Page 168 of It Runs in the Family

Something inside me felt broken, but I wasn’t sure why.

No, that wasn’t true.

Selena had broken my heart, but Boone’s lies had crushed it.

I told Garrett someone needed to check on Dario Voss’s grandmother who lived two doors to the west of Deanna and Rebecca.

“There’s a good chance she’s locked in her room,” I said. “Someone needs to let her out.”

He gave me a piercing look. “Do I want to know how you know that?”

“Probably not, but as long as I know someone’s getting her out, then I’ll be able to take a nap.”

An hour later, he reported that she had been locked in her bedroom and that she hadn’t been all that upset when they’d informed her about her grandson’s murder.

On Wednesday morning, I had an appointment at the Dalton County Sheriff’s Department to give a full statement. Garrett drove me, and on the way, he gave me a sidelong look. “Who were you with all day on Monday, Irie?”

I turned to look out the window.

“You told me you were with a Texas Ranger.”

“Are you asking as Deputy Riggs or my cousin?” I asked, unable to look at him.

He was silent for so long, I didn’t think he was going to respond. Finally, he said, “Are you plannin’ to lie when you give your statement?”

“I’m planning to tell what I can.”

“Is he worth it?”

That was the million-dollar question. Was protecting Boone worth perjuring myself? All I knew was that while he’d lied to me about who he was, he’d saved me. He’d wanted me to go with him. I’d replayed his question in my head a hundred and one times over the past twenty-eight hours and part of me wished I’d gone.

And that made me a fool just like my mother.

“There’s something I need to tell you before you give your statement,” Garrett said. “Nate’s report about your attempted kidnapping didn’t get put into the system.”

Did I tell him I already knew? He continued before I could make a decision.

“Nate worked a car accident after he took your report and he was looking at overtime, so Cal told him he’d enter it into the system for him.”

“And he didn’t enter it?” I guessed.

“He says he got busy and forgot. But it’s since been entered into the system.”

I had plenty of questions, but Garrett was pulling into the parking lot of the sheriff’s building. They could wait.

When we walked into the sheriff’s office, I told them I wanted Garrett to stay with me during the interview. They brought us to a conference room and took my statement, which was an expanded version of what I’d told them in the warehouse.

They knew that I’d asked Deanna about her bracelet, of course, but I maintained it was pure coincidence. Deanna had told the Mesquite County Sheriff’s Department that I’d been with a man named Boone. They wanted to know more about him. I told them I’d met him at T-Birds, and then he’d shown up at my grandmother’s Sunday dinner. The following morning, he came by my apartment while I was there, finding the mess. We’d had words at the Sunday dinner and he wanted to apologize. Once he realized my apartment had been broken into, he offered to stay with me for the rest of the day.

All true. Just not the full truth.

“You spent the day with a man you barely knew after your apartment had been broken into?" the deputy asked dubiously.

“What can I say?” I said, trying to sound flippant. “He had a cute butt. Just ask my cousin Rita.”

Garrett did not look amused.

A few hours later, we finished the interview and they told us we were free to go. But just as we were about to leave the room, a man with a mustache wearing jeans, a white button-down shirt, boots, and a black cowboy hat appeared in the doorway.