AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Langford turned to his lawyer. “I don’t know about this. It doesn’t feel right.”
Harris leaned forward. “Dr. Langford, it is far from a little-known fact that I’m not the biggest fan of Mr. White, but I can assure you that he’s an extremely capable lawyer. He always has his best interests in mind and therefore his clients’ best interests in mind. If he has advised you to provide us with an explanation as to why you murdered four women and attempted to kill two more, take the advice. If you don’t, I can guarantee we’ll be able to pull enough evidence from your van in order to nail you to the wall. Several walls, in fact.”
Langford glared at Harris for a second or two while mulling over his options. His steepled hands separated and fingertips fell to the table. He provided her a tight smile. “Very well. Where should I start?”
“Tell them about Lucy,” Mr. White said. “Start at the beginning.”
“I had been dating Lucy Sitwell for about two years. She found out I had been cheating on her with one of the nurses at wo
rk, and when she came to confront me, we had a big fight. She tried to leave, I grabbed her arm, she yanked it away, and proceeded to fall down the stairs at my house. I heard her neck crack when she hit the bottom. Her head started bleeding. Just from the sound, I already knew she couldn’t be saved.”
Cassie put a hand over her mouth. “My God,” she whispered. “He said it like he’s reading from a textbook. He doesn’t even care.”
Harris nodded at Beauregard, who started taking notes, and turned back to Langford. “How long ago was this?”
“About six weeks.”
“Did you report her death to the police?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It would’ve ruined my reputation.” Langford’s voice was easy, relaxed. “If I reported her death to the police, I would’ve looked like a suspect. It would’ve been easy enough to discover I had been cheating, easy enough to see she had shown up to confront me. Even if I was not arrested or convicted, my colleagues would’ve always wondered if I’d done it. That would’ve impacted my work at the hospital.”
“What did you do instead?”
For the first time, Langford looked uncomfortable. “I chose to cover it up.”
“How?”
“I buried her body in the woods on the edge of my property in the middle of the night. I cleaned up my house, made sure it was spotless. I took all of her clothes and everything she’d left behind and put them in her car, and I drove her car back to her apartment.”
“That same night?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do next?” Harris asked. She glanced over at Beauregard’s notes and apparently satisfied, returned her unflinching gaze to Langford.
“I made sure no one was around, and then I packed a bag and made it look like she’d decided to leave town. Her sister lives in Oregon. They were always emailing back and forth. I sent her a message as Lucy saying she needed to get away and that she was going to drive up to visit her. Lucy was always talking about wanting to take a cross country trip.”
“I take it you had no interest in that?”
“It seems like a waste of time,” Langford said coolly. “If I wanted to visit the west coast, it would be California and I’d fly there. I’d also make sure to go alone.”
“Did you care about Lucy?” Harris asked. “At all?”
Langford smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course, I cared about her. We were a good fit. She was good looking. Easy to please.”
“You mean easy to manipulate?”
“Detective Harris,” Mr. White leaned forward, “please don’t put words into my client’s mouth. He’s cooperating with your investigation.”
“We’ll see about that,” Harris said. “What did you do after you sent the email?”
“I drove her car an hour west. Left it in a gas station parking lot. Then I called one of my buddies and asked him to pick me up.”
“Your friend didn’t think that was strange?”
