Free My Sister's Keeper by Bill Benners Page A

nine-thirty?”
    “ I guess.”
    “ Did you notice anything unusual while you were there?”
    “ Unusual?” I sipped the water. “There was nothing normal about anything that night, Sam. Even her cat had one blue eye and one brown one. What did you do with the cat?”
    “ We haven’t seen the cat.”
    “ It was tan and black  longhaired.”
    Lizard Lips lifted a pillow on the couch and looked under it. The panties in my back pocket felt like a rock. As he lifted another pillow, I ripped a paper towel off the dispenser and wiped my face.
    “ Sam,” Lizard Lips called.
    My stomach tightened. Sam stepped into the den where the two of them gazed at something under a pillow. I finished the water in the glass and set the glass on the counter.
    “ Richard, would you step over here?” Jones asked.
    I wiped my face again, dropped the towel, and crossed to the den. Right there under the pillow on the couch was the black metal flashlight I’d taken to Ashleigh’s.
    And on the material under it was a long red smear.

 
     
     
    12
     
     
    I STARED AT THAT FLASHLIGHT and the red smear feeling as if I was standing before my father once again being accused of something I didn’t do. Don’t lie to me! The skin on my back felt as if it was crawling around under my shirt.
    “ Is this your flashlight?” Sam asked.
    “ It…looks like it.”
    “ What’s it doing here?”
    “ I don’t know. I didn’t put it there.”
    “ You think Ashleigh did?”
    The photographer nudged in next to me focusing his camera on the flashlight. I stepped back. “I swear to you I have no idea how it got there.” The strobe went off and the camera beeped.
    “ Could Ashleigh have done it?” Lizard Lips asked.
    My mouth felt hot. “Of course she could have. I was passed out on the deck. Anybody could have done it.”
    The man’s tongue danced back and forth across his lower lip. “But, did she?”
    My stomach soared and I burped. “As far as I know there were only two of us and I was passed out in the rain.” Another burst of light from the camera’s flash further aggravated my anxiety.
    “ And why would she come in here and put your flashlight there?” Sam asked, his eyes piercing me. They were my father’s eyes. Hard. Judgmental. Don’t lie to me!
    “ You’re the detective, Sam. You should be able to tell me . I’d love to know. In fact, I hope to God you can tell me exactly who put it there. When and why .”
    Sam used his pencil to lift the other cushion. “Bag it.”
    “ Because, Sam, the thing that scares me the most is finding out that you can’t . And if you can’t do any better with this than you did with Martha’s case, I’m screwed.” I crossed back to the sink, leaned, and drank directly from the faucet. Sam pulled two Polaroid photographs from an envelope he’d brought in with him and shuffled them in his hands. I took another swig, turned the water off, and leaned back on the counter. I knew what was coming next.
    “ You recognize this photograph?” He dropped one of the photos on the counter in front of me.
    I didn’t need to look, but rotated it anyway. It was the one of Ashleigh in the robe with her head on my chest. “Yeah, we took it Sunday night.”
    “ Looks like you’re a little more than an acquaintance, Richard.”
    “ Well, I wasn’t.” Tearing another paper towel free, I wiped my forehead. “Sunday night was the first time I ever laid eyes on her.”
    “ You have sex with her?”
    “ No sir, I did not.”
    He dropped the other photograph on the counter. Without looking I knew it had to be the one I took of her on the bed. “Is that you in this photograph?” he asked.
    What? I leaned to look at the photo and felt a dagger pierce my chest. It was the picture Ashleigh had taken accidentally  or so I’d thought. You could clearly see her kissing me on the cheek and the fact that she was nude. Sweat beaded on my face and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears. “Yes sir,