No, I didn’t know.
He continued. “In that book, the photo album, you saw it? It’s right there, plain as the nose on my face. Frank’s wife, Terry’s mother. Nicky’s grandmother. She’s wearing the goddamn necklace.”
“You saw a photograph of Rachel Bellington wearing Rose Noonan’s necklace?”
Finn didn’t respond, just stared glumly across the table. Now I did tap him, gently on his cheek with the back of my hand. “Earth to Finn, come in.”
“Yeah, yeah, I saw a woman wearing the necklace. The same woman Terry Bellington had just pointed out to me as his dear old dead mother.”
I sat back. It all made sense. Perfect sense. Frank’s attempted assault on Julia; his mean, racist streak that he kept so well-hidden.
Finn said, “Frank Bellington was the Woodsman. He killed Rose Noonan, and then killed the McKenzie boys to keep them from identifying him. And then-he’s so goddamn smart, I can’t believe it-then he holds on to Rose’s body for a month and then dumps it. No one can connect the disappearance of two little boys with the murder of a young woman.”
I couldn’t even nod in agreement. We should have known, as soon as we realized Nicky recognized the necklace.
Finn was saying something, something I’d missed. The roar in my ears was loud, like a train driving through my head. Implications were bouncing off each other.
“What?”
“Do you think there’s more? Others? He was never caught, so maybe there was no incentive for him to stop killing. God, I hope there’s not more.”
I hadn’t even considered it. “If there are, they weren’t from Cedar Valley. We can look for patterns, check the national databases…”
My words trailed off. Here we were, talking about other possible victims, and we hadn’t even made the first steps toward any kind of legal proceedings. We could never charge Frank, of course, but we could sure as hell make sure this town knew who had been terrorizing our dreams all these years. We would need to gather evidence, go through his things. There would be counseling needed for the rest of the family… the rest of the family.
“Finn, stop a sec. Sure, okay, we’ve got Frank as the Woodsman. But he was housebound, so there’s no way he killed Nicky. And he certainly didn’t kidnap Annika and stash her somewhere, holding her for a half mil in ransom. Think of everything else; Sam’s accident, the creepy messages left for you and me.”
When Finn picked up the latte this time, his hands were steady. He sipped from it.
“You’re right, it’s not possible.”
He set the cup down and gripped his hair in his hands. “Just when we get something concrete, everything else falls apart. One step forward and ten steps back.”
I thought about our visit to the Kirshbaums. “Don’t forget, if Canyon’s story is true, then the Woodsman had a partner. Maybe he’s the one doing all of this.”
“But who was his partner? And don’t say Louis Moriarty, Gemma.”
“Why not? Finn, it makes the most sense that Frank’s partner would be one of his close friends. Hell, it might have been my step-grandfather, Bull Weston. Or Jazzy Douglas… or any number of guys he hung around with.”
“You don’t really believe Bull had anything to do with this, do you?”
I shrugged. “Well, no, but I’m just saying-we can’t rule anyone out.”
I recounted Bull’s story of Frank’s attack on Julia to Finn. He was surprised and then said that Rose’s killing certainly seemed to fit a pattern in Frank’s life.
Finn finished his coffee and started shredding a paper napkin in his hands, pulling it apart, strip by white paper strip. “What I don’t understand is how that old son of a bitch lived here for the last thirty years, normal as you please, all the while a murderer. He raised a family, saw his son become mayor, no problem, just your average old guy, playing with the grandkids.”
“Doesn’t that happen a lot, though? I mean, BTK… probably the Zodiac Killer… hell even Ted Bundy’s neighbors thought he was just your normal average dude,” I said. “And sooner or later, they all get caught. A feeling here, an inkling there… sooner or later, someone connects the dots.”
Finn nodded. “Nicky did that. He made the connection. But why not tell someone? He had the proof; he had it all right there. The necklace links Franklin to Rose Noonan’s death. And Kirshbaum’s story links Rose Noonan’s death to the McKenzie boys.”
I shook my head slowly. “But Nicky didn’t know about Canyon Kirshbaum, remember? All Nicky suspected was that his grandfather killed Rose Noonan.”
“Maybe he did tell someone. Just the wrong someone.”
I felt like tearing my own hair out. Everything fit and nothing fit.
Finn exhaled. “Bear with me. In 1985 Frank Bellington rapes and kills Rose Noonan, maybe she wouldn’t let him do her; maybe it’s a fit of passion, whatever. He, with a partner, takes her body to the river to dump it. He’s probably hoping she’ll float all the way down to Mexico. Unfortunately for old Frank, though, just as he’s about to dump Rose, he notices some kids watching him. Well, shit. His plan is screwed. He and this unknown partner go after them instead. And then he’s still stuck with a dead woman. So, he holds on to her body for a while. He’s smart; he doesn’t want the killings connected. Then for thirty years he lives in the same town, in plain sight the whole time. He would have watched the town go crazy with grief, searching for the kids. All that time goes by, and then boom, you-completely by accident-find the bodies. It’s big news; so big that Frank’s grandson gets interested. Nicky starts digging around and he finds a photo. He recognizes a necklace that his grandmother wore and puts two and two together. Then he dies, in an accidental fall. Only, he doesn’t really die, he disappears for three years. Then he returns to Cedar Valley and within a day or two, he is killed, for real this time. And now his sister’s been kidnapped.”
I nodded. “Yes, I think that about sums it up. What we’re still missing is what happened in between Nicky’s discovery, and Nicky’s first fake death. Who did he tell?”
“And what the hell did they say to scare Nicky enough to make him go on the run?” Finn asked. He finished his latte and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He continued. “Jesus, Gemma, I thought I was going to lose it in there. When I saw that picture… I was sitting right next to Terry, you know? His dad’s the goddamn Woodsman and I’m sitting right next to him.”
But I barely heard Finn.
Something else, something Annika had said to me, was flitting around the edges of my mind, creating some very unpleasant thoughts.
“Finn,” I said slowly, “Finn, I know who Nicky talked to. I know who he told.”
He stared at me, this man that most of the time I loathed but who I was also growing to respect quite deeply. Someone I didn’t know that well, but with whom I would have trusted my life.
Partners are like family. They can challenge you, irritate the heck out of you, but ultimately, if you’re lucky, they’ll always have your back.
If you’re not lucky…
I pushed away from the table and fished the phone Mrs. Watkins had given me out of my purse.
“We have to find Annika. She’s the key to everything.”
Chapter Forty-three
Four hours later, I’d called most of the contacts in Annika’s phone. A different picture of her was forming in my mind than the one I’d carried with me over the last few weeks. Most of the people who answered my calls were reluctant to talk much, once I told them why I was calling.
The picture I got was of a young woman; smart, beautiful, gifted with every grace possible since birth, but cold in spirit and mean as a snake.