What Doesn’t Kill Her (31 page)

“Mark showed me his picture—hey, I didn’t
tell
you that. I’ll deny I told you that.”

“You never told me that. Go on.”

“I told Mark that Carlyle
might
have been the guy. There were things that were off about him, and I allowed that somebody could change in ten years, and… I think Mark kind of heard what he wanted to hear.”

“I don’t know—Carlyle seems right for this.”

“Not now he doesn’t. He was in behind bars, wasn’t he, when this ‘accident’ went down?”

Kelley frowned. “You think this… this family killer did this?”

“Don’t you?”

“We have a witness…”

“Your witness is full of shit.”

Kelley grunted a laugh. “Probably. It was a guy on foot, half in the bag.”

“Well then.”

“Anyway, I only mention that Mark
may
have done this intentionally as it’s a possibility we have to rule out. Our crime scene team has just started investigating, and we need to cover all the bases.”

“What does Phillip have to say?”

“Phillip? Phillip who?”

She frowned at him irritably. “Phillip
Traynor
. Recent addition to our support-group team? Mark was heading to Traynor’s house when he left my place. Why, didn’t he make it there?”

Kelley tossed his cigarette and it sailed away spitting sparks. “You got contact info on this Traynor? Phone? Address?”

“Sure,” she said. She got out her cell. “What’s your number? I’ll text it over.”

Soon she was sitting alone in the ER waiting area, Kelley off dealing with this new information. She checked her watch—it was six. Fucking early, but she had to do it. She started making the calls, David first.

“What’s up?” David said. Obviously he knew if she called this early, there was a good reason.

She quickly filled him in.

David said, “But it’s
not
an accident, is it?”

“No. And the suspect Mark arrested yesterday is a dead end. Either that, or he’s half of a team.”

Kelley was coming back over.

“Can’t talk,” she whispered. “Just stay inside, and keep alert.”

“I’ll call Phillip and Kay for you.”

“Thanks. But just Kay. The police are getting in touch with Phillip, ’cause Mark was heading over there last night. All I can say.”

She ended the call.

Kelley was sitting down next to her again. “Who was that?”

“David from our team. He’s calling Kay. Also on our team. Didn’t Mark tell you anything?”

He ignored that. “Well, Phillip from your ‘team’ isn’t answering. I’ve got officers on the way there. Should know something soon.”

Jordan nodded.

“Ms. Rivera, with Mark sidelined, I need to meet with you and your friends as soon as possible. I want to be filled in, in depth, on everything you’ve shared with Mark, and frankly anything you haven’t.”

She nodded again.

“As a show of good faith,” he said, turning almost sideways in his chair to really look at her, “I’ll give you some information we’re withholding, for now. Thanks to Mark, we’ve matched a shell casing from a family killing in the Bronx to the gun found at the Walter and Katherine Gregory crime scene.”

She squinted at him, as if she were reading fine print. “So Kay’s sister and brother-in-law… that
wasn’t
a murder-suicide?”

“No. And it’s now linked to the
other
family killings. Almost certainly the same perpetrator.”

“Have you told Kay?”

“Not yet. We need to get our ducks in a row, first. Please keep that to yourself for now.”

“All right.”

“I have a call in to the FBI,” he said, “and I anticipate they will be getting involved—maybe taking over—very soon. Perhaps yet today.”

She gave him another nod.

“You should feel good about what you’ve accomplished,” he said. “But I’d suggest you accept that from here on out, you’re going to be on the sidelines.”

“Like Mark.”

“I hope not like Mark. If you’re right, and we have a serial killer who is accelerating and devolving right in front of us, you and your friends are in danger, until we’ve either determined Carlyle is indeed our man…”

“Unlikely.”

“… or find the son of a bitch who is. You’ll be kept under top-level police protection, and so will your friends.”

She cocked her head. “You think Phillip is dead?”

“No reason to think that.”

“Yet.”

He nodded, and admitted, “Yet. I don’t mean to be unkind, Ms. Rivera, but there’s been a high cost to what you’ve accomplished. You’ve flushed out a killer, yes… but Levi Mills is dead, and Mark is in the operating room. Are you ready to leave this to the professionals?”

