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“He’s performing for his client.” The detective made her comment and eyed up the attorney, as if waiting for him to object. “Is Ms. Hall correct about the custody order?”
The attorney blustered on. “That isn’t the point. Explain why Ms. Bartholomew is creeping around late at night with luggage in the car.”
“I have a better idea.” Jessa refused to give any ground. “Explain why your client is stalking her. Why is he here? How did he know she was in her car?”
“He simply took precautions to prevent the worst from happening, and it’s good he did.” The attorney’s shout rose over the din of activity. The ambulance workers stopped talking to Ellie and Curtis to follow the voice behind the yelling.
Detective Schone let out a long exhale. “Mrs. Bartholomew says she was going to her father’s house outside of Annapolis for the long weekend. She doesn’t feel safe in the family home even though her husband was ordered to leave it.”
Jessa couldn’t help but snort. “Gee, I wonder why she feels that way.”
“This is not a fight you want, Jessa,” the attorney said, the warning clear in his booming voice.
She refused to be scolded like an inexperienced little girl who’d gotten caught doing something wrong. “Are you threatening me in front of the detective,Stan?”
He shook his head. “Expect an emergency motion tomorrow.”
“Good. I’m excited to tell the judge about this stunt.” Jessa watched him go over to Darren and try to calm him down. She could feel the detective staring at her, assessing. “What?”
“I’m wondering if you’d really be dumb enough to risk your reputation by telling Mrs. Bartholomew to flee the jurisdiction.”
Sounded like no one thought she could do her job. Jessa didn’t love that. “Come on. Really?”
“I’m familiar with your friend and those old allegations.” The detective’s expression didn’t give anything away. “It was years ago, but there isn’t a judge, police officer, or politician in the metro area who doesn’t know about that one. Hell, it made the national news.”
The case that nearly broke Faith. Jessa remembered. There was no way to forget, but she didn’t want to talk about it, or Faith, or anything but Darren’s outrageous behavior... the same behavior everyone seemed to be downplaying. “Your focus should be on putting Darren in a cell until we’re sure his family is safe.”
The detective walked away without responding.
Faith passed Detective Schone in the driveway without exchanging a word.
“Are you okay?” Faith asked Jessa.
Shaky and furious, nerve endings half on fire from adrenaline and worry about what would happen when this casereallygot started. With a beginning marked with police intervention and crashing cars, Jessa assumed nothing good. “Apparently, your charity is a front for some sort of underground network that smuggles abused women to safety.”
“I can barely afford a desk.” Then Faith winced. “But I’m sorry. The Young case, right? It gets brought up a lot. The press back then was pretty intense.”
Four years ago. Jessa knew the details. A guy killed his wife and child, hid the bodies, and then manufactured a story about Faith helping them run away. “Not your fault. It’s fake outrage. Darren’s attorney is trying to get the police to focus on something other than his client’s hideous and dangerous behavior.”
Jessa thought about Tim’s dire warnings about the Bartholomews burning the world down to win and wondered if she’d just gotten a taste of what that meant.
Faith looked around. “This is going to get nasty for you.”
Too late.“It already is.”
Chapter Sixteen
Gabby
Returning Kennedy to school had been the longest drive of Gabby’s life. A flurry of yelling, crying, and blaming until Kennedy finally declared she was done talking. Gabby had never been so relieved to drive in silence.
Since getting back home, nothing had gone smoothly. Not breathing, getting out of bed, or arguing with the insurance company. No longer being married to Baines and living in a world without him in it both sucked.
She’d been on the phone with more professionals—school counselors, lawyers, and people in Baines’s office—in the week since the funeral than she had during her entire divorce. She sat at her kitchen island now with the laptop in front of her, but not turned on yet, and that reporter’s cardright there.
Curiosity gnawed at her until the card all but whistled for attention. He’d said something about unexplained deaths, and that’s how she viewed Baines’s death, and... yeah, she did not need one more problem.
“Are you asleep?”
