As Good as Dead (43 page)

"I just heard on a news break on WMMK that Veda MacKinnon has been arrested for the attempted murder of Jazzy Talbot." Caleb glared at Jacob. "Want to tell me what's going on? According to the reporter, who'd just been issued a statement by Dallas Sloan, Mrs. MacKinnon tried to kill Jazzy earlier this evening."

"That's right. Dallas and I caught Veda MacKinnon in the act." Jacob knew it would be only a matter of seconds before Caleb put two and two together and came up with the inevitable four.

Caleb stood there for several minutes, his eyes glazed, his mind whirling. "You son of a bitch! You sorry ass son of a bitch!" He lunged for Jacob, who effectively held him off by grabbing his shoulders. "You used her as bait, didn't you? Was Dallas in on this? Dammit, tell me, was he?"

"Calm down. Jazzy is all right. Dallas and I were right across the hall and came in behind Mrs. MacKinnon as soon as she entered the room. Jazzy was never in danger."

"The hell she wasn't! How could you have-"

"Jazzy agreed to our plan. She understood that if we could trap her attacker now, she and Reve would be safe, but if we waited1-"

"Then Dallas was in on this?"

"Caleb, stop and think. It's over. Jazzy and Reve are safe from Veda MacKinnon. Mrs.

MacKinnon is in custody, and my guess is that she'll wind up in the loony bin somewhere."

"If it had been Reve, would you have risked her life the way you did Jazzy's?"

"I have loved Jazzy like a second sister just about all my life," Jacob said, struggling to remain calm and in control of his temper. "Do you honestly think I would have put her in harm's way if I'd thought I couldn't protect her?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"If it had been Reve, she would probably have been the one who'd have thought of the plan and insisted on setting a trap."

Caleb nodded and Jacob could see him relax. "You can leave now," Caleb said. "I'm staying the rest of the night with Jazzy."

"All right. I should head on over to the police station to give Dallas a little moral support. I imagine that Farlan MacKinnon and Max Fennel are giving Dallas a hard time, not to mention that asshole Brian."

When Jacob arrived at the police station, he had to fight his way through a horde of reporters, all clamoring for more details about Mrs. Farlan MacKinnon's arrest. He was surprised that neither Farlan nor Brian had put a stop to the WMMK and Cherokee Pointe Herald reporters. But maybe they were a little too busy at the moment to realize what was happening.

As soon as Jacob finally got inside the station, Lieutenant Glenn, motioned to him.

Jacob met him just outside Dallas's office. "The chief is questioning Mrs. MacKinnon again. When we found a bloodstained hammer hidden away in the MacKinnons' attic, exactly where Mrs. MacKinnon said it would be, we figured we had our murder weapon.

As soon as the lab can ID the blood as Jazzy's-"

"I know y'all did a thorough search," Jacob said. "So, did you find anything else?"

"Odd that you should ask. It just so happens that we found a small gold, heart-shaped locket in a drawer along with a fifteen-foot roll of black braided satin ribbon in a hidden box."

"The hell you say!"

Black braided satin ribbon! The serial killer's weapon in every murder, a fact not known by the general public. Was it possible that the man who had brutally raped and murdered countless women over the past quarter of a century was a member of the Mac-Kinnnon family? Maybe Farlan MacKinnon himself? Or even Max Fennel or Judge Keefer? Both were known to spend a great deal of time at the MacKinnon mansion. It would have been easy for either man to have kept the ribbon there for safekeeping. Of course there was Wallace, too, whom he instantly ruled out as a suspect. After all, Wallace was a gentle giant, with the heart and soul of an innocent child. And since discovering that the first murders on record with the Redhead Killer's MO dated back nearly twenty-eight years, when Brian would have been just a kid, no more than fourteen, it was highly unlikely he was their guy. Of course, children had been known to kill, but in most cases their crimes weren't sexual in nature.

"Has Dallas confronted Mrs. MacKinnon with the locket and the black ribbon?" Jacob asked.

"She claims she knows nothing about either."

"How did she explain the black ribbon being in her room?"

"We didn't find the ribbon in her room."

"In whose room did you find it?"

"We found both items in a locked box at the bottom of Wallace MacKinnon's cedar chest."

"Wallace?"

"Yeah."

