The Next Victim (Kali O'Brien series)

by Jonnie Jacobs

  That she was John’s daughter made the ache in Kali’s heart more agonizing. She understood Sabrina’s desire to shelter Crystal. Kali felt the same.

  When the interview ended, Kali walked outside into the hallway with the detectives. They explained that Nash was in custody, charged with the murder of Hayley Hendrix. They were hoping they’d have enough soon to charge him with Sloane’s and Olivia’s murders as well.

  “I’m afraid we might not be able to pin your brother’s death on him,” Michelle told her. “Not with enough behind us to stand up at trial. But we do have evidence of an ATM transaction on Nash’s account in the area of your brother’s house the night of John’s death. We’ve also got a credit card record showing an Internet purchase of Xanax. We’ll see what the DA says.”

  “Just as long as Nash goes away,” Kali said.

  “Oh, he’ll do that. You heard the girl.”

  Kali was a defense attorney. She knew how a witness could crumble under tough cross. “Attempted murder maybe, for shooting me,” Kali told her, “but Crystal is young. I’m not sure how she’ll stand up at trial.”

  “I doubt it’ll come to that. The house where Hayley died is a vacant rental owned by an investment company Nash heads. We found the address written on a map in Hayley’s car.”

  “You think he’ll plead out on that?” Kali knew it would never happen.

  Michelle shook her head. “Not just that. We searched Nash’s house. We’ve got his gun, his phone records, his—”

  “None of that is solid.”

  “No.” Michelle grinned. “But we’ve also got the whole thing on film. Well, not film, but disk. He was recording everything that happened with Crystal and Hayley.”

  “And he was stupid enough to keep it?”

  Michelle nodded. “I guess he couldn’t bring himself to destroy it. I mean, if you’re a sicko, action like that’s got to be gold.”

  Kali remembered Nash saying the police would never think to tie the murders to him. Stupid, yes. But arrogant, as well. The double Achilles’ heel of criminals.

  “May I talk to Crystal alone?” Kali asked. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

  “Take your time. We’re not holding her. We just need to wait until someone from Protective Services comes to pick her up.”

  “And then what?”

  Michelle shrugged. “That’s not up to us. My guess is they’ll ship her home.”

  Kali went back into the conference room. Crystal had moved from the chair to one of the framed photographs of old Tucson hanging on the wall. She had her back to Kali, but she turned at the sound of the door.

  “How’re you doing?” Kali asked.

  Crystal shrugged. “Okay, I guess. How about you? You’re the one who got shot.”

  “But thanks to you, Nash’s aim was way off.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  Kali nodded. “Some. But I’m going to be fine.”

  “I feel bad about tricking you, but I’m glad you showed up.”

  “I’m the one who inadvertently led Nash to you, remember?”

  “He would have found me eventually.” She pulled a tube of lip gloss from her jean’s pocket and applied it. “I was scared all the time. It’s good to have it over.”

  “Why didn’t you go home?” Kali asked.

  “Home? Where’s that?” Crystal’s laugh was clipped. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

  “I don’t know. They’ll probably send you back to your dad’s.”

  “No way. He doesn’t want me and I don’t want to go. I’m not even his, you know. My parents adopted me. My mom said they chose me because I was special and they loved me, but all my dad cares about is his new family.”

  “Then foster care, maybe,” Kali said slowly.

  “Like Hayley? She was in foster care. You should have heard the stories she told.”

  “I think my sister would like to have you live with her. I don’t know if the state would allow it, but—”

  “Why would she do that?” Crystal asked skeptically.

  “Well, she’s a kind person. She has three kids of her own.” Because you’re special. Kali hesitated. “Do you know why Sloane Winslow was looking for you?”

  “No, I hardly knew her. I only met her a couple of times. She was kinda strange. I don’t mean bad strange. She was a nice lady. But she asked me a lot of questions about where I was from and my parents and stuff. And she made us all pose for photos.” Crystal caught herself and looked at Kali, embarrassed. “Not those kinds of photos. Just, you know, the three of us hanging out. She said we were the same age as her daughter and she liked having young people around. But Olivia told me afterward that it was a lie. Mrs. Winslow didn’t have any kids. So I figured she was just a little weird.”

