Insatiable (24 page)

Sheriff Rafferty had been trying to get in touch with Rosie's ex-boyfriend, Landon Conde. He'd left several messages at his home and job, but none of his calls were returned. He'd been told by the State Police to warn Landon that there was a killer on the loose and that he or she was killing men who at one time or another had abused their wives and/or girlfriends. "Maybe he's already dead," Sheriff Rafferty told one of his officers. "Have somebody sit on his house for a few days and see what they come up with. Hopefully you'll catch him, and when you do, make sure to tell him to be on the lookout for that crazy bitch Aurora Collins." 

"I thought she was cleared of any wrong doing boss?" 

Rafferty spat on the ground, "she may have an alibi, but for me it's not good enough. Hell, during the first killing she was alone late at night. Swears she came home from her date, took a bath and then went to bed. And during the second murder she claims that she and her boyfriend were at a friend's house for dinner. Now this so called friend says that yes they were there but not all night. As a matter of fact, they weren’t there long at all. But goddamned if the DA wants her charged, he claims that we don’t have enough evidence. But I told him, I said, how do we know that her boyfriend ain't some pussy whipped liar who'd say or do anything to get his girlfriend off the hook? No, if you ask me, Aurora Collins is still a suspect. And it's only a matter of time before she fucks up." 

"Maybe we should be looking at other people boss. What about the ex-wives and the ex-girlfriends of these men? Maybe they'd had enough and decided to take matters into their own hands. Stranger things have happened." 

Rafferty had been so hell bent on Aurora being the killer, he hadn't thought of maybe Rosie Harrison or Mari Carr as being suspects. Shit, for all he knew, Aurora could have put them up to it, made them do her dirty work. 
All them damn women stick together,
 he thought to himself. "Get some rest tonight deputy because first thing tomorrow we head on out there and start asking some more definitive questions," the sheriff grumbled. 

Chapter Fifteen 

"Hey, can you please pull over so that I can grab the mail?" 

It was the following morning and although she still felt a bit groggy; Aurora had insisted that Liam bring her home. Although it was barely up, the sun was interested in making an appearance and she wanted to get home and get back into her familiar routine. They would be having a session with Jean later on in the evening and she had hoped to get the ladies outside to help her with some yard work. She thought about asking Liam to stay but figured that he had a lot of work that needed to get done. They had pulled into the driveway and were nearing the house when Aurora began shuffling through the mail. As she picked up the manila envelope she noticed that it held no postage, nor was there a return address. "This one's strange," she said. 

"What?" 

Aurora held out the envelope and showed Liam. "Looks like someone just put it in the mailbox. Maybe something from the sheriff?" Liam questioned her. 

"Oh great, can't wait to see what it is." 

She shrugged her shoulders, ran a finger under the flap and emptied its contents. A large eight by ten photograph of her husband Randy hanging from the basement ceiling of their home fell down in her lap. The words, 
Just
 
in case you forgot
. 
Not much time left before you'll be joining him
, were scrawled on the bottom. Icy threads of fear grasped at her throat while she read and re-read the words. Liam watched as the color drained from her face. He snatched the photograph out of her hand and absentmindedly looked around. Someone had it out for Aurora; he clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth at the very idea of her being in danger. Just the thought of someone doing to Aurora what her husband had done to himself infuriated him beyond belief. He was not about to let that happen. 

"We've got to preserve this Aurora, get it to the police station. There might be DNA, or fingerprints on this. She hadn't said a word since she looked at the photograph. "I've never seen that before," she mumbled. 

"I know, that's why we…" 

She placed her hand on his arm. "No Liam, I mean I've never seen that. I never actually saw Randy like that. The police wouldn’t let me go downstairs to the basement to see him. I didn’t even go to the morgue to identify him, his family did. The next time that I saw my husband was during his wake." 

Liam looked down at the graphic picture and then over at Aurora. She was staring blankly straight ahead and he knew that she was in shock. "Come on baby, let me get you inside." 

