Page 98 of We Are All Guilty Here

“Stay here.” Jude didn’t wait for an answer. She ran out the door.

Emmy was pushing Reggie up the walkway. The street lights were still on. The cruiser was lit up as if it was on a stage. Jude had a perfect view of Emmy slamming Reggie face-down onto the hood of the car. She started searching him, emptying his pockets onto the sidewalk. Jude watched a flurry of crumpled receipts escape from his brown leather wallet as it hit the concrete. Cole picked everything up. He had a panicked look on his face. This wasn’t his mother’s normal behavior.

“Talk to me, asshole.” Emmy pressed Reggie’s face into the hood of the car. “Where’s Paisley?”

“I don’t—” Reggie gasped as she wrenched up his arm. “I don’t know!”

“Tell me where she is!” Emmy ordered.

“I told you I don’t—”

“That’s how you wanna play it?” Emmy’s handcuffs came out. She shackled his wrists behind his back. “You have the right to remain silent.”

“Please,” Reggie begged. “I don’t want trouble, okay? I don’t know where she is. I live in Mobile, for fucksakes. I just got here.”

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

“Jesus, lady! I’ll talk to you, okay? Just—”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Emmy warned. “You have a right to an attorney.”

Jude put her hand on Emmy’s shoulder. She meant it as a kind of check, to bring her back to the moment, but the gesture had the opposite effect.

“Get your fucking hand off me,” Emmy ordered. “Cole, move her away.”

Jude held up her hands in surrender as Cole approached.

“Please!” Reggie begged. “Just listen to me! I promise I can—”

“I told you to shut up.” Emmy spun Reggie around. She balled the front of his shirt into her fist. She had tunnel vision. She wasn’t listening to a damn word he said. “If you cannot afford an attorney—”

“Reggie!” Jude raised her voice, trying to startle some sense into Emmy. “Are you waiving your rights? Is that what you’re telling us? You want to talk?”

“Hell yes, that’s what I’m saying!” Reggie yelled back.

Emmy cut her eyes at Jude, but her sudden spark of rage had clearly been dampened. It took a few long seconds before Emmy’s steely resolve returned. She looked at Reggie as if she was seeing him for the first time. The panic in his eyes. His chest heaving in fear. Emmy’s fist released the front of his shirt. She took a small step back. Asked him, “Reggie Lee McAllister, are you waiving your rights?”

“Yes!” The word came out like a plea. “I’m on probation. If I get another arrest, I’m inside for five years. It don’t matter if you’re wrong. My life is over.”

Emmy was still visibly shaken. Jude knew that sickening feeling, the desperation that made you do stupid things to stupid people. It was easy to miss the forest for the trees.

“Reggie,” Jude took over, “where were you yesterday morning between the hours of seven and eight?”

“I was—” Reggie had to stop to catch his breath. “I was working. I clocked in at six thirty, then I got in my truck to make deliveries. It’s got a GPS in it. They can tell where I am. You can check it.”

“Mom.” Cole had one of the receipts. He showed it to Emmy.She studied the information for so long that Jude assumed she was buying time to get her emotions back under control. Then she finally handed the receipt to Jude.

“Need my glasses.” Jude could probably make out the small print under the light, but she wanted to buy more time for Emmy to collect herself. She reached into her purse. Dug around the envelope with the photos from Elijah Walker’s phone. Found her reading glasses. Slipped them on. Studied the receipt.

The logo was for the WaWa Gas Station in Fairhope, Alabama, a town across the Bay from Mobile. One large mochaccino with a bagel purchased yesterday morning at six thirty-eight. Fairhope was on central time, an hour behind Clifton.

“That’s proof.” Reggie’s voice was filled with relief. “I had to fuel up before making my run. That’s the receipt for my breakfast. The diesel went on the company card. You can check on the cameras at the WaWa, right?”

Jude knew they would check the cameras, just like she knew that Mobile was at least a six-hour drive from where they stood. There was no way Reggie could be in North Falls abducting Paisley when he’d been buying a coffee and a bagel at the same time in Fairhope. Jude waited for Emmy to make the same calculations.

“Turn around,” Emmy told him.

Reggie turned. Jude watched the handcuff key slide into the lock. Emmy’s hands were shaking. She was still wound up.

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