by Katie Ruggle
“I don’t know him,” Cara said immediately. “I definitely never asked him for notes.”
Mill studied all of them, even though Felicity and Charlie had remained silent since the cops’ arrival. “Why do you think he picked the lock?” he finally asked. “Isn’t it more likely that the door was unlocked?”
Biting back the sarcastic response that wanted to escape, Molly said semicordially, “We watched the dead bolt turn.”
Making a skeptical sound that brought Molly’s restrained anger flaring to life, Mill eyed each of them again. She knew he was using silence to get them to talk from sheer discomfort, but she also knew it wouldn’t work on any of them. They used the same trick when they were trying to track down skips. Even Cara had questioned her share of cagey friends and relatives of people who’d jumped bail. If Norah had been there, she might have broken into awkward chatter, but she also might have stayed frozen and silent. It was hard to predict how she’d react in social situations.
Several minutes ticked by quietly before Mill spoke again. “Why would someone break into your house?”
“Isn’t that a question for Stuart?” Molly shot back, making the detective frown deeply.
“Why are you refusing to answer?”
“Oh, for God’s sake…” Charlie muttered, drawing Mill’s sharp attention.
“Were you going to add something?” he demanded, and Molly resisted rolling her eyes. Charlie didn’t bother holding back her scorn.
“Why would I bother, when you’ve already made up your mind?” Crossing her arms over her chest, Charlie leaned back against the doorframe. Normally, she tended to play up her innocent, girl-next-door look, using her dimples and wide Bambi eyes as a tool to get skips and sources to let down their guards and confide in her. Right now, however, her full lips were drawn into a tight frown, and her eyes were narrowed to slits. Molly knew just looking at her sister that she was pissed.
“Don’t act like you’re the innocent victims.” Mill’s lip was raised in a slight sneer as he gestured at all of them. “When you sleep with dogs and wake up with fleas, don’t blame me when you’re itching.”
Molly blinked, torn between fury and laughter. She tightened her jaw so that neither escaped. Mill must’ve had some self-preservation, because he was moving away from the porch toward the pair by the squad car. “Stay here,” he said, as if it weren’t their house and they hadn’t been the ones to call the police. Molly noticed that both the Villaneaus and Mr. P were on their porches now, watching the scene with a mixture of disdain and patronizing glee.
As they watched Mill join his partner and Stuart, John muttered something under his breath, the sound so low it came out as a rumbling growl.
Molly raised her eyebrows at him before turning back to the scene by the cop car. “Chill, papa bear,” she said absently, trying to read Mill’s lips as he spoke to Bastien.
At Charlie’s choked laugh and Felicity’s snort, Molly glanced over to see all of her sisters smirking at her. Even Cara looked to be fighting a smile.
“What?” she asked as her face got hot.
“Nothing.” Of course it was Charlie who said it, in a tone that made it obvious that nothing meant the very opposite. “Whatever sex games you like to play are between the two of you. I don’t want to know.”
“Speak for yourself.” Felicity was obviously fighting—and failing—to keep a straight face. “I’m interested.”
“Not me, especially since we should be concentrating on how they’re letting Stuart go.” Cara’s tone went from wryly amused to flat, and Molly turned to see that her sister was right. Stuart was walking away from the squad car—no cuffs or even a ticket in evidence—heading toward a bright-green Jeep parked a half block away. When he saw them watching, he gave a jaunty wave. John swore under his breath, but Molly kept her comments to herself that time.
“Of course he drives a Jeep,” Felicity said with tones of heavy loathing.
“What?” Charlie asked.
“I hate Jeeps.”
“Why?”
“I just do. They’re…gross.”
“That’s weird.”
“It’s logical and right.”
“You’re so strange.”
Molly ignored her sisters’ argument, concentrating on the two detectives as they headed for opposite sides of the squad car. “Is that it?” she called, unable to keep the sharp edge from her voice. “You’re just letting him go after he broke into our home?”
