Robert Ellis - Murder Season

“You tried to explain the situation you were in. You told her that she couldn’t talk about it.”

“She laughed at me. She said she’d had a great time. She said she wanted to do it again. She said that if we didn’t do it again, she’d make sure the whole world knew my name and where I worked.”

“You agreed to see her?”

“I did. I agreed to meet her on Friday night. Her parents had gone out to dinner. I picked her up, but I didn’t take her anywhere. We drove around in circles while I tried to make her understand what was at stake. I told her that what had happened between us was beautiful and could have happened to anybody. But if anyone else found out about it, they wouldn’t understand the circumstances. No one would believe our story and I’d be ruined for life.”

“It sounds like you’re blaming her for being sixteen, Vaughan. What were you doing even trying to reason with her?”

He laughed, but it was a bitter laugh. “You’re right about that, Lena. She didn’t want to listen. She didn’t give a shit. She said that she didn’t even care anymore. She’d made up with her boyfriend and they’d had sex just before I picked her up. She said she was going to tell her father what happened because she felt guilty now. I’m not really sure what happened after that. I know I lost it. I’m pretty sure I scared the shit out of her. And both of us know the rest. She tried to jump out of the car. I had some tools on the floor behind my seat. I reached around, saw the screwdriver in my hand, and drove it into her fucking back.”

Both of us know the rest.

Lena could see it so clearly that it might have been happening before her eyes. Lily had given Vaughan everything he needed to push the murder onto someone else. He knew that she’d had sex with Gant and that the odds were in his favor that traces of their lovemaking had been left behind. He knew that they got back together after a breakup.

“How did you make it look like a rape?” she said. “What did you use, Vaughan?”

His face stiffened and he looked at her for a long time with those glowing eyes of his. “You don’t want to know what I did to her. But I’ll tell you this. Everybody has their breaking point. When you reach it, you realize that you can do just about anything .”

A moment passed. Another stretch of silence. Lena tried to focus. She needed time. She needed to keep the monster talking.

“How did you keep such close tabs on Jacob Gant?”

Vaughan shrugged. “I didn’t. I thought I was free and clear. When the evidence went missing in the lab, I knew someone was out there. But it’s like I said over at Cobb’s place. No matter what the verdict, everyone still thought Gant did the murder. After the trial ended, after it became a public relations disaster, everyone involved at your end and mine needed Gant to stay guilty because the alternative would have been so much worse.”

“You didn’t think anyone would be looking for you.”

“I didn’t, but that afternoon Johnny Bosco called me. He was worried about his business. Gant had told him that Lily had been to his club a week before her murder. That she had come with her friend and probably left with a guy. That’s why Bosco agreed to help Gant. And that’s why Lily’s friend, Julia Hackford, never spoke up. You were right, Lena. It was all about self-preservation and self-interest. Gant had searched Lily’s house and found her cell phone. He’d seen the video you just watched and was bringing it over so that Bosco could help identify the man he thought killed her. Bosco was worried that it might be a VIP and didn’t know how to handle it. He didn’t trust Higgins because he was up for reelection and needed a fresh set of headlines. He didn’t go to Bennett because he and Higgins were tied at the hip and he thought the guy was a loser. He told me that he didn’t even let his partner in on it because he wanted to protect him.”

Lena shook her head. “Bosco handed it to you,” she said. “He told you everything you needed to know.”

“He even gave me the time.”

“And you knew that it needed to end at the club.”

“Actually, no. I didn’t think it would. Everyone would think Hight shot them in an act of revenge, but I never counted on it ending there. I never counted on it sticking. That’s why I pulled the gun out of Property. The one that went back to the drive-by shootings eight years ago. I knew that Higgins and Bennett were cowards. That in a crisis like the prosecution of Tim Hight, they’d run for cover and make me the new face of the DA’s office. I knew that I’d be working with you. That you wouldn’t buy it unless the case seemed challenging. Because we were working together, I thought I could provide that challenge. That’s why it had to end with Bennett. He had the right background. Everything that you discovered about him happens to be true … except for the murders. He fingered his witness and had Wes Brown killed. He had a bad history with women and openly cheated on his wife. He prosecuted Jacob Gant for Lily’s murder when he knew six weeks out that he had the wrong man. It had to end with Bennett because he fit like a glove. Because he was perfect. Because he was vicious. Because everything he did to corrupt the evidence and build a case against Jacob Gant could be turned upside down until it looked like he was covering his own tracks. Why do you think he killed himself? Don’t you think he knew?”

Lena’s cell phone began ringing. It was on the couch where her clothes had been tossed. Something in Vaughan’s eyes changed. He crossed the room stiff as a machine, then tilted his head and peered down at the phone.

“Take the call,” he shouted. “Take it.”

“Who is it?”

“Martin Orth, calling you at almost two in the morning.”

He pushed the Glock into her side just below her ribs.

“Take the fuckin’ call, Lena.”

Vaughan was losing it. And she could see that he still had a way out. If he killed her and managed to get rid of her body, he was free. Hight knew where she was and knew that she had recovered his daughter’s phone, but that’s all he knew. When he assumed she was with the man who murdered his daughter, it could easily be taken as nothing more than a wrong guess.

She picked up the phone. “Marty,” she said.

“Lena, I know it’s late-the middle of the night-but it’s important.”

Orth was upset and rushing. From the noise in the background, she thought he might be calling from the crime lab.

“What is it?” she said.

“The touch DNA. Lily Hight’s jeans.”

“What about them?”

Vaughan gave the gun a harder push and nicked one of her ribs. Lena flinched at the pain, but remained quiet. When Orth came back on, he sounded frantic.

“We made a run,” he said. “Nothing came up in the system, but the samples included all county employees. Lena, I don’t know how to say this any other way. We got the wrong guy. The killer wasn’t Bennett. It’s Vaughan.”

She could have laughed at the irony. The timing.

“Are you doing anything about it?” she said.

“I called Deputy Chief Ramsey before I called you. What’s wrong with your voice? You sound funny.”

“Thanks for the tip, Marty. I’ve gotta go now.”

Vaughan grabbed the phone and threw it on the floor. “What did he fucking want? What did he fucking say?”

“They made a run on the DNA they picked up on Lily’s jeans. It covered all county employees. They know it’s you. They’re on their way.”

He struck her-a hard blow to the face that knocked her down to her knees-but she didn’t stop.

“You fucked up, Vaughan. You covered everything except for the one piece of evidence that had your fucking name on it.”