“Hannah, I’m a sworn officer of the court. I’m not allowed to just send in DNA samples at will from every Tom, Dick, and Harry who comes along. It’s…unethical.”
“Ah, come on, I’d do it for you. This is my family we’re talking about, my only living relative. I have to know for certain before I make an ass out of myself. So what if he just happens to have the same birthday as Micah. So what if Micah’s middle name is Andrew. What if it’s all just a crazy coincidence? Then what?”
Eastlyn looked at the woman who’d become her friend. “You know it’s not a coincidence.”
Hannah grinned. “That’s the point. I know Andy’s my brother. I believe it with every fiber in my body.”
“Fine. Okay. Give me the damn soda can.”
Hannah threw her arms around Eastlyn’s neck. “How long do you think it’ll take?”
“I’ll drive it to the lab myself and put a rush on it. Another rush, you know, like the one before, the one that took a week for the baby’s DNA to get back. Does that tell you anything?”
“Yes, it tells me you’re turning into my very best friend.”
Twenty-Eight
While Hannah waited for the DNA, Caleb went on another kind of mission. He needed to know more about Delbert Delashaw and Craig Mooney. He started with a visit to the police station where he hoped to learn how Eleanor kept coming up with her own personal minions.
“Is there any way to put a stop to this? We’ve tried following all the regular protocol—from contacting the warden to taking out protection orders—nothing’s worked.”
Since arresting Mooney on Saturday, Brent had been expecting this conversation. “I don’t know what to tell you. Prison officials won’t keep Eleanor locked up in solitary for longer than a few weeks at a time. Then she’s right back to actively seeking people who’ll act as her warriors in the field.”
“That’s just it. After a few weeks of solitary confinement, she gets back to her cell and goes right back to making friends with anyone she can talk into committing these horrible acts. Nick and his family could’ve been killed. How does she meet these lowlife followers?”
“Through other prison inmates,” Brent supplied. “This Mooney fellow has a sister, Tara Diablo, who’s serving time on the same cell block for assaulting a neighbor. It’s as simple as Tara giving Eleanor her brother’s contact info and him striking up a friendship with her via letters. From that point, Mooney is just a drive away from his home in Nevada. Delbert Delashaw is another matter entirely because Eleanor met him back in Georgia. Those two go way back together. And I suspect she somehow gains access to the Internet to expand her social network, even though it’s off limits.”
“With all these followers, she probably has someone on the outside recruiting these people.”
“Could be. Let’s face it, there’s no telling how many more Mooneys or Delashaws are out there waiting to strike. In case you were wondering, Mooney admitted that Eleanor sent him to the cabin to keep an eye on you guys.”
“So while Delashaw was locked up, she had someone else out there to spy on us.”
“Had it not been for the security system you guys installed, Mooney would’ve tried to get in the cabin.”
“See, this is what I’m talking about. I bet this Mooney is the one who followed Cooper. It wasn’t like Coop carried the gold inside his backpack.”
“Yeah, but Mooney thought Cooper might lead him to a secret hiding place and leave the stash.”
Caleb ran his hands through his hair. “Isn’t there any way to cut off her communication with the outside world and stop her from using these people to stalk us? At this point, I’m ready to try anything.”
“Brent personally got the guard fired that had taken a shine to her,” Eastlyn let it be known. “Not sure how long it will take her to find a replacement stooge. If only we could find some way to put the fear of God into her so she’d stop this harassment. But whatever it is we come up with, we should do it before Hannah and I make the trip to Chowchilla. Make it the icing on the cake.”
“We could just give her the damn gold with the caveat that she leaves us alone,” Caleb suggested.
Eastlyn let out a whistle. “Cooper will never agree to that, not ever. And besides, Caleb, you can’t give in to a blackmailer. Once you do, the demands never end. She’ll just keep hounding you guys, upping the ante, again and again.”
Brent sat back in his chair. “I agree with Eastlyn. Her type will always think of another way to scam.”
