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As he passed the full parking lot, he released a sigh of relief when he spotted Jessica’s car. Thank God they were still here. He’d decided not to rush in with guns blazing,accusing Dermott of being the Kitsap Killer. He’d make up some other excuse for being there…and then what? It was going to be awkward that his student, Dermott Webb, was sitting with Jessica, his sister. The sister he’d never contacted while in Fairwood. Hell, Dermott had even met Jessica once. The first time she sought him out, Dermott had been in the lecture hall.
He parked in the red zone two doors down from the restaurant and burst inside. He must’ve looked like a madman, as several diners turned to stare at him. His gaze darted around the room, but he didn’t see them.
A hostess approached him. “Are you looking for your party, sir?”
“Yes, yeah. A couple, a tall blond woman and a man—average height, short, brown hair, maybe wearing glasses.” He put out his hand about chin height. “Tall woman, wavy blond hair.”
A waitress passing with two empty wineglasses slowed her gait. “I remember them. They sat at my station. The dude paid the check when the woman went to the ladies’ and he stiffed me on the tip—not even ten percent. It’s like he just rounded up, and I’m like, dude, this isn’t Europe. He gave me a dirty look.”
“Where are they?” Finn turned in a circle, hoping he’d just missed them the first time.
She shrugged. “They got out of here after he left me that crappy tip.”
“Left? Her car’s still here.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. They walked out together.” She swept past him to the bar while Finn felt like screaming.
Where did they go? Why would she go anywhere with him in a place not home to either of them? Maybesomething happened to her car, and he offered to drive her back to Fairwood. It wasn’t that far.
He rushed from the restaurant and jogged to Jessica’s car in the parking lot. He checked the tires, tried the door, peered into the windows. Everything looked normal—but nothing was normal.
He went back to his own car and sat in the front seat, gripping his steering wheel. Where could they be? How did he get her out of that restaurant? Dessert? Ice cream somewhere? Murder?
His fingers closed around his phone in his jacket pocket. He had to do it. He’d grovel, if necessary. He cupped his phone in one hand and tapped the number for the Washington State Penitentiary.
“I need to speak to prisoner 562334, Avery Plank.”
Fifteen minutes later after some explanations and name-dropping, Plank came on the line. “My biographer. What can I do for you, Professor?”
“I need your…criminal mind.”
Plank responded. “It’s all yours. Did Miss Jessica figure out why the Kitsap Killer wants to reward her?”
“We’ve moved way beyond that. The Kitsap Killer is Jessica’s half brother. He took her somewhere, and I don’t know where. Where would he take her? Where would he want to kill her?”
Plank gave a low hum. “Really, Professor. Perhaps you’re not the one to write my story. This is an obvious one. He’d want to take her to where their story began. Where he was forged in hate and resentment and envy. Where he still lives every day of his life.”
Finn ended the call, cutting off Plank without a thank-you. Of course. How could he be so dense? Dermott wastaking Jessica to the family home, and it wasn’t far from here. He could be there within a half an hour—but would he find Jessica dead or alive?
* * *
JESSICA CLENCHED HERhands in her lap as David drove them toward the Bangor Trident Submarine Base on the other side of the peninsula. The drive took about twenty minutes, but as the miles passed, Jessica felt as if she was going back in time—to a very bad place.
A navy buddy of Jessica’s grandfather had allowed Mom to live in his house north of the base with her children almost for free. The man had never checked on the property—or Mom. He’d moved to Hawaii when he retired from the service and had owed Tammy’s father a big favor from their time in the navy. The house was his payback.
She’d taken Finn there once after Tiffany’s murder. The place gave her the creeps, and she’d never been back. But it had been hard to refuse David.
He wanted to see the last place he’d been with his sisters and bio mom. He knew where it was. Maybe that’s why he had suggested Kingston in the first place. He already had this plan in mind when he agreed to meet her.
“We’re getting close, aren’t we?” David flexed his fingers on the steering wheel.
“I hope you’re not expecting too much, David. The last time I was there, the house was a ramshackle mess. It’s probably even worse now, or maybe the owner sold it, and a new family is living there.”
He lifted his shoulders. “That doesn’t matter. I just want to see it. Maybe if you tell me about our family while we’re there, it will mean more, give us that bond.”
She lifted one side of her mouth in a weak smile. Maybeover time, she and David could form some sort of sibling connection, but that immediate spark between them hadn’t materialized.
She didn’t blame him. She and Tiffany had been so close, she’d expected the same from a brother, but she and David had never even met before today, despite that first impression. When he first spoke, his voice struck a chord of familiarity in her psyche.