creature over there was responsible for this, I’ll back you and we can take him in right now. But if you have any doubts, let’s hold off. We can put a monitoring bracelet on the guy if need be. But we both know he’s not going anywhere and I don’t think he’s a threat to anyone else other than himself.”
Karen looked at her with an inscrutable expression that Jessie suspected she’d used many times on her husband and son. Finally she seemed to crack.
“Fine, we’ll hold off for now. But he doesn’t leave this house and we have him fitted with an ankle monitor. And if nothing new breaks with another suspect by this time tomorrow, we haul him in. I can’t lose my job because I let a guy skate on your hunch.”
“Thank you,” Jessie said.
“Don’t thank me just yet. I don’t see any way to get at Otis.”
“I may have an idea,” Jessie replied. “But I have to pursue it on my own. Would you be willing to go back to the station and work with Jamil, see if there’s groupie footage of Humbert Humbert performing like Avalon said?”
“So I get the grunt work and you go on a secret mission,” Karen said. “Can’t you tell me anything about it?”
“Trust me, Karen, for your own safety, I can’t say a word.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Hannah thought she looked hot in a jailbait kind of way.
She gave herself a final once-over before running out to the guest parking lot to meet Elodie and hopefully, Rico. She had on the plaid miniskirt, which she couldn’t kneel or bend over in without risking an indecency charge.
As Elodie had suggested, she’d put her hair in pigtails using the hot pink hair ties from the bag and added purple butterfly barrettes for good measure. She didn’t have braces but had come up with what she considered an equally clever idea.
Over lunch she’d bought a pack of bubble gum, which she smacked repeatedly. It also let her blow big, sticky bubbles that would explode, allowing her to provocatively peel gum off her lips. The second Elodie saw her, she nodded approvingly.
“I like the way you think, girl,” she said. “I may have to steal that one from you.”
“Just trying to make a good impression,” Hannah said, playfully jutting her hip out for emphasis.
“Don’t get cocky,” Elodie said, indicating for Hannah to follow her as she walked along the sidewalk. “Rico likes a little swagger in his girls, but not too much.”
“Got it,” Hannah said. “Where are we going, by the way?”
“He’s picking us up around the corner, off school property and away from their security cameras. That’s for our protection as well as his. We don’t want to get called into the principal’s office to explain this—got to be careful.”
Hannah nodded in understanding. As they walked to the corner, she tried to plan out in her head how she could get Rico to reveal something incriminating. It was going to be challenging to show enthusiasm and get information without drawing any suspicion.
Plus she had to make sure to record the conversation without being discovered. That reminded her of the trick she’d thought of earlier in the day. She pulled out her phone. Elodie looked at her sideways.
“I’m just going to silence it,” Hannah said. “So it doesn’t ring in the middle of anything important.”
Elodie nodded, agreeing that it was good idea. Quickly, Hannah went to the voice memo app, opened it, and turned off the screen again. Before she had time to say another word, a silver BMW with tinted windows pulled up at the corner just ahead of them.
“That’s Rico,” Elodie said. “Put on your babydoll face, girl. It’s showtime!”
Hannah plastered on her best pout as the window rolled down. The person in the driver’s seat was not what she’d expected. Somehow she’d pictured Rico as a burly, tatted out dude with a beard and bling. But the guy eyeing her was skinny, pale, and blond. He looked like he could be Elodie’s older brother. She prayed that wasn’t the case.
“Get in,” he said by way of greeting as he put on a pair of sunglasses.
Elodie hopped into the passenger seat. For half a second, Hannah wondered if she’d made a horrible mistake that would result in Jessie finding her severed head in an alley. But it was too late to bail now so she slid into the backseat behind Elodie. The moment the door closed, Rico peeled out.