by Virna DePaul
“But I thought the defense hadn’t requested it. When—”
“I ordered the results myself. Asked them to expedite it. Hardesty’s DNA wasn’t on the body. But there were traces from an unidentified man and a female with common alleles to Tina. A blood relative. The male’s DNA matches The Razor’s.”
“Common alleles?” He stared at Thorn, then Doug. “You think Lily...?” John laughed. Literally laughed. “So? Lily was her daughter. She lived there and she found her. Her DNA would have been all over the place.”
“It was found under her nails and in saliva on her dress. Indications are that Lily bit her mother at some point that night.”
Shaking his head, John said, “No. That’s impossible.”
“You’re right,” Lily’s father urged. “It isn’t true. That’s why I need you to do something for me. Right now. Right after I see Ivy. I need you to arrest me for murdering Lily’s mother.”
* * *
“She’s awake,” Aaron said, rushing to Ivy’s bedside. Lily followed close behind.
Ivy’s eyelids fluttered then finally stayed open. She frowned. Looked at Lily. Then Aaron. Then started crying. “Ashley,” she cried. “Where’s my baby?”
Aaron carefully embraced her. “It’s okay. The police are looking for her. John’s looking for her. They’re going to find her.”
“You hate me, don’t you? Hate me more than you already did?”
Lily saw Aaron’s eyes widen.
For a moment, he stared blankly at his wife, then frowned. “What are you talking about, Ivy?”
“At John’s party. You told me my mom was waiting for me. I made you leave. I made you drive me to that hotel so we could—so we could make love. I should have gone home and faced her. If I had—that’s why I can’t—why sex is so—”
Lily bit her lip and turned away. She hadn’t known that Ivy and Aaron had been at John’s party. That they’d been there when her mother had talked to John, leaving before Lily could get there. She also hadn’t realized that she wasn’t the only one plagued with guilt about that night. Wanting to give her sister and her husband the privacy they needed, she crept toward the door.
Aaron reached for Ivy’s hands. “Ivy, no. We’ve talked about this in therapy. I thought you understood your mother’s death had nothing to do with you.”
“It was because I was so scared of losing you. I—I knew you’d get tired of me if I didn’t sleep with you. There were so many other girls chasing you.”
“What? You never told me.”
“And then I couldn’t even give you the sex. I know you’re having an affair. Ashley hates me. And I have no idea where she is. What am I going to do without her? Aaron, what—”
“Stop it.”
Lily froze and turned at Aaron’s harsh words.
But despite his tone, his touch was gentle. He caressed Ivy’s cheek with the back of his hand as he cried. Not once did he look away from her. “Listen to me. You were never in danger of losing me. I have always been head over heels for you. I would have waited years to make love to you if I had to. And I’m not having an affair.”
“But—”
He pressed a finger against her lips. “No. Just listen. Yes, I’ve had the opportunity. There’s a partner at work who’s been coming on strong. But I told her no. Because I love my wife. I love my daughter. Do you understand?”
Ivy nodded weakly, but it wasn’t good enough for him.
“Say it.”
“Yes, yes I understand. But Ashley—”
“She’s only been gone a few hours. Let’s not worry.”
Yet. The word hung between them. Aaron reached into his pocket. “I was going to give this to you tonight. To apologize for what an ass I’ve been.”
Lily saw Aaron take a fragile bracelet from a black velvet pouch.
He unclasped the small silver chain studded with gems and put it around her bandaged wrist. “It’s the one you’d been looking at, right? Ashley mentioned you’d wanted it when you went shopping together.”
Ivy couldn’t speak because she was crying so hard.
Aaron kissed her forehead again. “It’s from the two of us. To say thank you for everything you do. Our daughter loves you, Ivy. She’ll come home safe and sound. You’ll see.”
They hugged one another and Lily finally left. She’d go home and pick up some things. Call to check on Ivy. And before she headed over to their house to meet the officer John would send, she’d cry her own tears in private.
