the thought of him being betrayed by people he trusted sickened her.
Bobby tightened his hands over the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. Piper could see him grinding his teeth as he processed the new information.
He sat silently for several minutes. Piper kept wondering if she should say something, anything— but nothing she came up with sounded right in her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but Bobby had beaten her to it. “Betty was right all these years,” he whispered. “I’ve been telling her over and over again that she was crazy, that if there were some kind of conspiracy it would have been uncovered by now. Everything I’ve ever believed about the sanctity of the shield and due process means nothing. If the system can’t flush out the men who killed a cop—a great cop—in ten years, then what the hell are we all doing every day? I need to do something about this. They can’t continue to live above the law.” He punched his fist into the steering wheel and the horn blasted, sending Piper jumping in her seat.
“I have a plan,” Piper said, hoping Bobby’s resentment against Rylie would be enough to sway him. She needed him to ignore his normal instinct to obey the law and let her continue with her explanation without argument. “Originally I was only going to target the judge, but after I heard about Stan this morning I came up with a way to include Rylie and even Christian Donavan in all of it. I want you to know that I have this all under control. As long as you do your part with Rylie and convince him you’re not interested in the judge anymore, then I’ll take care of the rest. The less you know the better.”
“Piper, do you have a gun or another way to protect yourself when you get caught doing surveillance on these guys? Have you ever even fired a weapon? You’re intentions are great, Piper, but you aren’t qualified to do any more of this on your own. Tell me what you’re planning, and I can help.” Bobby’s brain had kicked into high gear as he processed all Piper was telling him. Maybe Stan’s way of handling things was admirable, but it also got him killed. If Piper hadn’t come to him this morning with this information he unknowingly would have put Betty and Jules in danger. He might not think Piper was qualified, but she was certainly doing everything right so far.
Piper continued, “Your instincts are going to tell you to shoot this plan down, so try to fight that. Remember your other options. You can drive your truck to Rylie’s house right now and kill him in cold blood, spending the rest of your life in jail. Or you can take the information you do have, most of which is hearsay, and report it, crossing your fingers and hoping whoever you confide in doesn’t have a hidden alliance of some sort. You’d spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder and worrying that you’ve endangered people you love.”
Piper thought a preemptive strike against Bobby’s possible points of contention would be her best approach. “Knowing all that, my plan shouldn’t sound so bad. I haven’t worked out all the details yet but I’ll give you the basic outline. The judge is a pedophile. He engages in sexual activity with underage girls. That doesn’t matter to the men he’s aligned with. If the judge was more inclined to engage in this type of behavior with underage boys, this may change some minds. But I’m not willing to take a chance on maybe swaying someone against an association with the judge, so I plan to up the ante. Christian Donavan has a young son who attends Millersville West Academy. I intend to plant evidence that convinces Christian the judge is targeting his son as his next victim. There is no way Christian will continue any type of affiliation with the judge under those circumstances, leaving him vulnerable and with limited protection.”
Bobby shook his head. His mouth was agape as he searched for the right words. Piper had hoped he was on the verge of calling her a genius, or that his next question would be about how he could help, but as he started to speak she knew she had further persuading to do. “You think he’s going to simply discontinue his affiliation with the judge? Christian isn’t an ‘I’m taking my ball