Her Last Word(59)
“Jesus,” he said, rushing toward her. Relief and gratitude nearly brought him to his knees. “I thought you’d gone inside.”
She holstered her weapon. Her hand trembled slightly as she looked back toward the house consumed in flames. “We all scattered when you sounded the alarm. Hell, I thought you were caught up in the explosion. Where’s Kaitlin?”
He’d been blessed with a lifetime of luck today. Whether he deserved it or not wasn’t for him to say, but he was taking all he could get. “She made it out. She’s fine.”
The blare of fire engine sirens grew deafening. Lights flashed on the trees, the house, and the drawn faces of the cops. Adler rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
Kaitlin came up behind Adler. She slid up next to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. She relaxed into him.
“Is Marcus inside?” she asked.
“He shot himself in the kitchen,” Adler said.
“He planned all this, didn’t he?” Quinn asked. “He wanted to kill you and as many other cops as he could manage.”
“He felt like everyone let Gina down,” Kaitlin said.
Quinn’s lips curled with disgust. “I won’t be satisfied until I see his body and know for certain he rots in hell,” she said.
She moved away from them to check on an officer who had been struck in the arm by flying debris.
Adler again hugged Kaitlin to him, holding her tight. He could feel her trembling and heard her short, agitated breaths. “You should never have gone with him. You scared the shit out of me.”
“I should have seen through it. I knew he was obsessed with Gina.”
“We all missed the signs until it was almost too late.” He kissed her on the temple and kept his face close to hers. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Her laugh sounded nervous and relieved when she turned and looked up at him. “Wait until you get to know me,” she teased.
Adler let out a breath. “I’m looking forward to doing just that.”
INTERVIEW FILE #29
OBSESSIONS OF A KILLER
Steven Marcus’s house was destroyed, but he’d left his laptop in his truck, which had been parked farther down the driveway. No one was sure if he expected to escape the fire. But I seriously doubt it. The recorded files on the laptop offered some insight into the man obsessed with justice for Gina Mason at any cost.
“This is Steven Marcus, and the first time I learned about Gina was the day after she vanished. When I saw a picture of her, I was stunned by her beauty and bright smile. I knew I had to find her. The harder I searched for her and the answers behind her disappearance, the more obsessed I became with her. She invaded my thoughts, my dreams, and finally my everyday life. My wife saw it. She tried to understand at first, but as the years passed and I became more obsessed with knowing Gina’s fate, she started to pull away. When she left me, I was certain if I could just try a little harder and discover the truth, the obsession would loosen its hold and I could get back to a normal life. All I wanted was the truth. And when I couldn’t find that, my thoughts turned to revenge.”
EPILOGUE
Tuesday, May 8, 2018; 6:00 a.m.
Kaitlin shut off the audiotape. She’d listened to it three more times and knew if she kept reviewing it she’d start making changes. Adler still owed her a few updates, but all in all, she was pleased with the final project and grateful it was a few sound bites away from finished.
The morning sun rose up over the east end of the city and streamed through her bedroom window. A knock on the front door had her rising and setting aside her computer. She stretched before she padded down the hallway barefoot, still wearing flannel plaid pajama pants and a worn police academy T-shirt. The time had come to shower, dress in something nice, and get out into the world.
She glanced in the peephole and smiled when she saw Adler’s stern profile. Heat rose through her body as she imagined having him in her bed and spending the morning making love to him. She flipped open the three locks.
“You’re here bright and early,” she said.
“Wrapped up a case last night.” His gaze trailed over her, lingering on her breasts before he met her stare. “Thought I’d take you to breakfast.”
Breakfast sounded good . . . in a bit. “My favorite meal of the day.”
Adler leaned forward and kissed her, cupping the back of her head. She slid her hand up his flat belly and wrapped her arm around his waist. She pressed those breasts he’d just been admiring against his chest.
“Are you sure you want breakfast first?”
His hand slid to her butt, and he squeezed gently. “I’m flexible.”