And hope that someday she’d have someone to hold her—John to hold her—the way Aaron held Ivy.
Chapter 17
At the Sacramento County Police Department just several blocks from the hospital, John spoke with the detectives working Ashley’s disappearance. Luckily, they were experienced and sharp, and had already done everything they should have. Next, he called Murdoch and asked if Lily had arrived at Ivy’s. She hadn’t.
“I can’t stay, John,” Murdoch added. “Get an officer from Sac PD to meet her here. I just got a call that they found The Razor’s latest victim, a girl named Candace Evans. I need to get back to El Dorado.”
“There’s been another Razor victim? Did he just snatch her?” John clutched the phone tightly. “I was thinking Ashley Bancroft might have been but…”
“I know you want to do what you can to find Lily’s niece, so you stay—”
“Doug Cantrell just confessed to killing Tina Cantrell,” John interrupted.
The line crackled with stunned silence. “No way,” Murdoch exploded. “You don’t think he’s also The Razor, do you?”
“I don’t know. I think he just confessed to protect his daughter.”
“Protect her from what?”
“Long story. Anyway, how long has this latest victim been missing. What do we know?”
“She was taken a few days ago. Reported as a missing person. He had her, but he doesn’t anymore. The vic’s alive this time.”
John almost pumped his fist. “She’s okay?”
“Not quite. The doctors aren’t sure she’s going to make it. She hasn’t regained consciousness. Her name is Candace Evans. She’s seventeen. He—he messed her up bad. It’s a damn miracle she’s managed to hang on as long as she has.”
“But we know it’s the same guy?”
“Responding officers told me it’s the same M.O. Victim is small. Dark hair. But this time she didn’t have anything on her. No jewelry. No identification. A silver necklace was found nearby, her mom says it’s not hers.”
“How’d you ID her?”
“Her mother had put out a missing persons alert a couple of days ago. She’s got a birthmark on her left thigh.”
“Rape kit?”
“Done. Results will be back in a day or so.”
John ran a weary hand through his hair. “Will you send me the report? Fax it here to the station.” John gave him the number.
“Got it.”
“Thanks, Murdoch.”
“What about Lily?”
“I’ll get someone over there and keep trying to reach her on her cell phone.”
John hung up. Then, unable to put it off any longer, he walked to the interrogation room where Douglas Cantrell sat with Thorn. Neither man was talking. Doug met his eyes unflinchingly. Thorn continued to stare at the DNA report in front of him.
Thorn had lost weight in the past two weeks. A lot of it.
Fatigue. Weight loss. Irritability. Sure, it could simply be that Thorn was working too hard. Or that he was still struggling with the breakup with Carmen. But John didn’t think so. He knew the signs of drug use better than most people.
Thorn was using something, but John had more important things to worry about. Like keeping the father of the woman he loved from going to prison.
Grim-faced, John slammed his hands on the table. “She didn’t do it. And I don’t think you did it, either.” Not anymore. Despite the evidentiary holes he’d been looking into, John had never doubted Doug loved
Lily. He’d seen that love reflected in the man’s eyes when he’d confessed to killing Tina, and he’d seen his determination to protect his daughter, as well.
Doug Cantrell just stared at him, his face aged and haggard, but his eyes unwaveringly firm. “I did do it, John. I came home. I caught her dressed to go out with that—that bastard Park, and I killed her. It was a moment of pure insanity.”
“And I’m supposed to believe this confession even though it just happens to coincide with the delivery of this DNA report with Lily’s trace?”
“As you said, she lived there. Her DNA can be explained.”
He couldn’t believe he was using his own words against him. “Damn it, don’t do this just because you want to save her. This won’t save her. It’ll kill her.” And she’ll never forgive me. She’d never get past the fact he’d arrested her father.
