Page 63 of Savior
“That wasn’t your fault either. You didn’t do anything wrong. If you’d gone with her, you’d be dead, too. If he’d taken you at the park, you’d be dead.”
“Maybe I should be,” she says furiously. “Why do I deserve to live and they don’t?”
“There is no deserving about it. Everyone deserves to live. Just because you did when they didn’t doesn’t mean you deserve to die, too.”
She buries her face in my chest. “Can you take me home? I need to see to Rocky, and I don’t want to be here while they’re still investigating.”
“Of course, honey.”
I guide Sienna to the truck and Rocky loads up after her. While she waits there, I walk down to the line of the water where Colson is talking to the techs at the scene.
“I’m going to run Sienna home. My aunt and grandma are staying with the Hart’s in town if you have any other questions for them.”
“That’ll do,” Colson says with his signature calm. “I’ll finish processing the scene and get you a copy of the autopsy when it’s complete. What I can tell you from their cursory analysis is there are trace amounts of bodily fluids and a partial print.”
“He fucked up this time,” I say to Colson triumphantly. “I told you he’d fuck up. We’ve got him. We’re going to nail his ass to the wall.”
Piper
The next fewdays are laborious. It saps my energy just to get up in the morning. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep without picturing Lena’s body superimposed with Paige’s face. Logan, bless his soul, is patient, even though I snap at him at every opportunity.
The process of crime scene analysis is just as laborious and can take days, or even weeks if there’s a backlog to process.
Neither of us say it, but we’re not sure we have weeks, or even days, before he strikes again and another woman’s life hangs in the balance.
On the third day after Lena’s murder, the phone rings. Both Logan and I tense as he answers it. His brow creases as he talks to whoever is on the other line. His slumped shoulders aren’t a good sign.
“All right. Well, let me know if there is any more news. Thanks, Colson.”
I glance at him apprehensively from the table where I’m reworking the B&B’s website in my downtime. “What?” when he doesn’t answer immediately, I add, “Don’t hide things from me Logan. You can say or do whatever else you like, but please be open with me, especially about this.”
He comes to sit next to me at the table. “We just got the DNA results back. It’s not a match for Gavin Lance.”
The news physically pushes me back. I slump against the hard backing of the dining room chair, thoroughly stunned. “It’s—it’s not? Are they sure?”
“Pretty damn sure.”
“What does this mean?”
He blows out a breath and leans his elbows on the table. “It means we keep looking.”
“So it was just a coincidence?”
Logan sighs. “It’s possible, but I don’t like coincidence. It makes my shoulders itch.”
“I want to go back,” I say impulsively.
“They won’t be reopening the B&B until Christmas season,” Logan says as he rubs his fingers in his eyes.
“No, I mean I want to go back to the apartment. The one I shared with Paige.”
His head jerks up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, maybe I can jog my memory about something from that night. Maybe seeing it, being there, will help me remember something.”
“We aren’t even sure if those two cases are related,” Logan objects. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to put you in danger on the chance you may remember something useful. Plus, it’s been two years, the place has probably been rented out again.”
I put a hand on his forearm. “This is something I feel I have to do. I have to go there now. To see it.” I shrug. “Maybe it has to come full circle for me to move on, but it’s something I know I need now, with or without your help. I’d rather you were there, but I’ll go on my own if I need to.”