“Devin Thomas. He’s the judge’s son,” she says on autopilot.
As I stand, I look at her and recite the names we know, two of which are an uncertainty. “Tim Hoover. Chuck Cosby. Nathan Malone. Jeremy Hoyt. Ben Harris. Tyler Shane. Lawrence Martin. Anthony Smith. Kevin Taylor. Morgan Jones. Kyle Davenport.”
She meets my gaze. “Jason Martin. He’s Lawrence’s cousin. He lives in South Carolina these days. Works as a real estate developer there. He was the twelfth.”
“Thank you for sharing this.”
“Just tell me you’ll do more than hear it.”
“I plan to,” I tell her honestly.
Donny follows me to the door, and I turn around to face her one last time. “How’d Victoria and Marcus’s mother die?”
“Car crash,” she says on a sigh. “A rich couple from a few towns over collided with her after they got drunk at a party. Their last name was Carlyle, I believe. They orphaned their own daughter with that wreck, and killed a damn good woman who was just trying to get home to her kids after a long day at the hospital.”
It’s like this family couldn’t catch a break.
“Nurse?” I ask, though I don’t know why I want to know.
“No. She was actually a coroner for the same hospital where the kids died. I figured that’s one reason they also chose that one. Their mom was a loved woman with a lot of friends from there.”
I nod in understanding, and we turn to leave.
“They worked in a pack mentality that night,” Donny whispers as we step outside and shut the door.
“With Kyle as their most dominant alpha. It was more prison pack mentality, joining together so as not to be the odd one out.”
“As young as fifteen, some of them,” Donny growls.
“Adolescents are easier to manipulate and control. They looked up to the three—Lawrence, Morgan, and Kyle. But Kyle mostly called the shots. Someone that night would have butted heads, with their being so many alphas.”
“Not that we’ll know. Morgan and Lawrence are already dead.”
“Devin. We need to find him.”
“He left part of the way through it to lock up Lindy May. What if he came back and watched? How else would Diana have known the rest of the story?”
I purse my lips. I noted that too. But Diana never explained.
“Were we ever able to interview the ones on duty in the hospital the night the kids came in?” I ask Donny.
“No. It’s been over ten years ago. We were lucky they were able to give us what they had.”
“Why not tell someone there they were hurt?” I ask him.
He shrugs, every ounce of energy suddenly gone from him. I feel like I’ve been through the same emotional vacuum.
“I don’t know, but I do know Johnson knew about this. Kyle was put into protective custody.”
“We need more than one woman’s word this all happened. She wasn’t even an eye witness. And if we’re taking on Johnson, then we’re also taking on Director McEvoy. We’re going to need solid evidence. In the meantime, we need to find out who else is a target and what really killed Robert Evans.”
“I’ve never once in my career wondered if I was on the right side of the law. Until today,” he says quietly.
Revenge killings always make us question our standing. “He won’t stop just at the ones who killed the kids,” I remind him.
“He opened some doors, but didn’t touch anyone. He stole some mirrors, put some ink in some water and played with some paint. He could have already killed numerous people. But he hasn’t.”
“He’s terrorizing them. It’s his form of revenge against the whole town. He knows how their minds work. They’ve been drenched in ten years of guilt for knowing this and doing nothing. They believe something supernatural is really going on right now.”