“So you knew that your husband was molesting your son?” he asked smoothly as she dropped to her knees by the kitchen sink.

Grabbing bottles of various cleaners and tossing them aside, she crowed when she pulled out a laundry soap bottle with a wide cap. She dumped the contents on the floor—her drug paraphernalia. Rubber tubing for the tourniquet, a syringe, and a number of used needles.

Cade grimaced, deciding he’d shoot her from a few feet away so he wouldn’t get splashed with her blood. Who knew who else had been using those needles?

She didn’t look up at his question. “I knew John and Michael were doing it, yeah. But Michael asked for it. Michael wasn’t John’s type. My husband liked women.”

In that moment Cade wished like hell that Michael hadn’t been the one to give the cops that sketch. The interpreter had been right. Michael had been through enough. He hated having to kill him. I’ll make it painless, he decided.

“You can bring me more tomorrow,” Stella declared, mixing the heroin with water.

He laughed softly. This woman was truly insane. “Or?”

“Or I’ll tell everyone that you did it, even if it was Michael who really did.”

She didn’t see the bullet coming. She was too busy drawing the concoction she’d mixed into a syringe. The silencer emitted a small pop and Stella’s prepared syringe fell to the floor. The woman’s body followed.

Crouching down to stay out of sight of the window, Cade shot her in the head again, just to be sure. Then he put a final shot in her chest. Where her heart should have been, if she’d had one. At least she wouldn’t be able to get her hands on the five-year-old ever again.

He checked his watch. He’d been here less than ten minutes. Still another twenty before the cop outside came round again. He’d be able to exit the house and hike back to his car with no trouble at all.

Next stop, Dani Novak’s house.

Chapter Fourteen

Cincinnati, Ohio
Sunday, March 17, 8:25 p.m.

A cacophony of barking, the sound of Joshua’s happy laughter—and the need to escape Faith’s knowing gaze—had Dani drying her hands and joining the others in her living room. Marcus’s younger brother Stone had arrived with his girlfriend, Delores, and the Russian wolfhound mix that Delores never went anywhere without.

The front door was open, and through the storm door glass Dani could see Marcus and Stone engaged in an intense conversation, but it was Joshua who grabbed her attention. He stood face-to-face with the enormous dog, completely fearless as Angel sniffed at his neck and licked his face.

Joshua loved dogs. He’d been wholly unafraid of Hawkeye as well, but it was clear that Dani’s dog had attached himself to Michael.