# THOMPSON-HAYES: THE INSIDE OUT
## Chapter Eight — Carrie Mercer
Cole came at seven.
He brought Carrie.
Mia had not asked him to bring her, but she understood immediately why he had — Carrie Mercer had driven to Austin when Cole was missing and had been in the city ever since and she was the kind of person who was going to be in whatever room was relevant whether she was invited or not. Better to have her at the table than outside it.
Carrie sat at the far end of the kitchen table and looked at Mia with the directness of someone who had decided before arriving that she was going to say what she came to say and was not going to be managed out of it.
"I want to know what you're going to do about the woman who handed Cole to those people," she said.
She said it before Mia had finished
