I punch his shoulder right before flinching and clutching my ribs.
The EMT rolls her eyes and lifts my shirt to find the red patches on my torso and the evidence of a purple bruise forming between my ribs where Travis had kicked me.
“So that was Travis, huh?” he says, distracting me from the prods the EMT is making over my stomach.
“You know?”
“Yeah, I got a call from the lab tech who was processing the evidence. Travis’s DNA was found under the original victim’s fingernails, and his saliva was found on her neck. I’m guessing he’d been hooking up with her and she’d refused to go home with him.”
I nod, thinking. “I had a feeling Travis might be related to the colonel,” I say nervously. “Travis confirmed it before he dragged me down to the basement.”
Jonesy doesn’t look surprised. He gives me a summary of what the lab technician told him,including the fact that Travis’s real name is Travis Marrs-Rogers. He dropped the second surname when he joined the military. He had a criminal record and was perhaps trying to hide it. Or maybe the colonel didn’t want to be associated with him in case it didn’t work out, who knows?
“You think the colonel is Travis’s father?”
“I can confirm that. Katie, Dr. Jones,” Anthony interrupts, his thumbs hooking into his ballistic vest, looking serious, but much calmer than a few minutes ago. He goes on to explain that Kenny, the lab technician, had been drip-feeding the team information on the way to the crime scene, and that’s when Anthony decided to check Travis’s story. It turns out his cell phone pinged off a nearby cell phone tower long after he said he’d left the bar.
I sit up straight now; I’m not feeling so dizzy, and the EMT guides me to the ambulance, where Jonesy takes a seat next to me as Anthony remains by the door. Alfie is giving a statement as well as Caleb, who I can see is repeatedly glancing over at Travis Marrs, his nostrils flaring and fists clenched.
Anthony draws me back to the night of the first murder,well,the first discovered murder. “Connor was also there, but as Kenny confirmed—”
“He was roofied,” Jonesy interrupts.
“Roofied?” I squeak. “So he definitely didn’t do it?”
“We’re beginning to think not,” Anthony continues. “I have an officer with Connor Maddox now. We’ve told him that the colonel had been arrested, and he gave up everything. The colonel and Marrs have been visiting him in prison, threatening to hurt his girlfriend if he didn’t keep his mouth shut.”
“But why would they use him?”
“Apparently, Marrs had been overlooked for the promotion that was about to be announced. He’s twelve years older than Connor and was sick of being overlooked by his superiors.”
“But the victims are buried in Connor’s house...the clothes, the CCTV,” I say.
“We’re ready to take you to the hospital now,” the EMT interrupts.
I grip the EMT’s arm, but she barely flinches. Jonesy immediately tries to soothe me, but I’m sitting up on the gurney, trying to get out of the ambulance. “Wait...if you leave me on a goddamn cliffhanger, Anthony, I swear to God—”
He sighs heavily, his gaze flicking upward. “Can we have five more minutes? Clearly, she’s not that unwell.”
The EMT scoffs. “Right, I didn’t realize you were a medical doctor, Officer.”
“It’s Detective, actually.”
“It’s Detective, actually,” she mocks. “I watched a true crime documentary last night. How about I walk in on your job and tell you what’s evidence and what’s not?”
Jonesy’s grin widens as he looks at the EMT in awe until I slap his arm and he attempts to control his snigger.
“We’re wasting time. If you’re that into true crime, surely you want to know what happens?” I implore. She rolls her eyes and starts fiddling with some of the tubes hanging from an IV bag.
Anthony sucks in his cheeks before continuing. “Connor Maddox doesn’t live here. He lives with Hannah, his girlfriend, as you know.”
“But . . . he’s registered here.”
He nods. “For tax purposes, he rented out the house to Travis when Travis got kicked out of the army base housing. He needed somewhere to stay, and Connor got to collect rent checks tax-free. He told my officer he didn’t want to get in trouble for not declaring the income to the IRS.”
“And so he said nothing, and got put away for murder instead?” Jonesy scoffs.
“By that point, Travis had already visited Connor in prison and threatened to murder Hannah if he said anything about him living there.”
