Chapter 26

John Mansville sat in the interrogation room of the Big Island Police Station. It had been over two hours since he'd been read his rights and taken into custody. He hadn't come directly to the police station either. Nancy's kick to his left knee had torn a tendon so there'd been a stop at the hospital first. Now however, Mansville sat sullenly, his knee wrapped in an Ace bandage and an ice pack draped over it. A pair of crutches leaned against the drab beige wall. The medicine the doctor had given him was finally starting to kick in and bring the pain down to a dull roar. But pain wasn't foremost on Mansville's mind at the moment.

Mansville's lawyer was on the way from Chicago, but he wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. It didn't matter. Mansville had decided to talk, to tell his story. It was something he needed to do, a sort of spiritual cleansing. He hung his head and stared long and hard at the metal table in front of him. Detectives Lau and Kim sat across from him, Lau with a notepad and cold soda in front of him. A manila folder lay open in front of Kim. It contained all the information the team had on Mansville.

Nancy and Frank watched the proceedings through a two-way mirror. Before arriving at the police station Frank had taken a quick shower and changed his clothes. Joe was not present, he was at the hospital with Butch. Just as the team got the call that they could come to the station and watch Mansville's interrogation, Butch had called Joe and said Rosita was awake. When Lau heard this, he'd asked Joe to accompany Butch to the hospital and determine when Rosita would be able to answer questions.

At the police station a police medic had given Frank two ibuprofen tablets and an ice pack for his throbbing jaw. It was throbbing like nobody's business. Nancy had purchased a bottle of Advil at the hotel two hours ago and Frank had taken two pills then, but with the way his jaw was throbbing and swelling he figured another two pills wouldn't hurt. He swallowed the ibuprofen and followed up with a long chug from the bottled water he and Nancy had been given then gingerly placed the ice pack against his jaw.

Nancy had not escaped her struggles with Mansville unscathed. Her neck hurt, her arms hurt, especially the left one, and the knee she'd used on his groin was turning a dark shade of blue. She had taken two Advil at the hotel and was glad she had. Better to deal with a little pain and be alive then the alternative. She let out a small sigh and took a sip of water.

In the interrogation room Mansville let out a tired, resigned sigh. He looked at Lau and Kim and in a low voice said, "She made me feel alive."

"Diana Collins?" Lau asked.

Mansville nodded silently. "We met at Lance's annual Thanksgiving bash. By the time the annual Christmas Fashion Show took place we had begun seeing each other."

Nancy instantly thought of the photo of Diana at the Annual Airedale Christmas Fashion Show, the one where Diana had looked so happy, so alive – on top of the world. Now Nancy knew part of the reason why. That was also the picture where Diana was wearing the blue necklace.

"Life meant something again," Mansville was saying, "I hadn't felt that way in a long time. A very long time and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more than you can imagine. When Diana was murdered a few months later … Well, a part of me died with her." He shook his head as he remembered the pain and anger that had consumed him. "I wanted to make the person responsible pay for what they'd done. For what they stole from me. It's all I thought about for .. for months."

Imperceptibly, his mood changed and he chuckled, a soft mirthless chuckle. "You can't imagine my shock when I saw that necklace – Diana's necklace – around Barbara Westin's neck at dinner that night." A cold, hard fury darkened his blue eyes. "I knew then. I knew in that moment who'd murdered Diana, and probably Gwen, too."

"For the record," Lau said. "Who did you believe had murdered Diana Collins?"

"Chase Westin of course."

"Did you have any other reason to suspect Mr. Westin other than the necklace?"

"Yes. I remembered that Diana had told me she had a brother, a half-brother, living in Chicago. She'd said he was a bum and had recently been hitting her up for money. She'd refused to give him any and according to her, he hadn't taken the rebuff well."

"What did she mean, he hadn't taken the rebuff well?"

"She said he'd threatened her."

"Can you be more specific? What kind of threats?"

"Diana wasn't specific and she didn't take the threats seriously. She said her brother had made demands and threats all his life. That even as a child he'd thrown fits whenever he didn't get his way. She equated his threats to an adult temper tantrum and said nothing would come of them, that nothing ever came of them." Mansville hung his head and stared at his hands resting on the table. "How very wrong she was. How very, very, wrong."

