Chasing Justice

Chapter Fourteen



“Bobby, I know I’m the last person in the world you want to talk to right now, but I need you to come to my house. It’s important.” Piper skipped the niceties; she needed to get to Bobby before that cop did.

“Piper, I think we were both pretty clear that day. If you didn’t want my help I wasn’t going to let you put people I care about in danger.” Bobby’s voice was quiet and she heard the noise of the diner crowd in the background.

“I’m not the one putting Jules and Betty in danger, you are. I know you’re across the street at the diner eating that same old breakfast. Pay your bill and get over here.” Piper hung up the phone and tossed it onto the kitchen counter. It was so nice to hear Bobby’s voice again even though the circumstances were tense.

Fifteen minutes passed before she heard a knock on her door. She looked through the peephole and saw Bobby standing there, looking annoyed and impatient. She knew that nothing about this conversation was going to be easy, but what choice did she have?

She opened the door and waved Bobby in, then headed for the living room without speaking. She hadn’t had time to change her clothes, put on any makeup or even tidy up her house. This wasn’t how she had wanted her reunion with Bobby to go. When she dreamed about it at night it always involved him having some kind of injury leading to memory loss that allowed them to start fresh and move on from all the friction that had grown between them.

“I’ve only got a half hour. I have to get to work. So in the interest of time, let’s cut through all the bullshit and figure out if this conversation is going to go anywhere.” Bobby only took two steps inside the house and folded his arms across his chest in childish resistance.

“Fine, I won’t mince words. Have you been digging around for information on Judge Lions since the last time we spoke?” Piper didn’t care if he didn’t want to come in. She wasn’t going to stand in the entryway and have this conversation. If he wanted to know more he’d have to at least stand in the living room with her.



“I don’t really see how that’s any of your business. I don’t know anything about you, remember? For all I know you’re in on whatever scheme he’s running and you’re pumping me for information. If you can’t prove to me that you’re worthy of my trust then nothing you say is going to mean anything. Even if you pull that crap about Jules and Betty being in danger, I’ll chalk it up to one of your lies.” Bobby had indeed followed her to the living room but stopped in the doorway. His stubbornness was so frustrating. She had hoped enough time had passed to soften him. Instead it seemed to have made him more scornful toward her.

“So even though Betty and Jules are in danger, and I have important information about that, you don’t want to hear it unless I’m willing to dredge up everything I really am. I have to prove to you that I’m not some drifter con artist who changes her identity to uphold her charade?” The question was full of sarcasm and petulance. The idea of having to bare herself to him, to dig up parts of her past that she had intentionally buried to keep herself sane and safe, made her so angry. She was only trying to help him. Why couldn’t he accept that and let her keep her secrets hidden where they belonged?

“Yes, that’s it exactly,” he replied curtly. He wanted to know that she was capable of telling the truth, of letting him in. If she could do that, then he’d be willing to hear her out.

“You have no idea what you’re asking of me, and you’re completely minimizing the impact it will have, but I don’t care because Betty and Jules are in danger, and that’s all that matters. If you’re juvenile enough to think knowing the real me makes a difference then I’ll appease you, even if it crushes me to talk about it. But if I’m doing this it’s not going to be while you have one hand on the door ready to leave. If you want my story, you’re going to get all of it, and you’re going to sit here with me and listen. Also, this never leaves this room. What I tell you about me is my story to tell, not yours.” Piper sat down on the couch and Bobby came and joined her. He had a look on his face like he had won something, something he wasn’t really sure he wanted anymore.

“I’m not trying to minimize this, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to have to dredge up everything about your past just for my entertainment. I want to believe that I can trust you, but you need to show me I’m not making a mistake by doing so. I swear, I won’t tell anyone what you tell me here today.” Bobby wanted to hold her hand, to brush the loose strands of hair out of her face. She looked so tired, so alone. He wanted to hold her and forget all of this, but it was too late now. He needed her to come through for him.

