Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
When I woke from my dream the next morning, Lock was gone. The bed was still warm where he had lain. I found him staring out the window in his study. On the floor beside him, the group photo of him with Eli, Piper, and Fiona McBride was torn to shreds.
“Come back to bed,” I said. “There’s no point in torturing yourself anymore.”
Lock turned to me. “He knew exactly what button to push. He knew if he told me Fiona was his first, I’d do exactly what he said I would. If I’d never tried that stupid app. If I’d never taken her out on a date, she would still be alive. And Corrine…”
“Stop,” I said. “Eli is a psychopath. He used you as an excuse. That’s all.
Men like him are born to kill. If it hadn’t been Fiona, it would have been someone else.
Piper told the police he was always obsessed with you.
She said it broke something in him when he had to go to you for help when his business failed six years ago. She thinks that was his tipping point.”
“I should have seen some signs. How could I not know? I’ve known him almost twenty years.”
“He showed you what he wanted you to see,” I said. I went to him and wrapped my arm around his waist. He held me tight and kissed me.
“When I think of how close he got to hurting you. What Corrine did. Mina, it was all because of me. I’ll never forgive myself for any of it.”
I kissed him again. “We’re both to blame. I should have come to you from the beginning. Told you what Corrine said after that very first meeting.”
“You did tell me. And I denied it. I thought I could handle it alone like I did the last time. Handle her.”
“You didn’t know what either of them was capable of. Lock, both Eli and Corrine were mentally ill. I regret I didn’t recognize it sooner. I thought Eli was my friend too.”
“The things Corrine said when she had me in her apartment,” he said.
“She would have killed you, Mina. She had it twisted in her head that I belonged to her. That we were destined to be together. She went through my phone. She read all my texts. To you. To Eli. To everyone. All my emails too. She thought it was fate that brought us back together. She said she saw you on the news. The press conference I wanted you to do. She knew you were my wife. She thought it was a sign. There you were asking for information from anyone who’d met some creep off WhisprMatch. ”
It gave me a chill to think of it. She used what she learned on Lock’s phone to convince me he’d really turned against me.
She knew about our struggle to have a baby.
She knew about my conflicts with Piper. I regretted every second that I had doubted my husband.
The burden of that guilt was mine to bear for a very long time.
And on that first day when I sat across from her with Roy, she knew exactly what went through my head and my heart when she told us about her red ribbon.
A search of her computer by the cops revealed she’d used AI to draft those realistic divorce papers.
“That last night,” he said. “She said she was going to take me home. To our home. She said you were leaving me and that she and I could live together. I remember walking out of her apartment like some zombie. I woke up in the back of her car. I heard your screams. I thought I’d lost you.”
If Lock hadn’t come to and rushed to my rescue… I’d be dead. “I still can’t get the image of her jumping off that bluff out of my head. Maybe if I’d have moved quicker. Grabbed her. There was help for her. Hope for her.”
Lock smoothed the hair out of my face. “Now you’re doing the same thing I am. The what-ifs.”
“She thought she killed you,” I said. “So did I. She couldn’t live with it. She was so mixed up, Lock. Eli exploited that when he was with her. It really was like she was a grenade with the pin pulled out and he threw her in your lap.”
“I don’t know what to do now,” he said. “The press from this is going to hurt Bennett’s Place. We’re already losing some big donors who don’t want the drama.”
“It’ll pass,” I said. “It’s still a worthy cause. Eli doesn’t define or negate all the work you’ve done.”
I paused. I’d been thinking about this subject all night. “I don’t want to go back,” I said.
Lock frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think I want to work for Mark anymore. I know Corrine manipulated him too. But he was so quick to judge me. There was never a second when he considered giving me the benefit of the doubt. It was like he relished every lie Corrine told him about me. I don’t want to be around him.”
“He won’t be there forever. It’s your work,” he said.
“It’s my job. I couldn’t help Corrine. But maybe I could help someone else.
You didn’t hurt her, Lock. No matter what Eli tried to make you think.
But Eli did hurt her. That woman was an abuse survivor.
