Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
MINA
Tonight was amazing. You were right. I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. Thank you for trusting me. I’m not scared of who you are.
The words on this small card swam around my head. Why did Lock have it? Why was it under my bed? I had never seen this before. He had to have brought it out recently.
I sat at my desk, staring at the words.
Matt. It was addressed to Matt. How could that be a coincidence?
I knew in my heart it wasn’t. Less than twenty-four hours ago, I told Lock what I thought I could about what we’d been doing with TRACE. The ribbon. The painting. The coincidences. Even now, I couldn’t bring myself to take my ribbon off. Had my paranoia been grounded in reality all along?
I needed to clear my head. The one person I wanted to talk to about all of it was Lock. Could I even trust what he told me anymore?
“This is all falling apart.”
Mark Gilchrist’s voice startled me. He barged into my office, slammed the door behind him, and sat down in front of my desk.
“What?” I asked, shoving the card back into my purse on the floor.
“Palicki’s being formally charged in Washtenaw County for Gretchen Small’s murder today. Leslie Fields, the prosecutor over there, just called me to gloat.”
“Gretchen Small?” I asked. “Murder?”
“I figured you already knew,” Mark said. “I assumed Roy would have filled you in.”
“They must have gotten DNA back from Palicki’s house. This is good news, Mark. Nothing’s falling apart.”
“It is when I gave you to them,” he sneered.
“I’m sorry. You what?”
“You work for me, Mina. I expected some reciprocity.”
I shook my head. “Mark, you’re not making any sense. Small was abducted from Ann Arbor. This isn’t a political issue. I’m just happy we had a part in getting justice for her. Why aren’t you?”
There was a soft knock on the door. Ashley poked her head in. “Sorry to interrupt. Detective Dennison’s out here. Can I send him in?”
Mark vaulted to his feet. “By all means. Wouldn’t want to interrupt the Justice League.”
“Mark…” I started. He waved me off. When Roy filled the doorframe, Mark brushed past him. He made enough of a fuss that Roy held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but his eyes burned with scorn.
“What’s his problem?” Roy asked.
“Shut the door,” I said.
“Somebody take a dump in his Wheaties this morning?”
“Mark’s bent out of shape because he was hoping to get a case out of the TRACE work. He’s acting like we’re owed it.”
“He’s a weird guy,” Roy said, shaking his head.
“He said Palicki was formally charged in the Small case. Did the crime scene analysis come back?”
“That’s why I’m here. Late yesterday afternoon. Transfer DNA on Gretchen’s dashboard came from Palicki. And bloodstains on the floor of Palicki’s house matched Gretchen’s.”
“So he brought her there?”
“Probably. They’ve got more cadaver dogs out there searching the surrounding area.”
“Still no ID on the body under his floorboards?”
“No. She had no dental work. Not so much as a single cavity. It’s gonna take more time. So tell Gilchrist there’s still hope for him yet. Benton County might get a slice of this particular pie.”
“It’s ghoulish to root for something like that,” I said.
“Well, Gilchrist is the county’s number one ghoul.”
As we joked around, I could see the corner of the card poking out of my purse.
I felt like a liar and a thief for not saying anything to Roy about it.
I would. I had to. I knew this. But there was still a chance it didn’t mean what I thought it meant.
I had to talk to Lock about it first, as soon as he got back from New York. And then I would tell Roy.
“Analysis came back from your crime scene too. Your car.”
My mouth went dry. “Oh?”
“Paint and pig’s blood,” he said. “The blood was what was used to write on your back windshield. The paint color is Cerise Afterglow. That particular shade comes exclusively from The Chromatic Lab, a high-end art supply store in Holland.”
“That’s something to go on.”
“Except that color was discontinued five years ago. It would have helped a lot if we had had security cameras. I’ve been up the sheriff’s behind for years asking for them. As it stands now, nobody saw anything. Nobody heard anything.”
“So we’re never going to know who did it,” I said.
He didn’t answer, but his grim expression spoke volumes.
“Complicit,” I said.
“In what?” he asked. “You sure you don’t have any recent convictions that raise any red flags? Threats?”
“I probably make enemies every time I win a case, Roy. It’s no different from you when you make an arrest. Nothing stands out as being unusual.”
“It’s just such a specific accusation,” he said. “But that parking spot wasn’t reserved for you. You might not have been the target. Now, you’re the only one who can afford to drive an Aston Martin on a county salary. You don’t blend in.”
“So it’s possible it was just someone who has a beef with the Benton County criminal justice system in general?”
“Or Aston Martin. All I can say is this is a priority. You’re one of us, Mina.”
One of them. Except I felt like a fraud. I felt… complicit. “I appreciate it,” I said. “Truly.”
“I’d like to assign an extra patrol near your house.”
“Is that something you feel pressured to do because of my husband?”
Roy raised a brow. “It has more to do with who you are than who he is. At least for the time being, I’d rather you didn’t walk to your car alone in the evenings.”
“I’ll try not to,” I said.
“Don’t try. I’m serious. Just call courthouse security. They’ll send a deputy right over if you have to leave the office alone.”
“Fine,” I said. Roy got up.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Why?”
He shrugged. “You just seem extra jittery. Distracted. Like this vandal has you more shook up than you want to admit.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated. “Really.”
“All right. I won’t bug you too much about it. But I meant what I said. Don’t be afraid to reach out.”
“What about Corrine Egan?” I said.
Roy looked puzzled. “What about her?”
“Did they find anything at Palicki’s house tying him to her stalker?” The Frères Célestes painting flashed in my mind. I shook my head to clear it.
“Other than that spool of ribbon, no. And we can’t even say that’s connected to her for sure. Maybe if she’d kept it. But we’re still waiting on the labs for the underwear she brought. If there’s salvageable DNA, maybe.”
“Except you’ll have a problem with chain of custody if Corrine’s case ever gets to a courtroom. It would just be her word for where that clothing was all of these years. They won’t be able to prove assault… which she isn’t even claiming.”
“If it’s got Palicki’s DNA, that would change the game.”
“Except she didn’t recognize him.”
Roy drummed his fingers on the chair back. “Yeah. I don’t know. Her story is compelling; it’s just not chargeable.”
“Even if we caught the guy who harassed her,” I said.
“Yeah. Even then.”
Roy had a distant expression on his face. Then he snapped back into focus and said a polite goodbye.
My head pounded. I wanted nothing more than to go home, slip into a hot bath, and drown out the competing thoughts in my head.
It was only two o’clock, but I just couldn’t stay here another second. I gathered my things, told Ashley I was taking three hours of personal time, and then drove home.
Two texts came in while I was on the road, both from Lock.
Just letting you know I landed.
Then, a few minutes later. I love you.
My fingers hovered over the screen. I wanted so desperately to tell him I loved him too.
Because I did. And yet, I couldn’t do this.
Not now. Instead, I slipped my phone back into my purse.
I wasn’t ready to go into the house yet.
I wanted to walk the grounds. Something made me feel claustrophobic.
I headed across the circular driveway and made it as far as the porch.
There was something lying on the ground right in front of the door. A package? We didn’t accept deliveries here. We had a box closer to the road.
As I stepped onto the porch and looked down, my heart skipped. I couldn’t be seeing what I thought I was.
It wasn’t a package. It was a bird. A mourning dove. It lay on its side, staring straight at me with vacant, bulging eyes. It was dead. It had a red ribbon wound tightly around its throat.