by Karen Rose
“But?” Daniel asked.
Her chin lifted a fraction. “My sister-in-law said Garth received a threat on my life with a demand for money. Garth wired a hundred thousand dollars from his sons’ college fund. She wanted to go to the police, but Garth wouldn’t let her. He said Rhett Porter was executed because he said too much. This doesn’t surprise you.”
“Go on” was all Daniel would say.
“Then Garth said Jared O’Brien had also been eliminated.” Her eyes narrowed. “That does surprise you.”
Daniel glanced at Luke. Luke typed, then shook his head. “He’s not dead.”
“He’s not been declared dead,” Kate corrected. “He disappeared more than five years ago. I was still in high school at the time. I’m sure you all can dig up the old police reports. Unless, of course, it was investigated by Loomis’s department.”
Daniel wanted to sigh. Instead he kept his voice even. “Explain, please.”
“Garth asked my uncle if he would go to the police. Rob said, ‘Not in this town.’ Then Garth threatened to report Rob for bank fraud if he said a word. My sister-in-law said she’d put up with Garth’s affairs for years, but wouldn’t allow him to jeopardize the safety of her sons.”
“Do you know where she was?”
“No, and I didn’t ask. I suppose you could subpoena my phone records if you really wanted to trace it. She used her own cell phone. She asked me to come and talk to you if I wasn’t afraid. If I was afraid, she said she would call you herself. But she said she wanted me to know that Garth was afraid for my life.”
“Are you not afraid?” Daniel asked softly.
“I’m terrified. I’m afraid I’ll end up like Gemma or Claudia or Janet. Or Lisa.” Sadness swept over her face. “And I’m afraid for my family. Both Garth and Rob have enough ammunition to ensure the other’s silence. That terrifies me most of all.”
“You’ve taken a risk coming here,” Daniel said. “Why?”
Her lips trembled and she firmed them sternly. “Because Lisa and I were friends. I used to borrow Gemma’s nail polish during lunch. Claudia helped me pick out my prom dress. They were part of my childhood and now they’re all gone and part of my life is gone with them. I want whoever did this to pay.” She rose. “That’s all I have to say.”
Alex stood at the end of the hall outside Leigh’s outer office, next to a window where she could get decent cell phone reception. And a little privacy. Her toe tapped and she realized she was nervous as the phone rang on the other end.
“Hello?” a female voice answered, and Alex wanted to sigh. She’d been hoping Richard would answer. Instead she was talking to Amber, Richard’s wife.
“Hi, this is Alex. Is Richard available?”
“No.” The word came too quickly. “He’s not here. He’s at work.”
“I called the hospital. They said he was at home. Please. It’s important.”
Amber hesitated. “All right. I’ll get him.”
A minute later she heard Richard’s voice, quiet and awkwardly formal. “Alex. This is a surprise. What can I do for you?”
“I’m in Dutton.”
“I heard. I… saw the reports on the news. Are you all right?”
“I am. Bailey sent me a letter. I think it came to the house. Can you check?”
“Hold on.” She heard him moving things around. “Here it is. It’s got a key in it. I can feel it through the envelope.”
Alex drew a breath. “Look, I know this sounds totally crazy, but I want you to only handle it by the corner and open it with a letter opener. It may become evidence.”
“Okay.” She heard him rummage in a drawer. Then, “You want me to peek inside?”
“Carefully, yeah. And if there’s a letter, read it to me.”
“There is. You ready?”
No. “Yes. Read it, please.”
“Dear Alex, I know this letter will come as a shock to you after all these years. I don’t have a lot of time. Please take this key and put it someplace safe. If something happens to me, I want you to take care of Hope. She’s my beautiful daughter and my second chance. I’ve been clean and sober for five years now, all because of her. And you. You were the only person who believed in me when I hit rock bottom. You were the only one who cared enough to try to get me help. But I want you to know I got help and Hope is healthy and normal. A million times in the last five years I’ve wanted to call you, but I know I burned my bridges that last time and I couldn’t face you again. I hope you’ll forgive me and if not, then please take care of Hope anyway. You’re the only family I have left and the only one I trust with my daughter.
