A Necessary Evil(65)
I’d better get to work. My shift starts in half an hour. I have to pretend I’m some normal girl, but it gets exhausting sometimes. I wish I could show someone about the real me. Let them see me for who I really am. Then I wouldn’t have to pretend anymore. I wouldn’t have to wear the mask of a perfect girl with a perfect family and a perfect life. I could just be me.
Bile rose in the back of Lonnie’s throat when it all came together like pieces of a complicated puzzle finally falling into place. Now everything that had been strange to him started to make sense. Lonnie had trouble believing Frankie had been the one to shoot Kurt, even though he confessed immediately. Lonnie knew about the history between the two men, and the thought of Frankie killing his former best friend and childhood playmate didn’t sit right with him. But he’d had no choice but to arrest Franklin Cartwright for the murder of Detective Kurt Jamison. Not to mention Collin McAllister.
Now Frankie would spend the rest of his life in prison in order to cover for his granddaughter.
Lonnie could almost visualize what had gone down at the horse farm as if he’d been an eyewitness to the whole charade. Kurt had realized he needed to check the horse farm, thanks to what he’d read in Mollie’s twisted journal entry. When he’d arrived, he’d likely found Frankie right after he’d killed Collin McAllister, whose body was found tied to a table, with a stab wound to his right shoulder. The two men probably struggled, as there had been unexplained scuff marks in the dirt and hay, and Mollie had retrieved the gun and shot Kurt before he could arrest Frankie.
She was trying to protect her grandfather, but now Frankie would spend the rest of his life protecting the granddaughter he may or may not have known was a sociopath. It explained why Frankie had called the police about the shooting and then confessed so quickly and freely when they arrived at the farm.
Lonnie shut the journal and stood from Kurt’s desk. He debated briefly over what to do with the journal. As it was technically evidence, he should turn it over to his lieutenant and have it officially admitted. If he did that, Mollie Cartwright would be arrested not only for Kurt’s murder but for the murder of her former boyfriend. It was what she deserved. She should pay for taking at least two lives that Lonnie knew about.
But then a thought came to Lonnie’s mind. Frankie actually wanted to take the fall for his granddaughter. And once upon a time, Frankie and Kurt had been like brothers. Lonnie knew if Kurt were still alive, he’d have tried to protect Frankie, but if that failed, he would have at least honored Frankie’s final wish and let him take the fall.
His mind made up, Lonnie taped up the box of Kurt’s belongings and carried it out to his cruiser. After placing the cardboard box in the back seat, he walked over to the large green dumpsters behind the precinct and tossed the journal over the top. As he walked back to his cruiser, he told himself he’d done the right thing. Maybe not the legal thing, but he’d honored his partner and his partner’s friendship with Frankie. It may not have been the right ending to a forty-year-old nightmare, but it was the ending Kurt would have wanted.
THE END