Page 78 of Fire Harbor

Eastlyn acknowledged Linus with a nod and kept her focus on him. “I wanted to let you know that Derrick is the one who broke into your house and messed it up. Yours, too,” she said, pivoting back to Lake. “His favorite brand of running shoes is Adidas and his shoe size is eleven. That fits with what we found at the other houses, too. It’s the damnedest thing. He clammed up immediately when we got him to jail but then once he started talking, he’s turned into a chatterbox, admitting to all kinds of things.”

“Like what?” Linus asked.

“We only have his word for it, mind you, but he’s provided a name that goes with those remains found on the same side of the bridge as Gabby. He says she’s a woman he picked up hitching a ride last June into San Francisco. Derrick claims her name was Erin Benton. Needless to say, we were skeptical. But it turns out, one search through a database and we find that eighteen-year-old Erin Benton has been missing since last June. Bingo. Her story to Derrick was that she got into a fight with her boyfriend, and the boyfriend dumped her at the side of the road near San Sebastian. According to Benton’s family, the couple had started out that day near Porterville, running off to elope.”

“They were getting married?” Lake repeated. “And he dumped her on the trip there? Wow. Just. Wow. What kind of rotten luck is that? She jumped into a vehicle with a serial killer after getting dumped.”

“That’s what I said,” Eastlyn murmured. “Anyway, we’ll verify the story with the boyfriend. But I thought Linus might want to know that we have a name. We’ll need DNA and all that to confirm but I thought I’d let you know on my way home.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Lake and I were talking earlier about Derrick. How well did you know him? Did you ever suspect he might be—”

Eastlyn held up a hand. “Let me stop you there. You can’t know what’s inside someone. Brent had a conversation with Fiona Fowler earlier. The girlfriend had no clue what he was doing during those nights she was at work.”

“We figured,” Lake stated. “But people will always wonder and talk.”

“They probably will,” Eastlyn established. “Think of it this way. If you thought Linus here was a fairly normal guy when you first met him, but his behavior changed at some point, you might suspect him of doing nefarious things when he went out by himself. Whereas Derrick started out at nineteen, murdering his first victim, Fiona never noticed a change in him. I’m trying to say that Fiona only knew the Derrick who killed. She never knew Derrick any other way. His behavior stayed the same because he was a cold-blooded killer early on and never needed to pretend to be anything different. His personality and emotions stayed on the same even keel. He didn’t outwardly exhibit anything different to the people who knew him.”

Linus nodded. “That helps. Thanks. Because I could see myself for years down the road questioning how I missed Derrick’s dark side.”

“I don’t understand why he took the books from the library about serial killers, though,” Lake said. “He’d already been killing for years by then.”

“Look, from our standpoint, the investigation is mere hours old. Give us a chance to really dig into his patterns and mindset. We’ve made great strides, but we still have a long way to go in nailing down Derrick’s timeline, his work schedule, and matching up victims to his older activity. Maybe he needed the books to try and pinpoint where they made mistakes so he wouldn’t get caught.”

“That sounds reasonable enough,” Lake concluded.

“In other words, don’t rush the investigation,” Linus decided.

“You look like you could use eight hours of sleep,” Lake noted.

“I’d settle for five or six. Cooper’s been after me to take vacation time. I think after the past week, I’m going to put in for two solid weeks off.”

“I’m not much of a traveler, but you deserve a trip to somewhere exotic,” Lake said with a smile. “Like a second honeymoon.”

“I never got a first one,” Eastlyn chortled. “If I could get away anywhere, I’d settle for someplace with no internet or phone service.”

“What about a creepy cabin in the woods?” Linus quipped.

Eastlyn shuddered at the idea of that. “On second thought, maybe I’ll make do with staying home and hanging out beachside right here.”

“Hopefully, things will get back to normal,” Lake said. “Do you know if Derrick was working with Callum Riggs?”

“Yeah, that’s a great question,” Linus muttered. “What was his role in all this? Is that guy talking?”

“From what I know, his lawyers are going for an insanity plea. Not sure that will work, though. According to his ex-wife, he’s been trolling the internet for women. Guess who he was in contact with recently?”

“The underage Alice?” Lake guessed with disgust.

“Nope. Her mother, Karen,” Eastlyn provided. “Karen may have led Callum Riggs to believe that Alice was his daughter from an affair they had years earlier, like fifteen years ago. He’s been trying to persuade Karen to let him meet Alice. Karen has refused that outright, not wanting her husband Tom to know the truth.”

Lake traded looks with Linus. “That night, she and Tom stopped by to thank us, Karen did seem to know Riggs. Remember, she said something about saving her little girl from that man. He’s a monster.”

“I remember. What a mess,” Linus stressed. “And he set fire to the boats in the harbor strictly to distract the town so that he could kidnap Alice? He just picked boats at random to blow up? That’s crazy.”

“Don’t throw that word ‘crazy’ around. Don’t plant that seed with a jury pool.”

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