Before She Dies

by Mary Burton

  “That is their opinion,” Charlotte said, grateful for something businesslike to discuss. “The jury found Ms. White innocent.”

  Joanna shared her brother’s intense gaze. “The evidence could have gone either way.”

  “The jury did not agree.”

  “Juries can be swayed by emotion.”

  Rokov set his fork down and glanced at his sister. “Be nice, Joanna.”

  Joanna arched a brow. “Hey, I was just asking questions.”

  Charlotte laid her napkin by her plate. “Your questions don’t bother me, Joanna. I believe Samantha White is innocent, and that is why I took her case. There will be those that do not agree but I cannot help that.”

  Joanna cocked her head. “How could you know she was innocent?”

  Charlotte shrugged. “A gut feeling.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That was it.”

  Joanna leaned forward, a signal she wanted to kick the discussion into high gear. Charlotte met Joanna’s gaze with a mixture of challenge and amusement. The girl reminded her of herself when she’d been in her mid-twenties: full of fire and fight. “That’s not very scientific.”

  Rokov cleared his throat and glanced at his father. “I’ll be by to work on that shed as soon as this case is closed.”

  His father waved a dismissive hand. “The shed will wait. Your work is more important. I know this.”

  Mrs. Rokov cleared away their plates. “I’ve been following the case in the papers. It is horrible what I am reading. Those poor women.”

  The mood in the room shifted from jovial to solemn. Charlotte thought about Mariah and the moment’s respite from her thoughts ended.

  “Do you have any leads?” Ivan said.

  Rokov set his fork down. “We’re working on it.” He glanced at Charlotte, seemed to note her change in mood. “And Charlotte and I have early calls in the morning.”

  “Daniel, do not leave,” Mrs. Rokov said. “You just got here.”

  “Sorry, Mom. I didn’t realize how late it was.” He stood and kissed his mother and grandmother.

  Charlotte stood and smoothed her skirt flat. “Thank you for dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Rokov. It was a nice break.”

  “It was lovely to meet you, Charlotte. I hope you’ll come again sometime.”

  She nodded, touched by the woman’s genuine tone.

  “Charlotte, can you take some dessert?” Mrs. Rokov said. “I’ve got enough to feed an army. You can put it in your refrigerator at home.”

  “Normally I would. But I’m moving in a couple of days and trying to clean out what I have. But thank you.”

  Rokov said his good-byes again, shook his father’s hand, punched a brother good-naturedly in the shoulder, and escorted Charlotte to his car.

  The day’s stress hadn’t drained from her shoulders and she seemed, as she always seemed, braced for a fight.

  He started the engine. “You’re moving?”

  The comment had slipped out so easily when she’d spoken to Mrs. Rokov that she’d not thought about the fact that she’d told no one she was moving. “Yes.”

  “Don’t you have a swanky condo overlooking the river?”

  “Yes. It’s been great.”

  “You moving to a bigger place?”

  “Smaller. I don’t need so much space as I thought.”

  “Mind me asking where?”

  “You’re full of questions.”

  He shrugged. “Just making conversation.”

  She smiled. “I doubt you’ve ever just made conversation, detective.”

  “You might be surprised. I do have my moments.”

  “I’ve no doubt.”

  He took the exit off the Beltway and wove through Alexandria toward her office. When he parked in front of her car, he shifted in his seat toward her. The light from a street lamp shone through and sharpened the angles on his face. “So where are you moving to?”

  “Just a smaller place in Alexandria. Near Seminary Road.”

  “Nice area, but not as nice as where you are.”

  “It’s more convenient.”

  His gaze narrowed. “How so?”

  “Again with the questions, detective.”

  “Just wondering why the step down.”

  Her defenses strengthened. “It’s not a step down.”

  His wrist rested easily on the steering wheel. “From river views to Seminary? Don’t kid yourself. Why?”

  “Maybe I want a change.”

  “Is your practice in trouble?”

