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Authors: Midnight Hour
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words, you want her to act as an informant. “
“We’re asking for her help.”
“She helps you or you charge her, is that the deal you’re trying to make?” Grace remembered the coffee
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65
then. Her hand moved to the cup, curled around it. But she couldn’t summon up the will to lift the brew to her mouth. She felt numb, as if her body had been shot full of Novocain.
“Nope. Consider last night a freebie. We’re not going to charge her. She can help us, or not. But if I were you, I’d think about that ‘not.’ She doesn’t help us, that drug ring’s going to stay right where it is, where she is exposed to it constantly. This time, when we caught her, she’s not a stoner, not a cokehead or a crackhead, doesn’t score smack, is not heavily involved in the drug scene. Next time, whether it’s us or someone else, who knows? She could face big-time jail time-or worse.”
“I’ll take her out of Hebron … … Grace was talking more to herself than him. Her right hand was clenched tight around the cooling coffee cup. Her left hand was clenched into a fist in her lap.
He shrugged. “If you think that’ll help.”
“I’ll put her in private school, and ground her for the rest of her life, and hire someone to be at home when she gets home, and …”
“Watch her every minute of every day?” he finished for her. “Not possible. According to what I read in the police report, she managed to sneak out on you just last night. For the third time in … what was it, three months? That you know about.”
Silenced, Grace could do no more than look at him. The sheer impossibility of watchingJessica twenty-four hours a day until she was an adult overwhelmed her. It could not be done, not without locking her daughter
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KAREN ROBARDS
up in some kind of prison. Anyway, given Jessica’s nature, the more restricted she was, the more she could be counted on to rebel the moment she got the chance.
“So just how would helping you help her?” Grace asked finally.
“We’d be able to break up the drug ring that’s targeting her school, for one thing. It would help us get rid of the bad guys. And it would put her on notice that she has already come to the attention of the authorities and had better watch her step in future.”
Grace stared at him fixedly while she turned the problem over in her mind. In law school, her keen analytic ability had always been touted as one of her
3trengths, but for a moment, swamped as it was by terror and pamic, it threatened to fail her. When it did begin to function, however, one thing became perFectly clear almost at once.
“My daughter would be in danger. If anyone found Dut that she was helping you, she would be in danger.” His eyes narrowed. “We would protect her. Guaran,eed.”
Grace laughed. The sound was short, staccato, inamused. “You can’t guarantee that she would be ?rotected. You can’t watch her twenty-four hours a day .or the rest of her life any more than I can. You think I ion’t know what happens to kids who rat on dealers? Set real. I’m a judge, for God’s sake. I’ve seen it, and t’s ugly.” She took a deep breath. “No. I thank you .or your forbearance in not arresting her last night, but lo. She cannot help you. I’m sorry.”
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
67
There was a pause as he digested this. His gaze as it met hers had grown hard.
“Your call.” He stood up and turned to leave. Reaching the door, he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Remember, though, only one freebie per customer.-
Then he left. The door closed behind him with an audible click.
Chapter
9
RACE FELT LIKE A PACKHORSE as she shoulR
dered through the back door into the soft C9d
creams and yeflows of her kitchen. In one hand she juggled three plastic bags filled with groceries and her purse. In the other was her briefcase and, gripped by two fingers, the hanger hooks of the dry cleaning that was sheathed in slippery plastic bags and draped
“We’re asking for her help.”
“She helps you or you charge her, is that the deal you’re trying to make?” Grace remembered the coffee
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
65
then. Her hand moved to the cup, curled around it. But she couldn’t summon up the will to lift the brew to her mouth. She felt numb, as if her body had been shot full of Novocain.
“Nope. Consider last night a freebie. We’re not going to charge her. She can help us, or not. But if I were you, I’d think about that ‘not.’ She doesn’t help us, that drug ring’s going to stay right where it is, where she is exposed to it constantly. This time, when we caught her, she’s not a stoner, not a cokehead or a crackhead, doesn’t score smack, is not heavily involved in the drug scene. Next time, whether it’s us or someone else, who knows? She could face big-time jail time-or worse.”
“I’ll take her out of Hebron … … Grace was talking more to herself than him. Her right hand was clenched tight around the cooling coffee cup. Her left hand was clenched into a fist in her lap.
He shrugged. “If you think that’ll help.”
“I’ll put her in private school, and ground her for the rest of her life, and hire someone to be at home when she gets home, and …”
“Watch her every minute of every day?” he finished for her. “Not possible. According to what I read in the police report, she managed to sneak out on you just last night. For the third time in … what was it, three months? That you know about.”
Silenced, Grace could do no more than look at him. The sheer impossibility of watchingJessica twenty-four hours a day until she was an adult overwhelmed her. It could not be done, not without locking her daughter
66
KAREN ROBARDS
up in some kind of prison. Anyway, given Jessica’s nature, the more restricted she was, the more she could be counted on to rebel the moment she got the chance.
“So just how would helping you help her?” Grace asked finally.
“We’d be able to break up the drug ring that’s targeting her school, for one thing. It would help us get rid of the bad guys. And it would put her on notice that she has already come to the attention of the authorities and had better watch her step in future.”
Grace stared at him fixedly while she turned the problem over in her mind. In law school, her keen analytic ability had always been touted as one of her
3trengths, but for a moment, swamped as it was by terror and pamic, it threatened to fail her. When it did begin to function, however, one thing became perFectly clear almost at once.
“My daughter would be in danger. If anyone found Dut that she was helping you, she would be in danger.” His eyes narrowed. “We would protect her. Guaran,eed.”
Grace laughed. The sound was short, staccato, inamused. “You can’t guarantee that she would be ?rotected. You can’t watch her twenty-four hours a day .or the rest of her life any more than I can. You think I ion’t know what happens to kids who rat on dealers? Set real. I’m a judge, for God’s sake. I’ve seen it, and t’s ugly.” She took a deep breath. “No. I thank you .or your forbearance in not arresting her last night, but lo. She cannot help you. I’m sorry.”
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
67
There was a pause as he digested this. His gaze as it met hers had grown hard.
“Your call.” He stood up and turned to leave. Reaching the door, he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Remember, though, only one freebie per customer.-
Then he left. The door closed behind him with an audible click.
Chapter
9
RACE FELT LIKE A PACKHORSE as she shoulR
dered through the back door into the soft C9d
creams and yeflows of her kitchen. In one hand she juggled three plastic bags filled with groceries and her purse. In the other was her briefcase and, gripped by two fingers, the hanger hooks of the dry cleaning that was sheathed in slippery plastic bags and draped
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