There are others like her who need someone to believe them.
Someone to advocate for them. Help them find a way out.
Bennett’s Place has done so much good for so many young men.
Maybe there’s room in the foundation for an extension of that to help women in need. ”
Lock smiled. “You’re amazing. You should hate Corrine. You should be glad she’s dead after what she did to you. To us. And all you can think of is how you could have saved her.”
“It’s not so amazing. It’s what you’ve dedicated your life to. For Bennett. It’s your calling. And I think… I think it’s mine too.”
The doorbell rang. We weren’t expecting anyone. I was still wearing a robe. Lock looked out the window and frowned.
“It’s Dennison.”
Lock answered the door and showed him into the study. Dennison was in plain clothes, a Lions sweatshirt and jeans.
“Sorry to just pop in,” he said. “But you have a right to know what I’ve learned. You’re part of this.”
“I think we could all use some coffee,” I said. While Lock and Roy talked for a moment, I brought the pot out with three mugs. Roy thanked me and took a scalding sip.
“I’ve spent a few hours talking to Corrine’s family. Her brother and sister came down to claim her remains. They were able to fill in some details I wanted to share with you.”
I knew this wouldn’t be easy news to hear.
“They said she was always troubled, from the time she was a teenager. The home wasn’t safe.
The dad was a mean drunk. He used to beat up their mother, then, when the children got old enough, he turned his rage on them.
They were investigated by CPS multiple times, but their father always managed to weasel out of consequences.
As Corrine grew up, she had a string of bad relationships.
One of which led to an addiction to narcotics.
She had a near-fatal overdose when she was sixteen.
She got sober for a while, then started stealing from their parents.
Her mother kicked her out. Her father had a stroke not long after.
That ended up being the best thing that ever happened to Corrine and her siblings.
Her mom tried to take care of him at home, but she passed away.
Corrine dropped out of high school. They lost track of her for a few years. ”
Lock shook his head. “She sounds like Preston. He had a similar story when he made his way into my life.”
“She sounds a lot like you, Lock,” I said, my heart breaking for her.
Roy continued. “Corrine was clean after she came back home. Their dad was gone by then. They got him into some nursing home. Corrine got a new boyfriend. One she was pretty serious about. They showed me a picture. It was Eli. But they only knew him as Shep. He hooked up with Corrine about seven years ago. It was bad. All the classics. He kept tabs on her. Got jealous of her other relationships. Cut her off from friends. Then family. He paid for her drug habit for a while. But her sister said she was terrified of what he’d do if she tried to end it. She did whatever he said.”
“Including using her to hurt Lock,” I said.
“The brother and sister had no idea she’d been involved with you, Lock.
They thought she went to the police five years ago about Shep.
Not long after, she came home beaten pretty badly.
She promised her siblings she was done with him for good.
From what we can piece together, she must have told him she wasn’t gonna go through with whatever he had planned for you.
We’ll never know how she got Eli to leave her alone until now.
Maybe she threatened to expose him to you.
But she got clean and started pulling her life together.
Then, about a year ago, she started going to visit her father in the nursing home.
He’s got dementia now. Her brother and sister only recently found out she was seeing him again.
They were furious. They went no contact with him years ago for their own mental health.
Her sister thinks seeing their dad was the start of Corrine’s downward spiral.
She confronted Corrine about it. Corrine lied to her about going to visit him.
The sister found my card in Corrine’s purse.
She was really afraid all this ancient history was going to mess with Corrine’s head. She was right.
“We found some disturbing items in her apartment. She had a drawer with printouts of just about every mention of Lock in the press over the last five years. She had your wedding announcement. A picture of the two of you from your wedding. Mina, your face was crossed out. There were things on her phone,” Roy said.
“Pictures of Lock. Pictures of you, Mina. And there was a series of texts from Eli that started not long after she first came to see us with TRACE.”
“He was trying to control her again,” Lock said.
“He started tormenting her. The coroner’s report says she had scars and healed bone fractures consistent with past physical abuse.
Some of the injuries happened when she was a child.
