Exit Strategy Read online

  “Sometimes. Ms. Kingston, if you can think of anything else, please let us know. If there’s anything out of the ordinary, please don’t hesitate to call 911. It’s important.”

  They walked down the stairs to the front door, and before they reached the lobby, Allison said, “She’s lying.”

  “I know, but about which part?”

  “I’d feel better if we kept an eye on her.”

  “Me too. Let’s run this by the D.A.”

  His phone rang, and he picked it up to find Rue on the other end.

  “Please tell me Joanna is with you.”

  Damn it all to hell.

  “Joanna went home a couple of hours ago. Where are you?”

  “Still at the hotel with Vanessa,” Rue said, the fear in her voice chilling him. “Please, could you come here?”

  “I’m on my way,” he promised.

  * * * *

  “I thought you moved away after the trial.” Joanna still felt shaky after the two shots Anya Decker had fired in the living room of her old home, too close for comfort. That answered one of her questions—she knew how to shoot. She’d made Joanna sit on a rackety chair in the middle of the room. The house had been abandoned for a long time, a thick coat of dust on the floor and every piece of furniture. It smelled moldy.

  “I did, for a while. You forced me out of my home. This was my parents’ house, remember? We had graffiti on the wall every day.”

  “People were angry.”

  “People are stupid. My husband never got a fair trial. They didn’t even know if it was him.”

  “I know. I saw his victims. I spoke to a survivor. She identified him. Anya…”

  “Don’t say my name.” She shook her head with vehemence. Her hand with the gun remained steady. “You took that away from him, the right to a fair trial. Our home. One time, someone threw a rock through the window of the nursery. There were shards in my baby’s bed!”

  Joanna almost agreed with her that they should have let the authorities done their job. Then again, she had crossed lines as well. This was why they were here.

  “Mrs. Decker,” she tried again, “I’m not sure what you want from me. I know he killed those women. That is the truth. It isn’t going to change because it’s painful.”

  Anya stared right at her. “Did he suffer?”

  “Not as much as his victims did, no.”

  “Good,” Anya said, something changing in her tone that set off alarm bells for Joanna. “Then I don’t have to make this harder than necessary either.” She was surprisingly quick raising her arm, but Joanna anticipated her move, ducking the blow. Anya wasn’t going to give up, but as long as she didn’t pull the trigger, Joanna knew she had an advantage.

  Another shot rang out.

  * * * *

  Rue’s knees nearly buckled when she heard Joanna’s voice on the other end of the call.

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I’m fine.” Joanna didn’t sound fine at all. “Could you give me Theo please?”

  Rue had no choice but to hand the phone over.

  “I understand,” he said tersely. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. I promise.” His tone softened on the last words, doing nothing to disperse Rue’s fears.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “Of course,” he said to her relief. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  Rue couldn’t believe what she heard when they were on the road.

  “Anya Decker? I thought…” She didn’t have to finish the sentence. They’d all had the same fear when Joanna didn’t answer her phone.

  “I’m not sure how she even knew Joanna was in town, but apparently she lost custody of her child, and blames her for all of it. She never fully believed that Decker had murdered those women.”

  “In how much denial can a person be?”

  He sighed. “A lot, in her case. Joanna handled herself well.”

  “Of course she did. But she didn’t deserve this.”

  “I agree.”

  Rue’s heart sank when they arrived at the scene where squad cars and two ambulances were already blocking the street. She saw the woman that had to be Anya Decker being wheeled out on a stretcher, and despite Theo’s warnings, all but jumped out of the car.

  “She’s lying. It’s all her fault! She did this!” Decker might be injured, but she hadn’t lost her voice. The doors of the ambulance closed after the paramedics got her in, and Rue saw an officer guiding Joanna outside. She had lied about something—the bruise on the side of the face didn’t make it look like she was fine. Rue ran towards her and embraced her, feeling her wince. She couldn’t help it. She wasn’t sure if it was her, or Joanna shaking, or both of them.

  “She tried to shoot herself,” Joanna said, drawing a shaky breath. It took Rue a moment to realize she was talking to Theo who had come up behind them. “I tried to stop her.”

  “We’ll figure it all out,” he said. “Let’s get you checked out first. Rue will go with you, and then I’ll need you back at the station.”

  “Can’t this wait?” Rue asked, irritated.

  “I need Joanna’s statement as soon as possible. Just so we’ll get ahead of any possible…complications.”

  She didn’t dare ask what those complications would be.

  “Let’s make sure she’s all right first.”

  * * * *

  On the bright side, she didn’t have a concussion. Joanna had a near blinding headache nonetheless, and she wasn’t looking forward to answering any more questions about this latest puzzling and violent detour.

  She had no doubts that Anya Decker would want to cast her in the worst possible light. There was something startlingly familiar about that.

  “She came up behind me with a gun,” she told Allison Kato. “She made me get into the car and drive to her old house where we sat in the living room for a talk.”

  “All this time, there was no opportunity for you to take the gun?”

  “I knew she was desperate, and if I made a mistake, one of us would end up dead.”

  Allison nodded, giving no indication whether or not she believed Joanna’s side of the story.

