Chapter 8: The Long Night
They were at the police station until past ten.
Mason sat with Emma in a waiting area while Lily gave her account to a family liaison officer in a separate room.
Scout had been left with Gerald, who had produced a water bowl and a bag of treats from somewhere behind his desk without being asked.
The waiting area had plastic chairs and a vending machine that hummed too loudly.
Mason bought two coffees from it.
He handed one to Emma and sat down beside her.
She held the cup in both hands.
"I kept thinking you'd come home and think I'd failed," she said.
"Emma—"
"I know.
I know that's not — but I kept thinking it.
Every week.
That you'd come back and the house would be wrong and the money would be gone and you'd think I hadn't been careful enough."
"You were locked in a kennel by my brother."
"Before that." She looked at the coffee.
"The first time Brent showed me a document to sign, I signed it.
I didn't read it carefully enough.
I was tired and I missed you and he said it was routine and I just — I signed it."
"He forged the rest."
"I know.
But I signed the first one."
Mason was quiet for a moment.
"When I was in my second deployment," he said, "I made a call on a night patrol.
A route decision.
I was tired and I trusted someone I shouldn't have trusted and we ended up in the wrong position for twenty minutes." He paused.
"Nothing happened.
We got out fine.
But I spent six months thinking about those twenty minutes.
Thinking I should have known.
Should have checked." He looked at her.
"You were tired and you trusted your family.
That's not failure.
That's being human."
Emma leaned her head against his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
The liaison officer came out at nine forty and told them Lily had been exceptional — clear, detailed, calm.
The documents Lily had sorted were already with the financial crimes unit.
The notary license number had come back to a man with two prior complaints against him in a neighboring county.
Brent's attorney had arrived and advised him to say nothing further.
Nicole had given a full voluntary statement.
"What happens to Nicole?" Emma asked.
"That's for the DA to determine," the officer said.
"Her cooperation will be noted."
Emma nodded.
Mason looked at the floor.
He was thinking about Brent at seven years old, showing up at Mason's bedroom door during a thunderstorm, pretending he wasn't scared.
Mason had moved over without saying anything and Brent had climbed in and they'd both pretended to be asleep until the storm passed.
He didn't know what to do with that memory now.
He didn't try to figure it out tonight.
At ten fifteen, Lily came through the door.
She looked tired but steady.
She sat down on Mason's other side and put her head on his shoulder the same way Emma had.
The three of them sat like that for a while.
Scout was waiting by the car when they got outside.
Gerald had walked him over and was standing in the parking lot, leash in hand, looking slightly embarrassed about it.
"Figured you'd be a while," Gerald said.
Mason shook his hand.
On the drive home, Lily fell asleep in the back seat with Scout.
Emma watched the streetlights pass.
"What do we do now?" she said quietly.
Mason kept his eyes on the road.
"Tonight we go home," he said.
"Tomorrow we call a lawyer.
And then we start getting back what's ours."
May you like
Emma reached over and put her hand on his.
She didn't let go until they pulled into the driveway.
