Have You Seen Her? (41 page)
Friday, October 14, 9:45
A.M.
H
ER HEAD ACHED
,
WORSE THAN ANY HANGOVER
. And to make it worse, she had company. She winced at Allison’s overly cheerful screech telling her to come downstairs. Coming home with Seth had seemed like a good idea last night, but now, in the light of day, she doubted its wisdom.
Neil stood in Allison’s living room, holding a bunch of red roses. “I didn’t know what you liked,” he said, holding out the flowers. “I went for tradition.”
She smiled, then winced when her split lip burned. “They’re lovely, Neil. Have a seat.” And when he did, she said, “I never got the chance to thank you for last night.”
“I wish I’d gotten back sooner,” he said, then blurted, “I told Thatcher he was a fucking idiot.”
“That about sums it up.”
“He’s outside, sitting in his car,” Neil added. “He was there when I got here.”
“He’s been there all morning,” Allison said, sweeping in to get the flowers. “I’ve told him three times to leave, but he won’t.”
“He knows he fucked up,” Neil said and Jenna lifted her brows.
“You’re defending him? Last night . . .” Jenna faltered and shook her head. Then winced at the searing pain. “Never mind.”
“Look, Thatcher’s not number one on my hit parade, but I know what he looked like when you drove away. And I know how you looked when you said you loved him. At least hear what he has to say.”
Jenna sighed. “Fine. Then everybody leaves so I can take these painkillers and go to sleep.”
Neil went to the front door and gestured. “He’s coming. I’ll be going now.”
Jenna squinted at the light of the open door. “I thought you were going back to Seattle today.”
Neil frowned. “I changed my mind. Thatcher may have eliminated Rudy Lutz from his list of suspects, but my gut still tells me there’s something there.”
The room spun. “Rudy Lutz?”
Neil turned, still frowning. “I thought Thatcher would have told you.”
She shook her head, every movement feeling like a thousand knives. “No. No, he didn’t.”
“Well, he was right not to,” Neil said. “It would have contaminated the case.”
Jenna felt like she was going to throw up.
Rudy Lutz?
Well, wasn’t that just jiminy cricket?
Rudy Lutz?
He knew all this time. Damn him. Damn them both. She waited until Steven was in the living room before leveling both barrels at both men. “You didn’t think it was important to tell me I had a
serial killer
after me? Did you think I was too
stupid
to understand?”
Steven looked at Neil with murder in his eyes.
Neil shrugged. “I thought you would have told her. Pillow talk.”
“I run a clean investigation,” Steven gritted. “No loopholes for overeager defense attorneys.”
Neil scowled. “My investigation was every bit as clean as yours.”
“
Shut up!
” Jenna pushed her fingertips against her temples. “Tell me, if you don’t think I’m too feebleminded to comprehend, are there any strange chemicals at work in this case?”
Steven narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“Yes or no, dammit,” she snapped, then gobbled down the painkillers Allison silently put in front of her. “Thank you, Allison.”
“You’re welcome.” Allison faced the two men. “Well, answer her question.”
“For God’s sake,” Steven grumbled. “Yes, yes there are. Ketamine, if you must know. Why?”
“Because I found some chemicals missing from my storeroom yesterday. I had an inventory, but it got lost somewhere in the fighting. I know I was missing silver nitrate and some of the basic ingredients of ketamine. But your killer would have had to have access to sophisticated lab equipment. Not the kind in my classroom and certainly not the kind you’d assemble from a drugstore chemistry set. If the silver nitrate is involved, your killer is developing his own photographs. And for the record, there is no way under heaven that Rudy Lutz is smart enough to pull all of this off.” She massaged her temples. “To pull any of this off. His father, maybe, but football boy? No way. That is all. Now please, both of you
go away
.”
Neil gave Steven an intense look, then left.
“You too, Steven,” she said. “I’ve had enough.”
“You heard her,” Allison said and Steven’s face went red with anger.
“I will talk to her,” he said softly, “and you will please leave.”
“This is my house,” Allison started, then Jenna waved her hand.
“Let him stay long enough to have his say.” When they were alone, Jenna sat back and closed her eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”
“My wife left me for another man,” he said and her eyes flew open.
“What?”
He was looking at her evenly. “The day my wife died I came home from work to find Brad watching Matt and Nicky. Brad was thirteen, Matt was nine, and Nicky was three. Melissa had gone to the mall, Brad said. Except I went to our bedroom and found a note lying on the bed. She’d said she left me for another man and that by the time I got the note she’d be halfway to Miami. She didn’t love me, had never loved me, and was tired of chicken nuggets, soccer games, and diaper changes. The boys were mine and I was welcome to them.” He was reciting the note in a monotone and Jenna knew he’d memorized every word. Stunned, she had no idea what to say to him.
“I sat there looking at the note for an hour, then figured I needed to tell the boys something. She wasn’t coming home.” He looked away. “I’d made it downstairs when the doorbell rang. It was a uniform from the third district, looking solemn, and I knew what he was going to say. She’d been in an accident on the way to the airport. She was in the car with another man. The married CEO of a Raleigh company, who had a blood alcohol level of point one eight. He lived, she died.”
“The drunk driver whose insurance was so eager to settle with you,” Jenna murmured and Steven shrugged callously.
“Why have scandal then? Melissa was dead and his wife, who was vacationing at Hilton Head, need never know. God knew I didn’t want my kids to know.”
Jenna’s eyes widened. “So you told them she just died.” “On her way home from the mall,” he said bitterly.
“Oh, Steven,” she whispered. “All this time you’ve worried every woman would be like her.”
“When I met you, I knew you weren’t, but I was... afraid.”
