“Nearly. Dale smoothed it over with internal affairs, though. They get that I was trying to work a loophole.”
“Do they know you’re the one that told him where your sisters were?”
“No. But I was a minor. I should be clear. He’ll go down for it, though.”
Logan let out a frustrated sigh. “Where are you headed now?”
“To Dad’s house. I sent out a text for the girls and Kelly, and told them to grab Max.”
“Damn.”
“He’s got a whole plan, Logan. He sounded like he made plans with both Max and Kelly, in case something happened. He made it sound to them like it was for if he died, or maybe slipped up mentally, again. But the way he spoke to me, it was for when all of this finally caught up with him. He’s talking like he’s already accepted that he’s going to be locked up ‘til he dies.”
“Oh, man.”
“I can’t blame him. I mean, twenty-three murders!”
“I know, honey. All you can do is support him through this.”
“He doesn’t want the rest to find out over the phone or through the news, so he’s sending me to tell them face-to-face.”
“I’d like to meet up with you there, for moral support, but I think it’s better if I grab a lawyer and head to the station with him.”
“I mean, Dad’s lucid, he gets the severity of what’s going on, but it has to be a priority that he gets treatment through this, so he doesn’t start slipping.”
“I’m on it. I’ll make sure it happens.”
“All right. I’m almost to the house. I gotta go.”
“Babe?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, hon. Bye.”
“Bye.”
I let out a long sigh and hit my turn signal to turn onto Dad’s street. I pulled up, taking inventory of the cars in the driveway, and saw that I still needed to wait for Charlotte. I looked over to the business parking area, and spotted Max’s car. I turned off my car and debated either sitting there until Charlotte got here, or going in and dodging questions.
I let out a frustrated groan, yanked the Bluetooth out of my ear, grabbed my phone, got out of the car, and headed inside.
The front door opened before my foot even hit the walkway pavers. “I can’t get your father to answer!” Kelly called out to me. “Did you get ahold of him?”
I nodded. “I’ve talked to him. How far out is Charlotte?”
Kelly pointed down the street. “There she comes, now.”
I got to Kelly and gave her a quick hug. I wasn’t sure if it was to reassure her, or myself. I quickly pulled away and passed around her, going straight into the living room, where I started rubbing my forehead and pacing.
Sophie stood by and watched me for a few seconds. “Woah, you’re all worked up. I’m taking that as it’s not good news.”
“Of course, it’s bad. Good news doesn’t have me walking out in the middle of my shift,” Charlotte declared from the doorway.
“Where’s Max?” I asked.
Kelly passed through the room, holding a finger up for me to wait. She went into the kitchen and seconds later we heard her call down the basement steps for him.
He was up and coming into the living room within ten seconds. “We’re not waiting for Roger?” he asked, taking a visual roll call.
I shook my head. “I need all of you to sit for this.”
“Where is he?” Kelly asked, her tone not gentle.
I continued pacing. “If I tell you that, you’re going to haul ass out of here, and not hear anything about why it happened.”
“Penelope—”
“Sit down, Kelly.”
“I’ll stand, thanks.”
I walked over to her and took her hands, shaking my head and gentling my features. “No, Kelly, you’re going to need to be sitting.”
Max put a hand on her shoulder and we guided her to the couch, all but pushing her down onto it.
She sighed in annoyance and settled on the cushions, arms crossed, trying to either comfort herself, or steel herself, I wasn’t sure which.
I went back to pacing. “I had you guys drop everything because Dad wanted me to tell you before it hits the news. He wanted you all to hear it face-to-face.”
Charlotte stood and put her hands on my shoulders, propelling me to a chair. “I’m going to lose it if you don’t stop pacing. Sit.”
I plopped down into the chair, leaned forward, and buried my face in my hands. I couldn’t bear to look at them. Dad may have easily forgiven me for my part in this, but I sure as hell hadn’t.
I let out a long, not calming at all, breath. “The plumber had gone out to get the new toilet. I went back into the bathroom to gather the towels that someone had thrown on the floor to absorb the water from the tank leak.”
“I threw the towels down,” Sophie said. “I only left them there because the water was still leaking from the water left in it, after Max shut off the water, and I had to go.”
I nodded. “I gathered up the towels in my arms, couldn’t see around them, and stubbed my toe. I didn’t think much of it, and kept going. Time passed. The plumber came back, and we went up. As he finished up, he scanned the bathroom to see how it all looked as a whole, and noticed the board for the toe kick under the sink cabinetry was displaced. He leaned down, pulled, and a whole secret drawer opened up.”
“Oh, my God,” Charlotte muttered.
“There were four guns in there, with cleaning supplies, bullets, silencers, and two holsters.”
“What?!” Kelly called yelled. “He can’t have guns!”
I lifted my head to her. “Exactly. He was in violation of his parole by having them.”
“Did you turn him in?!” she half-accused.
I shook my head, near to tears. “I let the plumber think all was well, and we shut the drawer.” I put my head back in my hands. “After he left, I went back up to the drawer and kicked it open again.”
“Because you’re a cop, and you couldn’t leave it be,” Sophie said, her voice full of a sad understanding.
