Craving Vengeance (13 page)

“But who is Lady Lily?” Spinelli asked,
unable to hide the frustration from his tone.

Marsh leaned back and crossed his arms over
his chest. “I didn’t get that far yet. I’m just...just showing the
connection.”

Spinelli inhaled deeply and slowly then
emptied his lungs. “Okay, thank you for that, Marsh, there’s two
minutes of my life I can’t have back.” Spinelli shifted his gaze to
Shannon. “When was the last time Meyers was in the states?”

“I can’t say for sure. All I know is that
it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen him. He’d send a
postcard periodically, but even those came less often as time went
by.”

Walker flipped open a file folder and studied
its contents. “Hmm.”

Spinelli craned his neck to look in the
folder as well. “Did you find something?”

“No, not really. I was just looking at the
vics’ ages trying to link them somehow. But it’s not working. Rosso
was 35, Williams was 36, Carter was 28, and Meyers was just shy of
33.” Walker looked up from the file and glanced at Shannon. “So
Meyers was in his last year of medical school when you dated
him?”

She nodded.

“What school did he go to?”

Shannon cocked her head to the side. “The
University of Madison.”

Walker shifted his gaze to Spinelli. “Didn’t
Bethany go to Madison?”

“I’m not sure.”

Walker squinted and stared at the crime
board. He ran his hand over his five o’clock shadow and then held
his chin. “You know, I think it says Madison on the diploma hanging
behind her desk.” His gaze shifted back to Spinelli. “How old is
Bethany?”

Spinelli shrugged. “Somewhere around my age.
32 or so.”

“She’s the right age. Maybe she knew Meyers.
Maybe she kept in touch, or maybe she knows who he may have kept in
touch with,” Walker commented as he stepped closer to the crime
board. “You know, it’s just too coincidental that Meyers returned
home on the day of all these murders and then gets murdered
himself.”

“And murdered wearing a cupid outfit,” Marsh
added. “Could he have been double crossed?”

“What do you mean?” Spinelli asked.

“I mean, was he partially responsible for the
murders of Carter, Rosso, and Williams, and then got murdered
himself because the plan went bad or the orchestrator of the plan
wanted to tie up loose ends?”

“It’s as good a theory as any right now.”

Spinelli pulled his cell phone from his hip
and tapped the screen.

“Who are you calling?” Marsh asked.

“Bethany.”

Marsh glanced at his watch. “It’s after
10:00, you know. We could just pick this back up in the
morning.”

“Do you have someplace important to be?”

Marsh shook his head and shifted his eyes to
Walker. “No, I don’t, but maybe other people do.”

“You got that right,” Captain Jackson blurted
as she walked up to the crime board. “I’d rather be at home, but
I’ve got the Mayor breathing down my neck over this cupid case.
Evidently, the media is having a field day over the murders and our
lack of response.” She shifted her annoyed gaze to Spinelli,
pinning him in place. A shiver ran up his spine. Her small frame
never kept her from showing who was in charge and demanding the
utmost respect. She perched her hands on her narrow hips. Her
nostrils flared with each breath she took. “So what do we have
here, Spinelli?”

Spinelli glanced at his phone screen. His
call to Bethany went to voicemail. He looked up to find all eyes on
him. “She’s not answering.”

“And you’re surprised by that why?” Marsh
asked as he chuckled. “The woman despises you,” he assured Spinelli
as if hadn’t already had a clue.

The impatient tapping of Jackson’s foot drew
Spinelli’s attention. “What?”

“I asked you a question? Where are you guys
at with the cupid case?”

Spinelli’s gaze shifted to the crime board,
then back to Jackson. He sighed heavily. “We don’t have anything
other than the fact they were all poisoned by cyanide ingestion.
We’ve just now linked the first three cupids together, but not the
fourth.” He glanced back at his phone. “And just now I was trying
to contact Bethany. She may be able to shed some light on Meyers,
the fourth Cupid, and perhaps help us link him to the other three,
but she didn’t answer her phone.”

“Our Bethany? The pathologist?” Jackson asked
as her head snapped in Marsh’s direction. She shot him a scowl. “Is
that who you were talking about when I walked up?”

