Page 72 of Shattered Sanctuary

“Yeah.... Look, it might not sound like a smart thing to do, but I was afraid for Chester. I was also a little concerned for Timothy. But to be honest, I still wasn’t completely sure it was Allen. Until the last moment.”

“So you actually thought Timothy might be a serial killer?”

Erin smiled and looked at Kaely. “Well, we were pretty sure it wasn’t him. But we saw a truck like his parked outside the cabin two different times. That seemed suspicious.”

“I asked him to check on you,” Adrian said, shaking his head. “This cabin is on his way home. It never occurred to me that you’d think he was up to no good. He would have knocked on your door, but he saw something in the woods. He went to check it out. We know now that it was Bobbi.”

“I thank God he was there,” Kaely said. “His quick thinking saved Erin’s life. I just wish he’d been able to help Bobbi.”

“She was trying to scare people away from the cabin,” Adrian said. “Her partner at the real estate company knew what she was doing. She should have tried to stop her. It cost Bobbi her life.” He shook his head. “She should never have been out there. I guess she planned to drive away before the snow got too deep, but her car got stuck. I have to wonder if she was coming to you for help.”

“Well, if she was, why didn’t she take that ridiculous costume off?” Erin asked.

Adrian shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.”

“So she wanted to buy the cabin herself?” Kaely asked.

Adrian nodded. “She thought that if people believed there was a ghost in the woods, they wouldn’t want to stay here. She planned to drive the price way down and buy the cabin from Steve for a pittance. After that, the Woman in Watcher Woods would disappear, and Bobbi would rake in a fortune through rentals.” He sighed. “Poor Timothy didn’t even know Bobbi had been attacked. Not until you found her body.”

“What made her glow?” Kaely asked.

“Just some lights she’d wired inside the cloak,” Erin said. “I saw them while we were out there.”

“Yeah, she had them connected to a battery,” Adrian said. “Pretty spooky looking.”

“I’m so grateful that Chester knew Timothy was in the woods and led me to him,” Erin said, “or I could have ended up just like Bobbi.”

“So, you two didn’t trust Timothy completely but Chester did?”

Erin laughed. “Yes, Chester was smarter than an ex-cop and an ex-FBI agent.”

“Well, he knew Timothy,” Adrian said. “They were pretty good friends.”

Erin took a drink of her soda before saying, “I have to admit that, at first, I thought Kaely had fired the shot that killed Allen.”

“I got there right after Timothy did,” Kaely said. “But it still might have been too late.”

“You realize that we all know the police department isn’t getting that dog, right?” Adrian asked, looking at Chester.

Erin looked down at the border collie curled up next toher on the couch, his paw on her leg. “Yeah, but I don’t think any of your fellow officers will really mind.”

Adrian shook his head. “I’m sure they’ll all be happy that Ozzy—I mean Chester—has found a good home. Chester won’t mind either. He’s obviously chosen his person.”

Erin reached over and stroked his soft head. “He’s so very special,” she said softly. “I believe we need each other.”

“So back to realizing that Allen Dunne was our killer,” Adrian said. “How did you tie that in to seeing that the murderer was spelling Watcher?”

“It was at the post office,” Erin said.

“We noticed that when someone tried to put up a flyer on the bulletin board, Allen freaked out,” Kaely said. “He came from behind the counter and grabbed it. Said the man was going to make thingsout of order.When he moved the other flyers, we realized he had them in alphabetical order. Then, when I was looking over the stamps, I saw that the pages had been cut out of the usual booklet and put into a spiral notebook. I didn’t realize until we were talking about the killer, that those pages were also in alphabetical order. You see, some people, like Allen Dunne, are driven to try to control everything. The obsession to put things in order is part of their psychological makeup.”

“I always thought he was strange, but I never saw him as a serial killer.” Adrian frowned. “I guess we’ll never know how he approached those women, but we know where they met him. He delivered their mail. And who would suspect a mail carrier? We found his phone. He took pictures of his victims. He may have been too smart to leave evidence at the scene, but he was dumb enough to keep photos that tied him to the murders. At least we can completely close this case.”

“Something else we’ll never know,” Kaely said, “is whether he asked Chloe for a date and then punctured her tires or if he just picked her up once her tires went flat.”

Erin nodded. “Maybe he asked her out, and she turned him down? Disabling her car might have been his backup plan. He needed thatC.”

“That’s really disturbing,” Adrian said. He paused for a moment. “Why did he wait so long to start killing? He’s lived here since he was a kid. His grandparents raised him after his mother died. Then when he was older...” He stopped and stared at Kaely. “Oh, man. He didn’t start killing with Willow Abbott did he?”

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