Page 57 of So Twisted

“Revenge.”

“Again,” Lawson said through thin lips, “my reputation is fine. There were minor hiccups after Elena’s exposure and Sarah’s… decline… but the academic world understands that I can’t be blamed for their behavior. I am not at risk of losing anything. If you paid attention, you would notice that I am helping many different animals at the moment, and I have a teaching position at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. I am not so petty that I would kill people over the inconvenience their existence means for me.”

“The inconvenience their existence means for me,” Michael repeated. “That was beautiful. Poetic.”

Dr. Lawson rolled his eyes. “Nor am I so stupid that I would risk the utter destruction of my own life over such pettiness. Do you hunt your own exes to kill them? Do you plot the murder of your own irritating colleagues?”

“Me? No. But I’ve arrested quite a few people who have. A lot of them give me the same excuse you just did.”

“It’s not an excuse, it’s a reason.”

"Potato, potato."

Turk returned to the doctor and sniffed him. He bared his teeth and growled softly.

Faith looked at Turk, then at the doctor. “The problem is that my dog is matching your scent to the crime scene. You have no alibi, and whatever you might be telling me now, youdohave motive. You’re connected to all of these victims, and you’ve had opportunity.”

“You can’t possibly believe you have enough to arrest me.”

“I have enough to detain you,” Faith countered, “and I’m going to do that.”

Dr. Lawson reddened, but his voice returned to calm again. “Are you taking me in for questioning?”

"We are," Cuthbert replied. "I called a cruiser when I saw the K9 react the way he did. They'll be here in a few minutes. If you play nice, then that'll be a nice, cordial conversation."

“I’m afraid there will be no conversation without my lawyer present,” Dr. Lawson said. “I won’t resist detainment, but I will not talk until my lawyer is in the interrogation room with me.”

He spun on his heel and returned to his house, head held high. The others followed him, Turk just ahead and to the side so he could take the doctor down if he tried to flee.

He didn’t try to flee, but he did call someone on his cell phone. “Jason, please call Britney and tell her to meet me at the headquarters of the Council Bluffs Police Department. Inform her that I’m being detained on suspicion of multiple murders and that law enforcement is justifying this action due to the reaction of their dog. Then I’ll need you to come to the house and monitor the animals while I’m away.”

“Their highly trained, licensed and certified K9,” Faith corrected.

He hung up and gave Faith a cold look, but when Turk growled at him, he paled and looked away. True to his word, Dr.Lawson offered no resistance as Detective Cuthbert handcuffed him and led him outside.

The police cruiser pulled up next to Cuthbert's, and the detective led him toward it. Turk stopped on the porch and looked back into the house. He sniffed and growled, cocking his head and staring hard into the residence.

“Come on, Turk,” Faith said. “We got him.”

Turk hesitated another moment, then followed her to their own cruiser. Two minutes later, they were on their way back to Council Bluffs. Turk turned around and watched the house retreat as they pulled away.

She ruffled Turk’s fur. “Good job, boy.”

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

There were times when fate interceded to prove the rightness of Lillian’s actions. She wondered briefly why fate hadn’t interceded on behalf of West when he needed it, but it occurred to her that had fate done so, there would be no reason for Lillian to torture Faith Bold and no reason for Franklin West to ever notice Lillian.

He would notice her soon. Faith would notice her now. Fate had intervened in the best possible way.

Lillian was at the grocery store shopping and who should happen to walk in but Special-Agent-in-Charge Grant Monroe of the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office. Lillian was so shocked to see him that she almost gasped.

Fortunately, she controlled herself. She bought her groceries and waited at the bus stop, waiting to see which way Monroe’s truck would turn when it pulled out of the parking lot.

And fate intervened in her favor once more. The truck turned right just as her bus arrived. The bus followed the truck for two miles before the truck pulled into a residential neighborhood.

And parked in the first house on the left. In ten minutes, fate had spared Lillian weeks of work.

She spent the rest of the day in a haze, unable to believe her good fortune and afraid that if she did, it would jinx everything somehow. It couldn’t be that easy. This was something she was supposed to have to work for.

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