Chapter 39
One week later
There were some cases that stayed with me longer than others.
Not because they were the most complicated.
Not because they were the most violent.
But because of the people left behind.
As I drove through Cambria beneath a cloudless afternoon sky, my thoughts turned to the trail of destruction Bryan left behind.
Two days after his arrest, he confessed. The DNA recovered from beneath Coco’s nails was a match, and once confronted with the evidence, he admitted the truth.
He’d done it for money.
Losing his job had created a pressure he didn’t know how to handle, and over time that pressure had turned into resentment. At the center of that resentment was Joseph’s house in Santa Monica, a property Bryan had convinced himself belonged to Renee and had been taken from her.
According to Bryan, Wren had always been the reasonable sister.
The fair one.
After the judge ruled against Renee, Wren called and suggested they sit down and talk about the future of the property. She made no promises, but she indicated she was willing to speak with Mia about giving Renee an equity stake in the home.
Then Wren’s marriage began to fall apart, and her life got complicated, and the conversation she said she’d have with Mia never happened. As days turned to weeks, Bryan convinced himself Mia was the one obstacle standing between Renee getting what he felt she deserved.
The night of the murder, he’d driven to Cambria intending to kill Mia.
The hidden house key he knew she kept under the garden fairy made getting inside easy.
And because Wren looked enough like Mia, Bryan never questioned who he’d shot until after he pulled the trigger.
Leaning in to get a closer look, he noticed the absence of the birthmark below Wren’s left ear.
He panicked, realizing he’d killed the wrong sister.
Once he realized his mistake, greed took over. But instead of remorse, something darker whispered in his ear. Weeks after Wren’s death, he returned, intending to finish what he’d started, but I was there to stop him. As to whether he’d planned to try again, he had nothing to say on the subject.
My thoughts returned to the present as I pulled my car to the curb and shifted into park, turning toward the furry friend beside me. “Come on, then. Let’s get you home.”
The front door opened before I even had a chance to knock, and Adrian stepped onto the porch. As soon as he saw Adrian, the Saint Bernard launched himself forward, and Adrian dropped to one knee.
For a moment, neither seemed to know what to do. Then Moose began licking Adrian’s face. Adrian laughed, then cried, and then laughed again, as he buried his face against the dog’s neck. “I’ve missed you. I thought I’d never see you again.”
A couple of minutes passed before Adrian looked up at me, his eyes red, face stained with tears. “How did you … where has he been all this time?”
I leaned against the porch railing. “A man named Kenny, one of the animal control officers in the area picked Moose up the day he went missing. He liked him so much, rather than contact his owner, he decided to keep him.”
Adrian blinked. “That’s it? He just kept him?”
I nodded. “When one of Kenny's coworkers stopped by his house one day and saw Moose, Kenny told him he’d adopted the dog from a shelter. But lies have a way of unraveling, don’t they?”
“I don’t know what to say,” Adrian said. “You have no idea what this means to me. Every morning I’d wake up and look for him. I searched everywhere.”
“I’m just glad he’s home.”
Adrian stood. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
I pushed away from the railing. “If you’re open to it, I have something in mind.”
“Anything. Name it.”
“You can start by keeping Moose off Mia’s lawn.”
“Done.”
“I’d also like you to mend your relationship with her. She could use a friend.”
Adrian looked across the street at Mia’s house. “I’m willing to try, but she doesn’t like me. I can’t say I blame her.”
“Mia may not be your biggest fan right now but give it time. People can change their minds. You think she’s stubborn and difficult, but if you asked her, I bet she’d say the exact same thing about you.”