Page 60 of 1st Shock
Charlie
Two visits to the hospital in as many days. This time, however, I'm a happy camper.
Billy Ray is in custody and my sister is safe.
Safe. The word reverberates through me as the ER doctor clears Meg to leave, asking her to follow up with our family physician. She's got a slight concussion, a few ugly bruises, and some nightmare memories to add to those already in her head, but she's alive and kicking—literally—and handled our serial killer like a trained FBI agent.
I'm damned proud of her.
"You did good, sis," I say as I wheel her down the long, antiseptic smelling hallway. She balked at leaving in a wheelchair, but that's how it works.
I've already spoken to the local cops and Matt's girlfriend, Taylor, so the FBI and detectives working on this case have the details. Billy Ray lawyered up as soon as he could talk again, thanks to Meg's crushing blow to his family jewels. According to JJ's latest text, the FBI brought Dixie in for questioning along with her brother. I'll take Meg down to the station to give our official reports first thing tomorrow. "I want to keep an eye on that concussion, so I'm taking you home with me."
She nods, silent, but I don't worry. Meg needs time to process and I'll get her to a psychiatrist friend of mine soon for some talk therapy. Another thing she'll balk at, but I'll give her the option of talking to me—as a psychologist, not her sister—or visit Paulette. I know which one she'll choose.
"I need to go to the office," she murmurs. "I need to see Emily and Avery."
That's the last thing she needs, but it will do her good to speak to her girls and tell them we've caught their killer. "Billy Ray wants a deal. He's the one who broke into your office and attacked Haley. He's also offered important details that’ll help us identify them," I tell her. "JJ believes we'll have their real names by the end of the day."
Matt is at the curb waiting. He fusses over Meg, nicknaming her Suburban Commando, and doing some silly Kung Fu moves, as if demonstrating what she did to Billy Ray. She laughs at his antics and the sound helps me breathe. He picks her up and sets her inside the passenger seat of his Mustang, ignoring her protests. I hop in back and direct him to take us to the office.
He gives me a sharp look in the rearview, but I nod to let him know it's okay.
My voicemail is filled with messages, the most important from our parents. I check in to tell them Meg is okay, and I'll have her talk to them once we're settled.
Our visit to the office is brief, Meg going into her space and shutting the door. While she's in there, I return calls. Matt paces. It's getting dark outside when my phone lights up with a call from JJ—Billy Ray is talking.
I deliver the news to Meg through her closed door. I can't see her, and she doesn't make a sound for a moment after I tell her Emily and Avery are believed to be Naomi Gardiner and Elizabeth Dunhurst, but I can feel her relief as if she and the ghosts of those girls share a collective sigh.
The FBI wants confirmation, so dental records will be pulled, and they'd like Meg to finish her skull work to compare to pictures of both girls. "Of course," she says when I tell her. "Emily is already done, and I'll work through the night on Avery."
Over my dead body,but really, arguing will get me nowhere, and I know my sister. She won't sleep tonight anyway. Not until she's finished that skull.
"Okay," I say through the door. "I'll order takeout."
Matt gives me a frown. "She needs rest."
"She needs closure." I hand him some cash and the key to Meg's front door. "Would you please grab food and fresh clothes for her?"
The press hounds me for the next few hours and I stop taking calls. Grey and his wife, Sydney, show up with flowers, and a couple bodyguards to keep the reporters off our premises. I could kiss them.
Matt returns with pizza and the clothes, Taylor following. She can't stay, since her department is in charge of cold cases, but she manages to coax Meg out of her office long enough to change and talk. My sister is gracious and polite, but I see the tension in her eyes, the restrained impatience around her mouth.
Taylor recognizes it too and makes her escape. After she leaves, Meg goes back to work, but her office door stays open. Progress.
"Come have some pizza," I say to her a few minutes later from the doorway. "You'll need your strength to pull an all-nighter."
If she weren't already dead on her feet, she'd refuse. I see the wheels in her brain turn, her exhaustion and the need to wrap this up warring inside her. I don't push—that would be the wrong thing to do—and after a moment, she relents, following me to the conference room.
Matt, ever the jokester, manages to get a couple smiles out of her, and Sydney briefly relates her own experience with a serial killer. I didn't know about the incident, and we don't go into details, but it seems to give Meg a boost. She's not the only one at the table with that experience and Sydney lets her know she's available to talk if Meg ever wants to.
We are mostly through eating when JJ shows up. He makes a face at Meg's favorite Thai version, but helps himself to the last of the sausage. "Thirteen," he tells us. "We've got Billy Ray for thirteen potential missing persons cold cases, thanks to Taylor and her team. We're still working out the details of his deal, but he's already copped to three, the first he took the day after Mickey was convicted. She was his fiancée and she apparently freaked out when she discovered his stepbrother was a serial killer. They argued, she called him names and tried to bail on him. Because of Mickey. All his life he'd been dealing with him and his fallout. Just when he thought he was done with his insane relative, the lover dumps him. He lost it. Went into a rage and killed her by cutting her throat to shut her up. Claims it was an accident—some accident—but after that, he had the itch and couldn't stop. He thought moving to the boondocks, cutting himself off from the world, might work. It didn't."
Meg's eyes are cold, calculating. "What does he get in return if he confesses to all of them?"
JJ meets her stare. "Life in prison rather than the death penalty."
My sister doesn't believe in the death penalty, but I see disappointment in her eyes. We've argued over the merits of it many times, so I'm both surprised andnot. There are certain monsters who make you question your personal codes.
