Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [316]
“What do you suppose Harding had planned for me?”
“Don’t, Gwen,” Maggie snapped at her, and immediately she apologized. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to think about it, okay?”
“I suppose it makes sense that the two of them would have eventually moved on to women you knew more intimately. Friends, relatives…oh, speaking of intimately—” she smiled “—that reminds me. You had a phone call earlier. That hunky ex-quarterback from Nebraska.”
“Nick?”
“What, you know more than one hunky ex-quarterback?” Gwen looked as if she was enjoying Maggie’s annoying blush.
“Did he want me to call him back tonight?”
“Actually, he said he was headed for the airport. I took a message.” Gwen pulled herself up off the floor. “You need to shop for a table, Maggie. I’m getting too old to be eating on the floor.” She found the note she had left on the desk. She read the message, squinting as though someone else had written it. “He said his dad had a heart attack.”
“Oh Jesus.” Now Maggie wished she had talked to him. Nick and his father had a complex relationship, one in which Nick had only recently been able to get away from. “Is he going to be okay? He’s not dead, is he?”
“No, but I think Nick said they were talking about surgery as soon as possible.” Gwen scrunched up her face as she continued to decipher her notes.
“This is something that I didn’t understand. He said his dad had received a letter, and that’s what they think may have caused the heart attack. But unless I’m mistaken, I could swear Nick said the letter was from South America.”
Maggie felt sick to her stomach. Had Father Michael Keller sent Antonio Morrelli some sort of confession? Maggie seemed to be the only one who believed the charismatic young priest was the one who had killed four boys in Platte City, Nebraska. But he had left the country before she had been able to prove it. The last she knew, he was still in South America.
“That’s it,” Gwen said. “Does any of that makes sense to you?”
The phone startled both of them.
“Maybe this is Nick.” Maggie untangled herself out of the cross-legged position on the floor and grabbed the phone. “Maggie O’Dell.”
“Agent O’Dell. It’s Assistant Director Cunningham.”
She checked her watch. It was late, and she had just seen him at the hospital a couple of hours ago.
“Is Tully okay?” It was the first thing that came to mind.
“He’s fine. I’m with Dr. Holmes. He was good enough to do the autopsies tonight.”
“Dr. Holmes has had his share of autopsies in the past two weeks.”
“There’s a problem, Agent O’Dell.” Cunningham didn’t waste any time.
“What kind of problem?” Maggie prepared herself, leaning against the desk and gripping the phone. Gwen watched from her perch on the recliner.
“Walker Harding died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was shot with a .22, execution style. Not only that, but his organs are in an extremely advanced state of decomposition. Dr. Holmes is guessing he’s been dead for several weeks.”
“Several weeks? That’s impossible, sir. We found his fingerprints at three of the crime scenes.”
“I think we might have an explanation for that. Several of his fingers are missing, cut off, including his thumb. I’m guessing Stucky did it. Took the fingers with him. Preserved them and used them at the crime scenes to throw us off.”
“But Gwen has had two sessions with Harding.” She glanced at Gwen and her friend’s face showed concern and alarm. Even Harvey started pacing in the sunroom, tilting his head, listening.
“Dr. Patterson has never seen Albert Stucky,” Cunningham said, keeping his cool professional tone and ignoring the frantic edge to Maggie’s. “If we ask her to describe the man she had the sessions with, I’m guessing she’ll describe Stucky. I’ve only seen one or two photos of Harding, but if