What Have You Done Page 13

  “You didn’t call anyone else?”

  “No.”

  “What then?”

  “Me and Megan spent the rest of the night looking for her. We checked the parking lot and in the backs of cars. We couldn’t find her anywhere. When the place closed, we got a bouncer to help us look, but he didn’t seem to care. He told us she probably hooked up and to go home and call her in the morning. I called when I got home that night. I didn’t want to wait until morning.”

  “Did it ever occur to either of you to call the police?” Don asked.

  Both nodded. “That’s what I said on one of the last messages,” Tina replied. “We wanted to call the police but decided against it. I mean, what if she did go home with someone? How embarrassing would it be to be having sex and the cops come knocking on your door because your friends got worried? I told her to call us. Next thing I know, the police came here to tell me what happened. I called Megan, and the police were there too.”

  Tina began to cry again, and Megan held her. Don sat back and waited to ask his next question. This would indeed be a life lesson neither would ever forget. “Girls, do you remember seeing anyone there who looked familiar? Someone who might’ve had an interest in Kerri?”

  Megan shook her head. “No.”

  Tina did the same. “No.”

  “Do you know if she had a boyfriend?”

  “She was seeing some guy, but we never met him. Never even saw him before. We used to tease her that he never really existed.”

  “So you have no idea what he looks like?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a name?”

  “Sorry, no.”

  Kerri had kept her affair with Liam quiet. To not even know his name was unusual. “Did she see this mystery boyfriend a lot?”

  Tina blew her nose and shrugged. “Enough, I guess. Not every day, all day, but a few times a week. She said they broke up, but they still hung out sometimes.”

  “Did you ever find it funny she wouldn’t tell you his name or introduce you to him?”

  “The guy was having an affair with Kerri. He was married. That’s all she’d tell us and asked us not to pry. We let her keep her secrets.”

  “Interesting,” Don replied.

  “Do you think the boyfriend did it?” Megan asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “The other detectives think it might’ve been the boyfriend. They said that was where they were starting their investigation. I wish we could tell you more about him.”

  It was clear the girls couldn’t shed any new light. Don rose from his seat and gathered his papers. He handed them each a business card. “If you think of anything else, I want you to call me.”

  Tina rose. Megan remained seated. “Thanks,” Tina said. “Please find the person who did this. I know Kerri won’t rest until they’re caught, and we won’t either.”

  “We’re trying.”

  Megan sighed and tried to steady herself. “Have you talked to Kerri’s parents yet?” she asked.

  “No. I think the other officers are handling that.”

  “If you do talk to them, tell them we’re praying for them.”

  “I will.”

  29

  Liam took a step back when he saw his brother’s face. Sean was standing on the threshold, leaning against the door he’d just opened, his eyes dreary and red. The porch light reflecting off the shadows of the dark afternoon made his skin look pale.

  “What happened?” Liam asked. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Come in.”

  The house was neat but dusty. Sean kept very few items above and beyond the necessities. When their grandparents had passed, he’d called the local library and had them send a truck over so he could donate all of their grandmother’s books. Then he’d called for a dumpster and trashed anything he wouldn’t need. There was a coldness to the house amid all the emptiness. Liam had never quite gotten used to that.

  “I called you a few times,” Liam said. “Where’d you go after I dropped you off at the diner?”

  “Came back here. I was in the yard most of the day. Didn’t have my phone with me. Was doing a lot of thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “What do you think? I can’t believe all this is happening with Kerri. And you. It got to me.”

  They made their way into the living room, where Sean sat on the couch and grabbed for the bottle of Jack Daniel’s on the coffee table.

  “We got a hit on NCIC. Found a victim in Delaware. Homicide was from six weeks ago. Prostitute. Same MO that was in Kerri’s homicide except no stomach laceration.”

  Sean stared at him for a moment, then slowly took another sip from the bottle. “And?”

  “And what?”

  “Were you in Delaware at the time of the homicide?”

  “Of course not. I haven’t been to Delaware in years. Last time we passed through was on our way to the Outer Banks. What was that—six years ago? Seven?”

  “That helps with things, I guess. Can you think of anyone who’s been to Delaware recently?”

  “I’ve been wracking my brain since I heard the news. Nothing.”

  “What was the date when the murder down there took place?”

  Liam clicked through his phone to see the notes Jane had sent him. “Body was discovered February fifteenth. Homicide took place the night before, February fourteenth. Valentine’s Day.”

  Sean shook his head and took another sip. “Back to square one.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I hate to break it to you, but Vanessa was in Atlantic City at a medical conference that weekend. I remember because you went on and on about how you guys were going to miss your first reconciled Valentine’s Day. You were alone that weekend.”

  Liam let the facts sink in. “I can’t catch a break here. This is unreal.”

  Sean looked at his brother, who was still standing. “Can I ask you a question? Man to man?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Are you messing with me?”

  Liam stared back at Sean. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, are you messing with me? Think about all the evidence we’ve found that links you to Kerri’s murder. Think about how few people know about the details of the paper flowers and all the other stuff. Can you really not remember what happened that night, or are you messing with me?”

