Verse and Vengeance by Amanda Flower

Author:Amanda Flower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rainwater extended a hand to me, and I took it. “Are you all right?” He helped me to my feet.

“I—I think so,” I said, hating the fact that my voice shook. I cleared my throat, hoping to sound a bit more in control. “I mean, I’m fine.”

He studied me. “What were you doing there with Jones?”

“I knew this was Redding’s detective office …”

“And you thought it was a good idea to come here. Did you see the neighborhood? This is not a safe place for a naïve woman from Cascade Springs.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I have spent most of my adult life living in worse neighborhoods than this as a grad student. I know how to handle myself.”

He raised his hand. “Let’s not argue about this here.”

“So we are going to argue about it later?” I asked.

He gave me a look as the sprinting policeman who had catapulted himself onto Scotty’s back walked the would-be P.I. to us in handcuffs. The officer handed Scotty off to a female officer, who put him in the cruiser.

The first officer walked over to Rainwater and me. Rainwater held a hand to him. “That was a nice grab, Crump. If we ever have an interdepartmental relay competition, I want you on my team.”

Crump laughed. “I only run to catch the bad guys. Well, that and if I’m chasing down an ice cream truck. I do love ice cream. I think after that snag I deserve a hot fudge sundae. I will get the fixings for my whole family on the way home. The kids love to hear about when I take down a bad guy.”

“So Scotty is a bad guy?” I asked.

Crump nodded at me. “Who’s this?”

“Violet Waverly. She’s a citizen of Cascade Springs. She was visiting Redding’s office when we came by.”

The other officer’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t help noting that Rainwater didn’t call me his girlfriend. I knew that it was to make things a bit easier for both of us. If the Niagara Falls police knew we were dating, there might be some complicated questions.

“Why did you arrest Scotty?” I asked. “I mean, I only knew him for five minutes when you all showed up, and I could tell he wasn’t a great guy. But what did he do?”

The other officer raised his eyebrows at Rainwater again, this time the arch of his brow asking a silent question. Rainwater nodded. I must have passed some kind of unwritten cop test, because the officer said, “After looking at Redding’s books, we saw that Jones was skimming money. Redding wasn’t great at his bookkeeping and Jones took advantage of that.”

“That’s bad,” I said. “But why did he run?”

The officer shrugged. “Because he’s on parole for a similar crime to another company. He knew that if he violated his parole, he was going back to jail.”

Maybe Scotty hadn’t been interested in hurting me just before the cops arrived. Maybe he’d just wanted to know

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