“Sure.”

This seemed to satisfy him. “Good.” He rose. “I have a few things to check up on. I’ve instructed the nurses at the station to let you know when Mark is out of surgery, if I’m not back first.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded, gave her a tentative smile, perhaps not entirely trusting her, and left the waiting area.

Was Phillip dead? If so, had she caused it? Was Levi’s murder her fault? Mark’s accident?

She almost flew into the little restroom nearby and leaned over the stool and threw up, or rather tried to—there was nothing in her stomach, and the effort was as wrenching and pointless as she suspected her investigation may have been. She sat there and cried and cried, for how long she wasn’t sure. Then she rose, threw cold water on her face, dried off, and looked in the mirror at the blank countenance that she provided the world.

About five minutes after she’d returned to her chair in the waiting area, David and Kay blew in, two uniformed cops trailing in behind them, then lingering near the nurses’ station.

Jordan got up as Kay came up to embrace her. The urge to push the woman away came and went in the same breath. She didn’t mind being touched, being held, not by this good woman.

And not by Mark. Never again would Mark’s touch be anything but welcome.

David, aware of her boundaries, gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and nodded and smiled, somberly. “I know you said to stay put. We just couldn’t.”

“For once,” Jordan said, with a weak smile, “I’m glad you didn’t listen to me.”

Kay sat on her left and David on her right.

Despite her promise to Captain Kelley, Jordan immediately told the woman about the new ballistics evidence that disproved Kay’s brother-in-law and sister’s “murder-suicide.”

Kay covered her mouth, as if stifling a scream, then began to cry. Jordan slipped an arm around the woman, and David came around and did the same thing. Then Kay slipped away from Jordan and threw herself into David’s arms and he comforted her, smiling past Kay at Jordan and shrugging a little.

So they were an item, after all. Well, good for them.

Perhaps three minutes later, Kay excused herself and went off to the restroom, almost running.

Vaguely embarrassed, David said, “It just kind of happened. Two lonely people. You know how it goes.”

“I’m happy for you. This is over, anyway. Our part of it.”

“I suppose it is, with the police all over the investigation finally. We accomplished something, didn’t we, after all?”

“I don’t know. Levi’s dead, Mark’s fucked-up, and I’m almost positive the guy the cops have locked up isn’t my intruder.”

David leaned in intently. “What’s your thinking on that?”

“You’re so right—what happened to Mark was no accident. That was a murder attempt. Unless you think maybe Mark tried to kill himself.”

David shook his head. “Utter nonsense.”

“Absolutely. Your job now is make sure you and Kay are safe. Either stay in tight police custody, or take a quick vacation and don’t tell anybody where you’re going. Follow the news and come back when it’s safe.”

Frowning, David said, “Shouldn’t we stay around and help the police?”

“Take your laptop with you. Forward anything you’ve got to Captain Kelley. I’ll get you his contact info—he’s Mark’s boss.”

Kay came back, tidied up, smiling, with only her red eyes betraying anything. She took her old seat, putting David on one side, Jordan on the other.

“I have no idea how I’m going to process this,” the woman said. “Knowing the truth doesn’t change anything, exactly—Walter and Katherine are still dead. The horror of thinking they’d been a murder-suicide is gone… but now, who knows what they were
really
put through?”

David, patting her hand, said, “You’ll work through it.”

“They were his victims, weren’t they? The family killer’s? Here I thought I was just along because I needed a ride home from David… but turns out I was a full-fledged member all the time.”

Kay smiled bitterly and tears welled, but kept their place. She was twisting a tissue in her time-honored fashion.

“It was my intruder, all right,” Jordan said. “The gun used to murder Walter and Katherine was allegedly stolen from the man Mark thought was his main suspect.”

David frowned. “But that suspect is in jail.”

Jordan nodded. “Yes, but who could most easily steal a gun from a coach’s desk at Havoc’s school?”

He nodded, smiled. “Another coach.”

“Right. And Mark was looking very hard at Bradley Slavens, the third coach, the one who dropped out of sight two years ago.”

