Page 47 of Jonny’s Redemption

“No.”

“You wanna explain that?” Jonny asked, rounding his desk.

“Bobby called to tell me I needed to get home to see to Evie. Bobby shared part of her childhood with Evie and she didn’t take it well.” Chasin paused and his face twisted into a nasty grimace. “Evie’s been worried about Bobby for a long time. You know Bobby doesn’t share her past and that included not talking to Evie. I thought I was doing the right thing but I fucked up.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Back when Evie hired us, I ran a full background check on Bobby. Standard procedure, anyone close to the target gets investigated. I unsealed her juvenile record. That’s the part that might piss you off. I dug deep into everyone Evie had contact with. My fuck-up is two-fold. One, I should’ve warned my woman that when Bobby opened up it was gonna be ugly. But I couldn’t do that without her knowing I knew about her best friend’s past. Which would’ve meant breaking Bobby’s trust. A trust she didn’t know she’d given me but it was trust all the same. My second fuck-up was when Bobby told me she told Evie her dad had hit her. I lost my cool and let it slip that if he wasn’t already rotting in his miserable life I’d kill him. When she pressed me on how I knew, I told her truth and she freaked.”

Jonny didn’t give two fucks Chasin had looked into Bobby. It was the first place any good detective looked during an investigation. Seventy-five percent of the time the victim knew their assailant.

“What does freaked mean?”

“She begged me to believe she’d never hurt Evie. She was frantic in her pleading. Then she hung up on me without me being able to calm her down.”

“I have to get Bobby.” Jonny nabbed his keys off his desk and moving toward the door when Chasin stopped him.

“She was a wreck.”

“Then why are you stopping me?”

“Because what you’re walking into might not be pretty.”

“I know her father’s a motherfucker,” Jonny told him. “And since you looked into her, I also know her mom bailed and I know about her father’s abuse. You read the report. I’ve witnessed the damage. And there’s no might about it, Chasin, it won’t be pretty.”

With that, Jonny pushed past the man only to have Chasin on his heels down the hall, through reception, and down the stairs. They broke at the sidewalk. Jonny going to the street where he’d parked and Chasin going to the lot behind the building.

But as it turned out it was Jonny who followed behind Chasin all the way to the farm. Chasin stopped in front of his house and Jonny continued down the lane to where Bobby lived. He parked his truck and hurried to Bobby’s door. He knocked, impatiently waited, and when she didn’t answer he tried the knob. It twisted and he pushed in.

“Bobby?” he called out.

No lights were on and since the space was a converted shed he could see her living room, kitchen, dining area, and bed from where he stood. The only place he couldn’t see was inside the bathroom but the door was open and the light was off.

No Bobby.

He closed the door and walked across the barnyard. A path he’d taken hundreds of times. The buildings might have been repurposed but everything was the same. The old milking parlor where Jonny had spent a shit-ton of time helping Wayne Swagger with his cows, was now Evie’s recording studio. And the big metal shed that Bobby now lived in had once had a dirt floor and housed equipment. The only new thing was the huge firepit and kick-ass benches a friend of theirs had made that were placed around the pit. Other than that, the exterior remained the same.

Jonny was nearing the entrance to the studio when he noticed Bobby’s car was gone.

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and dialed Bobby. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t answer. He disconnected and sent a text.

Where are you?

Just to be thorough, while he waited for Bobby’s reply he searched the studio.

No Bobby.

His phone beeped with a notification and his blood heated.

I can’t do this.

Jonny tapped out a new message.

Baby, please tell me where you are.

Her response was instant as if she’d been waiting for his reply.

I thought I could. But I can’t. It follows me wherever I go.