CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Friday, March 23, 2018; 10:00 a.m.
Adler had the excavation crew on standby, and as soon as he gave the go-ahead, a technician equipped with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) moved into position. The technician began his search several feet away from the target area now designated with orange flags. Working slowly in a grid pattern, the technician swept the device in straight lines.
The machine transmitted a gray image to a computer screen. During the first few passes, the picture produced was smooth with no signs of any discovery. But as the passes grew closer to the orange flag, small ripples appeared. No telling what was in the ground, but there was something there. Closer to the flags, the waves grew in size and frequency. The technician marked the spot where excavation could begin.
Hayward’s expression grew somber as two technicians approached with shovels. “I’m going to miss her.”
“Get him out of here,” Adler said to a uniformed officer.
“I want to stay,” Hayward countered. “I want to see Kaitlin’s face when she sees Gina again.”
Adler motioned to the officer, and he escorted Hayward back to the cruiser. Adler continued, “Blackstone, you can leave, too.”
“I’m staying. I have to look out for my client’s best interest.”
“Your client is leaving, and so are you,” Adler ordered. “I will have you arrested.”
Blackstone studied Adler’s face and seemed to sense now was not the time to push. “I want notification the instant you identify what’s in the ground.”
“I’ll let Ricker decide what he wants you to know.”
Blackstone looked as if he’d say more but turned and left.
Kaitlin moved toward Adler. She had been silent and kept her distance from Hayward. Her skin was pale and her lips drawn into a thin line. He reminded himself she was only six days out from a brutal attack. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m doing fine. Did the GPR tell them what’s in the ground?”
“We won’t know until they clear some dirt.”
“How long will it take?” she asked.
“Not long. The technicians estimate they need to dig down about two feet.”
“Okay.” She stood rigid with her arms crossed, and her gaze rarely wavered from the dig. She was upset and nervous, and this time didn’t care who saw it.
“Did Hayward ever talk about this place?” Adler asked.
“He talked about how much he enjoyed hunting in the country. I assume now this was the place. He used to talk about sitting in his tree stand hunting deer and enjoying the view.”
“He mentioned that stand. Where is it exactly?”
She scanned the tree line and pointed. “Over there. I remember because he wanted me to climb the ladder, but I got spooked and wouldn’t do it.”
Dr. McGowan, who’d arrived with the medical examiner’s team two hours ago, watched as the technicians dug. Suddenly she asked them to stop. She knelt and brushed away the top layer of soil with her gloved hand. Finally she leaned back on her heels and rubbed the back of her wrist under her chin. She rose and approached Adler.
“Is it human bones?” he asked.
“I think so,” Dr. McGowan said. She turned to Kaitlin. “What was Gina Mason wearing when you last saw her?”
“A green sundress,” Kaitlin said.
“You’re sure?” Dr. McGowan asked.
“I’ve had fourteen years to replay that night. Yes, I’m sure.”
A grim acceptance swept over the doctor. “Okay.”
“Does this mean you found her?” Kaitlin asked.
Dr. McGowan shook her head. “It means I have to talk to the detectives first.”
“You can’t just shut me out,” Kaitlin said. “Can you at least tell me what you found?”
Ricker approached. “I can shut you out.” His tone wasn’t cruel, but it was firm. “I don’t want anything or anyone compromising this case.”
“I don’t see how my being here impacts the case.”
Adler’s tone was softer. “I know you want to be here, but this is not the place for you, Kaitlin. This is what we do best, and you need to let us do our jobs.”
Kaitlin usually came out swinging with him, but this time her shoulders slumped slightly. “Sure. Of course,” she said. “Thank you, Detectives, Dr. McGowan.”
As Dr. McGowan returned to the gravesite, Adler motioned for a city police officer, and when he approached Adler instructed him to take Kaitlin home. Kaitlin’s gaze was still full of questions and emotions, but she left without a word.
When the officer and Kaitlin drove off, Dr. McGowan said, “It’s going to take some time to excavate the bones. I can tell you we unearthed remnants of green cloth.”
Anger mingled with relief. Finding Gina would be considered a win, but there was no victory in bringing home a kid in a body bag.
“Do you know if the body is male or female?” Ricker asked.
“A young female,” she said. “I’ll report back to you both when I know more.”
As the doctor moved toward the back of the excavation site, Adler turned toward the tree stand. Instinct and restless energy had him moving through the grass toward the stand.
“Where are you going?” Ricker asked, following.
“It’s a hunch.”
“What’s that mean?” he asked.
