Nineteen

When Mitch suggested bringing in a profiler to review the case, Nina hadn’t been quite certain what to expect, but it definitely wasn’t the woman she watched get out of Mitch’s car and walk across the deck on Thursday morning. The cool-looking blonde being welcomed with hugs from Regan was totally feminine, casually dressed in cashmere and tweed. From the second-floor window, Nina could see the rope of pearls twined around the woman’s neck and the sparkling diamond on the ring finger of her left hand.

“Nina, come down and say hi to Annie,” Regan called from the first floor.

Nina hastily ran her fingers through her hair and hurried down the steps.

“Annie, this is my friend—and editor—Nina Madden. Nina, Dr. Anne Marie McCall.”

“It’s Annie,” the profiler told Nina with an easy smile. “So you’re the one who put this ball in motion.”

“I did, I’m afraid.” Nina nodded.

“Well, it’s certainly been an interesting read.” She patted the briefcase that hung from her shoulder before turning to Mitch. “Where’s our cop?”

“Just pulled in the driveway,” Mitch told her.

“Good. We need him,” Annie said. “Regan, may I get a cup of tea before we start?”

“Certainly. Nina? Anything?” Regan asked on her way to the stove.

“Nothing, thanks.”

Mitch went to the back door and opened it.

“You’re just in time,” he told Wes as the detective strode up to the door. “We’re all assembling—Regan, where are we holding this little powwow?”

“How about right here in the kitchen?” She turned to the door and greeted Wes. “Come in, Detective Powell. Meet Dr. McCall.”

“Good to meet you.” Wes went directly to the table, his hand out for Annie’s. “I heard you might be able to give us a little insight into this case.”

“I’ll do my best.” Annie took his hand, then pointed to the chair next to Nina’s. “Why not sit opposite from me, so that we can face each other. I have the feeling this conversation will be mostly between you and me.”

“Hello, Ms. Madden,” Wes said as he pulled out the chair next to hers and sat.

“Detective.” Nina smiled.

“Must we be this formal?” Annie frowned. “It makes me uncomfortable. Does anyone have a problem with first names?”

Everyone shook their heads no.

“Good, because it drives me crazy.” She held up her hand for the mug of tea Regan was passing to her.

“Okay, folks, last call.” Regan stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the kitchen floor. “Coffee, tea, soda, a bottle of water? After I sit down, you’re on your own.”

She glanced around and, convinced there were no takers, sat next to Mitch, who was on Annie’s right.

“First off, I think we need to ask Wes if there have been any developments on this latest murder.” Annie addressed the detective.

“Unfortunately, no. There was some trace evidence recovered from the crime scene, but of course it’s going to be some time before we get anything back from the lab. If you’re asking me if we’ve identified any suspects, no, we have not. We’ve found no one in her life who doesn’t have an airtight alibi. And believe me, we’ve been beating the bushes. There’s no one who looks even remotely promising. And of course, no witnesses.”

“She lived in an on-campus apartment building, though, right?” Annie frowned. “How is it that no one saw or heard anything?”

“Homecoming weekend. There’d been a big party at one of the frat houses on Saturday night. According to one of her friends, Allison wasn’t feeling well and left—alone—around eleven-thirty. Almost everyone else stayed till one or two. There was no one around to hear, or to see.”

Wes paused, then added, “But I did meet with the three men we talked about last weekend.”

“Father Whelan, Kyle Stillman, and Dr. Overbeck?” Mitch asked.

“Yes.” He turned to Annie and explained. “We were thinking perhaps one of the men closest to Olivia could have been involved in the Stone River Rapist case, perhaps as a means of getting Stephen out of the way.”

“That’s a sound theory. But I think there may be a little more to it than merely wanting Stephen out of the picture.” Annie tapped the side of her mug lightly. “I think whoever killed those girls wanted to punish Dr. Madden.”

“Punish him for what?” Nina asked.

“For his infidelity. I don’t think Dr. Madden was too far off in his theory that Olivia killed those girls. I don’t believe she did, but I do think whoever did it thought he was avenging her somehow for the pain Stephen must have caused her. I believe that when you find your killer, you will find someone who was deeply involved emotionally with Olivia.”

“That could have been any one of the three,” Regan pointed out.

“Whoever killed these girls did so with passion and righteous anger,” Annie said. “If you’re merely trying to get someone out of the picture, you don’t need to invest yourself in the actual killing. The man we are looking for was doing more than going through the motions. The wounds are too deep, the crime scenes too bloody. He was making a statement. He was very much involved in what he was doing.”

“But couldn’t he have been making a statement against the girls rather than my father?” Nina asked. “If we’re to follow the theory you’ve set out, maybe the killer was punishing them for having slept with a married man.”

