by Lauren Carr
Royce broke his glare from where his wife had another man by the elbow. “I’ll get it.” He poured a short glass of whiskey, straight up.
“What was in that box that I overlooked, Josh?” Belle asked.
“Mike’s notepad,” Joshua said. “On the top sheet, he had written out his appointment for that afternoon to meet someone at Tomlinson Run Park at four o’clock.”
“Yes,” she said. “I remember that. We actually got into an argument about it.”
“You did?” Hunter asked. “I didn’t know that.”
Belle’s gaze dropped to the floor. Her eyes became teary. “I tried to forget about it. I was so ashamed.”
“Why?” Cameron asked.
“Because it seemed so silly after what happened,” she said. “I was mad because Mike had set that appointment for four, but he was supposed to pick up Hunter from the babysitter at five o’clock. He wanted me to take off work early to go pick Hunter up. He didn’t used to do that to me. But suddenly, out of the blue, Mike was working on this case that I knew nothing about and he refused to talk about it. He was keeping secrets from me and I was mad about it. It all seems so petty now.”
“Did you know that the appointment time had changed?” Joshua asked her.
Her face was blank.
“That was very long ago, Josh,” Royce said. “How could she be expected to remember a tiny detail like that?”
“Because that was the last time she saw and spoke to her husband,” Cameron answered. “I remember every single detail, every instant, every second of the last time I saw my husband before he was killed.” She cocked her head at Royce. “If Belle knew, she’d remember.”
“I don’t remember the appointment changing,” Belle said. “Mike would have let me know because then he could have picked up Hunter.”
“Someone changed that appointment,” Joshua said, “and it was not the man he was planning to meet. It was someone else, someone who lured Mike to the park so that he could kill him.”
“Do you know who?” Bell asked.
“Someone who wanted to get Mike out of the way,” Joshua said. “Someone who knew about the appointment. The man who made the original appointment didn’t tell anyone. So who did Mike tell? We know he told you, Belle. Who did you tell?”
“No one,” she blurted out.
“What are you implying, Thornton?” Royce demanded in a loud voice.
“You two were fighting,” Cameron told Belle. “You just admitted it.”
“Are you saying I killed my husband?” Her eyes were filled with tears.
“You were a young mother,” Cameron said. “You were working. It had to be hard. Stressful. You needed to talk to someone. Think, Belle! Who did you talk to? Who did you tell about that appointment that interfered with your schedule, forcing you to leave work early to go pick up Hunter because your husband was obsessing over a case that he refused to talk to you about?”
Her eyes widened.
“Belle?” Royce said in a tone that was an eerie mixture of an order and a plea.
She rose to her feet and turned to him.
“They’re manipulating you, Belle,” he said. “Don’t listen to them.”
“It was you, Royce.” Her voice was low and harsh. “You were my boss, but you made me think you were my friend. I told you everything.”
“Was Royce at work that afternoon?” Joshua asked in a quiet voice.
She hesitated to think. “No, he had gotten a call from someone—I don’t remember who, but suddenly he had to leave for a meeting and—I had to leave early to pick up Hunter and had to close up the whole office early because Royce wasn’t there.”
There was a crash of broken glasses behind the bar when the champagne bottle overturned and smashed several of them. Everyone was startled to their feet.
Royce stared at his hand, which was cut and dripping blood from the broken glass.
“It was you,” Hunter said in a menacingly low voice. When he stepped forward, Tracy grabbed him by the arm. Joshua held him back with a hand pressed against his chest.
“This is ridiculous!” Royce picked up a dishcloth and wrapped it around his bleeding hand. “You can’t prove anything.”
“I saw you following Mike in your Bonneville,” Joshua said. “We ran a DMV check on your vehicle registrations. You had a black Bonneville registered in your name at the time of Mike’s disappearance. You changed the appointment time, followed him out to Tomlinson Run Park, and killed him to clear the path for you to move in on Belle.”
“Playing the devoted, compassionate friend there for her in her hour of need,” Cameron said.
“That’s why you had a fit about my digging into the case,” Hunter said. “Because you knew we’d find out if we kept on digging.”
“You can’t prove any of this!” Royce said. “My wife knows the truth.” He gazed at the woman he loved. “Tell them, Belle.”
Instead, she stared at him. Her face was white.
The room was filled with silence.
Suddenly, Royce reached down under the bar and came back up with a handgun. “Everyone stand back.”
Hunter pushed Tracy behind him. Donny stepped forward to give his sister an extra layer of protection.
Enraged, Belle moved forward, but Joshua yanked her back.
Her gun already drawn, Cameron stepped in front of everyone.
Casually reaching behind his back for the gun he had tucked into his waistband, Joshua said, “Calm down, Royce.”
“No!” Tears rolled down Royce’s face.
“You killed my father,” Hunter roared, “for what? To win a woman who loved another man?”
“She loves me!” Royce argued. “Tell him, Belle!”
Belle’s eyes were wide with disbelief. Her face was pale and filled with rage, not only directed toward her husband, but also inwardly for not having seen it all before.
“Just tell us what happened,” Joshua said in a calm and low tone while easing Belle back behind her son.
