“Yeah,” I agreed, then hung my head back and watched the clouds as they idled by.
Finally, a moment of peace.
Of course, it didn’t last anywhere near long enough.
“Over there! That’s her!” a familiar voice shouted.
When I lowered my gaze, I saw the woman from the Airstream marching straight at us with a police officer following hot on her heels.
Chapter Twelve
“She’s the one who did it!” the woman cried in hysterics.
I rose from my chair, and Charles did the same.“I’m the one who discovered the body,” I admitted.
“She’s guilty!” the woman shouted again even though we were only standing a few feet apart.
“Ma’am,” the officer said in a stern voice. “I’m going to have to ask you to give us some privacy.”
He then turned toward me.“Mind if we talk inside?”
Unfortunately“inside” was something of a problem. That’s where we had a rogue raccoon acting like a toddler while pretending to be a big-rig trucker.
I couldn’t exactly refuse a request from the police, and the longer I hesitated, the more suspicious we would appear.
I shot a glance to Charles, who met my gaze with a subtle nod.
Charles strode up to the door and pushed it open.
I whispered a quick prayer under my breath as the policeman and I followed him inside.
“Is everything all right, miss?” the officer asked, catching me as I frantically searched the camper’s living space.
No Pringle, which meant he was either hidden out of sight, or he’d snuck away despite my orders to remain put.
“I’m fine,” I answered, perhaps a bit too tersely.
Charles motioned toward the table that was flanked with booth seats.“She’s still in shock after that discovery. Please, won’t you come sit?”
He studied Charles with fresh interest.“Were you with her when she discovered the body?”
“No, but I’m Miss Russo’s attorney,” he answered glibly.
Now the officer turned back to me.“You sure lawyered up quick for someone that—”
“She’s also my girlfriend,” Charles added before the officer could take that any further. “We came up here for a relaxing getaway.”
The policeman slid into one side of the booth, and I took the other. Charles sat beside me and held my hand under the table. The officer eyed us both for moment before pulling out his notepad and beginning.
“Ms. Stevens out there seems pretty convinced you’re the one who killed our victim,” the policeman said slowly, keeping a careful watch on my reaction.
It took everything I had to remain calm. Yes, I’d been suspected of murder before, but that was on my home turf. Here, I knew no one, and no one knew me.
“She’s wrong.” I pressed my free hand flat on the table. “I’m just the one who had the bad luck of discovering—”
“And why is that?” the officer interrupted, clicking his pen. “Why were you in her trailer uninvited?”
“She was the one who—” I spat, but Charles raised a hand to stop me.
“Angie was urged to enter the premises when her knocks went unanswered. Ms. Stevens herself was the one who told her to proceed.”
“She said Junetta had an open-door policy,” I added in a whisper.
The policeman tapped his pen on his notebook for a few beats.“What did you need to see her about?”
“My client is not under suspicion. Is she?” Charles asked, flipping into full lawyer mode. He moved his eyes from the officer’s face down to the shiny badge on his shirt. “Officer Hamil, is it?”
“Yes, that’s my name. And we’re just gathering information right now,” he replied before getting up to wander the tight living space.
He stopped at the kitchenette.“Burnt grilled cheese sandwiches. Are you usually such a disaster in the kitchen, Ms. Russo? Perhaps you’re better at baking? Like, say, a pie?”
I gritted my teeth. Officer Hamil was clearly trying to rile me up. I knew that, and yet I had a hard time letting his rude and sexist remarks slide.
Charles squeezed my hand as a reminder that he was there for me, that he would make sure I came through this all right.“I was the one cooking lunch. Understandably, I stopped when Angie returned to the trailer and told me what she’d found.”
“Boyfriend, lawyer, and personal chef,” Hamil said to me with a wink. “Is there anything this guy doesn’t do?”
“He doesn’t accuse innocent people of murder,” I shot back before Charles could remind me to keep mum.
The policeman tilted his head to the side and opened his mouth without speaking. Was it really so hard to believe that someone would talk back to him in the same manner in which he spoke to others?“Now you wait just a min—”
A knock on the door cut him off.
“Mind if I answer?” he asked me, choosing to ignore Charles completely. Apparently he thought he had a better chance of getting a confession if he dealt directly with me. Too bad I wouldn’t be confessing to a crime I’d had zero involvement in.
“Go right ahead,” I said without missing a beat.
Officer Hamil kept his eyes on us for another few moments before sighing and heading toward the door.
“Yeah, what have you got?” he mumbled to whoever was there.
I strained to see, but his wide body blocked my view.
After a couple minutes of hushed conversation, he stepped back into the trailer and walked up to the table, standing close to Charles and blocking him in as some kind of intimidation technique.
“Not just a lawyer, chef, boyfriend, but also a convicted felon, eh?” He paused and sucked air through his teeth. “Sir, I’m going to ask you to come with me.”
Chapter Thirteen
I tried to follow, but Officer Hamil wouldn’t allow me to exit the vehicle.
“We’ll just be a moment,” he said before shutting the door firmly behind them.
Shoot. As much as I hated being the one under suspicion, I liked it even less when Charles came under fire. But the investigation wasn’t my only problem.
“Pringle?” I whispered, still unsure where the nosy critter had gone.
When he didn’t answer, I moved to the front of the RV and lowered the window a crack. Thankfully, it was just enough to listen to the conversation outside if I strained.
Officer Hamil was now joined by a female speaker. I didn’t recognize her voice as belonging to the Airstream lady—Ms. Stevens—who was so completely and totally convinced that I had offed a woman I’d never even met.
This left me to assume that the woman in question was the other police officer who had arrived on the scene.
“This isn’t my RV,” Charles explained calmly.
“Stole it, did you?” Hamil asked, but the other officer shushed him.
“If it’s not yours, then why is it in your possession?” she pressed. Already I liked her a lot better than her partner.
“Do you mind if I reach into my right front pocket to get my phone?” Bless him, Charles always knew exactly how to act in these situations.
“Go ahead,” the woman said. I imagined her nodding, even though I hadn’t the slightest idea what she even looked like.
“I’m watching you, lover boy,” Hamil growled.
His partner shushed him again, then everyone fell silent as they waited for Charles to bring up what he wanted to show them.
“See,” Charles said a short bit later. “This app lets you borrow campers and camp equipment short-term. It’s a bit like Airbnb. If you click here, you’ll see the booking I made with the owner.”
“That’s the name that comes up for the plates,” the lady cop said.
“That doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, though. Hand over your ID.” Hamil was quick to take back control. It must have been awful having that blowhard as a partner.
“I’m going to reach into my back pocket now,” Charles enunciated clearly.
“Hamil, why don’t you run a scan while I take over here?” the woman officer suggested in a way that said compliance was non-optional.