Caleb let out a sigh. “Then it’s hopeless.”
“Did he actually say that?” Hannah asked Eastlyn on their way to Chowchilla, referring to Caleb’s dire assessment.
“I’m afraid he and Cooper have given up trying to stop Eleanor. They know she’s capable of sending in her mercenaries whenever she gets the urge. I must admit Caleb might be right when he says it’s hopeless.”
“Not necessarily,” Hannah uttered as she looked over at Eastlyn sitting behind the wheel of her tan and red Bronco.
“If you have an idea, now’s the time to give it a platform.”
“Well, we both desperately want to ease Cooper and Caleb’s stress level, right? They’re so anxious about her that it’s becoming a daily battle to keep their cool. So why not scare Eleanor into complying. Let’s say we run a bluff on her, maybe make her believe we have the evidence we need against her to file charges in the death of her father. We use the threat to make her stop this campaign against her kids.”
“That’s not a bad idea, except for one small detail. I’m a sworn officer—”
“Officer of the court,” Hannah finished. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. So you keep saying. Your ethics won’t allow you to sit down in front of her and pretend you have evidence when you don’t. Okay, well, it was just an idea.”
“Damn good one, too,” Eastlyn muttered as she made the turn to get on to the freeway. After merging into traffic, she lowered the volume on the radio so the two could talk. “I can’t believe you’re giving up that easily.”
“What?”
“Don’t you want to work on me during the trip, get me to see your side of that argument in a more positive light?”
“But you just said…” Hannah’s shoulders dropped. “Let me get this straight, you want me to keep pitching the idea even though you’re clearly against doing anything that would compromise your job as a police officer?”
“For the next three hours I’m a captive audience, aren’t I? I’m not going anywhere. I’ve suddenly decided to listen with an open mind. How’s that for considering our options?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like seeing Cooper upset every time the phone rings. He looks at it like it’s the device from hell. I don’t like seeing him agonize over whether the next customer who comes into the train store is there because they were sent by Eleanor. It’s a sad situation. So, if I have to bend the rules to ease his mind, then…so be it.”
“Fine. I just thought that cops dupe a suspect every day somewhere in America to get them to confess. They make the suspect believe something that isn’t real, right? Why not work the con on Eleanor? Who better to fake out than Eleanor? Especially after the hell she’s put Cooper through.”
“Now see, that’s a superb argument and one I could clearly support.”
“How did you get her to agree to talk to us in the first place?”
“I told her you were thinking about writing a book about her.”
“You did what? You lied?” Hannah started laughing and couldn’t stop. It went on for almost a full minute until her sides hurt. “Like that’s any different than what I’m proposing? Jeez. What happened to ethics? Well, I did write a grant proposal once back in college.”
Eastlyn snickered. “That’s okay. I laid it on pretty thick. I asked her if she’d ever heard of the writer, Ethan Cody, from Pelican Pointe. I dangled the fact that Ethan’s writing that book about the serial killer, Carl Knudsen, the one that’s finally comin
g out this summer. Anyway, I made you sound like the next Ethan Cody, only your subject is the cunning femme fatale, Eleanor Jennings Richmond.”
“Hmm. That’s…sneaky….and quietly brilliant.” Hannah lifted a shoulder. “I suppose whatever works, I’ll play along. But I’m letting you do most of the talking. Between you and me, I’m nervous about this whole thing.”
“So am I.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope.”
“But at least you’ve met her once before.”
“I wouldn’t call it a meeting. I’ve seen her through a glass partition while Cooper—bless his heart—went toe to toe with her. Big difference.”
“Is she…does she look…sinister?”
“She looks like she could be anyone’s grandmother. Just keep in mind that by most accounts this woman has murdered three people without showing a smidgen of remorse. Cooper’s right to think she’s heartless.”
“Caleb once said she had the maternal instincts of a tiger shark. At the time I thought he was exaggerating. Now I know better.”
“Then why not stick it to her with a good dose of acting? Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll tell her we’ve uncovered new evidence that she killed her father.”
