Vindicated (A Jenny Watkins Mystery Book 6)

by Becky Durfee

  Renee returned with two glasses of water, handing one to each woman. Jenny accepted hers and drank eagerly, grunting with satisfaction. “Thanks. That really helped.”

  Megan didn’t seem to feel much relief from the water. “I can’t believe I never put two and two together,” she declared. “Of course Thomas should have been a suspect.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Megan.” Jenny felt like she was having an out of body experience as she spoke. “The police were so quick to arrest Nate Minnick…you would have had no reason to consider anyone else.”

  She shook her head. “But it shouldn’t have sat right with me,” she announced. “Nate was such a good kid; we never had any problems with him. He wouldn’t have done something like that.” She took another sip of her water. “It should have been obvious to me that the guy who did was some kind of chronic asshole with a history of violence toward women.”

  Jenny balled her hand into a tight fist as she silently pleaded for Megan to stop talking. She had no idea what Leo was capable of, and she had no desire to find out. “Well, we don’t know for sure who it is yet. Right now all we can do is speculate.” She looked down at her lap, hoping her words were having the desired effect of lessening any rage Leo might have been feeling. “I have learned in the past never to do that. You always have to let the evidence do the talking.”

  Leo spoke with his gaze fixed so intently on Jenny that she could feel it despite the fact that she continued to divert her eyes. “So, what makes you think it wasn’t the guy they arrested?”

  Jenny shrugged. “I just had a feeling.” She swatted at a bug on her leg that wasn’t there.

  “She’s a psychic,” Renee said, her tone reflecting her continued awe. “Isn’t that amazing?”

  Leo leaned forward onto his elbow. “So, you know what’s going to happen, then?”

  What was that supposed to mean? Was that a threat? “No,” Jenny said as she shook her head. “I don’t see the future.”

  “She receives messages from the dead,” Ed announced.

  Jenny wished they would stop talking.

  Once again, she felt Leo’s ice-cold stare. “You know what it’s like to be dead?”

  Jenny cleared her throat again. “Yes and no.”

  Mercifully, Megan changed the subject. “Jenny, you really don’t look well. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Desperately wanting to get away from there, Jenny saw this as her opportunity. “Honestly, I’m really not feeling well at all,” Jenny said. “I’m so sorry to cut this short, but I think it might be best if I get going.”

  “I understand,” Renee said compassionately. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling better.”

  Jenny simply nodded as she stood up, placing her hand on her stomach to feign discomfort. Reaching for her purse, she put the strap over her shoulder.

  Leo stood up as well. “Let me walk you to your car.”

  The notion was horrifying. “Thank you for the offer, but that’s not necessary,” Jenny replied with an insincere smile. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, do me a favor, then,” Leo added. Jenny looked up at him as he expressionlessly warned, “Watch your step. I’d hate to see something bad happen to that baby.”

  Chapter 17

  Jenny’s heart was in her throat as she pulled away, looking in the rearview mirror the entire time to make sure Leo wasn’t following her. She was utterly unsure what to do with her new information. Should she try to call Megan and warn her that she might be in danger? Or would that have only made things worse? Had leaving been the right thing to do in the first place? Or did she just jeopardize the safety of three people she had come to like?

  She shook her head quickly, trying to calm herself. “Okay,” she said out loud. “You’re jumping the gun. You don’t know for sure Leo did this. For all you know it could have been Marcus Sanders or Trevor Burke, or even Megan’s cousin, Thomas.” With another glance in the mirror for good measure, Jenny picked up her phone and dialed Kyle.

  Fortunately, he answered, despite the fact that it was Saturday. “Kyle,” she said instantly. “I need you to look into someone for me.”

  “You sound upset,” he replied. “Is everything okay?”

  “I don’t know,” Jenny said truthfully. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I think I may have just stumbled across the person who killed Stella. The only problem is he knows I figured it out, and he made a couple of little innuendos suggesting that I need to be careful or else something bad may happen to my baby.”

