“On it,” he replies.
“I want the rest of you to drill down on Nick. I want to know where he is, where he’s been, and what he’s doing,” I say, then turn to Astra. “You and I are going to go have a chat with Violet and see what else she’s been lying to us about.”
“Agents,” Violet says, surprised. “What are you doing here? Has something happened?”
Violet stands in the open doorway, her eyes wide and fear painting her features.
“We need to talk,” I tell her. “Can we come in?”
“Of course.”
She opens the door, letting us step inside, then closes it behind us, and we follow her to the kitchen. Her shoulders are tight, her body is tense, and she looks like a woman who knows the other shoe is about to drop; she’s bracing for the impact. Violet walks around to the other side of the island, almost like she’s trying to put as much physical distance between us as possible.
“Can I offer you some tea, Agents?”
“No, we’re fine, thank you,” I reply.
A black kettle is whistling softly on the stove. Violet turns it off, then pours its contents into a mug that’s sitting on the island. Still avoiding our eyes, she replaces the kettle and puts a tea bag into her cup and lets it steep. She’s growing tenser, so I let the silence linger.
“So,” she says, still not meeting our eyes, but finally unable to bear the tension any longer. “What can I do for you, Agents?”
“We wanted to find out why you lied to us,” Astra says abruptly.
Violet’s hand trembles as she dips her tea bag in the hot water. Setting it down, she licks her lips and swallows hard.
“I—I don’t know what you mean,” she says. “I haven’t lied to you.”
“You told us you haven’t spoken with anybody from your former life in a long time,” Astra presses. “You said you cut them off when Senator Barlow gave you a second chance.”
“I did.”
“Then why is Nick Zane calling you?” Astra asks.
“Better question, why is Nick Zane following Ashley?” I add.
Violet’s face drains of color, and her lips tremble as tears spill from the corners of her eyes and down her pale cheeks.
“It’s time to come clean, Violet,” I say. “Are you and your old boyfriend taking these kids? Are you involved with some kind of trafficking ring—”
“No,” she cries. “I’m not involved.”
“We’re having trouble believing you since you lied to us about talking to Nick in the first place,” Astra says, her tone hard and unyielding.
She pauses for a moment and runs the sleeve of her sweater across her eyes. Violet draws in a long, shaky breath, holds it, then lets it out as she takes a few moments to gather herself. She finally raises her head and looks at us directly for the first time since we arrived.
“I lied because I knew how it would look,” she tells us. “Nick is a bad guy, but I don’t have anything to do with him anymore. I swear it.”
“Your phone records suggest otherwise,” I say.
“It’s time to tell us everything, Violet,” Astra presses.
“He called me asking for money. I told him I couldn’t help him and to not call me again,” she says. “He was desperate and threatened me—told me he knows that the Senator has a lot of money, and he wanted a payday.”
“Did he tell you he was going to take Ashley?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No. I told him that he wasn’t going to get anything from Elliot either. I told him to go away and leave us alone,” she says. “He never said anything about taking Ashley. For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think he did.”
“And why not?”
“Because Nick isn’t a planner. You said whoever took Ashley was methodical and disciplined. That’s not Nick. He’s always stoned out of his mind. He’s agitated and doesn’t think before he does… anything. He just does whatever occurs to him at the moment,” she tells us.
What Violet is telling us jibes with what I’ve read in Zane’s record. He seems more reactionary and knee-jerk than methodical planner. But that’s all conjecture. And like my gut feelings, conjecture isn’t definitive.
“What would you say if we told you we have Nick on video stalking Ashley,” Astra says. “It sure seemed like he was planning something to us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We have footage of Nick tailing Ashley and her friend Nicole through the mall,” I tell her. “It’s clear as day. He was watching them.”
“That… that can’t be. He wouldn’t—”
“It looks to us like he did,” Astra says.
Her face falls, and she wavers as if her legs are about to give out beneath her. She manages to stay on her feet, though, barely. Violet shakes her head and mutters to herself darkly as she processes everything we just told her. It looks like she’s having trouble reconciling it all.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she says softly. “He told me he would tell Elliot I was using again if I didn’t give him money.”
