Twisted

by Laura K. Curtis

  “The FBI! Why the hell are you bothering the FBI with one dead Mexican? Or even two?” Jed swallowed. “If there are two, I mean. I wouldn’t know. As that DNA will show you, I haven’t ever touched any damned Mexicans.”

  “Did I say the immigrant murders were the only ones we were investigating? I don’t recall saying that.”

  “What, you think I killed Drew? Everyone knows your girlfriend shot him. And it’s Billy Pike’s case, anyway.”

  Ethan remained silent.

  “The Josephs girl? Shit, the night she was killed, I was playing poker. You know that! You’ve got nothing on me. Nothing.”

  “I’m actually concerned with DNA from an older case, Jed. See, twenty years ago, criminals didn’t know about DNA. Hell, most cops didn’t know about it, and those that did didn’t have access to labs for testing. If a woman pulled out your hair while you were stabbing her, the most the cops could do was a microscopic comparison of the found hairs to yours. If the ME found skin and blood under her nails, the best they could hope for was a type match, which still left a lot of room for doubt. Even fingerprints only worried guys who were already apt to be suspects, because a lot of small departments were still doing manual fingerprint checks and IAFIS didn’t exist until 1999.”

  Jed shifted in his chair, and Ethan smiled. “You sure you don’t want a lawyer, Jed? Not that you have a hope in hell of getting out of this, with or without one. Not when Cecile Sadler died with a fist full of your hair and your DNA under her nails. But you should have a sporting chance. Maybe he can get you life in prison rather than the death penalty.” Before the man could speak, Ethan rushed on. He needed his offer of legal representation on the record, but he didn’t want Jed to seriously consider it.

  “Or maybe what you’d really like, given that you’re about to spend the rest of whatever life you have behind bars, is to tell Lucy why you killed her mother. Would you get a charge out of that?”

  He knocked on the mirror behind him and a couple of seconds later Lucy entered the room. He’d never seen her face so expressionless. Even her eyes, usually filled with life, betrayed nothing. Was this too much to ask of her? But they had no real evidence, despite his threats. Only a few hairs had been preserved, and they’d never been tested to see whether they carried follicular tags. The tips of Cecile’s fingernails had been kept, along with the skin she’d scraped from her attacker, but Ethan had no idea what time might have done to that evidence. He desperately needed a confession, and Lucy presented their best hope of prying one loose.

  “Hello, Jed,” she said.

  “Well, if it isn’t little Lucy Sadler. Still playing the prude, or have you let the chief here into your pants? Probably not. Is that why he’s so anxious to solve your momma’s murder? Did you promise him a little sugar if he did what no other man has been able to do?”

  Ethan wanted to vault across the table and strangle the man, but Lucy just stared calmly at him as if he were a strange species of insect she couldn’t decide whether she needed to crush or not.

  “Poor little Jed,” she said at last. “Not even good enough for the town whore. I watched from my window night she told you to get lost.”

  “You bitch!” Jed lunged for Lucy, but she skipped back out of the way and Ethan slapped his hands on Jed’s shoulders and pressed him back down into his chair. His hands, so close to Jed’s neck, itched to close around the man’s throat. Jed would be dead long before anyone could pull him off.

  Lucy seemed to sense his rage. Her eyes met his, and now, far from empty, they were filled with determination. She gave her head an almost imperceptible shake.

  “Face facts, Jed,” she taunted. “You’re a poor substitute for a man.”

  “You think you’re so superior?” Beneath Ethan’s hands, Jed struggled to rise.

  “You’re going to make it worse on yourself if you get out of that seat, little man,” Ethan taunted. “You know even if I let you get to her, she’d take you apart in thirty seconds flat.”

  “I’m not like those poor Hispanic women you chased through the woods,” Lucy said, leaning over. “I fight back. I’m stronger than you are. Better than you in every way.”

  “Yeah? Your mother thought she was better, too.” Beneath Ethan’s hands, fury vibrated through Jed’s body. “But I showed her. She begged at the end. Begged for her life. Didn’t do her any good, though. I slaughtered her. I should have done the same to you, the minute I heard you were back.”

