That took Holly aback. “The phone call you mentioned. It was Chuck Otterman?”
“I recognized his voice.” He repeated the brief conversation. “He said there was worse coming my way, and I take that threat seriously. Everything else he’s done has been a sick warning. The park video, trashing Georgia’s room, and—”
“Trashing her room?”
“Joe, we can’t explain it all now,” he said impatiently. “Bottom line, Neal Lester, for reasons of his own, and, in part, thanks to you, is trying to pin all this on me.”
“All I did was ask—”
“I know what you asked, and it was bullshit. But Neal has run with it. I slipped away tonight, but if he finds me, he can hold me for forty-eight hours before charging me, and if I’m in lockup, I can’t protect Georgia, and I go a little crazy when I think of Otterman getting near her. Touching her.”
“This threat you say he issued—”
“I don’t say it, he did it.”
“Okay, but he didn’t mention Georgia.”
“Dammit, Joe, are you willing to risk her life just to win an argument with me?”
“Don’t lay any of this on me,” the older man shouted back. “It’s a mess of your own making.”
Crawford closed his eyes briefly, and when he reopened them, they were bright with an intensity of feeling. “You gotta know how hard it is for me to come here and ask you for a goddamn thing, but you must put our quarrel aside and get Georgia out of here.” The older man opened his mouth to speak, but Crawford headed him off. “And it’s gotta be now.”
Holly divided a look between the two adversaries, still facing off, each as unbending as the other. Taking matters into her own hands, she walked over to Grace. “If you’ll show me where things are, I’ll help you pack.”
While Grace, Joe, and Holly hurriedly collected and packed essentials, Crawford moved from room to room, checking the street out front as well as the back of the property, watching for the stealthy approach of policemen or squad cars, because he figured Neal would eventually think to look for him here.
And so might Otterman or his emissaries.
At some point, Grace brought him a towel. He’d dried off as well as he could while remaining vigilant.
“Daddy?”
When Georgia spoke his name, he turned away from a window overlooking the street, and the sight of her caused a pinching pain in his heart. Holly had quietly gathered articles of clothing from her drawers and packed them in her suitcase, but they’d waited until the last possible moment to wake her up and get her dressed.
She looked sleepy and uncertain as she gazed up at him. Mr. Bunny was clutched to her chest.
“Grandma said we’re going on a trip. I don’t want to.”
“Sure you do.” Crawford picked her up and hugged her close. Her arms closed tightly around his neck, her legs around his waist.
“Can I go to your house?”
“Not this time.”
She laid her head on his shoulder and turned her face into his neck. This was tearing him apart, but he had to be the grown-up, the brave one. He infused his voice with false enthusiasm. “You’re going to have a great time.”
“That’s what Holly said.”
“She’s right. Grandma and Grandpa have lots of fun things planned. But you have to be a good girl and mind everything they say. Okay?”
“Why can’t you come?”
“Because I have to work. But I’ll be thinking about you the whole time, and wishing I was with you.” He felt her chest hitch with a small hiccup that presaged tears. He told himself she was crying from sleepiness, from being startled awake and confronted with a situation that was out of the ordinary and beyond her understanding. But whatever the reason, he couldn’t bear parting from her when she cried.
Rubbing circles on her back, he murmured into her hair, “Come on now. You’re going to be all right. Let’s get you into the car.”
“Will you carry me?”
He squeezed his eyes shut to keep his own tears inside. “You bet.”
Holding her tightly against him, he carried her through the house, now dark, and into the attached garage, where Joe was placing her suitcase, the last of the luggage, into the trunk. When he would have walked past Crawford without saying anything, Crawford addressed him.
His father-in-law stopped and looked at him.
“You’re the only person I trust to do this, Joe. I know you’ll protect her as fiercely as I would.”
Joe held his gaze, gave a curt nod, then got into the driver’s seat.
Without further delay, he carried Georgia to the backseat door, which Holly was holding open for them. He settled Georgia into her seat. When she started to reach for the straps, he said, “Let me buckle you in this time.”
“Mr. Bunny, too.”
“Of course.” He clicked the fasteners and made sure they were secure, then placed his hands on either side of her face and pressed his forehead against hers. “Be sweet for Daddy.”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”