"She'll just say whatever he tells her to say," Tina said.
"Not if we question her before she speaks to him," the officer said as he scooped up Jacob's phone.
That shut Tina up. For the time being.
With Jacob's direction, the officer dialed Amanda's number. Jacob prayed she just told the truth and didn't try to protect anyone.
"She says the child is with your mother," the officer said to Tina. "Do we need to follow up on this claim?"
Tina sighed and shook her head. "No. I'm sure Julie's fine."
"She also says that you went crazy and attacked her when you found out she's in a relationship with your ex-husband."
"I didn't attack her," Tina said.
"Miss," the officer said into Jacob's phone, "would you mind returning to the scene? It would make this a lot easier."
Jacob's stomach dropped. He couldn't protect Amanda if he was handcuffed. Would Tina try to harm her sister again while the police were present? What about after the police were gone and then when Jacob was on tour? How would he protect Amanda then? Maybe he should ask her to follow him out on the road so he could keep an eye on her. He didn't think Tina was capable of killing her, but then he hadn't thought she'd attack her when she'd found out that he and Amanda were involved.
A few minutes later, Amanda's car pulled into his drive. Jacob was still in cuffs, but now seated on the bottom step of the walkway to his door. Looking disheveled and a little scared, Amanda stepped out of the car and her eyes met his. Her brow crinkled when she noticed why he had his hands behind his back. She turned a questioning gaze on the officers.
"Why is he in handcuffs?" Amanda asked. "Is he under arrest? I told you he didn't do anything."
"The stories we're hearing aren't correlating," the officer said. "Maybe we need to take you all downtown for questioning."
"Excuse me," interrupted Mrs. Barbury, who lived across the street from Jacob. She was a sweet elderly lady who always brought Jacob a big plate of homemade cookies around Christmas time, but otherwise, didn't interact with him much. "I was walking past with my dogs when it happened. I don't mean to intrude, but I saw the whole thing up until I ran to the house to call nine one one."
If that was true, then Jacob would be baking Mrs. Barbury cookies this Christmas.
"This one's car was here for two nights in a row," Mrs. Barbury said, jabbing a thumb in Amanda's direction. Then she pointed at Tina. "This one shows up every couple of weeks with Mr. Silverton's little girl." Mrs. Barbury smiled. "She's a real cutie pie."
An officer took pity on Jacob and helped him to his feet to ease the crick in his neck developing from staring up at everyone.
"About half an hour ago," Mrs. Barbury continued, "I was walking past with my dogs and saw these two going at it in the driveway." She pointed from Amanda to Jacob.
"What do you mean by going at it?" the officer asked.
"Kissing. Well, more like trying to swallow each other's faces." She fanned her flushed throat. "I thought he was going to strip her naked right there in the driveway and have his way with her. Land sakes alive! And that's when she showed up." She jabbed a thumb in Tina's direction.
"Her name is Tina," Jacob said.
Tina narrowed her eyes at the woman and crossed her arms.
"Tina started yelling and chasing this one around the car. And when she finally got a hold on . . ." She looked to Amanda and raised her eyebrows.
Amanda supplied her name.
"When she finally got a hold on Amanda, I thought Tina was like to kill her. Mr. Silverton was tryin' to break them up, and all the while that poor little girl was in the SUV screaming for her daddy."
Usually Jacob hated nosy neighbors, but at that moment, he felt blessed to have them.
"So Mr. Silverton finally got the two women separated and he told this one"-she pointed at Amanda-"to get away to safety and take his daughter with her so that poor child didn't have to watch her parents argue and such. That's when I ran home to call the police."
The officers nodded at each other as the story was repeated for the third time. Now the only one with a different tale was Tina, and as Mrs. Barbury was an impartial witness, Tina's false account was completely discredited.
"Would you like to press charges?" an officer asked Amanda.
She blinked at him, her eyes wide with shock. "What?"
"Would you like to press assault charges against Tina Lange?"