Page 101 of Everything She Feared

Avelar set down a photo of a child’s shoe.

“This was found at your home,” he said, setting down a second photo of an identical shoe. “This one was found at the site of your attempt to kill a woman in Idaho. She’s our surviving witness who got your plate. And we have Magda’s admission.”

“It’s over for you,” West said.

Tears rolled down Herman’s face.

“She’s a liar,” Herman said.

Butler touched his handcuffed wrists. “Don’t say anything.”

“They have to know the truth.”

“Go ahead,” West said.

“As your attorney,” Butler said, “I advise you to remain silent, Herman.”

“Magda,” Herman said, ignoring his lawyer’s advice, “lied to you. She’s smart, very smart. She always thought she was above other people. She’s the one who reads strange books. She’s the one who believes in the stars and power in numbers.”

His handcuffs jingled as he pressed his palms to the table, bit his bottom lip to push down on his anger.

“She’s the one who planned it all—it was her idea to use Hayley to lure people. And she loved it. From the time I met her at the slaughterhouse, she told me how she loved the killing, the power over living things. Yes, I did what she wanted. But she stared into the eyes of people as we killed them. She loved watching them die. She told me there was no greater feeling than watching life drain from a living thing.”

“Now, please,” Butler said. “None of what Magdalena has told you is admissible under Title Twenty-Six. It’s spousal privilege—neither spouse can testify against the other without consent of the other. Your case collapses.”

“Mr. Butler,” West said, “you heard on the recording that she’s in the process of swearing out a criminal complaint against your client, so the privilege will not apply.”

“Herman,” Avelar said. “You’ll be charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder. The prosecution will seek the death penalty.”

“I can’t believe it.” An intense visible change rolled over Herman; he appeared to deflate and break before their eyes. But it was not about facing execution. “I can’t believe she betrayed me.”

Much later, Herman’s case went before the court. Butler’s attempts to secure a deal—a commutation to life in exchange for his cooperation to find the bodies—had failed. The state wanted Herman executed. It wasn’t interested in another deal. They already had Magda’s.

Herman’s death sentence was passed. Within days of it being issued, death row inmates near Herman heard bedsheets being torn and alerted guards.

But it was too late.

Herman Vryker had hung himself in his cell.

It was during this time that Magda, handcuffed and shackled under heavy escort, led officials in Montana, Idaho and Washington to isolated areas to find the graves of their victims. Huge contingents involving helicopters, search teams and dogs failed each time to find any remains.

Locating them was difficult, Magda explained, because often she’d only seen the sites at night. She had been so terrified that now she couldn’t rememberthe exactlocations. After nearly a dozen attempts, it became evident that she either could not, or would not, locate the remains of their victims. Frustrated, investigators went to Herman Vryker’s relatives, friends, and trucking and business associates, thinking he may have confided in someone. It was another futile effort to locate the remains.

The state appealed to the court to declare its deal with Magda invalid and subject her to a harsher sentence. Magda’s attorney, Katherine Marie Powell, argued that even though no remains had been located, Magda had made every effort to fulfill her end of the agreement. Powell cited precedents. Magda ultimately won. The deal could not be changed. Magda would be released in twenty years, with no reporting conditions or terms.

A free woman at age forty-four.

Ryan was seething at his desk.

He went back to the part in Magda’s video where she was smirking at the camera, as if to say she’d won.

No, I can’t let you win!

He stared at Magda.

“You know!” His fist came down on the table. “You know where they are because you put them in the ground!”

46

---