“Promise me that you’ll take what I say about the judge seriously and that you’ll heed my advice. If you guarantee me that then I’ll tell you everything you want to know about me. But remember, Bobby, this is a bell you can’t unring. Once you know where I come from and what I’ve done chances are everything between us will change.” She swallowed hard and could barely believe she was about to share the dysfunctional narrative of her upbringing with Bobby. He nodded in agreement, and she took in a deep breath and tried to start from the beginning.

“My name, my real name, is Isabella Lawson. I haven’t said that name out loud in two years. Can you imagine what it’s like to not be able to say your own name, like it’s a curse word? My father was Roberto Lee Lawson, my mother, Carolina Murphy. They never married. I was what you would call an accident, but that would be a nice way of saying it. I found out as I grew up I was a mistake, a pregnancy that went undetected too long to be erased by an abortion. My parents were neglectful, sadistic drug addicts who spent their entire lives dabbling in one crime or another. My mother would sell her body in order to bankroll her next fix. My father would find out, and after partaking in half of her score, would violently beat her. I was in school only frequently enough to pass my classes and fly under the radar. Half the kids there should have been taken from their parents. The system wasn’t equipped to deal with every bruised child who looked a little hungry. I spent days locked in my room as my parents binged on drugs and threw rowdy parties. I went without eating, without having a bathroom to use. My childhood was one horrific moment after another. The ironic thing is, that’s not even why I’m here. That’s not why I changed my name. It isn’t even the darkest part of my life, and I can already feel you looking at me differently.” Piper stared straight ahead as she spoke. Bobby wanted to put his arm around her and pull her up against him but he hesitated.

“When I was twenty years old, and on the verge of getting the hell out of that place, my mother got arrested again for prostitution. Living in the projects is miserably oppressive at times, but I saw plenty of people succeed. My parents just weren’t those people. They were swallowed up by it. After that last arrest my mom was locked up for ninety days. She came out completely sober, and you know the old cliché—she had found God. She told me we were leaving, to pack up whatever I could before my father got home because we were getting out of there. The clergyman in the prison had found us a shelter sixty miles away and had arranged a ride for us. She told me she was tired of protecting my father. At the time I had no idea what she meant. It seemed like my father was doing just fine taking care of himself. It was the two of us that needed protection. I was so happy to be leaving that place, and my mother was like a new person. She got a job at the mall next to the shelter. A few months later we transitioned from the shelter to a place of our own” Piper gulped back the lump in her throat.

“That was the closest to normalcy and contentment I had ever experienced. We didn’t have to worry about my father’s beatings or ripped-off drug dealers coming to our house on a vendetta. I thought I finally had a chance at a real life. We lived that way for twenty-one months and twelve days.” Piper wanted to look over and see what type of expression Bobby had on his face. Was he horrified? Sad? Maybe he didn’t believe her at all. Either way she couldn’t bring herself to turn toward him. She carried on with her story.

“Then my mother came home one night from work high out of her mind. She had fallen off the wagon. I had suspected it for a while, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. She told me she had made a mistake, that in a moment of weakness she had called my father and told him where we were. She said he was furious and that we’d need to leave as soon as possible before he came to get us. I couldn’t believe after all this time, after all the hard work, my mother would be so stupid and selfish. We packed our duffle bags and gathered up every dollar we had in the apartment, pulling even the loose change from the couch cushions. It didn’t matter though, we weren’t fast enough. There was a loud thumping on our door, and I heard my father’s voice booming in the hallway. I thought we’d get the beating of a lifetime and have no choice but to return back home with him. Unfortunately, it was worse than that.”

There were warm tears rolling down Piper’s cheeks now. She could feel them forging itchy paths on her face, but she didn’t wipe them away. If Bobby was going to insist on hearing this then he could deal with the consequences of what it did to her.

