Page 58 of 2nd Strike
She nods, and I repeat the question, wiggling the phone in her face. "Answer verbally."
"I want a lawyer.”
I sigh. Matt and Tony join us, stepping up to crowd around Susie. "Are you okay?" Matt asks Meg softly and she nods.
I jab Susie. “Finish answering my questions. Who is the boy that was with Amelia when she killed herself?”
She gives me a hard look. "I don't know. She never told me."
And then through the tears and the blood, she gives me a knowing smile.
She's lying.
It takes a lot of willpower not to slap her. Does she really think she has the upper hand here? That it's okay to play with a young boy’s life like this?
“We need to move somewhere else," Matt murmurs to me. “You have an audience."
Glancing around, I see half a dozen people a few feet away, watching the show. One of them is recording it on their cell phone.
Taylor tears into the lot in a big SUV with a light on top. I haul Susie to her feet. “Let’s get you that lawyer," I tell her, giving her a tight smile. I want her to know she's going to need more than that to save her ass by the time I'm done with her.
I lean forward and speak quietly into her ear, painting a graphic picture of what will happen to her in federal prison. Her eyes widen. Then I offer the carrot—if she tells me the truth, I’ll make sure the FBI grants her some leniency.
She believes I have that power. I don’t dissuade her of the idea.
She puts her mouth close to the phone’s speaker. “We kidnapped the boys—me and my sister—because we wanted babies. Except we both wanted Ethan. The boys looked alike, but he was mine. I had to steal him away so I could have him all to myself. I renamed him Jon.”
“And the one you left with Amelia? Where did you get him?"
"She kidnapped him from a neighbor when we lived in California. We moved to D.C. and Amelia got hired by the Havers almost right away. She was a registered nurse, you know. She did a lot of babysitting—parents like someone with medical training taking care of their kid. That's how she got close to them. But she only took the babies whose mothers didn’t want them.”
Matt smiles. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
He escorts Susie to Taylor, who’s marching our way.
Beck and Jackie are with her. Matt turns Susie over. Meg and I give our statements. I let Taylor listen to Susie’s recorded confession and she has me send her a copy.
Susie is placed under arrest. She's screaming for a lawyer as Beck shoves her in the backseat of a police squad car.
Jon––the real Ethan––and Ethan are still in my car, but JJ joins us to put his two cents into the mix, and I finally feel a sense of relief as we explain everything to Taylor. Grey hangs out with Matt, Tony bringing him up to speed.
Jackie pulls me aside. A news crew is pulling in and she drags me behind one of the delivery trucks out of sight. ”I've been asked to turn your case over to another lawyer," she says.
"What? Why?"
“Conflict of interest." She points at Beck. “My boyfriend happens to be one of the agents working on the reopened Havers’ case."
She doesn't have to spell it out. In the civil cases Lily is bringing against all of us, the FBI wants to make sure Beck isn't feeding my lawyer information that might help me and damage them. “So you're bailing on me?"
She looks as unhappy as I feel. "I'll text you the name and numbers of several good attorneys I know."
With that she leaves.
My cell chimes. Chuck.
“The results are ready," he says. "Where are you?"
"Are they a match?"