  The phone in Ethan’s back pocket vibrated. The DA had heard enough. Ethan could read Martin his rights, but he had more questions of his own first. Lucy had done her part; now it was up to him. He eased his hands off Jed’s shoulders and leaned down on the table next to him, drawing his attention away from Lucy.

  “And Tim? Where’s he?”

  “Tim? You mean her brother?” Jed’s face went blank with confusion as he glanced from Ethan to Lucy and back. “What the fuck does he have to do with anything?”

  “Make this easier on yourself, Jed. You know we have you cold on any number of counts. Anything you do to help us can only help you.”

  “I dunno what you want.” A crafty look entered Jed’s eye. “Did something happen to your brother, little Lucy? Did you misplace him? I could help you find him. I know everyone in this town. They respect me. They talk to me. I can find him for you.”

  Ethan avoided the plea he was sure he’d see in Lucy’s eyes, focusing on Jed instead. The man knew nothing. No point in prolonging the interrogation.

  “Don’t even think about it, Martin. You can’t con your way back onto the streets. Jedediah Martin, you are under arrest for the murder of Cecile Sadler. . . .” Even as Ethan recited the familiar words by rote, his attention shifted to Lucy. Her composure never faltered, but he could almost feel her nerves humming.

  Seeming dazed, Jed stood, and Ethan cuffed his hands behind his back. He pushed Jed out the door, leaving Lucy standing alone, and passed him off to Cal to take down the hall to the holding cells, where he would wait to be taken over to the county courthouse for arraignment. After that, presuming he was denied bail, which the DA had promised would be the case, he and Eric would both await trial in the county courthouse.

  He hurried back into the interrogation room, where he found Lucy sitting on the floor with TJ next to her.

  “He killed her because she wouldn’t sleep with him.” Impending hysteria added a sharp edge to Lucy’s voice. “Of all the men she could have turned down and didn’t, she had to pick the psychotic killer to get some standards with.”

  Ethan jerked his head at TJ, who rose and left. He took her spot, putting his arm around Lucy and pulling her into him.

  “She always had standards, sugar. She’d never have slept with anyone in your school, and she never brought men into the house. You stressed that yourself. He broke her rules, rules she set to protect you and Tim, so she sent him and his pals on their way. You’ve lived in Dallas. I’m sure you saw women there who truly lived without standards, whose lives had beaten any fight out of them. You can’t say that about your mother.”

  “No.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t push harder about Tim, Lucy. But Jed—”

  “Didn’t know anything,” Lucy finished for him. “I could tell. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”

  “We’ll figure it out. C’mon.” He stood and held out a hand to help her up. She took it, then leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. His throat clogged with an emotion he didn’t dare put a name to, and he stroked her soft hair, soothing them both.

  He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Let’s get out of here.” With an arm over her shoulders, reluctant to let her go, he led her out into the hallway. “I have to talk to Sullivan for a minute to be sure everything goes smoothly, and then I’ll take you back to TJ’s. Okay?” He tilted her face up. The loss and fear in her eyes
hit him like a bullet to his heart.

  “We’ll find him, sweetheart. I swear it.”

  Lucy nodded. He gripped her hand, refusing to be separated from her, and slipped back into the observation room where DA Sullivan was chatting with Keith and making notes on a small pad. TJ stood off to one side, but Billy Pike had left, for which Ethan could only be thankful.

  “What did Jake say about the swab?” Ethan asked Keith.

  “He’ll do it. He’s not happy about it. Says he’s supposed to be on leave of absence from the Bureau, but they’ll work it up for him anyway. I explained the issue keeping the evidence at the county lab.”

  “He wouldn’t explain it to me, however,” said Sullivan.

  “Pike left right after Jed confessed to killing Cecile,” Keith explained. “I guess he couldn’t take hearing the murderer his dad never found had been under his nose the whole time.”

  Sullivan made a rolling motion with his hands. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I don’t trust Billy Pike,” Ethan stated. Better to get the truth out there, bald as it might be.

