Page 160 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

Sabre blinked. “What do you mean?”

“She remembered your name. She said you helped kids.”

Sabre didn’t know what to do with the sudden ache in her chest.

“We had a plan,” Bay continued quietly. “If one of us ever got caught… or got away…” Her eyes lifted toward Sabre. “We were supposed to find you.”

Sabre could barely breathe around that. “Bay,” she said softly, “is the girl Hannah?”

Bay didn’t budge. “No names, please.”

Chapter 60

Tuesday afternoon

JP hated going back over ground he’d already covered. Usually, it meant the answer should’ve been obvious the first time. But sometimes people remembered things differently after the shock wore off. Sometimes they noticed details only after somebody asked the right question. And sometimes they only talked when they realized the story wasn’t over.

By late afternoon, JP was back in El Cajon walking the alley behind the duplex where Todd Maddox died.

The place felt different today, less dangerous, more sad. The stucco was still faded, and the railings were rusted, but now it had some plastic toys near one doorway and a shopping cart half-filled with clothes near the dumpster. Life stacked on top of struggle.

JP started with the same apartments police had canvassed. Most people remembered exactly what they’d already told officers. There was yelling, a girl screaming, then sirens. Nothing useful.

At the fourth unit, a middle-aged man in a white tank top shook his head before JP finished the question. “I told the cops already.”

“I know.”

“I saw the brunette girl. That’s it.”

“Anybody else?”

“Nope.” The door closed.

At the next apartment, a woman holding a toddler repeated almost word-for-word what was in Nelson’s report. There was a fight, a man yelling, a young girl running, no second person, and no suspicious car. No help. Dead ends stacked one after another.

By six o’clock, JP was beginning to think the second trip had been a waste of time. Then he knocked on a downstairs corner unit near the alley entrance. An older woman answered after several seconds with a cigarette in one hand and suspicion already built into her expression.

“Are you a cop?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

JP showed his investigator ID. “I’m following up on the Maddox homicide.”

Recognition flickered. “That girl killed him.”

“Maybe.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “You don’t sound convinced.”

JP ignored that. “You spoke to police already?”

“Briefly.”

“What’d you tell them?”

“I heard yelling. I saw a girl run.”