True Colors

“I’m here to get my husband, Helen.”

The woman she’d known since childhood wouldn’t look at her. “He’s being questioned, Vivi Ann. Albert says he’ll return him as soon as he can. You can wait in the lunchroom if you want, but it might be a while.”

Aurora and Winona came up behind her and led her down to the lunchroom. There, they sat in molded plastic chairs at Formica tables, drinking bitter coffee from a vending machine. For the first two hours they talked about nothing; each tried to make conversation, but the black and white wall clock kept ticking past the minutes.

“You know about this stuff, Winona,” Vivi Ann finally said. “What are they doing?”

“Questioning him, but don’t worry. He’s too smart to confess to anything.”

Vivi Ann looked at her. “Innocent people make mistakes all the time. They think they have nothing to hide.”

“You need to be prepared for the worst here,” Winona said evenly.

“You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you, Win? You can’t wait to tell me you were right.”

“Vivi, don’t,” Aurora said. “We shouldn’t fight now.”

“I was right,” Winona said. “If you’d listened to me in the beginning, we wouldn’t be sitting in the police station right now. I told you Dallas would cause trouble. He’s been on the wrong side of the law his whole life.”

“Get out of here, Winona,” Vivi Ann snapped. “I don’t want you with me.”

“Vivi, you don’t mean that,” Aurora said.

“Dallas always said you were jealous of me. He was right, wasn’t he? You’re probably loving this.”

“Just because I knew this would happen doesn’t mean I’m loving it. What did you expect, with a man like him?”

“Of course you don’t understand. The only thing you know about love is how it feels not to have it. Has any man ever said he loved you?”

“Vivi—” Aurora warned.

“No. I want her out of here, Aurora. Out. If she thinks he’s guilty, she can go.” Vivi Ann knew she was screaming, that she was hysterical, but she couldn’t rein in her emotions.

Winona grabbed her purse and got up from the chair. “Fine. You want to be alone on this, go for it.”

Aurora reached for Winona. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying, Win—”

But Winona was already walking toward the door, yanking it open.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Aurora said when the door banged shut.

“I couldn’t listen to any more.”

Aurora got up slowly, sighing, and got them each another cup of burnt, old-tasting coffee. Doctoring both cups with lots of fake creamer and sugar, she sat down by Vivi Ann. “This is going to get ugly,” she said.

“It already is.”

“No,” Aurora said, stirring her coffee. “I don’t think we’ve seen the start of ugly yet.”

Hours later, Al finally walked into the lunchroom, looking worn-out and a little sad.

Vivi Ann got to her feet. “Where is he?”

“He failed the polygraph, Vivi Ann,” Al said.

“I watch L.A. Law. Those results aren’t admissible,” Aurora said, standing beside Vivi Ann.

Vivi Ann thought she’d been afraid in the parking lot, or when she’d seen the empty glove box and then found out what he’d done with his gun; she’d been wrong. That previous emotion was nothing compared to this, as different as falling was to flying.