Chapter 21: Planted

"That's a lie," I said.

I was out of the bed with the blanket around me before I thought about it.

"That truck has been locked in a building Chen Capital owns for twelve days. Nobody's touched it but them."

The officer didn't look at me.

"Ma'am, you can tell it to his lawyer."

Rafael put his hand on my arm.

"Grace. Get dressed."

"They planted it."

"I know. Get dressed anyway."

He pulled on his boots and the clean navy shirt.

He buttoned it right this time.

Then he turned around and put his hands behind his back himself.

They walked him down the twelve raw steps in the gray light.

The young mechanic was coming in the back gate with two coffees.

He dropped them both on the gravel.

"Boss!"

"Open the bays," Rafael said. "The minivan's due at ten. Do the brakes right."

"Boss, they can't..."

"The brakes. Right."

The back door of Twelve Stools opened.

Raymond stood in it in his cardigan, with Lily on his hip in her whale pajamas.

She couldn't see the car.

She could hear it, though, and she heard Rafael's voice.

"Rafael? Where are you going?"

He stopped at the open car door with an officer's hand on his head.

"I'm going to fix something, Lily girl. Your mama's going to tell me where the parts are."

Then they put him in the car.

I stood in the lot in a blanket and watched it pull out onto San Pablo.

Raymond came down the back steps.

"Go," he said. "I've got her. I've got the counter."

"You can't cook."

"I can boil grits. Go."

At nine I walked into the lobby of Chen Capital.

It was forty floors of glass on California Street, and I'd been inside it maybe five times in seven years.

Every time, Daniel had walked me straight to the elevator with his hand on my back so I wouldn't stop and talk to anyone.

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