Did no one follow protocol anymore?
“You know the juvenile system. They write their own rules. Apparently, they had a detention hearing and decided he could be supervised at home until the pretrial screening, but someone must have forgotten to inform the arresting officer.” Zach dumped in some grounds and hit the start button. “I only found out when I went to the quarry to see what kind of Wi-Fi connection I could pick up—long story.” He waved away that thread of the conversation. “Anyway, I ran into the kid and his mother, and she told me the good news.”
“Meaning J.D. could have sent me that message on my phone.”
“Or his mother.” Zach shrugged, reaching for a mug. “She reminds me of the way my mom was when Dad went to jail—faithful to the end.”
Sam remembered all too well. Mrs. Chance had fallen apart when her husband had gone to prison for white-collar crime. But somehow he could understand her reaction. He had no idea how Jeremy Covington’s wife could forgive him for assault and sex offenses against teens.
“No luck pinpointing where that message came from?” He took a seat on a bar stool two down the counter fromZach, leaning an elbow on the granite to make it easier to feed Aiden.
“None.” Zach slid the phone across the breakfast bar. “If you get any more, don’t touch anything after it happens and bring it to me as fast as you can.”
“Right.” He ground his teeth together, anger building. “And how do you suggest I document threats that disappear seconds after they’re delivered?”
“You’re the cop,” Zach reminded him. “But I’d write down times and dates.”
“You say that like I’m going to have more than one.”
He stared down at the innocent face in the crook of his arm, hardly believing the boy was his. His ex-girlfriend might have found the baby overwhelming, but for Sam, the boy was already a part of him. The best part. “But I’m telling you now, there’d better not be another threat against my son.”
“We’ll find out where it came from.” Zach said it with a certainty that eased some of the defensive fury building in Sam’s chest.
Sam knew he meant it. And he trusted him. If there was any way to prove a digital crime or find a cybertrail, Zach’s company would do it.
“Good. I’ll assign someone to watch J.D. now that I know he’s circulating again.” He set aside Aiden’s bottle and patted the baby’s back even though the boy was already falling asleep. In the middle of the morning of course. Rarely at night. “You didn’t need to come all the way out here to bring me my phone. I’ve got to stop by the office later to set up some interviews with victims who reported trouble out in the quarry in the last few years.”
He hadn’t forgotten about the spike in incident reports during the week of the teaching conference.
“I drove Heather to her sister’s house before I came in here.” Zach craned his neck to look out the kitchen window, maybe trying to glimpse the cabin from here. “I figured I’d talk to you until she was done over there.”
“If I know Amy, that’ll be any minute,” he said drily, grateful to see Aiden was now fully asleep again. “She’s not one for idle conversation.”
Zach chuckled softly, leaning in to center the coffeepot perfectly under the drip of the steaming-hot java.
“What’s so amusing?” Sam moved toward the infant swing in the center of the dining room, where he’d never bothered to set up a table. Gently, he lowered Aiden in it. To his surprise, the boy stayed asleep, settling his heavy head against one side of the cushioned seat, his baby Buddha belly stretching the snaps of his onesie.
“Just trying to picture the two of you talking if she’s the quiet one.”
In spite of himself, Sam grinned back at him.
“Compared to her, dude, I’m chatty.”
“Is that right?” Zach pulled two stoneware mugs off the wrought iron stand near the coffeemaker. “Heather did say that her sister’s invitation to come over consisted of about five words. And those were delivered via a call at two in the morning.”
He split the brew between the two mugs before searching Sam’s fridge for creamer.
Sam sipped his black, wondering why Amy had been awake at that hour. Was that unusual? Or had she been thinking about their conversation this afternoon?
He sure as hell had thought about it a lot last night.
But Amy hadn’t called him at 2:00 a.m. She’d called her sister—the one who was testifying against Jeremy and J. D.Covington at the end of the month. Had she been thinking about that?
“When is your sister flying in for the trial?” Sam hadn’t spoken to Gabriella in weeks.
It occurred to him now that if Amy had secrets about that last summer, maybe Gabby could shake something loose. Spark a memory.
“I don’t know how much time she can take off from work, but I imagine she’ll be here at least a week before the trial begins in order to prepare.” His coffee fixed, Zach returned to the counter stool. “Why?”