For a moment, Doug Cantrell looked furious. “And what am I supposed to do? Count on the D.A. seeing reason? Trust a jury of her peers to believe those numerous reasons for her DNA being there? You forget, I’m a judge. I see what can happen. No.” He wiped his face blank of all emotion except resolve. “You’re right, Detective. Tyler. This is not coincidence. I’m doing what I should have done long ago. I’m owning up to my actions. I’m not going to use my daughter to protect myself again.”
John picked up the DNA report and read through it. “Skin underneath the mother’s fingernails tests positive for male DNA matching The Razor’s. You’re not confessing to killing those girls, too, right? Well, all it’s going to take is a DNA test to show it’s not yours.”
“Not necessarily. And tests are fallible. Deals can be made. The D.A. will want this to all go away.”
“You’re willing to take your chances? To be tried not only for your ex-wife’s murder, but the vicious murder of three young women?”
“I’m willing to do what I must to protect my daughter.”
“Damn it, sir, you need to listen to me.”
Doug Cantrell stood, chest out, shoulders back. “No, John. You need to listen to me. I was wrong about you. I see that now. Help Lily through this. And please, don’t bring her here. I—I don’t want her to see me like this. That’s all I ask.” He turned to the guard. “I’m ready to go back, now.”
Helplessly, John watched the guard lead Douglas Cantrell to protective custody. As a judge, he wouldn’t last a day in general population.
For a moment, he let himself believe Doug Cantrell was telling the truth. That Hardesty and Mason Park and all the evidence he’d uncovered had correctly pointed to Doug as Tina’s killer. Maybe Doug had killed Tina, only to return to find Lily. But then why would Lily remember him picking her up? Why would she remember them discovering her mother’s body? Memory loss he could understand. But to plant false memories? How was that possible?
Unless Lily was lying.
John felt bile rise in his throat. Don’t go there. There’s an explanation. There has to be.
He turned, startled to find Thorn still sitting there. The man had been so quiet, John had forgotten he was there.
Once again, John thought he looked like crap. Correction—crap warmed over. His eyes were bloodshot.
“I don’t buy it. It’s too easy. But I can’t stop it. He’s determined to protect her.”
“I’m sorry,” Thorn said.
John cleared his throat. “Yeah, well I’m the one who messed up. I—I never should have taken this case. Not with her—”
“She means that much to you?” Thorn asked quietly.
“She means more than I would have thought possible.”
* * *
At her house, Lily packed up her stuff, then called Ivy’s room. Aaron said she was sleeping but doing fine. There’d been no word or sign of Ashley.
Just about to walk out the door, Lily paused to stare at her mother’s picture. She thought of the grief in Ivy’s voice as she’d talked with Aaron. Couldn’t believe that her sister had been plagued by the same guilt and grief that she’d been, but that neither one of them had been able to find comfort with the other. Not until now.
Had she and her sister become friends again only so Lily could help Ivy deal with the loss of her daughter? The thought made anxiety spike almost uncontrollably within her. She pictured Ashley singing in the car. Blushing at the thought of Mike.
Lily’s things fell from her fingers and she clutched her chest, struggling to breathe. Gaze straying to the door of her meditation room, she instinctively stepped toward it.
She didn’t have time to change, but she’d take five minutes. Five minutes to sit in the quiet, peaceful room and center her thoughts. She sank to the floor, wincing when every muscle she had protested. For a moment, the pain brought her joy, reminding her what an incredible lover John had been.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on those memories. Being held in his arms. The feel of his touch. The taste of his skin.
As long as they had each other, everything would be all right. They’d find Ashley. They’d find out the truth about Hardesty.
Her thoughts shifted as if directed by a gentle breeze and took her back to the Tyler house.
She saw two little girls running in the grass. Climbing trees. Playing and laughing in the pool as their mothers sat and drank tea at a table nearby. She smiled when a man came into the picture, playfully grabbed one of the girls, and tossed her in the air. It was John. She was sitting at the table with Carmen, and the little girl in his arms was their daughter. Her dream of marrying John and having a family with him had come true.
