The Wreck (32 page)

Zoë hadn’t taken a breath in over an
hour, chatting with excitement about Carly and Brian’s new midnight blue SUV,
about the slumber party she had been to with her friends, and about the
unexpected trip with her aunt and newfound uncle.

“I can call you Uncle Brian, right?”

As he looked at Zoë in the rearview
mirror and fought through a storm of emotions, Carly reached for his hand. “I’d
like that.” He was still getting used to how much she resembled Carly and had
to remember not to stare.

“That was fun yesterday, wasn’t it,
Auntie Carly? Wait ’til you see the dress she bought for the wedding—”

“Ah!” Carly cried, putting up a hand to
stop her. “Don’t tell him anything about it.”

“Duh. I know
that
. What do you
think I am? A kid? Jeez. Can I plug my iPod into the stereo?”

Brian reached back for it. “Sure.”

“Be prepared,” Carly said, amused. “She
has eclectic taste in music.”

“That’s all right.” Whatever she wants,
Brian wanted to add but didn’t. He cringed when rap music filled the small
space.

Carly chuckled. “Told you.”

Brian turned it down. “Did you find a
dress, too, Zoë?”

“Uh huh.” She made a face that he caught
in the mirror. “It’s this frilly purple thing.”

“Lilac,” Carly corrected her. “And it’s
lovely on you. We found smaller versions for Lilly and Julia.”

“I’m the maid of honor. Did Auntie Carly
tell you?”

“I’ve heard that rumor.” Brian tried not
to dwell on how surreal it would be to have their daughter serve as a witness
to their wedding.
She’s not your daughter. She’s your niece.
Keep
telling yourself that
.
Maybe one day you’ll believe it.

“Does that mean I have to dance with your
father?” Zoë snorted. “Me and the chief of police. How funny is that? My
friends are going to
freak
.”

Brian glanced over to find Carly looking
stricken. Clearly she hadn’t considered that pairing. “I’m sure he’ll love
having such a pretty girl to dance with,” Brian said.

“How cool is it to be riding in a car
again, Auntie Carly?”

Zoë shifted gears so fast Brian struggled
to keep up—and to hear her over the horrible music.

“I’m getting used to it,” Carly said. “I
like being able to get out of Granville once in a while.”

“I can’t imagine not leaving that
boring-ass town for fifteen years.”

“Zoë. ” Carly frowned at her niece’s
language.

“Someday that boring town might look
pretty darned good to you,” Brian said, speaking with some authority on the
subject.

Zoë shrugged. “I doubt it. I can’t wait
to get out of there.”

“And go where?” Brian asked.

“I don’t know. Anywhere.” Shifting gears
yet again, she said, “So you’re a lawyer?”

“That’s right.”

“I wouldn’t mind being a lawyer.”

Brian had to remind himself to take the
next breath. “Is that so?”

“Uh huh. My mom says I’d be a good one,
cuz all I do is argue.”

Brian and Carly laughed, and he could
honestly say he had never been happier in his life than he was in that moment.
It had been a long time coming.

Michael
waited until Matt Collins, Nate Barclay, and the other FBI agent, Jeff DiNardo,
had taken seats in the conference room. He had spent so much time with Nate and
Jeff in the last month that he’d
almost
forgotten they were feds. He had
called this meeting on a Sunday afternoon after finally getting the chance to
talk to Carly about Luke the night before.

“We may have a suspect,” Michael
announced.

“Who?” Matt asked.

“Luke McInnis.”

Matt sat back in his chair and thought
about it as he tapped a pen on the table. “Hmm.”

“Remember what we said at the outset?”
Michael asked him. “That it was going to be someone we knew?”

“Yeah, wow,” Matt said, looking
intrigued. “Why haven’t we thought of him before?”

“What’ve you got, Mike?” Nate asked.

He told them about the odd encounter
Brian had had with Luke in the cemetery. “He fits the physical description—he’s
six-three, about 220. Big feet. Last night I sat down with Carly and asked her
what she knows about him. She said there’s no way it’s him, that she’s known
him since kindergarten and always thought of him as a friend.”

“Is that how he thought of her?” Jeff
asked.

“She thinks so. She can’t recall anything
outside the bounds of normal friendship with him. Except recently.”

“How’s that?” Nate asked.

“He asked her to go with him to their
class reunion over Fourth of July weekend. But she saw that as a mercy thing
more than a date. He was trying to help her feel better about going, since she
still wasn’t talking then. She got the feeling he was just doing her a favor.”

“Was he disappointed when she said no?”
Nate asked.

“She said he seemed to be for a moment,
but then he was fine about it. He was a regular customer of hers at Miss
Molly’s, along with two other guys she’s known all her life. The three of them
work for the father of one of the others.”

“If he fits the description, why haven’t
we taken a look at him before?” Jeff asked. “Especially since he went to school
with Carly and Brian. Was his name on the shoe store list of special orders?”

“Nope,” Matt said. “But he could get shoes
anywhere—online, out of town. Who the hell knows? He hasn’t been on our radar
at all.”

“Earlier, I rechecked the videotape from
the candlelight vigil when Alicia Perry was missing, but there was no sign of
him in the crowd,” Michael said. “You know how sometimes perps like to turn out
for gatherings like that because they get off on witnessing the suffering.”

“We know what this guy gets off on,” Jeff
mumbled.

“What did Carly and Brian say about his
social standing in school?” Nate asked.

“Interestingly, in separate interviews
they both used the same words to describe him. They said he was always just
there
,
but neither of them was close to him. Carly said she’s been friendlier with him
at Miss Molly’s than she ever was in school.”

“And neither of them got the sense he
wanted to be closer to them when they were still in school?” Nate asked.

