FORTY-SIX
Two weeks after Jessie escaped the bowels of hell, she found herself sitting in front of the TV, drawn in by a news reporter’s account of what they knew about the Heartless Killer up to this point.
The reporter started off by saying that psychiatrists across the country were still discussing the case, theorizing and seeking rationalizations for his actions. For the most part they agreed that Forrest Bloom wasn’t merely a bad seed. After interviewing teachers, neighbors, and people who’d known him growing up, he didn’t appear to have held any deep-seated hatred for his mother. The autopsy report showed no signs of brain damage.
Although most psychiatrists agreed that not all abused children grow up to be killers, they were quick to point out that every psychopathic killer known to mankind had been mistreated early in life. From what detectives had gathered so far, Forrest Bloom had been severely abused by his father since the time he could walk, prompting one female groupie to express her deepest sympathies for the killer and beg authorities for a lock of his hair.
Thanks to Mike Bailey, journals and reports written by Sue Sterling were found in storage. Although it seemed the ball had been dropped somewhere along the way by Child Services after Sue Sterling’s passing, it was also determined that by the time she visited the home in 1999, the worst of the damage had been done. All in all, investigators were still sifting through Bloom’s life on the farm, and would be for quite some time.
Jessie picked up the remote and shut the TV off.
Colin had filled her in on the rest. She knew investigators had talked to witnesses and people who had known Forrest Bloom over the course of his lifetime. As expected, the killer had been extremely isolated for most of his life. His relationship with his mother appeared to have been a normal one. During his years at UC Irvine, not too many people remembered him. With the exception of one professor and a roommate of two years, both of whom had described Forrest as quiet and socially awkward.
Forrest Bloom’s grades put him in the top 5 percent of his class. He had no criminal record, not even a traffic violation. He never held a job, and until he met Zinnia Gatley, it seemed he’d never shown any interest in the opposite sex.
Authorities found three journals in Forrest Bloom’s house. The killer had devoted an entire journal to descriptions of the abuse he’d endured at his father’s hands. Forrest Bloom was subjected to both physical and psychological abuse at a very young age. It was no wonder he went on to inflict pain on others.
The other two journals included a total of twenty-one names listed in order of date captured. The list of names did not include his father, the man he called Dog. Beneath each name were details about the victims: age, approximate weight and height, occupation, hobbies, favorite foods, hopes, dreams, and fears.
Of the twenty-two victims, there were sixteen females and six males, ranging from the age of five to sixty-four, Dog being the oldest.
Another trait noted by Colin and others was Forrest Bloom’s extreme cleanliness. His bed was made, the floors swept clean, and not a dirty dish or towel could be found. The only macabre items found within the house were three bleached white skulls lined up neatly on the pantry shelf. Who the skulls belonged to had yet to be determined.
Jessie stared at the blank TV screen, wishing she could spend a day doing absolutely nothing, but she had work to do. Her day in court had been moved up. In less than forty-eight hours, she would be sitting in the courtroom before a judge. And things were looking iffy at best. Friends and family were determined to defend Koontz at every turn. Other than Adelind Rain and Fiona Hampton, nobody had anything to share about Koontz’s Peeping Tom tendencies.
By five o’clock that same afternoon, Jessie was working in the living room while Olivia did her homework at the kitchen table. Colin had called earlier to say he’d pick up a pizza on his way over, but as was the norm, he couldn’t stay long. Andriana paced the living room, her cell phone pressed against her ear. When she disconnected the call, she said, “You’re never going to believe this.”
Jessie looked at her and waited.
“Parker Koontz is responding to certain commands.”
Jessie raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”
“I have a friend, a nurse who works on the same floor where Parker Koontz has been staying. She’s been keeping an eye on him, and she told me that this morning he opened his eyes. Not only that, he moves his fingers in response to commands. She’ll call me later if anything changes.”
“If he comes out of the coma,” Olivia said from across the room, “then you would be off the hook, right?”
“It’s not that simple,” Jessie told her, trying not to sound defeated.
Andriana sighed. “If only I’d looked at the video you took at the park before it was stolen. It keeps me up at night.”
“You need to let it go,” Jessie said. “Neither of us would have thought someone would bother to steal the GoPro.”
“You can still look at the video,” Olivia said without looking up from her homework.
Jessie and Andriana looked at each other before Jessie peered over her shoulder at her niece. “What do you mean, Olivia?”
Olivia set her pencil down, stood, and walked over to where they were sitting. She put her hand out, palm faceup, and said, “Give me your phone.”
Jessie did as she asked.
“You asked me to order the GoPro for you after I told you about the one Bella uses, remember?”
“I remember. So?”
“So I ordered the newest model, the one that automatically hooks to your Bluetooth, and I set up an account for you, remember?”
“It rings a bell,” Jessie said.
Olivia snorted as she clicked away. “All you have to do is go to your GoPro Plus account, then to the Hero Session, find the app, and there you go.” She pushed another button and then looked at Jessie. “Do you want to view the video on your mobile or your laptop?”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Andriana said.
By the time Colin showed up with the pizza, they were watching the video on Jessie’s laptop, fast-forwarding to the part where Jessie followed Parker Koontz through the rose garden at Capitol Park.
Colin set the pizza box on the kitchen counter and then came to hover over Jessie to see what was going on. “You’re all so quiet. Looks like serious business going on here.”
“It’s the video Jessie took when she was following the Peeping Tom,” Olivia told him. She then went on to explain how the video was automatically uploaded via Bluetooth on Jessie’s phone.
“Well, look at that. He definitely fired before you pulled out your gun,” Andriana said.
“Can you rewind the video?” Colin asked.
She rewound the tape, then waited.
“Farther back,” he said, his voice strained.
They all watched closely as she did it again.
“There! Hit ‘Pause,’” he said.
Again, Jessie did as he asked. “What is it? What do you see?”
Colin pointed at the upper-right-hand corner of the computer screen. “See that man, the guy right there? The entire time you’re walking, he’s looking directly at you. Right as we hear a shot fired, he cuts off abruptly to the left and disappears.”
She reversed the video again. They all watched him. “I see him,” Jessie said, “but what does it mean?”
“It’s him.” Colin exhaled. “That’s David Roche.”
“Koontz’s partner,” Andriana said.
Jessie watched again. He was right. It was definitely him. “I went to his office to talk to him. He was so arrogant and full of himself, but I never thought he might somehow be involved in all this.”
“Why would David Roche be watching Koontz,” Andriana said, “unless he knew something was about to go down? Do you think there’s a possibility he planted the blanks in Koontz’s gun?”
A restless feeling settled over Jessie as she began to realize what this could mean. If David Roche was somehow involved, this could be the Holy Grail of evidence needed to prove she’d acted in self-defense.
“Why would Koontz fire at Jessie in the first place?” Colin wanted to know.
Nobody had the answer to that.
Andriana rubbed her temple. “If David Roche somehow deceived his partner, he’s not going to be happy to learn that Parker Koontz is waking from his coma.”
Colin frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Andriana’s friend works at the hospital where Koontz is staying,” Jessie explained. “He’s showing signs of recovering.”
Colin smiled at Andriana and then grabbed Jessie’s hand and pulled her from her chair so he could wrap his arms around her.
She laughed. “Are you happy about the video or Koontz’s possible recovery?”
“Both. Everything. We might be able to keep you out of jail, after all.”