“My mother finally opened the door and without a word my father cocked his fist back and punched her across the face. She fell backward onto the floor and was disorientated. I pressed myself up against the living room wall, feeling like a helpless child again. I thought about grabbing a knife from the kitchen or the baseball bat from under my mother’s bed, but my father was too strong and too fast for me to take such a chance. I had resolved to endure the thrashing and beg for mercy as my mother was doing on the floor. But my father changed the game, he pulled a large metal spike from his jacket, and my mom shrieked in a way I had never heard before. She begged him not to do it, she begged him to let her live. I didn’t know it then, but my mother knew exactly what my father was about to do. He struck her again in the face with his fist and then pinned her down by sitting on her stomach, his back to her face so that he could hold down her legs. He raised the spike over his head and plunged it into her thigh. He yanked it back out and blood, an ungodly amount of blood, poured out of her. I did nothing. I didn’t scream or run over to her or try to stop him.” Piper choked back her quivering voice.

“I stood, still pressed against the wall, praying he would forget I was there. When my mother stopped moving and the blood had stopped spurting from her wound, my father pulled a switchblade that was clipped to his belt. I couldn’t see what he was doing from where I stood, but whatever it was took precision. When he stood up, I begged him to let me go. I promised that I wouldn’t tell anyone. He didn’t blink, he didn’t speak. He walked slowly up to me, hit me in the face, and shoved me to the ground. He was about to pin me down when we both heard the sound of sirens approaching. I thought, he’d stop and run. But he didn’t. The sirens had distracted him but not stopped him. I decided in that moment, that I didn’t want to die that way. I didn’t want to be someone who didn’t fight back. As he tried to pin me down the sirens grew closer, and he finally just raised his arm up, spike in hand, and plunged it into my leg as I tried to twist away from him. I was pulling at his hair and clawing at his back. Finally, he spun around, grabbed my hair, and slammed my head into the floor, knocking me out.” Piper might have been furious at Bobby for forcing her to tell this story, but there was something cathartic in saying the words out loud, about admitting what had happened to her.

“There is a lot more to this story, Bobby, but I know you need to get to work and it’s important that I tell you the information I have.”

“I don’t need to go to work. I have the afternoon shift today. I was being a jerk. I’ve got time and I want to listen. I’m sorry this is so painful for you, but I promise none of this changes how I feel about you,” Bobby said, wiping a tear from Piper’s warm red cheek. It felt so good to touch her again.

“That’s easy to say, Bobby, but there are things I still can’t forgive myself for. Don’t assume you’ll be able to look past it,” she said, pulling away from him slightly. “I don’t want to stay here anymore. Can we please get in your truck and go for a ride? I don’t want to talk about it here.” Piper stood up and ran her fingers through her hair pulling the loose pieces away from her face and tying them back into a messy bun. She knew her lack of sleep, lack of makeup, and overall ragged appearance should have kept her from leaving the apartment, but all she wanted was to be riding in the passenger seat of Bobby’s truck watching the world zip by. Most people would assume that the memory of nearly being killed and watching your mother take her last breath, would be the hardest thing to reminisce about, but really it’s what happened next that Piper struggled with the most.

Bobby and Piper climbed into his truck, and he started to drive with no real direction in mind. Piper waited until they were out-of-town and heading down a long stretch of open road before she started to speak again.

“The police came and stopped my bleeding just in time. My father had fled, and, because I wasn’t conscious, they had no leads to start hunting him down. When I woke up in the hospital there was a woman sitting next to me.” Piper conjured up the memory of that haunting and familiar face she had awoken to. She remembered she had short jet-black hair and the darkest eyes she’d ever seen. Her skin was a rich dark espresso.

