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  “Sure, I’ll do that while you call Mom and tell her what’s going on, and then the two of you can decide if we should call anyone else.”

  “Okay.”

  “Are you sure you want to stay at your apartment? You guys could stay at my place, I’m over at Jessie’s.”

  “AJ heard about the arrests and he brought us to a hotel.”

  “Good. I won’t worry as much. Call Mom, I’ll get back to you as soon as I have anything from Steph.”

  “Thanks.”

  I dialed Mom and got her on the line just as AJ got back to the car. He showed me the room key, and we headed toward the back of the place.

  AJ listened while I told Mom everything I knew. She was very reassuring, but said she would call and tell everybody, just in case. Better safe than sorry. She seemed to calm down a bunch when I told her that AJ and I were not going home, but staying in a random hotel.

  When we got to the back of the building, I was done with my conversation, wished my mom a good night, and disconnected just as AJ opened my door.

  “We’re in room 1212. I know that’s your lucky number.”

  “We could use a little luck.”

  “As soon as we go up and check the room, I’m going to come back and move the car.”

  “Don’t you want to be able to see it from our window?”

  “If he’s going to find my car, I’d rather it be far away from our room, and if someone else is going to mess with my car, it’s insured. Besides, if anyone sets off the alarm, the alarm will call me on my cell phone.”

  “You’re kidding. I didn’t know that. How come I never knew that?”

  “I never use that setting, but I will tonight.”

  Teagan called back and said she couldn’t get ahold of Steph. She did get to talk to her soon-to-be-husband, who said she was off with some law enforcement and that she’d told him if she didn’t come home tonight, not to worry. She said if she heard anything, she’d call, but she really didn’t expect to hear anything tonight.

  I texted Carmine to let him know that I was not going home tonight, just in case he stopped by there.

  AJ and I were exhausted.

  Sleeping naked is almost as good as other stuff you do naked.

  Morning came early. I’d remembered to set the alarm on my phone, a small miracle, and it was just loud enough to annoy me. Perfect.

  AJ took his shower first, then went off in search of the appropriate junk food breakfast while I took mine.

  It’s weird to take a shower and put the same clothes back on.

  I’m just sayin’.

  Teagan called before AJ got back.

  “It doesn’t seem right that we were in on all of this from the very beginning, and then when they decide they’re going to arrest the guy, you go and hide in a hotel. We should have been there.”

  “I have no desire to be there. Besides, they should have him in custody by now. Did Steph ever call you back?”

  “Nope, which is pretty rude, considering.”

  “She probably had better things on her mind, Teagan.”

  “If it weren’t for us, she’d have never had anything to do with all this in the first place.”

  “Yeah, cause I’m sure for her, doing all this pro bono work is just what she dreams about. She’s babysitting our interests and helping us in ways we don’t even know about, when she could be working on real cases and making money.”

  “Well, obviously this is a real case if they’re arresting people.”

  “True. Teagan, tell you what, when I hear anything I’ll call you. If you hear anything call me. Until then, not a lot we can do.”

  “Fine, but you know what, if Steph doesn’t call pretty soon, I think you should call Rory and see if he’s heard anything. He’s down at the station all the time, he’s a cop, and he’s our brother. He’ll be able to sniff out the poop.”

  “What a great turn of phrase for my morning. I’m not going to call Rory and neither are you. The last thing he needs is getting involved in whatever this is. This isn’t going to turn out well for Rory no matter what.”

  “This isn’t going to hurt Rory.”

  “Teagan, if Jerkface turns out to be a serial murderer and he was working alone, then Rory’s two sisters are the ones that found a dirty cop. A dirty cop that supposedly the cops didn’t know anything about. Come on now, the cops are going to look like idiots and there’s going to be a huge trial with all kinds of media coverage and investigations and all of their screw-ups are going to be out there for the world to see.”

  “It isn’t Rory’s fault that some cop went nuts.”

  “I know that, and you know that, but we don’t know how the cops are going to react. And what if another cop is involved?”

  “Yeah, right. One serial murderer cop is a stretch. Two? I don’t think so.”

  “They would almost have to be working together. Cops have a sixth sense, they just know stuff.”

  “And you say that I watch too much TV.”

  “Doesn’t matter, we’ll know all about it soon enough.”

  “I swear to God Cara, if you don’t call me the second you know whatever it is they tell you, I’m gonna throw you off the boat when we go to Alaska.”

  “AJ’s at the door, I gotta go. I’ll call you the minute I know anything.”

  I disconnected as I was fumbling with the maid lock.

  AJ presented me with the perfect breakfast. An ice cold Pepsi and a triple pack of Hostess Cinnamon Sweet Rolls from the gas station convenience store.