"No way could Wallace be connected to the serial killings. The man's a child. And a gentle child at that," Jacob said. "I'm going in there." He pointed to the interrogation ro-om. "I suppose Dallas has his hands full dealing with old man MacKinnon and Brian, too."

"Actually Farlan MacKinnon is cooperating completely," Hendrix said. "And Brian's not here."

"You mean that mama's boy didn't rush down here the minute y'all told him his mother had been arrested?"

"We didn't tell him anything. He wasn't home. Apparently no one knows where he is."

Jacob lifted his hand to knock on the door of the interrogation room, but his fist never made contact. The door flew open and Dallas came close to running into Jacob in his hurry to exit the room. Screeching to a halt when only inches separated them, Dallas grunted.

"Damn, man, what's your hurry?" Jacob asked.

"I had to get out of there for a few minutes," Dallas said. "Mrs. MacKinnon has finally wound down and is crying quietly now." Dallas rubbed his forehead. "I'll be damned if I've ever seen a case like this one."

"Glenn told me she's confessed to trying to kill Jazzy and even told y'all where you could find the hammer she used."

"Oh, that's not the half of it." Dallas motioned to his office. "I could use a cup of coffee. We might as well take a breather until the doctor gets here." When Jacob looked at him questioningly, he explained, "I sent for Dr. Cory, the psychiatrist in charge of the psych unit over at County General. We're going to do all we can to get Mrs. MacKinnon admitted tonight."

"Then there's more to this case than two attempts on Jazzy's life," Jacob said as he followed Dallas toward his office.

"Yeah, a hell of a lot more, but some of it's still a mystery." Dallas opened the door to his office, entered and headed straight for the coffee machine on a stand next to his desk.

"It's not fresh," he said as he lifted the half-full pot. "But it's hot and wet. Want a dip?"

Jacob shook his head. "Glenn told me about finding a roll of black satin braided ribbon and a gold locket hidden away in the bottom of Wallace MacKinnon's cedar chest. What do you make of that?"

Dallas poured himself a cup of coffee, sat behind his desk and lifted the mug to his lips. After taking several sips, he replied, "That's the mystery. My gut's telling me that someone associated with the MacKinnons is our serial killer. And we know it's sure as hell not Veda since our killer is definitely male."

"I don't think it could possibly be Wallace," Jacob said. "I've spent a lot time with him ever since I was kid, and the man is as harmless as a fly."

"I agree. Someone hid the ribbon in Wallace's cedar chest. But who?"

"What about Farlan MacKinnon? Maybe he killed Jazzy and Reve's mother. Maybe she was his first victim."

"It's possible," Dallas agreed. "But once again, my gut tells me it's not Farlan."

"Then who? And if you say Brian, I'd agree. I despise that son of bitch. I think he's a mean, vindictive jerk. But if the murders actually began with Jazzy and Reve's mother, then it's unlikely Brian's our man. Brian's forty-two. He would have been only twelve years old thirty years ago."

"In all her rambling, Veda kept talking about her brother having been in love with Dinah. And she even ranted at Max, accusing him of being involved with the woman, too.

She kept telling her husband over and over again that there was no way he could be certain he's Jazzy and Reve's father because there were so many other men in Dinah's life."

"If there's any truth to what she said, then Max Fennel or Judge Keefer could have killed Dinah, right?"

"We're making some huge assumptions by thinking Dinah was the serial killer's first victim, especially when we have no real evidence to back up this theory."

"It's as good a theory as any," Jacob said. "And if it turns out we're right, I say we look closer at Judge Keefer."

"Why him?"

"Because I honestly don't think Max Fennel has it in him to kill anybody. I believe he'd cheat, lie and steal, but not kill. On the other hand, Judge Keefer is a quiet, solitary man.

And you know the old saying about still waters running deep. Besides, if he was in love with Dinah and she rejected him in favor of-" Jacob's cell phone rang, effectively halting him mid-sentence. "Damn!"

"You'd better get that," Dallas told him.

Jacob retrieved his phone from its belt holder, flipped it open and said, "Yeah, Butler here."

"Jacob… help her. Help her now."

"Genny?"

Dallas's eyes widened and he mouthed the words, "Is she all right?"

"You have to get to Reve. Right now. He's going to kill her." Genny's voice was weak, each word a struggle.

