His mother swallowed hard, blinking. She looked like she wanted to flee. Ford started to go to her, but was once again stopped by a warning look from Joseph.
Then something changed. His mother’s expression went from one of fear to one of understanding. ‘I bested you,’ she murmured. ‘I got away. An eight-year-old girl outsmarted you. You’re not my biggest nightmare. I’m yours.’
Beckett’s smug grin faltered, just for a moment, and then it was back, but weaker. ‘You flatter yourself.’
‘Maybe. But it works for me and that’s all I need to know. Let’s go home, Ford.’
Joseph gripped Beckett’s coat and shoved him forward. When they’d started walking toward the car, Ford met Joseph’s eyes. ‘Thank you,’ he murmured.
Joseph gave him a hard nod. ‘Same goes, both on catching him and not killing him. That took discipline. Your mom is lucky to have you.’
Ford thought his mother was lucky to have found Joseph, too. He hoped so. She’d been alone for so long. She deserved to be happy.
Thursday, December 5, 4.30 P.M.
Feeling hollowed out, Daphne watched as Joseph shoved Beckett into the back of one of the Wheeling PD squad cars. McManus would take him into custody.
‘My boss has already contacted the Liptons,’ McManus said. ‘He was the one who coordinated the search when she went missing and had to give them all the bad news when we had no leads. This was one phone call he was happy to make. I’ll keep you all apprised.’
He got in his car and drove away with a wave. There were two other cops in his car – one in the front and one in the back. Both had weapons trained on Beckett. Two additional squad cars escorted them. Nobody was taking any chances of Beckett’s escaping.
Daphne looked around. ‘Where’s Tasha?’
Deacon pointed to the Escalade. ‘I put her in the back of Joseph’s SUV, Daphne. That is one righteous dog. I might get one.’
‘Just to round out the whole badass look,’ Daphne said lightly. She pointed to his black leather trench coat. ‘Her coat would accessorize yours nicely.’
Deacon grinned. ‘Never underestimate the look.’
Joseph wrapped his arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s get you guys back to Wheeling. I don’t know about you, but I want to drink a cold beer and sleep for a week.’
‘In a minute,’ Daphne said. She scanned the area again, finding the face she’d sought. She walked briskly to the black sedan that belonged to Agent Kerr, Joseph not leaving her side. Standing at the sedan’s back door, hands cuffed behind him, was Hal.
‘What are you doing here, Hal?’ she asked.
Hal said nothing, just kept his gaze fixed forward.
‘He was in the back of Doug’s white Jeep,’ Coppola said. ‘He’d been drugged and was all groggy, trying to get away on his own. The blood all over his shirt doesn’t appear to be his own.’
‘He’s Doug’s stepfather,’ Joseph said.
Daphne nodded. ‘I heard you tell Ford that earlier. But how did he get here?’
Hal’s jaw tightened. ‘I want a lawyer,’ he said softly.
She found her palm slicing through the air and yanked it back a split second before she hit his face. ‘You want a lawyer?’ she asked softly. ‘Too damn bad. Because I want some answers and I want them now. Whose blood is that on your shirt?’
Hal looked away, fixing his gaze anywhere but on her face.
‘Probably his son’s,’ Deacon said. ‘His son Matthew’s body was found in the house on your street, Daphne. He was missing his fingers and toes. They weren’t found at the scene.’
‘Why in the house on our street?’ Ford asked, confused. ‘Why fingers and toes?’
‘Because Hal lives there,’ Daphne said flatly. ‘Because he’s a damn stalker.’
‘Cutting off fingers and toes is a signature of one of the heads of the Russian crime family trying carve out territory on the East Coast,’ Joseph said.
Daphne looked up at Joseph, fury mixing with disbelief. ‘The Russian who owned all the rifles Doug sold to the Millhouses?’ She looked back at Hal. ‘You deal in illegal weapons? Hal?’
Hal shook his head. ‘I. Want. A. Lawyer.’
‘You’re not under arrest yet,’ Joseph said. ‘Sounds like Doug had revenge planned for both of you, Daphne. I’m looking forward to finding out what you did to your stepson, Lynch. I have a feeling there’s a whole other story there.’
