“What does Porter or Randall, or whatever her name is, say?”
“We haven’t been able to ask her. She’s on the run. We have an APB out. You can ask her when she’s under arrest.”
Robin spent the rest of the afternoon at police headquarters giving a statement. When Anders dismissed her, Robin thought about going to her office, but she was too exhausted. Instead, shecalled Jeff and gave him a condensed version of her day, promising to tell him everything that had happened when he came home.
Jeff picked up a steak, potatoes, and an excellent pinot and listened to Robin’s tale while he cooked dinner.
“She sure had everyone fooled,” Jeff said when Robin finished.
“That she did.” Robin sighed. “I know Jane’s a stone killer, but part of me feels sorry for her.”
“Is that the part where she killed Judge Beathard and Morris Quinlan and tried to murder Regina?” Jeff asked as he plated the food.
“You know what I mean,” Robin said as she poured the wine. “She didn’t kill Renee Chambers, and Chesterfield murdered her mother, made her father so depressed that he killed himself, and turned her into an orphan.”
“What’s that old saw about two wrongs not making a right?”
“Okay, smart-ass. Sorry I can feel empathy and you can’t.”
“I admit that I find it impossible to empathize with a serial killer. Do we know where Randall went?”
“No, but Carrie found some information about her history. Randall’s been in and out of foster care and her life has been hard. She was abused in two homes and ran away at twelve and fourteen. She may have been homeless for a while, but she did get a GED and a two-year degree at a community college, where she was on the gymnastics team, which explains how she could pick up the skills she needed to be a magician’s assistant.
“The trail went cold right around the time Chesterfield disappeared and the newspapers published stories about the old murder cases. That’s probably what triggered her.”
“You did good work, kid. The cops would never have figured this out if it weren’t for you.”
“Oh, they’d have known who killed Chesterfield as soon as they found Chambers. I’m just sorry that we didn’t figure out what was going on sooner, but she was very clever, and so was her plan.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
After dinner, Robin tried to watch a Blazers game. When she nodded off a second time, she struggled to her feet and went into the bedroom, where she had a troubled sleep. A little after midnight, Robin jerked awake. She looked at the other side of the bed. Jeff was dead to the world. She closed her eyes, but the attempt at sleep was useless, so she went into the living room.
What was bothering her? The obvious answer was that Jane Randall was still at large despite a massive manhunt, but there was something else she just could not put her finger on.
Robin went over everything that had happened since Chesterfield announced his performance at the Imperial. Chesterfield should have been Randall’s first victim, but no one knew where to find him, because he was hiding from Rafael Otero.
Judge Beathard was an easy target, and his death had been written off as a robbery gone bad, with no one suspecting that it was part of an elaborate plot.
Randall’s next target had been Regina, which made sense. But why had she killed Morris Quinlan? Roger had told Robin and Anders that he had asked his old partner to look into the case.They guessed that Morris had figured out that Randall murdered Chesterfield and had arranged to meet her at the Ramble Inn.
Robin was starting to feel sleepy, when she realized what was bothering her. There was a loose end: Regina was alive. A sane person would run, but Randall wasn’t sane; she was a fanatic who was dedicated to killing Chesterfield and everyone who had helped him escape justice.
Robin grabbed her phone.
Stanley Cloud was only half awake when he answered her call. “Who is this?”
“It’s Robin.”
“Why are you calling at one in the morning?” he groused.
“We know who killed Chesterfield and tried to kill Regina.”
“Who?” asked Cloud, who was suddenly wide awake.
“Nancy Porter, the magician’s assistant. Porter is really Jane Randall, the daughter of Sophie Randall, whom Chesterfield poisoned with cyanide-laced chocolates. Randall is killing everyone who helped Chesterfield beat the murder charge. She failed the first time she went after Regina. I think she’ll try again.”
“What do you want me to do?”