  “She did have a daughter,” Kali said. “She gave her up for adoption sixteen years ago. I’m pretty sure she thought you were that daughter.”

  “Oh, my God.” Crystal’s eyes widened. She moved back to the conference table and sat down again. “My God. You mean she was my . . . my birth mother?”

  “I think so. And my brother was your father.”

  Crystal looked at Kali in stunned silence. “That would make me and my sister your aunts.”

  The color had begun to return to Crystal’s face. Now a small smile pulled at her mouth.

  “We could tell for sure with a DNA test,” Kali said. “That is, if you wanted.”

  “So that your sister would take me, you mean?”

  Kali shook her head. “No, I think Sabrina wants you to live with her regardless.” She let the words sink in for a moment. “Would you like that?”

  Crystal nodded. “I’ve never had an aunt.”

  “And now you’ve got two of them.” Kali hesitated, remembering how Crystal had pulled her hand from Michelle’s during the interview. “Can I give you a hug?” she asked.

  “Sure, I guess.” Crystal stood awkwardly.

  “It’s more like a half hug, considering my arm,” Kali said, then slid her good arm around Crystal and hugged her. When Kali started to pull away, Crystal clung to her tightly, like a small, frightened child.

  Kali pulled her close. She could feel Crystal’s heart beating in syncopated time to her own. John was gone, but he was here, too. And maybe, just maybe, Kali would have a chance to know his child in ways she’d never known her brother.

  Chapter 52

  Erling rarely stopped off for a beer after work, but the last few days he’d made a habit of it. Not simply to brace himself for the tension at home—he also needed time to dig himself out from under the bitter disappointment of being shunted off to the side of his own case. It was his own damn fault—he understood that— and the fact that he’d brought it on himself only made the disappointment harder to swallow. At least he hadn’t been fired or permanently reassigned. All things considered, the lieutenant had been more than fair. Still, it rankled to watch his case coming together without him.

  He saw Michelle come into the bar and head his way. “I thought I might find you here,” she told him, sliding onto the stool next to his. The bartender set a napkin in front of her. “Whatever you’ve got on draft,” she said to him.

  “How’d it go?” Erling asked. Michelle had been good about keeping him in the loop, and he was grateful to her for that.

  “Crystal was cooperative. We’ve got Nash dead to rights for Hayley. We’ve got a good case against him for Sloane Winslow and Olivia Perez, too. With both Crystal and Kali able to testify about his admission of guilt, and the evidence we found when we searched his house, I think the DA will go with charging him on those counts as well.”

  “Even without conclusive evidence?” Erling knew they’d found a gun and ammo at Nash’s, but they couldn’t definitively tie it to the murders. They’d also found traces of type-O blood, Sloane’s blood type, on the floor mats of Nash’s car, and a hand towel in his closet that matched those in Sloane’s guest bath. A good defense attorney could blow holes through
all of it.

  “We’re hoping that given the cumulative weight of what we’ve got, Nash will see the handwriting on the wall and agree to a deal. The specter of death row is usually a big motivator.”

  “Let’s hope so in this case.” Erling took a sip of his beer and grimaced. He wasn’t much of a drinker, and after the first couple of sips, beer didn’t have a lot of appeal for him.

  “Crystal is one tough little cookie,” Michelle added. “And I mean that in the best way. She’ll do fine on the witness stand.”

  Sloane’s daughter. It brought a lump to his throat imagining how Sloane must have felt when she realized the sort of life her child had been subjected to. Sloane, who devoted so much energy to rescuing people, had failed to protect her own daughter. He could understand now how desperate she must have been when the girl suddenly disappeared.

