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“Be careful. Be watchful. I know it’s hard since she’s not a child, but if she can help it, make sure she’s not alone too often, because that’s obviously when he’s more likely to strike. If we don’t find him quickly though, we may have to use her as bait to draw him out. Under controlled circumstances, of course.”
“Of course,” I said, although I thoroughly hated the sound of using Joanna as bait. She was carrying precious cargo. “I’ve actually got another question though.”
“Go for it.”
“When we find Zander, what next? What charges can we put against him? I mean, we can get him put away for life, right? Breaking and entering? Battery. Causing mortal danger to a pregnant woman—”
“Anderson, come on. You know the law, and you know you’re not being reasonable.”
I sighed in frustration. “So what are you trying to tell me? All we’re going to be able to do is give him a slap on the wrist? A restraining order that he’ll undoubtedly break? That’s not going to work for me.”
“Well, let’s just look at what you want to accuse him of. First of all, breaking and entering isn’t exactly accurate, is it? Based on the statement Joanna already gave the cops, she opened the door for him.”
“She thought he was a Chinese food delivery guy!”
“Okay fine, let’s say we go with that. Then what?”
“Domestic abuse for one. He’s been beating her for how long? And we all know that just because there’s no paper trail doesn’t mean she doesn’t have witness testimonies, or maybe took days off from old jobs because of incidents. Listen I get it. She acted stupidly because she was afraid. And okay—so we can’t call it breaking and entering. But it was forcible entry. She didn’t want to let him in. He pushed passed her.”
“Valid point. So we get him on the abuse charge, and she’s pregnant right? If she said that at anytime to him, a jury would lose their minds.”
“Well this is going a bit better.”
“Yeah if we can find the bastard and get a conviction. Those are big IFs Anderson.”
“Yeah well, I’ll talk to you later, Mike,” I said, having grown tired of the conversation, especially since he wasn’t telling me what I wanted to hear anymore. We’d have to do this the long way.
But I was prepared to play that game.
Anything for Joanna, and our child
CHAPTER 29
Anderson
“So, what do you want to watch tonight?” I asked, placing the bowl of popcorn on the table.
Joanna sat on the couch with her arms wrapped around her legs. She smiled at me, positively glowing. Although she wasn’t showing yet, pregnancy had already made her even more beautiful than normal.
“I’m in the mood for a comedy,” she said.
“All right. Just don’t laugh so hard that you pee on my couch or anything like that.”
“Ha ha,” Joanna said. “I don’t think I’m quite at that stage of pregnancy yet, if you must know.”
I chuckled and flopped down on the couch beside her, giving her a quick peck on the lips as I reached for the remote to start the movie.
And as I expected, she fell asleep only a half hour in.
I simply sat there for a moment, smiling as I watched her sleep, trying to envision what life would be like in less than a year when there were three of us…
Ever since finding out Joanna was pregnant, I’d been elated—surprised by how exciting the thought of having a family had become for me. It hadn’t ever been something I’d given much thought to before, but now, it felt like everything I’d always wanted.
I was just about to pick Joanna up and put her in bed when my cell phone suddenly buzzed.
I grabbed it instantly, seeing that it was Mike.
“What’s up?” I said, keeping my voice low until I was far enough away to not disturb Joanna.
