“So you were having fun?”
“I thought so until I untied her and she elbowed me in the nuts. That really pissed me off. Hurt my feelings. I was trying to be nice.” He shrugged. “I lost it and stabbed her right then. She started bleeding real bad. She begged me for help, but I knew she would never like me, so I stabbed her again and watched her bleed out.”
Neither detective spoke for a moment. Adler’s anger intensified, but he fought to remain tame. “So you buried her on the farm.”
“That’s right.”
Adler’s voice was as calm as a Sunday school teacher’s. “The knife left marks on her rib.”
“Okay.”
“I’m guessing the first strike hit bone, which called for the second strike hitting meat.” Quinn shifted and tugged the edge of her blazer forward. “That about right, Randy?”
Hayward’s cuffs clinked when he rubbed his nose. “I just told you I stabbed her. Why do I care if her ribs got marks?”
“Why did you take her to the country?” Adler asked. “What was it about that place?”
“I liked it there. I figured we’d have all the privacy we needed.” Hayward folded his arms over his chest and leaned back.
“You buried her there because you were familiar with the land?” Adler asked. “Funny how we’re all creatures of habit.”
“Derek Blackstone. You’ve known him a long time, right, Randy?” Quinn asked.
“You know I have. Why do you care?” Hayward flashed a grin and glanced up toward the security camera he knew was taping this conversation. “You’re fishing for something, Detectives.”
Adler held up his hand in surrender. Every primal instinct in him demanded he reach across the table and beat the hell out of this animal. But this wasn’t about him. And anger wasn’t going to get the justice he craved. “What can I say, they pay me the big bucks to catch the big fish.”
“I’m a big fish, but you didn’t catch me,” he gloated.
“Randy, you’re the biggest fish in the state right now.”
He grinned. “And here my mother told me I wouldn’t amount to much.”
“Why would she say that? You’re intelligent. I know you attended UVA.”
“I did.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I got bored. Didn’t like the rules. I hated conforming.”
“But you were tearing it up academically. Dean’s list.”
“I have an IQ of one fifty-two.”
Adler glanced at the scar on the back of his hand. “Damn. I had to work for every grade I earned.”
“Not me. I knew more than the teachers.”
Adler’s phone dinged with a text. It was from Logan. Maria Thomas, migrant worker, missing April 2002.
Adler shook his head. “You and I do have a deal. No charges will be brought for Gina’s death, and the other murder still receives a reduced sentence. You’ve lived up to your end of the deal, and the state will, too.”
“Damn right,” he smirked.
Adler leaned back, watching Hayward’s face carefully. “Who’s Maria Thomas?”
Hayward’s grin faded. “I don’t know.”
“She was a migrant worker who went missing in Charlottesville right before you dropped out of college.”
Hayward stilled. “I want my attorney.”
“I’ll be sure to call him right away,” Adler said. “But I wanted you to know we found a second girl up on the property. You figured we’d be so anxious to find Gina that we would just pack up afterward, thankful to close the case.” He leaned forward. “But I climbed up into your tree stand, and I looked around just like you said you did. That’s when I saw it.” He raised his brow in mock surprise. “When a body decomposes, it shrinks and the soil around it dips and cracks. The grass also doesn’t grow so well on that spot. It’s the kind of thing that’s easy to miss unless you’re looking for it. And with your help, I was.”
“You’re bullshitting me,” Hayward said. “There’s no other girl. There’s no Maria Whoever.”
“But there is, Randy.”
Hayward rubbed his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. Ask Derek. If he’ll still take your calls.” He grinned. “I can’t wait to tell my friend, Trey Ricker.”
“There’re no other bitches!” Hayward shouted. “You’re bluffing.”
Adler laughed. “So clever and so fucking dumb, Hayward.”
Quinn grinned. “Randy, you’re really cute when you’re wound up.”
Adler and Quinn rose, and he banged on the door. The guard opened it. In a low voice Hayward couldn’t hear, Adler said, “If Mr. Hayward needs to make a few extra calls today, let ’im. I want recordings of all those calls.”
“Consider it done.”
Kaitlin had spent most of the day trying to find out more about Derek but hit a brick wall. When she heard the buzz from the call button, she checked the monitor and saw Adler. Without a word of greeting she buzzed him up. She opened the door, tense, anxious, and glad he was the one answering the question that had stalked her for fourteen years.
When he rounded the corridor, she asked, “Was it Gina?”
“Yes.”
The relief she’d sought for so many years was nonexistent. Instead, defeat filled her voice. On the heels of sweet victory came bitterness. She stepped aside, allowing him into her apartment. “Thank you.” She could barely get out the words.
He studied her face a long moment. “I’m sorry.”
“Deep down, I never held out hope we’d find her alive. She’s gone, but at least we know the truth.”
“Kaitlin, there’s more.”
“What do you mean?”
“We found another body buried near the first discovery. This victim is female and young. We think she’s been there a couple of years longer than Gina.”
“Oh God.” The news slashed through her as she thought of another family enduring the same agony. She lowered slowly to a seat. “Who is she?”
“We don’t know for sure. We’ve requested medical records on a missing person’s case from Charlottesville. This girl Maria vanished in the spring of ’02.”
“How did Gina and the other girl die?”
He studied her a beat. “They were both stabbed.”
Her knife wound had been so painful. “Did Randy kill that Maria girl, too?”
“I think he did it. It might also explain why he dropped out of college so suddenly his sophomore year.”
“What about Blackstone and Crowley. Did they help him?”
“I have no evidence yet. But every instinct in me says that they must have. I’m having Gina’s clothes retested. There was foreign blood found on them. If it matches Blackstone or Crowley, we’ll have them, but if not I’d need Hayward to turn on them.”
She sighed. “If Randy is good at anything, it is self-preservation.”
He rubbed his eyes. “I’m counting on it.”
The first time she’d seen him in the police station, he’d been annoyed and rushed, and he’d fed into her image of the uncaring cop. But she’d come to see him differently. He cared very much about the victims, and he fought like hell to find them justice.
Now it was her turn to take care of him. “You look exhausted. Let me make you some coffee.”
A half smile tipped the edge of his lips. “Sounds good.”
Kaitlin moved into the kitchen and set up a pot. Here alone with him, she could admit to herself that she found him attractive. And she’d seen the way he looked at her when he didn’t think she could see. He liked what he saw.
She raised her gaze to Adler. The overhead light cut across his face. There’d been so much death and loss in her life, and for right now she was tired of thinking about it. Later, she’d think about it again, and again feel the pull to make injustice right, but right now she just wanted to feel good, hopeful even.
She’d kept to herself for the last couple of years, reasoning the solitude would help her get back on more solid footing emotionally. But as she stood here, the weight of loneliness settled on her shoulders. Adler was definitely a shot to the loins, he was a good man, and if there was any man she’d bother to figure out again, she wanted it to be him.