“He came to your car. What were you doing as he was walking toward you?”
“I was getting my license and registration information.”
“Did you glance in any of the mirrors to see what he looked like?” Mariah asked.
“No. It happened so fast-he was there within seconds.”
“What did you do when you found the license and registration papers?”
“I turned to the window.” Anticipating Mariah’s next question, she added, “He was already right by the car. All I could see was his shirt, his midsection and his hand. I saw his belt buckle-a rattlesnake.” Funny how clear it was in her head now. “His belt was brown leather. No markings.”
“Was the pepper spray in his hand?”
“Yes. He was wearing latex gloves. I got a brief glimpse before-” She stopped as she replayed the moment in her head and saw something she hadn’t remembered before. “He used both hands to spray the pepper spray, almost like a two-handed shooting stance. I’d forgotten that. And on his left pinky finger he wore a ring.”
“You could see it through the gloves?”
“Yes. It was gold with a black stone and a small gold inset on the stone.” She opened her eyes and looked at Mariah, excitement building. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. I mean, when I slammed my elbow down on his fingers to get away, I felt the ring crack against my funny bone.”
Mariah put the pencil down on the table and regarded her solemnly. “Do you remember what the gold inset was?”
Hannah broke into a broad smile. “It was a horseshoe.”
NEARLY 30,000 FEET BELOW, Missouri looked like a tiny relief map, criss-crossed by rivers and streams snaking west from the Mississippi River. He was still a few hours away from landing in Nashville, but from there, the drive to Gossamer Ridge, Alabama, would take less than three hours. He planned to stay overnight in Nashville and get an early start on the road.
He had to get to Gossamer Ridge for a morning rendezvous.
She’d been quite helpful, really, telling the newspaper reporter all about her life in Alabama. The family marina, running the booking office, even her quirky little side job as a fishing guide. He supposed she did that alone, too.
Reckless woman.
He’d used this past week not only to prepare for his cross-country trip but also to let the police-and Hannah Cooper-develop a false sense of security. They didn’t expect him to go to such lengths to tie up loose ends. Wouldn’t fit the profile, he thought with a smile.
As the flight attendant passed, she smiled back at him. For a moment, he imagined what it would be like to have her on his table in the basement of his mother’s house. To watch her twist and writhe as her fate became clearer, to realize that her own actions had led her to that place and that outcome.
But the flight attendant hadn’t earned that punishment, had she? At least, not yet. She hadn’t ignored his warnings and sealed her fate.
Hannah Cooper had, however. And he wasn’t one to leave things unfinished.
RILEY GAZED AT THE PAPERS spread across his desk and saw none of them. He’d spent most of the past week in this same position, hunched forward over his desk, moving papers around like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in the pretense that his mind was still on the work and not hundreds of miles away in the hills of northeast Alabama.
New information had come in on the case, most of it eliminating suspects rather than pinpointing anyone in particular. Among the hospital security personnel, only five possibles remained. None of them looked very promising, but they still remained more likely than the other hospital staffers they’d also been looking at.
He picked up the background sheets on the possibles, trying to concentrate on finding something he’d missed the first ten times he’d looked at these sheets over the past week, but all he could see was Hannah’s shattered expression when he’d turned around in the airport terminal to look at her for the last time.
He should have asked her to stay. Or hell, offered to go with her. What was keeping him here anymore, except an unhealthy craving for revenge? His parents were in Arizona. Jack was God knew where.
And Emily was dead.
But he wasn’t. He may have felt as if he were a walking corpse for the past three years, but he wasn’t dead yet. He still had years ahead of him, and living them as if life held no joy at all was the worst possible tribute to Emily’s memory.
For the first time, he felt her censure, the full truth of the words Joe had told him just a few short days ago.
The buzzer on his desk phone sounded. “Riley-get in here.” It was Joe, and he sounded excited.
He headed into Joe’s office and found him on the phone. Joe held up a finger and finished the conversation. “Yes, I think it’ll be very helpful. For sure it gives us another piece of the puzzle to help us cull suspects. I’ll definitely let you know if anything comes of it. Bye, now.” Joe hung up and looked at Riley, clearly excited but also exhibiting tell-tale signs of guilt.
“Who was that?” Riley asked, although in his sinking heart he knew the answer.
“Hannah Cooper,” Joe answered, sending a sliver of pain slicing straight through Riley’s heart. “She remembered something else.”
Riley listened as Joe told him about how Hannah had let her sister-in-law hypnotize her and remembered a ring the killer had been wearing, but all he could think about was the fact that Hannah had called Joe and not him.
No surprise, really. After all, he’d broken her heart. He’d known it even as he was doing it. Why would she ever want to speak to him again?
Yet she’d obviously kept thinking about the case, enough to let her sister-in-law hypnotize her into remembering more.
“I need time off,” he said bluntly.
Joe looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I just told you we got a break in the case, and you want time off?”
Riley stood, propelled by a restless urgency that grew stronger each second he remained in this office. He’d been headed toward this moment for a week, hadn’t he? Every moment spent thinking about her, rewinding every touch, every conversation, every regret for seven endless, excruciating days.
“She could have gone home and not given this case another thought,” he said aloud. “After all she went through, I wouldn’t have blamed her for it. But she didn’t.”
A slow smile of understanding spread across Joe’s face. “You’re going to Alabama, aren’t you?”
Riley grinned back at him, suddenly feeling the urge to laugh aloud. “Yes, I believe I am.”
“Well, I’m going to pass this information along to Sheriff Tanner and see if any of the Memorial Hospital staff wears an onyx pinky ring with a gold horseshoe set into it. You go book a flight and get packed.”
“Call me on my cell if you get any breaks in the case,” Riley said over his shoulder, already halfway out the door.
He found a flight leaving around 4:30 p.m. from Casper arriving in Birmingham before midnight and booked a room for a night at a motel not far from the Interstate. Packing in a rush, he was on the road to Casper by noon.
In twenty-four hours, he’d be with Hannah again. And if he was lucky, and she was forgiving, he wouldn’t ever be without her again.
HANNAH WAS LOCKING UP at the booking office late that afternoon when the phone rang. She glanced at the caller identification display, ready to blow off anyone she wasn’t in the mood to talk to. But the number had a Tennessee area code. Might be a client. She answered. “Cooper Cove Properties.”
“Hi, there.” The voice was male and friendly, with a neutral accent Hannah couldn’t place, though it sounded vaguely familiar. “My name is Ken Lassiter, and I was hoping you might have an opening in your schedule tomorrow morning for a guided crappie-fishing tour.”
She pretended to grab her book, although the truth was, hardly anyone was fishing for crappie on Gossamer Lake this time of year. No matter-she knew good spots to fish any time of the year. “I have an availability first thing in the morning. Can you be here by 6:30 a.m.?”
“I certainly can,” Lassiter answered cheerfully. “Are you the one who’ll be taking me?”
