Evil Never Dies

Have I become one of them?

Her stomach turned. Was she now a clone of the monsters she’d been trying so hard to get off the streets? When had this happened? What had she done? “We’re finished here,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Let’s go.”

Hayley grabbed hold of her shoulder. “You two get out of here. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“No, you won’t. Leave him be.”

Hayley frowned. “You know he’ll just do it again. How many young lives is he going to ruin before you regret this decision?”

Silence. It took all she had to keep the bile from coming forth.

“He’s the devil,” Hayley said. “We need to finish this . . . right now.”

Lizzy couldn’t bring herself to look into Hayley’s eyes. She was responsible for these girls, and look what she’d done. She’d brought it to this.

She thought of Jared then. He’d seen evil in all forms, and yet he never would have bent down to the criminal’s level. Never. There was no excuse. “I said let him go, and I mean it.”

She went to the side door that led out of the garage, held it open, and waited for both Kitally and Hayley to come.

Kitally didn’t waste any time getting out of there.

Hayley took a little longer. She looked from Be

“We never should have come,” Lizzy told her. “I made a mistake.”

“Your hormones are all fucked up.”

“Let’s go,” Lizzy said again, refusing to leave without her.

Once they were outside, Lizzy shut the door and looked at Hayley.

She’d never seen Hayley direct her anger at her before, but she was seething and there was no doubt who she was pissed off at. Hayley got right up in her face, their noses an inch apart. “I know why you can’t do this. But you don’t have a clue, because you’re too wrapped up in all those distorted thoughts of yours to see the sky through the clouds.”

Lizzy opened her mouth to respond, but Hayley shut her down. “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, Lizzy, but you need to get your ass to the doctor. You’re fucking pregnant.”

Jessica greeted all three of them when they returned to Kitally’s house in Carmichael. She had Salma’s baby positioned atop her shoulder. Awkwardly, she tried to create a rocking motion and pat the baby on the back at the same time. “Where have you all been?” she asked. “I’ve been calling you for the last hour. I left messages on all of your phones.”

Kitally swept right by without saying a word.

Hayley grunted and disappeared.

“What’s wrong with everyone? What’s with the black outfits?”

Lizzy headed inside.

“I really need to talk to you, Lizzy.”

“I need some water first,” Lizzy said. “When did you get in?” She grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filled it with tap water and gulped it down.

“I arrived this morning,” Jessica told her, “but I’ve been at the office all day. Jimmy dropped me here at the house a couple hours ago.” She stepped closer. “What’s wrong with everyone?”

“Don’t ask. What do you need to talk to me about?”

Jessica asked Lizzy to follow her to the dining room table where pictures were spread out from one end of the table to the other. Lizzy had seen most of the pictures when they met with Jimmy Martin and Ke

“You’re a genius,” Jessica told her.

“Why is that?”

She poked a finger at a picture at the far left of the table. “This is one of many cold cases now linked to the Sacramento Strangler. See the pearl earring on the woman’s ear?”

Lizzy nodded.

“The killer used the earring to pierce his victim’s ear. Her other ear was not pierced. One pearl earring.”

Salma entered the room and took the baby from Jessica. She was wearing a robe and had a towel wrapped around her head. “Thanks for letting me take a shower.”

“No problem,” Jessica said, not missing a beat as she continued with her line of thought. She turned the photo around. There was a smaller picture taped to the back of it. “Look at this. I did an Internet search and printed off some famous paintings. The copies I made are black and white so you can’t see that the band around the woman’s head in the painting is blue, which is very close to the blue-colored band that was wrapped around the victim’s neck. Guess what the picture is called?”

“I have no idea.”

“Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Joha

Lizzy listened, waited.

“Here’s another one.” Jessica handed her one of the pictures she’d seen when they met with Jimmy and Ke

Lizzy tried to pay attention, but her mind was still back in the garage with Wayne Be

Her hand went to her belly. A slight bump perhaps, but more likely she felt something because Hayley had put the idea in her head. It was true that she hadn’t been feeling well lately. She’d thrown up more than a few times in the past few months, but she’d put it all down to stress. The truth was she couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt so-called normal. She would make a doctor’s appointment first thing in the morning.

“What’s wrong?” Jessica asked.

“I’ve had a rough go of it today, but I’ll be fine. Go on.”

Jessica didn’t look so sure. “You look pale. Maybe you should lay down for a bit.”

“I’m OK. What about the victim found covered with irises? Did that mean anything?”

Jessica shuffled through the photographs, picked up the one showing the victim covered in flowers, and turned it over. “Irises, by Vincent van Gogh. It goes on and on, just like this. Mitchell is impressed, Lizzy. It looks like you might have found the missing link.”

Lizzy blindly sorted through the pictures, her mind still reeling. A baby? She couldn’t raise a baby amid this crazy life of hers. Was it possible she could be carrying Jared’s child? She grabbed hold of the edge of the table.

Another worried look from Jessica.

“I’m fine,” Lizzy said flatly. “Go on.”

Jessica had known her long enough to know it would do her no good to argue. “We have a suspect,” Jessica blurted. She reached over the table and retrieved another picture from the bottom of the pile. “His name is Jovan Massing. He’s an art dealer who did time for hiring master forgers and selling fake paintings for millions.”

The man was short and stocky. He looked like a bulldog, with pinched nostrils and baggy jowls. The only thing missing was a drool-slathered tongue hanging to one side. This was the man who’d killed so many? It just didn’t compute. Not just because of the way he looked, but . . . “A master forger suddenly becomes a serial killer?”

“He also did time for attempted murder.”

All right. That was something. But still, it didn’t fit. Something niggled at the back of Lizzy’s mind although she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. “What about Zachary Tucker?”