“Evie,” Rachel said. “Please stop.”
Evie looked at Rachel, confused. “Stop what? This man would have slit my throat without hesitating. Wouldn’t you, you sick freak?”
The man shook his head and whimpered, “Nuh—no. I just wanted money. I got nothing. I was hungry.”
“Spare me the sob story. Something tells me you’ll think twice next time you see a woman walking down the street.”
Evie raised the knife again, but as she went to plunge it into the man’s skin, Rachel tackled her, sending her flying to the ground. The knife skittered away. The man saw his chance, got up, and ran off like a wounded dog.
Evie sat up and watched him flee. Then she looked at Rachel.
“You dumb bitch,” she said.
“I couldn’t let you do it,” Rachel said, panting. Her shoulder hurt where she’d driven it into Evie. The woman was solid muscle.
“Couldn’t let me? You know what that bastard is going to do, right? You think this is going to stop him? No. He’s going to lick his wounds and get back in the hunt. And next time, he might go after someone who can’t take care of herself.” Evie jabbed Rachel in the chest with her finger. “And that’s on you.”
“So killing him is the answer.”
“Can’t say whether I would have killed him. Depends how fast EMTs got here. But it sure as shit would have put a hitch in his future pursuits.”
“He would have gone to the cops. You’d be in prison.”
Evie laughed. “The cops? You think he would have gone to the cops? And said what? ‘Hey, Officers, I tried to cut this girl’s throat, but she stabbed me in my tiny dick; can you please arrest her?’ Besides, guy like that probably has a rap sheet a mile long. He wants to spend time in a police station like I want to spend time in a piranha tank.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to maim him.”
“And nobody ever gave him the right to hold a knife to my neck. Here’s your last lesson, Blondie. Nobody gives you the right to protect yourself. People take things from you. Nobody gives them permission to do it. They just take. But if I take that man’s pride and joy, he’ll never hold another knife to a woman’s throat again. But instead, he’s out there. And who knows who’s next. You protect one, or you protect none.”
The words hit Rachel like a punch to the stomach, her memories flooding back.
You protect one, or you protect none.
She thought of her husband. She could hear her son’s screams, could feel how helpless she had been that night and so many nights following. And how so many people who had promised to protect her family had merely let her down.
Evie stood up. She kicked the knife into the gutter.
“Don’t come to class tomorrow. I don’t want to see you back at that gym. There are things you need to learn that I can’t teach you.”
Evie walked away, leaving Rachel panting on the sidewalk. One thought ran through her mind as she watched Evie round the corner and disappear.
I never told her my name.
CHAPTER 24
Today
“I’m a little tired of hanging out around here,” Rachel said. “Don’t get me wrong. The food choices are impeccable. And I love the smell of bad coffee, cheap cologne, and stale cigarette smoke. But I think after this I’d be OK not setting foot in the Ashby police station for the rest of my life.”
Rachel sat across the table from Detectives John Serrano and Leslie Tally at the same table as the night she’d shot Christopher Robles. Lieutenant George himself had offered to watch the children in his office.
“And as much as we love your company,” Tally said, “I think you’ve been involved in enough police business over the last week to last you a lifetime.”
Rachel laughed. A fake laugh. “Oh, Detectives,” she said. “If you only knew.”
“So let’s go over this one last time,” Serrano said. “You say you did not make an anonymous phone call to the PD switchboard about Nestor Aguillar and Stefanie Steinman.”
“No, I did not,” Rachel said. Serrano nodded. He knew she was probably lying, but whoever had made the call had run the number through half a dozen masking sites, so the call appeared to have come in from Vladivostok, Russia.
“All right. Fine. And just so it’s on the record: after receiving that tip, Detective Tally and I contacted you to warn you about the potential criminal intentions of Steinman and Aguillar. We removed your daughter, Megan, from class prior to the end of the school day. Officers Lowe and Chen watched Megan at the station. When we confirmed the presence of Steinman and Aguillar, we had you exit Bennington Elementary School carrying the lifelike CPR doll, which doubled for your daughter.”
“Correct.”
Tally continued. “Body cams confirm all of this and that both suspects were armed with loaded weaponry. Aguillar and Steinman are currently being held and charged under Illinois state law, section 65, graph 2, which states that the law prohibits carrying a firearm into a building, onto property, or in a parking area under the control of a preschool or childcare facility, including any room or portion of a building under the control of a preschool or childcare facility.
“Wally Shaw, our computer forensics examiner, is just starting to go through Aguillar and Steinman’s emails, texts, phone records, and social media posts. My guess is that by the time he’s done, we’ll have them on quite a few more charges, including premeditated attempted murder. The only light of day they’ll see in the immediate future is the prison yard.”
“Do you think that’s it?” Rachel said. “I know they were friends of Isabelle and Christopher Robles. I imagine they might have more friends.”
“We’re going to have twenty-four seven surveillance on both you and your children for a good while,” Serrano said. “Detective Tally and I are overseeing it personally. And without going into too much detail, we’re also going to be paying very close attention to Isabelle Robles and everyone she speaks to over the next few weeks. With Aguillar and Steinman locked up and the police on high alert, she’d have to be pretty stupid to try something.”
“With all due respect to the deceased,” Rachel said, “Christopher Robles didn’t seem like he swam in the deepest end of the smarts ocean.”
Tally replied, “And we have some dedicated officers going through all of Robles’s associates. We’ll have eyes on every one of them.”
Rachel nodded. More out of acceptance than satisfaction. She could only do so much.
“Can I ask you something?” Serrano said.
“Sure.”
“All this,” he said, “didn’t have to happen.”
“What do you mean?” Rachel asked.
“You first contacted us with the information about Constance Wright’s death. It was very clear that you wanted to be found but wanted us to jump through some hoops to find you. You have a gift for misdirection. Now, to be frank, without that information, I don’t know where the investigation might have led. You helped us.”
“Is that a thank-you?” Rachel said.
“I’m not finished,” Serrano said firmly. “But after that. Going to the press conference. Following Robles home, conniving your way into their living room. All of that led to Robles breaking into your house. Where your children sleep. And that led to this, two people showing up at your daughter’s school armed to the teeth.”