by Tim Kizer
Alice retrieved the pack of Marlboros from the drawer and counted the cigarettes. There were seven cigarettes in the pack. No discrepancy.
She put the pack in the drawer, then filled the teakettle with water, set it on the stove, and turned the burner on.
What would she do if it turned out that she had a split personality? Would she tell the police about it?
Melissa’s phone was the only evidence that her second personality had murdered Melissa. It was possible that her second personality had found it in the street, wasn’t it? Her second personality might be innocent.
She would have Dr. Teague ask her second personality if she had killed Melissa.
The teakettle began to murmur. Alice got an unfinished sandwich from the refrigerator and went into the living room.
Poor Melissa.
Alice sighed and closed her eyes, her heart filled with anguish.
My poor daughter.
A few moments later a thought occurred to her: the killer wanted me to find out that Melissa had been abducted thirteen years ago because he wanted me to experience losing her again.
He murdered Melissa to make me suffer.
Why did the killer hate her so much?
She had no enemies. She’d never crossed anyone. She’d never hurt anyone. She’d never cheated on anyone. She’d never stolen from anyone.
Could David’s latest ex-girlfriend be the killer?
No, they broke up a few months before David met me.
Alice took a bite of her sandwich.
The teakettle was whistling. Alice went into the kitchen and turned off the burner.
Why does the killer hate me?
She grabbed a mug from the rack, put a tea bag and a spoon of sugar in it, and filled it with hot water.
Her phone rang. Alice picked up the mug and hurried into the living room.
The caller ID said it was her father, Walter Cannon.
What did he want?
He probably wanted to ask if her mother had been found.
It had been three months since Walter had last called her. It would be fine with her if he never contacted her again. He had left them when Alice was ten years old, but she still hated him. Her mother was the kindest, the most loving, and the most beautiful person in the world, and she hadn’t deserved to be abandoned.
Alice accepted the call. “Hello.”
“Hi, Alice. How are you?”
“I’m fine. Why are you calling?”
“Did they find Rebecca?”
Did Walter really care about her mother? Alice doubted it. Why did he keep inquiring if Rebecca had been found? Perhaps out of idle curiosity.
“No, they didn’t. Is that all?”
“I miss you, Alice. Let’s meet.”
“I can’t. I don’t have time.”
She blew on her tea and took a small sip.
“Fifteen minutes. That’s all I’m asking for. There’s a coffee shop called Victoria’s Café just five minutes from your house. Let’s meet there this Friday.”
“I don’t want to meet you, Walter.”
“We don’t even have to talk. We’ll just sit and drink coffee. Ten minutes, Alice. Please.”
Maybe he has cancer and has weeks to live?
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll meet you Friday at seven.”
“Thank you, Alice. Thanks a lot. Do you know where Victoria’s Café is?”
“Yes. Goodbye.”
She hung up.
Would Walter visit her in jail before the trial? Would he visit her in jail, or the hospital for the criminally insane, after the trial?
She hated her father. That was wrong. Hate was a terrible thing. Melissa had been murdered because the killer hated her mother.
It’s probably your second personality who killed Melissa, Alice. She told you that she didn’t want to live with you, that she didn’t love you, that she loved the Keeners, and you killed her.
Alice felt as though a thousand tiny drills had bored into her brain. She needed to calm her nerves. She got the bottle of tequila from the pantry, poured herself a shot, and downed it.
Chapter 34
1
When Alice checked her messages and call history the next morning, she saw that she hadn’t texted or called anyone between the time she had gone to bed and the time she had woken up. The surveillance camera hadn’t been activated since Alice had put the “Did you kill Melissa?” poster on the front door.
They’ll arrest me today before I go to work, Alice thought as she walked to the bathroom.
Her stomach churned.
Hagan and his partner are on their way to my house. They’ll be here any minute.
Tense and uneasy, Alice listened for a car to pull up outside until she left for work.
She thought about asking Detective Hagan if they were going to charge her with Melissa’s murder. She figured that might make her look guilty. Besides, she wasn’t sure Hagan would be honest with her.
When Alice came home from work, she searched every closet, cabinet, and dresser for the burner phone but didn’t find it. She found no burner phone in her car, either.
When are you going to start looking for a lawyer, Alice?
Yes, she needed a good criminal lawyer. Too bad she wasn’t rich enough to hire that guy who defended Michael Jackson. He was a really smart fellow, and quite handsome, too.
Alice opened her laptop and googled “criminal lawyers murder los angeles.” She glanced at a few law firm websites and then decided to ask her friends to recommend a good attorney.
2
The first thing Alice did when she woke up on Thursday morning was to grab her phone and check her messages. She had sent her last text Wednesday night at 9:41, two hours before she went to bed. There were no messages that she didn’t remember sending.
She opened the call log. She had made her last call Wednesday night at 7:48. No calls she didn’t remember making.
