I followed the killer"s trail back to the road, being careful to watch for cars as we neared it, dousing the light when we heard one. We checked for disturbed earth, both on and beside his route. We hunted until the ground blurred and the trees shimmied, and I started stumbling over my own feet.
When I tripped over a fallen tree, Jack grabbed my arm, jerking me back to my feet.
"Baby"s not here," he said.
"She has to "
"Think about it. Already dug one hole. Why dig two? She"s here? Gotta be in that hole."
"But I looked " I stopped. "Under Sammi."
He nodded.
We returned to the site. Checking beneath Sammi meant fully uncovering and moving her body. I crawled over the hole, keeping my knees on opposite sides of her body and, wearing a fresh pair of gloves, I brushed away the final layer of dirt. When I was done, I backed off the shallow grave and looked down at her.
"What"s wrong with this picture?" I murmured.
"You tell me," Jack said. "You"re the cop. Were."
I jumped at the sound of his voice, having forgotten, yet again, that he was there. I told myself it was just that he was so quiet. The truth was, it wouldn"t have mattered if he"d kept up a running commentary for the past few hours. My attention was focused entirely on Sammi.
"She"s dressed," I said. "Fully dressed."
Some s.e.xual predators did reclothe their victims. Behavioral experts saw that as a sign of remorse, the killer"s twisted attempt to put everything back together, give their victims some final dignity. It was also often a sign of an opportunistic kill, where an inexperienced killer saw the perfect victim and acted on impulse. Yes, a beautiful teenage girl walking down a wooded road at dusk did make the perfect victim. But one with a baby stroller? A baby whose screams could give him away? And no inexperienced killer would have covered his tracks so well.
"Pants zipped, b.u.t.ton done up, belt fastened," I mused. "I don"t think he ever undressed her. So this isn"t what it seems."
Jack only grunted.
I shook my head. Questions could wait.
When I reached to turn Sammi, Jack got on the other side, wordlessly helping. We lifted her and laid her to the side. I sifted through the disturbed earth.
"Destiny isn"t here," I said.
Another grunt.
I turned to Sammi. Her hands were tied behind her with rope. I checked her feet. As I expected, there was no signs of binding. She"d been gagged, her hands bound, then shoved into the forest to the killing site. A gun at her head. Her killer forcing compliance by threatening to hurt Destiny? I pushed the scene from my head.
"Just because she wasn"t raped, doesn"t mean it wasn"t s.e.xual," I said, working it through. "He could get off on torture, mutilation... But there"s no sign of that."
I lifted Sammi"s shirt and saw only a bruise on her shoulder. The splotches of blood on her shirtfront probably came from her nose, judging by the blood-soaked gag.
"Her nose looks broken. He hits her, she goes down, she"s crouched over, nose streaming blood into the dirt back there. Then he subdues her and drags or carries her here. But why punch her in the nose? That"s a fighting blow."
"Incapacitating."
I glanced back at Jack.
He shrugged. "Gotta stop someone from fighting back? Three spots. Two for a woman."
I nodded. "Nose, solar plexus, or, on a man, the groin. One sharp wallop and you deliver blinding pain. But if it"s s.e.xual, he"d pull a knife or beat the c.r.a.p out of her. Maybe when she attacked him, he lashed out on impulse, right hook going straight for her nose. Point is, if that"s where all the blood comes from, there wasn"t any torture or mutilation. And how did he kill her?"
"How"s her throat?"
Strangulation. Right. I checked.
"No marks, which doesn"t completely rule it out, but..."
My gaze kept sliding back to her broken nose. Something wasn"t right. Yes, it was definitely broken, but the angle was wrong. It was almost as if Using a tissue from my pocket and dew from the gra.s.s, I cleaned the strip of skin between Sammi"s nose and her gag. There it was, an undeniable bullet hole, complete with muzzle burns. A gun pressed to her upper lip, trigger pulled.
"CNS shot," Jack grunted.
A bullet through the central nervous system. "But that"s That"s not a thrill kill. That"s... a professional hit."
A line of sweat dribbled down the side of my face. I swiped at it.
Why would anyone want Sammi dead?
In a pa.s.sionless, efficient murder like this, the reason had to be equally cold and calculated. A professional hit is done for two reasons. First, you"ve wronged some very powerful people. But Sammi was just a kid living in small-town Ontario. She couldn"t possibly have p.i.s.sed off anyone with the clout to order a hit.
The second most common reason for hiring a professional killer is more common, and the one I won"t deal with. Murder for personal gain. Have your wife killed for the insurance money. Your business partner for his shares. Your parents for your inheritance. Your romantic rival for a woman. But Sammi had nothing. The killer hadn"t even emptied her wallet. Then, the truth hit me so hard I gasped.
Something was was missing. missing.
"The baby," I whispered.
Chapter Twelve.
