Page 79 of Family Affair

“This is Jonas Radkin,” placing a hand on her lower back to steer her to a chair, Dan nodded at the frail gentleman. “He is a well-known criminal defense lawyer. That is, well known to those in need of his services…” Dan trailed off, leaving the room uncomfortably silent.

Coco sat down and glanced at Cade from across the table. He gave her a brief, unreadable look in return but didn't acknowledge her in any other way.

“Good morning, everyone. So many lawyers in one small room, it’s starting to smell like fear.” Detective Willis looked hard at the three lawyers and then at Cade. “Got something to hide?”

Cade grunted by way of a reply, contemplating the tips of his fingers.

“Okay, fine, let’s do it. For the record, we are here to corroborate the alibi that you, Ms. Milroy, gave the police concerning your and Mr. Cade Sheffield’s whereabouts last Monday night. You agreed to sign an affidavit swearing to the truth of your statement. Y’all good with that?” Willis shuffled some papers and produced the affidavit.

“May we please review it?” Radkin inquired. Willis handed the document to the lawyer who proceeded to pour over it at length.

Coco hung her purse by the strap on the back of a chair, preparing to get it over with and walk out, never to see Detective Willis again. Out of this mess, out of Cade’s life, this time for good.

She glanced at him again and frowned, noting for the first time that he was very, very tense. Not in his normal alert and watchful way, but locked up, like a sprinter at the start.

She frowned. No one else in the room seemed to realize or acknowledge that Cade was giving off wave after wave of controlled energy.

Finally, Radkin returned the affidavit to Detective Willis with a satisfied nod.

“Let’s take a look at this.” The sound of Detective Willis’s voice was followed by the hum of a projector turning on. Full of disquiet, Coco switched her attention to the screen that came alive.

“You, Coco, had dinner with Cade Sheffield at this restaurant last Monday night, between approximately seven and nine p.m. Is this a correct statement?”

“Yes, it is correct.”

“Now, I want you to look at this video and confirm for me that the woman in it is you. Afterward, you’ll sign the affidavit stating the fact.”

“Okay.”

At first, only the digital snow filled the screen, but soon the image of the restaurant appeared, a faded and grainy production of a security camera. The clock at the bottom popped into view and the numbers started running, counting out minutes and seconds of Cade’s and hers only dinner date.

But what she saw wasn’t the dining hall. She could distinguish some bushes flanking the restaurant entrance and cars parked in neat rows farther away in the darkness. Light spilled from a source in the upper right corner providing just enough illumination for the shapes to be identified. She gathered a streetlamp was the source of the light.

The restaurant door opened and she emerged, followed by Cade who held the door open for her. Even in the dark she looked a little frazzled. The camera didn’t capture sound, so the recording was rolling out a silent movie of them as they took several steps away from the door and stopped at the curb, talking.

With confusion and mounting disbelief Coco observed Cade’s screen self take a step forward, twine his arms around her middle and lay a wet one on her mouth. She saw a moment of hesitation on her part before she angled his head and kissed him back.

Mouth lax, mortified beyond belief, she watched as the scene unfolded.

Cade’s hands burrowed in the hair on her nape and he rubbed her head there, loosening the strands and they fell down her back in a slow cascade. All the while the two of them were kissing, hard, deep, their mouths fused, like they couldn’t get enough of each other.

On the screen, Cade shifted closer and bent his knees, bumping against her lower belly. She became profoundly grateful for the absence of sound for she knew she had moaned at that moment, completely undone by the heady taste and feel of him.

Their kiss was unbelievably erotic. Their desire for each other was so obvious nobody would mistake it for anything other than foreplay.

Coco’s cheeks flushed so hot they hurt. She became aware of a new kind of silence in the room.

“What the fuck is this?” Dan mumbled addressing nobody in particular. “How…”

He twisted in his seat toward Cade. “I see whatcha mean by ‘I took Coco out.’” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “Did you pull out at the end?”

Jeff made a choking noise. Willis coughed.

Cade didn’t reply. Coco could feel his tension from where she sat, and in a moment of blinding clarity, she understood why he was so darned twitchy.

He had known. He had expected to see something like this, and he hadn’t warned her.

She raised her head to look at him and he looked back. He must’ve read her outrage correctly because he dropped his gaze back to the table.