Yes, at last.
When Olivia and the children arrived home around 7 P.M., the house was still. She found Michael in the bedroom dressing to go running. He sat on the edge of the bed.
“How was your mom?” he asked, lacing his shoes and not looking up.
“Oh you know my mama—a little good, a little bad.”
“I guess so. You can always count on that with her. Thought you’d be home earlier,” he said.
“Traffic was worse than usual. I don’t even know if there is a usual anymore.”
“You three had a good time?”
“Yeah, nothing exciting. I managed to break away for about an hour. I got you a shirt from the Gap. On sale.” She smiled.
He looked up and returned the smile. “Great. I’ll try it on when I get back from my run.”
“All right, baby. See you in a bit.”
Michael took off and Olivia went into the kitchen. The message machine had already been played. But there was a new message on it, so she hit the button.
Her mother’s voice came on the line: “Hi Michael. The kids want me to take them for ice cream to their favorite place. For the life of me, I can’t remember what that place is called. Neither can they! Oh dear. I know you’re working at home today, but Olivia’s cell must be off and she’s not expected back for the rest of the day.”
Olivia felt a chill run down her spine. She had no real way of knowing what her husband had thought of the message and her obvious lie. He might have thought the very worst; that she’d been cheating on him or something crazy. All she had been doing was seeking the truth. She felt the truth would set him free from his torment.
That was about to change.
Olivia, stop. Olivia, please.
Michael Barton, running around the Rancho Alamitos High School track, used the speed and repetition of doing laps to focus his thoughts. Why was it that she seemed to think that her digging into his life was something that would benefit him? He’d loved her so much. He thought that she and the children had been the cure for the disease that ravaged him since he was a little boy. Her big brown eyes looked at him with nothing but love when they were first together. Now, all he saw was the reflection of her suspicion.
Olivia, stop. Don’t make me stop you.
He saw a young woman doing stretches by the long-jump pit and he looked around. The parking lot was empty, save for his car and a blue Mazda, which he assumed was the woman’s. She wore green sweats with a big gold and green V on the back of her jacket, a nod to the Vaquero, the school mascot. A student. He ran past her, his heart pumping blood and adrenaline like a fire hose.
Olivia, I want to love you. I want to know what it is to be normal. Stop. Stop. Don’t make me do this.
He moved closer to the girl as he turned toward the stretch in front of the bleachers.
She reminded him of his wife a little, small-framed, with dark hair that she held out of the way in a loose clip. Her brown eyes held his for a second. She turned away as he ran past. His running shoes pounded the spongy black track, and he fought the urge.
She’s not on the list. Got to stop. Can’t keep doing this. No. Olivia, please don’t make me angry.
Chapter Fifty-five
Lily Ann Denton. There was a kind of familiarity with the name. Olivia hadn’t given it a lot of thought, but as she sat in the kitchen with the TV going and the coffeepot brewing, the name came up on the morning news. It triggered something. She wasn’t sure what. The news report indicated that Lily Ann had been found murdered—butchered—off a highway near San Diego. According to the reporter standing in front of the coroner’s office in a crisp blue shirt and wine-red tie, the girl was twenty-two.
The case was now considered cold and the family had put up a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of their daughter’s killer.
“Lily Ann was many things to her family and friends, a creative interior designer, a loyal sorority sister, and a loving daughter. But right now, the family wants to put all of that aside,” the earnest reporter said.
The next cut showed a man and woman, well-heeled, sitting on a leather couch with an ocean view behind them. It was likely their home. Despite the somewhat dated furnishings. But they were clearly loaded. The woman had ice-cube size diamonds on each stretched earlobe.
“Our daughter was our life. She was our only child. We want to find out who did this to her….” Mrs. Denton’s voice trailed off and her husband reached for the mic to take over.
“We want to catch the SOB who killed Lily Ann. Please help us.”
Olivia poured some coffee, but it smelled burned and made her sick. Her stomach was in knots. Something about the name seemed to call to her, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know Lily Ann Denton. She didn’t really have that many friends down in San Diego.
It niggled at her brain throughout the day.
He thought of Lily Ann and how he killed her. He’d done some reading on serial killers and knew enough that he wanted to mix up his technique to throw off the investigators who would want to stop him before his work was done. Animals had taken care of his first victim, Tiffany. The investigators knew she’d been murdered, but they didn’t know that he’d wrapped an electrical cord around her neck. He’d taken a washcloth soaked in chloroform and covered her lip-glossed mouth until she fell limp. He’d shoved her in the back of his trunk and gone for a snack.
She was alive when he took her to the rest stop and opened the trunk.
“Please don’t do this,” she said, crying so hard that she could barely spit out her words.
“You shouldn’t have done what you did.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking—”
He pulled her out of the trunk in the middle of her sentence.
“Shut up. Shut up or I’ll kill you.”
He loved the lie. The promise of false hope that his words gave.
It was dark and the sound of the freeway rolled like an ocean. Save for a lone trucker sleeping with his refrigerated truck idling, the place was empty.
“Are you going to rape me?” she said.
The thought of raping her made him recoil. He’d never rape anyone. He’d known firsthand what that was like.
“I won’t tell anyone,” she said, pleading with terror-filled eyes.
Everyone’s last words.
He pulled out battery-powered hair clippers. The buzz almost roared in her ears as he held her still. He tightened his grip. All she did was cry as her beauty fell to the dirt.
He was mute as he reached for the knife in his jacket and drove it through her chest. Lily Ann Denton barely gasped as the life drained from her blue eyes. She slumped to the ground and he sliced her flesh like the belly of a fish. Her organs, shiny in the glow from the parking lot lights, spilled onto the dirt.
This is messier than last time.
It bothered him that she’d thought he was going to rape her. He would never do that.
The last thing he did was snap the golden chain from her neck, careful not to let the two special letters fall into the clump of ice plant pooled with her already coagulating blood.
Now he had two such souvenirs. A very good start. Almost done.
Chapter Fifty-six