"We can arrange that, but you are not under arrest for anything, and we don’t need to question why you are here. All I want to know is if you are here consensually."

  "I am," she uttered before falling silent again.

  "That’s all I care about," Kelsey said. "If you are unharmed, I don’t need to ask you any more questions. Depending on what Mr. Sanchez tells us, of course. Until then, we need you to remain here. I will gladly call your lawyer down here if you wish."

  "I’m not asking for a lawyer because I’ve done something wrong. I know how these things go, and I don’t want to be tricked into saying anything."

  "I get it," Kelsey soothed. "Listen, you are not in any trouble. I am confident that if we looked into you, we would find that you have a reputable business, pay your taxes, and don’t exchange sexual acts for money. If we were to dive deeper, we might find you are paid for the role play, and you engage consensually in sex for no money. It might look suspicious, but everything will be above board, and there would be nothing we could do about it. Even with all that, I wouldn’t care about your role in his life unless there was more to it than that. We are here for Arnold Sanchez, not for you, okay?"

  The woman stared at Kelsey and nodded. The sound of footsteps caught Kelsey’s attention as the two men moved around upstairs. It was smart to separate them initially, but Kelsey had not considered that John might be in some danger. What if Arnold pulled a weapon on him? She listened to the footsteps some more, but they sounded calm.

  "Virginia White," the woman said.

  Kelsey looked back down to the woman.

  "That’s my name. My legal name. You are right about what you said—if you look into me, you will find nothing illegal."

  "I believe it," Kelsey said, happy that the woman was talking. "What does he pay you to do?"

  Virginia still looked distrustful and nervous. "He likes to tie me up. He has a lot of fantasies, but the main one is kidnapping. He likes to start outside, sometimes inside. I might be a stranger or a date, and he likes to grab me and tie me up or put a hood over my head. We discuss it all before I come over, and he has never done anything I did not want. When you burst in, I thought he had arranged for something else—it scared me."

  Kelsey listened carefully, trying to take it all in while monitoring the other noises in the house.

  "It’s pretty quiet here," Kelsey noted. "Does Arnold have a dog?"

  "No, I don’t think so," Virginia replied.

  The noise shifted as the two men returned back downstairs. John was holding a pistol and rifle as well as the hunting rifle that had hung on the wall. Arnold looked compliant and composed, and he moved straight to the table, sitting down at an unoccupied side of the table. John took the last remaining side, placing the guns in front of him.

  "I have done exactly what you asked me to do," Arnold said calmly.

  "I appreciate that," Kelsey said, treating him gently. "Miss White has explained what she was doing her, and I am satisfied that she is not in any danger."

  "Before we go any further, I want to clear something up," Arnold said.

  "The girl you assaulted," Kelsey noted.

  "No, not her. I told you about that already. I made the mistake of thinking she was better than that, but I was wrong. She loved me, too; I know she did, but she was embarrassed of me. I should have ended it before she did what he did, but I didn’t assaulter. I don’t care about that anymore. I was punished for a crime I did not commit, but it is in the past."

  "What do you want to confess?" Kelsey asked.

  "Clear up," Arnold reminded. "Please don’t put words in my mouth. You mentioned Cecily Brown and Becky Samson. I knew both of them—I coached them both in soccer. Cecily was a long time ago, but I remember her. She was seventeen back then, so what is that? Like a decade ago. We had a relationship."

  "You had a relationship when Cecily Brown was in school?" Kelsey asked.

  "I didn’t coach her at school. She took soccer as an extracurricular and always stayed after training. Her parents were always late picking her up, so we talked, and sometimes I would give her one-on-one coaching." Arnold shot a glance at John. "Not like that," he sneered. "It was never like that. We kissed, but that was as far as it went."

  "She was a minor," Kelsey warned.

  "You are sick," John said. "Were you in love with her too?"

  "We were in love with each other."

  "You seem to fall in love with children a lot," John noted, sitting a little straighter. His hand was on the rifle, not that he would use it.

