First Girl Gone(108)

The tip of Todd’s tongue flicked out to wet his lips.

“Because a moment ago, when you were talking about setting up Leroy Gibbs, you said he was an obvious fit for someone who’d abduct and murder a pair of girls.”

Todd’s mouth opened, hanging agape for a second before he spoke.

“Yes. I had initially planned to kill her. But I couldn’t do it.”

His lawyer threw his hands up in disgust.

Todd shrugged, smiling again.

“It was something else with Amber. Something that happened to me as much as her. Some animal part of my brain taking over. I hadn’t planned it. Hadn’t looked at her and thought about how I was about to squeeze the life out of her. It just happened. I couldn’t recreate it with Kara, even if I wanted to. Needed to.”

Charlie thought back to the times she’d interacted with Todd before it had all come undone. How he’d thanked her in her office that day, or when he’d invited her to join the family for his “famous chicken parm.”

She had to admit that she’d never suspected him, not even a little. And it wasn’t only because he’d seemed to have an airtight alibi.

She’d never considered him because he’d been so… ordinary. So polite and meek. Somehow, listening to him now, that chilled her all the more.

Because what did it mean if someone like him could commit such heinous deeds?

He had done indisputably evil things, and still in most ways he looked and seemed just like anyone else. Her mailman. Her dentist. The guy who made her coffee or changed the tires on her car.

She shuddered at the thought.

And Charlie realized then that the creeping chill that had built throughout Todd’s confession went back to Allie. For the first time, she was forced to consider that whoever killed Allie was probably every bit as ordinary as Todd Ritter.

Maybe it was easier to believe that all murderers were monsters. Somehow marked. That society could just weed them out and be rid of them, but reality was not so simple. The ones we call evil? The ones we label as monsters? Before that, they were our friends, our siblings, our co-workers. Husbands. Fathers.

They walk among us.

Lost in her thoughts, it was several moments before Charlie was aware that Todd was still talking in the other room.

“Before it got out, it didn’t feel real. Felt like a dream, you know? Something that only existed in my head. But hey, everybody dies in the end. One way or another, that’s how the story ends, so…”

The touch of emotion that had built in his voice over the course of the interview drained again as he said these last words. He drifted back to that weird half-amused tone, staring at nothing. Silent. Motionless.

The room held the quiet for a long time, not even the detective daring to break the spell. All eyes watched the subdued figure, perhaps all wondering the same thing, Charlie thought.

What was going through Todd Ritter’s brain right now? Would it even mean anything to know?

When he spoke again, it was just louder than a whisper.

“This isn’t who I was. Before, I mean. It isn’t who I was, but it is now. Can’t undo it, so what the hell?”

Charlie’s phone buzzed, and feeling that the interrogation was winding down, she stepped into the hallway to take the call.

“Hello?”

“Charlotte Winters?” The voice was male with the slightest lilt of an accent.

“Yes?”

“This is Dr. Anagonye from McLaren Hospital. I’m calling in regard to your uncle.”

Charlie readied herself for bad news about Frank. She reached out, bracing herself against the wall.

“He’s awake.”





Chapter Ninety-Four





Charlie looked in on Frank through the glass of the small window in the hallway. His eyes were closed, and for a moment, she worried he’d slipped away again in the time it had taken her to get to the hospital. But when she stepped through the open doorway and into the room, Frank’s eyelids fluttered open.

Charlie’s nose stung and then tears welled in her eyes as she moved closer and took her uncle’s hand in hers.

Frank smiled.

“Hey, turkey.”

Opening her mouth to respond, Charlie realized that if she tried to say anything right now, it would come out as a sob. She squeezed Frank’s hand, taking a few moments to pull herself together. Finally, swallowing against the lump in her throat, she trusted herself to speak.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” she said.

Frank croaked out a laugh.

“I’ll try not to.”

Beside him, an IV pump softly whirred and clicked.

“So you found her? Your missing girl?”

“One of them. The other…” Charlie sighed, reliving the moment she found Amber’s body on the beach. “She’s gone. Was from the beginning. She never really had a chance.”

Frank nodded, as if confirming something he already knew.

“Wait. How did you know?”

“Allie told me.”

His tone was nonchalant, blasé even, but Charlie froze.

“What?”

“Don’t worry. I haven’t lost my marbles,” he said, chuckling. “I dreamed when I was under. Not the whole time, I don’t think. It’s hard to say. It’s all foggy. I don’t even remember falling down in my house. The last memory I have is of you eating a brownie. And then…”