Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl; April Henry

Author:Lis Wiehl; April Henry
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2011-02-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse

You can’t hide your head in the sand anymore,” Nic said to Zoe Barrett. They had called Colton Foley’s fiancée in for a meeting in Allison’s office, without telling her what it was for.

“Zoe, what we have to tell you is difficult,” Allison added, naturally falling into the good cop role. “But we got a search warrant for your fiancé’s student locker. And this is what we found.”

Nic slid the photographs out from a manila envelope and began to put them down one at a time, as if she were dealing a deck of cards.

The first photo was of the hollowed-out textbook. Zoe glanced at it and then back up at Nic, her face blank. The next was a fan of money.

These weren’t crisp notes from a bank, but wrinkled bills rifled from victims’ purses. Zoe’s expression didn’t change. Nic slapped down the next photo, which showed a bundle of plastic restraints. The same kind that had been found in their condo. The kind that had supposedly been Zoe’s idea. Her face still showed nothing. A credit card. The girl’s expression was still blank, but then Nic tapped on the photo. Slowly, Zoe leaned closer, and Nic could hear her suck in her breath when she read the name on the card. It was the name of one of the victims. The next photo showed six pairs of panties, one torn at the side. Zoe’s eyes widened. And then Nic slapped down the trump card. A gun. Zoe put her fingers to her lips.

“Ballistics says this is the gun that killed those three women.”

Zoe pushed back from the table. Her face was clammy and pale. “Someone could have put that stuff in his locker. It must be a mistake.”

“I know this is hard,” Allison said, “but think it through. The only one who could have all these things is the man who committed these crimes. And the evidence shows that it’s Colton.”

Zoe took a shaky breath and squeezed her hands together in her lap. “It can’t be true. This is not the man I know. It’s just—not. It can’t be.”

Nic said nothing. Allison patted the back of Zoe’s hand. After a moment, the young woman took a shaky breath.

“Did you know he had a gun?” Nic said.

“No.” Her head hung down so that now she spoke to her hands, twisting on her lap.

“Those plastic restraints. Do you know who brought those into your apartment?”

Nothing but silence.

“Who brought those into your apartment?” Nic repeated, her voice so soft it was nearly a whisper.

The girl was broken now. No point in playing bad cop.

“Colton did. He said it would be fun.” She raised her wet, splotchy face. “And it was. And now I have to think of what that meant. What he did to those women. Did he want to do it to me?”

Nic and Allison were silent.

“All I know is that I loved what I saw of Colton. This man—the man who had these things—is not the same man.

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