Read Move to Strike for Free Online Page B

recognize the vast extent of her cluelessness.
    “Me and Bob go into the living room to see what’s going on. They’re telling Daria about Uncle Bill, how some slasher wasted him. They go into all the blood spattered around, etcetera.” The timbre of her voice changed imperceptibly. “They ask her things . . . God, she’s so dumb. My theory is that she had me so young it arrested the natural development of her brain cells.”
    “What did your mother say?”
    “Oh, Bill was such a fabulous guy! So good to us and to Aunt Beth.” She was a good mimic. Nina could hear Daria in her voice. “A buncha crap, that’s what.”
    “She lied?”
    “If you gave her a lie detector test she would pass! You would think somewhere inside she’s got to remember what a bastard he was but you’d be wrong.”
    “Did you say anything?”
    “Not much. They started in on her, like she might know something, which of course, she didn’t. She was getting really upset, crying. What did they expect!”
    “Go on.”
    “Then they started on me. One of them took the other aside and showed him a report or something. They looked at me and then looked back at the report, like they were comparing me to some description they had. That’s when the woman asked me where I was that night. I said I was here, at home.
    “Then they said a neighbor saw me at Uncle Bill’s that night, so I might as well admit it, otherwise I’d be perjuring myself and obstructing a police investigation, and they’d arrest me. And I got confused at that point, I admit it. I was afraid . . .” The chin jutted up into the air, as firm and stubborn as her mother’s. “I was thinking they might arrest me if I didn’t admit it, but Bob jumped in and told me to shut up, so I did. They went and arrested me anyhow. It’s a miracle I didn’t tell them. They were asking fast and standing close and they wore these uniforms with big guns in holsters and . . .”
    “I know how it is,” Nina said.
    “Good band name,” Nikki said. “Big Guns in Holsters.”
    “Did they—did you feel they were pressuring you?”
    “Of course they were fuckin’ pressuring me. You did say you were a lawyer, didn’t you?”
    “Let’s get something straight, Nikki,” Nina said. “You may get away talking like this to a lot of people, maybe even your mother, but you can’t get away with talking like that to me. If you don’t straighten up and act civil, I leave. Do you want me to leave?”
    “No.” A little voice. Nikki looked down at the floor again. A tear dripped down her nose, hung for a moment, and she shook her head sharply, flinging it away.
    “Okay. Tell me what happened on Saturday night. Did you go to your uncle’s?”
    “Yes.” Defiant.
    “How did you get there?”
    “By boat.”
    “Why?”
    “I went there to get something of ours.”
    “Something that belonged to you and Daria?”
    “Uh huh.”
    “You went there to steal?”
    “Not to steal.”
    “Then why?”
    “I went to get something.”
    “What?”
    “None of your business. I’m being civil. I just won’t answer that, okay?”
    Nina paused, then went into her standard explanation about attorney-client privilege but Nikki just shook her head, so Nina called upon the same god of patience she called on in her recent dealings with Bob. “Did you take anything?”
    “I’m not telling.”
    “If I’m going to be your attorney, you need to trust me and tell me the truth.”
    “Are you going to represent me?” Nikki said. “You haven’t said one way or the other.”
    “You sure need help. I’m here to help today, but we don’t have an arrangement after that.”
    “I sure do need help. I’m not arguing about that.”
    “I have to talk to your mother about money.”
    “She doesn’t have any. So that lets you out, huh?” Nikki hugged herself.
    “It may,” Nina said. “I work alone, Nikki. I have a little office on Lake Tahoe Boulevard and I don’t come from a wealthy family either. I