Lance’s gaze swept over the nightstand. Three prescription vials stood next to a full glass of water and a box of tissues. Used, crumpled tissues littered the floor.
Lance move closer to read the prescription labels. Justin’s name was printed on each of the bottles. They were all the same medication—zolpidem, the same drug that had been found in Shannon’s body. The first prescription was dated the previous summer. Roughly two-thirds of the original thirty tablets were missing. Had Justin stockpiled the pills to use on young women? Is that why he’d refilled the sleeping pills even though he wasn’t using them?
Pulling out his phone, Lance snapped photos. He pictured Justin crying over the photos of his friend Noah and thinking about taking all the sleeping pills. The scene appeared to be an impending suicide. But was Justin motivated by guilt or grief or both?
He found nothing else out of the ordinary in the bedroom and moved on to the bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and found another prescription bottle. He recognized the medication as an antidepressant.
He jogged downstairs and checked his watch. Ten minutes had passed. The police would be here in another five or so.
“Is he still alive?” Lance asked Morgan.
“Yes.” She knelt on the floor next to Justin. Blood was seeping through the towel she held to his head.
Justin’s eyes opened halfway. “Let me die.”
Lance wouldn’t have minded. Justin had probably raped and killed Shannon Yates. He’d also likely killed Noah, drugged Haley, and framed her for the crime. But Morgan had a higher moral standard than Lance did. Besides, they wanted explanations, and dead guys couldn’t sign confessions.
But who had shot Justin?
“You’re not going to die.” Morgan stacked a second towel on top of the first. She sounded more confident than Lance suspected she felt. The wound was still bleeding heavily. “At least not today.”
“I’m cold.” Justin’s words trembled.
Lance grabbed a blanket from the couch and spread it over him.
Blood continued to pour from the wound, soaking through the dish towels. Morgan applied more pressure to the towels by overlapping her hands and leaning on them. Her quick glance at Lance betrayed her concern.
Justin’s eyes fluttered and closed. His lips moved. Morgan bent close to his mouth. When she straightened, worry darkened her eyes.
“What did he say?” Lance asked.
“I killed Noah.”
“It’s not a signed confession, but I’ll take it.”
Morgan shook her head. “He also said Haley was the next target.”
“Does that mean Justin intended to kill Haley next? Or is there someone else who was targeting her?”
“I don’t know, but I’m texting Sharp just in case. He can check on Haley. We’re going to be tied up here for a while.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Hal-eeeey,” the whisper calls.
Leave me alone, she cries.
She draws her knees to her chest and pulls the blanket up over her shoulders, hiding from the voice. Why won’t it leave her alone?
“Why did you kill me, Haley?”
She whimpers.
There is no escaping it. The voice echoes inside her own mind.
She shakes her head. No. I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.
“The knife was in your hand,” the voice whispers. “You killed me. The blood. Remember the blood.”
She sees it now, spreading across the floor, coming toward her, a wave of red.
A sea of guilt. Pointing at her. Reaching for her.
“You’d better run, Haley. Run away. I’m coming back for you.”
But this time, she doesn’t wait for it to catch her. She can’t. She can’t stand it anymore. She can’t let it touch her. If it gets on her skin one more time, she’ll never be able to wash it away. It will stain her forever.
Sliding away from her hiding place, she slips from the room. She’ll find another hiding spot, one where the voice can’t find her.
Her bare feet are silent on the carpet as she runs.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The taillights of the ambulance disappeared into the darkness. Morgan turned to the woods in front of Justin’s house, where a handful of deputies searched for evidence with high-powered flashlights.
“I’m worried about Haley.” Morgan leaned back against the Town Car.
“Me too.” Lance paced in front of her. “Justin is out of commission. He can’t hurt her.”
“But we don’t know that he was the one who was targeting her, and he can’t tell us. He might never regain consciousness. And whoever shot Justin is still out there.”
Lance checked his watch. “Sharp should be with her by now. She also has a private bodyguard.”
The sheriff walked out the front door. Even in the darkness, his exhaustion was evident in the hollows of his cheeks and under his eyes.
Next to Morgan, Lance folded his arms in a rigid line over his chest.
The sheriff conferred with the lead deputy before approaching Lance and Morgan. “Did he really confess to killing Noah?”
Morgan nodded. She’d already given a statement to the deputy, but she recited Justin’s exact words again for the sheriff. “We don’t know what he meant by ‘Haley was the next target.’”
“Considering he confessed to murdering his friend, I’d think it means that he was going to kill Haley next.” Sheriff Colgate pressed a fist to his sternum. He didn’t seem resentful that they’d solved the case for him, just relieved. The porch light cast his face in shadows. The skin appeared slack, as if he’d lost weight. “What made you suspect him?”
“We found out that he’d once been arrested for date rape,” Morgan said. “The charges were dropped, but it made us take a harder look at him. Then we found out that he’d also crossed paths with Shannon Yates at the inn where she worked.”
“When I was clearing the house, I saw the bottles of zolpidem in the bedroom,” Lance added.
“That’s the same drug that was used on Shannon.” The sheriff swept his hat from his head and scratched his scalp. The sheriff glanced at Justin’s front door. “It sure looked like he was planning to commit suicide. But Justin has an alibi for Noah’s murder. He was with his friends all night.”
“I see two immediate possibilities. One, Isaac and Chase are lying for him.” Morgan extended one finger then a second. “Two, Isaac said that Chase and Justin slept on his couch. They’d all been drinking. What if Justin slipped out and killed Noah while the other two were sleeping?”
“I suppose that’s one theory.” The sheriff removed his hat and swept his hand through his wispy hair.
“But why would he have killed Shannon and his best friend?” Morgan asked. “The two crimes are very different. There’s no pattern.”
“Maybe Noah knew what Justin had done to Shannon,” Lance offered. “Then Justin killed Noah to shut him up.”
“But who tried to kill Justin tonight?” Morgan rubbed the ache in her temple. Thinking made her head hurt.
“Adam is still on the loose.” Lance scanned the dark woods, as if the shooter might be out there somewhere. “He has a temper and a history of violent behavior. Our computer expert tracked some of the threatening emails Haley has received to Adam Carter’s house.”
“But how would Adam know that Justin killed Noah?” Morgan couldn’t connect the dots.
“We won’t know until we find Adam.” The sheriff sighed. “Do you know why Justin would have killed Shannon Yates?”
“No.” Morgan shook her head. “But he has access to zolpidem, he knew Shannon from his business with the inn, and the surveillance videos at the club show that he was there the night she went missing.”
“Shannon’s rapist used a condom.” The sheriff scrubbed both hands down his face. “But several other DNA samples were found on her body. We’ll see if Justin’s DNA matches any of them.” He gestured behind him. “We still have a whole scene to process. And if Justin survives, hopefully he’ll be willing to talk.” The sheriff set his hat back on his head. “Standing around here yakking won’t help. I’ll get back to the scene.”