If It Walks Like A Killer (The Carolina Killer Files #1)

by Kiersten Modglin

  Rachael watched him carefully, anger still on his face after all this time. He continued. “After nearly a year of them seeing each other he got accepted into a study abroad program and left. About a month later she found out she was pregnant. So, instead of telling me the baby may not be mine, she just prayed it would be. Instead of preparing me, she let me find out the hard way. The day I told her about my cancer, she’d been crying because I’d confirmed her fears. She called Beckett that night, after I’d gone to bed and told him about the baby. He told her he wasn’t in a position to help her raise a child. She was a coward and a cheater but no matter how mad I was at her I’d fallen in love with that beautiful baby, knowing that my decision to leave would decide his whole future. I remember his little fingers were so tiny, he used to wrap them around mine,” he held his hand out as if he were touching his son’s hands. “So I stayed. I raised him with her for two years. We named him Sawyer. He was the sweetest child, so happy and smart. One day I came home from work and they were just gone. She left a note on our bed, it said: ‘Thomas came back. He wants to meet his son and make up for lost time. Thank you for all you’ve done for us.’ That was it. No apology. Just three sentences,” he scoffed.

  Rachael spoke up. “That must’ve been horrible.”

  “It was. I’ve never told anyone that story and I don’t like to talk about it. I just thought maybe it would help you to know you aren’t alone. As far as I can tell the only difference in our situations is that Thomas is alive and Blaire isn’t. Between you and me, the only reason that is, is that I’ve never met the man. If he’d been at my house that day, there’s a very real chance I’d be sitting right where you are.”

  Rachael pulled his arm off her shoulder, taken aback by his harsh words. “I need you to fight for me.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve made my decision. I won’t take the plea. I need you to fight this case. The tape is fake. It has to be.”

  “We’ll lose.”

  “If we lose then we lose doing what I asked of you and I’ll just have to be okay with that. I just can’t plead guilty and know we didn’t try. Please.”

  “Okay. I’ll try. I’ll investigate the tape. I’ll do everything I can to help you, but just know that it’s not what I think is best.”

  “I know.”

  “You will likely go to prison for a long time.”

  “Then so be it.”

  With that she stood, walking to the door and waiting to be released.

  Hampton opened the door and led her back to her cell. She stepped in with all of the bravery she could muster. “Take care of yourself,” he said.

  She nodded, refusing to speak. She’d said time and time again that she was innocent but he refused to believe her. It stung and she couldn’t help but feel anger toward him. Rachael could see in his eyes that he wanted to believe her. She just had to figure out how to make him trust her.

  ***

  The day of the trial arrived quickly. Rachael had been pacing back and forth in her cell for hours, much to the dismay of Brady who kept waking up and yelling at her to keep it down. Every inch of her skin tingled with anxiety. Officers had been walking past her cell all morning, their menacing smiles searing her. Rachael couldn’t help but hope that maybe, just maybe, this time tomorrow she’d be in her own home again. She watched the clock meticulously, waiting for the small hand to reach eleven. Soon, someone would come to collect her. They’d walk through the doors, pull her from her cell, and lead her to the room where her fate would be decided. She hadn’t heard from her family in the entire week she’d been in jail. She missed her children. She longed to hold and hug them again. She knew they must miss her as well. Still pacing, she rubbed her hands together attempting to dry the sweat from her palms. As the clock struck eleven she walked to the door of her cell, grasping the bars and waiting. After ten minutes had passed she watched as the door finally creaked open and a group of officers walked through. The oldest one carried a pair of handcuffs. He stopped at her cell. “Rachael Abbott?”

  She nodded.

  “It’s time for your trial. Turn around and place your hands behind your back.”

  Rachael turned around, placing her hands behind her, and hoping he wouldn’t notice how much she was shaking. She heard him slide her cell door open. He slapped the cuffs on her, squeezing them too tight. He pulled her through the cell doors and allowed her to look back at what had become her home for the past week. She prayed she’d never set foot in a cell again.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Caide

  Caide sat in the courtroom just behind Hampton. His hands shook as the room filled up. He reached up and tapped Hampton’s shoulder.

  “Hey. You never called me back. I’ve been trying to reach you all week. What did you find out?”

  Hampton stared at Caide, a vicious look on his face. “Your wife is a stubborn woman.”

  The sinking feeling in Caide’s stomach grew even worse. To his right he heard someone let out a sob, he turned to see an older woman, probably in her late forties, with her brown hair stacked high around her head. Her eyes, even from across the room, were red and swollen. She glanced at him and Caide knew her immediately. He’d stared into those brown eyes so many times before, though they had been in a younger body. Blaire’s mother looked away without any recognition, sobbing into her tissue.

  Suddenly, the doors opened on the side of the courtroom and everyone fell silent. Caide watched Rachael walk into the room. She looked so small in the giant orange jumpsuit. She scanned the crowd. She’s looking for me, he thought, but instead her gaze found Hampton. She was led to the bench where he sat. He watched Hampton pat her shoulder softly, giving her a small smile.