  “That’s not an innuendo,” Kyle said flatly. “That’s a threat.”

  “Not the way he said it,” Jenny replied, once again glancing in the mirror. “It was an insinuation.”

  “Okay,” Kyle began. “Where are you now, and who is this guy?”

  “I’m in my car, heading toward Stella’s old house so I can be with my husband. I’m going to make a point of not being alone right now.”

  “Excellent,” he replied. “That’s good thinking. Now who is the suspect?”

  “His name is Leo, and that’s all I know. He appears to be in his forties, and his cousin is Ed Pryzbyck.” Jenny thought back to the conversation on the deck. “He may or may not have a criminal record. Renee Pryzbyck mentioned something about him falling on hard times, and I believe he was high this afternoon.”

  Kyle seemed to be jotting down information. “So, what makes you think it was him?”

  “He had a tattoo…of a sun…with a scar in the middle that looked like it may have been created by the tip of a fountain pen.” She explained her theory about the half-finished letter and the self-defense stabbing. “It occurred to me when I saw it that we may have interpreted Stella’s final message incorrectly.”

  “Okay, well let me get on this right away. If he’s threatened you, we need to get him off the street as soon as possible.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” Jenny said.

  “So, here’s what I want you to do next, if you haven’t done it already,” Kyle said, making Jenny feel grateful for the direction. “Call up that connection you have at the police station and see if he can determine if any prints had been lifted from that palm print. Tell him you have been threatened…that will take this old, technically-solved case and put a new sense of urgency on it.”

  “Got it.”

  “And Jenny?” His tone turned from professional to personal. “Please be careful.”

  Jenny looked over her shoulder as she walked up Rob’s driveway. Although she knew quite well that Leo had not followed her, nor was he behind her at that moment, she couldn’t help but look for him. He had threatened the well-being of her baby, and that was unacceptable.

  She walked into the unlocked door to find a flurry of activity. Smiling politely at the contractors as she walked past, she eventually found her way to Zack, who was still hard at work in the master bathroom. He was definitely a sight for sore eyes as Jenny approached him, tears forming in her eyes as she slid in for a hug.

  “Hey,” he said in a surprised tone. “What’s the matter?”

  She explained the situation to Zack, who held on to her tightly as she spoke. “And now it’s just a waiting game,” she concluded. “With a potential killer on the loose—who is aware that I’m onto him and is currently in the presence of three innocent people.” She buried her head into his shoulder. “This is a nightmare.”

  “How long will it take in order for them to find out for sure whether or not it was him?”

  Jenny let out a deep sigh. “I have no idea.”

  At that moment, Jenny’s phone rang from inside her purse. She immediately let go of Zack’s embrace and looked at the caller, excited to see that it was Kyle. “Hey,” she said quickly. “Did you find anything?”

  “In fact I did,” Kyle replied, causing every one of Jenny’s nerves to tingle. “His name is Leo Pryzbyck, as it turns out, and he does have quite a colorful criminal background.�
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  Jenny closed her eyes, fearing for what was happening over at Ed and Renee’s house at that very moment. “For what?”

  “Drug charges, mostly. A few larcenies, and a couple of assaults.”

  “Nothing more sinister?” Jenny asked.

  “Not that he’s been caught for, anyway. But I do have one other interesting piece of information.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It seems that back in 1988 our friend Mr. Leo Pryzbyck was a resident of the Roseland Apartments.”

  Jenny was pacing the living room floor when Zack emerged from the back of the house. She flashed him an expression that revealed her despair.

  “Still no word?” Zack asked, referring to the phone call Jenny eagerly awaited from Detective Wilks.

  “No,” Jenny replied grumpily, “and the wait is killing me.”

  “You do realize that you are probably not the first person he’d call if the prints came back a match,” Zack rationalized. “It could be that he’s already gotten word that Leo’s prints match those at the crime scene, and he’s working on a way to get Leo into custody.” He put his arm reassuringly around Jenny. “Who knows? He may have Leo in custody already.”

