“And you know this because…where were you at this time?” Grande asks.
“I was watching Ryan. I followed him as he drove up there to face Stephen.”
“You were supposed to have killed him while Laurie and Stephen were at the cabin, am I right? You and your brother planned it that way, but then he suddenly drove off toward the mountains, and you couldn’t get to him till he was up there.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” she says. “Stephen was supposed to take Laurie away, so she wouldn’t suspect anything. It was supposed to look like suicide. I couldn’t have foreseen what would happen. I tried to call Stephen once I realized where Ryan was going, but he didn’t pick up his phone. Ryan watched them from outside at night, and then the next day, he burst inside and shot Stephen. I should just have killed him when he walked back to his car, but I hesitated. I didn’t want it to happen here. I didn’t want Laurie to find out.”
“And then what happened once your brother was killed?” Jonathan asks.
“I watched Ryan as he got rid of the body and threw it in the river. And then he attacked Laurie. I saw it happen while standing outside on the porch, looking in. I was determined to kill Ryan after what he did to Stephen. I was so destroyed with grief; I just wanted him to hurt. I walked in there as he was fighting Laurie. When he saw me, he laughed. Just flat out laughed at me, even though I was holding a gun to his face. He attacked me out of the blue and got the gun twisted out of my hand while we were wrestling on the floor. Laurie was screaming, trying to help me, but he slapped her, so she slid across the floor. As soon as he had the gun, he picked up the phone and made the call to dispatch. As soon as he hung up, I saw him look at Laurie, and I knew it was too late. Before I could run to her, he had shot her. I screamed and ran to her lifeless body, but it was too late. She was gone. And that was when he came for me. I stormed outside through the sliding doors and onto the porch. The rest, you know. He chased me out to the edge and was washed down by a mudslide. And that’s how you found him. I then walked back to the cabin. I took Laurie’s phone and ID from her purse, then buried her in the backyard. I then walked back into the living room, grabbed the gun, and shot myself in the shoulder to make sure you wouldn’t doubt my story of self-defense. Then, I waited. It took hours from when the call was placed until the police arrived, probably because of the muddy and dangerous roads.”
The woman claps her hands together with an air of finality. “That’s it. That’s my story. The real one.”
“And I believe this is the real one. There is only one thing you haven’t revealed to us yet,” Jonathan says.
“What’s that?”
He smiles. “Your real name.”
She scoffs and looks down at her feet. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that one. It’s Dolores. Dolores Claiborne Wilkinson. My mother had a thing for Stephen King’s books. My brother, she named after the author himself. We had a dog named Cujo, and my sister, the one who died in Afghanistan, is named Carrie. As a child, I read Dolores Claiborne over and over again. I always wanted to write a story like it.”
“And in a way, you did,” Jonathan says with a scoff. He looks at Grande, who nods. She grabs a set of handcuffs from her belt, then walks up to the woman. She turns her around, then cuffs her while reading her rights.
Chapter 58
Jonathan drives up in front of the diner and gets out. Just as he steps onto the pavement, a voice comes up behind him, calling out his name. He turns to look at Detective Grande. She walks up to him. It’s spring now in Bryson City and warming up pretty fast. It’s gorgeous now with all the wildflowers and trees blooming and the snow completely gone, along with the mudslides and long days of rain. Jonathan can hear a bird chirping in the distance, and the air is so fresh, he takes a deep breath just to feel it in his lungs. When you grow up in Florida, you never feel air like this. That’s why he moved away when he grew older and went to Virginia, where he later joined the FBI. Well, that’s part of it.
Now, that time is almost over, and a new life is about to begin. He thinks about this while glancing down briefly at the listing in his hand.
“I’m glad I caught you,” Grande says.
“Well, I’m glad you did too,” he says. “Looking delightful, as always. Is that a glow I detect? Are you…are you expecting?”
She blushes. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen it before.”
She chuckles and touches her stomach gently. “We’re not telling people yet.”
“Oh, no. Too early for that,” he says.
“I can’t stop thinking about Dolores, though. Having a baby while in jail can’t be easy.”
“She’ll have to give it up,” he says. “She has confessed to helping her brother murder three people. She’s going away for a long time. Did she ever say who the father is?”
“She did. And it’s not pretty. She was raped on base. She never saw their faces because they were wearing ski masks. Once it happened, she went to her brother, and that’s when they decided to start taking matters into their own hands. They went to Sandra first, to get her to give them all the names of the people who had been involved in Clarice’s murder.”
“Maybe she doesn’t even want to keep the baby then. But it makes more sense when thinking about what she and her brother did afterward.”
“The ME examined Laurie’s body after we dug it out of the dirt behind the cabin. She wasn’t pregnant at the time of death,” Grande says.
“No, Dolores just made that a part of the story because she knew we’d find out somehow, either because we were told by the doctors or could see it in the papers. She left no stone unturned. Clever.”
“Almost got away with it too. I have to say; I could never have figured all this out alone. I sure am glad I had you here to help me. She had me completely fooled at the end. I was so certain of her innocence. But I feel terrible for those children back in Florida. Lost both of their parents, just like that. They’re staying with their grandparents, but who knows what this will do to them once they learn the truth.”
Jonathan exhales. “Makes me kind of happy this is my last case.”
“Really? You’re retiring?”
He shrugs. “I have to—turning fifty-seven in a month. It’s time to go. But to be honest, I’m beginning to look forward to what’s next.”
“That is wonderful. So, what is next? Now that we’re done here, I expect you’re heading home?”
That brings a huge smile to Jonathan’s lips. “As a matter of fact, I’m thinking about sticking around for a little while.”
He lifts the hand holding the papers with active listings of cabins for sale in and around Bryson City, just as Joanne comes out of the diner, putting on her jacket on top of her uniform. She leans over and kisses him on the cheek.
“I thought they’d never let me go. You ready?”
He smiles even wider and kisses her cheek as well. “Never been more ready in my life.”
They walk to his car, and he holds the door for Joanne, then turns around and winks at his new favorite detective.