Killer Takes All

CHAPTER 64

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

4:10 p.m.

Malone, Tony and two cruisers arrived. Stacy met them at the front door, briefly explained what had occurred and let them get to work.

She stayed by Alice’s side, all the while imagining the various teams processing the scene. She knew what to expect. For one thing, her Glock was now evidence in a murder case. She would not be getting it back for some time. In addition, they would need a detailed statement from both her and Alice.

And they would have to call Child Welfare Services to come for Alice.

It was going to be damn difficult to let her go. She didn’t know if she would be able to.

After what seemed an eternity, but was in reality about an hour, Spencer sought them out. He squatted in front of Alice. “You think you’re up to answering a few questions?”

The girl looked at Stacy, eyes wide and terrified.

“May I stay with her?” Stacy asked.

When Spencer agreed that she could, the teenager breathed an audible sigh of relief. She began with how she had found the computer, how she realized the truth and about sending it to Stacy and why.

Her voice quivered when she reached the most recent part of the story. “She must have overheard us talking. Stacy left, and she appeared in the doorway. She was so…angry. She called me a…an ungrateful little bitch.”

She clutched Stacy’s hand. “She flew into the room. Going after me like a crazy person. I didn’t know what to do,” she whispered, voice small and shaky. “She had a…had a hold of me. She was dragging me toward the window…I had the gun. Stacy’s gun. I took it in my hands and I…I-”

She broke down then. Sobbing. No doubt over her mother’s betrayal. The loss of her father. And despair for her life, which had been forever altered.

It broke Stacy’s heart. She held the girl while she cried, giving Malone her statement in pieces.

Tony ambled over to where they sat. “Good news,” he said.

They all looked up at him. The words felt odd. Inappropriate and out of place. Could there be anything good about this day?

“I just talked to your aunt Grace, Alice,” Tony said. “She was able to book a flight leaving tonight and will be in around midnight. I figured I’d meet her plane.”

“Aunt Grace,” the girl repeated, a tremor in her voice. As if she had forgotten she still had family. As if being reminded now that she did was the greatest gift she could have been given.

Spencer met Stacy’s eyes briefly. “You go home, Tony. We’ll meet that flight. The three of us.”

Midnight at the New Orleans airport was a little creepy. A market the size of the Big Easy received very few flights this time of night. Their footsteps echoed in the cavernous terminal, all the kiosks and vendors had closed, and only a handful of weary agents manned the terminal desks.

Alice said little but hung close to Stacy as they waited at the end of the terminal. Thankfully, the woman’s flight arrived on time. The pair held each other for a long time, clinging to one another and crying. As gently as she could, Stacy nudged them along, first to Baggage Claim for the woman’s luggage, then the parking garage.

“We took the liberty of making a hotel reservation,” Stacy said. “If you made other arrangements-”

“Thank you,” Grace said. “No…I didn’t even think…I always stay with…”

Her words trailed off. They all knew what she had been about to say.

She had always stayed with her brother. Leo.

Within thirty minutes, they had dropped Grace and Alice at the hotel. Stacy accompanied the pair inside, made certain there wasn’t a problem with the reservation, then returned to the car.

She buckled up. Spencer looked at her. “Where am I taking you, Stacy?”

She held his gaze. “I don’t want to be alone, Spencer.”

He nodded and pulled away from the curb.