  Don’t you smile at my wife. Jealousy welled up in his stomach, Rachael hadn’t even looked his way. He wanted so badly to reach out and touch her, or even just to hear her voice, but instead he sat still, patiently waiting for her to look back.

  As the judge entered Caide was pleased to see a familiar face. Judge Crafton had worked several cases that Caide had been on before. He was a fair man. After being seated the judge nodded to the defense table. “In the case of The State vs. Rachael Abbot, murder in the first degree how does the defendant plead?”

  Hampton looked to Rachael. She stood up, looking the judge in the eye. “Not guilty, your honor.”

  Caide watched Hampton visibly sigh. The judge pushed down his glasses to give a look of concern.

  “Very well. Counselors, you may begin.”

  Caide recognized the prosecutor as Jeanna Avery, a short, plump lady with blonde hair pulled back into a neat bun. She approached the jury, pressing her maroon suit firmly to her thighs. “Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I am Jeanna Avery, attorney for the prosecution. On November 11, Blaire Underwood, a beloved daughter and friend, came to work just like any other day. What she didn’t know was that she would never come home again. Today, you’re going to hear from Blaire’s coworkers, who will tell you how she was always willing to help out, how she was kind and loving to everyone, and how she may have trusted the wrong person. You’ll hear from her best friend who will tell you how Blaire was focused and career driven until she met a man and fell in love and suddenly lost her way. The only problem,” she wagged her finger in the air, “this man wasn’t available to Blaire. You will hear from the owner of a local auto repair shop who will tell you how on the day of Blaire’s murder, her tires were slashed: was it an innocent prank or prelude to a violent crime? You’ll hear from detectives who have DNA evidence pointing to Mrs. Abbott being at the scene of the crime. You’ll also see a tape that shows the defendant with the victim just minutes before the murder. All of this will help you see, without a shadow of a doubt, that Blaire Underwood’s murder was not an act of self-defense or a crime of passion in the heat of a moment. It was nothing less than the merciless, premeditated act of a heartless woman.” She stared at the jury, walking proudly back to her seat.

  Hampton stood up
slowly, walking to the front of the room. He began, the jury staring at him in awe. “The prosecutor is going to try and convince you that my client is a hardened criminal, deserving of punishment to the full extent of the law. I, however, would rather have you know the truth. I am going to lay out the facts for you, the facts that we know, and the questions left unanswered. I won’t attempt to swindle you into believing anything I can’t show you with facts. You see, for prosecutors everything is black and white, good or bad, right or wrong. Everything is simple, but we all know life doesn’t work that way, right? It isn’t always yes or no, this or that. As a defense attorney, we work with a lot of gray. We deal with the ‘in between’, the fine line, if you will. We are realistic. We believe in people. I believe in my client. I believe that people have bad days, and bad moments, and bad lives. I believe that at their worst people can make decisions that will haunt them forever. All I ask is that you listen to what we have to say, listen to my witnesses, think about my questions, trust what we can prove, and question what we can’t. If you do that maybe, just maybe, you’ll leave here today seeing a little more of the gray.”

  The jury nodded to themselves as Hampton took his seat again and Avery stood.

  “For our first witness, we’d like to call Miss Allie Olson to the stand.”

  A young woman who had been sitting beside Blaire’s mother stood up. She had long brown hair and walked slowly, wiping her eyes as she went. As she approached the witness stand she was sworn in and then allowed to take a seat. Avery walked toward her quickly.

  “Hello, Allie. Can you tell us how you knew the victim, Miss Underwood?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, sniffling again. Before any words could come out she covered her mouth, openly sobbing. Avery grabbed a box of tissues, handing them to the witness. She wiped her eyes, remaining silent for what seemed like an eternity.

  Finally she spoke. “Blaire was my best friend.”

  “How often did you see Blaire?”

  “Once or twice a week. We used to be together a lot more, but she got busy with her work and I met my fiancé. We drifted apart.” She began sobbing again.

  “What do you mean she got busy with her work?” Avery asked, speaking over her sobs.

  “Blaire was brilliant. Headstrong and stubborn, but driven. She was the type of girl who would obsess over a perfect GPA. She worked so hard to graduate at the top of our class so when she took a job as a secretary, I assumed it was temporary. I figured she’d eventually put her degree to use. Instead, she stayed.” She laughed through her tears. “Actually, she loved it. I’d never seen her so happy. The longer she was there, the more she worked: longer hours, weekends, whatever. She never complained.”

  “Do you think she put her career before her social life?”

  She nodded. “I was her best friend, but I guess that isn’t saying much because I was also her only friend. She never had any time to date or to go out with anyone. She was too focused on school and then work to ever make any new friends. She was so focused that it sometimes made it hard for others to get close to her. I think she wanted it that way. Until she met him.”

  “Who do you mean?”

  Caide groaned to himself as the witness pointed across the courtroom to where he was sitting. Avery’s eyes lit up. “Let the record show that the witness has identified Caide Abbott, the defendant’s husband. Allie, do you know how they met?”

  “They worked together.”

  “You said she never had any other friends until she met him. Did Blaire tell you there were friends, Allie?”

