Chapter 51
Chapter Fifty-One
If there were ever any question that evil existed in the world, Jacob Warren Everett would put those doubts to rest.
Colton took another sip from his cup of black coffee, the strong brew scalding a path down his throat. Hopefully, it would be the jolt he needed to keep him on his feet.
Instead of being with the one he most wanted to be, this first day of the New Year had been spent at HPD Central Patrol Division. First with John putting together their case for the DA, and now watching the bedside interrogation of Warren Everett unfold from a monitor in their version of Tech Ops.
The vermin would heal from the bullets Colton had put through his shoulder and leg, since they had missed any major arteries. The off-center-mass shots had been to incapacitate him, not take him out before he could answer for his crimes.
Starting with the murder of Terence Drummond, found with a gunshot wound to the back. Questioning of the kitchen manager revealed he’d never met Terence and had no idea someone else had shown up in his place.
“What precipitated the beating of Miss Jansen?” John, standing at the head of the bed, continued the questioning that had begun nearly an hour ago.
Warren dipped his head and stared at his hands. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Doesn’t matter. We have her statement. Said she got curious when the theater manager told them the police were looking for you.
Went through your things when you weren’t home, found a waiter’s uniform with Terence’s name badge, a brown wig, and a gun.
When she asked about the uniform and name tag, you shrugged it off as a friend letting you work the Hudson ball at The Cheshire in his place to make some extra money.
Last thing she remembers is asking you why the cops wanted to talk to you. Sound about right?”
“Like I said. I don’t know nothin’ about that.”
The Assistant DA assigned to the case crossed his arms. “Terms of the deal you accepted require full disclosure.”
Everett scowled at the man standing next to John. “I plead the Fifth.”
“Full. Disclosure. Do I need to spell that for you?”
Warren pinned his gaze on someone sitting off-camera. “Can’t you object or somethin’?”
Court-appointed defense attorney, apparently. “I told you the terms. No death penalty for a full confession.”
With a sigh, Everett focused on his hands again. “I didn’t mean to hurt her that bad. Just teach her a lesson about stayin’ in her lane.”
John consulted his notes. “Concussion, dislocated shoulder, fractured ribs, multiple contusions.” He looked back at Everett. “Pretty harsh lesson.”
When Warren said nothing, John flipped the page in his notebook. “So, why Caitlyn Mulaney? More than a year after you last saw her?”
“Caitlyn.” The man all but spat her name. “That uppity rich girl didn’t know a good thing when it was right in front her. Still, I waited for her. Thought she’d come around.”
“Waited? Or stalked?”
“Waited,” he repeated with a glare.
“Here’s the thing. Our cyber guys have your laptop and cell phone. They notified me fifteen minutes ago that they got in. Guess you know what they found.”
“So, I like to take pictures.”
“Over three hundred photos of Caitlyn over the last year. Walking into the country club, shopping, pulling in and out of her garage, out with Shane, among others. They also found the online aliases you used to comment on her social media posts and the messages you sent sliding into her DMs. If you were waiting for her to come around, why kill her?”
Everett’s face reddened and fists clenched in his lap. “Shane took everything from me. I made sure Caitlyn was the last.”
Heat traveled up Colton’s spine. Killed an innocent girl out of spite. How sick was this guy?
“How’d you know about Shane and Cait?” John asked.
“You kidding? Her life played out on social media. Then Shane started appearing all over her posts. Pretty clear they had a thing going.” He shook his head. “Last straw.”
“Is that how you knew their routine? By tailing them?”
“Watched them for a couple of weeks. Creatures of habit. He came over to her house every night. Always between 6:45 and seven. Sometimes they went out. Sometimes they stayed in, but he never spent the night. Idiot.”
Colton’s jaw flexed. Made sense a man like Warren Everett would have no regard for a woman’s virtue. Would never understand how Shane doing so was a deeper expression of his love and respect for Caitlyn than a man only interested in something physical.
“You took a credit card out in Shane’s name?”
Everett shrugged. “Wasn’t that hard.”
“Then what?”
The man released another deep sigh. “Ordered the flowers, gave them the message for the card. I followed him around for a few days, to his different job sites. Noticed he always changed phones before going in. It was easy to simply pop the lock on that vintage car of his and lift the phone. No alarm. Bummer that he realized it so early in the day and suspended his service.”
“What did you wear to pick up the arrangement?”
“Blue suit. Cost me a bundle. Should’ve put it on that credit card.”
“Is that what you wore to Caitlyn’s?”
