“Then it’s possible Garth Davis is telling the truth,” Chloe said quietly.
“I know,” Luke said. “And if he is…”
“He’s not guilty of her rape,” Chase said. “He’s the only one of the seven left alive.”
“So she came forward for nothing,” Chloe said dully. “Godammit.”
“Not for nothing.” The three of them whipped around to look at the door where Susannah stood clutching a yearbook to her chest. “I came forward for me, to take my life back.” She met Luke’s eyes and smiled. Luke made himself smile back, even though his heart was cracking. She cleared her throat. “I found something you should see.” She put the yearbook on the table and opened it. “I was too nervous to sit still, so I started paging through all the yearbooks in that box in your office. This one is from Springfield High, about twenty miles from Dutton.” She pointed to a picture. “Look.”
“Marcy Linton.” Chase looked up at her with a mild frown. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t know her as Marcy Linton,” Susannah said. “I knew her as Darcy Williams.”
There was a moment of stunned silence, then a collective sigh. “So she grew up twenty miles from you, but met you in New York,” Luke said slowly.
“Not a coincidence,” Susannah said. “She was somehow part of the plan. I want to know how, and why, and what went wrong the night she was murdered.”
“I agree,” Chase said. “We need to find out more about Miss Marcy Linton. I’ve got Talia calling the police in Arkansas about Bobby’s past. When she’s finished, I’ll have her track down the Linton family.”
“I’d like to go with her,” Susannah said. “Please, Chase. The Darcy I knew said she was a runaway, that she had no family. She was my friend, or I thought she was. I had her buried in New York.”
“You paid for her burial?” Chloe asked.
“I couldn’t let her be dumped in Potters’ Field. If she has family somewhere, they need to know what happened to her. Please let me go with Talia.”
“Until we find Bobby, I want you safe in this building,” Luke said fiercely.
Susannah shook her head. “What if she’s gone, run away? What if we never find her? I can’t hide forever, Luke. Talia’s a good cop. I’ll be safe with her and I promise I’ll be careful. First though, I need to speak with Garth Davis.”
Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday, February 5, 8:45 a.m.
Special Agent Harry Grimes was putting the finishing touches on his closed report on the abduction and recovery of Eugenie Cassidy when his phone rang. “Grimes.”
“Harry, it’s Steven Thatcher. We found Dr. Cassidy’s car.”
Genie and Monica’s dad. “Oh, hell, Steven. Where?”
“Lake Gordon. There was a bass tournament yesterday and some guy found Cassidy’s car with his fish finder. He called it in this morning when he saw the news on Genie being found, but her father is still missing. We’ve got a team dragging the lake.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Hey, how’s the girl, by the way?” Steven asked.
“Genie’s untouched,” Harry said. “Physically anyway. She’s still in shock. Monica… well, that’s a different story. I talked to her mother this morning. Monica’s got a long row to hoe. I wish… I wish we could have done something to prevent this.”
“She’s alive,” Steven said. “Remember that. What about this Jason character?”
“ ‘Jason’ was a team of two madams, a doctor, and a deputy sheriff. All are dead except for the older madam. Genie identified the younger madam as her abductor.”
“Could any of them have killed Dr. Cassidy, assuming this is his car we found?”
Harry checked his notes. “No, none of the four could have done it. Given the time Cassidy’s neighbor saw his car drive away, it can’t be either of the women. The younger madam was dead by noon, in Georgia. The older woman was seen at the scene and likely killed the young one.”
“What about the deputy?”
“He was killed Friday, the day Monica escaped. The doctor was killed then, too.”
“Shit,” Steven said. “They got a real mess down there.”
“I don’t think we know the half of it. I talked to Luke Papadopoulos down in Atlanta. He says there’s still at least two more out there-the older madam and one other.”
“What do you know about Genie’s abduction?”
“She was taken from an all-night diner called Mel’s.”
“If I were you, I’d check it out.”
“I did, a few hours before Genie was found. She said the younger madam did it, and she’s dead now.”
“But you also said the younger madam couldn’t have been involved in the abduction of Genie’s daddy, so we have at least one more player. Maybe it’s the same other player this Papadopoulos in Atlanta’s looking for. Did this diner have security video?”
“Only at the cash register. But…” Again Harry flipped through his notes. “There’s an ATM across the road. The angle on their security camera might be about right.”
“There you go,” Steven said. “Have at it, boy. I’ll call you if we pull up Dr. Cassidy.”
Atlanta, Monday, February 5, 9:35 a.m.
Susannah’s stomach churned as she stood outside the interrogation room in which Garth Davis waited. “I’m scared, Luke,” she murmured.
He slid his arm around her waist. “You don’t have to do this. I can talk to him.”
“No, I do need to do this.” She drew a deep breath. “Let’s get it over with.”
Chloe was waiting inside the room, along with Garth Davis and his lawyer.
“Garth,” Susannah murmured and sat in the chair Luke pulled out for her.
“Susannah,” he said warily. “It’s been a long time.”
“Yes, it has.” She studied his face, not with the eye of a prosecutor, but with the eye of a woman whose life had been turned upside down for way too long. Garth looked drawn, haggard. At barely thirty-two years old, he looked… old. As old as she felt.
Garth looked up at Luke. “You found my sons. Thank you.”
Beside her, Luke nodded once. “We said we would.”
“I saw the news. I swear, I didn’t know what Barbara Jean had done.”
“She tried to kill me yesterday,” Susannah said.
Garth met her gaze, his eyes haunted. “I know.”
“Did you know she hated me?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was Arthur Vartanian’s daughter?” she asked.
His eyes widened in shock. “Really?”
“Yes.” And then she knew what she wanted to ask. “Did you rape fifteen girls?”
“Garth,” his lawyer warned, but Garth held up his hand wearily.
“Enough. It’s enough already. I’m not getting out of this. They have pictures, a journal. My sister is dead, along with half of Dutton. Enough people have died for the sins of a handful of stupid boys.”
“My original offer stands, Mr. Davis,” Chloe said. “Fifteen years.”
“The deal sucks, Chloe,” Davis’s lawyer said. “He was a juvenile, for God’s sake.”
“He was seventeen.”
“Only for half of them,” the lawyer argued, and Chloe rolled her eyes.
“There’s a mandatory sentence for every count. If a judge orders those served consecutively your client would be in prison for the rest of his life.”
“But no judge would,” his lawyer scoffed.
Garth shook his head. “Stop, Sweeney. You can’t get me out of this.”
“We’ll request a change of venue,” his lawyer said, and Garth laughed bitterly.
“Where? To Mars? There is no place that doesn’t know the Richie Rich Rapists.” His mouth twisted. “I’m going to take Miss Hathaway’s deal. I’ll get out in time to see my grandchildren. Yes, Susannah, I raped fifteen girls thirteen years ago. I was caught up in this game… this idea that it would make us men. But I swear, I did not rape you.”