“I remember thinking how beautiful and strong she looked. She was dressed in a perfectly tailored gray suit, and she smelled like peppermint. I thought for a minute that maybe I was dead and she was some kind of spirit. But I realized quickly I was alive and that life was about to get much harder for me. The woman told me her name was Special Agent Lydia Carlson of the FBI. She was sorry to inform me that my mother had not survived the brutal attack in our apartment but that, miraculously, I had. She told me she knew I was tired, and this was not an ideal time to have to rehash the horrific details, but time was of the essence.

“I wanted to speak but my mouth and throat were so dry, and Special Agent Carlson kept talking and talking, hardly allowing an opportunity for me to speak even if I could. Finally she asked me a question that made no sense to me. She inquired if I had ever heard of the Railway Killer? I hadn’t, so I shook my head no. She continued on, telling me that over the last nineteen years the Railway Killer had murdered twenty-two women with the same MO each time. Agent Carlson had been part of the task force assigned to catch him for over ten of those years. They had been waiting for a break in the case, and now they finally had one, she said.

“I couldn’t understand what she was talking about, what this had to do with my mother and me. As she continued to speak the fog lifted and everything became painfully clear. She told me the Railway Killer targeted young women. He utilized brute force and the element of surprise. He would pin them down and drive a railroad spike into their femoral artery, severing it, causing massive blood loss and eventual death. Then he would carve a number into their leg that corresponded to how many women he had killed before them. ‘Your mother had the number twenty-two carved into her leg, and you have the number twenty-three. You are the only surviving victim of a man I have spent a decade hunting. Anything you can tell me will help bring him to justice,’ Agent Carlson said.

“You would think I would have sat up in bed and cried out that not only did I have details that would help the case, but I knew the name of the man they were searching for.” This was the hardest part for Piper, reliving this dark moment of her past was like slicing open an old wound. But she had gone too far to stop now.

“That’s what any rational person would have done in that situation, but instead I lay there, silent. After nearly an hour had passed and she had made her case in every way possible, she left and told me she’d be back the following day and we could talk then. She did come back, every day for five weeks, and I never spoke a word to her. She would tell me how they could keep me safe, how they had reported in the news that I was dead in order to protect me from any more harm. She’d fluctuate between empathy and frustration, but nothing would make me speak. I didn’t want to be the daughter of a serial killer, or the victim of one. I wanted to rewind my life to when things had started to feel right, to when my mom was alive and sober. I knew the moment I told Agent Carlson that my father was the Railway Killer, I could never take it back.”

Piper sobbed with her hands covering her face and her head pressed against the passenger window. She had never admitted her horrible mistake to anyone, let alone someone whose opinion she valued so much. Even if Bobby could overlook the dysfunction of her roots, she found it hard to believe he could move past her not coming clean to Agent Carlson. She assumed he would see it the way she did, as a selfish attempt at self-preservation.

“Piper, you were in shock. You had gone through a horrible event, had nearly been killed, and had watched your mother die. Any officer knows that victims need time. Even when you’re anxious to solve a case, you can’t do it at the expense of the victim.” Bobby reached across the truck and tried to calm Piper by rubbing her shoulder. It killed him to see her fall apart like this.

“You don’t understand. I wasn’t traumatized over the death of my mother. I was sorry she was dead, but she was equally as sadistic and violent toward me as my father had been. She wasn’t my advocate or my protector. Even when we moved on and tried to piece our lives together, we barely spoke. We mostly just coexisted. I think, to her, I was a reminder of a past she wanted to forget. To me she was an enemy I couldn’t forgive. She called my father that day, she did drugs, and she told him where we were. I believe my mother covered up his crimes for years. I don’t think anyone deserves to die that way, but that wasn’t what was keeping me quiet. I didn’t want to deal with the spectacle that would come from telling the truth. I didn’t want my parents stealing any more life from me than they already had, and in that self-absorbed decision I was a part of something that I will carry around with me for the rest of my life.

