Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,69

through his thinning hair, he grunted and said, “Go on.”

CJ continued her witness statement, telling him about Bricker pushing her and Mac out of the way—she didn’t mention the whole flying through the air thing, because that just wasn’t possible. She ended with being knocked out when she hit her head on landing, and waking up in the hospital. There wasn’t much else to tell after that. And frankly, her statement didn’t have a lot of clues in it that she could tell other than the color of the truck. A license plate number or a description of the driver would have been more helpful.

“I’ll make sure this is all typed up and ready for you to read and sign when you arrive tomorrow to interview Jefferson,” Captain Dupree said as he turned the recorder off and stood. “I presume 3 p.m. is good for you? Same time tomorrow as it was supposed to be today?”

“Yes. Fine,” CJ confirmed as she got to her feet as well. She was more than a little surprised that he was being so accommodating about the meeting. She hadn’t even had to bring the subject up herself.

“Three o’clock, it is, then,” Captain Dupree said as he walked her to the door. “I’ll make sure Jefferson is here.”

“Thank you,” CJ murmured.

Dupree nodded as he opened the door for her, and as she walked past him to leave, he said, “Get some rest tonight, Cummings. You’re pale as hell.”

CJ glanced back with surprise at the concern in his voice, but he was already closing the door. Bewildered by the sudden show of concern from a man who had been nothing but a pain in her arse over the last two weeks, CJ gave her head a shake without thinking. Much to her relief, the pain pills were apparently doing their work. At least she wasn’t suddenly overcome by excruciating pain at the headshake, just a mild throb. She thought that was a good sign.

Exhaling a relieved breath, she turned to peer around the bullpen. Decker and Bricker were seated at the two far desks, still talking to the officers taking their statements, but Mac was just getting up from his interview at the desk nearly next to her. She could also see the recorder the officer who sat at the desk was putting away. He’d chosen to record the statement and have it typed up like Captain Dupree had done, she realized. So had Decker and Bricker, but both men were still giving their statements.

“All done?” Mac asked, pausing in front of her and offering a smile.

CJ nodded and smiled back before she could catch herself, which in turn made her frown.

“Does your head still pain you?” Mac asked as she heard Captain Dupree’s office door open behind her. “Do you want me to take you back to the bed-and-breakfast right away? I can come back for Decker and Bricker.”

“No one’s going anywhere just now,” Captain Dupree announced grimly, moving past them and striding through the bullpen to the doorway to the reception area.

CJ blinked after him with surprise, and then followed. The man’s voice and demeanor shouted trouble.

“What’s going on?” CJ asked as she stepped into the reception area and saw the captain had gone around the counter and was headed for the entrance.

“We have a situation,” Dupree said, locking the front door.

“What are you doing?” CJ asked with surprise. Police stations weren’t like stores. They were always open for business, because there was always someone doing something they shouldn’t. They did not lock their doors. At least not normally.

“We have a mob growing out front,” Dupree announced. “There’s going to be trouble.”

Concern mounting within her, CJ walked to the door to peer out at the parking lot, aware that Mac had followed her, but her attention was on the crowd outside. The sun had set while they’d been giving their statements, and either there was something wrong with the parking lot lights or they simply hadn’t come on yet, but she had no problem seeing that there was indeed a crowd gathering. There had to be fifty people out there, and their numbers were increasing by the minute with others coming from all directions.

The most troubling thing to her was that they appeared to have parked somewhere else and walked to the police station. The only reason she could think of for that was to avoid having their license plates recorded by the cameras all over the parking lot, which had night vision capabilities.