“You think Dana killed the sister?” Kate wasn’t sure she was buying into this theory, but she might as well play it all the way to the end.
“I don’t know. Nothing indicates she did. Nothing indicates she didn’t.” Conner lifted the corner of the keyboard and retrieved a slip of paper.
“One more thing.” She thrust the paper toward Kate. “The parents’ address. The property is still in the family name.”
Kate snagged the paper, and rushed for the door. “I owe you one,” she called back over her shoulder, dialing Jack even as the heavy door slid shut behind her.
THIRTY-FOUR
Lisa paced in a small circle beside her car. Every few steps, she stopped and listened. Tim should be here soon. And then she was finally going to show him how much he’d hurt her.
She touched the knife she had slipped into her belt at the small of her back. Dr. McNally had been right. Tim was taking advantage of her. And when she’d overheard her mother making plans for the wedding, if you could call it that, everything that Dr. McNally had been saying finally clicked into place.
Tim was seeing other people. He was no good. He played with people’s emotions for fun. Well, now he was going to know just how that felt.
A car rumbled in the distance. Lisa watched through the woods until finally she caught a flash of color. Tim! Good. Now she could finally be done with him.
He pulled his car up, nose to nose with Lisa’s beat-up Toyota Corolla. He stepped out and flashed Lisa a broad smile, but she couldn’t smile back. She couldn’t pretend everything was okay.
“Hey babe. I’ve missed you.” Tim angled to give Lisa a hug, but she sidestepped him, moving just far enough to make it awkward.
Tim’s arms fell to his side and his brows drew together in confusion. “What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to see me?”
“I did.” Lisa took a deep breath. “But I don’t.”
Tim snorted and shook his head. “Oh my god, Lisa. Don’t go all drama queen on me again. You’re just never happy unless—”
“Stop it, Tim.” Lisa’s voice was calm, but firm.
He raised his shoulders in a shrug. “What do you want?”
“To know why you played me, Tim. I want to know why I was just another one of your girls.” Tim started to shake his head and Lisa raised her volume a notch. “Don’t. Don’t lie to me. I’m done with your lies. I know about the other girls, Tim. I’m not stupid.”
A harsh laugh escaped from deep in Tim’s throat. “Really? Couldn’t prove it by me.”
Anger heated Lisa’s veins until her vision started to blur. She slid her hand behind her back and felt the handle of the knife. She was going to show him just how strong she could be. She was going to teach him what happened when he messed with the wrong person.
“You lied to me.” She slid the knife out of her belt, but kept it behind her back. “You took advantage of me.”
One step toward him. “You. Never. Even. Cared.”
She swung her arm around so the knife was between her and Tim as she advanced on him.
Tim’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Lisa wouldn’t give him the chance.
“I’m not wrong, Tim. You know I’m not wrong. And don’t you dare lie to me again,” Lisa screamed.
“Hey, calm down.” Tim held his hands in front of his chest, palms outward, and took a step back. “I’m sorry, okay. I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”
“You didn’t mean?” Lisa took two quick steps in Tim’s direction, closing the distance between them by more than half. “You took advantage of me. You took advantage of my Mom. You’ll never do it again!”
Lisa raised the knife. She was going to show him. She was going to make him understand that his actions had consequences.
“Lisa!” It wasn’t Tim’s voice that shouted at her. The voice was deeper, more authoritative. Uncle Jack? Lisa stopped. What was going on?
“Lisa, step back, and drop the knife. Now!” Jack stepped out of a thicket of bushes.
“What—”
“Do it now!” Uncle Jack moved toward her quickly. Lisa dropped the knife and stepped back.
“I…He.” She fumbled through the words to make Uncle Jack understand that someone had to teach Tim a lesson. Someone had to make him understand that he couldn’t mess with people’s emotions.
“I just want him to understand…” Lisa’s voice failed her then. She hadn’t even realized that she had been crying, but now sobs stole her voice and wracked her chest. She could barely breathe.
