“They were used in a similar crime, by the Michelangelo Killer.” Jo held up an image of one of Bruno Vito’s victims. “Did you copy him?”
“I’ve never heard of him, but he has an imagination that’s for sure.” Parsons shrugged. “I’ve been thinking how everything started, why I killed the first woman, and how I felt about it. Truth is, I didn’t feel anything. I don’t care about them—I fantasize about who is next and it becomes an obsession. I think about killing all the time—I figure I’m addicted.” He chuckled and shook his head. “You’ve never heard anyone say that before, have you?”
“Okay, so let’s go back to when you were a kid.” Jo’s expression was relaxed and open. It was obvious she didn’t plan on allowing him to take over the interview. “Tell me about your parents.”
“My pa was a major asshole. He had no respect for my ma. He was in sales and traveled all over. He probably had a woman in every town and came home stinking of perfume or not at all for weeks.” He opened his hands wide. “I’m sure Ma knew he was seeing other women, but I guess she loved him and, when he said he’d be home, she’d cook a special roast dinner. It was always one of those rolled-up meat dishes with the skewers all down one side to hold it together. When he didn’t come home, she’d throw it against the wall and we’d go hungry. I always had the job of cleaning up the mess.”
“What happened when your pa came home?” Jo’s face was expressionless and she never once gave her feelings away to the people she interviewed. “Did they fight?”
“Oh yeah, he’d slap her around and then apologize. They always made up and then as soon as he went away it happened all over.” Parsons leaned back in his chair. “If I asked him why he slapped my ma or if I got between them to stop him, he’d get mad, take off his belt, fold it over, and beat me with it so hard I couldn’t walk the next day. He’d tell me to mind my business. He’d say that when I grew up, I’d understand that a man has his needs, and a wife’s place is to respect them.”
“So, you were helpless to do anything to help your mother?” Jo made a few notes and raised her gaze back to him.
“I tried and we spoke about it, but she’d get mad at me too. She’d tell me I’d be just like him when I grew, that all men were the same. She also told me, there are two kinds of women: those who married a man to be his wife and the homewreckers.” Parsons shrugged almost nonchalantly. “It seemed my father was attracted to the latter.”
Unable to help herself, Jenna stared at him uncomprehending. “What has all this to do with you kidnapping, raping, and murdering women?” She frowned. “And why the plastic masks?”
“You said they’d sit nice and just listen.” Parsons turned to Sam Cross and then indicated to Jenna. “You need a good beating, woman, to put you in your place. Men rule the world. Don’t you know? You only got your job to keep the women from nagging us to death. It was a compromise is all.”
Unsettled by his comments, Jenna wanted to leave, but kept her gaze steady on him. “Do you beat your wife?”
“Never.” Parsons glared at her, his eyes turning black. He clenched his fists and Jenna heard Kane and Carter shift position behind her. “I’m a good husband. I protect her.”
“Can we keep this conversation on track?” Jo took a sip of water from a bottle she’d just cracked. “It’s an easy question. Why did you kill your first victim? You must have had a reason.”
“The first one and all of them were the same.” Parsons shrugged and his attention moved back to Jo. “I travel in my work and not a day goes by without some woman trying to hit on me. They want a ride or they want me. I’ve got a cabin in Colorado. I often stay there because it saves money on my trips. Every time I go to a bar or go out to buy something to eat there’s some woman trying to get me to invite them to my place. You see how easy it was for me to become like my father? I couldn’t allow that to happen. I had a wife and kids at home and I always made sure my wife knew exactly when I was going to be home. Yeah, I spent time with the women I’d collected in my trips, but I never went home smelling of perfume.”
“You’re saying that you considered the women you kidnapped a threat to your marriage and removed them?” Jo met his gaze head on. “So why rape them? Surely that was cheating on your wife?”
“Ah, see, you don’t understand the way of things.” Parsons smiled at her. “Those women broke the rules. They had a choice. I told them I was in love with my wife, but it made no difference. They didn’t care if they hurt anyone, so I gave them a ride to hell.” He clanked his chains and shifted his gaze slowly to Jenna. “They deserved to be punished. I set rules for them to give them a chance to change their ways. Watch the tapes and you will hear what they offered me. So, I gave them each a number and, because they were all the same, I took away their identity. I purchased the masks at a yard sale in Colorado. The fact it was a cop’s mask isn’t relevant. What was relevant is that they all looked the same, because homewreckers are all the same.”
