Chapter 29 #2
“Donovan was her high school sweetheart, a smart young man from a good family. He went to Harvard. She couldn’t follow.
She wanted to go to Harvard so badly to be with him, but she didn’t have the intellect for it, and we weren’t going to overpay for her to be accepted.
Then she dated this boy, Charlie, for a time.
I met him once, he was . . . polite.” She said it as if that was the only complimentary thing she could come up with.
“He married Emily Masters long after he and Clara broke up. He and Emily divorced, as I mentioned before.”
“Do you have their last names?”
“Is this all you need, Dr. Jones?”
“Yes,” Catherine said.
“Charlie Rowe and Donovan Prince. I will send you the contact information for the law firm my parents used to establish the
trust, though I doubt you will get anything from them without a warrant. And I will also send you the contact information
of my own lawyer, who you will need to contact if you would like to speak again. Good day.”
The line went dead.
“Are you okay?” Ryder asked.
Catherine nodded slowly. “I wasn’t expecting that level of coldness.”
“From what I could hear, she sounded unfazed.”
Catherine gave Ryder the names of the two men Clara had been involved with prior to Garrett. “We found the connection to the
first victim, Emily Masters Henderson,” Catherine said. “Clara knew her. Find out where they worked, what they did, how to
contact Charlie and Donovan. I’m going to call the trust fund lawyer.”
Unfortunately, Catherine quickly learned Clara had transferred her trust fund out of their control and into her own bank.
They gave Catherine the name of the branch, but that was all they would share.
Catherine didn’t even attempt to contact the bank; she knew they wouldn’t give her any personal information without a warrant.
She sent the information to Tony and Zack.
Perhaps with the information about the LLCs that Michael and Sloane found, Zack would be able to learn more about Clara’s finances.
Maybe, like the beach house here, she had other property in one of her names or any of the LLCs’.
She had a thought and sent a text to the team:
Check specifically boat ownership in all of Clara’s names and LLCs. Likely she used her own boat to dispose of the bodies.
If she has one, figure out where it is docked, etc.
Catherine assumed the woman had enough money to vanish—so why hadn’t she? Why kidnap Matt and Kara instead of fleeing after
Garrett’s arrest?
Was it because Kara resembled Becca McCarthy? Or because Clara needed to complete her plan? Some killers were driven to act—inaction
simply wasn’t an option.
Or because she truly loved Garrett Reid and refused to leave him?
She reflected on what Michael and Sloane had discovered at Clara’s house. Clara liked order and luxury, kept mementos of her
life and identities hidden in a box—but nothing from her victims. Once dead, the victims no longer mattered.
Garrett hadn’t kept trophies either—not in his apartment, at least. Catherine believed Clara had chosen the targets, or heavily
influenced Garrett’s choices.
Leaning back in her chair, Catherine closed her eyes. Though exhausted, she didn’t need sleep—just five minutes to think.
She’d focused so much on profiling Garrett Reid; now it was clear Clara Dolan was the key—possibly even the mastermind.
Clara came from wealth and intellect. Her parents were older when they had her—Piper was forty when she gave birth. Established professionals. Their Bel-Air home was likely worth millions. Piper had sounded like old money—probably went into academia out of genuine interest and intelligence.
Clara, though beautiful, wasn’t academically inclined. Catherine suspected she lacked aptitude and rebelled early. She was
likely very normal, but with academically focused parents who prided themselves on their intellect. Clara’s normal achievements
wouldn’t have been celebrated. If something didn’t come easy, Clara wouldn’t bother. Over time, that became her norm. She
leaned on her looks and craved attention for who she was, not who her parents wanted her to be.
Seducing Emily Masters’s father to sabotage her wedding showed emotional manipulation and keen insight into human behavior.
Clara knew how to read people and exploit their weaknesses. But if the goal had been to ruin Emily’s wedding—and it worked—why
kill her years later?
Was it revenge? Or was Clara simply continuing a pattern? Were she and Garrett at the resort to run a scam, and seeing Emily
was just a coincidence? Or did they choose Sapphire Shoals because Emily would be there?
Catherine had told her team the victims were likely chosen for their appearance and success—things Clara lacked or resented.
Yet Clara was objectively a beautiful woman, so it was who these women represented: successful in their fields, newly married
and ostensibly in love, and—the key point—they all looked at least marginally like Becca McCarthy.
