Justice for Sara (15 page)
Authors: Erica Spindler
Tags: #Contemporary Women, #General, #Romance, #Suspense, #Thrillers, #Fiction
Wednesday, June 12
12:35
A.M.
Luke followed her to the entrance of Jeremy’s neighborhood, then turned around to head back to Liberty. He flashed his headlights as he did, which Kat figured was damn nice of him, considering. He’d warned her she would regret the things she’d said in the morning.
She regretted them already.
Truth was, she had regretted them even as she had been lashing out at him, attacking him through his father, as if it had been Luke who had caused her all this pain. But she hadn’t been able to stop herself.
What she had really wanted to do was curl up in his arms and cry.
Kat rolled up to the gate and lowered her window for the security guard. He had the deeply lined face of a man who had spent his life outdoors. He looked at her strangely and she realized she must look a fright.
“Hello, miss.” Pity in his tone. “Where to tonight?”
She opened her mouth to tell him, then shut it.
She had to go back.
“Miss?” the guard said, pity now concern. “Are you all right?”
“Sorry, I— Never mind. There’s something I have to do.”
Kat shifted into reverse and backed away from the surprised guard. She saw him writing down her plate number and hoped he didn’t call the police. More involvement with the law, she didn’t need.
She swung into the turnaround and seconds later she was again on Highway 22, this time heading back toward Liberty. She might be cracking up, but she had to go back to the cottage. Kat laughed out loud, the sound a degree south of scary. Might be cracking up? Serious understatement. But she had the strong feeling she would find answers there.
She reached Liberty, took the winding road to the cottage. The emergency vehicles were gone; porches were dark, indicating the neighbors had all gone in to bed. A lone car was parked in front the cottage. One identical to hers.
Danny.
He stood beside his Fusion, gazing at the structure, its charred facade. He turned when her headlights sliced across him.
She pictured Danny’s expression as he’d gazed at Jeremy earlier that night. Hatred. Jealousy.
Keep driving, Kat. If this is anything, Luke will take care of it.
She parked behind him instead, got out and joined him beside his car. “What are you doing here, Danny?”
“I heard about the fire. I had to come see for myself.”
“Did you? Have to come see?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Where were you tonight?”
“You know where I was.” He slid his gaze over her. “You and your date.”
His tone dripped contempt. For her. Luke. Jeremy. “Why’d you leave early?”
“It was time to go. Why so interested?”
“Take a look.” She motioned the cottage. “Why do you think?”
“That’s bullshit.” He turned and grabbed his door handle.
She caught his arm, stopping him. “Why’d you leave the party early?”
“I promise you, you don’t want to do this.”
For the second time that night a man was warning her to stop before she went too far, and for the second time she ignored the warning. “I saw your face when you looked at Jeremy tonight. It looked like you hated him.”
He laughed, the sound uneven, slurry. “That a crime?”
“Did you do this to punish him? Or me?”
“Fuck off.”
“Why do you hate Jeremy? What did he do to you?”
“B’sides ruin my life?”
His words ran together and she realized that the drinks he’d had at Jeremy’s party hadn’t been his last. He was drunk.
If she hadn’t been so close to the edge herself, she would have noticed before now. She would have seen the ugliness creeping into his gaze.
She did now and took a step back. “Forget it, I’m just upset. I shouldn’t have said that. Any of it.”
“Yeah, you’re right, you shouldn’t have.”
“We can talk tomorrow, I—”
“I want to talk now.” He grabbed her arm and jerked her against his chest. He bent his head close to hers, breathed deeply. “You smell like her.”
Kat worked not to panic. “Let me go, Danny.”
Instead he anchored her to him, one hand at the small of her back, the other at the back of her head. “How can that be?” He drew another deep breath, this time with his face buried in her hair. “She’s been gone ten years.”
“Let me go,” she said again, softly, working to keep the panic out of her tone. “And we can forget this ever happened.”
She felt him stiffen and knew immediately she had said the wrong thing.
“Forget?” he said. “I can’t forget!” His voice rose. “I can’t get the picture of her out of my head. The foyer … all that blood. Her face crushed—”
He had been there. In the foyer
.
Instead, he moved his hands to her upper arms, gripping so tightly she cried out in pain. “Don’t you get it?” He shook her; her teeth rattled. “I-don’t-want-to-see-it-anymore!”
Had he been standing over Sara with the bat, shaking with rage? Screaming at Sara the way he was screaming at her now? Eyes wild, spittle flying from his mouth.
Was this rage the last thing Sara had seen?
“Little bitch!” He shook her again. “You ruined everything! It should have been you lying there, not her!”
He wanted her dead.
She started to struggle. She realized she was sobbing. “Let me go. Please, Danny, let me go!”
Instead he slammed her against the side of his car, her neck snapped back and her head hit so hard she saw stars. He was on top of her then, she couldn’t breathe. She fought to get her hands between them, to push him away.
