“I need to know where you were last night,” Nate’s dad said.
Cody blinked, surprised. So it wasn’t about what had happened on Sunday with Nate. “What time?”
“Any time.”
“Well, I went to work right after school. I was there until nine. Then I came home.”
“Where do you work?”
“At the Tomahawk.”
“Doing what?”
“Washing dishes.” He wished he could have said something better—something that didn’t make him sound like such white trash—but at least he was working.
Officer Bradford turned to Cody’s mom. “Can you corroborate that?”
If the word “corroborate” confused her, she didn’t let it show. “He was at work, then he came home, just like he said. Why? What’s this about?”
“Your neighbors reported a break-in.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” his mom mumbled.
“Which neighbors?” Cody asked.
“Kathy Johansen and Pete Jessup.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” his mom said again, louder this time.
Cody’s heart began to pound a bit faster than usual, but he fought to keep his tone level. “Is that it?” Cody asked, knowing it wasn’t. “Somebody broke in? Or is there more?”
“Some money was taken.”
Just like his mom had said—as soon as something went wrong, they came looking for either Cody or his mom. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“They say they saw you hanging around—”
“Of course they saw me hanging around. I live right next door.”
“They think maybe you were casing their house.”
Cody almost rolled his eyes.
Almost.
“Look, if I was gonna go casing people’s houses and then breaking in, don’t you think I could find somebody with more money than Kathy and Pete?”
“I don’t know. Could you?”
Cody took a step back, feeling like he’d walked right into a trap. “I didn’t mean it that way.” He regretted letting his temper get the better of him. He knew from past experience it wouldn’t do him any good. “I just mean, I haven’t stolen anything. Not from anybody, but certainly not from them.”
“So, you wouldn’t mind if I checked in your room?”
“I—”
“No!” His mom stepped forward like she was going into battle. “We’re done here.” She pointed to the door. “You have no warrant and no grounds for a warrant—”
“If your son’s innocent, you have no reason to deny the search.”
“What would you even look for?” she asked. “Cash? He has cash. He just told you he’s been working part-time up at the Tomahawk. I can tell you right now, if you search his room, you’ll find a bit of money. But do you have any way of proving it came from their trailer? You got serial numbers or something for the money Pete and Kathy say was stolen?”
Officer Bradford clenched his jaws. “No.”
“So you’re gonna go in there, find the money Cody earned working after school, and based on that, you’re gonna say he’s a thief?”
“No.” Officer Bradford shook his head, holding up a hand to calm her down. “I’m not here to lay blame—”
“Bullshit. That’s exactly what you’re here to do.”
“Ma’am—”
“Enough. We’re done talking.” She pointed to the door. “You want to search any part of my house, you come back with a warrant. But we both know you ain’t gettin’ one based on the word of two drug dealers, so you can just turn around and go right back out the way you came.”
Nate’s dad scowled. He clearly didn’t like being told what to do, but he also didn’t have any other options. He left without saying another word, and Cody’s mom closed the door behind him, latching the dead bolt as if he might try to break in next.
“Mom,” Cody said, his heart still pounding, “I didn’t—”
“Of course you didn’t. If you were gonna resort to stealin’, I imagine you would’ve done it a long time ago, not waited till you had an actual job.”
“Maybe we should have let him search. I mean, he isn’t gonna find anything that belonged to Pete or Kathy in my room.”
“To hell with him.” She pulled a beer from the fridge and cracked it open. “I’m sick of them actin’ like you’re some kind of criminal when you ain’t done nothing wrong.”
She returned to the couch and her static-filled TV, and Cody took that as his cue to return to his homework.