  He does love me.

  I snarffed my breakfast, as junk food is made for snarffing.

  We got to the apartment just as my ex-spy Special Forces neighbor was leaving for work. I gave him a quick update. He said he would stop by tonight for the latest.

  AJ changed his clothes, then sat on the couch waiting for me to get ready to leave. He refused to leave me alone, even though I tried to assure him that the arrests were to take place before sunrise, and the sun was well in the sky.

  He said until Steph or Carmine called giving us the all clear, I would not be out of his sight.

  I’ve got things to do. I have a life to live. This isn’t going to work for me.

  I may have been muttering that as I went in to change my clothes. I wanted to take another shower; I know that sounds weird, but putting your underwear back on, even inside out, makes another shower pretty much necessary.

  Instead, I settled for clean underwear. I pulled on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, some tennis shoes, and slapped my hair back in an elongated ponytail. You know those combs that have the little plastic zig zag dealy connecting them, I know they probably went out of style when I was in 4th grade, but I still use them. They make my hair look longer and fuller. They still sell them, so I can’t be the only one using them.

  I slathered some tinted moisturizer on my face, spritzed on some Light Blue, and called myself done.

  When I got back out to the living room, AJ had the news on. He informed me that there was nothing about the arrests on the news, and since it would be a cop arrested, they would definitely have it all on the news. Something must have gone wrong.

  I admit it; he was starting to make me nervous.

  We grabbed all our stuff, I remembered to grab my phone charger out of my car, it wouldn’t do to get stuck without a working phone at this point in my life. We headed off to the studio.

  Probably a good thing that AJ was driving, because in the amount of time it took us to get to Old Town, with virtually no traffic, I got calls from Teagan, my mom, Jovana, Liam, Teagan again, and just as we got to the public parking lot, Steph.

  “How did it go? Is he in jail?”

  “It got complicated.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we have to talk.”

  “We are talking.”

  “We need to talk face to face. At my office. Can you do that?”

  “When we talked yesterday we arranged to meet at nin
e this morning. That time slot is still available but I’d really rather meet in a place that’s a little less official. Can we meet at the diner?”

  “I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about all of this in public, but I’ll be happy to come to the studio if you would be more comfortable.”

  “I really appreciate it.”

  “Cara, Teagan has been calling non-stop. Do you have any objection to inviting her to the meeting?”

  “No, it’ll save me from having to repeat everything to her.”

  “I’ll contact her and see when she’s available.”

  “I’ll be here till you get here, thanks Steph.”

  AJ and I got busy doing office stuff. I’m trying to come up with a genius way of storing all of his work. Digital photography is a wonderful thing, you can take a gazillion pictures, but then you have to be able to find them when you want them. I’m sure there are lots of programs out there that help you do that, but AJ says he has looked at most of them and they just don’t work for him, so I’m trying to come up with something that is more intuitive for him. Maybe we can package it and sell it to other photographers and that’ll be my claim to fame.

  We took a few minutes and set up a table downstairs, with a few mismatched chairs, maybe my insistence on an informal setting was a mistake. We talked about getting something to eat from the diner and bringing it into the studio. We’d decided to go ahead and do that when Teagan, Steph and Carmine walked in the door.

  Carmine’s name might be right out of central casting, but not his look. He is blond, young, and actually quite attractive, if you’re into surfers.

  Teagan was carrying a box of donuts. Steph was carrying a six-pack of Pepsi. Carmine had a big glass with something green in it.

  We sat at the table, everyone but Carmine grabbed a donut and Pepsi.

  Teagan started us off, “Steph, I know that this is all very technical and legal, but I don’t need the legalese, and to be honest, I don’t understand half of it anyway…”

  What a liar! Teagan is one of the smartest people I know. She understands all things legal. She works with that kind of stuff all the time. The thought crossed my mind that Steph and Teagan were dumbing it down for me, and if that’s the case, I’m gonna be really angry. I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t need anything dumbed down either. Well, nothing lawyerly. Maybe a few medical terms, and definitely some mathematics, but not something like this. I just want to know what happened. I decided not to comment.

  Steph gave Carmine a pointed look, “This is all unofficial and off the record.”

  Carmine snapped, “I didn’t say anything.”

  Maybe that explained Teagan’s comments. I have to remember it isn’t always about me. Deep breath.

  Steph pushed her donut aside and began, “I’m just gonna start from the beginning and give you information in very broad strokes. You guys know the way I got involved in this. A request by Teagan for information that might help safeguard Cara from any blowback for a situation she found herself in. At the time, I believed that situation to be a stalker problem with a cop named Joe Branden. From there, the situation has escalated pretty rapidly. We have all been a part of it, so there is no reason to go into detail for the majority of it, but the steps we have taken are worth revisiting; as Carmine has been working this almost since I first heard about it, he may have more information in certain areas than I, and I will ask him to share that information when appropriate.”

