She sat up.
"What?" Clay asked.
"Nothing," she replied, because she was positive he'd never let her do it if he knew. "It's late. I have to get back to Whitney."
The next morning, Allie perched on the edge of an old-fashioned wingback chair, breathing in the scent of lemon furniture polish while facing Elaine, Roger and Joe Vincelli in the elder Vincellis' living room. When she'd called to ask for this meeting, Mrs. Vincelli had reluctantly complied. But now that Allie had arrived, she could sense their curiosity.
"Marcus, get in here!" Elaine called.
Her husband had been on the phone ever since Allie was ushered into the house. He'd glanced up as she passed by the kitchen, but he hadn't so much as nodded a greeting. Neither had he bothered to cut his conversation short. They'd all been doing their level best to prove that she wasn't a priority, that they wouldn't allow her to disrupt their schedules or cause them the slightest inconvenience.
But she felt fairly certain they were about to change their minds.
"Can we get started?" Elaine asked.
Allie straightened her white blouse. "When your husband joins us."
"I already told you, I had nothing to do with it," Joe muttered, scowling heavily when she met his questioning gaze.
"I know," she replied politely and continued to wait.
Finally, Elaine seemed to lose patience. She hurried from the room and, a minute or two later, came back with her husband in tow.
"What is it?" he asked as he took a seat next to Elaine on their rose-colored sofa. "What could you possibly want with us?"
Allie didn't bother to reply. Instead, she withdrew a folder from the book bag on her shoulder, opened it and passed around copies she'd scanned and printed on her computer--copies of four of the pictures Portenski had delivered to her mailbox. One showed a young girl with her legs tied apart and Barker forcing a dildo inside her, his face pressed low on her belly so he could get into his own picture. It was a straightforward case of child rape. Another showed a man wearing Barker's distinctive ring forcing his penis inside the mouth of an even younger girl.
Elaine Vincelli's gasp told Allie that what she saw shocked her as badly as Allie had expected it to. But shock wasn't capitulation and did nothing to ease Allie's nerves. This meeting was her last hope.
"That's Rose! And Kate Swanson!" Elaine exclaimed.
"Where did you get these?" Marcus demanded, jumping to his feet, instantly furious.
"Does it matter?" Allie responded. She was quaking inside. She had so much riding on the next few minutes. But she tried to appear calm and collected.
"Yes, it matters!" he shouted.
Again she replied in a civil voice. "Someone put them in my mailbox."
"Who? Who would pass around this...this filth!"
"There was no return address," she said.
Joe and Roger both looked as if they'd been struck dumb.
Joe managed to find his voice first. "This can't be real," he muttered. "This can't be--"
"Your uncle?" Allie filled in. "I assure you it is. If it's necessary to convince you, the authenticity of the actual photographs can be verified."
The color had drained from Elaine's face, and her hands were shaking. "Marcus, my brother would never do this. Especially not to children. Not to Rose and Katie. My brother was a preacher. He..."
Elaine couldn't seem to continue.
"I don't know what to say," Marcus said, obviously just as stunned. "I can't--he was our pastor. If we'd had a daughter, we would've sent her to his church."
"Surely he would never harm... family."
Judging by the expressions on their faces, they weren't so sure. They could see that, contrary to Elaine's assertion, he had hurt children.
"He always seemed so...good," Elaine said helplessly.
Allie almost felt guilty for the tears welling up in the other woman's eyes. She wished Barker was around to see the pain and disgust he'd caused. But she doubted he'd care about anything except the destruction of his all-important reputation.
"Why are you showing us these?" Joe demanded. "What do you hope to gain?"
Feeling Clay's medallion around her neck, Allie kept her focus on the elder Vincellis. They were most likely to consider all the ramifications of these pictures. "Me? I'm here to point out how unfortunate it would be if I had to present these in court," she said.
"In court? " Elaine repeated, her tears spilling over.
"For everyone to see," Allie emphasized. "I'm sure all the major newspapers would pick up the story. A sexual sadist, a pedophile, using his position as a man of God to sexually torture young women in a small Mississippi town where that kind of crime is virtually unheard of. It would cause quite a scandal."
"He'll become a hiss and a byword," Elaine whispered, quoting the Bible.
"Why be connected with something like that?" Allie murmured earnestly. "Especially when everyone thinks so highly of your family." She paused for maximum effect, then continued.
"Wouldn't it be better to leave things as they are? He's gone. The truth doesn't have to come out. If only..."
"If only what? " Joe said, his eyes narrowing.
Allie took a deep breath and faced him. "If only you make sure that the case against Clay Montgomery is dropped. No search. No charges. If he killed your uncle, you now know why. Isn't that enough?" she asked, turning back to Elaine.
Mrs. Vincelli looked as if she was on the verge of passing out. "I've always been so... proud of Lee."
She broke into sobs and Allie waited patiently for Marcus to comfort her. Joe and Roger had gathered up all the copies and were busy tearing them into bits too small to be recognized.
"That's what I think of these," Joe said.
Allie didn't reply. She didn't care what happened to the copies. She only cared about what the Vincellis would decide.
"She won't do it, Mom," Joe said. "Clay won't let her. Think about it. These pictures will hurt Maddy more than us."
"Maddy!" his mother wailed, apprently just realizing that Barker's daughter would be crushed, too.
"Don't you think it's a shame that Clay's more concerned about Maddy than you are?" Allie asked Joe.
"Go to hell!" he replied. "You're not going to pull these out at the last minute. Clay won't let you."
Panic coursed through Allie. Evidently, Joe knew Clay better than she'd given him credit for. "This isn't up to Clay," she said. "It's up to me. And I'm going to do everything I can to see that he doesn't go to prison."