“All right. I’ll see you then.” He walked back into the kitchen, where Shelton seemed to be holding a discussion with his people.
Hopefully Ben would get an answer soon as to whether they could leave. They’d given their statements. There was no reason for them to still be here. Brenda closed her eyes again and thought of her baby’s sweet voice on the phone a few hours ago. She hoped Mallory called back soon. Then again what good would it do if—
“Detective Shelton says we can go now.”
The sound of Ben’s voice jerked her to attention. “Thank God.”
She followed Ben to the door. “Did he mention if he’d heard anything else about Lena and Trek?”
“Trek is fine, but Lena is in a coma. Her condition has improved somewhat but is still guarded. It’s not unusual for a patient with such severe trauma to remain in a coma for a time, allowing the body to focus on healing.”
Brenda went out the door first. When he’d joined her, she said, “Shelton didn’t tell you that, did he?”
Ben smiled, this one-sided expression that made her feel safe and warm despite current circumstances. “I had a colleague check into the situation.”
The Colby Agency seemed to have all sorts of connections or people capable of finding the necessary contacts in record time. She was immensely grateful for their support.
The one good thing Scott did, she thought again.
“Thank you.” As much as Brenda resented Lena for whatever part she had played in all this, she didn’t wish anything like this on her. Her son needed her.
Ben conducted his usual check of his rental car before they climbed in. Once they were on their way, he said, “You should be hearing from Mallory soon. We’ll go back to your house. I’ll walk you in, see that all is as it should be, then I’ll go next door.”
“You think maybe she’s watching the house. Waiting until I’m there, maybe alone, to make her move?”
“It’s possible. The police are distracted elsewhere. I didn’t notice a tail at any point yesterday other than York. I think you may have fallen lower in Shelton’s priorities given all that’s happened. That gives us an opportunity to present you as being alone.”
Brenda felt sick to her stomach at the idea that had just formed in her head. “You don’t think Mallory killed Scott just to draw the police away?”
Scott was really dead…like Lanier told her. No, not right. He hadn’t been dead that long. Some tiny sliver of her brain wanted to be sad and to grieve, but Brenda couldn’t. And it wasn’t even because she had cried way too much over the man already. It was because every part of her was focused on her daughter… Finding Janey was everything. It was all that mattered.
“No.” Ben glanced at her. “She couldn’t be sure we would discover this other house. I think Lena Jenner’s car crash may have been the distraction.”
If that proved true, then obviously Mallory had no care for who she killed—even a child. Fear fired in Brenda’s blood. There went the idea that Janey might actually be safe with her. But then she recalled the comment about the black market. Cutting the woman any sort of slack was a waste of time.
“What you’re saying is that with Shelton and the new FBI agent distracted, she feels comfortable maybe coming to my home. But she knows about you.”
Worry gnawed at Brenda. If Mallory had a plan like that…how would they ever manage to outwit her? She surely wouldn’t come alone. Then again, Scott was dead. Cummings was dead. The cartel guy who had shown up at the office the day of the explosion was dead—it was apparently his body they had mistaken for Scott’s. The intruder, Dirk Lanier, was in jail. Unless he’d made bond with the help of his high-profile attorney.
It didn’t matter, she realized. There could be dozens of them here or coming.
Defeat sucked at her. She looked to the man driving. But she had a secret weapon. She had the Colby Agency.
“She knows about me, yes,” Ben said in answer to her comment. “We’re setting a trap for her—one she won’t see coming. If she shows, we’ll be ready for her.”
“So I’ll go in my house and you’ll go in yours,” Brenda suggested, wanting details. “Let her believe the circumstances are the same as before she left.” She supposed that would work. Mallory probably had no idea she and Ben had spent a night together.
“Yes.” He glanced at her. “But don’t worry, I’ll be close.”
“Okay. I’m ready to do this.”
All they needed was for Mallory to actually show up.
Devers Residence
White Street
Huntsville, 2:30 a.m.