Throw a Monkey Wrench (an Emma Cassidy Mystery Book 1) by Karen Chester

piled into a beat up old
truck and roared off, still shouting epithets at the officers. Most likely they
had been told to clear off or risk arrest. Hopefully that meant that Sean’s
arraignment would be over, and as soon as he made bail she’d be able to talk to
him alone, without his disruptive and disreputable relatives.
    She thought about going into the
courthouse, but the presence of the TV news crew deterred her. As much as she
wanted to support Sean, she didn’t want to appear in any news reports herself.
Pulling a granola bar from her bag, she settled down to wait.
    Half an hour later, the TV news crew left,
no doubt called to a juicier story. Fifteen minutes after that, Sean appeared
at the top of the stairs leading to the courthouse. With him was a burly man in
a flashy maroon double-breasted suit, talking nineteen to the dozen, a gold
ring glinting on a fat pinkie. Freddie Earle, Sean’s lawyer, and instantly
recognizable from his loud, late night commercials. The lawyer said a final
word, slapped Sean on the shoulder, and sauntered back into the courthouse,
smoothing back a lock of hair.
    Sean stood blinking in the sunlight,
looking strangely alone and forlorn. Emma started the car and steered it toward
him, stopping when she was adjacent to the foot of the stairs.
    “Hi, Sean. Need a lift back to Greenville?”
    He bent down to peer uncertainly at her
before a faint smile of relief lifted the corners of his mouth. “Emma? I didn’t
expect to see you here.” He walked down the stairs, glancing about him as he
went.
    “If you’re looking for your cousins,” Emma
said, “they were told to leave by the security officers.”
    “I figured that. They were making a ruckus
inside the court room.” Sean grimaced. “But I was hoping Madison would…I guess
she’s busy.”
    “I guess she is.” Emma had no idea where
Madison was. Considering how emotional she’d been the last time they’d met, it
was strange that she wasn’t here to support Sean. “Hop in, unless you want to
catch the bus back to Greenville.”
    He gave himself a shake as if he needed to
shrug off his daze and climbed into the passenger seat. Emma pulled onto the
main road. As she drove, she glanced at Sean. He seemed so deflated and beaten
down, as if he had already been tried and convicted.
    “Hey, it must be good to be out of jail,”
she said, trying to cheer him up.
    “Uh-huh.” He grunted and pushed his fingers
through his already messy hair. His clothes, the same pants and shirt he’d been
wearing since yesterday at the Whites, were rumpled and creased, and there were
deep lines beneath his red-rimmed eyes.
    A thread of unease tickled along Emma’s
veins. Would an innocent man look so defeated?
    “Madison came to see me last night,” she
said. “She’s worried sick about you.”
    That got a reaction out of him. His head
jerked up, and his eyes grew round. “She is? Poor baby, she doesn’t deserve any
of this. Her parents must be giving her hell, and none of it is her fault.” He
heaved a deep sigh. “I’m no good for her. I should just stay away from her.”
    Emma aimed a sharp glance at him. “You
shouldn’t think like that.”
    “You don’t know what it’s like to be
accused of something you didn’t do.”
    But she did know what it was like to be
wrongfully accused. When Rowena, her business partner and so-called friend, had
skipped town taking all the money that was left in the business account and
leaving only debts, many of their duped clients had assumed Emma knew more than
she did. They had accused her of collusion, yelled abuse at her, threatened her
with legal action and worse. They didn’t believe that she knew nothing of
Rowena’s intentions, that she was a victim just like them, that she had sunk
her life savings into the business, only to be left with nothing, robbed of her
money, reputation, and prospects. Sure, it wasn’t the same as being accused of
murder, but she had experienced the sting of