by Casey Hill
Nothing from Chris other than a missed call from earlier that morning.
Damn, why hadn’t he called since? Even if the news wasn’t good, surely he’d have the decency to keep her updated.
She quickly dialed his number but frustratingly it went straight to voicemail. Next she called Kennedy, who’d apparently heard nothing in the meantime either.
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure he and Forrest have got everything under control,’ the detective assured her.
‘Daniel? Daniel went with him?’ For some reason this seemed to panic her even more.
‘That’s what the guys at the station said. They left here about an hour and a half ago. Look, try not to worry, I’m sure everything’s fine – if it wasn’t, Chris would’ve been in touch.’
She wanted to believe him, she really did, but if the killer’s message had indeed been meant for her, Reilly knew she couldn’t take anything for granted. How could he have known about Cassie – or about Jess? Her sister had been underage at the time, and so she hadn’t been named in the newspapers.
If the killer did know, she could see why he’d have a field day with it. Daniel was right; to think that one of those trying to catch him had a personal insight on his preferred modus operandi and knew all about taboos …
Had Daniel suspected this all along? Had he realized that the killer had gained an advantage by tapping into Reilly’s murky past, exposing her shameful family secrets? And if he had, what was he intending to do about it?
There was nothing Reilly could do to change things, in the same way that back then, there was nothing she could do but turn over her badly damaged 14-year-old sister to the cops. Jess, having discovered their absent mother’s whereabouts, had sought Cassie out and subsequently learned that she had indeed left Mike for another man.
As was often the case with Jess, the encounter had evidently been fraught and angry, and when mother and daughter were interrupted by Cassie’s partner, the highly emotional teenager grabbed a kitchen knife and lashed out in the most unimaginable way.
Even now, Reilly could hear Jess pleading with her not to call the police.
‘I didn’t mean it, Reilly, I swear I didn’t. He just crept up behind me. I was protecting myself, I swear.’
‘But you killed him … you killed him and Mom.’
‘I didn’t mean to, I swear I didn’t. She was screaming at me, even after I told her how much I missed her, how much we missed her, Dad too. You know what she’s like, Reilly – it wasn’t my fault.’ She grabbed at Reilly’s arm, a wild look in her eyes. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here – nobody saw us, they’ll never know.’
‘Jess, we can’t just walk out of here. You killed two people.’ Reilly could barely move. ‘We should call Dad, maybe he’ll know what to—’
‘No, you can’t tell him, you can’t tell anyone! Reilly, you’re my sister, you promised to look after me, to protect me. Now I need you to help me.’
There was something eerily matter-of-fact in her voice, as if she’d decided all along that Reilly had no choice but to go along with all this or, worse, had no choice but to help her get away with it.
‘This is different, Jess. This is serious. Big-time serious.’ She moved toward the phone at the end of the kitchen counter and Jess grabbed her arm, a feral look on her face. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she said in a tone that made Reilly stop in her tracks. Quick as a flash, the vulnerable, teenage demeanour disappeared and was replaced by a calm control that was deeply unsettling. ‘Don’t be the bad guy or you might be catching up with Mommy dearest sooner than you think.’
This, and the cold, terrifyingly threatening way she said it, made Reilly wonder if the preceding event had played out as accidentally as Jess painted it. And in that brief, horrifying moment, she remembered seeing the same look the day her little sister teased and assaulted Randy Reynolds and her matter-of-fact pronouncement that ‘bad guys had to be punished’.
But, luckily for Reilly, the decision was taken out of her hands. Soon after, the cops arrived. Someone – a neighbor probably – had heard a commotion in the house earlier and called 911.
Recalling the look on Jess’s face as each girl was led separately away, she knew her sister would never forgive her for failing to protect her like she’d sworn to do.
It was a look that remained that day in court, when Jess was sentenced to fifteen years in the Central California Women’s Facility. Reilly had sat in the courthouse alongside a shocked and broken Mike who, it turned out, had inadvertently revealed Cassie’s whereabouts to Jess. Reilly felt utterly torn and betrayed, having always hoped their mother would return someday. Instead, she would be forever haunted by that last memory of Cassie as a grotesque, lifeless corpse.