“Possibly, but I believe it was through killing them that the killer was targeting Dr. Madden.” Annie’s softness was gone. She was all business now. “I also see this as a message to him. I know your secrets. See what I can do? You prize these women, but I can take them from you. The act of taking what Stephen had gave the killer a sense of power.”

“Power over the rival,” Mitch murmured.

“Exactly so.” Annie nodded.

“So which one of the three gets your vote, Wes?” Mitch sat in the seat next to Regan, his arm draped over the back of her chair. “Any of them give you a strange vibe?”

“Frankly, I found them all strange, as far as I’m concerned,” Wes said. “I’d be hard pressed to say one was more odd than the other.”

“Give me the rundown,” Annie said.

“Well, we’ll start with Kyle, since I saw him first.” Wes wished he’d taken more notes at the interview. He didn’t want to leave out any of the details. “I’m thinking he was pretty close to his mother. Nina, do you have any insights into their relationship?”

Nina thought for a moment before responding.

“I was only fourteen when I came to live in that house, and Kyle was nineteen and a sophomore in college already. So we didn’t connect, if you know what I mean.”

“He was away at school, then?” Regan asked.

“No.” Nina shook her head. “He went to St. Ansel’s. Because my dad taught there, both Kyle and I were able to attend for free. He lived at home, but I didn’t really see him a lot. He had a part-time job in the evenings and, as I recall, a pretty heavy course load.”

“What was his major? Do you remember?” Regan asked.

“Criminal justice, I think,” Nina told her.

Everyone at the table fell silent.

“How did a man with a degree in criminal justice end up working as a security guard?” Wes asked, breaking the silence.

“I thought he’d gone to the police academy after he graduated,” Nina said. “It seems to me he was working for the Maryland State Police when I left Stone River.”

“How long did he work for MSP?” Annie asked Nina.

“I have no idea. I pretty much lost contact with him and Olivia for a long time.”

“Well, that moves to the top of my to-do list.” Mitch rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Kyle’s background is in law. Who’da guessed it?”

“Funny he left that out when I met with him the other day. I’ve yet to meet the former cop who didn’t want to make damn sure I knew he’d been a cop, too.” Wes considered the omission. “Then again, maybe not.”

“You know how to get what we’ll need on his background?” Annie asked Mitch.

“Just a few taps on the keyboard, Miz Annie.” He wiggled his fingers.

“Good. I’ll be interested in seeing what you find.”

Annie gestured for Wes to continue.

“Well, I’m thinking that if he knew about Stephen’s affairs, he probably would have been pretty pissed off at his stepfather for cheating on his mother. That fits into Annie’s theory of anger at Madden as a motive.”

“I don’t believe it for a minute.” Nina shook her head. “I just don’t believe for one second that Kyle killed anyone.”

“Look, he was Olivia’s only child,” Wes told her. “Weren’t they pretty close?”

“Yes, but . . . “

“And they’d probably been close for a long time,” Wes ventured to guess.

“Well, yes, Olivia had been a single mother for a long time. I think her first husband died when Kyle was three or four, so sure, they’d have been close, but that doesn’t mean he was a murderer,” Nina protested.

“He was a student there on campus, he could have accidentally discovered that Stephen was having an affair. Maybe he followed him one time out of curiosity, found out where the girl lived. Realized what was going on and, like a good son, decided to take matters into his own hands. Avenge his mother, whatever.”

“Good theory.” Annie nodded. “Depending on his relationship with Dr. Madden, there could have been more involved there. If he’d seen Madden as a rival for his mother’s affections, he’d have been happy to have found a way to hurt him. I’d have to know more about his personality, of course, but he could have found great satisfaction in having raped his stepfather’s lovers.”

“That sounds almost Oedipal,” Regan noted.

“It is,” Annie agreed.

“I have to go on record right here and now and say that I think you’re wasting your time on Kyle.” Nina looked around the table at the others in the group. “I just don’t see it.”

“Duly noted.” Annie turned back to Wes. “Anything else on Kyle Stillman?”

“That’s it for now. Let’s move on to Dr. Overbeck. Nathaniel Carver Overbeck.” Wes leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs under the table. It seemed that every time he moved, his thigh rubbed against Nina’s and she’d shift slightly in the chair. Too bad, he thought. He’d enjoyed the contact.

“Here’s an interesting character. He started out almost overeager to help. As long as he was discussing Allison Mulroney, anyway. Had only nice things to say about her, by the way. She was a lovely girl, good student, never noticed anyone harassing her, that sort of thing. But once I brought up the old murders, he definitely grew uncomfortable.”