“No,” Michael said.

“I say we pick him up and have a talk
with him,” Nate said. “I’ll also see about getting a warrant to search his
house.”

“Isn’t that premature?” Jeff asked. “I
mean, we have one odd conversation in a cemetery—and isn’t every conversation
in a cemetery odd? That’s not enough to bring him in. Not to mention if it
is
him, we’d be tipping our hand that we’re on to him.”

“While I hear what you’re saying, Jeff,
we’ve got three murders and multiple aggravated sexual assaults on our hands
here,” Nate said. “And this is as close as we’ve come to a suspect. I want to
talk to him.” To Michael, he added, “Pick him up.”

“Sorry, Jeff, but I agree with Nate,”
Michael said.

“For what it’s worth,” Matt said, “I’ve
been rereading the reports and interviews with the victims and their families.
I noticed something interesting.”

“What’s that?” Jeff asked.

“Well, I kept asking myself—why would he
kill two of the girls, and the boyfriend of one of them, and not kill the other
girls? So I started looking at common characteristics between Alicia and Kelly
Graves, the girl from the carjacking. Both their mothers used similar words to
describe them—one said firecracker, and the other said spark plug.”

“So what’re you thinking?” Nate asked.

“That they fought him and pissed him off,
so he killed them.”

Michael sat back in his chair to think
about that. “And the other girls, the ones who lived to tell, didn’t fight
him.”

“That’s right,” Matt said. “Tanya Lewis
told us that she kept quiet and let him do what he was going to do. She said
she was too petrified to say a word, which is apparently how he likes them,
nice and docile. Alicia’s mother said she would’ve fought him like a tomcat.”

“Tanya also said he seemed to like it
when she cried out in pain,” Michael recalled.

“The others said that, too,” Nate added.
“So the secret to staying alive is to lie there and take it?”

“Apparently,” Matt said grimly. “The
autopsies on the carjacking victims indicated Kelly died an hour or so after
the boyfriend, which I take to mean he made her watch him kill her boyfriend.”

“Among other things,” Jeff said.

“Most likely,” Matt concurred.

“So we know he likes to be respected,”
Nate concluded. “Even by girls he’s about to rape. This guy just gets sicker by
the minute, doesn’t he?” To Michael, he said, “Have you gotten anywhere with
Brian about letting us set something up using Carly as bait?”

Michael shook his head. “I think that’s a
dead end.”

“Well, let’s pick up this Luke McInnis
and see where that takes us,” Nate said.

The
late afternoon sun was warm as Brian rested facedown next to Carly on the
blanket they had spread on the beach in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Zoë had
wandered down to the water’s edge to collect some shells to take home to her
brother and sister.

Carly reached across the blanket to hold
his hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Content—something I haven’t experienced
very often.”

“She likes you.”

Brian couldn’t believe how much that
pleased him. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

“She’s fabulous. I feel like I need a
bigger word, though, because even that one doesn’t do her justice.”

“I know what you mean. Did you talk to
your mother?”

“Just for a few minutes, when you and Zoë
were swimming.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Okay, I guess.” He pushed himself up on
one elbow. “It’s a lot for her to absorb. Maybe I shouldn’t have told them. I
don’t know.”

“You were right to tell them. She’ll see
that eventually.”

“I guess we can only hope so. I called my
dad, too. He said they’re bringing Luke in for questioning.”

Carly frowned. “They’re barking up the
wrong tree there.”

“What if they aren’t? What if it
is
him?”

“I just can’t imagine a guy I’ve known all
my life—someone I’ve thought of as a friend—being capable of the kind of things
they’re saying this man has done. That Luke McInnis could be the one who caused
the accident, who killed Sam and the others…”

“I know, hon. It boggles my mind, too.”

“He came to my defense.” Carly sat up as
she remembered. “I was so rattled last night by your dad suggesting it could be
Luke, I forgot to tell him.”

Brian sat up, too. “What do you mean
‘came to your defense’?”

“There was a guy in the coffee shop
giving me a hard time because I couldn’t talk. He was obnoxious. Luke got in
his face and said, ‘No one treats Carly that way.’ He was quite intimidating.
What do you suppose that means in light of everything?”

“I don’t know, but it’s interesting. My
dad would want to know about it.” Brian reached into Carly’s beach bag for his
cell, pressed number one on his speed dial, and waited. “Dad? Hey, Carly
remembered something else about Luke. I’ll let her tell you.” As he handed the
phone to Carly, Zoë returned to the blanket.

Carly got up and walked away with the
phone.

“What did you find?” Brian asked Zoë.

She held the hem of her T-shirt, which
she had filled with shells. “This scallop shell is the best one. Lilly will
love it.” She glanced at Carly. “Who’s she talking to?”

“My dad. Something about the case.”

He watched as a shadow descended over
Zoë’s sunny disposition. Just like Carly, Zoë’s every emotion showed on her
face.

“Sit down. Let’s see what else you’ve got
there.”

She did as he asked, but her enthusiasm
for the shells was gone. “I hope they catch him. Soon.”

Brian wished he could hug her. “I do,
too.”

She turned to him. “He killed your
brother, right?”

“We think so.”

“What was his name? Your brother?”

“Sam.”

“You miss him.”

Touched by her sensitivity, he said,
“Always.”

“Does it ever stop hurting so bad you
think you’re going to die, too?”

This time he didn’t resist the urge to
take her hand and hold it between his. “Yes, it does. You think it won’t, but
eventually you’ll be surprised when you get through a whole day without the
hurt.”

“Carly said the same thing. That’s good
to know. The other people in the car with your brother, they were your friends,
too?”