“Can you please take care of Leah?” Lauren asked her. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to miss dinner.”

The deputy came up to her, stone-faced. “Ma’am, can I have a word with you?”

Lauren ignored him.

“Of course,” Sara Morgan said, still confused. “Don’t worry about her.”

Leah was crying. “Are they taking you to jail? Oh my God! Mommy, no!”

Lauren pulled her close for a quick hug. “It’s all right, honey. It’ll be fine,” she said, managing to sound much calmer than she was. “I’ll have to go and explain what happened, that’s all. Don’t worry about it. You go with Mrs. Morgan and Wendy. I’ll pick you up later.”

The deputy put a hand on her arm. “Ma’am?”

Lauren shook him off with a dirty look. “Take your hands off me. I want to speak to Detective Mendez as soon as possible.”

“Mommy, your purse,” Leah said, holding the bag out to her. “You dropped it.”

Lauren looked at her handbag, thinking of the Walther in its special pocket and the fact that she had no license to carry the gun.

“You keep it for me, sweetheart,” she said. “I won’t be needing it.”

Chapter 38

38

“She did what?” Mendez said, incredulous.

“She assaulted a man at the sports complex,” the deputy explained. “Then she demanded to see you.”

The page had come just as he had been finishing his dinner with Vince and Anne and their kids. Lauren Lawton had been brought in on assault charges. Intrigued, Vince had invited himself along on the ride to the SO. They stood now in the hall outside the interview rooms.

“Did you tell her she’s being charged with anything?” Mendez asked.

“No.”

“Did you read her her rights?”

“No. The whole scene was kind of crazy, and then she asked to speak to you—demanded to speak to you is more like it—and she was going on about how the guy is some kind of child predator,” the deputy said. “And that he had kidnapped her daughter.”

“Roland Ballencoa?” Mendez said. “She assaulted Roland Ballencoa ?”

The deputy nodded. “Yeah, that’s his name. And he was screaming that she attacked him and busted his camera and he wants to press charges and he demands to see the sheriff. I thought the best thing would be to bring them both in here and sort it out.”

“Good call,” Mendez said.

“He’s in one with Detective Trammell. She’s in two. They’re all yours,” the deputy said, raising his hands in surrender as he backed away down the hall. “Good luck.”

Vince tipped his head in the direction of the break room on the opposite side of the hall. “I’ll go watch the show.”