But her brother and sister think Eli inflicted a lot of it.
There were scars they’d never seen before.
She was not pregnant, by the way. I thought you’d want to know that too.
Eli was also holding her father’s care over her head, it seems. We traced a large payment to cover her dad’s bill back to Eli. One of his texts to her alluded to it.”
It was hard to hear. There were so many things I wished I’d done differently relating to Corrine.
“We can’t find any evidence she knew Eli was the one who killed all those girls.
I don’t suppose it matters anymore whether she did or didn’t.
Eli still claims he never put her up to tormenting either of you.
He was saving that for himself. It could be a lie.
I’m leaning toward it being true. Everything else he told you was. ”
“What do you mean?” Lock asked.
“We found Lara Pasko and Jade Darby where he said they would be. Two of the other women he claimed to have killed as well.”
“God help them,” I said. “What about Lara’s sister? Amy was so sure Palicki was the man she saw with Lara.”
“She was just wrong. Maybe you were right. Maybe Detective McCallister influenced her without realizing it. All charges have been dropped against Palicki. Last I heard, he got on a bus to Florida. Said he never wants to step foot in this state again.”
“I can’t blame him,” I said.
“Your tox screen came back, Lock. Doc found ketamine and Rohypnol in your system. You were right that she probably spiked your drink. You were lucky. She could have killed you. Anyway, I thought you should hear all that from me directly. And also, that there won’t be any charges filed against either of you. ”
“I should hope not!” Lock shouted.
Roy stood. He put his mug on Lock’s desk. “You should both have come to me. It shouldn’t have ended like this. I could have brought Corrine in for questioning. She trusted me.”
“She manipulated you,” I said. “Just like the rest of us. I asked you to bring her in, Roy. Do you need a reminder of how that went over?”
“Look,” he said. “Whatever you two do behind closed doors is your business. But you impeded TRACE, Mina. You had information about your husband directly related to these cases and you said nothing.”
I rose to face him. “I said everything. But you and Mark wanted to practically put me on a psych hold. And you’re right.
I had information about my husband. But none of it was a crime.
I didn’t know until I knew. You want to stand there and try to convince me you’d have done a single bloody thing differently if this were Tonya we were talking about? ”
He took a breath and opened his mouth as if he were going to shout something in my face. Instead, he clamped shut.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
“Are we done here, Detective?” Lock asked. He came around the desk. Though Roy was taller, Lock somehow seemed larger, more ominous.
Roy frowned and then shook his head. “We’re done. All I can say is you two deserve each other.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He marched to the foyer and let himself out.
“I know what you did, Mina,” Lock said. He sat on the desk and took my arms, gently positioning me between his legs. “You tried to protect me from something you think I did. No one’s ever done that for me before. Protected me. Given me the benefit of the doubt.”
“Until I didn’t,” I said.
“Shh. It’s over. You’re alive. You’re with me. This house could burn down around us. Everyone on the planet could turn against us. I don’t care. None of it matters. This is all that does. You. Me. I love you. Forever. Never doubt that again.”
I felt tears coming. “I won’t,” I said. “Not ever.”
When he kissed me, the world fell away. He was wrong about one thing though. There was one more thing that mattered.
“Come with me,” I said. Lock raised a sinful brow as I led him back to the bedroom. Oh, there would be plenty of time for that particular sin. My body heated at the mere thought of what he could do to me.
I led him into the bathroom where I’d left the proof of my secret. I picked it up and flicked on the lights. I clutched it to my chest for a moment longer. It was the very last time it would be mine alone.
“What is it?” Lock asked.
Smiling up at him, I took his hand and put the white plastic stick into it. His smile faltered and he looked down. He did the same thing I had done at first. He blinked. Looked at it again. Then looked at me.
I stepped back into his arms. At the end of the stick were two pink lines. The second one appeared in the window with a plus sign. Positive. There were four more just like it on the counter behind us. Lock laughed when he saw them.
“I had to be sure,” I whispered. “You’re going to be a father, Lock. The best one there ever was.”