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Mrs. Edgar said, “A private detective.”
Detective Barrios looked irritated. “You’re running on a theory by a private investigator?”
Mrs. Edgar handed the cop the PI’s business card. “She has been working with Sergio. I don’t know if he hired her or his attorney, but she said Sergio is worried about Sophia’s safety. Javier Escobar is the young man who shot and killed the clerk. But until you arrest him, Sergio isn’t going to recant. Javier threatened Sophia.”
“According to Ms. Angelhart.”
“Yes.”
The detective wrote down the information, handed the card back to Mrs. Edgar.
“You believe me, right?” Sophia said.
“In my experience, I’ve never had an innocent man plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit.”
“Sergio is innocent.” Sophia couldn’t stop tears from leaking out.
“I’ll talk to these boys, see what their story is.”
She got up and Sophia feared she had made a big mistake.
Mrs. Edgar walked the detective to the door. Sophia overheard her say, “Sophia is a good girl—she doesn’t lie.”
“It’s hard when your family is torn up like this. It could be the brothers were in it together.”
Sophia ran down the hall to her room. The detective didn’t believe her. She didn’t believe that Sergio was innocent.
Maybe Sophia could prove it.
She retrieved a shoe box from the bottom drawer of her dresser and went back to the living room. Mrs. Edgar was still talking to the detective at the door. Sophia handed her the box. “Javier has left me presents. I told him I didn’t want them, but he would put them in my locker, or have Henry give them to me.”
“How do you know they’re from Javier?” the detective asked.
“He left me notes. They’re all in there. Most of them. I threw some away, but then I got scared that he would find out, so I hid them.”
The detective took the box and opened the lid. Sophia knew what was inside. A pretty emerald necklace that looked very expensive. Coins that were very old. A unicorn figurine that might have been real crystal. And notes from Javier that repeated over and over that he loved her.
The expression didn’t change on the detective’s face, but her tone was different. “Let me see what I can do.”
When she left, Mrs. Edgar said, “You never told me he gave you gifts.”
“It stopped a few weeks ago. I thought maybe he finally believed me that I wanted nothing to do with him. But then at school the other day, Henry gave me a necklace and said it was from Javier.” She wiped away her tears. “I should have told you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“Sophia, don’t despair. The detective has more information now. I believe in the system. It usually works.”
“She thinks Sergio is guilty,” Sophia said. “What if she thinks they’re both guilty and arrests Henry? Then I’ll have no one!”
“Shh,” Mrs. Edgar said. “Maybe she now realizes she arrested the wrong man. You did the right thing. Telling the truth is always the right thing.”
Eighteen
Tina Barrios
Detective Tina Barrios sat in her police issue sedan outside of the Edgar home and swore a blue streak.
She hadn’t thought Sergio Diaz was the killer until he confessed. After, she was still skeptical until she learned the hoodie had tested positive for GSR and his statement was consistent with the facts.
Now, she wasn’t sure what to believe. She had asked him to name his accomplices and he refused. It would make sense that he would protect his brother, that he didn’t want the younger kid to get in trouble. And while Sophia Diaz had sounded sincere, she was basing her statement on what she claimed her brother had said.
