Allison Brennan - Killing Fear

“Neither can you. Which one of us can hide longer? My money’s on me.”

“I’ll kill you, Theodore. You killed my friends-”

“You picked them, Robin.”

She didn’t say a word, and he knew he had her.

He smiled and leaned back in his car. The cell phone belonged to Jenny Olsen. He’d be dumping both the car and the phone soon because he imagined that Jenny wouldn’t be able to keep her big mouth shut when the police came knocking at her door.

“You’re out of your fucking mind,” she finally said, her voice barely audible.

“Bethany told me that you treated her like an overprotective big sister. You cared about her, didn’t you?” Theodore continued without giving Robin time to answer. “And Brandi-she told me she’s the one who got you the job at RJ’s in the first place. She was jealous of you, did you know? She recognized that you were the better dancer. But she also respected you because you didn’t try to take her job. Why didn’t you, Robin? You were the leader of those sluts, why didn’t you just take over?”

She didn’t answer. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, wondering what she was doing. Pacing, most likely. She couldn’t sit still for this long. She never had before. Even when she’d been on break at RJ’s, she’d been moving. She might put her feet up in the Back Room, but her hands would be doing something, sketching on notepads, and her toes would be tapping to the music.

He’d watched Robin far more than she suspected.

“And Jessica. Now there was one hot little minx. It was a shame I had to kill her, really. She was the best fuck I’d had in a long, long time.

“I can only imagine what you’d be like in bed, Robin. Or on the floor. Or the kitchen table.”

“Why did you kill Anna?”

He knew she’d ask. “I didn’t.”

“You fucking liar! You’re playing your pathetic games again, doing this to torment me.”

“You don’t know what torment is, Robin.” His voice grew hard. “You put me in prison. San Quentin is a hell-hole. The food is barely edible. The men on death row are borderline retards. Stupid fools. I would never have been convicted if it weren’t for you. I meant what I said at the trial. You identified me off that sketch and that’s how the cops got my DNA. That’s how they framed me-”

“Framed you?”

“For Anna’s murder. And believe me, I will find out who did it and cut their heart out.

“But first,” he said, his anger building, “I have a special treat just for you.”

“You’re psycho,” she said. “If I don’t shoot you myself I’ll be there when the state kills you.”

“That’s not how this game plays out. I will kill you, Robin, slowly. And the last thing you see before you die will be my smile.”

“Fuck you!”

“How’s William?”

He hung up, heart pounding. Shit, he’d planned out the conversation perfectly, then something snapped and now he was angry.

She should have been cowering in fear. She should have been begging for mercy. Instead she threatened him.

He would kill her. He would make her suffer, but first he would make her fear him.

Trinity found Deputy District Attorney Julia Chandler in her office later that morning. As soon as Julia saw her, she said, “You’ll have to talk to Stanton. I have no comment.”

Trinity couldn’t help but grin. “Off the record, Julia. Five minutes.”

The pretty attorney eyed her suspiciously. “Five minutes.”

Trinity closed the door behind her. “Thank you.”

“Five minutes and counting.”

“Seven years ago there was a private meeting in the judge’s chambers where evidence that proved Theodore Glenn killed Bethany Coleman was thrown out on a technicality.”

Julia’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you hear that?” she asked, her voice deceptively calm.

“Theodore Glenn paid me a visit early this morning.”

Julia processed that information, blinking rapidly. “You saw him?”

“More or less. It was dark, I didn’t see much of anything, but it was him. He confessed to killing Bethany, Brandi, and Jessica. He denies killing Anna Clark.”

“He denied killing Anna?” Julia repeated.

“He wants me to prove it.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Julia asked. “Helping him? Why didn’t you call the police? I need to-”

Trinity interjected, “I called the police. Told them everything.” Almost. “And believe me, I’m not too keen on meeting up with him again even if he thinks I’m on his side. But he said a couple things that I’m curious about, and I’m compelled to follow up on them.”

“Did he threaten you? Harm you in any way?”

“Julia, he told me about the evidence that was dismissed. I was at the trial, but obviously not privy to sealed information. The only physical evidence that connected Theodore Glenn to those four murders was DNA evidence found on Anna Clark’s body. Without that, all you had was Robin McKenna’s testimony on his sexual relationships with the first three victims and the old woman who saw him coming out of Brandi’s duplex the night of her murder. An old woman with bad eyesight. No weapon was ever found, and no evidence discovered in Glenn’s house.”

“His house was immaculate,” Julia said. “He is obsessively neat and ordered. He’s also very intelligent, with a borderline genius IQ. This creep knows how to clean up after a crime.”

“But there was evidence that was thrown out, correct?”

Julia stared at her, then nodded. “That should tell you that he’s guilty as sin. I watched his interrogation. After Brandi Bell died, Will Hooper interrogated him for hours. What Glenn didn’t say was more important than what he did say. But the truth is, that man is a psychopath. We know he killed Bethany Coleman, as sure as I’m breathing. But we couldn’t use the evidence because of a screwup in the field. The DNA was contaminated. It happens, as much as we hate it-we are all human, mistakes happen. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less, knowing that because of that screwup we had nothing to hold him on after Brandi’s murder.”

“Why didn’t you arrest him after Bethany’s murder if you had the evidence, even if it was contaminated? At least interview him?”

“Brandi Bell was murdered two weeks after Bethany. The evidence hadn’t been processed until the eyewitness identification, and that was when the contamination was discovered.” Julia sighed. “We have one of the best labs in the country, but they still can’t process evidence immediately. There’s still a two-to four-week turnaround on most evidence, longer if there’s a big case pending that takes more staff time. You know how it is.”

“Now that’s a story I can run with.”

“What? Attack the people who work their asses off to catch killers?”

“No, about how the government spends billions of dollars on pork and next to nothing on basic services.”

“More power to you if you can get some attention to this problem.”

“So the evidence was thrown out and Will Hooper had to let Glenn go.”

“I’ve worked with Will since I became a D.D.A. and I’ve never seen him so angry or frustrated with the system. But we had physical evidence linking Glenn to the Anna Clark homicide. Irrefutable evidence, as you remember from the trial. His hair in her fist. The bleach he poured over her body didn’t touch her hand, and the evidence was preserved. With the same M.O., Robin McKenna’s testimony, and the known sexual relationships with the first three victims, we had enough evidence to tie Glenn to all four murders. Enough that a jury of twelve people had no reasonable doubt that he was guilty.”