  "Cecily was not a child. She was two months away from her eighteenth birthday. And the other woman, the one I went to jail for, was eighteen. I’m not a pedophile."

  "You were in a position of power," Kelsey noted.

  "I never took advantage of that. Ask Cecily."

  "Well, that’s going to be difficult, seeing as she’s dead," John spat.

  "What?" Arnold gasped. "Dead? When? How?"

  Kelsey let him stew for a few seconds. He sounded genuinely surprised, but he was also a man who liked to role-play. She couldn’t tell yet if he was genuine or acting.

  "When was the last time you were in Winchburgh?" Kelsey asked.

  "I didn’t kill her," Arnold said. He thrust his head into his hands. "I loved her."

  "When was the last time you were in Winchburgh?"Kelsey repeated.

  "I’ve not been there for months. Wait, you mention Becky Samsom, too. She’s not…?"

  "Dead," John confirmed. "Another eighteen year old. She was an attractive woman, Arnold. Did you fall in love with her too?"

  "No," Arnold said. "Who are you attracted to? Do you fall in love with every woman you meet? Or man?"

  "What the hell are you talking about?" John asked.

  "I fell in love with two young women, but I’ve loved plenty of older ones too. That is not my type, Deputy Sheriff. I can give you names and numbers of women if you like, and there are ten times more parents I could have had relationships with than their kids. I coached them in soccer, but I didn't kill them."

  "Do you have an alibi for the last week?" Kelsey asked.

  "I don’t know, I’ll have to check. I was nowhere near Winchburgh in the last week. What happened to her? How did she die?"

  "We are asking the questions, Mr. Sanchez," John reminded.

  "I can give you my schedule if it will help," Virginia piped up. "I’m not taking a side here, but I come here a lot, and I want to know if he could have killed her."

  "Killed her?" Arnold snapped. "How can you say such a thing?"

  "I don’t know, Arnold! Some of the things you want to do to me… well, other men do them too, but no one else is accused of murder or has been to prison for assaulting a young girl."

  "Woman! She was a woman!" Arnold shouted. "And I didn’t assault her. I didn’t kill anyone!"

  The table was silent as John took the phone from Victoria. He scrolled through it and then leaned toward Kelsey, showing her.

  "All right, we are going to need a copy of this and separate statements, but if this is the case, then you have an alibi for when Becky Samson was murdered," Kelsey said.

  Arnold let out a happy sigh of relief. "I told you."

  "Does this go back further?" John asked.

  "I have older records at home," Virginia confirmed.

  "We will need them, too," John said.

  It clicked for Kelsey that Arnold was the man who had gone to see Becky at her university. She hadn’t gotten his name, but her gut told her it had to be.

  "It was you, wasn’t it?" Kelsey asked. "You went to see Becky in Montana!"

  "I… I have an alibi for her death," Arnold stated.

  "Did you visit her at college?" Kelsey demanded.

  Arnold was silent for a few seconds. "Yes. I was passing through and thought I would see how she was doing."

  "See how she was doing?" Kelsey scoffed.

  "She wasn’t there," Arnold said quietly. "What more do you want me to say? It’s not a crime to visit someone, is it?"

  "That depends on what you intend to do when you see them," John said, his face red.

  Kelsey took a breath and placed her palms on the table. "Cecily Brown died nine months ago." They didn’t know for sure that Cecily was murdered.

  "I didn’t know," Arnold said softly. "I wish I had known. I would have gone to the funeral."

  "You were still coaching around that time," Kelsey noted. "You lived close to the town and didn’t know she had died?"

  "We weren’t in contact anymore. We only dated for a short time, and—"

  "Don’t call it dating," John snapped. "She was a kid, and you were an adult. Those are the facts."

  "However you want to put it," Arnold replied. "And, no, I didn’t know she had passed. I only came into town to coach, and people don’t walk around talking about people who have died."

  "Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Becky Samson?" Kelsey asked.

  "No, she was a sweet kid and very popular. She was friends with the Sheriff’s daughter. I never coached her, but she would watch Becky at the games."

