Cutting Edge

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Comprehension slowly hit Nora as she rose from the chair. “You know? You know what?”

Quin stood in the middle of Duke’s office, arms crossed over her chest. Defiant. Just like she’d been as a little girl. Stubborn. When Nora put her foot down, Quin would stand just like this and challenge her.

“I know about my sister.” Her chin jutted out.

“Did Lorraine tell you?” Nora’s voice shook. The anger and frustration and failure she’d felt for the last two hours boiled over. “When you went to visit her?”

Quin squinted, though she couldn’t hide her surprise. “Yes.”

“I can’t believe you went to see Lorraine without talking to me first!”

“You never let me visit her! My own mother. I begged you, and you kept saying no.”

“You were a child. Lorraine is a pathological liar who’s in prison for terrorism and murder. You didn’t need her warped influence.”

“Nice of you to be my protector. The last time I asked, I was sixteen. You still said no, and that was it. End of story. The Great Almighty has spoken. So, yeah, I waited until I was eighteen so I could see her without your damn permission.”

Nora remembered what Duke had said about Quin not having the same experiences with Lorraine as she had. She was trying to understand, but the years of living homeless, living off others, never having a home, never going to school, no friends … she wanted none of that for Quin. Didn’t Quin remember how hard it had been? Didn’t she remember the times they’d been left alone? When she was three and Nora was twelve and Lorraine disappeared for two weeks? They lived in a tent, and Nora hid them from the cops because she feared they’d take Quin away from her, put them in a government institution where they would never see the sun, where they would live like slaves.

That’s what Lorraine had always told Nora. And some of it was true. If they had been found, the government would have split them up. They might have lived in a virtual prison. Or foster care. Would that have been better?

There were too many times when Nora had learned the hard way. And damn if Quin was going to live through the same.

“I’m trying to understand,” Nora said, biting back her frustration. “Visiting Lorraine once, maybe I can understand. But you went back. Twenty-three times you went back, most recently in June. The week you told me you were going to L.A. with your boyfriend of the month.”

“I did. We just made a stop first.”

“Why? I spent my life protecting you from her!”

“Maybe you didn’t need to.”

Nora stared at her sister in disbelief. It was like she was seeing Quin for the first time. Had she messed up that badly? Had she missed all the signs? Had Quin been brainwashed by that woman?

Quin said, “Lorraine made mistakes, I know that. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be in prison, but she never hurt us.”

“She had us making bombs.”

“Just the components-”

“How can you talk like that? You were mixing and measuring black powder from the time you were seven! It was your damn math lesson! And when Cameron held you off that freeway overpass so you could hang his stupid fucking banner, I wanted to kill him.”

“Well, in a way you did.”

Nora’s mouth opened, then closed. Quin damn well knew what had happened. She knew the truth about that night. “They were going to plant bombs at a nuclear power plant.”

“Don’t be so naive. You know as well as I do that the security at those places is so tight no one was going to get in.”

“They did get in! They got through the gate. They’d never have succeeded in their plan, but they got in on their own. Someone could have been killed. A security guard, an engineer, an innocent person so Cameron and Lorraine could make a damn political statement!”

Quin shuffled her feet, glanced down. She knew Nora was right, why couldn’t she just admit it? Where was all this animosity coming from? These last few years they’d gotten along so well. They had the relationship Nora always wanted for them. Quin never talked about what happened then, and Nora sure as hell didn’t bring it up. But this defense of Lorraine? Nora was livid.

“I’m not saying they were right,” Quin said, “but they didn’t intend to hurt anyone. You set them up. You got him killed.”

“He was trying to kill me. The bombs Lorraine and Kenny threw killed a federal agent. Lovitz was a psycho, just like his daughter!”

Quin stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Maggie O’Dell.” Nora paused. She breathed deeply and told Quin the rest. “That’s why I wanted to see you, so I could-”

Quin threw her hands up in the air, then ran them through her hair, her face tight. “You are a piece of work. You have lied to me my entire life and you think you can just start ranting about Maggie? You don’t even know her!”

Nora froze. “I’ve never lied to you.”

“Let me count the ways. You lied to me about Mom having a baby. You wouldn’t let me go to the trial so I wouldn’t know about the baby.”

“I was protecting you. It was awful. I wished I didn’t have to be there. I hated it.”

“Oh, poor Nora English, long-suffering. Get over yourself. So we didn’t have the perfect life. Lying to me was okay?”

“I thought she gave the baby up for adoption. You didn’t need to know.”

“Why not?”

“You were a little kid. Lorraine is a pathological liar.”

“You keep saying that, but you’re the one who lied to me about my father!”

Nora blinked rapidly. “What?”