The surveillance camera had not been activated after she went to bed.
After breakfast, Alice checked the tracking number for the GPS tracker she’d bought on Tuesday, and saw that her package was out for delivery. She hoped she would be able to install the tracker without David’s help.
Alice found the package on the porch when she got home from work. Right after she changed clothes, she unpacked the tracker and read the instructions. The manual said that she needed to plug the tracker into the OBD-II port (she had no idea what it was). With the help of the Internet, Alice located the OBD-II port (OBD stood for On-Board Diagnostics; mechanics used the OBD-II system to determine what was wrong with the vehicle) and plugged the tracker into it. Then she activated the tracking service.
The tracking portal was easy to use and mobile friendly. The position of her car was shown on an interactive Google map, with amazing accuracy. To test the tracker, Alice drove her car around the block. The device worked perfectly.
3
At four o’clock in the afternoon on Friday, her father called Alice and asked if they were still on for seven.
“Yes, we are,” Alice replied. She wondered what city her father lived in.
Before leaving for Victoria’s Café, Alice removed the “Did you kill Melissa?” poster from the front door: David was coming over tonight. She put the poster away in a desk drawer.
She arrived at the café at 7:01. Her father sat at an outside table with a cup in front of him. He wore a purple Lakers T-shirt and blue jeans, his sunglasses perched on top of his head. He watched as Alice walked to his table and took a seat.
Walter had not changed since she had last seen him three years ago. Surprisingly, Alice felt no rush of anger at the sight of her father. Perhaps she was emotionally exhausted from thinking about her impending arrest and trial.
“Hi, Alice.” Walter smiled, his gray hair fluttering in the breeze. “I’m very glad you came.”
“Hi, Walter,” Alice said flatly.
“Would you like something to drink?”
; “No.”
Walter might know a good criminal lawyer.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine.”
Walter took a sip from his cup. “You look great.”
“Thank you.”
Alice opened the GPS tracker app on her phone and checked the travel history of her car for the last twelve hours. There were no trips she didn’t remember making.
“I’m very sorry about Rebecca,” Walter said.
“She’s not dead.”
“Of course. I’m sure she’s alive.”
Walter wore no wedding ring. Had he divorced the woman he had left her mother for?
What was that woman’s name?
Kathy. Her name was Kathy.
“Do you regret leaving us?” Alice asked.
Walter nodded. “Yes, I do.” He pulled off his sunglasses, folded them, and put them on the table. “Alice, I want to tell you that I love you. I’m not asking you to love me, I know I don’t deserve that. I just hope you don’t hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Walter.”
“I wish we’d spent more time together.”
“Are you still married to your second wife?”
“No. We divorced eleven years ago.”
“How old is your son now?”
“Twenty-one.”
“Does he hate you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you marry again?”
“No.”
“Where do you live?”
“Lake Forest.”
Lake Forest was about sixty miles from Pasadena.
Alice’s phone beeped, signaling a text. It was a message from David that read: “I’m at your place. When are you coming home?”
Alice sent a reply saying that she’d be home in thirty minutes.
“Do you know a good criminal lawyer?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“A friend of mine is looking for a lawyer.”
“What did your friend do?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”
“Do you want the lawyer’s number?”
“Yes. Text it to me later.”
“Okay.”
Bad genes were one of the causes of mental illness. Maybe one of her grandparents or great-grandparents had been insane?
Maybe Walter was insane?
“I… I recently learned that my daughter didn’t die thirteen years ago,” Alice said.
“She didn’t die?”
“She was switched with a dead baby.”
“Did it happen by accident?”
“No. It was intentional. She was later sold to a childless couple.”
“Oh my God! Can you get her back?”
Alice shook her head. “She’s dead. She was murdered last June.”
Walter frowned. “Jesus! I’m so sorry. Did they catch the killer?”
“No.”
“I’m very sorry. Poor girl. When did you find out that she was abducted?”
“The day after her murder. The police think I killed her. They think that I have a split personality and that my alternate personality killed Melissa.”
“Why do they think you have a split personality?”
“The woman who abducted Melissa thirteen years ago looked like me. She looked exactly like me. A woman who looked like me met with Melissa on the day of her murder.” Alice paused. “Does Mom have any mentally ill relatives?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What about you?”
“No, I don’t have any mentally ill relatives. Do you think you have a split personality?”
“I believe it’s possible.”
“Can they prove you killed Melissa?”
“They found her phone in my desk. I think Melissa’s killer planted it to frame me.”
“Melissa’s killer broke into your house?”
“Yes. He must have picked the lock.” Alice sighed. “Or maybe it was me who put that phone there. Maybe I’m the killer.”
Walter rubbed his chin. “You said the woman who abducted Melissa looked like you. Did you see her picture?”
“Melissa’s adoptive parents videotaped her thirteen years ago. They showed me the video.”