Jenna cleared her throat. “We found a bag of clothes in the caves. Where did you get them from?”
“They belonged to the women.” Parsons met her gaze. “I hadn’t time to put them into storage. The negligees I purchased from Walmart. I gave them to my wife and then told her I like to see her in different ones all the time. I took away the old ones and gave them to the women.”
“You said you put the clothes in storage?” Jo’s eyebrows rose. “Where exactly would that be?”
“I’ve had a longtime arrangement with Mrs. Bright.” Parsons frowned. “Would you believe she went and died on me and left the house to her grandsons? I couldn’t tell them about the clothes now, could I? I tried to buy the house from them, but they refused. It didn’t matter because when I went to see them they were hauling out everything and burning the clothes.”
“How many women have you killed?” Jo leaned back in her chair, acting as if she were asking him how many cups of coffee he had a day.
“I’m not sure.” He scratched his chin, making the chains clank against the metal loops on the desk. “I started giving them numbers a year ago, but I’ve been married seven years and that was around the time it started. I didn’t plan on dumping the bodies in Black Rock Falls at all. It was just that we have a toddler and a young baby and I wanted to be home more often.” He sighed. “It took so long for my wife to fall pregnant for our first one I was starting to believe I was cursed.”
The skin on Jenna’s arms pebbled as if someone had walked over her grave. “If you thought that to be true, why did you keep on killing?”
“Oh, surely you know that, Sheriff?” Parsons eyes moved up and down over her body and came to rest back on her face. “There’s something about having a woman afraid of me that I enjoy. I have no, what you would call feelings for them. Keeping them for a spell, they become placid, but when I drag them out and beat them… well.” He shot a look at Kane and then moved it to Carter. His mouth turned into a satisfied smile. “It feels so good to have a woman squirming and moaning—I like to control their pain and see just how much they can take.” He moved his attention back to Jenna. “I didn’t stop because I enjoyed it too much.”
Horrified, Jenna fought hard to compose her expression. “So, the excuse about fearing you’d become just like your father was an excuse for murder?”
“You are so wrong.” Parsons’ expression changed to annoyance. “I never had an affair with any of them. I punished them for trying to break up my marriage.” He shrugged. “None of them had the chance.”
“Are your parents still alive?” Jo made more notes.
“My ma is alive, but my father unfortunately fell in front of a bus when I was eighteen.” Parsons chuckled deep and sinister. “My ma remarried and moved to California a couple of years later. She’s happy.”
Jenna needed more information. “Why did you kidnap Poppy Anderson and, more importantly, why didn’t you kill her? Seems to me, she had the run of the place when we arrived. Was she involved in the killings?”
“Involved? Nah. She washed the body of Twenty-Four, is all. I enjoyed watching her on her knees. She’d do anything I ordered her to do… She was my slave. It was what she deserved. You see, as smart and cunning as she might be, she’s no different than the rest of the homewreckers.” Parsons raised an eyebrow and smiled at her. “Surely you know that by now, don’t you, Sheriff?” He flicked a look at Kane and winked. “He sure as hell knows what she’s like. Encourage a woman like that and they never give up—do they, Deputy?”
Jenna just stared at him. “Go on. Just how do you have so much information on someone who’s never lived in town?”
“I delivered a truck to Helena and took a flight back. She sat beside me.” Parsons chuckled. “She told me why she’d come to Black Rock Falls. She was going to hook up with Deputy Kane. When I told her it was common knowledge that you had feelings for him, she brushed that away and made like that wasn’t a problem.” He leaned back in his seat. “By taking her out of the equation, I was doing you a favor, Sheriff. The funny thing was that Twenty-Five thought she could play me, but I’d planned to kill her next and I’d have enjoyed every second. She’s just like the others.” He leaned forward and stared into her eyes. “I’m over talking, but I’ll give you a piece of advice, Sheriff. A leopard can’t change their spots. Twenty-Five already has her claws in your man—and it’s only a matter of time before she takes him from you.”