Page 60 of Vicious Hearts

"I gotta talk to you, Lois." I nod toward the ceiling. "You need to see to the munchkin?"

"Nah, he's just complaining. He'll be asleep in no time, kid's exhausted."

She walks me through to her kitchen diner, and I sit at the table. She pours me a glass of iced tea and sits opposite me.

"I knew someone would come one day," she says. "I just didn't think it'd be you."

"Do you know about the work I've been doing with Simon?" I ask.

She sniffs. "I do. God knows why you feel the need, but I know you believe in doing the right thing, even for the wrong people. And there are few people out there wronger than Simon."

I put a hand over hers. She looks at it, then back to my face. Her eyes search mine.

"He's innocent, Lois. I know it for sure."

She snatches her hand away from me, clapping it over her mouth. "How can you know that? He confessed. It was horrible. I was there when they read it in court."

"The real Dollmaker tried to kill me, but I escaped," I say. "He knew I would eventually get Simon's case some traction, and he wanted me out of the picture."

"Oh my God, Roxanne." Lois drops her head into her hands. "But they said Simon's crazy. Too unstable to file an appeal even if he wanted to. You were trying to get his treatment reviewed, and the case re-examined, weren't you?"

"Yes. But someone is swapping Simon's medication for something that is making him worse. The real killer doesn't want Simon to move to someplace where he'll get some help, and they don't want him lucid, either. Someone framed him and threatened to hurt you if he didn't go along with it."

Lois is pale. I know it's a lot to take in, but there's no time to go easy on her.

Simon is okay. He won't tell me who set him up because he's afraid for your safety, but if you come with me, we can—"

Lois throws her hands in the air, knocking her drink over. Ice cubes skitter across the tabletop.

"That fucking Hillard!" she cries.

You have got to be kidding me.

"Hillard?Heframed Simon?"

Lois wipes her nose with her sleeve. "I can't say for sure," she says, her voice simmering with fury. "Like everyone else, I didn't dig too deep because Simon confessed. But Hillard was tough on him. Kept him awake for days in that interrogation, repeatedly asking him the same things until Simon's mind couldn't take it anymore. They damn near tore our old house apart looking for evidence and found a jewelry box I never saw in my life, with severed fingers inside."

I am trying to figure out what to make of it. I nod, encouraging her to keep talking.

"Simon walked into the station one day and just handed himself in. He never said a thing to me about it, and I was as shocked as everyone else. He took the police to a dead body. His fingerprints were on it. There were no prints on any others, but he said he got sloppy and wanted to be caught. That doesn't seem right now, does it?"

No, it doesn't. Did the sick fucker really make Simon Farraday touch a corpse yet to be discovered, so he could lead police to it and incriminate himself?

"Hillard will go from a celebrated and legendary detective to a complete pariah if Simon's conviction is overturned," I say. "He'll get his comeuppance, and the real killer will be caught. We're sure we know who it is already, but we need Simon to confirm it."

Lois glares at me. "You mean you don't think it's Hillard who's The Dollmaker?"

* * *

Ben

"Where are you?"

Roxy is in no mood for pleasantries. Not so much as a hello.

"I'm still parked outside your work," I say. "Graham's car is here. Has Oliver called you?"

"No. Listen, I have to tell you something." She pauses as though trying to get her breath. "Lois thinks Hillard framed Simon, but it's worse than that—she thinks Hillard is the killer. She told me a bunch of stuff that you need to know."

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