“Shifting around in his seat, nervous gestures with his hands . . .” Mitch said.

“All of the above. Now, when Stephen’s name came up, he became positively self-righteous. He had the story down pat. Stephen had affairs, Stephen wanted to end the affairs, the girls threatened him, he kills them off and moves on to the next one. He even made the comment, ‘I can’t believe no one put it together sooner.’”

“Interesting.” Annie nodded.

“Yeah, until I suggested that if he’d put it together, why hadn’t he gone to the police with his theory.”

“And he said what to that?” Mitch asked.

“Nothing. He paled a bit, but he said nothing.”

“I’m assuming you confronted him about the affair with Olivia,” Annie said.

“Oh, yeah. He admitted that. Somewhat reluctantly, but he didn’t try to deny it. He also admitted that Olivia knew about her husband’s affairs but he says he didn’t think she knew with whom.”

“Which could be speculation or a flat-out lie.” Mitch nodded.

“I’m thinking lie,” Wes told him. “But here’s one thing I thought was strange. He seemed willing to talk about his affair with Olivia, but as soon as I brought up the fact that he’d taken Madden’s place in the department, he made it clear the conversation had run its course.”

“Touchy?” Regan asked.

“Very,” Wes replied. “But he admitted that he’d been in love with Olivia. Which gives him a double motive for getting rid of Stephen. He wanted Madden’s wife and his job.”

“That’s pretty strong motivation,” Annie acknowledged. “And if he’d coveted those two things, it would certainly have given him great satisfaction to have set up Dr. Madden.”

“That power thing you talked about,” Nina said.

“Exactly,” Annie told her. “It’s just a few steps away from cannibals eating their enemies.”

“There’s a fun analogy,” Mitch said.

“Man has a tendency to want to destroy what he wants to conquer. Once he’s destroyed and made the vanquished part of him, then he has their power. He’s taken their essence, all they have to give. That’s what our killer wanted to do, I believe, though in a manner that’s only slightly more civilized.” Annie turned to Wes. “I’d say Dr. Overbeck makes a fine suspect. What did your gut tell you?”

“He’s very cool on the outside, but like I said, I could see him becoming more agitated as the interview progressed.”

“He wanted the wife, he wanted the job. Doesn’t quite add up to the level of anger, the depth of emotion I was looking for. Overbeck already had the wife, right? Coveting the job . . . “ Annie stopped to consider. “I was looking for something more deeply personal.”

“I always had the impression that there was no love lost between my father and Dr. Overbeck, but I never knew why.”

“Well, it’s a relatively small academic arena. There could have been more there than simply wanting Madden’s job,” Annie explained. “Perhaps he felt more qualified for the position, or thought that somehow Madden was unjustifiably favored by the head of the department, or the dean. If Overbeck was convinced of his own superiority, losing out on a plum position to someone he felt to be his inferior would rankle, and over time fester.”

“I have a question,” Nina asked Annie. “Wouldn’t my father have figured out that it was his girlfriends who were being targeted? The first one, he was probably really upset, but he wouldn’t have suspected it was anything personal. But surely after the second girl was murdered he would have started to wonder. Why did he keep on having affairs with these girls if he knew someone was killing them?”

“Good question,” Wes said.

“I have a theory on that.” Annie reached over to squeeze Nina’s arm gently. “I hope this doesn’t upset you too greatly, Nina, but I’ve read all the psychological reports on your father. By all accounts, he was what we now recognize as having a sexually addictive personality. We’ve always known there were certain people who, in order to engage in sexual activity, would take risks or go to lengths that to many of us might seem ridiculous, even dangerous. The woman who’s repeatedly driven to pick up strange men and take them home. The man who can’t help but get involved in office affairs. We’ve only recently recognized that this type of behavior exhibits similar symptoms to those with drug or alcohol addiction. Starting with the inability to control the addiction.”

Annie stopped to drink some of her tea, then continued.

“So while after the second murder Dr. Madden may have begun to wonder if the murders were not coincidental, in the long run, it wouldn’t have stopped him from pursuing what he was addicted to.”

“Between the first and second murders, seven months had passed,” Wes interjected. “Between the second and the third, there’d been four months. Between the third and the fourth, there’d been seven. Eighteen months in all.”

“I noticed that, Wes,” Annie replied. “The time frame seems off to me. I can understand the long stretch between the first and the second killings. If killing was new to him, it may have taken him a while to sort out his feelings, the guilt, whatever. Now, the shorter period between the second and the third is more telling—it tells me he liked it enough to kill again. Which makes the longer stretch between the third and fourth victims a little puzzling.”

She drummed on the mug again.

