Returning to the staircase, she had stopped awhile by her stepmother’s corpse. „She was a silly, flighty woman, but I loved her so much. She was the only mother I ever knew. Then I sat down on the steps beside my father’s body.“
James Winter had entered the house as she was pulling the ice pick from her father’s chest. „Uncle James bundled me into the car, and we drove to a dingy little building in Greenwich Village. He left me there for days and days. Said he had to go back for the ice pick because my fingerprints were on it. When I saw him again, he told me it was no good. The police got to the house before he did, and they had the ice pick. He said they’d found the bodies of all the children, Cleo and Lionel too. And the baby was dead. They were hunting for me, he said. He cut off my hair and dyed it with shoe black. I stayed in that room for a long time. I don’t know how many days. I lost count. An old woman brought my food. Clothes, too – I think they were hers. She was very kind to me.“
„She’s the one who taught you to read the tarot cards,“ said Mallory.
„How did you know that?“
„I know almost everything. Just a few more loose ends. Go on.“
„One night, the street outside my window was full of police. I thought they’d come for me. The old woman came upstairs. She said we had to clean the place right away, and then I’d have to leave. If the police found any trace of me, she’d go to jail. We worked all night into morning, washing down the walls, the floor, the furniture. While she was downstairs, getting a suitcase for me, the police came and took her away. Later that day, Uncle James came back. We waited for dark, and then we drove up to Maine. He said he had a summer cabin there. When we crossed the state line, he stole a car from a restaurant parking lot and left his own car in its place. I remember a road into the woods. After that, all I have are missing pieces of memory – like Uncle James turning off the headlights. I thought that was queer. The road was so narrow, and the woods were pitch dark. We were driving blind. The last thing I recall was the car’s inside light coming on. I don’t remember the crash. When I woke up, I was in the dark, and the car was rocking. I was in so much pain. I turned on the headlights. They pointed straight up at the sky, and below me there was nothing but black space. I screamed.“
„A cop named Walter McReedy rescued you.“
„Yes. Later, he told me that the driver had drowned in the quarry pool.“
„You never told McReedy who the driver was?“
„I thought Uncle James was dead. Walter said the body would float up eventually, but it never did. And he never mentioned finding my uncle’s abandoned car in the restaurant parking lot. I could never ask him about it. I told him I couldn’t remember anything.“
„And that’s how you knew your uncle meant to kill you that night.“
„Yes. Uncle James must have jumped from the car just before it went over the edge. That’s why the inside light came on. And the police never found his car because he ‘d used it to drive back to New York. So I knew he’d tried to kill me. And he was still alive.“
„You couldn’t tell Walter McReedy the truth.“
„No, and I couldn’t go home again. I didn’t know that there was anyone alive to come back to. And the police had my fingerprints on the ice pick.“
„This pick.“ Mallory reached into her knapsack and pulled out a plastic bag containing the murder weapon. „There were only two fingerprints on the handle. That’s how the police ruled you out as a suspect. Thumb and index finger, the prints you left when you pulled the pick out of your father’s body. There’s no other scenario for the way they appeared on the weapon. Otherwise the pick was clean. So the lead detective figured the killer had the presence of mind to wipe that pick after using it to murder nine people – so why leave two clear prints behind on a murder weapon? The fingerprints cleared you. Those cops only wanted to find you and bring you home.“
Nedda bowed her head. „If I had known that Cleo and Lionel were still alive, I would’ve told Walter McReedy everything. But I believed Uncle James when he told me that their bodies were found in the kitchen. I never got to that room.“
Mallory leaned toward her, one hand resting on her arm. „You spent two years with the McReedy family.“
„Off and on – between surgeries. Most of the time was spent in the hospital.“
„The McReedys never talked about the Winter House Massacre? That was national news.“
Nedda almost smiled. „Once, there was life before television. You can’t imagine that, can you? But we had radio on a clear night, one station from Bangor that played gospel music.“
„You were famous.“
„But I wasn’t the Lindbergh baby – just the debris of a crime that happened somewhere else. The local paper was a two-page weekly newsletter. And the biggest news in that small town was the story of the McReedy brothers rescuing me and risking their lives to do it. Now you see why my uncle took me there to die.“
Mallory nodded. „And all that time you spent with the McReedy family, you were waiting for James Winter to come back and kill you.“
„Yes. Twice I thought he was dead, and I was wrong both times. When I was fourteen, I thought I was being watched. No – I knew he was watching me.“
„Your uncle James.“
„Yes. I found cigarette butts at the edge of the yard, and sometimes I’d see them glowing in the dark from my window. I didn’t want Uncle James to come after me while I was living with the McReedys. I couldn’t lose my second family that way. So… when the family left town to visit relatives… I stayed behind.“
„You set yourself up as bait to draw him out.“
„I loved the McReedys.“ Nedda looked down at her folded hands. „The man came for me in the dark. He broke down my bedroom door. But I was ready for him. I’d been ready for two years.“
„You stabbed him with an ice pick you kept under your pillow.“
„Yes, but it wasn’t Uncle James. I sat next to the corpse all night long. When morning came, I never looked at the man’s face. I couldn’t bear to see him. I was still afraid of him – even then. Can you understand that?“
No, Mallory could not, but she nodded, saying, „You were only a little girl.“
„When the McReedys found me there with the body, I was sent to a hospital. They said I was in shock. I couldn’t speak for days. It took a long time for Walter McReedy to identify the corpse. He visited me in the hospital and told me that I’d killed a small-time criminal named Humboldt. I asked him over and over if that could be a mistake, and he said no, that was impossible. Fingerprints never lied.“
„So you stayed in the hospital to keep that family safe. You figured James Winter was always out there, waiting for another chance to kill you.“ This also explained the death of Willy Roy Boyd and the near-death experience of the private investigator in the park. It was Nedda Winter’s job in life, all her life, to protect the people she loved.
The detective laid two sets of fingerprint cards on the table. One had been found in Pinwitty’s stash of stolen evidence, souvenirs of a massacre. „These are your uncle’s elimination prints. The police took them on the day of the massacre. They wanted to rule out family members.“ The second set of prints had come from the New Orleans police; this was the fruit of Riker’s grandfather and his lifelong search for Red Winter. „This set of prints belonged to the man you stabbed in Maine. They’re a perfect match for James Winter.“
„That’s impossible.“ Nedda shook her head. „My uncle was alive for years after I stabbed Humboldt.“
„No, that’s the story you got from your family. And the real story? After two years as guardian, James Winter’s signatures were forged on all his checks. He was dead. You stabbed him to death when you were fourteen years old. He died in Maine the night he came back to kill you.“ She held up both sets of cards. „Walter McReedy was right. Fingerprints can’t lie. Your uncle and Humboldt were the same man.“