Page 29 of The Last To Know (Hallowed Halls Series #2)

S uzanne Moriarty hadn’t called them back. Still, Hannah believed they might be able to convince her to speak with them if they showed up at her house.

Megan remained at the hotel, joined by Detective Siegler and her partner, on loan from the Grand Island PD. They’d continue to comb through the mountain of information pouring in as the case continued to grow more confusing.

With Zeke taking over as driver, Hannah and Cooper volunteered to sit in the third-row seating of the Suburban.

Suzanne Moriarty was almost seventy-nine by now. She’d never married. Had no remaining family left.

As much as Hannah tried to keep her focus on the Embalmer case, all she could think about was Luis Noland. He’d killed his wife. Had been sentenced to a mental hospital for years, and now that he was out he was stalking Hannah. She wanted to understand why. She’d left a message for the psychiatrist who had treated Noland at the facility.

“You okay?” Cooper asked quietly. She turned away from watching the countryside pass by.

“Just thinking about Noland. How long has he been following me and why?”

He reached for her hand. “He mentioned your heart. I’m hoping his doctor will be able to shed some light on that.”

“Me too.”

“Looks like this is it.” Zeke pulled up beside an older house in a neighborhood that had seen better days.

They got out and started for the porch.

“Cooper, you should probably take the lead. You have somewhat of a connection to her.” Jack stood next to the peeling green door.

Cooper leaned forward and knocked a couple of times. Not a sound came from inside.

“Is she home?” Hannah stepped from the porch and looked at the side of the house. There wasn’t a garage, and no car was parked nearby.

“Maybe she no longer drives,” Sierra said as she followed Hannah. Since she was older, that would make sense.

Hannah shook her head. At times, she felt positively old around Sierra. The woman was twenty-five but had more energy than Hannah ever had.

Cooper knocked again. This time there was a response. “I’m coming. Hold your horses.”

Zeke chuckled. “Sounds like we’ve got a live one.”

The door opened. A frail-looking woman, with thinning white hair and dressed in a housecoat, eyed them all suspiciously. “What do you want? I’m not interested in buying anything, and I already know Jesus.”

Cooper brought out his ID. “We’re not soliciting. Are you Suzanne Moriarty?”

That he knew her name only seemed to make her more suspicious. “That’s right. What does the FBI want with me? I haven’t robbed a bank or killed anyone.”

“We’d like to ask you some questions about your sister, Fern.”

Suzanne wasn’t expecting this. “Fern? She’s been dead for years.” Yet the show of emotion on her creased face confirmed she still missed her sister.

Cooper asked her if she remembered Fern and Greg’s adopted son, Oliver.

Suzanne’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, dear me.”

Cooper glanced at Hannah before telling Suzanne he was Oliver’s son. “Do you mind if we come inside? We’d like to talk to you about what you know about Oliver’s past.”

The older woman stepped back to let them inside. She directed them to the living room. The house was small but neat. Hannah sat beside Cooper while the rest of the team found seats. A woodstove burned fiercely, making the room feel like a sauna. Hannah removed her coat and rolled up the sleeves of her sweater.

“You look just like him,” Suzanne claimed. Cooper flinched. It wasn’t a compliment. “I heard he killed several people. What happened to him?”

Cooper laid it all out for her. “He escaped from prison. He’s killing again.”

Suzanne didn’t appear surprised. “I told Fern he was trouble. Even when he was a child, he was evil.”

Hannah leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think he killed them.”

Nothing prepared Hannah for the accusation.

“The police report claims Greg killed Fern and then himself,” Cooper challenged.

“I know what the police said, but I’m telling you that boy did it.”

“How can you be sure, ma’am?” Jack asked. “According to the police, Oliver was away at college.”

She made a derisive snort. “He was always in trouble in school. He’d gotten suspended several times. He used college as an excuse.”

Cooper asked her if they could go back to the beginning. “Oliver was six when he was adopted by your sister and her husband. Do you remember how they got connected with Oliver? We haven’t been able to find out anything about his past.”

“The devil’s spawn,” she spat out. “Fern never told me where he came from. She said there was a family who couldn’t afford to keep him and they gave him up for adoption to them.”

“They knew the family?” Hannah pressed.

“I think so. Fern did mention something to me once that I thought was strange. She said they had several kids. I got the impression that they were troubled people. They’d abused the children, according to Fern.”

That might be the foundation for Oliver’s mental illness. On a whim, Hannah asked if there were any documents from the family left.

Suzanne shook her head. “Not a thing. Oliver cleaned the house out and then sold it. I had asked for some of my sister’s personal things, but he wouldn’t let me have them.”

He was making sure there would be no way to find out about his past. Hannah believed it was because there was something hidden there.

“But there was one thing . . .”

Hannah focused on the woman.

“Fern brought it over a few days before her death. I’ll get it.” She struggled to stand.

“Do you need some help?” Hannah asked.

Suzanne waved her off. “I’m not helpless.” She disappeared down the hall.

“He got rid of everything that could tie him to his brother and family so that we couldn’t find them. I wonder what happened to their parents. Was what my dad told Isobel true, and the brother killed their father?” Cooper ran a hand across his neck.

“They were obviously not fit to care for their children. I wonder how many there were?” Was the monster that Oliver turned into formed when he was just a child? Or was he born that way?

