Kisscut

Fine stared at the Bible. "I would never have acted on my feelings if she hadn't approached me."

"Dottie Weaver?" Nick clarified.

"Je

"Yeah," Nick said. "I bet you could."

Fine gave him a sharp look, as if he deserved more respect than this. The man seemed not to realize that he was in a police station, about to be sent to jail for a long time.

Jeffrey said, "How did Dottie approach you?"

Fine seemed relieved that Jeffrey was taking over. "She didn't exactly approach me so much as lure me," he said. "Adam never thought to eat of the forbidden fruit until Eve tempted him."

Nick said, "Seems to me Adam's snake had something to do with that."

Fine frowned. "It wasn't like that. It was never about sex for me."

"But, you did have sex with her," Nick said.

Fine chewed his lip. "Not at first," he said. "I just wanted to spend some time with her." He paused, and took a deep breath. "Dottie let me take her to the movies, and sometimes we would go into Macon to get her some clothes." He looked up at Jeffrey and Nick, obviously needing their approval. "Her father had abandoned her," he told them. "I was just trying to fill in, to make her feel loved and wanted."

Nick was silent, but Jeffrey could see the muscles in his arms tense.

"I just wanted to nurture her, to give her some guidance."

"Did you?" Nick asked, not bothering to hide his hostility.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not like that, it's not like that at all."

Jeffrey tried to remain calm, asking, "What's it like?"

"It's like…"-Fine made a wide gesture with his hands-"it's about love. It's about listening to children, and trying to understand their wants and their needs."

"Did she want sex from you?" Nick asked.

Fine dropped his hands. "I never would have touched her that way. I was content just to have her company."

Jeffrey asked, "What changed that?"

"Dottie." He spit the word out of his mouth as if it was poison. "I had always thought about it, always. Not with Je

Fine said, "But I've always been content with my fantasies. That's always been enough for me." His voice rose. "I'm a happily married man," he told them. "I love my wife and my sons."

"Sure you do," Nick said, the flippant tone back.

Fine shook his head. "You don't understand."

Jeffrey leaned over the table. "Explain it to me, Dave. I want to understand."

"She was such a smart girl, and so well-spoken." He picked up the Bible. "She read the Book with me. We prayed. We understood each other."

Jeffrey glanced at the Bible. While at some level Jeffrey had always believed in the presence of good and evil, he had never really attached a biblical significance to it. Seeing Dave Fine's hand on the Bible, hearing his tale of se-ducing Je

Nick said, "Okay, you prayed with her. What happened to change that?"

Fine set the book back on the table. "Dottie changed that," he said. "She called me in the middle of the night."

"When was this?"

"Around Thanksgiving," he said. "This past Thanksgiving."

"Then what?" Jeffrey asked, thinking the bastard was probably lying.

"I went to her house, because she said that Je

Jeffrey nodded for him to continue, trying to block the image that came to his mind of Sara pointing out the pelvic fracture in Je

Dave cleared his throat. "I had never really been inside the house before. Je

Fine fell silent, and neither Jeffrey nor Nick prompted him to continue. After what seemed like a long while, he picked back up where he had left off.

"We did things," he said, his voice low. "I'm ashamed to say that we did things."

"You did things," Jeffrey told him, wanting to make that point.

"Yes," Fine agreed. "I did things."

"Did the acts only take place in Je

"Yes." He swallowed hard. "Only in her room."

The men were silent as Fine seemed to get his thoughts together. He was certainly good at painting himself as a helpless victim. A thirteen-year-old girl might have bought his act, but the more excuses Fine made for his actions, the more Jeffrey wanted to kill him.

Finally, Fine said, "Dottie took pictures. I didn't know until later." He gave a humorless chuckle. "She brought them to the church the next day, and threatened to expose me if I didn't do what she said."

"What did she want you to do?"

"Make those deliveries," he said. "I used the church van." He put his hand over his mouth. "God forgive me, I used the church van."

Jeffrey crossed his arms, willing himself to calm down. Nick Shelton was so angry there was almost a heat coming off of him. How this sick fuck could cry for himself was beyond him. Dave Fine felt sorrier for himself than he did for the kid he raped.

Jeffrey asked, "Where's Dottie now?"

"I have no idea," Fine said, tapping his palm on the Bible for emphasis. "That's the God's truth."

"When did you see her last?" Jeffrey asked, knowing he could not trust the answer.

"Monday. She had Mark at the house. They stripped everything. They painted the walls, they moved the printing press."

"Where did they move it to?"

"I don't know," he said, and he seemed to be telling the truth. "They put it in a truck, an unmarked truck."

"And then?"

"She told me that I still had to make this last delivery or she would send the pictures to the police station."

"What about Lacey Patterson?"

Jeffrey wasn't sure whether or not something registered in Fine's eyes. The man said, "I have no idea. Dottie wouldn't tell me something like that. I wasn't involved in that end of things. I only did what she said to protect my family. Our lives."

Jeffrey crossed his arms, asking, "When did you get the magazines?"

"That night," he answered. "I put them in the basement of the church until this morning."

"You already knew about the meeting in Augusta?"

"No," he shook his head, vehement. "She called me last night. It sounded like she was on a cell phone."

"You said the last time you saw her was Monday," Jeffrey reminded him.

"It was the last time," Fine countered. "You said the last time I saw her, not the last time I spoke with her."

Jeffrey let this pass. "What did she say?"

"She told me about the hotel, when to meet Joe, what the code word was for the next pickup." Fine paused. "She said she was still around, watching me."

"Do you believe that?" Nick asked. "You think she's still in town?"

Fine shrugged. "She's capable of anything," he said.

"Capable of what, for instance?" Jeffrey asked. When Fine did not answer, he asked, "What do you think she's going to do to Lacey Patterson?"

Fine looked away. "I don't know what she does. I was only involved with Je