Sandra hugged Greene. “Thank you for taking us in.”
“Of course. I’ve got fresh bagels inside. Go on in, and I’ll be right behind you.”
Sandra glanced back at Macy. “Find Brooke.”
“I will.”
When the front door closed behind the Bennetts, all traces of softness left Greene’s face. “What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know. Is there something about Brooke Bennett that I need to know?”
“What do you mean?” Greene asked.
“She’s been tense through this entire investigation.”
“She’s a professional,” he countered.
“I didn’t say she wasn’t,” Macy said. “But she was very controlled and stoic when we spoke to the rape victims. It was almost as if she were trying to hold back on her own feelings. Her own experience. And then Tyler Wyatt makes a crack to Matt about his mother having her first sexual experience in the Wyatt barn.”
Greene’s jaw tightened. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She dropped her voice a notch and asked, “Who is Matt’s father?”
He raised his chin. “She never said and I never asked.”
“Brooke was seventeen when Matt was born.”
“She made a mistake as a teenager. She wasn’t the first, and she won’t be the last.”
“My point is that she got pregnant about the time of the rapes. But then you suspected that, didn’t you?”
Greene shook his head. “You’re stirring things up with wild accusations.”
“I have Matt’s DNA. It’ll take a quick test to find out if he’s our offender’s offspring.”
“A boy doesn’t need that kind of burden. You should leave well enough alone.”
“That’s what you told Bennett, wasn’t it? You feared she’d confirm Matt’s paternity.”
“This is insane. Matt’s a good boy. A good kid. A monster like that couldn’t possibly be his father.”
Macy let the comment pass. “If you have any suspects, you need to tell me now. I think this guy took Bennett.”
Greene frowned. “If Brooke knew, she wouldn’t hide it.”
“I think she honestly doesn’t know who did this to her. But she’s trying to figure it out now. I need more information if I’m going to find her.”
“I can’t help you.”
“Why didn’t you run the DNA rape kits fifteen years ago? And don’t tell me you didn’t understand DNA. You have a solid record and were a good cop. I’d bet a paycheck you thought you might be protecting someone close to you.”
He shoved out a breath and his shoulders slumped a fraction. “My wife was sick that summer. It was consuming me, and I let a lot fall through the cracks. My plan was always to go back and catch up. When Tobi vanished, I honestly didn’t connect her case to the others. And then Sandra Bennett told me Brooke was pregnant. She also told me about what happened to her daughter.”
“Did you talk to Bennett?”
“Sandra begged me not to.” He ran a hand over his head. “I caught up to her at school. She didn’t want to talk to me at first, but finally admitted she was attacked at the bonfire. She swore she only had one drink and she didn’t remember what happened.”
“What did she say?” Macy asked.
“When she woke, she was in the woods, no clothes, with scratches on her body.”
“And you didn’t connect what happened to Bennett to the other girls?”
“I thought one of the guys at the bonfire did it.”
“Did you talk to any of them? The Dream Team members were regulars at the bonfires.”
“Those boys brought life and pride to this town. I knew they could be rowdy, but I never figured any one of them would hurt a young girl. And Brooke wanted to be at the bonfire, and she did drink.”
Macy shoved down her anger, doing her best to remain calm. The goal was to get information, not to argue about his methods right now. “Neither of those implies sexual consent.”
“I figured she’d agreed to go into the woods with a boy and it got a little rough.”
“You didn’t talk to any of them, did you?” And when he didn’t respond, she shifted tactics. “Did Cindy Shaw report a problem to you?”
He shook his head. “That girl had all kinds of problems. She was always getting into scraps. I must have picked her up a dozen times for all kinds of infractions.”
“Meaning she did come to you?”
“Yes, but she didn’t make sense. She kept talking about her brother and how he was leaving her behind. She said she could bury him and his friends, if she wanted to.”
“Bury how?” Macy asked.
“She never would tell me.”