  With a heavy sigh, Jenny replied, “I just wish I knew what was going on. I have to admit, this guy got under my skin. I realize this isn’t the first time my life has been in jeopardy, but this is the first time I’ve actually been threatened. The other times I just found myself in predicaments without realizing I was in danger until it stared me in the face. This time I can see it coming, and it’s horrifying.”

  “What about Orlowski?” Zack asked. “You knew he was a bad guy, and he was out on the street.”

  Jenny shook her head. “That was different. He wanted to date me; he didn’t threaten to hurt me. And secondly, this time I’m carrying a baby. Before I just had to look out for myself…but now that I have a baby’s life at stake, it’s just all that much more terrifying.”

  “Well, another difference is that this time we’re married, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He looked at her and smiled. “In fact, there’s a whole ton of work to be done back there in the bathroom…feel free to throw on some gloves and get cracking. Then I can really keep my eye on you.”

  Making a face, Jenny said, “I think I’ll pass, if you don’t mind.”

  With a playful shrug Zack replied, “Suit yourself. But to be clear, I don’t think you’re pulling your weight around here.”

  Zack returned to work while Jenny continued her pacing; the constant motion allowed her to burn off some of her nervous energy. After what seemed like an eternity, her phone finally did ring, and the caller was Detective Dante Wilks.

  “Detective Wilks,” she said eagerly. “Thank you so much for getting back to me.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “But I’m afraid I have to tell you some bad news. I looked into the evidence on the case, and while the forensics team did go through the motions of lifting a print from the door sill, there wasn’t a print to be lifted. The blood stain was too smeared to yield any useful evidence.”

  Jenny hung her head. “So, we’re essentially waiting for the DNA analysis to come back to see if Leo is linked to this crime at all?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “And that may take a while,” Jenny added.

  “Indeed it might. In the meantime, you can go to the courthouse and start the process of filing a restraining order against him if you’d like. If he did threaten your well-being, or that of your baby, you can protect yourself in that way.”

  “But if I get a restraining order, Leo will know it, correct?”

  “Of course,” Detective Wilks said. “He would need to know the terms.”

  “Then I’d rather not,” Jenny replied. “Then he would know for sure that I’m on to him. I’d rather just pretend I didn’t see the connection. I actually think I might be safer that way.”

  “Okay, well, be careful,” Wilks said. “Honestly, this is one of the worst parts of the job…having an idea of who the guy is but being unable to do anything about it.”

  Jenny nodded slowly. “I’m coming to learn that.”

  Jenny did little more than pick at her dinner in the hospital cafeteria. With her level of nervousness being what it was, her appetite was non-existent.

  Noticing that Jenny was simply stirring her food around with her fork, Zack said, “Steve just told me he’s hungry and he wants you to eat a little more of that.” He looked at her with a loving smirk.

  Jenny lowered her shoulders. “I know. It’s just the thought of Ed, Renee and Megan being at that house with Leo…I just can’t bring myself to eat.”

  “Do you really think they’re in danger?” Zack put his hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “I mean, Leo wouldn’t really gain anything by hurting them, would he?”

  “No, I guess he wouldn’t. And I purposely haven’t told them so that they don’t act funny around him. As far as Leo is concerned, I’m the only one who has made the connection.”

  “Exactly,” Zack said, gesturing around the large cafeteria. “And you’re about as safe as you can be in here.” He rubbed her back. “Please try to relax. I can tell that you’re making yourself sick with worry.”

  Jenny let out a little laugh. “I guess if I am going to make myself sick, a hospital is the place to do it.”

  “How about you just don’t make yourself sick at all,” Zack suggested. He looked around for a moment and noted, “Do you find it just a bit ironic that we’re sitting in the same cafeteria that Stella must have sat in a thousand times? Who knows…she may have sat in this very spot a time or two.”

