The lawyer stared at him for nearly a minute, then she nodded. “I can’t leave my phone with you. I need to be here.”
“Thank you. After I tell Lucy everything, then I’ll answer all your questions, okay? But I’m telling you this flat-out: I did not kill Mona.”
* * *
When Lucy saw Sean’s face over her phone, she almost cried. He looked exhausted and worried.
“It’s so good to see your face,” he said.
“I’ll be there tonight,” she said, “as soon as your lawyer tells me it’s okay.”
“My lawyer says you won’t be able to see me until tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They plan to question me late. Just listen, please. Believe me. I didn’t kill Mona.”
“I know.”
“I should have told you that I went to Houston on Monday.”
“Yes. But that doesn’t matter right now. JT says you called a guy, Nico, in L.A. to track Elise Hunt. Why?”
“I wish I’d just ignored Mona,” he mumbled. “I went because she claimed someone from Tobias Hunt’s network was back, and she was scared. I didn’t believe her at first, but face-to-face—yeah, I believed her. She saw Elise Hunt twice last weekend. Once on the street and once in the lobby of her apartment building. Mona was scared, and you know as well as I do that woman has never been scared of anything.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
“Because I wasn’t positive Mona wasn’t playing some game. Or that Elise got her to jerk us around. She worked for Tobias before, but I didn’t think she would do it again, especially since he’d at one time put a hit out on her. But if someone threatened her family—well, you know what I mean.”
She did.
Sean continued. “I wanted more information before I talked to you. She had a note Elise allegedly left in her apartment. A threat. I told her to go to the police, she said she couldn’t because she runs call girls, and we went around and around about that until she finally agreed to ask her bodyguard to move in for the duration, and I promised to find out what Elise was doing in Houston.
“I should have told you—but I still wasn’t positive this wasn’t Mona trying to, I don’t know … leverage me. And you’ve been so happy … I know that’s stupid, but I wanted accurate information before I dumped it on you. Nico got back to me that he found where Elise was living in Los Angeles—where her aunt had lived before she was killed—and he had eyes on her Tuesday afternoon. I asked him to keep her under surveillance. Thursday he was suspicious that she might have slipped away. I had a meeting scheduled with Elise’s warden at the detention facility this morning—that’s where I was going to go after I dropped Jesse off at school. It was scheduled at eleven.” It was already two in the afternoon.
“Why?”
“I wanted to find out who came to visit her, her call logs, her roommate, the whole nine yards.”
“He wouldn’t have given that to you.”
“She. Kathy Pine.”
“Pine? I heard her speak once. She’s impressive.”
“I can be persuasive. You need to be careful, Lucy.”
“You’re the one in jail, Sean. I talked to Rick about your safety.”
“I’m okay. I’m going to be okay.”
Lucy didn’t want to tell him about Nate and Brad, but she had to. He listened. “And Kane?”
“Jack’s in Mexico. He said he met up with Ranger and they have a lead on him.”
“I should be there helping to find him. Dammit!”
“Jack will find him.” She hoped.
“Where’s Jesse?”
“Here. I got him out of school at lunch. He’s safe and I hope Nate can stay with him this weekend. Or I’ll take him to St. Catherine’s.”
“He shouldn’t have to be dealing with this. Tell me what happened with Brad.”
She did, Sean’s expression over the phone going from concerned to very worried.
“I don’t have to tell you to be careful.”
He didn’t. “I will be there first thing in the morning. I promise.”
“I love you, Lucy. I love you so much and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything on Monday. But there was no record of Elise Hunt or Elise Hansen traveling. She likely has another ID—she had a dozen when you caught her before. Please forgive me.”
His anguish was real. “Of course I forgive you,” she said. She did, though they would have to talk about this—when he was free. When she could hold him. He’d been protecting her, but he knew better than to keep information from her. Lucy had