“One of those girls is a monumental liar.”
“She was only fourteen, Liz. Think of what Hetrick and the club did to her life.”
Liz brushed Anna’s arm with her hand. “Wait a minute. Confirmation of what?”
“Who would this fourteen-year-old be today?” Anna asked as she continued to scan the names.
“She’d be in her early thirties, leading a sad, empty life if she has any kind of conscience.”
A sad, empty life. “Tanner said something like that. His wife’s an empty shell. It’s hard to tell if he despairs for her or if he despises her emptiness.”
“Tanner?”
“The killer had an accomplice, Liz. The weapon that killed Beverly Goff was never found in or around Curt’s house. Someone had to turn off the electricity before Tanner went to turn it back on.” When Anna came to the second-to-last name, she swiped the screen to the right. Her eyes came to rest on the face of a red-haired girl whose eye makeup and expression of amused boredom were meant to convey a sophistication she couldn’t have been capable of at her age.
“Who was the accomplice? Another club member?”
The skin at the back of Anna’s neck prickled. “Katherine Wallace,” she muttered.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Tanner called his wife an empty shell. He said she’s vacant, not even there. Who would have a better reason than anyone to kill Hetrick and the others?”
“Adrian Armstrong’s family?”
“No, his family believed the accusations against him. Everyone did.” She held the phone for Liz to see. “Do you recognize the girl called Katherine Wallace?”
Liz’s eyes widened.
Anna lurched forward, yanked on the door to Lily’s, and ran for the back of the store, Liz on her heels. “Rose! Where are you? Answer me!”
The door to the office squeaked open, and Rose, a small bronze statue in her quivering hand, crept from around it. When her eyes fell on Anna and Liz, her hand dropped to her side and the statue banged to the floor. “Why are you shouting?” She strode angrily toward them. “I can’t stand all the shouting. You both should have left by now. I need to close up, and I can’t take this a second more.”
There was no time to soothe Rose’s fears. She was safe, but Curt was not. “Tanner was stealing from Curt,” Anna announced.
Rose’s shoulders sagged and she sighed with exhaustion. “No, he was stealing from Henry Maxwell, and he already admitted that to the police.”
“He was stealing from Curt too, and you and Dean knew it. Tell me the truth, Rose. Did Tanner have a key to Curt’s house?”
“Why are you asking me? It was Dean—”
“Fine! You want to die?” Anna nearly roared in frustration. Her husband, two of her friends, and a young man she had used to destroy the Armstrong family had all been murdered, and still Rose wouldn’t come clean. She had only admitted to things that couldn’t be proved or for which she would not, after seventeen years had passed, be prosecuted. She had no regrets. She was a coward. With Liz’s phone still in her hand, Anna grabbed at Rose’s shoulder to stop her from turning away. “That’s what’s going to happen if you keep lying! You’re in danger, Curt’s in danger—do you not get it?”
Whether it was the shouting or the physical contact that stirred Rose from her slumber of self-preservation, Anna didn’t know. But the shock on her face as Anna’s words sank in was clear, and at last Rose began to talk.
“Tanner had a key to the side door.”
“You mean the kitchen door?”
“Yes. Curt had Dean pick up his mail last June when he was out of town, and Dean made a copy of the key and gave it to Tanner.”
Aghast, Anna groaned and threw her head back. “Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“You know I couldn’t do that. Dean and I—”
“Told Tanner to steal from Curt, yes I know. But this isn’t about theft, it’s about murder. Tanner killed Beverly—and Hetrick, Maxwell, and your husband.”
Rose stared intently at Anna, daring her to back up her appalling accusation. “That’s not true. At Curt’s house the police searched Tanner for a weapon. They searched everyone—you know that, you were there. They searched the house and even outside the house.”
“He had someone helping him. He gave her the weapon and she took it away.”
Liz drew alongside Anna. “Are you thinking of Soda?”
“It has to be her. She used Tanner’s key to open the side door and flip the main breaker. The breaker box is by the door.”
