Over and over again, she said, “I trusted you. I loved you. Why would you do this?”
Andrew looked up at her through the pain in his face. “So pathetic. You were just a passing interest, Jasmine. Not even really worth my time except for the tabs you kept on your sister for me. Although, you were pretty bad at that, too.” He looked up at Rodney. “You have no proof, you know. Clara’s word against mine and no one will believe her. I’m the town’s golden boy; they all love me.” He smiled triumphantly.
Then, faintly, they heard the words: “What part did you like most?” Andrew’s head snapped around to where Tracy stood, holding her phone out for him to see.
“Do you want to hear more? I have your whole conversation with Clara on my phone.” She grinned at him.
“You can’t do this to me! Let me go! This won’t hold up in a court of law!”he screamed from the floor.
“Actually, it will,” said a voice from behind Rodney. Clara looked up in surprise as Anthony walked into the room, Alex following closely behind him.
Andrew’s demeanor suddenly changed. The anger quickly faded from his face as he looked up in relief at his brothers. “Guys, hey. Get this idiot off me.” Andrew struggled to move, but Rodney didn’t budge.
“Andrew, it’s time that you faced the truth. You’re a monster and monsters don’t deserve to see the light of day.” Anthony turned to Clara. “I’m sorry you had to go through this. And I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. What he was, he hid very well. After you left the house, Alex told me what was going on. When Andrew left shortly after you, I had a feeling you were up to something. We heard everything he said out in the hall; we can testify to it.”
Andrew tried to heave himself up. “What is wrong with you two? I’m your brother; you’re supposed to be on my side, defending me!”
Alex knelt so that his face was level with Andrew’s. “Do you really think for an instant that I would stand up for you? After what you did to Betty and my baby? After what I’m pretty sure you did to the other girls I dated?”
Andrew spit in Alex’s face.”The other girls? You didn’t even care enough about them to tell anyone that you thought it was me!” Andrew reminded him. His face reddened the longer he talked.
The color drained from Alex’s face. “That was my fault. But even if I had said something, I had no actual proof; no way to make anyone believe that you had done anything to hurt those girls.”
Andrew stopped struggling and smirked. “You still don’t have anything to connect me to those girls. I never named names; you could be talking about any number of girls.”
From above him, Rodney said, “I know what girls they’re talking about. And I have information that may help those cops figure out who made them disappear.”
Andrew grunted in rage.
Clara looked back at Anthony. “I’m sorry I did this to your family, but the pain he caused everyone … I couldn’t let him get away with it.”
Anthony ran a hand through his hair. “It was really hard for me to believe, to be honest. I watched him grow up. How were you able to go through with it?”
She shook her head. “He had to be stopped. I had to do what I had to do. I’m only sorry that I had to use you to get information.”
Anthony stepped toward her, reaching out to touch her cheek. “I understand why you did it. I only hope that it wasn’t the only reason why you wanted to spend time with me.”
As Clara started to respond, a laugh interrupted her.”Oh, man, this is pathetic. Bro, you do know that I just had my tongue down her throat, right? And my hands up her skirt? She didn’t seem to be fighting me off then.” Rodney pushed his knee harder into Andrew’s back.
Anthony turned to look down at Andrew. “She did it to trap you, to get you to admit what you did. What would make you think that I’d play football or go to college with you? I didn’t even do it for myself; why would I do it for you?”
The color drained from Andrew’s face. “But we’re brothers. We’re supposed to help each other! You’re supposed to be there for me!”
Alex leaned in closer to Andrew’s face. “There for you? There for you! You killed four of them … and two were pregnant! You killed my children!” Rodney pulled Andrew to his feet and away from Alex.
Alex took a step toward them, but Anthony grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. “He’s not worth it, Alex.”
Alex shoved Anthony’s hand off him. “Not worth it? He killed Betty! And those other girls. And he’s not worth it?”
“You have a child at home, Alex. A wife and a baby on the way. Andrew is your brother,” Anthony reminded him.