Marsh nodded.

“Well that doesn’t make any sense at all,”
Jackson added as she turned her attention back to Spinelli.

“Why does that surprise you? I thought every
Tom, Dick, and Harry knew how she felt about me,” Spinelli stated
as he avoided making any sort of eye contact with Shannon at this
point. He wondered why he felt guilty as they talked about his old
girlfriend, especially since he’d caught Shannon kissing one of her
old flames earlier.

Jackson pointed at the heart shaped box of
chocolates on his desk. “She dropped that off for you a couple of
hours ago. Right before I left to go home. She seemed all cheery at
that time.”

All eyes shifted to the box of
chocolates.

Spinelli stepped over to his desk and lifted
the lid. They looked like normal chocolates. Everyone else hovered
around the desk and leaned in.

“Bethany?” he whispered.

“I’ll get them to the lab,” Walker said as he
gloved his hand and gingerly took the lid from Spinelli.

Jackson cleared her throat. “Okay, but it
will take several days at best to get the results.”

She flashed Spinelli a sympathetic look. He
shifted his gaze to his feet. God how he hated the sympathetic
look. He’d received it too many times as a child. Every time he
entered a new foster home, the foster parents flashed him the same
look he’d just received from Jackson. If he never saw that
sympathetic look again, it would be too soon. Was he that
pathetic?

“I’ll send a black and white to Bethany’s
house. We’ll bring her in for questioning,” Jackson added.

“I’ll have IT check her emails. See if we can
find anything there,” Marsh said, his voice somber. It was one of
the few times Spinelli didn’t detect cockiness or sarcasm in
Marsh’s voice.

Spinelli stared down at his desk where the
box of chocolates once sat. Could Bethany really have orchestrated
this whole thing? Could she have killed four people? And did she
really want him dead as well? His core chilled at the thought.
They’d only gone out a few times, never even slept together. His
vision blurred as sweat ran down his back.

He tried to live a good life. He tried to be
a good person, yet he may have been the reason for the deaths of
Tony Rosso, Mike Carter, Chad Williams, and Joshua Meyers. And poor
Shannon. What had he done to her?

Maybe he was no better than his drug addicted
mother after all. Was he ultimately responsible for her death as
well? Was he simply too much for her to handle. Perhaps if she
hadn’t had him at such a young age, she wouldn’t have had to sell
herself on street corners to support herself, him, and her awful
drug fetish. There were times he hated her for what she’d done to
him as a child, leaving him home alone to fend for himself for days
at a time for as far back as he could remember. Drugs seemed to be
more important to her than he was. He recalled the countless foster
homes he’d spent time in when she wasn’t up for the task of raising
him. Some weren’t so bad, but others were awful. He closed his eyes
at the last memory of her. He was sixteen, and he’d come home to
their run-down, filthy apartment to find her lying dead on the
couch. Drug overdose. His chest constricted. His heart fought to
beat.

Spinelli flinched at the sensation of warmth
that crept up his arm as Shannon wrapped her small hand around his
bicep. He couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t risk it. Tears stung
his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He hadn’t cried since he
was six years old, and he wasn’t about to start now. Shame
penetrated every cell in his body.

“I know what you’re thinking, and this isn’t
your fault,” she said as she lightly squeezed his arm.

He still couldn’t look at her.

She tugged his arm. “Nick, look at me.”

His gaze drifted to her. Her warm eyes looked
up at him. He loved her beautiful green eyes. He’d never grow tired
of staring into them. She reached up and placed her small hands on
his cheeks. His already burning cheeks warmed even more.

Her beautiful full lips parted. “This is not
your fault. You didn’t do this,” she stated firmly as if in full
belief of her words. Her gaze didn’t waiver. God, how he loved her.
Too bad he needed to let her go. He seemed to always hurt those
around him, and he couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her any
more than he already had today.

He stepped back, pulling himself from her
hold. The hurt in her expression nearly killed him. But it had to
be done. She would be better off without him. Her hand dropped to
her side.

“Don’t do that, Nick,” she whispered, her
eyes pleaded.

He felt like such a bastard.