  For this being a casual meeting, off the record, Steph sure sounded like a lawyer.

  She continued, “As you are aware, I have taken some steps to assure your safety, Cara, and now, the safety of your family. The injunction I’ve gotten, sorry, the restraining order, now applies to all the members of your immediate family, their spouses, and those sharing their place of residence.”

  Teagan’s eyebrows about went to her hairline, but she didn’t say anything.

  Carmine stepped in, “Once it was established that the memory cards were sequestered, probably by Louis, as his fingerprints were the only prints on the cards, other than Teagan’s, smart move to wrap them in toilet paper, and a good thing it was the cheap stuff, not much lint there, anyway, we have Louis’s fingerprints on the memory cards. Those memory cards are a scrapbook of the various crimes logged in the journals. At first, it seemed that the journals were an investigative tool, or even a work of fiction, but upon further investigation, first by me, then in conjunction with law enforcement, it’s evident that the journals are a true and accurate representation, the memory cards are pictorial proof, and the victims, although not all have been identified, are in fact, the victims of homicide.”

  I pushed my donut away, “Crap.”

  Teagan looked like she was going to throw-up, “So, what you’re saying is that Louis killed all those girls, was stupid enough to write it down and take pictures, even though he’s a cop and would know better, then he turns up dead?”

  Carmine countered, “Was a cop.”

  “Doesn’t that seem a little convenient to you? What about Jerkface and his sister?”

  Carmine smiled, “I’m not quite done yet.”

  Teagan answered before I could, “There better be some kind of punchline, cause as funny as this isn’t, this whole explanation is a joke.”

  Steph jumped in. “Okay, very long story short. What we have found is this. Louis was, in fact, a serial murderer. His crimes were recent. They were all committed since he left the police department.”

  Teagan snorted, “Yeah, right!”

  Steph took a breath and continued, “It appears that the event that caused Officer Arcillio, Louis, to lose his position on the force, triggered the murders. From what we can figure out, at first, he killed the girls so that he could solve the crimes, that’s what the journals were about. His plan was to solve a set of crimes. Once he was able to prove himself, he would be welcomed back on the force, and be seen as a hero to the whole community.”

  I had to ask, “Wait a minute. I thought that Louis was shot and off the force on medical leave, but working with a physical therapist, and was about to get back on the force, you know, the right way.”

  Carmine answered me, “Arcillio had more problems mentally than he did physically. He was coming back physically, but he’d lost it mentally. He probably lost it before he was shot in the first place. His mental health issues seem to be a contributing factor to that trigger event, then the dominos started to fall. It was the department psychologist that nixed his reinstatement, not his orthopedist, that seems to be about the time everything went to shit.”

  Steph took over. “From what we can piece together, Louis killed the first girl in the same week his reinstatement was declined. Then, everything was quiet for a little while. It appears that Officer Branden was supportive of Officer Arcillio, but not involved in his crimes.”

  AJ asked, “Exactly what does that mean and how can you be so sure?”

  Carmine answered, “It means that Branden, Arcillio’s partner on the force, stood up. He called and visited and tried to help Arcillio find another job. Help him adjust. That’s where he screwed-up. His sister was new to the area and Branden introduced them. He still didn’t know anything about Arcillio’s new pastime, killing women, obviously, or why would he introduce him to his sister?”

  Teagan huffed, “This is unreal. I’m not buying this. Not for one minute!”

  Steph jumped in. “It seems that Arcillio, and Brandon’s sister, became very close, very quickly. She works for a residential home…”

  I blurted, “Oh Holy Crap!”

  AJ looked confused.

  “When I was going through all of Louis’s stuff, one of the things that seemed odd was that his life insurance was pretty large, considering he was single and didn’t have a family to support, and since he was a cop, I figured it would be pretty expensive, anyway, the beneficiary for the policy was a boy’s group home.”

  Teagan said, “That’s awfully convenient. The guy is dead. T
he weird cop that has been stalking us is in it hip deep, but he comes out smelling like a rose and his sister just happens to work at the place that benefits the most from the cop being dead; or maybe the person that benefits the most is the real killer, since the poor guy that’s being blamed can’t defend himself. I don’t believe any of this.”

  Steph tried to get us back on track, “Please, let us give you all the information we have before we come to any conclusions.”

  Teagan smiled, “Obviously you’re not an O’Flynn, we try not to confuse ourselves with facts, we go with feelings instead of logic, sorry.”