A side door off the lobby opened and Garrison appeared. He wore dark slacks, a white shirt and a sports jacket that accentuated his broad shoulders. A clean-shaven jaw sharpened the angles on his lean face, which now seemed more raw-boned, as if stress kept him awake. At least she wasn’t the only one not sleeping.
Garrison crossed the lobby and reached her in a few long strides. “Eva.”
She adjusted her backpack on her shoulder, more out of nerves than necessity. “I’d like to talk to you.”
“Sure.” No hesitation, yet no pressure, much like a fisherman reeling in the big fish.
“Okay.”
“Follow me to my office.”
“Right.”
The last time she’d been in a police station it had been the morning after the rape and the fire. She’d been numb and scared and alone. The cops had stuck her in a plain room—one desk, two chairs—and they’d left her to stew and worry for hours. By the time the sheriff had come in to question her, her nerves had been jumping with fear.
Garrison led her through the door he’d just emerged from and up a single flight of stairs. “I usually don’t take the elevator. It’s quicker this way.”
“That’s fine. I’m used to stairs.”
He opened the second-floor door and waited for her to enter. A collection of cubicles, the hum of voices and the sound of random phones ringing greeted her. No one seemed to look up or take notice. Just another woman. Just another day. Not the prime murder suspect the entire station had been discussing.
“This way,” Garrison said.
She followed his outstretched hand down a hallway to a corner office. She stepped inside and glanced around the room. Shelves along one wall were packed with books and files. A desk in the center had more books and papers. Two chairs were nested in front of the desk and diplomas on the wall: Air Force Academy. A double frame on a window shelf featured two young girls—one appeared to have been taken recently, but the other years ago. The place looked a breath away from chaos.
“Have a seat.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I get you a coffee or water?”
“No. No. I’m good.”
Instead of taking the seat behind the desk, he chose the one opposite. This close she could feel the energy radiating off of him and half wished he’d sit behind the desk. She could have used a barrier between them.
“What can I do for you, Eva?”
The gentleness in his voice almost, almost made her forget why she’d come. “You told my sister about me.”
Garrison nodded, no hint of apology in his eyes. “I did.”
“Why? Why did you go to her and not come to me?”
“I’m trying to solve a couple of murders, Eva. Like it or not, you are linked to the victims. And since you’ve not been the most forthcoming, I decided on a different tack. I’d hoped Angie could tell me something about Josiah Cross.”
“She doesn’t know anything about him. She never met him. She never had a chance to visit Price.”
“I know.”
“I really wished you’d not gone to see her. You stirred up things I just wasn’t ready to deal with.”
Garrison sat back in his chair. “If you didn’t want to see her, why’d you come back to Alexandria, Eva?”
“You had no right to meddle with my family.”
“Murder changes all the rules, Eva.”
“So what were you after when you went to see her?”
“Like I said, I wanted her perspective on you and Cross’s death.”
Frustration chewed at her insides. “She came to see me today at King’s. I wasn’t ready.”
“When do you think you would have been ready?”
“I don’t know. But that was for me to decide.” She patted her flat hand against her chest. “Her visit churned up a lot of memories.”
“Maybe that’s good. There are moments in the night Josiah died that you’ve been unable to remember.”
His tone rang so genuine, and for a moment the walls around her crumbled. “She had nothing to do with those missing moments.”
“You never know what will jog loose.”
“Two of the three women who could have helped me are dead and the third won’t give me the time of day.”
“Do you think the three girls lied about seeing you hit Josiah?”
She stared into his dark eyes that focused on her as if she were the only person in the world. “You almost sound like you give a crap.”
“I do care what happens to you. I believe you got a bad deal ten years ago. But like it or not, that night connects with today’s murders. And you remembering those missing minutes is just as important to my case as it is to your peace of mind.”
“How could it? Josiah is dead. His father is dead. And Micah was never the kind of guy who would risk his security for murder.”
“What do you know about Micah?”
“He didn’t go to Price. His father wanted the boys to have separate lives. But I saw him at the school from time to time. He came by the house with his brother. He and Josiah might have been twins, but Micah was as docile as Josiah was violent.”
“What aren’t you telling about that night?”
Eva’s stomach churned and her muscles twitched with the desire to flee. For an instant, she even pictured the door behind her and tried to calculate the steps to the elevator.
She tugged at a loose thread where the fabric of her jeans had worn just above her knee. “Kristen confessed that she was pregnant with Josiah’s baby.”
“Pregnant. You sure about that?”
“Very. I’d not had much to drink. The wine made me sick to my stomach so I’d been nursing it most of the evening. I kept pouring it down the sink when no one was looking. Kristen kept pushing the wine on me, but I was sober and I know what I heard.”
“Okay.”
“Kristen had broken up with Josiah. We were glad because we knew he wasn’t good to her. We’d all seen bruises. I’d spotted him standing outside her window at night. The guy was dangerous.”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, we all swore we wouldn’t tell. And then the wine was gone and Kristen decided it was time to get more booze. The other girls said they’d make a run to the store and I was told to stay behind. I was still the junior member of the sorority so I had to do what I was told.” She shook her head. “Rules of a sorority house seem so pointless now.”
“You were trying to fit in and play by the rules. Don’t apologize for that.”
“I just tried so hard with those three but I was always the odd man out. They always had secrets. I’d come into the room and they’d stop talking. That happened a lot that last week. Once, Lisa appeared so upset after one of their meetings. I asked her what was wrong but she’d never say. But that last night they included me and I felt like an insider for once.”
Garrison nodded. “Are you sure Kristen was pregnant?”
“Yes.” She tapped her fingers on her thigh. “And I think Josiah knew about the baby. When he showed up at the front door, he was all smiles and had a bouquet of flowers in his hands. I told him Kristen had gone and he asked if he could come in and wait.” God, why hadn’t she just done what instinct had demanded and slammed the door in his face? “I let him in.”
“What happened?”
“He kept asking me about Kristen. I kept avoiding his questions and he got mad very quickly. He told me Kristen was a fool if she thought she could keep secrets.”
“But you never told him about the baby?”
“No. The crueler he was, the more determined I became to keep the secret. He was a monster. And I never told during the trial.”
“Why didn’t you? It could have helped your case.”
“I saw firsthand how evil Josiah could really be. And his father wasn’t much better. I kept thinking about that baby and how they’d ruin its life. A life sentence even before it was born.”
“After the attack, what’s the next thing you r
emember?”
“Being dragged out by the fireman.”
She closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose. Even to this day, she could still smell the smoke and feel the heat of the flames. “When he burned me, the pain flipped a switch in me. Everything just went blank and I blacked out. I don’t know how much time passed or how the fire got started. But I never, ever remember hitting him. I’ve tried to remember that but I can’t.”
He rose and moved to his desk where he dug out a file. He opened it, carefully searching for the right image. He came around the side of the desk and sat again. “These are photos of the victim’s stomachs.”
Her gaze held his for a moment. She didn’t want to look but found her gaze dropping. The image was of a red, raw scar with a backdrop of the dead woman’s pale white skin. For a moment she couldn’t breathe and then she pushed aside her fears and studied the image.
She shrugged off her jacket and exposed her shoulder and her scar.
His gaze darkened as he stared at it. “Think hard, Eva,” Garrison said softly. “Who would want to do this to them?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“What about Micah Cross?”
“This just doesn’t seem like Micah. It just doesn’t.”
“Do you think Kristen is doing this? You, Lisa and Sara all knew about the baby. Maybe that’s too much of a secret for her to have now that she’s got this big fancy wedding planned.”