“I mean, she works there, after all. Maybe the police made a mistake.”
“So you’re saying this was all a big mistake?”
Allie ignored the dry skepticism in the older police officer’s tone and focused her attention on the much more sympathetic younger officer as she answered, “Well, it is if you think I was breaking and entering the blood bank. I didn’t break in. I have keys,” she pointed out. “I work there.”
“And you just went there to move some product. At eleven o’clock at night?” the older officer asked dubiously.
Allie nodded firmly. “I needed to move some blood pegged for the hospital to the proper refrigerator. I forgot to do it before I left earlier today.”
“And you thought this was a good idea at eleven o’clock at night?”
Allie shrugged. “That’s when I left the party and thought of it.” Offering a wry smile, she added, “Mind you, I’d been drinking, so my judgment might have been off. Still, I didn’t want my boss to have to do it in the morning. She’s older and her arthritis has been acting up.”
She paused to eye both men to see how they were accepting what she’d said. “Besides, what would I steal from the blood bank? There’s no money or drugs or anything there. All there is in the place is blood. Who would steal blood?”
Much to her relief, that seemed to be a convincing argument since the younger officer nodded as if what she’d said made sense, and the skepticism on the older officer’s face eased considerably. Then the older one asked, “And your outfit?”
Allie glanced down at the black jeans and black blouse she was wearing, but knew it was really the black cat mask that they were talking about. Fortunately, at the last minute she’d thought to add it just in case something unexpected happened and she got caught. Thank goodness, since she’d fainted midway through the ordeal, and cracked her head on the hard tile floor when she fell. She’d apparently been found by one of the cleaners when they arrived at midnight. Which is how she’d found herself waking up here in the emergency department of the hospital with a doctor and these two officers staring down at her, full of questions.
“It was a costume party,” she said now, giving the excuse she’d come up with ahead of time. “I went as a cat . . . not a cat burglar.” She added that last bit with a quirky smile and silently prayed they’d buy her excuse. Noting the way the younger officer’s lips twitched, Allie felt sure she was convincing them. “I must have left my ears at the party. They were on a headband and it was kind of tight. Started to give me a headache as the night went on. Or maybe that was the booze,” she added, although she hadn’t had a single drink tonight. It was better they think she was a tipsy idiot than a blood-stealing fiend. She simply couldn’t go to jail. Who would watch Liam?
Allie fretted about that as she waited for the policemen to make up their minds about her. What would happen to her son if she went to jail?
“All right.”
Allie glanced up quickly at those words from the older officer.
“This is obviously a case of . . .” He grimaced and shook his head. “I’m not even sure what you’d call it besides bad judgment under the influence. In future, ma’am, when going to parties where you intend to drink, leave your work keys at home. Hopefully that will prevent something like this from happening again.”
“If she’s allowed to keep her work keys,” the younger officer commented, and gave her a sympathetic look as he explained, “We had to call your supervisor and tell her what happened. She was on her way to the blood bank to check out the situation and calm the cleaning staff.”
“Yeah,” the older man grunted. “Finding you unconscious on the floor in that get-up and surrounded by a pool of blood gave the cleaning crew quite a scare.”
“Oh, no! Some of the blood bags burst?” Allie asked, dismayed at the thought of the waste. Blood banks were always struggling to keep up with the need for blood by hospitals and such.
“No. The bags were fine. The blood was from your head wound,” the old guy said grimly. “You took quite a knock as you fell.”
“Oh,” Allie sighed, and instinctively reached up to touch her head, encountering cloth there she supposed was bandages.