Chapter 44
I wait until everyone is asleep.
I have to be very careful tonight. Even after drugging Cooper last night, I’m fairly sure he woke up while I was gone. And since I didn’t know I’d be sneaking out after dinner was over, it would have been a challenge to slip him something again. I’ll just have to be very quiet.
I slide out of bed at midnight. Cooper appears to be asleep, but I am extra quiet as I extract myself from our shared blanket. Before going to bed, I stored a change of clothes in the living room so I wouldn’t wake him while I dressed.
But my first stop is Lexi’s room.
I don’t have to be that quiet this time. My eldest daughter sleeps like the dead. Last year, a fire alarm went off in the house in the middle of the night, and I had to shake her awake to make sure she didn’t burn alive.
I tiptoe into her room and snatch her phone off the nightstand where it’s charging. Then I quietly leave.
I don’t make a habit of spying on Lexi’s phone, but I do require her to give me the passcode so that I can get in if I need to.
This is not information that I have taken advantage of in the past, and the truth is, it would not have surprised me if she changed the passcode.
But when I punch in the six digits, the phone unlocks.
I’m in.
For a moment, I’m tempted to look through her photos to try to find the pictures she was telling me about, but then I decide not to. I’m not here to snoop. I’m here to take care of a situation for my child.
Zane is one of the top contacts on her phone. She hasn’t blocked him, possibly because she’s monitoring the situation. I don’t want to read all the text messages between the two of them, but the last message from him makes me see red:
If you don’t want the whole school to see those photos, you should stop being such a little cocktease.
Oh my God, I want to kill him.
I have to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. My hands are shaking as I tap out a message to Zane:
Can we see each other now? I’ll sneak out and take my parents’ car.
There’s a chance he could be asleep, but I remember overhearing him say that he never goes to bed before two in the morning. Sure enough, three bubbles appear on the screen. He’s typing.
Have you reconsidered?
Kill him with my bare hands. Rip him limb from limb.
Yes. I want to see you. I’ll do anything you want.
You’re so smart. I knew you’d come around.
Yes, Lexi is smart. That’s why she told her mother what was happening.
Can we meet at the playground in the shipyard? We’ll be the only ones there.
The Hingham Shipyard used to be an actual shipyard many years ago but is now an area on the marina with homes, shopping, and recreation activities.
I used to take the kids to the playground there when they were little, followed by lunch at Wahlburgers.
During the day, it was always busy, but it will be completely deserted at this time of night.
And I happened to notice on a recent excursion there that there were no cameras around the playground.
I’ll be there in 20 minutes.