He kissed her neck and ear, slobbering on her as he continued his tirade. “I figured maybe you and me. Maybe I’d get my McCall that way. But he did it again, didn’t he? Jeremy, that son of a bitch.
“Turned her against me … told her she was too good for me. That I only wanted her for her money. Fuck!” he screamed. “Stupid fucking loan!”
Iris Bell’s front light snapped on. Startled, he relaxed his grip. Kat used the opportunity to knee him in the groin, then as he doubled over she scratched him across his cheek. Her hand came back sticky with his blood.
She figured if she didn’t get away and he killed her the way he’d killed Sara, at least she’d have the bastard’s DNA under her fingernails.
He bellowed and swore. Kat broke free. Light spilled across her neighbor’s porch as the woman opened her door.
“What’s going on over there?”
“Call 911!” Kat screamed, running to her car. She yanked the door open and launched herself inside.
A moment later, she sped off, Danny Sullivan a crumpled heap in her rearview mirror.
Wednesday, June 12
1:45
A.M.
Luke’s cell phone went off at the same moment someone pounded on his door. He answered the cell and made his way to the front of the house. “Tanner.”
“Luke, it’s Cindy. There’s been some trouble at the McCall—”
He flipped on the porch light and peered out. Kat, looking like a crazy woman.
“Mrs. Bell called it in. A woman screamed—”
He opened the door and Kat fell into his arms.
“Send Reni,” he said. “Keep me posted.”
He scooped Kat up and carried her to the living room. He sat on the couch with her cradled in his lap. She curled into him, sobbing and shaking.
“I’ve got you,” he said softly, rocking slightly. “When you’re ready, tell me what happened.”
She nodded and pressed her face into his shoulder. The sobs stopped first, the trembling minutes later. Still she clung to him, not speaking, not easing her hold on him.
Finally, her grip lessened. She whispered something he couldn’t make out.
“What, sweetheart? I can’t hear you.”
She tipped her face up to his. “Danny. He was there.”
“Where? Jeremy’s?”
“The cottage. I went back. I shouldn’t have … I had this feeling…” She drew in a shaky breath. “He was there. At the front gate, staring at the cottage. Everyone else was gone.”
And she got out of the car
.
The very worst thing she could have done.
Luke silently counted to ten. Let her talk, he told himself. The same as he would any victim. Pretend she wasn’t someone he was growing to care for.
He couldn’t. Not completely. “Perpetrators often return to the scene of their crime. To relive it. To get off on it again.” He shifted so he could look directly into her eyes. “Promise me you won’t do anything so stupid again?”
She nodded. Horror crept into her eyes. “I realized he was … the one. And then I was so scared. I was afraid he was going to kill me, too.”
“Wait a minute, what do you mean, kill you, too?”
For several moments, she didn’t speak. When she did, her voice was hushed. “I think he killed Sara. He was talking about that night.”
“I need to get my notebook. Are you okay now?”
When she nodded, he eased her off his lap and onto the couch beside him. She shivered. He grabbed the afghan and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Can I get you anything? Water, soft drink?”
“I’m fine.”
But she clearly wasn’t. She looked lost, sitting there, being swallowed up by the overstuffed couch and bulky afghan. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
He returned a minute later to find she hadn’t moved. He’d brought her a glass of water anyway and set it on the coffee table in front of her. She didn’t seem to notice it was there.
“Ready?” he asked. She nodded. “You said you were afraid he would kill you. That you now believe he killed Sara. Tell me why, Kat. Don’t leave anything out.”
“He said … he said he couldn’t get the picture of her out of his head.”
“What picture?”
“Dead. On the foyer floor. He mentioned the blood. Her … crushed face.” The last came out a whisper.
Luke thought back to the trial notes he’d read. Sullivan had testified for the prosecution. Witnesses were not allowed to be trial spectators, so he wouldn’t have seen the photos that had been entered into evidence. His father might have shown Sullivan a picture, but to what end? And if he had, why no mention of it in his case notes?
That left one option. Sullivan had been there.
“What else did he say? It’s important, Kat.”
“That it should have been me who was dead.”
He looked at her hands. She had them clenched so tightly, her knuckles were white. He took them. They were ice cold and he rubbed them between his. “Did he say what that meant?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“And that’s it?”
“I don’t know, I— He went sort of crazy. He grabbed me and … shook me. He was yelling. About not being able to forget. And I couldn’t stop thinking about Sara. If that was the last thing she saw, his screaming at her like that…”
She shuddered and he curved his hands protectively around hers. “I tried to get away. He shoved me up against the car.”
The dress’s scooped neckline dipped and Luke saw them. Bruises. Like purple fingerprints on her skin.
He wanted to howl. Felt the primitive reaction rise up inside him. The intensity of it shocked him.
“What else?”
“He said something about Jeremy,” she said. “That he hated him. That he ruined everything.”
