Moni didn’t say a word. Aaron gave her space so she could think it over. He heard her decelerate and switch on the turn signal.
“I’m sorry, Mariella. But you know we couldn’t leave home forever,” Moni said. Aaron wondered how she knew the silent girl wanted to flee. “No matter what, I won’t let any bad people near you, baby.”
After agreeing that he would call Sneed and shoulder the brunt of his rage, Moni said she would meet him at the sheriff’s office that night for the obligatory task force meeting they held after each murder. When their call ended, Aaron wondered what he had just set in motion. Did he invite Moni back to town, despite the risk to her and Mariella, because he wanted her? Or maybe he couldn’t resist feeling wanted.
The first time he went home from school with a black eye, his mother had told him-with his father scoffing while watching baseball in the background-that it’s best to walk away from a fight. Aaron had always followed that advice-until he met Moni.
Chapter 31
Moni couldn’t make eye contact with a single one of them. As she strode through the sheriff’s office with Mariella’s hand in hers, she felt the hateful stares of the officers she had betrayed roast her skin like dozens of heating lamps. Many of them had spent the day cleaning up the bloody mess at her house. Soon, they would lower one of their own into the ground-minus his head-and hand a folded flag to his widow.
Harrison had been the toughest man on the force. More than a few of the officers owed their lives to him. He had felled two suspects in police shootouts without losing a fellow officer either time. When they cornered suspects after car chases, Harrison was always the first one who charged the vehicle. Moni felt bad enough that she had let him die, but burying his headless body denied everyone closure. Harrison’s sturdy head had been severed as cleanly as all the others. No one saw how it happened, but they doubted that a gator could have done it so smoothly.
Tanya Roberts’ body also popped up a few blocks down the canal-without her head and with one arm dangling by a single tendon.
Aaron had met Sneed at the scene, and then filled Moni in on everything. He thought Sneed couldn’t get any more furious, but he had no idea. Moni wouldn’t dare set foot in the station without Aaron, and his plan to deflect Sneed’s rage.
Moni reached for a half-open door as another officer walked through before her. Instead of holding it open for her, the man pulled it shut in her face. She swallowed the shout of protest before it left her lips.
He should have punched me in the nose. I don’t deserve any better.
As Moni gazed at the door that had been closed before her, Mariella stroked her hand, like how Moni had pet Tropic when the thunder scared him. With a deep breath and a nod at the girl, Moni opened the door herself.
She somehow avoided any eye contact and confrontations on the way to her office. When she opened the door and pointed the girl inside, Mariella’s gentle caress melded into a steely grip. She refused walking as adamantly as she refused speaking.
“I’m sorry, baby, but you can’t come with me to this meeting.” Moni knelt on one knee so she met the girl’s face. “Mr. Sneed is gonna be there, and he’ll be plenty angry. You’ll be a lot safer over here. Don’t worry, I’ll come back soon. Why don’t you draw me something pretty while you wait?”
Mariella slowly nodded, and eased off her death grip. She trudged into the office, and pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the printer. Moni gently shut the door. Then she scanned the faces of the officers nearby for any signs of cruel intentions. They greeted her with more than a few disgusted sneers, but none of them seemed inclined towards harming Mariella. With the camera in her office, she doubted any officer would risk it.
Moni still couldn’t get back there fast enough. If Sneed didn’t accept Aaron’s plan, she might find the room empty save a note from the DCF.
She arrived at the task force meeting with no doubt in her mind that Sneed had that sort of punitive punishment cooking on his skillet. His eyes scrutinized her every movement from the moment she entered the room. He had gray stubble on his cheeks and chin, and the swollen bags under his eyes were of a man who had spent every moment of his day dwelling on vengeance. Instead of instantly berating her as she had feared, Sneed kept his jaw locked tight. It took all of his might to restrain his teeth from ripping into her flesh.
This time, Sneed didn’t sit at the head of the table. He gave that seat up for Sheriff Rick Brandt, a man whose commanding blue eyes and gray, western-style mustache made his diminutive height almost unnoticeable. Moni hadn’t seen him much besides for ceremonies, such as the one they would have when they bury Harrison. He also spoke at press conferences for major cases. She hadn’t been involved with many of those until now, and her performance in this case wasn’t exactly something she could boast about.
Sheriff Brandt’s presence lent her a glimmer of hope. While Sneed eyed her as if he would rejoice in stringing her up a tree by her neck, Brandt watched Moni apprehensively, but not with outright hatred. He wasn’t the only one.
Looking over Moni with dark-ringed eyes that must have been pouring over reports all night, Brigadier General Alonso Colon appeared more disappointed than enraged. Maybe, the soldier understood that battle requires tough choices about sacrifice, Moni thought. If only she could have accepted that concept.
“Well, look who strolled in outta the gator’s jaws,” Sneed said. “You could have at least answered my calls. Or were you too busy high tailing it out of town while Harrison and Roberts were getting their heads cut off?”
It didn’t surprise Moni that Sneed had chosen not answering his twenty phone calls as the first thing she deserved a reprimand for.
“I’m sorry if I was a little preoccupied saving the person who you call the most valuable witness in this investigation,” Moni said as she grabbed the seat between Aaron and Professor Swartzman. The young man focused a concerned gaze on her. She craved the sight of his comforting eyes, and the warmth of his caring hands around her, but she resisted even looking at him. She couldn’t let Sneed and the sheriff think of her as so weak that she needed a civilian’s help.
“You had an order to turn that witness over to the protective custody of the DCF, and my police force,” Sheriff Brandt said. “Why did you stand in the way?”
“Sir, it wasn’t like that. I was about to hand Mariella over, but when we got to her room, she was gone.”
Moni figured they wouldn’t uncover her lie with both witnesses dead. As horrible as Harrison’s beheading had been, at least it had removed the most telling piece of physical evidence: the imprint of the handle of her gun on his head. She caught Aaron flinch at her story. She nudged his foot underneath the table and he settled down.
“The monster in the canal had the girl, but Harrison and I got her out of there,” continued Moni, who made sure they acquired more fond memories of their departed friend. “The next thing we knew, the gator thing killed Agent Roberts. Thank the Lord that Harrison agreed to cover for us while I took Mariella away from danger.”
She stapled her lips shut during the stretch of silence that followed. Moni prayed that her story would serve as the final word on the morning’s tragedy. As usual, Sneed disturbed the peace.
“The noble Harrison volunteered to cover you, and face the gator by himself, is that right?” Sneed asked as he grinded his thumb and forefingers together. “If that’s the case, why did your neighbor say she saw you snatch the keychain off his hip? You couldn’t help being a pickpocket, could you? I always knew your colors would show.”
Moni balled her fists underneath the table. The blackness of her skin had always made her the first person accused of stealing, but rarely had those accusations surfaced so bluntly.
“Mrs. McCray must have seen me remove the keys from his belt. That’s because he gave me permission to take them. The monster came at him before he could hand them over.”
“Bullshit,” Sneed said with a shake of his clenched fist.
The sheriff placed a steady hand on Sneed’s arm like a trainer making an attack dog stand down. “Unless that 72-year-old woman has the hearing of a 20-year-old that can penetrate through a window on a rainy day, I don’t see how we can disprove the officer’s explanation,” Brandt said. Just as Moni’s lips had begun their arch into a grin, the sheriff caught her in a stern gaze from his icy blue eyes. “Those circumstances don’t excuse your conduct, Mrs. Williams. You ignored Detective Sneed’s calls, and drove halfway to Orlando before you made a U-turn in the middle of the highway.” Moni should have anticipated that he’d have known that. All the department’s vehicles are tracked
