“It’s possible I met Ricardo once.” Jack ducked away from her grandma’s searing gaze. “Not on a tour. I didn’t recognize him at first, but when they said he worked for the land trust . . . I think maybe I waved to him early one morning, a couple months ago, when I was out paddling.”
Lana closed her eyes for a moment. Jack couldn’t tell if her grandma was angry or disappointed or something else.
“Did you talk to him?”
“Just a few words. He was collecting water samples by the north bank, way upriver, a mile or two past the mud flats.”
“Was anyone else around?”
“I don’t think so. It was just, like, a quick hello on a foggy morning. Do you think I should tell the detectives?”
There was a brief pause, and then Lana gave her a curt shake of the head. “No. Not yet. Is there anything else?”
“Nothing, Prima. I swear.” Jack was surprised how forceful her voice sounded, how the volume masked her fear.
Lana’s eyes softened. It almost looked like she was going to offer Jack a hug. Instead, Lana gave her a single, tight nod.
“Right. I’m going to call your mother. You’re going to heat up a pizza. We’re going to figure this out.”
*
Beth charged into the house thirty minutes later, swooping Jack into a hug that lifted the teenager off the floor.
“Honey. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”
“S’okay. Prima was pretty great, actually.”
Lana looked over from the counter, where she was working a corkscrew into a dusty bottle of cabernet she’d found under the sink.
“The cops here are idiots,” Lana said. She pulled out the cork with a satisfied pop. “Trying to threaten Jack into admitting some part in that poor man’s death. I mean, honestly.”
“This isn’t a joke, Ma. They must be coming after Jack for a reason.”
“The reason is they’re lazy. Scared, probably.”
“I’m sure they loved it when you pointed that out to them.”
“Beth, please. They have an unsolved murder on their hands. Of course they’re looking for someone to blame. Jack found the body, she ran the tour the guy was supposed to be on. I don’t think these sheriffs have the capacity to connect more than two dots.”
“Wait, back up. Which tour?”
Jack explained what the detectives had said about the Saturday sunset tour and the bachelor party and Mr. Willis. Then she realized something. “That Saturday tour didn’t even get within a mile of where Ricardo’s body was found. Even if that guy Willis was right—which he wasn’t—we never got there. Just like the detective told you about your wheelbarrow man. We were nowhere near the mud flats.”
“So it’s your word against this Mr. Willis?”
Lana waved it off. “They can’t build a whole case around one tourist who thinks maybe he saw Ricardo Cruz.”
“But if they’re as lazy as you say, they might try.” Beth could feel the fear rising in her throat.
“I know this is stressful, Beth.” But it didn’t look like Lana felt worried. If anything, Lana looked excited, her eyes glittering in a way Beth hadn’t seen since before the cancer. “But we can fix it. They’re sheep. They go where they’re told, so all we have to do is point them in a new direction.”
Beth shook her head. “You don’t know the sheriffs around here. They’ll make something up, try to stick it on her. They see someone like Jack, a girl with brown skin and no daddy, and they assume the worst.”
Lana sniffed at the wine. “Please,” she said. “Not everything is about racism or discrimination. This is just good old-fashioned incompetence.”
Beth frowned at her mother. Lana hadn’t been there when other parents asked too loudly about Jack’s heritage, or when Beth pushed Jack around in a stroller and heard strangers’ coos turn cold when they saw the baby with the dark skin. In the Salinas Valley, people came in two colors, and everything was organized to put one on top of the other.
“I can see you’re concerned,” Lana said. “But I’m going to help. Don’t worry.”
“You’ll find a good lawyer?” For a moment, Beth hoped Lana might do something useful. Her own network of nurses and single moms wasn’t exactly a great source of legal contacts.
“I can make a call. But Jack isn’t going to need that.” Lana waved her hand loftily, as if a lawyer were an option for lesser people to consider. “All we need to do is explain it was impossible for Jack to have done it. Like she said. She wasn’t anywhere near there Saturday night. Jack, is there anyone who could have—”