Molly: House on Fire

by R. E. Bradshaw

  Rainey ushered them into the house. Molly saw Leslie’s eyes resting on a decorative plaque Katie had placed on the foyer table that read, “All weapons must be checked at the door.” It was not a joke. Leslie’s eyes grew even larger, when Molly pulled the Walther from her portfolio, dropped the clip out, and racked the chamber to assure it was unloaded. She handed it to Rainey, who opened a gun safe, built into the foyer wall, placing Molly’s weapon alongside several others. Molly knew there were enough weapons stashed around the house in gun safes to start a small war. Rainey was prepared for anything, as she should be. The people Rainey hunted and captured for a living, back in her FBI days, were capable of anything. Although Molly teased her about her paranoia sometimes, Rainey Bell had every reason to be diligent.

  Katie entered the foyer, already talking, with a crying baby in her arms. “Rainey, take her a minute so I can change the boys.” She saw Molly. “Hey, Molly.” After handing off the baby to Rainey, Katie gave Molly a hug. “How’s my favorite lawyer?”

  “I’m fine.” Molly turned to Leslie. “Katie Meyers, this is Leslie Walker. She’s helping me on the case.”

  Katie was gorgeous, just like Leslie said, and Molly could see she was having the same affect on Leslie that she had on everyone else. Katie made people smile. Leslie shook Katie’s hand.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. What a beautiful baby. Look at those green eyes,” Leslie said, looking at the squirming, but now quieted baby in Rainey’s arms.

  “That’s Weather and she’s Rainey’s child. They may not share any DNA, but I’ve never dealt with two more stubborn women in my life.”

  “I’m not so sure you can blame all the willfulness of this child on me,” Rainey said, smiling at the love of her life.

  Katie stood on her tiptoes to peck Rainey on the cheek. “Take her into the den and rock her. I’ll be right back, after I get the boys down for their nap.”

  Rainey glanced down at her daughter. “Come on, trouble. Let’s show these nice people into the den.” She looked at Molly. “If you’re really lucky, she’ll throw a fit the minute Katie leaves the room.”

  Leslie volunteered, “I’ll take her.”

  Molly saw the glint in Leslie’s eyes. She was falling in love with the little green-eyed beauty in Rainey’s arms.

  Leslie continued, “If you don’t mind, of course. I’d love to help you with them, Katie, and I’d like to meet the boys.”

  Katie smiled. “I will gladly take your help. Thank you.” She indicated Molly and Rainey with a nod in their direction. “Then these two can go do what they do.”

  An immediate bond was created between the two women. Rainey and Molly just stared as Katie took Weather from Rainey, handing her precious child to Leslie. The two instant friends walked out of the foyer together, leaving Rainey and Molly standing alone.

  Molly shrugged her shoulders. “Damn, I don’t think I’ve ever been so easily abandoned. That little girl of yours is a heartbreaker.”

  Rainey chuckled. “Tell me about it. Timothy and Mac don’t stand a chance. She’s going to be leading them around by the nose, before they can crawl. You can already see her processing. It’s frightening and fascinating at the same time, watching her little mind working.”

  “I’ll bet behavioral analysis looks a bit different from this perspective,” Molly commented.

  Rainey started moving toward her office, Molly following. She continued the conversation as they walked down the hall. “I had no idea how distinct their personalities would be at this age. It really is enlightening. The environment in which we develop helps shape us, that’s true, but this initial innate being is all DNA and self-preservation.” She smiled back over her shoulder at Molly. “Some of us are born with a strong sense of being. Weather has that already. She’ll do whatever it takes to survive.”

  Molly had the distinct impression that Rainey was talking about more than just her daughter. They entered the office. As soon as the door was closed, Rainey’s smile disappeared.

  “What the hell are you in the middle of, Molly?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Like I said, these three murders are definitely not related to the fourth, discounting the obvious attempt to make it appear so,” Rainey commented, thirty minutes later.