“You really want to drag this out?” Mill yelled back, his words a challenge. “If you do, we can talk about the penalties for making a false statement to police.”
From his spot next to his Jeep, Stuart let out a mocking laugh, and it was Molly’s turn to growl as she charged toward the car. She wasn’t sure if she was planning on tackling Mill or Stuart, and she wasn’t able to find out, since John grabbed her and swung around, putting himself between her and both of her targets.
“Carmondy,” she gritted out between clenched teeth, “move.”
“You won’t win this one, Pax.” His tone was surprisingly gentle, considering she was basically snarling at him. “Sometimes head-on doesn’t work. We need to retreat and come at them from the side.”
“Okay, Sun Tzu.” Despite her mocking words, the initial flash of rage had faded, and she shifted back a half step so she wasn’t right in John’s face. “What’s the battle plan, then?” He gave the slightest wince, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t have one, do you?”
“Not yet. Genius takes time.”
Even with all the bad things that were happening, that drew a short—but honestly amused—laugh from her. “Fine.” She let out a long breath, expelling the last of her frustrated anger at the cops’ mishandling of the situation. Turning to her sisters, she said, “I’ll text Norah and tell her to come home. Time for another family meeting.”
They trooped inside, John bringing up the rear. Although Molly arched an eyebrow at him, he gave her a blank-faced, steady look, and she dropped her silent objection with a shrug. Maybe he wasn’t technically family, but John was a wily one with the potential to be helpful. She’d worry about getting too dependent on him later. Right now, the priority was to save their house—and figure out what the heck was going on—and for that, they’d need all the brains they could get.
Chapter 9
Norah had just walked in the door when Cara’s phone beeped. As she checked the screen, her nose wrinkled, and Molly knew exactly who was calling. No one except Barney got that bad a reaction from Cara.
“I can’t wait until the month’s over and someone else has to take his calls,” she grumbled as she poked the screen with an angry finger.
John looked confused, so Molly explained, “Every month, we switch off whose phone gets the calls from our main business line. That way, no one has to give their cell number to clients or informants, and we only have to deal with the Barneys of the world every fifth month.”
“Pax Bail Recovery. How can I help you?” Cara asked in a syrupy-sweet voice that made Charlie snicker. When Cara’s gaze darted toward Molly, she immediately knew what Barney wanted, and she waved her hands, palms out, in a frantic effort to ward off the pass. From Cara’s wicked smile, Molly knew it was a futile effort. “She is available. One moment, please.”
When Cara tossed her the cell phone, Molly briefly considered dodging and letting it drop to the floor, but then she remembered that money was tight at the moment and they didn’t need to be buying more phones. With a silent sigh, she raised Cara’s cell to her ear.
“This is Molly.”
“Molly Pax, my favorite soon-to-be tenant.” Barney’s smarmy voice immediately shot Molly’s rage to maximum levels.
She fought to keep her voice level and slightly amused. “Haven’t you heard the old saying about not counting your chickens before they skip the
ir next court appearance?”
“I’m just counting the chickens that have already skipped town.” The smugness in his tone didn’t lessen.
Molly briefly debated whether she should let him know that she knew his threat was basically empty—at least for the next four to six weeks—and decided to tell him. She didn’t want him to think that he had any power over them…at least not for another month. “Good luck finding a judge to go along with that. No one’s going to rule to forfeit her bail until she misses a hearing.”
He paused, and she wondered if he was taken aback by her calm comeback or if he was just plotting. “Maybe I’ll just have to push to get her preliminary hearing moved up. The public defender assigned to her is Nancy Lehry, who just happens to owe me a favor.”
It was Molly’s turn to fall silent as she squeezed her eyes closed, as if she could shut out the truth along with her vision. Her lungs squeezed with a fresh jolt of panic, and she fought through it, knowing she needed to keep a calm head.
