Syd Parker - The Killing Ground

Meghan paused. Her eyes regarded Jordan quizzically as if wondering why she would ask that question. Then suddenly as if a switch had been flipped, a smile broke across her face. “College. We met in college. I was in pre-med. She was going to school for music history. One day I was walking across the campus, and there she was.” Meghan’s voice was almost sing-song.

“Was it love at first sight?” Jordan moved almost imperceptibly. She needed to get herself close enough to get the knife away without hurting Julie. She couldn’t risk taking a shot. It was too dangerous. Her eyes flicked to Julie's, and she tried to reassure her that it would be okay. Just hang in there, Julie. I promise I’ll get you out alive.

“For me it was. Maybe for her too. We were young and crazy and everything new seems like love.” The lilt in Meghan’s voice was a stark juxtaposition to the crazed look in her eyes.

Jordan studied her closely. Her grip loosened on the knife. She inched closer, her eyes never leaving Meghan’s face. The silence in the room crackled around them with such intensity it threatened to suffocate them. The room had closed in and there was only her and Julie and Meghan. She sucked in a breath. Keep her talking. “Tell me about your first date. Where did you take her?”

“A Beethoven concert. In the park.” Jordan moved another inch.

“We sat there under the stars, and I saw the way the music went through her. It made her come alive.”

Meghan’s eyes closed, and Jordan inched closer.

“I wanted to make her feel that way.”

Two inches. Jordan could almost touch her. She put her hand up to block any immediate moves, keeping her gun trained on Meghan. As if sensing the movement, Meghan’s eyes flew open. Her eyes widened like an animal caught in a snare, and in one last attempt to keep her freedom, she pulled the knife away from Julie and slashed at Jordan wildly.

Jordan tried to sidestep the sharp blade, but it caught her in the arm. She howled and in her pain, dropped her gun a fraction of an inch. Meghan saw her opening and lunged towards her.

Rebecca, who had been quiet, up until now, raised her gun, watching for an opening. She needed one good shot, but Jordan was standing between them. She couldn’t risk hitting Jordan. She opened her mouth to signal Jordan, needing her to move, but her breath left her.

The next seconds it seemed as though time stood still, the glint of the blade flashed in her eyes, and Jordan threw her hand up, hoping to block the majority of the blow.

The second Meghan pulled back to strike with the knife, Rebecca pulled the trigger. The sound rocketed through the room. The bullet hit with such force that it slammed Meghan into the wall behind her, the knife flying from her hand. She screamed loudly and covered the wound with her hand, blood already seeping around her fingers.

Jordan bent over her and grabbed Meghan by the arm, her gun leveled at her face. “Get up!” She hauled her to her feet roughly. Her head cocked at the sound of distant sirens. She put the gun up to Meghan’s face. “Walk…now!” Her next stop was the back seat of a blue and white.

Confident that Jordan was okay, Rebecca started to pull the tape off Susan’s mouth. Susan’s eyes glistened with tears of pain and thankfulness. Her gaze found Julie’s face. “Baby, are you alright?”

Julie stared ahead, the shock hitting her.

“Hurry up, please.” Susan’s eyes met Rebecca's, and she begged her to hurry. The pain was something she could forget, but she needed to get to Julie and make sure she was alright.

Rebecca freed her right hand, and before she could move to the left, Susan had already grabbed for it. She fumbled with the tape on her ankles before Susan pulled it off herself. She practically pushed Rebecca out of the way in her haste to get to her wife. She pulled Julie into her arms, cradling her against her chest. “It’s okay. I’ve got you know. She will never hurt you again.”

Rebecca watched the private moment a second longer then let them have a moment’s peace. God knew the next few days would be hell for them.

She left them and found Rick cuffing Meghan roughly. It was finally over. She met Jordan’s eyes and silently asked if she were okay. Jordan nodded slightly and winked. The cut was a small price to pay. They had finally caught the Cradle Killer. Jordan stepped closer to Rebecca, feeling her warmth. Rick’s voice wandered in and out of her head.

“…will be used against you in a court of law.”

Rebecca set her case file down and settled into the chair across from Meghan. She was handling the interrogation alone. It was the general consensus that she was the least threatening. Jordan was too close to the case, and Rick would be seen as a threat. Rebecca flicked her eyes across the table, meeting Meghan’s gaze. “I just want to remind you that you do have a right to have an attorney present.”

Meghan shrugged, her face cryptically nonchalant. Not the reaction that Rebecca expected from a woman who was certain to go to prison for multiple homicides.

Okay , Rebecca thought. That’s how you want to play this . “Meghan, why don’t you tell us why you killed all these women?”

Rebecca set pictures of all the victims in front of Meghan. She waited for her to react. Nothing. She didn’t even blink. Rebecca narrowed her eyes. Time to play hardball. “What about Christine? Why did you want to kill her?”

Finally, a twitch. Meghan shifted in her chair. “If, and I do emphasize if, I wanted to kill her, she deserved it.”

“Why did she deserve it?” Rebecca looped her hands together.

“That bitch left me.” There was the twitch again. Christine was the only thing that seemed to faze Meghan. “Married for twelve years and she leaves me for a man. I gave her everything.”

“Why did she leave?”

Meghan’s eyes glazed over, and Rebecca knew that she was talking to the killer now. Her voice dropped to menacing low and Rebecca could see where she could have been confused for a man. “We wanted children. We tried the non-conventional methods, but nothing took. With my job, I could have done it, but she didn’t want to mix our home life with my work.”

Rebecca flicked her eyes to the two-way mirror where she knew the interrogation was being watched. This was the story they were looking for, and it was her job to stretch it into a confession. “That must have frustrated you. Especially knowing that you had the power to get your wife pregnant.”

Meghan’s eyes shifted, and Rebecca thought she lost her again, but just as quick the sneer returned. “She knew how good I was. I told her that this wouldn’t fail. It was our only chance. But she wouldn’t listen to me.”

“How did that make you feel?” Rebecca gave the line another tug, just a little bit more, and she had her right where she wanted her.

The muscle in the side of Meghan’s temple started to pulse, a steady but noticeable tempo. “Angry. I was so angry. I begged Christine to let me help. But she wouldn’t. She pushed me away.”

“How did you handle that?”

Silence. Meghan took several deep breaths. “I snapped.”

Yes. Rebecca thought. This is it. Come on, baby. I just need you to confess to one murder. “Snapped how?”

“It consumed me. I had the power to fix everything, and she wouldn’t let me. I went off the deep end trying to convince her. My job suffered. Everything suffered. But she kept refusing. Said that she wasn’t going to allow me to foster my God complex with our child. If she did that, all that child would be in her mind was something grown in a petri dish.”

“That must have hurt. Obviously, she knew you wanted children as badly as she did.”