“You have thirty days to respond, and then the courts move slowly.”
“But y’all are still going to have to pay your lawyer to file a response and start fighting this,” I said, only half aware of the y’alls I was suddenly dropping.
“Don’t worry about that,” Gibson said. “I’ll cover it.”
“We’ll all cover it, like we’ve been doing,” Bowie said.
“Speaking of, has anyone called Jayme?” Jonah asked.
“I did,” Bowie said. “I sent her a scanned copy. We’re supposed to call her. Are we telling her about Callie? Because I really think we have to.”
Gibson met my eyes and I gave him a short nod.
“Yes, tell her,” I said.
Everyone else nodded and murmured their assent.
Bowie tapped his phone screen, then set it on the coffee table.
“Bodines,” Jayme said. “Before you say anything, don’t panic.”
Devlin nodded his agreement.
“No one’s panicking,” Bowie said. “Mostly.”
“Is everyone there?” Jayme asked.
“Yes, ma’am. And Devlin filled us in a bit on what this means.”
“Good,” she said, her tone clipped. “They don’t have a strong case, but they don’t necessarily need one. I don’t think they care if they win. They’re trying to put the blame for Callie’s death as far from their doorstep as possible. This is a good way to do it.”
“We’re also wondering if this is an intimidation tactic,” Bowie said. “Someone showed up in town and approached Gibson. Asked him about why he’d been taken in to talk to the sheriff. Seems like that could point back to the judge.”
“Why am I just hearing about this now?”
“There’s been a lot going on,” Bowie said, casting a wary glance around. “There’s another rather important development you need to know about. We know Callie’s not dead.”
“That’s not new,” Jayme said.
“That’s not what I mean,” Bowie said. “She’s here.”
The phone went silent for a few seconds. “Excuse me?”
“Callie’s here,” Bowie said. “In this room, right now.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jayme said. “Jesus. Get me her DNA.”
“Already working on it,” Bowie said.
“Good. And for fuck’s sake, tell me you’re all being smart and hiding her in a closet or something.”
Gibson raised his eyebrows at me, as if to say, see?
“She’s been living under a new identity, so that’s what we’ve been going with,” Bowie said.
“Okay. I’ll believe it’s her when we get her DNA results. Now, the judge is gearing up for his confirmation hearing, so we’re walking on a very thin wire. He has a lot to lose. If you really have his daughter sitting there, it obviously helps answer a hell of a lot of questions. But without hard evidence, we still can’t nail him for anything.”
“That about sums it up,” Bowie said.
“We’re trying to track down the lab tech who confirmed the dental match on the body in New York, but so far no luck. Just voicemail.”
“What about Abbie Gilbert’s supposed accident?” Jonah asked.
A shudder ran down my spine.
“Dead end,” Jayme said. “Late night hit and run with no witnesses. If you want to hire a PI to dig deeper, be my guest, but I don’t think you’re likely to find anything. And you need to remember, my job is to represent your family. Not prosecute the judge. There’s only so much I can do.”
“Understood.”
“So you don’t think we can prove the judge was involved in Abbie’s death?” Jonah asked.
I nervously tongued the notch in my lip. My stomach was starting to feel queasy.
“Not without something other than what we have,” Jayme said. “Tell me about the guy asking questions about Gibson. What was that about?”
Gibson cleared his throat. “He approached me in town. Said some weird stuff about small towns and gossip and not letting go of the past. He asked if everyone in town was being questioned again, or just me. Then he said something vaguely threatening about the world being dangerous and that some things are meant to stay buried.”
“Did he know who you were?”
“Yeah, knew my name, I didn’t give it to him. I’m also pretty sure he was armed.”
Hearing that again made me shiver. The thought of being face to face with Lee Williams again was terrifying. I’d had nightmares about him when I was little.
“Fucking fantastic,” Jayme muttered.
“Callie thinks she knows him,” Gibson said. “A guy by the name of Lee Williams. Worked for her father.”
“I’ve been doing some research,” Cassidy said, turning her laptop toward Gibson. “It’s a common name, but I found someone that might fit. Is this him?”
Gibson peered at her screen. “That’s him.”
Cassidy picked up her laptop and held it so I could see the