Nowhere to Run (Stephanie Carovella) (39 page)

“Yes, we found evidence Leigh may have been involved in the murders. Gena and Frank are still over at the apartment – or at least, they were.” Taking another gulp of his coffee, he confessed, “I couldn’t stay there, Stephanie. It was just too much. Everything I thought I had dealt with started rushing to the surface. I thought I could be rational. I thought I could keep my feelings separate from the case, but as soon as we found Angel’s bracelet, I just couldn’t.”

“You found Angel’s bracelet at Leigh’s apartment?” she asked sharply.

Jase nodded, shaking his head in disgust. “Babe, you should have seen the damn apartment. Better yet, I’m glad you didn’t see it. He had photographs of you everywhere. He’s obsessed.” Giving her a broad grin, he murmured, “He’d really flip his shit if he knew what we’d been doing half an hour ago.”

Stephanie made a face at him, before she shrugged. “I’m not surprised by anything Leigh does anymore, Jase. Tell me what else you found.”

“He had photos of every crime scene on one of the bedrooms walls. His bookcase was filled with photography and criminology books.”

“Jase, were the photos of the victims on the wall taken from when he was stalking them or were they photos he took before, after and during the murders?” she asked, unable to hide her interest.

“Both. He stalked them and it showed in each photo. Then while he was raping, torturing and murdering each of his victims he took photos before, during and after his animalistic act,” Jase said harshly, his voice filled with grief. “Christ, he had mementos. He had Angel’s tennis bracelet. She never took it off. He raped and tortured her and then stole from her, as she lay there dying.”

Stephanie took Jase’s coffee cup from him, carefully putting it onto the ground next to her own. She crawled onto his lap, bringing his head down to rest against her chest. Jase buried his face against her throat, grief racking his body. Stephanie held him close, her eyes welling up with tears.

“I’m so sorry, Jase. I’m sorry you have to deal with this. I’m sorry Leigh has put you through this,” she whispered against his hair, kissing his head. He held her tightly, lifting his head from her chest, his eyes glittering with tears. Blinking them away, he whispered brokenly, “I miss her so god damn much, Steph. I never got the chance to tell her how much I loved her. She was taken from me before I could tell her how I felt.”

Stephanie eased back from him, cupping his face in her hands. “Jase, she knew you loved her and you made her happy. She loved you just as much, and you changed her life for the better. Her last few months with you were the happiest of her life. Through all the darkness in her life, you were her ray of light. Don’t ever doubt that.”

He took a deep breath, feeling the balm of her words soothing him. “You should know, Delucci is looking to charge Leigh with murder,” he said huskily, his eyes fixated on the woman sitting on his lap.

He studied her, from the fiery red hair mussed up from their lovemaking session to the amber eyes solemnly staring back at him. He watched her eyes darken at his words, before he dropped his gaze to her passion-bruised mouth.

He wanted to kiss her again. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get enough of her. Stephanie had an inner strength about her which left him breathless. Every time she seemed down and out, she pulled herself to her feet and kept going on. She’d been through so much. She had seen it all and she’d survived it. She was the kind of woman he’d been searching for to share his life with. The kind of woman, he knew Angel also had been.

Quietly, he asked, “Do you think he’s guilty?”

Stephanie frowned, absentmindedly sliding two fingers down his forearm. “I’m not sure, Jase. I don’t know if I’m even the right person to ask. I thought I knew him, but it turns out I knew as little about him as I thought he knew about me. I got played. I went into the relationship thinking the less he knew about me, the safer it would be. Instead, I discovered he went into the relationship knowing exactly who I was and everything about my past. He married me with false intentions, but then I did the same to him. He married me because of this obsession he had to make me love him and I married him because I didn’t want to love anyone. We both got screwed over.”

Pausing, she smiled at him, a sense of calamity overcoming her. It was strange, she thought. Jase always managed to put her completely at ease. With him, she could relax and just be herself. It was a nice change after pretending to be someone she wasn’t with Leigh. Contemplating his question, she said slowly, “As much as he played me, Jase, I don’t think he’s a killer.”

Jase reached out to touch her bruised cheekbone. “Not even after this? Not even if you knew Walker had a history of abusive relationships. Nor even if you knew Walker was Katrina Andrews’ boyfriend at the time of her death?”

