“Check the date.”
“Two days before Eddie died,” she murmured. She looked at Coburn with bewilderment, then tried to snatch the paper from him.
“Un-huh.” He yanked it out of her reach and stuffed it back into his pocket. “I might need that for evidence. Along with anything you can testify to.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“We’ll talk about that later. Right now, we gotta get you the hell out of here.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he said with a hard shake of his head for emphasis. “You’re getting the kid and going with me now before Hawkins number two shows up.”
“Doral?”
“Whatever the hell his name is. You can bet he’s speeding his way here.”
“The police are on their way. Fred notified them that you’d been here. I heard him.”
He released her so suddenly, she nearly slid do
wn the wall. In seconds he was back, a cell phone in each hand. “His official phone,” he said, holding it up for her to see. “Last call, an hour ago.” He tossed that phone to the floor. “This phone. His burner.” His thumb busily worked the keypad. “Last number called three minutes ago. Not the police.”
He depressed the icon to redial, and she recognized Doral’s voice when he answered. “Everything okay?”
Coburn disconnected immediately. “So now he knows everything’s not okay.” The phone began ringing almost instantly. Coburn turned it off, crammed it into his jeans pocket, and nodded toward Emily’s bedroom. “Get the kid.”
“I can’t just—”
“You wanna die?”
“No.”
“You want your little girl to get snuffed? Wouldn’t take too long for him to cut off her air with a pillow over her face.”
She recoiled from the horrible image. “You would protect us. If what you say is true, why don’t you arrest Doral?”
“I can’t blow my cover yet. And I can’t turn you over to the police because the whole frigging department is dirty. I couldn’t protect you.”
“I’ve known the Hawkins twins for years. They were my husband’s best friends. Stan practically raised them. They have no reason to kill me.”
He placed his hands on his hips. His chest was rapidly rising and falling with agitation. “Did you tell Fred I came here looking for something?”
She hesitated before giving one bob of her head.
“That’s why Fred would have killed you. The Bookkeeper would have ordered it.”
“You mentioned this bookkeeper last night. Who is it?”
“I wish I knew. But there’s no time to explain that now. You just gotta believe that since Fred can no longer kill you, Doral will.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is.”
He stated it as fact, without mitigation. Two words. It is.
Still she hesitated.