Into the Night(92)

Amelia didn’t speak.

“You saw them, and, no, you didn’t dig them up. Because you had a...well, a team of sorts, I guess. And you all had a plan. That plan involved killing Curtis Zale.”

Amelia was still standing and her body was completely stiff. “Agent Murphy is the one who killed that man! I wasn’t even there! I didn’t arrive until after—”

“After you had Agent Murphy do your dirty work. After you and your team had staged the scene. You liked the nails, huh? Took that from Peter, didn’t you? A nice little ‘fuck you’ every time you used it.”

“I’m—I don’t want to talk to you any longer. You’re lying! Making up lies!”

Macey just stared at her.

“You have no proof about any of this!” Amelia nearly yelled. “Nothing! You’re just making up stories!”

Macey tilted back her head. “Wesley didn’t like what you were doing. He’d started all this—only because he wanted justice for his sister. But somewhere along the line, that got lost. He didn’t realize until too late that the FBI agent he’d turned to for help? That guy was the last person he should have trusted. Jonah Loxley was a monster—”

Amelia’s nostrils flared.

“And Wesley, he was looking for a white knight. Unfortunately for him, he wound up with two monsters.” She rose to her feet and flattened her hands on the table. “He was in your motel room today, without any weapon at all, and you shot him six times. You did that to stop him from talking about what you did.”

“You,” Amelia argued back, her voice strangled. “You shot Jonah, and I heard he didn’t even have bullets in his gun.” Then, before Macey could speak, she made a rough, chopping motion with her hand. “Doesn’t matter. We were both scared. Don’t you see that, Agent Night? You and I are the same. We had to fight back to save our lives.”

They were nothing alike. “Wesley left a full, written confession beneath his sister’s birch tree. He told us everything, including how you helped to give him a false identity. He implicated you completely.”

“No.” Amelia backed up a step and absolute horror flashed on her face. “No!” Then she cried, “That fucking bastard!” Fury blasted in her words. “I did everything for him! No one else was helping that little prick! Me, I did it! Jonah and I were the ones who found the killers. We were the ones who were going to make sure that Peter paid—we were making sure they all paid! We were finally giving those killers the payback they deserved!” She shoved her hair back. “Do you know how many bodies I’ve found? Kids, men, women? Thrown away like garbage? It was time someone stood up for them! Time someone fought back!”

“With torture...and by using innocent people as bait?” An image of Gale Collins flashed before her eyes. “How does what you did make you any better than the monsters you paid back?”

Amelia’s frantic gaze flew around the interrogation room. “I want a deal! I want—”

“There is no deal for you. You murdered Wesley Kaiser in cold blood. You saw him, and you feared he’d tell us about your involvement. So you killed him.”

Amelia’s lips trembled. “My whole life was on the l-line. What was I supposed to do?”

Macey didn’t move.

“I didn’t know he’d written a confession.” Amelia’s eyes squeezed shut. “Oh, God, I didn’t know!”

Macey watched her for a moment. Amelia’s body was swaying, tears sparking on her lashes. “He didn’t.” Her voice was so quiet.

But Amelia heard those soft words. Her eyes immediately flew open.

“He didn’t leave a confession, but you just made one.”

Amelia’s mouth dropped. “You...you lied?”

“And you killed.” Macey turned her back on the other woman. “But you won’t be doing that anymore. You won’t be doing anything but spending the rest of your life behind bars.”

“No!” Amelia screamed.

Macey didn’t look back. She’d gotten what she needed. She opened the door. A uniformed cop waited on the threshold. “Take her back to holding,” Macey told him. “And be sure you read Dr. Lang her rights.”

*

MACEY PULLED IN a deep, bracing breath as she stood in the hospital corridor. She’d already checked on Dr. McKinley—he was healing nicely. And Zack Douglas was going to pull through, too, thank goodness. Samantha and Tucker had found him just in time.

There were no more killers for her to hunt right then. No more victims to discover. The case was over.

Three killers—Jonah, Amelia and Wesley. A twisted team that had hunted dark predators but had themselves become lost in the darkness.

Sometimes Macey had worried that she was letting her own darkness consume her. The pain from her past, the need for vengeance...

She opened the hospital room door.

Bowen was sitting up in bed. He smiled when he saw her.

She didn’t worry about getting lost in the darkness anymore. She’d come out of that cage, and she’d gone into the light.

Bowen had shown her the way.

“We got her,” she told him.

Bowen lifted his hand toward her. She hurried to him and her hand extended. Her sleeves were still up. She could see her scars. She didn’t want to hide anymore. Not the good or the bad. Not her fears. Not her hopes. She wanted to take life, to hold it tight. To savor every single moment.