“Paul, keep your hands where I can see them,” Coulter called as he came through the door, his weapon raised.
Paul laughed, the sound was high and strange in the quiet of the boathouse. “I won’t fight. I promise. Please just take me away from here,” Paul begged and then his laughter turned to sobs. He dropped to his knees and allowed Coulter to cuff him while he read Paul his Miranda rights.
Saige felt the blood flowing through her…warming her…so she struggled to her feet and made her way to the table with the jewelry box on it.
“Don’t touch it,” Coulter snapped, and winced. “Sorry. I don’t want your fingerprints on it.”
“Oh. I should have thought about that.” Saige couldn’t stop staring at the box though. “Is it really the jewelry from the girls?”
“Yes. It’s been buried for years. I dug it up to add things from Fern and Tracy.” Paul started to cry again. “I didn’t want to hurt Tracy but she threatened to tell Alex. I was hiding alongside her house. He told her that he’d be back for answers, and then left. That’s when I knew I had to shut her up. I wasn’t ready to be arrested then.”
“And you are now?” Coulter asked, a brow raised.
“Yes.” He sobbed and his eyes burned with hatred as he said, “I was ready to kill her…my mother…and as much as I hate her, I would never forgive myself if I acted on it. It was time to turn myself in to protect her…and to finally be free of her.”
Saige met Coulter’s gaze and saw the same doubts shining in his eyes. Was Paul really the killer or was he lying to escape his mother?
“I know what you’re both thinking. All you have to do is send my DNA for testing and it will be a match to the one that was never identified in the shack where Saige was held.”
Coulter nodded and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, calling in the arrest.
The sheriff arrived with the cavalry, and once they hauled Paul to the station, the sheriff, Coulter, and a deputy medical examiner carefully opened the box.
Sheriff Hodges cursed and Coulter’s face tightened with anger before he met her curious gaze.
“It’s the missing jewelry from the college girls.”
Blood thundered in her ears and her vision started to dim.
Quinten would be freed.
Coulter caught her as she passed out.
Day 15
3:00am
* * *
Coulter had one hell of a headache when he came out of the interview room. Not only had Paul Lewis told them enough about each and every crime scene, going back to Kelsey Louise Ingram, the second college girl killed, he’d also told them how his own parents had treated him. Nothing should surprise him anymore, but he was.
He pressed a finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, praying the headache wouldn’t turn into a migraine, and then...he smelled coffee—real coffee and not the junk they dished out at the sheriff’s station.
His eyes snapped open and his heart fluttered in his chest.
“Amber?” he whispered, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him. “It is you.”
She smiled while he stared at her like an idiot. Her riot of fire-orange hair was loose down her back and she looked like she was fresh out of college in her jeans, t-shirt, and sweater. But just the sight of her made him wake up.
“Figured you’d need this.” She handed him the cup. “I decided to drive up to take his DNA myself…I missed you.”
“I shouldn’t be glad you’re here in the middle of the night, but I am.”
“Good.” Amber turned and smiled at someone to her right, but he couldn’t take his eyes from her as his libido took on a life of its own.
She slipped her hand into his and gave a tug. “Saige is waiting for you.”
Well, that snapped him out of his lustful thoughts. “She’s still here?”
“She is. Wanted to wait and talk to you before she left.”
“Okay.”
Amber led him down the hall and toward the waiting room where they found Saige. He offered her a tired smile when she met his gaze. “Have you given them your statement yet?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I have a copy and the nice deputy sheriff faxed a copy to Daniel Sterling.” She shrugged. “Daniel hadn’t been too happy to be woken this late, but when I told him why it couldn’t wait until morning, he was awake and waiting for the fax. He has it now and will wait to talk to you tomorrow, um, later today before he goes to the governor.”