“No, he’s not my brother. Not anymore.” With one last glare at Andrew, Alex walked out of the room. Clara could hear sirens outside, getting louder as they approached the house.
Andrew looked after Alex, then turned back to Anthony.”Don’t know what he’s all worked up about. He never asked questions when those girls disappeared. He just kept doing what he wanted, never thinking of the consequences of his actions. Just being selfish. He’s the one who brought Betty into this in the first place. If he’d left her alone, she’d still be alive right now.”
Hannah got in his face, her breath hot in his eyes. “He brought her into this? He did? No, Andrew, you did. You killed her. No one made you do it. No one held a gun to your head and told you to drown a pregnant teenager. You did that all your own. For your own selfish reasons.” She pulled away and looked at Rodney. “Get him out of here before I punch him.”
Rodney pulled Andrew out of the room, reading him his rights as he walked him down the stairs. Tracy followed, her phone in her hand. Jasmine collapsed onto Clara’s bed in a fit of tears. Stacy tried to comfort her.
Anthony turned back to Clara, sadness in his eyes. “Clara, I really am sorry. I didn’t know what Andrew was doing. I didn’t see it. I was blind to what was going on because I was so focused on getting out of this town and away from these people. Maybe I could’ve stopped him, helped him. If only I’d seen what he was doing,” he sobbed.
Clara reached out and took his hand. “I don’t think he could’ve been saved, Anthony. He’s really messed up. And there’s nothing you could have done. He had a loving family and he still turned out this way. There really is something wrong with him, something that family and love couldn’t fix.”
Anthony pulled her closer to him, his breath on her face. “I want to kiss you, but I know that he kissed you and it feels wrong to me. Like I don’t deserve to kiss you.”
Clara stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “Take me out to dinner next week and then kiss me. We can forget all about this,” she suggested.
He nodded and squeezed her once before letting go and walking out of the room.
Clara turned to Jasmine, her heart breaking as she looked at her sister’s face. She sat on the bed next to her. Taking her hand, Clara brushed Jasmine’s hair out of her face. “Jazzy, honey. Talk to me.”
Jasmine looked up at her. “He lied to me. He told me I was the most important person in the world to him. He said that I meant everything and that all the other girls meant nothing. Why would he say those things to me, Clara? Why would he lie to me like that?”
Clara pulled Jasmine to her, wrapping both arms around her sister. “He’s not a healthy person, Jazzy. He’s not mentally OK. Lying is nothing to him. He says whatever he thinks will get him what he wants. At that time, he wanted you. What did you let him do to you?”
Jazzy looked up at her. “Everything, Clara. I thought he loved me, I thought we were gonna be together forever. Saying no wasn’t even an option.”
Fighting back tears, Clara clutched Jasmine tighter. “Oh, Jazzy, I’m so sorry. I got so wrapped up in all this, I didn’t even realize that you needed me. I should’ve been there for you. I’m so sorry, sweetie.”
At that moment, their parents rushed through the door, the fancy clothes they’d been wearing for their date night wrinkled.
Mrs. Young took one
look at her girls and burst into tears. She pulled them both to her, clutching them tightly.”My babies. Oh, my poor babies. I’m so sorry we weren’t here.”
Clara let out a weak laugh. “Man, we’re just full of apologies tonight, aren’t we?” She looked up at her father. “Did Rodney fill you in?”
Her father nodded and reached out to her. Clara fell into his arms, finally letting the sobs overtake her, letting out all she’d been holding inside, trying to be strong. Now she could let it go. And it was such a relief.
15.
THE OTHER GIRLS
T he next day, Clara didn’t get out of bed until almost noon. The exhaustion from the night before had knocked her out for over 12 hours. When she finally woke up, everyone but Rodney had left the house.
He was sitting on the couch watching TV when she walked down the stairs. He looked up with a smile. “Hey Lil’ Sis, there’s coffee in the kitchen.” She smiled in thanks and went to pour herself a cup.
