“Then tell me about my birth mother.”
Weston hadn’t expected the question, but the Moonlight Strangler obviously had. “She’s dead,” he answered without hesitation.
Addie put her hand over her heart, no doubt to try to steady it. “Did you kill her?”
“Yes.” Another quick admission. “But she won’t be on your list of victims. Sometimes, it’s best if I don’t show off my work.”
Her bottom lip started to tremble, and she had to clamp her teeth over it for a few seconds. “You’re insane.”
“Possibly. But I do have my own personal code of conduct, and I’m not the one after you.”
Like Weston, he could see Addie replaying that in her head. Did she believe him? Not a chance. But anything this guy could tell them might help them catch him.
“Then who is after me?” she asked.
“Secrets, secrets,” the man taunted.
Hell. Weston wanted to reach through the phone and strangle this idiot. Since he couldn’t do that and because punching walls wouldn’t be very productive, he went in another direction.
“Did you send me a letter that threatened my sister?” Weston asked him.
“Not me. Your sister is of no interest to me.”
“You’re sure about that? I’ve been working damn hard to find you, and you could want to get back at me.”
“I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you. It’s the reason I don’t go after lawmen. Too persistent. Persistence got Addie’s sister-in-law in trouble, didn’t it? By the way, how’s your brother doing?”
That didn’t help the color in Addie’s cheeks. “Paige,” she said under her breath. “And how do you think my brother’s doing?” She had a lot more volume in her voice when she asked that. “You murdered his wife.”
“His ex-wife,” the man corrected.
Weston knew the details of Paige’s murder. Too many details. The kind that made it hard for him to sleep at night. The kind that’d no doubt given Addie and especially her brother Jax plenty of nightmares. This monster had taken way too much from the Crocketts.
“Paige’s death couldn’t be helped,” he said as if that excused everything. “If it makes you feel better, she’s the only one I regret. Tell your brother that.”
“Jax won’t ever hear that from me,” she snapped. “Because I don’t believe it for a minute. I doubt you’re even capable of feeling regret.”
“You’re wrong.” He paused again. “But we’re getting off topic again, and I need to end this call soon.”
“Not until you give us some answers,” Weston insisted.
“All right. Here’s an answer, Ranger Cade. You’re of no interest to me. Addie, well, she’s of interest only because we’re family.”
The anger fired through her eyes. “You’re not my family.”
He chuckled. “A sensitive topic, I see.”
Weston was tired of dealing with this. “Tell us who’s after Addie and why.”
“Secrets, secrets,” he repeated. “There’s a big surprise planned for you.”
“Quit playing games.” Weston added some profanity to that.
“But games are so much fun. But I will say this—if you want to stop him, then make sure Addie remembers all about her time with Daisy. I’m not the only one with secrets.”
“Daisy’s dead. Your doing?” Weston asked.
“Hardly. Not my type. Not like Collette and the others.”
“I wasn’t your type,” Weston reminded him after he got past the mental punch to the gut at hearing the killer say Collette’s name, “and you left me for dead.”
“You got in the way. If you’re not careful, the same will happen when he comes after Addie.”
“He?” Addie and Weston questioned together. “Give me a name,” Weston demanded.
A very long silence.
“All right. Here’s a name. Lonny Ogden. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to pull a copycat.”
Finally. But Weston had no idea if it was the truth or if the Moonlight Strangler was just playing more games.
“Did you put Ogden up to coming after me?” Addie asked.
“No way. I take pride in what I do, and Lonny-boy’s a sloppy mess. My own fault, though.”
Weston didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
“I mean...” The killer didn’t jump to finish that until he’d made them wait several moments. “I’m responsible for creating Lonny-boy. It’s my blood running through his veins.”
And with that, he laughed and ended the call.
Chapter Fourteen
Addie hadn’t realized just how weak her legs had gotten until she felt Weston hook his arm around her waist. He had her sit on the bed, his attention immediately going to Daniel.
Her mind was whirling. As if a tornado had gotten inside her head. She’d actually heard the voice of the Moonlight Strangler. Chase had been attacked. Her birth mother was dead.
If the killer was telling the truth.
“Is there any chance the Moonlight Strangler can use that phone number to find the location of the safe house?” Weston asked the marshals.
Oh, God. That put her heart right back in her throat. She hadn’t even considered that.
“No,” Daniel assured them. “Each of Addie’s family members was given the phone number but not the address.”
Good. That was something at least, but it didn’t get her heart out of her throat. Mercy, when was this going to end?
“We had DNA tests run on Ogden, and they should be back in a day or two,” Weston explained to Daniel. “Jericho and the FBI will need to know about this, too.”
“And Chase,” Addie added. “I need to talk to Chase.”
Daniel had already said that Chase was all right, but she wanted to hear her brother’s voice, to make sure he wasn’t trying to shield her. Things were already bad enough, but if her brother had been hurt...well, she didn’t want to go there.
The marshals both stepped out in the hall to make the calls, but they didn’t go far. Definitely not letting her out their sight. Of course, Weston wasn’t leaving, either. He sat next to her, pulling her into his arms.
