“You confessed,” said Wren. “Why did you confess if you didn’t do it?”
“Well, Hawk got me all mixed up.” Major raised his shackled hands and twisted them up. “We’d do acid together, and he’d start talking. You ever listened to that voice of his? He’s practically like a hypnotist.”
“What?” said Wren. “No, he’s not.”
“You know who he’s like?” Major pointed at Wren. “He’s like your mom.”
“Hawk is nothing like Vivian,” said Wren, and there was something in her mouth that tasted bad and she wished she could spit or throw up or drink water.
“After he would do it, kill one of the girls, he would trip on acid with me, and he would tell me all the details. And I would start seeing what he said, and he would tell it like… like I was there, you know? So, I would imagine it, see every moment of it. It started making me feel like I did do it. I had these images in my head, like memories. But I never did anything. Hawk did it. It was always Hawk.”
“It couldn’t have been Hawk,” said Wren. “The night that Jenny Smith was set up, Hawk was with me. You remember, because you came and got him out of my bed. You were looking for him. You were upset.”
Major just shrugged. “If you say so.”
“You did come,” said Wren. “You stood over my bed and scared the hell out of me.”
“Did I?” Major looked confused.
Wren felt twin sensations rising in her. One, a horrible dread, the other, a raging fury. They twined around each other, batted against the back of her skull.
“Everything around that time is kind of a blur,” said Major. “Sometimes, Hawk would make us do meth. When you do meth, you stay up for, like, four days straight, and you really start having weird hallucinations, and you can’t tell reality from your dreams, because you’re having them while you’re awake… I think it was during one of those times that Hawk convinced me that I had a thing for you, Wren.”
“What?” said Wren. “You don’t?”
“No,” said Major. “Now that I’ve been in jail and I’m totally clean, I’m not confused anymore. And I never liked you, not like that. I mean, you’ve always been nice, but… come on. Do you ever remember me even flirting with you?”
Wren twitched, because she was remembering a conversation with Hawk, where she’d asserted the same thing. Major had never shown any interest in her. But Hawk had insisted, and then later, Major had said…
“You’re not confused anymore, because you want out of jail,” said Wren. “When we arrested you, you were angry with Hawk. And I hear that he stopped coming to visit you recently. So, now you’re probably even more angry. Angry enough to try to throw him under the bus to save yourself.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” said Major. “I swear, that’s not what I’m doing.”
Wren looked at Reilly. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything useful out of him.”
Reilly nodded. “Okay.” He got out of his seat and went over to rap on the door, signaling to the police officers out there that they were done.
“Wait,” said Major. “You don’t believe me? You have to believe me. I know that you and Hawk have this connection with each other, but you’re not seeing him clearly. He’s messing with your head. He’s been doing it all along.”
“Major, we didn’t come here to get you out of jail,” said Wren. “You killed those girls. You confessed. You knew all the details. It was you.”
“It was Hawk,” said Major.
CHAPTER FOUR
Reilly glanced at Wren, who was sitting completely still on the other side of his car. “You all right?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not. How could I be okay?”
Reilly gazed out at the road. They were heading back to headquarters, but he wasn’t in any rush. He took the curves slow. “He’s smart, Wren.”
“Who is?” She stared straight ahead.
“Major is,” said Reilly. “He was smart enough to execute all those murders, hide the evidence, pose the bodies, everything. He’s been locked up all alone with nothing to do but think. He’s figured out all the angles. So, of course he could present something that sounded plausible.”
“Hawk and I got in a fight at my dad’s wedding.”
“Yeah, I remember him saying something like that. Never did tell me what it was about, though.”
“It was about the fact that I still suspected him,” she said. “He got mad that I had ever thought that he was capable of killing little girls, and he got on a plane and came home early.”
Reilly glanced at her. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.”
They were quiet.
The scenery outside streamed by. Reilly held onto the steering wheel. Wren tapped her fingers on top of her armrest.
“Did you know he came to me asking for a job?” said Reilly.
“What?” she said. “No. Are you kidding me? What kind of job?”
“Well, he said that he was thinking of getting into law enforcement, and that he thought he could be useful to the task force because he knew about the cult.”
Wren wrapped her arms around herself and massaged her elbows. “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. I’ve never thought that Hawk had the least bit of interest in law enforcement.”
“I wouldn’t have pegged him for it either,” said Reilly.
“Did you tell him no?”
“I think it ended up that he withdrew the idea.” Reilly sighed. “I guess I can’t help but suspect him too, okay?”
“No,” said Wren. “No, that can’t be. It’s like you said. Major’s smart. He’s had time to make it sound good. Hawk didn’t do this. He can’t have been free all along, just toying with us. Toying with me. No way.”
“You’re probably right,” said Reilly. “That’s a lot to lay at his feet.”
She didn’t say anything for several moments. “Okay, but… we both suspect him, so what do we do with that?”
“Maybe you should, uh, take a break with him?” Reilly looked at her again. He tried to put it gently. “If you two are together—”
“We’re not.”
“You’re something,” said Reilly.
