Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Lana walked along the beach with Claire Barnes beside her. It was an especially gorgeous day, the wind calm, the air cool. Lazy sunbathers lay out on the sand.
Claire turned her face up to the sky. “I miss my sister the most on days like this. Heather felt like she belonged at the beach. She was becoming a pretty impressive surfer, actually. I remember one of the times that I found her living right off the boardwalk. It seemed dangerous, but she didn’t care.
All the activity and people made her feel so alive. ”
Claire seemed to be taking the news about Wayfair’s new motion pretty well. Especially considering the judge had just granted a hearing.
“The hearing will be in a couple of days,” Lana explained. “I’ll text you the specific time and location.”
“Will Ryan Hearst be there?”
Hearst was out on bail. The judge had denied Lana’s request for electronic monitoring, and there was no way the police could devote the resources for full-time surveillance.
But officers from West Oaks P.D. and the surrounding areas were volunteering their off-duty time to watch Hearst, unofficially.
They’d catch the man if he tried to leave town.
“Defendants can choose to appear for legal motions, but his lawyer said Ryan wouldn’t be present. Probably because Paxton Wayfair wants to focus this on me and Max Bennett more than on Hearst himself.”
Claire nodded. She was a social worker, so she had dealt with plenty of legal cases in her career, too. Though not so personal as this one.
“Can I come?”
“You’re welcome to come. But Wayfair is just doing this to mess with me. There’s almost no chance the judge will agree with him.” It wasn’t easy to disqualify a prosecutor for unproven allegations of misconduct. And Wayfair had no real evidence.
“But there is some chance.” Claire hugged her arms around her middle.
“I guess that’s true. But even if the Judge grants the motion, we’ll appeal.”
“I can’t accept that all the work we’ve done would be for nothing. Especially when we know that he did it. He killed Heather, and he almost got away with it. Maybe he still will.”
“I’ll do everything in my power. I promise, Claire.”
They kept strolling along the path. But now that they’d been walking a while, the sun was getting hotter. Unrelenting.
Ryan Hearst, then a local teenager, had been a key suspect from the beginning. Claire had seen Heather get into Ryan’s car on the night that her sister died.
The next day, surfers found Heather’s body. She’d been strangled and severely beaten. It had been a vicious act by someone who wanted Heather to suffer.
When the police knocked on Ryan Hearst’s door, his wealthy family hired the best lawyers.
While he admitted he’d given Heather a ride, no physical clues came up to link him to Heather’s death.
Nor did any witnesses place him with her at the time of the murder.
The DA back then chose not to pursue charges, claiming a lack of evidence.
But Claire had never given up hope. She’d continued to contact law-enforcement officials every year, even after Heather’s case went cold. She often spoke about Heather’s favorite necklace, the one the girl always wore, yet had been missing from her body.
Finally, Claire found Lana’s phone number. The two of them bonded over being West Oaks natives, when so many people here came from other places and bought second homes that they only visited during the peak season or weekends.
Dozens of investigators had looked into the case over the years. Lana made no progress until she called Max Bennett for help. When Max got involved, he studied every detail anew. He would come to Lana’s office to pour over the files and ask probing questions.
Then suddenly, earlier that year, Max had gone quiet.
At that point, Lana had wondered if Max had forgotten the case altogether.
He was busy with his company. That, she understood.
But she’d also seen him on Ocean Lane on several occasions, each time with a different woman on his arm.
He was a grown man in his thirties, so of course he didn’t need to explain his behavior, least of all to her.
But if he’d decided to just drop the investigation into Heather’s death, Lana had believed that she deserved to know. Her annoyance had turned into simmering anger by the time he’d finally called her up.
“Lana, I’m at the Hearst residence. Ryan’s sister let me inside. I’ve already called this in to the police, but I think I’ve found the necklace that belonged to Heather Barnes.”
Shocked, Lana had rushed to the scene, along with West Oaks detectives and patrol officers. They took the necklace into evidence. After analysis at the crime lab, forensic experts found Heather’s blood embedded in the hinge and chain of the necklace.
That new piece of evidence was all it took to start the ball rolling toward Ryan Hearst’s prosecution for murder.
After over twenty years of waiting, Claire would finally see her sister’s killer in court.
It wasn’t a slam-dunk case by any means.
But Lana had worked hard to build a solid case against the man.
“We’ll get this sorted out,” Lana said to Claire. “And we’ll make sure you get to tell Heather’s story.”
When Lana got back to the office, she stopped at the district attorney’s open door and knocked on the frame.
“Stephen?”
“Lana, come on in.”
Stephen Abrams stood up and offered his hand, smiling.
He was in his sixties, with a full head of white hair and a trendy pair of glasses from Warby Parker that he updated frequently.
Stephen had held various public offices in West Oaks before becoming DA, including mayor.
He was the kind of beloved local politician that could do no wrong.
But unlike some, Stephen deserved his reputation.
As mayor, he’d helped to make criminal justice reforms before the idea hit the mainstream.
He’d also been a great boss to the women who worked for him, which was a big reason that Lana had taken this job in the first place.
She’d turned down offers from bigger cities to work for Abrams on her own home turf.
“There’ve been some developments in the Hearst case. I thought I should let you know.” Lana came into his office and closed the door.
Stephen sat down and listened thoughtfully as she explained Wayfair’s latest motion. He barely raised an eyebrow at the subject matter, though his frown did express his concern.
“Now that Judge Vaughn has granted the hearing,” he said, “do you feel equipped to handle it? Would you rather have someone else step in since you’re personally a subject of Wayfair’s motion?”
“Absolutely not, sir.” She almost never called him that, but she wanted to make sure that he understood how serious she was about this. “It’s my case. I’m going to see it through to the end.”
“I assumed you would because I know you. But I just wanted to make the offer. There are plenty of attorneys who might prefer a neutral third-party to get involved if they were in your shoes. I can see benefits to going either way, but this is your call. I trust you completely.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate that.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment. “On a much more positive subject, people have been asking me for my thoughts on the election primary coming up later this year. They expect me to put my seal of approval on whoever’s going to run to take my place. I’d really like to tell them it’s you.”
Until recently, Stephen had no intention of retiring anytime soon.
But in the last year, he’d developed health problems that had prevented him from trying many cases.
So, he’d put Lana, his second in command, essentially in charge of the entire office.
He’d been giving her the most high-profile cases and grooming her as his successor.
It had been a coup for her to become even the Assistant DA before thirty, and it was beyond surreal to contemplate actually taking Stephen’s place.
Most people would say she was too young to be DA, yet that idea excited rather than intimidated her.
Lana enjoyed defying expectations. But she still hadn’t decided whether she wanted to run.
“I’d like to see how the Hearst case comes out.
If I lose, I doubt anyone will want me on the ticket.
” This case was so prominent in West Oaks that her name would be associated with it, either way.
And who would want to vote for the person who’d lost the town’s one chance to bring a killer to justice?
“A very wise plan of action, which doesn’t surprise me at all coming from you. We’ll just have to make them wait for an answer. But I look forward to the day that it’s your name outside this office instead of mine.”