  He had a talent for striking to the heart of a matter. “It’s fine.” And it would be when she pumped in the profits from the condo sale.

  He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Why can’t you just tell me?”

  “There is nothing to tell.”

  His smile wasn’t pleasant. “What’s made you so guarded? Was it the shooting three years ago?”

  She arched a brow. “Are you always this direct?” “Yes. Are you always this evasive?”

  “Yes.”

  “Charlotte, just tell me.” He laid his hand on hers.

  The warmth coupled with the strength and the cover of the night was her undoing. “I’ve been guarded since before I could walk. If you don’t have loving parents, you learn to hold your cards close. And the shooting didn’t help. In the moments I was in that bathroom waiting for that man to return and finish the job, I knew there was no one in the world that was going to save me. I had to save myself. And I did.” She released a sigh. “And I’m selling the condo because too much pro bono work and not enough high-profile cases have chewed into the firm’s bottom line. Selling my condo is the only way I can save the firm. The money should buy me six months.”

  “And then?”

  She smiled, hoping the simple gesture would bolster her confidence. “By then I will have landed another big fish, and I’ll be fine.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Don’t worry about me, detective. I’m a cockroach. I’m a survivor in every sense of the word.”

  As he studied her, a smile that held no warmth curled his lips. “Good. Because I want you around for a long time.”

  “I’ve redefined being careful. I’m all about security.” A quip danced on the tip of her tongue, but she let it pass. “See you soon, detective.”

  “Sooner rather than later, counselor.”

  A sad smile tipped the edge of her lips. “You know that’s where Sooner got her name.”

  “How?”

  “She was born a month early and Mariah took her first look at her and said, ‘The kid came sooner rather than later.’ Somehow Sooner just stuck.”

  “It’s a catchy name.”

  “It seemed pretty cool when I was sixteen. Now, I wish she had a more conventional name.” She gripped the handle of her purse tighter. “One more thing to add to the Things-I-Wish-I’d-Done-Differently list.”

  “What else would you do differently?”

  “It’s too late to get into that discussion. Maybe some other time.”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry again about Mariah.” “Thanks.”

  She got out of his car and hurried to her own car. She clicked the lock open and slid behind the wheel. As he waited and watched in his car, she started her car. Pulling out onto the street, she glanced in the rearview mirror and realized he was slowly following behind her.

  When she reached the stop sign, she paused and then took a left toward her house. He followed her for two more blocks and then took a right. She gripped the wheel, grateful and sorry he no longer followed.

  “The number one rule is not to care,” she said. Since she’d fled the carnival, she’d never broken the ironclad rule. Not once. Now it was becoming a habit.

  First with her employees.

  Then with Sooner.

  And now with Rokov.

  It was close to midnight when Grady stood outside the two-story brick home. The neighborhood tidy look-alike lawns, neat curbs hugging well-paved stre
ets, and houses that all spoke of stability, money, and decency. He knew firsthand how much shit hid behind respectability. Folks who lived in places like this might think they were better than him, but they were just as dishonest.

  Nearly every house on the block was dark. Good. He exhaled a lungful of cigarette smoke, and ground out the butt in the ashtray of his truck. “Tight-ass fuckers. You don’t fool Grady.”

  He got out of the car, cringing against the cold, hurried across the street. He crossed the lawn of a neat little house and hurried to the back fence. Carefully, he opened the gate. In the distance a dog barked.

  His lungs burned as he jogged around the side of the house to a small side door. Pulling a screwdriver from his jacket pocket, he wedged the tip under the lock and pushed. The wood cracked and splintered and the lock slid open. A turn of the handle, and he was inside the house.

  The utility room was small and painted a bright yellow. Across from the door stood the washer and dryer, piled high with freshly folded laundry. A basketball, scooter, and baseball mitt filled a corner and there was a cat’s litter box to his right. A cat wouldn’t be a problem but a dog was another matter. Those fuckers made a lot of noise.

