Speak No Evil_ A Novel - Allison Brennan [66]
“Nice surprise, anyway.”
“Yeah. Lucy can be a pain in the neck because she’s a bit spoiled. But she’s fun and I was really happy to have a baby sister.”
She didn’t say anything for a long minute, and Nick didn’t interrupt. She entwined her fingers with his and it felt right to sit here with him, touching him, sharing her worst nightmare.
“So, anyway, I picked Justin up when I got out of class. My mom said he could spend the night at the house, but I knew she and dad were beat. I even offered to take Lucy with me.” Her voice hitched. “But,” she said, “it was a school night. So I took Justin over to his house. We ordered out for pizza. Together, Justin and I devoured an extra-large pizza with the works, minus mushrooms because I can’t fathom eating anything that is grown in animal dung.”
She remembered when her older brother Connor used to chase her around the house with mushrooms her mom bought for the spaghetti sauce. “It’s alive! It’s going to con-shroom you!”
“We watched Star Wars together. Still the single best movie of the twentieth century. I let Justin stay up past his bedtime. I was studying, then Nelia called, said she was running later than she thought and why wasn’t Andrew home? Hell if I knew, and I told her so. I never liked him, anyway. Still don’t, even if he is a good DA.
“Then I fell asleep.”
Why hadn’t Justin screamed? Had the killer subdued him while he slept? There was no evidence of a struggle. Justin was just . . . gone. And the window to his bedroom was open. Had she forgotten to check it? Nelia was a stickler for always checking doors and windows. She had been sure she’d checked it . . .
“I woke up to Nelia screaming.”
Carina! Where’s Justin? Where’s Justin?
“I didn’t know what was going on. I looked at the clock. It was two in the morning.
“But Justin was missing. His bedroom window wide open. No sign of forced entry.” Carina looked at Nick, saw the sympathy and understanding in his eyes. “Nelia blamed me. For not locking the window. I thought I had, but I don’t know anymore.” She took a deep breath. “She hasn’t spoken to me since.”
Nick rubbed her neck. The gesture soothed her even more than their entwined fingers, made her say more than she’d intended. She had never told anyone the whole story, not like that. It was oddly cathartic. Even though she couldn’t forgive herself completely, telling Nick had helped purge something that had been eating her inside.
“I’m sorry to dump all that on you. It’s probably the last thing you wanted to hear.”
“No.” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you told me. I wish I had answers. The only thing I’ve learned being a cop is that good people get hurt and bad people enjoy it. Our job isn’t to stop the pain, but to prevent it in the future.”
His hand cupped her cheek and this time she let herself relax, just for a minute, and savor the affection.
Suddenly the car started moving violently up and down.
“What the hell?” Carina exclaimed, reaching for her gun. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw her brothers Connor and Patrick pushing up and down on the trunk. “You immature brats!” she yelled, biting back a smile. “I’ll get you back!”
“Oh, we’re so scared,” Patrick laughed.
“Come on, you might as well meet the rest of the clan,” she told Nick, reluctantly letting his hand go.
Maybe it was for the best. She’d been close to kissing him.
Everything had worked exactly like he’d planned.
After Becca died, he watched the webcam he’d planted in Jodi’s apartment and saw Abby making two drinks with the spiked Coke. Then Jodi came in and made two more drinks. That was certainly enough to knock them out.
At midnight he left Becca in the library parking lot. It was fitting, really. He’d first met