Was that Clara’s hang-up . . . or Garrett’s? Catherine honestly didn’t know, and she could go either way—depending on if Garrett
was involved in Becca’s disappearance.
But Emily was the first victim here, in Florida.
Catherine sat up. “Ryder, I need Emily’s background. She wasn’t a lawyer when she knew Clara. They must have met at work,
since Clara’s mother said Emily was her co-worker, someone promoted over her. Where was that?”
Ryder replied, “Emily went to UCLA, majored in English lit, received a master’s in communication.
Worked in Marketing for a publisher in New York, then came back to LA and went to law school while working for a major hotel chain in Orange County.
That could be the connection.” Before Catherine could respond, he added, “I’ll get you their contact info. ”
“No,” she said. “You contact them. Find out everything you can—confirm Clara’s employment, timeline, if she and Emily knew
each other there. Her mother said they were friends, but I don’t know how much Piper Dolan paid attention to Clara’s life.
We’ll get a warrant, but see what you can get now without one. I’m going to talk to the ex-boyfriends.”
Donovan Prince worked in New York City for a financial services company and wouldn’t take her call. Catherine left a message.
If he didn’t call back in an hour, she’d ask someone from the New York field office to visit him in person.
Charlie Rowe lived in Huntington Beach, California. He was a computer programmer who worked from home and answered the phone
on the second ring.
Time wasn’t on their side, so Catherine was blunter than she normally would have been. After a brief introduction, she asked,
“Mr. Rowe, were you aware that your ex-wife Emily was killed seven months ago?”
“Yeah, her mom called me. Em and her new husband were both killed while on their honeymoon. I didn’t know the FBI was investigating
the murders.”
“We are assisting local law enforcement,” Catherine said.
“What do you need from me? We’ve been divorced for five years. I was happy she found someone. I even met Josh a couple of
times, before they moved to Florida—he was a nice guy. I didn’t harbor any bad wishes or anything.”
“Why did you get divorced?”
“That’s really not any of your business, is it?” He sounded only mildly irritated.
“I’m a forensic psychiatrist and putting together a comprehensive timeline of Emily’s life. It’s important that I understand her psychology because that helps me understand the killer’s psychology.”
“Oh. Well, there was a lot of stuff going on in her life. I’m pretty laid-back. Maybe too laid-back. When we got married,
her parents had just split, she was a mess, and she said more than once that our marriage was cursed. I tried to let it go,
but it bugged me. I loved Emily.”
“Do you know why her parents split up?”
“Sure, that really has nothing—”
“I know why,” Catherine said.
“You do?” He sounded surprised.
“Clara Dolan had an affair with Emily’s father.”
“What a mess that was.”
“You also went out with Clara?”
“Yeah, but that was ages ago. We went to the same community college. Clara’s boyfriend had gone to college on the East Coast,
my high school girlfriend had dumped me, we hung out. And it kind of developed into friends with benefits. But it was never
serious.”
“What was Clara like when she was, what, eighteen, nineteen?”
“We were both nineteen. She was gorgeous. Adventurous. We had fun.”
“Why’d you break up?”
“We were nineteen and she started getting serious and I was like, no, I’m going to a four-year college. I was just saving
money going to community college for two years. She didn’t like that. She didn’t like when I said I had to study. I’m pretty
smart, but I was taking all the hefty math and science classes so I could get into a good college. So we split up. Like I
said, we really weren’t that serious and I didn’t want to be, but I liked hanging with her.”
“How did you end up reconnecting in Orange County?”
“Oh. Well, I went to college in Arizona, took a job there, didn’t really like it, and we were Facebook friends. She mentioned
there was an IT position with her company—she worked for a hotel resort—I applied, and got it.”
“Did she try and rekindle your relationship?”
“Maybe? I don’t know, really. I was just glad to be back in California, and living in OC. I met Emily a year later and knew
she was the one.”
Catherine had to think like Clara . . . Did Clara believe Emily had stolen Charlie from her? Did Clara think Charlie owed
her something for helping him get the job? There had to be more to it . . . and Catherine suspected it had to do with Emily’s
educational background.
“When did Emily start law school?”
“She was in law school when I met her. She was going at night while she was working.”
“How did Emily know Clara?”
“Why all these questions about Clara?”
“Again, I’m just trying to put together a comprehensive background.”
“No, this is different,” he said.