“All I could think was that if anyone ever found them, they would drag him off to prison, no questions asked. I’d grabbed plastic bags from the kitchen. I picked them up, wiped them clean of any prints, bagged them, and took them to the station.” I lifted my head to Kelly. “I told my supervisor that they’d been left under the edge of my car, and assumed they were anonymous surrenders.”
“Which is something he should have done when he got out on parole, to begin with,” Kelly said through gritted teeth.
I nodded. “I knew the guns would be ran through the system. I knew they would fire bullets and compare the casings with ones found in unsolved cases. But… it’s just that Dad’s been so…”
“Normal?” Charlotte supplied.
Again, I nodded. “I just couldn’t picture the father I’ve had in my life for the last several years being in possession of dirty weapons.”
“He went pretty nuts, years ago, Penny,” Charlotte said with a tone filled with sarcasm. “He lost it so much that he went to an institution after attempting murder.”
My eyes shot straight to her. “Yeah. I’m aware. I’m the one that cared the most about it at the time.”
“Then how in the hell could you risk turning in his guns?”
“If he was guilty, if he’d done all the things he was accused of, why the fuck would he keep the guns? I figured he would have dumped the ones used in anything, and only keep the clean ones, for whatever reason. I thought I was protecting him!”
“Girls,” Max said, “he was wrong to have them, and Penny was right to try and get rid of them in a legal manner.”
“Okay,” Sophie said, “what crime did one of the guns match? Did he kill Todd?”
I nodded.
“Is Todd the child-rapist?” Max asked.
“Yes,” Sophie said.
“Well, of course he killed Todd. That was a no-brainer,”
Max said.
Kelly’s eyebrows rose to her hairline as she turned and looked at Max.
Max could only take hold of her hand. “Of course, he would have gone out to kill his daughter’s rapist and tag his other daughter’s abuser while he was at it. Who else would have done it?” His eyes swept the rest of us. “We can get him out of this. A parent is allowed to defend his child. It’ll be even more understandable to a court when his mental history is taken into account. Sophie, you’ll have to testify about Todd, and get your therapist on the stand to testify to the impact the abuse had on you. And Charlotte will have to dredge up the reports about her abuse and bring in her therapist. While that’ll be unfortunate, we can get this taken care of for him. Intentionally covering his tracks with a faked alibi might make things a little sticky, but we can play it off his fear of going back to prison.”
Charlotte was staring me down, instead of agreeing with Max. “What else did the guns match?” she asked.
Everyone’s eyes shifted from Max to me. “He’s the Driveway Shooter. He committed all twenty-one murders. He knows he’s been caught and he admits that he’s guilty. He was targeting drunk drivers that weren’t getting caught, pure and simple.”
Kelly seemed to be curling in on herself.
Max let out a long sigh. “Damn.”
I turned to Max. “He said he has a plan in place for everything.”
Max nodded.
I turned to Kelly. “Dad said the paperwork for the plan is in his safe, and you have access.”
Kelly was quiet for a moment as we all stared at her. She looked at the floor when she finally said, “I’ve been living and sleeping with a murderer.”
Max shook his head and moved his hand to her shoulder. “He wasn’t well, back then. The man you’ve known the last nine years is the real Roger. You know it, and I know it.”
“Nine years?”
Max shook his head. “He was never really, fully, himself until after his kids were relatively safe. So, yeah, nine years.” He looked at the rest of us. “You guys weren’t here when I first started working with him. I know this guy. I know when he’s good, and when he’s not.” He looked back to Kelly. “I can tell you with confidence that you’ve been involved with a healthy, thoughtful, sane man. He didn’t make one move on you until he had his mind and his life together. Who he was back when the murders were going on and who he’s been since the day after he committed that last murder are two different people.”
“So, what then? It’s just done, we’re just over? My marriage is gone?”
No one had anything to say to that.
She stood, shaking her head as she left the room.
“I think she’s going to need some therapy,” Sophie muttered.
I looked at both my sisters. “You two are going to have to keep an eye on her.”
Charlotte looked at me, helpless. “I don’t know that we can. She could very well kick Soph and I out tonight.”
Max shook his head. “Not according to the plan she agreed to.”
“What plan?” Charlotte asked.
“This one,” Kelly said, holding up a manila envelope. She came into the room and flung the envelope onto the table before flopping back down on her spot on the couch.
Max cleared his throat. “There are two accounts that hold the rest of the money necessary for your tuitions,” he told Charlotte and Sophie. “There are also five accounts held in trust for each of his children. They were meant to be given no later than your thirtieth birthdays, or upon your marriages, whichever came first. But, if something were to happen to him, each of you will be awarded your trust immediately.”
“Mom’s money,” I said.
“In part,” Max agreed. “But he added to all of them over the years. He wanted to ensure that you would each have a fighting chance to take care of yourselves. There’s a much larger account for Kelly.”
“And what about the business?” Charlotte asked.
“It’s now half mine, along with half the profits from today, onward. The other half is Kelly’s,” Max said.
“He was making sure I couldn’t take my anger out on his children,” Kelly muttered.
