Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

“Her cap?” Jules repeated, stunned. “Wait … let’s just start from the beginning. Shaylee’s a suspect?”

“Everyone is.”

“Including you?”

He slid her a look. “Probably. But my college team baseball hat wasn’t found at the scene.”

“So Shaylee’s number one on the list?”

“Don’t know, but she’s up there. The last person to see Nona Vickers alive, it seems.”

“So what? Look, Shaylee couldn’t kill anyone! And attack a second person? Get real! Besides, I think another student might be dead, too, the one who no one can find.”

“Lauren Conway,” he said. “I know.”

“You know?”

“I don’t know that she’s dead, but she’s certainly still missing.” He downshifted as the Jeep slid around an icy corner. Jules grabbed the door handle to brace herself. “Let’s start over. Why are you here?”

She wanted to lie. To tell him that it was all coincidence, but he wouldn’t buy it, and unless she somehow got him on her side, Cooper Trent could ruin everything. “How far is it until we get to the school?”

“Five, maybe six miles.”

“Drive slowly,” she said, “and you go first.”

He slanted a hard look in her direction, then stared out the windshield. “I needed a job.”

“Bull! You don’t have the patience, temperament, or desire to teach kids badminton.”

“Maybe I’ve changed.”

She let out a disbelieving breath. “Sure.” How much more complicated could this get? She twisted in the seat to stare at him harder. “Let’s cut to the chase. Both of us, obviously, have ulterior motives for being at Blue Rock.”

Beneath his beard shadow, his jaw tightened. “Okay I’ll bite. What’s yours?”

“I want to get Shaylee out of here.”

“So yank her.”

“Can’t. Nor can Mom. Judge’s order.”

He swore under his breath, but she had a feeling she wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “Isn’t her father rich? Can’t he hire some hotshot attorney to spring her?”

“Max seems to think being at the academy will be good for her,” Jules admitted, all the tension of the day seeping into her bones. “For once Edie agrees.”

“But you don’t.”

“I’ve done some research. Things here aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and all this pseudo-Christian rhetoric doesn’t ring true. I’ve seen the mansion on Lake Washington. Someone’s making big bucks off of messed-up kids. It all seems about as real as Disneyland.”

“And then there’s Lauren.”

“You got it,” she agreed. “The girl no one seems to want to find.” She thought of her phone conversations with Cheryl Conway. “Except for her mother.”

He grimaced. “You’ve talked to Cheryl?”

“Yeah. Have you? Wait a second,” she said, putting some of the ill-fitting pieces of the puzzle together. She’d read that he’d once worked for a sheriff’s department in Montana. “Is that why you’re here? You’re trying to find her, right? Come on. Your turn, PE teacher. What brings you to the Blue Rock Academy locker room?”

“I can’t really talk about it.”