She sighed.
“You’re sleeping with him,” Reilly said, laying it out there. “Maybe you should stop doing that because you can’t be objective—”
“Look, you don’t get to judge me,” she said. “Not when you’re no better when it comes to stupid decisions about your own love life.”
“I’m not judging you.” He was offended.
“Yeah, you could have fooled me.”
“What did I say that sounded like I was judging you?”
“I don’t know. That I needed to stop screwing him.”
“I never used that word.”
She sighed.
More silence.
Reilly had to make a turn ahead. He put on his blinker. “Look, I didn’t mean… I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry.”
She turned on him. “I said, ‘What can we do?’ Not what can I do. So, instead of telling me how to run my personal life, why don’t we focus on what the task force should do—”
“Anything we’d do otherwise,” said Reilly. “Look for evidence.”
“We’d try to eliminate him.” She lifted her chin. “Well, he has an alibi.”
“Yeah,” said Reilly. “But if either of us believed that was airtight, we wouldn’t be talking like this.”
“How else can we eliminate him?”
Reilly didn’t answer. He was thinking about it.
“Okay, well, I say we focus on other people instead right now,” she said. “That guy that Oliver’s mother told us about? His best friend Mack? Maybe he knows something.”
“Yeah,” said Reilly. “Yeah, sure.”
* * *
Mack Upton looked back and forth between Reilly and Wren. He seemed a little nervous. “Am I in some kind of trouble?”
“Nothing like that,”
said Reilly. “We’re just here to talk to you about Oliver Campbell. His mother said that the two of you were good friends.”
Mack pushed open the door to his apartment and stood outside with Reilly and Wren next to his front door. There was a concrete walkway that stretched down in front of all the other apartment doors and covering over the walkway. He shut his door behind him. “Uh, look, I used to be good friends with Oliver Campbell, but he and I haven’t spent time together in a long time. Oliver’s been pretty busy with his sister. Plus, he’s changed.”
“What do you mean, changed?” said Wren.
Mack huddled into his sweatshirt as a chilly breeze fluttered past them. “Well, it started after his sister was diagnosed. He took it really hard. He hasn’t had an easy life, losing his father young and all, and then having to live through those trials when he was growing up.” He glanced at Wren and then away. “I mean, I guess you know about that, sort of, just from the other side.”
“I was never brought to the trials,” said Wren. “But, sure, I can see how that would be tough for him.”
“So, how did that make him change?” asked Reilly.
“He just got really cynical about everything, and it made him… mean,” said Mack. “He would say that nothing we did mattered, that we were screwed no matter what. So, he figured it didn’t matter if he was an asshole. He started doing things to me that weren’t cool. He took me out on a guys’ night and took me to a strip club, which I didn’t like, and then he refused to take me home. I had to get a cab back, and it wasn’t cheap. Then he stole my bank card and racked up a bunch of charges. My wife put her foot down. She said I had to cut him out of my life.”
“I guess she wasn’t amused about the strip club?” said Reilly.
“Not in the least,” said Mack. “And she was right. He wasn’t being a good friend to me. He was hurting me. Using me. And when he stole money from me, it wasn’t just me he was hurting. It was my wife and daughter, too. If it were just me, I would have stuck it out and taken it. He’s going through hell. He needs a friend. But then he crossed the line. You don’t take food out of my baby daughter’s mouth and then expect that we’re cool. We’re not cool after that.”
Reilly nodded. “I get it.”
“So,” said Wren, “you don’t hang out with him anymore.”
“No. Why are you guys asking me questions about him, anyway?” said Mack. “Is he the one in trouble?”
“You don’t know?” said Wren.
“Know what?” said Mack.
“Um,” said Reilly, swallowing, “I really hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but Oliver… he was murdered.”
“What?” said Mack. “What do you mean? That can’t be.” He shook his head. “My wife made me scrub him out of my life. I blocked him on my phone, unfriended him on social media. He tried to use his mother’s phone to call me once and I blocked that too. I guess that’s why no one could get through to tell me.”
“I guess you don’t watch the news,” said Reilly.
“No, not really,” said Mack. “I figure if it’s worth knowing, it’s on Facebook, right? But I missed the fact that Oliver was killed? This…” He bit down on his lower lip. “I never got to say goodbye to him,” he murmured. “He died thinking I was angry with him.” Mack looked down at his feet. “I’m sorry,” he said in a thick voice. “You’re going to have to excuse me.” He dove back into his apartment before either of them could say anything.
They both stared at the door.
“Should we knock again?” said Wren.
“He’s probably not going to be able to answer anymore questions right now,” said Reilly.
Wren furrowed her brow. “You really think he would have been able to keep from seeing it on the news?”
“I guess. If he had seen it, then he’d be lying to us. Is that what you’re saying, that he’s lying to us? Why would he do that?”
“Maybe to get out of the conversation?” said Wren. “I don’t know about you, Reilly, but taking food out of his baby daughter’s mouth kind of sounds like motive to me.”
Reilly considered. “You’re not wrong.”
