[Georgia 03] Fallen

happened came back to her like a bolt of lightning. “Where’s my mother?” She tried to stand, but Will kept her down. “Where is she?”
    “They’re looking for her.”
    “The little girls—”
    “They’re fine. Please, just stay here for a second, okay?”
    She looked around, some of her wildness returning. “Where’s Emma?”
    “She’s with Mrs. Levy. She’s asleep. I called Jeremy at the school—”
    Her mouth opened. He could see her life coming back to her in spurts. “How did you tell him?”
    “I talked to Victor. He’s still the dean of students. I knew you wouldn’t want me to send a cop to Jeremy’s classroom.”
    “Victor.” Faith pressed her lips together. She had dated Victor Martinez for a while, but they had broken up almost a year ago. “Please tell me you didn’t mention Emma.”
    Will couldn’t remember exactly what he’d told Victor, but he guessed Faith hadn’t gotten around to telling the man that he had a daughter. “I’m sorry.”
    “It doesn’t matter.” She put down the bottle of water, her shaking hands spilling some onto the carpet. “What else?”
    “We’re trying to track down your brother.” Dr. Zeke Mitchell was a surgeon in the Air Force, stationed somewhere in Germany. “Amanda reached out to a friend at Dobbins Air Reserve. They’re cutting through some of the red tape.”
    “My phone …” She seemed to realize where she’d left it. “Mama has his number by the phone in the kitchen.”
    “I’ll get it as soon as we’re finished,” Will promised. “Tell me what happened.”
    She took a stuttered breath. He could see her struggle with the knowledge of what she had done. “I killed two people.”
    Will held both her hands. Her skin was still cold and clammy. She had a slight tremor, but he didn’t think it was from her blood sugar issues. “You saved two little girls, Faith.”
    “The man in the bedroom—” She stopped. “I don’t understand what happened.”
    “Are you confused again? Do you need me to get Dr. Linton?”
    “No.” She shook her head for so long he thought maybe he should get Sara anyway. “She’s not bad, Will. My mom is not a dirty cop.”
    “We don’t need to talk about—”
    “Yes, we do,” Faith insisted. “Even if she was, which she’s not, she’s been retired for five years. She’s not on the job anymore. She doesn’t go to the fundraisers or the events. She doesn’t talk to anybody from that old life. She plays cards on Fridays with some of the ladies in the neighborhood. She goes to church every Wednesday and Sunday. She watches Emma while I’m at work. Her car is five years old. She just made the last mortgage payment on the house. She’s not mixed up in anything. There’s no reason for anybody to think …” Her lip started to tremble. Tears threatened to fall.
    Will told her the concrete things he could point to. “There’s a mobile command center outside. All the highways are being watched. Evelyn’s photo is on all the news stations. Every cruiser policing the metro area has her picture. We’re lighting up all the snitches to see if they’ve heard anything. They’ve trapped and traced all your phones in case any ransom demands are made. Amanda pitched a fit, but they put one of their detectives in your house to monitor all mail and calls. Jeremy’s at your house. They’ve got a plainclothes assigned to him. You’ll get somebody, too.”
    Faith had worked kidnapping cases before. “Do you really think there’s going to be a ransom demand?”
    “It could happen.”
    “They were Texicanos. They were looking for something. That’s why they took her.”
    Will asked, “What were they looking for?”
    “I don’t know. The house was turned upside down. The Asian said he’d trade my mother for whatever they were looking for.”
    “The Asian said he’d trade?”
    “Yes, he had a gun on the Texicano—the one in the backyard.”
    “Hold on.” They were doing this the wrong way. “Work with me, Faith. Treat your memory like a crime scene. Start from the beginning. You had that in-service this morning, right? Computer training?”
    She started to nod. “I was late getting home by almost two hours.” She laid out every detail from her morning until now, how she had tried to call her mother, how she’d heard music playing in the house when she got out of her car. Faith hadn’t realized that something was wrong until well after the music stopped. Will let her run