“She’s badly dehydrated, she’s covered in bruises, and she’s gone days without food.

Whoever held her did not want her getting to that church.”

“Who could do something like this?” I said, my fists clenched white.

And Mrs.

Mabel looked at me with a steadiness that has never left me.

“You’re asking the wrong question, Callahan,” she said.

“Don’t ask who could do it.

Ask who stood to lose everything if the two of you got married.