* * *
“Hey,” said Maliah, waving to Reilly across the parking lot.
He hurried to close the distance between them. “Sorry, I’m late.”
“You’re not late,” said Maliah. “None of the movies are going to start for another five minutes at least. Depending on what we want to see, anyway. We never decided that.”
“Oh, yeah, well, that doesn’t matter to me,” said Reilly. “I’ll watch anything.”
“Anything?” Maliah grinned. “How about this one then?” She pointed at a poster.
“That screwball comedy? Really? You like that kind of thing?”
“Sure,” said Maliah. “Who doesn’t like comedy?”
“Well, I don’t really like comedy,” said Reilly. “I don’t like how ridiculous it gets. It pulls me out of the story.”
“Oh, okay, well, let’s watch something else. What do you want to see?”
“Uh…” Reilly stuck his hands in his pockets and surveyed the movie posters. “Well, I’m guessing you wouldn’t be big on the action thriller.”
“Not really,” she said.
“Or the superhero movie?”
“No,” she laughed. “I’m guessing you don’t want to watch the romantic comedy either?”
“Uh…”
“Damn,” she said. “Haven’t we ever tried to watch a movie together?”
“You know, I don’t know that we have,” said Reilly, who was trying to think of what they did together besides screwing, and coming up with a big blank. Hell, they never even went out to dinner together, because they didn’t want to be seen together in public. They’d spent all their time together sneaking around.
“And we haven’t even talked about the kinds of things we like?”
“Never came up.”
She laughed again. “Okay, fine.” She pointed. “What about that one?”
“The haunted house thing? You like that?”
“Well, I’m not crazy about it,” she said. “But I could watch it.”
“Yeah, I guess I could watch that,” he said. “I’d rather watch that than a comedy.”
“And I’d rather watch that than superheroes.”
“Well, then, there we go.” He offered her his arm. “Come on then, I’ll buy us tickets. Let’s go on a real, honest-to-God date, Maliah.”
She wrapped her fingers around his bicep and grinned up at him. “Let’s.”
* * *
The movie was awful.
Reilly hated it. He wasn’t a big fan of horror, but it was better than comedy. He could tell that Maliah wasn’t a big fan either. They bonded over their shared dislike of the movie on the way home. Once there, on her doorstep, they dithered there, talking about nothing, until she finally asked him in.
Then they sat in her living room and struggled for things to say, now that they’d dissected the awful movie to death.
Finally, he just went for it, climbed across the room, slid his hand under the back of her neck, and kissed her.
After that, everything seemed to go well. They were good at this part.
But later, when he was lying in her bed, and she was snug against him, her head resting on his chest, his fingers lazily tracing patterns on her hip, he wondered what a relationship would be like five years down the road when they didn’t want to watch any of the same movies. He imagined Maliah watching TV in the living room and him sprawled out in another room, both of them spending each evening apart.
He knew that distance. It had already happened in his marriage to Janessa. True, they had avoided each other because of conflict, and maybe he was worrying over nothing. Maybe there was nothing to the idea of watching TV separately. Maybe he was making a thing of something that was meaningless. But he wondered if he wanted to set himself up for a life of loneliness and separation.
* * *
There was a soft knock at the door to Wren’s cabin. She was staying on the compound of the Fellowship of the Children of the Lord, because of the charity of her friend Kimora, who said it wasn’t a big deal, because no one was using the cabin, anyway.
Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, when the cult was expanding, these cabins had been put up quickly, all over the place, but after the murders, people cleared out left and right, leaving lots of them behind.
She knew who was at the door. Only one person ever came to her house.
Well, no, that wasn’t true. There were two people. Hawk and Reilly. Reilly didn’t knock gently. She wished it was Reilly, though. She’d rather deal with another body. Or, no. She wouldn’t. Because that would mean this was definitely a serial killer, not something personal against Oliver Campbell.
She yanked the door open to the cabin. “You can’t be here.”
Hawk held up a six pack of beer like a peace offering.
“Seriously, Hawk, everything between us is weird right now.”
“Why?” said Hawk. “What’s changed? You’ve been avoiding me, that’s all I know. I thought maybe you’d want to talk.”
“No, I’ve been avoiding you because I don’t want to talk.”
“Well, maybe I want to talk.”
“Too bad.”
“I thought we agreed,” he said. “If either of us needed something, we’d be there for each other.”
“That is completely twisting what I said.” She shook her head. “I wanted there to be less pressure, not more.”
“We need to talk about Oliver Campbell,” he said.
“Do we?” she said. “Why?”
“Come on, little bird. Let me in. I don’t want to do this on the porch. We need to have this conversation indoors.”
“We don’t need to have any conversation at all.”
His voice dropped in pitch. “Did you do it?”
She backed away from the door letting go of it, completely shocked. “What?”
He took this opportunity to come inside. He shut the door behind him.
“I did not say you could come in.”
He went past her into her kitchen, where he opened the refrigerator and slid the six pack in. Taking out two beers, he shut the fridge. “If you did it, just let me know. I can help you.”
Wren Delacroix Series Box Set Page 41
