A girl crouched on the ground near the rear door of Jess’s car.
“Get up,” Jess said, holstering her gun. “I thought you were gonna jump me. I could’ve shot you.”
“I’m sorry. Oh my God. I’m Hannah,” she said, her voice shaky and breathless.
“Jess Messina. I’m working on the murder case. Are you all right? What are you doing down there?”
“I overheard you talking to Aunt Lynn and snuck out. I need to talk to you. My aunt and uncle can’t know I’m here.”
It was full dark outside, but a streetlight at the corner of the driveway illuminated the area surrounding her car. The driveway sloped upward to the house, which sat on a rise. Somebody watching from a window would look down and see Jess standing there, but wouldn’t be able to see Hannah, who was crouching. Hannah needed to stay down.
“Don’t stand up, or they’ll see you,” Jess said to Hannah. “I’m going to open the rear door and lean in like I’m getting something from the backseat. Stay low and scoot past me onto the floor. I’ll drive away, and we’ll find a spot nearby where we can pull over and talk. Okay?”
Hannah nodded. They executed the maneuver smoothly. Jess drove until she spotted an elementary school several blocks away. She pulled into the parking lot. The school was dark, the playground empty of children, swings swaying in the strong breeze. Hannah Stark’s childhood must seem very far away to her at this moment.
“Stay down there, okay, Hannah?” Jess said. “We’re still in your aunt and uncle’s neighborhood. I doubt they’ll come looking for you, but you never know.”
“Okay.”
“Are you afraid of them?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. Aunt Lynn and Uncle Joe would never hurt me. But I do think they’re lying to me. I think Aunt Lynn knows where my mom is, and she won’t tell me. She won’t tell me anything. I told her I want to talk to you, but she said no. They don’t want me talking to the police.”
“Why would she do that? It’s unusual in a murder investigation. Usually the victim’s family is eager to cooperate.”
“Aunt Lynn is trying to protect me. She and I are really close. Sometimes she’s a little overprotective, but I don’t need that right now. I need answers. My father is dead, and my mother’s nowhere to be found. She may never come back.”
“I’m sure she’s coming back,” Jess said.
Jess hoped she was right. If Caroline didn’t come back to testify, the case would fall apart. But fear was a powerful emotion. After the station house attack, Caroline had reason to doubt that the authorities would protect her.
“I’m not sure. Aunt Lynn told me I can stay with them as long as I want. She said if I want to take a leave of absence from school until everything blows over, I could live with them. Why would she say I could stay with them indefinitely like that if my mom is coming back?”
“You think your mother told your aunt she’s not coming back? That she’d tell your aunt that but not tell you?”
“She might. Mom and Aunt Lynn are really tight. Their father died before I was born. They got all the money and the other kids didn’t. The other kids sued them. Ever since then, it’s been the two of them against the world. And Dad and Uncle Joe follow their lead. So, I think Mom would tell Aunt Lynn anything. What surprises me is that Aunt Lynn wouldn’t tell me. That makes me think it’s something really bad.”
“Bad? Like what?”
“I don’t know. But I feel so alone.”
Quiet sniffling sounds came from the backseat. It broke her heart to think of this young woman, at the start of her grown-up life, dealing with the loss of her father. And no ordinary death—but a brutal murder at the hands of her mother’s lover, the salacious details of which were being splashed across the tabloids. Jess wanted to give Hannah a big hug and tell her everything would be all right. But she couldn’t promise that—not when today’s events had cast doubt on Caroline Stark’s role in Jason’s murder.
“I’ll do my best to find her and try to convince her to come back. But you know she’s doing this for a reason, right? She’s afraid of Aidan Callahan.”
“Shouldn’t I be afraid, too?” Hannah demanded. “What about me? Did you know that Aidan came into the coffee shop at my school and pretended to be a student in order to meet me? It was definitely him. I saw his picture online and recognized him. Can you imagine how I felt when I found that out?”
“He was stalking your mother, Hannah. His approach to you was part of that. Your mother was beside herself when she learned about it, I can assure you. She blamed herself.”
“She should blame herself. It was her fault. I actually thought he was cute. I invited him to my dorm room. I gave him my number. And then I see online that he slept with my mother and murdered my father? What kind of nightmare is that? She’s responsible. She let it happen.”
