Page 42 of Road Queens
And quiet. Which was good! After what his sister had endured, quiet was a blessing. She deserved it. His whole family deserved it.
Yep.Totalblessing. In fact, he appreciated the blessing of quiet so much that he showed up at the police academy two days after he graduated college. Nobody had it quieter than cops, right?
And sometime between his sister’s rescue and Cassandra Rivers selling her bike and moving away (but not too far away), something happened. Something worse than Cassandra’s injury, something so shattering that Operation Starfish imploded, and the trio was fractured. And maybe the rift was permanent.
And then Franklin Donahue showed up dead. And the three of them claimed he was a stranger. They were wrong, but he wasn’t sure if they were lying.
Fortunately, there was a way to find out.
Mind made up, he pushed away from the wall, left the alley, and strode to his car, wondering for a moment what Amanda was doing now.
You’ve got it bad.
Yeah, yeah. It’d be nice if his inner voice ever told him something hedidn’tknow.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Look.Look. These shelves are filled with stories of gutsy heroines—actually, mostly heroes because patriarchy—leaping into danger and solving mysteries despite their utter lack of training or experience. And a lot of them are kids. What thehellwas Carolyn Keene thinking? Also note that this is thefictionsection, because in real life, all that gung ho garbage does is get you killed. Or indicted. Or sent to juvie. Maybe all three.”
Amanda clapped. “Now do a dramatic reading from the cookbook section.”
“Jesus Christ, it’s like talking to a redheaded log.”
It was the next morning, and Sidney was in the process of providing dinneranda show. Well, breakfast and a show, close enough.
“Nobody’s solving anything, I promise,” Amanda soothed. She was behind the register, making sure there was ample coffee. Though since caffeine made Sidney more ... Sidney, perhaps that was an error. “I’m aware we’re amateurs with no lawful authority except for the ability to make a citizen’s arrest in a limited capacity.”
“Wait, that’s a real thing?” Sidney slumped into one of the overstuffed armchairs. “I’ve only seen it in the movies. And always as a punch line.”
“Is that aWho’s That Girl?reference? Your mom really likes Madonna.”
“My momandmy dad. They met at a Madonna concert in the nineties. And we’re getting off track, Amanda.”
“Right, right.”
“Though it’s tempting to track down my husband and citizen arrest him right in the face.”
“One calamity at a time. Once we get this solved, we can go hunt down your hubby.”
Sidney let out a snort.
“Yeah, I know. Listen to me saying ‘we can hunt him down’ like it’d be easy to catch a con man. Still. Doesn’t mean we can’t try. But again, one personal disaster at a time. So to sum up, nobody’s in danger; we’re not solving shit ...”
“Good.”
“But ...”
Sidney sighed. “Fuck.”
“... we need to get as much info out of Sean Beane, pee eye, as we can. Don’t worry, though.”
“At no point in our lives has ‘don’t worry’ ever been followed by anything good.”
“Always so negative, Sid, you ferocious wench. I’m just saying, I think I’m figuring him out a little. It can be hard to get him talking,reallytalking—”
“Like he could even get a word in edgewise around you,” Sidney snapped.
“I’m going to pass over the cruel irony of your unkind and unsolicited opinion and reiterate that I’ve got this.”