“Yes! His name was Randall Teagan. Sure, it wasn’t a big romantic affair, but she told me all about him. How smart he was, how kind, how much he cared about the earth. She didn’t know she was pregnant, and when she found out, he had moved out of state for a job. She didn’t want to saddle him with a couple kids, so she took care of us herself. It’s not easy being a single mom. She did the best she could.”

“She lied.”

Quin pointed her finger at Nora. “No, you lied! I looked him up. I found him living in Denver. I went to see him.” Quin’s eyes were glassy. Nora had always known that Quin had a hard time about her father, not knowing who he was or why he wasn’t around, but she thought that time and maturity had helped. “I watched. He has a beautiful wife, two beautiful children, a nice house … I couldn’t tell him the truth. I didn’t want to hurt him.”

She sounded so forlorn. “Oh, Quin, honey-” Nora tried to hug her, but Quin pulled away.

“You could have told me. Maybe if I’d gone to him when I was nine, I could have had a father. You took that away from me. My mother, and my father.”

Nora felt gut-punched. “I did not. Lorraine doesn’t know who your father is.”

“His name is on my birth certificate!”

“She lied! She met Randall Teagan at a rally two years before you were conceived! She never had sex with him. When you were born, she picked his name because she thought it sounded good with ‘Quin.’”

“No. That’s not what happened!”

Quin was calling her the liar? She’d lived through it. She’d lived with the guilt of her mother’s deceit. “Let’s see, when she was pregnant, she went to a bunch of guys and got abortion money. She didn’t have the abortion, but it kept us fed for a long time, whatever she didn’t spend on her political causes. Then after you were born, for nearly two years, she went to every guy she remembered having sex with, roughly figured out when, told them you were whatever age fit, and blackmailed them into paying her money so she didn’t tell their wife or girlfriend or go after them for child support. We had more money during that time than all the years I remembered combined. Until one of the guys wanted to share custody. He’d become a born-again Christian and wanted to be responsible and take care of you and make sure you went to college. He offered to marry her and adopt me. And you know what? Even though I knew she was lying through her teeth, I wanted him to take us in. He had a house and a good job-”

Tears streamed down Quin’s face. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Nora felt like shit. She’d never meant to tell Quin any of this. It had been her cross to bear, something she’d promised she’d protect Quin from. And in anger, she’d now thrown it at her, her words sharp as knives.

“I never wanted you to know. I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry. Please believe me.” Nora put her hands on Quin’s shoulders, but her sister shrugged them off and took a step back.

“You made a lot of sacrifices for me, but you didn’t have to. Mom made mistakes. She admits it. But you took me away from her, away from my mother. I didn’t have a father, I didn’t have grandparents or aunts and uncles or cousins, I had you and I had her. And you never let me see her. After I saw her in prison, I knew I needed to leave you. I needed to figure out who I was and what I thought for myself. Because I didn’t know anything anymore. I came to Sacramento for college, and you followed me.”

Nora shook her head. “It was two years later-”

“When I told you I was moving back to L.A. after I graduated, you said you could transfer. Why?”

“You’re my family.”

“I stayed because I got that great job with fire inspection. Found out afterward that you got it for me.”

“I didn’t. I gave you a recommendation. You knew that.”

“Right. FBI Special Agent Nora English,” she mimicked sarcastically.

“It was just a letter of recommendation!”

“You didn’t mention you were my sister.”

“I don’t know what that has to do with anything.” Nora’s head was spinning. The entire conversation had gotten out of control.

“It has to do with you trying to control my life. From the minute you put Mom in prison.”

From the minute you put Mom in prison? “Lorraine is the one who broke the law, not me. She committed hundreds of crimes before she got caught.”

“Why do you call her Lorraine?”

“Because she told me not to call her ‘Mom.’”

“She said it was because you refused to.”

That was the last straw. “I’m telling you the truth. I don’t care if you believe me, but Lorraine has fed you a crock of shit. Hell, she probably believes it! Maggie O’Dell, the woman you call your sister, is a murderer. She’s killed six people. Six. Starting with Jonah Payne. She tortured him and killed him because he had slighted her father in some way. She poisoned three college students with jimsonweed. They are dead. She killed Professor Cole by injecting him with heparin and cutting his arms and chest so he slowly bled to death. The woman is seriously disturbed. She’s going to be caught. I want to catch her before she claims another victim. Before she comes after me, or you.”

Quin stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Her mouth opened and closed. “Wh-why do you think Maggie is involved? It’s not like her. I don’t believe it.”

“I can show you all the evidence and lay it out for you like I would the U.S. attorney before an indictment. Or you can believe me.”

Quin turned away.

