Cold Case at Carlton's Canyon (18 page)

But she had another plan. The big finale.

Then Amanda Blair had to die.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tension knotted Justin’s muscles as he waited on Amanda to dress for the dance. He had changed into clean jeans and a blue Western shirt, but he strapped on his gun and covered it with his jacket.

When Amanda stepped from the bedroom, she looked so stunning she robbed his breath. In deference to the occasion, she wore a short black dress that hugged her curves and made her look more like a sex siren than the sheriff.

She rubbed her hands down her hips in a self-conscious gesture. “Too much? I’ll go change.” She turned to go back into the bedroom.

He caught her arm. “No, you look beautiful.”

“I don’t care about that,” she said. “I have a job to do.”

He chuckled. “Perhaps you’ll look less intimidating dressed up for the reunion. Your uniform might spook the killer if she’s there.”

“The killer will be there,” Amanda said with conviction.

He silently agreed and walked her out to his SUV. “I’ll drive tonight.”

“Maybe my car should be there. It might make the other guests feel more secure.”

“You’ll be there,” Justin said. “And so will I. We’ll stay on our toes.”

Except at the moment, all he wanted to do was strip that slip of a dress and make love to her again.

God, he was like a sinking ship. He not only liked and admired Amanda—and she was the best sex he’d ever had—but he wanted to protect her tonight. Lock her here where she’d be safe, off the killer’s radar.

But he couldn’t even suggest that. Amanda wouldn’t go for it, and it would be unprofessional of him.

He squeezed her hand as they settled in the SUV. “Amanda, you know the killer left that photo of you on your door as a warning.”

She lifted her chin. “I know. The unsub wants to punish me, too.”

“That means you’re in danger,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She lifted the hem of her dress and he saw the gun strapped to her thigh. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

“I’m a pro,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”

But he did worry about her, and that scared him. Caring might make him sloppy and distracted.

He couldn’t afford that. Not tonight.

* * *

T
HE
CRIME
SCENE
techs had released the event center in time for the dance, but the committee had decided to move the party to another venue, a hotel ten miles north with a ballroom. Lynn’s mother had recommended the place, saying she couldn’t have a party at the center where Suzy’s body had been found, especially not when her own daughter was missing.

Volunteers from the school committee had scurried to decorate the place and make the arrangements. The float classmates had created was parked in front, a testament to the class that they were honoring the past and refused to allow the recent traumatic events to stop them from celebrating their friendships.

When she and Justin entered, a band was playing, the lights were low and couples filled the dance floor.

She had opted not to attend the dinner before the party, although she and Justin had staked out the outside, watching to see if anything went wrong.

She scanned the room, looking for anything suspicious.

“You look different out of uniform.”

Amanda turned to see Donald looking up at her from his chair.

“I’m still on the job though.” She sipped her club soda. “What about you, Donald? Are you enjoying seeing the old crowd?”

He shrugged. “I’ll never forget how some of them treated me after the accident. But it’s nice to be vindicated in that I made a success out of myself in spite of them.”

“Good for you,” Amanda said, wondering if she’d been wrong about Donald.

Across the room, she noticed Carlton’s brother dancing with Eleanor Goggins, one of Kelly’s bridesmaids.

Near him, Raymond Fisher stood talking to Renee Daly, his former girlfriend and one of their original suspects. The couple looked chummy, raising Amanda’s doubts again. Was Renee simply consoling him, or did she have another agenda?

Suddenly a commotion broke out near the door, and a small crowd gathered. Justin squeezed her arm. “Stay here and keep an eye on everyone. I’ll check it out.”

Amanda’s nerves prickled, and she wove through the room, studying the faces of the people she’d known as teenagers, hating that she was now viewing them as possible murderers.

Her phone dinged that she had a text and she slid it from her purse and checked it, expecting to see a message from Justin.

But the text was from an unknown.

She squinted in the dim lighting, her heart hammering as she read the text.

I have information on the killer you’re looking for. If you want to know who it is, meet me in the stairwell.

Amanda jammed the phone back in her purse, then scoured the room for Justin to tell him about the message, but she didn’t see him anywhere. He must still be outside.

Determined to follow up, she wove through the dancers and people hovered around the bar and ducked through the back exit to the hallway. She veered down the hallway toward the dark stairwell.

When she reached it, she heard a muffled footstep, then the brush of clothing, as a shadow appeared from the corner. Something shiny glinted in the darkness. A gun.

Shock immobilized her when she recognized the person aiming the weapon at her.