  In the aftermath of Erling’s apology to Mindy, she’d confessed that “some woman” had called weeks earlier about a missing girl, and that she had neglected to give him the message. That accounted for the listing of Sloane’s number on the phone’s caller ID readout. Sloane had called the station the next day to inquire about their Jane Doe, but she’d presumably still been waiting for Erling to return her call.

  The bartender slid Michelle’s glass across the bar to her. “What amazes me, as always,” Michelle said, “is how a person can turn one mistake—admittedly a horrendous one in this case—into something so much worse. If Nash had come clean from the start, he’d probably be looking at manslaughter. With the murders of Sloane Winslow and Olivia Perez, not to mention John O’Brien, he’s upped the ante to multiple counts of premeditated murder.”

  A heaviness tugged at Erling’s chest. He understood how easily even a rational, well-meaning man could compound a mistake. “It’s surprisingly easy to fool yourself into thinking you can cover up a wrong,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”

  “You corrected things, Erling. In the end, you did what was right.”

  Would he have come forward if Kali O’Brien hadn’t found out about his affair with Sloane? Erling wanted to think so, but in truth, he didn’t know. If John O’Brien were still alive, he might be in jail right now facing trial for murder. An innocent man wrongly accused all because of Erling’s own self-serving weakness. He was having a hard time looking at himself in the mirror these days.

  Michelle seemed ready to say more, then changed the subject. “I know you weren’t the one who leaked information to Carmen Escobar, by the way,” she said.

  “Is this part of your renewed faith in me?”

  “Well, that, but it also turns out she’s dating a guy in records.” Michelle traced a squiggly line in the condensation on the side of her mug. “How are things at home?”

  “There are some signs of a thaw, but there’s a lot of tension, too.” He chewed on his lower lip. “It’s Deena I worry about most. Not how she’s treating me but what I did to her. The hurt and damage I caused by thinking only of myself.”

  “Sounds like that’s a step in the right direction.”

  Erling nodded, though he wasn’t convinced. His concern about his wife’s feelings might be a case of too little too late. “That idea you had,” Erling said to Michelle, “the cruise? Deena said she’d think about it.” This offered him a glimmer of hope. He was trying not to hang his heart on it, but it was all he had at the moment.

  “That’s good.” Michelle offered a smile of encouragement. “Most of us are willing to forgive a lot when we know the regret is heartfelt.”

  “I’m hoping that’s so. I can’t imagine my life without her.” Erling checked his watch. “Speaking of which . . . I need to be going.” He reached for his wallet, set a twenty on the bar, then slid off his bar stool. “I know I let you down, too, Michelle. I’m sorry. Genuinely sorry.”

  “I know you are, Erling.”

  “You okay being partnered with me still?”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  He grinned. “Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way, either.”

  Chapter 53

  The sun was a bright orange ball on the horizon. As Kali sipped her champagne, she watched it slowly sink into the ocean beyond the Golden Gate. Back in her own home, nestled on the sofa next to Bryce, her dog, Loretta, snoring softly at her feet, and the tingle of champagne in her veins, she felt content for the first time in weeks.

  “I talked to my sister this afternoon,” Kali said, adjusting her arm in its sling. “It’s only been a couple of days, but Crystal seems to be doing well. And the boys are going out of their way to make her feel welcome.”

  Bryce squeezed her free hand. “Good for them. I hope it lasts.”

  “I’m sure it won’t. There’ll be ups and downs, but they are basically nice kids, so I think it will be okay in the end. And Sabrina, for once in her life, seems to have a grasp on reality.”

  Kali knew Crystal was better off with Sabrina than here with her. Sabrina had a husband and children, and she knew how to open her heart to others. Still, there was a part of Kali that would have liked Crystal with her. “I’m going there for Christmas this year,” Kali said. “And then Crystal is going to come home with me for the week until school starts again.”

  “I’m missing you already.”

  “You could come, too.”

  Bryce gave her a quizzical look, then smiled. “I might just do that.” He sipped his champagne. “Are the DNA results in yet?”

