by Blake Pierce
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” she said. “Adjusting to this new life, I mean.”
Jilly shook her head and said, “But I love this life. And I love all of you. You’re all so good to me.”
Riley smiled and said, “That’s exactly what I mean. You get nothing but love here. Even when you and April get into a fight, or Gabriela and I scold you, it’s always out of love. You’re not used to it. It’s only been—what?—about a year since I first met you? I’ll bet it’s quite a shock to your system.”
Jilly took a long breath, “Yeah, I guess it kind of is. I mean, my own dad hated me. And he was all I had back then. And now I’ve got this … and all of you …”
She shrugged and added, “Well, it’s all so different.”
Riley looked at April, who was standing beside the bed now. With her eyes, Riley silently suggested that April say something.
April said, “Well, we do love you. You’re such an amazing girl. I mean, just think of how much you’ve done since you came to live with us. You’re smart, you’re generous, you’re doing great in school, you keep learning all kinds of new things, and you’ve made lots of friends.”
Gabriela had just come back into the room with a first aid kit.
“And you are brave, chica,” Gabriela added as she opened the box and started tending to Jilly’s wounds. “Muy valiente. Not everybody has the courage to start life all over again. People give up when it gets hard. But not you. You just keep on going.”
“Gabriela’s right,” April added. “We more than love you, kid. I’ve got to admit we actually admire you.”
Jilly burst into sobs as Riley leaned over and wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter. She was glad she’d brought Gabriela and April to Jilly’s room. They were both saying exactly the things that Jilly really needed to hear.
But now, as Jilly’s mother, Riley felt that she had to say something that might hurt her feelings again—at least for a moment.
She hesitated. Jilly seemed to be shaking off her feelings of guilt, and Riley didn’t want to stir them up again.
Even so, she said, “Jilly, you might not realize this … but when you hurt yourself, you’re also hurting the people who love you. You’re hurting all of us.”
Jilly nodded stoically through her tears.
“I guess I know that now,” she said.
Riley was struck by how readily—and bravely—Jilly absorbed her words …
Gabriela was right … “muy valiente,” indeed.
Then April said, “What you’ve got to do, for all of us, is try to see yourself like we see you—as amazing and strong and … well, completely lovable. Do you think you can do that?”
Jilly stammered, “I—I’ll try.”
“You do that,” Gabriela said with a sly smile. “Who knows? You might even get to like it.”
Jilly’s little dog, who had been crouched anxiously on the bed during the conversation, let out a little yap.
April laughed and said, “You hear that? Darby agrees with everything we’re saying, and she’s absolutely crazy about you. If you just try to see yourself like your dog sees you, you’ll have it made.”
Everybody in the room laughed, including Jilly. She hugged Darby, who wriggled with affection and licked her face.
Stroking Jilly’s hair again, Riley said, “Now I hope you understand—you’ll need some help to deal with all this, and not just from the three of us. You’re going to have to spend some time in therapy.”
April said to Riley, “By the way, Dr. Sloat called earlier. She said you’d told Dr. Nevins to call her. I went right ahead and made an appointment for Jilly tomorrow afternoon. I hope that’s OK.”
“Of course that’s OK,” Riley said, proud of April for taking that initiative.
Then April said to Jilly, “You know, I went to Dr. Sloat when I had my own troubles. You’ll really like her. She’ll help you get better. She’s funny, too—she’ll make you laugh.”
“That’ll be great,” Jilly said.
Gabriela finished disinfecting and bandaging Jilly’s cuts. Then Riley, Gabriela, and April exchanged hugs with Jilly. April offered to spend the night in Jilly’s room, but Jilly insisted that she’d be fine alone. As the group got ready to leave, Jilly asked Riley …
“Mom, could we talk alone for just a minute?”
Riley gulped and nodded, feeling a renewed surge of worry.
What does she want to tell me? she wondered.
Gabriela and April left the room and shut the door behind them. Riley remained sitting beside Jilly on the bed. Jilly sat in silence for a moment, her forehead crinkled in thought.
Finally she said …
“Mom, I want you to tell me about the case you’re working on.”
Riley sighed and said, “Oh, Jilly, that’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Just tell me,” Jilly insisted. “I really want to know.”
It seemed like an odd request, but Riley explained what was going on in Mississippi—how a recent murder might well be the work of a serial killer, and how this killing might be somehow connected to the murder of a whole family ten years ago.
She also expressed her frustrations with how the case was going.
Surprised at how openly she was talking about it, Riley said …
“I keep getting these feelings, Jilly. Like I understand the killer. That’s kind of my thing, you know—getting into a killer’s head. And I think—I’m almost sure—he’s the same killer who murdered that family all those years ago. But we just haven’t been able to find any evidence. Not yet. And I’m worried …”
Her voice trailed away, and she couldn’t bring herself to say the words …
“I’m worried he might kill again before we catch him.”