"Who's going to kill her?" Jacob's gut knotted painfully.

"I had the vision over twenty minutes ago, but I passed out and just now came to. You have to hurry. I didn't see his face, but he was trying to rape Reve. And he had a black braided ribbon in his pocket. I saw it. He's going to kill her."

"I'll send Dallas home to you right away." Jacob closed his phone and stuck it back in the holder, then turned to Dallas. "Go home. Genny's in a bad way. She had another vision. This time she saw Reve being raped and murdered."

"I'll contact Graves and warn him to be especially careful," Dallas said. "Then I'll head home. Call me as soon as you-"

"I'm heading straight to Jazzy's apartment." Jacob was halfway out the door when he spoke.

*

Reve did everything he told her to do. She had to buy time and hope that someone would discover Officer Graves's body and realize she was in trouble.

This crazy idiot had killed that poor young officer. He'd bragged about how easy it had been to sneak up on the policeman and kill him.

"Putting a bullet through that cop's head was almost as easy as renting this police uniform," he'd told her. "I've been outsmarting the law for thirty years. Dallas Sloan isn't much smarter than that stupid Jacob Butler, so there's no way they'll ever catch me."

Jacob! Oh, God, Jacob, help me. If there is such a thing as telepathy, I wish you could hear my thoughts. I wish you could feel my fear.

Holding the gun in his steady hand, he forced her into the bedroom. She knew the serial killer's MO, knew what lay in store for her if she wasn't able to figure a way out of this situation. Bottom line, he was going to kill her, so she actually had nothing to lose. But she had no intention of acting hastily. She would do whatever it took to stay alive for as long as possible. Where there was life, there was hope. And she was going to live!

"Why are you doing this?" she asked as he motioned for her to move closer to the bed.

"Why do you think? Isn't it obvious that I can't let Dinah's daughters live?"

"I just found out that Dinah Collins was my mother. And Jazzy's mother."

"She's a slut just like Dinah was. I'll bet you're probably a slut, too, aren't you? It's in your blood."

"You hated my mother, didn't you? You hated her because-"

"Because she loved Farlan MacKinnon and not me."

That had been the last thing she'd expected him to say. "I don't understand. You wanted her to love you?"

"Sit down, Reve. Sit right there on the bed." He brandished the pistol, waving it around in the air.

Obediently sitting, Reve's mind went into high gear trying to figure out why he would have wanted Dinah to love him. She could understand why he would have hated Dinah and wished her dead, but why-?

"I knew all about them. Farlan never realized that I knew. But I did. I had Slim take me and follow him one time when he left the house. He went to see her in her apartment over on Hyatt Street in Sevierville. I went up to see her, to beg her to stop seeing him."

"Who's Slim?"

"He was our handyman and a real sleazeball, but he was good at following orders if you gave him enough money. He's the one who got rid of the twins for us."

Reve's heartbeat accelerated alarmingly. "Where's Slim now?"

"Dead. I killed him. He blackmailed me for years, so finally I had to get rid of him.

Nobody missed him. He was just worthless trash. A lot like your mother."

"You ordered Slim to kill Dinah's twins?"

"No. It wasn't me. I'd forgotten all about the babies, but when I told Slim what I'd done to Dinah, he called her, and she's the one who told him to handle things, to dispose of Dinah's body and to kill the babies."

Nausea churned in Reve's stomach. "You're talking about Veda MacKinnon, aren't you?"

"She hated Dinah. And she hated those babies far more than I did. Besides, we're family, and family always takes care of their own. She cleaned up Farlan's mess, and we never spoke of it again. She thinks I don't remember. She thinks I blocked it all out. And it's been to my advantage to let her keep on believing that."

"Did you love Dinah Collins?" Reve asked, suddenly beginning to suspect the grueso-me truth.

"Of course I loved her, and I thought she loved me. She made me believe she loved me. I visited her quite often, and she was always so sweet to me. She treated me as if she cared. But it was all lies. That day when I told her how I felt, she laughed and said how flattered she was and that she cared for me. But she didn't. She didn't want me." There were tears in his eyes. Honest-to-goodness, genuine tears. "She didn't laugh for long."

"You killed her."

"Of course I killed her. I had to. She should have been mine, but she loved him and not me. She'd led me on, made me believe she loved me, when all along-"