After we reburied Sammi the same way the killer had left her, Jack drove us back to the lodge. If I thought there was any chance he"d let me walk, I would have tried. Riding with him might mean having to talk about what we"d found, and I couldn"t bear that.
I didn"t need to worry. He never opened his mouth. Yet somehow that silence was worse. It sat, between us, a vacuum of words unsaid, sucking up the air in the cab. I inched as close to the door panel as I could get, staring out the side window, ticking off the seconds until the drive ended.
The landscape flew past so fast I wasn"t even sure what road we were on. The truck jerked and swayed, struggling to keep a grip in the dirt. My head slammed into the seat as the tires found every rut. I knew if I looked over at Jack, I"d see him clutching the wheel, praying he could get us back before I broke down into tears, wondering how in G.o.d"s name he"d been stupid enough to get mixed up with me again.
When we reached the lodge parking lot, he slammed on the brakes so hard, I"d have a seat belt bruise come morning. Then he just sat there, the engine idling, making no move to turn it off.
I reached for the door handle.
"You"re not gonna call the cops," he said.
A statement, not a question. Informing the police was a perfectly logical next step, but my chest tightened at the very thought. Excuses rose to my lips. Maybe I"d left some trace evidence. An anonymous call was too risky they"d figure the killer had an attack of conscience. And it"d fall under the White Rock OPP jurisdiction. Those guys couldn"t find a killer if he left a blood trail to his house.
Excuses, and poor ones. Jack had made sure I"d left nothing. As for the call, he could make it, using any accent from a pay phone in Peterborough. And whatever I thought of the White Rock OPP, they wouldn"t ignore a body.
What stopped me from making that call was the memory of Amy"s death. My father and the other police thought they had an airtight case. They"d arrived on the scene moments after Amy died, before Drew Aldrich had a chance to run or hide evidence. And they had me, an eyewitness. They"d been so confident of a guilty verdict that they hadn"t allowed me to testify in court, saving me from the h.e.l.l of cross-examination.
Aldrich"s defense had ripped their airtight case to shreds. My father and Amy"s had rushed to the scene not as cops, but as grief-crazed relatives of the victim. They"d tried to follow procedure, but emotions had been running high and mistakes were made. What really happened, the attorney had argued, was kinky teen s.e.x turned tragic.
Amy and Drew had s.e.x. She"d wanted him to choke her the jury got a lesson on breath control s.e.x play. The innocent younger cousin looked in, saw what looked like her cousin being strangled and raped, and ran for help. Amy realized she"d been seen and, fearing punishment, lashed out, explaining cuts on Aldrich. He"d instinctively tightened his grip and accidentally killed her. Then her father and uncle, believing the younger cousin"s story, fabricated evidence to support it.
Years later, examining the evidence, I couldn"t believe the jury bought it. But they had. It fit their view of the world. Drew Aldrich was a decent young man who"d gotten mixed up with a wild teen seductress and let his hormones override his common sense. If he"d been the s.a.d.i.s.tic rapist killer the crown portrayed, surely he"d have done something something to me. They just weren"t buying the argument that he"d been planning to rape me, too, and I escaped before he could. to me. They just weren"t buying the argument that he"d been planning to rape me, too, and I escaped before he could.
I"d watched Drew Aldrich walk away. I"d seen Amy denied justice. I wasn"t letting that happen with Sammi. I didn"t trust the White Rock police not to let their views of Sammi color their investigation. I would would turn over this case, just as soon as I had the evidence needed to point them in the right direction and give them no excuse to shelve it. turn over this case, just as soon as I had the evidence needed to point them in the right direction and give them no excuse to shelve it.
I told Jack that about needing evidence, not about Amy. He listened, then nodded, "Yeah. Probably a good idea."
I went for the door handle again.
"Wanna walk?" he said. "To the lake? Sit? Talk?"
"I"ve made up my mind, Jack "
"Not about the cops. Just... talk. About what happened."
My shoulders tightened. The obligatory offer, made at the last possible moment so, if I hesitated, he could escape before I said "actually, that sounds good..."
"No, thank you," I said.
I opened the door.
"Nadia..."
I stopped.
"Think you should. We We should. Take a walk. Talk or don"t. Just... do something." should. Take a walk. Talk or don"t. Just... do something."
I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see him gripping the door handle, ready to make his escape. But he was turned my way, one hand on the wheel, the other a few inches from my leg. The offer sounded genuine and his eyes said it was. Hope fluttered.
"How about shooting? Grab a bottle. Make some bets." A crooked half-smile. "Chance to win back your fifty bucks?"
That flicker of hope folded in on itself and curled up in the pit of my stomach. Last fall, after a h.e.l.lish night when Wilkes had escaped us only to kill another victim Jack had taken me shooting at night, some anonymous strip of forest in Illinois, just the two of us, skeet-shooting beer cans as we chugged whiskey. Supposedly he"d been teaching me how to compensate for being intoxicated. An excuse one that had fallen through quickly the drunker we got, goofing around, joking and betting, blowing off steam.
