TEST WAS ABOUT to leave her office after writing up her reports when her phone rang at 6:37 P.M.
It was Detective North.
“Sit down,” he said.
Test stayed standing.
“We found a notepad in Jenkins’ pocket,” he said. “He’d written some crazy stuff.”
“What?” Test sat.
“I’m e-mailing the transcript to you now. Read it. I’ll wait.”
When the e-mail arrived, Test read it:
What To Tell the Cops
J. Merryfield had a motive, in his sick mind, because of our relationship.
Things they NEED to know:
It just happened and it didn’t go on long. A few weeks.
A few minutes each time.
They have to know I never forced him.
I adored him.
The sad little angel raised by grandparents. They must know how his sadness saddened me. And he used that against me. My compassion. How much I felt for him.
Until he changed. And I saw him for what he was.
MAKE IT CLEAR: I ended it. After the last time I knew I was being tested by the devil. I threw up. I called in sick and I lay on my floor for days. I prayed without rest. Asked God for redemption. To give me the strength to resist this devil.
And God spoke. God forgave.
And if God could forgive me, I could forgive me.
But no on else would forgive. The boy would twist it.
When I went back to work, he lingered after the other boys left.
He said, I missed you.
I told him to forget me.
HE threw my words in my face: But, you said I was a miracle.
He tortured me, cried that I hurt him, with a demonic look that said, I’ll hurt you. I’ll turn this all around and make what we had ugly. I saw then how despicable he really was. Evil.
I need to make them understand, I tried to break it off and he wouldn’t let me.
Let them know, I’ve attended church daily for years, lived as chaste, clean life, never mind my few lapses. They’ll see what a monster he was. And is.
If he denies it ever happened I’ll prove it. How else would I know of his elegant birthmark at the inside of his thigh?
Then they’ll know he killed that girl to ruin my son, to take from me the one thing I care about most, because he never got over me breaking it off with him. He wants to make me suffer.
Just like he did when he was a boy.
He thought I wouldn’t tell what we shared out of shame, but I learned the statute of limitations has run out. I can’t be charged by the holier than thou who do not understand how hard it is to resist temptation by the devil.
“Well?” North said.
“As you can imagine, I got a different version from Merryfield.”
“Is there anything to this motive? I mean skip the delusion and sickness of Victor. If he did this to Jon, what’s that leave us with regarding Merryfield?”
“Motive. But Merryfield didn’t deny that it gave him motive. Neither did Randy Clark.”
“Clark too?”
“He’s likely one of the ‘lapses’ mentioned. But. There’s nothing to make a case against Merryfield or Clark for Jessica. There’s seediness. Sadness. Madness. But. From what I can tell, all Clark wanted from Merryfield was for Merryfield to drop the case and help him to out Jenkins. Sad thing is, he doesn’t know Jenkins couldn’t have been prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. Or maybe he doesn’t care, just wanted to stain the man in the public eye.”
“So. No hard evidence, no confession that either of these two men trumps Brad Jenkins?”
Test hated to say it. “No. Nothing.”