Bound to Execute by ACF Bookens

Author:ACF Bookens [Bookens, ACF]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Andi Cumbo-Floyd

7

As I expected, Tuck was amazingly kind. He hadn’t asked any questions when I told him that Ariel and I needed to talk to him in private. Then, when she’d told him about her current residence, the only thing he’d said was, “I understand. Sounds to me like you had every reason not to kill Ms. Painter since a new manager might have meant new procedures that would risk your secret.”

At those words, I could see the relief cross Ariel’s face.

The police business out of the way, I asked Tuck if there was any way we could get into the bank today to get Ariel’s things since she was going to be staying the night with Mart and me. She had tried to protest, but I had shushed her. “Just for a couple of days. I have a plan for something more permanent, okay?”

She just seemed so relieved by letting out her secret that she didn’t protest further. I knew what it was to keep a much smaller secret, and so I couldn’t imagine how good it felt to not have to carry this huge one for so many months.

Tuck made a phone call to the temporary branch manager, and he agreed to meet Tuck at the bank in an hour. “I have reason to inspect your attic,” was all he said on the phone, and I admired him all the more for his discretion.

By mid-afternoon, Ariel was settled into our guest room. Mart had agreed the second I’d called her from the bathroom at the station. (I had taken advantage of the facilities when Harriet had taken Ariel into the breakroom for a coffee and some of the ever-present cookies that Lu made for the officers.) “I can’t believe that all these young people are homeless,” Mart said. “So awful.”

“I agree. But we know that finding an affordable place to rent can be almost impossible. Remember that one apartment you had in San Francisco, the one with the burger place below it that vented its grill right into your bathroom?”

“Oh the smells,” Mart had gagged. “It was so bad. But it was cheap.”

“Exactly.”

I left Ariel on the couch with Aslan, the remote control, and a stack of fresh towels. I had no idea how she had showered – maybe at Cynthia’s – but I knew that if I’d been living in an attic and a park for months I’d just really want clean linens, some mindless TV, and hot water.

A small part of me worried that I was maybe being naïve, trusting this woman I barely knew in my house, but the larger part of me preferred to be trusting and deal with the consequences if someone broke that trust than to walk around suspicious of everyone I met.

Back at the shop, Marcus, of course, had everything well under control, so I texted my friends and asked them to meet me at the shop at seven. “We need a plan,” I wrote but then quickly followed up with, “And no, this isn’t sleuthing.

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