before I showed you.”
She put the phone face up on the table and slid it across to me.
It was a text message. It had come in the night before, at 10:47 p.m.
Mrs. Hargrove, I understand you have recently hired a woman named Rebecca Hale. You should know she is a convicted felon and is considered dangerous. She has a history of stealing from people who
trust her. I am prepared to offer you $3,000 to dismiss her immediately. No questions asked. Please reply to this number.
I read it twice.
I didn’t need to read it a third time. I recognized the phone number.
It was Monica’s.
Her personal cell. The number I’d been calling from prison for the first year, before she changed it. The one I’d memorized when she got her first cell phone in high school.
She hadn’t changed it after all. She’d just blocked mine.
