Page 57 of Babe's Bounty

“Min and I were considering the prospects. One might be a plant. They have one prospect who is always inside the clubhouse, and he’s not monitored as closely as the others.” I tell them about Sammy and about his connection to the church where Jordan was holding the girls.

“I’ll let Stone know to check into him,” Dante says, before moving the conversation along.

EPILOGUE: MIN

After Babe leaves, I turn to Caitlin. “How is Crossroads doing? Are you fully operational now?” I knew they’d planned the grand opening for the day we left for Chicago.

She grimaces. “No, not yet. We had to postpone it. We rescheduled it for next Monday.”

“What happened?”

“My lead therapist, Athena, had some family problems she had to deal with. She was under so much stress that I offered to postpone the opening. That didn’t stop us from taking in families. We have two families in residence.”

“How is the grand opening going to work?” I ask her. “Isn’t secrecy the whole point of Crossroads?”

Caitlin giggles. “It’s not a grand opening for the public. That would be stupid. We’re inviting people who most often cross paths with victims. Cops, medical personnel, EMTs, teachers, and therapists. We’re showing them what we offer at Crossroads so they can direct those who need our services to us. I had Smoke and Byte vet every person before we issued them an invitation.”

“That makes sense.”

“I was hoping to talk to you about Crossroads. Would you consider teaching a self-defense class to the women and girls? Maybe you or your dad could teach the men and boys? We have a man staying with us with his young son. His wife is an abusive drunk. He stuck it out until she went after the boy. He mentioned wishing he knew how to take her down without hurting her.”

I consider her request and nod in agreement. “I can teach a class. Have to work it around the bounty hunting business. My dad will probably be onboard as well. That’s a good idea about offering self-defense courses for abused men. The situation isn’t as rare as we think.”

My phone ringing interrupts our discussion. Glancing at the display, I moan.

“Detective Schwartz. What can I do for you?” Evie gestures for me to put it on speaker.

“I need you to come down to the station.”

“Why?”

“We found the office building. Someone burned it to the ground. There were four bodies inside. The ME identified one as Billings. The other is Blankenship. We’re still working on the other two. I need you to come down to the station to make another statement.”

“I can’t. Babe and I returned to San Diego.”

Schwartz sucks in a breath. “Why the fuck did you leave town? This doesn’t look good. Did you kill those men?”

“Detective Schwartz, I gave you my statement. I killed Billings in self-defense before I helped the girls escape. I didn’t see anyone else. Although, like Thea said, there was another SUV arriving as we were leaving. Maybe they killed Blankenship and set the fire to destroy the evidence.”

“Maybe. It’s a plausible scenario,” Schwartz says. I can tell he doesn’t believe me, so I wait for his next move. “I need you back in Chicago.”

“Detective Schwartz, this is Evie Buchanan. I’m Ms. Yan’s attorney. Do you have probable cause to ask her to return to Chicago? If you want another statement, we can do it over a secure link. But unless you plan to charge my client with a crime, then you can’t compel her to return to Chicago.”

“No, I’m not ready to charge her. But that could change soon.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“The DA is considering charging you with the murder of Detective Noah Billings.”

“What? Why? It was self-defense and Billings was a fugitive.”

“That’s the problem. There’s no record of Billings being a fugitive.”

My mouth gapes open at this information and I see the look of concern on Evie’s face. This can’t be good. Why didn’t the police list Billings as a fugitive along with three men he helped escape? Was the police department covering for one of their own? I’m lost in thought and don’t realize someone else has joined us at the table until I hear Shield speaking.

“What’s going on?” He asks. Evie and Schwartz explain the situation to him, which has Shield yanking out his phone. “Hold on.” He steps away from us as he talks to someone on the other end. When he returns, he gives Evie a nod while putting his hand on my shoulder. “I just talked with my lieutenant. He assured me that the department planned to file charges against Billings. They had to deal with the union rep first.”

“Okay, I can stall on my end. May need to have a video call with Ms. Yan and her lawyer.”