Hannah went quiet, considering that approach. “No. No. That won’t work. It won’t be enough of a threat.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because she won’t care about anyone knowing she murdered her father, not at this late date. She’s already suspected of doing that anyway. It won’t be enough to get her to leave Cooper and Caleb alone. We need something outlandish, something completely out of left field that we can really hold over her head. Maybe it should be a murder case that’s totally off the wall.”
Eastlyn snapped her fingers. “Like the baby’s death at Bradford House.”
“Maybe. But tricky. What happens when Brent finds the real killer? Might work until that happens but then we’re right back to the harassment.”
“Then I don’t know what you’re angling for,” Eastlyn concluded.
“You said Delashaw was wanted for murder back in Georgia, right? That he killed some poor woman for her insurance money. What if we led Eleanor to believe that her would-be husband planned to testify against her and blame her for that murder?”
“I’m not following. What’s the difference if we use her own father’s murder and some stranger down in Georgia?”
Hannah held up her hand and ticked off the merits. “Georgia, not California. Active death penalty there, not here. Lethal injection. Eye witness testimony in the form of Delashaw that claims she did the killing.” Hannah took out her cell phone. “Delashaw hasn’t been moved to the county jail yet, has he?”
“Nope. Still sitting there right next to Mooney.”
“Okay then. We get Brent to grill Delashaw. We need more details out of the guy, more firepower to put the fear of God into Eleanor and sound believable. Getting extradited back to Georgia where she could sit on death row makes Chowchilla look like a three-star hotel.”
“Nice. I like the way your mind works. I’ll throw it out there and gauge her reaction. It’ll be fun watching a psychopath squirm at the prospect of lethal injection.”
When Eastlyn pulled up to the parking lot for the California Correctional Facility it was almost eleven o’clock.
“We have to catch the shuttle that takes us to another building. Let’s practice our spiel.”
After clearing security, a pat down for Hannah, and for Eastlyn, a guard with a handheld wand, surveillance cameras followed them down a hallway to the visiting room. Here, they waited for the inmate to make her grand appearance.
Eleanor walked through a door at the rear of the room in handcuffs and leg chains. She wore a light blue two-piece outfit that consisted of a top with a white T-shirt underneath and matching pants with elastic at the waist. The guard removed the cuffs but left the restraints around her ankles.
When she picked up the phone on the wall, Eastlyn noted the difference in Eleanor’s appearance from the last time. For one, the mass of long hair had been reduced to a short, almost manly cut. Her face looked older, leaner, and tougher.
Without introduction, Eleanor went on the offensive. She took one look at Hannah sitting next to Eastlyn and stared a hole through the glass. “Who’s the redhead?”
“She’s the writer I told you about. Hannah Summers.”
“Uh-huh. So my daughter-in-law’s brought another whore to the party? Great.”
“Always a pleasure talking to you, Eleanor,” Eastlyn said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I can see why your kids are so very fond of you. What happened to the debutante who once thought herself too classy for Pelican Pointe?”
Eleanor didn’t bother to answer the question. Instead, like any predator, she seemed to size up the weaker of the two women. “Shouldn’t Hannah Summers be the one asking me the questions instead of my son’s cop wife?”
“No problem. I’ll have to take a shower when I leave here anyway,” Eastlyn said as she handed the phone off to Hannah.
Hannah sucked in a deep breath, determined to play her part like a pro.
“Are you really writing a book about me?”
“Oh, yes ma’am,” Hannah replied in a polite drawl. “You fascinate me. Women serial killers are rare. Finding one like you is even rarer still.”
Eleanor let out a smoker’s raspy cough that hung like a laugh on the air. “You got the wrong idea about me, honey. I didn’t kill anybody.”
“Really? Then I guess there won’t be a book. If there’s nothing to write about I made the trip for nothing. Come on, Eastlyn, we’re wasting our time here.” Hannah completed the bluff by getting to her feet.
