No signs of forced entry means he was charming and approachable, likely someone they trusted. Hence the reason it was someone in the town who did it. His ability to frame a man makes him a narcissist, and this town played right into his hand, giving him the power that really got him off.
And fooling the world was the ultimate high.
“Did anyone have any grudges against Evans before that night?”
“No,” she says, laughing under her breath. “That man was a saint. If a kid had an accident at school, he cleaned it up and told them to run along before someone saw it. He didn’t want them to be embarrassed, and knew kids could be cruel. His own kids were mercilessly mocked for being the janitor’s kids.”
I lean back, trying to find out what in the hell made Johnson so insistent on pegging this guy as the unsub. Even he has a heart.
“What about the sheriff? Did he have any issues with him?”
Her lips tense. “The sheriff was too emotionally invested in finding someone—anyone—to make pay. His daughter was one of the first victims. The true sick, evil man who killed her…he put her in the middle of the street for everyone to find the next morning. She was naked and raped raw. Her skin was sliced to pieces, and she’d bled out overnight.”
Donny swallows thickly, and I sit back,
wondering how in the fuck that never made into the case reports. The sheriff would have been required to step away from the investigation. It also makes him less likely to be the primary suspect, which was the direction I was leaning.
“She was eighteen,” Diana goes on, choking back a sob. “The sheriff wasn’t right in the head after that. After seeing that. It was the hardest thing this town had ever gone through at that time. And from there, they just got worse. A body was even on the church steps one Sunday morning before church started. One was on the school steps, right there for the children to see. It was Ilene Darvis. She was a kindergarten teacher. Just twenty-three.”
She has to stop and blow her nose, her tears falling freely now.
“Anyway, the night Robert was convicted, they were supposed to take him to the prison. Escorts were here and everything. He was found hanging in his cell the next morning after they delayed the transfer. Ain’t no fool gonna believe that man really hanged himself when he was desperate to get an appeal. He was gonna seek out true justice. Not go down like that. I never could find out what really happened. I hope you do.”
Donny’s fists tighten. It’s always painful to hear about the wrong man’s life getting shattered because of another man’s ego. Johnson shattered many lives.
“Couple days later, them babies were walking home, and Victoria stopped by here. I was beside her when her phone rang. Kyle called Victoria, telling her he could get her in to see her father’s body, since they said they couldn’t release it. The sheriff said they weren’t eighteen, and since there was no one of age to claim the body, the city had the right to dispose of it. I got that taken care of later—too much later.”
She blows out a shaky breath, as though she’s steeling herself for the rest.
“Victoria had dated Kyle, gave that boy more of herself than she should have. He wasn’t too happy when they broke up, but he didn’t show his demon right away. He was manipulative and calculated like that. She’d only dated him for a few months, one of the few boyfriends she’d ever had. Her daddy talked sense into her when he heard how Kyle talked down to her. She never said why she broke up with Kyle. But Kyle had never given her a reason not to trust him. Not until that night.”
Donny’s phone beeps, but he ignores it. When my phone starts ringing, I silence it. Neither of us are stepping away until we have our answers. It’s just Johnson trying to find out what we’re up to.
“Victoria went to meet him, and Marcus caught up with her, wanting to see his father as well. They needed answers. No note was left. No goodbye was given. He just died, and they slapped suicide on there. Jacob was not with them for once, and thankfully, neither was my boy.”
She breaks, becoming a sobbing mess. “I shouldn’t have been thankful when those babies suffered, but I was so glad they didn’t get my boy too.”
She’s almost incoherent now, her tears falling too fast and her sobs wracking her body. Donny looks at me, dread in his eyes.
We knew there was assault. We knew it was sexual.
But I’m starting to piece together all the kills now.
Diana calms herself by some miracle, hiccupping around a sob.
“And Kyle, oh that boy was pure evil,” she says, her tone turning angry now. “They met him at the end of Belker Street, and he wasn’t alone. He brought several volunteers with him to help him punish the ‘killer’ through his kids.”
Belker Street is where the message about angels was written to sound like an omen of things to come.
“They jumped them. Got them down on the ground. Stripped them bare in the middle of the streets. After that, they took turns on both of them.”
She has to stop when she gags, and she turns her head.
Donny is white, and his fists are tighter. My entire body is rigid right now.
“How many?” Donny asks quietly.
“Thirteen in all,” she says, still sobbing. “Only…Dev didn’t…couldn’t go through with it. He stood there, though. And he told me the story after it was over. The boy was so twisted up in the head he was sent to therapy for over a year. Then he joined a church ministry group that travels over the country spreading the word of God. He’s how I know.”