She spoke not so much to Rebecca, but to the voice that never went away. Never let her have a moment’s peace. She wanted it gone. “Get out of my head!”
Rebecca tensed. An odd transformation was happening. Meghan was fighting with something or someone. She watched the change and almost flinched at the look of pure hatred that flashed in Meghan’s eyes. Realization slowly dawned on her. This was the Meghan that had committed the murders. “Meghan? Are you still with me?”
Evil glinted in Meghan’s eyes. “Of course I am, you fucking bitch.” She said it with as even a tone as someone talking about the weather, but the look in her eyes sent chills down Rebecca’s spine. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“Of course I do.” A sneer. She picked up Julie’s picture. Meghan rubbed the tip of her finger over Julie’s mouth. “Sweet Christine. This is all your fault. You made me do it.”
“What’s all Christine’s fault?” Rebecca asked quickly. She needed to get her to confess. She could deal with the details of insanity later.
“She left me and she had to die.” Meghan stated angrily.
“Why all of them, Meghan?” Rebecca slid the photos closer, hoping to trigger another burst of anger.
An evil smirk broke out on Meghan’s face. This time she looked at the photos with a sneer of satisfaction. “Every one of them wanted something she couldn’t have. Just like every other woman in the world. All these stupid bitches begged me to play God for them. Every single one of them wanted to be pregnant. I had to look at their faces when they told me how much they wanted a child and how grateful they were that I could give it to them. All of them had what should have been mine.”
“What should have been yours, Meghan?”
“The baby. Every single baby should have been mine. That should have been Christine there, but I wasn’t good enough.”
“Is that why you took the babies?”
“I gave them that life.”
Meghan stated it without ire, and Rebecca wondered if she had lost contact with the crazy Meghan. “So the baby was yours to do with as you pleased?”
“Yes, you stupid cunt.” Meghan sneered.
“So, because Christine couldn’t let you play God, you had to punish all of them?”
“You’re so smart Detective. You’ve got this whole thing worked out, don’t you?”
Rebecca shrugged nonchalantly. “Maybe. Some of the details are a bit foggy.”
Meghan toyed with the edge of Julie’s photo. “Oh, I think you’ve got it all figured out.”
Rebecca held her gaze. “Tell me why you tried to frame Richard Hudson?”
Meghan chuckled evilly. “He was perfect.”
“What do you mean?”
“Surely, you know that Richard’s first wife was murdered, and the case is still unsolved.”
Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “How do you know about that?”
“Detective Foxx.” Meghan said condescendingly. “As I told you before, the clinic offers mandatory counseling for all its clients. Richard’s sessions proved very enlightening. His colored past made it all too easy to frame him.”
“So, you took his loss and punished him for it?”
“Richard Hudson was a bastard. I did the world a favor by taking him out of the picture.”
“And were you doing Elizabeth a favor by killing her and taking her baby?”
Meghan waggled her finger at Rebecca. “Tsk, tsk Detective.” The word Detective dripped with disdain. “What the world didn’t need was his spawn.”
“And that was your choice to make?”
Meghan slammed her fist down. “Of course it was my choice. I’m the only reason she was pregnant in the first place.”
“How did you kill them?”
Meghan studied her for a second, measuring her up. “The case files tell you all of that, I’m sure.”
“Yes, they do.” Rebecca nodded. “But as I said before, we weren’t quite sure of some of the details.”
“It was quite easy actually.” Meghan studied her fingernails. “Women are so trusting these days. They don’t sense danger. It made killing them rather simple.”
“And raping them and leaving DNA at the scene? Kind of hard for a woman?”
“Not really.” Meghan smug smile returned. “You’re a lesbian, Detective. I’m sure you know that there are tools out there. A strap-on and a condom full of semen. It’s not that hard to figure out.”
“And taking the baby? How about that, Meghan? Was that easy too?” Rebecca’s tone bordered on contempt.
Meghan’s eyes softened slightly. The only sign that she cared about life at all. “They were my children. I was saving them, Detective. Can’t you see that?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I couldn’t let them grow up in a world where love and vows mean nothing. I couldn’t let them be in a world where people like Christine could steal everything from them.”
Rebecca’s stomach turned. Meghan honestly believed she had done some magnanimous turn by killing them all. She swallowed as Meghan looked on expectantly. It was almost as though she took joy in what she had done.
Rebecca clasped her hands on the table. “What about Phillip Stein? Why him?”
Meghan looked at her askance. “Detective, everyone knows the perfect murder is the one you commit without being caught.”
“So, you steered us to him?”
“Giving you Phillip was as easy as leading a pig to the slaughter. You had already fucked up and caught the wrong guy once. You needed to break the case. All I needed to do was put the suggestion out there and you would find a way to fit the pieces into the puzzle.” The ghost of a smile formed in the corner of Meghan’s mouth. Her eyes looked almost triumphant.
Another wave of nausea. “Nine people are dead because of you. Doesn’t that bother you?”
Meghan sneered again. “They all died because of Christine. She still needs to die.” She leaned forward, put her finger on Julie’s picture and slid it in front of Rebecca. Their eyes locked. “She will die too.”
Rebecca felt a cold chill slide down her spine. “No one else will die. I promise you this. You will rot in jail.”
“Ahh, Detective.” Meghan smiled eerily. “As I said before, that’s the thing about the perfect murder…not getting caught. You have nothing on me. No way to tie me to any of them. At the most, you have assault and battery on a federal agent. But as you already know…” She rolled her finger in a circle near her temple. “…I’m crazy. I’ll do a little time in a cozy institution somewhere for a year or so.”
This time it was Rebecca’s turn to smirk. “The funny thing about evidence is you never know where it will pop up.” She looked over her shoulder and nodded.
The smile disappeared from Meghan’s face as the door opened and two officers deposited several bags of evidence on the table containing items that she immediately recognized.
Rebecca picked up a bag containing specimen cups. Meghan’s face blanched. “They’ve already been tested. Richard Hudson and Phillip Stein.”
Meghan swallowed. “Where did you get that?”
Rebecca picked up the next item. “I’m pretty sure that if we test the epithelial cells found on this strap-on with yours, they will be a match.”
“All that proves is I’m into penetration.” Meghan crossed her arms defensively.
Rebecca pulled the case folder out that the officers had just dropped off. She pulled several pictures of perfectly preserved fetuses out and lined them up in front of Meghan, who jerked away quickly. She cocked her head. “How am I doing so far?”
“You’ve got nothing, Detective.” Meghan said stoically, but her disdainful hubris was gone. “None of this ties