After my recovery, when on the verge of being released from the hospital, Agent Carlson came storming into my hospital room and threw a handful of pictures onto my bed. They were crime scene photos, and I remember turning away at the sight of a dead girl sprawled out in a puddle of blood. Agent Carlson put her face close to my ear and hissed, ‘Delanie Morrison, a twenty-one-year-old waitress, was murdered last night on her way home from work.’ She pointed to a picture of the girl’s thigh, which had the number twenty-four carved into it. ‘Every number after twenty-three is more blood on your hands,’ she told me.” Piper’s eyes were spilling over with guilt and tears.

“She was right, I could have prevented that murder and because I didn’t, made me just as guilty as my father. That idea destroyed me.” Remembering the day she had found out about Delanie was harder for Piper than the day she had almost died. She had never felt more alone, more immoral and guilty in her entire life. She felt the air in her lungs turning to gravel. She wanted to pull open the door of the truck and jump out. She begged Bobby to pull over.

When the truck came to a stop in a small clearing on the side of a quiet stretch of road, Piper pushed the door open and jumped out, gasping for air. Bobby ran around the truck to try to calm her in any way he could. What she did next took him completely by surprise.

Piper unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down slightly on one side, exposing her upper thigh. Bobby’s heart broke at the sight of a large, circular raised scar from the number twenty-three carved in her leg. He had asked for the truth and assumed it would be murky and tainted in some way. But he never imagined anything like this.

“I could have stopped him, but instead I kept my mouth shut. After I saw those pictures of Delanie I told Agent Carlson everything. I promised to testify against my father and do anything I could to make sure he was brought to justice. It didn’t matter though, nothing would bring back Delaine, give her parents back their child.” Piper was frantic and her words were hardly coherent.

Bobby came to her slowly. He took her hand from the top of her jeans brought it to his mouth and kissed it. He touched the raised skin of her scar and stared into her eyes. “That was not your fault. What Carlson did was a technique to get you to give her what she needed. They literally train you on this stuff, on getting victims to talk. Your father was the murderer. The blood is on his hands, not yours. The important thing is that you told her everything you knew and they were able to catch him. You did the right thing, and it’s understandable that it took you a little time to process it all.”

“You don’t get it! I’m here in North Carolina because they haven’t caught him. I waited too long, and he had time to run. Someone leaked to the press there was a break in the case and they were pursuing a person of interest due to an eyewitness ready to testify. He is one of the most wanted men in America and no one can seem to find him. I was put in witness protection until he’s apprehended, and I can be called to testify against him. He’s still out there.”



Piper wrapped her arms around Bobby’s waist and rested her head on his chest. Carrying this burden alone for the last two years had been suffocating. Knowing she could say this all aloud and someone would still be there to hold her was liberating, even if the rehashing of her mistake was painful.

“Piper, I’m so sorry that you had to go through all that, and you’ve spent all this time blaming yourself. You’re not alone in this. I’m still here, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry I doubted you, but I’m glad you told me. Living with that burden by yourself is too much. I’m here to listen to whatever you want to tell me.” Bobby squeezed her tighter and then crouched to lower himself to her eye level. She was still breathing erratically through her tears, and as much as he wanted to kiss her, he didn’t think this was appropriate. Piper needed his support, and he didn’t want any of it to be clouded by passion.

Piper let herself melt into him for a moment before she spoke. “I need you to hear what I have to say about Judge Lions. It’s important, and I’m not sure I can talk much more about my past right now.” Piper wiped at her cheeks and drew a deep, composing breath.

“All right, if you’re sure you’re up to talking about it then go ahead. But can we get back in the truck? It’s getting cold out here and I don’t want you getting sick.” Bobby walked over and opened her door. As she walked by him to hop in, he grabbed her elbow and spun her gently back around toward him, hugging her one more time before the seats in his truck would force space between them.