  Kali shook her head. “We don’t really need them, though. Crystal’s father confirmed that Sloane and John both signed the adoption release. It was a private adoption but everything was done legally.”

  “And he doesn’t have a problem that his daughter is going to be living with Sabrina?”

  Kali laughed. “Hardly. Especially when he found out it wasn’t going to cost him anything.”

  “What a stand-up dad.”

  “My thoughts exactly. No wonder Sloane was so eager to find Crystal. She thought she’d done right by her baby and found her a good home. And it probably was until Ray realized he was no longer the center of attention and went off to get his jollies elsewhere. Even then, Martha seems to have been a devoted mother.”

  The doorbell rang and Loretta sprang to her feet, barking. Kali pulled herself off the sofa and went to answer it. Her neighbor Margot stood there with a plate in her hand.

  “I won’t keep you,” Margot said, in a conspiratorial tone. “I see by his car in front that Stud Muffin is here. But I made some fudge and wanted to bring it to you. Sort of a welcome-home gift.”

  “Thanks.” Kali took the plate and decided not to think about the calories. Margot’s fudge was to die for. “I should be giving you a gift. I really appreciate you keeping Loretta for me.”

  “Any time. You know that.” Margot craned her neck to look over Kali’s shoulder and then winked at Kali. “Enjoy your evening. We’ll talk later.”

  “Stud Muffin?” Bryce said when the door closed.

  Kali handed him the plate of fudge. “That’s Margot’s impression.”

  “Wonderful. Margot’s a man.”

  “Technically.”

  “Technically is what counts.”

  Kali made a so-so gesture with her hand “Whatever, she makes fantastic fudge.”

  “What about you?”

  “Me? I’m a lousy cook.”

  “No. I mean, do you think I’m sexy?”

  Kali grinned. “You know the answer to that.”

  “I wouldn’t mind hearing you say it.”

  She leaned forward and whispered in his ear, “You’re the sexiest man I know.”

  Bryce grinned. He refilled their glasses with champagne, then returned to the sofa. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “How involved were you, really, with A. J. Nash?”

  Kali turned. Her eyes found Bryce’s. “We went out once for drinks and then when I had some questions about John, we met once for Chinese food.”

&n
bsp; “And the Desert Museum?”

  “He offered to show it to me. I never took him up on it. Why? Are you jealous?”

  “Should I be?”

  Kali didn’t hesitate. “Not at all.”

  “I really missed you, you know.” Bryce leaned back and took her free hand in his, caressing her palm with his thumb. “Sometimes I wish I understood you better.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  He smiled wanly. “Seriously, Kali. Do you think we have a future together?”

  She brought his hand to her lips. “I hope so. I really do hope so.” And she did. She’d come to see a lot of things differently in these last couple of weeks. Not the least of how she tended to distance herself from those she cared about.

  The phone rang and Kali groaned. “I’ll let the machine get it.”

  A few seconds later, Jared’s voice boomed through the room. “Hey, boss, you coming in tomorrow? Daryl Jensen’s at it again. Says he was just trying to bring the baby a present but his ex called the cops. The hearing’s at eleven.” He paused. “It will be good to have you back. Things get kind of dull around here without you.”

  “I should let him know I’ll be there,” Kali said reluctantly.

  “I’ll bring you the phone in a minute.” Bryce traced his fingers along the back of her neck. “About the future—I’m banking on it, okay?”

  A warm glow that had nothing to do with the champagne filled Kali’s veins. She felt her eyes tear with happiness, and when Bryce went to fetch the telephone, she brushed the tears away.

  He handed her the phone. “Whether your shoulder’s healed or not, I guess it’s back to life as usual.”

  Kali nodded. But nothing was really the same as before. She was a woman who’d lost a brother, as well as the years when she might have grown closer to him. A woman with newfound appreciation for the sister she’d so often found irritating. A woman with a new niece she was looking forward to knowing better, and—she let herself acknowledge it—a man she might be falling in love with.