Embers of resentment simmered.
“They’ll catch the guy who stabbed me. You have nothing to worry about.” The statement was meant to convince herself as well as Susan.
“I know. I’ve already spoken to Detective Adler, and we discussed your case.”
“Detective Adler came to see you?” She hated being discussed.
“Yes.” Susan looked sheepish. “He wanted to know if there were people who wanted to hurt you. I told them I didn’t know of anyone. Everyone I know thinks you’re great.”
Susan was killing her with kindness, but Kaitlin sensed more. “If you’re firing me, have the backbone to say the words.”
“I didn’t say I was firing you. You need to rest, and then we will reevaluate in a few months.”
“I have a signed contract for the summer session. So you better find good cause, or you’re opening yourself up to a lawsuit.”
Susan’s lips thinned. “That’s drastic.”
Kaitlin tipped her head back. “Susan, you’re looking out for yourself and the university. I get it. But honestly, it gets a little old when the victim gets the shaft and everyone piles on.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Kaitlin refused to have this discussion. “Don’t forget the flowers.”
Susan’s lips pursed into a wan smile. She took the vase, holding it slightly away from her, and then left the room without looking back.
Kaitlin gripped her remote control, resisting the urge to toss it across the room. She tapped her index finger on the “On/Off” button, knowing the last thing she wanted to do was watch a stupid game show.
She closed her eyes and immediately assessed her situation. She had money in savings, which was enough for the next few months of rent but not enough for the lawsuit she’d just threatened Susan with. She had time and a place to heal. She would soon work out her next move.
Anxious to get her life back, she tossed off her covers. Drawing in a breath, she pulled her legs over the side of the bed. Fire burned in her belly. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to return to her work. Her life.
She took a step a little too quickly. She hissed in a breath as sharp pain gripped her. “This is bullshit.”
Like it or not, she needed more time. For now, she was trapped.
INTERVIEW FILE #17
GINA’S BOYFRIEND, TOM DAVENPORT
Friday, February 16, 2018
“Tom Davenport.” His voice is deep, crisp, and sounds annoyed over my speakerphone.
“Tom, this is Kaitlin Roe.” Davenport dated Gina the spring semester of her senior year. They were king and queen of the prom and voted Most Likely to Be Amazing. Everyone thought they’d be together forever. Until Gina broke up with Tom six weeks before she vanished. She told me that their relationship didn’t make sense anymore. She was going to Duke and Tom was attending Virginia Tech. Time to enjoy their new lives at college.
“Who?” Papers shuffle in the background.
“Kaitlin Roe. From Saint Mathew’s High School. I was Gina Mason’s cousin.”
Silence settles between us. Then he mutters a curse. “What do you want?”
“I’m making a podcast. I’m trying to find Gina.”
A chair squeaks in the background.
“She vanished fourteen years ago.”
“But no one has found her. I’m hoping a podcast will draw attention back to her case.”
He laughs, but the sound is bitter, not joyous. “That’s kinda rich, don’t you think?”
“Why?”
“You hated her.”
Gina was everything I wasn’t in high school. And admiration and resentment are a razor’s edge apart. “I’m trying to make it right.”
He swears again. “You can’t make it right.”
“I can try to find her.”
“The time to fix this was fourteen years ago, before you abandoned Gina.”
The line goes dead.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Monday, March 19, 2018; 7:00 p.m.
Adler returned to his desk, a large fresh coffee in hand, to find a stack of surveillance footage of the Jennifer Ralston residence. On the top was a note from Quinn. For your viewing pleasure. Footage supplied by two homeowners near Ralston residence. I’ve been summoned to the forensic department on another case. Q.
He loosened his tie and sat. Leaning back in his chair, he sipped his coffee and selected the first disc. He hit “Play,” and a rear view of Ralston’s residence appeared. Judging by the angle, the camera was mounted on the house across the alley.
The footage covered the nine days before Jennifer’s murder. He fast-forwarded to Thursday, March 15, the day of the murder. He chose seven a.m. as a starting point.