He shook his head. “Changed into clothes like a delivery guy. Wore a ball cap. Cait opened the door, smiled when she saw the flowers. Probably thought Shane had sent them. Pathetic.”
“Did she recognize you?”
“She barely looked at me. Like an entitled princess dismissing a servant. I handed her the flowers, and while she was staring at them all starry-eyed, I pushed her back and walked in.” Grinning, he shook his head.
“Man, the look on her face changed so fast. From happy one second, to shocked. Then fear when she finally realized it was me.”
Watching his expression on the screen, it seemed to Colton the guy reveled in the memory.
“The knife was Caitlyn’s, so we know you didn’t bring it. What was the original plan?”
“I wanted to choke the life out of her. No noise. No mess. My face the last thing she ever saw, so she’d know she shouldn’t have discounted me. But then she threw those blasted flowers at me and ran for the kitchen. Picked up the knife, which I took from her in about two seconds.”
He pointed his finger at John. “It’s her fault what happened.
If she hadn’t screamed at me that her boyfriend was on his way over and could snap me in half, I wouldn’t have lost it.
But how’s a guy supposed to take that? Throwing Shane in my face.
I honestly lost my mind. Didn’t even remember doing it until it was over.
” Everett turned his attention to his attorney again.
“There should be a defense for that, right?”
All Colton heard was an impatient sigh. “You’ve already agreed to this deal.”
Everett scowled. “Guess I should’ve thought that through. I was insane. I know I was. It was like comin’ out of a blackout. I don’t remember none of it.”
A convenient excuse that held no merit. Even without the deal, it was doubtful a judge would grant a motion to plead insanity. Everett was too clever. Too thorough. All he’d done prior to the offense, and everything he’d done to Riley over the past several weeks, was proof of his state of mind.
Twisted, yes. Insane, no.
“Have to admit, it threw me off my game for a minute. I just sat there, catching my breath. But with Shane coming, I had to get out of there. Grabbed a man’s jacket from her closet—probably Shane’s—because …
well … she made a mess of me. Stuck the hat inside, and left the way I came in, right through the front door. ”
Typical sociopath. It wasn’t his fault he stabbed Cait to death. It was hers for grabbing the knife. It wasn’t his doing that had blood splattered all over him. It was Caitlyn’s for bleeding.
It was probably a good thing Colton had stayed back at the precinct. He wasn’t sure he’d have the self-control John possessed.
The detective consulted his notes again. “You wore gloves?”
“I’m not stupid. Didn’t wanna leave fingerprints behind, now, did I? Once I was in the car, though, I realized I’d sliced my hand along the base of my thumb.” He glanced at his hand. “Still have that stupid scar.”
Just as Riley had suspected. But with all the blood and no cuts on Shane’s hands, the police simply hadn’t looked hard enough for foreign DNA.
Chuckling, Warren shook his head again. “The day Shane’s arrest hit the news, I bought a bottle of champagne. Never had it before and wished I’d opted for a good bourbon instead. But it was a celebration. Champagne seemed appropriate.”
John exchanged a tight-lipped look with the prosecutor, but Warren went on without missing a beat. No emotion. Only arrogance.
“The trial was a blast. Sat through every second of it, disguised, of course, so Dad and that witch he married wouldn’t see me.
Watching them sitting there every day, devastated, was an extra bonus.
It’s what they get for tossing me out of their lives.
I was every bit as good as Shane. They just didn’t care.
“And that Riley Hudson. Sitting there so self-righteous. Every day, she looked right past me. I was worried early on that she might say something to the cops about seeing me arguing with Cait at the club, but apparently, she hadn’t remembered.”
John shifted his weight to one hip. He had to be as exhausted as Colton, having been up all night putting together the arrest warrant, obtaining search warrants from a judge willing to sign off on New Year’s. Still wearing the tux from the party, sans tie and suit coat.
“Why go after her now? Even if you’d succeeded, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Her office would’ve still worked Shane’s case.”
“I saw that press conference on TV. Thought she’d taken Shane’s case because she remembered seein’ us that day.
But when nobody showed up to question me, I knew she hadn’t put it together.
Didn’t want to take the chance that she might at some point.
She was the only loose end. Cut that off, and Shane’s gone for good.
” He shrugged as if talking about squashing a bug. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Colton’s body heated from the inside out, his blood boiling as it raced through his veins. Yes, definitely a good thing he wasn’t standing in that room.
Can’t blame a guy for trying? Oh, yes, he could. He most certainly could.