  "How about Cecily Brown? Would anyone want to hurt her?"

  Arnold Sanchez was not a suspect in the Becky Samson murder anymore, as long as his alibi checked out, and Kelsey had to hope that if Cecily Brown had been killed, it had been by the same person, and they didn’t have two killers on their hands.

  "No, but I haven’t seen her for a decade, so I don’t know what’s changed since then. She had it tough growing up, and I think she saw me as a father figure. I tried to guide her, and I did hear she was doing okay for herself, so maybe that worked."

  "What about her father?" John asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "You said that she saw you as a father figure."

  "Her father was not around a lot when she was a kid. He was in and out of jail when Cecily was in her teens. It can’t have been easy on her mother. I think the mother went through the same thing when she grew up, not having a father around, and history repeats itself, doesn’t it?"

  "Yeah, it sure does." John leveled Arnold with his gaze.

  "We need to take formal statements," Kelsey noted. "I saw a vehicle outside, and I presume that’s yours, Virginia?"

  Virginia nodded.

  "Good. Now, I would like to ride to the local police station in that car with Virginia and have Arnold ride with Deputy Gallant. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

  "Am I under arrest?" Arnold asked.

  "We only need to detain you until your alibis check out. I don’t see the need to arrest anyone."

  "Okay," Arnold muttered. He looked at John, a little wary to be riding with him.

  "I’m going to need to cuff you," John told Arnold.

  Arnold looked from John to Kelsey.

  "He knows better than to do anything to you, and I believe you are innocent until something tells me otherwise," Kelsey said.

  "She’s the boss," John said grimly.

  Arnold took a deep breath and stood up for the table, turning around and putting his hands behind his back.

  "Let’s go," Kelsey said.

  She rose from the table and walked out with Virginia while John cuffed Arnold. She did believe Arnold was innocent but would wait for more information to come through before she was sure. She did, however, want to talk with Cecily’s father again.

  Kelsey was tired—death surrounded her in every direction. She was stuck in town for the night, and having to wait to get back to Winchburgh made her stressed. Her sleep was going to be anything but peaceful.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Kelsey walked down the long hallway. One side was covered in an enormous mirror, so she walked side by side with herself. She did not dare look to the side in case it was not her in the reflection, but she kept watch of the mirror in her periphery. The little girl mirrored each step she took.

  She was not alone in this place, not only because of the mirror. She had to get to the end of the hallway, to the red room. It took an eternity. Kelsey grew up, died, and was reborn while walking the long corridor. She looked at her feet briefly—black school shoes with a pretty pink bow on the top. She looked straight ahead again. Had the girl in the reflection also looked at her shoes?

  The hallway did not have lights, but there was illumination. Ambient light was everywhere, descending into pink as she approached the red room. She only had to keep walking without looking back. Someone was behind her, walking slowly. Kelsey had to remain calm. If she quickened her step, the figure behind, just out of view, would quicken the pace, too, and she would be caught.

  Kelsey tried to breathe, but she was unable. She did not need to breathe there—wherever there was. She was almost in the room when the figure walking side by side stopped. Kelsey did not dare stop. The reflection in the mirror might become captured, but it would not get her. She bathed herself in the red light emanating from the room, and when she reached the threshold, the others disappeared: the figure, its reflection, and her reflection. She was alone in the hallway but would not be alone in the room.

  "Come in," came the whisper—the voice of her mother. "Come and join us."

  Kelsey looked into the room but could not see the figures in the bed. The blankets mostly obscured them, but the light was thickest and darkest near the back of the room—a thick sludge of scarlet illumination. Kelsey did not want to be alone anymore. She stepped over the threshold, knowing there was no going back.

  She approached the bed, searching for the eyes of her mother or father, but she did not see them. She only saw shapes writhing under the covers. The blankets were lifted on one side.

  "Yes, come in."

  Kelsey moved around the bed and placed a hand on the black sheet. She moved onto the bed and lay prone. The blankets fell over her, descending the world into darkness. She felt bodies under the covers: two large and one small. She hoped they were her parents and sister. She had to believe they were. They took her in a loving embrace.

