AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because I want to make sure someone didn’t help him hang himself.”
Alicia was quiet for a moment. “You don’t believe this was suicide?”
“I don’t know. I’m worried about the confession he left. There’s a detail that doesn’t fit.” Five young women. Not six. “Having the tox screen will ease my concerns and I wanted to make my request while the body was still fresh.”
Baz shook his head, looking weary and impatient.
He didn’t look like that often and it stung a little, but Kit’s gut was not on board with Driscoll’s confession. It was too neat—and missing a body.
“I can do that,” Alicia said. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. Make sure that he died by the hanging and wasn’t already dead.”
“I’d do that anyway. Did you find a specific sedative in the house?”
“No,” Baz inserted. “There were no prescription drugs in the medicine cabinets or drawers.”
“I know that,” Kit snapped. “Look, he’s too big a man to have submitted to a hanging without some kind of a fight, and we didn’t see any sign of defensive wounds, other than the skinned knuckles, and those looked older. I just want to make sure he wasn’t chemically coerced. I’m dotting my i’s.”
“Got it,” Alicia said. “I’ll run the test and look for the shorter-lived drugs. It’ll take about forty-eight hours.”
“Thanks, Alicia.” Kit ended the call and frowned at her partner. “I’m not an idiot, Baz. I know the man is guilty of something, but I can’t get past five young women.”
“We don’t know that Cecilia Sheppard was number six.”
“I know. But do you honestly believe there were only five over fifteen years? Four of which just happened to be found by chance?” Three by metal detectors, the fourth by a dog digging for bones.
Baz’s mouth firmed to a straight line. “No. I think there were others. But he wouldn’t admit to any more if he thought we only knew about five. We just found out about Cecilia last night. If he didn’t know we knew about her, he wouldn’t have admitted to it.”
“You could be right. But how did he know about Jaelyn?”
Baz shrugged. “Maybe he went back to the scene of the crime and saw we’d been digging. Or maybe we have a leak. Enough people in the department know. It was going to get out.”
“Maybe.” The first answer was plausible, but she didn’t like the second. If the discovery of Jaelyn’s body had leaked, the use of the pink handcuffs might have as well. “But it can’t hurt to check for drugs in his system, can it?”
“No,” he admitted. “What about Reeves? Do you believe him?”
“I still don’t know. I want to believe him. He was right about Driscoll—if that confession note is genuine. But Reeves could be lying. We can verify his story with a few questions to Dr.Carlisle.”
Which was why they were parked in front of her house.
“Let’s get this over with.” Baz shoved his door open and got out of the car with a groan. “I need to sleep.”
Kit studied him as they walked to the Carlisles’ front door, worried. Partly because he seemed a lot more tired recently. Partly because she wondered if she was overthinking this case. And partly because Baz wasn’t overthinking it.
She might have wanted Reeves to be innocent, but Baz really wanted Driscoll to be guilty. Which wasn’t wrong in and of itself. Baz had been in homicide for sixteen years. He’d been around for the discovery of all five of the killer’s victims. That he’d desperately want to have caught the perpetrator was natural.
That he wasn’t concerned about the discrepancies in the letter bothered her.
She put that out of her head when they reached the front door. It was painted a cheerful red, contrasting with the beige stucco exterior. Kit knocked briskly and waited, breathing in the sea air. The house was a block away from the beach and this close she could hear the waves breaking. It would be peaceful if she weren’t so keyed up.
The door opened, a woman about Kit’s age eyeing them distrustfully. “If you’re selling something, we’re not interested.”
The woman was too young to be Vivian Carlisle. The psychologist appeared to be at least sixty from her online bio. But the woman at the door had Vivian’s eyes, so maybe she was the daughter.
Kit showed her badge. “SDPD. We’d like to speak to Dr.Vivian Carlisle.”
The woman blinked, then quickly regained her composure. “She’s not taking visitors right now. Can I help you?”
