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“Yeah? And what did he plan to do aboutmine?”
Jim shrugged. “He told her my word was the only thing the D.A. had on him. I told her he was a liar.”
“Oh, he’s a liar all right. Maybe not about this, though.”
Jim frowned. “What do you mean?”
Colby drew a breath. “Those photos we found in his office have disappeared from the evidence room, Jim. They’re gone. They’re just... gone.”
“We have copies.”
“They’re gone, too. There’s nothing left. So now all the D.A. has on Vinnie Stefano is you and me. We saw the photos, booked them into evidence. We can testify to that, describe them. But even that might not be enough.”
“Particularly not if the defense attorney finds out Vinnie’s screwing my ex,” Jim said, a knot forming in his stomach. “That wouldn’t exactly make me an objective, reliable witness, cop or not.”
“Nope.” Colby took another pull on his beer, draining the bottle. “Chief Wilcox figures Vinnie will be trying anything he can use on us. Blackmail, intimidation, threats, character assassination. Might even try to take us out.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Jim said. “He’s got the money and the connections to pull it off, too.”
“The chief wants us to get out of town until the trial, Jim.”
Jim sighed, glancing toward his son’s bedroom. “It’s not as easy as all that. I’ve got Ty. His doctors, his PT. Hell, it’s almost Christmas.”
“So go someplace you know. Someplace where you can easily set him up with a doctor and physical therapist. Call it a holiday vacation, and we don’t come home until January 4th, the day of the trial. That’s just under three weeks from now.”
“What do you meanwe?We’re going together?”
Colby slapped him on the shoulder. “Hell, you don’t think I’m going to let you go without me, do you? I gotta see the way you manage to con some unsuspecting woman into marrying you. A new town will give you a whole new pool of potential brides, won’t it?”
“A new town.” Jim tipped his head and thought about that. “Or maybe an old town.”
Colby stared at him. “What are you thinking?”
Jim went to a shelf, pulled down an old high school yearbook and began flipping through the photos, pausing on the head shots of every girl he’d dated back then. There were a lot of them.
“Thinking of going home for Christmas, pal. Back to Big Falls in the northernest, westernest part of Oklahoma. And one of the girls I left behind.”
“Which one?”
“I’ll let you know.”
Colby rolled his eyes. “You’re hopeless, you know that? Hell, that’s farther than I wanted to go. But I’m in,” Colby said. “I got three weeks’ vacation time coming, and Wilcox says you have at least that much. When you wanna head out?”
Jim sighed, thought about Angela, the desperation in her eyes. She’d be back. And she wouldn’t be above using Tyler to get her way. “In the morning,” he said. “We can take both cars—make it easier to get around once we’re down there.”
“I’ll be here at eight, then,” Colby said, rising to his feet.
“Bring breakfast,” Jim told him.
* * *
BEFORE GOING TO his room to start packing, Jim looked in on Tyler once more. His cheeks were starting to lose a little of their baby roundness, his face turning into the face of a little boy. He was an angel. He was Jim’s whole life. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for his son.
He ran a hand over Ty’s silken hair. Then he frowned as he noticed a bit of paper sticking out from under his pillow.
Tugging it out, careful not to wake his son, he looked down at the sheet of oversize lined paper Ty must have got from preschool. He’d drawn on it in crayon. There was a head with squiggles sticking out the top that represented hair. Stick figure arms and legs sprouted directly from the head itself. It had unevenly matched eyes, a round purple nose and a smiling pink mouth. There were squiggly objects all around the figure. Written painstakingly across the top of the page was a single word that made Jim’s heart turn the consistency of oatmeal.
Mommy.