“But when you saw me with Neil last night, you believed the worst.”
He leaned his head back against the sofa and studied the ceiling. “I did. And I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
He looked at her then, truly looked at her. “None of this makes any difference, does it?”
“It makes every bit of difference.” She looked away. “And none.”
“Will you come home with me?” he asked.
She swallowed. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because I know better than to love a man who can’t trust me. You’ll never trust me. You say you will, then the next time I’m friends with a man you’ll do it all again and we’ll be in the same place we are now.” She felt tears on her own cheeks. “I’ll resent you and then where will we be?”
He stood up and looked out the window. “You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?”
“Just like you did,” she returned, feeling angry and hurt. “Then tell me you’re ready to say good-bye.” And he grabbed her and kissed her until the room spun and she clung to him. Lifting his head, he whispered harshly, “Tell me you don’t want me.”
She shook her head and pushed him away. “I won’t lie to you. I want you. But I’m smart enough to know I can’t have everything I want. What I want is a man who trusts me and who I can depend on. I had that once. I’ll hold out for it again.”
He held her shoulders tight. “What about Nicky, Jenna?” he demanded, facing her, anger visibly vibrating through him. “Can you walk away from him?”
Jenna flinched as if he’d struck her. “That’s not fair.”
His face spasmed in pain. “I don’t give a damn about fair. I don’t give a damn about me, but you’re hurting my son all over again.”
She drew a breath and tried to be the logical one. “I’m sorry, Steven. I should have listened to you and not allowed Nicky to become so attached. But it still can’t change anything. Continuing a relationship with Nicky knowing we’re finished would be even more cruel long-term.”
He looked at her for a long minute, his eyes so miserable and sad that she almost changed her mind. Almost. “I wanted to marry you,” he said, so quietly she had to strain to hear him. “I was going to ask you in bed yesterday morning, but I wanted to have this case settled, so I waited. I guess my timing on a marriage proposal was the only thing I did right. I had a selfish wife once who didn’t care about my children. I sure as hell don’t need to go through it again.”
Slamming the front door behind him, he was gone. Allison put a box of tissues in her hand and Jenna snatched up a handful, mopped her face, then gave up and buried her face on Allison’s shoulder. And cried her fool heart out.
“Thatcher, wait.”
Steven stopped at the base of the Llewellyns’ driveway thinking he was so close to the edge that just one of Davies’s smug I-told-you-sos would push him over. “If you say I-told-you-so I swear . . .” He let the threat trail off, knowing he didn’t have the emotional energy to follow through.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for my part in this,” Davies said quietly. “I honestly didn’t go to the school to see her, but when I did, I didn’t want to walk away.”
Despair and rage battled, but in the end Steven was just too tired to give way to either. “This is supposed to make me feel better how, Davies?”
“It’s not supposed to make you feel better,” Davies snapped. “Any desire I had to make you feel better disappeared when I saw the bruises on her face this morning.” He drew a deep breath. “But you mean something to her so I also didn’t want to make it any worse,” he said, his voice calm again. “I wanted you to know what happened. She said that she loved you,” he finished quietly.
The quiet words cut deeper than any I-told-you-so ever could. She now wore bruises inside and out as testament to his lack of trust. He cleared his throat. “Thanks for doing what I should have done. For making sure those bastards didn’t hurt her worse than they did.”
“I went to the school to see if I could get a glimpse of your Rudy Lutz with his friends,” Davies said. “I know the roster says he was in class, but my gut tells me something’s wrong.”
Steven sighed, so damn weary. “What do you want, Neil?” “I want to take one more look around the Templeton place.”
“I can’t let you have Kent or anyone else from Forensics,” Steven said, just wishing the man would go away so he could let go of the awful weight pressing against his chest.
“I understand. I’ll call you if I find anything.”
Then finally he was gone and Steven climbed in his car. Shut the door. And drove to work.
Friday, October 14, 11:30
A.M.
“You’ve got company,” Allison said and with a groan Jenna pulled herself out of bed and down to the living room where Casey sat on Allison’s sofa with her right arm and left leg in plaster casts. Ned stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.
“Casey.” Jenna hugged her lightly, for both their sakes. “When did you get out?”
“This morning.” She frowned. “What happened to your face?”
“Long story. So how did you get up the driveway in that cast?”
Casey glowed. “Ned carried me. I wanted you to be the first to know.” She held out her left hand and Jenna swallowed hard at the sight of the diamond on Casey’s ring finger. She’d be damned if she let her own petty problems spoil Casey’s moment.
So she smiled up at Ned, then at Casey. “I’m so happy for you both.”
Then burst into noisy tears.
Casey didn’t say anything for a moment, just reached out and patted her hand. Then said to Ned, “See if Allison has anything stronger than iced tea. And if she says no, ask Seth where he hides his stash.”
Jenna sniffled. “I can’t have alcohol. I’m taking pain medication.”
“It’s not for you,” Casey said. “It’s to calm me down so I don’t go murder Steven Thatcher.”
Friday, October 14, 3:30
P.M.
Neil stood in the middle of Kelly’s bedroom, frustrated as hell. He’d spent hours covering every inch and found nothing new.
There had to be something,
he thought, walking to the window, looking at the neat circle of cut glass, visualizing how the killer would have come in. From the state of her blankets, Kelly would have struggled hard, but her attacker was much bigger and stronger. He would have put a mask over her face, made her breathe the ketamine powder that would have knocked her out in five to ten seconds. But in those seconds, she would have fought for her life.
She was young and had been a gymnast prior to her cheerleading. Her ribbons and trophies were on the wall in the Templetons’ living room. She’d been very good and to be that good, she had to have a great deal of physical strength and agility. But she was small, like her mother.
