“Good, I like a man who can adapt.”
He entered the apartment and saw the setup of her computers, stacks of legal pads with notes, and sticky notes stuck randomly on the large table by her bed. “You’ve been working, too.”
“I’ve almost wrapped up the podcast and was just listening to what I have.”
“How does it sound?”
This had been an emotional journey and one of the hardest things she’d ever done. There were still missing pieces from that night on the road. How had Gina’s blood gotten on her shirt? She still didn’t remember, but Adler theorized she had resisted Randy and tried to save Gina. She clung to that explanation when Gina’s loss troubled her in the middle of the night as it likely always would. “It’s pretty good, if I do say so myself.”
He picked up a purple sticky note that read Randy Hayward. As he flicked the edge with his finger, his eyes hardened. “Ricker is now seeking the death penalty in the Maria Thomas murder case.”
This was a new development since she’d seen Adler two days ago. “Does Randy’s mother know?”
“I don’t know. She’s still not accepting her son’s calls and has only spoken to me once. Her attorney was very careful about the questions he’d let her answer.”
“She had to have known what Randy did. She deliberately withheld information, and she had her shed torn down. She must have been covering for her son.”
“I think you’re right. But I’m not sure we will be able to prove that.”
“Do you think Mrs. Hayward knew about what Randy did to Maria Thomas?”
“She must have sensed a pattern with her son and women. We can’t link the sexual assaults that occurred near him in college, but thanks to our conversation with Maureen, there’s a chance there might be some closure in that case, too.”
A pattern of cover-ups in the Hayward family had contributed to so much suffering. “I interviewed the Thomas family about their daughter, Maria. They were devastated to learn she’s dead,” she said.
He captured a strand of her hair and gently rubbed it between this thumb and forefinger. “There is no happy ending for the Thomas family, but at least they know what happened to their daughter.”
“Knowing is better than all the terrible scenarios that dog you, but it still hurts.”
“Maybe now they have a chance to move on with their lives.”
“Like me.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Yes, like you.”
She wanted to lean into him and forget all about this case, but there were still details she needed to clarify. “I know Ricker got his court order for Blackstone’s and Crowley’s DNA. Have the results come back? Was there a match?”
“There was, and the results match Logan’s theory.”
“The blood on Gina’s dress was Blackstone’s,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I never remembered Blackstone.”
“You couldn’t have. By the time Blackstone appeared on the scene, you had already run for help. Logan and I believe that Gina fought harder than Randy had expected, so after you left, he called the friend who had always helped him.”
She felt a bitter satisfaction knowing Gina had ultimately helped catch her killers. “Gina fought so hard it took two men to subdue her.”
“And she hurt Blackstone in some way, which explained his blood on her dress. Randy and Blackstone took Gina to the shed on the Hayward property and stashed her body there until they could bury her in the country.”
All the pieces tumbled together, forming a gruesome picture that the world would finally see. “Blackstone is going to fight you.”
“Oh, I know. He’s already hired his own forensic expert to explain the blood, but the test results are ironclad.”
“What about Ashley?”
“I pressed her for more details. When I threw accessory-to-murder charges at her, she admitted Blackstone had been wearing shorts and had a large cut on his thigh above his knee that night. She said it looked like he’d been hit with a rock.”
Again, Kaitlin imagined Gina’s last desperate fight to stay alive and had to pause until she could speak without her voice breaking.
“Does Randy know this?”
“Quinn spoke to him yesterday. He said he’d tell us more about Gina if Ricker took the death penalty off the table in the Thomas case. Ricker refused. But Randy isn’t as cocky as he once was, and I’m betting it won’t be long before he tells us what happened and how Blackstone fit into the equation.”
“I remember Randy and Derek fighting at that last Fourth of July party. When Randy approached me, he was very frustrated, angry, and drunk. I wasn’t sure what set him off because he and Derek never fought. Something must have come up that day about Maria.” She shook her head. “I should never have been with Randy.”
He laid his hand on her shoulder. “But you walked away from him.”
“I did. But that set him on a collision course with Gina.” She shook off a jab of guilt and focused on what she’d done. “I’ve been digging into Marcus’s past. The deeper I go the more I realize how troubled he was.”
“Logan discovered that Marcus’s wife left him last year and took their son. When Logan interviewed Mrs. Marcus, she said her husband’s obsession with finding Gina finally drove her away.”
“And when he couldn’t find Gina, he shifted his focus to Jennifer, Erika, and me.”
“According to a journal found in his car, he said he could die in peace knowing Gina was waiting for him on the other side. He’d known all along that day that I would come after you and he’d kill us all in the fire.”
She still had nightmares about the explosion. Several times she’d awakened in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. Most of those nights, Adler was with her, and he’d pulled her into his embrace until she stopped shaking. “It’s all heartbreaking.”
Adler traced her jaw with his finger and then kissed her. “It’s all out in the open now because of you.”
And that did give her comfort. “On the bright side, I did get a corporate sponsor, Shield Security. I won’t be getting rich, but it’s enough to cover my bills, promote the project, and buy time until the next project.”
He cocked his head. “The next project?”
She laughed as she snuggled close to him. When she was in his arms, the world simply felt right. “There’s always going to be a next project.”
He tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes, and he kissed her on the lips. “As long as you keep me involved with your next endeavor.”
He’d been a rock for her, and she didn’t want to imagine him not being in her life. She kissed him back. “Endeavor? That’s such a professional word.” Her hand slid to his belt buckle. “Is that what we have?” She unfastened the buckle, already anxious to have him inside her. “A strictly professional relationship?”
He slid his hand down her spine and under the waistband of her pajama pants. He cupped her buttocks and pushed her pelvis toward him as she unfastened the belt. “No, not just professional. I love the personal, and you, far too much to settle for just that.”
She stilled. “You love me?”
He nodded, smiling. “I love you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “And I love you right back.”