* * *

J
USTIN
SHOULDERED
HIS
way through the shouting and voices outside the ballroom exit, then jogged over to where a small crowd had gathered.

“What’s going on?” he asked one of the young men.

The guy pointed to the right. “Someone trashed the float.”

Justin inched his way closer and saw two women about to climb on the float. “Who would do such a horrible thing?” someone cried.

“We have to get those dolls off the float,” the other one shouted.

“Wait.” Justin caught up with them and gently grabbed the first woman’s arm. Then he saw what had upset them. Two dolls in cheerleading clothes were set up on a football field on the float. But their clothes looked as if they were covered in blood and the dolls had been hung by their necks from the goalposts.

“This may be related to the crimes in town. We’ll need to examine it.” He addressed the group. “I don’t want anyone to touch this float.” He gestured toward one of the men. “Get one of the security guards. I need him to watch this until the crime team arrives.”

The gentleman jogged toward the door to the ballroom while Justin tried to quiet the crowd. He circled the float searching for anything else out of place. A knife. Forensic clues. A note or photo of some kind.

But he saw nothing else out of the ordinary. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he scanned the group outside in search of someone on the periphery watching.

The killer was here. She wanted to enjoy her classmates’ reactions.

But the group had thinned, milling back into the dance. The guard approached, and he explained that he needed him to cover the float while he phoned for a crime team. Of course dozens of hands, maybe a hundred, had touched that float so it would be hard to weed out the killer’s prints. But maybe she’d messed up and they could find some forensic clues on the dolls.

He punched in Lieutenant Gibbons’s number while he hurried inside to tell Amanda and monitor the group. But he didn’t see Amanda anywhere. He explained to the lieutenant that he needed a crime scene unit, then tried Amanda’s number, but she didn’t answer.

Anxiety mounted.

The only reason she wouldn’t answer was if there was trouble.

He spotted Betty Jacobs, one of Kelly’s friends, and approached her. “Have you seen Amanda?”

She shook her head no, and he moved along the bar asking others.

“She was heading toward the stairwell a few minutes ago,” Donald said. “She received a text and rushed out of the room.”

Justin thanked Donald, then rushed into the hallway toward the stairwell. The area was dark, but he noticed something shiny on the floor below the stairs. He bent down, a seed of panic sprouting.

Amanda’s gun lay on the floor by the wall. Scuff marks marred the floor leading toward the back door.

The killer had been here. And he or she had Amanda.

* * *

A
MANDA
SILENTLY
CURSED
herself for letting the woman get the jump on her with the gun. Of all the people she’d suspected, it had never occurred to her that Carlton Butts’s mother had been vindictive or strong enough to carry out a series of crimes for ten years.

But the woman had coldly shoved a pistol to Amanda’s head, then tied her hands behind her back and was shoving her into an old van. “I thought you had trouble walking.”

“And I thought you were Carlton’s friend, but you were just like the others. You deserted him when he needed you.”

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Amanda said. “I cared about him.”

“Then why have you been running all over town trying to stop me.” The woman’s eyes blazed with rage as she slammed the door shut, jumped in the front of the van and sped from the parking lot.

“Because killing those women isn’t right,” Amanda said, hurling herself to a sitting position in the backseat as she struggled with the ropes behind her back.

“You know how they treated my son,” she snarled as she took the curve on two wheels. “They killed him.”

“I understand how you feel and that you’re angry,” Amanda said. “But Mrs. Butts, a lot of teens and kids get picked on. Not all of them commit suicide.”

“No, some of them go in and shoot the bitches,” she said. “But my Carlton was too sweet for that. But they drove him crazy, drove him to such despair that he never thought anyone would like him, much less love him.”

She sped down the highway, mumbling incoherently about each one of the women she’d hurt and what they’d said and done to her son. “He was a bright boy, so smart,” she continued on a rant. “He could have been something one day. You know he loved science. He might have worked on one of those space stations or discovered a cure for some rare disease.”

Amanda worked at the knot behind her back, slowly threading the end through the loop. “I think he could have done that, too,” she said. “But he gave up, Mrs. Butts. He made the choice not to fight back and—”

“Don’t you dare badmouth my son,” Mrs. Butts cried. “See, you’re just like the others. All you care about is your life, like he never existed at all.”

“That’s not true,” Amanda said. “I mourned for Carlton and still do. I’ve never forgotten what happened to him. That’s one reason I chose law enforcement. So I could help others.”

“But you took up for those mean girls who hurt Carlton. I saw you on the news. You made out like they were innocent, like they never did anything wrong.”