“I’m so sorry. That’s truly awful. But you know, it may explain why your mother isn’t returning your calls. She’s ashamed of herself, and she can’t face you.”
“She’s not ashamed. She has no shame.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Everything that happened is because of her. Look at what she did. Cheated on my dad, and brought this killer into our lives?”
“I don’t mean to defend your mother. I agree that her conduct was inexcusable. But your father cheated on her first. He brought a woman—”
“Yeah, I saw that reported online. It’s a lie.”
“Why do you say that? Were you at the party where the Russian woman showed up and made a scene?”
“No, I wasn’t. But my mom told me about it, and I confronted my dad. He swore that woman was a business associate, and I believe him. He wouldn’t lie to me, and he would never cheat on my mom. He adores her. Adored. Past tense. God, I can’t believe she brought this lunatic into our lives and, and now…”
Hannah paused, her bitter sobs filling the car.
“I’ll never see my father again.”
Jess passed a packet of Kleenex over the console. “Hannah, here. You poor thing.”
“My poor dad,” Hannah said, through her tears. “Everything he ever did was for her, to make her happy, to give her the things she wanted. The cars, the clothes, the beach house. That house cost millions of dollars. And yet I got a notice from the registrar’s office two days ago that my tuition hasn’t been paid. Something weird was going on with my parents.”
“I can look into that. Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything unusual that happened? Anything you can remember that might possibly shed some light on your parents’ circumstances?”
Hannah was silent for a moment, mopping her face with a tissue. Jess felt bad about leaving her wedged on the floor of the backseat.
“Hey, do you want to come sit in the front? There’s nobody else in the parking lot, and you look so uncomfortable.”
“I feel safer down here. And we should go soon, before they miss me. Aunt Lynn made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner because it’s my favorite. I don’t want her to think I’m ungrateful, or that I didn’t listen.”
Jess put the car in gear. “I understand. We’ll go back in a minute. But first, think about my question. Anything unusual, anything that stands out?”
“Okay. Yes. One thing is, my dad started traveling for work a lot more in the past year. Like, a huge amount more. He was gone constantly, and that was new.”
“Did something change at work? The nature of his job?”
“I don’t know. But my mom probably does.”
“She mentioned that he traveled a lot. But she never said it was a change.”
“It was. And come to think of it, it was right around the same time that things, like, got weird, generally.”
“Things got weird generally? What do you mean?”
“Nothing specific. Just a feeling that something was going on with them—something bad. Like they were in trouble.”
“Can you be more specific? How did this come to your attention?”
“Dad was gone a lot. Mom was on edge, and even more of a monster to deal with than she usually is. When Dad was home, they’d lock themselves in their bedroom and whisper. And not like that. I could hear the tone. It wasn’t happy, or romantic. It was like, urgent and troubled. I would ask what was going on, and they’d act like I was crazy. But I wasn’t crazy. I knew what I was seeing. Oh. Another thing.” She paused, thinking.
“What is it, Hannah?”
“Yes, this was definitely around that time. I saw a gun in my dad’s briefcase. Now, maybe he’d had it before, but I doubt it.”
“A—a gun?”
“Yes.”
Jess knew what her next question had to be.
“What type of gun? Can you describe it?”
“I don’t know anything about guns, and I only saw it once. It was silver and kind of clunky-looking. That’s all I remember.”
“Silver and clunky-looking” was an accurate description of the gun seized from Aidan Callahan’s truck. Was Jason Stark murdered with his own gun? That wouldn’t necessarily mean that Caroline had been involved. Maybe Jason pulled the gun on Aidan, and Aidan took it away from him.
Though that wasn’t how Caroline said things went down.
Was she lying?
“Did you ask your father why he had a gun?”
“Yeah. He said it was for personal protection.”
“Did he say what he was protecting himself from?”
“No. I wish I’d asked.”
“You said they were behind closed doors, whispering, seeming unhappy. Do you think that might be because they were having trouble? Problems in their marriage?”
“No, actually. They seemed more like a team than ever. He was more adoring. She was more on top of him, always having him call to check in. They seemed so close. Like allies against the rest of the world. That’s why I can’t understand how this happened. I have so many questions. I’m lost, I’m mourning my father. She abandons me at a time like this? Why would she do that? There has to be something I don’t know. What is she hiding from me?”