“You already know,” Royce cackled while waving the gun. “After Belle told me about her fight with Mike, and how furious she was about being left to take care of Hunter all the time while he was investigating this case that he refused to even talk to her about—it was suddenly so clear. It came to me in a flash. Hey, he was a cop. Cops die or disappear in the line of duty every day. So, I called Mike. He didn’t even recognize my voice. I told him that I was an associate of his four o’clock appointment and he had a schedule conflict and wanted to know if they could meet earlier, at one o’clock in same place. I had no idea where that place was and I thought that if I suggested the place, Mike would suspect something. But I had it figured out.”
Royce tapped his temple with the barrel of the Colt handgun that Joshua recognized as a former standard police issue. “Mike said sure,” Royce told them. “Then, I went to their house and waited for him to leave and followed him. When we got to the park and he saw me get out of the car, he was confused, but—”
“Since he knew you, he had no idea that you had lured him there to kill him,” Joshua said.
“I had the tire iron tucked behind my back,” Royce said. “Mike was a big guy. I knew I had to get the jump on him. That first hit had to count. He hit the ground. He was still shaking the stars out of his eyes when I grabbed his gun off him and shot him between the eyes.”
“No!” Belle screamed. “You monster! I can’t believe—” She tried to shove through her guests to take her husband on—armed or not. Tracy threw her arms around her to take her into a bear hug, not only to comfort her, but to hold her back.
“I did it for you,” Royce called to Belle.
“You did it for yourself!” Hunter fought to force Joshua’s arm out of his path to get to Royce. “Because you wanted to have her, like a possession, like a prize. You wanted
to own her and you couldn’t stand to see another man, a man who was twice the man you ever were, have a woman who has always been too good for you, and always will be.”
“Look at the life that I gave her!” Royce said. “See this house? Look at the cars and the places that we’ve been!”
“I’d give it all up to have Mike back for just one day,” Belle sobbed.
“No!” Royce yelled.
“Yes, you …” Belle searched for the word. “Son of a bitch! You hear me? You’re a monster!”
Cameron interjected, “Do you really think we should be calling an armed crazy man names, Belle?”
Sobbing hysterically, Royce looked down at the gun he was holding in his hand.
Joshua tried to ease up toward the bar. “Royce, is that the gun you used to shoot Mike?”
“I didn’t realize that I still had it until I was halfway back to Pittsburgh.” Royce nodded his head. “You know, if you had asked me an hour ago if killing Mike was worth it, I would have said it was—to have the woman I loved and to give her everything she ever wanted ...”
“But you took away the only man I ever loved,” she sobbed. “I never loved you. I only married you because I knew that love would never come my way again after Mike. He was it. I can’t ever love like that again. How could you take that away from someone you said you loved?”
“Because I wanted you so much,” Royce said. “Don’t you see? You were my Mike. Without you, I had nothing. But now—seeing that look of horror on your face—directed at me—like I’m …”
“A monster,” Hunter said. “That’s what you are.”
“We are trying to talk him into putting down the gun,” Cameron whispered to Hunter. “Insulting him isn’t helping.”
“Do you think I’m a monster, Belle?” Royce asked her.
“Belle, don’t—” Cameron ordered, but she was too late.
“Yes,” Belle said. “I despise you.”
“Well, then, that does it.”
Reaching for the gun, Joshua dove over the bar. Royce fell back against the wall so that Joshua’s reach fell short by a mere inch. Before Joshua could make another attempt to grab the gun, Royce pressed the barrel of the gun up under his chin and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How are you doing?” Cameron went over to the SUV to talk to Tracy, who was leaning against the fender of the car alone after finishing her statement to one of Sheriff Sawyer’s deputies.
“Shaking like a leaf,” she said. “I’ve never been in a situation like that. Dad went charging toward a man with a gun. I can’t believe Royce held on to the same gun that he used to shoot Hunter’s dad all those years ago. How crazy is that?”
“Extremely crazy,” Cameron said.
“He was obsessed with Hunter’s mom,” Tracy said. “I can’t believe nobody saw it—except Dad.”
“He’s sharp like that.” Cameron shrugged her shoulders. “But I think someone else suspected as well.”
“Belle.” Tracy peered through the dark to where Hunter was consoling his mother. “All those years she held onto her late husband’s notes and then—suddenly she remembered them and gave them to Hunter. Why didn’t she give them to Dad when he first talked to her about reopening the case?”
“Denial,” Cameron said. “I have found that those closest to a killer only see what they want to see. But then, eventually, the truth will bubble up to the surface and they’ll unexpectedly see what has been there all along. I think that happened when Mike’s body was discovered earlier this week. Belle gave us that box because she wanted us to find proof of what she may have already suspected deep down. It may have been buried so deep in her mind that she wasn’t even aware of those suspicions being there.”
“But you and Dad saw it,” Tracy sighed before dropping her gaze down to her feet. “That’s what makes you two a great team … lovers in crime.” She flashed Cameron a soft smile. “I hope Hunter and I can be like you and Dad—I mean, a good team.”
“Aw, shucks,” Cameron said with mocking gratitude.