Her legs gave way, and Lisa expected to land on the hard packed dirt road. Instead she felt someone’s arms go around her. Uncle Jack. He’d caught her.
She buried her face in his chest and cried harder than she’d cried since the day Aunt Susan had died.
THIRTY-FIVE
Tim Burris sat across the table in the investigation room, staring at his hands. Jack wanted to shake him. Or hit him. Or something to make him realize just exactly what he’d done to destroy what little family Jack had left.
Anger from his rush to catch Tim, the BOLO having finally paid off, still tensed his muscles. Finally, this creep was going to answer for what he had done to Lisa and to the poor women he’d killed.
Tim had been spotted heading into Desoto National Forest. When Jack got the call, he dropped what he was doing and joined in the search. And now he was glad he did. When he’d found Tim, he’d also found Lisa. And she had a knife in her hand. From his perspective, it looked like she was planning to use it. What was that kid thinking? Jack had wanted to ask her, but she’d sobbed all the way back to the station. The only words she said the whole way were, “She said I needed to take back control.”
That made Jack’s desire to beat Tim senseless even stronger. It was just more proof that Tim destroyed the people he loved the most. It was time for Tim to come clean. He was more than a manipulator. He was a murderer. Jack needed this case to be over. He needed to put the pieces of his family back together. He needed to move on. To help Leslie and Lisa, especially Lisa, move on.
Jack’s phone vibrated in its holster on his hip. He silenced it without breaking the stare he’d focused on Tim. “I always knew you were trouble.”
Tim looked at Jack as if he’d sprouted another head. “What’d I ever do to you?”
“Are you really that stupid?” Jack mustered all of his control to keep from grabbing Tim by the collar and slinging him into a wall. He pounded the table with both hands instead. “What you did to Lisa is unforgivable. But you’ve done a lot more than take advantage of young girls, haven’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tim glanced down at the folder placed between them on the table, then over Jack’s shoulder toward the door.
“The sooner you talk, the sooner you can leave.”
“I got nothing to say.”
“I figured.” Jack leaned forward, and fixed Tim with a hard stare. “That’s okay. I’ll talk. You’re more than just a pervert, Tim. And it’s just a matter of time before we have the evidence we need to prove it.”
Tim said nothing but his eyes widened and his breath came in short, fast puffs. Jack opened the file in front of him and flipped two pictures onto the table. Pictures of Karen Whiteside and Patricia Simms in their death poses. He’d purposely chosen the goriest pictures they had taken. He wanted to see Tim’s reaction.
Tim looked away and shrank back into his chair.
It was the reaction that Jack had expected. Anyone that could murder another human being could play a pretty convincing game of know-your-reactions. “You know these women, don’t you?”
Tim didn’t look at the images on the table, but shook his head. “No.”
“Yes you do. I know you know them. I’ve talked to people that have confirmed that you know them.” Jack slammed his fist onto the table. “And I know you killed them. So all I really want to know, Tim, is why? Why did you kill them? And why did you get my family
involved?”
Tim turned sideways in his chair and wretched onto the floor. Not the reaction Jack expected. The stench was almost overpowering, and he had to concentrate on keeping the contents of his own stomach where they belonged.
“I didn’t. I swear I didn’t.” Tim had wrapped his arms around his midsection and rocked back and forth. Then he looked directly at Jack, his face twisted into a mask of disgust and sorrow. “I know them, but I didn’t kill them.”
Jack glared at Tim. The other man’s gaze never wavered and Jack’s stomach clenched. A scene flashed through his mind. Kate, sitting in his car, battered and bruised. And then Kate, mostly healed, arguing that Dana had been the one that ran her off the road.
Then, images of Dana replaced Kate. She had been there every time something went wrong for Jack. She had been there when Leslie’s house was vandalized. She was the counselor that both dead women were seeing. She was connected to this case in more ways than Jack cared to admit. Could Kate have been right?
