Lucas jammed the receiver button, he slammed his thumb into it so fast. When the static died, as if he lost the connection with Collins, he smacked the back of the radio with the flat of his palm. “Who? He took who?”
And then the deputy said the words that shocked the room:
“Mason, doc. That outsider detective just charged Mase with murder.”
To the surprise of everyone in Hamlet, the charges ended up being two counts of homicide against Mason Walsh.
It was the ballistics tests that did him in. Whether he was cocky or just plain stupid, he used his own gun to kill Caitlin De Angelis. His prints were all over the barrel and the trigger. The bullets fired in testing were an exact match to the slug Lucas’s ME friend pulled out of her chest.
Talk about a smoking gun. Thinking he’d never be caught, Mason actually handed over the gun that fired the fatal shot. And then he had the nerve to be shocked when they matched it.
The investigators were thorough. Once they identified Mason’s gun as the murder weapon, they had their warrants in less than half an hour. While he was locked up in the county jail, loudly proclaiming his innocence, a team of devoted detectives tore through Mason’s home.
By the time they were done, they hit the jackpot. Tucked in a storage bin, hidden in the back of his garage, one of the detectives found a carefully coiled length of rope and a pair of gardening gloves.
Detective Rodriguez brought it to the lab himself. And when the verdict came back that the same type of rope had strangled Jack Sullivan at the Hamlet Inn, Mason earned his second count of murder.
Tess could have let it go. When it was just Caitlin, she almost managed to convince herself that she had nothing to do with it. She’d only known the man for a handful of days. No matter how he angry he’d been when he’d run off the night Caitlin was shot, was it really her fault?
And then came the announcement that Rodriguez’s team found the rope and the repercussions from that discovery had Tess absolutely and utterly convinced that she was to blame for everything that happened.
After convincing Maria to skip her morning dose of medicine, Tess got her to drive her to the county courthouse about forty minutes outside of Hamlet. The small village wasn’t prepared to play host to a double murderer. When Rodriguez came to take Mason away, Deputy Collins accepted that it was a conflict of interest for any Hamlet law enforcement official to have a part in the capture and arrest. He was one of them. It was easier that way.
Since she didn’t know how to get there—and she’d just about given up wondering what happened to her car—Tessa asked Maria if she would go with her to see Mason. She first thought about asking Lucas, only to chicken out at the last minute.
In fact, she made Maria promise that she wouldn’t even tell her brother that they made this trip. Caitlin’s wake was still scheduled to be held the next day. He had a thousand things he had to do. She couldn’t expect him to hold her hand. Besides, this was something she had to do on her own.
Though she offered to go in with her, Maria’s relief was obvious when Tess refused.
“Thanks for bringing me,” she said, climbing out of the car. “Once they let me in to see him, I won’t be long.”
Maria swept her hair behind her, concern pulling her forehead into light lines. “You sure, sweetie? You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes. I do. Detective Rodriguez says they’re moving him again. This might be my only chance to talk to him before… well, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I’m leaving soon, Maria. Before I go back home, I have to see him. I have to know.”
Maria’s eyebrows rose so high, they disappeared beneath the fringe of her bangs. “You’re going? Already?”
Tess didn’t have the heart to tell the other woman that it hadn’t been her idea to come to Hamlet at all. But Maria De Angelis had been nothing but kind to her so, with a small quirk of her lips, she nodded. “I have to. It’s time. As soon as they let me, I want to go home.”
Maria leaned over, laying her slender hand on Tess’s arm. “I’ll be right out here if you need me. You don’t have to face him alone.”
“I know. And I appreciate it, but that’s something I have to do, too.”
Taking care not to slam the door behind her, Tess took a deep breath and started for the building. She expected the paperwork, the metal detector, the curious looks and wasn’t let down.
Fifteen agonizing minutes later, some faceless deputy gestured for her to follow him into the cells. She almost turned tail and ran. Digging deep, she ignored her i
mpulse to flee and stepped lightly behind the bulky deputy. He led her down corridor after corridor without a word until he pointed at the third cell in.
Tessa swallowed her gasp.
Mason.
She always heard jail was hell. Here was proof.
The fallen deputy was pacing back and forth, his shoulders hunched and his hands curled into fists at his side. He looked like a caged animal. Her impression only grew stronger when he froze, his head lifting as if he caught a scent. A heartbeat later, his whole body tensed, then he turned. His big, brown eyes were wild and just a little crazy as he zeroed in on her.
Launching his body at the cell door, he wrapped his hands around the bars. Mason mashed his forehead up against the grate.