‘Hal.’ Daphne stared at Hal’s face, trying to resolve the person she’d known for twenty years with the man who stood sullenly before her. ‘Did you intercept my questions to the FBI twenty years ago? Did you falsify Beckett’s death certificate? Please. If I ever meant anything to you, tell me. I need to know the truth.’
Hal looked at her then and Daphne fought the urge to take a step back. The look in his eyes was . . . damn creepy. ‘Yes. I faked the certificate. If you’d kept pushing, you would have stirred up an investigation and the FBI would have made you testify against Beckett. Nadine would never have allowed that. She would have made you leave. And I wanted you to stay.’
‘But . . . Hal, Beckett went on to kill more girls. Didn’t that bother you?’
‘Of course it did. I’m not a monster. I told him to stop, that he had to disappear. He promised he’d stop.’
Daphne’s eyes were wide. ‘You knew him? You talked to him? How?’
‘I’d seen him, hanging around the house in Georgetown. The first time was after your mother visited from Riverdale. I assumed he’d followed her there. I was your bodyguard, Daphne. I knew who was a threat to you. He was. After you met with Claudia Baker and told her the whole story, she repeated it to me and I knew just how big a threat Beckett was. The next time he showed up, I followed him, to here. I told him that he was dead. He begged for his life. I’m not a killer. I told him he needed to disappear and never bother you again.’
‘Who was Claudia Baker?’ Joseph asked.
He shrugged. ‘Just an actress I hired.’
‘Will we find her alive?’ Daphne asked harshly.
Hal didn’t answer, which was an answer in itself.
‘How did Doug find out about Beckett?’ Joseph asked.
Hal looked angry. ‘I don’t know. I truly don’t.’
‘Did you write everything down?’ Joseph pushed. ‘In a file maybe? That you kept in a safe?’
Again Hal didn’t answer.
Daphne met Joseph’s eyes. ‘Doug stole it from Hal’s safe,’ she said, and it was Hal’s turn to look amazed.
‘Told Matt not to trust that shit,’ he muttered. ‘I’m just glad that Mitch is dead, too.’
‘Hal, what did Travis know?’ Daphne asked.
Hate flashed in Hal’s eyes. ‘Travis is a drunk. A womanizing drunk. He never deserved you. You should have left him years ago. Now we’re done.’
‘I have one more pressing question,’ Joseph said. ‘Since Doug is dead and your middle son is dead, who should we contact about your youngest son, Cole?’
‘Cole is not my son,’ Hal said bitterly. ‘And I am done.’
‘Where does he go, Joseph?’ Kate asked.
‘Arrange for his transport back to Baltimore,’ Joseph said. ‘Grayson’s going to have a field day trying to figure out all the things to charge him with. Kerr, can you get your ME out here for the headless bastard in there?’
‘Already called. We’ll take care of processing the crime scenes. We’ve already started on the cabin. Beckett has a man-cave in the basement with a sixty-inch TV, a pool table, and a keg.’ Kerr sighed. ‘And an entire wall of little cubbies, like you’d see at a post office. Lots of purses, jewelry, personal effects. We’ll be out here for a very long time and that doesn’t even start to cover the possible graves.’
As a group they looked past the cabin to the field behind it.
Twenty-three victims unaccounted for, Daphne thought bleakly.
Joseph cleared his throat and she knew he was thinking the same thing. ‘Deacon, would you mind tell
ing Ciccotelli that the coast is clear for his wife to start mapping the property? We need to find Beckett’s victims and send them home.’
‘Sure. I’d like to stay while she’s mapping, if that’s okay with you, Kerr.’
‘We’d welcome the help,’ Kerr said. ‘I’ll be here at first light. Let me know if Ciccotelli’s wife needs anything and we’ll have it available.’
‘Agent Kerr,’ Daphne said, ‘Doug had a diary that had belonged to his mother. It’s in the garage. Can I get a copy once you’ve entered it into evidence? I’d like to read it.’
‘I think you’ve earned at least that,’ Kerr said kindly. ‘I’ll get it for you.’
Deacon clasped Ford’s shoulder. ‘Come on, kid. I’ll take you back to the hospital.’
‘No,’ Ford said. ‘I just want to go home. Mom?’