“We found Tina, Kelly and Suzy,” Amanda said, knowing her time might be running out to find the information she needed. “What did you do with the other bodies? With Melanie, Denise, Avery, Carly...how many have you killed?”

“Just the ones who deserved it,” Mrs. Butts said, her voice brittle. “And don’t you worry. All of the early ones are together. All in one big grave.”

A shudder of horror ripped through Amanda. Mrs. Butts sounded demented. “Except for Tina. I thought someone saw me with her so I left her in that river. That was a mistake. But I had to get rid of her fast.” Mrs. Butts cackled. “I thought she’d just float away. Bye-bye, bye-bye.”

“But she didn’t and the fish ate at her body,” Amanda said. “That was cruel.”

A nasty laugh escaped the woman. “Cruel? Do you know what she did to poor Carlton? She sent him a note that she wanted to meet him behind the bleachers in middle school. He thought she wanted to kiss him, but she pulled his pants down, then tied him to the bleachers and left him for the whole class to see.”

Amanda’s heart hurt at the story, her hand aching from tearing at the rope. So far, it hadn’t budged. “What about Julie and Lynn?”

Mrs. Butts threw the van to the right and raced down the drive to the canyon behind the high school.

A cold chill enveloped Amanda. She knew exactly where the woman was going and why.

She was going to kill her at Carlton’s Canyon, where her son had taken his life.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Justin retrieved Amanda’s weapon and stuffed it in the back of his jeans as he ran to the back door and glanced outside. Except for a couple of vendor vans, the back lot was empty.

He scanned the hallway and stairs but didn’t hear or see anything. Frantic, he raced back into the ballroom. The first person he saw was Donald Reisling. Could Reisling’s father have come after Amanda?

Shoulders tense, he grabbed the microphone from the DJ and tapped it to get everyone’s attention. “Listen up, folks. The prank outside with the decimated cheerleader dolls was a diversion. Someone abducted Amanda—I mean Sheriff Blair. She supposedly received a text and went into the hall. Her gun was left on the floor so someone either overpowered her or had a gun. Did anyone see her?”

“The last I saw she was going into the hallway,” Donald said.

“I saw her near the stairs,” a young woman spoke up.

“Was she with anyone?” Justin asked.

He glimpsed Carlton’s brother sneaking out the side door and yelled at him to stop. “Where do you think you’re going?” Justin vaulted off the steps and lunged at him. “Did you do something to Amanda?”

Ted shook his head, pain lining his face. “I’ve been in here with Debby all night.”

“He has been with me,” a buxom redhead said. “I swear.”

Anise ran over, her breath rasping. “I didn’t see Amanda, but I saw Carlton’s mother near the stairs.”

Justin narrowed his eyes at Ted. “Your mother is here?”

“I...didn’t know she was,” Ted said in a choked voice.

Justin grabbed the young man by the collar. “But you know something. Now spill it.”

Ted shook his head in denial, but emotions shrouded his features. “It can’t be. My mother...she’s messed up, but she wouldn’t hurt anyone...”

“She wasn’t using her walker either,” Anise said. “She was actually standing upright.”

A muscle jumped in Justin’s jaw. “Your mother faked her handicap?”

Ted scraped his hand over his goatee. “I...don’t know, I’m sorry. I didn’t think...didn’t want to believe that she’d hurt anyone.”

“She never recovered from Carlton’s suicide,” Debby said in a whisper.

“Where would she take her?” Justin asked.

Ted rubbed his goatee again. “I...have no idea.”

“Let’s try your house. You can call her on the way.”

He shoved the young man outside to his SUV and roared from the parking lot.

He hoped he’d find something at Wynona Butts’s house to tell them where the woman had taken Amanda.

He had to hurry before Mrs. Butts killed her.

He couldn’t lose her now.

* * *

A
MANDA
’
S
LUNGS
CLENCHED
for air as she spotted Julie and Lynn beside the drop-off for the canyon.

They were alive.

“Mrs. Butts—Wynona—you can stop this now,” Amanda said as the crazed woman yanked her from the car and shoved her toward the other women.

“You’re going to watch them die,” she hissed, “then you’ll join them.”

Amanda fought with the rope. She had one end through the loop. Now if she could just loosen it and slip her hands free.

Wynona nudged her forward with the gun at her back.

“Is this where you dumped the other bodies?” Amanda asked.

A cynical laugh echoed behind her. “It was fitting, don’t you think? They’ve been lying at the bottom, looking up at the school where they tormented my son.”

Nausea rose in Amanda’s throat. All this time, all these years, the missing women had been dead, their bodies lying in the elements.

