Criminal

He jumped up from the floor, screaming, “I’ll sue you motherfuckers!”
    The room tensed. The drunk’s eyes widened as he realized he was facing down a room full of cops. He nervously glanced at Amanda, then Evelyn. “Uh … s’cuse the language, ladies.”
    “Shee-it.” Butch took the toothpick out of his mouth. “They ain’t no ladies, fella. They’re the po-lice.”
    The room heaved a collective sigh. Jokes were passed around. The drunk was wrangled out the door. Hodge banged the podium for silence.
    Amanda fought the smile on her lips as she walked to the back of the room. She could feel Evelyn behind her, knew she was thinking the same thing.
    Finally—acceptance.

thirty-two
    Present Day
    WEDNESDAY
    Will sat on the wooden bench at the top of the rolling hill. He rested his elbows on his knees. He looked down at the street as the police cruiser pulled out of the driveway. His father a murderer. His uncle a murderer. Will had it on both sides.
    Footsteps crunched across the gravel driveway. Amanda put her hand on his shoulder, but only to help herself sit.
    They both stared into the empty street. Seconds turned into minutes. Will could hear a white noise in his ears. A humming that made it impossible for his brain to hold on to any one thought.
    Amanda gave a heavy sigh. “Evelyn’s never going to let me live this down. She always thought there was someone else.”
    “Is she going to testify against him?”
    “Kitty?” Amanda shrugged with her good shoulder. “I doubt it. If she was going to talk, she would’ve done so years ago. I have a feeling she’s still too much under Henry’s control.” She gave a rueful laugh. “You’ve come a long way, baby.”
    Will couldn’t pretend he was all right with all this. He couldn’t brush off tragedy with a wry comment the way Amanda did. “Tell me what happened. The truth.”
    Amanda stared at the front lawn, the vast green space that was larger and better tended than most public parks. She obviously needed time to collect her thoughts. Honesty wasn’t a natural act for Amanda Wagner. Will could tell it took effort.
    Finally, she said, “You know that there were two victims. Your mother and Jane Delray.”
    “Right.” Will had found the reference in his father’s file. There wasn’t enough evidence to tie James Ulster to the murder of Jane Delray, but it was assumed that he was guilty of the act. “It was his pattern. He takes two and decides which one to keep.”
    “There were two other girls. Mary Halston and Kitty Treadwell.”
    Will gripped together his hands.
    She said, “Your mother and Mary Halston showed the same damage. The sewing. The needle marks. But Jane was different. She wasn’t abducted. Her murder was spur-of-the-moment. She was strangled, then thrown from the roof so that her death would look like a suicide.”
    “Henry?”
    “I wasn’t sure until I saw that check. What I said was the absolute truth. It bothered Evelyn that Ulster had a high-priced lawyer. Frankly, it bothered me. Ulster was never interested in material things. He wanted control, and I guess making Hank mail him that check at the jail exerted some control.”
    “Henry’s going to skate on the envelope. You know the check isn’t enough.”
    “Henry’s DNA is going to match evidence from Jane Delray’s case. I called the gal who’s in charge of archival evidence the minute I heard your father was out. It’s a miracle the chain of custody was still intact, or we’d never be able to use it.”
    “What’s the evidence?”
    “It’s what I said in there. Jane scratched her attacker. It’s going to match Henry’s DNA from the envelope.”
    “Are you sure of that?”
    “Aren’t you?”
    Will had seen his uncle’s face. He was sure.
    “What about Kitty?”
    “I can only give an educated guess. Ulster got her off heroin. Hank kept her to leverage money out of Treadwell.” She nodded back toward the house. “Not a bad plan, as you can see.”
    Will looked at the house. Mansion wasn’t even the right word for it. Museum , maybe. Prison .
    Amanda asked, “Is there anything else you want to know?”
    There was a lifetime of questions. “Why are you making me pull teeth?”
    “Because this is difficult for me, too, Will.”
    He hadn’t considered that. For all her bluster, Will knew that Amanda was close to this. Her first case. Her first homicide. She tried to act like it was nothing, but the fact that they were both sitting here