“Ehh—”
Crawford turns on me. “Where the hell is she?”
“I don’t know, because you fuckers wouldn’t let me go after her, and now she’s been snatched off the street!” I scream at him. “If you’d let me go, she’d still be here.”
“I don’t know,” Carolina says uncertainly. “I think Fitz might be telling the truth.”
Kathy looks like she’s about to cry. “But then where is Winnie?”
“Crawford, pull up all information about Knox,” I demand. “I know he’s got her.”
“You think Knox kidnapped her?” Kathy is horrified.
“For someone who claims to be an introvert, Winnie sure lives a dramatic life.” Her granny swings the ax and almost takes out a Ming vase.
“Knox is too pathetic to do that.” Carolina shakes her head.
“He’s obsessed with her,” says a small voice from the hallway to the foyer.
“Brinley?” Carolina peers over. “Why are you here?”
“She didn’t come up with you?” I demand.
Carolina and Frances shrug.
“How are all of you getting up here?” Hawthorne asks, confused.
“Pretty privilege.” Kathy tosses her hair and swings the knife.
“I think Fitz is right and Knox went after Winnie.” Brinley gulps a sob.
“Where is he?” I want to tear him apart.
“That’s the thing—I don’t know. He didn’t come home tonight,” Brinley explains. “He won’t answer his phone. He texted me earlier today, said he found someone better, that he’s done with me. I wanted to talk to him in person, so I waited at home, but he never showed up.”
She wrings her hands. “I searched his computer—not to snoop, just because I was worried.”
“No one thinks you’re a bad person because you investigated a known cheater,” Carolina assures her.
Brinley’s voice drops to a whisper. “He has all these photos and articles saved about Winnie. I didn’t know what to do. I can’t go to the police—they’ll just think I’m a jealous bitch or something. He’s obsessed with her. I think she’s in danger, and then Kathy texted that she’s been kidnapped, that they found one of her slippers outside and the door was unlocked and Fidget is freaking out.”
“Yeah, it’s so weird—when we checked the cameras,” Kathy says, frowning, “we didn’t see anything.”
Whitman looks like he wants to die.
“Why is her Ring camera not working?” Salinger hisses out.
“I, uh, well—” Whitman scratches the back of his head. “Fitz asked me to—”
“I don’t even want to hear it.” Salinger raises a hand. “Because when they haul you off to jail, I want plausible deniability.”
“Did you save the video to a different location, or did you just overwrite it on your server?” McCarthy asks.
Whitman gives him a pained grin. “Err. I meant to ask you to change the settings back.”
“Asshole!” Kathy slashes the knife at me.
“Whoa! He’s our only hope here—stop trying to take out his kidney.” Carolina hauls her back.
