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“Noah thinks Mallory planned everything. That since Cody was investigating Prenter’s murder, if he discredited Cody in your eyes by making it seem like he was stalking you, either you’d believe Cody really had killed Prenter or you would have nothing more to do with him. They were trying to protect their operation.”
“He died for nothing?”
Sean pulled her head down to his chest. At first she resisted, then she let him hold her. She didn’t cry. She had no more tears. Her head ached from her grief, and sitting here with Sean helped.
Slowly, the tension eased from her body. When she could breathe normally and her heart stopped racing, she looked up at Sean. “I need to go.”
“You don’t—”
“I have to go home and shower and get ready for Cody’s prayer service.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No—I need to go alone.”
“I don’t think you should be alone.”
“Cody’s friends will be there. Family. I won’t be alone.”
“But—”
“Everyone’s in prison. Mallory, Fran—”
“I’d still feel more comfortable if I could keep my eye on you until we know for sure the FBI arrested all the players.”
“You can drive me if you’d like. The church will be filled with cops.”
“Lucy—”
Her voice cracked, but her eyes were dry. “I believed it was Cody. How could I do that? We were friends. I was with him for nearly two years. And I believed the worst. I let my fear cloud my judgment. I should have known Cody would never do anything to hurt me. He never had before, and yet—I didn’t even give him the benefit of the doubt. I need to mourn for him, and I want to do it alone. Do you understand?”
Sean kissed her on the top of her head and held her close. “I do. I’ll drive you there and pick you up. You won’t leave the church, right?”
“Promise. Thank you for understanding.”
THIRTY-SIX
Noah and Hans faced Mallory in a private interview room in the county jail.
“You lied to us, and you lied to Lucy,” Noah said.
Mallory stared at Noah. His expression was defiant, but his eyes were weary, as if he hadn’t slept.
Hans said, “Cody Lorenzo was murdered. There’s no question.”
Mallory frowned but didn’t speak.
“You killed him because he was getting close to exposing your vigilante group.”
“I didn’t kill Cody Lorenzo,” Mallory said with a sigh.
“We don’t believe you.”
Mallory closed his eyes. “You found my guns. Every single one of them is labeled with the name of the scumbag. Name and date. Every one. Cody Lorenzo is not there.”
It took Noah a second to realize the problem with that argument. “You left the gun there. Tried to pass it off as a suicide.”
“If you do your research, you’ll find that not all the names on those guns were fired. The gun I was carrying at the time was retired, so I could remember every one of them. I didn’t kill Lorenzo.”
