Page 149 of Never Alone
Forty-eight hours. The number landed somewhere quiet.
Sam shifted at my elbow. He was reading my face without looking at it.
"There's one more thing." Her voice changed shape on it. The same shape it had had when she saidI have newsat the top of the call.
"What?"
I hadn't meant thewhatto come out like that. It had come out like a man bracing.
"He's good. He's a lawyer. He's going to fight it. He's going to make this take a year if he can, and he's going to make every part of it brutal for Tessa. The assault charges are the easiest part. The harder part—the stalking, the order violation, the buried records—that's harder to prove without him admitting to a pattern."
"Okay."
I had been holding the phone too tightly. I adjusted my grip without thinking. My hand ached.
"There's a way to shortcut it. If we can get him on tape saying what he did, in his own words, the case collapses inside a month."
I was quiet for a beat.
My ribs had a fresh opinion about the way I had been standing. I shifted my weight without registering it until Sam's hand touched my back. A steady palm. No pressure. Just present.
"What are you asking?"
"I'm not asking. I'm telling you what's on the table. Tessa would have to call him. Set a meeting. Wear a wire. Get him to talk."
I heard the wordwireland in my chest before I heard the rest of the sentence.
"Miranda."
"I know." Her voice had gone quiet on it. The lawyer's voice with a person inside it.
"You're asking her to be in a room with him."
My voice came out even. I didn't know how I had managed even.
"I'm telling you what would end this fastest."
I looked through the kitchen doorway into the front room.
Tessa had her hand on the side of Noah's head. He was asleep against her chest. Her eyes were closed. Carol had a blanket over the two of them. The lamp threw a soft circle that didn't quite reach Tessa's face.
Eight months of running.
A bag in a bakery wall. A boy who had learned to wait at windows. A woman who had taught herself not to flinch.
A wire.
"Let me think about it."
"Cole. It's not your decision." Her voice had gone firm again. She had moved back into the lawyer on purpose.
"I know it's not."
I did. I had known it the moment Miranda said the word.
She waited. She knew when to let a silence work for her.
"Talk to her."