  “Yes. At first it was just a work thing, but then she told me they started hanging out outside of work.”

  “What did they do?”

  “He took her to dinner. They went out for drinks.”

  “So, they went on dates?”

  Allie shook her head. “She never used that word. He’s married. Blaire’s from a broken home, she never wanted a relationship with a broken man. It tore her apart how much she loved him.”

  “She loved him yet they weren’t together?”

  “She wanted to be. He didn’t, but he kept taking her out. It never made any sense to me. Or to Blaire for that matter, but she didn’t want it to stop.”

  “How long did this go on?”

  “For about seven years, on and off. Some weeks I wouldn’t hear about him at all and then some weeks he was all she talked about.”

  “So, at what point did they become involved romantically?”

  “I’m not sure. Blaire wasn’t proud, she kept the relationship pretty secretive. She told me about three years ago that he was going to leave his wife, and then again about a year ago.”

  Caide shot up out of his seat. “She’s lying.”

  Hampton turned instinctively, lunging for him and tugging him into his seat.

  “Mr. Abbott, I don’t allow outburst in my courtroom. If you want your chance to be heard then by all means, step up to the witness stand. Otherwise, one more outburst and I will have you thrown out of this court quicker than you can stand.”

  Caide bowed his head. “I’m sorry, your honor. It won’t happen again.”

  Hampton whispered, “What are you thinking?”

  “She’s lying. Put me on the stand.”

  “You know I can’t do that. Avery would tear you to shreds.”

  “But she’s lying.”

  “Counselor,” the judge warned.

  Hampton turned away from Caide, ending the conversation. The attention fell back to the witness.

  “I’m so sorry about that, Allie. Apparently neither of the Abbotts can control their emotions. Did Blaire tell you when she was going to leave her job?”

  “She called me the morning that she was going to quit, the day she died. She left her car at work and needed a ride. On the way there she told me she was quitting. She said she had to leave town.”

  “Did she tell you why?”

  “She just said she couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t keep letting him break her heart. I didn’t blame her.”

  “Did you ever see your best friend again?”

  “No.” She was silent for a moment, dabbing her eyes again. “She called me that night. She asked if I could come pick her up from work.”

  “Did you?”

  “No.” Her voice grew shaky. “I told her I would but before we got off the phone she said never mind. She said she had to do something and she’d call me back if she still needed a ride later. She never called back.”

  “Allie, I know how hard this must be on you. Could you tell us how Blaire sounded when she called you? Was she sad? Scared?”

  “She sounded upset, I guess, shaken up, but more than anything she sounded happy. She sounded really, really happy.”

  Avery patted Allie’s hand. “No more questions, your honor.”

  ***

  Hampton

  Hampton stood up, walking toward the witness stand.

  “Allie, you stated that Blaire was your best friend yet she suddenly started ditching you for her career and Mr. Abbott, correct?”

  “She wasn’t ditching me. She was busy. That didn’t make her any less my best friend.”

  “But how did that make you feel? You must’ve been angry that she wanted to see you less?”

  “I was happy that she was happy. I have a fiancé and a life too. I didn’t just sit around waiting to see her.”

  “How did you feel about her relationship with Mr. Abbott?”

  “Objection, your honor. Where are we going with this?” Avery asked.

  The judge looked to Hampton, eyebrows raised.

  “Withdrawn. You said the victim told you the defendant’s husband was planning to leave her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he?”

  “Objection, your honor, my witness is not an expert on the Abbott’s life.”

  “I’ll rephrase. Did Blaire ever tell you that he did leave his wife?”

  “No.”

  “Did yo
u ever see them together?”

  “No.”

  “Did you ever hear him say he would leave his wife?”

  “No.”

  “Did she ever show you any proof that they were anything more than coworkers?”

  “No, but—”

  “You said she was heartbroken over him, correct?”

  “She loved him. She was devastated they couldn’t be together officially.”

  “Had you ever met Mr. Abbott before this trial?”

  “No.”

  “You’d never seen their relationship first hand?”

  “No.”

  “Then isn’t it possible, Miss Olson, that Blaire exaggerated their relationship? Would you say it’s possible that the whole thing could be attributed back to wishful thinking?”

  The witness shook her head. “She wouldn’t lie.”

  “She said he was leaving his wife three years ago and yet their marriage is still legal and binding today. Are you willing to swear under oath that you know Blaire and Caide Abbott were having an affair?”

  She paused. “I only know what Blaire told me.”

  “Yes or no, Miss Olson,”

  “No.”

  “Thank you. No further questions.”

  Hampton walked back to his seat, adrenaline pulsing. He heard the witness step down from the stand and Avery begin to speak.

  “For our next witness I’d like to call Brian Sparks to the stand.”

  Hampton heard cautious footsteps approaching the witness stand. He turned slightly to see a young man with bushy black hair walking toward Avery apprehensively. As he was allowed to sit Avery approached him. “Brian, as I understand it you know the victim quite well, is that correct?”

  He cleared his throat, leaning into the microphone. “Yes. We worked together for nearly five years. Blaire was great. I enjoyed working with her.”