Under Her Care(51)
“I don’t have money like that. People don’t have three hundred thousand dollars laying around in cash, and I can’t just roll up to the bank and take it out. It doesn’t work that way.” Hysteria coats every word. I don’t know how it works, but I know it’s not like that. My accountant handles all our money. That’s what I pay him for.
“Maybe it doesn’t usually work that way, but that’s how it’s going to work this time around. It’s very simple.” He blows his breath out. “You’re going to get me three hundred thousand dollars, and then I’m going to go away. If you don’t, I’m sending Simon to the police to tell them everything he saw.”
“Go ahead. Tell. We both know whose story they’re going to believe.” He acts like I haven’t thought this through. I’ve been through every possible scenario. Probably twice. Simon—if that’s his real name, who knows if it is, but that’s what I’m calling him, too, just to keep the two devils straight—looks like one of those creepy meth heads who hang out in the alleyway behind the Powell on Hargrove Road. His eyes are all bugged out and bulging. There’s not even any color. Just dark holes. His smile is enough to make anyone cringe. Put his face and his story up next to mine, and he doesn’t stand a chance against me. I’ve never been worried about him going to the police. I’ve always been worried about him snapping on us like he did with Annabelle. It’s the whole reason I want the police to catch him.
He laughs again. That stupid laugh. I want to reach through the phone and choke him.
“Oh, I see how it is. You still think I’m talking about the creek, don’t you?” My stomach rolls. Panic alarms ricochet through me.
“What do you mean?” My voice has lost all its power again.
“Your husband, of course. I’ll tell them all about him, sweetie.”
TWENTY-THREE
CASEY WALKER
This time Savannah beats me to Huddle House. My last session ran way over, and it took forever to get out of there. I hit traffic outside Tupelo, which didn’t help. She’s in a booth on the opposite side of the restaurant from where we sat last time, and I hurry over. She rises to greet me, but I motion for her to stay seated.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” I say, sliding onto the plastic bench across from her and setting my things down next to me. Last time we were practically alone in the dining room, but it’s packed with people. It must be the fish-and-chips lunch special.
“No worries. It gave me time to study for my physics final.” A thick textbook is splayed open in front of her. The pages covered in pink and yellow highlighted passages. She’s dressed in all black again.
I instinctively reach for the coffee but shift to the water instead. I’ve already had so much caffeine today that it’s given me jitters and my stomach feels gross. She’s drinking water again too. There’s a half-full one next to her with another one waiting on deck.
“Thanks for meeting with me again. I know we could’ve talked over the phone, but I just feel like so much gets lost over the phone.” And I want to read her facial expressions and body language, but I keep that to myself. She was more than eager to meet with me a second time. I wonder if she knows that the police have officially released a statement that they have a person of interest in custody. They can’t release Mason’s name because he’s a minor, but it isn’t hard to put two and two together. “Have you talked to your mom yet today?”
She scowls. “We don’t talk.”
“Like, at all?” She made it clear they weren’t close, but I didn’t take that to mean they weren’t speaking.
“We talk at holidays, but that’s about it.” She pushes her schoolwork off to the side and leans forward, putting her hands on the table. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”
“The police released a statement that they have a person of interest in Annabelle’s murder.” I start there. We’ll work up to the next part.
“I saw that on social media this morning. I thought they were talking about Mason at first, but then they said they had them in custody, so I knew it couldn’t have been Mason because you can’t put kids like him in jail.”
I wish they hadn’t phrased it that way. It’s intentionally misleading. “You were right about Mason. He—”
“Mason’s in jail? They can’t take him to jail, can they?” She puts her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe they’d take a kid to jail. He must be terrified. I have to do something.” She grabs her bag and starts shoveling her books and papers into it as fast as she can. I reach across the table and grab her arm.
“He’s not in jail.”
She stops and turns to look at me. “He’s not?”
I shake my head. “It’s a bit of a messed-up situation, but he’s not in jail.” She pauses putting her things away and fixes her attention on what I’m about to say next. “I want you to know that I don’t particularly agree with how things were done, so I just want to make that clear from the get-go.” She eyes me suspiciously with her hand still on her backpack, like she hasn’t decided if she’s going to pack up and leave yet. “Detective Layne is under incredible pressure to put everyone at ease about what’s going on and make them feel like he’s got everything under control. You know how people get in Tuscaloosa.” She nods her understanding. It pretty much goes without saying, but I had to make the point just in case she’s forgotten what it’s like to live there. “Anyway, Mason has been a person of interest in this case from the beginning. The investigators have just never released that information publicly until now. It sounds much scarier than what it is; I promise you that.” Her brow is furrowed. Her green eyes lined in black are full of distrust. I reach across the table and squeeze her hand. “Basically, it just means they suspect he had something to do with the crime, but he hasn’t been arrested or formally charged. The part about him being in custody is misleading because people automatically assume exactly what you did, and Mason’s not in jail. Tuscaloosa doesn’t have a juvenile detention center.”