She plays the part where he speaks about how much little Kate wanted to be with him.
“I could send him this to hurry him along,” she says.
Zane and I exchange a glance through the rearview mirror. A glance filled with a lot of doubt that it will work,
“Try it,” I say anyway. “Maybe he’ll get spooked into confessing.”
“Say the cops got the same email,” Zane suggests. “That should put some fire under his ass.”
“And tell him to just turn himself in, or else,” I add.
I sincerely doubt any of this is going to work, but Alice clearly needs some more time before she can completely abandon her plan of getting some regular justice system justice for the priest. So be it. Let her exhaust all the other options if that’s what she needs to do.
She slams the laptop lid shut. “I should speak to Kate before sending this on to anyone. She should know what’s happening. Maybe she’ll even want to come forward, report him herself.”
I wince and Zane makes a sound to match it from the backseat.
“Would you want everyone knowing what happened to you?” he asks. A valid point.
She turns to him. “I’d have liked to have some recognition of what had happened to me, yes. Me and Nico will go to the Cole house and you can keep watch on the priest in the meantime.”
She’s using her Sarge Alice voice, making this a command rather than a suggestion.
Zane shrugs and kind of nods, but not really. She turns her stern gaze on me.
“You’ll have to change back into Mrs. Baxter for this,” I say.
“Yes, I guess I better,” she says. “Drive us back to the motel.”
I start the car, because I’m sure it’s pointless to keep talking about this. The sooner she gets all this just justice crap out of her system, the sooner the priest will be gone, and we can start the rest of our lives.
Plus, with any luck I’ll get to watch her change into that pretty dress, see some of her milky soft skin, get a sneak peek at all I hope leaving the priest dead will bring.
31
Alice
It seems to me like we’ve been parked in front of the Cole house for ages, even though it’s only been about half an hour. The family was having dinner when we arrived. Mom, dad, little Kate and her slightly older brother. The rest of the house was dark, but the light in the street-facing dining room was bright, sparkling even.
I didn’t want to ruin their meal, so I made us wait to go in. But now they’re clearing the table and I still don’t want to go in.
Nico takes my hand and squeezes. I enjoy the warmth that passes into me through his touch, because I’ve been very cold for the whole day, and it’s only getting worse. “We should go do this now.”
He’s speaking in a soft, warm, calming tone. The kind you’d use to comfort a frightened child or something. But I’m not a frightened child. I’m a grown woman. The Sarge of a biker club.
“You don’t think this is a good idea?” I ask, before even deciding to do it.
“I think this is your show and you’re the one calling the shots,” he says. “But I think we should be ready for Kate’s dad tochase us out of the house with a shotgun. He looks like the type who’d do that if he doesn’t like what he’s hearing.”
He’s not wrong. Mr. Cole is a big man and in my experience men with that much muscle on them prefer to let their fists and their strength do the talking. But he could lean the other way, be a total softy at heart too.
I open the car door before I change my mind. “I’m going to ring the doorbell.”
I don’t wait for his reply before stepping out of the car and slamming the door shut. I don’t even look back to see if he’s following as I make my way to the front door. But I know he is. I can feel him trailing me.
Nancy Cole opens the door and little Kate is just behind her as she does. I still absolutely do not want to spoil their lovely family evening with what I’m about to tell them. But I don’t see a way around it.
“Ah, it’s you two,” Nancy says. “Trent and Alice, right? What can I do for you?”