“Okay, Tim.” Jack was calmer. At least on the outside. On the inside turmoil roiled his guts into a flaming ball at the pit of his stomach. “I’ll bite. Where were you the night of September seventh?” The night the first victim had died. The night Lisa ended up in the hospital.
“I was with Lisa, Jack. You know that. Your sister can verify that.” The sneer on Tim’s face only served to tighten Jack’s grip on his anger again.
He gripped the edge of the table to keep from punching Tim in the face.
An image of Dana that first night. At the hospital almost as fast as he was. “What about after?” Jack clenched his jaw so tight he thought his teeth might break.
Dana’s face flashed into his mind. At the gym. She was upset. For a moment. But when she came out of the locker room she looked confident. Controlled.
“I drove around for a while after Leslie hauled Lisa away.” Tim’s words brought Jack back to the present. “I ended up at Sneaky Pete’s. And went home with a waitress.”
“What about September tenth?” That was when the medical examiner had said Karen Whiteside had died.
“Same waitress.” Tim’s features had relaxed, and his gaze wandered from Jack to the table and around the room. But he still avoided looking at the pictures lying on the table in front of him.
“You know I’ll verify this.” Jack flashed on Dana again. This time she was telling him how terrible Leslie was. It was nothing Jack hadn’t thought before but wasn’t Dana’s job to help her? Not turn her family against her.
“I know. She’ll tell you I was with her.” Tim leaned back in his chair and Jack’s stomach fell. Tim was telling the truth. Jack didn’t need to verify it. He knew it with a certainty that could not be denied. Tim didn’t have what it took to tell these kinds of lies.
He knew that. He’d known all along that Tim didn’t have the fortitude to commit these murders. But Jack had wanted to believe it was Tim. And Dana had helped. “Whatever it takes, Jack. I’ll help you put him away.” Dana’s voice rang in his head.
He pushed up from the table and walked out of the interrogation room without another word to Tim.
Dana’s voice was replaced by Kate’s. “If I hadn’t jumped in we wouldn’t know Dana might be involved in this. At the very least she may know something that could help us.” But Jack had refused to even consider the possibility. And now he wondered why?
He had been so certain that Tim was responsible for the deaths of these women that he didn’t even consider listening to Kate. And now, thinking back over their conversation the day they visited Jenny Whiteside, Jack realized that Kate wasn’t nearly as far off base as he had tried to convince himself.
Jack dialed his voicemail as he strode back toward his desk. Why hadn’t he listened to Kate? He had ignored his partner, and his own internal nagging that Kate might be on to something. Tim was nothing more than a weasel. He didn’t have the guts to kill another person. If he couldn’t control them, he didn’t want anything to do with them.
THIRTY-SIX
Jack, Dana’s not who you think she is. It’s a long story, but I had Conner do some digging. Dana doesn’t exist, Jack. Her real name is Marlee Campbell. I’m going out to check some property registered in her family name, but call me. Please. I think Leslie and Lisa are in danger.
Jack pulled to a stop in front of Leslie’s house. As soon as he’d realized he was wrong about Tim, he’d tried to call Kate. That’s when he found the voicemail she’d left while he was talking to Tim. The message that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and made him dash for his sister’s house with no thought of what he might do if she wasn’t there.
Why hadn’t Kate given him the address she was going to? He slammed his palm into the steering wheel. Where was this family property? He’d called Conner, but she didn’t pick up.
Jack got out of his car and approached Leslie’s house. He looked in the front window. Empty. He knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked louder. Again, no answer. He pounded on the door the third time.
No Leslie. She didn’t even look out the window. Jack’s anxiety turned to fear. He jogged to the side of the house and looked through the kitchen window. Her coffee cup sat on the table, but the room was empty.
He ran to the back of the house and his shoulders tensed. The door that led outside from the far end of the kitchen stood wide open. Jack clenched his jaw.
He unsnapped his holster and pulled his Glock nine millimeter from his side, slid a round into the chamber, and held the gun in front of him, ready to fire, as he walked through the door.