She made no attempt to move until Liam opened up her door and helped her out. She felt as if she'd asked someone what happened to her husband and they'd responded by showing her his last moments with a very vivid photograph. "While I was driving to the police station, he was doing that to himself," she muttered the words. In a matter of minutes she regressed back to the day they'd fought. She'd suggested therapy and Randy flipped out. It wasn’t until he began hitting her with intense force that she realized she was in serious trouble. Looking back now she wondered if his violent outburst was because she interrupted his suicidal thoughts. Maybe mentioning therapy had nothing to do with it, maybe he lashed out at her simply because he felt that she was prohibiting him from what he was planning to do.

They'd reached the house now, and Liam was saying something to her, but she didn’t know what he was saying because his words seemed slurred. All of a sudden he placed his hands on her shoulders and was gently shaking her. She looked at him as if he were a stranger. Her eyes were blank and there was a terrible knot in her stomach. She was sure that if she saw the photo again, she'd get sick. Mari and Rosie came down the stairs and stopped short when they saw the look on her face. Neither one could get through to her. Liam led her to the kitchen table and sat her down. When her breathing had calmed down he kissed her on the lips and excused himself for a moment. He had to make a call. Rosie prepared a cup of tea while Mari sat vigilantly by her side. Aurora turned and watched Liam as he talked on the phone outside. When he returned to the kitchen he noticed that her complexion was no longer pasty. She was sipping tea as Mari and Rosie paced the kitchen floor.  
"Who would do such a thing?" 

"I don’t know," Liam said. "But the sheriff is on his way." 

"Ha! A lot of good that'll do," Mari snarled. "I wouldn’t be surprised if he's the sick bastard who put that in the mailbox." 

Mari had said what they were all subconsciously thinking. 
But could it be possible?
 Aurora thought to herself. 
Could Sheriff Rafferty have it out for me that bad?
 

"The man does hate me," she mumbled. "A photograph like that can only come from one place, and it's not your local library. That is an official crime scene photo. Which means that any one in law enforcement can get a photo like that right?" 

She was looking to Liam for the answer. 

He nodded his head. "If we even suspect that Rafferty has anything to do with this then he needs to be pulled off of this investigation, and the sooner we can do that the better." 

"Speak of the devil," Rosie moaned. Sheriff Rafferty and two of his deputies were making their way to the front door. 

Sheriff Rafferty had wasted no time when Liam showed him and the deputies into the kitchen.

"Where's this photograph?" He looked at Aurora with an expression that she was more than able to read. He was annoyed that Liam had placed a call to him. As far as he was concerned, she might as well have put the goddamn picture in the mailbox herself. 

"When did you get this?" He asked reading it and then turning it over. 

"It was in a stack of mail that I was going to bring in." 

"And when was that?" 

"Just this morning. We were coming home…" 

"We? Who is we?" 

"I was bringing her home and before I made the turn into the driveway, Aurora asked me to stop at the mailbox so I did and she retrieved her mail. Do you understand now?" Liam was now completely agitated with the sheriff and his condescending attitude. 

"You called me remember?" Sheriff Rafferty stood with his arms folded. And for a while, no one said anything. 

"Look, are you going to do something about this or not?" Aurora finally broke the silence. 

"Yeah, sure. I'll get it to our lab tech. In the meantime I need to ask you a few questions. 

"What kind of questions?" She asked an eyebrow raised at him. 

"Have you had any problems lately? Anything out of the ordinary happen to you?" 

Everyone in the room except for the sheriff and deputies scoffed. "Why yes, sheriff I have. Let's see, first Ken Holmes was murdered and you try to pin it on me. I got followed by some strange guy when I was at the mall, and then, after Mari's husband gets murdered you try and blame me. It seems sheriff that all of my problems and troubles seem to revolve around you, why do you think that is? And why is it that you're so hell bent on trying to tie me to those murders? Have I done something wrong sheriff? Have I broken any laws? Why is it that men like you seem so intimidated by what I do? Do you understand that I offer these women a different option other than getting beat up by a bunch of sorry-ass excuses for men? What part of that don’t you understand? Maybe you're one of those sorry-ass men sheriff… well, are you?" 

