Page 74 of Justice for Samara

“Look, I really didn’t know how to tell her no. I haven’t seen her since Sunday, and she’s alone, and?”

“Fine, fine. Do I come there in my car, or are you coming to get me?”

“I’ll come and get you.”

“Where are you right now?”

“At my house.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah. You come get me. I’ll call you when I leave here.”

“Sounds good. I love you,” Michael crooned.

“Of course you do. Bye.” She hit END on the phone’s screen and Carter howled with laughter. “What’s so fucking funny?”

“Oh, god, you haven’t met Marjorie. I can’t wait until tomorrow morning to hear what happens! This is gonna be epic!” Carter was belly laughing.

“I’ll remember you sitting there, laughing at my pain,” she snapped, but she was grinning.

“Yeah, yeah. Go have fun. This should be great,” Carter said, still laughing as he crammed stuff into his desk drawers.

As soon as she got in the car, she sent Michael a text.

I’m leaving, but I’m going to drive around a bit to calm down.

She got one back almost immediately.

I love you.

Her fingers tapped the screen furiously.

Carter wants to hear all about it in the morning.

That didn’t get a reply. “Well, I guess you’ve figured out that you’ve screwed up,” she said aloud. Home wasn’t nearly far enough away. And town wasn’t nearly big enough to drive around for long. It had been a hard day.

And it was only going to get harder.

CHAPTER 10

“You look amazing.”

Samara glared at him. “Oh yeah? Think she’ll think I look amazing?”

Michael snorted. “I really don’t care what she thinks.”

“You say that, but?”

“Babe, I don’t. If she doesn’t like you, she’ll at least be polite. Then the one who’ll catch hell is me. But we need to go. If we’re late, shewillhave something snarky to say.”

“Okay, okay. Let’s go.”

The drive was quiet for a minute or two, and he couldn’t stand it. “Did you get another interview done?”

“Yeah. I interviewed that lady out on Goat Path Lane. Monica Hunter.”

“And?”

“Same thing. Insisted she didn’t know who it was. No reaction when I showed her the picture of Gray. But when I dropped Stadler’s picture onto the coffee table, you could practically hear the air crackling around her. She didn’t have to tell me. I could see it instantly. Getting her to testify… That’s another thing altogether. But I think if we had him in custody, she’d talk.”