“We’ve been over this,” Mr. Ankh said.
“The way we hear it,” Verra said, never looking away from Cole, “you and your friends constantly show up to school cut up and bruised.”
“And that’s a crime?” I asked.
Now the detectives focused on me. I think they assumed I would squirm, but I’d faced worse without backing down.
Before either one could say anything, Cole jumped in and said, “Look. I was watching TV when Ali texted me. She asked if she could come over. I said yes.”
“What time?” Gautier asked, making notes in a small pad. “And what were you watching?”
“It was right around 3:00 a.m. Duck Dynasty was playing.”
“Even though it wasn’t airing?” Verra asked, no doubt thinking she’d caught him in a lie.
“Netflix,” he said with a shrug.
A barely perceptible flash of irritation, before she turned to me. “And you? What were you doing? Why did you text him so late?”
If they could get hold of our text exchanges—and according to Castle, they totally could—there would be problems. I had to circumvent things now.
“I was hunting zombies,” I said, earning shocked glares from most of my friends. “Kids like to play video games, you know?” All true.
A collective sigh of relief was released.
“Why did you text Mr. Holland so late?” the detective repeated.
I hiked my shoulders. “I was up, and I couldn’t sleep.” It was the truth, with a few of the more pertinent details left out.
“She came over,” Cole said. “We...” His violet gaze circled the room, narrowed. I knew he hated discussing personal things in front of other people. Especially strangers. “We were distracted. Someone fired a shot. Shattered my window.”
Gautier started tapping his pen again. “We’ve been to your house. Someone tried to clean your bedroom, but just because something can’t be seen doesn’t mean it’s not there. We found blood on your floor.”
“The bullet grazed my shoulder. I’ve already recovered.”
Nice. The bullet had grazed his shoulder all right...as it had cut through skin and muscle and come out the other side.
“The blood is mine,” he continued, “and you can feel free to take a sample to compare with what you found. And yes, my dad tried to clean it up. He didn’t want me living in a cesspool of broken glass and congealed blood. I didn’t know that was a crime.”
“Obstruction is always a crime.” Verra took notes of her own and said, “You’d been shot. Why not go to the police? Or at least call? Why not go to the hospital?”
Cole rested his chin on my shoulder. “As you can see, I’m fine. I didn’t need to go to a hospital and spend thousands of dollars on a bandage and a couple Advil. And I didn’t call the police, because I didn’t know what had happened at first, didn’t know about the others. When I did, well, I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Honest and inarguable.
“Where’s your dad now?” Gautier asked.
“He’s a travel writer, and I’m not sure where he is most of the time. I’m staying with the Ankhs while he’s gone.”
Mr. Holland was a travel writer? Was that for real?
“Seems odd that he’d leave his son the day after he’d been shot,” Verra said.
Cole offered a small, pitying smile. “I’m a legal adult very capable of taking care of myself. He knows that.”
Gautier had another follow-up. “Do you have his flight info? We have a few questions for him.”
“I don’t,” Cole replied. “Last I’d heard, he was going to drive.”
“I see.” Verra turned her attention to me. “And your grandmother left, too?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m staying with Mr. Ankh, as well.”
Now her attention shot to Mr. Ankh. “You’re responsible for a lot of kids.”
“Not all of them are kids. But, anyway, they’re safe here,” he said, hands forming a steeple on his desk. “I have security most people can only dream about.”
“And you need this security because...”
Wasn’t gonna let up, was she.
“I get that you’re doing your job,” Cole said before Mr. Ankh had time to answer. “That you want to find out who killed my friends and tried to kill me. I’m glad. I want you to find the people responsible, too. I want you to make them pay. But my dad wasn’t responsible, and neither was Ankh. Of course he needs security. Look at this house and all the valuables inside it.”
He didn’t give them time to respond, adding, “Also, River isn’t responsible for this. Yeah, I heard the news reports, too, so I was eager to chat with him. But he’s convinced me he didn’t do it, that he was set up, so I suggest you do a better job of detecting, before we beat you to the truth.”
Gautier straightened in the chair as if his spine had been pulled on by an invisible wire. “Don’t even think about seeking revenge, son. You get in the way of our investigation, and you’ll find yourself behind bars.”
None of us made any promises.