Chapter 50
FIFTY
Amanda filled Malone in on her conversations from that morning and was now walking through the hallways of the hospital toward Trent’s room.
Her heart was hurting as she drew closer to his room, despite the nurse saying he was doing great “considering.” It was the considering part that played on her mind.
She stopped outside his door, took a deep breath, and went inside.
Trent was lying in bed watching the television across the room. He smiled when he saw her and turned off the TV.
“How are you doing?” Her steps were leaden as she walked toward his bed.
“The doctor says I’ll live.” He laughed, making light of his ordeal.
“Well, that’s good.”
“I think so. And now I’ll have a fresh scar to go with my previous ones.”
“You realize it’s not a competition, and those aren’t things you should be collecting.”
“It’s not all that bad. They remind me not to take a single moment for granted.”
His statement hit her in the heart. She loved him, yet he could never know just how much. He was with Kelsey. She with Carter. But how much of her life would slip by before she was brave enough to admit the truth? That she saw her future with Trent.
“But enough about me. Fill me in.”
“Ah, right.” His request pulled her out of her thoughts. Saved her from them. “Well, the entire case is wrapped up tight.” She shared everything from that morning with him.
“So, Dominique had an idea who wanted her dead all this time and said nothing?”
“Yep.”
“Even though it cost her friend’s life, she wouldn’t swallow her pride. Unbelievable. Have you questioned the Anaconda Killer yet? Do we know her real name?”
“No to the first, and yes to the second, we do. Her prints identified her as Jessica Reese, thirty-nine. She served ten years in prison for attacking a woman with a knife. The woman didn’t die, but Jessica was charged with attempted murder.
Apparently, Jessica thought she was sleeping with her boyfriend. ”
“Having a record could explain why she was so meticulous at her crime scenes.”
“Except for she messed up at Blackburn’s, remember?
The blood she left on the glass. Well, the blood type has been confirmed as the same as Jessica’s.
We’re still waiting on the DNA results to solidify that.
Not that there’s any doubt she was at Blackburn’s that night.
When Jessica’s personal possessions were taken from her, there was a tarp, rope, and the same cleaner she’d used at Sharp’s house in her backpack.
Ballistics testing confirmed the gun she arrived with last night, a Glock 19 with a silencer, was a perfect match to the fragments and casings. ”
“We’ve got her.”
“As I said, it’s all wrapped up tight.” She paused there, the terminology souring in her stomach.
Wrapped up, like the Anaconda did to her victims…
She went on. “Also the brown hair found in Sharp’s robot vacuum was the same shade as Jessica’s.
More tests will be done to confirm if they are a match.
I’ve already called Agent Hester and informed her we have the Anaconda Killer in custody. ”
“Worthy of celebration.”
“Yes, and they are having Death at Your Door taken down. Now you said you were feeling good… I was just going to talk with Jessica Reese. Would you like to join me? She’s just down the hall. If the doctor approves, I can wheel you to her room and back when we’re finished.”
“That sounds fantastic. It definitely beats sitting here watching endless television.”
Jessica Reese scowled at Amanda the moment she walked into her hospital room.
An officer was posted outside her door, and the woman was cuffed to the bedframe.
The formidable Anaconda Killer didn’t look so scary now.
She passed a look at Trent in the wheelchair, and Amanda swore she saw a smirk on her lips. It made Amanda want to smack it off.
“Jessica Reese,” Amanda said.
“So you know my name?” Jessica rolled her eyes. “Congratulations.”
“This conversation is a formality.” Though, there was one point Amanda wanted to raise. “You’re being charged with seven murders and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer.”
“Whatever.” She glanced at Trent.
“Whatever?” Amanda boomeranged back. “Those were people with family and loved ones, with plans for the future, and you just wiped them out as if they didn’t matter. Where do you get off?”
“We all have our God-given talents, Detective, and we work with what we’re given.”
“You’re going to bring God into this?” Trent spat and wheeled himself closer to the bed.
“It’s where we get life. Listen, I’m not going to apologize because I’m not sorry. People hired me to do a job, and I did it. You could say I was an excellent employee.”
Amanda’s chest flared hot. “We’re going to need the names of your employers.”
“You can need it all you want, princess, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting it. Surely by now you’ve figured out that I get hired through sites on the dark web. We don’t meet and shake hands, make friends.”
Her response was expected but it still stung. Unless something changed, the people who ordered the murders of her five other victims would remain free to go about their lives. “How many people have you killed? More than seven?”
Jessica smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
That’s why I asked! Amanda positioned herself behind Trent’s wheelchair, having heard enough from this woman. The case was solid against her, and there was nothing left to say. Trent spoke, stalling her from pushing him out of the room.
“What turned you into this person?”
“Everything led me here. That slut, the one I tried to kill with a knife, who got me sent to prison. She did me a favor. It was there that I discovered my true value. What I do…” She was smiling and staring into space. “It’s art.”
“Whatever you say.” Amanda wheeled Trent from the room then, unable to stomach another word out of that woman’s mouth.
Before coming here she’d considered showing her Christine Lane’s photograph, humanizing her, but the effort would have been wasted.
She hadn’t benefited from her stint behind bars; she came out worse than before.
The only positive in all of this was she and Trent had done their part to set things right.
Justice would prevail, the guilty would be sent to prison, and for that she would sleep soundly when her head hit the pillow tonight.
But before she got there, she couldn’t wait to go pick up Zoe.
She was going to squeeze her until she complained. A week apart was far too long.