Sitting on the couch next to him, Clara took a tentative sip. The steam from the coffee helped to wake her up. She turned to him slowly. “So, tell me about the other girls. You took so long getting here last night, I was afraid I was going to have to go through with sleeping with him. Did you find any evidence in their cases?”
Rodney sighed. “I’m really sorry about that. I can’t believe he got that far with you. He moved faster than I thought he would.”
“Well, he was under a time crunch. Jasmine could’ve come back at any time; she was the one who got him to come over in the first place,” Clara reminded him.
Rodney shook his head. “That girl; it’s going to take her a while to heal, isn’t it?”
Clara nodded.
“Well, we’ll just have to help her.” At Clara’s questioning glance, he sighed again. “I was trying to stall but I see that’s not going to work. OK, about the other three cases. All three girls went missing within a year of each other, a year before Betty’s murder.”
Clara leaned in. “Anything that points toward Andrew?”
Rodney held up his hand. “I’m getting to that. Andrew was really good at what he did. I had to do a little poking around in his past before I could figure out how he’d made these girls disappear. And I’m not even done with that.”
“What did you find in his past?” Clara asked.
“You know they had a family dog at one point? A Golden Retriever that had been around since Alex was a baby. When Andrew was about eight, the dog was found dead in the backyard. While a huge deal wasn’t made about it, apparently the circumstances of its death were very sketchy.”
“How can a dog’s death be considered sketchy?” Clara wondered.
Rodney shrugged. “People have opinions about everything, especially in small towns. A couple of neighbors got to see the dog before Andrew’s dad buried it. They said it didn’t die of natural causes.”
Clara leaned her head on the back of the couch. “So, what happened to it? The suspense is killing me here.”
Rodney grinned. “I wanted to make it interesting. Anyway, the neighbors claim that the dog appeared to have been gutted. Like someone had taken a knife and cut its stomach open. And Andrew wasn’t anywhere around when his dad buried the dog. They never got another dog after that, which seemed very strange to the neighbors.”
“So, he tortured a dog? That’s not surprising,” Clara said.
“There’s more. Bodies were never found after that, but animals continued to go missing. Cats normally, as they were the easiest to catch. The neighbors said the disappearances stopped when Andrew started high school.”
“Maybe football distracted him?” Clara suggested.
Rodney shook his head. “I don’t think so, Lil’ Sis. Football’s not that distracting. Football and girls combined might have done it for him, but I doubt it. He was a freshman, Alex was a junior, and that’s when the girls started going missing.”
“But he couldn’t drive. How did he get to them in the first place?” Clara asked.
Rodney grinned. “That’s where the evidence comes in. He had a bus pass. It recorded every time it was swiped. He used it to get to the other girls’ towns on the nights they disappeared.”
Clara took another sip of coffee. “OK, so that puts him in the town. But Rodney, that still doesn’t tell us how he got rid of them. He could have been in the town and not have done anything to them.”
“But we know otherwise, Lil’ Sis. We know he did something to them; we just have to figure out what it was,” Rodney said.
“In your talks with the neighbors, did you find out how he made the animals disappear? It may be a clue, a pattern to the way he works,” Clara said.
“No one was sure. I was going to talk to Alex about it when you sent me your text. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to talk to him,” Rodney said.
Clara sat up. “You’ll let me come along?”
“Well, you did help a lot with this case. You got a confession out of Andrew. I don’t see why you can’t talk to a few people with me. If anyone asks, I’ll just tell them that you needed a ride and I made a stop along the way.”
Clara grinned from ear to ear.
“But you have to wear real clothes to go with me. I don’t think pajamas are a good idea.”
Clara set down her coffee and ran upstairs to change. She pulled on a pair of black jeans and a blue tank top, then pulled her hair back into a ponytail. A couple quick swipes of mascara and she was heading back downstairs with socks in her hands. As she tied her sneakers, Rodney shook his head. “You spend an hour getting ready for school but only five minutes this morning. It completely amazes me.”
