Page 42 of Stay Baby Stay

“Coates.” She holds out her hand for me to shake while keeping a shrewd eye on her partner. “What’s she doing here? Never mind, you shouldn’t even be here.”

Cal spreads his arms wide. “Yet, here I stand.”

“I take it you’ve already spoken with the Heartwells.”

“We have,” he says. “You might want to give Stephanie a sec to cool off before you hit her with round two.”

Abby rubs the inner corners of her eyes. This is obviously an ongoing conversation she’s tired of having.

“Cal, you have to stop,” she says. “The governor’s office is putting pressure on Harris to shut down the entire investigation.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” Cal slaps the back of his hand against his palm. “Why wouldn’t the governor want us working on this?”

“Because you’re trying to smear his brother’s name.”

“I’mtryingto solve this case,” he says.

“By stepping out of bounds whenever you feel like it, you are sabotaging this case.” She narrows her gaze. “Finding justice for every dead girl in the state isn’t going to bring Vicki back.”

My lungs forget how to breathe.

Dead girls?What dead girls?

Cal glowers at his partner, and I realize Abby’s just revealed something Cal didn’t want me know.

“As of this moment,” he says coldly, “McKenzie Sommers is stillmissing.”

Abby closes her eyes for a long beat. I’m not sure if it’s her frustration with Cal that has her treating me like background noise, but frankly, I don’t mind it one bit. I’m still coming to grips with this new information. Cal didn’t say anything about dead girls, though apparently my suspicions about his sister were right.

When Cal’s partner finally turns her full attention on me, I freeze like a deer in headlights.

“Holly, is it?” she says. I nod. “Listen, Holly, I know you’re worried about your friend. But is there any chance she may have just skipped town?”

I clear my throat and find my voice. “She would never leave without me.”

“Okay. Then the best thing you can do to help us find her is come down to the station and file a missing person’s report. If it’s been at least twenty-four hours, I can take you there myself right now.”

My body tenses. I’m sure Abby’s perfectly friendly when she wants to be, but every cell in my body is screamingdon’t go.

I look to Cal, who’s already shaking his head.

“She’s not going anywhere without me,” he says.

“No one said you couldn’t tag along.”

Cal scrubs a hand over his five o’clock shadow, grimacing. He says in a low voice, “I don’t want Holly anywhere near the station.”

“Why the hell not?”

“There’s a leak in the department. Someone with ties to the reverend and Russell King.”

Abby’s shoulders fall. “You can’t be fucking serious.”

“How else could they have known about the investigation?”

“Cal.” She touches her temples. “As your friend and your partner, please listen to me when I tell you that you’re starting to sound unhinged. You’re spiraling. You’re not making sense—”

“For God’s sake, it’s the only thing that makes any damn sense. It’s how King knew I’d be at his party, and the reason Reverend Davis had some guy pick up his next vic instead of being there to grab her himself.”

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