‘I’m doing no such thing,’ Richards replied. A steely resolve had wormed its way into her tone. ‘You don’t scare me. You don’t –’

‘Let me tell you what’s going to happen, Ms Richards. I’m going to pick up these handcuffs, and then we’re going to take a ride down to the station. You can call your lawyer, if you have one, and while you’re on the phone with him or her I’m going to be on the phone with the reporter from the Red Hill Evening Item. I’m going to tell him how Laurie Richards has known all along why the Red Hill Ripper has been torturing and murdering these families –’

‘I don’t know who he is!’

‘– and that you didn’t come forward with this information.’ Darby picked up the handcuffs. ‘All these families were murdered because you, Laurie Richards –’

‘I’M SICK AND TIRED OF WAITING FOR THEIR SCRAPS AND CRUMBS!’

Darby stood stock still. Her ears rang in the silence and her feet felt as if they had been welded to the floor.

Laurie Richards’s face was flushed and heated; tears streamed down her ruddy cheeks. She heaved in great gulps of air and her limbs and voice trembled when she spoke.

‘They could’ve saved us. David and his family, the Connelly family and the others – they could have saved the entire town but they kept saying no because they were selfish and greedy. They wouldn’t sell their properties to the state. They were offered fair market value for their homes and their land, but no, the money was never good enough, because people like that, no matter how much you give them they’re never satisfied, their bellies and bank accounts are never full. They always want more and more while the rest of us are left to fight over the crumbs from their table. It’s their own goddamn fault, what happened to ’em.’

Darby felt like her heart had stopped beating.

‘I’m looking out for my family just like they were looking out for theirs and you’re here harassing me? I had to send my son to live with my bitch of a sister because I can’t afford to feed my child or pay rent – I’m barely scraping by and you waltz into town and have the nerve to lecture me about what’s fair and right?’ Some steel had entered the woman’s voice. ‘I’ve played by the rules my entire life and for what? What does being nice and thoughtful and fair get you in the end? I’ll tell you what. A big, fat whopping nothing.’

Then the woman’s expression changed. The neurotic mess of anxiety and fear that lived inside her head like a nest of snakes had shed its skin, giving birth to something else, something … darker. Laurie held her head high and proud and said, ‘The Red Hill Ripper’s a goddamn saint as far as I’m concerned.’

What Darby saw in the woman’s eyes scared the shit out of her. Put a gun in Laurie Richards’s hand and she’d squeeze the trigger without a moment’s hesitation. She’d bitch nonstop about having to clean up the mess but she wouldn’t lose any sleep over a murder. She wouldn’t kill out of malice or anger or fear or because of twisted psychological wiring. She was no different than a mother lion protecting its cub.

Right then Darby understood what this was about: survival.

‘You think I’m the only one who turned their back and decided to look the other way?’ Richards snorted. ‘Please. It’s their own fault what happened to them. They decided to be greedy, not me. You think I’m going to put my life in danger because a bunch of greedy pricks are holding out for more money?’

‘Tell me why he killed these families,’ Darby said.

65

Laurie Richards crossed her arms over her chest and stared defiantly at Darby and Coop.

Darby continued to press her with questions, but Richards refused to answer – refused to speak. When Coop threatened to arrest her, Richards calmly turned around, put her hands behind her back and waited to be handcuffed.

Darby knew as well as Coop that the obstruction of justice charge wouldn’t stick; she had thrown it out as a scare tactic to get the woman to talk. But now that Richards was deliberately stonewalling them, refusing to share the reason why the families had been killed and, technically, impeding their investigation, Coop could arrest her, and he did. Darby knew why: the reality of being arrested and placed in a holding cell might jolt the woman out of her self-imposed silence and convince her to co-operate.

They brought her to the station and handed her over to the officer in charge of booking.

Darby went to the break-room for coffee. Coop joined her ten minutes later. He held a small stack of sheets in his hand.

‘What’cha got there?’ she asked.

‘A list of everyone in Red Hill who’s logged on to the newspaper’s website and watched the video. Savran’s name and address aren’t on it.’ He handed the sheets to her and picked up the coffee pot. ‘The computer guys in Denver are handling the traces.’

‘You told me.’

‘I can’t think straight.’ Coop picked up the coffee pot.

Darby looked through the pages as she spoke. ‘It’s got to be tied into the town’s incorporation somehow – the reason why the families were killed.’

‘Agreed. All this time we’ve been thinking that the incorporation was just about re-districting town assets. It’s also about money, if we believe Richards. My guess? Developers were probably targeting key sites to build on in this town, and these families were holding out because they were offered less than fair market value for their homes. What did she call them again?’

‘A bunch of greedy pricks whose bellies and bank accounts were never full.’

‘Said – and I quote – “It’s their own goddamn fault, what happened to ’em.” ’

‘Called him a goddamn saint.’

‘Robin Hood as a serial killer. That’s a new one.’ Coop drank his coffee. ‘Looks like your theory about the town protecting this guy was correct.’

‘You don’t seem surprised.’

Coop shrugged. ‘Like I told you last night, I grew up with that whole town-protects-its-own mentality. Savran gets his rocks off while doing the town a favour.’ He rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ll give Richards an hour or so and then I’ll put her in the box. You want to take a run at her first?’

‘I want to talk to Sally Kelly.’

‘To verify Richards’s story about Downes giving her the pen and ink?’

‘That, and to find out how the families are connected. Richards said something about how Downes and his family and the Connelly family could’ve saved the town. Downes was a real estate lawyer. If he was killed because of the incorporation – if he was possibly representing the other families who were killed – Kelly will know.’

‘And she may clam up like our friend in the holding cell.’

Darby kept reading through the names of the people who’d logged on to the newspaper’s website to watch the video.

‘Her name’s here,’ she said.

‘Whose name?’

‘Sally Kelly. The other day she gave me this long spiel about how she didn’t follow the Ripper case.’

‘So?’

‘May I keep these?’

Coop nodded. ‘I need to make some calls. The SAC for the Denver field office found out what happened last night and left me several messages. I’ve got to call him back – and he’s sending some people up here.’

‘Lancaster’s going to love that.’

‘I’ve got a couple of officers here running down the information on the Downes house. I’ve got to sort through that, see if we can find anything that can put Savran inside the house. You want to talk to the Kelly woman, fine, but I don’t want you going alone with Savran still on the loose.’

‘I’ll call Williams and have him meet me there.’

‘Look at you, playing nice for a change. After you call him, you will have someone here drive you to Miss Kelly’s house. Now tell me how much juice you’ve got left on your phone.’

Darby took it out. Coop propped his arm on the windowsill and glanced out at the back parking lot. The snow was still coming down, but it was as fine as dust. The storm was dying.