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Catherine squeaked, then cleared her throat. She said a moment later, “You think Marcy Anderson is responsible for the bombings.”
“I do. I don’t know if Damon helped her, but I suspect not. If he did, I think she would have killed him to avoid him being able to testify against her.”
“And those five murders Neil was investigating were all really accidents?”
“No. I think Damon killed those people. Marcy left them for us to find, to leave bread crumbs to Damon. If Damon had killed those people, he would have taken the evidence.”
“He did. You found it.”
“Marcy didn’t take all of it from Neil’s house because she wanted us to connect the dots to Damon. But she needed some of the files to plant in Damon’s house. She didn’t want to get involved today, but then this morning she had to, to give us something that might get us a warrant. A statement by a cop holds more weight. She already planned to grab Jamie and Hazel, but needed us occupied with Damon. She had hoped we would come to the same conclusions that Neil did. That’s why she put the rest of Neil’s evidence in Damon’s closet. If it went boom, it was evidence that he rigged his house; arrest him. If it didn’t go boom, we have evidence that is less conclusive but still compelling—C-4? Where did he get it? Why did he have Neil’s notes?” She passed another car and was relieved it was still light out. She didn’t like passing cars in the dark when it was harder to judge distance and curves.
“When Neil told Marcy who he suspected,” Kara continued, “—and yes, I think she was very involved in his investigation, though I don’t have any hard evidence of that—she came up with this idea. It was just something she said when I asked her if she knew about the investigation—she went out of her way to say no but that she had overheard a conversation between Neil and John, the sheriff. It just felt...out of place. Awkward. Staged. Almost like a cover in case she revealed more information than she intended to, she could point to John as the source. Anyway, if she bombs a boat with both Cal and Neil on it, she’ll kill the man who refused to love her and frame Damon at the same time.”
Catherine said, “While it’s true that obsessive personalities—dangerous stalkers—will kill the object of their obsession, it’s usually after a specific betrayal or rejection. Holding on to that without acting on it, even in small ways, is unusual.”
“She came here last year with the purpose of being on the island with Cal. I don’t know why she didn’t try to kill him earlier, maybe because he and Jamie weren’t married, she thought she had a chance to split them up.”
“Why now?” Catherine asked. “What set her off? She had been planning this for some time—the C-4 was stolen the Monday before, but it would have taken days—weeks maybe—to work out a viable plan to steal it from a construction company that was very loosely connected to Avila through a former student. That takes high-level planning.”
“She worked logistics for the Coast Guard—doesn’t that practically scream high-level planning?”
“It would,” Catherine concurred.
“Like you said, Doc, something changed. What did you mean when you earlier said stressor?”
“I’m not saying your theory is wrong,” said Catherine. “The bombing seems to be out of the blue, though we don’t know what specifically may have happened between Cal and Marcy in the weeks leading up to this. A stressor is usually a specific event or conflict that propels a sociopath into action.”
Now that Kara believed Marcy was responsible for everything, it was all becoming clear to her. “She had to wait until Damon was back on the island,” she said, knowing she was right. She glanced at her phone. She needed to make up another minute, so hit ninety on the straightaway, the old truck engine roaring under the strain.
“According to Mott’s sister,” Kara continued, “Neil told her last year that he knew who the killer was but couldn’t prove it. What if he shared that information with Marcy and asked her to help him? She’s new, she didn’t know Damon and the others, there would be no loyalty or allegiance. And she was a cop, former Coast Guard—his daughter is in the Navy. I think he automatically trusted her.”
“That makes some sense.”
“But earlier you said that there was astressorthat set Marcy off,” said Kara. “She’s now exposed herself, taken a kid and mom hostage, threatened Cal. That’s what I’m missing. Why expose herself when she was on the verge of getting away with the bombings? Because Cal didn’t die? I mean, I saw her this morning, and she wasn’t all red-eyed wild crazy woman.”
“She gave us information about Avila.”
“We were onto him, but she gave us the final piece. She wanted us to be distracted today. But why today?”
“Maybe, but that might be a stretch. I’m not sold on your theory, but I think it’s worth exploring.”
“High praise.”
“A stressor is an event or experience that causes stress in an individual, but when the individual has a mental health issue, that stressor can lead to what some people might call a psychotic break. The situation can be perceived as a threat or even a challenge, but for the psychopath, this stress often pushes him to act on his dark impulses. Healthy people who have a stressor in their life—such as someone who loses a loved one suddenly or loses their job—can grieve and find healthy coping mechanisms. Some people fall into a depression. Many people turn their stress inward—they drink to excess, they take drugs, they sleep or eat too much or too little. But generally—some with help and some without help—they can move over the hurdle. A psychopath has always harbored darker impulses, but a stressor causes them to act on those.”
“They snap,” said Kara.
“That isn’t the textbook definition, but you understand the concept.”
“Last night, Cal and Jamie moved up their wedding to this weekend.”
“That could have been Marcy’s stressor.”
“And Jamie is pregnant. She told Cal last night, and after him, I guess everyone else. Maybe that final commitment—they were getting married and Cal was never going to go back to Marcy—set her off. But why hurt the kid? Marcy told me that she wanted kids. She was talking about her biological clock ticking and maybe coming to a small island wasn’t the best thing for her.”
“Interesting.”
“And?”
