Taboo (25 page)

‘
Jess
? You think Jess is here – in Dublin?’ Reilly gasped, unable to grasp what Daniel and Chris were hypothesizing.

Back in the privacy of her office, they’d told her exactly what had happened at Mike’s place and the
neighbor’s belief that he’d gone off somewhere with his daughter. While she was relieved that this had to mean Mike wasn’t in any immediate danger, she couldn’t understand how this was possible. ‘But how? I mean … she’s not due for parole until …’ Then, remembering Chris’s presence, she flushed, realizing her shameful family history was unlikely to remain a secret for much longer. ‘I’m not sure if Daniel’s told you, but my sister—’

He cut her off. ‘You don’t have to explain. I know what happened.’

‘I thought it wise to fill him on most of it,’ Daniel added, quietly.

‘I haven’t seen her in years, Chris. After she …’
Even now Reilly couldn’t say the words. She covered her face with her hands and tried to compose herself.

‘She got out of CCWF early – was released late last year, but skipped parole within a couple of weeks,’ Daniel said. Reilly looked at him and he met her accusing gaze with a level stare. ‘I made a few calls.’

‘What?’ All at once she was flabbergasted by the knowledge that her sister was not only out of detention, but by all accounts had made her way here. But how and, more importantly, why?

‘I spoke to her parole officer who said she went completely off the radar, hasn’t been seen in months. He tried to contact you, and had no idea you’d moved here.

‘And now you think she followed me?’

Daniel sat directly across from her. ‘To be frank, I’ve had my suspicions for some time.’

‘But why would you think that? And if she did come here, what difference would that – oh my God,’ she whispered, as realization gradually dawned. ‘Jess … you think
Jess
could be responsible for this … is behind all this craziness?’ She stared from Daniel to Chris, willing them to dispute it, but their faces remained impassive. Jess a suspect? No, that was impossible.

‘Reilly, we can’t discount the possibility,’ Daniel was saying, but the words couldn’t penetrate through the myriad emotions she was feeling just then. The implications were almost too much to take yet, deep
down, she knew she couldn’t discount the idea either. The break-in at her apartment, the family photograph, the incident at the lab, and then of course the blond hair …

OK, so those things could potentially have been Jess, but none of them pointed at any involvement in the murders, did it? Unless …

‘You knew, didn’t you?’ she said, rounding on Daniel suddenly. ‘You figured she might be involved in this – it’s why you’re here, why you were so insistent about offering help on the ground.’ She stood up, her face red with anger. ‘How could you not tell me, Daniel? How could you knowingly put all these people in danger, my
father
in danger?’

Chris put a hand on her arm. ‘Reilly, calm down …’

‘I never thought for a second that Mike would be in danger,’ Daniel replied, patiently. ‘It was
you
I was worried about. After all, you’re the one she’s always been angry with. And you’re right – of course I wouldn’t have knowingly put others in danger, but Reilly it was only a hunch, I didn’t know for sure. And I didn’t want to lay such a thing on you over the phone. So I thought if I came here and got a better idea of what was going on, I would be better able to help.’

‘He’s right, Reilly,’ Chris interjected. ‘Nobody could have anticipated this, and in any case, all of the murders were committed before Daniel arrived. He couldn’t have prevented anything. As it is, it’s only we now have a suspect because of him.’

Jess. Was it really possible? Could her little sister actually be the person they were looking for, the taboo killer? It was a thought so devastating that Reilly couldn’t get a grip on it. Then she thought again about the acronym arranged on Clare Ryan’s books.

Your fault …

‘I need to get out of here,’ she said, suddenly bolting toward the door. She needed to figure this out, to try to get her head straight so she could work it out, because at the moment it was all too overwhelming to comprehend.

And her dad, what about him?
Was he truly in danger? Was it another part of Jess’s grand plan for revenge or whatever the hell this was?

‘Reilly wait, where are you going?’
She heard Daniel call after her but she ignored him. She couldn’t deal with him right now. To think that he’d known all this time that Jess had got out early and never said a word …

‘Hold on.’ Chris was following her down the hallway. ‘Reilly, please, we need to talk about this – for more reasons than one,’ he added, pointedly and right away she knew what he was getting at.

Personal feelings aside, this was an ongoing case in which she was heavily involved; now it seemed that one member of her family was a suspect, another a potential victim. So to say that she was in the middle of one hell of shit storm was a huge understatement.

‘I know.’ She ran both hands through her hair. ‘I just … I had to get out of there. Daniel should have said something.’

‘In fairness to the guy, he didn’t know for sure, not until we talked to the neighbor at any rate. After telling me about Jess, we started putting things together, about how he worried right from the start that the symbolism of the murders was far too personal, and seemed to be increasingly targeted toward you. He was worried about you, that’s all there was to it. And then back in the lab when we heard you guys talking about the DNA thing, he figured there was little doubt. Your sister’s involved somewhere along the line, Reilly; how much we don’t know yet. Maybe she’s carrying out the murders herself or she has an accomplice, we can’t say. Either way, we really need to figure it out.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s just … so much to take in.’

‘I can only imagine, but perhaps now more than ever, I need you to think straight, for the sake of your dad if nothing else.’

She bit her lip, nodding. ‘I know.’

He put a gentle hand on her arm. ‘For what it’s worth, Daniel doesn’t believe Jess intends to harm Mike – instead he reckons she plans to use him as bait somehow, some way of getting your attention.’

Her resolve softened a little. ‘He’s probably right. After all, I’m the one she hates, the one who let her down.’ Her mouth was dry and her lips felt as though they were glued shut, but suddenly the tears were flowing, rolling down her cheeks in a steady stream to her chin, before dripping on to her blouse. ‘I …’ She tried to speak again but could get no further. Her shoulders began to heave and a wild animal sob broke free. Then her legs grew weak and she began to stumble.

