Body Double

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I was thinking only of you, Maura. What’s in your best interests-”

“The truth isn’t in my best interests?”

“In this case, no. It isn’t.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I made a mistake with your sister-a serious one. She wanted so badly to find her mother, and I thought I could do her that favor. I had no idea it would turn out the way it did.” He took a step toward her. “I was trying to protect you, Maura. I saw what it did to Anna. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

“I’m not Anna.”

“But you’re just like her. You’re so much like her, it scares me. Not just the way you look, but the way you think.”

She gave a sarcastic laugh. “So now you can read my mind?”

“Not your mind. Your personality. Anna was tenacious. When she wanted to know something, she wouldn’t let go. And you’ll just keep digging and digging, until you have an answer. The way you dug out there in the woods today. That wasn’t your job, and it wasn’t your jurisdiction. You had no reason to be out there at all, except for sheer curiosity. And stubbornness. You wanted to find those bones, so you did. That’s how Anna was.” He sighed. “I’m just sorry she found what she was digging for.”

“Who was my mother, Rick?”

“A woman you don’t want to meet.”

It took a moment for Maura to fully register the significance of that answer. Present tense. “My mother is alive.”

Reluctantly he nodded.

“And you know where to find her.”

He didn’t answer.

“Goddamn it, Rick!” she exploded. “Why don’t you just tell me?”

He went to the table and sat down, as though suddenly too tired to continue the battle. “Because I know you’re going to find it painful, hearing the facts. Especially because of who you are. What you do for a living.”

“What does my job have to do with it?”

“You work with law enforcement. You help bring killers to justice.”

“I don’t bring anyone to justice. I just provide the facts. Sometimes the facts aren’t what you cops want to hear.”

“But you work on our side.”

“No. The victim’s side.”

“All right, the victim’s side. That’s why you’re not going to like what I tell you about her.”

“You haven’t told me a thing so far.”

He sighed. “Okay. Maybe I should start off by telling you where she’s living.”

“Go on.”

“Amalthea Lank-the woman who gave you up for adoption-is incarcerated at the Massachusetts Department of Corrections facility in Framingham.”

Her legs suddenly unsteady, Maura sank into a chair across from him. Felt her arm smear across spilled butter that had congealed on the tabletop. Evidence of the cheerful meal they’d shared less than an hour ago, before her universe had tilted.

“My mother is in prison?”

“Yes.”

Maura stared at him, and could not bring herself to ask the next obvious question, because she was afraid of the answer. But she had already taken the first step down this road, and even though she didn’t know where it might take her, she couldn’t turn back now.

“What did she do?” Maura asked. “Why is she in prison?”

“She’s serving a life term,” he said. “For a double homicide.”

“That’s what I didn’t want you to know,” said Ballard. “I saw what it did to Anna, knowing what her mother was guilty of. Knowing whose blood she had in her veins. That’s a pedigree no one wants to have-a killer in the family. Naturally, she didn’t want to believe it. She thought it had to be a mistake, that maybe her mother was innocent. And after she saw her-”

“Wait. Anna saw our mother?”

“Yes. She and I drove out together, to MCI-Framingham. The women’s prison. It was another mistake, because that visit only made her more confused about her mother’s guilt. She just couldn’t accept the fact her mother was a monst-” He stopped.

A monster. My mother is a monster.

The rainfall had slowed to a gentle tap-tap on the roof. Though the thunderstorm had passed, she could still hear its fading rumble as it swept out to sea. But inside the kitchen, all was silent. They sat facing each other across the table, Rick watching her with quiet concern, as though afraid she would shatter. He doesn’t know me, she thought. I’m not Anna. I won’t fall apart. And I don’t need a goddamn keeper.

“Tell me the rest,” she said.

“The rest?”

“You said Amalthea Lank was convicted of double homicide. When was this?”

“It was about five years ago.”

“Who were the victims?”

“It’s not an easy thing to tell you. Or an easy thing for you to hear.”

“So far you’ve told me my mother is a murderer. I think I’m taking it pretty well.”

“Better than Anna did,” he admitted.

“So tell me who the victims were, and don’t leave a goddamn thing out. It’s the one thing I can’t deal with, Rick, when people hide the truth from me. I was married to a man who kept too many secrets from me. That’s what ended our marriage. I won’t put up with it again, not from anyone. ”

“Okay.” He leaned forward, looking her in the eye. “You want the details, then I’ll be brutally honest about it. Because the details are brutal. The victims were two sisters, Theresa and Nikki Wells, ages thirty-five and twenty-eight, from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. They were stranded at the side of the road with a flat tire. It was late November, and there was a surprise snowstorm blowing. They must’ve felt pretty lucky when a car pulled over to give them a lift. Two days later, their bodies were found about thirty miles away, in a burned-down shed. A week after that, police in Virginia stopped Amalthea Lank for a traffic violation. Found out her car had stolen plates. Then they noticed smears of blood on the rear bumper. When police searched the car, they found the victims’ wallets were in the trunk, as well as a tire iron with Amalthea’s fingerprints. Later tests turned up traces of blood on it. Nikki’s and Theresa’s blood. The final piece of evidence was recorded on a gas station security camera up in Massachusetts. Amalthea Lank is seen on that recording filling a plastic container with gasoline. The gasoline she used to burn the victims’ bodies.” His gaze met hers. “There. I’ve been brutal. Is that what you wanted?”

“What was the cause of death?” she asked. Her voice strangely, chillingly calm. “You said the bodies were burned, but how were the women killed?”

He stared at her for a moment, as though not quite accepting her composure. “X-rays of the burned remains showed that the skulls of both women were fractured, most likely by that tire iron. The younger sister, Nikki, was struck so hard in the face that it caved in the facial bones, leaving nothing but a crater. That’s how vicious a crime it was.”

She thought about the scenario he had just presented. Thought about a snowy roadside and two stranded sisters. When a woman stops to help, they’d have every reason to trust their good samaritan, especially if she is older. Grayer. Women helping women.

She looked at Ballard. “You said Anna didn’t believe she was guilty.”

“I just told you what they presented at trial. The tire iron, the gas station video. The stolen wallets. Any jury would have convicted her.”

“This happened five years ago. How old was Amalthea?”

“I don’t remember. Sixty-something.”