Killer Ambition - [37]

“Did anyone check Brian’s bank accounts? Or find out if he had a safe-deposit box?” I asked.

“No safe-deposit box, and his bank account had twenty-seven bucks and some change. No ransom money anywhere. Until now, I just figured he had the money on him.”

“So maybe our third party was in on the kidnapping plan and killed them both so he could grab the money-”

Bailey nodded. “And get rid of the witnesses.” She gestured to the rest of the team, who were packing up to leave. “Let me wrap up here and we can take off.”

It was nearly ten o’clock now, and the darkness that had settled over the mountain was pierced only by the sliver of light from a crescent moon. The air temperature had dropped at least thirty degrees, and the hulking black hostility of the terrain was starting to get to me. I thought about Brian drawing his last breath in this harsh, lonely wilderness. Had he still been alive when the killer shoveled the dirt over him? The thought left me short of breath and achingly sad. My cell phone rang, breaking into my morbid reverie. Startled by the sound, I reflexively took the call.

A voice cried out, “I j-just heard about Hayley!” Choking sobs intervened before the caller could continue. “It’s all my fault! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

It took me a moment to identify the voice through the tears. “Mackenzie?”

“She told me she’d be okay! And I believed her!”

“Take a deep breath, Mackenzie.”

A sharp, ragged intake of air, then, “Sh-she told me…she said everything would be okay-”

“You mean Hayley?”

“Y-yes.” Sniffling and a few hiccups. “She said she’d be gone for a while and I wouldn’t be able to reach her. I might hear something that sounded bad, but I shouldn’t worry, and I couldn’t tell anyone. She said don’t tell, just don’t tell. She said she and Brian had a plan and everything was going to be great. But she didn’t tell me-” The rest of the sentence was cut off by more racking sobs.

“-what the plan was?”

“No. She just said not to tell anyone. So I didn’t. She said not to…” Mackenzie trailed off.

“Mackenzie, you are not to blame. Do you hear me? You didn’t know what she was planning.” But Mackenzie was now crying and hiccupping uncontrollably. “Mackenzie? Is your dad there?”

“Yes.”

“Does he know about all this?”

“Yes.”

“Will you please put him on the phone? And stay right there, okay?”

“Okay.” Then, I heard her call out, “Dad!”

Seconds later, a male voice said, “Yes?” We exchanged names and then I asked Mackenzie’s father to watch her closely and not to leave her alone. I’d talk to Mackenzie myself, in person, and try to get her to understand she shouldn’t blame herself for any of this. He promised to stay at her side day and night and said he’d get her to her therapist tomorrow.

If anyone understood survivor’s guilt, it was me, and thankfully, I could tell that Mackenzie’s father would do what had to be done. I didn’t know whether Mackenzie would do something crazy. I just knew I couldn’t take any chances. I wasn’t about to see yet another young life be destroyed by this nightmare of a case.

21

I pulled Bailey aside and told her what I’d just learned.

“So Hayley and Brian were definitely in on it together,” she said.

“And most likely were killed by the same person-”

“Or persons-”

“-who had to have known about their plan in time to grab the money and kill them,” I said. “No way any of Hayley’s buddies would’ve done it.”

“No. We’ve got to dig into Brian’s life-find out who he was hanging with.”

But whoever it was had deliberately laid a false trail for us. I decided two could play this game. “Do you think we could keep Brian’s death under wraps for a while?”

“And hope our mystery man keeps dropping false clues?” Bailey asked. I nodded. “Brian’s aunt will keep for a little while. And I can warn these guys”-she tilted her head toward the officers on the scene-“but I can’t promise how long-”

In a case like this, no secret was going to keep for long. And we couldn’t let Janice find out about her nephew from the press. “But it’s worth a try, right? With a little more time, our mystery man might poke his head above the radar-at least once more.” And with a little luck, he’d poke it up nice and high, where I could snap it off.

Bailey gathered all the unis together and gave them the word not to file any reports or talk about what they’d seen until she gave the okay. They all nodded their agreement, though I noticed a couple of skeptical expressions.

I was exhausted in a way that was as much emotional as physical. Bailey too seemed a lot worse for wear, which was unusual for her. Through many all-nighters, she was always the one who looked disgustingly fresh when the rest of us seemed ridden hard and put back wet. But now her eyes, her mouth, her shoulders, all sagged, as if pulled down by fifty-pound weights. She wrapped up with the remaining officers and we trudged down the muddy, rocky trail to her car.

As we wound our way back down the mountain, I tried to dredge up names for any of Brian’s friends. No luck. I remembered that even his aunt hadn’t known of any. “The only places I can think to check are his jobs. He didn’t go to school here-”