Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Hartford

Anthony stepped in front of me before the detective finished the sentence.

"Obtaining property by false pretenses," the detective read from the paper. "Three million one hundred thousand dollars. I'm sorry, Miss Lind. I'm required to bring you in."

He looked at Anthony then, and something in his gray face shifted.

"You're the Brandreth boy," he said. "Hollin Point. Eleven forty at night, kitchen table, you wouldn't stop talking about the pears."

"Yes, sir."

"I read your second statement on Monday morning," the detective said. "I never believed it."

Nobody in the flat said anything.

"I'll drive her myself," he said. "The judge sits at one. Counsel can ride in the back."

I picked up my coat.

I was not afraid, which surprised me, because the last time a man in a raincoat had walked me out of a house I had been nineteen and shaking.

This time six men followed us down the stairs.

The courtroom on the second floor was gray and small and smelled of floor wax.

The detective sat me on a bench in the front row, and Anthony stood at the rail beside me, and I looked around for a prosecutor.

A young woman in a navy suit came in with a file under her arm.

"Ms. Lind, the complainant alleges you took funds from seven men under a false name," she said. "Do you have anything to say?"

"My lawyer does," I said.

Anthony opened his mouth.

The doors at the back of the room banged open, and the senator's son came down the aisle at a near run.

He had no coat. His tie was crooked.

"I'm one of the seven," he said, out of breath. "Everything I sent her was a gift. I froze the transfer on a guess. I'm withdrawing it, and I'll sign whatever you hand me."

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