Judging Joshua

“I think it’s worth looking into.”

Riley felt a flutter of hope. He believed her? “You think so? They set me up? Here I’ve got the car, and if I get stopped, I’m arrested, and if I’m not stopped, they get their car and no one’s the wiser?”

“It’s happened before,” he murmured.

She couldn’t read his expression and she desperately wanted to. No, she wanted affirmation that he was starting to take her seriously. “It all makes some weird sense, you know. Maybe that’s what happened, or maybe it’s just a big misunderstanding. Some weird confusion. Could there be some confusion about the car being stolen, being on the list by mistake?”

He shook his head. “No, that’s a fact.”

“But you believe me that I didn’t steal the car?”

She literally held her breath and the flicker of hope was gone when he shook his head. “No. I told you, I’m willing to consider options. All I know for sure is, the car’s stolen and you were driving it.”

She sank back against the bars, horrified that it had meant so much to have this man believe even part of what she’d told him. “The facts, ma’am, just the facts.”

“That’s about it.

“If a friend of yours was caught like I was, and they told you it was all a mix-up, a mistake or some sort of nefarious plot, would you believe him?”

“That isn’t the point,” he said with unerring logic. But it was for her. He’d believe a friend anytime. Not a stranger. “People let you see what they want you to see.”

“Sometimes it has to be the truth.”

“In this job, it’s usually not.”

That drew the lines completely. He was the cop, she was the crook. “Your job stinks.”

He didn’t take offense. “More times than not,” he said as he stood.

She crooked her neck to look up at him, her soup all but forgotten. “Then why do you do it?”

He flexed his shoulders, as if to ease his muscles, and didn’t answer her for a moment. At first she thought he was just going to ignore her, then she realized he was thinking. “Good question,” was all he said. He looked down at the cup of soup in her hands. “Anything else you need?”