“I do what I can. Especially since I have no control at all about my visions.”
Megan was lifting a wineglass again, spinning it in place. The movement was start and go, but it was mostly go. “But you have that big awesome brain. That’s like an extra superpower, you know?”
“Yeah,” Toni said. “And I have something that should make you extra happy. Or maybe just extra curious.”
“What’s that?”
Toni waggled her eyebrows. “My cousin at the department. He says he can get you in to see Justin McCabe.”
Chapter 14
Moonstone Cove didn’t have its own jail, which meant that to meet with Justin McCabe the following Monday, Katherine and Megan had to drive an hour south and sit in traffic during four-o’clock traffic.
She turned to Megan. “Making you miss the city yet?”
Megan made a face. “I never miss traffic. Still, this isn’t all that bad. Y’all are just spoiled in Moonstone Cove because it’s so tiny.”
“Is it feeling any more friendly?”
Megan shrugged. “I’m glad we got to be friends. Even if the reason sucked pretty bad.”
“And Toni?”
“You know, I still catch her giving me side-eye when she thinks I’m not watching. Before, I think it was the blond-bimbo assumption.” Megan reached into her purse and flipped down the visor to reapply lipstick. “Now I think she just doesn’t like me.”
“She thinks your study of the occult is misguided.”
“My study of the occult?” Megan shook her head. “Please don’t ever call it that in front of my mama if she ever comes to visit. She’ll have me flying back to Georgia and in a Baptist rehab before you can snap your fingers.”
“A Baptist rehab?”
“Oh yeah, it’s a thing. And all I’m doing is research. It makes sense, right? We have all these abilities, we should at least learn how to use them and read what other people have written about stuff.”
“I don’t think you’re misguided. I just said Toni thinks you are.”
“Well, Toni is a little narrow-minded.” Megan pointed to a sign. “There it is.”
At the intersection of San Juan and Walden Street, Katherine saw a green-and-white sign with Jail in all capital letters. It was pointing to the right, so Katherine moved over to the right lane.
“Did Toni say she was gonna meet us there?”
“I guess she had some kind of errand to run,” Megan said. “She said she’d meet us at the entrance but to go inside and put our names on the list.”
“This feels very strange,” Katherine said. “Have you ever visited anyone in jail before?”
“No. Never.”
“Toni didn’t seem that concerned about us being able to speak to Justin. I would have thought his lawyer would forbid him from speaking to anyone.”
Megan said, “Maybe they did and he’s just ignoring them. Who knows what the boy’s thinking?” She put her lipstick back in a sky-blue purse that matched the stripe on her blouse and carefully fastened the closure. “I don’t know how I’m going to feel seeing him again.”
Katherine glanced at her. “You look great.”
“Is it weird that I want to look good? I don’t know why, but I do.”
She smiled as she maneuvered past a postal delivery van and into the county-center parking lot. “I think it’s your armor.”
Megan nodded nervously. “Maybe so.”
“He tried to take your control away from you in a place where we usually allow ourselves to be vulnerable, so you’re controlling what he sees now.”
Megan let out a slow breath. “I’ve never thought about it that way before.”
“If it makes you feel more in control or calmer, then it’s a good thing.” Katherine found a parking spot under a spreading fig tree near the back of the lot that served the jail, the courthouse, and most of the county offices.
Megan reached across and grabbed Katherine’s hand, squeezing hard before she let it go. “I’m so glad you’re my friend.”
Katherine felt a swell of warmth in her chest. “Me too.”
Megan turned to her and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
They got out of the car and started walking toward the signs that said Jail. Halfway to the building, Katherine spotted Toni leaning against a lamppost. She was wearing black pants and a black leather jacket; under her arm was a silver motorcycle helmet, and just past the lamppost Katherine saw signs for motorcycle parking.
“Hey.” Toni didn’t remove her sunglasses.
“Armor,” Megan muttered.
“Yep.”
Toni pointed her chin toward the jail. “You two ready to do this thing?”
* * *
Justin McCabe seemed a lot smaller wearing an orange jumpsuit and sitting behind a clear acrylic panel than he had wrestling them in the gym. Katherine sat in the center and Megan leaned close to the phone so she could overhear what Justin was saying.
“My lawyer says I should absolutely not be talking to you ladies,” Justin said, “because you’ll be testifying against me at trial, but there’s not going to be a trial, so I told him it didn’t matter.”
“You’re not going to trial?”
He looked like an old man in a young man’s body. His hazel eyes were sunken, and there were purple rings under his eyes. His skin was fair but sallow, and his chocolate-brown hair fell limply over his jumpsuit collar.
Justin shook his head. “I remember the trial when my brother was killed. It was really horrible. I thought my parents were going to get a divorce and I was going to lose them too. I can’t put them through something like that again.”
Katherine felt her heart breaking open. Nothing about this young man said evil killer. Nothing said unstable. “Why did you agree to meet with us?” she asked. “How did you know it was us?”
Toni tapped her shoulder and shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
Justin watched their interaction, but all he said was “I wanted to thank all three of you for stopping me.” He blinked hard. “I don’t remember what happened that day. My lawyer and my doctor are trying to figure out what that means for me legally, but I know that whatever was going on, I wasn’t in my right mind.