“Hide the key. Don’t let anyone know you have it. If I need it, I’ll call you.” Richard cleared his throat. “It’s signed, Love, your sister, Bailey, with a little cartoon of a sheep.”
Alex swallowed hard. “A lamb,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m going to need to ask the police what they want you to do with the key. If they ask, can you FedEx it to me tonight?”
“Of course. Alex, are you in any danger?”
“I had a narrow miss a few days ago, but, um… I’m in good hands down here.” Her voice had changed, softening as she said the last words.
“What’s his name?”
She smiled. “Daniel.”
“Good. You’ve been alone too long,” he said gruffly. “Even when you were with me.”
Tears unexpected sprang to her eyes, burning her throat. “Tell Amber if I call again it’s just to get the letter, okay?”
“Alex, are you crying?”
She swallowed hard. “I seem to be doing that a lot lately.”
“You never cried. Not once. I used to wish you would.”
“You wanted me to cry?”
“I wanted you to let go,” he said so quietly she almost didn’t hear it. “I thought if you cried, you might be able…”
Alex’s heart clenched so hard it hurt. “To love you?”
“Yeah.” The one word came out sad. “I guess so. Good luck, Alex. Have a good life.”
“You, too.” She cleared her throat and wiped her eyes. “I’ll call you about the letter.”
Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 6:00 p.m.
When Leigh had escorted Kate Davis from the building, Daniel turned to the group. “Six down, one to go?”
Luke looked up from his laptop. “Jared O’Brien is the right age. He graduated the same year Simon did, from the private school.”
“So far we have Garth and Jared who went to the private school,” Luke said, “Wade, Rhett, and Randy who went to the public, and Simon who attended both.”
“If O’Brien was a drunk, he could have been a liability,” Chase said. “Let’s get a profile on him, as discreetly as possible. Until then, we don’t approach anyone in his family. I don’t want to tip anyone off. We still need to find the other living man, so find me connections. See if anybody else has withdrawn a hundred grand from their kids’ college fund recently.”
“She said he had affairs,” Ed said suddenly. “Kate Davis. She said that her sister-in-law said she could ignore Garth’s affairs, but not endangering her children. Didn’t Bailey’s friend say she thought she was seeing a married man?”
“Bailey could have been waiting for Garth that night,” Luke agreed. “I can see Mansfield beating her up long before I see Garth Davis doing it.”
“If Garth Davis and Bailey were having an affair, I’d expect to find his prints somewhere in that house,” Chase said. “If he came in to attack her, it’s less likely. It would be nice to know which is guilty of assault versus garden-variety infidelity.”
“We took prints from the bathroom and the kitchen,” Ed said. “But none of them came up in AFIS.”
“Neither Garth nor Randy have a record, so I wouldn’t expect their fingerprints to be in AFIS,” Chase said. “But both are city employees, so they have to have prints on file somewhere.”
“I’ll check, or we
could just ask Hope, right, Daniel? Yo. Daniel.” Ed snapped his fingers.
Daniel was still thinking of Kate Davis’s final words. “Whoever killed these four women is attacking a place in time. Kate said her childhood was gone.”
“So?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know. It just nags at me. I wish there was someone I could trust to tell me how things really were then.” He stilled. “Maybe there is. I saw my old English teacher my first day back in town. He said something about only fools thinking they could keep secrets in a small town. He told me not to be a fool. I was so busy thinking about bodies and Woolf and the paper, I didn’t listen. I think I’ll pay him a visit tomorrow.”
“Discreetly,” Chase warned.
“Excuse me.” They all turned to find Alex standing at the door. “I saw Leigh walk Kate Davis out, so I thought it was okay to come back.”
She’d been crying. Before Daniel knew it, he was on his feet, his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just talked to my ex. He has Bailey’s key. What do you want him to do with it? He says he can FedEx it if you want.”