Now, Reilly sat at her desk and put her head in her hands. That was the last time she’d seen her sister, the last time Jess had allowed any of her family to see her. Despite Reilly’s pleas, she continuously refused to appear for any of her and Mike’s visits to the CCWF.
As the years went by, Mike dealt with the tragedy by turning more and more to the bottle while Reilly, unable to get a handle on her sister’s actions, had found herself drawn into forensic psychology. But, unlike Daniel Forrest, she’d eventually found the study of dark and troubled minds far too difficult and unsettling, preferring instead more hands-on crime scene investigation.
Then, when a few years earlier Mike, in a sudden attempt to rouse himself out of the booze-filled existence he’d been living, decided to return to the country of his birth after retirement, Reilly agreed, hoping that it would be the start of a new life for him, the perfect opportunity to start over. But very quickly it became apparent that the vastly changed Ireland did little to calm his spirit and all too soon he was back in the same self-destructive cycle.
While Reilly had hoped that taking the job in Dublin and being nearby might help, now it seemed that her actions had indirectly put her father right in the path of danger.
‘Reilly?’
Her head snapped up as she heard the soft knock on the door and saw Lucy standing in the doorway looking hesitant.
‘Lucy, hi, sorry – I was miles away.’
‘Um … hope I’m not interrupting but I just wanted to say that I hope I didn’t get you into trouble earlier – with my dad, I mean.’
Reilly looked at her. ‘You must have known I had no idea.’
The younger girl wouldn’t meet her gaze. ‘I wasn’t sure to be honest. Everyone else knows and it’s mentioned in my personnel file, but I try not to draw to much attention to it at work.’
‘Lucy, if I was ever disrespectful—’
‘Are you mad? I don’t know how you managed to stay so nice. My dad … I know better than anyone how he can be sometimes.’
‘Even so.’
‘This doesn’t change anything though, does it? You still want me on your team?’ Her voice was so small and uncertain that Reilly’s heart went out to her.
‘Of course I do – you’re the fastest learner I know.’
Lucy exhaled. ‘Thanks, Reilly. I’ve learned so much from you since you came here and I love working with you. We all do.’
She couldn’t help but feel touched by this. ‘Feeling’s mutual. And don’t worry about your dad. We’ve sort of come to an understanding.’
‘You’re sure? He was pretty mad.’
‘You can say that again.’ The man’s rant still echoed in her head, but it was faint amongst the cacophony of everything else on her mind just then.
‘Well, anyway,’ Lucy hovered a little in the doorway, ‘a couple of things have just come through from the lab, stuff from the break-in actually.’ She dropped a sheaf of papers on Reilly’s desk. ‘Dead ends mostly. For example, that hair you found in the stairwell? We ran the DNA like you asked and it looks like it’s your own.’ When Reilly frowned, she looked apologetic. ‘I know, I suppose we should have thought of that but—’
‘You’re sure?’ She snatched up the papers and looked for the r
elevant report.
‘Well, yes – the genetic profile came back a high percentile match against your registered sample.’ It was standard procedure for all law enforcement personnel, but most importantly for GFU staff to provide DNA samples – essential to rule out any form of evidence contamination.
Yet, Reilly was still hopeful that the hair she’d found was her attacker’s and it had been this that had sent her down the female accomplice route. She kneaded her forehead. Clearly, Daniel had a point and she’d been wrong. She flicked through the bundle for the relevant report and quickly scanned through the profile for the hair. It seemed there was a high percentile comparison but what caught her attention was the short scribbled note in the lab comments.
‘Hold on, this isn’t right …’ She stood up. ‘Who ran the sample?’ she asked, heading for the door.
Lucy followed closely at her heels. ‘Julius, I think. Why?’