‘If you promise to get checked out when we get home,’ she said. ‘I don’t want any complications from frostbite or the drugs that Doug gave you.’
Ford nodded wearily. ‘I will. I promise.’
‘Then let’s go home.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Baltimore, Maryland, Friday, December 6, 8.30 A.M.
His team looked, Joseph thought, like victims of a shipwreck, emotionally bedraggled and physically exhausted. They’d filed into the conference room to debrief, their usual chatter subdued.
He and Daphne had driven in together, which was nice. They’d rolled back into Baltimore late the night before. Ford had gone straight to bed, saying very little.
Now that all the danger was past, Ford still had to deal with Kimberly’s betrayal. But for today he planned to sleep in and be spoiled by Simone and Maggie.
Joseph had already been spoiled a little by Daphne. Waking up with her body nestled against his had been like heaven, the morning sex quietly profound. Afterward he’d just held her and couldn’t imagine letting her go.
When she’d come out of her closet, she’d been dressed in the lime green suit she’d worn the day he’d met her. He hadn’t been sure if she’d done that on purpose or if she’d picked the first suit in her closet – until she’d passed him a basket of muffins at breakfast with a demure little wink. And then he remembered telling her that the first day they’d met he’d been eating her muffins while secretly thinking about eating her alive. Now he couldn’t look at that suit without his mouth watering.
Tonight. As soon as we’re done here . . . he’d take her home and show her exactly what he’d been thinking about that day, nine months before.
But for now, there was debriefing to do. Joseph was more than ready to put this case behind him. He rapped the table and what little chatter there was ceased.
‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘Let’s start with the hospital report. JD?’
‘Pamela MacGregor is stable,’ JD said. ‘Doug kept her sedated, so the days she spent in Doug’s basement storeroom will mostly be a blur, which is merciful. If she’d been found much later it could have been very serious. Stevie is being moved from ICU to a regular room today which is very good news. We’re not sure how long she’ll be on disability. Deputy Welch is doing very well. He should be going home soon.’
‘What about Mike, the cameraman?’ Daphne asked.
‘Stable. He’ll be in the hospital a lot longer, but he’s out of the woods.’
‘I have a list of fatalities,’ Joseph said. ‘Marina killed Officer Winn and was in turn killed by Stevie Mazzetti. Doug murdered Isaac Zacharias, Elmarie Stoddard, Richard Odum and his wife and was in turn killed by Detective McManus, Agent Coppola, and myself. Beckett . . . ’ He sighed. ‘The two men he attacked at the Wheeling hospital – the officer in Ford’s room and the nurse whose credentials he stole – both died yesterday.’
‘Oh no,’ Daphne said softly.
‘I’m afraid so. We don’t know how many victims he has in total, but we’re going to assume the number is twenty-six until we prove differently.’
‘I’ve been communicating with the Pittsburgh field office’s CSU,’ Brodie said. ‘They began going through the personal effects of the victims yesterday afternoon. So far they’ve collected over a dozen driver’s licenses from girls living in five different states. Once the body retrieval begins, they’ll do DNA analysis for identification.’
‘Deacon called earlier,’ Joseph said. ‘Ciccotelli’s wife and her team started GPR mapping the area behind Beckett’s cabin before at dawn. She estimates it’ll take her several days at least, so no retrievals or DNA analyses can start until then. Kerr and McManus both emailed me that their switchboards are going crazy with families of missing teenage girls. Hundreds of parents hoping they can get some resolution one way or the other.’
‘It’ll be more,’ Daphne predicted sadly. ‘When the story breaks that his first victim was killed twenty-seven years ago, Pittsburgh will be inundated with cold cases.’
Joseph shook his head, the thought of it overwhelming. ‘I can’t even imagine. All right, what about—’
‘Wait,’ Grayson said. ‘I have some names to add to the fatality list. I checked out your old tutor, Joy Howard. She died in a car accident shortly after she stopped working with you.’
‘Which was right before Ford was born,’ Daphne said with a frown. ‘I got a new tutor when I started back to school a few months later.’
Grayson passed a photograph down the table to her. ‘Do you know this woman?’
Daphne’s eyes widened. ‘This is Claudia Baker.’
‘I was afraid of that,’ Grayson said. ‘She’s actually Claudia Howard. She’s Joy’s sister. Died in the same car accident.’