  Molly had steered her to Joey’s case first, wanting that out of the way before she told Rainey the whole story. They went over all the evidence together and Rainey agreed with Molly’s theory on the cover-up.

  She continued, “I talked to the BAU. There are more cases in the surrounding counties that match this profile. A joint task force was formed the day after your fourth murder. The Police Chief in Dobbs County refused to take part, saying they had their man. Danny emailed an affidavit stating that fact. Here’s a copy.” She handed the paper to Molly. “I know you need the original for court. It will be overnighted to you, when you tell me where to send it.”

  Danny McNally was Rainey’s old teammate in the BAU. The weight of his expert testimony should sway a judge to sever the three cases from Cheryl’s murder.

  Molly asked, “What’s the profile on the Erickson murder?”

  “The scene was totally different. This was a murder to cover up a break-in. It has all the markings of a surprise encounter. Your victim was long dead before all the damage was done. I’d say this guy panicked, then took a little time to camouflage the scene. She wasn’t supposed to be there, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes,” Molly answered. “She usually met friends for coffee, while Joe had radiation treatments, every Tuesday. It was common knowledge. Small town.”

  Rainey nodded that she understood. “And it was also common knowledge that her son would not be home?”

  Molly nodded.

  “Then the killer knew he had time to do what he did. This may have started as a panicked attack, but it takes a dangerous criminal to inflict that kind of abuse on a body. It also takes someone with intimate knowledge of the other three murders to stage a scene that well. And that’s what has me worried about you.”

  “If I told you the son is in custody and he has Asperger’s, would that change your profile?”

  Rainey shook her head. “No, not at all. The profile is based on the crime, not the suspect. You’re looking for a cold calculating criminal who wants something. Find out what that is and you have your man. It’s definitely a man, a big man. He overpowered her and snapped her neck in seconds. She didn’t have time to fight. All that disruption at the scene was after the fact.”

  “So, you’re pretty sure this kid didn’t snap. I have to tell you, he’s gigantic.”

  Rainey pulled out a picture of Cheryl’s body at the scene. “From what I know of Asperger’s, once the source of his rage was no longer responding, this kid would have shut down or even tried to revive his mother, not systematically set a scene like this. This takes a kind of sadistic cunning I don’t believe a person with Asperger’s would be capable of.”

  “You need to watch a video with me. Leslie should be here too.” Molly said, starting to stand.

  “Not so fast,” Rainey said. “We’ll get to her in a minute.” She leaned back in her chair. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do you want me to tell you what I saw in the other two cases first?”

  “You first,” Molly said.

  “All right, the woman, Sarah Harris, was definitely murdered. The fingerprint bruises on her neck, the ones the ME said were self-inflicted, well, that’s just bad science. Her hands were too small to span the distance between those bruises. And the repeated ligature marks attributed to her pulling herself up and falling again, that’s just bullshit. Why didn’t she just slip out of the hoodie, if she could move that much? Besides that, who ties a drawstring that tight around their own neck? The bruising on her shoulders looks like someone held her down and lifted her intermittently, prolonging her death. This woman was murdered, plain and simple, and I’m sorry to say, her death was probably torturous. This killer could easi
ly fit the profile in the Erickson case. The same cold calculation is at work here.”

  Molly blinked back tears and swallowed hard. Rainey did not miss it.

  She continued. “I saw the same woman’s name associated with the house fire death. I’m not sure what you wanted me to look for in that one. There wasn’t much of an investigation. Nobody looked very hard at that incident. In fact, no one has looked hard at any of these deaths. Made me wonder why, but that’s about all I can tell you from what I have. I did notice one pertinent thing — the little girl. That’s you, isn’t it, Molly?”

  Molly leaned forward, elbows on her knees, staring down at the floor. “Yes, Molly Kincaid is my adopted name. I was taken from my mother right after the fire. I never saw her again. She was murdered the day before I turned eighteen, when she could have legally contacted me again. That’s not all.” Molly paused, and then looked up at Rainey. “I killed Evan Branch.”