Liz too was putting the pieces together. “Then Tanner killed Beverly and gave Soda the weapon. No wonder the police didn’t find anything.”
“This is a very important question, Rose,” Anna said. She needed the woman to ignore her well-honed instinct to cover for herself and her past and tell the truth one more time. “What was the fourteen-year-old girl’s name?”
Rose’s eyes darted from Anna to Liz. Her mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.
“Katherine? Kathy?” Anna held Liz’s phone inches from Rose’s face, forcing her to see the red-haired girl on the screen. “Is this her?”
She nodded. “Kathy Wallace. She called herself Kathy.”
“Tanner never told you his wife’s name, did he?”
Rose shook her head. “He never talks about her. We weren’t sure he was still married. We always left it alone.”
“Tanner’s wife calls herself Katie now. The police talked to her after Tanner was arrested. Katie, like Kathy, is short for Katherine.”
“Oh.” Rose clamped a hand to her forehead. “No, no. Is it . . . ?”
“I met Katie when they released Tanner on bail,” Liz said. “Seventeen years have passed, but that’s her.”
“How stupid we’ve been,” Rose said. “How could we not have known?”
“You’ve been keeping secrets, even from each other,” Liz said. “Lying, stealing, ruining innocent lives, and still expecting honesty from your fellow con men. How were you to know?” Liz took her phone from Anna. “Schaeffer hasn’t called you back? I’m calling again.” She tapped a contact number, put the phone to her ear, and turned her back on Rose.
Wearing a wounded expression, Rose retreated into her office and eased herself into a chair, looking as though her muscles might give out at any moment.
“Revenge,” Anna said, striding to the office door.
Rose looked up.
“Tanner was taking his revenge on all of you, one by one. You know, Rose, I used to think that the passage of time wipes away wrongs. Now I know better. A wrong stays a wrong. It doesn’t matter how much time passes. Did you botch Katie’s abortion?”
“No, no,” Rose said, angrily shaking her head. “I’m good, I’m a professional.”
“Botched or not, Tanner married a woman who couldn’t live with what she’d done to Adrian Armstrong and his family. She became an empty shell, never fully recovered. Tanner found out who you all were.”
“How? No new member could have known. We never talked about it. Ever.”
“One of the original members did.”
“Who?”
“Jordan Hetrick. He moved back to Elk Park, found a friend in Tanner, and started talking. He made the mistake of telling Tanner his real last name. Then Tanner told his wife and she told him who Hetrick was. Or maybe Tanner has known for years the name of the man who destroyed Katie.”
“Hetrick was never a member of the January Club.”
“Of course he was, Rose. Without him, the rest of you wouldn’t have a club.”
Hearing Liz’s footsteps, Anna looked back to see her friend pocketing her phone as she approached the office door. “I explained it as well as I could. The police are out looking for Tanner.”
Anna looked down at Rose. “Where is Curt right now? Is he at home?”
“Probably.”
“Would he let Tanner in?”
“Of course.”
&nbs
p; Rose had spoken automatically, before imagining the consequences, and when she realized what she had said, she screamed.
Instantly Anna heard a thud, then something heavy tumbling in the store and Gene’s voice shouting her name.
“I’m here!” she shouted back, dashing for the gallery’s door and running to him. “I’m okay, Liz is okay.”
“Thank God, I heard someone scream.”
“It was Rose.” Anna pointed toward the office door.
“Schaeffer’s on the way,” Liz said. “He should be here any minute.”
Gene looked to the open office door. “Tell me she’s not . . .”
“No, she’s alive,” Anna said, “but Curt’s in trouble.”
20
Sitting in the front passenger seat of Gene’s SUV, Anna held her cup of cocoa from the Buffalo like a hot-water bottle in her hands, caring more for the warmth than the taste of the drink. Liz sat in the backseat with her cup—cocoa too, since even for her it was too late for coffee—and Gene tapped a meandering rhythm on the steering wheel. Happy on their beds in the cargo area, Jackson and Riley were standing guard at the back windows, watching police officers trudge in and out of the Columbine Galleria.