  “What happened next?”

  “She wanted to know if Decker had suffered, so I told her the truth. She decided she was going to hit me over the head first, and that’s when I saw an opportunity. We fought…She managed to pull the trigger, but fortunately the bullet didn’t go where she wanted it to be.”

  Joanna had no idea what was happening, or why reliving those moments made her lean forward and cry. She had done what she needed to do, watch Anya until the ambulance and the police arrived. She didn’t want her to die or try to get away.

  Perhaps her father had been wrong about the one thing he didn’t seem to hate about her. She didn’t feel very strong at the moment. Despite her best efforts, Anya had gotten hurt. She wanted to avoid that, aside from the problems it could cause her.

  Rue had to fight off a criminal in a place that was supposed to be safe, where Joanna was supposed to keep her safe.

  Mary had decided she didn’t want to be a mother anymore.

  This was as much as she’d been able to handle. The line had been crossed.

  “It’s okay,” Allison said softly. She’d never spoken to Joanna like that, and it was freaking her out.

  “No. None of this is okay.”

  “Maybe not right now, but this will all be over soon. You’ll be able to go home.”

  She wasn’t even sure where that was anymore, except there could be no home without…

  Rue walked inside that exact moment.

  “Give us a few minutes?” she directed Allison. It wasn’t a question, and Allison didn’t take it as such.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Rue didn’t try to tell her that everything would be all right, and somehow, that was a bigger comfort to Joanna than any reassurances that could end up being false.

  “Oh man, this embarrassing,” she said, strai
ghtening, fairly surprised that no one had walked in on them. After all the police station was a busy place.

  “Sure,” Rue said, locating a box of tissues that she handed out to Joanna. “You got threatened with a gun by the widow of a serial killer and hit over the head. Then you had to keep her from killing herself or you, we don’t know for sure, and it’s a little much. Yes, by all means, be embarrassed.” Her tone was calm and matter-of-fact, devoid of any scorn.

  Joanna couldn’t help it, she had to laugh. “Smart.”

  “You know I am. But frankly, this is getting old. What are the odds?”

  Joanna still had a headache, and the crying fit hadn’t helped, though she had asked herself the same question. Had Anya Decker really prepared her revenge all this time, for the faint chance that she might see Joanna again? That didn’t seem to make sense, but what did at the moment?

  “I don’t know, maybe she snapped after she lost custody. She came back here and started to make plans. Ironically, she made it a lot less likely to get her son back, no matter what story she’s telling.”

  Rue shuddered.

  “What?”

  “She was yelling and screaming when they brought her out, calling you a liar.”

  “She said she wanted to make sure I went back to prison. Not that it’s likely, but I’m done with people trying to set me up.” Joanna touched the side of her head gingerly. “It still hurts, and I’m starving. Let’s find Theo and see if we can finally go home.”

  * * * *

  Back at the hotel room, Joanna opted for a quick shower and a change of clothes, hoping she’d be able to scrub the stench of the past off of her. She felt a bit more human when she dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and wound up her hair in a lose bun.

  She stared at her reflection in the mirror, the new gray that had appeared in her hair, more lines on her face. Not weak. She had been ambushed, and been able to avoid a catastrophe. Anya Decker would have to face the consequences of her actions, as Joanna had.

  No, she wasn’t weak, but it wasn’t up to Lawrence to decide that either. Or Mary. Determined, she walked into the bedroom and took the envelope from the side table, ripped it open and let the content fall onto the table.

  Joanna was aware of Rue’s startled gaze, but she couldn’t go back now.

  The papers were a mix of copies of checks, bank statements and other official documents. They showed a pattern of regular payments Lawrence made to her mother after she had left.

  “She took that money.” Joanna sat, the sudden drop of energy making her light-headed. “All those years, she took money from him. She was no better.”

  “We don’t know all the reasons yet. Do you want to meet her?”

  “I don’t know if it’s necessary to do that to myself. There’s nothing she could say that would make either of us feel better.”

  “Just to make sure. So there’s no doubt on your side.”

  “Maybe. But I need food now. I can’t think clearly anymore.”

  “Of course. Let’s go have dinner.”

  * * * *

  Perhaps she was all out of energy to worry, or the wine she was having with dinner helped. In any case, Joanna couldn’t be much concerned when Theo called her later and told her what Decker’s wife had said in her statement.

  “Not that it matters much, she’s not much credible.”

  “Even less than I am,” she said, amused.

  “If you want to put it that way. I don’t think there will be a problem. I just wanted to let you know Governor O’Neal will see you on Saturday. She’s inviting us to dinner with her husband. Rue and Vanessa are invited too.”

  “Wow, fancy. I’m not sure I brought clothes for that.”

  “Joanna, this is serious. If we play this right, all of this could be over soon.”

  She remembered that Allison had used a similar phrase.

  “I wish,” she said. “Vanessa promised me before, and look where we are.”

  “Vanessa’s friends usually help women who need to stay hidden. This was different.”

  “Because you still had use for me?”

  “Because you can still turn this around,” he said patiently. “Enjoy the evening and try to relax. I’ll talk to you again when you’re sober. Say hello to Rue.”