So close to home yet no one had known. And the families had no answers.

Julie and Lynn both looked up at her with terrified eyes. Their hands and feet were bound, their mouths gagged and Carlton’s mother had secured them to a tree with thick ropes.

Amanda tried to communicate to the women that she’d save them. She didn’t know how, but she’d die trying.

Surely Justin had realized she was missing. Somehow he’d find her. She had to stall.

Wynona pushed her to her knees beside Lynn and Julie. Tears streamed down Julie’s cheeks. Lynn made muffled sounds of fear and protests behind her gag.

“Tell me how you did it,” Amanda said to Wynona. “How you managed to trap your victims over the years.”

Wynona cackled again. “It was easy. I met them in different places, mentioned Carlton.” She gestured at herself. “With that walker, none of them suspected a thing. Stupid twits.”

“They thought you were an innocent grieving woman,” Amanda said, disgusted at the depth of the woman’s depravity.

“And you...Carlton looked up to you, Amanda. He thought you’d be his friend forever.” She placed the barrel of the gun at Amanda’s temple. “But you let him down worse than everyone else. I think that’s what sent him over the edge. Now you have to die.”

* * *

J
USTIN
DROVE
LIKE
a madman to Wynona Butts’s house while Ted frantically phoned his mother. But she didn’t answer, and when they arrived at the house, there was no car in the drive.

He hit the ground running.

“Why didn’t you tell someone what your mother was doing?” Justin snapped as Ted let him in the house.

“I told you I didn’t know,” Ted said, panicked. “You aren’t going to hurt her, are you?”

Justin glared at him. “I’m going to do whatever necessary to stop her from killing Amanda.”

Justin shouted to identify himself as he and Ted entered the house.

“Look around, see if your mother left any indication where she might take Amanda.”

Justin jogged into the woman’s bedroom, searched the desk in the corner, then the dressers, but found nothing but old bills and clothes.

Desperate, he swung open the closet door, his chest heaving at the sight inside. Mrs. Butts had cut out pictures of all the victims from the yearbook and taped them on the back of the door with big black X’s marked across the faces just like the one she’d left on Amanda’s door.

Then he noticed a photograph of Carlton when he was a teen. Beside it was another picture, this one of the canyon behind the school, more specifically a grassy area by a tree where she’d obviously planted flowers in a tribute to her dead son.

That was it. The canyon behind the school where Carlton had ended his life—that was where she’d taken Amanda.

He rushed back to the den and saw the brother slumped on the couch staring at the yearbook with all the pages that had been cut apart. A shoebox sat beside him on the couch, open. Justin gritted his teeth at the sight of the class rings inside the box.

“She did it,” Ted mumbled in shock. “She kidnapped our classmates all these years....”

He looked lost as he stared up at Justin.

“Stay here and call me if she returns. I’m sending a crime scene team out here to pick up this stuff,” Justin said.

Ted nodded, sagging on the couch with emotions. Justin felt sorry for him, but he had to save Amanda.

“I’m going to the canyon where Carlton jumped. I think your mother took Amanda there.”

Pulse hammering, he ran to his SUV and raced from the drive, calling Lieutenant Gibbons on his way. He prayed he was right about the canyon as he sped down the road to the high school.

Seconds crawled, but it felt like an eternity until he reached the sign for Canyon High. He flipped off the lights and siren and parked in front of the school to avoid alerting Mrs. Butts of his arrival.

He eased the car door open and slid out, checking his weapon as he scanned the area. He wondered if the security cameras had been fixed.

He crept around the side of the school to the back, searching for signs of Amanda and Mrs. Butts. Then he spotted it.

The door to the gate that separated the school property from the deepest part of the canyon. It stood open, making a grating sound as it swung back and forth in the wind.

His heart pounding, he moved along the bank of trees to the left, his weapon at the ready. Voices sounded to the right, and he inched closer.

Fear seized him when he saw Amanda on her knees with a gun to her forehead.

Breath tight in his chest, he took another step. Suddenly Mrs. Butts jerked Amanda up and dragged her closer to the edge of the canyon.

He couldn’t wait. He had to make a move.

Vaulting into action, he crossed the next few feet, aiming for a clean shot at the woman. But suddenly Amanda lunged at Mrs. Butts, knocking her to the ground.

The gun fired, a grunt of pain echoing in the silence, and he ran forward, fear choking him. Was Amanda hit?

To the left, he spotted two other women he recognized from the yearbook as Julie and Lynn. They were struggling to free themselves.

