Nightmare in Napa by Paul LaRosa

Author:Paul LaRosa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star Books

Twenty-Five

Was Leslie the Target?

Out of sight from the public, detectives working the case were collecting DNA samples from every male they could locate who was close to Adriane and Leslie. When they got a name, they’d drive out and question the man and ask if he’d voluntarily allow them to take a DNA sample from inside his mouth. Almost all did, but there were a few who refused.

As the investigation progressed, the cops were beginning to form some impressions. They were, of course, still following all leads, but the betting was that the killer likely had targeted Leslie Mazzara. No-nonsense Marsha Dorgan, a police reporter for the Napa Valley Register, had heard the same thing. “The most popular theory is most people think that Leslie was the intended victim and that it was probably a disgruntled boyfriend.”

Detective Dan Lonegan agreed: “The evidence we have at this point in time shows that most likely Leslie was the target.”

There were a couple of reasons for this. First, Leslie—by dint of her engaging personality—attracted men by the bushel. She was new to town and was much more social than her two roommates. She could go nonstop and often did, traveling to San Francisco with her buddies from the winery—the “babe squad”—and dancing the night away. And then there was the winery job itself. At one point, she dealt a lot with the public, and who knew if a guy had fixated on her? It was certainly possible. Because of her magnetism, the police figured that someone had become obsessed with her or she’d inadvertently rejected someone who wanted revenge.

Adriane’s mother thought it was likely the killer was after Leslie, and so did Leslie’s close friend Amy Brown. “I am convinced of that,” she said. “I just think she’s a target because she knows more people. She was a little bit more social, and she went out, met millions of new faces, and she ran into old faces from school. I just think she’s a target because of who she was.”

In contrast to Leslie’s, Adriane’s life seemed sedate. She’d lived in the Napa Valley her whole life, she was well known, as were her boyfriends, and it seemed you could find out all you needed to know from talking to her mother and a few friends. Her life had ended before it got terribly complicated.

Leslie’s life, on the other hand, was a novel, a Southern Gothic, full of intricacies and dark corners, places where a jilted boyfriend or an obsessive admirer might be lurking. Men bought her expensive presents, built shrines to her on the Internet. And someone was sending her cash by mail in unmarked envelopes.

Leslie had told friends about the money and said she didn’t know for sure but had an idea who was sending it. That revelation led police to the darkest secret in Leslie’s past, a secret so deep that not even Leslie knew about it until she was an adult.

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