Her response to that anger, what she’d done to three families, was pure evil, though. This was a woman who, according to Trey’s story, had always had a dark bent toward Old Testament judgment. The images she’d put in her child’s head—Lexie walking down the aisle in a little white dress that bore the stain of her every sin for all to see—it gave him the shudders. He hated Coral Lee Pine for everything she’d done. Even so, he found he had room to hate Trey, just a little, too.

It was getting late. He sat quietly, breathing, letting all the emotional backwash flow out and through him. He did not have time for it. When he was calm, he called James Weaver again. He had one more question for Tiana, and he needed the answer now. Sooner than now.

“Shoot,” James said, and after Marshall asked, he named a fee.

“Fine,” Marshall said, and hung up. Then he got his phone to find him a diner close by. He needed protein and caffeine.

He’d bolted his sandwich and was heading out to his car with more coffee in a to-go cup when James called back. His wife was magic on that keyboard, just as Spence had said.

“Oakbrook Treatment Center, just outside of Tucker. Lexie Ann Pine, same DOB. She completed a six-week program and was released to her mother, Coral Lee Pine.” The dates matched up with Toby Leland’s story and Marshall’s own timeline. Lexie had gotten out a scant eight weeks before Geoffrey Wilkerson went missing. So she’d finished the program, and they’d started planning this revenge while her mother still could act. Nothing like a goal with a deadline to keep a person on the straight and narrow.

“Thanks,” Marshall said, but Weaver wasn’t quite done.

“They marked her as a no-show for her follow-up therapy, though. She never came back for the outpatient care. Poof.”

“Good work,” Marshall said, and hung up. He transferred their money, then sat, stewing.

He didn’t believe she’d no-showed for her appointments because she’d slipped. If she had, she’d be back in Toby’s orbit. No, she’d ditched because she was invested in helping her mother complete her final task.

Sober, she’d be tougher and smarter and stronger than the Lexie he’d been hunting. This person had once forced open a slot for herself at one of the best colleges in the nation. Considering what she and her mother had done so far—child murder, kidnapping, expert manipulation, making or acquiring poison—she’d gotten back a good deal of her will and drive. She would see this through.