Stephanie stiffened in his arms, shock vibrating through her. Twisting around in his lap to face him, she asked haltingly, “Leigh was dating Kat when she was murdered?”

“He was her ex-boyfriend. She broke up with him days before she was murdered. It’s the key reason we were able to get a search warrant for his apartment. We argued it was too much of a coincidence he was dating Katrina, who we assume was the first victim.”

He smiled apologetically at her. “I’m sorry. I thought Gena might have told you.”

Stephanie scowled. “No, but then what’s one more thing Gena hasn’t told me about? If she forgot to mention my first husband was murdered, why would she tell me my sick twisted freak of a second husband dated Katrina?” Snorting in disgust, she added, “But it certainly explains Leigh’s obsession with me.”

Jase scowled, watching her expression turn from one of shock to annoyance before it switched to one of indifference. Her gaze became shuttered, and he growled with frustration when he recognized the polite mask Stephanie always wore when she wanted to hide how she really felt. He’d hoped that after everything they’d shared, she’d let her defenses down a little for him. Obviously, he was wrong.

“Still think he’s not guilty?” he growled, pushing to get a response from her.

Stephanie slowly slid off his lap, leaning over to pick up her coffee cup. Taking a deep sip, she sighed in pleasure at the smooth Columbian Blend. “Jase, Leigh may be a fraud, an abusive husband and have a past as tainted as mine, but it’s still hard to imagine him a killer.” She said, adding quickly when he opened his mouth to protest, “Even with all the trinkets and the photos, it’s all circumstantial. Unless you find him standing over a dead body with the bloody weapon in his hand, a jury is going to find it difficult to convict him. You and I both know it.”

Jase cursed, running a hand over his unshaven jaw. “We haven’t found a murder weapon. Frank will tear the place apart until he finds one, though. He wants to nail Leigh to the wall badly and I don’t blame him. Stephanie, he was Katrina Andrews’ ex-boyfriend and the main suspect in her murder. He had scratches from the fight they’d had. He couldn’t give himself an alibi at the time she was murdered. He was the perfect candidate for her murder.”

“Then why wasn’t he charged?” she argued back, arching an eyebrow.

“An eyewitness came forward and said it wasn’t Walker. The police couldn’t hold him. They dropped the charges and Walker dropped off the face of the earth, resurfacing only to find you,” Jase said, irritation creeping into his voice. “Whose side are you on anyway, Carovella?”

“Yours, Devlin,” she shot back, grinning when he dropped his hand onto her leg, sliding it up her thigh. Swatting his hand away playfully, she said, “Quit it. I’m on your side okay? Your side, Angel’s, Katrina’s and Carolyn’s side, not to mention God only knows how many other victims out there. But I refuse to condemn a man until there’s solid evidence he committed the crime. I just can’t do it.”

Frowning, she took another sip of her coffee. “You said there was a witness? Who was it?” she asked, her heart beating wildly.

“The police files didn’t say who the witness was. The report stated a male came forth to say Walker wasn’t the man they were looking for. I looked up the leading Detective on the case - Detective William Foley. He lives in Marina Del Ray. I gave him a call and he’s agreed to sit down with me and discuss the case. He still has all his notes. I’m hoping he can tell me who the witness was and anything else about the case,” Jase said, smiling warmly at her.

Stephanie bit her lip. She wanted to ask Jase if she could tag along when he visited Detective Foley, but knew it might be pushing it. This was all new territory for her. Usually she did what she wanted and she didn’t give a damn what anyone thought. The only person’s opinion who had mattered to her was Dominic’s. With Jase, it was different. His feelings mattered. She respected his opinion.

It still stung her how easily Katrina’s death had been glossed over, how she’d become nothing more than just a statistic. She’d never given a damn what Foley thought of her, but Katrina had been sweet and innocent. She’d never deserved to be treated in the manner she had been.

“If we can find the witness, we can find out why it took him so long to come forth. It’s one of the things I’m stumped about. Why did it take months for this eye-witness to come forward?” Jase asked, exasperated.