  "You are with us now."

  Kelsey sat bolt upright in the bed. It took her a moment to remember where she was. The peeling, floral wallpaper brought it flooding back: a hotel in Minot. It had been late when they got to the police station, and neither of them wanted to leave until they had answers. So, they found the best motel money could buy, which was also the worst. Still, the bed was not completely uncomfortable.

  She looked toward the curtains that would have done a poor job keeping out the sunlight if the day had dawned. It was pitch black outside, but the humming clock radio by the bed showed 7:04 in bright red numbers. Kelsey glanced to the other side of the double bed to find it empty, just as it had been the previous night. She was thankful that John didn’t even joke about sharing a room. Would she have said yes? Her dreams lately had left her not wanting to be alone.

  The bed creaked when she sat up and swung her legs over the edge. She picked up the phone from the base and hit 9 to dial out. She tapped in the number she had memorized and waited for it to ring.

  "Yeah?" the hoarse voice said with a cough.

  "Mr. Waters?"

  "You again?" Harvey said angrily. "You using different phones now to try and trick me?"

  "No, no tricks. I’m in Minot looking into a murder."

  "Yeah? And why would I give a damn about that?"

  He wouldn’t, and she didn’t expect him to care about the case or her dreams, but she needed to feel closer to her parents, and he was one of the few connections to them.

  "Did my parents ever work any cases together?" Kelsey asked.

  "How would I know?"

  He was the one who investigated their murders; he didn’t work with them.

  "I don’t know. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you."

  "Well, you did," he said. "Look, you got the right idea about using a different number, but don’t call again, okay? If I need to talk with you, I’ll contact you."

  "Wait, what—"

  The line went dead.

  What did he mean by that? Was it not safe to contact him, or had he been impressed by my getting through to him? He wouldn’t have answered if he had known it was me. Still, he sounded scared to be talking to me.

  Kelsey couldn’t help feeling some hope. There was more behind this if there was a reason not to contact him. She knew the hope was the worst, but she needed to have some. She needed to believe she could do something to put them to rest.

  The knock at the door startled her, and she glanced at her gun in the holster on the chair by the bed.

  "I’m going to get some breakfast," John said from outside. "You want to come? You want anything?"

  "Um, yeah," Kelsey said, running her hand through her hair. She approached the door in her underwear. "Where are you going?"

  "There’s a small coffee place over the road. They probably have some pastries or something. I figured we would grab a quick breakfast and get on the road. Sanchez has an alibi for Cecily’s death, too, so there’s no point staying here longer than we need, right?"

  "Airtight?" Kelsey asked.

  "Yeah, looks that way."

  "All right, let me get packed up, and I’ll meet you over there in fifteen," Kelsey said.

  "Sounds good."

  Kelsey pressed her back to the door and listened as the footsteps receded. She suddenly felt cold and hugged herself.

  Cold everywhere I go!

  Kelsey was on her way to the bathroom when she stopped and went to the small table beside the bed. She tossed her holster onto the bed and sat down, grabbing her bag and removing the case files. Soothing was nagging at her. She went through everything as carefully as she could and found it.

  ***

  "Sorry," she said when she got to his table.

  "I ordered you a coffee," he said. "What did you find?"

  Kelsey chuckled.

  "I can see the look in your eye, and there was no reason for you to be late unless you were onto something," John added.

  "We are definitely done with Arnold Sanchez?" Kelsey asked.

  "Unless multiple people are covering for him. Virginia White confirms she was with him when Becky Samson was murdered, and when Cecily Brown died, he was in Mexico with a couple of friends. No doubt trying to bag himself a Mexican kid at the beach. We’ve tracked down the ticket sale for Becky Samson to take the bus to Winchburgh, and CCTV shows her getting on the bus. We can track her all the way to Fargo, but she would have taken local buses from there or maybe hitched a ride. We have her in Fargo five days before she was murdered."

 

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