Killing Fear

“Let’s go back to the beginning.”

“Read the transcripts.”

“I have. Several times.”

“So you know that Theodore Glenn stalked the women he killed. Manipulated them. Seduced them. Then he killed them.”

“Except for possibly Anna,” Hans said.

Robin jumped up. “Oh, please! Don’t tell me that Trinity convinced you that Glenn didn’t kill Anna? I can’t believe you’re listening to a woman who’s helping a killer. An escaped convict who killed two cops.” She looked to Will, feeling betrayed all over again when he avoided eye contact.

He also thinks Glenn is innocent.

“Who else wants you dead?” Trinity had asked her.

“Ms. McKenna,” Hans said, “I haven’t spoken with Trinity Lange yet. I simply read the report. But you said yourself that Anna Clark didn’t have a sexual relationship with Glenn.”

“She didn’t.” Robin sat down again, away from Will. She was acting like a jack-in-the-box. She’d better get herself under control or they’d think she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had. She wanted to touch Will, for support, but she had a hard time accepting that he thought Anna’s murder was unsolved.

“You’re one hundred percent certain of that.”

She hesitated. Was she? After seven years, nothing seemed like what it had been. “Anna was a lesbian. I’m almost positive she wouldn’t have slept with any man, and if she did it wouldn’t have been Glenn. She didn’t like him.”

“I agree,” Agent Vigo said. “And, for the record, you didn’t have a relationship with Glenn either.”

“No,” she answered through clenched teeth. “Why is it all you cop-types think that just because I was a stripper I slept around?” She glanced at Will, confused and trapped. She rubbed her head. Damn, she didn’t want to remember how she’d felt all those years ago. All she wanted was to remember how good it was to be held by Will, how happy she’d been when she was with him. How he showed genuine appreciation for her paintings. Like he knew she’d go right to the top in the art world, with a confidence and assurance that she didn’t have about her own work.

Vigo said, “I’m just verifying the facts. It’s natural that, based on the M.O., the police would believe either you or Anna had been involved with Glenn. But knowing what we know now, I think Glenn’s behavior proves he has unfinished business with you.” He glanced at Will, who nodded. Had they talked about this before, or were they just on the same wavelength? Robin rubbed her temple harder.

“Which leaves two possibilities,” Will said. “First, let’s go on the assumption that Anna wasn’t supposed to be in town.”

“Will-you-” She felt like Alice down the rabbit hole, nothing she saw or heard familiar or comfortable.

“Ms. McKenna, I’ve reviewed all the files in this matter and witness testimony states that she was supposed to be in Big Bear,” Hans said. “In your statement you said you didn’t expect her to be home that night.”

“I didn’t. I just don’t know why she came back early, or why she didn’t call me.”

“Who else might she have called?”

“I don’t know. Maybe RJ, though I doubt it. She would have more likely called me.”

“Would she have called you on your cell phone? At the bar?”

“I didn’t have a cell phone then. That was seven years ago. She probably would have called the bar, or maybe left a message on the answering machine. Unless…” She shook her head.

“What?”

“She knew about Will and me. Maybe she thought I was at his place.” Robin hated that her private life was being exposed for all to see.

Hans said, “Glenn killed people you were close to in order to hurt you, to watch how you reacted. He didn’t take pleasure in killing his victims. He took pleasure in watching you suffer. You heard that when he called you. He wanted to make sure you understood that.”

“Oh God. Oh God.”

Will moved to sit right next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

Will said, “I never asked you, Robin. Where were you when you found out about Bethany’s murder? The testimony states that RJ told you.”

She nodded. “He called me over after my dance, said Bethany hadn’t shown up and he sent one of the boys- one of the bouncers-to her apartment to check on her. RJ could be a total ass wipe, but he cared about our safety. And there she was…” Her breath caught.

“So you were at RJ’s?”

“Yes.”

“Was Theodore Glenn there that night?”

Robin paled. “He came backstage and asked if everything was okay. I was in shock, I think. Brandi burst into tears and told him about Bethany. He hugged her. God, he hugged her and stroked her hair and told her everything would be okay.” She slammed her fist on the table in front of her. He’d held Brandi, but he’d been looking right at Robin with those eerie blue eyes. She didn’t think anything about it then, and even after everything, that moment in time had been buried. Until now. “That bastard!”

Hans and Will exchanged looks.

“What?” she demanded. “I deserve to know what’s going on, don’t I? Will?”

She jumped up. Paced. She wanted to run away, but there was nowhere to go.

Will stood and grabbed her hands, forced her to look at him. She blinked back the tears. “It is not your fault, Robin. Glenn is a sociopath. If he didn’t fixate on you, he would have fixated on someone else. What we have to deal with now are the facts.”

“All right.” She sat back down, hands clasped tightly in her lap.

Will remained standing. She bit back her fear, her face a mask of calmness when Will knew she was petrified. She thought she was weak? He didn’t know many civilians who could keep it together in the face of an evil like Theodore Glenn. It was so hard not to touch Robin, but right now they needed information.

“The night Anna died, there was a message on my cell phone,” Will began. “It was a page from your apartment.”

Robin’s brows furrowed, but she didn’t say anything.

“I thought it was you calling. I didn’t call back because I was only a few minutes away, so I came by. I was going to go up to the apartment, but I saw the bar lights still on and I remembered that you had been working that night.”

Hans asked, “Did you think it was odd that she paged you with her home number?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t really think anything about it, or if I did it was that she must have accidentally put in her home number, or thought she’d be home in a few minutes. I don’t know, I really don’t remember what I thought at the time. But I went into RJ’s, and that’s where I found Robin.”

“Anna was murdered at about the time that Will arrived at the bar,” Hans said. “Give or take fifteen minutes. She may have been dead when he got the page, or she may have been killed after he arrived at the bar.”

“Theodore told Trinity that he was watching us in the bar. He could have killed her, then came down and watched-” Robin stopped, her face pale.

“I know this is hard for you, Robin,” Will said. “But it’s important that you think back to that night and try to remember everything that happened.”

“I gave my statement seven years ago,” she said.

Hans nodded. “In your statement you said you closed up the bar, walked across the street to your apartment, and found Anna dead in the living room.”

“That’s true.”

Will sat next to Robin. “I made a huge mistake seven years ago. When you didn’t put in your statement that we had been together in the bar, I should have. I should have said something.”

“That’s not relevant to anything,” she said.

“No, except it wasn’t the complete truth. I omitted the truth.”

“Had you been totally honest, would that have saved Anna?”

“No,” Will said.