  Rainey listened as Molly recounted the events of that day, without comment. When Molly finished, Rainey had a few questions.

  “Did anyone ever tell you what happened in that house after you went outside?”

  Molly sat back in her chair. “No, we never spoke of it again, outside of the Grand Jury. I simply told them what my mother said I should.”

  Rainey stood up and walked around the desk. She sat down beside Molly in a matching leather chair. “How do you know you killed him? He was still breathing the last time you saw him. I’m not sure a ten year old of your stature could have killed a man with one blow. I mean it’s possible you did, but just as unlikely that you did not.”

  Molly snorted her displeasure. “What are you saying? The two adults I trusted most in my life let me think I killed my father.” The fact that she used that term to describe Evan Branch unsettled Molly, as much as thinking her mother may have manipulated her into carrying the guilt of killing him. “Why would they do that? What purpose would that have served?”

  Rainey pushed Molly to consider it. “You were better off not knowing what really happened. I think that’s the reason your mother told you what she did. If you told anyone what you thought you had done, nothing would have happened to you anyway. Nobody files charges on a kid protecting her mother, not even in 1983 in a backwoods county like Dobbs. If you knew Joe or your mother finished him off, now that’s a whole different set of circumstances.”

  Molly used to wonder what happened after she left the house that day. She always assumed Evan was dead by the time Joe arrived. She stopped thinking about it after her mother died. That was the way Molly handled her past, she just refused to consider it. On occasion, something would pull her back in time, but for the most part, Molly buried her past with her mother. The investigation into her mother’s death was bringing it all back in vivid color. The love-hate relationship she had with Sarah’s memory was becoming jumbled with feelings Molly thought she laid to rest.

  Rainey let Molly absorb her comments and then went on. “The only way anyone will ever know what really happened to Evan Branch is if his body is exhumed. I’d let it lie, if I were you.”

  Molly sighed. “I may not have any say over that. His brother is threatening to exhume his body. I’m sure he will, if I pursue him for my mother’s murder. Either way, my past is going to surface.”

  “Molly, you did what you had to do to survive, whether you killed him or not. You don’t owe anyone an explanation, especially not me. I’ll stand by you, whatever you decide to do.”

  Molly was not accustomed to trusting people or having friends she could really depend on. She had friends like Lizbeth and Rainey, who would both drop everything and come running if she needed them, but they had never really known the real Molly. She always held something back. Rainey was extending a hand of true friendship. Molly decided to take it.

  “Thank you, Rainey. That means a lot to me. I value our friendship. I’m glad my secrets didn’t destroy that.”

  Rainey smiled at Molly. “I’ve told you things in your capacity as my attorney that I haven’t shared with Katie. She can be forced to testify. You cannot. We all have skeletons, Molly. You can trust me with yours.”

  Molly represented Rainey at an inquiry into the death of Dalton Chambers, a serial killer murdered by another inmate. Chambers organized an attack on Katie and Rainey from death row, which they survived, but Rainey could be tied to the inmate that killed him. There was some question about Rainey’s involvement in Chamber’s death. It went away rather quickly, with no connection discovered. Like Rainey said, sometimes you do what you have to in order to survive.

  Rainey sensed there was no further need to comment on their mutually held confidences. She switched back to the topic of Sarah’s murder. “Exhumation is also the only way to prove your mother was murdered. I read the notes the mortician wrote. By the way, he did a more thorough examination than the ME. If he bagged her hands and buried the other evidence he collected with her, there’s a good chance it’s still viable. Medgar Evers came out of the ground forty years later in almost as good a shape as he went in. You’ll never know, until a qualified forensic pathologist has a look. I’d suggest you have the body sent to the Chief Medical Examiner’s office.” Rainey paused for a second. “I’m sorry, Molly. I know we’re talking about your mother here.”

  Molly shrugged. “It has to be done. I appreciate your honesty.” Molly paused to regain some control over the storm of emotions raging inside, then continued. “I’m requesting a judge’s order for exhumation on Monday. That should stir things up.”

