Page 95 of M for Murder

Things with his employer were supposed to be kept top secret and that had been fine in the beginning. Now, it seemed as though the whole situation was spiralling out of control.

He climbed into his Buick, started the engine and swung the car out onto the road. As far as he could see, he only had one choice left. Seeing the police precinct on the road ahead, he began to indicate.

The man entered the police precinct late in the afternoon and asked to speak to whoever was dealing with the Juniper College murders. Hickok was still interrogating Lawrence Parker and, instead of disturbing him, Rebecca agreed to speak with him.

He was young, probably no older than thirty, with pale blond hair and acne, and he seemed nervous. As she approached the front desk, the thought crossed her mind that maybe he was a crank coming to confess to the murders. He wouldn’t be the first one they’d had.

She smiled politely at him. ‘Hello, I’m Officer Angell. I understand you have some information on the Juniper College murders?’

‘That’s right, I think I do.’ He glanced around the room. ‘Is there somewhere private where we could go talk?’

‘Yes, sure. Okay.’ Rebecca stepped out from behind the desk and led the way down to the office that Hickok and Sutton had been using.

‘We can talk in here,’ she said, following him inside the room.

He glanced around again before sitting in one of the two chairs at the desk. Rebecca shut the door. She stepped round to the other side of the desk and took a seat.

‘Can I take your name, please?’

The man nodded, looking a little more confident now that they were alone.

‘Yes, it’s Richard Lamb.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’m a private investigator.’

37

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. WEDNESDAY 7TH MAY 1997

T he nightmare had begun almost eight years earlier and now, just when it seemed she had finally found a way to deal with what had happened, the shadows of the past were returning to haunt her.

Jennifer Isaac was Rodney Boone’s one surviving victim, the only one who had managed to get away. What she hadn’t counted on at the time was that Rodney Boone would get away too.

The police had tried to reassure her, telling her he was more than likely dead. The house had burnt to the ground. It was unlikely he could have survived. It didn’t matter that they had never recovered his body. He would never be able to harm her again.

Of course, she hadn’t believed them. She had stabbed him. She had left him to burn in the cellar. So why hadn’t they found him? It was at that point she realised that he was no different to the movie monsters. He was alive and he was invincible. Knives and fire couldn’t destroy him. He would always be out there, always searching for her. Always looking forward to that moment he would find her and take revenge on her for ruining his alphabet.

After her ordeal at the hands of Boone, Jennifer had dropped out of college and moved back east to be with her family. She lost contact with all of her college friends, including Miranda, preferring to leave behind everything that reminded her of what had happened. The last time she had seen Miranda had been in hospital, when her old roommate had come to visit. Neither of them had much to say to one another. Jennifer knew that Miranda felt guilty about what had happened and was uncomfortable being around her. When she left, she’d promised to come back again the next day, but had never shown. Not that it mattered, because Miranda was part of the past, the part she would rather forget.

It had taken years of therapy for her to start putting the pieces of her life back together. For the first six months she suffered badly from agoraphobia and didn’t leave the house. Gradually, she learned to deal with her fears and she eventually reached a point where she knew she was as well as she could ever again hope to be.

The first year was understandably the worst. Her father suffered a heart attack as a direct result of what had happened to her, and her older sister gave up her job and moved back home to help with both his and Jennifer’s recovery. The second year was a little easier. They moved to a small fishing village in South Carolina where they could all make a fresh start. Her parents bought a restaurant in town and the four of them concentrated on building a new life together.

Following the move, Jennifer had decided she would reinvent herself. Her sister went with her and together they shopped for a new wardrobe: for clothes that were different to those she had worn before, that showed she was a new person. Then she went to the hairdressers and had her long brown hair cut shorter and lightened to blonde.

She started working part-time, waitressing for her parents in the restaurant on the days when she didn’t have therapy, and after eighteen months of working there she bumped into the one person from her past whom she had never quite forgotten.

Lawrie.

He recognised her instantly, despite the changes she’d made, and they got talking. About college, about what they were both up to and about what had happened to her. He had moved east to complete his teaching degree after graduating from Juniper and was living locally. He came to the restaurant every day that first week and it was on his fifth visit that he asked her out.

She was still pretty screwed up and at first it was difficult for her seeing a face from the one time she wanted to forget. Lawrie was persistent about wanting to see her again, and his concern for her seemed so genuine. She finally relented and agreed to go out with him.

Since the Boone incident she hadn’t dated at all. Now, with her image change and knowing that she could trust Lawrie, it seemed like the perfect time to restart.

The date was successful. They went to a seafront restaurant and ate clams, then walked along the beach and spent a lot of time talking. They got on well together and over the following months began to see each other on a regular basis.

Although he originated from California, Lawrie liked Juniper and had made it clear that one day he intended to move back there and get a teaching job. She had accepted his decision at the time, hoping he would change his mind, and not realising how hard she would fall for him. Another year passed and a teaching position came up. When the time came for him to leave, she didn’t want him to go and he surprised her by asking her to marry him.

It was a tough decision. She didn’t want to lose him, but she wasn’t sure if she could ever bring herself to move back to the place where she had nearly been murdered, especially knowing that Boone had never been caught. The only people who knew what had happened to her were her parents, her sister and Lawrie. If she went with him, she would have only him to rely on. At first he went alone and during those first few weeks that she realised just how much she missed him.