'You could come after, you know,' Hank said, hesitancy in his voice. 'I mean, to hear the choir sing.'
Lena experienced a sinking feeling as she remembered the concert. It would be dark outside by the time Hank got home. Inside the house would be darker, no matter how many lights Lena turned on.
'I gotta get up early to go check on the bar, anyway,' Hank offered. 'I could come home after the service.'
'Hank,' Lena said, trying not to let on that her heart was about to explode in her chest. 'Listen, go to the fucking concert, okay? I don't need you baby-sitting me all the time. I mean, for fuck's sake.'
Sunlight flashed off the back door as Jeffrey came out of the building. Maria Simms was right behind him, holding a file folder out to the chief.
Hank asked, 'You're sure?'
'Yeah,' she answered before she could think about it. 'Listen, I've gotta go. I'll see you when you get home.'
She hung up the phone before Hank could respond.
'Jesus,' Jeffrey said as soon as he opened the car door. 'Is the air on?' he asked, throwing her the file Maria had handed him.
'Yeah,' Lena mumbled, shifting in her seat as he got in. Without thinking about it, she had moved away from him, as close to the door as she could get. If he noticed this, Jeffrey did not comment.
Jeffrey threw his suit jacket into the back seat. 'I got a call,' he said, obviously preoccupied. 'My mother's had an accident. I've got to go to Alabama tonight.'
'Now?' Lena asked, putting her hand on the door handle, thinking she could call Hank from her car and tell him to wait for her.
'No,' Jeffrey told her, making a point of looking at her hand. 'Tonight.'
'Okay,' she said, keeping her fingers on the handle, as if she was resting them there.
'It's gonna be a pain in the ass to leave in the middle of this. Maybe Mark Patterson can straighten things out.'
'What do you mean, like it was a lover's tiff or something?' Lena asked.
'Maybe he can tell us who the other girls were, who the mother is.'
She nodded, but did not think it was likely.
'I talked to Brad. Fine wasn't on the Ski Retreat.' Jef-frey frowned. 'I'll call Brad again after we talk to Mark and see if I can push him to remember anything else.' He paused. 'I'm sure he would have said if something bad happened.'
'Yeah,' Lena agreed. Brad was the kind of cop who would turn in his own mother for jaywalking.
'First thing tomorrow, I want you and Brad to talk to Jenny Weaver's teachers and see what kind of kid she was, maybe find out if there was somebody she was hanging around with. Also, talk to the girls who went on the retreat with Jenny and Lacey. They probably all go to the same school.'
'Okay.'
'I can't get out of going to Alabama or I'd do this myself.'
'Sure,' she said, wondering why he kept making excuses. Technically, he was in charge. Besides, it wasn't like there was much Jeffrey could do on the case right now. Unless Mark pointed the finger at someone, they didn't have very much to go on.
He said, 'I also want you to interview Fine as soon as possible.' He looked at his watch. 'Tomorrow morning. Take Frank with you for that one, not Brad.'
She repeated, 'Okay.'
'You said you know him, the preacher,' Jeffrey began, putting the car into reverse. 'You think he's got this in him?'
'This?' Lena said, then remembered why they were here. 'No,' she answered. 'He's not a bad guy. I just don't get along with him is all.'
Jeffrey gave her a look that said she didn't seem to get along with anybody.
Lena offered, 'Actually, I've kind of got an appointment with him tomorrow evening.'
'An appointment?'
Lena looked at the dashboard. 'Like you said before. What you wanted me to do,' she prompted, but he did not pick up on it. 'Talk to somebody,' she supplied.
'Well, maybe you shouldn't be the one to-'
'No,' she insisted. 'I want to do it.' She tried to smile, but it felt fake, even to her. 'It'll surprise him, right? Thinking that I'm there for a session or whatever, but turning it around and asking him about Jenny and the Pattersons.'
Jeffrey frowned as he turned the car out of the parking lot. 'I'm not sure I like that.'
'You always said that the best time to interview somebody is when you catch him off guard,' she reminded him, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. 'Besides, Hank set it up. It's not like I would talk to him about…' Lena looked for a word, but could not find one. 'I wouldn't talk to him, okay? He's a freak. I don't trust him.'
'Why?'
'I just don't,' she said. 'I just have a feeling about him.'
'But you don't think he did this?'
She shrugged, trying to find a way to backpedal. How could she explain to Jeffrey that the main reason she did not like Dave Fine, did not trust him, was that he was a pastor? Jeffrey was being just as stupid about it as Hank. How anyone could not make the connection between Lena 's being assaulted by a religious fanatic and her not wanting to talk to a preacher about it was beyond her.
She said, 'I dunno, maybe he's got it in him.'
The lie seemed to swing Jeffrey. 'Okay. But, take Frank with you.'
'Sure.'
'This isn't an interrogation. We're just trying to find out if he knows anything. Don't go in there and piss him off for no good reason.'
'I know.'
'And set something else up,' he said. 'Something with somebody else.' He paused. 'That was a condition, Lena. The only reason I let you come back so early was because you promised you would talk to somebody about what happened.'
'Yeah,' she nodded. 'I'll set something up with somebody else, first thing.'
He stared at her, as if he could figure her out just from looking.
She tried to sound casual as she changed the subject, asking, 'She okay? Your mom, I mean.'
'Yeah,' he answered. 'Are you all right?'
She tried not to sound glib. 'I'm fine.'
'That thing with Sara-'
'I'm fine,' she reassured him, using a tone that would have shut up Hank in two seconds fiat.
