“It wasn’t him,” she told them. “Not even close.”

“Judy didn’t actually see the guy. The only thing the police are going on is a lack of an alibi,” Meg told them.

“They have to have more than that . . . don’t they?”

Judy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Neil arrived with Russell, and Dan and Lucas left with a promise to call in the morning.

Neil wasn’t a hugger, which suited Judy at the moment. Sympathy might have flashed on the man’s face, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. “Blake has a call in to his lawyers. We should have suits on the ground in a few hours. The problem is the weekend. We think the detectives purposely made the arrest tonight to spread out any arraignment, keep him away from you longer so they can approach you without him close by.”

“Why do they need to approach me? I don’t have anything else to say to them. And if they’re going to try and use my words to prosecute the wrong guy, I’ll just keep quiet.”

“It’s not that simple, Judy. This isn’t a domestic violence issue, cut-and-dry . . . you can’t drop the charges. The district attorney is who will file charges against Rick since they think he’s responsible for the attack.”

“He didn’t do it!” She was yelling at the messenger and tossed her hands in the air to calm herself. “Sorry. I’m not mad at you.”

“Be prepared for the police showing up to talk to you.”

“Do I have to cooperate?”

“No. We have a separate lawyer on call for you, someone to advise and help direct questions. If the police show up, tell them you want counsel present. They have to respect that. It won’t keep them from talking at you, however.”

“I put a call in for Mike. I’m sure he’ll post the bail money.”

“I have that covered, Judy.”

Her relief only lasted a minute. “Now what?”

Neil blinked . . . twice. “We wait.”

“Great! We wait and the bastard that knocked me around is still out there and the man who has protected me is in jail. How is that fair?” She wanted to scream, wanted to hit something.

“Russell will stay here. I’m going to the station and meet up with the attorneys.”

“Can’t I come with you?”

“There’s no point. Chances are the only one who will see Rick is the lawyer until he’s released.”

“And when will that be?”

“Best guess . . . Monday, if the judge grants bail.”

“Why wouldn’t the judge grant bail?”

“I don’t have that answer.” Neil didn’t seem happy about his own information.

Neil left a few minutes later and Judy removed her laptop from her room and set it up on the table in the kitchen before brewing a pot of coffee.

“What are you doing?” Meg asked when she returned from her room wearing her pajamas.

“Crash course in law school. The evidence they have on Rick can’t be any more than circumstantial. The question is how much can they assume before a judge thinks it’s fact?”

It looked like Meg agreed with the idea of research when she returned with her own computer and poured a cup of coffee for herself. Hell, two newly retired college students knew their way around the Internet more than most.

Chapter Nineteen

Meg sat on the couch, her laptop on her thighs, one foot perched on the coffee table while she nibbled on popcorn. “According to this website, there’s a good chance they will put you on the stand if Rick goes to trial. Even if you’re a hostile witness.”

“You think they’d do that?”

“I’m not the one to ask. I didn’t think they’d actually arrest Rick.”

Russell had taken up residence in one of the bedrooms, where he was hooking up surveillance equipment to show all the cameras around the property inside the house.

“I’ll plead the Fifth.”

Meg laughed. “You can’t do that. Only Rick can. He’s the one on trial.”

“He’s my boyfriend, there has to be something I can plead.”

Meg clicked around the website she was on to see if there was something her friend could do to avoid giving testimony at any trial Rick might face. The word spouse had many links so she flipped through them. “Hmm . . .”

“What?”

“I didn’t find anything for a girlfriend. But if you were Rick’s wife, you wouldn’t be forced to testify. The laws are clear on this point everywhere.”

Judy moved from her perch at the table to sit beside Meg.

She scrolled the page to the beginning and pointed at the passage. “A spouse has testimonial privileges, the right to not testify. A spouse also has privileged communication where the conversations between spouses are confidential.”

Judy leaned back and stared beyond the computer, thinking. “So if Rick and I were married, and I’m the only witness . . . I won’t have to testify.”

Meg wasn’t sure she liked the deductive look in her friend’s eyes. “Judy! You can’t be serious.”

Judy snapped her gaze to Meg. “My boyfriend is sitting in jail simply because he’s in my life.”

“But marriage?”

Judy pushed off the couch, now on a new mission. “If the Kardashians can marry for the sake of cameras and cash, I can get married to keep Rick out of jail. Besides, don’t you arrange temporary marriages for a living now?”

“Well, yeah . . . eventually.” She hadn’t made a match yet, but she would. “What are you looking up now?”

“Marriage laws.”

Meg narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Judy barely glanced over her shoulder. “What?”

“Rick. What if he’s not into this idea?”

Her BFF laughed. “He’s grown attached to his freedom. My guess is he’ll go for it.”

“But he’ll be married.”

“To the woman he’s been trying to date for an entire summer and who he’s been messing the sheets with for the last week. Besides, we’re not talking forever. We’re talking until we find the ass who is behind all this. Once Rick’s name is clear, we can get an annulment. You should know all about the dissolution of marriages in your line of work.”

She did . . . but applying that to Judy didn’t seem right. “I’ll call Samantha in the morning and ask what she thinks.”