“It’s what makes you such a conscientious city manager,” Mimi added smoothly.
“Thank you,” Jenna said. Here goes. “The other night while I was out, curiosity overcame me, and I stopped by the rec center to see how construction was going. I know it was wrong to be out there so late, unsupervised, but I wanted to make sure everything was on schedule for myself.” She turned to Zeke, who was watching her intently. “So, it was me out there last Saturday night. I’m…not sure if you’d have a chance to review the security footage, but all you’ll see is me skulking around.”
She smiled weakly at Steve. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Pappas. I understand the importance of keeping your construction sites off limits and I truly do apologize. All I can say is that it certainly won’t happen again.”
No one said anything for a few seconds.
Steve was the first one to speak. “Thank you for clearing that up. I’ve checked with the site foreman and nothing was disturbed. As far as I’m concerned, no harm, no foul.”
“So you don’t want to press charges?” Zeke asked him.
“God, no. I thought it was kids out there trying to stir up trouble. If I’d known it was Jenna all along I would have never raised a stink about it.”
“Good. So that’s all settled,” Zeke said.
“Hold on,” said Larry. “Just because she’s the city manager doesn’t mean she can go around breaking the law. Isn’t that what we locked up Wentworth for?”
“Are you comparing Jenna to Doug Wentworth?” Pilar asked incredulously. “You really are a crazy old—”
Mimi placed a hand over Pilar’s arm to silence her. “Zeke and Steve are satisfied that no harm has been done, and Jenna already said she was sorry. I say we move this meeting along.”
“And I say, we need to hold her to the same standard we’d hold any other trespasser in this town,” said Larry.
Pilar began to protest again, but Denise interrupted her. “Larry is right.”
“You’re damn straight I am.”
“Larry!” Denise admonished. “Your language!”
“Sorry,” he muttered.
Mimi winked at Jenna as if to say no worries, she’d handle this. “Larry,” Mimi said, “if we review the security footage for the night in question, and we can prove without a doubt that Jenna wasn’t involved in any acts of vandalism, then will you drop this so we can move on?”
Oh no. Oh no no no… It was like someone had pulled her chair out from under her. Only instead of falling flat on her ass, she’d fallen into the first circle of hell. Maybe Stuart Malloy hadn’t sent the footage over yet. Maybe—”
“As a matter of fact, I got it right here,” Zeke said. “He pulled out his cell phone. I received an email from Stuart Malloy with an attachment this morning but I haven’t had the chance to review it. I can email it to Mimi and we can all take a look at it on her laptop.”
“Sounds okay to me,” Larry conceded.
“No!”
Everyone turned to look at her. “That is, I…don?
??t think it’s a good idea to see the tape. Not here anyway. We have a meeting and we need to stay on schedule, don’t we?”
Pilar looked at her with concern. “Are you okay?” she mouthed.
Zeke frowned. “Is there something on there you don’t want us to see?”
“I knew it!” Larry crowed. “You can’t trust a redhead. They’re too sneaky.”
“Shut up, Larry,” Pilar said. “Steve already said nothing was taken or disturbed on the construction site. If Jenna doesn’t want us to see the footage, then she has a good reason.” She looked at Jenna. “Right?”
Jenna still couldn’t say anything.
“You look pale. Let me get you some water.” Mimi reached over the table and poured her a glass of water. She drank it all down to the last drop, to stall for time. How was she going to get out of this mess?
There was only one way she could see.