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“Me?” She tilts her head, confused.
“It’s too risky for the four of you to stay here. With Scott’s threats, you need to convince Carmen and Rosalie to come back and stay at HQ. As I understand things, they were quite vocal about not staying there.”
“I can do that.” She nods and curls in her lower lip. Her voice sounds less timid. More sure about herself. This is what I hoped for. Kaye needs to restore control over her life and what’s happening around her.
“Good. Talk to them. We need all of you to get your things together. I don’t know how long this will take; a week or two for sure. Rafe and Hayes have been alerted, and you know what’s going through their minds.”
“Oh, I can imagine. I hear theI told you sosalready.” The tiniest curve of her lip shows the hint of a smile.
“Exactly.”
“And this has nothing to do with Carmen’s father or our ongoing mission surrounding that. This is about…”
“Me.” She cuts me off. “It’s my fault.”
I give her hand a squeeze. She needs to hear the truth and internalize it rather than blame herself for what’s going on. Scott’s the one who carries the blame.
“You did nothing wrong. Do you know where the others might be?”
It doesn’t escape my notice that Barbi didn’t spend the night here last night, and no one is moving around upstairs. Kaye glances at her watch.
“Carmen and Rosalie are probably out for lunch. As far as Barbi? She didn’t come home last night, so I have to call her.”
“Good. We’ll need to get everyone here. You get them to agree, then we move everyone out. We need to act fast, before Scott gets wind of anything unusual happening. Is he expecting you any particular time?”
“He’s at the Decomp farm.”
“The, what?”
“It’s part of his research on human and animal decomposition?” She looks at me like I should know.
“On, what?”
“Scott and his friend, the dean of the vet school, have a research grant to study decomposition of humans and animals. They spend the first Saturday of every month at the farm. That’s why he sent me home.”
“That’s seriously gross.”
“True, but important. Especially in the field of Criminal Science.”
“If you say so.”
“Anyway, he sent me home, but I’m supposed to be back no later than five tonight. Moving Rosie and Carmen out shouldn’t raise too much concern.”
“How’s that?” I disagree on principle, but I’m interested in her thoughts.
“He knows about Carmen’s dad and how she and Rosalie are in danger. It won’t be weird for them to move back for protection. We can probably extend that to Barbi as well.”
“And you.”
“If I’m not back by five, he’ll come looking for me.”
“Can’t you tell him you’re busy? We can say Carmen and Rosalie are leaving and you want to spend the evening with them.”
“He’ll know something’s up. He always does.”
“Then we don’t give him that chance.”
I love seeing her engage. Her voice is stronger than it was moments before. She sits straighter, no longer curling in on herself, and she no longer wrings her hands, twisting her fingers.