Piper wasn’t sure exactly how to start this difficult conversation, but she dove in. “I saw something in the alley behind my house one day. I was feeling so lost, school hadn’t panned out, and this seemed like a sign. Judge Lions was assaulting a young girl. I overheard enough of what he was saying to learn he was paying her to have sex with him. At first I didn’t know what to do or who to tell. I felt like the whole system had failed me, and everything I had learned in school led me to believe there was no way a man like Judge Lions would be held accountable for his actions. I started to concoct a plan to take down the judge without having to go through the normal channels I knew wouldn’t work. I saw that girl bleeding in the alley, and all I could think was that I wasn’t going to let someone else get hurt or killed when there might be something I could do about it. I’ve spent the last couple of months slowly gathering information. Well, that search led me to a mill this morning where I was listening in on a meeting between the judge and who I thought would be Christian Donavan.” Piper hadn’t fully recovered from telling her own story. She felt like there was no way she had the emotional energy to tell Bobby what she knew about Stan’s death, but she had no choice.

Bobby cut in, shocked by the thought of her solo surveillance. “Wait, what do you mean you were listening in on a meeting? Like you were hiding in this mill while the judge and Christian Donavan were there? Please tell me sometime in your life you’ve had some training or experience to prepare you for this. Maybe that’s part of the story you haven’t shared with me yet?”

“No,” Piper continued. “And I know that sounds crazy. I’ve mostly been taking it all really slow, thinking through my next move. The meeting this morning was a little impromptu, and I had to make a decision whether or not to go. I’m glad I did though. The person meeting with the judge wasn’t Christian, he was a cop. I need to know, Bobby, if and why you’ve been digging into Judge Lions’s business, because this cop was on to you.”

“I have been,” Bobby answered shocked at her knowledge of his recent activities. “I started a few weeks ago. I thought if you were involved in something this is how I would find out, and if you were in trouble, this is how I’d protect you. I thought if I could figure out what was going on I’d be able to get ahead of this, ahead of you.” He wanted her to know that even though they hadn’t been speaking he was still thinking of her every moment they’d been apart the last couple of months.

“Well whoever you showed the pictures of the judge to is the cop who was at that meeting today. They were talking about how they were going to deal with the situation, deal with you. They decided that hitting you where it hurts would be their best bet to get you to back off. That meant making you realize Betty and Jules were in danger.” Piper was half hoping that Bobby would say he hadn’t shown the pictures to anyone. She was holding out hope that maybe the judge and the cop were talking about someone else, although her logic told her that was highly unlikely.

“That’s not possible. I only showed the pictures to Rylie. There’s no way he’s on the take. He’s one of the most respected guys on the force, and he was a good friend of Stan’s. He wouldn’t get involved with anything that put them in danger. Are you sure you heard all this right?” Bobby asked in disbelief.

The next piece of information would be more of a blow than finding out someone respected was not worthy of it, and Piper was not looking forward to delivering the news. “The judge called the man Red. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but I can assure you, it was clear to me that this man knew you. It was also clear he knew Stan very well too.”



“Yes, that’s Rylie’s nickname. I can’t believe he’d be mixed up in all this. Maybe it’s because he’s so close to retirement. They’re messing with pensions so much, maybe he needed the money.” Bobby shook his head as he searched for any plausible reason why a cop like Rylie would go against the badge like this.

“Bobby, Rylie is going to come to you and try to convince you to back off this. It’s going to be your last out before they take more drastic measures. You need to go along with that. Tell him you’ve been thinking about it, and you don’t need another mark against you like Manton. Give him the pictures and tell him you trust him to do whatever he thinks is best with them. That’s the only way to keep everyone safe.” She was praying he’d agree and make this easy.

“I will, because there’s no way I’m putting the girls at risk over this. He was there for Manton so he’ll understand why I wouldn’t want any more attention on me right now,” Bobby said, trying to convince himself this was the right thing to do.