Several cars passed down the alley, and then Jennifer Ralston appeared at 7:30 a.m. walking out her back door with a bag of trash. She was dressed in a dark skirt, a white shirt, and the pumps that still sat in her entryway. A purse dangled from her arm. Jennifer hesitated on her doorstep, glancing left and then right, before she locked her door and made her way through the yard to the alley. She tossed her trash into the dumpster and then entered her garage. A minute later the garage door opened, and she backed out. The garage door closed.
He scanned the footage covering the hours after she left for work, searching for the moment her killer arrived. At the 3:02 p.m. mark, he saw a man dressed in coveralls and a hat open her back gate. The logo on his back read COMMONWEALTH PLUMBERS, and he was carrying an oversize toolbox. He moved quickly as if he knew where he was going and disappeared inside the gate, out of camera view for several seconds. Then he stood at her back door, opened it with a key, and entered the security code before closing the door.
Adler started viewing the video frame by frame. At 3:07, a shadow passed in front of the second-floor bedroom window and then vanished.
Energy surged through him. He fast-forwarded the tape to 6:00 p.m., the approximate time of Jennifer’s death. The lights in the house clicked on minutes after six, and the camera caught Jennifer through the kitchen window standing at the sink with a glass. She refilled it and then left the kitchen.
At 6:30 p.m., the back door opened. The man who had entered at 3:02 was now exiting with the same clothes and gear. He was in no rush. The killer had been in the residence for just over three hours waiting for Jennifer. He was a pro.
“I am coming back for you. You deserve to be punished.” Kaitlin’s clouded vision caught the glint of the knife’s blade rising as her alarm blared.
Kaitlin’s eyes popped open as an alarm went off in the hospital somewhere. She tried to sit. Pain tugged at her, but she expected it this time and gritting her teeth, pushed up into a sitting position. The blaring noise in the hallway stopped. Sweat dampened her hairline and between her shoulders and breasts. Her heart beat fast.
She eased back against the pillows. She slowly closed her eyes and breathed in and out while trying to slow her heart rate. But she couldn’t stop replaying his words. “I am coming back for you. You deserve to be punished.” Recollection danced just out of reach like a forgotten tune refusing to be remembered.
A knock on her door just after eight pulled her away from her laptop. “Come in.”
It was Detective Adler. His tie was loose, and thick stubble now darkened his chin. She was glad to see him. She shouldn’t have been, but there was no denying that having him close calmed her.
“What was that noise?” she asked.
“Fire alarm went off. It was a false alarm.” He studied her face.
She drew in a breath. She was annoyed she’d been rocked with fear. “You look about as bad as I feel,” she said.
“No rest for the wicked.” He held up a bag, tossing her a boyish grin. “Brought sorbet.”
Despite inner warnings to stay clear of him, she asked, “What kind?”
“Strawberry and chocolate.”
She straightened. She was relieved her body didn’t protest. “The nurses believe I’ll heal faster if they tempt me with Jell-O and beef broth.”
“Sorbet will do the trick.”
She watched with unwanted excitement as he pulled up a chair and dug out the containers. She chose chocolate, and he handed it to her along with a lime-green plastic spoon.
“You’re allowed to eat this, right?” he asked.
She pried off the top, savored the sight of the creamy swirls. “The doctors said soft foods. I think this qualifies.”
He peeled off his container top. “How’re you feeling?”
She took her first spoonful. The cool, rich chocolate was the best she’d ever eaten. “Better now.”
“You’re lucky.”
She ate a second bite, the rich taste making her feel optimistic. “I suppose I am.”
He cocked a brow. “You’re listening to your doctors?”
“Generally speaking. I freaked out a nurse when I tried to walk down the hallway this morning. She wasn’t happy. Made me promise to stay in bed.”
He chuckled and took several bites of sorbet. He raised his gaze to her as if he were seeing her in a different light. “I didn’t realize your hair was so curly.”
She resisted the urge to touch a curl. She saw something in his eyes that sent nervous energy running through her body. “I call it my ‘mountain woman’ look. Detective, if you haven’t noticed, I’m in a lockdown ward. No beauty contests here.”