He did not break her arm. Instead, he punched her hard in the back, right at the kidney. She buckled and fell and without giving her a moment to recover, he started dragging her forward. Her knees scraped against the wood—the wood of a dock or small pier, she assumed. Even as he dragged her, she could hear the water.
The water…waiting for her. Waiting to swallow her up into its deep and limitless belly. She shuddered and tried screaming through the gag. She wished he’d just kill her. Shoot her. Stab her. Bash her brains in…just please God, not the water.
Miraculously, he removed the blindfold in that moment. She saw that her other senses had done their job. She found herself on the edge of a small pier, looking out onto a body of water. Night had not yet fallen and the light of dusk on the water would have been beautiful…if it hadn’t been for the water. That murky, deadly water.
As she looked at it, her bowels clenched and her lungs seemed to shudder. Her chest grew tight and she started to sob.
“I know you’re scared,” he said from behind her. “And that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being scared.”
Abby could see street lights in the distance, probably having just clicked on. She wondered if she could make enough noise through the gag for anyone out that way to hear her. She wondered where they were. Where in the city was there this much water? It certainly wasn’t the harbor. It was too pretty…too quiet.
Her thoughts were broken when she felt his hands snaking around her neck. She tried to fight away again and this time was rewarded with a hard knee to the small of her back. She crumpled again and this time when she hit her knees, she fell on the pier less than a foot away from the water. She gasped, her heart hammering in her chest and—
That’s when his foot struck her backside. She went off the pier in a little half-flip. When she heard the splash and felt the water rushing past her head to swallow up her body, she tried to scream. But the gag would not let her and the pressure of the water made it impossible. She kicked her legs and tried to swim, realizing that her hands were still tied behind her back. She kicked and whimpered, knowing the surface was somewhere overhead. She could swim, knew how to swim, but the panic was too much.
She managed to break the water a single time. She saw her date, the man she thought had been cute and very kindhearted, sitting on the dock and watching her. He smiled at her, his eyes fiery and intense.
His face was the last thing she saw. The panic and fear was simply too much.
When Abby went under the second time, she never made it back up.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
By seven thirty that afternoon, Avery’s hunch was proven to be true. Stefon had not one but two solid alibis for his whereabouts during the timeframe of Alfred Lawnbrook’s murder. A series of video files that had been saved to his computer and heavily edited took up almost three days that—based on new information from the coroner—bookended the suspected time of Lawnbrook’s death. The videos, of course, were about spiders and featured the three tarantula wolf spiders he’d had in the glass case in his living room.
The second alibi had come from Clarissa, who had happily handed her iPhone over to show a series of text messages from Stefon during that same time. And while the texts could have easily been sent from anywhere, it was the two long phone calls that proved most useful.
Stefon was released and went peacefully. Avery nearly felt the need to apologize to him but didn’t bother. She wouldn’t have done it three months ago and, quite honestly, wasn’t sure why she felt the need to do so now. Maybe the three months off had softened her a bit. That or the emotional hell she’d been through over the course of those three months.
Stefon’s release set Avery back to zero. She was only left with vague questions and theories, none of which had yet developed feet. She sat in her old office with Kellaway, Finley, and O’Malley. The space was cramped but Finley seemed to love the fact that his office was being used in such a way. Kellaway, meanwhile, seemed appreciative to be part of such a high-profile case. Still, she was keeping a cool ahead about her and was not holding a grudge toward Avery’s little outburst earlier in the day.
Little by little, Avery was growing to like her quite a bit.
“What about drugs?” Kellaway asked as they tried their best to ping-pong ideas back and forth off of one another.
“What about them?” O’Malley asked.
“Were there any drugs in Lawnbrook’s system?” she asked.
“Toxicology reports say no,” O’Malley answered.
“But maybe there’s an avenue there somewhere,” Avery said. “Stefon claimed Lawnbrook was interested in getting over his fear of spiders. He also insinuated that having sex in the same room where there were spiders might have been an attempt to help with the fear. I’ve also learned that there’s apparently a small online community that is obsessed with spiders. It makes me wonder…if Lawnbrook was willing to confide his secret to Stefon and try any means necessary to overcome this fear, maybe he went elsewhere with it, too. Maybe he did know the killer. Maybe Lawnbrook met him online and the interaction with the spiders was intentional. Maybe it just got out of hand.”
“It’s certainly worth looking into,” O’Malley said.
“Yeah, but that was a shitload of spiders,” Finley said. “You’d think you’d sort of ease yourself into it if you’re trying to get over a fear.”
Avery nodded. It was a good point. Still, the thought of the exposure to the spiders being intentional had legs—especially if Stefon was accurate in just how badly Lawnbrook had wanted to get over his fear.
“What if it was Lawnbrook himself?” Kellaway suggested. “What if he had slowly collected them—either to get over his fear or to impress Stefon Scott?”
“Possible,” O’Malley said. “Finley, can you get someone on that for us? Someone to nose around the Internet to find these weirdo communities. See if you can find any link to Lawnbrook.”
“I’ll sic a few people on it,” Finley said, getting up from the desk.
“And I’m going to get back home,” Avery said. “I’ll do some digging of my own.” She gave Kellaway a little nod of appreciation and then exited the office. She got perhaps five steps away before Kellaway’s voice stopped her from behind.
“Detective Black?” Kellaway asked. “Um, can I ask a favor?”
“What is it?”
“My car broke down three days ago. I’ve been taking the bus to and from work and I was wondering if you could give me a ride?”
“Sure,” Avery said, noting how embarrassed Kellaway seemed to be asking for the favor. “And hey,” Avery added after some thought, “you can drop the Detective Black stuff. If we’re going to work this case to completion, you can call me Avery.”
This seemed to make Kellaway’s day, as she was unable to contain her smile. Avery hid her own grin, finding some comfort in the fact that she could at least make some people happy.
***
“I feel like I need to apologize to you,” Avery said. They were words that had never come to her very easily, not even when interacting with Rose. But given the course of her life over the last three months, she figured there were some things she needed to change about herself.
“For what?” Kellaway said.
“For sort of snapping at you earlier when you were asking those questions about Howard Randall.”
Kellaway considered it for a moment as she looked out of Avery’s passenger side window. The apology seemed to surprise her, taking her off guard for a moment. Finally, she said, “You don’t have anything to apologize for. I got overexcited. I mean…don’t get me wrong. I saw some pro-level shit in New York, but the whole Howard Randall connection and all of your cases had me geeking out.”
“I’m not geek-out worthy,” Avery said. “Trust me.”
“The stories I’ve heard about you say otherwise. It sort of blew me away that so many macho men were speaking so highly of you.”
“Macho?” Avery asked with a chuckle. “Like who?”