Laid Bare - Lauren Dane [114]
“Crap, should have turned it off,” Erin said, extricating herself from Todd’s hold and heading to her phone.
But a 213 area code on the number stopped her in her tracks. She took the phone and went out on the front porch.
“Hello?”
“Erin Brown?”
“Yes,” she answered warily.
“It’s Detective Emery.”
And just like that her legs gave out and she slumped to the deck.
“I’m sorry to bother you on Thanksgiving, but”—he sighed—“I was notified late yesterday that Charles Cabot is getting a parole hearing next month.”
She shot up from where she’d been crouched. “What?” she yelled. “Parole? He had a twenty-seven-year sentence. How can he possibly get parole? He killed my daughter. Goddamnit!”
“I’m so very sorry, Erin. You know I am. If I had anything to say about it, he’d be dead. But I don’t and he’s getting a hearing. They’re going to want to hear from you. Can you come down to testify?”
Her legs went away again and she sat with a hard thump on the front steps. It rained on her, but she didn’t care.
“Listen, I know it’s a bad time. You’re probably just getting ready to eat some turkey and pumpkin pie. I wouldn’t have bothered you, but I felt you had the right to know. I’ll give you a few days. You know where I am. Give me a call by Tuesday, all right? I’m sorry, Erin. I am. But, damn it, we need you there. We need you to stand up and tell the board what this man has done to you.”
She thanked him for telling her and hung up before putting her head on her knees and giving over to tears.
“Where’s Erin?” Todd asked Brody, who shrugged.
“Dunno. I haven’t seen her in a while. Is everything all right?”
“She was here and then she took a call.” Todd looked around but didn’t see her.
As he walked through the front entry, he glanced to the left and saw her through the windows, hunched over, sitting on the front steps in the pouring rain. Panic held him for a moment.
He turned to see Ben had just walked into the foyer. “Down the hall in the linen closet. Towels. Hurry,” he told Ben as he moved to the door.
Todd rushed outside.
“Erin? Honey?”
She turned, and it was obvious she’d been crying. She turned her back to him, trying to wipe her eyes, but the rain simply made that task impossible.
“You’re scaring me. What is it?”
Ben came out, and they each took an arm and brought her inside to where others had gathered in the hall. Ben toweled off her hair and Todd took a hand. His heart thundered. He hadn’t seen her this upset since the day in June when he’d broken into her apartment on the anniversary of Adele’s death.
Brody pushed his way through and took her upper arms. “What is it? Tell me!”
“Cabot is getting a parole hearing,” she said, snapping from her tears. Her hands gripped the front of Brody’s sweater, her eyes bearing a haunted look that tore at Todd’s heart.
“Okay, everyone out,” Todd’s mother ordered before she pressed a tumbler into Erin’s hand. “Drink it.”
Erin gulped it down and coughed.
“That’s the way. A little Jameson will get you warm. Go into my closet and grab a sweater,” she told Todd’s dad, who sent a look of condolence to Todd.
She bent in front of Erin. Todd had managed to get her sitting on the upholstered bench in the front hall. She began to shiver. Ben wrapped a dry towel around her.
His mother took Erin’s hands. “This is the bastard who killed Adele?”
Erin paled, which Todd couldn’t believe was possible, as she’d already been paler than he’d ever seen her. She nodded and Brody sat on the floor, leaning his head against Erin’s side.
Adrian sighed and sat on her other side.
“We’ll go down there and testify. We can do that too, right?” Brody asked. “He can’t get away with this. They have to know what it’s been like since.”
Todd’s mother brushed a hand over Erin’s forehead, pushing her hair back from her eyes. “Erin, sweetie, why don’t you change into some dry clothes and lie down for a while? Then you’ll wake up and eat and we’ll work out how to deal with this. Of course we’ll all do what we can to support you.”
Alarm gripped Todd’s