  Liam reached for the bottle and took it out of Sean’s hand. “I can’t believe you just asked me that,” he whispered. “Drunk or not.”

  “Well, I did ask you, so answer.”

  “I am not messing with you.” Liam could hear his voice shaking with both adrenaline and fear. “I’m very aware that the evidence points to me, and I’m not lying to you when I say I can’t remember what happened that night. All I know is how I felt about her, and I can’t reconcile those feelings with what we saw at the Tiger Hotel. I can’t make that leap. So it has to be someone else. It has to be.”

  “Then who?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Sean sat up in his seat. “If there really is someone else out there doing this, and we don’t figure out who it is soon, Heckle and Keenan are going to find something. They’re going to find something we missed, and when they do, you’re screwed. At that point it’ll be our word versus a stack of evidence that points only to you.”

  “It points to you too.”

  “No,” Sean snapped. “I get banged for trying to help my brother find out if someone else killed his girlfriend and not coming clean with my department. Slap on the wrist. Probably suspended, but that’s about the extent of it. Maybe Phillips sends me to another precinct. You get banged for murder, Liam. Life sentence. Big difference.”

  Liam put the bottle back on the table and sat in a recliner across from his brother. “I got Kerri’s phone records like you told me. Cell and home.”

  “Good. Did you erase your entries?”

  “Yeah. I erased yours too.”

  The two br
others stared at one another for a long while, neither saying anything. The house was still, the quiet overwhelming.

  Liam took a breath. “Why was your number on her records, Sean?”

  “You sure you want to know?”

  “Positive.”

  Sean grabbed for the bottle and took another sip. “The baby was yours. No more secrets, right? That’s what we agreed to? Kerri was scared and had no one else to turn to, so she called me and asked for help. I had to play dumb when they caught it in the autopsy. Had to pretend I was hearing it for the first time, but there’s no sense in pretending anymore. We’re way too far down the rabbit hole. The baby was yours.”

  Although he’d already figured as much, the confirmation of this news shook Liam. He put his head in his hands, contemplating what he’d just been told. “Why didn’t you tell me she was pregnant with my baby?”

  “She asked me not to. She knew you were fixing things with Vanessa and thought if she told you, it would screw everything up. She had your best interests in mind. We talked a few times about what she was going to do, and then the next thing I know, you call me and tell me she’s dead.”

  “What was she going to do?”

  Sean stood up. “She was going to keep it. She was going to have your baby. But you’d never know. Not as long as you were still with Vanessa. She wouldn’t have allowed it.” He wiped the top of the bottle with his shirt and held it out. “You want some? Makes the news go down better.”

  Liam reached over and took a sip. The alcohol stung his throat. He coughed, handing it back. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

  “I’m good at keeping secrets. As you can plainly see.”

  “But that was my child.”

  “So you wouldn’t have killed her if you knew she was pregnant?”

  Liam jumped off the chair and grabbed his brother by the collar of his shirt. “I didn’t kill her!”

  Sean pushed Liam away. “Yeah, you keep saying that. But we’re running out of suspects.”

  “What about you?” Liam cried. “You knew everything I knew about Mom and Kerri. You could’ve done this.”

  “Yeah. I’m risking my career going behind Heckle and Keenan and trying to kill this investigation while protecting the primary suspect, but I’m actually guilty. That makes sense. Come on, Liam. You need to figure out what really happened that night. I’ll help you, and I swear, I’ll bury this if it was you, but you need to come to terms with what might have happened before anyone else gets hurt. I can get you help if you need it.”

  “I don’t need help because I didn’t do anything.”

  “Then find out who did!”

  Liam was angry and scared. Sean was making sense, and that frightened him the most. He had come to tell his brother about Kiki and the pictures, but decided not to. Not like this when his only ally was accusing him of murder. Instead, he turned to leave. “I loved her more than you know,” he said over his shoulder. “There’s no way I could’ve killed her.”

  “I don’t think you killed her,” Sean replied. “But you gotta come to terms with this in case you did. If it was you, we can get you some help, but I can’t be there every time. Not when it comes to things like this.”

  Liam threw the front door open and left the house, climbing down the stairs and running toward his car, which was parked in front. When he got in, he began to scream, his vocal cords tearing against his throat, a mixture of pain and fear and anger combined in the inhuman sound that filled the small space. He knew now that there was no one he could ever turn to with this. No one would be willing to help him find the truth. Too much evidence was stacked against him. It was clear now.

  He truly was alone.

  30

  Sean waited until his brother drove away and then walked into the kitchen. He rifled through his cabinets, pulling out a glass and carrying both it and the bottle of Jack back into the living room. He placed them on the coffee table, then made his way into the foyer and stood at the bottom of the stairs.

  “You can come out now,” he said. “He’s gone.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m sure. He’s gone.”

  31

  It was early evening when Liam returned home. He made his way up to the front door as Vanessa was pulling into the driveway. Headlights illuminated the house, and he turned, surprised to see her.

