“We might get there before she does,” Jude said.
Fear was carving a deep, dark well down the center of Jeremiah. He couldn’t let anything happen to her.
“And if Remy’s going there to see Camille,” Jude added, “Anton probably won’t be home.”
“Except that Anton works from home now. And Camille and I . . . we arranged it so that I could see Remy by pretending I was coming by there to give Anton something. He’ll be there today because of that.”
Hismanipulations had placed Remy at Anton’s house.
Jude double-checked his handgun. “Anton may not even see Remy when she arrives. But if he does, it will be fine because Camille will be present. Also, Anton has no idea that we know what he did to Alexis.”
He appreciated what Jude was trying to do—talk him down. But there was nothing Jude could say that could talk him down right now. His life was hanging on a cable over a canyon. Either it would rise up to safety. Or it would crash. “Keep calling Remy,” Jeremiah ordered.
“On it.”
Jeremiah wrapped both hands around the steering wheel. The speedometer climbed. He flew around a corner.
“Under Maine law,” Jude said, “if we’re in danger, we should retreat to avoid harm. If that’s not possible, we must use the least amount of force necessary. It’s only if someone attempts deadly force against us and we have no other recourse that I can defend us with deadly force.”
“Understood.”
“She’s still not answering her phone.”
“Remy,” Jeremiah growled as he neared an intersection, “answer your phone.” He could see no oncoming traffic, so he blew through the red light. “Keep trying.”
Jude did so, repeatedly.
The air thickened with urgency. He drove extremely fast yet had the sense that he was failing. It wasn’t fast enough. This was how he’d felt under hypnosis—too slow. Guilty. At fault. Desperate. Except a thousand times worse because this was real life, and this was Remy.
“Would Remy have driven herself to Anton’s house?” Jude asked.
“I think so. Last time she was in town, she rented an economy car. I’m guessing that’s what she did this time.”
“So when we get to Anton’s, we look to see if there’s a car parked out front with a rental agency sticker on it. If not, we don’t go to the door. We wait out of sight in the direction she’ll be coming from and stop her car en route.”
“And if we see that a rental car is already parked out front?”
“Then we enter the house as casually as possible. We tell her there’s been an emergency. Does she know anyone who lives nearby?”
“Yes, a man named Wendell.”
“You tell her there’s an emergency regarding Wendell and that you need for her to leave with you immediately. We get Remy out of there. What’s the name and number of the detective handling the investigation into Alexis’s death?”
“Detective Phillip Holland.” Jeremiah tossed his phone into Jude’s lap. “He’s in my contacts.”
“I’m going to text him access to the shared folder so that he can view Nathan’s video footage.”
God, Jeremiah prayed,please let us reach the house and see that Remy has not yet arrived. Please. He repeated the prayer. Over and over.
They drove into Anton’s wealthy neighborhood and followed a winding street downhill. Anton had spent his whole career as an employee of the Mercedes F1 team. He’d been paid well but he’d been paid even better by Jeremiah, who’d chipped in big bonuses out of his own pocket. Jeremiah himself had given Anton this house—a fact that sickened Jeremiah now.
As soon as he came around the last curve before Anton’s house, he spotted a small white Kia parked at the curb.
His stomach dropped.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
“Slow,” Jude said. “Let me see if there’s a rental car sticker on it.”
