Dr. Alain Metcalf, Nadine’s ride home the night of the charity event and the big fight between the Ryersons, had died a few years later outside Glen Gen, where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon. He’d been attacked in the hospital parking lot, bludgeoned, his wallet and prescription pad stolen. He’d died on the spot. The police had waited for either his credit cards or the prescription pads to be used, but neither had. The killer, seen all in black on the security cameras, had hidden late at night behind another car when Metcalf came out of the hospital to get into his. He’d come around to attack Metcalf, then run off across the lot to a wooded area which stood on a short hill. According to the notes in the file the tape was grainy and the night was somewhat foggy. The killer had never been found. Like Dr. Ryerson, Metcalf was suspected of being free with his prescriptions, and there was thought that one of his “patients” may have killed the golden goose in some kind of dealer/addict dispute.
Cooper made a note to recheck that. He thought about calling Jamie, but decided to wait. He’d taxed her with thinking whether she could have been the intended target and wanted to let that percolate awhile. If it wasn’t one of his classmates who’d attacked Emma, why had the Ryerson house been targeted twenty years earlier? If it wasn’t one of the senior boys who’d come at Marissa, why had the Ryerson house been targeted last Saturday? Random home invasion . . . ? Someone capitalizing on the Babysitter Stalker story that long ago summer? Someone reenacting that now?
Or was Mike Corliss right, and Emma’s attacker was indeed one of his classmates?
He just couldn’t believe that.
Thursday morning, Cooper determined he would interview Race Stillwell after work whether Race wanted him to or not. He put in a call to Tim Merchel in Sacramento not long after he got to the station, but Tim was busy. However, the lawyer called back within the hour.
“What’s up, Coop? Long time no talk to,” Merchel said, sounding distracted.
Cooper could hear conversation in the background. “I’m looking into Emma’s case again.”
“Yeah? Hope you figure it out. I’m at the courthouse. Got a trial going. We’re on break.”
“I won’t keep you. I’m just checking in. Seeing if there’s anything you might remember about that night that we haven’t gone over.”
“Haven’t thought about it in a while. Do you know I’m getting married? Finally got smart enough to ask her, and she said maybe.” He snorted a laugh. “Made me pay for taking so damn long, but it’s on now. I’ll send you an invitation.”
“Congratulations.”
“And if I think of anything, I’ll let you know. You should talk to Race . . . and Dug.”
“I plan on it.”
“They never were on the up and up. I’m still sorry about Emma, you know.”
“Yeah.”
“And I’m sorry for being such a shit. We all liked her. You just got farther than the rest of us.”
Cooper heard Tim’s name being called by someone, and Tim told him he had to go.
Cooper was still thinking about that call, about how Merchel had zeroed in on Race and Dug and their story about Dug walking home on his own. He’d said the same to the police twenty years earlier and he’d even wanted them to give him a lie detector test, which hadn’t happened, to Cooper’s knowledge. There was nothing in the file about it. Mike Corliss had always believed it was one of Cooper’s classmates and had developed tunnel vision about any other possibility. Maybe he was right.
Around noon, a call came in about a domestic dispute at the Kearns home. Patrol responded to the 911 call from a frightened young girl named Joy, who turned out to be the Kearns’ seventh-grade daughter. Joy tearfully claimed her parents were killing each other. When the officers got to the home, Phil and Bette Kearns were at two different ends of the house and Joy, who’d been home from school with a sore throat and watching TV in her room—something the parents had apparently forgotten about when their fight escalated to blistering war—was standing by the front door, waiting. She hurried the officers in, and eventually, Phil and Bette were coaxed into meeting in the middle, coming into the living room. According to the officers’ report, Phil’s face sported a dark red handprint where his wife had slapped him. She also showed bruises on her wrists where she claimed he’d held her against her will in a hard grip. She swore he was overpowering her. He swore he was just holding her away from him. That was when Bette started wailing that she wanted Cooper Haynes. When Phil seconded that, the patrol unit happily sent out the request, and Cooper, though loathe to get involved, nevertheless took over for the officers, even though it wasn’t strictly part of his job description. The lines were blurred some at River Glen Police Department, but he said/she said disputes generally didn’t require a detective.
It was part of the irony of the job that what kept him out of the investigation of the attack on Marissa was what made him lead man on his classmate’s domestic violence case: Cooper knew Phil from high school and Bette from being introduced to her when she was with Phil. She was overly friendly, one of those people whose behavior bordered on inappropriate. He could almost see an “I’m available” sign flashing over her head.
When Cooper arrived at the house, he relieved the patrolmen, then entered through the foyer to find both Bette and Phil seated in chairs in the living room. As soon as Bette saw him, she leaped up and ran to him like they were old friends, crying and claiming Phil was a monster. The daughter was standing at one end of the