She'd angered him now but she didn’t care. He'd already tried humiliating her once and she'd be damned if he was going to do it again. She was tired of the sheriff thinking that he had the upper hand. If he wasn’t going to do anything about the photograph and threat she'd just received, then she'd have no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She'd do her own investigation and come to her own conclusions. There was no way that she was going to relive being verbally abused and talked down to. She'd come too far for that and she wasn’t about to let Mari and Rosie live in fear. Especially now that they were away from their abusive partners, and one of them was dead.

Sheriff Rafferty turned to leave. "Miss Collins, you've got some mouth on you. No wonder you're looking at all this trouble. And if you're implying that I'm on some sort of witch hunt you're sadly mistaken. All I want is the truth and maybe one day you'll give it to me." 

"It looks to me as if you're starting trouble where trouble doesn’t exist sheriff." Liam stepped up to the sheriff and glared at him. 

Before another word could be spoken, Aurora's attorney knocked on the door. 

"I'm glad I caught you Sheriff Rafferty. I'll be taking the photograph in question," he said and held out his hand. 

Sheriff Rafferty made no moves to give up the envelope. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I need this; it's going to our tech guys." 

Attorney Bennett rolled his eyes. "I'm sure sheriff, but I know how busy you all are and I wouldn’t want this one piece of evidence lost, so again, I'm asking you to hand it over." 

Sheriff Rafferty held out the envelope and grudgingly handed it to him. 

"Thanks sheriff, I'll be sure to hold onto it. Have a nice day." 

After they'd all gone, Attorney Bennett told Aurora that she had nothing to worry about. "The guys got it out for you but there's no evidence what so ever to hold against you Miss Collins. And I'll take this photograph and have some independent tests run on it. Hopefully we can find a fingerprint or something that'll lead us to the sick son of a bitch who did this. I'll also be making some calls to the Springfield Police department. That's where you and your husband lived right? Maybe they'll have some idea of how this got out. In the meantime, anything else turns up, please let me know. Oh and one more thing," he said before he turned to leave.

"I'm going to see how long it will take to get Rafferty removed from this investigation. The guy's got issues and I don’t want him tainting anything more than he already has. So in the meantime, should anything else happen or you receive anything else in the mail, I want you to bypass the local police all together. Instead I want you to call this investigator, he's good and he works with the state police." He handed her a business card. 

"I'll give him a heads up, and like I said, if anything happens you just give him a call. I'll be in touch Miss Collins. Try and enjoy the rest of your day." 

Once her attorney left, Aurora went into the living room and plopped down on the sofa. The photograph was now in the hands of her attorney, but the image was seared into her brain. She couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow, Sheriff Rafferty was involved. 

Liam walked into the room after her. "I'm glad that Rafferty is getting removed from the case." 

Mari and Rosie nodded their heads in agreement. "Something's not right with that guy, that's for sure. But let's not talk about him, how are you holding up?" She asked Aurora. 

Her head was pounding and she was having a fight with the bile that was threatening to come up from her throat. 

"I'll be alright," she faked a smile. "I think I need another cup of tea," she said and rose from the sofa. 

"You sit and rest Aurora, I'll get it," Rosie said and looked at her worriedly. She didn’t look so good and her concern was growing. 

"Thanks Rosie." 

Liam knelt down in front of her and lifted her chin with his hand. 

"Aurora, I'm going to see about getting you some security detail to watch your place, and in the meantime I need for you to think about getting an alarm installed. And some deadbolts for all the doors." 

"I never saw a need for all of that, Liam. I don’t want the women who come here to feel as if they're locked in again. Don’t you get it? That's how they felt when they were with their abusers, locked in. Locked inside the house, locked out of having a life of their own, locked from their own emotions and feelings. I want them to feel free when they come here. And now you're telling me to take that freedom away?" 

"You have a very strong need for this now Aurora. You have to keep yourself and your friends safe. This place is no longer hidden and private, someone knows where you live and they won't stop until they get to you. You have to understand that."