“Elise, now,” the driver said. “That cop is crazy.”
“Don’t shoot me!” Elise cried.
Lucy didn’t even have her gun out, but she’d had her hand on the butt of her gun during the conversation.
Elise jumped in the car, and the driver got back in and left.
“She’s a piece of work,” Lucy said.
The customer who had been watching them gave Lucy a look, then he went into the mini-mart.
Garrett said, “We need to go, Lucy, now.”
Lucy didn’t have a choice. But Elise was not going to get away with this. “You heard her. She made a scene, she did not respond to what I said, but only said what she wanted others to think I said!”
“You’re not making sense.”
“It’s how she operates!”
“I agree, she wasn’t making sense, but you intimidated her—that’s what the witness observed. You intimidated a young girl and she was scared.”
“She was faking!” Lucy slammed her door shut and hit her hand on the dashboard. “You weren’t here two years ago, Garrett. You don’t know what she did—how she manipulated people, including her shrink. And the courts! The judge was Eleanor Axelrod. She was in the pocket of the cartels, and we couldn’t prove it!”
“You need to watch what you say. Judge Axelrod is still on the bench.”
Maybe Lucy handled it wrong. But Elise was here in San Antonio and had followed her. Whatever game she was playing wasn’t going to work. She was going to slip up. She had before. She was impulsive and would make a major mistake. But could Lucy be there to catch her at it?
Elise killed Mona Hill—or ordered Mona’s death. She framed Sean for it. Lucy had to prove it.
Lucy should report this to her office, but now she was stuck. She wasn’t exactly sure what she should do, so she called JT Caruso as she drove home. JT had resources, he could track Elise. While she talked to him, she made sure that no one—the black Honda or another vehicle—followed her.
She told him that Elise Hunt was in the vehicle, and another male that wasn’t in the photos he’d sent to her earlier.
“You confronted her?”
“She got out of her car thirty feet from me. What was I supposed to do?”
“And?”
“And she made a scene, then left. She’s up to something—I know she’s behind this. She followed me out of Erica Anderson’s neighborhood, JT.”
“You need to back away from this investigation. Let things settle down—”
“No one else is investigating,” she said. “Houston PD thinks Sean is guilty and they’re not going to pursue other possibilities.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. Look at everything that happened today.” She didn’t want to argue with JT and she had a headache. She’d left her food in the mini-mart, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to see Sean and figure out what was going on.
“Give me the license number.”
She did.
“I’ll look into this, see what I can do. I know standing down isn’t in the Kincaid genes—but right now, that’s all you can do. This whole situation is volatile right now.”
Then she thought of Jack.
“Do you know something about Jack and Kane? Are they in trouble?”
“Jack has a lead on Kane, that’s all I know. I’ll call you later.”
JT ended the call and Lucy forced herself to breathe. JT was right. Hell, Garrett was right. She shouldn’t have pushed so hard, but she couldn’t stand knowing Elise was behind this and not being able to stop her.
What was Elise’s endgame? To mess with her? Revenge for the SWAT action that claimed her sister’s life? Kane had killed Elise’s brother—is that why Kane was now missing? Could Elise have had something to do with Kane’s disappearance?
If so, she had more people under her thumb than they could even imagine.
No, her father. Her father has the contacts in Mexico. They’re in this together, it’s the only explanation.
By the time she got home, it was after eight. She was exhausted and her headache had gone from bad to worse. Her stomach was all twisted and she couldn’t stop thinking about Sean. Where was he now? What was he doing? Was he safe?
Please, God, please keep him safe.
She didn’t see Aggie’s truck out front, and Leo was still there. He and Jesse were playing video games.
“There’s pizza in the kitchen,” Leo said. “We were hungry, but I got plenty.”
“Thank you. Have you heard from Nate?”
“No,” he said.
Jesse frowned and looked concerned. “Was he supposed to be back?”
“No,” she said, not wanting him to worry. “I haven’t talked