A Necessary Evil(40)

The doorbell rang, and Mollie nearly jumped out of her skin.

“It’s after midnight,” Laurel said. “Who the hell could that be?”

Mollie shrugged and walked over to the window that overlooked the front porch. There, standing at the door, was an older white man in a tan suit and a very handsome black man in a gray suit. Shemar Moore. She realized instantly these were the detectives who had worked her case.

“It’s the police,” Mollie said over her shoulder.

“No way.” She joined Mollie by the window. “See,” she said. “I told you. He looks just like Agent Morgan.”

Mollie nodded as the front door opened and the men stepped inside. Just great. The last thing she wanted to do after all she’d been through was talk to the police. But she knew they probably had to verify that she was alive and unhurt. They couldn’t close the investigation without talking to the victim one last time.

“Mollie!” Kitty’s voice rang through the house. “Come down here, please.”

“I’ll go with you.” Laurel grabbed Mollie’s hand and squeezed it tightly. Mollie bristled at her touch. She wasn’t really ready to touch anyone, but she didn’t want to hurt Laurel’s feelings. She waited a split second, squeezed back, and then let her hand drop.

“Okay, thank you.”

When they made it down the stairs and rounded the corner, Mollie saw the two detectives standing in the kitchen with her mother, who was pouring them cups of coffee and beaming with joy.

“There she is,” Kitty said as she handed the men their drinks. “You see? She’s safe and sound.”

“Mollie,” the good-looking, younger detective said with a nod. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. A little sore and very tired, but I’m fine.”

“I know you’re exhausted,” the other, older detective said. “But would you mind if we talked for just a few minutes? After that, we’ll leave you alone. I promise.”

“Sure,” she said.

“Alone,” he said.

There was an awkward moment of silence as everyone looked to Kitty for her reaction.

“Why don’t you guys go sit in the living room,” Kitty suggested with her arm extended. “Laurel, you can sit with me here at the kitchen table and let them talk.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Shemar Moore said.

The detectives sat on the couch, and Mollie took the arm chair next to the fireplace. She really didn’t want to be doing this, but she knew she had no choice in the matter, so she smiled politely, even though she really wanted to throw them out on their ears.

“I’m Detective Jamison, and this is my partner Detective Howard.” The detective pointed his thumb at his partner. “We won’t keep you long. Just a few quick questions and we’ll leave you to get some rest.”

Mollie nodded.

“Good. Now, the main thing I want to know is…how did you wind up getting away from Collin McAllister?”

So, Collin was his name. This was the first time Mollie had thought of him as anything other than “the crazy man,” and it unsettled her. Somehow hearing his name made him sound like an actual human being, not the monster she knew him to be. But once she got over that, she thought about the detective’s question. He wanted to know how she escaped. Didn’t he know already? Why would he be asking her this? There had to be a reason. Perhaps Pops had told him something different. She remembered hearing her grandfather instructing Bruno to take Collin to Trifecta. Apparently, Pops was planning on punishing this Collin in his own way. Mad as she was at her grandfather, she wasn’t about to help the cops catch him. But what if she said the wrong thing?

“I don’t know,” she finally said. “It’s all a big blur.”

Detective Jamison looked at his partner with raised eyebrows, then back at Mollie. “It’s all a blur?”

Mollie shrugged. Of course, they didn’t believe her, but perhaps if she played up her trauma and feigned amnesia, at least they wouldn’t be able to force her to say anything else. Not even the hardest-boiled detective would interrogate a traumatized nineteen-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and held hostage for nearly two days.

“You can’t tell us how you got from the bunker to your house?”

She shook her head and kept her eyes on her twitching feet.

Detective Jamison sighed. “Look, Mollie. I know you love your grandpa. But protecting him means you’re allowing him to work outside the law. I know you want this guy brought to justice as much as we do. Maybe even more. But we can’t do that if you won’t tell us what you know.”

“Like I said,” Mollie lifted her eyes and stared at the older detective, “I don’t remember anything.”

“It’s pointless,” Howard said. “She’s going to protect her grandfather. She’s not going to tell us anything. Let’s just go. We’ll find him.”

Detective Jamison nodded and glared at Mollie. “He’s right, you know. We will find him. Both Collin and your grandfather. And if your grandfather has done anything to harm that man, evil as he is, I will have no choice but to arrest him. Do you want me to arrest your grandfather?”

Mollie didn’t answer. Just then, Kitty appeared around the corner.