  “Wait, is there any news about Preston and Lester?”

  “There might be soon. See you Saturday.”

  * * * *

  Allison Kato stayed after hours, something nagging at the back of her mind. She didn’t mind the over-time. Her boyfriend was out of town, and her cat only ever greeted her with angry meows these days.

  She couldn’t stand thinking she’d missed something. The recordings. The picture of Joanna and Preston at the crime scene. He had recorded her, but who had taken the picture? Why did they always come back for Joanna Mitchell?

  She went online to search for Laura Kingston, bringing up a social media profile. It was locked, but it turned out she was tagged in someone else’s photos, in what looked like a party. Allison clicked through the pictures until she got to the one that made her jaw drop and reach for her cell phone.

  Theo’s voicemail came on, so she sent him a text before she brought up the picture again. Laura Kingston stood next to Maggie Simmons, the two of them toasting to the person taking the picture.

  Laura had lied about not knowing Maggie, for starters.

  * * * *

  Why Anya Decker? How could she know that Joanna was in town? Why after all this time?

  While Joanna wanted nothing but to enjoy Rue’s hands and lips on her body, she couldn’t get away from those questions. Rue noticed it too, because she halted and sat up, regret in her expression.

  “I’m not really doing a great job, am I?”

  “You are. It’s not you.” Joanna took her hand and held it for a moment. She pulled up the sheet to cover herself. “Anya Decker came to court and showed off her baby. That was her agenda, to make me look bad. Once I was convicted, she lost all interest.”

  “She might have read up on Short, put two and two together.”

  “But she couldn’t know I was here.”

  “Grace might.”

  They shared a look, both of them trying to make sense of these puzzling segments. “True,” Joanna said, “and she might be aware of what happened at the trial when she did her homework on me. But she couldn’t know that Preston would break her out, or that Anya would come back.”

  “What if it wasn’t her? What if Preston organized all of it while Grace was still locked up? They were mocking you, trying to set you up. Now, all those years later, Anya Decker all of a sudden decides to do the same.”

  Perhaps she’d been afraid to say it out loud. Now that Rue had, they couldn’t turn away from the dire possibilities. Preston, wherever he came from, had known that Grace felt like Joanna had done her wrong, and he dangled revenge in front of her like the proverbial carrot.

  “I have to call Theo,” she said. “They need to ask Anya about Grace.”

  * * * *

  “Don’t worry. I need just a moment of your time, and then you can get back to sleep.”

  The soft whisper startled Anya Decker awake. “There you are,” Dr. Lester told her with a smile. Truth be told, she wasn’t a real doctor, but when she caught her reflection in the window, Grace could almost make herself believe. She looked good in the white coat. No one had stopped her.

  “I did everything you said,” Anya told her.

  “That’s good. And you didn’t tell anyone about me.”

  “No, why would I?”

  “Very good. I hope you hit her hard.”

  A relieved smile appeared on Anya’s face. “As hard as I could.”

  “That’s my girl,” Grace said, and with a swift move, placed the pillow over Anya’s face, putting her whole weight into the movement until the woman stopped struggling. “You thought we were the same,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s cute.”

  When she left the room, Gra
ce heard approaching sirens outside. Things were getting a little hot in town, but she wasn’t ready to leave yet.

  She hoped Liam had been successful on his end as well. Perhaps they could celebrate.

  * * * *

  “Well, thank God I have an alibi,” Joanna said after she laid down the phone. “Anya Decker is dead.”

  She sounded in shock. She probably was. There was no lost love between her and the woman who wanted her back in prison so badly, a woman who had successfully maintained the illusion that her husband could still be an ordinary, good guy.

  Joanna had never wanted her dead, and she was convinced that this murder proved her theory—Grace had somehow forged a connection with Decker’s widow and used her as a pawn.

  Theo had promised to come by to get her up to date. She was on pins and needles until he managed, around midnight. He looked ragged, though Joanna had to remind herself that her appearance probably wasn’t much better. This wasn’t a typical murder case. Grace and her new lover had unleashed Armageddon on the city, or so it felt. All because of Joanna? She might be overestimating herself. Both Grace and Liam were psychopaths. They did whatever they pleased, with or without an explanation attached. This went far beyond her.

  “Security footage shows a doctor going into her room that no one recognizes. The intruder smothers her with a pillow, and walks right out. We must have missed her by minutes.”

  He cast a look at the papers still on the side table, but when Joanna didn’t elaborate, he didn’t ask.

  “In all of this, we never had a chance to talk about the woman who was at the inn, Kingston? How did that go?”

  “Allison found something, a photo online that shows her with one of the witnesses. I was going to meet her when you called and the fact that Anya might be able to lead us to Grace took priority…” He raked a hand through his hair. “She sent me a message that we have to check on Kingston.”

  “And, did you?”

  “Joanna, when I came to the station, she wasn’t there anymore. I called Laura Kingston, she hasn’t heard from Allison. We can’t find her.”

  Joanna’s hand went to her mouth. She knew exactly what that meant, her vision graying out when her mind went back to the crime scene photos.