  “Indeed it will. Correct me if I’m wrong,” Rainey said. “You’ve connected these three crimes, haven’t you? Not the serial murders, we know they aren’t really part of this.”

  “There’s a fourth one, another ‘suicide’ that I suspect was anything but,” Molly explained.

  “You said Evan was asking your mother where something was. Do you think it was the key she gave you? Do you still have it?”

  Molly shook her head. “I’m sure I do, somewhere, but that isn’t what he was looking for. I think it was the gold piece my grandfather gave me shortly before his death. My mother didn’t know I had it, but she somehow knew of its existence, because she contacted a gold dealer.” Molly told Rainey about the gold legend and her theory that everything hinged on the gold piece. She finished with, “I think Jarvis Branch is behind all of this and the threatening emails to me. He’s afraid I know where the gold is. I’m telling you, I don’t have any idea where it might be, or if it still exists.”

  “About those emails,” Rainey said, standing to go behind the desk again. “I had a friend look into it. She set it up so you aren’t receiving them anymore, but she and I are. You’ve had the same message repeated at random times since it was first sent last night.”

  Molly sat up a little taller, listening intently.

  Rainey continued, “All it says is, ‘your next.’ It’s being transmitted through oodles of proxy servers and never the same combination. It’s probably set up to send automatically at scheduled times. It’s going to take a while to trace it. Even so, we may wind up with an IP address that belongs to an unwilling participant. People just don’t protect their Wi-Fi signals like they should.”

  Molly shook her head again. “I can’t see Jarvis knowing how to do all that.”

  Rainey raised an eyebrow. “Maybe he’s not the only one that doesn’t want you in Dobbs County.”

  Molly stood up. She was going to go find Leslie so they could view Joey’s interview. She finished her thought on the way to the door. “The only way I can prove who killed my mother is a confession. I know he was with her that night. He told me that much, but that doesn’t prove anything. I need him to make a move. We need to catch him doing something, get some leverage, make him uncomfortable. He’ll be more likely to make a mistake then.”

  Rainey challenged Molly. “You’re setting yourself up as bait and you do not have the training to do that. No one is watching your back. This is irresponsible, Molly.
”

  “I don’t have a choice, Rainey. I can’t let that son-of-a-bitch get away with three murders.”

  Rainey stood her ground. “Even if it means exposing yourself to a murderer and your career to the media wolves?”

  Molly did not back down either. “Yes, if that’s what it takes. He’s not getting away with torturing my mother to death. That’s just not going to happen.”

  “Is Leslie aware of how much danger she’s in, hanging out with you?” Rainey asked.

  That thought unnerved Molly a bit. Putting her life on the line was one thing, endangering others a completely different ballgame. She tried to rationalize not telling Leslie about the “your next” threat. “Her house was ransacked, a neighborhood cat slaughtered on her dining room table. I think she has a good idea.”

  This news troubled Rainey. “He’s escalating, Molly. He’s decompensating and his actions are going to become more brazen. You really need a protection detail. I’m serious.” She looked around her office, as if she could find someone there to take the position. Frustrated, she said, “Damn, I need to come with you.”

  Molly waved her off. “No, you don’t. You’re not back in the field for a few more weeks. I won’t let you break that promise to Katie.”

  “But if she knew you were in trouble, she would —”

  Molly cut Rainey off. “So, you’re not going to tell her. I’m staying with a cop. I’m armed. I’m not trying to get myself killed. I just need him to make a little mistake.”

  “He’s going to have to make that mistake in public, or it’s your word against his,” Rainey pointed out. “Since you’re accusing each other of murder in his county, I’m not sure that will work in your favor.” Rainey seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then asked, “You have a computer in your car, right?”

  Molly answered, “Yes.”

  Rainey smiled and walked to the corner of her office. She lifted a heavy black plastic case and turned back to Molly, wearing a mischievous grin. “I have an idea. Pull your car into the garage.”