Page 17 of Bone Echo

He took a final, slow look around. “Where are you, El?”

The urge to find Lawler and beat the hell out of him was a throbbing need in his brain. But then his anger and frustration deflated. What if the bastard couldn’t be found? What if Ella wasn’t found?

Kurt couldn’t think like that. He turned off the light and shut the door and headed downstairs. Audra was just pouring the hot water into mugs.

“No cream, no sugar, right?”

“Right. Smells good.” He was surprised.

“It’s chamomile. I found it on the top shelf of the mug cupboard.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “It’s probably the previous owners.” The only new tea he knew of in the house was the peppermint stuff Ella loved.

Audra made a face. “Hopefully it’ll still be okay.” She placed their mugs on the table. “Sit. Let’s talk.”

When she’d taken a chair, he did the same. “Peterson called,” he said. “Brian was roofied. Rohypnol showed up in the lab results.”

“Lawler put it in the hot chocolate,” she offered, her face going pale. “Brian insisted they made no other stops, right?”

“Yeah. And if that’s true, it had to be Lawler.” Kurt braced his forearms on the table and watched her face for reaction to what he intended to say next. “Ella wasn’t drugged. At least she didn’t appear to be when she came home. Brian also thought she was fine. So I’m thinking Lawler drugged Brian for a specific reason.”

“Such as,” Audra prompted.

“If his goal was to abduct Ella, then the best way to avoid being considered a suspect or getting caught was to make it look as if someone else was the perpetrator. Like maybe that Brian killed his folks and Ella.” His gut clenched at just saying the words out loud.

“I’m with you so far,” Audra agreed.

“They were in Ella’s car at the Village Stop at 12:30 a.m. Brian got out of the car and there was no blood on him or his clothes. None on Ella’s either.” Kurt narrowed his gaze as the idea gained its leg. “Ella took him home after that—if his statement proves true. So how did blood get in her car? It’s going to take time to pinpoint whose blood it is—if not hers.” The thought twisted like a knife in his gut. “Did she go back to his house? Discover what was happening? Try to help him? Is that where the blood came from? If that’s the case, why was he still at home this morning? Got up, went to school like any other day?”

Realization dawned on Audra’s face. “You’re suggesting she was takenaftershe dropped Brian off at home and that someone else prepared the scenes.”

He nodded, that dread rising inside him again. “For whatever reason, she left the house again and encountered her abductor. Then she was taken to wherever she’s being held. TheSatterfield’s were murdered during that same time frame. Blood was put on Brian’s pajamas and in both his and Ella’s cars to make it look as if Brian had killed his folks and Ella. Since Brian has no memory of what happened, we would all think that he disposed of her body God knows where. In that case, it wouldn’t be unusual if her body was never found. Lawler is in the clear. Anything Brian says about him without Ella to back it up, seems like a hastily drummed up alibi.”

He sucked in a ragged breath and struggled to dispel the images his words had prompted.

“In your theory the murderer,” Audra offered, “is Lawler.”

“At the moment, it’s the only scenario that makes sense. Brian doesn’t have a scratch on him. No indications of any sort of altercation and trust me, if he’d tried to hurt Ella, she would have fought like a wildcat.”

“Excellent point,” Audra agreed.

“Plus,” he went on, “the killer knew where to plunge the knife to do the job with a single strike and that one blow took strength. The kind a grown man wields, not a kid whose emotional and never killed anyone before.”

Audra shivered. “You’re right. I can’t see Brian doing the necessary research and then being able to get the job done.”

“Then we have the video from the Village Stop where Brian is wearing the same clothes as when he was picked up at school the next day. He stated that when Ella brought him home he crashed on the bed. So he never had on his pajamas—assuming his story is true and I believe, based on that video, that it is.”

Audra nodded slowly, digesting this news. “Lawler set him up to take the fall, ensuring no one would ever be looking for him.”

“I could have it all wrong, but…” He shrugged.

“No.” Audra shook her head. “Maybe not. I looked at Dr. Lawler’s personnel file this afternoon. I made some calls and discovered that some of the things he claimed are not correct.”

“Like,” Kurt prodded, his instincts going on point.

“The principal at the Beverly Hills High School—where he claims he worked before moving here—insists that no one by that name was ever employed there. Even more disturbing is that the vice principal who gave the recommendation was in an accident shortly after I spoke with her eighteen months ago.” Audra visibly shuddered. “That rocked me, Kurt, I have to tell you.”

He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Thank you for checking on that for me. Based on my theory and your discovery, just maybe the judge will go for that warrant on Lawler’s property. I swear if he doesn’t, I’m going in without one.”

---