Page 131 of The Killing Plains

On Thursday morning, she woke up hungry for the first time since being bitten, and she ate even the rubbery hospital eggs with gusto. When Russ arrived just before noon, Colly was dressed and sitting on the side of the bed.

He stopped in the doorway. “What’s going on?”

“You’re busting me out of here. I can rest just as well at home.”

Monday morning, rainy and cool. Cement-colored clouds sagged over the Crescent Bluff police station as Colly crunched across wetgravel to the front entrance. Avery and Russ were both waiting inside. Russ had insisted on coming in when Colly told him her plan.

“You sure about this?” he asked. “I could give him a message.”

Colly shook her head. “He deserves to hear it from me.”

“And me,” Avery said.

Colly laid a hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “You’ve handled the interviews with Brenda. Let me take this.”

Russ led Colly down some stairs and through a heavy door. “The interview room’s being repainted. You’ll have to talk here.”

She followed him along a short passage to a pair of old-fashioned, iron-barred holding cells. One was occupied.

“Hello, Jace,” Colly said through the bars.

Dressed in a dull gray jumpsuit, Jace Hoyer lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He lifted his head and glared. “Come to gloat, have ya?”

“I thought you might want some answers, now that we know what happened to Denny.”

Jace swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up.

“Let me in, Russ. Give us a few minutes,” Colly said.

“No way. You can sit out here—I’ll get you a chair.”

“Jace won’t hurt me.”

Russ rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll be watching.” He nodded towards a camera high on the wall as he unlocked the door. “Mind yourself, Hoyer.”

When he was gone, Colly sat down on the cell’s built-in bench. “You’ve probably heard Brenda Newland was the killer.”

“She was down here last weekend.” Jace nodded towards the neighboring cell. “Not that she said much. But I ain’t stupid.” His face twisted into an odd grimace. “Poor Denny. His own shrink.”

“I know.”

“And she got away with it for six months while the Rangers screwed around investigating me and Willis Newland.”

“You can’t really blame them. Brenda had an airtight alibi. Denny left the counseling center at one o’clock, and the ME says he died no later than two. But a dozen witnesses put Brenda in her office with clients till six that day. There’s lots of cameras around the counseling center—impossible to sneak out unseen. Plus—” Colly hesitated. “The Rangers had reason to think Denny was killed by the same person who murdered Adam Parker back in ’98.”

“Then how the hell’d she do it?” Jace exploded. “Ifyoufigured it out, they should’ve.”

“Real life’s not like the movies. There can be thousands of pieces of evidence at a crime scene, and ninety-eight percent of it’s irrelevant. Takes time to make sense of it all. Plus, the Rangers don’t know Brenda like I do. The crime was just so contrived that it was hard to imagine. Even now that she’s confessed, I can hardly believe it. But I should’ve solved it quicker.” Colly sighed. “It’s a long story.”

Jace waved an arm around the bare concrete cell. “I got plenty of time.”

Colly nodded. It was tough to know where to start, she said. As for why Brenda had killed Denny, her rationale was so warped that it was useless to try to understand it.

“She’s nuts?”

“Not legally. She understands society’s definition of right and wrong. But medically speaking, maybe. She took some crazy risks, and she wasn’t self-aware enough to hide all the inconsistencies in the case.”

“Like what?”

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