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“Lucy?” I called as I went in. The kitchen was dark. It looked like there’d be no hot dinner waiting for me before I started my waitressing shift tonight, but then I couldn’t blame my little sister. She was young and grieving. If I were in her shoes, I had no idea how I’d react.
Yes, you do. You’d get on with life. You’ve never had an alternative.
I pushed that voice of treacherous resentment down inside my chest until I couldn’t hear it anymore. Another voice reminded me that she’d been drifting aimlessly since graduation and making no moves to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. But now wasn’t the time to bring up all my grievances with my only sibling. Put out the fires first.
“Lucy?” Silence met my call, so undisturbed that I immediately knew no one was home. She’d gone out?Where?I had barely begun to consider the possibilities when my phone rang. A terrible sense of foreboding filled me as I answered.
“Hello, I’m calling for a Charlotte Burke?”
I swallowed, my throat painfully dry. “This is she.”
“Ma’am, this is Atlantic City Police Department. I’m calling from precinct fifty-eight. We have your sister here, and she seems very upset. I think it would be best if you came down and sat with her while the detective in charge prepares to take her statement.”
* * *
The precinct stanklike stale coffee and vomit wafting from the direction of the drunk tank. I hurried through security, dropping everything I had into a box to go through the scanner.
“Two phones, huh? Are you a dealer or an escort?” a dryly amused voice spoke from behind me.
I whirled around to take in a petite lady with short, steely cropped hair and even steelier eyes.
“Dolores, don’t be rude.” A lanky younger man stood beside her. His leather jacket and plaid shirt appeared well worn, and he had a badge clipped onto his pocket.
Wait, two phones?I whirled back to my bag just as the security officer finished checking it. In my panic to come down here, I’d brought both my phone and Miguel’s.Great. The Burke sisters were really winning today.
I grabbed both phones and stuffed them into my bag. “It’s for work emergencies,” I muttered, turning to meet the two cops.
“Sure, it is,” the woman said.
“Don’t mind Dolores, she’s grumpy in the afternoons, and in the evenings. She’s pretty much grumpy all around. I’m Mark, Detective Mark Whitely. This is Detective Dolores Vane. You’re Charlie, Lucy’s sister?”
I nodded, my face on fire. How was I going to make it through this? Lying to the police? My life had gone to shit in the last day, and I had no idea what was going to happen next.
“Come through here and see her. She was quite upset when we left her earlier,” Detective Vane said, her tone making it sound like beingquite upsetin her presence was a crime in and of itself.
They buzzed me into another section of the building, one that was crawling with cops. Nerves clawed at my throat, threatening to steal my voice. I'd never felt comfortable around cops. My Da had been a hustler, and he’d always taught me to keep my head down, avoid eye contact, and take care of things myself.The cops don’t help people like us, Charlie. They just use ’em. Steer clear, my girl.It was a shame Lucy had been too young to get that message before he'd died.
“Do you know why your sister is so upset?” Detective Whitely asked me.
I shook my head, my voice still stuck in my throat. I hated lying. My face always glowed a fiery red, and my eyes were guilty as hell, giving me away.
The detectives looked at each other and then opened the door to a small room.
“She’s in an interrogation room?” I rasped.
“Well, there aren’t that many places to put a distraught young woman whose story changes every few seconds.”
With a hot panic enveloping my entire body, I headed into the room. Lucy sat in a metal chair, her arms wrapped around her drawn-up knees.
“Lucy?” I murmured, getting close enough to put my arms around her. She looked up at me, her tearstained face all red and blotchy.
“Now, Lucy, can you please confirm your name?” Detective Whitely had settled into the chair across from us, while Vane leaned against the wall and watched us with an inscrutable expression.
“Why? This is all a mistake,” I said. “We don’t need to make a complaint or a statement or whatever it is. We should just go and stop wasting your time.”
“We’ll decide if our time is being wasted, Miss Burke. Now, your sister was telling us her boyfriend is missing?”
Shock poured over me like a bucket of ice water.What the hell?This was a complication we didn’t need.