“We want,” Chase said from the table. “Leigh can give you the address.”
She nodded and slipped from Daniel’s hands. “I’ll call and tell him.”
He watched her go, feeling unsettled and unhappy about it. Focus, Vartanian. He sat back down and made himself think. “Wade had a key,” he said.
“What was it to?” Chase asked.
“I assume it was to wherever they’d hidden the pictures,” Daniel said. “But Simon had the pictures, in my father’s house. That’s how my father found them. What if Simon also had a key?”
“Was a key found with Simon’s things when he died?” Luke asked.
“Not the first time, but my father might have found it first. If Simon took it with him, maybe it’s with all the things they found in his house in Philadelphia. I’ll call Vito Ciccotelli and find out.”
Dutton, Thursday, February 1, 7:00 p.m.
“Alex, just tell me.”
Yanked from her thoughts, Alex looked over at Daniel, who stared at the highway before them. His hands clutched the wheel and his face was set more sternly than she’d seen in days. “Excuse me?”
“We’re nearly to Dutton. You haven’t said a word since you talked to your ex and you’d been crying. He must have said something more than ‘Yes, Alex, I have the key.’ ”
His tone was so harsh she blinked. “What do you think he said?”
“I don’t know.” His words were spaced deliberately. “That’s why I asked.”
She stared at his profile, briefly lit by passing headlights. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“Are you going back?” he asked before she could formulate an answer.
“Back where? To Ohio?” Understanding dawned. “Or to Richard?”
His jaw tightened further. “Yes. Either.”
“No, I’m not going back to Richard. He’s married.”
“It didn’t stop him from cheating before.”
“No.” Alex was starting to get annoyed. “But I wouldn’t do that, even if he would. What kind of person do you think I am?”
He exhaled. “I’m sorry. I was out of line.”
“Yes, you were. And I’m not sure if I’m royally pissed or flattered.”
He touched her arm with his fingertips. “Be flattered. I like that better than pissed.”
She sighed. “Okay, but only because being pissed takes more energy than being flattered. I told him about you. He was worried about everything that was going on down here. I told him I was in good hands.”
She hoped she’d see him smile, but he did not. “You never said if you were going back to Ohio.”
It was what had had her deep in thought. “What do you want me to say?”
“That you’ll stay here.”
She drew a deep breath and held it. “Part of me wants to say yes, because you’re here. Part of me wants to run in the other direction, and that part has nothing to do with you. My worst memories are here, Daniel. That scares me.”
He was quiet for a moment. “But you’d consider staying?”
“Would you consider going?”
“To Ohio?” He said it like it was Outer Mongolia and she chuckled.
“It’s not a bad place. You can even get grits.”
One side of his mouth lifted. “Scrapple, too?”
She made a face. “If you insist, I know a place that serves it. But that’s just nasty.”
He smiled then, and her heart lifted. “I agree. I would consider it.”
Again she held her breath. “Scrapple or Ohio?”
His smile faded, his expression becoming sober. “Yes. Either.”
A full minute of silence passed. “That feels good, and right. But I don’t want to make you any promises until I’m firm on my feet again.”
“All right.” He squeezed her hand. “I do feel better now.”
“I’m glad.”
They passed Dutton’s Main Street and Alex’s stomach began to churn. “We’re almost there.”
“I know. Whatever it is, whatever you remember, we’ll deal with it together.”
Dutton, Thursday, February 1, 7:30 p.m.
“This house is a steal at four-fifty.” Delia Anderson patted her bouffant-do. “It won’t last long in this market at that price.”
He opened a closet, pretended to care. “My girlfriend buys out the store every time she goes shopping. This would never be enough closet space for her.”
“I have two more listings,” Delia said. “Both have enormous walk-in closets.”
He gave one last turn. “But this house does have… something,” he said. “It’s so cozy and private.”
“That it is,” Delia agreed a shade too eagerly. “There aren’t many houses available with this much property.”
