Those awful notes, reflecting his gradually escalating anger. Like Laws’s letters to Cassie while he was in prison.
The first step in a pattern…
On the way up the stairs to her door, Maria’s cell phone rang. Serena. She ignored the call, needing to talk to Colin. She needed him to make her feel safe; here and now, she felt exposed. With shaking hands, she dialed him, wondering how soon he’d be able to make it to her place.
A pattern…
Margolis had told her to come to him with the report, and she wanted Colin there for that as well. She had to tell Margolis about Gerald Laws and Cassie Manning, the woman whom Laws had killed. She wanted to tell him about the Manning family and everything that had happened to her recently. But mostly she wanted to tell him that she knew exactly who was stalking her, and what his endgame was going to be.
CHAPTER 19
Colin
Since he’d started college, Colin had never missed a single class, let alone a whole day’s worth. Only once had he come close – a day when his car hadn’t started, and he’d hiked to school carrying a backpack loaded with textbooks, arriving just minutes before class had begun.
Therefore, today was a first. As soon as Maria had called, he’d raced to her place; he’d read the note, and while Maria had called Margolis, he’d called a tow truck with a flatbed, since her car was essentially resting on its rims. While they waited for the tow truck to arrive, Colin made Maria a cup of tea, but she was only able to take a couple of sips before pushing the cup away.
The tow truck came; once it was gone, Colin drove her to the police station. Maria offered her name to the officer at the front counter and she and Colin took a seat in the small lobby, noting the steady but unhurried rhythm of the station. Maria took the opportunity to leave a message for Barney, informing him that she wouldn’t be in for a while. Margolis, no doubt, was already somewhere in the station, probably buried in paperwork from weekend incidents. As a detective, he dealt with significant crimes, and he was probably regretting the fact that he’d challenged Maria to call him if she ever wanted to make a simple report. Stalking – if what was happening to Maria officially rose to that level – was below his pay grade, and the fact that Colin was with Maria no doubt made the whole thing even more irritating for him. He made them wait nearly ninety minutes before finally showing up carrying a manila file. While he shook Maria’s hand, he didn’t offer his to Colin, and Colin wouldn’t have shaken it if he had. No reason to pretend they liked each other.
Margolis asked to speak with Maria alone; Maria insisted that Colin be present. Radiating disapproval, Margolis nodded and led the three of them to one of the interrogation rooms. Having spent time in a number of police stations over the years, Colin knew that on a busy morning, the interrogation room was one of the few places with any privacy whatsoever. Nice of him, even if he is generally an ass, Colin thought. After closing the door and seating them at the table, Margolis set aside the file he’d been holding, asked a series of general questions – Maria’s name, age, address, and the like – and began filling in the report. After that, Maria – in a shaky but surprisingly linear fashion – went through the same story she’d told Colin on the beach about Cassie Manning and Gerald Laws, as well as what had been happening to her recently. She sketched out the parallels before finally handing Margolis the letter she had found on the windshield.
Margolis read the letter slowly, saying nothing, before finally asking if he could make a copy. When she agreed, he rose from his seat and left the room, returning with a copy.
“We’ll keep the original letter in the file, if that’s okay,” he said, his face displaying little of what he was thinking. Taking his seat again, he read the letter a third time before going on. “And you’re sure that Lester Manning wrote this?”
“Yes,” Maria answered. “He’s also the guy who’s been following me.”
“That’s Cassie Manning’s brother?”
“Younger brother.”
“Why do you think it’s him?”
“Because some of what’s in the letter I heard him say before.”
“When?”
“After Cassie died. He also wrote the same types of things in the notes he sent me.”
“Like what, specifically?”
“The blood of the innocent. My heart being filled with poison.”
Margolis nodded and made another note. “Was this in the first batch of notes, or the second batch?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said the notes changed when they started to arrive again. That they were more threatening and scary.”
“Second group.”
“And how do you know he sent the notes?”
“Who else could it be?”
Margolis scanned his notes. “Avery Manning said that it may have been Cassie’s boyfriend.”
“It wasn’t him.”
“How do you know?”
“According to the police, he wasn’t a credible suspect. He was devastated by Cassie’s murder, but he didn’t blame me. He denied even knowing who I was.”
“Did you ever speak with him?”
“No.”
Margolis made another note. “Do you remember his name? Or how he met Cassie?”
Maria pursed her lips. “I think it was Mike or Matt or Mark… something like that. And no, I don’t know how he met Cassie. But why are we even talking about him? Lester is the one who’s been stalking me! Just like he wrote those notes in Charlotte!”