Karin would not let Megan Elliott-that twit! — get away with destroying her perfect life. She had been doing exactly what her righteous father did: sentencing bad people to die. She had continued his proud tradition of sitting in judgment. It’s not like she killed people for the fun of it. She always had a good reason. Self-preservation or justice. She liked to think that she targeted the bad guys as a legacy to Daddy.
If there was some fun in murder it was the irony that she provided a better system of justice than the court system her father lived for and believed in.
She’d learned an important lesson the day her father died. She could get away with murder.
Karin was no quitter. The last twelve years of her life had been spent planning how best to make Megan Elliott suffer. And now that she was so close, she was most certainly going to see this through.
She’d sent Price’s dog tag to Megan to make her worry. In the back of her mind, she would wonder how long she’d been followed. How long she’d been watched. She’d start jumping at shadows, looking over her shoulder. She’d be following the investigations through the grapevine, never knowing what exactly was going on, not knowing who was next, and if it was going to be her.
Karin had planned on sending Bartleton’s tag to her as well, until the pathetic Ethan killed two innocent people. That had been the last straw. He’d gone from borderline crazy to full-out lunatic. After Hackett, she was originally going to talk him into killing himself. That would have been no problem, considering she’d stopped him from blowing his brains out a half dozen times. But Karin couldn’t be sure of him anymore, and when he used the wrong gun …
She broke out into a sweat. That had been her one mistake. She should have gotten rid of the gun she’d used to kill Kenny Russo, but she liked to have it with her for the memories. Her five-month affair with Kenny had been the most fun she’d had in a long time. She’d manipulated him beautifully, he fell in love with her, and she learned everything about his former Delta team. What she didn’t know, she obtained through his computer and e-mails to his friends and colleagues, ostensibly from him.
Unfortunately, she had to kill him. She kind of liked him, but he would have known she’d stolen George Price’s dog tag. Kenny looked at the tags all the time, teary-eyed and lamenting his past mistakes.
“I should have put my foot down and told General Hackett we couldn’t have a reporter with us on the mission. But we’re trained to obey orders, and Hackett wanted a P.R. piece like the Marines had.”
Price’s dog tag was Kenny’s way of punishing himself. And Ethan insisted, besides. “All of them or nothing.”
Now Ethan was gone, and Father Cardenas was safe. She didn’t want his death on her conscience. She was already to blame for one man of God dying.
She squeezed her temples as she followed the patrol car.
Crystal killed Father Michael, not you.
You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself. You told him too much!
I just wanted Crystal out of my life.
She was smarter than you. She was always smarter than you.
Maybe. Until I gassed her in her sleep. She never saw it coming.
Because you’re weak and pathetic and couldn’t confront her yourself. Because she would have won. She always won. You cheated.
Maybe I cheated, but who’s pushing up the daisies?
Karin didn’t care how she got what she wanted, as long as she came out on top. And finally, victory was within her reach. Megan had won twelve years ago, but today? Today Megan would be the big loser. Fate had handed Karin the opportunity of a lifetime. If she hadn’t been watching the police canvass the resort, if she hadn’t been curious about what they were doing and how much they knew, she wouldn’t have seen Megan Elliott get into the patrol car. She wouldn’t have been in a position to follow.
It was a sign, an omen. A very, very good omen.
She continued watching, glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Any minute …
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The patrol car sputtered and died.
Barbara Dodge barely managed to pull over. “I don’t believe it! No gas. It was full when we left.” Dodge radioed in that an officer needed nonemergency assistance.
Megan stared at Karin Standler’s image on her Black-Berry.
“You’re the sister I never had, Meg.”
Why-how-had Karin gotten involved with Barry Rosemont? Megan didn’t want to believe that Karin had been in any way involved with killing the soldiers, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was capable of such violence. Karin had shot Megan in the back and gotten away with it.
Her excuse had been stress. Her mother had committed suicide three weeks before and Karin hadn’t told anyone. She had been embarrassed and angry and depressed. The shrinks all agreed that Karin was suffering from acute depression. OPR removed her from duty because of “reckless disregard for human life and proper procedures” but with extenuating circumstances. As long as she went to counseling for a year, she wouldn’t be prosecuted for manslaughter and attempted man slaughter in shooting an unarmed suspect and her partner in the back.
“It was an accident,” Karin sobbed at the hearing. “I saw the suspect going for Agent Elliott’s gun. I thought I did. It happened so fast, and I reacted.” She looked across the room at her still-recovering partner. “I am so sorry. Megan, I am so sorry. I love you like a sister, you know that.”
But Megan had been immune to Karin’s pleas and lies. It had taken three years, but in that time Megan learned that Karin was a pathological liar and a murderer.
OPR didn’t believe her.
“Agent Elliott, you are justifiably enraged by what happened and this panel is taking this situation and your accusations seriously. But in light of Agent Standler’s mother’s suicide, we can’t help but consider the extraneous circumstances that impaired Agent Standler’s judgment.”
Procedures and changes were made to prevent situations like this in the future. More counseling, more feelgood measures to make sure that the agents didn’t have external pressures that could lead to “reckless disregard for human life.”
It was all bullshit, Megan thought. Then and now. Karin was a sociopath, only now she was far more dangerous. Megan dialed Hans. She hoped that Jack had received the sketch from Texas as well and that Hans was already jumping on tracking down Karin Standler.
Officer Dodge said, “They’re sending a patrol with a gas can. I feel like an idiot.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Megan said lightly. She was irritated only because she wanted to jump on Karin’s trail.
“I’m going to stretch my legs. If you want to-”
“I’m fine here, thanks,” Megan said. They were on a narrow turnout on the Pacific Coast Highway. Five feet away from Megan’s door was a cliff and a short guardrail. Megan wasn’t scared of heights, but she’d just as soon stay in the car. She also didn’t want to admit that she was nervous about Karin. Her ex-partner still scared her. Ironically, it was because of Karin’s lies that Megan herself had learned to discern truth and fiction from suspects and witnesses, one of the reasons Megan had ended up being so good at her job.
Officer Dodge stepped out, stretched. Traffic had improved. “Once we get gas, forty minutes, tops,” she told Megan before walking down the shoulder.
Hans picked up. “Meg, I was just trying to call you.”
“It’s Karin Standler.”
“I know-you got the sketch from Father Cardenas, then.”