“Never heard of him.”
Kitally lowered her voice. “The guy without balls . . . does that ring a bell?”
Hayley stepped closer and said in a low voice, “Listen. Unless we’re talking to Lizzy about any of the people on our list, it’s best if you don’t ever mention his name again. Let it go. That’s how it has to be, OK?”
“Got it,” Kitally said before they both climbed into the car.
On the drive from Carmichael to West Sacramento, Kitally said, “Do you think this will work?”
“It has to.” Donald Holmes was a guard in the state women’s prison. After a yearlong investigation, he was convicted of raping two teenagers and yet all he’d gotten for it was community time and probation.
“Did the investigators ever talk to any of the women in the prison who filed complaints?”
“No,” Hayley said. “They’re merely prisoners, so they don’t count.”
“What little time I did in detention was enough to make me realize I don’t ever want to end up in prison,” Kitally said. “I have to say, I am beginning to feel the weight of everything we’ve been doing lately.”
“What do you mean?” Hayley had never spoken a word to Kitally, Tommy, or anyone else about the man whose life she’d taken months before. Sometimes she woke up in a cold sweat at the thought of what she’d done. She couldn’t say she regretted it—the man had destroyed too many lives to count—but still, the act itself had left a bad taste in her mouth. Nobody else knew, and she was determined to keep it that way. “I thought you were excited about Wallace getting ten years,” Hayley said. “What happened to the enthusiasm?”
“I guess I’m having second thoughts. Me, you, and Lizzy are all risking doing more time than this rapist. And for what?”
“You’re not making sense,” Hayley said. “This is all coming out of left field.”
“I just read about a case where a hacker was able to expose a rapist, but the hacker ended up doing more time than the rapist. Not cool.”
Now they were getting somewhere, to the root of Kitally’s change of heart. “Calm down,” Hayley told her. “I don’t know the details of the case you’re talking about, but we’re not going to get caught. I’m going to plant the child porn on Holmes’s PC and place the drugs and the pictures inside his house, somewhere where the cops won’t be able to miss it. Then we’re going to use this nifty throwaway phone that criminals love so much and call 911 to report a rape currently taking place inside his house. Done deal.”
“We’re taking a lot of chances to put away one rapist out of a thousand. And like you said the other day, how long will they keep him behind bars after he’s caught?”
“You’re looking at this all wrong,” Hayley explained. “It may be only one guy, but we’re helping dozens of future victims by getting this guy off the streets. You have to keep your eye on the prize. This is less about putting the rapist away and more about helping innocent women and young girls who don’t stand a chance against monsters like Holmes.”
The rest of the drive was quiet.
Thanks to satellite maps, they already knew exactly where to park when they arrived at Holmes’s house. Holmes didn’t get off work until eight o’clock at night. It was the middle of the afternoon. They had plenty of time. No wife, kids, or girlfriends to worry about. Kitally was the lookout. If anyone parked in Holmes’s driveway or at the curb in front of the house, if anyone walked anywhere near his place, Kitally would send Hayley a warning text.
“This shouldn’t take long,” Hayley said before climbing out of the car. “Fifteen minutes tops, unless I have trouble getting into his computer.” The guy was pretty active on social media for a sociopath. Tommy had befriended Holmes under the guise of having similar interests in video war games. It didn’t take Tommy long to figure out what sort of equipment Holmes was using.
Hayley climbed out of the car and headed across the street for Holmes’s front door, leaving the cleaning supplies behind.
Kitally watched Hayley go. It was true. She’d been having second thoughts about this whole vigilante thing, mostly because she had seen the look in Hayley’s eyes when they were dealing with Owen Dunham. If she hadn’t been there, Hayley might have taken things too far. And that made Kitally nervous.
Nothing had been the same since Jared’s funeral.
Sometimes life didn’t just go on, after all. Sometimes the world really did stop turning on its axis because that’s how it felt. Lizzy was angry at the world, and Hayley seemed to walk a fine line between compassion and coldheartedness.
She watched Hayley disappear inside Holmes’s house. Hayley was good. She made breaking and entering seem like child’s play.
Kitally focused her attention on the street in front of her. The houses on both sides were small and nondescript. At the end of the block, there was an empty lot littered with trash. A white sedan drove by. It was a woman driver. The lady kept her gaze straight ahead, didn’t appear to notice Kitally sitting behind the wheel of the car, waiting as the minutes slowly ticked by.
Her cell phone vibrated. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID. Mom. She’d have to call her back later.
Two kids on bikes were headed her way. She didn’t know whether to hunker down in her seat or sit up a little straighter. She opted for leaning over and looking through the glove box. If they slowed down even a little bit, she would text Hayley.
The kids cruised past without a glance her way.
She looked at the time. Only seven minutes had passed.
She sucked in a breath and then slowly released it. Every time a breeze blew by, the branches of the trees creaked and swayed. She looked at her phone. No texts from Hayley. No need to worry.
Her phone vibrated.
It was Mom. Again. Jesus. She hit Talk. “Mom, I really can’t talk right now, but since you’ve called twice in five minutes, I figured it must be urgent.”
“I just wanted to make sure you would be able to come by the house next week and water the inside plants.”
Now she remembered. Her parents were going on another trip. The Greek islands. “I’ll water the plants. I promise.”
“Is everything all right?”
“I’m fine. You and Dad have fun, and I’ll come visit when you get back.”
Unfortunately, it was never that easy to get off the phone with her mom. Every call required a comprehensive update on the family, which included second and third cousins Kitally had never met. By the time Kitally finally pulled herself free, another fifteen minutes had passed. Hayley had been inside Holmes’s house for twenty-two minutes.
Kitally looked around. Nobody in the neighborhood was out and about. Nobody checking their mail or mowing their lawn. She took a good look at Holmes’s house with its faded pink paint job. The walkway was uneven and cracked. The lawn was decorated with a few sporadic weeds. Blankets hanging over the windows made it impossible to see inside. Curling her fingers around the door handle, she was about to get out when she saw a car approaching. She decided to sit still, wait until the car passed before she made her exit.
But the car didn’t pass by at all. The Honda Civic pulled into the driveway.
It was him. Donald Holmes. He was home early.
Shit.
She grabbed her cell phone and quickly texted Hayley. Holmes is home. Get out of the house!
Holmes walked to the door. He was short and stocky. His clothes were wrinkled and baggy. Hopefully Hayley would hear him using his keys to get in the front door.
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
Seconds turned into minutes.
She kept waiting to see Hayley running around the side of the house, but nothing happened. Her nerves were shot. She couldn’t take it any longer. She climbed out of the car, went to the front, and opened the hood. Then she headed for the house and knocked on the door.