  He waited, listened, but didn’t hear a sound. Carefully he moved into the house, which smelled of Pine-Sol and pizza. He’d watched the house for a couple of days and knew the woman here lived alone with her two young children. He wasn’t sure what had happened to her old man but right now didn’t care. She was alone, defenseless, and that was all that mattered.

  He moved down a carpeted hallway and up the stairs past dozens of framed pictures of her two children. The little girl reminded him of a cleaned up, suburban version of Grace. The top step creaked and he paused, ready to dash back down the stairs. But the house remained quiet, except for the hum of the heater. He moved to the back room and opened the cracked door. Moonlight filtered in through a window, casting a beam of light on the bed where the woman slept. She lay on her side, away from the dresser and window.

  He stood at the edge of the bed, watching her sleep. She had no idea that monsters didn’t just lurk in the imaginations of children. Monsters lived in the real world, and sometimes they were so close you could feel their breath on your neck.

  She groaned, rolled on her stomach, and let out a sigh. She was pretty in a mousy sort of way. Monsters ate mice like her for breakfast.

  He turned and moved toward the dresser. It wasn’t littered with makeup and perfume bottles like Sooner’s but was neat and clean. Carefully, he opened the top drawer, and found a jewelry box. He removed it, closed the drawer, and set it on the dresser top. The hinges of the box squeaked when he opened it and inspected the contents. He smiled, removed what he’d wanted, and pocketed it.

  Instead of replacing the jewelry box, he set it on the floor and unzipped his pants. He fished out his dick and pissed on the box.

  Grinning, he zipped up his pants and glanced at the Mouse. He wanted her to know he’d been in her room, standing next to her bed and watching her sleep. He wanted her to know that at any moment he could have taken that same jewelry box and beaten her to death. And he wanted her to worry and wonder when he would be back.

  Chapter 20

  Friday, October 29, 9 a.m.

  “We have two hits on ViCap,” Sinclair said. She stood in Rokov’s door with the file in hand.

  The fatigue that had been weighing him down vanished. “Where?”

  “Raleigh, North Carolina. Twelve years ago. And Athens, Georgia, ten years ago.” She moved into his office and sat at his desk.

  “Hold on a minute, I want to get Garrison and Kier in here.” He placed calls to both and it was agreed the four would meet in the conference room. Five minutes later, they were assembled around the large rectangular table in the windowless room.

  Garrison and Kier both showed signs of fatigue. Like Sinclair and Rokov, they’d been chasing down interviews on anyone who might have known something valuable about either victim.

  Sinclair opened the file, which like most ViCap reports contained crime scene descriptions and photos, victim profiles, lab reports, and any other information that might help create a link between the crime and others like it.

  “According to this report, the victim’s name was Margaret Day, age thirty-two.” She pulled photos of the crime scene and dispersed them to the team.

  Rokov studied the picture, which had eerie similarities to his two crime scenes. Margaret Day’s body had been laid out in a green field, her hands and feet tied to stakes hammered in the ground. She wore a black dress and had a thick shock of dark hair, which flowed out around her head. Rain had dampened her body and the ground around her, and a thick mist hovered in the distance. Written on her forehead was the word Witch.

  “Tell me about the victim,” Garrison said.

  Sinclair flipped through the pages. “She was a prostitute. She didn’t work the streets but kept an apartment where she welcomed regular clients managed by her pimp. According to her pimp, her thing was dominance. She was called the Sorceress.”

  “They checked out all her clients.”

  “The ones that they could find. No one gave last names, all transactions were in cash, and there were no cameras watching the building.”

  “Who reported her missing?”

  “No one. She was found in a wooded area by a couple of hikers who’d ventured off the trail. According to the medical examiner, she’d been sexually assaulted several times before she died. At the time she was found, she’d been dead about five days. She was staked to the ground.”

  “How did she die?” Rokov said.

