She refused to be scolded like an inexperienced little girl who’d gotten caught doing something wrong. “Are you threatening me in front of the detective, Stan?”

He shook his head. “Expect an emergency motion tomorrow.”

“Good. I’m excited to tell the judge about this stunt.” Jessa watched him go over to Darren and try to calm him down. She could feel the detective staring at her, assessing. “What?”

“I’m wondering if you’d really be dumb enough to risk your reputation by telling Mrs. Bartholomew to flee the jurisdiction.”

Sounded like no one thought she could do her job. Jessa didn’t love that. “Come on. Really?”

“I’m familiar with your friend and those old allegations.” The detective’s expression didn’t give anything away. “It was years ago, but there isn’t a judge, police officer, or politician in the metro area who doesn’t know about that one. Hell, it made the national news.”

The case that nearly broke Faith. Jessa remembered. There was no way to forget, but she didn’t want to talk about it, or Faith, or anything but Darren’s outrageous behavior . . . the same behavior everyone seemed to be downplaying. “Your focus should be on putting Darren in a cell until we’re sure his family is safe.”

The detective walked away without responding.

Faith passed Detective Schone in the driveway without exchanging a word.

“Are you okay?” Faith asked Jessa.

Shaky and furious, nerve endings half on fire from adrenaline and worry about what would happen when this case really got started. With a beginning marked with police intervention and crashing cars, Jessa assumed nothing good. “Apparently, your charity is a front for some sort of underground network that smuggles abused women to safety.”

“I can barely afford a desk.” Then Faith winced. “But I’m sorry. The Young case, right? It gets brought up a lot. The press back then was pretty intense.”

Four years ago. Jessa knew the details. A guy killed his wife and child, hid the bodies, and then manufactured a story about Faith helping them run away. “Not your fault. It’s fake outrage. Darren’s attorney is trying to get the police to focus on something other than his client’s hideous and dangerous behavior.”

Jessa thought about Tim’s dire warnings about the Bartholomews burning the world down to win and wondered if she’d just gotten a taste of what that meant.

Faith looked around. “This is going to get nasty for you.”

Too late. “It already is.”

Chapter Sixteen
Gabby

Returning Kennedy to school had been the longest drive of Gabby’s life. A flurry of yelling, crying, and blaming until Kennedy finally declared she was done talking. Gabby had never been so relieved to drive in silence.