  Jenny also scanned the room as she remembered the real reason she was still in Georgia—justice for Stella, the young nurse who certainly must have had her share of meals in that very room. “Normally, in a situation like this, I’d be feeling an overwhelming sense of déjà vu,” Jenny said. “But this time it isn’t Stella who is contacting me…it’s Nate, who doesn’t have any ties to this hospital other than the surgeries he had when he was little.”

  Jenny froze for a moment as a thought hit her.

  Zack seemed to detect her change in demeanor. “What’s happening?” he asked.

  She continued to remain still as she pieced her thought together. Reaching for her phone, she announced, “I have to make a call.”

  “To who?” Zack asked.

  She glanced at him as she called up her list of contacts. “Shane Burke.”

  “Why do you want to call him?”

  Jenny pressed the dial button. “Listen and find out.” She covered her free ear with her finger to drown out the background noise from the large dinner crowd. When Shane picked up on the other end, she began with, “Doctor Burke? It’s Jenny Larrabee…I’ve been working with Kyle Buchanan on Stella Jorgenson’s case.”

  He didn’t sound amused by the call. “What is it?”

  She got straight to the point. “I remember you saying that you were at work the afternoon that Stella was killed, is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “And by that you mean you were in the emergency room at Saint Mary’s Hospital.”

  “Yes.”

  Jenny let out a sigh as she gathered her thoughts. “I realize you’re bound by doctor-patient confidentiality and all of that, but I also know you said you remember that day clearly because of what happened. So, I’m wondering if you recall seeing a particular patient come in that day with a stab wound.”

  “A stab wound?”

  “Yes…A small stab wound right in the middle of a tattoo of a sun, just below the left collarbone. The cut was made by the tip of a fountain pen and disfigured the face of the tattoo.”

  The silence on the other end seemed to take forever. “You know what? I do remember that…not because of the strangeness of it—we get a lot of that—but because that’s what I was doing on the afternoon Stella was killed. I remember thinking afterward that she should have been in there
helping me stitch up that sun. If she had been, there’s a good chance she’d still be alive today.”

  Jenny removed her finger from her ear to give Zack an emphatic thumbs-up. “Doctor Burke, if I put you in touch with a detective, would you be willing to attest to that?”

  “Sure. Does this have anything to do with Stella’s murder?”

  With a smile she said, “It just might. I have reason to believe that the wound to the sun was inflicted by the pen Stella was using to write a letter to her sister when the attack happened. In fact, that was the pen that she earned after five years of service at the hospital.”

  Shane didn’t reply right away. “You mean that guy I stitched up was Stella’s killer?”

  In her excitement to solve the case, Jenny hadn’t considered that notion might have been upsetting to Doctor Burke. With much less vigor in her voice, she said, “That’s the impression I’m under.”

  After another long silence, the doctor replied coldly, “Then I should have used succinylcholine instead of lidocaine.”

  Jenny paused before saying, “I don’t know what that means.”

  Doctor Burke made it very clear. “Instead of numbing him, it would have killed the bastard.”

  Jenny sat on the edge of the bed after checking for the third time that the guest bedroom window at the Larrabee’s house was locked. “I’m still so worried about Megan and the Pryzbycks…not Leo, of course, but Ed and Renee.”

  Zack, who was already in bed, rolled over onto his side. “Mumford Springs is a small town. If a murder had happened there today, it would have made the news. I just checked not too long ago, and nothing got reported.”

  She glanced at the clock. “It’s a pretty safe bet that Megan is home by now. Should I just give her a call?”

  “If you want,” Zack replied.

  “But if she is still at the Pryzbyck’s, there’s a chance Leo will see that I’m calling her. Then I might be putting her into danger that she wasn’t in before.”

  “Then don’t call her,” Zack said.

  Jenny was not amused by the fact that he didn’t seem to be taking this seriously. “I feel like their safety is at stake,” she said unhappily. “You could show a little more concern.”