It was more than enough to get the FBI involved, I was sure of it.
“That worked as well as expected,” Scarlett said. “Well done, Gibs.”
“Where’s he now?” Callie asked.
“Probably sleeping off the moonshine in a jail cell by now. He’s in for one hell of a hangover when he wakes up.”
“Yep,” Scarlett said. “Dev just texted and said the package has been delivered. They’re all on their way here.”
“Good.”
“So what happens now?” Scarlett asked. “When do all the black unmarked cars roll up to the Kendalls’ place, wherever the heck they are, and haul them off to prison?”
“Not soon enough for me,” I said. “The sheriff is gonna do everything he can to get the FBI in on this. But I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“Which means what?” Scarlett asked. “A day? A week? More?”
Damn, this was frustrating. “I don’t know. We can ask Harlan what he thinks tomorrow.”
“Too long,” Callie said. “Because the Kendalls know I’m here.”
“Maybe they’ll leave it be until after the hearing,” Scarlett said, her voice lilting slightly, as if she was trying to sound hopeful.
Callie stared ahead of her, like she was seeing through the wall. “I think they’ll come.”
I didn’t want to make her feel worse, but I did too. Lee had said the judge was acting paranoid. Going off the deep end. If the judge was a reasonable man who felt in control of his fate, he’d probably leave his lackey to keep an eye on things here and focus on all the politics. Rubbing elbows with senators or whatever he was doing.
But I didn’t think the judge was a reasonable man who felt in control of his fate. I’d have put money on him being a man who’d spent the first twelve years of his daughter’s disappearance with fear in the back of his head. Fear that she’d turn up and tell the world what he and his wife had done to her. A man who’d spent the last year, since her sweater had been found, constantly trying to put out fires. Trying to keep them from burning down his whole life.
And now the thing he feared most was on the cusp of coming true. Callie was back in Bootleg Springs.
“We need to go to the press,” Callie and I said at the same time.
She laughed. “What? I was ready to argue with you.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It’s time. If the Kendalls come to Bootleg Springs, it’ll be because they’re afraid you’re going to go public and ruin them. So let’s fucking do that.”
“Okay. We go to the press.”
My family started showing up, one couple after another. There wasn’t much more to talk about. They all agreed we were probably right to go public, even Cass—and I assured her we’d run it by Harlan. And Jayme. But at this point, it seemed inevitable.
“Well, we can sit in here and feel glum, or we can go out and enjoy the fire,” Scarlett said. “I vote fire.”
Everyone agreed, and we poured out of my cabin into the cool night. The fire had burned down, but we got it going again. And for a little while, it kinda felt like everything was fine. Like maybe we were just out here, doing what Bootleggers did. Enjoying an evening with friends and family beneath the stars.
Callie stared into the fire, her forehead creased with worry. I wandered over to her and brushed the hair back from her face.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked past me. “I just keep wondering what would have happened if I hadn’t come back here. I brought all this trouble on everyone.”
“Honey, what are you talkin’ about?”
She took a deep breath. “What if it doesn’t work? What if people don’t believe me? Or they can’t use the evidence they find for some reason? My father’s been getting away with everything for so long. He’ll have contingency plans or… I don’t know, something. Then what? I’ll never be safe, and neither will you or your family or this town. What if everything goes wrong and we look back and realize your life would have been so much better if I’d just stayed away? If Callie Kendall had stayed dead.”
I took her face in my hands. “Don’t you ever say that, you hear? Nothing would have been right if you hadn’t come back. If this goes to shit, we’ll figure it out.”
Her lips turned up in a weak smile.
I kissed her forehead.
“Besides, my life was boring as hell before you showed up.”