“Kaitlin said Hayward liked sitting in his tree stand.”
Adler strode toward the wooden platform mounted between two sturdy, naked branches. A makeshift ladder made of scrap wood ran up the tree in twelve-inch intervals. It looked sturdy enough to support his weight.
“What are you doing?” Ricker said as he approached.
“I want to see what Hayward saw.” He shrugged off his suit jacket and handed it to Ricker. Fifteen feet up he reached the small platform and sat.
This high he could see everything surrounding the excavation. If Hayward needed a place to sit and remember what he’d done to Gina, this would be the spot. It wasn’t uncommon for a killer to return to a victim’s burial site and relive the crime.
“What do you see?” Ricker asked.
A cold wind chilled his skin. “A bird’s-eye view of Gina’s final resting place.”
Ricker cursed, understanding the implication. “Hayward is a sick bastard.”
As Adler was turning to descend, his gaze skimmed the grassy rolling landscape. At first glance, he almost missed it, but then something about the indented patch of grass caught his attention. For several beats he said nothing, simply staring.
“What is it?” Ricker asked.
“I’ll be damned.”
Kaitlin changed into sweats and downed three over-the-counter painkillers, opting to skip the prescription meds because the sooner she was off the stuff, the better. She owed it to Gina to stay awake until Adler called. She should have rested and put her feet up. God knows she was exhausted, but the four walls of her apartment seemed to creep inward with each passing moment.
She’d already texted Adler twice but not heard back from him. He was doing his job. He would call her when he could, but the waiting was agonizing.
Finally, too restless to sit, she grabbed her phone and wallet. There was a small bar down the block. It wasn’t too far. There she could get a soda, maybe something to eat, and listen to the buzz of conversation.
Down the elevator, she pushed aside the tingle of warning and headed down the brick sidewalk. The streets weren’t too crowded yet, but after five the area offices would let out. The city found a second life after the sun set.
She pushed through the front door of the Irish pub, found a booth in the back, and ordered a soda and a bowl of chili. As she waited, her phone buzzed with a call. She didn’t recognize the number and normally didn’t answer unknown numbers, but with so much pending, she accepted the call. “This is Kaitlin Roe.”
“This is Ashley Ralston. Jennifer’s sister.”
“Ashley.” They’d not spoken in almost fourteen years. “How did you get my number?”
“I can be persuasive.”
“With whom?”
“Your apartment manager.”
She gripped her phone. She’d deal with him later.
“Look, I’m not trying to freak you out. I just want to talk about Jennifer, Erika, and Gina. Are you doing anything right now?”
“I’m at an Irish pub grabbing a bite to eat. If you want to see me, it’ll have to be here.”
“Sure. Give me the address.”
She read the street number off the menu as the waitress set down her food and soda.
“Great, I’ll see you in twenty minutes,” Ashley said.
Kaitlin took a bite, not expecting to be so hungry, but the chili tasted good and this was her first real meal since last night’s pizza. The soda was cold and refreshing.
A couple across from her leaned in for a kiss. They were smiling and enjoying themselves. She envied their connection. She’d never really had anything like that before.
The pub was starting to fill, and she missed Ashley’s entrance until she was right on top of her. Kaitlin lowered the soda from her lips and slowly, gingerly rose.
Ashley regarded her with a mixture of curiosity, anger, and pity. Neither leaned in for a hug, so Kaitlin extended her hand to the opposite side of the booth.
Kaitlin settled in. “I’m so sorry about Jennifer.”
Ashley sat and tapped her index finger on the table. A waitress appeared, took her order of vodka soda, double. “The medical examiner’s office released her body yesterday.”
“This must be terrible for you.”
“It was. I never thought I’d ever go through something like this. After Gina vanished, it was bad enough, but this is almost unbearable.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her drink arrived, and she took a sip. “The funeral home cleaned my sister up and let me see her. I could tell they were proud of her. ‘So lifelike,’ the attendant said. I didn’t think she looked anywhere close to a living person. It was still and plastic, nothing like my Jennifer.”
“When is the funeral?”
“The viewing is tomorrow, and the service is on Sunday afternoon.”
A clawing sadness scraped the inside of her throat. She struggled for words that would make all this better but knew there was nothing she could say.
Ashley reached for a paper napkin and folded it in half and then in quarters. “She told me about your interview. She was actually relieved after you two spoke. That night had been bottled up inside her and was preventing her from being happy.” Ice clinked in the glass. She took another big swallow.
