Green Tea by Sheila Horgan Page A

selfish way of course, when my phone rang. I figured it had to be Mom or Teagan.
    Carmine.
    Crap.
    “Hello?”
    “Cara, my name is Carmine, I’m working with Stephanie...”
    “Good evening Carmine. Steph told me you might call. What can I do for you?”
    “Nothing, really. This is more of just a head’s up. We have enough information for arrests in the case. We have been working with law enforcement. All the documents have been created. We will be serving arrest warrants in the morning.”
    “Why wait?”
    “It’s a tactical decision. When an arrest is made before sunrise, it’s usually a more peaceful arrest. The perp is still asleep.”
    “But he’s a cop. He’ll know all the cop tricks.”
    “He may know we’re coming anyway, he may have friends in law enforcement that will tip him off.”
    “Then he’ll take off and you’ll never find him.”
    “Cara, we’ve got this; believe me. I just wanted to let you know that we’re in play. Keep your eyes open, and if anything should cause you concern, call 911 first and me second.”
    “That doesn’t sound very encouraging.”
    “It will all be over soon.”
    “Thanks. Can you let me know when the arrest is made?”
    “Arrests - plural.”
    “Can you let me know?”
    “You’ll be the first I call.”
    “Thanks.”
    When I put the phone back in my purse, AJ started asking questions. I repeated the conversation as closely to verbatim as I could.
    AJ put on his blinker and turned left when he should have been turning right.
    “Where are we going?”
    “Not home.”
    “Then where?”
    “Just not home. They say that a crazy person is most crazy just before they’re going to be dealt with. Think of all the women that get killed just when they’re leaving their abusers. We aren’t going to put you in the middle of it. You’re not going to be their bait.”
    “What are we going to do, drive in circles all night?”
    “Nope. We’re going to go stay at a hotel.”
    “That will look great. Check in with no luggage.”
    “A hotel that would even notice if we had luggage is out of our price range. We’ll find a place, I’ll check in, you can stay in the car, and then we’ll go to our room.”
    “I didn’t bring anything with me.”
    “You can sleep nude. You used to do that all the time.”
    “I know. It’s just been creepy with Jerkface running around. I’m always on alert. I figure if I have to run out with a tank and shorts on, no one will notice, but if I run out of the house nude, people are going to point and laugh and hurt my feelings.”
    “I was beginning to think it was me.”
    “Are you kidding? Why didn’t you say something?”
    “What was I supposed to say? Cara, why aren’t you naked?”
    “That would have been a good start. We should be able to say anything to each other.”
    “That kind of stuff only happens in the movies Cara. There is no such thing as unconditional love, or being able to say anything, or happily ever after.”
    “Wow, you sound just like me.”
    “Good. How about this place? Does this look okay? I don’t think Jerkface would look for my car since we almost always go in your car, since you have to drive.”
    “Am I really that bad?”
    “No one said it was a bad thing Cara.”
    “Okay, I’m just having a little nervous breakdown here. Sorry. This place looks great. I appreciate it. I’ll wait in the car while you check in.”
    “I’ll only be a couple of minutes. Honk the horn if you need me.”
    I grabbed my phone and dialed.
    “Hey, what happened?”
    “I got a call from Carmine. Teagan, they’re going to make arrests, plural, tonight. Carmine called to tell me that I should be careful, that other law enforcement might tip off Jerkface, and he might do something stupid.”
    “Who else are they arresting?”
    “I was so whacked out I didn’t even ask, and now I feel stupid calling Steph to ask. You gotta admit that’s a pretty damn basic question to miss. Could you call and ask