Page 74 of The Unknown Colton
Whitlaw snorted. “People thought the same about her mother, wondered why Stella was with me. Sheprobably thought she could save me or reform me, but in the end nobody was able to save her.”
“Why’d you come after Lakin?” Eli asked.
Whitlaw shrugged. “Figured she might remember what happened, and I didn’t want to go to back to prison.”
“She was there when you killed her mother?”
He sighed. “Stella didn’t die right away. She managed to get the kid to the grocery store. But she died shortly after that.”
“From the beating you gave her,” Eli said. “Lakin used to wake up with nightmares.”
“And she didn’t like shouting,” Kansas remembered. “But what about the other women?”
“What other women?” Whitlaw sounded annoyed now. “I only grabbed Lakin because I figured it wasn’t fair. She got the cushy life as a Colton. I was owed some of that money, too.”
“You were owed nothing,” Eli said. “But you owe plenty to other people. Closure. The truth.”
“I don’t know if Stella’s body was ever found,” he said. “That’s up to you to figure out.”
“What about the other women?” Kansas persisted.
“I haven’t killed any other women,” Whitlaw said. He leaned back and shook his head. “I’m no freaky serial killer if that’s what you’re trying to pin on me. Hell, give me the dates, and I’m sure I’ve got alibis.”
Kansas figured he probably did. He wasn’t the killer they were looking for.
She and Eli left him alone in the interrogation room and stepped into the hall.
“It’s not him,” Asher said as he walked up to join them.
Of course he would have already figured that out.
“I checked the dates of the other abductions, and he was on his parole officer’s radar then. He was regularly checking in with him and wasn’t anywhere near this vicinity until a few weeks ago,” Asher continued.
Eli sighed. “Did you check out Billy Hoover and Eric Seller too?”
“Billy Hoover and Eric Seller?” Kansas repeated. “Why would you check out Billy? And isn’t Seller a RTA client?”
“Troy came up with some other possible suspects when someone was stalking Lakin,” Eli said.
“Maybe we should give him a job,” Asher said.
But Kansas suspected Troy would have one with Lakin soon. She’d heard about the old Shelby Hotel.
“I already checked out Billy and Eric,” Eli said. “Both have alibis for the dates the other women were killed. Bobby Reynolds actually was the alibi for Billy. He locked him up for drunk driving.”
Kansas nearly growled with frustration. “We have to find this killer…”
Before he killed again. She had no doubt that he would keep killing until he was caught.
CHAPTER 26
Lakin stepped back and stared at the two-story building. Pride and gratitude overwhelmed her. Gone was the weathered wood siding that had been rotted in places. In just the few weeks since she’d been kidnapped, she and Troy had replaced it with warm, cream-colored siding and rich burgundy trim. Troy had even handcrafted a new sign for out front: Suite Home. He’d made another for the two suites inside that they would eventually combine into their private residence: Sweet Home.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. “Do you like it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I love it.” Then she slid her arm around his waist and stretched up on tiptoe to kiss his jaw. “I love you.”
He’d worked so hard on the renovations that she’d been worried he was going to reinjure his back, but while he limped from time to time, he was doing well. Even though his health wasn’t as big a concern as it had been, she knew he was still worried about money. Her business loan had been approved, andshe’d paid her father back. But until the hotel was completely up and running again, they would struggle to make ends meet.