Reilly didn’t answer, instead she went directly to Julius. He was bent over, studying something under a microscope when she arrived.
‘What kind of anomalies?’ she asked, without preamble.
‘Sorry?’
‘The hair sample – in your notes you said that notwithstanding allelial anomalies, there’s a high probability it’s my DNA.’
‘Correct.’ He turned to give her his full attention, and for the first time since she’d known him, he looked somewhat uncertain. ‘I ran the test twice.’
‘And?’
‘Well, let me clarify.’ He stepped forward and pointed to the printout. ‘On first glance it’s a solid comparative to your file DNA, enough to suggest the hair is yours. However, if you drill down and compare the alleles …’
She looked again at the attached printout; a more detailed comparison of both samples, which told a slightly different story. The DNA alleles were a close match certainly, but not a complete one. Reilly’s brain felt foggy, as she tried to get her brain around what she was looking at.
‘What’s going on?’ Lucy asked. ‘I thought it was a straightforward match.’
Julius cleared his throat. ‘Not quite. It’s a genetic match, certainly, but … well it’s one you might expect to see between—’
‘Siblings,’ Daniel Forrest finished the sentence as he came into the room, closely followed by a strained-looking Chris. ‘Reilly, why don’t we head back to your office? We need to talk.’
34
‘Jess? You think Jess is here – in Dublin?’ Reilly gasped, unable to grasp what Daniel and Chris were hypothesizing.
Back in the privacy of her office, they’d told her exactly what had happened at Mike’s place and the neighbor’s belief that he’d gone off somewhere with his daughter. While she was relieved that this had to mean Mike wasn’t in any immediate danger, she couldn’t understand how this was possible. ‘But how? I mean … she’s not due for parole until …’ Then, remembering Chris’s presence, she flushed, realizing her shameful family history was unlikely to remain a secret for much longer. ‘I’m not sure if Daniel’s told you, but my sister—’
He cut her off. ‘You don’t have to explain. I know what happened.’
‘I thought it wise to fill him on most of it,’ Daniel added, quietly.
‘I haven’t seen her in years, Chris. After she …’ Even now Reilly couldn’t say the words. She covered her face with her hands and tried to compose herself.
‘She got out of CCWF early – was released late last year, but skipped parole within a couple of weeks,’ Daniel said. Reilly looked at him and he met her accusing gaze with a level stare. ‘I made a few calls.’
‘What?’ All at once she was flabbergasted by the knowledge that her sister was not only out of detention, but by all accounts had made her way here. But how and, more importantly, why?
‘I spoke to her parole officer who said she went completely off the radar, hasn’t been seen in months. He tried to contact you, and had no idea you’d moved here.
‘And now you think she followed me?’
Daniel sat directly across from her. ‘To be frank, I’ve had my suspicions for some time.’
‘But why would you think that? And if she did come here, what difference would that – oh my God,’ she whispered, as realization gradually dawned. ‘Jess … you think Jess could be responsible for this … is behind all this craziness?’ She stared from Daniel to Chris, willing them to dispute it, but their faces remained impassive. Jess a suspect? No, that was impossible.
‘Reilly, we can’t discount the possibility,’ Daniel was saying, but the words couldn’t penetrate through the myriad emotions she was feeling just then. The implications were almost too much to take yet, deep down, she knew she couldn’t discount the idea either. The break-in at her apartment, the family photograph, the incident at the lab, and then of course the blond hair …
OK, so those things could potentially have been Jess, but none of them pointed at any involvement in the murders, did it? Unless …
‘You knew, didn’t you?’ she said, rounding on Daniel suddenly. ‘You figured she might be involved in this – it’s why you’re here, why you were so insistent about offering help on the ground.’ She stood up, her face red with anger. ‘How could you not tell me, Daniel? How could you knowingly put all these people in danger, my father in danger?’