“There’s more to the story here, Bobby. Rylie was there for the takedown on Manton because he was part of it. The Donavans were supposed to be there that day. Rylie set you up to protect them. He made sure Manton got off the hook so he wouldn’t flip on them. I hate to say this and I haven’t really thought of the right way yet, but there is something else I need to tell you. Something worse.” Piper bit at her fingernail as she tried to find the right words. She was about to stomp on Bobby’s chest, crushing him in a way he probably didn’t believe possible. As much as she wanted him to know the truth, she wished she could protect him from it.

“Tell me,” he said, reaching across and taking her hand, stopping her from ravaging her fingernails. “I don’t see how it can get much worse.”

“I need to know that you’ll handle this right. This corruption is not limited to the judge and Rylie, it runs deep, and we have no idea who we can trust. So when I tell you this I need you to think through all the consequences of any action you take and realize at the end of the day you need to protect the people you care about first and foremost.” Piper paused waiting for him to agree to her terms. He nodded his head impatiently. “The reason they want to target Jules and Betty rather than just take you out is because killing a police officer isn’t as easy as it was ten years ago. Ten years ago the judge and Rylie had more people on the inside willing to help in the cover-up. There wasn’t as much technology, times have changed. So ten years ago they were able to lure a police officer into an abandoned building and shoot him, passing it off as a random robbery gone wrong. They got away with it ten years ago when they killed Stan for digging around in their business and getting too close to the truth. Bobby, Rylie and Judge Lions killed Stan. I don’t know which one of them pulled the trigger, but I know they orchestrated it and covered it up.”

Piper was crying again though she wasn’t sure why. She had never met Stan, but she felt like she had gotten to know him through his family, and the thought of him being betrayed by people he trusted sickened her.

Bobby tightened his hands over the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. Piper could see him grinding his teeth as he processed the new information.

He sat silently for several minutes. Piper kept wondering if she should say something, anything— but nothing she came up with sounded right in her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but Bobby had beaten her to it. “Betty was right all these years,” he whispered. “I’ve been telling her over and over again that she was crazy, that if there were some kind of conspiracy it would have been uncovered by now. Everything I’ve ever believed about the sanctity of the shield and due process means nothing. If the system can’t flush out the men who killed a cop—a great cop—in ten years, then what the hell are we all doing every day? I need to do something about this. They can’t continue to live above the law.” He punched his fist into the steering wheel and the horn blasted, sending Piper jumping in her seat.

“I have a plan,” Piper said, hoping Bobby’s resentment against Rylie would be enough to sway him. She needed him to ignore his normal instinct to obey the law and let her continue with her explanation without argument. “Originally I was only going to target the judge, but after I heard about Stan this morning I came up with a way to include Rylie and even Christian Donavan in all of it. I want you to know that I have this all under control. As long as you do your part with Rylie and convince him you’re not interested in the judge anymore, then I’ll take care of the rest. The less you know the better.”

“Piper, do you have a gun or another way to protect yourself when you get caught doing surveillance on these guys? Have you ever even fired a weapon? You’re intentions are great, Piper, but you aren’t qualified to do any more of this on your own. Tell me what you’re planning, and I can help.” Bobby’s brain had kicked into high gear as he processed all Piper was telling him. Maybe Stan’s way of handling things was admirable, but it also got him killed. If Piper hadn’t come to him this morning with this information he unknowingly would have put Betty and Jules in danger. He might not think Piper was qualified, but she was certainly doing everything right so far.



Piper continued, “Your instincts are going to tell you to shoot this plan down, so try to fight that. Remember your other options. You can drive your truck to Rylie’s house right now and kill him in cold blood, spending the rest of your life in jail. Or you can take the information you do have, most of which is hearsay, and report it, crossing your fingers and hoping whoever you confide in doesn’t have a hidden alliance of some sort. You’d spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder and worrying that you’ve endangered people you love.”

