Chapter 24

I nodded. I kissed him. The last time I’d kissed a man in my bed had been with Bing. Now I was kissing Dave who was helping me find Bing. I wondered about that karma thing Dave had mentioned. I wondered how I’d fucked mine up so badly.

***

I met him down at the courthouse promptly at nine. He hugged me before we went in. I hugged him back. I was glad he was there, at least for moral support. Well, more or less for that reason.

I filled out some paperwork, both for the information on the vacant lot and for the police report on the death of Rosemary O’Malley. The clerk didn’t even blink an eye as I handed her the papers. She charged me sixty bucks for each report, then said they’d be ready in four to six weeks. I coughed when she said it. Six weeks! That was almost the entire rest of the summer! That was six weeks with my mom, my dad, a gassy dog, and bottles and bottles of Trader Joe’s wine.

“Any way to expedite that?” I asked, sounding much like I felt, namely desperate.