Mariah Stewart - Cry Mercy

“It's what I expected, but thank you. And thanks for taking on the case. Otherwise, I'd still be wondering…”

“Well, I guess the thanks all go to Emme.” Mallory turned to her and added, “Or should I say, to Ann?”

Emme froze for a moment, her breath caught in her throat, the beating of her heart stopped inside her chest. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She glanced at Nick, who was staring at her, a puzzled expression on his face.

“I think you owe us all an explanation,” Mallory said coolly. “Actually, we've been waiting for you to get back.”

Emme nodded slowly. “I suppose now is as good a time as any.”

“Em?” Nick was still staring at her from across the room.

“Nick, would you mind staying with Chloe for a while?” Her voice quivering, she addressed Trula. “I think you should probably come, too.”

“I don't mind staying with Chloe, but I would like to know what's going on.”

“I'll explain everything later. Right now-” She shook her head.

Emme kissed the top of her daughter's head and told her with more enthusiasm than she felt, “I'll be in the conference room, sweetie.”

“Okay, Mommy.” Chloe's attention was on the length of string she was dangling in front of the kitten, which was batting at it wildly.

Mallory and Trula followed Emme from the room and up the steps. Her heart was in her mouth as she entered the conference room where Robert, Susanna, and Father Kevin awaited them.

“Before anything else is said, I do want to say congratulations,” Robert told her. “I understand you had a bit of a rough time.”

“I managed to get away with only bruises, which is more than any of his other victims managed to do,” she said softly.

“How's the congressman taking it?”

“About as well as anyone who found out that his son was a serial murderer, and his daughter an accomplice. And all the victims were his incidental offspring.” Emme took a seat and exhaled. “Gardner is going to withdraw from the senate race and is resigning from the state House of Representatives.”

“It's a shame,” Robert said somberly. “I understand he was a good man. Word was that he'd have been an asset in the U.S. Senate.”

“How many victims were there?” Father Kevin asked.

“JJ. Gardner raped and murdered four of his half sisters. There may have been others. The FBI has been called in and will be handling the case from here on in. We know that he shot and killed one of the boys-Henry-but I'm pretty sure he would have gone after the other two-the twins-before too long.”

“So how many of these kids are left?” Trula wanted to know.

“Just Hayley, the youngest of the girls, and the twin boys. I think his plan was to get rid of all of them.”

“Didn't he think that someone would put this together?” Kevin wondered.

“They lived in different states, and so far no one had connected the disappearances. I actually called the department that was handling the Carroll-Wilson case, but they didn't think there was a connection because there was so much time-five months-separating the incidents.”

“So these kids, Ava and J.J., were afraid the others coming out of the woodwork were going to ruin his father's chances to win the election?” Robert rested his forearms on the table. “You think that's the motive?”

“I think that's part of it. And Ava, by the way, is actually Avery. JJ. was Justin on the message board.” Emme told him. “I think in the beginning, to her, it was a game. But right from the start, JJ. was protecting what he saw as his. His home, his name, his share of what would be quite a substantial inheritance someday. He wasn't about to share with these nobodies. And once he killed that first time, he found he liked it, pure and simple. He wanted to do it again. He'd convinced himself that these girls were no real relation to him, so he felt okay about raping them and strangling them afterward.”

“So his first victim was one of the girls he met online?” Susanna asked.

“Yes. Jessica. He met her on the message board, but then he got together with her during a trip to Florida last year and talked her into going off with him. He killed her and drove back to Maryland with her in the trunk of his car, then he buried her at the far end of their property. There's a place the locals believe to be an Indian burial ground, and he buried her there. He stole her laptop and went onto the message board and posted as Jessica, said she was leaving for France because her father's job was transferred. End of Jessie, nice and neat.”

“If his first victim had been one of the boys, do you think he would have enjoyed it as much?” Mallory asked.

“Probably not. I don't think shooting Henry gave him the kind of thrill that strangling the girls did. I think the whole thing kind of got all twisted in his mind. He enjoyed the rapes-he must have, because he kept souvenirs of each of the girls. A necklace of Jessica's, a length of Belinda's hair, a ring of Lori's. They were still trying to figure out what he took from Ali, but he did keep all of their laptops. I'm only guessing, but I think he probably got a thrill from reading their emails, you know, like a way to know them better?”

“How did Nick take it?” Robert wanted to know.

“As well as anyone can. I think it was terribly painful for him to hear what had been done to Belinda. He showed an admirable amount of restraint.”

“Emme-Ann-I'm not sure how to address you now,” Mallory said. “Obviously, we're pleased that our first case was successful. But, you know, we have a real problem here. You lied to everyone at this table.”

“I did. And I'm sorry… I cannot begin to tell you-each of you-how sorry I am that I had to do that.”

“Had to?” Kevin asked. “Why did you feel you had to?”

“Father Burch, it's a long story,” she told him, tears welling in her eyes.

“I'm still Kevin,” he told her, reaching out to cover her hands with his. “Why don't you start from the beginning?”

She took a deep breath and tried to get her thoughts and emotions under control. She kept her eyes cast down, unable to meet the gaze of anyone at the table. She had lied, she had let them down. Would she have eventually told them the truth? She didn't know. She'd like to think she would, someday, but she couldn't be sure of that.

“Mallory, we talked one day not too long ago, and I told you-”

“Some bullshit story about being found by nuns in a church as a newborn.” Mallory rolled her eyes. “You probably could have done better than that.”

“That bullshit story was the truth.” Emme managed a weak smile. Even now, she didn't want to think of herself as Ann.

“You were abandoned by your mother?” Kevin still held her hands, as if to give her strength, and his kindness brought tears to her eyes again.

She nodded. “They said I was only a few hours old. The nuns named me Ann after St. Ann-that's the name of the church I was found in. My mother was never identified. My father… who knows?”

“Were you adopted?”

“I was almost adopted twice, actually. The couple who had me first ended up divorcing before the adoption was finalized, so I was returned to Catholic services. The second time, my almost-mother died and my almost-father couldn't cope, so back I went again. I grew up in foster homes. When I was eighteen, I was out of the system and on my own. I got a job, I lived with some other girls like me who had no one to help them out… Long story short, I went through junior college in California while I was working as a file clerk for the police department in Silver Hill. I worked my way up in the department, then I asked to go to the police academy. I applied, and I qualified.” She raised her head, gave Kevin's hands a final squeeze, then let go and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked at every face, met every eye. “Regardless of what you might think of me now, I was a damned good cop. That's one thing you have to understand about me. I was a damned good cop.”