“Ogden is my brother?” she asked.
“The killer could have been lying about that,” Weston reminded her.
True. But why would he do that?
It’s my blood running through his veins.
And that meant it was the same blood running through hers.
“I didn’t feel any kind of connection to him,” she added. “Unlike Cord. I felt something there.” Plus, there’d been the memory of the brown bear.
“Ogden’s probably crazy,” Weston went on. “And I don’t mean he just acts crazy. He might truly be insane along with being a Moonlight Strangler groupie. Ogden maybe somehow convinced the killer that he was his son so he could deepen whatever connection he thinks is between them.”
Perhaps. But the killer didn’t seem to be someone who could easily be convinced of anything, especially a lie.
Weston caught her chin, lifted it, forcing eye contact with her. “The good news is the killer said he wasn’t the one after you. If that’s true—and I think it might be—then all of this makes a lot more sense.”
She had to shake her head. “None of this makes sense.”
“But it does. You’ve known for three months that the Moonlight Strangler is your biological father. I kept going back to the question—if he wanted you silenced, then why hadn’t he come after you sooner? If I could just walk onto the ranch, then he could have, too. He didn’t.”
Addie couldn’t argue with that, but she did see a problem. “The same could be said of a copycat. Why now?”
“Maybe it has to do with Cord.”
All right. That got her attention.
“Cord found out he was a DNA match about the same time the attacks on you started,” Weston continued. “Someone might not want you teaming up with your brother and recalling any shared memories.”
“I’ve got your brother Chase on the line,” Daniel interrupted.
Addie couldn’t get to his phone fast enough. “Are you okay?” she asked Chase right away.
“I’m fine. How about you?”
Her brother didn’t sound fine. He sounded shaken up. And riled. Addie knew exactly how he felt. “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. I was just zapped when I got out of my car to interview a witness. Nothing to do with the Moonlight Strangler. This is all my fault, really. I was distracted, and I didn’t see the stun gun in the woman’s hand until it was too late.”
“A woman?” Weston asked.
“Yeah. She looked as if she’d been attacked. Clothes torn. Hair a mess. She staggered toward me, and when I reached for her, she hit me with a stun gun. When I came to, I was facedown in the parking lot and my phone was missing.”
Addie felt the chill snake down her spine. Chase could have been killed, and she was betting the reason he was distracted was because he was worried about her. “Any idea who the woman was?”
“None. I’ll check for any surveillance cameras, but I figure she was just a lackey. Maybe even a homeless person hired to do the job. Don’t worry. I’ll be more careful. You do the same.”
There was an alert that another call was coming in, so Addie told her brother goodbye and handed the phone back to Daniel. Daniel cursed as soon as he saw the screen.
“It’s an unknown caller again,” Daniel told them.
At the same moment, there was a text from Jericho on Weston’s phone.
Ogden is about to call you, Jericho texted Weston. Call me after you’ve talked to him.
Addie was actually relieved it was Ogden. She wasn’t sure she was up for another round with the Moonlight Strangler when she hadn’t recovered from their initial conversation. But, of course, talking to Ogden wouldn’t exactly be a picnic.
Especially after what she’d just learned.
It’s my blood running through his veins.
“Marshal Seaver, don’t hang up,” Ogden greeted. “I’ve been calling all over the place, and that rude sheriff in Appaloosa Pass finally gave me your number. I need to speak to Ranger Cade right now. He’s not answering his phone, and I’m betting you know how to get in touch with him.”
Weston wasn’t answering his phone because, like Addie’s, his had been left at the ranch and swapped out with ones that couldn’t be tracked. They certainly hadn’t given Ogden their new numbers.
“I’m listening,” Weston said, moving closer to the phone. “Where the hell are you?”
“As if I’d tell you. The sheriff kept asking me the same thing, and I’ll say to you what I said to him. You won’t find me unless I want to be found. And I don’t want to be found right now.”
“Really?” Weston fired back. “Because I heard you were kicking and screaming when those men took you from the hospital. Was that all an act?”
“No!” His voice was a screech. “I have no idea who they were, and I got away as soon as I could.”
“You managed to escape with that injury?” Weston sounded as skeptical as Addie felt. Because Ogden could be lying, not only about this but anything else he told them.
“Yes, I did. I’m resourceful when I have to be. But there’s a problem. I managed to get to a computer to access the security feed I set up around my apartment.”
Daniel looked at Weston, silently asking if he knew about the feed, and Weston shook his head. If Weston and the other lawmen hadn’t seen cameras, then they were well hidden.
“There are cops in my apartment,” Ogden went on, “and I want you to tell them to get out. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I can see them going through everything. I don’t want them touching my things.”
Good grief. That was his biggest concern right now? Maybe Weston was right about Ogden being insane. Or else this was Ogden’s way of trying to make them believe he was. That way, if he was caught, he could be looking at time in a mental hospital instead of jail.
“There’s an easy fix to this problem,” Weston snarled. “If you want the cops out, just turn yourself in, and give them whatever it is they’re looking for.”
