Kisscut

'I have no idea,' Fine said, tapping his palm on the Bible for emphasis. 'That's the God's truth.'

'When did you see her last?' Jeffrey asked, knowing he could not trust the answer.

'Monday. She had Mark at the house. They stripped everything. They painted the walls, they moved the printing press.'

'Where did they move it to?'

'I don't know,' he said, and he seemed to be telling the truth. 'They put it in a truck, an unmarked truck.'

'And then?'

'She told me that I still had to make this last delivery or she would send the pictures to the police station.'

'What about Lacey Patterson?'

Jeffrey wasn't sure whether or not something registered in Fine's eyes. The man said, 'I have no idea. Dottie wouldn't tell me something like that. I wasn't involved in that end of things. I only did what she said to protect my family. Our lives.'

Jeffrey crossed his arms, asking, 'When did you get the magazines?'

'That night,' he answered. 'I put them in the basement of the church until this morning.'

'You already knew about the meeting in Augusta?'

'No,' he shook his head, vehement. 'She called me last night. It sounded like she was on a cell phone.'

'You said the last time you saw her was Monday,' Jeffrey reminded him.

'It was the last time,' Fine countered. 'You said the last time I saw her, not the last time I spoke with her.'

Jeffrey let this pass. 'What did she say?'

'She told me about the hotel, when to meet Joe, what the code word was for the next pickup.' Fine paused. 'She said she was still around, watching me.'

'Do you believe that?' Nick asked. 'You think she's still in town?'

Fine shrugged. 'She's capable of anything,' he said.

'Capable of what, for instance?' Jeffrey asked. When Fine did not answer, he asked, 'What do you think she's going to do to Lacey Patterson?'

Fine looked away. 'I don't know what she does. I was only involved with Jenny.'

Jeffrey stared at the other man, trying to understand him. Fine was so good at justifying his actions, he could proba-bly pass a lie detector test. Jeffrey seriously doubted the man even believed what he had done to Jenny Weaver was wrong.

Fine volunteered, 'I know Dottie needs money. She told me she had to wait around for the next payoff.' His voice rose as he tried to defend himself. 'I was being blackmailed. I had no choice.'

Jeffrey ignored the excuse, instead thinking about Dot-tie's post office box in Atlanta. Dottie had no way of knowing that they knew about the drop. She would think she was safe. They might have a chance of catching her before she had time to rape another kid, or sell off Lacey Patterson.

'So,' Nick said. 'You packed the magazines in the church van this morning and toddled on over to Augusta?'

'I had a bad feeling about it,' he said, picking at the pages of the Bible. 'I guess I wanted to get caught. I couldn't go on with this hanging over me.'

Jeffrey said, 'Mark felt the same way.'

Fine snorted. 'Mark,' he said, as if he were talking about the devil himself.

Nick exchanged a glance with Jeffrey.

'You know why Jenny wanted to shoot him?' Fine asked them, a slight grimace on his face. 'Because he was going to end up doing the same thing.'

'Doing what?'

'He enjoyed it,' Fine told them. 'Mark didn't have any qualms about what he was doing.'

'And you did?' Nick shot back.

Fine ignored the question.

'You're saying Mark liked posing for the pictures?' Jeffrey asked, and in his mind he saw Mark's pained expression in the magazines they had found. This was not the face of a kid who was enjoying himself.

'He didn't just like it. He wanted to do it.' Fine tapped his finger on the table. 'If you ask me, it was just a matter of time before he started in on his sister. Jenny knew that. As cruel as that family was to her, she knew what Mark had become. She knew he would end up abusing Lacey.' He sniffed, as if holding back tears. 'Jenny was trying to protect Lacey from that animal.'

'You have proof of this?' Jeffrey demanded.

'Grace had him in the game since he was six,' Fine told them. 'It was only a matter of time. Jenny knew this.'

'You have no way of knowing what Mark would've ended up doing,' Jeffrey said. 'If every kid who was raped by some freak like you grew up to molest children-'

Fine interrupted him. 'You don't know Mark very well, Chief Tolliver. Trust me, he would've been hurting kids, just like his mother.' He shook his head, giving a snort. 'He learned from the master.'

Jeffrey countered, 'He was just a kid himself.'

Fine held up his finger, as if he was making a good point. 'He was a grown man. He could've stopped.'

Nick barked, 'So could you.'

The comment cut, and Fine showed it by looking down at the Bible, his lips pursed in a classic pout, like he had been falsely accused.

The room was quiet as they all seemed to take a deep breath.

Jeffrey tried to keep his tone even, asking, 'Did you tell Jenny your theory about Mark? Is that why she wanted to shoot him?'

Fine stared at the Bible.

Jeffrey took his silence as a confirmation. 'What else did Dottie have you do?'

'Just the deliveries.'

'No, before that.'

'She made me come over when she was taking the pic-tures,' he said. 'I didn't want to, but she held my life in her hands.' He held out his hands to illustrate the point. 'If those pictures ever got out,' he said, 'it would have ruined me. My wife, my children…' Tears welled into his eyes. 'I have responsibilities.'

'You posed for more pictures?' Jeffrey asked, wondering at anyone who could be so stupid. Or, maybe he wasn't stupid, maybe he enjoyed it.

Fine nodded. 'I didn't want to. She…'-he looked for the right word-'she liked to humiliate people. She got something out of that.'

'How did she humiliate you?'

'She knew I didn't like boys, and she made me do things.'