Nora’s heart broke. That Quin doubted her sliced her to the bone. She said quietly, “Maggie attended Rose College for three semesters. Her roommate was Anya Ballard, who we believe was one of four arsonists in the fires you investigated. We have evidence from her room, and a journal we’ve proven is her writing. Based on our investigation so far, Maggie recently returned to Roseville and joined Anya and two young men in the arson fire of Butcher-Payne. We have a witness who identified her boyfriend Scott Edwards’s truck parked at Jonah Payne’s Lake Tahoe residence. Dr. Coffey right now is comparing the truck bed liner with the marks found on Payne’s body. Not with Edwards’s truck-it’s been missing since he was murdered-but against a similar make and model.

“What tripped her up, however, is her thinking she was going to outsmart the police. She planted a suicide note with a poor attempt at copying Anya’s handwriting. Ironically, there were no prints on the iced tea jug that the poisoned tea came in. Whoever poured it wore gloves or wiped it clean. She or Scott Edwards slit the neck of her old high school friend Russell Larkin, who was the I.T. guy for Butcher-Payne. We’re not sure how, but they retrieved codes off Larkin’s computer that enabled them to get into Butcher-Payne without detection. I have agents in Paso Robles where Maggie grew up trying to locate her. I have an agent at the college interviewing students who knew her. I have another agent poring through property records, and Duke Rogan is reviewing all background information one more time in the hopes of finding out where she is hiding.”

Nora stopped, her heart racing. Quin still didn’t look at her. Nora felt like she’d irrevocably damaged her relationship with Quin. She ached for her sister, wished she could take back the harsh words, wished she could understand. Maybe she’d been wrong keeping Quin from Lorraine. All she’d wanted for her small family was stability.

“Quin-we’ve been friends now as well as sisters. Please. Look at me.”

Quin slowly turned. Her face was splotchy, her eyes red. “Leave me alone,” she whispered.

“I can’t. I fear for your safety.”

She laughed, the pitch high and fake. “Maggie? Even if you’re right, she would never hurt me.”

Nora didn’t believe that for a minute, but knew it would be fruitless trying to convince her now. “Do you know where she is?”

Quin shook her head. “I saw her in June. I didn’t know she was in Sacramento. If she’s still in Sacramento.”

Nora tried not to let her words sting. “If you hear from her, you need to let me know immediately. She’s dangerous.”

“I’ll take it under advisement.”

Quin walked out the door. Nora sank into the chair behind Duke’s desk and put her head in her hands. She had to believe that Quin would see reason when she calmed down. Quin wasn’t stupid, she was just hurt, upset, and confused.

Tears never came easily for Nora, but her eyes burned and she squeezed them shut. She knew better than to let the guilt in. If regretted, every decision, including those she made about Quin, would be threatening a flood of remorse. Quin, things she’d done as a child, her resentment of her mother-even turning state’s evidence, though the right decision, weighed down her heart. She’d protected Quin because it was all she had to cling to, Quin was all she had that kept her strong when too often she’d wanted to disappear.

She couldn’t lose Quin, but could she accept her sister’s relationship with Lorraine? How could she constantly battle the lies from Lorraine’s mouth? She didn’t want to defend herself and her decisions, right or wrong, for the rest of her life. She felt defeated and alone.

Duke entered his office after he saw Quin run out, obviously upset. Nora had her head on his desk, her shoulders slumped and quivering with tension and restrained emotion. He ached for her, wanting to wash away her anguish.

Walking over to her, he put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”

She sat up, leaning back into his hands as he rubbed her tense shoulders. “She’s believed Lorraine’s lies about so many things-I don’t know where to begin to set her straight. I lost her long ago and I didn’t even see it. I was in over my head and didn’t know it. I wish to God I could take back some of the things I said.” Her voice cracked and she bit her bottom lip.

“Quin’s smart. She just needs to think it through.”

“She thinks I’ve been lying to her about important information. Like her father.” She rubbed her eyes. “I can’t believe I’ve been so blind. She’s resented every decision I’ve made.”

Duke wished he could do something, but this was between Nora and Quin. All he could do was stand with her.

“Did Jayne have anything for you on the security tapes from Butcher-Payne?” she asked him.

“I know how they messed with the video. Actually quite smart. They brought in a computer that directed a completely different feed into the digital recording, essentially recording blanks over the actual images. I think that’s how they corrupted Russ Larkin’s computer as well. It’s impossible to get the true recording, but I’m glad Jayne figured out how they did it. My security system had a fatal flaw, now I can fix it.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

He spun her around in the chair, his face inches from hers. Her big round eyes were filled with heartache. “And it’s not your fault that Quin is having problems accepting the truth.”

He heard a rattle on his table in the corner. “Your cell phone is vibrating.” He walked over to the table and brought the phone to her.

“Thanks.” It was Lindsey Prince, one of the agents in San Luis Obispo.

“I got news for you,” Lindsey said in a rush. “First, a photo of Maggie O’Dell from high school. We’re at Kinko’s now, scanning it in, and will email it pronto.”