“You mean, he wouldn’t have waited as long to kill again, if he liked it so much,” Regan said.

“Exactly. I’d have expected him to have looked for another victim sooner rather than later.”

Mitch leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. “Of course, Stephen could have gotten spooked, and maybe didn’t jump right into another affair as quickly.”

“That’s possible. Of course, it’s also possible that the killer simply took the show out of town,” Wes told him. “I can guarantee, reports of similar murders would have gotten my attention.”

“Which means he went far enough away that they wouldn’t have hit your radar, or he hid the crimes well enough that by the time the victims were found, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened to them.”

“He was doing something during all that time,” Annie murmured. “By the time he’d killed his third victim, I think he was as much addicted to killing as Madden was to sex.”

“I’ll go into the Bureau computers and see what I can find,” Mitch told them. “I’m guessing once we start looking, we’re going to find a few bodies somewhere between here, Delaware, and Maryland.”

“What about the priest?” Annie asked Wes. “What was your impression of him?”

“He cared very much for Olivia, too. As a matter of fact, he admitted to having been in love with Olivia, but he more or less tossed it off as, every man who ever met Olivia was in love with her,” Wes said. “And he, too, was definitely not happy when I brought up Stephen’s name and the old cases.”

“So you didn’t really learn anything new,” Regan noted.

“Actually, I did learn something.” Wes turned to her. “I learned that he knows something he can’t tell us.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nina frowned. “If Father Whelan knew something about the murders, why wouldn’t he tell you?”

“Because I think whatever he knows, he learned from Olivia. In confession.”

He paused to let the words sink in.

Almost everyone at the table groaned.

“So even if she had known who was behind the killings, and she told Father Whelan, he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone,” Regan said flatly.

“Exactly,” Wes replied.

“Well, damn.” Mitch frowned.

“How would Olivia have known who the killer was?” Nina asked.

“Maybe he told her, bragged about it, even. ‘Look what I did for you. See how much I love you,’” Mitch said.

“Does anyone else think it’s creepy that Olivia could have known who the killer was, but didn’t tell anyone?” Regan frowned. “That she’d let her husband go to trial—face the death penalty or, at the least, life in prison—for crimes he did not commit?”

“If he’d been cheating on her for all those years, yes, she could have built up some big-time resentment,” Annie noted.

“She must have hated him a lot to have done that,” Nina murmured. “Funny, I never got a sense of that.”

“Maybe she didn’t hate him as much as she loved someone else,” Wes observed.

“Did she love her son, or her lover, enough to have sacrificed her husband?” Mitch asked.

“Well, here’s something else. When I told him that we were taking a second look at the Madden case because there were similarities between this latest murder and the earlier ones, he looked stunned. And he said, ‘Why would . . .’—then stopped and pretty much ended the interview by saying he had a meeting across campus.”

“Now, that’s an odd thing to say,” Annie said. “You would have expected him to say, ‘How could that be, Stephen died years ago,’ or something along those lines.”

Annie toyed with the ring on her finger.

“But instead, he said, ‘Why would . . . ‘”

“As in, why would someone do something?” Mitch suggested.

“Yeah, that was sort of what I expected to hear,” Wes nodded. “But whatever he knows, there’s no way we’re going to get him to tell.”

“Okay, so what do we have?” Annie said. “We have a killer who was close to Olivia, someone close enough that she’d let her husband go to prison to protect him. Someone was punishing Stephen for having hurt her. We’ve already talked about the killer’s need to take what was Stephen’s, to have power over him. The question is, who would have most wanted to kill Stephen’s women, then watch him go to prison for it?”

“The son, the priest, or the rival for his wife’s affections?” Mitch said.

“Why would he have killed this latest girl?” Nina asked. “If the whole purpose of killing the others was to destroy my father, why start killing again now?”

“I spoke earlier of how our killer may have developed a taste for murder. He could have gone outside the area to find victims, or he may have managed to keep it in check and control that urge for a long time. Others have done it. I worked a case recently where a man had gone on a killing spree seven years ago, killed nine women in nine different states over the course of a year, then just stopped. He was never caught.”

“How did they finally know he was a killer?” Nina asked.

“After he died, his son was cleaning out his truck to sell it, and found the souvenirs his father had kept of all his victims. Photographs, driver’s licenses. Locks of hair.” Annie sighed. “If the son hadn’t had the guts to call the police, we never would have known who killed those women.”

“So maybe this killer did stop . . . “ Nina said. “But why would he have started again?”

“There would have had to have been a trigger, something that set him off again,” Annie told her. “My guess is that Olivia’s death was the trigger.”