“You know I can’t do that. You’ll arrest me.”
“Yeah, I will, but the alternative is you dying while on the run. I take it your kidnapper didn’t have friendly intentions toward you?”
“No.” For one word, it carried a lot of emotion. Mainly anger. “They wanted me to do things I didn’t want to do.”
“Like what?” Weston pressed when Ogden didn’t continue.
“I’m not after Addie. Not anymore. I don’t want her dead, and I didn’t have anything to do with that stuff that went on at that old lady’s house.”
“Really? You’re not after Addie? Convince me.”
That was Weston’s favorite order. Convince me. Something she doubted Ogden could do.
Ogden made a sound of disapproval, clearly not pleased with Weston’s sarcasm. “I can’t, not over the phone. But if you get those cops out of my place, I’ll turn myself in so we can talk face-to-face. I’ll be able to convince Addie and you.”
She wasn’t holding her breath about that.
“Give me some time,” Weston finally said. “I’ll see if I can help.”
“You don’t believe he’d turn himself in,” Addie protested when Weston ended the call and reached for his own phone.
“No. But obviously there’s something in that apartment that Ogden doesn’t want them to find.”
While the marshals were busy with their own calls, Weston worked his way through several people in SAPD before he was finally connected to an officer, Detective Riley Jenkins, on the scene of the search of Ogden’s apartment.
“Just got a call from Ogden, and he claims to be watching you via remote camera access,” Weston told the detective. “He also says he’ll turn himself in if you and your team leave the apartment. He won’t, of course, but he might be stupid enough to try to get into his place to retrieve whatever it is he’s worried about you finding.”
“I think we’ve already found it,” Jenkins answered in a whisper.
Addie felt a too familiar punch of dread. She doubted there was anything in Ogden’s apartment that would put her at ease.
“Hold on while I step outside,” the detective added. It only took a few moments for him to come back on the line. “I’m not sure if Ogden has audio, but I didn’t want to risk it. We found the cameras shortly after we got in.”
“Does Ogden know that?” Weston asked.
“Oh, yes. We’ve blocked the one we found in the bedroom. I’m sure that’s got him running scared. He’s been calling all over, looking for someone who can get us out of here, and I’m hoping he’ll panic and try to move us out of here himself. We’re ready for an attack. Ready to catch him and put him back in jail where he belongs.”
Good. Because Ogden sounded as if he was at a breaking point.
“What’d you find?” Weston asked.
“Plenty. I’m texting you a picture of something we saw in his bedroom.”
Addie pressed her fingers to her mouth and prayed that it wasn’t another dead body. But it wasn’t. As the picture loaded, it took her a while to figure out exactly what she was seeing. There were newspaper clippings taped to the walls. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of them. And from what she could tell, all the clippings were articles about the Moonlight Strangler.
“It’s like a shrine,” the detective went on. “In addition to the stuff on the walls, he has folders from where he’s printed out blog posts and anything that mentions the killer. That’s where we found the letters from the Moonlight Strangler.”
Letters. Ogden hadn’t mentioned those.
“You think they’re real?” Weston asked.
“At least one of them is. It’s typed, no
envelope so we don’t have a postmark, but there’s a detail in it that only the killer would know. It has to do with a necklace and one of the victims.”
Leta’s necklace.
But that immediately gave Addie an uneasy feeling.
That was the same item the Moonlight Strangler had offered them as proof of his identity. Was it possible that someone like Canales or Boggs had gotten access to that detail and was using it to manipulate Ogden?
If so, had that really been the Moonlight Strangler who’d just called her? Or maybe someone was just playing sick games with her.
“The letter’s an apology, and it’s dated about three months ago,” Jenkins explained. “The Strangler tells Ogden he’s sorry for not being there for him, that he knows Ogden had a tough life. And he did. When Ogden was three, he was adopted by a couple who used him as a punching bag. Lots of trips to the ER for broken bones and such.”
Addie hadn’t known that about Ogden, and it almost made her feel sorry for him. Almost.
“His adoptive parents were both killed in a car accident and left him a nice trust fund,” Jenkins added, “but I’m sure that doesn’t make up for the abuse.”
No. Nothing could make up for something like that. But a trust fund meant Ogden had access to money that he could have used to hire the hit man who tried to kill her.
“Did the Moonlight Strangler say anything about being Ogden’s biological father?” Weston asked. It was the exact question on Addie’s mind.
“Not outright, but he implied it,” the detective said without hesitating. “Apparently, you’d already put in a DNA test on Ogden so I just called about fifteen minutes ago and got the results.”
“The test is back?” Weston said, giving her a long look. He also put his arm around her. “And?”
“It’s a match.”
Addie felt the air swoosh out of her. This wouldn’t have been easy no matter what, but it was a hard pill to swallow that her own brother had wanted her dead.
“The lab compared Ogden’s DNA to the Moonlight Strangler’s biological daughter, Addie Crockett, and although it’s not a full sibling match, the DNA does prove that Ogden is her half-brother. Same paternal DNA, different mother, though.”
Lone Wolf Lawman Page 13