Spinning Out

Chapter 40

JAINA

Detective Ruiz never showed up at the hospital. I waited as long as I could with Nathan, but finally decided I wanted to give the information to the police so they can move forward with the investigation. I climb the front steps of the police department with my folder full of pictures and information. I'm not expecting what I see inside.

Elijah is standing in the lobby, looking slightly disheveled and definitely had been crying. He's with another man I have never met and they seem to be engaged in an important conversation. They shake hands and the man turns and walks away, giving me a friendly smile as he goes.

"Jaina," Elijah says when I meets my gaze.

I feel guilty for what I'm about to do, even though his friend deserves whatever punishment he gets. I wonder how much Elijah knows. Is he here for an interview about any of this or is he here for another crime. At this point I can admit I really don't know much about him at all and I'm not sure I want to anymore. If he's been covering for his friend, I'll never speak to him again.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"We need to talk," he says. T

he words make my stomach sink low in my gut. My heart squeezes in my chest. We do need to talk, but I don't know if I really want to listen to anything he has to say.

"Ok," I say reluctantly. "Want to talk here or outside?" I ask.

"Outside if that's ok," he replies.

We walk wordlessly outside to the large steps. There isn't bench or anywhere to sit and I plan on telling him everything I know about his friend and the accident. He motions for us to sit at the top step. I do, and I pull the folder closer to my chest protective of the information inside it.

"You know my friend Bryant has been going through some stuff," he says.

Yes, I do. He's been hiding the fact that he almost killed Nathan. Instead of saying this though, I just nod. I want to hear it all from his mouth.

"Well, I didn't know what it was. I thought he was just off the rails with his alcohol addiction. I didn't know why. I guess I thought it might be stress or the end of the school year, to be honest I didn't dig too deep because he was keeping me away from all of it and I had my own shit going on," he says.

He stops talking when a few police offices walk past us. This is not the most ideal place to be having this conversation, but I want to stay close to the police since I'm not sure I can trust Elijah any more.

"The night of the accident," he says, "I was at a street race like the one I took you to. It was a hectic night. There was a car there my dad and I work on and it was having a lot of trouble. I was trying to fix it and something slipped. It's how I broke my wrist," he says holding up the cast as evidence. "I ended up driving to the ER and waiting for hours to see a doctor and get an x-ray. I was there overnight. The next morning I saw you in the elevator."

I don't know what I believe anymore, but I'm more willing to listen now.

Elijah continues with his story, "Because of that, I didn't get to meet up with Bryant. He went to the take-overs without me. I didn't really care because I only go to hang with him. They aren't really my thing as you have probably learned."

I nod. I knew he wasn't in the car with Bryant, but that doesn't mean he hasn't known his friend was responsible this whole time.

"I didn't know," he says. His eyes plead with me to believe him. "Bryant was the driver of the car that hit you."