“Did she look identical to you?”
“Yes.”
Walter hesitated. “I think I know who that woman is.”
“Who is she?”
“Did Rebecca ever tell you that you had a twin sister?”
“I have a twin sister?”
“Yes, you do. Her name’s Vera.”
Stunned, Alice was unable to utter a word for a few moments. Then she asked, “Why have I never met her?”
“We gave up Vera for adoption when you were three weeks old. We didn’t make a lot of money back then, you see, we couldn’t afford two kids... We kept you and gave Vera away.”
They had kept her and given her sister away. How could they have done that? How could her mother, the most loving person in the world, have done that?
The most loving person in the world wouldn’t have given her child away, no matter how poor she was.
Poor Vera. Her childhood must have been filled with sadness.
It could have been me. They could have given me away.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Vera when I was a child?” Alice said.
“To be honest, we were ashamed that we gave Vera away.”
“Whose idea was it to give one of us away?”
“It was… It was my idea.”
“Mom was against it?”
Walter nodded. “Yes, she was.”
Tears blurred Alice’s vision. She wiped them away. “Do you think Mom’s alive?”
“I’m sure she’s alive.”
“I miss her. I miss her so much.”
“I’m sure they’ll find her.”
A tsunami of relief flooded through Alice. She did not have a split personality. Vera had abducted Melissa thirteen years ago. Vera had met with Melissa on June 27. Vera had placed Melissa’s phone in the desk drawer.
Vera had murdered Melissa.
“What are Vera’s adoptive parents’ names?” Alice asked.
“Andrew and Natalie Walsh.”
“Have you talked to Vera since you and Mom gave her up for adoption?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Do you know where she lives?”
Walter shook his head. “No.”
“Where did the Walshes live when they adopted Vera?”
“Burbank.”
“Do you have the address?”
“No.”
“How old were they when they adopted Vera?”
“I think they were in their late twenties.”
The Walshes were around sixty now.
“Give Vera’s name to the police. They’ll find her,” Walter said.
“I will.”
She would tell Hagan about Vera, but she would not sit on her hands waiting for the police to find the bitch. She would look for her, too.
“You didn’t kill Melissa. You don’t have a split personality.”
Alice nodded.
“You don’t have a lawyer yet, do you?”
“No, but I’m looking for one.”
Walter took out his phone. “Have you been charged with anything?”
“No.”
Walter tapped on his phone a few times. “I’m sending you the lawyer’s number. His name’s Howard Becker. He’s pretty good.”
Alice’s phone beeped.
“If you need money, let me know,” Walter said.
“Thank you.”
“You should buy a gun.”
“I’ve already bought one.”
“Smart girl. What kind of gun is it?”
“Smith and Wesson SD forty. I’m picking it up next Tuesday.”
“Take a few shooting lessons.”
“I will.”
Alice wanted to hug Walter tight and kiss him.
“Please keep me posted,” Walter said.
“Okay.”
“Thank you for meeting with me, Alice.”
“You’re welcome, Dad.”
A smile lit Walter’s face.
“You’re not terminally ill, are you?” Alice said.
“No, I’m not.”
“Good. Let’s meet again sometime.”
“How about next month?”
“Okay. Give me a call.” Alice stood up. “Talk to you later, Dad.”
Walter got up. “Goodbye, Alice.”
They hugged.
Chapter 35
1
Why had Vera abducted Melissa? Why had Vera killed Melissa?
Perhaps she was mad that our parents kept me and gave her up. She wanted to punish me for being the lucky one.
Why hadn’t Vera punished their parents?
Maybe Vera killed Mom.
Vera might kill Walter, too.
Had Vera gotten so angry because the Walshes had mistreated her when she was a child?
Alice pulled into the driveway, picked up her phone, and called Walter.
“Hi, Alice,” her father said.
“I think Vera might try to kill you. Please be careful.”
“Why would she want to kill me?”
“Because you gave her away. She might have killed Mom.”
After a silence, Walter said, “You may be right.”
“Be careful. Bye, Dad.”
Alice got out of the car and went into the house. David was in the living room watching TV. A pizza box sat on the coffee table.
“Hi, babe,” David said.
“Hi.” Alice kissed him.
“I bought pizza.”
“Excellent.”
“You want to go to the movies?”
“Yeah.”
Alice went into the study, closed the door, sat at the desk, and called Detective Hagan.
“Hi, Alice. How are you?” Hagan said.
“Hi, Stephen. Do you have a minute?”
“Yes.”
“I know who killed my daughter.”
“Who is it?”
“My twin sister. My father just told me I have a twin sister. Our parents gave her up for adoption when she was three weeks old.”
“When did he tell you that?”
“Fifteen minutes ago. The woman your witness saw with Melissa in the park on June twenty-seventh was my twin sister. The woman in that video is my sister, too. She abducted Melissa thirteen years ago.”
