He nods once, and the five of us make our way slowly toward the house. We scanned for cameras and couldn’t see any that captured this angle, but I still move at a low crouch.
River reaches the window first, and my entire body tenses as he touches the glass, half expecting the ear-splitting screech of an alarm to blast through the air.
But the yard stays quiet and still.
And the window doesn’t move.
Fuck.
Fucking ball sucking motherfucker.
Did Hollowell notice it after all? Did he close it? Or did I just not open it enough?
I tap River’s shoulder. “Let me try.”
He nods and shifts out of the way so I can approach the window. It looks completely closed, but I use my fingernails to try to latch onto the bottom edge of the pane.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then the pane of glass shifts upward.
My insides seem to liquify with relief, and I push a little harder, forcing the window open about three inches.
“Boost. Give me a boost.”
Almost before I finish saying the words, four sets of hands converge on me, lifting me effortlessly in the air until I’m level with the window. I’m pretty sure Chase is the one palming my ass, and if I weren’t about to pass out from nerves, I’d probably enjoy this quite a bit.
Trusting them to hold me up, I use the better leverage to lift the window even higher. When it’s wide enough to fit through, the guys help me clamber through the open space.
It’s not graceful at all, but I get inside without falling or disturbing anything in the bathroom, so I’ll take it.
I turn around to help the guys inside, and they boost each other from the yard outside until those of us inside the bathroom outnumber the ones left outside. Chase comes last, scrambling up the side of the house as the guys pull him through the window.
When we’re all safely inside, I close the window so we don’t let a bunch of cold air in—I don’t know if Hollowell would notice that, but I don’t want to tip him off that anything is amiss.
Brushing off my hands, I jerk my head toward the bathroom door. I didn’t notice any cameras inside Hollowell’s house the two times I was here, and although I wasn’t looking for them the first time, I definitely was the second.
I thought that was a little strange at first—after all, Linc’s dad has security cameras inside their house. But then it occurred to me that maybe a man who was sleeping with an underage girl wouldn’t want his every move recorded, even if it was by his own security system.
Of course, it’s possible he has hidden cameras I didn’t see. But we just need to take that risk and hope we find something useful enough to justify it. Some hint at whatever other reason Hollowell might’ve had for killing Iris.
“Look for an office or a study or something,” I murmur as we slip into the hallway. “Anywhere he’d keep important stuff.”
It’s a long shot, maybe. But I’m still convinced there was something else going on that made Hollowell kill the blonde cheerleader. Something more than her pregnancy.
Poking around in Samuel Black’s study is what led me to the birth certificate proving that his infidelity had resulted in a baby and that the child was his, although at the time, I thought it was about Linc. I’m hoping we’ll be able to find something like that here. Something Hollowell wants to keep hidden.
We creep through the house like ghosts, but we don’t find anything promising on the first floor. I keep glancing at the time on my phone, acutely aware of every minute as it passes.
On the second floor, we finally come across what looks like a home office—a large room with a massive mahogany desk and wide windows that flood the room with natural light. The file drawer is locked, but River finds a key in the top desk drawer, and my heart jumps when it works. We grab files out as quickly as we can, flipping through them before putting them back right where we found them.
Most of it is incredibly boring. Legal documents and records of bill payments and things like that.
I’m starting to wonder if we’ll even recognize anything “off” if we see it. I don’t know enough legalese to interpret half the shit I’m reading.
Come on, you fucker. Come on. There has to be something.
Goddammit. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Judge Hollowell just reacted strangely when I said he killed Iris for getting pregnant because he didn’t expect me to know about the baby.
But I swear, I saw it in his eyes.
Surprise. Maybe even something like guilt.
And then relief.
There’s something else he’s covering up.
“Last two files,” Chase murmurs, dragging my attention back to the room as he pulls out two folders, handing one over to River.
I cast my gaze down at the filing cabinet, closing the file I’m holding. We’ve been here for almost two hours, and we’re starting to push our luck.
But we can’t go yet.
“You guys go through anything else you can find in here,” I whisper. “I’m going to see if I can find his bedroom.”
Linc immediately straightens. “I’ll go with you.”
I nod, and the two of us head toward the door. We’re almost there when River’s voice stops us.
“Wait.”
My gaze jerks toward him, my head moving so fast I almost give myself whiplash. He’s staring down at the open file in his hand, his brows furrowed as if he’s trying to translate the contents into another language.
“What?” I ask as Linc and I change course, heading back toward the others. “What is it?”
He doesn’t see my lips move. He’s so caught up in what he’s looking at that he doesn’t track the activity around him like he normally does. He chews on his lip and shakes his head, and when he looks up, I step forward and repeat the question, craning my
