Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Julia Tutwiler Prison For Women
Wetumpka, Alabama
Three weeks ago…
“I’m worried about Lily,” FBI Agent Gage Emerick said as he sat in the small, private room at the maximum-security prison. His chair wobbled beneath him. Damn uneven legs.
“You broke my daughter’s heart. You used her. You took her for granted. Yet now you claim to be worried? Don’t insult my intelligence.” Magnolia shook her head. “I really shouldn’t have even agreed to see you today.”
Yeah, well… “Why did you?”
“Boredom.” A sigh. “And I typically enjoy visits from handsome men.” Her full lips curved, just a bit. But the faint smile quickly faded. “Unless those men have hurt my daughter. I don’t like it at all when someone hurts my precious Lily.”
Ah, yes. The moment he’d been waiting for. “Did David Warren hurt Lily?”
Magnolia’s expression didn’t change. Not even by a flicker of one long eyelash.
The woman was really quite lovely. Time had always been kind to Magnolia. Even in the garish orange prison garb, she somehow seemed…fashionable. Maybe it was the twist of her hair. The faint pink sheen on her lips.
The red polish on her nails.
If he didn’t know better, he would have even thought she’d had the prison uniform tailored a bit. It didn’t sag on her body. The collar fluffed—fuck, if that was even the term. The sleeves were well fitted and—
“Who is David Warren?”
He laughed. “Come on, this is widespread knowledge. The man did a media tour after your conviction.” Why was she even trying to pretend with him? “You were dating him…years ago. Back before you were convicted of multiple homicides.”
A roll of one shoulder. “I dated lots of men. I don’t remember all of their names.”
“But you remember the names of the men you killed, don’t you?” He would bet those names—and the faces—were burned in her memory.
“I know the names of the men I was convicted of killing.” A careful and deliberate distinction. “I’m innocent, of course. That would be why my conviction is on appeal.” A shudder. “Death row. For me. Can you imagine? What a horrible miscarriage of justice. Honestly, I am the victim here.”
The hell she was. “You were dating David Warren right around the time that Lily was poisoned.”
Her gaze flickered to the watchful guard. “Jesse, do you know what’s for dinner tonight? Wait, wait. Let me guess. Would it be…a meat patty? Beans? Perhaps even a piece of fruit for dessert? Oh, how incredibly exciting. Talk about a dining extravaganza. A real feast for the senses.”
Magnolia was interesting. Intriguing. Borderline personality disorder, narcissistic, histrionic…
Charming beyond measure when she wanted to be. Brutal beyond thought when the urge struck her.
And she was Lily’s mother. His Lily. He really fucking needed Lily back.
“Magnolia,” he said her name deliberately.
Her attention returned to him. “I have no clue what Lily saw in you. You’re far too stiff and boring to entertain my daughter for long.”
“Lily…talked about our relationship with you?” It sure seemed that way, but it was hard for him to imagine Lily just opening up with her mother. Or, with anyone, really.
“Doesn’t a daughter tell her mother everything?”
That wasn’t an answer. Magnolia was sly that way. “You have a lot of…fans, Magnolia.”
“I do.” A delighted smile. “They adore me. They understand that I shouldn’t be locked away. That I need help. That I must have my freedom.”
Uh, no. The world would be a safer place with her locked away forever. “The warden told me that you receive more mail than anyone else at the prison.” He knew to deliberately appeal to her pride. Her pride was a weakness for her.
“Some people are popular. Some aren’t.” Once again, she looked at the guard. “I’m popular, right, Jesse?”
“Yes, Ms. Magnolia. The most popular inmate here.”
She beamed at him. Even blew him a kiss. But that beaming smile vanished as she sized up Gage once again.
Oh, yeah, this woman would poison me in a heartbeat. She’d offer me her tea and smile while I vomited blood on her floor. “The warden also told me that you get marriage offers. People willing to do just about anything for you.”
“When you love someone, you have to prove that love.”
Excitement had his heart pounding. “Is someone proving their love to you right now? Maybe a doctor in Louisiana?” The warden had told him the doctor had come to visit her several times.
Gage had called in some favors from the Baton Rouge FBI office.
Fun fact, Dr. Francis Locke had lost his medical license five years ago when one of his patients had died under extremely suspicious circumstances.
Francis hadn’t been charged with murder, just dismissed from the hospital while the insurance company had to foot a major wrongful death bill.
But after reading the reports on the vic…
Did you murder her, you bastard? Because Gage thought that Dr. Francis Locke might just be guilty as sin.
“Lily and I talked about the doctor.” A casual admission from Magnolia. “The doctor and I talked about Lily.”
Oh, fuck. Gage straightened in his seat. “He’s not a good man, Magnolia.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your doctor friend? I think he might be a murderer. Tell me he doesn’t know where Lily is. Tell me he doesn’t know—”
“You don’t know where Lily is.” Her head tilted to the side. “Is she refusing to talk to you again?” She rocked forward. “Makes sense, seeing as how she’s seeking her soulmate now.”
“What?” Since when in the hell had Lily started to see someone else?
“I warned her, though, he’s going to be too dangerous for her to handle. But Lily thinks she can face any threat.”
Tension curled around his spine. “Who is her soulmate?”
“It’s certainly not you.” Disdain dropped from every word.
