“I didn’t sleep all night.”
“Aren’t you a badass?” Logan coughed. “What do you need other than to hear my manly voice?”
The sarcasm was a good sign. Soon Logan would be back to his old smartass self. “Randy Hayward dropped out of college during his sophomore year. We all assumed he left because of the drugs. But I looked up his school record. He was making the dean’s list right up until he left, so if he was using, it wasn’t interfering with his schoolwork.”
He told Logan about the second set of remains. “Check to see if any girl went missing about that time in that area.”
“Will do.”
Adler and Quinn arrived at the city jail. They didn’t have to wait long before Hayward arrived cuffed and wearing a shit-eating grin.
Hayward’s chest puffed with the bravado of a card player holding a royal flush. He sat and sniffed. “You don’t look like you slept so well, Detective.”
Adler shook his head. “It was a long night.”
“I slept like a baby,” Hayward said and winked at Quinn.
Adler allowed Hayward to bask in the glow of immunity. “The medical examiner identified the remains. They belong to Gina.”
“I told you. I don’t lie when it comes to important shit like that.”
“Your deal with Ricker is ironclad,” Adler said. “Blackstone made sure of it.”
“Gotta love that buddy of mine.”
Adler sat back while Quinn leaned forward with the next question. Anger burned in his belly, but a good hunter was always patient when stalking his prey.
“Can you tell me what happened with Gina? It won’t make a difference to anyone now.”
“It will to Kaitlin. Sweet Kaitlin will want to know all the terrible details.”
“Yes, she’ll want to know,” Adler admitted.
“Tell us what happened on the road that night,” Quinn said.
Hayward scratched his head. “Nothing complicated. I liked Gina. I’d been watching her for years. So perfect, so sweet.”
“Did you get Erika to drug their booze?” Adler asked.
“No, that was all Erika.”
“Erika said it was Brad’s idea to drug the girls.”
“She’s a liar. I heard her telling Brad she was going do it. She and Jennifer wanted to really fuck with Kaitlin’s sobriety. Like the booze wasn’t bad enough. All I had to do was sit and wait.”
With Erika dead, there was no way to prove if she’d lied or not. “So Jennifer and Erika leave. How did you get to the river?”
“I drove upriver a quarter of a mile and parked the farm truck.” Hayward hesitated. He’d been in and out of the system long enough to know deals could sour. “Why do you want all the gritty details?” His voice now took on a more serious tone.
The slow burn of anger in Adler’s gut grew hotter. “For posterity. This case will be talked about for years to come. Besides, I can’t touch you.”
Hayward shrugged with false modesty. “When I saw Gina come stumbling down the road, I grabbed her. Kaitlin ran up and tried to save her cousin. I sliced off Gina’s ear, and little Kaitlin ran wee-wee-wee all the way home.”
“What did you do with Gina?”
“I taped up her hands, feet, and mouth, tossed her in the bed of the farm truck, and covered her with a tarp. I took her to the barn.”
“Who owns that land?”
“It used to be owned by the Blackstone family, but they sold it twenty years ago. But Derek has permission from the new owners to hunt.”
“And if Derek had access, so did you.”
He tapped the end of his nose. “Bingo.”
“The farm truck was from that land.”
“It was.”
“What happened next?”
His eyes brightened. “When I untied her, I told her I didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to have fun.”
“She must have been bleeding badly at that point,” Adler said.
“When I taped up her mouth, I also taped the ear. It wasn’t so bad by then.”
“So you were having fun?”
“I thought so until I untied her and she elbowed me in the nuts. That really pissed me off. Hurt my feelings. I was trying to be nice.” He shrugged. “I lost it and stabbed her right then. She started bleeding real bad. She begged me for help, but I knew she would never like me, so I stabbed her again and watched her bleed out.”
Neither detective spoke for a moment. Adler’s anger intensified, but he fought to remain tame. “So you buried her on the farm.”
“That’s right.”
Adler’s voice was as calm as a Sunday school teacher’s. “The knife left marks on her rib.”
“Okay.”
“I’m guessing the first strike hit bone, which called for the second strike hitting meat.” Quinn shifted and tugged the edge of her blazer forward. “That about right, Randy?”
Hayward’s cuffs clinked when he rubbed his nose. “I just told you I stabbed her. Why do I care if her ribs got marks?”
“Why did you take her to the country?” Adler asked. “What was it about that place?”
“I liked it there. I figured we’d have all the privacy we needed.” Hayward folded his arms over his chest and leaned back.
“You buried her there because you were familiar with the land?” Adler asked. “Funny how we’re all creatures of habit.”
“Derek Blackstone. You’ve known him a long time, right, Randy?” Quinn asked.
“You know I have. Why do you care?” Hayward flashed a grin and glanced up toward the security camera he knew was taping this conversation. “You’re fishing for something, Detectives.”
Adler held up his hand in surrender. Every primal instinct in him demanded he reach across the table and beat the hell out of this animal. But this wasn’t about him. And anger wasn’t going to get the justice he craved. “What can I say, they pay me the big bucks to catch the big fish.”
“I’m a big fish, but you didn’t catch me,” he gloated.
“Randy, you’re the biggest fish in the state right now.”
He grinned. “And here my mother told me I wouldn’t amount to much.”
“Why would she say that? You’re intelligent. I know you attended UVA.”
“I did.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I got bored. Didn’t like the rules. I hated conforming.”
“But you were tearing it up academically. Dean’s list.”
“I have an IQ of one fifty-two.”
Adler glanced at the scar on the back of his hand. “Damn. I had to work for every grade I earned.”
“Not me. I knew more than the teachers.”
Adler’s phone dinged with a text. It was from Logan. Maria Thomas, migrant worker, missing April 2002.
Adler shook his head. “You and I do have a deal. No charges will be brought for Gina’s death, and the other murder still receives a reduced sentence. You’ve lived up to your end of the deal, and the state will, too.”
“Damn right,” he smirked.
Adler leaned back, watching Hayward’s face carefully. “Who’s Maria Thomas?”
Hayward’s grin faded. “I don’t know.”
“She was a migrant worker who went missing in Charlottesville right before you dropped out of college.”
Hayward stilled. “I want my attorney.”
“I’ll be sure to call him right away,” Adler said. “But I wanted you to know we found a second girl up on the property. You figured we’d be so anxious to find Gina that we would just pack up afterward, thankful to close the case.” He leaned forward. “But I climbed up into your tree stand, and I looked around just like you said you did. That’s when I saw it.” He raised his brow in mock surprise. “When a body decomposes, it shrinks and the soil around it dips and cracks. The grass also doesn’t grow so well on that spot. It’s the kind of thing that’s easy to miss unless you’re looking for it. And with your help, I was.”
“You’re bullshitting me,” Hay
ward said. “There’s no other girl. There’s no Maria Whoever.”
“But there is, Randy.”
Hayward rubbed his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. Ask Derek. If he’ll still take your calls.” He grinned. “I can’t wait to tell my friend, Trey Ricker.”