Chapter 102
I THINK WE ROCKED ALL NIGHT. We laughed some, cried some. I don't even remember how I woke up in bed. The following day, I barely left his touch. With all that was threatening, all that seemed uncertain, I felt so safe and sure in his arms. I never wanted to leave. But something else happened during that weekend -apart from Negli's, apart from Chris and me. Something gripping, invading my sense of comfort and security. It was something Jacobi had said that planted the thought. One of those thrown-out remarks you didn't pay much attention to but somehow got filed away in your mind. Then it comes back at the oddest time, with more force and logic than before. It was Sunday night. The weekend was over. Chris had driven me home. Hard as it was to leave him, I needed to be alone for a while, to take inventory of the weekend, to figure out what I would do next. I unpacked, made some tea, curled up on my couch with Her Sweetness. My mind wandered to the murder case. Nicholas Jenks was behind me now. Only the countless reports to fill out. Even though he was still ranting about being set up. it was just more insanity, more lies. It was then that Jacobi's words snaked into my brain. Good collaj; he'd said, early Tuesday morning. He had that annoying, persistent look in his eyes. Just remember, he'd called after me, it was the champagne match, that got you. on your way… Why do you think Jenks left that champagne? I was barely paying attention. Jenks was locked away. The case was a slam dunk. I was thinking about the night before, and Chris. I stopped on the stairs and turned to him. I don't fe now Warren. We've been over this. Heat of the moment, maybe. You're right. He nodded. That must be why he didn't ball up the jacket and take it with him, too. I looked at him, like, Why are we going through this now? Jenfes needed a clean tux jacket to get out of the hotel undetected. The DNA match on the hair made it all academic, anyway. Then he said it. You ever read the whole book? he asked. Which book? Jenfes's boo fe Always a Bridesmaid. The parts that matter, I replied. Why? He said, I don't fe now it just sort of stuck with me. Like I said, my wife happens to be a fan. There were some copies of the manuscript around, so I took one home. It was interesting how it all came out in the end. I looked at him, trying to figure out where all this was heading. It was a setup, Jacob! said. This Phillip Campbell guy, he gets off. He pins the whole thing on someone else. Days later, Warren's words came creeping back into my mind. A setup. He pins the whole thing on someone else. It was ridiculous, I told myself, that I was even dignifying this scenario, running through it in my mind. Everything was solid, airtight. Setup, I found myself thinking again. "I must be an idiot," I said aloud. "Jenks is clinging to any story he can to wiggle his way out of this." I got up, brought my tea into the bathroom, began to wash my face. In the morning I would tell Cheery about my disease. I had some time coming. I would face this thing head-on. Now that the case was complete, it was the right time. Now that the case was complete! I went into the bedroom, ripped the tags off a "Little Bit of Heaven," a T-shirt Chris had bought me. I got into bed, and Martha came around for her hug. Memories of the weekend began to drift in my head. I closed my eyes. I could hardly wait to share it with the girls. Then a thought from out of the blue hit me. I shot up as if I'd had a nightmare. I stiffened. "Oh, no. Oh, Jesus, no," I whispered. When Jenks had lunged at me at his house, he had swung with his left hand. When he'd offered me a drink, he'd picked up the pitcher with his left hand. Impossible, I thought. This can't be happening. Claire was certain David Brandt's killer had been right handed.
Chapter 103
JILL, CLAIRE, AND CINDY looked at me as if I were insane. The words had barely tumbled out of my mouth. "What if Jenks is right? What if someone is trying to set him up?" "That's a crock!" snapped Jill. "Jenks is desperate and only moderately clever. We've got him!" "I can't believe you're saying this," exclaimed Cindy. "You're the one who found him. You're the one who made the case." "I know. I know it seems crazy. Hopefully, it is crazy. Just hear me out." I took them through Jacobi's comment about the novel, then my lightning bolt about Jenks's left-handedness. "Proves nothing," Jill said. "I can't get past the science, Lindsay," Claire said with a shake of her head. "We've got his goddamn DNA at the scene." "Look," I protested, "I want the guy as much as anybody. But now that we have all this evidence- well- it's just so neat. The jacket, the champagne. Jenks has set up complicated murders in his books. Why would he leave clues behind?" "Because he's a sick bastard, Lindsay. Because he's an arrogant prick who's connected to all three crimes." Jill nodded. "He's a writer. He's an amateur at actually doing anything. He just fucked up." "You saw his reactions, Jill. They were deeper than simply desperation. I've seen killers on death row still in denial. This was more unsettling. Like disbelief." Jill stood up, her icy blue eyes spearing down at me. "Why, Lindsay, why the sudden about-face?" For the first time I felt alone and separated from the people I had most learned to trust. "No one could possibly hate this man more than I do," I declared. "I hunted him. I saw what he did to those women." I turned to Claire. "You said the killer was right-handed." "Probably right-handed," Claire came back. "What if he simply held the knife in his other hand?" proposed Cindy. "Cindy, if you were going to kill someone," I said, "someone larger and stronger, would you go at him with your opposite hand?" "Maybe not," injected Jill, "but you're throwing all this up in the face of facts. Evidence and reason, Lindsay. All the things we worked to assemble. What you're giving me back is a set of hypotheticals. "Jenks holds his pitcher with his left hand. Phillip Campbell sets someone up at the end of his book." Lindsay, we have the guy pinned to three double murders. I need you firm on this." Her jaw was quivering. "I need you to testify." I didn't know how to defend myself. I had wanted to nail Jenks as eagerly as any one of us. More. But now, after being so sure, I couldn't put it away, the sudden doubt. Did we have the right man? "We still haven't uncovered a weapon," I said to Jill. "We don't need a weapon, Lindsay. We have his hair inside one of the victims!" Suddenly, we were aware that people from other tables were looking at us. Jill huffed and sat back down. Claire put her arms around my shoulders. I puffed a deep breath into my cheeks, slumped back against the cushion of the booth. Finally, Cindy said, "We've been behind you all the way. We're not going to abandon you now." Jill shook her head. "You want me to let him go, guys, while we reopen the case? If we don't try him, Cleveland will." "I don't want you to let him go," I said. "I only want to be one hundred percent sure." "I am sure," Jill replied, her eyes ablaze. I sought out Claire, and even she had a skeptical expression fixed firmly in my direction. "There's an awful lot of physical evidence that makes it pretty clear." "If this gets out," Jill warned, "you can toss my career out with the cat litter. Bennett wants this guy's blood on the courthouse wall." "Look at it this way," Cindy said, chuckling, "if Lindsay's right, and you send Jenks up, they'll be studying this case as a 'how not to' for twenty years to come." Numbly, we looked around the table. It was as if we were staring at the pieces of some shattered, irreplaceable vase. "Okay, so if it's not him," Claire said with a sigh, "then how do we go about proving who it is?" It was as if we were all the way back at the beginning- all the way back at the first crime. I felt awful. "What was the thing that nailed our suspicion on Jenks?" I asked. "The hair," said Claire. "Not quite. We had to get to him before we knew who it belonged to." "Merrill Shortley," Jill said. "Jenks and Merrill? You think?" I shook my head. "We still needed one more thing before we could take him in." Cindy said, "Always a Bridesmaid. His first wife." I nodded slowly as I left Susie's.