Footsteps like gunshots were coming their way, and they turned toward Captain Kelley, walking briskly toward them. Almost running.

Jordan quickly identified Kay and David to the detective—handshake-type introductions did not seem called for, particularly judging by Kelley’s intense manner.

He said to Jordan, “Traynor’s not in his house and there are signs of a struggle—lots of blood, but nobody there, alive or dead.”

Kay sat forward. “Then the killer has Phillip!”

“Apparently,” Kelley said. “This means the three of you are going into protective police custody, preferably away from your homes. We have several hotels we use as safe houses.”

David said, “What if I don’t care to do that?”

“Then I’ll arrest you as a material witness.” He turned to Jordan. “Ms. Rivera, I know you want to wait around to see how Mark does. But when you’re ready to leave, you call me. I’ll arrange a police escort home for you to gather your things. We’re going on full lockdown.”

David said, “What about us?”

“You may stay here at the hospital as long as you like, if you care to keep Jordan company on her… vigil. Whenever you like, the officers who accompanied you here will take you home to prepare for some time away. A little vacation on Cleveland’s taxpayers.”

Kay said, “That’s really necessary?”

“Your friend Levi is dead, my detective is in surgery fighting for his life, and your other pal Phillip may well be dead, too. So you will follow instructions. Understood?”

Everyone nodded, including Jordan.

Kelley stalked off.

Kay shuddered. “Awful to think that Phillip… poor Phillip… may be dead, too.” David slipped an arm around her.

Jordan said, “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

They all turned to her.

David asked, “What other way is there?”

“Phillip could be my intruder. Our family killer.”

Kay goggled at her.
“What?”

“Levi was on his way to see Phillip,” Jordan said, “when he was killed.”

“But… wasn’t Phillip at home when Levi called him?”

“He probably told Levi that. And that’s what he told the police. But he might have been outside Levi’s place. Watching. Waiting. He seized the opportunity when Levi called. Possibly jimmied Levi’s car to send him to the train station, to waylay him.”

“That,” David said, frowning in thought, “is actually feasible. But, Jordan, you
saw
your attacker!”

“Maybe I saw Phillip…
before
his face suffered damage. And what do you want to bet he
wasn’t
an innocent victim of senseless violence? Some victim fought back and did that to him.”

Kay said, “But he’s been nothing but helpful…”

Jordan said, “He insinuated his way onto the team. He watched from the outside, and he watched us from the inside. He’s clever.”

“Or
innocent
,” David said. “You should share these thoughts with Captain Kelley. But for Godsakes, Jordan, don’t do anything on your own.”

She smiled blandly. “How could I? We’re off the case now, right? We’ll all be in police custody. Maybe in the same hotel, huh? We’ll sit in the whirlpool evenings and talk about old times.”

David was studying her. “You expect me to believe that horseshit?”

“Believe what you like.”

“Believe this, Jordan, and I love you like a daughter. I am
out
of this. Kay and I are out of this. We are going to do exactly what Captain Kelley asked of us. Right, Kay?”

Kay nodded. “Sorry, dear. We’ve done what we set out to do—get the police involved.”

Jordan laughed and said, “What are you two talking about? We’re
all
off the case.”

And she gave them a smile that even she didn’t buy.

Wearily, David rose and helped Kay up. He gave Jordan a hard, sharp look, and said, “Stay out of trouble, kid.”

Jordan nodded, and her friends went off down the hall and linked up with the two uniformed officers waiting there.

For over an hour, she stared aimlessly at the talking heads on the muted television, leafed through magazines that might have contained blank pages, checked her cell for messages that weren’t there. Anything not to think about what was going on in surgery. Finally, like the old days at St. Dimpna’s, she simply detached.

She had no idea how much time had passed when sharp footsteps again caused her to look up at an approaching Captain Kelley. She snapped back, alert, returning from the empty place where she had been.

Kelley said, “He’s out of surgery.”

“Is he all right?”

“He made it through.”

“When can I see him?”

“We can look in on him now.”

She fell in step with Kelley and they left the waiting area and went down a corridor through some automatic double doors. The next set of doors was locked. On the wall above it said
INTENSIVE CARE
.