  “Why the hell not? His father held your very position until he keeled over from heart failure on the job eight years back. Billy started going on rounds with him when he was still just a kid. Hell, Al Pike took Billy to Cecile Sadler’s murder scene. He’s been working as a cop since eighteen. No one has a better background for the job, and he’s proven himself a great sheriff.”

  “But his father didn’t solve this crime. And that presents a conflict of interest.” Ethan hoped that would be enough, but still Sullivan protested.

  “It presents a motivation.”

  Ethan pulled out his last card. “You heard Eric and Jed. They were hunting Mexicans in our woods. If this turns into an international incident, do you really want it on your plate? Hell, no. We dump the evidence of our serial killer on the FBI and let them cope with the fallout.”

  “Serial killer?”

  “Sir, with all due respect, you didn’t see Juan Ramirez’s remains. He’d been carved up like a deer, and it sure didn’t look as if any first-timer had done it. I can’t hide that fact. Everyone in town already knows. And then there are the remains the sheriff’s men found in the woods. Also probably Mexican, also with her throat cut by a hunting knife. It’s only a matter of time before the news spreads across the border. If we don’t appear to be taking this seriously enough, we’re in for a world of hurt.”

  Sullivan nodded slowly. “Good thinking.”

  • • •

  THE COMMANDER PUSHED the chair into its place and grinned at the man sitting in it, bug-eyed with hate and anger. Today was going to go down in history as one of the greatest days in his life. It would only be better if he could take the credit for what was about to happen himself. But the plans had fallen into place too well. He’d always planned on blaming Drew for the rapes if anyone found out about them—which that fucking bitch Lucy and her weakling, drug addict boyfriend Donovan had—but that had been pure necessity.

  This was art. In one swoop, he was going to take down everyone who’d ever sneered, ever looked down on him. And he was going to have Lucy Sadler at his mercy. His cock twitched just thinking about what he could do to her. With a helpless audience watching, no less.

  He snapped a few pictures while the man in the chair struggled against his bonds and screamed behind his gag. In the corner, another body lay trussed like a Christmas goose. That one was out cold, but he didn’t matter, anyway. Not yet. He’d have his turn in the spotlight soon enough. Still, getting a shot in now would complete his pictorial journal of the day.

  He always kept photos. The invention of the digital camera was the best thing ever. No developing, no evidence anyone could find. He’d printed out a couple of the pictures from the games he and Drew had played with of the ones who had lived, and he’d hidden them in Drew’s room. Eventually, the cops would get around to searching there. For the moment, Drew was a victim, and the Dobbs home sacrosanct. But not for long.

  He put the camera down and took out a bottle of chloroform, a rag, and a hypo filled with oxycodone. Always better to knock a victim out with chloroform first, then inject. He’d learned that early on, when a needle broke off in the vein of a struggling girl.

  “Time for you to go to sleep,” he said. “When you wake up, your darling Lucy will be here to join you.”

  • • •

  LUCY WANTED TO scream as the DA went over a seemingly endless list of questions with Ethan. But at last Sullivan had everything he needed, and he went to get the ball rolling on the arrests, leaving TJ, Lucy, and Ethan alone. The minute he did, Ethan let go of Lucy’s hand and pulled her into his arms again.

  “We found your mother’s killer, sugar. If we can solve a murder nearly two decades cold, you know we can find Tim.” She could feel the promise, like a blood-sworn oath, sinking into her.

  TJ blew out a long breath. “I think my father may have him,” she said. “He wasn’t home yesterday when I tried to see him, and I went to his usual haunts and couldn’t find him. The thing is, I don’t know how he would have done it. How could he know Tim was coming back to town? How could he get him alone?”

  “And why?” Lucy asked.

  “If he believes you killed Drew, he may try to use Tim to get back at you.” Ethan’s grip tightened. “We can ask him when we find him.”

  Lucy’s phone rang. When she pulled it from her pocket, the display read “Tim,” and her stomach clenched as she held it to her ear.

