“I think it’s because I just started a book that will take me at least a year to finish, and I’m feeling a lot of pressure.”
“Good thing they paid you six figures.” She reached over to take his hand, letting her head fall to the side so she could study him and the new frown lines that seemed permanently etched between his brows. “You’ll be ready for Omaha.”
“Maybe,” he said softly. “They think they’ve identified nine now.”
Nine. Not bodies. Just missing women.
None of the bodies had been found in either state. Their killer was a cop, so he’d known exactly how to hide a victim so well they might never be found. And Mendelson wasn’t talking.
Maybe that was Lily’s fault. His attorneys claimed he had brain damage and couldn’t recall his crimes, and perhaps that was true. But she felt only an intellectual level of regret over that. She would’ve killed him a hundred times over to save her son, the investigation be damned. She frankly regretted that she could claim only to have massacred half the bones in his face. She wished she’d gotten all of them.
Alex’s working theory was that Mendelson had left Herriman to join the Omaha Police Department because Marti Herrera’s family had forced an actual investigation. His game of hunting local women had suddenly become dangerous. He’d needed more anonymity, a larger territory to stalk, and Omaha had provided that.
He’d risen to detective there. He’d even been assigned to investigate several of the disappearances he was suspected of causing. Then he’d met his “angel,” Amber, and he’d brought her back to Herriman to start over, to raise a family.
Lily still shivered every time she considered that strange parallel in their lives. It had to be a coincidence, but it felt dirty, like something stuck to her, somehow. Like she’d caused it.
“Amber wrote to say she’s back with her mom in Nebraska,” Lily said softly. “She hasn’t responded to you?”
“No. Not yet. I told her I’d be in touch and ready to talk whenever she wants. But I think she’s still afraid of him. She probably always will be.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
“He’ll never get out.”
“I know.” Yes, she knew it, but she didn’t feel it. Everything was still too raw, the fear too huge to work around. Amber had to be experiencing that a thousand times over. And Mendelson had left her with another, much more horrifying legacy.
It was her fault he’d lost control, Amber had written to Lily. He’d always told her that she kept his monsters at bay. That he’d done terrible things before he’d met her five years earlier. Her virginity, her innocence, had cleansed him on their wedding night, and now she feared she’d let the monster loose when she’d left him. It was exactly what he’d told her would happen.
And now she had his son.
Lily felt like she would need a PhD in psychology to respond adequately to this poor woman’s request for forgiveness, but she planned to take her time and do her best. And she would honor the one request Amber had made of her.
When her phone buzzed, she glanced at it with a sigh. “Everett is now texting me from his bedroom. Which is twenty feet away. I never should have gotten him a phone.”
Alex chuckled at the running joke. Of course, one of their first stops after Lily had been released from the hospital had been to buy Everett a cellphone. It hadn’t left his hand since, and she was damn grateful for that constant connection. She wasn’t sure she’d have ever let him out of her sight without it.
Her phone buzzed again. “Update: he confirms that Shadow likes her new cat condo, in case you were wondering.”
“That makes me happy. I was thinking I should get a cat.” He sighed. “Brian really missed his cat, you know? I think he’d be honored if I named a cat after him. I could talk to him like I used to talk to Brian. The house wouldn’t feel so damn big either.”
She wasn’t sure how he lived out there after the terrifying tragedy he’d dealt with, but he said that was where he’d spent all his time with Brian in both childhood and adulthood, so he felt close to him there.
“And he’d be okay with the cat having his name?” she asked with a smile.
“I mean, he really missed his cat. Maybe even more than his wife, I swear to God. I guess the relationship with the cat was a little simpler. I think he’d like it.”
Brian had been found shot through the head in a way that would have suggested suicide if Mendelson had been able to complete his plans. They’d found more than Yolanda’s necklace in Mendelson’s possession. He’d also had an anklet identified as Mary’s, and an earring that must have belonged to one of the other girls. He’d meant to leave them all hidden in Brian’s room, as proof of Brian’s evil soul and of the past that had motivated him to kill Alex, Lily, and Everett.
But instead Mendelson had left three fewer victims behind, thank God. Four if she counted Amber.
Alex squeezed her hand and gave her a quick kiss that pulled her out of the past and brought her back to the party.
A panel of the backyard privacy fence had been removed and a metal archway placed there with new honeysuckle vines now reaching up it, and Lily watched Sharon walk through with two cases of soda in her arms. “More party supplies!” she called out to Nour, who was manning the smoker they’d rolled over to Lily’s yard that morning.
“I still can’t believe I agreed to this,” Lily murmured.
“You love it,” Alex countered, and she rolled her eyes.
“I’d better get back to it.”
He raised his iPhone. “Don’t worry about the music. I won’t let you down.”
“Coward,” she said, but she was smiling when she walked back out into the sun.
Everett had decided he wanted to stay in Herriman. She would have denied him nothing at that point, but even she had started feeling glad about the decision. The choice of rental house she wasn’t quite so sure of, but she couldn’t deny that Everett finding a vacant three-bedroom directly next door to Nour and Sharon’s house must have been a sign. Right?
And she couldn’t deny that it really did feel like having family, even if she still squirmed occasionally under those tight binds. But Sharon . . . Sharon had helped save Everett. She’d seen him in the back seat, face a mask of fear, and she’d seen Mendelson too, and recognized him. She hadn’t hesitated for a moment to call 911 and report that something was very wrong.
Granted, they’d already known that because of Everett’s call, but Sharon’s follow-up had confirmed that it was no joke, that everyone needed to mobilize, that one of their own had gone rogue. If Sharon hadn’t called . . . well, there was a good chance they might have sent out only a couple of officers to check on a hoax.
She followed Sharon to the deck and gave her another big hug. She hugged Nour too. “Thank you again for the ribs. They’re amazing. Thank you for everything.”
“Where’s Everett?” Sharon asked. “I promised him a water-gun fight.”
Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. “He’s in his room. I’ll go roust him.”
Lily waved at Mac, who was talking to Josephine’s parents near the beer cooler. It was more of a family party than a kid’s party, but that was what Everett had wanted. He’d gone to the water park with Josephine, Mikey, and three other friends last weekend, which had been Lily’s gift to him. But today he’d wanted just family, so that’s what he’d gotten.
The house was quiet with everyone outside. Peaceful. It was a bit more than they could afford, but it had felt so right when they’d walked in. Everett had lit up, and he’d very solemnly explained how convenient it would be to have Nour and Sharon next door if Lily got stuck late on the road when she traveled.