She frowned when the image shifted again. Suddenly, John was pushing their daughter on a swing. A swing at the park where Lily had met Hardesty. She ran toward them, trying to call out, but her voice remained stubbornly silent. John raised his arm and waved to her. John couldn’t see him, but Hardesty stood behind them. Lily felt her heart clamber into her throat and ran faster.
Suddenly, Hardesty became her father. Her father tapped John on the shoulder. John stopped the swing. He took their little girl by the hand. With a final smile at Lily, he followed her father in the other direction. Away from her.
I’ve got to catch them, Lily thought. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave—
Lily jerked when she heard a persistent knocking. Her eyes flew open. She shook off her panic and ran to the door.
“Lily Cantrell? I’m Sergeant George Cooper with the Sacramento Police Department.”
Checking the peephole, she saw two tall men in police uniforms. When she opened the door, the older of the men scanned her and seemed surprised by what he saw.
“Lily Cantrell?”
“Yes?”
“Ma’am. I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Did John Tyler send you? Because I’m on my way—”
The officer shook his head. “I don’t know a John Tyler, ma’am. But I’d like you to come to the station to answer a few questions.”
“What is this about?”
“A case entitled People versus Chris Hardesty. I understand the defendant was convicted of killing your mother. However, certain questions have come up. Questions involving Chris Hardesty, you and your father.”
She straightened her spine, lifted her chin, and braced her arm against the door. “Do you have an arrest warrant?”
The two officers looked at each other. Then one answered a call on his radio and stepped several feet away.
The other man addressed her. “Look, we don’t have a warrant, but we just want to talk to you.”
“Then I suggest you leave. In the meantime, I’ll be making a phone call to my attorney. Goodbye.”
She started to close the door when the other officer jogged back. “They got him. A detective from El Dorado arrested him and brought him in—” They walked away. Lily thought she heard one of them say, “judge.”
Lily swayed, but managed to back up and close the door. She leaned back against it. Slowly, her legs gave way and she sank to the floor. She stared out the window,
not sure when the pitter-patter of rain started. She curled into a ball. Her mind focused on the rain, the thump thump in her head becoming louder and louder until it beat like a drum in a rhythm she’d heard before.
August 29
12:05 a.m.
Sacramento, CA
Lily grasped the sides of her head and sobbed even as she continued down the dark, deserted road. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t wipe away the voices. Cold air pressed into her, rattling her teeth and distorting the images in her mind, blending them together until she didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.
Colors flashed behind her eyes in a sickening, swirling kaleidoscope. Through the chaos, she pictured herself in a pretty black dress. Saw herself arguing with her mother. Remembered John kissing her…then Stacy.
Her bare feet twisted beneath her and she stumbled, staggering in a disorienting zigzag before coming to a jerky standstill. Moonlight filtered through the trees, illuminating the road. She started moving again, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. The images in her mind faded into shadows. She saw a raised arm. Heard the voices again. Pleading. Warning. Denial.
I didn’t mean to do it. Run, Lily, run.
A sudden flash of light blinded her as a car appeared, heading straight for her. She wheeled around. The road undulated in a crazy slither of asphalt, threatening to topple her. Swaying, she reached out to steady herself but fell instead, catching herself on the ground with her hands.
The car stopped. Someone got out. Moved closer. The sound of footsteps thundered in her head. Her brain screamed for her to run, but her legs refused to cooperate, weighing her down like two leaden tubes of cement.
John. Get to John. John would help her.
She started to crawl, dragging herself across the ground with such desperation that she never felt the sharp rocks that ripped at her exposed arms and legs. And then he had her, his grip like an iron vise around her arm, dragging her up toward him.
She struggled and fought, but then her father’s voice registered. “Lily, stop!”
She froze. “Daddy?”
He hugged her and she clung to him, feeling safe for a brief moment before the terror returned. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “You’re going to be okay.” He led her to the car and quickly tucked her inside before starting to drive.