Stephanie drummed her fingers against her coffee cup, processing everything Jase was telling her. “Maybe it’s because he had an ulterior motive. Did you ever think maybe this eye-witness could tell you Leigh wasn’t the killer because
he
was Kat’s Killer? I mean, was he even checked out or did they take his word for it?”

Jase looped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her to him again when he heard the bitter undertones in her voice. “I know the L.A.P.D really failed you when Katrina died, but I promise you, Steph, things have changed. We won’t let him get away this time.”

***

Gena walked into Leigh Walker’s bathroom, carefully sifting through the contents. Picking up a bottle of his cologne, she read the label,
Stetson Black
by
Coty.
Lifting the cap off the bottle, she sniffed it experimentally and wrinkled her nose at the blend of spices. Replacing the lid, she placed the bottle back onto the basin bench and slowly turned around in the bathroom, not missing an inch of the room. From the black and white tiles, cracked and yellowed around the edges from old age, to the orderly way Leigh had lined his colognes alphabetically.

Her lips quirking, she thought that if this wasn’t an indication of his obsessive tendencies, then she didn’t know what was. Her eyes drifted towards the toilet and she shook her head. She found it hard to believe he would hide a murder weapon inside the top of the toilet water tank. Grimacing, she knew she had to look anyway.

“Surely he’s not that stupid,” She muttered, lifting the lid of the toilet tank off. Dumbfounded, she stared at what was inside. Gingerly she put her gloved hand inside, pulling out a plastic bag containing a bloodied knife.

“Now, this is just too damn easy,” she muttered, staring at the knife momentarily. A shudder ran through her, the knowledge she possibly held in her hands the murder weapon to send Leigh Walker on a one way ticket to Murder Row, weighed heavily on her.

Gingerly holding the bag between her gloved fingers, she walked into the living room, stopping when she saw Delucci flicking through a photo album. “I think I’ve found the murder weapon,” she said quietly.

Delucci tore his eyes from the photo to fixate on the knife, his eyes lighting up with undisguised delight. “Where did you find it?”

“Would you believe me, if I told you the top of the toilet?” Gena said, shaking her head in amazement. “Either our killer is a lot stupider than we assumed or someone really wants to nail Walker for these murders.”

Putting the bag holding the bloodied knife into an evidence bag, she placed it with the rest of their evidence. Stripping off her contaminated gloves, she pulled out a new pair, slipping them on. “Did you find anything else to link Walker to the crimes?” She asked, nodding her head towards the album he held in his hands. She was unable to hold back a gasp, when he flipped open the first page of the photo album. “My God Frank, that’s a photo of Carolyn, Angel, Stephanie and I. It was taken the night we graduated. Another photo, taken the same night, was discovered in the scrapbook we found with Carolyn Mathers’ body.”

“Still think Walker’s not our man?” Delucci asked, flipping through a few more pages to show Gena the articles within the album. Gena hastily flipped through pages within the album, scanning article after article, growing whiter as she did so. Her eyes scanned each page and she shook her head. “Each page has articles covering the recent spate of murders we’re covering as well as articles dating back to Katrina Andrews’ murder,” Delucci said, leaning over to flip to the beginning of the album. “Recognize anyone you know?” he asked, pointing to an article with a photo.

“Stephanie,” Gena breathed. Her eyes skimmed the article, reading the title, ‘University student escapes massacre.’

Delucci flipped it forward a few more pages to articles from the
San Antonio Express News
and
San Diego Union Tribute.
“My God, Frank, these are articles relating to the murders Stephanie connected to Katrina Andrews’ murder. He kept clippings of them,” she breathed, horror washing over her.

“He didn’t just keep clippings on these. There are at least a dozen more articles relating to murders that could be linked to Katrina Andrews’ murder. If he kept these clippings as mementos from his crime, we’re looking at a very prolific serial killer,” Delucci said grimly. “And, there’s more. This is only one album. There’s a dozen more albums filled with articles covering murders. All of which could be possibly linked to Katrina Andrews’ murder. The M.O’s are the same. There are also photo albums dedicated to Stephanie’s career and life.”

Delucci took the album from Gena’s hands and leaned over to pick up an album sitting on the living room table. Gena closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She whispered softly, “He’s been following Stephanie’s career and her life since the murder of Katrina Andrews?”