They hadn’t asked for our names or searched us. This was so surreal. I’d never been arrested before.
As we walked, Annabel asked, “So now what? Do we get charged? When do they let us out? Are we going to have to spend the night in jail?”
“The police will take you down to the local station and process you,” the lead guy said. “Then it depends on what the owners want to do.”
Ownersmeaning Meghan and Harry.
“They’re not currently in the country,” he went on, “so it’s going to take a few hours minimum to work it all out. We’ll probably get a hold of the Crawfords and see if your story checks out.” He gave us a look that said he highly doubted it would check out. “If it does, you’ll likely get out with a slap on the wrist. That’s your best-case scenario. In the future, do not try to deliver messages by trespassing.”
“Understood, sir,” Yasmine said. “I take full responsibility for this plan. It was a mistake to think it would work, and you have my sincere apologies. I only wanted to get an important message to Matt. It won’t happen again.”
There were two cop cars parked near the gates. Four cops total.
With little fanfare and not much interaction, they ushered Yasmine and Annabel into the back of one cruiser and Poppy and me into the other.
“This is all my fault,” Poppy whisper-moaned. “If I hadn’t screwed up, we wouldn’t be in this position. I got too caught up in the moment. I wish I could take it all back.”
“None of this feels real,” I told her. “As soon as we pulled up in front of that gate, it’s like we stepped into the Twilight Zone. Seeing how all of the bodyguards reacted to our plan, I realized it was silly of us to think it would’ve worked in the first place. But it’s not only your fault. We were all running around like we were in a spy movie. These bodyguards were not having it.”
“Yeah, they take their jobs pretty seriously,” Poppy said miserably. “Do you think we’re going to get convicted?”
I shook my head. “I can’t imagine we will, but I have no idea.”
The ride to the station was very short. We pulled up in front of a two-story white stucco building. Very California. The cops barely said anything to us as they shuffled us into the station. They made us remove any personal items, including our phones, and put them in envelopes. We didn’t have our purses on us, as they were back at the home on the couches next to the pool. The cops told us someone was going to go collect them.
Before I handed over my phone, I very quickly texted Marco without reading through what he’d written to me, which was quite a lot.
will call u when i can. at the jail. am ok.
A female police officer led us down a hallway into a back room where there were two cells. She opened the larger cell and directed us all inside. Three benches lined the walls, and there was a sink in the corner. That was it.
“Sit tight,” she told us. “Not sure if we’re going to process you tonight or not.”
“Does everybody who trespasses get charged?” Annabel asked. “I’m assuming you see quite a few people like us.”
She appeared wistful for a second. “You’re certainly not our first. But up until a few years ago, this wasn’t a thing.”
I understood the implication. Having the royals in town had shaken things up.
“Justin, the lead security guard, is following up on a few things. Once he gets back to us, we’ll know how to proceed. It’s our understanding that you were barely over the property line and were guests of the neighbors. We’ll see how it plays out. But I’d suggest you try and get as comfortable as you can. It’s the middle of the night, and getting a hold of people who are out of the country takes time.”
We all took a seat.
Yasmine set her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I thought this was a good idea. I’m so sorry, you guys.” She glanced up, misty-eyed. “If my parents find out about this, it’s going to be ten times worse than when I tell them I’m no longer engaged. They’re going to be so disappointed. They’ll probably insist I move to Morocco so they can keep a better eye on me. I’ve never broken the law in my life, much less gone to jail.”
Poppy shifted over on the bench, wrapping her arm around Yasmine, shaking her shoulder in a total Poppy way. “They’re not going to find out. It’s okay,” she soothed. “If I have to, I’ll literally fall to my knees in front of the magistrate and confess that I was the only one who was trespassing. Because that’s the truth. And I always speak the truth.”
“I can attest to that,” Annabel said. “She’s very truthy.”
Poppy continued, “I made the very stupid choice to crawl into the bushes all on my own. None of you asked for any of this. My only excuse is that I was blinded by my need to see all things Meghan and Harry. If we’d stayed on our side and shouted at one of those guys to come over, everything would be completely fine. This is not anyone’s fault but mine.”
Annabel snorted. “Those guys were never going to help us. They thought our little scheme was ridiculous.”
“I don’t know,” I mused. “The one with the walkie-talkie seemed a little sympathetic toward the end. I have a feeling he’s a friend of Matt’s. When you mentioned Matt, his expression changed. He totally knows him.”
“They were just following protocol,” Yasmine said. “Which means they probably wouldn’t have interacted with us at all, even if we’d called them, if given the choice. I’m so dumb, because I know that from dating a bodyguard. The plan was flawed from the start. Then, to make matters worse, we left all of our stuff in the portico by the pool. Your car is still at the gate.” She nodded to Poppy. “This is an unmitigated disaster. I’m taking the blame. If my parents taught me anything, it was to own up to my shortcomings, and this was an epic fail on my part.”
“You didn’t fail,” I assured her.