A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) by Darynda Jones

She nodded. “A noble one who would give his life to keep him safe.”

“My question is,” he said, turning onto the northbound on-ramp, “was she in it with Seabright alone, or was the husband involved, too?”

“He was involved,” she said, matter-of-fact.

“You sound certain.”

“Twenty-twenty hindsight. No wonder Addison stayed in the area, so close to Santa Fe. Matthew was in prison there, sure, but she would never leave Elliot. She risked jail to keep him safe.”

“But from what?”

“I think Matthew has some explaining to do.”

Her phone rang. She grabbed it and said, “Hey, Quince. We’re on our way back.”

“You might want to hurry.”

Great. “What’s going on?” she asked, dread knotting her stomach.

“We caught a bandit red-handed.”

“Like a shoplifter?”

“Something like that.”

“And you need me there because?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s related to you.”

“She?” What did her mother do now?

“You know. Five feet nada. Red hair. Enough sass to peel the tarnish off a brass elephant.”

After Sun took a long—very long—moment to let his words sink in, she said, “Auri shoplifted?”

“What?” Levi said from beside her. He reached over, grabbed the phone, put it on speakerphone, then repeated, “What?”

Quincy chuckled. “Chill. Auri didn’t shoplift. She would never do that.”

Relief flooded every cell in Sun’s body.

“Shoplifting is so last year. She’s more of a criminal mastermind now. She’s been arrested for breaking and entering.”

Sun finally knew what it felt like for the world to drop out from under her.

Sun couldn’t get out of Levi’s truck fast enough. She gritted her teeth as she went through the electronic doors and hurried to the bullpen.

Levi followed at a slower pace.

“Where is she?”

“Sun,” Quincy said, patting the air with his palms, “first make sure you’re calm.”

Quincy had explained the bare minimum over the phone. All she knew was that her genius daughter and her two cohorts broke into Mrs. Fairborn’s house, but they didn’t know why as the little shit had lawyered up.

Lawyered up!

She gaped at Quincy. “Did you really just tell me to calm down?”

“He did, boss,” Rojas said helpfully.

“I’m just saying you should probably take it down a notch.”

“And now you’re trying to de-notch me?”

“He is, boss.”

“The St. Aubins picked up Sybil and Cruz’s dad is out of town,” Quincy said, moving past his comments. “We tried to call through a relay, but he had a bad connection, so we had to text. He said he’ll be home first thing tomorrow.”

“I took him home,” Rojas said.

“The good news is,” Quincy continued, “Mrs. Fairborn is not pressing charges.”

“I took her home, too.”

“Thank you, Rojas.” She sank onto Quincy’s chair. “What the actual hell?”

“You’ll have to ask your offspring for the answer to that.”

“Wait.” She looked around. “Where is she?”

Quincy grinned. “She’s in the holding cell.”

“Good.” She looked at Rojas. “What about the men casing the town? Any movement?”

“You were right. The minute you guys took off for Seabright’s place, one of them followed.”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Levi said.

“Oh, that’s because I pulled him over for speeding.” He handed Sun a printout of the guy’s license.

“You were right,” she said to him. “New Jersey. Now we have his info and his agenda.”

“They’re after Elliot,” Levi said, reading over her shoulder. “I need to get out there. I’ll do it a little stealthier this time. See if I can’t catch him unaware.”

“I’d appreciate that. Maybe I should go with you? After I see to my daughter, of course.”

Sun opened the metal door to the holding cell, sad it wasn’t actual bars that she could clang shut behind her to give her daughter a taste of her life to come. She did the next best thing and slammed it. The boom echoed throughout the station.

Auri sat on the edge of the stainless steel cot looking at her feet. A small trash can sat beside her half full of used tissues. Sun braced herself. Tears or no tears, the girl deserved a thrashing.

“Let me get this straight,” she said, standing over her. “You convinced Cruz and Sybil to skip school with you so you could break into Mrs. Fairborn’s house to prove she was once a serial killer.”

Auri raised her head and looked at her like she was a mind reader. “How did you know?”

“I’ve seen the articles in your grandmother’s attic. I thought the same thing when I was a kid.”

“Why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“Like break into her house?”

“Which shows initiative, right?”

“Auri, you broke the law. The very thing I stand for. You broke into an elderly woman’s house. What if she’d been home?”