Secrets to the Grave

103

“Milo Bordain,” Mendez said as they walked out of the hospital into the sunshine. “Nobody saw that coming.”

“No,” Vince admitted. “The brutality of that murder ... That’s usually something women reserve for unfaithful husbands, not each other. In hindsight, all the pieces fit. She felt like Marissa was hers, bought and paid for, literally. And like any spoiled child, if she couldn’t keep her toy, nobody else could have it either.”

It sounded so straightforward and logical, he thought, when it was one of the most twisted, insane murders he had ever worked. His buddies at the Bureau had already tapped him to come to Quantico and present the case for study.

“The press is already trying to come up with a catchy nickname for her, comparing her to Lizzie Borden,” Mendez said.

“Lizzie Borden was never convicted, you know,” Vince said. “Milo Bordain is going away forever and ever, amen.”

“The Bordains have deep pockets. They’ll try to buy an insanity plea.”

“I don’t care what they try,” Vince said, digging his car keys out of his pants pocket. The wind came up and flipped his necktie back over his shoulder. “A jury gets a load of those crime-scene photos—wherever they put her, they’ll throw away the key.”

“Do you think she’s crazy?”

“In the legal sense? No,” he said. “Not at all. She killed Marissa out of rage. She thought she had killed Haley, getting rid of the only witness. Why she excised the breasts might have been symbolic initially—destroying what was feminine about Marissa—but sending them to herself in the mail was definitely self-serving.”

“Trying to divert attention away from herself as a suspect by portraying herself as a victim,” Mendez said. “That’s some kind of cold blood running through her veins.”

“She’s calculating, not crazy,” Vince said. “That’s why she was so upset when she didn’t get custody of Haley. She figured if she had the child in her control, she would have made certain one way or another the girl would never ID her as the killer.”

“She’s evil,” Mendez said. “That should be a legal term. She’s guilty of being evil. That’s simple.”

“We can look at anything and make it simple,” Vince said. “Even murder. Every one of them can be boiled down to this: Either somebody didn’t get what they wanted, or someone wanted exactly what they got. Disappointment or desire.”

“Or both.”

And the result was ultimately all the same: lives broken and the death of dreams. Marissa’s life had held a wealth of promise, now gone. She would no longer have the chance to make the world a better place by creating art or by raising a wonderful child. Milo Bordain, who had been a driving force in the community and instrumental in raising funds for half a dozen charities, would leave a void in those positions. Mark Foster, a bright light in his field, had given up his future trying to protect a secret. And Darren Bordain, who had known nothing about his lover’s attempt on Gina’s life or his mother’s murder of Marissa, was left emotionally devastated without the two people most important in his life.

Bruce Bordain, who had effectively set this all in motion by cheating on his wife and destroying the dreams of a young woman, would walk away unscathed.

“How’s Anne?” Mendez asked.

A smile tugged at one corner of Vince’s mouth. “Remarkable. Beat up, cut up, but incredible. But I told her if somebody tries to kill her one more time I’m locking her up for safekeeping.”

“She’s had a rough few days.”

“She’s more worried about Haley, but Haley will be all right. Between the two of us, we’ll make sure of it.”

“You’ll adopt her?”

“Absolutely,” Vince said. “We’ll get a jump start on our family with Haley Leone.”

Mendez grinned and clapped him on the back. “Congratulations.”

“I’m a lucky man,” Vince said. “How about you?”

“I heard Steve Morgan moved out. He told Sara he never had an affair with Marissa. Marissa wouldn’t have him because of Sara and Wendy. But he would have done it, and that’s what counts.”

“And what are you going to do?”

Mendez stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged as he leaned back against the car. “Listen when she wants to talk.”

“One step at time.”

“Yeah,” he said ducking his head. “I think maybe I’ll go take one now.”