Another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. “The ‘anonymous’ tip about the break-ins,” I whispered, though the car was quiet enough that I knew she heard me. “That was you guys.”
Addie nodded, her brown hair swishing around her shoulders. “I made the call from a payphone in Boise. We needed to have an official record, you know? Couldn’t just have Johns walking around making that claim without evidence to back it.
“The lingerie was me too, in case you were wondering.”
I hadn’t been because I’d figured that out already. But there was one other thing she hadn’t touched on that I needed to bring up, if only to confirm how deep her psychosis truly ran.
“And you sent me and Lane those packages of articles about Ryan.”
“Sure did,” she said happily. “I told you, Sutton, I’m very good at my job. When I learned what had happened to you, I started digging. I wanted to see if your alleged abuser was still around, wanted to see if I could use him against you. That’s how I found his brother.”
“Then you also know Lane killed him.”
“Well, Ididn’tfor sure…until just now. But that’s okay. He was young and made a mistake. It doesn’t make me love him any less.”
“He killed him because herapedme, Addie. Because he loved me, and Ryan hurt me.”
“Allegedly.”
There was that fucking word again. God, I wanted to scream. I’d never encountered anyone so callous with other people’s feelings. The comment was made worse by the fact that, first, she was a woman and there was supposed to be an unwritten code where we stuck together. Second, she’d no doubt had sexual assault cases come across her desk in her career. To so harshly disregard my own experience because of her bias against me made me want to strangle her with my bare hands.
Wait.
That was it. That was how I got out of this.
I had no idea exactly what Addie’s plan for me was, but it didn’t matter. I had to act before she did.
I wasn’t buckled, and my hands were cuffed in front of me. Though I’d have limited use of my hands and arms, Icoulduse my entire body.
What I was about to do wasinsane, but it was the only way I could think of to escape this mess.
Would I survive? Probably not.
But hopefully Addie wouldn’t either.
I love you, Lane. I’m so sorry.
I silently sent the thought out into the universe, hoping he felt it, that he’d understand. That he’d figure this all out and know I did it for him.
And then I moved.
forty-four
. . .
LANE
Treyand I spent all weekend gathering evidence to support our claims against Addie and Johns. Trey did all the techy, deep-web stuff while I conducted good old fashioned police work by making a lot of phone calls. It took all of Saturday and Sunday, but by the wee hours of Monday morning, we’d collected enough to neutralize them both and get Sutton out of jail.
At the ass crack of dawn, Trey and I found ourselves in the mayor’s office with the prosecuting attorney, going over everything we’d discovered.
“What are you asking for here, Sheriff?” the prosecutor demanded. The guy was a few years younger than me but not local, having been brought to town after meeting his wife, who had grown up here. He stood, ass resting on the edge of the mayor’s desk, arms crossed over his chest.
“Charges to be brought against Addie and Johns,” I said in a tone that suggested I thought that was obvious.
“You want me to chargeyourundersheriff and a highly decorated member of the FBI.”
“Yep.”