“I mean it.” Tracy sucked in a deep breath. “I owe you an apology.”
Cameron was suspicious. Is this a trap? “What for?”
“All the nasty things I thought about you,” she said. “I knew that it wasn’t Dad who didn’t want a wedding. He wouldn’t have shut all of us out on that—unless the woman he was marrying wanted to shut us out.”
“This is an apology?” Cameron asked.
“Yes, it is,” Tracy said. “I didn’t know the whole story. You see, I was so hurt, that I didn’t care to hear it. But now I know it and I understand. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions about you.”
Cameron felt a burn start in the pit of her stomach. What did Josh—“Did your father—”
“No, Donny explained it all,” Tracy said. “How you and your late husband had a big Catholic wedding and then, four months later, you were in the same church, before the same friends and family, for his funeral. That’s why you don’t do weddings or funerals.”
“But I never told Donny about that.”
Tracy giggled. “You’d be surprised by how well Donny picks up on things.” She took Cameron into a warm hug. “I’m glad he picked that up and told me, and I’m glad you’re my stepmother.” She kissed Cameron on the cheek. As she pulled away, she added, “I hope you can make an exception to your no wedding rule to come to mine.”
Smiling softly, Cameron whispered, “We’ll see.”
“I need to go check on Belle,” Tracy said before hurrying away when Joshua and the sheriff came up to the SUV.
“Did I just see Tracy hug you?” Joshua asked. “Or was she strangling you?”
“That was a hug. We need thicker walls in our house.” Cameron turned to the sheriff. “Did you check the registration number on the gun Royce used to shoot himself?”
“It was Mike Gardner’s gun all right.” The sheriff nodded his head. “Can you believe it? Belle knew he had a gun, but she had no idea that it was Mike’s gun. She only thought it looked like Mike’s gun.” He asked both Joshua and Cameron, “What are your feelings? Do you think Belle knew her current husband killed her first husband?”
They shook their heads in unison. “She was completely stunned,” Cameron said. “I think if we hadn’t been there she would have killed him herself.”
Joshua agreed. “Totally caught off guard. I’m not going to press charges.”
“Good,” Curt said. “That’s my sense as well.”
“At least Royce Fontaine saved your county money on a trial and putting him up in prison.” Cameron saw Hunter and Tracy in a group hug with Belle Fontaine. “Can you imagine the guilt Belle is going to go through knowing that she was married and sleeping with the same man who killed her husband?”
“A nightmare,” Joshua said.
“Well, speaking of making progress on murder cases,” Curt said, “right before your call came in, the FBI picked up Hilliard in Washington for questioning on her husband’s murder. We’ll be getting her DNA to compare to the blood found at Dolly’s murder scene. Forensics said they should have the DNA profile from the blood left on the knife in the morning.”
“Good,” Cameron said. “Maybe we can get this wrapped up tomorrow after we interrogate Lipton and Null and after I go talk to Toby’s mother. I’d like to deliver some good news to Douglas O’Reilly’s mother.”
“Oh, you mean the news that she has a great-grandson isn’t enough?” Joshua asked.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Detective Gates, what are you doing?” Lieutenant Miles Dugan asked Cameron when she answered her cell phone.
Looking through the two-way mirror into the interrogation room where Russell Null was conferring with his attorney, a white haired man with a handle-bar mustache who she recognized from defending suspects she had arre
sted before, she replied, “I’m watching a killer lawyer up, sir.”
“Yeah, I know,” the lieutenant said. “I just got a call from our prosecuting attorney saying that you wanted two arrest warrants for vehicular homicide that took place in nineteen sixty-six. Are you serious? What part of ‘time off’ are you having trouble understanding?”
“These two men’s bad decision from almost fifty years ago ruined numerous lives, including the life of the man they killed,” Cameron said. “Here in Hancock County, they’re suspected of a double homicide to cover up that hit and run.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line before Dugan let out a deep sigh. “Do you have any evidence to connect them to the hit and run that took place here?”
“Circumstantial,” she replied. “But once I get a go at them, I’m sure I can get one of them to confess and flip on the other.”
“Make sure you dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s. I’ll work with the prosecutor to get you those arrest warrants.”
“Thank you, sir.” She tried not to grin when she hung up the phone.
Sheriff Curt Sawyer came into the observation room with Joshua, who was carrying two case files.
“No surprise,” Joshua told her, “Philip Lipton is in the other room with his lawyer. Based on his body language, he’s ready to do battle. He’s got a lot to lose. If he cops to covering up that hit and run by dumping O’Reilly’s body, his reputation as a criminalist will be ruined—not to mention the possibility of jail time.” He stepped up to the mirror to study Russell Null, who was holding his head in his hands. “Russell is another story. His brother is dead. He knows there’s no stopping the truth from coming out now. For him, a confession may be a welcomed relief.”
She stepped up to his side. “Then let’s start with Null.”
Joshua turned to her. “Ava Tucker’s and Virgil Null’s murders belong to us since they happened here in Hancock County. But the suspected motive is the hit and run in Raccoon, which is your turf. You’re going to have to take the lead since that’s where it all started.”
