Page 82 of Moonshine Kiss
I rolled my eyes. Only in Bootleg would a vice principal send students on personal errands and no one have a problem with it.
Bex looked at me expectantly. “Well, ain’t ya gonna open it?”
“I don’t need an audience.”
“Sheesh. Someone’s grumpy today. Also, you smell like liquor is leaking from your pores,” Bex said sweetly.
I sniffed at my uniform collar and swore. I should have taken more than a two-minute shower this morning.
Once Bex was back at her desk I ripped into the envelope.
There was a second smaller envelope inside. On the back, scrawled in Bowie’s handwriting was:A night to remember. One date and these photos will never see the light of day.
I frowned and flipped through the first few photos and snarled. Bowie Bodine was a dead man.
39
Bowie
I’d been back in my office from the morning pep rally for all of thirty seconds before I was interrupted. The woman storming through my office door under a full head of steam was not the ninth grader that started yesterday’s food fight. Cassidy leaned over my desk and tossed the envelope at me. “You are lucky I don’t shoot you on the spot,” she snapped.
“I’ll close this for y’all,” Maribel announced shrilly, her eyes wide behind her glasses.Good luck,she mouthed to me.
“Cassidy it was just a joke,” I told her.
“Myjobis not a joke. Do you even realize how close I am to being asked to resign?”
“Your father would never—”
“Jesus, Bowie. I’m not talking about my dad. I’m talking about Connelly. The man who banned me from any involvement in the Kendall investigation and spelled it out real clear that I’m to steer clear of you and your family, too. I’m already stuck on desk duty scanning a hundred million old case files. Pictures like that get out and he’ll boot my ass quicker than two shakes of a sheep’s tail!”
I sat up straighter. “Why are you supposed to steer clear of me?”
“Because your father is Connelly’s primary suspect. Because I’m supposed to be an objective investigator. And because he’s basically a dick.”
She was breathing heavy, eyes flashing. It took a lot to rile Cassidy and my little joke—a dozen pictures from my phone and Jonah’s from last night—had been the straw that broke her.
“Okay,” I said pushing out from behind my desk. “Let’s sit and talk this through.”
“Don’t you use that principal voice on me, Bowie Bodine!”
“Sorry. Force of habit. Sit down. Please. Coffee or water?”
She rubbed her forehead and then flopped down in the chair in front of my desk. “Both.”
I dug in my drawer and pulled out a bottle of aspirin and a roll of antacids. I programmed the coffeemaker and handed over my water bottle. I wanted to sit next to her, but she was carrying her service weapon and a taser, so I figured the edge of my desk was safer.
We sat in silence while the coffee sputtered into a mug.
“Connelly realizes that this isn’t some big city, doesn’t he?” I finally asked, setting the mug in front of her. “Can he honestly expect you to maintain some kind of distance from me? From us? We share a wall, for christ’s sake.”
“Preachin’ to the choir, Bow. But the man has it out for me ever since those reporters started squatting in your driveway. He thinks I can’t be impartial and after I talked to Mrs. Kendall and asked her a few questions yesterday, he lost his shit. Now all I’m allowed to do is scan files and pull over Rhett Ginsler when he’s gassed up.”
“Why didn’t you say something, Cass?”
“Why are you acting like we’re in a relationship?” she shot back at me.
“Honey, whether you want to admit it or not, we are. Now, whether that relationship is a friendship or something a hell of a lot more is up to you. You know where I stand. But either way, you can’t keep trying to do everything yourself. You can’t keep shutting me out, Cass.”
