There was a look in his eyes, and something passed between them. Grace unfolded the note and read what he’d written. Mitch couldn’t see what was on the page.
When Isabella paused to catch her breath, Grace turned to Mitch. “I know … I know who it is,” she stammered.
Mitch gazed back at her, stunned.
“I know who killed Rachel,” Grace said urgently. “And he’s here, Mitch. Help us all, he’s been here all along.”
CHAPTER 53
MITCH KEPT HIS GAZE locked on Grace as she rose from her seat to approach the bar. She took purposeful strides that drew the attention of Ryan, Annie, and Jack, who had to be wondering what the heck she was up to. When she glanced over her shoulder, Mitch got a good look at the rage in her dark brown eyes, and he knew whatever she was about to do, an earthquake was coming.
He unfolded the piece of paper. On it Jack had written:
Searched all the cities and states in a group. First result was a national defense book from 1996. There are boats and water on the cover. These aren’t cities. These are ships. Navy ships.
Mitch looked up when Attorney Johnson asked, “When did you finally come out from under the bed?”
“I heard Mommy’s car start up. She drove away. Then I heard Daddy’s car start up. He drove away, too. So I went downstairs after everyone was gone. But I couldn’t get my hands untied.” She held up her hands once more to show Attorney Johnson as if they were still bound.
“I could turn on the TV. So I watched TV and I waited for Mommy to come get me.”
“Did Mommy ever come home?”
Isabella shook her head slowly.
“No. She went away and didn’t come back so she wouldn’t get the bucket. But I went to the basement and poured the bucket into the toilet so she wouldn’t get it again. I poured the bucket with my hands tied up, I could do that, but Mommy still didn’t come home because she didn’t know the bucket was gone.”
Mitch read the last line of Jack’s note.
Guess who has an anchor tattoo on his forearm? I saw it when he rolled up his shirtsleeve.
“Who came to get you?”
“He did,” Grace shouted in a booming voice that drew everyone’s attention to her, but not only to her. Grace leaned her body over the bar separating the front of the courtroom from the gallery. With an outstretched arm, she aimed an accusatory finger across the courtroom, pointing it directly at Penny’s attorney, Greg Navarro.
CHAPTER 54
GRACE KEPT HER DISTANCE from Navarro, but leaned over the gallery bar to make certain he knew she had him in her sights.
“You came back to the house to make sure Rachel was gone, didn’t you … didn’t you, you son of a bitch?” she raged.
Judge Lockhart slammed her gavel hard. “You … you’re out of order!” she screamed. Navarro was on his feet, looking about the courtroom like a cornered animal. Court officers were on the move, closing in on Grace from both sides, several with their hands on the butts of their weapons.
“Did you cut a deal with Rachel, is that it?” Grace continued, undeterred despite the advancing threats. “Rachel got arrested for drug trafficking, and you were working in the public defender’s office back then. You were her damn attorney. So what was the deal you made? You’d intentionally throw her case if she didn’t sleep with you? Did you forget how babies were made, Navarro? She got pregnant with Isabella and Chloe, your twin daughters, and you … you did what? Tried to keep her quiet, keep it all contained, is that it?”
Judge Lockhart slammed her gavel, repeatedly demanding Grace be silenced.
“Daddy found me sitting on the floor watching TV,” Isabella said as if nothing were going on around her. “He said Mommy was always asking him for money for me … and he was tired of paying … he told her to stop asking but she said she’d tell everyone who my daddy was … that’s why he got so mad and made her go away and leave me … he took me to the park and he left me there.
“He told me if I said anything to anybody about what happened, if I ever told anyone his name, he’d come for me, and he’d put my head in the bucket, and he’d kill me in it, and he’d find Mommy and he’d kill her too. And he put a cloth to my face with that horrible stuff on it and I breathed it until it hurt my throat, so I knew he wasn’t lying. He took me to the park and he left me there … he left me in the park … he left me all alone…” Isabella raised her arms as though her wrists were bound by invisible rope and pointed to Greg Navarro. “And I never told anyone my name.… I never broke my promise to Mommy that I wouldn’t tell on him so he wouldn’t hurt her. I went away, too. I got gone and was gone for good.”