The Girl in the Wind by Gregory Ashe

Author:Gregory Ashe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodgkin and Blount
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

15

Auggie lost track of the hours he spent being interviewed: first at the theater, explaining what had happened to a red-faced uniformed officer he didn’t recognize; then to Detective Palomo, who arrived in jeans and a Cubs t-shirt, her long, dark hair tucked under a newsboy cap; and then at the station, to Palomo again, and then to John-Henry. He had arrived hours later, the expression on his face grim. He hadn’t said it, not then, but Auggie knew he’d been out at the Cottonmouth Club, some ninety minutes of driving back roads and state highways.

He asked the questions Palomo had asked, and Auggie and Theo gave the same answers. For now.

“Detective Palomo tells me that Dalton Weber appears to have been assaulted,” John-Henry said. “She says you told her you don’t know anything about that.”

Theo’s gaze was fixed on the table.

Auggie said, “No.”

“She says that, according to your statement, you talked to Mr. Weber.”

“That’s right.”

“But you didn’t talk to him about Shaniyah Johnson.”

“John-Henry, we’ve done this a million times,” Auggie said.

“Did you talk to him about Shaniyah Johnson?”

Auggie groaned.

“No,” Theo said and rubbed his face. “We asked him about his relationship with Leon Purdue.”

“According to statements from crew members, Mr. Weber had a conversation with a blond woman this evening.”

“Yes,” Auggie said. “Her name’s Ambyr, and she’s Leon’s stepmom, or his dad’s girlfriend, or something. And she’s a drug dealer. And she hit him—Dalton—we’re pretty sure. I don’t understand why we’re going round and round about this. Isn’t it obvious what happened? Dalton had something going with Leon. It ended, or it went wrong, or something happened. And then Shaniyah showed up and started asking questions, and Dalton decided to get rid of her. Why haven’t you arrested him?”

For a moment, the anger in John-Henry’s face was a tamped-down heat, like banked coals fanned until they were on the brink of flames again. He got up and left the interview room. Then he came back, and he shut the door hard.

“This is just us talking. We have arrested him, Auggie. He’s being interviewed right now by Detective Palomo. And for the record, she’s good at her job, and she doesn’t buy for a second that Dalton Weber ended up in his current condition because Ambyr Hobbs slapped him.” His attention shifted to Theo. “You’re lucky Dalton isn’t saying anything—and I mean that literally, not anything—because otherwise you’d be looking at an assault charge, Theo. Minimum. Jesus Christ, what got into you?”

Theo shook his head. He put a hand on the table, still staring down, and ran his thumb along the edge.

John-Henry rubbed his forehead, and some of the tightness drained out of his body.

“You arrested Dalton?” Auggie asked.

“Yes.”

“Um. Why?”

Dropping his hand, John-Henry fixed Auggie with a look.

“I mean if you want to tell us,” Auggie said in a rush.

“We arrested him because, as I told you, Palomo is a good detective. As soon as she saw those fibers under Shaniyah’s nails, she used every officer she could get her hands on.

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