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Chapter Forty

Mother—Mom—goesback home. I wanted to go with her and make sure my father would not be there or if he was, he would not turn on her, but she wouldn’t allow it.

“It’s time for me to fight my own battles,” she says.

“Your father is not a fool. He knows what he’s facing. Self-preservation will win. Besides, I have Hugo.” Hugo being the driver who had come back this morning to pick up my mother.

Logan and I hug her and let her go. It’s a strange feeling hugging my mother and watching her leave.

Logan’s been looking preoccupied all morning, checking his phone on and off and leaving when someone called. Something is up and as soon as Mother leaves, I’m on him.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing, why?”

“Bullshit and you know it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, glancing at his phone one more time before putting it in his pocket.

“Logan, don’t lie to me. I’m not a little kid you have to protect anymore. I’m a grown man and I have seen more shit in one day than you ever will in your whole life. Cut the crap and tell what’s going on?”

He sighs, his shoulders sagging. “I had a friend check into local rape by roofie cases.”

I’m in his space in two steps.

“And?”

“There are several reported cases of girls waking up and not remembering what happened. There was no DNA evidence, which indicates the rapist used a condom each time. All the girls are between eighteen and twenty-one and either attended Riggins or were friends with someone who did. All the rapes happened at a party. Three of the girls swear they had nothing or very little to drink. The other four could not remember how much they drank. There are enough similarities between these cases and River’s to think that maybe Jon was the person behind them, but no physical evidence of any kind to link him to any of the victims.”

I’m already shaking my head, my hands fisting with the need to punch something. To hurt something, to draw blood.

“Can they bring him in? Question him?”

“No. We have no reason to do it. No evidence of—”

“But, what about River? We know he did it. He as much as confessed. We heard him!”

“It would be looked at as hearsay. And our word against his. I did some background checking on him. He comes from money. His father is a big shot attorney in New York. We wouldn’t have a chance if we bring him in, and then he’d be careful and cover his tracks.”

“What then? He walks away to rape someone else?”

“We watch. The only way to get him behind bars is to catch him in the act or to have someone actually come forward and say he did it and odds are no one is coming forward.”

My head is spinning. I’m so angry I can’t think straight and then I have an idea. And that idea starts to take shape. I look at Logan and he knows.

“What? What are you thinking?”

“If no one will come forward and the only way to get him is to actually catch him, then we set up a trap.”

“A trap? What kind of trap?”

“We bait him.”

“Bait him how?”

“With something he can’t resist. A beautiful girl who refuses him.”

Logan rubs his eyes. “Liam, I get what you are saying, but the department will not go for it. And he could claim entrapment.”

“Who said anything about involving the department? This is between you and me.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up a little. You want to use a girl to get him to drug her and then when he’s in the middle of raping her, bust in and catch him?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I want to do.”

“You’re talking about letting him try to rape someone so you can catch him? Who will volunteer for that? And there’s like one week left of school. He’s graduating and then he’ll be gone. How are you going to pull it off?”

“Oh, we are having a party.”