Chris put a hand on her arm. ‘Reilly, calm down …’
‘I never thought for a second that Mike would be in danger,’ Daniel replied, patiently. ‘It was you I was worried about. After all, you’re the one she’s always been angry with. And you’re right – of course I wouldn’t have knowingly put others in danger, but Reilly it was only a hunch, I didn’t know for sure. And I didn’t want to lay such a thing on you over the phone. So I thought if I came here and got a better idea of what was going on, I would be better able to help.’
‘He’s right, Reilly,’ Chris interjected. ‘Nobody could have anticipated this, and in any case, all of the murders were committed before Daniel arrived. He couldn’t have prevented anything. As it is, it’s only we now have a suspect because of him.’
Jess. Was it really possible? Could her little sister actually be the person they were looking for, the taboo killer? It was a thought so devastating that Reilly couldn’t get a grip on it. Then she thought again about the acronym arranged on Clare Ryan’s books.
Your fault …
‘I need to get out of here,’ she said, suddenly bolting toward the door. She needed to figure this out, to try to get her head straight so she could work it out, because at the moment it was all too overwhelming to comprehend.
And her dad, what about him? Was he truly in danger? Was it another part of Jess’s grand plan for revenge or whatever the hell this was?
‘Reilly wait, where are you going?’ She heard Daniel call after her but she ignored him. She couldn’t deal with him right now. To think that he’d known all this time that Jess had got out early and never said a word …
‘Hold on.’ Chris was following her down the hallway. ‘Reilly, please, we need to talk about this – for more reasons than one,’ he added, pointedly and right away she knew what he was getting at.
Personal feelings aside, this was an ongoing case in which she was heavily involved; now it seemed that one member of her family was a suspect, another a potential victim. So to say that she was in the middle of one hell of shit storm was a huge understatement.
‘I know.’ She ran both hands through her hair. ‘I just … I had to get out of there. Daniel should have said something.’
‘In fairness to the guy, he didn’t know for sure, not until we talked to the neighbor at any rate. After telling me about Jess, we started putting things together, about how he worried right from the start that the symbolism of the murders was far too personal, and seemed to be increasingly targeted toward you. He was worried about you, that’s all there was to it. And then back in the lab when we heard you guys talking about the DNA thing, he figured there was little doubt. Your sister’s involved so
mewhere along the line, Reilly; how much we don’t know yet. Maybe she’s carrying out the murders herself or she has an accomplice, we can’t say. Either way, we really need to figure it out.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s just … so much to take in.’
‘I can only imagine, but perhaps now more than ever, I need you to think straight, for the sake of your dad if nothing else.’
She bit her lip, nodding. ‘I know.’
He put a gentle hand on her arm. ‘For what it’s worth, Daniel doesn’t believe Jess intends to harm Mike – instead he reckons she plans to use him as bait somehow, some way of getting your attention.’
Her resolve softened a little. ‘He’s probably right. After all, I’m the one she hates, the one who let her down.’ Her mouth was dry and her lips felt as though they were glued shut, but suddenly the tears were flowing, rolling down her cheeks in a steady stream to her chin, before dripping on to her blouse. ‘I …’ She tried to speak again but could get no further. Her shoulders began to heave and a wild animal sob broke free. Then her legs grew weak and she began to stumble.
Chris crossed the space in three huge strides and wrapped a strong arm around her shoulder before steering her into the vacant office nearby.
She collapsed on a chair, grateful for his silent understanding, his strength. Leaning forward she put her head in her hands, unable to staunch the flow of tears now they had finally broken through. A series of images flowed through her mind: Jess as a baby, her fluffy blond curls pulled up on top of her head like a fountain, a huge grin splitting her enormous cheeks … their mother, smiling and vibrant, playing tag with the girls in the back yard, while Mike sat drinking beer and watching them … then her beloved mum shut away for days in her room, refusing to speak to anyone … and finally Cassie lying in a pool of her own blood.
She sat up suddenly and scrubbed at her face to dry the tears. Chris sat back and released his arm from around her shoulders, but said nothing.
She sniffed, pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her face. ‘God, that was really embarrassing …’
