CHAPTER 35
As Jenny walked down the narrow hallway to her office, she didn’t bother straightening the picture frames. She sat at her desk and pulled out the list.
Brandon Louis – stabbed
Terri Kramer—Food poisoning
Stephen White—Explosion
Debi Murray—Car accident/brakes
Gavin Murdock—Heart attack/antifreeze
Rachel Elliott—Running accident
Melony Reed—Kitchen accident
Ron Jennings—Car accident
Louise Penderfor—Moved
Mindy Graft
Aubrey Singleton
Claire Moss—Moved
Chelsea Webster
Dean Newman—Suicide
Gary Perdue
Four more people to take care of. How am I going to get rid of them?
A fall down the stairway. Poison. Drowning. Electrical mishap. Contaminated well water. Suffocation. Choking. Carbon monoxide poisoning.
OK, OK. That’s enough. Her mind was muddled. She couldn’t stop thinking about Dwayne. Tomorrow night she would be going on her first real date—dinner and a movie. She’d never been to a movie with a man. What would she wear? What would they talk about?
Try doing a search on the guy, why don’t you? Something you should have done when you met Brandon.
Not a bad idea. She typed Dwayne Roth into her search engine and hit the Return key. A picture of him, and in a minute she had enough for a short bio. He attended McClatchy High School and then went on to receive top honors at UCLA. Like her, he was a senior research chemist. He didn’t have a Facebook page. She couldn’t find anything about family or friends, but so far, so good. They had a lot in common—grew up in the same area, worked in the same field. She hit the Back button and ended up on the website for Lizzy Gardner Investigations.
Lizzy Gardner. What was she trying to prove?
She’d tried to talk to the woman, but she wouldn’t listen. She wondered if the cookies she’d delivered had proved useful. She didn’t dare risk a drive-by, so she decided to make a quick call and see who picked up.
The phone rang three times before she heard, “Lizzy Gardner Investigations. Can I help you?”
“Yes. I would like to speak with Lizzy Gardner, please.”
“Can I tell her who’s calling?”
The person who had answered sounded calm, even relaxed. Maybe they weren’t ready for word to get out that Lizzy and her friends were in the hospital or, better yet, dead. Jenny exhaled and said, “Tell her it’s a friend calling about the Melony Reed case.”
“Just a moment.”
A little charade, pretending Lizzy was in any condition to take the call. Maybe they were trying to trace it. Let them try. Jenny brushed her fingers over her list. Impatient, she scribbled Lizzy’s name on the bottom and prepared to draw a line through it.
“This is Lizzy Gardner. How can I help you?”
It couldn’t be.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
“I sent one of the cookies to the lab,” Lizzy said. “I should have the results in a few weeks.”
“How did you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“Very shrewd of you.”
“It’s obvious you have a knack for toxicology.”
“Obvious? How so?”
“People from your high school are suddenly dying from heart attacks at a young age and punji sticks dipped in a toxic substance.”
“I don’t believe that has been substantiated.”
“Maybe not, but that’s the reason I didn’t think it was a good idea to eat homemade cookies baked by a stranger and delivered by a neighbor nobody has met before.”
“Somebody must have eaten a cookie. They were delicious.”
“I’m sure they were divine, but we try to stay away from food that has been contaminated,” Lizzy said. “Oh, and I’m sorry I had to leave you hanging on the phone the other day. This dark shadow of a man has been watching me, and I felt the urge to give chase.”
“Is that so?”
“Sadly, it’s the truth.”
“You didn’t catch him?”
“Not yet.”
“You are popular with the more malevolent crowd, aren’t you?”
“So it seems.”
“What’s so special about you, I wonder?”
“Hmm, I don’t know if special would be the word I would use,” Lizzy said. “Luckless maybe? Unfortunate perhaps?”
“You’re an interesting individual.”
Lizzy didn’t respond. For a few seconds neither said a word, and Jenny sensed that they were both perfectly comfortable in the shared silence.
“There are four more people on your list,” Lizzy finally said.
“You have done your homework.”
“I think you should turn yourself in.”
“I did nothing wrong,” Jenny answered, feeling a tight pull in her chest. “I was abused every day for four years. All I wanted was to be left alone. I did everything I could to be invisible to those people, but nothing I did mattered. They had it out for me. I was pushed and shoved, pinched and pulled. I was blindfolded, taken for a ride, and left alone, miles away from my home, in the dead of night. And that was just the beginning. I was also raped and then held down for his friends. I was humiliated, battered, insulted in every way possible. Each and every one of those animals deserves the death penalty.”
“There is a criminal justice system in place to impose penalties for those who break the law.”
“Don’t make me laugh. You know as well as I do that sometimes people need to take the law into their own hands if they want any justice in this world. I went to the principal. I talked to my teachers. They did nothing. Nobody cared.”
“So why now?”
“Why not?”
“After all these years,” Lizzy said, “something must have triggered your deep-seated resentment.”
“Oh, listen to you,” Jenny said. “Well, I know some things, too. Like that you’ve been seeing a therapist for years. Sounds like she’s rubbed off on you.”
“Want me to give you her phone number? I’m sure she could help you.”
“No, thanks,” Jenny said. “The trigger, as you called it, was a man—the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Is he still alive?”
“I have no idea,” she lied. “He was a pig. Who cares?”
“I’m going to warn the four people still left on your list that they’re in danger.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“We all have choices.”
“And that includes you,” Lizzy said.
“I’ve made mine.”
“Are you talking to me from your home phone?”
“Afraid not,” Jenny answered. “I purchased some of those throwaways. Convenient, really.”
“I would say so. I guess I won’t be able to call you when I need someone to talk to?”
Jenny laughed. “I’ll call you again, but it looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me now that I have a deadline.”
“Who’s next on your list?” Lizzy asked.
“You sound suddenly anxious. Does it bother you to know that you might have just shortened their lives by a few days?”
“Don’t do this. I know they were wrong in what they did to you. But what you’re doing isn’t right.”
“I’m glad we had this talk, Lizzy.”
“Please don’t hurt anyone—”
You never should have called her. She’s not going to give up. Lizzy Gardner always gets her man.
Yeah, that’s the problem. She’s dealing with a woman this time. Not just any woman, either. You’re forgetting who I am—I’m Jenny Pickett.