Across the table, Lau could feel Mansville's anguish.

It was time for the big question. Lau cleared his throat. "Ahem, Mr. Mansville, did you kill Chase Westin?"

On this subject Mansville had decided to take his lawyer's advice. "No," he said. Let them prove it, he thought with grim satisfaction. He wasn't going to give the police anything they could hang him with.

Kim pulled a sheet of paper from the file in front of him and slid it to Lau. Lau in turn slid it in front of Mansville. "Records from your cell phone," he said. "You called Westin the night before he was attacked."

Mansville remained calm. "So?"

"Why did you call him?"

Mansville grinned and his tone was sarcastic, "I asked him how he liked his steak."

"Very funny," Lau said unfazed. "Your confession isn't really necessary. You confessed to Miss Drew. We have it on tape. She was wearing a wire."

"That was said in the heat of the moment," Mansville growled. "She pushed a few buttons. She stepped on a few nerves." Mansville locked eyes with Lau. "Do you know how many nights I've lain awake thinking about Diana?"

Lau said nothing. Sometimes it was best to let the suspect talk.

Mansville ran a hand over his face. "So many nights I've lain in bed thinking about how she was taken from me. There was no reason. No reason at all!" He slammed a fist on the table. "One senseless act changed everything. It changed my life forever. And what did the system do?" He gave a disdainful snort. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The case went cold. The police stopped investigating. I swore that if I ever found out who did this I would make them pay. I had the training, the skills."

Mansville paused a beat, took a ragged breath. "Then seven years later the case is being brought up again. Frank Hardy shows up at my hotel room asking about Diana Collins. He became the enemy right then and there. He was part of the system – the system that had let Diana down."

Mansville eyes became glassy and remote. He stared into the distance. His mind took him to the past, to a time and place he'd just as soon forget. Vietnam. Bullets whizzed over his head. He was crouched in a foxhole. Mounds of dirt, dirt he'd dug out with his own hands and carefully molded around the rim of a foxhole. He'd made a notch in the mound and his M-16 rested in it. His hand was on the trigger and his eye at the scope.

Men's screams and shouts filled the moist, jungle air. Screams and cries filled his ears and senses. Men moaned. Men cried out in pain. Men yelled for help.

"We've got wounded over here!" "Where's the medic?!" "Wounded!" "We need help!"

Artillery blasts shook the ground. More yells. "Incoming! Incoming!"

Helicopters buzzed overhead. The smell of smoke, blood, fear, and death hung all around him. It saturated the air. The enemy, the Viet Cong, were everywhere, attacking from all sides. It was him against them.

"I was on a mission," Mansville said.

Given the glassy stare, Lau wasn't sure Mansville knew he was speaking out loud and Lau didn't dare interrupt.

"I was on a seek-and-destroy mission. I wanted revenge. People were going to pay. Anyone involved with the justice system was going to feel my wrath. Feel the pain I'd lived through. I was going to dole out justice. I did it in Nam. I would do it here."

"You wanted to kill Miss Drew and the Hardys?" Lau asked.

That broke the spell. Mansville snapped back to the present. The far-away look in his eyes evaporated. Lau wanted to kick himself. He should have followed his own advice and let Mansville talk. Too late now.

"Well," Mansville said, the sarcasm returning, "I just meant to scare them off really." That of course was a lie – a bit of self preservation – but it was the story he'd come up with and he was sticking to it. He figured the cops might go easy on him for murdering a murderer, but not the attempted murder of a PI, a female one at that.

"I didn't go to Miss Drew's room with the intention of killing her," he insisted, "I, it's just that as I said earlier, she pushed a few buttons. She made it personal." That was true. Always good to mix some truth with the lies.

"Hmm." Lau eyed Mansville. "And those guards you hired −"

"Complete idiots." Mansville waved a hand like he was swatting a fly. "I paid them a couple hundred dollars to keep the Hardys out of the way for a while. That's all. If they did anything else that's not my doing."

"Yes, well, they're looking at assault and kidnapping charges," Lau informed Mansville.

"I could care less." Mansville leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and refused to say any more. He'd said enough.

Lau saw the far-away stare return. Mansville was slipping into the past again.

A/N: So, there you have the explanations for the murders. Next up, some down time for our detectives. They've earned it.