She punched his arm and headed out the door toward Rodney’s truck. It was an older model Chevy, with four-wheel drive and a winch on the front. With a dual cab and a long bed, it was definitely not built for gas mileage. Rodney had repainted it blue with black trim a couple years earlier, and the rims were very shiny.
On the way to Alex’s house, Rodney stopped to get coffee for both of them. Clara sipped hers in silence, trying to think of what she wanted to ask Alex. Having lived with Andrew for years, he’d be the best one to know where Andrew would have hidden his kills, even if they were just animal kills. That clue might lead them to the girls’ bodies. And the bodies might have more evidence on them that would prove Andrew was the one who’d killed them.
Alex’s house was much smaller than his parents’ house. A one-story structure, it looked like every other house on its block, with two windows on either side of the white front door. The house itself was yellow with white trim. It even had a white picket fence. Two big shrubs on either side of the fence’s entrance made the yard look more enclosed than it was. Clara got out of the truck and looked at the house. “Much quainter than his parents’ house.”
“Well, I guess that means he didn’t take any of Daddy’s money,” Rodney said.
They walked up to the door and Rodney knocked. They could hear voices from inside and then Alex opened the door. There were bags under his hazel eyes, and he was still in his clothes from the night before.
“Rough night?” Rodney asked.
Alex stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. “You have no idea. Try telling your wife that your younger brother is a serial killer and that’s why she wasn’t allowed to be alone with him for all these years. You’d look exactly like I do right now. How can I help you two?”
Rodney looked at Clara, then said, “We think Andrew was practicing on animals before he started attacking girls. But we don’t know how he disposed of the animal bodies. We thought maybe, growing up, you saw something that didn’t seem quite right. It may be what we’re looking for.”
Alex sighed. “Something weird, huh? Andrew was weird all the way around; nothing really stands out. He was always spying on me, watching me with my girlfriends, following me around.”
Clara stopped him. “Nothing like that. Stuff like him sneaking around, coming in late at night
, things like that.”
Alex scratched his chin, which had sprouted day-old stubble. “He was a sneaky bastard sometimes. He would slip out at night and mess around in the garbage cans.”
Rodney looked surprised. “Garbage cans? What would he be doing with those?”
“Hiding something. I went in after him once and found a bag full of rags and stuff that he’d buried under all our other trash. No animals, though,” he added after seeing Clara’s hopeful look.
Clara leaned her head on the door jamb. “No animals, but rags. This is so weird.”
“Oh, and he dug a lot. We always had holes in the yard because he’d be out digging something. Always had some story about how he was digging to China or making a den like dogs in the wild do,” Alex said.
Rodney and Clara exchanged a glance.
“Digging the yard? Would he really be brave enough to bury them?” Clara’s voice came out in an excited squeal.
Rodney nodded. “Makes sense. He buries them and no one can find them. But where would he do that?”
Alex looked upset. “At their own houses? In their backyards maybe? By the time he reached high school, he’d gotten really good at hiding his holes. The only reason I knew he was still digging was because his clothes always had dirt on them.”
Clara turned to Rodney.”Do you think you’ll be able to dig up those yards?”she asked excitedly.
Rodney had already pulled out his phone. “Let me call the cops who are leading those other cases and let them know.” He turned and headed to his truck, talking quickly on his phone.
Clara patted Alex on the shoulder. “Thank you for your help. Hopefully, this will all be over soon.”
Alex looked at her with pain-filled eyes. “For my family, this will never be over.” He turned and went back into the house, leaving Clara standing there in surprise.
Clara turned and followed Rodney to the truck, climbing in as he hung up his phone. “Once we dig up a couple animals in his parents’ yard, the cops are going to get warrants to check the girls’ yards. Andrew’s dad has already given us permission to go poking around.” Rodney looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Sorry, Lil’ Sis, but I can’t let you go along. I’ll drop you off at home, OK? Mom and Dad should be home by now.”
The Murder in Stall 4 Page 10