“That could have set off any one of the three. Emotionally, I’m sure each of them was affected,” Regan commented.

“If that’s true, then we need to work fast,” Wes told them, “or we’re going to have another murder on our hands.”

“I’m on my way back to the office.” Mitch stood. “I’ll get on this right away, see what I can come up with on Kyle’s background, and I’ll look for any other similar murders over the past fifteen, sixteen years.”

“While you’re using those amazing computer skills, maybe you could check into something for me.” Regan looked up at him.

“Sure. What do you need?” He reached down to her and pulled her out of her seat. “Some suggestions for a romantic weekend away?”

“Well, actually, I was hoping for a little something more on Eddie Kroll.” She smiled.

“Damn that Eddie.” Mitch shook his head.

Regan laughed. “I was trying to pull up more on his family but I’m afraid I haven’t been successful. I know he had an older brother named Carl, and a brother named Harry, but I was wondering if he had other siblings.”

“That should be a snap.” Mitch then turned to Annie. “Are you ready for the ride back?”

“I am.” Annie pushed her chair back. As she stood, she asked Wes, “What’s your next step going to be?”

“I’d like to explore the relationship between Madden and Overbeck a bit more, but it’s been hard to find someone who knew them both. The priest who’d pegged Madden to take over the department died some years ago, and except for Overbeck, there are only a few other professors who knew both of the men well. I’ve already spoken with those who did, but I didn’t hear anything I didn’t already know.”

“Were they aware that Overbeck was having an affair with Madden’s wife?”

“They didn’t seem to be aware of it.” Wes shook his head. “I haven’t been able to find anyone who claimed to have known Madden very well.”

“Did you speak with Mrs. Owens?” Nina asked.

“Who is Mrs. Owens?” Wes turned to her.

“She was the secretary Dad shared with Dr. Overbeck. Her office was between theirs. It was sort of a neutral area between the two.”

“I’ll see if she’s still at St. Ansel’s.”

“Father Whelan would know,” Nina offered.

“I’ll check with him,” Wes said. “It’ll give me an excuse to talk to him again.”

The entire group filed out the back door, and stood on the deck for a moment, saying their good-byes, before Mitch, Annie, and Regan walked toward his car, and Nina walked Wes to his.

“By the way, did you ever read the letter your father left for you?” he asked.

“Yes.” Nina nodded. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anything of any use to you on this case, other than the fact that he did say he was innocent.”

“Do you think he would have said otherwise?”

“I think if he’d been guilty, he’d not have said anything at all.”

“Maybe.”

When they reached the stairs, Wes went down the steps, while Nina remained on the end of the deck.

“Wes,” she called to him, and he turned back to her.

“I’ve been meaning to ask—what was the name of the book that was left at the scene of that last murder?”

“I don’t remember. Why?”

“Just curious.”

“Check the evidence list in the Maureen Thomas file. It should be noted there.”

“I don’t remember seeing it, but I’ll take another look.”

“Let me know if you can’t find it. I’ll look it up for you.” He could have gotten in the car then, but didn’t open the door. Instead, he said, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I thought you should steer clear of your stepbrother. I know you’re having a hard time accepting it, but he could very well be the killer.”

“I am having a hard time with that,” she admitted. “I still don’t think he’s the man you’re after.”

“When I met you the first time, I said something to you about hoping that you weren’t looking into the case to prove your father’s innocence, and you said you never doubted that he was the killer.” Wes opened his car door. “Why would you readily accept that your father was a killer, but not your stepbrother?”

“I guess I had never questioned my father’s guilt because I was so angry with him, so humiliated by his arrest.” She smiled grimly. “Yes, I know how childish that sounds, but I was just nineteen when all that happened, still angry with him for what I’d felt was his abandonment of my mother and me. I was angrier still when he married Olivia. That had come without warning, and it took me years to forgive him for that. So while I may be questioning it now, I didn’t question it then. We’d had an odd relationship, with the divorce, then the remarriage, then the arrest. I never felt I knew him very well, and most of my emotions as far as he was concerned revolved around anger. There’s a lot that we were never able to resolve between us.”

“Well, if you manage to help prove his innocence now, would that help?”

“It won’t replace what we never were able to have, but it would bring him justice, and yes, that would go a long way in helping me to forgive both of us.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that.” He got into his car and rolled his window down. “Are you going to be here through the weekend?”

“Yes.” She leaned over the deck railing. “At least through Sunday, then we’ll see.”

“Don’t forget to call me if you can’t find that evidence list,” he said as he pulled away.

She nodded and watched him drive off. When he reached the end of the lane and turned onto the road, she called to Regan. “Where did we leave the Maureen Thomas file . . . ?”