  “Hey,” he called as she climbed out of the car. “I hope I didn’t wake you this morning. I had to get in the lab a little earlier than usual.”

  “I heard you, but I had an early shift anyway.” Vanessa shut the car door. “Thought you might’ve called at some point.”

  “I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure if we were on speaking terms. I know I screwed up last night. I’m sorry.”

  Vanessa walked up the path toward him. “You think one day we could clean out the garage so we can actually park our cars in there?”

  Liam smiled. “I’ll call in the dumpster tomorrow.” She’d ignored his apology, which meant the argument was most likely over. That was how it usually went.

  “They asked me to work a double again,” Vanessa said as she pushed past her husband and unlocked the front door. “But I said no. I was hoping we could just stop fighting and curl up in bed and watch some television or something.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  Liam and Vanessa walked inside. The house was quiet. They kicked off their shoes and placed them in the corner, next to the closet. Vanessa dropped her pocketbook on the small bench under the staircase, unzipped it, and pulled a stack of envelopes from inside.

  “I got the mail,” she said. “Do we really owe this many people money?”

  “I’m sure we do.”

  She handed her husband the bills and made her way into the kitchen, where she opened the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. “You want anything?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  “How about Chinese tonight? I don’t feel like cooking.”

  “Okay.”

  Liam stood in the hallway flipping through the envelopes, reading none of them. He hadn’t been expecting Vanessa so early, and now she’d be home the entire night. He glanced at the closet door. He’d have to be careful.

  She appeared from inside the kitchen, her hair up in a neat little bun, her scrubs still on, her stethoscope hanging from her neck. “It was funny,” she began. “Today I’m at work, and I’m pissed about last night, then all of a sudden I start missing you. Can’t really explain it. Just a feeling that came over me. By lunch, I don’t care about being mad anymore and start thinking how much I wanted to be with you. I couldn’t wait to get home.”

  “I missed you too. I’m sorry I’ve been in such a crappy mood. This case at work has my head all screwed up.”

  “You wanna talk about it?”

  “Not really.”

  “It’s okay.” Vanessa took a sip of her beer. “I’m sorry too. I haven’t been around lately, and then when I am, I expect you to drop everything so we can spend time together. That’s not fair. I promise I’m not hiding in my work. Some of these extra shifts are mandatory. The census really picked up over the last week, and we’re understaffed as it is.”

  Liam put the envelopes on the table and walked over to his wife. “It’s okay. No more apologies.”

  Vanessa giggled uneasily. “If the counselor finds out about us working like this again, she’s gonna flip.”

  “This is life. Some days are going to be busier than others. When things get to be too much, we drop what we’re doing and come home to each other. Like tonight.”

  “Yeah, like tonight.” Vanessa smiled and kissed her husband. “You think we can save us, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I love you, Liam. I don’t want to lose you.”

  “You won’t.”

  They kissed again, and then Vanessa pulled away. “I need a shower. Order the Chinese, and I’ll meet you upstairs. I’m in the mood for a comedy. I have enough drama in my life.”
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  “I have something for you.”

  “What?”

  Liam reached into his pocket and came away with the charm bracelet. He held it up so she could see it clearly.

  “My bracelet!” Vanessa cried. “I’ve been looking all over for it. Where’d you find it?”

  “Sean’s boat.”

  It was subtle, but Liam could see his wife’s jaw clench for a moment. She looked at him and smiled. “Sean’s boat. Of course. I went over there the other night, about a week ago now, I guess. I wanted to talk to him about us. Get some advice. You don’t realize this, but sometimes you’re so hard to talk to. I needed to get some things off my chest, and Sean offered to be a shoulder to lean on.”

  “Did it work?”

  “I guess. We’re about to spend the night together watching movies and eating Chinese, right?”

  “Right.” He handed her the bracelet. “Go take that shower.”

  Vanessa nodded and made her way upstairs. Liam followed her to the bottom floor landing.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  Vanessa stopped on the first step. “Sure.”

  “Did you work Saturday night?”

  “No, I was off.”

  “So you were home when I was out with Sean and the guys from work?”

  “Yup. I watched Jaws on the DVR like I do every spring, and then I went to sleep. Woke up in the middle of the night, and you were a crashed-out drunken mess on the couch. Why?”

  “Just another opportunity for us to spend time together, and I screwed it up.”

  Vanessa began walking up the stairs. “You can make it up to me with some sweet-and-sour soup. Go.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Liam watched his wife walk up the stairs. For a brief moment, he forgot about Kerri and the case and his fingerprints and only thought about his wife. But when she was gone, his world was his again. He didn’t have much time.

  The bathroom door closed upstairs. Liam scurried to the front door, eased it open, and ran out to his car, where he reached into the back seat and retrieved a small black bag. He was back inside within seconds.

  The shower upstairs was running. Liam placed the bag on the bench under the stairs and unzipped it, quickly pulling out a small spray bottle. He’d have about ten minutes. Not much time.