  “The medical examiner suspected drowning.” Sinclair tapped an agitated finger on the file. “Why drown them? Kicks? Excitement?”

  “Maybe he needs information or proof?” Rokov said.

  “He needs to assure himself that they are witches.”

  “Why does he care about a confession?” Garrison said.

  “Maybe he’s got a perverted sense of justice.”

  Garrison nodded. “Go on.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t feel justified killing an innocent. He’s only about destroying the guilty. Think about the crime scenes. He’s almost warning whoever finds the body that they have found something evil and dangerous.”

  Garrison shook his head. “That’s one hell of a theory.”

  Rokov took the next file from Sinclair. “This ViCap report is from Georgia. Ten years ago.” He flipped through the pages. “Alice Carrington, age thirty-five. She worked as an Athens librarian and vanished after a Halloween party. Found two weeks later, wooded area, staked to the ground.”

  “Let me guess, she was wearing a witch costume,” Sinclair said.

  Rokov nodded. “That’s correct. And like the others, she was sexually assaulted.”

  “There are no other hits?” Garrison said.

  “None,” Sinclair said. “And I’ve checked.”

  “So assuming his first victim was Mariah Wells, his first recorded kill is eighteen years ago, in Alexandria, Virginia; the next in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the last we know of is Athens, Georgia. Assuming there are no other victims, his cooling-off periods lasted six years and then two years. For almost a decade he doesn’t kill?”

  “Assuming there are no others,” Garrison said. “The first three bodies were left off the beaten track. There could be others never found.”

  “Mariah was by the road,” Sinclair said.

  “But she’d been moved,” Rokov said. “And I’d bet not by the killer.”

  Garrison traced his jaw line with the edge of his reading glasses. “Still no trace of Grady Tate?”

  “No. He’s crawled under a rock.”

  “Was there any DNA in the other cases?” Kier said.

  Rokov scanned the file. “In Austin. Traces of semen were found on the victim. We can see if we’ve got a match between that case and what the medical examiner collected from under Diane Young’s fingernails.”

 
“He’s so careful about his planning. I can’t believe he’d leave behind DNA,” Sinclair said.

  “Maybe because it’s not on file anywhere,” Rokov said.

  “His pace is much faster now,” Kier said. “And a faster pace means he’s going to make a mistake very soon.”

  “I’d like to think he’s already made that mistake and we’ve just missed it,” Rokov said. He studied the locations of the murders. Virginia. North Carolina. Georgia. “All the murders we have took place in the Mid-Atlantic and South.”

  “Grady Tate’s carnival travels the Mid-Atlantic and South,” Sinclair said.

  “We’ve got to find Grady. He is the key to all this.” Kier said.

  Rokov glanced at the files. “One other thing. All the murders took place in October.”

  Perfection was its own brand of holiness. This, he understood, had been the key to his survival all these years. He’d been careful to control his impulses, knowing a man who let his emotions run amuck was a fool doomed to fail. He’d made a lot of mistakes in his past and had let emotions rule him. He’d been in danger of falling prey to his own needs when he’d met the woman that had brought calm to his life. She’d given him hope. Showed him that goodness was all around. And she had given him the strength to maintain strict control over his life.

  And then she had turned on him.

  A glass of whiskey in his hand, he stared down at the letter that had arrived this morning. He’d gone to her with hat in hand and opened his heart to her. She’d been quiet and told him she needed to think, all the while knowing this letter had been posted.

  Neatly typed wording. Precise. Not a word wasted. And cutting to the core.

  If she thought she could leave him, she was wrong. She was his and she belonged to him. He wanted to kill her tonight. He wanted to strap her to his board and dunk her head into the cool waters until she screamed for mercy and confessed her sins.

  But he wouldn’t kill her. Not yet. But soon.

  There was work to be finished before month’s end. He needed to vanquish more evil. Cleanse his soul.

  Draining the last of the whiskey, he carefully folded the letter and tucked it back in the cream-colored envelope.