Max gave her another shoulder squeeze. “He presented the plan as ‘if something should happen’. Kelly thought he meant if he died. I always suspected it was if he lost his mind again. But now, I’m sure a part of it is so that if the courts come looking for restitution, they can’t wipe out everything he’s been working for. So, yes, I understood why he was putting in safe-guards for all of you.”
“Sophie and Charlotte are to be welcomed to live here until their college graduation,” Kelly whispered.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know where your feelings are going to land on all this, after the shock wears off, but he told me that he would not fight you on getting a divorce, in light of his coming series of convictions.”
Fire flashed in Kelly’s eyes. “Well, how sweet. So much for ‘until death do us part’.”
“Your vows never covered ‘in innocence or conviction’,” Max said. “He’s giving you an out, if you want it. I suggest you take your time and figure out what you want.”
“What I want?!” she exclaimed as she stood once more. “At what point in this mess did he consider what I wanted?”
“When he became involved with you!” Max replied, just as loud. “He didn’t even know you when those serial killings went down! And, by the way, he didn’t instigate your relationship, you did. All he did was finally come around to your way of thinking.”
“He should have warned me!”
“He did!” Max purposely lowered his volume, now that she was looking at him. “How many times did he tell you he wasn’t a good man? How many times did he say that he’d done things in his past that he wasn’t proud of? How many times did he warn you that he wasn’t someone you’d want to tie yourself to?”
“I thought he was just insecure! It’s not like he told me he was a murderer!”
“Well, of course, he didn’t. But he did tell you he was a criminal. You know he’s been out on parole. You know he had a history of mental instability. He did everything he could to warn you, without admitting his crimes, for fear you’d turn him in. But if you would have read between the lines, you wouldn’t be so surprised, right now.”
“Well, I guess that explains your lack of surprise,” she whispered and left us to go hide in her bedroom.
Max sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “He needs a lawyer, a good one,” he said to us.
“Already taken care of,” I said. “Logan was going to grab a lawyer and head over there, before I got here.”
“Lawyer or no lawyer,” Charlotte said, “he’s guilty. He’s already admitted to it.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“Mr. Hayes,” Ryan Zimmer began, “I’m going to need you to stop saying you’re guilty.”
Roger’s eyes darted to Logan, then met back with the lawyer’s. “Mr. Zimmer, I hate to tell you this, but I am guilty of these murders.”
“But Logan has explained to me that they were committed during a time period where you were seeking help for mental issues. Depression, anxiety, and PTSD, as it was explained to me.”
“That doesn’t make me any less guilty. I was depressed, not manic.”
“Maybe you were. Maybe you were having manic episodes and spent so much time covering for it, that the therapists missed it. It may be that these ritualistic murders were your release of the mania.”
Roger lifted an eyebrow and looked to Logan.
Logan leaned forward. “There are different levels within our prison system. You know this.”
Roger nodded. “I’m aware.”
“Then you know that if you go with straight guilty pleas for twenty-three murders, you’ll go to a maximum-security prison, until you die.”
Roger’s face turned grim.
Logan leaned forward on the table sitting between the three of them. “With respect, you are not hardcore e
nough to handle maximum-security. You go into one as a convicted serial killer, one of two things are going to happen. One, those guys in there will chew you up and spit you out. Or, two, your sanity will slip and you will go to a very dark place in your head, and be beyond the reach of help. This isn’t about your level of guilt. This is about the mind frame in which you live the rest of your life.”
“Mr. Hayes, you said your intentions with the first twenty-one murders, and the attempted murder, were solely to remove drunk drivers from the roads. Your intention was to make the roads safer for those following the laws, correct?”
Roger let out a sigh. “Yes.”
“I’m thinking, with enough press, we can get people behind your cause.”
Roger shifted in his chair; his attention caught. “You mean a campaign against drunk drivers?”
Zimmer nodded.
“You’ll never get all of them caught. Not unless you put police at the entrance of every driveway in the country.”
“True, but I’m thinking of a national campaign to make it so that everyone caught driving over the legal limit will be charged with attempted murder.”
“You’ll never get that passed.”
“Well, no. But that’s what we fight for, as a beginning negotiation.”
“To what end?”
“The first offense can be excused from the penalty. Anybody can underestimate their level of intoxication. People do make honest mistakes. But for a second offense, or at the very least a third, automatic attempted murder conviction. There’s a real problem in this country, and I guarantee you aren’t the first one to want to do what you did.”
“And you’re going to want me to continue this cause from behind bars?”
Zimmer nodded. “But not only that, by the time you’re convicted, I’m hoping there’ll be a team of people on the outside who will have taken up the cause and be the ones taking it to Washington.”
“An added benefit of all this,” Logan interjected, “is a prison with a lower security level and better mental health care, for you.”
Roger nodded, letting it all roll around in his mind a moment. “And for all of that, you need a trial.”
“Yes. And a high-profile one, at that,” Zimmer said.
“I have to ask why it is that you care so much. It’s going to take a lot of work to get the news coverage that you’ll need. Why is it that you want to put in so much effort on this?”
We're All Broken Page 24