The Butts woman had collapsed on top of Amanda. Was she hurt?

Amanda shoved the woman off of her with a grunt. Mrs. Butts lunged for her gun, but Justin raised his.

“It’s over, Mrs. Butts,” he said in a menacing tone. “Give it up or I’ll shoot.”

The woman stilled at the sound of his voice, then swung a sadistic look his way. “She has to die. It’s not over till they’re all punished.”

“It is over,” Amanda said calmly. “You’ve punished enough people. Carlton wouldn’t want you to hurt Lynn or Julie or me.”

“But you let him down!” she cried.

Justin inched closer. Julie and Lynn were sobbing and struggling with their bindings. Mrs. Butts slid her hands around Amanda’s throat and tried to strangle her.

Justin was tempted to shoot. But Amanda was fighting the woman, and he was afraid he’d hit her. So he ran to them, grabbed the woman and dragged her off of Amanda.

She kicked and fought, but he was stronger, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, hauling her away. Amanda gasped for a breath, then pushed herself to her feet and ran to free the other women.

Justin threw Mrs. Butts down on the ground, rolled her to her stomach, jerked her arms behind her and slapped handcuffs around her wrists.

“Now it’s over. And this time you’re the one who’s going to be punished.”

* * *

W
HEN
A
MANDA
THOUGHT
she might die, her life flashed in front of her. A life filled with police work, cases, murders and...living alone.

She suddenly yearned for more. A life with someone who loved her. With someone she loved.

Like Justin.

But that was crazy... He wasn’t in love with her.

Sirens wailed as an ambulance arrived to examine Lynn and Julie. Except for shock, they appeared to be okay, but she had to play it by the book.

Her deputy arrived, along with Justin’s supervisor, a crime team and another team that brought equipment to locate the bodies at the bottom of the canyon.

The next few hours were an ordeal as they began work to excavate the bodies. She left Justin to oversee the process while she drove Wynona Butts to the jail and locked her up.

“You can’t do this,” Wynona yelled. “They deserved to die.”

“But not all the victims even attended our high school,” Amanda said, mentally reviewing the list.

“No, but they knew Carlton, met him at different times. Middle school, church. They were all mean to him.”

“You need help,” Amanda said, her chest aching for all the lost lives. “I’ll see that you get it for Carlton’s sake.”

The woman continued to rant and scream as Amanda shut the door behind her. But Amanda tuned her out. At one time she’d felt sorry for her. But not after all the lives she’d taken and the pain she’d caused the victims’ families.

Finally exhausted, Amanda slept on a cot in her office, determined to make sure Wynona didn’t attempt suicide, and worried that when the victims’ parents heard the news they’d bombard the jail and try to exact their own revenge.

By dawn, fatigue knotted her muscles, but she called a team to move Wynona to a more secure facility. By ten, she and Justin met for another press conference.

“We can now safely say that the missing women from our state have been found. Their families have been notified and will finally be able to put their loved ones to rest.” A lump lodged in her throat, but she swallowed it back as she explained about Wynona Butts’s arrest. “I suppose if there is a lesson in this it’s that we, as parents and members of the town, should watch our teenagers more closely and teach them to be tolerant of others.”

Hands flew up with questions, but she shook her head. “We’re done here, folks. Justice will be served in a court of law.”

And now maybe everyone in town could sleep soundly again.

* * *

T
HE
REST
OF
the day Amanda and Justin spent meeting with family members of the missing women whose bodies had been recovered. Emotions ran high, relief to finally have answers mixing with anguish, shock and the sad realization that the missing women had been so close yet no one had guessed where they were.

Arrangements for autopsies were made, along with funerals, and a memorial service was held that evening at the church in town. A sunset vigil to mourn for the lives of the dead and the tragedies of the families who needed the town’s support also was organized.

As Justin and Amanda left the service, a quiet descended between them.

The case was solved. It would take time for the residents to heal, but now that they knew the truth, they could begin the process.

He glanced at Amanda as they walked back to the jail. Maybe they could have one more night together, an evening to celebrate before he left Sunset Mesa.

His cell phone buzzed, and he checked the number. His chief. He punched Connect. “Sergeant Thorpe.”

“Thorpe, listen, I know you just finished this case, and you did a fine job—”

“A lot of the credit goes to Sheriff Blair,” he said, wanting to give Amanda her fair due.

“Sure, all right. I know you just finished, but we just caught another case. If you want it, it’s yours, but you’ll need to go to Laredo right away.”

Adrenaline surged through Justin. Another case on the heels of this one. He’d never turned down an opportunity to solve a crime.