Piper thought a preemptive strike against Bobby’s possible points of contention would be her best approach. “Knowing all that, my plan shouldn’t sound so bad. I haven’t worked out all the details yet but I’ll give you the basic outline. The judge is a pedophile. He engages in sexual activity with underage girls. That doesn’t matter to the men he’s aligned with. If the judge was more inclined to engage in this type of behavior with underage boys, this may change some minds. But I’m not willing to take a chance on maybe swaying someone against an association with the judge, so I plan to up the ante. Christian Donavan has a young son who attends Millersville West Academy. I intend to plant evidence that convinces Christian the judge is targeting his son as his next victim. There is no way Christian will continue any type of affiliation with the judge under those circumstances, leaving him vulnerable and with limited protection.”

Bobby shook his head. His mouth was agape as he searched for the right words. Piper had hoped he was on the verge of calling her a genius, or that his next question would be about how he could help, but as he started to speak she knew she had further persuading to do. “You think he’s going to simply discontinue his affiliation with the judge? Christian isn’t an ‘I’m taking my ball and going home’ kind of guy. We’ll be pulling the judge’s bloated body out of the river within twenty-four hours of finding that evidence. Do you really think you’re prepared to cope with what part you’re going to play in that? I know it’s not going to sit right with me, not to mention the legal implications if it comes back on us. And how does this tie in Rylie with Christian?”

Well, he didn’t say no outright, so Piper felt like that was a start. She had been pretty sure what she was doing could very well result in the judge’s death at the hands of Christian, but she didn’t think that was a good starting point for attempting to win Bobby over.



“It’s chess, Bobby. All I’m doing is setting up the pieces. They’re the ones playing the game. If Christian wants to kill the judge, then that’s on him, not me. As far as taking the other two down, think of how advantageous it will be to know a murder will be committed before it happens. Think of how easy it will be to gather crucial evidence when you know ahead of time both the victim and the murderer. Once Christian believes his son is in danger, I’m confident he’ll seek some form of revenge. If we keep eyes and ears on him we’ll be there to either catch him in the act or collect everything we need for an irrefutable slam-dunk case. I overheard in today’s meeting there was bad blood between Christian and Rylie. We give Christian the opportunity to flip on Rylie. Christian is a smart guy. He’d be covering his bases and have some type of blackmail or evidence against Rylie in his back pocket in case he ever needs it.” This was the first time Piper had talked out loud about anything regarding the judge. It was exhilarating, yet still strange, to think how far she had come all on her own.

“You’d be comfortable with giving a plea deal to a guy like Christian?” Bobby had to admit Piper had some solid ideas and, implemented correctly, there was a chance all of it could work. Whether or not they could live with themselves when all this was over was a different story.

“A plea deal for killing a man I already want dead? Yes, I think I can live with that,” Piper said, immediately regretting the admission, knowing it made her sound cold. “As much as I think Christian probably deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail, he didn’t conspire to kill Stan. Christian would have barely been out of high school back then. I thought I was doing this because I wanted a man like the judge to be held accountable for his crimes against that young girl. I thought it was shameful to live above the law and that his abuse of power needed to end. Now, it’s also about what they did to Stan, what they took from Jules and Betty all because of money and influence. Christian is good collateral damage, but I want to see the judge and Rylie pay for what they’ve done.”

Piper knew this wasn’t how Bobby would want to handle any of this. Vengeance wasn’t as appealing to him as straightforward legal justice, but she took his allowing her the opportunity to speak as a good sign.

Bobby looked hesitant. “There has to be a way we can do this without risking the judge’s life. I want him held accountable, but I’m not sure how I’ll sleep at night if I know we put into motion actions that led to his death. I need time to think about it. For now, I’ll do my part with Rylie today and let him know I’m not moving forward with the pursuit of the judge.”

Bobby tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and bit his lip. This was a position he thought he’d never find himself in. When faced with moral dilemmas there always seemed to be a clear right and wrong, but Piper was making him think maybe there had to be more options than that. Maybe rules are important, but when they stop working you have to create your own in order to stay one step ahead of dangerous people.