Tricks (Take It Off #6)(7)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“What are you doing here, ma’am?”

Great. Not only was I a dumb blonde with uncombed hair today, but I was also a ma’am. I should wander down to the social security office and apply for my senior citizen card while I was at it.

“I live here,” I said, blinking my eyes at them like I was confused. Then I gazed over their fire suits and equipment. “Is there a fire?”

“Didn’t you hear the alarm?” one of the other guys asked, amusement clear in his tone.

“I sleep with headphones and a noise machine,” I said. “A girl has to get her beauty sleep.”

God. I sounded like a complete twit.

“We’re going to have to ask you to vacate the building while we finish searching the area.”

I nodded. “Of course.” I gestured to my apartment. “That one’s mine. There’s no fire in there.”

I pulled the door closed, hoping they didn’t go looking for the noise machine I claimed to sleep with. One of the men held open the door for me and, okay, yeah, I might have peeked at his physique. He was a fireman, a good-looking one at that.

I heard the men laugh as the door closed behind me. I breathed a massive sigh of relief I wasn’t asked more questions. I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell people what happened to me. I wanted to think it through. I wanted to weigh the situation in my mind, think of all the possibilities of what went on tonight.

Downstairs in the lobby, cold air swirled inside from the door leading onto the sidewalk. I slowed my steps. I was supposed to go out there, but I wasn’t wearing any socks or shoes. I’d have frostbite in minutes. New York City in late January could be brutal. The wind, the snow, the low temperatures, and this winter was supposed to be very long and anything but mild.

And if I somehow avoided frostbite, I would get some weird disease walking on the bare sidewalk of the city. My skin crawled just thinking about what could be growing out there.

A few of the people who lived in the building still loitered just inside the door so I took up position beside them. I scanned the faces—not for anyone familiar, but for two men who seemed like they might not belong.

I didn’t get a great look at the men from upstairs, but I knew if I saw Garlic Breath again I would know him. He wasn’t in sight, not inside and not outside in the crush of people on the sidewalk.

What did that mean?

What are you here for?

You.

His whispered one-word reply caused goose bumps to break out over my arms and legs. Why would he say that? What could he possibly want with me?

“Stupid kids,” someone next to me muttered. “What’s this city coming to?”

“What do you mean?” I asked before I could remind myself he probably hadn’t been talking to me.

“Didn’t you hear?”

I shook my head. “I slept through most of this.” I gestured at the crowd, the officers, and the fire truck parked out at the curb.

The woman on the other side of the man chuckled. “Ah, to be young again. I used to be able to sleep through anything too. Now I’m lucky to get four hours straight.”

The man in the center of us nodded empathetically. They were an older married couple, both with graying hair and wrinkles on the outer corners of their eyes.

“It appears some kids pulled the fire alarms and waited ‘til people started evacuating to enter some apartments and rob them.”

My first thought upon hearing this news was disbelief. That wasn’t what happened here tonight…

Was it?

“Who said that’s what happened?”

The man gave me a strange look before replying. “The police.” He motioned outside where two officers in blue uniforms were talking to some of the people I recognized from living in the building. “Seems the kids only burglarized the first floor. They didn’t have time for the rest.”

Is that was Garlic Breath and his friend were doing? Hoping to make easy money in the midst of chaos they themselves created? I hadn’t gotten a great look at them, but I knew they weren’t kids.

Of course the firemen upstairs called me ma’am and this woman down here was wishing she was as young as me. Clearly everyone had their own definition of age.

I was thinking in circles. That never happened. Usually I was analytical and concise with my thoughts. I was just tired, in shock, and yeah, okay… maybe I was a little scared.

I found myself wishing that Max were here. It would be nice to not be alone tonight.

I turned back to the man, to hopefully draw some more information out of him, when one of the officers stepped inside. All his attention was on me.

“Ma’am,” he said. “We’ll need to get your statement.”

“Of course,” I agreed and turned away from the older couple to give him my full attention.

I started to explain why I was late, but he cut me off to ask, “Did you see anyone in the building? Anyone who seemed liked they didn’t belong?”

“Is this about the robberies?” I questioned. A good lawyer always answered a question with one of her own.

He nodded briskly. “We’re trying to gain descriptions from all those who might have seen them as they were vacating the building.”

“I was late vacating. I wear headphones at night.” The lie was easier to tell, like once I had gotten over telling it upstairs, it no longer mattered. I wondered if that’s how criminals felt. Like after their first crime, the ones after it didn’t even matter.

“Did you see anyone on your way out? Anyone you didn’t recognize? Anyone who was acting suspicious?”

I thought about Garlic Breath and the way he seemed to just appear in my dark apartment. I thought about how he wasn’t interested in any of my material possessions, not even after I told him he could have them.

I thought for long moments.

And then I lied again.

“No. The only people I saw were the firemen, clearing the building.”

The officer seemed disappointed, but he didn’t question my statement. After a few more general questions and my brief explanation of how I saw nothing at all, the officer moved on to the next interviewee.

I never lied. Lying only got people in trouble, a fact I saw day after day in my job as a lawyer.

But I just lied tonight. To an officer of the law no less.

Why?

Something inside me told me to keep my mouth shut.

5

Tucker

The entire drive from Pennsylvania to New York City was spent sitting in the back of a black SUV and being briefed on my brother’s life. In order to be able to pull off literally stepping into his shoes, I had to know as much as I could about him.