Eleanor sat there so long glaring back without saying anything, that Hannah thought for sure she’d blown the first phase.
While the women sized each other up, Hannah could tell there was a war going on inside Eleanor. The killer seemed conflicted. On one hand, the demure grandmother-type wanted to proclaim her innocence. That side was at odds with the serial killer who wanted full-blown coverage of her deeds. Attention from a book would more than let the world know what a clever woman could do with a little creativity and a devious mindset.
“Oh, sit down,” Eleanor finally huffed out. “What is it you want to know for this book you intend to write?”
“We’re all curious why you left your kids and disappeared that night without taking the gold with you. Delbert Delashaw was quite adamant that you wanted him to find it. After so many years, you figured he had to eliminate the cabin as a potential hiding place. There was only one reason he was there, and that was to retrieve the gold. What baffles everyone is why you didn’t take the gold with you that night? I guess you didn’t have time to go to the cabin before you took off.”
Hannah watched as the narcissist finally sprang to life. “If you’re going to tell a story, dear, you should get it right. Of course, I went to the cabin that night to retrieve my gold. My gold,” she emphasized. “I wasn’t about to leave it inside that horrid, filthy hut.”
“How’d you get there? Who in town helped you?”
“Ah. That’s new. No one’s wanted to know that from me before. Maybe you’re not so dumb, after all. I had friends back then, good ones, people who liked me. It always pays to keep friends in high places. Remember that. Douglas Bradford, you know Douglas, the mayor. Dougie boy and I were quite close back then. He’s the one who drove me up to the cabin. I was so tired I wanted to fall into bed, but Dougie said no, that I should get the gold and keep moving. So, I went into the kitchen, where I’d kept it since I was seventeen and I slid back the panel underneath the bottom cabinet, just where I’d left it, like I’d done so many times before and found the cubby empty. The bag was gone. I went into a rage until Doug got me to calm down. I wanted to go back to town right then, and confront Landon. Of course, it was my idiot brother who discovered my stash and stole it out from under me. I was rattled that night and w
asn’t thinking straight so I had to rely on Douglas to tell me what I should do.”
Eleanor sniffed and ran her fingers through her short mane. “Never trust a man, honey. Not ever.”
Hannah knew the story didn’t quite jive with what Landon had already told them. But she needed to know how far Eleanor would go with the lie. “What did Douglas tell you to do?”
“’Forget about the gold for now,’ he said. Focus on getting out of town. He’d keep looking for it and take care of sending it to me whenever he found where Landon had hidden it. What a fool I was back then.”
“I take it Douglas didn’t keep his word?”
“A politician who keeps his word? Doesn’t exist. But that was my stupid and naïve stage. Never again.”
“But if you believed Landon took the money then why send Delashaw to the cabin to retrieve it?”
Caught in a lie, for a second time, Hannah watched Eleanor’s face transform into someone else. And then it hit her. “Ah. You didn’t really believe the gold was in the cabin after so long a time and that many years had gone by, did you? You just wanted to shake up the family, send Delashaw to do a little recon and stir things up with everyone—Landon, Cooper, Caleb, and Drea. If Delashaw burned down the cabin, so what? You didn’t care. You hated the mountains anyway. And it was a subtle reminder, something that would surely be construed as payback and a way to mess with everyone.”
“Aren’t you the clever girl?” Eleanor said, gripping the phone tighter until her knuckles turned white. “As you might’ve guessed by now I turned that cabin upside down looking for the gold back when it disappeared. I truly believe that rat bastard Douglas was in cahoots with Landon. After all, Dougie stopped answering my phone calls and my letters shortly after I left town. He wanted no part of me and apparently didn’t have a problem moving on to the next little whore that came along.”
“My guess is you divided the gold at some point. Long before you ever decided to murder Layne and leave town. There were two bags back then. The night you murdered Layne and Brooke, Douglas drove you to the location where you’d stashed the portion you’d kept for yourself. It had to be somewhere close by, somewhere that only you knew of its whereabouts.”
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