Jilly squeezed her mother’s hand and said …
“Mom, I’m really sorry you felt like you had to come home.”
Riley shook her head and said, “Jilly, don’t ever be sorry about—”
Jilly gently interrupted.
“Mom, don’t say anything. Especially not that I’m more important than your work, or your family comes before your work.”
Riley gazed into Jilly’s eyes, startled by the sound of maturity in her voice.
She found herself thinking …
Isn’t that how I’m supposed to feel?
That family is more important than anything?
Jilly stammered a little …
“I—I’m not sure what I’m trying to say, but … when you’re catching bad guys, you’re also being a good mom. At least as far as I’m concerned. And I think April feels the same way. It’s especially important to me, though. I haven’t been around a lot of … well, goodness in my life. So it’s not like you’ve got two different lives. It’s all the same thing.”
Riley was startled.
She remembered thinking a while ago that she did have two lives—or at least she often felt like it.
Had she been wrong?
Was Jilly right?
Jilly continued, “I guess what I mean is, you’re a hero, and you’re a mom. You’re a hero right here and now, helping me with these stupid cuts. And you’re a mom when you make sure that the world is a safer place to live in. There’s no real difference. April and I need for you to keep catching bad guys out there as much as we sometimes need you right here.”
For a moment, Riley didn’t know what to say.
Then she remembered something Ryan had said to her when she’d driven him home …
“Your life is all of a piece.”
And he’d said he admired her for it.
Suddenly Riley felt that she understood things in a way she seldom did.
Jilly shrugged and added, “I guess that doesn’t make sense.”
Riley hugged Jilly again and said, “It makes all kinds of sense, Jilly. And thank you for telling me that. It’s exactly what I needed to hear right now.”
Jilly let out a long yawn and said, “I’m really glad, Mom.
Because I’m too tired to talk anymore.”
Jilly curled up in Riley’s arms and promptly went to sleep.
*
Both April and Gabriela had gone to their own rooms by the time Riley left Jilly’s room. She went downstairs and got a snack, then went to her bedroom and got ready for bed.
Checking her phone one last time, she noticed that Bill had sent her a text message …
Hope things are OK. Let me know.
Riley punched in Bill’s phone number, and he answered. She told him that things were a lot better with Jilly now.
She heard Bill breathe a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said.
Riley felt touched that he cared so much about her home life. But she guessed that was part of what Jilly had been trying to tell her—and what Ryan had been saying as well …
All of a piece.
Bill wasn’t just a colleague. He was like part of her family.
And so was Jenn.
Riley said to Bill, “I take it you and Jenn haven’t had any breaks in the case.”
“Not a thing,” Bill said, and then went on to describe their routine, unproductive activities.
Then he said, “Riley, I’ve been thinking … if you’re right, and Ogden’s killer was the same person who murdered the Bonnetts, he really might be done killing for a while. Maybe it will be another whole decade before he kills again—if he ever does.”
Riley fell quiet. She felt differently, but she knew perfectly well Bill might be right.
She then explained that she already had plane reservations for tomorrow, and she told him the time in the afternoon when he and Jenn could pick her up in Biloxi.
Then they ended the call, and Riley lay down in her bed.
It had been a strange, tiring day, and she quickly started to drift off to sleep.
As wakefulness faded, she worried about the killer.
If Bill was right and he was through killing for the time being, might he disappear altogether, just as he had since the Bonnett killings?
We can’t let that happen.
We just can’t.
She wondered where he was at that very moment.
Like her, was he starting to fall asleep?
If so, what would he dream tonight?
And if not …
What is he thinking?
What is he doing right now?
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Vanessa Pinker came out of the restroom and walked through the movie theater lobby. When she reached the glass doors leading outside, she just stood there and stared out into the almost-empty parking lot, watching the handful of other moviegoers heading for their cars.
She sighed and thought …
Do I really want to go out there?
She’d just spent two hours watching an unmemorable romantic comedy in air-conditioned comfort. Actually, it had been just a little too chilly in the theater, and she’d half-wished she’d brought along a sweater. It was cool here in the lobby as well. But she knew she was in for a rude shock when she walked outside.
Just a minute or two more, she thought.
I’ve got to enjoy it while I’ve got it.
The air conditioning in her car had broken down, and the cooling system at home was on the fritz. Her husband, Reid, claimed to have fixed it, but of course he hadn’t done anything of the kind.
One would think being married to a school custodian would have its advantages, she thought.
But Reid was just plain incompetent when it came to household chores.
When she’d left home a while ago, Reid had been sprawled in front of the TV watching a football game while enjoying his beer and pretzels, seemingly oblivious to the hot, sticky discomfort.
He also hadn’t cared that she wanted to get out and go to a movie, and that was just as well. Vanessa had felt like she would gnaw off a leg to get away from him tonight. She’d felt the same way about their two kids, who’d really been at their worst all summer.
Tad had been teasing little Becky about Gareth Ogden’s murder ten days ago.
