Hope's Peak (Harper and Lane #1)(39)

Harper watches him highlight one text message in particular: “Love you” followed by a series of kisses and a smiley face.

Everyone loves an emoticon, Harper thinks.

“I take it you’ve already connected this Hugo to the number,” she says.

Albie checks his notepad. “Hugo Escovado. I’ve got his address here.”

“Good. First thing tomorrow, we’re going out there,” Harper tells him, getting up. “Get a patrol car to wait outside the house, monitor for movement, make sure he doesn’t try to run. I’ll pick you up from your apartment tomorrow morning at six.”

“Okay, boss,” Albie replies as she walks out of the room.



Mack slams his car door, cracking open a can of Bud and pouring it down his gullet as he crosses the street. If he were able to drink while driving, he would. As it is, he drives all the way home with a six-pack on the passenger seat. He’s so thirsty for it he can almost taste it.

Some of the Bud runs down his chin and onto his already-stained work vest. Mack wipes his mouth on the back of his hand. He’s a middle-aged white man with short Irish-red hair. His skin is red from the heat, his freckles and moles more pronounced the longer he spends under North Carolina’s baking sun.

Julie walks across her front lawn. “Mack!” she calls, but not too loud, as if she’s trying to avoid any undue attention from the rest of the street.

“Julie? How you doin’?”

“Oh, fine, fine. I gotta talk to you,” she says, taking him by the arm and steering him toward her house. “Gotta talk to you in private.”

She looks jittery, sounds like she’s at the point of some kind of breakdown. Mack wrestles his arm free from her grip. “Damn, woman. What’s got into you?”

Julie looks at him. “Mack, I saw something . . .” Tears fill her eyes.

“Julie, what’s wrong? Someone done somethin’ to you? Have you told Ceeli?”

Julie shakes her head. “No. This is about Ceeli, Mack. I saw her.”

“Yeah?” he asks, smiling goofily. “Got new glasses, huh?”

She shakes her head, intent on what she wants to tell him. “Mack, that man Lester was at your house. I saw ’em through the window. They was doin’ stuff in there.” Julie buries her face in her hands. “I’m so sorry to tell you this, Mack. I saw ’em . . . together. I think Ceeli is havin’ an affair.”

Mack takes Julie by the shoulders, gives her a good shake. “Speak up and talk straight. Don’t fucking flake out on me. What did you see ’em doin’?”

Julie trembles in his grip. “Having intercourse, Mack. I saw it. They was makin’ love.”

“That son of a bitch,” he growls, pushing her away.

As Mack storms off her lawn and heads for his own house, Julie stumbles forward. “Please, Mack! Don’t do anything stupid!”



He thunders through the front door, draining the beer and crushing the empty can in his fist before tossing it to one side on the floor. “Ceeli! Get your fuckin’ ass out here!”

His wife appears at the top of the stairs, face tight. “Mack? What you shoutin’ for?”

He points up at her. “I gotta talk with you, woman.”

“Honey,” she says, making her way down the stairs like a gazelle stepping out of the tall grass to take a drink of water, expecting a cheetah to leap at any moment. “I’m comin’.”

“Quicker! God damn it, woman you’ll be late to your own fuckin’ funeral!” Mack screams, dragging her down the last few steps by her arm. Ceeli cries out as he whirls her around, then shoves her toward the kitchen. He scuffs his boot against her ass to provide added momentum. “Go on! Get!”

He hurries up behind her, gives her another push, sending her flying against the cupboard. “Mack, stop! What’s this about? What’s got into you?”

“No, Ceeli, it’s who’s got into you while my back’s been turned, that’s what.”

She shakes her head, eyes wide. “Baby I don’t know what you been told, but I ain’t been up to nothin’, I swear. Nothin’!”

Mack flicks his hand out, catches her in the mouth, splits her lip open. Ceeli’s hand rushes to where she’s been hit, the blood dribbling out from behind her fingers.

“Please, Mack . . . don’t hurt me . . . ,” she begs him, backing up against the stove. “I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, honey.”

Mack jumps on her, punches her in the gut so hard she loses all the breath in her lungs and can’t draw another. Ceeli gasps, drops to the cold kitchen tiles. Mack lifts her head by the hair, slaps her face.

She mumbles at his feet, sobbing, drawing ragged breaths. “Mack . . . please . . .”

He proceeds to punch her, left, right, left, right, her head swinging back and forth with each hit.

“It was that fuckin’ moron, weren’t it? I already know it,” Mack growls, getting in her swollen face. “What did you do, eh, Ceeli? Did you suck his goddamn cock? Did you fuck him in our bed?”

Tears run from Ceeli’s eyes, mixing with the blood on the side of her face. “I love you, Mack.”

He stands upright, as if he’s about to beat her again. That, or worse. But he doesn’t strike her. Mack looks down at her as if she were no more than a bug crawling along the sidewalk. “I don’t know you no more, woman. And let me make a promise to you. I’m goin’ up to that freak’s place and I’m gonna end that motherfucker!”