Chris crossed the space in three huge strides and wrapped a strong arm around her shoulder before steering her into the vacant office nearby.

She collapsed on a chair, grateful for his silent understanding, his strength. Leaning forward she put her head in her hands, unable to staunch the flow of tears now they had finally broken through. A series of images flowed through her mind: Jess as a baby, her fluffy blond curls pulled up on top of her head like a fountain, a huge grin splitting her enormous cheeks … their mother, smiling and vibrant, playing tag with the girls in the back yard, while Mike sat drinking beer and watching them … then her beloved mum shut away for days in her room, refusing to speak to anyone … and finally Cassie lying in a pool of her own blood.

She sat up suddenly and scrubbed at her face to dry the tears. Chris sat back and released his arm from around her shoulders, but said nothing.

She sniffed, pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her face. ‘God, that was really embarrassing …’

‘It’s perfectly understandable.’

She looked out the window at the quiet streets below. A woman hurried across the road, her coat pulled tight around her as two young guys walked the other way. Everyday scenes from everyday lives, a million miles removed from what Reilly was facing – from what she was about to face.

She dabbed at her face again with the tissue, then wadded it up and crammed it in her pocket. Now the tears were gone, now she had released all the emotions that had built up inside her for so many months – or was it years?

Chris spoke tentatively, suspecting he was moving onto thin ice.
‘Why the hatred of you, Reilly? Why is she targeting you?’

‘Because she blames me.
I was supposed to take care of her, I promised her I’d take of her. And, like Mom, I let her down.’

‘How?
Because you refused to help cover up what she did? Why would you do that?’

‘I don’t know
, I don’t really understand any of this. But – and of course I didn’t understand this as a child, but my mom … she had some mental health issues. And then Jess … well, her mind never really worked like anyone else’s. Daniel and I went over it so many times … him and Dr Kyle, my shrink back home, reckoned that she had all the hallmarks of a classic sociopath. I guess until now I never wanted to admit that. I made myself believe that what happened with my mom was just an accident, a rush of blood to the head but now, thinking about what she could have done to all these innocent people …’

‘What was she like afterward – when they put her away? Did she show any remorse or explain why she’d done it?’

Reilly stiffened. ‘I don’t know. She never let me see her. I was enemy number one after that.’ She thought back to all the times she’d tried to visit, tried to talk to Jess and let her know that no matter what, she was still there for her. But every time, Jess refused to come out and meet her.

‘I thought I could outlast her,’ she admitted to Chris. ‘But there was never really any chance of that with Jess. She was – is – the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.’ She sighed. ‘I went to CCWF almost every week at first, determined to be there when she changed her mind, but she never did. Then a couple of years later, I went away to college, and after that I guess I just gave up.’

‘This whole taboo fixation,’ Chris ventured. ‘That would be tied in with Jess killing her own mother?’

‘Yes, remember Daniel told us that patricide, or in this case matricide was the ultimate taboo – the highest form of depravity.’ Her expression tightened. ‘Looking back, all her life Jess was a little like Mom – always prone to sudden emotion, often liked to test limits and break rules.’ Still, to think she could be responsible for such violent acts, and so many gruesome deaths …

Chris stood up. ‘Reilly, you and I both know the top brass are going to want you off this now. With your sister a suspect, and your father a potential victim, there’s a massive conflict of interest—’

She bit her lip. ‘I know, but how can I just sit back especially when my dad is in danger? Not to mention that I need to find Jess, to try to get her to stop all this.’ She looked at him. ‘I know her better than anyone, Chris and, more to the
point, it looks like she’s doing this
because
of me.’

‘I understand that, I do. But you have to think about the consequences, think about the families of the victims. You can’t work this anymore.’

‘But—’

‘Reilly, if Jess is doing this, when we catch her – and we will – we can’t risk compromising the prosecution.
Every piece of evidence has a lawyer’s name on it, you know that, and if you continue with this, knowing what we know now, everything we’ve already worked for will be shot to hell. Christ, you’d never be able to work for the department again.’

‘I know.’ Reilly wanted to put a fist through the wall. Of course he was right but it was so damned frustrating. This was her family they were talking about! To think that she’d no choice but to sit on her hands and let someone else try and sort out the mess …

‘I’ll talk to O’Brien,’ she conceded, grudgingly and Chris seemed relieved, as if he’d been expecting more of a fight. But Reilly wasn’t an idiot and, maddening as it was, she knew the score. ‘But first, I need to go check out my dad’s place – there might be something, some clue as to where they’ve gone, or where she’s taken—’

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that either.’

‘What? But it’s my father’s house—’

‘Which is also now part of a criminal investigation,’ Chris finished, solemnly.

‘You cannot be serious …’ But again, she knew he was right and his hands were tied. She wanted to scream.

‘I’ve already ordered a team over there to sweep the place – see if there’s anything usable, or more to the point, anything our friendly
neighbor left untouched. Useless as evidence but maybe we can unearth something that’ll help point us in the right direction.’

Or establish whether or not Jess coerced Mike into leaving
, Reilly finished, silently.

She looked at Chris. ‘Please don’t tell me Gorman is handling this,’ she asked as the realization struck her.

‘There was little other choice,’ he conceded, then put a reassuring hand on her arm again. ‘Reilly, no matter what you might think of the guy personally, he’s a good investigator, and anyway, he won’t be doing this alone,’ he added, referring to the team she herself had spent so much precious time training.

She looked away, feeling more helpless than she’d ever been. Possibly the biggest, most important crime scene of her life and she couldn’t run it. Instead she had to sit on her hands and rely on people for whom there was nothing at all at stake.