‘Hal,’ Daphne whispered. ‘Dammit. I guess my tutor getting the flu the week I talked to the FBI impostor wasn’t coincidence either.’
‘No,’ Grayson said. ‘I guess Hal couldn’t depend on them to stay quiet.’
‘I’d also like to check into the circumstances of Jane Lynch’s death,’ Joseph said. ‘I know you were just trying to get Doug agitated yesterday, Daphne.’ The memory of which still turned his gut to water. ‘But I think Hal’s killing his wife is a possibility.’
‘Besides,’ Bo added, ‘any more crimes we can dig up on Hal, the more leverage the ATF team has to get him to flip on the Russian. The warrants we got to search Hal’s properties turned up a sizable cache of illegal weapons yesterday. They were hidden among legitimate antiques he’d imported. Now our warehouse smells like lemon oil.’
Daphne frowned. ‘Lemon oil?’
‘Some smugglers think that strong odors like coffee or lemon oil will throw off the dog’s ability to scent,’ Bo explained. ‘It doesn’t, of course. Why?’
Daphne closed her eyes briefly. ‘Hal has smelled like lemon oil for as long as I can remember. I never suspected a thing.’
‘He had two sets of books,’ Bo said. ‘He’s been distributing drugs for decades. Looks like he started on the weapons more recently. I’m sorry, Daphne. He did it so well, and so far from where he lived, nobody suspected.’
She nodded once, wearily. ‘Thank you.’
‘I talked with Cole Lynch yesterday,’ JD said. ‘I’d arrived at Doug’s house with the sheriff’s department and we were looking for Pamela and found the bomb shelter Doug used for his hideout.’
‘A bomb shelter?’ Bo asked.
‘Regulation Cold War model,’ JD said. ‘Once Cole got there and showed us where Doug had hidden Pamela, he told us that his mother had died there in the shelter. We think Doug meant to bring you back there, Daphne. I found a CD player in a small cell-like room. The CD inside would periodically say “Did you miss me?” He wanted to make you crazy. Cole wasn’t sure about your connection, but he told us that Doug hated Hal not only because he cheated on his mother, but because he sent Doug to deal drugs for him and then let him go to prison when he got caught. Matthew, the middle brother with an MBA who cooked the books, told him that Doug had set Hal up to look like he’d stolen rifles from the mob.’
‘Payback’s a bitch,’ Bo
said. ‘Those stolen rifles were what Doug sold to the Millhouses.’
‘Which was why we were led to Odum’s houses,’ Daphne said. ‘Doug wanted the Russians to believe Hal was skimming and making money on the side. So, was he trying to get Hal killed but they killed his brother instead?’
‘The mob would have wanted Hal to suffer,’ Bo said. ‘Taking his son’s life did that.’
‘We found all of Doug’s papers, too,’ JD said. ‘Including a file on you, Daphne. It’s a photocopy, so I think we’ll find the original in Hal’s safe. It had Hal’s initial background check on you, a transcript of your meeting with “Claudia Baker”, a copy of the death certificate Hal faked, and a map to Beckett’s cabin. Doug found a gold mine. He could get his revenge on you and Hal all at once.’
‘Well, I think I found out what made Hal hate Travis so much.’ Daphne held up the photocopy of Jane Lynch’s diary. ‘Jane suspected Hal of cheating with me for years, apparently. Jane wrote that at one of Nadine’s garden parties she “tried on my suit for size”.’
‘She tried on your clothes?’ Brodie asked.
‘No, I didn’t wear suits then, only dresses.’
Brodie frowned. ‘Then why . . .’ Her eyes widened. ‘Oh.’
‘Yeah, oh. There’s a passage in here that describes Travis’s bedroom to a T.’
Grayson’s brows rose. ‘So Jane accused you after doing the same thing herself?’
‘Ironic, ain’t it?’ Daphne shook her head. ‘The date of that party is important, though, because nine months later Cole was born.’
Mouths around the table dropped open.
Joseph wasn’t surprised at this news, because Daphne had discovered the connection the night before after reading the diary on the drive home from West Virginia.
‘Wait.’ JD frowned. ‘Cole, the kid I met yesterday, he’s Ford’s half-brother?’