  “Don’t say a word,” a low, electronically disguised rumble warned, “or I put a bullet in your darling brother’s brain. And wouldn’t that be a damned shame.”

  Lucy began to shake. She heard Ethan say her name, but his voice came from miles away.

  “I’m going to let him say a few words so you’ll know he’s still alive.”

  Tim’s voice trembled when he spoke to her. “Don’t come, Lucy! Don’t—”

  But then the strange, electronic voice returned. “Here’s how it’s going to go down. You will make whatever excuse you need to get away from your friends. You will drive to your house. We’ll be watching, so we’ll know if you’re not alone. Don’t piss us off. More instructions when you get there.”

  The phone went dead, but Lucy continued to hold it to her ear, unable to let go for a long moment.

  “Lucy!” Ethan shook her slightly. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”

  “They have him. Dobbs, whoever. He has Tim. He’s going to kill him.”

  “No, he’s not. Tell me what he said.”

  Lucy shook her head, trying to pull free of Ethan’s grasp, but he only held her tighter. “Talk to me, Luce. You know you can’t do this alone.”

  “They said I had to.” She repeated the instructions she’d been given. “They said . . .I know them, Ethan. They’ll torture him. I can’t let that happen.”

  “And if you do as you’re told, you think they’ll miraculously let him go? It’s not happening. And you’re not leaving here without me.”

  “I can’t let anything happen to Tim on my account. I can’t.”

  “I’m not asking you to. All I am saying is that if you’re going, I’m going.”

  “No, you’re not. Whoever this is, I don’t want to set them off if they really are watching.”

  “I can’t let you do this by yourself. Lucy, please. Whatever else you want. Anything. Just don’t ask me for that.”

  “There’s no choice. You’ll have to tie me up to stop me, and if anything happens to Tim I’ll never forgive either of us.”

  Ethan ran a hand through his hair and her heart ached. Had their roles been reversed, she wasn’t sure she could manage what she was asking of him.

  But he was stronger than she was. “Give me a minute. Do not move.” He glanced at TJ, who nodded—apparently, they were gangin
g up on her. Ethan disappeared for a moment and returned with a small device. “Give me a minute to program in my cell.” He punched a bunch of buttons on the palm-sized yellow-and-black gadget, then handed it to her. “It’s not much, because they’ll find it if they look, but it’s the best I have right now.”

  “What is it?”

  “Personal GPS tracker. A bunch of companies make them. Works on satellite rather than cell towers or anything, so it usually doesn’t fail. Just press this button”—he pointed to a rubber button with a little globe on it—“and it will send your location to my cell. Press the one that says SOS on it, and it will inform emergency services.

  “At least this will allow me to keep track of you for a while, because for damn sure the house isn’t the last spot they’ll have you go. It’s a crime scene, after all. Unless they’re planning to shoot you on the spot when you arrive—”

  “Which they aren’t. Anyone who wanted me dead that badly and that quickly could have done the job easily by now. There’s more to this.”

  “Lucy.” She saw his Adam’s apple shift as he swallowed. “I can’t find you tomorrow laid out like Renee Josephs.”

  She stepped into his arms for a quick, fierce hug, a comfort to both of them. “You won’t. I’ll send you a GPS link as soon as I get to the house, and then after I move.”

  “I’ll call the others, update them. We’ll all be waiting for your signal. And we’ll be as close behind you as we can.”

  Suddenly near tears, Lucy nodded. She leaned up and pressed her lips to Ethan’s, then ran for the door.

  • • •

  ON THE DRIVE to her old home, she checked her mirrors compulsively, but could see no one following her. Still, she didn’t dare call Ethan, though hearing his voice would have been wonderful.

  Crime-scene tape blocked access to the house itself, but a red SUV sat at the curb. No sooner had she pulled up than her cell rang.

  “What took you so long?” asked the voice. “Get out of your car, and get in the Jeep. The doors are unlocked and the keys are on the passenger side seat. There’s also a prepaid cell there. Hang up this phone, then drop it on the driveway. I will call you back on that one.”