Page 28 of Final Inning

His eyes narrowed. “Just clean the kitchen, honey. I am going out for a while. I’ll be back in time to drive you home, after we spend some time together.”

Valeria just shrugged. Whatever. Jamie had dropped her off. Her new SUV needed tires and she’d dropped it off at the tire place already. They were giving her a good deal because Jamie was friends with the guys who worked there. She had a lot of cleaning still to do here.

The kitchen was a mess. Like it was every time. She started the water.

Like she had a million times before.

Nothing ever changed here. And she just…

Valeria hated it here so much.

Chapter 19

The woman in front of her was preoccupied. And Hagan didn’t think it was because of [what they’d just heard]. “Want to talk about it? I mean, if I am not overstepping any bounds or anything.”

“What?” Dr. Talley focused on her again. Then gave a small laugh. “Sorry. I…”

She held up her arm. There was a vicious set of scars right there. “Previous exposure to a bludgeoning case, actually. An old childhood friend with a grudge—she’d killed her grandmother and buried her body. In our hometown. I was called home to help deal with the buried secrets. It took a bit of a surprising turn in my own grandmother’s kitchen. My family owns an inn there—I grew up at the inn. Nearly died there. She hit me several times with a bat. I spoke with my grandmother this morning—the woman responsible was deemed competent to stand trial for attacking me, and nearly killing my cousin Dixie. I’ll have to go back for the trial and I was just remembering. We played softball together. We were…friends. Or so I thought.”

Hagan winced, seeing the similarities to this case, too. How did this woman do it? Hagan knew she had to see the worst of the worst. What did that do to a woman emotionally? Spiritually?

If she believed in Ruth’s Sisters she’d say a prayer for this woman. To do what she had to do.

“I’m sorry. That sounds complicated. Why did she do it, if I can ask that?”

“Abuse, mostly. The grandmother was abusive; my friend also ended up being abusive. It was a complicated family situation. The cycle repeated with her—but her siblings. They are doing okay.”

Families could definitely be complicated. Hagan knew that more than most. “So…what are we really looking at here? Who would do this?”

“Someone who was consumed by their rage. Not just at Kevin. He was most likely a proxy, I think. Someone who could be blamed easily. Maybe even as an outsider. Kevin wasn’t born in Helery Springs, and he didn’t work in-county. I bet our killer is a born-and-bred local.”

Hagan had thought that herself. She just hadn’t put it into those words. There was something almost territorial about how Kevin had been killed. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but…it was there. She just had to figure out what it meant. This wasn’t exactly her expertise. “The photos of what happened to Kevin made me think he’d been hit from behind. By someone who wouldn’t meet their enemies face-to-face. Who was ashamed to, maybe.”

“I privately think of those kinds of killers as…schoolyard bully types. They are afraid of direct confrontation. But…still the same result.” Dr. Talley was quiet for a long moment. “Why do you think there was no autopsy back then? Sheriff Johnson?”

“He wasn’t the sheriff then. It was two months later when he was appointed. But he did work the case—and he had basically taken over for all practical purposes, I think. I had a neighbor who worked with him then. The sheriff at the time was almost eighty-three. Johnson wasn’t exactly doing much about a murder. He was more interested in pestering a family who lived out on Buckbert Line Road.”

“What about this family? Do you think it was connected in any way?”

“Probably not likely. I lived with this family a few months later, actually. She was a nurse in her late thirties, who had a bunch of daughters and nieces she was raising. I am close friends with one of her nieces and when I needed a place to stay—she opened her home to me without question. I’ll never forget that. He wasn’t exactly harassing her, from what I’ve heard. I just think he was attracted to her or one of her sisters or something and wouldn’t leave them alone until she threatened him with a restraining order. One of her sisters and her brother-in-law were cops in Texas and I think they put the fear of God in Johnson. Johnson has always been easily distracted by pretty women.”

“I see. I noticed he had the eye. Does he always look at you that way? Other women?”

“As if he wants to see me naked…but also wants me out of his sight?” Hagan asked. Johnson completely disgusted her. The things he had said about her—pure sexual harassment in its most obvious form. “Trust me, he’s worse. He’s on his best behavior while you are here now. But…make sure you aren’t alone with him. I am not sure what he’d do with a woman like you. He will probably see you as a challenge.”

“And Dr. Knight as a rival. Johnson really isn’t that hard to profile.” Dr. Talley smirked. “I have run across his kind before. Especially in law enforcement. But this guy seems a bit more obvious about it. Which…I have also seen before.”

“I am not really that upset that I was given Buckbert. It’s my town. I grew up here. And they are my people. And Johnson just ignores them. Most of them are lower income than the citizens of Helery Springs. And not all are white; which matters to Johnson. But they aren’t afterthoughts to me.”

“And that is what separates you from that animal, Hagan. People need those who actually care about them. Otherwise…people like Harper Wycoff and Kevin Adams—they get forgotten. And that isn’t right. But…if you destroy yourself here in the process—well, you deserve better than that. Just something to keep in mind.”

And there were stories in the other woman’s eyes.

Hagan suspected this woman had seen far more of the dark than Hagan even wanted to imagine. “I want to leave. But I am getting answers for Harper first.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Chapter 20