“Terrific. Send it to both me and ASAC Hooper. He’ll need it for the APB and I’ll distribute it to my team.”

“There’s more. We talked to the local sheriff and he knows Maggie O’Dell very well. She was quite the juvenile delinquent. Mostly vandalism and petty crime, and her parents always paid restitution when she was caught. It’s a small town, they didn’t do anything more about it. Except, the sheriff has long suspected that she killed her boyfriend. He just can’t prove it.”

“How?”

“Hemlock.”

“Hemlock?”

“Specifically, water hemlock. But she denied even seeing him that day, no one saw them together, and her father vouched that she had been sleeping most of the afternoon because of a flu bug.”

“Was he lying?”

“The sheriff thought so, but had no physical evidence to tie her to the death. Some people thought the kid accidentally ate the hemlock. Others thought he was killed. His parents received a substantial amount of money from an insurance policy they had on him. But even so the sheriff always suspected Maggie. From the start, her reaction didn’t fit for him. But she didn’t rattle.”

“How did the boyfriend ingest water hemlock?”

“The autopsy was unclear-there were no undigested leaves or roots in his stomach. But the pond nearby had a considerable amount of water hemlock growing near the shore. There have been documented cases of cattle being poisoned from drinking water that had been saturated with the plants. The sheriff, under pressure from the family, closed the case as an accidental poisoning. Because he couldn’t prove murder, there was the possibility of suicide, and the insurance wouldn’t pay on self-termination.”

It fit Maggie O’Dell’s M.O.-there had been no traces of jimsonweed leaves in the Rose College students; the water had leeched the poison from homemade, deadly tea bags.

“And,” Lindsey continued, “the victim was supposed to picnic with another girl that day, but her grandfather died the night before and she left the state. The victim’s mother said that he’d broken up with Maggie weeks before, and wouldn’t have gone to see her.”

“That probably didn’t sit well with Maggie,” Nora said. “Anything on Russell Larkin?”

“He was Maggie’s neighbor, though graduated several years before she started high school. His younger sister was in O’Dell’s class. I want to talk to her next, but she’s on a plane now, flying in from Northwestern for Larkin’s memorial service.”

“Down there?”

“Yes.”

“If you can get to her tonight or tomorrow morning, find out what she knows about Maggie O’Dell.”

“Will do. Watch for the photo.”

Nora hung up and said, “I’m getting a photo of O’Dell.”

Duke watched Nora’s phone. A few seconds later, a message came in. She clicked it.

The photo loaded fairly quickly. In ten seconds, they were staring at a stunning girl with long brown waves of hair and huge, round brown eyes. The shape matched Nora’s, but nothing else resembled her. Nora didn’t know why she was relieved.

Maggie looked a bit familiar. Not just because of the eyes, but …

Duke snapped his fingers. “She was the girl who threw the soda at you on Monday.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

There was a tap on Duke’s door and J.T.’s stellar administrative assistant, Heather, walked in, sharply dressed in a pricey business suit. “We found an apartment,” she said, handing Duke a folder.

Duke opened the thin red folder.

510 °College Blvd., #A124, Roseville.

Rented to: Margaret Lovitz.

Landlord: Ted Albany.

“Heather, you’re incredible.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Do you need anything else?”

“Not right now, but thanks.”

Nora looked at Duke, weary, her fight with Quin draining her.

Duke tried to offer a reassuring gaze. “I had our staff call every apartment building in Placer County starting with those near Rose College. Bingo-I found one. Rented to Margaret Lovitz.”

“How did you find it?”

“I gave Heather a list of likely aliases-O’Dell, Wright, Plummer, Lovitz-and a time frame: rented after June of this year.”

“I’ll call Hooper to get a search warrant.” She stood and smiled. “Thank you. For this-and everything.”

He caressed her cheek. “Anytime,” he said slowly. “For you, anything.”

Maggie bolted upright in bed, panicked. Where was she?

Quin’s house. Quin’s bed.

She let out a long, quiet breath and listened. Something had woken her up. Finally, Quin had to be home.

She glanced at Quin’s simple, old-fashioned alarm clock, the kind with the bells on top and a traditional clock face. It was only four in the afternoon. Had she left work early? Why?

Someone was moving around downstairs. Into the kitchen, the creak of the linoleum a slightly different, louder sound than the soft carpeted footfalls. Water running. Turning off. Footsteps again.

Maggie swung her body out of bed, picking up the knife. She wished she hadn’t cut herself so much. Quin was going to see the blood. But that couldn’t be helped.

Now was the time to convince Quin that they should be a team. Just the two of them.

On the stairs, Maggie coughed twice and cleared her throat.

It wasn’t Quin she glimpsed downstairs. It was a man.

Maggie scurried to the closet, grabbing the comforter on her way. She practically threw herself inside and closed the door.

And was very, very silent.