Summit Avenue’s white Christmas lights and the star of Bethlehem on top of the Western Peaks Bank still shone. During cold mountain winters, the lights were a special blessing, and Elk Park was wise enough to leave them lit until the end of January. For Anna the lights brought to mind Christmas Eve last year, one year and two weeks ago. That was the moment, she thought. Riding with Gene to the police station after he had fought his way through deepening snow to find her—rescue her, really—in Mount Hope Cemetery. That was when she knew she was falling in love.
“How do you think Tanner found out that Jordan Hetrick was back in town?” Liz asked, breaking the comfortable silence.
“I’ll bet they met at the town office,” Anna said. “Remember Elise said Hetrick had looked for a job there?”
“That makes sense. Tanner was always at the town office working for the Herald. Of course, Soda works there too, so she could have run into Hetrick before Tanner did.”
“He met one of them. Maybe they went out for a beer and Hetrick started talking about his past. His journal shows he was beginning to confide in someone.”
“Then he got a little too comfortable and mentioned his real name.”
“And Tanner put it all together and invited him on a hunting trip. Hetrick must have been so thrilled to have a friend, he would have gone anywhere, done anything.”
“I’m sure once the police pick up Tanner we’ll find out how they met.” Liz took a ragged breath. “I hope they get to him in time. This is nerve-racking.”
Led by a uniformed officer, Rose Price exited the Columbine Galleria and entered a squad car. Anna wondered if eventually Rose would be charged with theft. After tonight Tanner wasn’t going to stick to his story about the Maxwell thefts being between him and Dean. He’d throw Rose under the bus. Besides, only twenty minutes earlier Rose had admitted that she’d helped Dean and Tanner steal from Maxwell. Later, Anna had little doubt, she would admit to stealing from Curt too.
But for now the police seemed to be treating her with deference. She sat in the back of the running squad car, looking warm and not the least bit uncomfortable. But then Rose was good at putting up a facade.
“I wonder if they can charge her with setting up Adrian Armstrong,” Liz said.
“I hope so,” Anna replied. “But maybe it’s been too long.” Would Rose and Curt ever pay for what they did to that man and his family? Someone had to let Armstrong’s children and wife know that he had been the victim of a terrible crime. An innocent man who couldn’t fight the evil that came against him, who had seen his life crumble and finally could take it no more.
If Anna knew Schaeffer, he would move mountains to find Adrian Armstrong’s family and let them know. And Liz would write about Armstrong. Reporters at the Elk News Herald would too—they had no choice. All of Elk Park, and soon all of Colorado, would know what the January Club had done.
“Quite a club that was,” Anna said. “Formed for the sole purpose of getting what the members wanted, no matter who they hurt. I wonder how many lives they damaged over the years. What’s the statute of limitations on what they did to Armstrong? Can Curt be charged too?”
When Liz didn’t answer, Anna turned sideways and swung her left arm over the seat back, looking at her.
“I could kick myself for not thinking about this earlier,” Liz said.
“What?”
“Do you remember when Tanner showed up at Elise’s house to interview her for the Herald, supposedly after a contact gave him the address?”
“Sure.” Anna thought back, remembering Tanner’s car churning up the snowy driveway, his look of dismay and disbelief when he saw that Liz had already talked to Elise. “Right after we did. Come to think of it, it was strange he got there so quickly.”
“You knew where Elise was because you found her when you did your research for the PD, but no contact I know of could have located Elise so quickly. The police had only just released the information that Hetrick even had a wife. I should have asked around, found out who Tanner’s magical contact was. He knew how to find Elise because—”
“He’s the one who picked Jordan up for the hunting trip,” Anna finished. “Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Do you think he wanted to hurt Elise?”
“No. If he’d wanted to, he would have before then. She didn’t know anything, and he knew that. I think he just wanted to show the Herald what a star reporter he was, finding Elise before anyone else could.”
