Paula’s stare hardened for an instant.
Noelle asked, “You weren’t aware that Patrick was killing for the senator?”
As Noelle stared at Paula, the other woman’s mouth dropped open in a perfect O of surprise. “You can’t be serious! There’s no way—”
“Oh, I’m serious. You deleted the record of the kills from the senator’s computer, but you weren’t quite good enough at that deletion. We’ve got computer techs here... They can recover anything if you just give them time.” Noelle smiled at Paula. “Serial killers like to keep souvenirs of their kills, did you know that? Patrick... His thing was pictures. Videos. When he had completed a kill, he’d send that image to Lawrence as proof the job was done. It was all of those images that you tried to delete. The video files.”
Paula shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
She could keep up the lies for a bit longer.
“The files were deleted after the senator’s death.”
“Then Patrick must’ve done it! He got into the system and—”
Noelle shook her head. “The only fingerprints on that keyboard were yours and the senator’s.”
Paula flushed. Her cuffed hands slammed against the table. “Then he used gloves. I don’t know—”
“I think you know plenty,” Thomas drawled as he leaned forward, “because you were featured in some of those videos.” He reached for the laptop on the table. “Want to see them?”
Paula’s face changed then. The pretty veneer faded. Evil flashed in her eyes.
“Patrick liked to work with a partner, and Lawrence, well, he was the more hands-off kind of guy, right?” Noelle asked, her voice emotionless. “So you were the one who went in with Patrick. The one who helped him lure those victims out. For the past ten years, Patrick had been killing men. The high-profile enemies of the senator. And to lure out prey like that...”
“You need the right bait,” Thomas finished.
Bait that looked innocent but wasn’t. Bait that would be too seductive to resist.
Thomas tapped a few buttons on the keyboard. A video began to play. Paula’s soft laughter filled the room. Only this time, that laughter was coming from the recording. The woman was as still as a statue across from them as her eyes locked on the screen.
“Stop it,” Paula whispered.
They didn’t stop the video.
“I’m so glad we decided to get away for the weekend...” Now a man’s deep, rumbling voice came from that video. “Leaving D.C. was the best idea you’ve had...”
“That’s General Randall Adams. He worked for the Pentagon.” Noelle shrugged. “You know that, though, right? Since the two of you were lovers. Randall’s the one who first tipped you off about the EOD. You worried the EOD was closing in on you and Lawrence, that we’d realize—”
“I don’t know anything about the EOD,” Paula said, the words quiet but hard.
Thomas drummed his fingers on the table. “Once you came up on the EOD’s radar, you knew we’d realize you’d been killing for years. We go after threats to security, and that’s exactly what you are.”
The video kept playing.
“Sometimes, Paula,” Randall murmured, “I wish you and I could give it all up. Just be together...”
Paula’s cuffed hands grabbed for the laptop. She shoved the top down. “I don’t want to see anymore.”
Noelle realized she’d been right. Of all the clips on that laptop, and there were plenty, the one of Randall had been the one Paula needed to see. “When Patrick kills him later—and Randall certainly wasn’t easy to kill—your name is the last thing the general says.”
The color was completely gone from Paula’s face. Her lips twisted into a snarl. “Pointing at his accuser, is he?”
Thomas’s fingers stilled on the table. “No, I think he was just calling out for the woman he loved.”
Noelle turned her head to look at his hard profile.
“In those lasts minutes, you know what really matters,” Thomas continued. His gaze flickered to Noelle. “You want to be clear, no words left unsaid, before you draw that last breath.”
A sob broke from Paula.
Noelle had to swallow to clear the lump from her own throat. She could still hear Thomas’s rough growl in her ears. “I...love you...”
“It was all Lawrence!” Paula said in a rush. “He’s the one who made me work with Patrick! He found out that I’d killed my stepfather when I was sixteen.” Tears trekked down her cheeks, but they weren’t fake any longer. “He was hurting me, and I stopped him. No one would believe my stories about my stepfather, so I had to do something!” Shudders shook her. “Then Lawrence came along.... I—I thought he was going to help me, but he had other plans. Everyone always does....”
“Everyone but Randall,” Noelle said softly.
Paula’s shoulders bowed. “Lawrence flipped out when we got confirmation from Randall about the EOD. He was sure someone there—someone called Mercer—would be coming after him. That all the dots from his crimes would be connected. So, yes, he went after them. He didn’t want the hit coming right back to him and Patrick, so he hired some guy for the job.”
Jack.
“But since I’m here...and they’re all dead...” Paula blinked away tears. “I guess the EOD didn’t end, did it? Mercer... He’s not dead.”
Thomas pushed away from the table. The legs of his chair groaned. He headed for the door.
Noelle sat at the table for a moment longer. His job was finished. Hers wasn’t. Now she needed to get the rest of the details. Names and dates. Closure would be given to families, and if Noelle’s instincts were right, they would even get new leads to follow based on the information Paula would give them. Paula had been deeply connected in the senator’s life. If there were others who’d tried to hide secrets in D.C., then Paula would know about them.
The woman would cooperate now. There was no reason for her not to do so.
The door closed softly behind Thomas.
Noelle stared at Paula.
“I loved him,” Paula whispered.
Noelle reached for a pen and a pad.
“I loved him,” Paula said again. “And after Randall was dead...I—I wanted to be, too....”
* * *
THOMAS HEADED INTO the next room. He shut the door behind him. Mercer was standing at attention, just a few feet away from the observation window that let him watch Noelle and Paula.