
“Of course I remember her.” Elaine reached between the seats to squeeze my shoulder. “How have you been feeling, dear?”
“Good.” I managed a smile. The only time I’d met Elaine was the morning after I’d accidentally landed myself in the hospital with the heat stroke I’d earned while trying to impress Andrew. “I haven’t been digging any ditches in the heat lately.”
Elaine’s smile was warm. “Digging in the heat is hard work.”
I couldn’t imagine this woman ever digging in the dirt. Heat or not. She probably snapped her fingers and a whole slew of men jumped to do her bidding.
“Are we ready to go?” Elaine was obviously ready to get this show on the road.
“Yup.” I was not quite as ready as she was.
Mostly because I wasn’t really sure what our plan was. So far Julia’s explanations were sketchy.
She acted like all we had to do was show up with Elaine and everything would be fine, and while I’m sure Elaine is a perfectly fantastic person, I’m not confident her mere presence can make magic happen.
But I was willing to try anything at this point.
I drove us to the station and parked in the closest spot I could find.
I stuck close to Elaine as we walked toward the entrance, watching the way she walked. The way she carried herself.
She was the kind of woman I wanted to be.
Confident. Put together.
A little scary.
But considering I was wearing men’s shorts and was one wrong swallow from barfing on my shoes, it didn’t seem like that would be happening for me today.
Elaine breezed into the station with an easy smile on her face. She went straight to the desk. “Good afternoon. Could you please tell Chief Henderson that Elaine Servantes is here to speak with him?”
The officer behind the desk was smart enough to look a little hesitant. “The chief isn’t here right now.”
Elaine didn’t seem bothered. “I’ll wait.” She turned and went to the chairs situated around the small waiting area where she gracefully sat down, keeping her eyes on the cop behind the desk.
He slowly lifted the phone and punched a few buttons. His voice was low enough that I couldn’t make out what he said, but he looked more concerned with each passing second.
Finally he set the phone back in place. “He will be here in fifteen minutes.”
Elaine was still smiling. “Lovely.”
Fourteen minutes later an older man busted through the door, huffing and puffing a little as he pushed out his chest, smiling face trained on Grant’s mother. “If it isn’t Elaine Servantes.”
“Chief Henderson.” Elaine held out her hand, palm down.
He took her hand in both of his. “I’ve told you, it’s Oscar.”
Elaine seemed to blush a little. “Oscar, this is my lovely daughter-in-law Julia and her friend Collette.” Elaine let him help her up from her seat. “And I believe there’s been some sort of confusion with an incident at their place of employment.”
“Oh?” Oscar looked from Julia to me then back to Elaine. “We can’t have that.”
“I knew you would think so too.” Elaine’s attention didn’t leave the chief as she stepped closer. “It’s a very romantic story.” She rested one hand on her chest. “Chivalrous actually, which I knew a man like you would understand.”
Damn.
I might be witnessing the magic I was doubting existed.
“These two lovely girls were kind enough to spend last evening entertaining my mother and her friends, and now someone has accused Collette of committing a terrible act, which she simply could not have done.” Elaine continued to lay out the rest of the story, explaining that Andrew confessed to the crime only to prevent me from being taken in for something he knew I didn’t do. “He only wanted to protect her.”