“Because I have a badge?”
“Because you won’t kill for her. That’s what she needs. A man to kill for her. Hmm.” Now she frowned. Appeared a bit thoughtful. “He will.”
“The doctor? Your doctor friend is going to kill—”
“We are done. The doctor and I. No more visits. No more letters. No more packages. He lied to me. Lily already told me about his poor, dead patient. I’m not concerned with him any longer.”
Oh, shit. That probably meant the doc was dead somewhere.
“I was talking about Lily’s new friend. Her soulmate. He’ll kill for her.”
She seemed way too certain of that. “Who is her friend?” I need to find Lily. She moved out of her old place. Left no forwarding address. I have to find her. Even his connections at the Bureau hadn’t turned up anything on her yet.
Lily…shit, she’d been his ace in the hole. She’d helped him solve five high-profile cases and then…
“She thinks it has to be someone like her.” A disgruntled sigh eased from Magnolia. “I keep telling her, there won’t ever be anyone just like she is. But you know Lily. She’s all about research, research, research. All research and no play makes Lily—” Magnolia stopped.
He waited.
But she said no more.
“What does it make her?” Gage prompted.
Nothing.
“Desperate?” Gage asked. “Vulnerable?”
“Lonely,” Magnolia said. “And isn’t that the greatest tragedy of all? To know that you will be forever alone in this world? That’s why she thinks that she has to find the others like her. That they will somehow fill the void inside.”
Hell. “She’s…going after the children of serial killers, isn’t she?
” Because he’d stumbled on her research once, seen it on her laptop.
She’d slammed the lid down closed when she caught him looking.
Lily hadn’t been working alone on that project, though.
She had a friend, Sloane, who’d been just as caught up in the dark as she was.
Sloane’s parents hadn’t been serial killers. They’d been killed by a serial. “Is she with Sloane?”
“Who?”
“Sloane. Sloane Armstrong,” he enunciated slowly. “Her friend.”
“Sloane isn’t her friend. Lily thinks she is but…deep down, we know the truth.”
We?
“Sloane has always been a bit afraid of Lily. Just as you have been.”
“I’m not scared of Lily.”
“Aren’t you?” A taunt. “Would you drink tea if she offered it to you?”
Hell, no. Dammit. He grabbed the edge of the table. “I need to find Lily. I know she comes to see you. Clearly, you know about her research. Look, I’m worried about her.”
Her expression shifted, just a little bit.
“David Warren,” he said softly. David was the reason he’d never drink Lily’s tea. “Others will look into him, too. I need to find Lily.”
Again, her expression changed. It grew harder. Anger flashed in her eyes. “Let them look. He’s ashes in the wind.”
Wait, wait, wait. “He was cremated?” That hadn’t been in the files—
Magnolia began to laugh. Delighted peals of laughter that sounded like a bell ringing. “You were never a match for her.” More laughter. “But maybe he will be…maybe…maybe I was wrong.”
“Who?”
More laughter. More fucking laughter, and she didn’t answer him. When she left with the guard a few moments later, Magnolia was still laughing.
Gage strode toward the prison’s exit. The trip had been an utter waste. Magnolia had given him zero insights, and he needed to find—
“What’s it worth to you?”
The low voice stopped him. He turned to find a guard trailing behind him. Tall, rounded shoulders. Blond hair. The guard who’d been in the room with him and Magnolia.
“I know where Lily Gallo went.” The guard shuffled forward. A taser was clipped to his belt. A baton dangled next to it. “What’s it worth?”
The guard was trying to get him to pay for the intel? Fuck. “I have five hundred dollars in my wallet.”
“Done.”
Hell. He should have offered the guy one hundred. They had to wait for Gage to get his wallet and ID back from the check-in desk and then…
He palmed the money to the guard, making sure that no one else saw the movement.
“Atlas Bennett. That’s the one she went to see. Heard her say his name.”
“You heard Lily say that to Magnolia?” The name Atlas Bennett hadn’t just rung a bell. It had reverberated through him. Everyone knew Atlas. His father had been as twisted as they came.
Lily, stop playing with monsters. Didn’t she get that they were just dragging her deeper into the dark?
“Nah. Didn’t hear her tell Magnolia. Heard it when she was on the phone to someone, on her way out. Said she was going to Dallas to see him.”
Hell, yes.
But he had an idea growing within him now. Because he had a source. “You ever hear any other useful bits while you’re in there with Lily and Magnolia?”
The guard smiled at him. “You’re gonna need more money.”
“I can get it.”
Gage climbed into his car, excitement filling him. He’d go to Lily, he’d convince her to take him back, they’d work together and—
His phone began ringing. He grabbed the phone, recognized the agent from Baton Rouge that he’d talked to before, and Gage put the phone to his ear. “Yo, listen, about Dr. Francis—”
“He’s dead,” the agent cut in to tell him. “Body is decomposing. Been dead in his greenhouse for days. No one thought to look out back for him. It’s…fuck, he smells. Hot as hell in there.”
Tension swept through Gage. “How did he die?”
“The medical examiner suspects it was a heart attack. No sign of foul play. Guy seems to have been pruning his flowers, and then he just dropped dead. Shit happens, you know?”
Uh, yeah. Shit did happen.
And so did murder.