No one had ever done something like that for me before. No one had ever known me well enough to know it was exactly what I"d needed. Over the next few days, Jack had let down his guard enough to give me glimpses into his past, and I realized he"d already seen beyond my barriers, looked at that part of myself I kept so carefully hidden.
He"d seen the worst in me, and it didn"t change anything. Or so it seemed at the time. Later I realized he"d only tried to help me that night because he"d needed me focused and on track, watching his back. The minute the job was over, he couldn"t get away fast enough.
Now, here again was that same Jack, considerate and understanding, ready to do whatever it took to snap me out of this. But this time, I knew it wasn"t because he gave a rat"s a.s.s how Sammi"s death affected me, but because he was trapped. He was hiding out at the lodge, and he needed me focused and on track, watching his back.
Without a word, I opened the door and climbed out. He didn"t follow.
I sat on my bed, hugging my knees, still dressed, watching the hours flip past. I didn"t dare lie down for fear I"d sleep. With sleep would come the nightmares.
I"d woken Jack with them twice last fall and wouldn"t risk it again. I considered sneaking downstairs for a roll of duct tape. I"d done that once, when I"d been desperate, but the off-chance that Jack might catch me made me stop. Sleeping with duct tape over your mouth? Crazy woman behavior.
The nightmares were always the same. I was running through an endless forest, trying in vain to get home, get my dad, save Amy. I hear Drew Aldrich right behind me, getting closer as the forest"s edge stretched ever farther away.
That part never happened he didn"t chase me; he"d been too busy raping Amy in the cabin. I"d peered around the corner, seen him on her, heard her m.u.f.fled screams, and I"d run. Left her there and run away. Left her to die. Saved myself.
A parade of therapists have tried to tell me otherwise. I"d been going for help, as I"d been taught, and that was the right thing to do. Everyone told me I"d done the smart thing my father, Amy"s father, even my mother had snapped, "Of course, you should have run. Don"t be stupid."
I"d done what my father and every cop in our family had taught me from the time I was old enough to set foot outside alone. If anything happens, try to get away. Don"t fight unless you absolutely have to. Run for help. Let us look after the rest.
I"d gotten help, but not in time. In the aftermath of Amy"s death, I"d clung to that promise: let us look after the rest. Justice would be done, one way or another. Only it wasn"t. Aldrich went free and all those cops who"d made me that promise let him walk away.
And justice for none.
Even as I considered ways to anonymously alert someone to Sammi"s body, I heard the whispers of the past.
Is anyone really surprised?
Oh, I don"t mean Amy brought this on herself, but...
Did you see the way she dressed? Only fourteen, flirting with everything in pants. And a cop"s daughter no less. A Stafford. Stafford. If they couldn"t teach her better, no one could. If they couldn"t teach her better, no one could.
Some girls...
I"m not saying she brought it on herself...
I don"t think Drew ever meant to hurt her. Things just got out of hand.
Now if it had been Nadia...
Yes, if it had been Nadia... There"s a good girl. So polite. So helpful. A Stafford through and through. But he never touched her. That says something right there, doesn"t it? Amy, with her tight skirts and her makeup...
Some girls...
Made to be broken.
I could drag Don Riley to Sammi"s grave, show him her body, and it wouldn"t change what he and all of White Rock thought of her. If there was any investigation, it would be quick, halfhearted at best.
As for Destiny, they"d claim she was somewhere in those woods. No one in White Rock was going to waste investigative efforts finding another Ernst brat. Right now, the only person who cared who killed her was the one who"d discovered her body.
Finding justice for Sammi wouldn"t change what I"d done to Amy. But I could try.
At six, as my exhausted mind skated the border between reality and dreamland, the answer hit me and I jolted awake, certain I knew what had happened to Destiny.
The ident.i.ty of Destiny"s father was no mystery in White Rock. Sammi had been far from the perfect teen, but she could be counted on never to repeat her mother"s mistakes, which meant she didn"t screw every boy who looked her way. She had one boyfriend the year she got pregnant: Trent Drayton, whose parents owned the best land in the White Rock area.
When Destiny was born, it didn"t take a genius to count back nine months and realize she"d been conceived when Trent had been spending Christmas holidays at the cottage. Even Mr. and Mrs. Drayton knew who Destiny"s daddy was, though they"d spent all year threatening to sic their lawyer on anyone who said so. The family never paid a cent in support, and I suppose Sammi was too proud to claim Destiny"s birthright. As for Trent, he"d been shipped off to UBC last fall after his father had found him a summer job in Vancouver.
The story sounds terribly romantic: rich boy, poor girl, star-crossed lovers... Not Sammi. She"d been raised to survive, not fantasize. When she met Trent, I"m pretty sure what she saw wasn"t a prep-school Romeo, but her meal ticket out of White Rock. It"s equally likely that Destiny"s conception was no accident.