his fingers back and forth over the pulse pounding so wildly in her wrist, assessing her reaction—soothing her while he spoke. “It was so important to me to make certain you were safe. It was more important even than losing you, and I knew you’d be royally pissed with me for prying into your business.”
Her face softened and his heart clenched hard in his chest. He wanted to lean over and kiss the hell out of her, but they had to finish this. He had to make certain she understood that once this was out in the open, there was no taking it back.
“Look at me, Scarlet.” He had to see her eyes, read her expression, not just her pulse.
Her gaze jumped to his.
“Your trial and subsequent history were easy enough for Code to discover, but then after you left the country, the trail became a little murky. The longer you were overseas, the more difficult it was for him to follow you. You clearly had an itinerary, and when you came back and the men who had raped your sister died one by one, that agenda became very clear.” He didn’t take his gaze from hers.
She didn’t so much as wince. “Your point?”
“You killed those men just as I killed the men who raped and tortured me and mine.”
“They deserved to die, and no one was going to stop them from continuing to hurt other women. Or in your case, women and children.”
“Exactly,” he agreed. “Where were you the other night? Who was the woman who provided your alibi?”
She lifted her chin. “Josefa Diaz. I helped her escape from a human trafficking ring. They were holding her in a hotel in San Francisco. I freed her and kept her safe here while I had her documents forged and set up a life for her in Chile. She needed money in the bank and people I trust on the other end to help her get started in a good job there. When I had everything ready, I waited until I needed her and then I called on her. She did exactly as I asked her in return.”
It was brilliant. She had a woman indebted to her who would be richly rewarded for helping her. The woman would never have to testify, never have to lift a finger to do anything other than sit in a restaurant or movie theater, someplace public where cameras could pick up Scarlet. She would go back to her country with money and someone on the other end to help her with a new life. By that time, she’d learned to trust Scarlet’s word. The plan was beyond brilliant. Clearly, she’d used the same type of alibi every time she’d killed successfully.
“What happened the other night that you needed to use Josefa? It was the teenager, wasn’t it? The girl in the library.”
She nodded. “Her name is Joan. Her mother, Brenda, really loves money and the lifestyle it gives her. She was married to a wealthy man at one point, but in her divorce, because she cheated multiple times, she lost everything but child support for her two children. That support is not enough to keep her in the lifestyle Brenda wants or thinks she needs.”
Absinthe sighed. He’d met more than a few greedy women who would do just about anything for money.
“Giles McCarthy is a very well-known philanthropist in the area. Very generous.”
“Yes.” Absinthe nodded. “He died in an accident at his home. A gas leak, I believe.” He watched her the entire time. “It’s still being investigated, but from everything I’ve read, it looks as if it really was an accident.”
“McCarthy paid Brenda ten thousand a month to make Joan available to him when Brenda took Luke out of town. She would get bonuses the more cooperative Joan was. Brenda wasn’t the only woman he made arrangements with. He was a straight-up pedophile and he managed to get the cooperation of a few of the greedier women in town willing to sell their daughters to him.”
“You have proof of this?”
She gave him a look that should have withered him on the spot. “I do my homework. Of course I have proof. I went to Joan’s house and was there when she was supposed to meet him. First, I went to his home, to ensure everything was in place for his little accident. It would be easy enough to undo it all. I checked his computer. Thousands of pictures of pornography, all young girls. Lots