“The Carpenter’s going to get you!” he’d kept telling her. “Soon as you go to sleep, he’ll beat your head in with his hammer!”
“Will not!” Becky had wailed through her tears.
“Will so!”
“How do you know?”
“Because he told me so,” Tad had said with a sneer, “‘Becky’s next,’ he told me.”
Vanessa had scolded Tad and tried to comfort Becky. But Tad just kept right on teasing, and Becky was a hopeless wreck, whining and crying. Sometimes Vanessa wondered what was wrong with that girl—the way she cried about everything and seemed to be scared of her own shadow.
Was she ever going to snap out of it?
If not, how was she going to get through life like that?
Of course, Reid had been no help with the kids through all this. He’d just ignored them and popped open another beer.
Vanessa had been pretty gruff with the kids, and she felt a little guilty about that. After all, there was really nothing for them to do when school was out. It was too hot even to enjoy the beach. This town didn’t offer anything else and neither she nor Reid had been up for driving them to Biloxi or anyplace else to find entertainment.
She sighed again …
This weather brings out the worst in everybody.
As she watched the handful of cars start to drive away, she thought …
It’s now or never.
She opened the door and stepped out into the suffocating blast of heat. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was after nine. Had it gotten any cooler at all since she’d left the house? Was the night going to bring any relief?
Probably not, she thought.
The chances of her getting a good night’s sleep were just about nil.
As Vanessa walked toward her car, she glanced back at the movie theater. Except for posters to advertise the movie she’d just seen, its displays were empty. The old multiplex had four screens but was only showing the one movie.
Pathetic, she thought.
There had been talk lately about the multiplex going out of business. It would leave Rushville without any movie theaters at all, but Vanessa wondered …
Would it matter?
There seemed to be less and less to do in town every day. People were moving away, and those who stayed seemed so listless and lifeless that they seldom bothered to leave their homes, even when the weather was nicer than this.
Vanessa hadn’t parked far away, but now the walk seemed longer than it really was. In this humidity, it felt more like swimming.
As she continued along, she felt an unexpected little stab of fear. The Carpenter, she thought, remembering the name that Tad had used to torment poor Becky.
Before Gareth Ogden got killed, she hadn’t heard that nickname for …
How long had it been?
Years, I guess.
The Carpenter was what folks had called whoever killed the Bonnett family about ten years ago. Despite the heat, Vanessa felt goose bumps rise at the memory of that unsolved crime—and also a surge of renewed grief and sadness. She’d actually had a teenaged crush on Martin, the older of the two Bonnett kids.
I should have told him I liked him, she thought for the hundred thousandth time.
Even if she couldn’t have prevented his death, maybe he would have liked knowing she’d felt that way.
And if she could have prevented his death?
Well, maybe things would have worked out between them.
And maybe today Vanessa wouldn’t be stuck with a loser for a husband and two impossible children.
She scoffed aloud at herself …
Such a fantasy life I’ve got!
Meanwhile, the town was abuzz about the new murder. People were talking about the Carpenter again, even though Chief Crane assured everyone that Gareth Ogden’s murder was in no way connected with what had happened to the Bonnetts. Crane said this was just
the work of some random drifter who had surely fled Rushville that very night.
Still, it was an unsettling thought …
Another murder with a hammer.
She was startled out of her reverie by the sound of footsteps behind her.
Who can that be? she wondered with a shudder.
There had been nobody else in the parking lot. The other moviegoers had already driven away. There were only a couple of other cars parked at the far edge of the lot, and they probably belonged to people who worked at the theater.
Could somebody have popped out of the woods adjoining the parking lot?
Should she look behind her to see who it was?
Somehow she couldn’t make herself do that.
Trying to fight down her panic, she ran the short remaining distance to her car. When she got to the door, she fumbled through her purse looking for her keys.
As the footsteps came closer, a man’s voice said, “Hey, Vanessa…”
She turned around and gasped with relief at who she saw.
“Oh, it’s you!” she said. “You gave me such a scare. But what are you doing here? And why did you have to—?”
Before she could finish her sentence, she saw his raised arm and a flash of steel, and she only had a split second to realize …
I’m going to die now.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Riley’s eyes snapped open at the sound of her cell phone buzzing on her nightstand. She let out a groan of despair.
This is not good news, she thought.
She picked up the phone and heard Bill’s voice.
“Riley, we’ve got trouble.”
Shaking herself awake, Riley replied, “There’s been another murder, hasn’t there?”
“That’s right. This time it’s a housewife. She was alone coming out of a movie theater when it happened. She got killed in the parking lot. A theater employee found the body after the place closed for the night. And it’s the same M.O. as the Ogden murder—one swift hammer blow to the forehead.”
She heard Bill let out a discouraged sigh.
He said, “Jenn and I are here at the murder scene. So are Chief Crane and a team of local cops, and Sam and Dominic.”