Page 39 of Crossing Paths
The uniformed officer had returned Zach to the safety of the back seat and was speaking with Mr. P and Detective Mill. Without being able to hear what they were saying, Norah’s mind drifted. She wondered where Dash ended up holing up for the afternoon. This probably wasn’t the way he’d wanted to spend his day off.
The cop turned away from his huddle with Mill and Mr. Petra, striding over to the driver’s side door of his squad car. After a few more minutes of what looked like Mr. P lecturing Mill, judging by the amount of times the smaller man’s fingerpoked the detective in the chest, their neighbor gave Mill a final stab and walked into his house.
Norah and her sisters grew quiet and still as they watched the last remaining man standing on Mr. P’s front walk.
“Just get in your car,” Molly mumbled, making Norah bite back a chuckle. It almost sounded as if Molly was trying to hypnotize the detective from a distance. “Get in your car, and follow the nice, competent cop back to the station.”
Molly’s hypnosis skills obviously needed work, because Mill’s gaze locked on Norah and her sisters’ house. Glancing down the road as if making sure the other cop was out of sight, he strode toward their front door. Norah’s stomach clenched.
“C’mon.” Molly was at the top of the stairs before Norah had even processed the fact that Mill was coming to their house.
She hurried to follow her sisters down the stairs but froze when she reached the bottom. What did the detective want? Why was he trekking over to their place? She swallowed hard. Did he know something? Was there a hole he noticed in Dash’s improvised story?
Molly moved to the security controls and deactivated the alarm. The familiar screech of the screen door opening made Norah’s stomach twist into an even tighter knot, but Molly’s expression was calm as she walked to the door.
As she yanked it open, Detective Mill was revealed. His fist was raised as if he’d been just about to pound on it. Wanting to back up her sister, Norah moved closer, noticing that Cara did the same. Even though Mill hadn’t been arrested like his partner, no one in their family trusted him one bit—especially since heseemed bound and determined to catch them doing something illegal.
“Detective Mill.” Molly bared her teeth in what couldn’t quite be considered a smile. “How…lovelyto see you.”
Even as her stomach tightened, Norah had to hold back a snort. The word “lovely” had positively dripped with malice.
“I have some questions for you about an incident at your neighbor’s house.” Mill didn’t even bother with the niceties as he pushed open the screen door wider, moving as if to step inside.
Molly didn’t move, continuing to block the doorway. Norah moved closer, adding to the barrier.
“Why don’t you want me inside?” Mill asked with an unpleasant, sneering smile. “What are you girls hiding?”
“First of all…” It was Molly’s turn to step forward, and Mill automatically took a step back, yielding the space to her. From his immediate frown, he wasn’t happy about it. “We are notgirls. Second, there’s no reason for you to come inside to talk about something that happened at theneighbor’s. We can talk out here.”
Although Mill scowled, he backed up another step so that Molly, closely followed by Norah and Cara, could step out onto the porch. Norah pulled the solid door closed behind them, not allowing Mill even a peek into their home. Warrant, who’d wandered up behind them to greet the visitor, gave her a hurt look when she closed the door in his face, and she mentally promised the dog an apology treat once Mill was gone before focusing on the detective again.
“What can we help you withthistime, Detective?” Molly asked in a long-suffering tone.
Norah hid her chuckle in a covered cough. The way she’d phrased it made it sound as if the police were constantly asking for their assistance with open cases. From the darkening patches of red creeping up Mill’s neck from his shirt collar, he didn’t find that as funny as Norah had.
“Does the name Zach Fridley ring any bells?”
Norah felt the churning in her stomach start up again. After the day—weeks—she’d had, she wasn’t going to have any stomach lining left after the acid chewed it all away.
“He’s a local criminal,” Molly answered.
At first, Norah was a little surprised her sister admitted to knowing him, but then she realized Zach’s name would be in their car-theft report as the main suspect.
“He burglarized our place a few weeks ago,” Molly continued.
“Why is he out already then? Is he one of your bail jumpers?” The way Mill phrased the question made it seem like the Pax sisters collected skips, like adopted cats, rather than returning them to jail.
“Insufficient evidence,” Molly said. It sounded like she was clenching her teeth around the words. “The investigators seemed to be more interested in our mom’s crime than in the one committed against us.”
“What does he want at your neighbor’s place?” Mill asked, sounding less aggravated and more thoughtful.
Molly shrugged, and Norah was impressed by how well her sister pulled off casually clueless. “How should I know? As you could probably tell, we’re not on warm and fuzzy terms with Mr. P.”
“Did you see what happened?”
“Not until we heard the siren, then we saw you and the other cop arrive.” The corner of Molly’s mouth tucked in, and Norah recognized that tell. Her sister was trying to hold back a smile. “We looked out the window in time to see the wrestling match.”
Mill’s molars clamped together with an audibleclack. He waved toward Dash’s SUV sitting at the curb, the tenseness of the gesture revealing his irritation. “Whose vehicle is that?”