“And by the time you did know about Bennett’s situation, Cindy was gone.”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell Bruce Shaw that Cindy came to see you?”
“Yeah, I told Bruce.” As he stared at her, his trademark confidence faltered.
“What do you think happened to Cindy?” Macy demanded.
“Bruce told me he drove her to the bus station. He told me Cindy wanted to leave town.”
“Cindy was last seen with Bruce?”
Greene shook his head. “Bruce didn’t hurt his sister.”
“How do you know that?” Macy asked.
“He’s a stand-up guy.”
“If you know something about Bruce, you have to tell me. Bennett’s life might depend on it.”
“I only talked to Bruce,” he said, more to himself.
Matt called out to Greene, but the old man held his ground. “Be right there, buddy. Just talking to the agent.”
When the front door closed, Macy asked, “Did any of those guys on the football team have a chipped tooth?” Macy asked.
“A what?”
“A chipped tooth.”
“A few did. Football is a rough sport, and boys aren’t always smart about their safety equipment.” Greene was silent for a long moment. “You think a member of that team committed the rapes and killed Cindy.”
“I do. And if you had put aside your love of that team, you might have realized it, too.”
He frowned and folded his arms over his chest. “This is a small town. If I started questioning someone about murder and rape, the rumors would have spread like wildfire. I could have ruined a few very bright careers.”
“You also could have saved the lives of other women.”
He dropped his gaze, shaking his head. “You don’t know that.”
“The hell I don’t.”
He flexed his fingers as he thought about the rough calluses of his hands wrapping around the smooth, taut skin of Brooke Bennett’s neck. Exhilarating did not begin to describe the rush.
Brooke was a challenge he could not resist. She was a fighter now just as she had been back in the day. He’d been on the verge of killing her all those years ago, but the blare of a honking horn at the bonfire had distracted him. Nervous he could be caught, he’d run.
He should run now. Better to leave town and find new hunting grounds. Moving around had kept him safe for over fifteen years. But if he left now, he would have to leave Brooke behind or kill her quickly. And he wasn’t interested in either option.
This was just getting fun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Thursday, November 21, 4:00 p.m.
Macy and Nevada rolled up at the assisted living facility. She was anxious, like she often was when she was close to solving a case. She wanted to hit Shaw with dozens of questions, but knew she had to keep her cool.
Once inside, Nevada asked to see Dr. Shaw. The receptionist informed them he’d called in sick.
“I want to see his office,” Nevada said.
“He keeps it locked.”
“Someone has a key,” Nevada said.
The receptionist looked taken aback. “I can call maintenance.”
“Do it now,” he said.
“You can meet Oscar down the hall by the third door on the right.”
Macy and Nevada approached his office. Nevada checked the door and confirmed it was locked. Minutes later an older man appeared with a ring of keys and tried several before he opened the door.
“Thank you,” Nevada said. He switched on the light.
The office was furnished with a large desk, two chairs in front of it, and a small conference table.
Macy was drawn to the wall behind his desk and the framed diplomas hanging on the wall. “He did his undergraduate work in Maryland. Graduated medical school in Georgia, and he interned in Charleston, West Virginia. It all matches up with the murders Andy pulled from ViCAP.”
Nevada stared at a framed picture of the Dream Team. Bruce was front and center. Rafe Younger, Paul Decker, and Kevin Wyatt stood around him. “Cindy goes to Greene and tells him that she’s the one who took Tobi to the bonfire. As devoted as the girl had been to the team, it was taking her brother away from her. Greene all but confirmed that no matter what she’d done to ingratiate herself to him, the team and Kevin had their hooks in him.”
“She knew who’d lured Tobi away from the bonfire.”
“And Tobi’s disappearance genuinely bothered her, so she tells Greene what she knows. Greene, instead of investigating, goes to Cindy’s brother, who is the only stable force in her life.”
“Bruce convinces Greene that his sister is overreacting,” Macy said.
“And then Bruce kills his sister?” Nevada asks.