17.
Mark showed up with his arms full. He'd brought food – Chinese takeout. He also had a stack of paper files. At Avery's expression, he smiled.
"You said you wanted a heads up." He said as he set the files aside on the kitchen counter. "But we should eat before we get into any of that. Some of it isn't really dinner conversation material."
"Fair enough." Avery set out plates and silverware, and poured them each a glass of iced tea. And noted that he kept everything during dinner to neutral topics. Mostly about how the town had changed since he'd been there last.
But she also sensed that he was subtly digging. Avery didn't know why he felt like he couldn't flat out ask. She would have answered. It was amusing really. By the time they were done eating, she was pretty sure they had touched on all the major players in town. Not that there were so many. Besides the sheriff, his deputies, the mayor and possibly the laughably named city council, there weren't many who had any sort of power.
When they were done eating, Mark picked up his files. At her look, he smiled grimly. "I don't think any of this is too horrible. But it makes you wonder." He took a seat and opened one of the folders showing her the contents. A small picture of Rob Williams was in one corner. But a much younger Rob. Mark flipped a few pages. "This is just run of the mill DUI stuff. Four of them in six months. Shoulda lost his license for that. But guess who the arresting officer was for most of them."
"Walls." It wasn't a question. Avery couldn't recall a time when Sheriff Walls actually went out on patrol. She thought his position was more as a figurehead. He left the actual work to the deputies.
"You got it. They go way, way back." Mark flipped a couple more pages. "Ninth grade JV football, to be exact. Point being – they're buddies. Served in the Army together. And then Rob got married for the first time."
Avery took the from Mark and turned the pages herself. The woman in the next picture was pretty in a distant way. And she looked vaguely familiar. "I feel like I know her."
"I doubt it. She died when we were kids. I was about 3. You were probably a newborn." Mark smirked when he said it. "Her name was Meredith. But you probably know her sister, Danielle. Runs that dance school you used to go to."
Avery nodded. And now she could see the resemblance. "So how did she die? She would have been young, right?"
"Early thirties." Mark said with a nod. "She drowned at the lake. They were night swimming." He said it with a snap to the words. "So it was kind of convenient, what with Meredith being a strong swimmer. He said that they got separated and she got tangled up in some netting or something out toward one of the coves. True enough they found netting with her body, but it looked old, rotten. It fell apart when they touched it. Death was still deemed accidental. Rob collected a decent chunk of insurance, and fought with Danielle over Meredith's half of the dance school. She ended up buying him out." Mark paused to take a sip of his tea. "Probably good she did because I would imagine he had an accident lined up for her too."
Avery could only shake her head. Mark was opening another one of the files and she had hardly scratched the surface of the first one. "Wife number two. Nice woman, Sharon Peters. A little older than him. Died during a house fire caused by a faulty electric line. He just happened to be on a weekend camping trip." He sighed and went forward a few pages. "Wife three, Trisha Stephens, died after getting accidentally electrocuted. Her three year old daughter...same way. They thought she was holding the baby when it happened, using an ungrounded toaster oven."
Mark let that sink in. He also let Avery study the picture of mom and daughter. Studio protrait, taken when the baby was 2. Before she had met Rob. Avery felt herself tearing up.
"And the next one. My mom." Mark had another file open. "Fortunately for me, I was older. Stronger. I fought back." Avery studied him, tears in her eyes but not falling.
"I remember the bruises."
"Yeah." Mark shook his head. "If I had been just a little stronger..."
"Don't do that." Avery put her hand on his arm.
"I try not to. But it's hard." He shook his head. "We threw down. A lot. And I kept Mom away from him as much as I could. Because he was nice enough at first but that changed after about six months. And then I started worryin' more. And the fightin' started. And then she died. You know about that. And then the last one. Christine Curtis. Another healthy one downed by a stroke. Maybe."
"Mark...if you're right about this. And I don't think your wrong...but Rob is more than sick. This is serial killer territory."
Mark met her eyes steadily. "And that's why he needs to be stopped."
She processed that for a moment. "He got shot. Was that..."
"I told you. If I had shot him, he wouldn't have survived it. Besides, just shooting him wouldn't make him suffer enough for my tastes." His green eyes had taken on a hard cast. "I dug all of this up from Houston. And this is just police reports. No hint of any kind of foul play. Police reports are never this cut and dried. Never this neat." He spit the word out. "The red flags should have gone up after the second wife. But nobody said a word. How is it that this town, where everybody is in everybody else's business, kept their mouths shut about this?"
"Maybe they were scared?" Avery ventured. She eyed Mark cautiously. "Walls threatened my job when he came here the other day. Because you were here." She saw the muscle in Mark's jaw tick as he processed what she'd said. "It's weird but I kind of got the feeling he was a little intimidated by you."
"He should be. He knows what I do now. I think he's worried that I'm not just here to play catch up with high school friends I lost touch with." Mark shook his head. "I didn't want to say anything. But he got in some digs about you. He was tryin' to figure out what we are to each other. I'm not tryin' to drag you down into whatever is goin' on here. I'll back off from you. Keep you out of it. Protect you."
Avery made a face. But she couldn't help but feel moved. He'd protect her. That was comforting in a way she couldn't define. "I don't want to lose you again." She stated simply.
Mark met her eyes, weighing her words. "You won't."
"I'm in this. If I can help, I will. I don't know how I can help. But if you need anything..." Avery remember the raw emotion from that night 20 years ago when Mark had told her about his mom, and his beliefs.
"Thanks. For that and for believin' me back then. You don't know how much it meant to me." Mark pulled all his files together and straightened them. "But I feel like I'm painting a target on your back. Because that piece of shit that killed my mother wasn't workin' alone. I think Walls had a hand in some of this." He gestured at the folders. "This and maybe more not related to Williams. I've found other stuff that's happened here. Stuff that flew under the radar. Dead bodies mostly. If you put them on a map, they'd form a circle around the town. Williams is a repeater, maybe a serial, but he's motivated by money. I don't doubt the plan was to kill me the same time as he killed my mom. I just happened to be gone when he made his move. Then he would have gotten mom's insurance money. Instead I got it. It's what I lived on. But there's more going on here than just his bullshit. At first I just wanted to stop that son of a bitch. Now I wanna shut it all down." He heaved a sigh. "I think I've talked more tonight than I have in years."
"Man of few words." Avery said with a smile. She stroked his arm thoughtfully. "And I'm not worried about a target on me. What if Walls goes after you? He's already trying to make people think you shot Rob. You're from here but it's been a long time. You're pretty much an outsider. I don't think it would bother him a bit to take you out of the picture."
"Yeah, but I'm a cop. Not some transient runaway. If I disappear, then there would be heat. A lot of it. And I don't think he'd be able to take it."
"So all of this is the real reason you came back." Avery said it softly.
Mark cocked an eyebrow. "No." He flicked the corners of the files with the end of his thumb. "I never stopped thinkin' about you. Never stopped wonderin' how you were. When I got that invitation to the reunion...this..." He gestured at the files. "This was going to be my cover. For comin' to check on you."
Avery laughed at that. "Convenient."
"Very." He agreed. He also reached over and cupped her face in his hand, letting his thumb stroke her cheek. Avery smiled up at him.
"You know. Since you're already here, and your care is super conspicuously parked in the driveway, and the neighbors are already spreading the word, we might as well make the most of the rest of the night." She said, smile widening at his lifted eyebrow.
