Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack

time
to call you.”
    The old woman was still standing there, glancing between Sadie
and the check-out counter as if trying to decide whether or not to
call for help. Sadie looked at her imploringly, until another woman several
feet ahead of her turned and said, “Julia, are you coming?” The old woman gave
Sadie a shrug, as if to say she’d help her if she didn’t need to get inside.
Sadie was not impressed. Was there no such thing as a good citizen
anymore?
    “Come with me,” Detective Madsen said through clenched teeth.
He took her arm, none too gently, and led her out of the building. Sadie tried
not to show her own panic, though she realized what she ought to do was scream
for help. She stumbled to keep up with him until they reached the same blue
sedan she’d seen in front of Anne’s house earlier. He opened the back
door.
    “I’m not getting into that car with—” The next thing she
knew she felt his hand on the top of her head and within mere moments she was
in the car. How’d he do that? The next second he was in the car too, right
beside to her.
    “Look,” he said in a voice thick with frustration as he slammed
the door shut. “I’m trying to solve a murder here.”
    “That you think I committed.”
    “You are not helping yourself by being so difficult.”
    She scooted as far away from him as possible—it
wasn’t decent to be squished up against him in a parked car, even if she was a
decade or two older than he was. What if someone saw them? She tried to open
the door to get out, but it was locked.
    “I’m not being difficult,” she said. “I’m only trying to help.
I don’t believe it is within your authority to detain me against my will.”
    “I think you happen to know an awful lot about things you
shouldn’t know and it’s most certainly within my authority to investigate that.”
    Sadie furrowed her eyebrows. “What do I know that I shouldn’t
know?”
    “Where she was killed. Where all her important papers were kept—”
    “You people asked me those things!” she yelled.
    “And you knew the answers!” he yelled back.
    “I’m trying to be helpful!”
    “You’re making a mess of it. This is real life, lady, not some
game. You’re not going to beat us to the punch and solve the crime, so if
that’s what you’re trying to do, it’s time to give it up.”
    “I’m only trying to help,” Sadie said again and folded her arms
over her chest.
    “If you wanted to help, you’d keep your nose out of things.”
    Sadie pursed her lips to keep from saying that she had no
choice but to put her nose into things. This wasn’t just about Anne. Ron was
involved, and Trevor was still gone. She considered the enormity of the answers
she still needed to find, and felt tears rise up; she quickly blinked them
away. “Fine,” she said, handing over the papers. “But I want it on the record
that I think you are treating me very unfairly and that I have cooperated at
every turn. Whatever issues you have with Detective Cunningham are your
problem. Trying to one-up him by badgering me is a pretty lousy substitution
for whatever you’re trying to get.”
    Madsen’s neck turned a dark pink and his jaw flexed. She’d hit
a nerve. He let out a grunt and shook his head. “Just back off and let the
professionals do their job,” he said as he took the papers from her.
    She bit back the sarcastic comment on the tip of her tongue
about just how professional he
was being. He looked through the papers and lifted his eyes to meet hers. “I
need the other one too,” he said with exasperation.
    “Look, I gave you what I was given, if—”
    “The business card,” Madsen said in sharp tones. “Give it to me
or I’ll arrest you for interfering with a police investigation. I’m already
late for the hearing so just give me the card and let me do my job.”
    Sadie let out a sigh and pulled the card from the sleeve of her
hoodie where she’d managed to hide it. She told herself she would have