“I’m glad it helped.” Kaitlin took a sip of her soda. “I remember your car pulling up, but I didn’t see you.”
“So, is it my turn to be interviewed?”
“I just want to understand what happened that night.”
Ashley shrugged. “Jennifer didn’t want Mom knowing she was wasted, so she called me. Big sis to the rescue.” She shook her head. “I was pissed, but I came right away to pick her up.”
“You told the police she passed out in the backseat.”
“She did, the second she climbed in. She and Erika both were pretty wasted.”
“You dropped Erika off first?”
“That’s right. And then I drove home with Jennifer.”
“How’d you get her inside the house?”
“It was hard. She could barely stand.”
Kaitlin traced her finger through the condensation on the glass. “Jennifer remembered hearing you argue with a man.”
Ashley stilled. “She was mistaken. I got her to bed and then joined Derek in the family den. About one a.m., we left for a party.”
“Derek was never alone with her?”
“No. I saw to that.”
“Did you have to protect her from Derek?”
She traced the rim of her glass. “No. Stop making him sound like a monster.”
“You’re still loyal to him, aren’t you?”
She lifted her chin. “I can’t betray someone I loved so much. He’s not perfect, but he’s always there for me.”
“Randy and Derek were good buddies.” Kaitlin thought about the country, the barn, and the grim faces of the medical examiner as she’d asked her what Gina had been wearing. “Remember the parties they used to have at the barn?”
“Sure.” Ashley sat back as if the memory bothered her.
“Did Derek ever talk about Gina?”
Ashley studied her a long moment. “Randy talked about her. Randy, not Derek, was obsessed with Gina.”
“Did you tell the cops about Randy’s obsession?”
“Derek asked me not to. He said the guy was a fuck-up but no killer.”
How many half truths and omissions had saved Randy from a murder-one charge? “It might have made a difference.”
“Come on, this is Randy we’re talking about. He isn’t a killer.”
“A security camera filmed him stabbing a woman in mid-February.”
“That was an accident. He was on drugs. It’s not like he planned to do it.” She shook her head. “If having a thing for Gina was a crime, half the guys at Saint Mathew’s would have been suspects. Besides, he’s been back in jail since late February. He couldn’t have killed Erika or Jennifer.”
“What about Derek? Would he have killed them to protect a secret for an old friend?”
Ashley reached for her glass and downed the last of the vodka. “No.”
Kaitlin watched as Ashley’s gaze dropped to her glass. It didn’t take a body-language expert to recognize possible signs of deceptive behavior. “Was Derek in the car that night?”
Absently Ashley nodded, indicating a yes even as she said, “I already told you he wasn’t.”
Kaitlin took a chance, figuring she had nothing to lose by provoking Ashley. “I think you’re lying.”
Ashley looked up as if she’d been struck. Her eyes sparked with challenge. “Fuck you.”
Kaitlin leaned in, knowing she’d struck a nerve. “The cops have all my interview tapes now. They know Jennifer brought the booze and Erika put the Ecstasy in it.”
Ashley pushed out of the booth. “The cops have long forgotten about who was where that night.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
Ashley stood. “I hope you’re right.” Gripping her purse, she turned away from Kaitlin and cut through the crowd and out the front door.
Kaitlin sat in the booth, tracing her finger through the condensation on the side of her glass. She took no joy in hurting people or making them remember such a painful time. But if she didn’t keep pushing, the truth might still get swallowed up by time.
Her phone rang, startling her from her thoughts. The screen displayed Steven Marcus’s name.
She cleared her throat and pushed her hand through her hair before answering. “Mr. Marcus.”
“I hear you’ve been busy today.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I still have friends in the police department. They said a forensic team was headed for Hanover County and that Randy Hayward was along for the ride. They also said the cops think they’ve found Gina.”
“If you’ve got friends in the department, then you know more about it than I do.”
“I know you were up there.”
“Really, how?”
“Randy Hayward called me, and I went by to see him. He wants me to write his side of the story.”
She gripped the phone. “He craves attention. And he’s also looking to hurt me.”
“Why?”
“Because I rejected him. Sure he didn’t have any nasty parting shots for me?”
He was silent for a moment. “Nothing earth shattering.”
She wasn’t sure if she believed him but didn’t have the energy to press it now. “Just don’t be fooled by him.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not that naive. I do want to get your take on the guy. It will make for a more balanced piece.”
“Sure. I’ll share what I know about him.”
Silence echoed through the line. Then, “Tomorrow evening. By then you should have something to comment on.”