“Except for us.” Liz took a long sip of cocoa and let loose with a satisfied ahh before continuing. “Tanner killed Maxwell and Hetrick in the same place Hetrick molested his wife seventeen years ago. I’m sure he thought there was poetic justice in that. Thing is, I can see how Hetrick would have followed Tanner into the woods, but Maxwell?”
“My guess is Tanner promised him something. Something to do with the occult. Or he confessed to killing someone and said he’d show Maxwell where. That would intrigue someone who collected human bones and dirt.”
“And fingers.”
Anna thought for a moment, about the bones and dirt, about what she knew of Henry Maxwell and Tanner Ostberg, and about Tanner’s sense of poetic justice. “We’ve been assuming that Maxwell knew that was Hetrick’s finger. What if he didn’t? It’s possible it wasn’t meant as a threat, that it was a gift—and more of Tanner’s poetic justice. He liked the idea of Maxwell keeping the finger for necromancy and not having any idea whose finger it was.”
“My phone’s vibrating,” Liz said. “It’s about time.”
Anna watched Liz as she listened to the caller.
“And?” Liz said. She listened, bit her lip, and listened some more. Then she smiled.
Anna nudged Gene. “We did it.”
“The police got there just before Tanner and hid inside the house,” Liz said, pocketing her phone. “Can you believe it? Schaeffer answered the door, and he arrested both Tanner and Curt. Tanner had an ice pick in his pocket. He’s already admitting to everything, including killing Hetrick and Maxwell in the woods. And get this. He stabbed Maxwell because he wanted to kill him with the knife he used to cut off Hetrick’s finger.”
“That explains the two murder weapons.”
“Another example of Tanner’s poetic justice. He kept saying he did it all for Katie, the club destroyed her when she was only fourteen and it was time to make them pay. I got the impression Schaeffer gave me information he’s not giving anyone else, at least for a few hours. This is incredible.” She waved her free hand in the air, heedless of the cup in her other hand.
“You’re spilling the chocolate.”
“Not in my car,” Gene said, starting the engine. “You need to get to your laptop.”
Anna faced forward in her seat and strapped on her seatbe
lt. Liz had the heads-up on a story the Elk Park Herald knew nothing about, and it involved one of their own reporters. Her articles on it were going to ensure her place at the top of the town’s news world, and rightly so.
Gene pulled ahead, made a U-turn in the street, and headed west on Summit. Better than Liz winning her exclusive, they had stopped another murder from happening. True, Curt MacKenzie wasn’t one of the good guys, but living, and therefore having to deal with what he had done for the rest of his life, however long it would be, was his only chance at redemption.
“For once, nobody innocent died,” Liz said.
“You’re right,” Anna said, brightening. “Maybe you can fight the darkness sometimes.”
“Aren’t we supposed to fight the darkness?” Gene said as he hung a left. The SUV’s tires skidded momentarily, but he quickly regained control. “Isn’t that in our job description?”
“Sometimes fighting darkness . . .” Anna began. How could she explain how she felt? “Don’t laugh, but it’s too scary,” Anna replied. “Like a horror novel. I feel like shutting it, closing my eyes, and pulling the covers over my head. It overwhelms me.”
Liz rested her hand on Anna’s seat back. “I’m sorry, Anna, I could tell what I said to Schaeffer about the occult bothered you. It bothered Schaeffer too. He clammed up fast.”
“It’s on the rise,” Anna said to Gene, answering his unspoken question. “Look what’s happened in Elk Park over the past year. Things I never thought I’d see.”
“It’s beyond Elk Park,” Gene said. “It’s happening everywhere, and not just with the occult. Darkness of every kind is closing in. Something is happening, and every Christian can feel it.”
Gene was right, Anna thought. As they went about their daily business, working, eating, sleeping, they all felt it. And more and more they talked about it. In church, at dinner, at get-togethers with friends. They all saw the thing that loomed on the horizon, even if they couldn’t always put a name to it. It was evil, yes, but it was more than that. Evil had always been present, had always spread its tentacles. Now it was on the march. Forces joining forces, darker and ever darker.
The Club (Anna Denning Mystery Book 4) Page 20
