Page 97 of Wicked Games

Bill’s sprawled in his seat across from her chair, stubble covering his usually clean-shaven face. He tries to smile but fails. Hattie’s involvement in Theo’s kidnapping has taken a toll and I’m afraid there isn’t going to be any explanation that will help him sleep at night. Even if no one intended for Theo to be killed, Hattie wasn’t who we thought she was and that will be on our shoulders forever.

Violet and I sit, and she squeezes my hand but doesn’t say anything. Maybe she can’t. Maybe she’s too hoarse from crying.

Detective LaSalle comes in a few minutes later holding a beige file folder. He sits next to Bill and sighs. “We picked up Vale a few hours ago.”

I blink. That actually wasn’t what I thought he was going to say, though I’d prayed for it, desperately. “How?”

He grimaces. “We finally cracked your sister’s laptop. She must have taken it to an IT guy who knew his stuff. The laptop’s password, fine, no problem, but she had several encrypted files that were almost impossible to get into. Not completely, but we needed more time than we would have liked.”

I glance at Violet and Bill. I forgot all about Hattie’s laptop. The cops didn’t have any interest in it when she was killed, and I’d somehow convinced myself that there was nothing on it worth anything.

“What did you find?” Violet asks, and just as I guessed, her voice is almost nonexistent.

I rub her arm.

“Names, dates, locations, up until the night she was killed. What we suspected was true. Mrs. Vale wanted to teach Mr. Lockwood a lesson he’d never forget. In her notes, Mrs. Maitland said that while she wasn’t completely on board, she’d help just to make sure things didn’t go sideways. She had more faith in herself than she should have, thinking she could’ve stopped something from happening, and I’m not sure what she’d planned to do if something did. She was there at the exchange site—” He scoffs, but he’s pleased his own theory panned out— “And just as I suspected, he saw her and panicked. When they made the ransom call, they gave us the location and had the usual ‘no cops’ demand. Obviously, he wanted a clean getaway, but Mrs. Maitland wanted a clear view and accidentally revealed herself.”

Bill sighs and scrubs his hands over his face. “She’d want to make up for causing that to happen.”

Detective LaSalle nods. “You know your wife well. She had everything documented. She didn’t want Mrs. Vale to face any consequences, but she said she couldn’t let this go, even if she had to pay for her own involvement.”

“She wrote everything down,” I say with realization. “You know who the kidnappers are.”

Detective LaSalle nods. “We do. Mrs. Vale didn’t give Mrs. Maitland much, but we had what we needed to point us in the right direction and we were able to pick them up yesterday. They confessed to their part in it, and they still had most of Mr. Lockwood’s money in their possession.”

“But you said you arrested Rowan,” Violet says, leaning forward.

I’m sure she loved Theo like her own son, but she’s more worried about Seth now.

“Yes, we did. When we searched their premises, along with the money, we found Mrs. Maitland’s purse and Mrs. Vale’s as well. That wouldn’t have been enough, but when Vale called to set up the hits on Mrs. Maitland, Mrs. Vale, and you, Mrs. McKay,” he says to me, “the guy was smart enough to record it. He said if they ever went down, Vale would too. We compared his voice on the recordings to the press conference footage and to the eulogy he gave at Mrs. Vale’s funeral. They’re a match.”

“So it was the Dusk Reapers all along?” Bill asks.

Detective LaSalle shakes his head. “No. That’s why when we raided their little drug lab, we didn’t find anything. Not pertaining to this case, at least. Vale chose from a more sophisticated crop—sons of his former clients. Students at the university who lived in a frat house a block away from campus. They were into live action role-playing and thought it would be fun to do some of the real thing. And five million, free and clear, they didn’t want to turn that down. Bored brats is what it boiled down to, and Vale used that to his advantage. When one of them shot Theo, Vale told them to clean up the mess, meaning Mrs. Maitland and Mrs. Vale. They didn’t know Vale married her for her money. He told them she threatened to go to the police and they needed to get rid of her.”

“Can you prove that?” I ask, my mind reeling. College kids, who could have taken a class Darren taught, kidnapping and murdering people because Rowan said it would be fun and they wouldn’t get caught.

“No, but we don’t need to. What we have will put him away for quite a while.”

Violet bites her lip and then asks, “Where’s Seth? He should be here.”

“I tried calling, but he never answered,” Detective LaSalle says. “I thought with what you told me he might’ve gone back to Lakehaven Falls. You’ll pass along the information? I’ll need to speak to him, and he’ll testify at the trial. If what you say is true, Mrs. McKay, Vale admitted things that day in the cemetery that a jury should hear.”

I doubt Seth drove back to Lakehaven Falls. He said he wouldn’t go back there. “Do you know where he’d go, Violet?”

“There’s only one place, and that’s to the house where he and Brooke lived. He could have checked into a hotel, but there isn’t a lot of privacy there. When Theo was killed and Brooke left him, all he wanted to do was drink.”

Detective LaSalle sighs and it turns into a cough he hides in the crook of his elbow. “Better go sober him up.” He pauses, and then says, “I’m sorry about all this.”

Violet tries to smile and Bill swears under his breath.

It was all a game, from the second Brooke decided she wanted to punish Seth for being friends with Violet, to the boys who traded fake bullets for real ones. It could take years to pick up the pieces.

I shake the detective’s hand, feeling a little ashamed I thought poorly of him and Detective Mueller when they’d actually been doing all that they could. But I can’t stop myself from saying, “You would have found all this out a lot sooner if you’d cared that my sister had been killed.”

Detective LaSalle nods. “Crane’s been put on unpaid leave. His brother was a target on your sister’s blog and he had no interest in finding out who killed her. If a different detective had been assigned to her case, the outcome of all this would have been quite different. I’m sorry he didn’t turn her homicide over to someone else due to conflict of interest.” He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes at me in thought. “It’s a shame you didn’t think to go through your sister’s blog posts months ago.”

I part my lips to defend myself, but there isn’t accusation in his tone, only a wondering of how things would have turned out if I’d published that goodbye blog post sooner. Would I have thought to go through her drafts? Would I have thought to go through her trash? I don’t know. “My husband and I weren’t doing well and he left me two months after Hattie’s funeral. I wasn’t in the right headspace to look through her website, and I wouldn’t have posted what I did if Bill hadn’t told me to.”