CHAPTER THIRTY
Rachel was back at home before noon. Jack had only let her get back behind the wheel of her car after making sure the fight with Nelson in the parking garage had really been as superficial as she was letting on. She’d found the house empty, with a note from Grandma Tate on the dry erase board hanging on the pantry door in the kitchen. It read: Gym, then some grocery shopping, then back home. Should be back before Paige gets home from school.
Rachel smiled. This meant that Grandma Tate had taken her at her word and assumed she would indeed be back home early in the day. She also liked the idea of Grandma Tate going to the gym, even if it was something like water aerobics or one of those pickleball leagues.
On the other hand, it was surreal to be sitting in her house less than an hour removed from a hand-to-hand fight with a killer in a parking garage. She spent a bit of time in the bathroom, making sure the slight whack to the side of the head had not caused bruising or swelling. She thought there might be the faintest bit of swelling, but it wasn’t going to be noticed by anyone unless they were really staring at that side of her head.
Once she had calmed down a bit, getting a handle on the residual adrenaline and nerves, she sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a sandwich. She also had the thin folder with Dr. Emerson’s information in it, including the little pamphlets that laid out the experimental procedures they’d talked about. She had no idea why she was so anxious to make the call. It was much easier than she’d anticipated, consisting of a very brief conversation with the first woman who answered the phone. After less than three minutes, she had an appointment set up with Dr. Emerson for the following week.
She tidied up a bit here and there just to occupy herself, but there wasn’t much to do because Grandma Tate kept the house spotless when she had idle time. As she made her way through the house, Rachel ended up standing in the doorway of Paige’s room. She looked inside and imagined that dead squirrel on the floor, placed there by order of Alex Lynch by a crony named Ed Walton.
She wondered, as she stared into her daughter’s room, if she’d have such a difficult problem letting go of work if Alex Lynch wasn’t free out there somewhere. If he hadn’t escaped, would she be able to step away from her career a bit easier? She thought the answer was yes, but knowing that he was out there was unnerving. Deep down, she wondered how much longer the US Marshals and the FBI’s resources would continue to look for him. She knew all too well how longstanding cases could often drift away and go stagnant if there wasn’t some sort of movement within them from time to time.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing in Paige’s doorway when there was a knock on the front door. She figured it couldn’t be Grandma Tate because she had a key, so, curious, she made her way down as quickly as she could. She opened the front door just a crack at first and saw Jack standing there. She was relieved and, for a moment, wasn’t sure why. Perhaps thoughts of Alex Lynch had made her think it would be him standing at her door.
Rachel opened the door for him and noticed right away that she looked nervous as he came inside. Jack normally wore an expression that was just a muscle twitch or two away from a smile. Now, though, he looked bothered by something—almost depressed.
“Everything okay?” she asked. “I thought you’d be deep into an interrogation with Nick Nelson by now.”
“Yeah, that’s coming up. But given that I was awake until damn near three a.m. last night and then brought Nelson in today, Anderson seemed perfectly happy to give me a chance to rest. He’s got Lopez and Haskins talking to Nelson right now, sort of softening him up.”
“And you chose to come here?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you…do you mind if we sit down?”
“Sure, sure,” she said, hurrying over to the couch. “Sorry. I’m not the best hostess.”
“First of all, business first,” Jack said as he sat down. “Nelson has already admitted to killing three people from the Life Fulfilled waiting list. He didn’t seem proud of it, exactly, but there’s no remorse there, either. He legitimately thinks he was doing them a favor. So you can rest easy in knowing that this one will be closed easily.”
“And what about Anderson? Did he buy the story?”
“He did, and Lopez backed me up. Me calling for that backup was a genius move on your part. The story goes that I visited the Life Fulfilled offices, hoping to meet with some of the clients who had been selected off of the waiting list. And then it’s basically your story, just with me in it and not you. Now, if it ever gets to the level where Nelson starts blabbing about how you fooled him, there could be questions. Hell, he may even have a chance to walk. But with him actually admitting it, I doubt it. The case is pretty airtight.”
“Sorry. I made this one a lot more complicated than it needed to be.”
“Maybe. But you also caught our killer, so…” He shrugged, let out a sigh, and then looked her in the eyes. Again, she saw his nervousness and started to grow uncomfortable. “But that’s not the entire reason I came. There’s something else I need to tell you.”
“Okay…”
“When you had it in your head that you weren’t going to fight this, I wanted to help. I wanted to do anything I could. But it’s a weird situation, you know? What can you do for someone who’s been told they have about a year to live? And I could only think of one thing, and it’s a little personal. Something you might actually get really mad at me about.”
She had no idea what it could be and was starting to feel a bit scared and uncomfortable. “What is it, Jack? And please know, it would take a lot for me to get mad at you.”
“Keep that in mind for the next twenty seconds or so, okay?”
She nodded and when she reached out to take his hand, hoping to calm him down, it felt a bit too natural. “You’re starting to freak me out, Jack.”
“I got in touch with your father,” he said, blurting it out. “I know it wasn’t my place, but there was just a moment a few weeks ago where I thought I had to. I had to do something. I remember you’d mentioned a few times that you had this estranged relationship with him and it was something you’d like to eventually patch up. So I did some digging, found his number, and called him.”
For about half a second, she felt a wave of anger. It did feel like an intrusion of her privacy but as he continued to speak, she could see the sincerity in his eyes. He was so afraid that she was going to be mad at him that she couldn’t help but feel a little honored that he’d taken such a step.
She squeezed his hand and released it. “It’s okay,” she said. “That’s sort of sweet in a weird way, I guess. Did you actually talk to him?”
“I did. And he says he wants to meet you. Now, I didn’t tell him everything that’s going on because that’s really not my place. But…well, if you want to talk to him, he’s ready.”
It was a scary feeling but she was also glad Jack had done this. It was sort of like ripping off a Band-Aid. The hard part was over and now she could play the rest out to her own wishes.
“How long ago was this?”