Page 123 of Broken Daddy

Gwen glanced over at her. “Of course you’re not. You have no reason to lie to the police. Why would this detective imply that you are? What evidence do you have, detective?”

“Well . . . she has a brother in jail.”

“Oh my gosh. Well, I didn’t realize. That changes things entirely.” Gwen checked her phone. “We should go around and arrest everyone who has a sibling in prison.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. You’re putting words in my mouth.”

Gwen smiled. “Well, considering the words that come out of your mouth are utter diarrhea, I think that’s probably a good thing.”

“Now see here!” Detective Brown pointed a finger at her.

“I would suggest that you don’t come any closer, detective,” Gwent said. “See, if you threaten me, lay a finger on me, then I’m going to get upset. If I get upset then everyone who loves me gets upset. And I have some people you don’t want to get on the wrong side of.”

“Is that a threat?” Detective Williams said.

“My, no! Why would I need to threaten a police detective? You are all here to protect me. That’s what I pay my tax dollars for, right? I will be sure to mention you both to the Chief of Police when I speak to him later.”

“Why are you meeting with the Chief?” Detective Brown asked.

Gwen checked her phone again. “Hmm, oh, well, I had some questions about this investigation and also about an older case. One involving Devi’s brother. I’ve got some thoughts.”

“Some thoughts?” Detective Brown said.

“Yes, you were on that case too, weren’t you, Detective Brown? I do hope you crossed all your t’s and dotted all your i’s.”

“That’s a threat.” Detective Brown took a step toward Gwen.

Hayes tensed and so did Kent, who moved closer to Gwen. He didn’t know where Dominic was, but it had probably been a strategic move to leave him out of the room.

Kent would likely judge better about when to step in than Dominic would. Not that Hayes would blame Dominic.

“Let’s leave,” Detective Williams said. “Uh, thanks for your statement, Miss Dawson. Hopefully your father will be found soon.”

“Drunk asshole like him? Probably everyone in this town is hoping that he isn’t found,” Detective Brown said.

“Oh, that’s an interesting opinion. I’ll be sure to let the Chief know what you think of an ongoing case of a missing man who was stabbed and kidnapped,” Gwen said.

Both detectives quickly left and Gwen turned to Devi. “Hello, I’m Gwen. I’m your new lawyer and don’t worry I have everything under control.”

Devi staredup at the older woman in complete and utter awe.

“I want to be you when I grow up.” Oh no. Hopefully she didn’t take that as Devi saying she was old.

But she just let out a delighted laugh and waved her hand through the air.

“Thank you so much for doing that,” Devi told her. “It was amazing. I’ve never seen anyone stand up to a detective like that. To anyone like that.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Gwen told her. “That was so much fun. I needed something to sink my teeth into. Don’t get me wrong, it’s never boring in Wishingbone. The other week, I even got to do some detective work. Seemed that there were a number of shoes going missing from one particular neighborhood and everyone was blaming this one person as the shoes would turn up in her backyard. But it turns out, it was Mrs. Whiskers.”

“Mrs Whiskers?” Devi asked. “Is that a . . .”

“Cat? Yep. The cat was stealing shoes. Don’t know what she wanted them all for. Or how she even carried them. One was a boot. Mind you, she is a very big cat.”

That was . . . crazy.

“Anyway, Liam gave me all the information he had on your brother’s case?”

“Liam?” Who was Liam?