“I think … I think it’s a man,” whispers Maddy. I wait for her to say his name, to speak it aloud, but she doesn’t.
“Is it your daddy?” I ask, and I can almost see Maddy shaking her head on the other end of the phone.
“It doesn’t sound like daddy,” she says. “He’s going through the house. And mommy heard him. She came to my room and told me to call the cops and to stay hidden, then she went to the living room and yelled at him. I had to help mommy, Jami, so I went down the hallway and saw mommy on the floor. She wasn’t moving.”
“Did he see you, Maddy?”
“No. I ran to my room and hid under my bed after I saw mommy lying there. I found your number first, before the cop’s number.”
“Okay, Maddy, listen to me.” I’m walking out the door already, mindlessly rushing down the steps, brain swelling with fear, limbs trembling. “I’m on my way over right now. Can you stay on the line with me?”
She needs to call the police,I think frantically, but I also know that to do that, she has to hang up with me, and the thought of someone getting to the girl before I can arrive terrifies me.
“I hear him,” Maddy whispers, and the full-on terror in the little girl’s voice makes me sick to my stomach. “I think he’s coming upstairs.”
“Madison, stay where you are and stay quiet, okay? Just—”
The line goes dead. I stop near my car, frantic, and breathless, then dial the only other number that makes sense to me at that moment.
24
ELY
“Hey, Sarge, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”
Abandoning the cold pot of coffee on the countertop, I turn around to see Kasper Hill come into the lounge. He stops to close the door behind him, then turns once again to face me. We’re the only two in the room, and I can already sense this isn’t going to go well.
“How can I help you, Detective Hill?”
Kasper is smiling as he signals for us to sit down at the table. I really don’t want to, but avoiding him at this point would be useless. So, I grab my cold cup of joe and sit down at the table’s chair, and Kasper sits down across from me. His smile hasn’t left his face, but it’s less of a smile, really, and more of a wicked smirk.
“The social worker from the hospital,” Kasper says, leaning forward to clasp his hands together. “Her name is Jami, right?”
A painful sensation squeezes at my chest, and I don’t answer immediately. Of course, Kasper knows exactly who Jami is, and that’s the worst part of all. I don’t like where this is headed.
“Yeah,” I tell him. “Jami. But you already knew that didn’t you?”
Kasper’s grin widens, and he puts up his hands and shrugs his shoulders. “Guilty.”
“What do you need from me, Hill?”
“Nothing from you, Sarge,” says Kasper. He rubs at the stubble on his chin, and it’s only then I notice just how exhausted and ragged he looks since before this whole thing went down. I don’t imagine it’s stress and mourning as much as it is aggravation and anger. “I just want to know exactly what I should expect from this woman who seems to want to destroy my family.”
“Detective—”
“You know, considering you’re fucking her and everything, I figured you’d know more about it.” Kasper narrows his eyes at me, and it’s all I have in me not to come across the table at him.
“As you well know, Kasper, allegations have been made against you, and Jami just so happens to be the social worker assigned to the case. Whatever she is or isn’t doing is none of your concern unless she makes it your concern. Is that understood?”
For a moment, I think Kasper is going to fight me, come at me from across the table, and punch me in the face. His fists clench and unclench, and a muscle in his jaw twitches.
“Do you want to hit me?” I ask, leaning forward and lowering my voice. “Do you want to smash my face in and bloody me up, just like you do to your wife?”
Kasper’s teeth grind, and he looks so close to losing his shit that I almost get up to leave before he can. But I don’t. I stay where I’m seated, staring Kasper Hill in the eye as he glowers back at me.
“Careful, Sarge,” he says finally. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to that pretty young thing of yours, would you?”
He’s egging me on, begging for it, and I’m so close to losing my cool that I honestly don’t think I’m going to walk out of this room without blood on my hands.
