Connor paced the emergency room while Julia was in surgery.
They needed to repair extensive muscle and arterial damage, and sew up the wound. The knife had gone in between the subclavian and pulmonary arteries. Had it been any higher on the shoulder, Julia would have bled out in minutes. Connor’s heart jumped into his throat and he squeezed back the moisture in his eyes. He shuddered at what could have happened, that but for a half inch, Julia would have died in his arms.
“She’ll be fine,” Dillon was saying. “They stabilized her in the ambulance. She’s going to make it.”
“I know. I’m just worried.” He ran a hand over his rough face. “Did Will arrest Laura Chase?”
When Dillon didn’t say anything, Connor stared at him. “Where is she?”
“They’re out in full force looking for her. Her house was empty,” said Dillon.
“She wasn’t at the art studio?”
“No. And her car is missing. We know she’s driving a silver Mercedes registered under the name Marisa Wohler.”
“Why? Why all…this?” Connor asked in exasperation.
“What we’ve been able to piece together after talking to Tom Chase is that Laura was devastated and inconsolable after Shannon’s death. She’d lost one daughter, Camilla, as an infant. She immediately got pregnant again and her entire life revolved around Shannon. She’d likely had an untreated psychosis already, and Shannon’s suicide flipped a switch.”
“So, kill the kid who raped her daughter, but why kill Bowen? Or Montgomery?”
“Will’s still trying to figure out how Tristan Lord and Laura Chase hooked up, but we know from records in Bowen’s office that the good doctor had an appointment with Laura Chase nearly two years ago that she never showed up for.”
“Where does Tristan Lord fit into this?”
Will Hooper walked in. “I think I can answer that.”
“Did you find Laura Chase?”
He shook his head. “We have the airports, trains, ports all covered. Border patrol is on the lookout as well.”
“So why did Tristan want to kill his uncle?”
“The station brought in a forensic artist to look at his paintings. The gal said each painting tells a story, that Tristan Lord was a master of perspective. From different angles, primarily from above, you can see something completely different from looking at it head-on.” Will grinned wryly at Connor. “So you weren’t wrong when you saw the number ten and the girl hanging.”
“And Bowen?”
“We know that Tristan’s mother died of cancer when he was eighteen. A painting in Bowen’s own house shows a man with a needle over a woman lying in bed. Under a microscope and ultraviolet light, you can see that some lines are made up of microscopic letters. They spell out ‘Mother was murdered’ over and over. Thousands of times. Sounds obsessive to me.”
“Tristan thought his own uncle killed his mom?” Connor asked.
“Tristan was probably right,” Will said. “I just came back from Eric Bowen’s house. He said his aunt Monica, Tristan’s mother, had breast cancer. Bowen’s wife died of breast cancer several years before. He watched her waste away, in pain, and eventually die so drugged she didn’t remember her husband or son. Monica Lord was in the final stages of cancer but was still mobile. Her medical records indicated that she had three to six months to live. Her doctor suspected she may have committed suicide-she was adamant about not wanting to ‘waste away’ like her sister-in-law.”
“And you’re thinking that maybe Bowen helped her.”
“Why wasn’t there an autopsy?” Dillon asked.
“Her doctor signed off on the death certificate without one. Her medical history showed invasive cancer; there was no reason to think anything but cancer killed her. And Dr. Bowen didn’t want her family to think she killed herself. There’s a matter of some insurance money.”
“Insurance money?”
“Bowen and Tristan split over eight million dollars from Monica’s estate.”
The surgeon came out of the operating room. “We’re done.”
Connor asked, “Can I see her now?”
“She’s in recovery, still sleeping. I’ll let you know when she wakes.”
“But she’s going to be okay, right?”
“She won’t be able to use her left arm for a while, but yeah, she’s going to be fine.”
It was over.
Laura Chase slowly walked to the grave of her daughter. Her beautiful, perfect daughter.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Hell. She’d been living in it for nearly two years, but now it was over.
She sat against the headstone that read
Across from Shannon’s grave was a smaller one, for an infant:
Tomorrow marked the twentieth anniversary of Camilla’s death. Six months old and died in her crib. The doctors said it was sudden infant death syndrome. Laura knew different.
For years she’d suppressed the guilt. It had been an accident. No one knew, not even Tom. Shannon, perfect Shannon, was Laura’s chance to make everything right again.
She closed her eyes. Took out the bottle of pills she’d stolen from Garrett long ago. Swallowed them two by two.
Two by two.
Two by two.
Her head spun, but she kept taking the pills. She felt heavy. Heavy. Of course, they would put her to sleep. Forever.
But Shannon was dead. Vengeance, perhaps, for Laura’s own sins.
Connor sat with Julia as she woke from surgery. “You’re back.”
“How long?”
“You skipped a day. It’s Thursday morning.” He glanced at his watch. “Five-fifteen.”
“Wow. I didn’t think-Did Michelle fall over the railing?”
“Michelle’s dead. So is Laura Chase. They found her body near the grave of her daughters. Suicide.”
“I could almost feel sorry for her.”
“Dillon said Laura Chase was psychotic. She snapped. She managed to hold it together for a while. There’s a twisted logic to all the victims. Except for Paul Judson. Dillon thinks he was a test, to bind the four kids to a common goal, as well as keep them in line.”
“Skip, Robbie, Michelle, and Faye.”
“Tristan Lord accessed his uncle’s files and learned the identity of all his online patients. Then it was just a matter of matching up the so-called anonymous e-mails with real people.”
“Like Emily.” Julia frowned. “Michelle’s parents were of modest means. How did she hop back and forth from Palo Alto and San Diego? How did she live?”
“Will’s still digging into the finances and timeline, but the penthouse apartment Michelle lived in was paid for by Laura Chase. In the divorce, the Chases split a substantial pot of money. Laura changed her identity and bought the house near Garrett Bowen. There’s evidence that Michelle had a room there as well as the apartment.”
“Maybe to keep the act going, that ‘Cami’ was ‘Marisa Wohler’s’ daughter.” Julia reached for Connor’s hand and he squeezed it, bringing his lips down to her fingers. She asked, “All this in an elaborate plan to kill Garrett Bowen because he helped Tristan’s mother commit suicide and testified for Jason Ridge. It’s amazing that Laura Chase and Tristan hooked up in the first place.”
“Not that amazing,” Connor said. “E-crimes is still putting together a timeline of Wishlist and it looks like