“All the judges love Nancy. She could easily call in a favor to get her client’s hearing moved up.” He paused, his glee an almost tangible thing. “Wasn’t there some kerfuffle last time Nancy defended Jane? Hmm…let me think…”
Molly’s molars met with a click. Everyone in Langston knew what had happened five years ago. She breathed through her nose, trying to bring her anger down to concealable levels, while Barney made a sound that could only be called a chortle.
“Oh, that’s right! Jane and Nancy’s son-in-law had a thing, didn’t they? Things got messy. Nancy’s daughter dumped her husband, even though she was going through chemo at the time and had a bunch of little crotch fruit running around. It’s all coming back to me now.” Only the grossest of men could’ve taken such pleasure in recounting something so terrible and life-destroying. True to form, Barney sounded positively joyful as he clicked his tongue with false concern. “That has to be awkward for Jane, having a woman who hates her as her attorney.”
“I get it, Barney.” Molly’s voice came out with a gravelly edge, but it was the best she could do when her whole body ached to punch someone—either Barney or Jane, preferably. “What do you want?”
John made a wordless sound of protest, and she glanced away from him, only to find that all her sisters were staring at her as well. Molly didn’t think anyone breathed while Barney took his sweet time to answer.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he finally said, his voice sickeningly thick with satisfaction. “Just find Sonny and bring him back to jail, and I’ll convince Nancy to let bygones be bygones…until Jane’s preliminary hearing, at least.”
Bitter acid churned in Molly’s gut, but she knew she was trapped in a corner. Could Sonny Zarver be any worse than some of the sketchy skips they’d chased when the business was new, though? So much worse, a practical voice in her head warned, but she pushed it away. This had to be done. They’d get through it…hopefully. “If we do this, we get thirty percent, plus our usual expenses.”
Barney let out a yelp that sounded like she’d just kicked him in a delicate place. “Thirty percent? That’s twice the standard. I’m doing you a favor. You should just be happy you have a month to try to track down your felon of a mother.”
“Thirty percent.” She felt the muscles of her jaw lock into what Cara called her mule face. Her sisters knew when she got that look that Molly wasn’t about to give in. “Plus expenses.”
This time, he just made a pathetic bleat of a whine.
“If you want us to risk our lives by going after Sonny Zarver, then you’re going to pay us thirty percent.” She cringed at the gasps from her sisters when she said Sonny’s name, and she very carefully didn’t look at John. From the prickling feeling on her right cheek, he was shooting deadly eye lasers in her direction. She couldn’t blame him. It was crazy to accept the Zarver job. There just wasn’t any other choice if they wanted to keep their house—their only remaining connection to Victor Chavis, the twins’ dad and the only one of Jane’s husbands and boyfriends, besides Lono, who’d treated all the sisters like they were his children. The property had been in his family for four generations, and Molly hadn’t almost killed herself to pay off the mortgage just to lose their home to Barney Thompson now.
“Twenty,” Barney grumbled.
Clenching her jaw even tighter, she shook her head despite knowing he couldn’t see her. “Sonny beat his stepfather to death and then tried to do the same to his mother when she kicked him out. It was sheer luck that she managed to escape. Thirty plus expenses.”
“Pax…” John’s voice was a mere growl, and the sound shivered down her back and made her thighs tighten on air. Molly still didn’t dare look at him. Her sisters were shifting in their chairs with nerves, except for Norah, who’d gone perfectly still except for the too-quick rise and fall of her chest. Shoving down her concern for her sister, Molly concentrated on the sound of Barney’s huffing and puffing on the other end of the line instead.
“Fine.” Barney spat out the word. “Thirty percent—if you bring him in within a month. If you don’t, then I’ll yank your house out from under you so fast your head’ll spin.”
“We’ll get him.” Although her calm tone was back, Molly didn’t have any of the confidence she was projecting. How was she supposed to track and capture Sonny Zarver, of all people, within four weeks—all while they were searching for Jane and the necklace? It seemed impossible and hopeless, but she wasn’t about to let Barney in on that information. “Will you write up the contract or should we?”
