Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 108849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“I’m taking precautions,” Melissa said. “But I represent Jason Abbott, so he has no need or wish to hurt me.”
Laurel shook her head. “You do not understand the compulsions that drive him. If that craving builds up in him again, he will come after you, absent, of course, another potential victim.”
“I hope he gets to Abigail Caine,” Haylee burst out.
“Haylee!” Melissa said, drawing back.
Haylee sank in her chair. In her early twenties, she suddenly looked much younger. “I don’t care. Jason would not have hurt anybody without that woman. Surely you understand that.” She glared at Laurel.
“No,” Laurel said. How could the woman be so lacking in self-preservation? “I do think that Dr. Caine accelerated tendencies that wouldn’t have manifested themselves so soon otherwise, but anybody who would brutally kill the way Jason did was going to kill at some point. You need to understand that.” Jason would eventually murder Haylee if the woman didn’t begin to take precautions. “You have to understand.”
“I don’t know what to think.” Haylee flattened her hands on the table.
Huck studied the two women. “Where were you both the night Jason Abbott escaped from custody?”
Melissa drew back. “Excuse me?”
“We just need to clear you, Ms. Cutting. You’re Jason Abbott’s lawyer.”
Melissa swallowed. “I was home working on a brief.”
“Alone?” Laurel asked.
“Yes. If I needed an alibi, I would have created one. I had no idea Jason Abbott was going to escape from the hospital.” Melissa leaned forward. “In fact, I didn’t know he was in the hospital. The jail failed to inform my law firm about that.”
Laurel couldn’t read whether the attorney was telling the truth or not. She looked at Haylee. “Where were you?”
Haylee shuffled in her seat. “I was home, studying for a test on hair coloring. I’ve been taking beauty classes.” She studied Laurel. “You could use a blunter cut. You have wonderful bone structure.”
A blunt cut? Maybe. “Do you live together?” Laurel asked.
“Not anymore,” Haylee said. “I have my own apartment on the other side of Genesis Valley.”
Laurel studied her. She’d been keeping tabs on Haylee since Abbott’s arrest, so Laurel had already known the answer to the question, but she had wondered if Haylee would tell the truth.
“Do you have a roommate?” Huck asked.
“No.”
Huck settled back in his chair, looking intimidating as he did so. “Can anybody corroborate your story?”
Haylee looked at her aunt.
Melissa shook her head. “We’re finished with this line of questioning, other than to affirm that we had no idea Jason was going to escape, and we certainly did not facilitate his actions. He has not been in touch with either one of us.”
“Will you submit to a phone dump?” Huck asked.
Melissa’s jaw tightened. “No. I have communications with several clients that could be considered privileged, including the identity of said clients. Surely you understand that?”
“I do.” Huck looked at Haylee. “What about you? You’re not an attorney.”
Haylee sighed. “You need a warrant, right?”
Laurel mentally clicked through an affidavit. “Haylee, I can obtain a warrant for your phone based on your relationship with Jason Abbott and the threat to the public now that he’s on the loose. This would be a lot easier if you just cooperated.”
Haylee looked at her aunt. “Do I have to?”
Melissa shook her head. “No, but I do believe that Agent Snow can obtain a warrant for your phone.”
Haylee shrugged. “Okay, you can have my phone. But there’s nothing interesting on it.”
The interview continued for another hour, but Laurel failed to glean additional information from either woman. Finally, she ended the interview. Melissa and Haylee stood and walked toward the door.
At the entranceway, Haylee turned around, her movements hesitant. “Agent Snow?”
“Yes?” Laurel asked.
“I want to believe that Jason has changed and does regret what happened. He was drugged by your sister, and I think he wasn’t in his right mind that entire time. However, if Jason truly wants anybody dead, you have to know that it’s you, right?”
Chapter 13
After lunch at the Center Diner, where Laurel ate too much apple pie, she returned to her office and sat on the worn wood of her temporary conference table, staring at two glass murder boards. The one on the left held images from the Jason Abbott case and the one on the right, the new river cases.
Were they connected? Had Jason drowned those two blonde victims? She didn’t like the timing of his escape with the occurrence of the newest murders. Drowning and strangulation involved similar violence and loss of breath leading to death.
Kate crossed into the room and handed her an herbal tea. “Here.”
“Thank you.”
Kate pulled out a chair and dropped into it, looking at the boards. “These are definitely murders, right? Any chance this isn’t a serial killer?”
“Yes, these are homicides. Two deaths do not a serial make,” Laurel said, repeating a phrase she’d learned at Quantico.