“Here you go.” Suzanne came back into the room carrying a small metal box. “I looked through it, but nothing made any sense to me.”

“May I?” Cooper asked, and she gave her consent .

“You can take it with you.”

Cooper opened the box. A handful of old photos lay inside. He brought out the first one. A house in the woods with several kids playing in front. “You have no idea who these people are?”

Hannah could see that she did. “Who are they?”

Suzanne riffled through the photos and brought one out. “This is Oliver.” She handed the photo to Hannah. A young boy around five stared at the camera. His eyes were cold and dark even back then.

Hannah handed the photo to Cooper and examined the one of the house. One of the kids playing out front was Oliver. Were the others his brothers and sisters?

“There are three boys. Four girls.” Oliver had deemed four women worthy when he’d bricked them up in the basement. Hannah reached for the next photo. It showed a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties, looking terrified of the person behind the camera. She passed it to Cooper.

“There’s a name written on the back of this photo.” Cooper had flipped it over. “Elizabeth. No last name.”

Hannah searched the rest of the photos. “Nothing is written on these.”

Cooper’s attention went back to the photo of the house. “There’s a car in the background here.” He handed it to Zeke. “Can you make out the plate?”

Zeke held it close. “I think it’s a Pennsylvania plate. I’ll run this through the FBI’s photo processing program to see if I can make the number more visible. From there, I’ll see if I can trace the owner of the vehicle. It won’t be easy.”

If Zeke could somehow trace the car to its owner, perhaps they could find the names of Oliver’s real parents.

Hannah handed Suzanne her card. “If you think of anything else, please give me a call. Thank you for your time.”

Suzanne walked them to the door. “If you find out what really happened to my sister, I’d like to know.”

“I will give you a call with whatever we discover,” Hannah promised.

As they headed back to the hotel, Zeke went to work on tracking the plate. Thanks to the FBI’s technology, by the time they reached Grand Island, Zeke had the names of Oliver’s real parents.

“Bruce and Elizabeth Albertson. They lived near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania.”

“Lived? Are they . . . ?” Hannah asked. She thought about Isobel’s claim that Oliver’s brother had killed their father.

“Not sure. They moved from Sugar Grove several decades earlier.”

Jack parked the SUV under the portico. “Do we know the names of the other children?”

“Not yet. I’ll keep digging.”

They got out and returned to the hotel. Hannah glanced toward the diner where she and Cooper had coffee the day before and shivered. How did Noland think he knew her? She checked her phone. Still nothing from the doctor.

“I have good news on Isobel,” Megan told them. “She’s been upgraded from critical. Her doctor believes she’ll survive the attack, although she’s still not awake.”

“Thank God for that.” Hannah had been worried about Isobel. She noticed Detective Jordan seated at the table. “Where’s Detective Siegler?”

“She had to run home for a second. She should be back soon.”

“Anything new here?” Sierra asked, flipping through the stacks of papers on the table.

Megan told her no.

“Well, this is interesting.” The excitement in Zeke’s tone confirmed he had something big.

“You found the names of the other children?” Hannah knew her brother well enough to be certain he wouldn’t stop until he had them.

“I did.” Everyone gathered around. “Looks like Oliver was the only one adopted as far as I can tell. The records are sketchy from back then. ”

Hannah noticed he’d tapped into social services records. “Apparently, the Albertson family moved to the Rochester area from Sugar Grove. Elizabeth had a connection to the Ellisons. She cleaned house for them a couple of days a week.”

“You’re kidding?” Sierra looked over his shoulder. “You get all that from social services?”

Zeke smiled up at her. “I did. There’s a note in Oliver’s file. The Ellisons requested to foster Oliver. They said he came with his mother from time to time and they’d developed a connection.”

“That explains the adoption.” Cooper pulled out the chair next to Zeke. “The family appeared fairly well off. They didn’t want to take any of the other children?”

Zeke shook his head. “No mention of a reason why.”

“What were the other children’s names?” Hannah wondered if one of the boys had the initials P.A.

“The girls are Lucy, the oldest at thirteen then. Missy, nine. Callie, seven. Tonya, two.”

“Wait—Callie and Tonya were two of the names Oliver displayed over his worthy victims, correct?” Hannah remembered those names as being very specific.

“That’s right. He was naming the worthy victims after his sisters, apparently. Anyway, the boys’ names are James, who was five. Oliver, six, and Pete, four.”

“P.A.—Pete Albertson.” Hannah grabbed the sketchbook from the stack of documents on the table and flipped through it until she found the one of the man Oliver claimed to be his brother. “This is Pete—his brother.”

“This is our first solid lead in a while.” Cooper leaned his elbows on the table. “Where’s Pete now?”

“Don’t know. I’ll see if I can find out,” Zeke told him.

Sierra pulled out a chair next to Zeke. “I’ll help you search. Let me take the girls. If we can find one of them, perhaps they can shed some light on Oliver and Pete.”

“I’ll see if I can locate James.” Alex pulled his laptop closer and started the search.

Hannah grabbed bottled waters for her and Cooper. Before she opened the cap, a message came in on her phone. She read through it. “It’s Doctor Hoffman. He wants to talk in person. He says he has news on Noland we should hear.”

Cooper set his bottle down. “Where’s he at?”

Hannah noticed the address. “About forty-five minutes from here.”

Cooper glanced back at the team. “They have everything covered here. Let’s go see what the doctor has to say.”