Page 58 of Crossing Lines

“He’s confessed to the murder of Kirsten Stillwell and the abduction of Victoria Thompson.”

Beryl’s hands flew to her face. “That poor girl. Will she be all right?”

Sam nodded. “Physically, yes.”

“Oh, good.” Beryl managed a small smile.

“He also confessed to killing those girls five years ago. The ones that your husband was accused of.”

Her smile snapped into a thin line. “He did?”

Sam nodded. “I don’t think he would lie about that, so that leaves the little matter of Lucas’s golf shoes. You remember, the ones you gave me as evidence against him.”

She gnawed her bottom lip, and tears sprouted to her eyes. Could she do that on command? Sam wouldn’t put it past her. Maybe Sam had thought she was attractive once, but not anymore. Now all he saw was someone who would do anything to get what she wanted. She and Lucas were a good match, at least in that respect.

“I wasn’t completely honest about the golf shoes.” Beryl sniffed and brushed away a tear. “But I did what I had to do. He’s done bad things. What difference does it make if some evidence isn’t what we thought?”

“Makes a pretty big difference when the case gets to trial.”

She glanced up at him from under wet lashes, pleading. “But Lucas deserves to be in jail, don’t you think?”

“I do, but only for the crimes he’s actually committed. Those shoes could be problematic, might even allow him to get out earlier than he should for the drug charges. Obviously the murder charges are being dropped,” Sam said.

Beryl did look repentant but probably only because she didn’t want Lucas getting out. “I know what I did was wrong, but I was protecting my brother.”

“How so?”

“I thought my brother was the killer. I’ve been worried about him for years. There’s been … things… But now I realize it was Uncle Charlie. Robert idolized him and tried to be like him.” Beryl wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered. “Thankfully, he didn’t progress to actually killing people like Charlie.”

At least that part was true. Robert had confessed as much but claimed he’d stopped short of killing. In the end, he knew it was wrong and had tried to stop his uncle.

Beryl continued. “I saw the picture of the tarp in your office with the holes and knew they were from golf shoes. I found the shoes in my brother’s closet and figured if I could hand them in and say they were Lucas’s, it would be evidence against him.”

“And you wiped them clean?” The shoes had no DNA on them before Charlie got a hold of them.

“Yes. I knew there could be DNA from Robert on there and didn’t want him to get mixed up in it, so I wiped them down.” Beryl wiped tears from her cheek. “I know I was wrong, but I was protecting my brother. Am I going to get in trouble?”

“It’s a crime to submit false evidence. The real killer went free because we thought we had him locked up. Kirsten Stillwell might not have died if we’d kept looking and found a trail that led to Charles.”

Sam glared at Beryl. She was trying to look all innocent, but Sam realized she could put on the innocent look at will. The sight of her sickened him. But he also felt sick at himself because he’d eagerly bought her story about the golf shoes because he’d wanted the killer to be Thorne so badly. This was partially his fault.

Would he make sure she got charged for her crime? He wasn’t sure what that would accomplish. His energy was probably better spent somewhere else, like figuring out how to keep Thorne in jail. Though he might regret that. With Lucas in jail, Beryl would be running the business, and Sam was afraid she might be even worse.

Sam turned to leave then stopped and took the glove out of his pocket. He turned back to her and held it up. “Do you happen to know anything about this? It’s a glove. It was buried over at the construction site.”

“No. The construction crew wears gloves, so maybe it’s from one of them. Looks like you have it in an evidence bag though. Why the interest?”

“Just a hunch.” Sam studied her face to see if she knew more, but all he saw was confusion.

“Where did you find it?”

“The corner right there, closest to the parking lot.”

Beryl’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve been working the other side, where the lobby is. That side hasn’t been touched since Lucas was in charge. So whatever it is, it’s probably been there for a while.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

As Sam left, he could sense Beryl’s nervous energy. She’d wanted him to assure her that she wouldn’t be charged for the false evidence, but he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that. It might be just as much punishment to keep her in the dark, waiting nervously and never knowing if that charge would come.

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