“Good, I like a man who can adapt.”
He entered the apartment and saw the setup of her computers, stacks of legal pads with notes, and sticky notes stuck randomly on the large table by her bed. “You’ve been working, too.”
“I’ve almost wrapped up the podcast and was just listening to what I have.”
“How does it sound?”
This had been an emotional journey and one of the hardest things she’d ever done. There were still missing pieces from that night on the road. How had Gina’s blood gotten on her shirt? She still didn’t remember, but Adler theorized she had resisted Randy and tried to save Gina. She clung to that explanation when Gina’s loss troubled her in the middle of the night as it likely always would. “It’s pretty good, if I do say so myself.”
He picked up a purple sticky note that read Randy Hayward. As he flicked the edge with his finger, his eyes hardened. “Ricker is now seeking the death penalty in the Maria Thomas murder case.”
This was a new development since she’d seen Adler two days ago. “Does Randy’s mother know?”
“I don’t know. She’s still not accepting her son’s calls and has only spoken to me once. Her attorney was very careful about the questions he’d let her answer.”
“She had to have known what Randy did. She deliberately withheld information, and she had her shed torn down. She must have been covering for her son.”
“I think you’re right. But I’m not sure we will be able to prove that.”
“Do you think Mrs. Hayward knew about what Randy did to Maria Thomas?”
“She must have sensed a pattern with her son and women. We can’t link the sexual assaults that occurred near him in college, but thanks to our conversation with Maureen, there’s a chance there might be some closure in that case, too.”
A pattern of cover-ups in the Hayward family had contributed to so much suffering. “I interviewed the Thomas family about their daughter, Maria. They were devastated to learn she’s dead,” she said.
He captured a strand of her hair and gently rubbed it between this thumb and forefinger. “There is no happy ending for the Thomas family, but at least they know what happened to their daughter.”
“Knowing is better than all the terrible scenarios that dog you, but it still hurts.”
“Maybe now they have a chance to move on with their lives.”
“Like me.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Yes, like you.”
She wanted to lean into him and forget all about this case, but there were still details she needed to clarify. “I know Ricker got his court order for Blackstone’s and Crowley’s DNA. Have the results come back? Was there a match?”
“There was, and the results match Logan’s theory.”
“The blood on Gina’s dress was Blackstone’s,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I never remembered Blackstone.”
“You couldn’t have. By the time Blackstone appeared on the scene, you had already run for help. Logan and I believe that Gina fought harder than Randy had expected, so after you left, he called the friend who had always helped him.”
She felt a bitter satisfaction knowing Gina had ultimately helped catch her killers. “Gina fought so hard it took two men to subdue her.”
“And she hurt Blackstone in some way, which explained his blood on her dress. Randy and Blackstone took Gina to the shed on the Hayward property and stashed her body there until they could bury her in the country.”
All the pieces tumbled together, forming a gruesome picture that the world would finally see. “Blackstone is going to fight you.”
“Oh, I know. He’s already hired his own forensic expert to explain the blood, but the test results are ironclad.”
“What about Ashley?”
“I pressed her for more details. When I threw accessory-to-murder charges at her, she admitted Blackstone had been wearing shorts and had a large cut on his thigh above his knee that night. She said it looked like he’d been hit with a rock.”
Again, Kaitlin imagined Gina’s last desperate fight to stay alive and had to pause until she could speak without her voice breaking.
“Does Randy know this?”
“Quinn spoke to him yesterday. He said he’d tell us more about Gina if Ricker took the death penalty off the table in the Thomas case. Ricker refused. But Randy isn’t as cocky as he once was, and I’m betting it won’t be long before he tells us what happened and how Blackstone fit into the equation.”
“I remember Randy and Derek fighting at that last Fourth of July party. When Randy approached me, he was very frustrated, angry, and drunk. I wasn’t sure what set him off because he and Derek never fought. Something must have come up that day about Maria.” She shook her head. “I should never have been with Randy.”