Page 115 of Cain

I turned to him, wondering if he could see my heart in my eyes right then.

“So, surprises… yes or no?” he asked, his twitching lips telling me he knew exactly how thrilled I was.

“Yes. All the surprises,” I said, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips.

Cain - 2.5 weeks

That was how long it took.

Two weeks.

For anyone in Perry’s life to miss him enough to feel the need to file a missing person’s report.

Then a few more days for the cops to make their way back to the motel—which we kept as Georgie’s official residence. We even spent some nights there when all the partying at the club started to become a little grating.

But the cops had shown up when I’d left to go pick up breakfast. Which, honestly, worked out for the best. We didn’t need the law to be suspicious about her moving on so quickly.

I’d been informed about the visit thanks to the motel’s personal security system—Janet and Jill.

When I’d made it back with the bagels, I sat at their picnic table with Jill as Janet leaned in her doorway, munching on an egg bagel. Both of them wondered aloud what it was all about. While I played dumb, since we damn sure weren’t bringing in some true crime podcasters in on a very real murder in their immediate vicinity.

About half an hour after I arrived there, the cops made their way down the steps.

“Everything alright, detective?” Janet called, making the man glance over.

“Everything’s fine, ma’am.”

He shot me a pinched-brow look but said nothing as he got in the car and drove off.

“I’m going to go check on her,” I told the sisters, trying not to sound as panicked as I felt as I grabbed the bagels and made my way to Georgie’s room.

She was on the bed, flat against the mattress, a hand to her heart.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, exhaling hard as she folded up. “I knew that was coming, but it still felt like it came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah. How’d it go?”

“Good. He already understood, obviously, that we had separated. I think he even talked to his lawyer because of some of the things he said about irreconcilable differences and prenups. So I’m hoping he knows I asked for nothing in the divorce. That I had no motivation to do anything to Perry.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking really works in our favor here. Did he ask anything specific?”

“Just when I’d last seen him—which was at the lawyer’s office. I’m sure my lawyer will back me up there. He asked me about Perry’s mental state. About his friends. About his favorite places to visit. I get the feeling they didn’t find the car yet.”

I’d driven past Redemption on my way to get the bagels. It’d still been parked there. It wouldn’t be long now that the local beat cops knew what to be on the lookout for.

Then, hopefully, they would find the connection between Fred and Perry and fixate on that. Which was a much juicier case than his estranged wife with no motive making him disappear.

It would also work in our favor that it seemed like Jase and his brothers’ little visit to Fred had made the guy pack up shop and flee town.

If the cops found the link to Fred and then Fred’s business, they were going to imagine that Perry’s disappearance had to do with loan sharking and not his marriage falling apart.

It would be a few weeks still, maybe even months, but then Gracie’s lawyer could still push through with the divorce. And within a year, she should be legally free.

It was too early to say this kind of thing out loud, but once she was divorced, I planned to lock her down myself.

That way, we could get the house, could start working on it. Get her a studio. Build the life we both wanted.