Chapter
Thirteen

Spinelli urged
Shannon to let the patrol officer take her home. She wouldn’t
budge.
Stubborn redhead!

The sound of women’s heels clicking against
the hardwood floor drew Spinelli’s attention. Captain Jackson
stepped up to him and Shannon. “The officers with Bethany just
pulled up. I want you two to make yourselves scarce while they
bring her in. And Spinelli, I know I don’t need to say this, but
you can watch from the other room.”

He opened his mouth to protest he’d like
nothing more than to interrogate the shit out of the woman who
likely orchestrated this whole thing, but then thought better of
it. He knew Jackson was right. He’d likely not be able to maintain
his cool and get the job done, and it was likely that Bethany would
be more responsive and cooperative with someone else.

“Who’s going to do it? Walker?”

“No, I think I’ll take the first go around on
this one.”

Jackson didn’t say it, but Spinelli figured
she thought maybe Bethany would respond better to a woman.

Shannon rested her hand on Spinelli’s
shoulder. “I’ll wait for you in the lunchroom.

A nod was all he could muster before he
headed in the direction of the small dimly lit room adjacent to the
interrogation room. He stood in front of the two-way mirror staring
into the next room as he waited for the suspect to arrive. Walker
entered a moment later.

“Where’s Marsh?” Spinelli asked.

“He’s with Lisa in IT. They’re still combing
through Bethany’s emails, looking for anything that ties her to the
victims.”

Spinelli shifted his gaze back to the empty
interrogation room. The room was dimly lit and clean. A metal table
sat in the center. It’s color a gloomy gray. The room was so tiny
one was hardly able to walk around the table. One burnt orange,
plastic chair sat on each of the long sides of the rectangular
table, making the room even tighter. He hated those old, ugly,
uncomfortable chairs. He was sure they’d been in that room since
the beginning of time. But those crappy old chairs did exactly what
they were supposed to which was to keep the suspect from becoming
too comfortable. He hated the smell of the room, too. The odor
reminded him of a musty basement.

He wished they would just get here so they
could get this over with. He glanced at Walker who’d partially
propped himself up on the table behind him. His arms were crossed
over his chest, and he stared through the two-way mirror into the
empty interrogation room. The door to the interrogation room
opened, drawing Spinelli’s attention.

Bethany stepped into the room then looked
back at Captain Jackson who followed on her heels. Jackson gestured
toward one of the chairs, and Bethany slid it out from under the
table and took a seat. She scooted the chair up to the table and
rested her arms on the tabletop. She drummed her fingers as if
annoyed.

Jackson remained standing on the same side of
the table in which Bethany sat; about an arm’s length away.
Spinelli was sure Jackson stood between Bethany and the door by
design. It was an interrogation strategy. The suspect would have to
go through the interrogator if she tried to make a run for it.

“Bethany, did the officers tell you why we
wanted you to come down to the station?” Jackson asked. Her voice
was soft and controlled.

Bethany nodded. “They mentioned something
about me knowing one of the dead cupids.”

“That’s right. How did you know him?”

“What do you mean? How did I know him? He
worked in this building. Mostly I saw him in the parking lot when
we arrived in the morning or left at night.”

“You’re talking about Chad Williams?” Jackson
questioned.

“Yeah.”

Spinelli arched a brow and looked at Walker.
“Question diversion?” An attempt often made by suspects to get the
interrogator to move in a different direction.

“Could be.”

Jackson’s gaze stayed on Bethany. “Oh, so
then you know two of the cupids.”

“What?”

“Joshua Meyers. You knew him as well?”

“No.”

Jackson arched a brow. “Hmm, he didn’t look
at all familiar to you when you examined him?”

“No.”

“That’s odd. You’d think after all those
years in medical school together you would have run into him at one
time or another.”

“Well, it’s not like we were the only two in
the graduating class.”

“You’re right,” Jackson said as she cocked
her head to the side. “What do you know about tropical fish?”

Bethany studied Jackson for a few beats. She
looked puzzled. “They’re pretty.”

“That’s it? Nothing else?”

Bethany’s jaw clenched. “The males tend to be
prettier than the females.”