“What does that mean, everything?” He heard himself. The words sounded tight, completely controlled. As if he wasn’t counting the moments until he could tear Sullivan apart.
“That Jeremy turned Sara against him. Because of the money.”
She fell silent. His mind raced. He hadn’t heard back from Cindy. He wondered if Reni had picked Sullivan up at the scene or whether he’d been gone by the time he got there.
She shuddered. “He screamed something about the loan. The fucking loan, he called it.”
The loan.
It’d come out at the trial, a minor line of questioning. Nothing at all.
Judging by what he was hearing now, it was definitely something.
“That’s when Mrs. Bell’s light snapped on. If it hadn’t—”
“But it did. You’re safe now.”
She looked down at their joined hands, then back up at him. “I thought he—” She choked on the words, then tried again. “I scratched him. So if he killed me, I would have DNA evidence under my fingernails.”
His cell phone vibrated. He stood and answered. “Tanner. What do you have?”
“Reni caught Danny Sullivan fleeing the McCall place. He had to give chase, but has him in custody now. What do you want us to do with him?”
“Book him with resisting arrest. I’m on my way in.
“They have Danny,” he said softly, reholstering his phone. “I’ve got to go in and question him. And I need you to come with me.”
Fear raced into her eyes. “Me? Why?”
“Gotta get your nails scraped and your bruises photographed. Just in case we need the evidence.” He held out a hand. “And now’s better than later.”
She took his hand and he eased her to her feet. And against his chest. She met his eyes. “Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. For what I said earlier.”
“I know.” He bent and kissed her lightly. “It’s going to be okay.”
Wednesday, June 12
3:15
A.M.
Luke sat across the table from Sullivan. He looked like shit. Pale. Bloodshot eyes. Disheveled. But it was the bright red scratches across his right cheek that Luke couldn’t take his eyes off.
He fought to keep his fury at bay. Frankly, he didn’t think he was going to be too successful at that.
Reni stood by the door, facing Sullivan. To note his every blink, twitch or grimace.
Luke glanced at the tape recorder on the table. Old school. No fancy video hookup here at the Liberty P.D.
“Officer Reni read you your rights?” When he agreed, Luke went on. “What were you doing over at Kat’s place tonight?”
“I heard what happened. That it had caught on fire. I wanted to see for myself.”
“How’d you hear?”
“How?”
“Yes. How?”
“The sirens.”
Luke arched an eyebrow. “The sirens?”
“I was at the E-Z Serve. Gassing up. I asked the dude what was going on. He told me.”
“Which E-Z Serve?”
“On 22, right before Marina Del Ray.”
Luke made a note. “And the ‘dude’ knew which house was on fire?”
He nodded. “And I went to see for myself.”
Luke pretended to skim his notes. “Why, Danny?”
“You know, because of Sara.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“I loved her. I never got over her.”
“Is that why you attacked Kat? Because you never got over her sister?”
“I didn’t attack Kat.”
Luke arched his eyebrows. “No? Your face is telling me differently.”
His hand went up to his cheek; halfway there, he dropped it. “She attacked me. Came at me like a crazy woman. Kneed me in the balls, for God’s sake.”
Luke lowered his eyes so Sullivan wouldn’t see the fury in them. “That fire tonight, it wasn’t any accident. Somebody torched the place. Would you know anything about that, Danny?”
“I want a lawyer.”
“You’re entitled. Do you have someone in mind? Or do you need a phone book?”
“Phone book.”
Luke looked over his shoulder at Reni and signaled for him to get the book, then turned back to Sullivan. “While Officer Reni retrieves that, let me offer you a different scenario about tonight’s events. When you saw Kat and Jeremy, you were consumed with anger or jealousy and left the party early. With a plan.”
“I left because I was bored.”
“To torch Kat’s cottage. Destroy the evidence. And pay them both back, for whatever sin you imagine they committed against you.”
“How many drinks did you have tonight, Tanner? One too many, I’m guessing.”
“You went back to the scene,” Luke continued, “after everyone else had left. To admire your handiwork. Or make certain it was done.”
“That’s nuts.”
His dismissive tone didn’t match the panic that raced into his eyes. Luke leaned forward. “What did you hope to achieve, Sullivan? Besides making certain Sara McCall’s journals would never be recovered.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do. Kat told you about them. What could we have found in those journals? Maybe a reason for you to have wanted her dead?”
Sullivan leaped to his feet. “I’m not saying another word until I have a lawyer!”
“Sit your ass back down. You’re not going anywhere.”
Reni returned with the phone book. He dropped it on the table in front of Sullivan. “Stay with him, Reni, make sure he gets that call made.”
“You got it, Sarge.”
As Luke left the room, he glanced back. Sullivan was staring at the Yellow Pages, looking for all the world like he might puke.
“And Reni? Get Mr. Sullivan a Coke and a paper towel. He’s got a long frickin’ night ahead of him.”
