Her Last Word
Page 38

“Tomorrow afternoon,” he said.
“Could you find a reason to keep her until Thursday? If she’s here, she’s safe.”
“I might be able to come up with a reason or two,” Dr. Coggin said. “I’ll keep the extra security on her floor until she leaves.”
“Thank you.” Kaitlin was safe for now, and he had one less thing to worry about.
The drive to the retirement home took Adler to the Ginter Park area in Northside. It was a neighborhood with an array of architectural styles ranging from Tudor Revival to Spanish Colonial. The retirement home where North was living had once been an orphanage, later a school, before most recently being converted to a senior living facility.
Adler showed his badge at the front desk and was directed to the old man’s room. He found the retired detective dressed in pressed pants and a crisp white shirt playing solitaire at a table.
Adler knocked. “Detective North?”
North’s tired shoulders straightened at the sound of his former title. He kept his gaze on his card game. “So what can I do for you, Detective Adler?”
Adler sat in a chair across from the old man. “I have questions about Gina Mason.”
The old detective looked up. “A popular case these days. About time someone started paying attention again.”
The old man flipped several cards over. The game now seemed to bore him, and he set the cards down. His demeanor shifted from tired to engaged.
“That woman send you here?”
“Kaitlin Roe? No.”
North grunted. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“How did you hear about her?” Adler asked, slightly impressed.
“We do have phones here, and believe it or not, sonny, we graduated from dial-up access to the Internet.” He shrugged. “After Kaitlin’s visit, I called a few buddies on the force and asked around about her. One updated me on her and Jennifer Ralston.”
“Kaitlin will recover.”
“Good. She might not believe it, but I like her. Takes grit to face your past. Where was she when it happened?”
“The home of Erika Travis, now Crowley. She’d received a text allegedly from Erika, who’s now missing.”
“Was Kaitlin set up?” North asked.
“That’s what I think.”
“So how can I help?”
“I’d like to pick your brain about the Gina Mason case. There’s no substitute for talking to the original investigator.”
“Sure.”
“What was Kaitlin like?”
“She had a juvenile record in Texas. Trespassing, drugs, shoplifting. When the case landed on my desk, I figured she was culpable. I leaned on her hard, and when that didn’t work, I leaked her name to the press. By the time she left Richmond, she hated all cops, but especially me. I’d do it again.” His jaw pulsed, and his chin raised a fraction.
Adler knew tough calls needed to be made during homicide investigations. “Would Kaitlin be the type to fake her own attack?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She’s different now. She’s not the flaky kid I interviewed years ago. She’s on a mission now and hell-bent on getting to the bottom of what happened to Gina.”
“All right.” He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t happy with the older detective’s characterization.
“Any leads on the Jennifer Ralston case?” The old man slowly collected the cards, but his fingers struggled to divide and shuffle the stack.
“Not yet. Remember Randy Hayward?”
“Hard to forget that piece of shit. What’s he saying now?”
“Says he can lead us to Gina. Wants a plea agreement to his pending murder charge.”
North sat back, his face scowling with anger and frustration. “He’s admitting to killing Gina?”
“He hasn’t admitted to any crime. And he expects immunity in the Mason case.”
An arthritic index finger tapped on the stack. “Shit. I knew he did it. I knew it,” he muttered. “He’s a smart son of a bitch. His IQ tested high. He knew I couldn’t make a case without a credible eyewitness or a body. Once I even pretended I had found Gina’s body, but he wasn’t fooled. He’s scum, but don’t underestimate him.”
“He had an alibi for the time of Gina’s attack?”
“Yes. His mother said he was at home with her, and she never wavered from that story. Usually I can crack a lie, but not hers. You’d be wise to talk to her again. I hear she’s not paying his legal bills this time, and his buddy Blackstone doesn’t come cheap.”
“Blackstone is working pro bono.”
“Maybe because Hayward’s unearthing a secret too many people want left undisturbed.”
“You think Blackstone is in on this?” Adler asked.
“Blackstone, Hayward, and Crowley were tight, so it’s very possible.” He rubbed his chin as he dropped his gaze to the cards.
“Did Kaitlin tell you she dated Hayward?”
“Not initially. Kaitlin’s connection to Hayward surfaced after his fencing arrest, and we placed him near Kaitlin and Gina the night of the attack. Hayward let it ‘slip’ he knew Kaitlin well. I confronted her, and she admitted they’d broken up over the summer.”
“Did Kaitlin say he might have been involved in the crime?” Adler asked.
“We conducted a lineup of suspects. She recognized Hayward, but she said she couldn’t be sure if he was our guy. Kaitlin asked each man, including Hayward, to speak a few words. She swore she didn’t recognize any of them.”
“Maybe she was too afraid or loyal.”
“Hayward is charismatic, but he can be mean as a snake. The podcast might just be a ruse to help an old boyfriend whom she still cares about.” North shrugged. “She wouldn’t be the first to help out a felon.”
“Do you think she was really involved?” Adler kept his tone in check.
“I know she was afraid of Hayward. After we hauled him in, she said Hayward started hanging around her aunt’s house. He never threatened her, but he let her know he was watching.”
“My partner is going through your old case files for me. He said there were abductions in the Richmond area similar to Gina’s attack? He said the details in the Mason case files were slim.”
“There were two. Both happened about two years before Gina vanished, several miles downriver. Both girls were raped, but neither could identify her attacker.”
“Was the rapist wearing a mask?” Adler asked.
“Pulled panty hose over his face. This attacker made both the girls shower after the attack, so we didn’t get DNA. Both also had long dark hair like Gina. I couldn’t link the cases, but it might be worth your time to talk to them again.”
“Any girls go missing?”
“Not a girl like Gina,” North said.
White. Affluent. Easily missed. “But there are all kinds of runaways, sex workers, and undocumented all along the I-95 corridor.”
“And when they go missing, few care,” North said.
“If Hayward killed Gina and didn’t leave a trail, it makes me think she wasn’t his first. He’d had practice covering his tracks.”
“The drugs have now taken their toll on him,” North said. “He was sloppy with the convenience store stabbing.”