13
THEY’D BEEN IN THE car for more than fifteen minutes and still hadn’t made it out of that vast terrain of suburban Scarborough.
“I have a question to ask you,” Luella said.
Chandelle swallowed audibly, and then smiled and said, “Ask away.”
“When you introduced me to Officer Tariq...”
“You want to know how I met him?” Chandelle replied.
“Well, no, as a matter of fact.”
“It’s okay,” she said brightly. “I don’t mind. Officer Tariq helped me out so much. He’s so nice. Don’t you think he’s nice? And handsome, too.”
“Yes, very handsome,” Luella said. “But in fact I was going to ask about—”
“He got assigned to me after my old school called the police.”
“Oh, my!” Luella said. “They called the police on you? What for?”
Chandelle tittered sweetly. “I didn’t do anything bad. It