A few drops of blood glistened on the kitchen’s white tile. He followed the trail of the droplets, until the blood disappeared into the dark carpeting of the hallway. Where was Leslie? If Dana had her…Jack took soft steps down the hall to the living room. He jerked to a stop and forced himself to breathe.
The coffee table was in splinters on the floor. Magazines, torn and creased, looked like they had been rolled on. A heavy crystal candlestick, stained deep red, lay near the front door. “Leslie?” Jack yelled as he raced up the stairs.
The upstairs was empty. Within seconds, Jack was back in the kitchen. Cursing, he dashed out the back door toward his car. Where was she? Thank God Lisa was still at the station. She probably wasn’t going to be prosecuted for her stunt with Tim, but they weren’t prepared to let her go just yet.
Jack ran across the back yard and stumbled on something lying on the dark ground. A green duffel bag. He stopped and picked it up. The top fell open, and something hit his foot. As he bent to retrieve what fell he glanced toward the empty wooded lot behind the house. A glint of light. Something flashed in the woods. He watched. It flashed again.
Forgetting the item on the ground, he walked quietly toward where he’d seen the flash. A female voice spoke ahead of him, but it was indistinct. He heard two car doors slam. An engine started and headlights blinked on.
Jack caught a glimpse of a dark car through the trees. Dana’s Mercedes. He ran as fast as his legs would move back to his own vehicle. As he climbed in, he envisioned the layout of this subdivision. He pulled away from the curve, and rounded the corner of the street. His tires protested on the pavement. A few blocks ahead, she turned onto the main highway.
He followed, hoping he was far enough behind that she wouldn’t see him. Keeping his gaze on the road, Jack dialed his phone. Twice he got the wrong number, but the third time, Kate’s voicemail picked up before the first ring. Where was she? Worry gnawed at Jack’s gut. He left a message, detailing what he’d found and what he was doing.
Next he placed one last call to the precinct. The desk sergeant answered and Jack asked him to make sure someone kept eyes on Lisa. “Don’t let her leave under any circumstances. And don’t let Dana McNally anywhere near her.”
“You got it. What’s going on?”
Jack gave a quick explanation, and requested backup, though he had no idea where he was going. He didn’t want other officers with
lights and sirens blaring to roll up on the scene before he figured out where Dana was headed.
After a few more seconds of terse conversation and instructions to keep the backup officers on standby, he hung up and dropped the phone into the passenger’s seat.
He stayed a short distance behind Dana, matching her turn for turn. A few times after she’d merged onto Highway 49, they passed sheriff’s patrols. Jack tensed, praying they hadn’t been called in to help. The last thing he needed right now was some deputy spooking Dana. He had no idea where she was going, but he was nearly certain she had Leslie with her. His mind worked overtime, trying to anticipate what was going to happen next.
Maybe he could manipulate this situation into his favor.
He snatched the phone from the seat beside him, and dialed Dana’s cell-phone number. She picked up on the third ring.
“Hello.” She sounded much calmer than Jack thought she would.
“Dana. It’s Jack. I thought you might like to have dinner tonight.” He tried to sound light and happy.
“Jack I would love that.” He heard a shuffle through the phone. “But I can’t. I have a really important meeting tonight. It’s just something that I can’t miss. Can I have a rain check?”
“Sure, but is it really so important that I can’t persuade you to have a late dinner with me? Maybe after the meeting?”
“Really, Jack. I can’t. I don’t know how long this meeting might run.”
The fact that she sounded so calm unnerved Jack. He wanted to floor the accelerator, to race up to her car and ram her bumper. But he couldn’t, not without risking Leslie’s life. “Okay. You’ll call me later though right? I’ll be awake until late I’m sure. I’m working on this case, and they’re really on my butt to make something happen.”
“Sure, I’ll call. Have you found anything new?” Jack sensed Dana was digging.
“No, nothing new. That’s why there’s so much pressure.”
Biloxi Sunrise (The Biloxi Series Book 1) Page 20