He smiled. “We like to have parties. Sometimes they get a little wild.”
“Oh, Mr. Myers.” She giggled, an unattractive sound coming from a woman her age. “Privacy is such an underrated consideration in the purchase of a new home.” She paused at a mirror that hung in the foyer and again patted her helmet-head of hair. “Why, this place is so private, you could have an open air rock ’n’ roll show in the backyard and no neighbors would complain about the noise.”
He stepped behind her and smiled into the mirror. “Exactly my thoughts.”
Her eyes widened in alarm and her mouth opened to scream, but too late. Quick as a wish, he had his knife to her throat. “In case you haven’t guessed already, my name is not Myers.” He leaned in and whispered his name in her ear and watched her wide eyes glaze over with horror as recognition seeped past all that hairspray. “Let me introduce you to a new concept, Miz Anderson. Accrued interest on an unpaid debt.”
He pushed her to the floor and quickly bound her hands behind her back. “I sure hope you like to scream.”
Dutton, Thursday, February 1, 7:30 p.m.
“So did Simon have a key?” Ed asked from the back of the surveillance van.
Daniel slipped his phone into his pocket. “Yeah. Vito Ciccotelli said there were five keys found in Simon’s things. He’s sending them all first thing tomorrow. Now if we can only figure out what they open.” A movement on Ed’s screen had him straightening. “Looks like Mary is ready.”
“Mary had me set up the camera in Alex’s old bedroom,” Ed said. “Since we found her ring there, we thought it made sense.”
His hands clenched, Daniel watched as the door opened and Mary led Alex in.
“What time is it?” Mary asked her.
“Late. It’s dark and there’s lightning. Thunder and lightning.”
“Where are you?”
“In bed.”
“Sleeping?”
“No. I’m sick. I have to get up to go to the bathroom. I’m sick.”
“So what happened?”
Alex was standing at the window. “Someone’s there.”<
br />
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s Alicia. She sneaks out sometimes. Goes to parties.”
“Is it Alicia?”
Alex leaned toward the window. “No. It’s a man.” She flinched. “It’s Craig.”
“Why did you flinch, Alex?”
“The lightning is bright.” She grimaced. “My stomach hurts.”
“Is Craig still out there?”
“Yes. But now there’s someone else. Two people, carrying a bag between them.”
“Is it heavy or light?”
“Heavy, I think.” She flinched again, then sucked in a breath. Then stared blankly.
“What is it? More lightning?”
Alex nodded. Hesitated. “He dropped it.”
“He dropped the bag?”
“It’s not a bag, it’s a blanket. It fell open.”
“And what do you see in the lightning, Alex?”
“Her arm. Her hand. It just fell out onto the ground.” She was worrying the ring finger on her right hand, tugging as if a ring were there. “I can see her hand.” She relaxed slightly. “Oh, she’s just a doll.”
Daniel felt a chill slide down his back and remembered Sheila sprawled like a Raggedy Ann doll in the corner of Presto’s Pizza.
“She’s a doll?” Mary asked.
Alex nodded, her eyes blank, her voice eerily matter-of-fact. “Yes. She’s just a doll.”
“What do the men do?”
“He grabs her arm, puts it back in the blanket. Now he’s got it again and they’re running around the house.”
“What’s happening now?”
She frowned slightly. “My stomach still hurts. I’m going back to sleep.”
“All right. Come with me, Alex.” Mary led her to a folding chair and began to bring her out of it. Daniel could tell the moment she was cognizant of her surroundings. She blanched and hunched her shoulders.
“It wasn’t a doll,” she said tonelessly. “It was Alicia. They were carrying her in the blanket.”
Mary crouched in front of her. “Who, Alex?”
“Craig and Wade. Wade was the one who dropped his end. It was her arm. It… it didn’t look real. It looked like a doll.” She closed her eyes. “I told my mother.”
Mary glanced into the camera, then back at Alex. “When?”