He spotted her right away. He took her hand and dragged her onto the dance floor, pulling her obscenely close.
“You whispered in my ear, ‘I’ve killed a woman before. You don’t ask my permission to go out again, and it will happen to you.’”
Afraid, she congratulated her friend and headed to Will’s apartment. Though still single, Will demanded her presence until shortly before curfew, allowing her just enough time to make it back to her barracks every night.
“I went home.”
Maybe she’d taken one too many profiling classes, but her instincts warned Will was more dangerous than she thought. He’d never threatened her life before. She started a methodical search of his apartment. Her eyes darted between the door and where she was searching. Careful to leave things looking as they were, she made her way into the kitchen. Sitting on the floor, she opened the first cabinet. Nothing. The second cabinet, more nothing.
“The third cabinet. You left a tiny earring back. Sloppy, Will. Jacking off to your trophies. You hear that, all of you?” she taunted. “I was meticulous opening it. You were so obsessive.”
Gwen emptied the cabinet and the liner. Will was particular about organization and cleanliness. There was a pinhole in the wooden bottom. She ran into her bedroom and found a bobby pin. Sliding the edge into the hole, she lifted the false bottom.
“And organized.”
Below it was a set of files and a stack of square white boxes like those from a jeweler. The first one looked like a personnel file, a picture clipped to the top right corner. According to the name on the paperwork, it belonged to Lara Fortner. She closed the file and opened the box marked LF. Inside were a pair of opal and diamond earrings and a matching pin.
“Lara Fortner—you and your boys killed her while you were still in school. And you stole her earrings and pin.”
Her ears perked up. She hurried to put everything back together. Will’s key was in the lock. As the door to the apartment opened, she closed the cabinet door. Her eyes went wide; the pin had fallen from its box and was lying on the floor. She grabbed it and shoved it in her pocket.
“When you came home, I bobbled the pin. I had no time to put it away, so I took it.”
“Gwenny, where are you?” he called.
“In the kitchen, getting some juice.” He joined her as she filled her glass.
“That night, you made sweet love to me. I was leaving the next morning. When did you make the decision to kill me?”
The next morning, Gwen sat at her desktop computer and typed in the name Lara Fortner. What came up was a photograph and the headline,Professor of History at Samuel P. Carter Military Academy Missing. As she scrolled through the articles, another photo popped up. It was a picture of her and her husband attending a formal party. She was wearing the opal earrings and pin.
“Trophies. Did you guys know he sunk you all, keeping trophies?”
She shut down her system. Reaching into the jacket she wore the night before, she removed the pin as her phone rang. “Hey, Daddy.” She put him on speaker.
“Hi, Princess, I’m calling to wish you well,” General North said.
“Thanks, I’m packing up my stuff and sending it to you. It’s about five cartons.” She pulled tape over the seam of one of the boxes. “Could you tell Scott to keep his ass safe?” she chuckled.
“I’m sure he’d say the same thing. Keep safe, Gwendolen.”
“Love you.” She sniffed.
The clock ticking on the wall drew her attention. She was running out of time. Her flight was leaving at 1600 hours. As she packed up her monitor and keyboard, she looked at her tower. Using the screwdriver on her Leatherman, she opened up the metal case. After ripping off a piece of packing tape, she taped the pin to the cabinet.
“Gwenny, the minute I discovered the pin was missing…” Will dragged her out of her memory.
* * *
Troy walked downto James Richmond’s room. His parents were both present. “Mr. and Mrs. Richmond. James, how are you today?”
“You here to help him propagate his made-up story?” his father asked.
Troy’s voice was calm and collected. “Mr. Richmond, we’ve spoken about this before. Your son sustained serious injuries because he was sodomized, raped and beaten at the hands of two evil men. James was assessed by three psychiatrists not on our payroll. I am waiting for the evaluation to come back, but I expect them to find nothing preventing him from making decisions for himself.
“At this moment, I am in charge of the security for this facility. We are in the middle of an emergent lockdown. I’m going to ask you to leave. Say goodnight to your son, please.”
“That coming from you. I saw that film.” James’s father stepped closer to Troy.