“I’ll do it.” Of course he would. She made a mental note to read through the small print several times to check for tricks. She’d have Cara check, too. Her sister was a whiz with contracts.
“Okay. Text me when it’s ready. Bye.” Without waiting for him to continue the conversation, she ended the call. There was too much to do for her to waste any more time listening to Barney.
Tossing the phone back in Cara’s direction, Molly took a deep breath and met her sisters’ appalled expressions.
“Didn’t we just have this conversation?” John’s voice was low and rough, raising goose bumps on Molly’s arms for some reason she didn’t want to think about. “I thought we agreed that it’s suicide to chase after Zarver.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to that. You lectured, and I pretended to listen.” For some reason, it was a hundred times harder to meet John’s furious gaze than it had been to look at her sisters. The main reason for that was because she knew it was stupid to take the job. There just wasn’t any other option right now, not if they wanted to have time to track down Jane. When John made a sound low in his throat and started to say something else, she snapped her head toward him and glared. “It’s done. You don’t get a say.”
Although his glower was just as fierce as hers, he stayed quiet, and she was grateful for that small mercy. She didn’t want to hear—especially from John—how idiotic she was being. Turning toward her sisters, she hid a wince. Maybe it wouldn’t be from John, but she knew she was about to hear all about her poor life choices.
“Nancy Lehry is Mom’s public defender,” she blurted out before any of her sisters could say a word. “If I didn’t agree to track down Sonny, Barney was going to have her push to move up the preliminary hearing.”
“That would be bad,” Charlie said, and Molly gave her a look. Of course it would be bad. They all knew that would be bad. Apparently ignoring Molly’s silent duh, Charlie continued talking. “Fifi and I did the rounds. None of Mom’s friends have seen her—or will admit to seeing her, at least—since she was released.”
“So, if she’s not staying here, and she’s not at any of her usual crash spots…” Cara trailed off, but Molly didn’t need her to finish to make the logical leap. Jane had skipped town, just like Barney had said she would.
A thick silence settled over them. Molly glanced around their group, seei
ng worry in her sisters’ faces. Even John looked concerned under his stalwart poker face. The tension made her stomach twist, and she forced herself to think constructively. Wallowing in her anger and frustration and helplessness wouldn’t save their house.
She clapped her hands together once, breaking the brittle quiet. “Okay. I’m on Sonny duty. Norah and Cara, see if you can get a lead on where Mom might’ve gone. She had her car fixed, so she either sold it or is driving it—same with my car.” Her belly lurched again at the reminder that her beloved Prius was gone, but she pushed away the thought. There wasn’t time for moping, no matter how much she’d loved her car. “Give any information you find to Felicity and Charlie.” She looked at them. “You two are okay with chasing Mom down?”
Charlie scowled. “You can’t go after Sonny Zarver on your own.”
Before Molly could assure her sister that she’d be fine, John spoke. “She won’t. I’ll be with her.”
“You will?” Startled, Molly turned to stare at John, but he was still wearing his serious—and expressionless—face, so she couldn’t interpret what he was thinking.
“Yes.”
Despite her inability to read his expression, she studied him for several moments. Even though she had no idea why he’d inserted himself into their lives and was offering to assist her in running down a skip he’d tried very hard to keep her away from, help was help, and she wasn’t about to turn down his offer. “Okay,” she finally said, deciding to ponder his motivation later when their lives were back on track. “John’s with me, then. Are we all good?” She eyed her sisters, and they all made affirmative sounds or gestures. Only Cara looked torn, her lips pressed together as if she was holding back a torrent of words.
“Something wrong, Cara?” Molly asked.
“Should I drop out of school?” The words tumbled out too quickly, one on top of the other, as Cara refused to meet Molly’s gaze. “Just for this semester, I mean. We just started, and I know you could use more help with trying to find Mom and Sonny and all the other jobs we need to take to keep our heads above water. I shouldn’t be going to classes when all of you are working so hard to keep this house.”