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“Kind of sick,” Jessica growled, more angry than sad now. “Why did you start? Why did you kill our sister? She would’ve done anything for you.”
“I told you that already.” He rolled his eyes, clearly tired of explaining himself. “She’s the one who ripped me away from my mother.”
“You said it yourself. Tammy was no mother of the year.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he shouted. “You and Tiffany had a family. I had adoptive strangers who never treated me like they treated their own.”
A branch at the edge of the clearing shook, and Jessica marshaled all her strength not to react when she saw Finn in the bushes, his finger to his lips. How had he known she was here? In danger?
“What now, Wavy Davy?”
David’s mouth dropped open, and the whites of his eyes gleamed in the dark. “What is that? Why’d you call me that?”
She spread her hands in front of her. “It’s what I used to call you when you were a baby, both Tiffany and I, but I think I came up with it. I called you Davy, and when you learned how to wave, I called you Wavy Davy. You loved it. It sent you into a fit of giggles.”
He choked. “You’re lying.”
“You know I’m not, Davy.” She took a step forward, holding out her hand. “We loved you, Tiffany and I. She was the best big sister anyone could wish for. She protected me by taking on the abuse herself, and she protected you by sending you away. Mom couldn’t care for a toddler. You’d barely survived your infancy and only because of Tiffany.”
“She was bad. She turned out bad.” The gun wavered in his hand.
“You met her. She wasn’t bad. She made bad choices, but she’d changed. She loved you, and she loved me. She would’ve done anything to help you…and so will I. I’ll do what I can to help you, Davy. Drop that gun. We can walk away from this together.”
His head sank and a sob escaped his lips. That’s when Finn made a move, waving his arm over his head. She didn’t need him to spell it out for her.
As Finn shouted Dermott’s name, Jessica lunged behind the picnic table, rolling beneath it, just as she used to do when she was a child.
A shot rang out, and her nostrils twitched at the smell of gunpowder. On her knees beneath the table, she peered through the legs. Both men were grappling on the ground, so she scrambled from her hiding place. She didn’t want anyone to die.
By the time she was on her feet, Finn had taken her weapon from David and tossed it toward the water’s edge. He had one knee on David’s chest and the other on his wrist.
“Grab my phone from my pocket, Jessica, and call 911. I alerted the sheriff’s department on my way out here, so someone should be close.”
She leaned over the bodies and slipped Finn’s phone from his pocket, meeting David’s red-rimmed eyes.
As she called in the emergency, Finn leveled his gun at David’s head. “Stay on the ground where you are. It’s over, Dermott.”
“It was over a long time ago, Professor Karlsson. It was over the day my mother gave me away.”
Epilogue
Jessica stretched her wiggling toes toward the bay as she reclined on a chaise longue on Finn’s deck, scratching Bodhi behind the ear. “I’m just glad I didn’t put my career in jeopardy by tainting the DNA sample.”
Finn walked barefoot onto the deck and handed her a glass of wine before nudging Bodhi out of the chair next to Jessica. “I don’t understand why the initial test didn’t show that the DNA on the red fiber was male DNA. That would’ve ruled you out immediately.”
“Remember, it was just a trace, and they didn’t know if they had enough of it to run a full test. There are different types of DNA tests, and that initial one they ran wasn’t the mtDNA test for mitochondrial. That showed up in the subsequent test.”
“I’m glad they didn’t stop the testing. When I knew that DNA belonged to your brother and that you had just gone out to meet him that day, I went into panic mode.” He reached over and ran his hand down her arm, giving her goose bumps. “I didn’t want to lose you so soon after rediscovering you.”
“If that’s your panic mode, your focused mode must be intense. You had it together enough to contact Celine andto remember the name of the restaurant where I was meeting David… Dermott.” She slid her hand in his, lacing her fingers with his. “How did you know where to find us? You never told me that. I know I took you there once, but how did you figure out we’d be at the house?”
“I have a confession to make.” He swirled the beer in his bottle and took a sip as he squinted at the sun dipping into the bay. “I contacted an expert.”
“An expert?” She hung her leg over the side of the chaise and ran her foot over the soft fur on Bodhi’s back.
“I called Avery Plank.” He squeezed her hand. “And I don’t regret it. He pointed out the obvious, but I wasn’t thinking straight. When he said Dermott would go back to the beginning, where it all started for him, I knew he’d take you to the house. And why not? Nobody suspected your brother yet. Why would anyone think the Kitsap Killer would take you to your childhood home?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, Plank must’ve reveled in that.”