Cooper was asleep with the book still on his chest. I lifted it off, marked the page, and set it on the nightstand. Monday morning at the county lab, forensic technician Dr. Nora Wexler handed me a yellow folder. She didn't smile. She never smiled.
She'd been doing this work for 22 years and smiling wasn't in the job description. Detective, your DNA report. The transfer material from the spray can nozzles recovered from the fence attack matched Preston Holloway. Cross-referenced against the comparison sample already in the case file, the same profile appeared on four other cans recovered from crime scenes over the past 3 months.
This is a serial pattern, court-ready. I opened the folder, read the report. 22 pages of chain of custody documentation, gel electrophoresis charts, statistical certainty tables. Dr. Wexler had been thorough enough to publish. She always was.
I looked up. Nora, any prints? Prints too. All four cans. No gloves.
This kid didn't even try to hide. Because he didn't think anyone was watching. Because his mother had been telling him no one was watching for years. Owen walked in with a second folder before I could respond. He tossed it on the lab counter.
It thudded. Text log warrant just came back, he said. Vivian to her attorney Randall Kessler. Five months of messages. You want the highlights?
I nodded. Owen flipped it open and read aloud. His voice flat and prosecutorial. July 14th. Kessler Preston did it again.
Old man's shed on Fourth Street. Handle it before he files. August 2nd. That widow on Sycamore Circle is stubborn. She won't drop the report.
What are our options? September 19th. Kessler, this needs to disappear by end of week. Preston left paint on his own jacket this time. I'm handling the laundry.
You handle the sheriff. Owen closed the folder. There are 11 more. Same pattern. She knew.
She protected. She actively obstructed. That's Colorado statute 18-8-105, accessory to crime. And statute 18-8-102, obstruction of justice. Multiple counts each.
I closed the DNA folder. Set my palm on top of the text messages folder. Just rested it there. Nora watched me. Detective, you okay?
Yeah, I'm okay. But I was thinking about Elaine Brookshire in the driveway three years ago. In her nightgown and hiking boots. Holding a smashed mailbox like a broken bird. I was thinking about the way she'd said, "Whoever's doing this followed me here." I was thinking about how she had been right and how many nights she had lain awake alone believing no one was going to help her.
I picked up my phone and called DA Colleen Whitfield. She listened for 4 minutes without interrupting. When I finished she said, "Ethan, grand jury Wednesday, warrants Wednesday afternoon, arrest Thursday night at your call. I want media coverage." "I want a photograph of that woman in cuffs on the front page of the Coloradoan by Friday morning.
She has terrorized three subdivisions for a decade. Her fall gets to be public. I want her Mirandized on the podium." I said, "not in the parking lot. Then it happens on the podium. Ashcroft reads it.
You stay professional."
"Yes, ma'am." I hung up, walked out to my truck, sat in the driver's seat with the door closed, and didn't start the engine. I said out loud to no one, "Almost there, Rach. Got the whole family this time."
I started the truck and drove home. Cooper was at the kitchen table doing math homework.
He looked up when I walked in. "You good, Dad?"
"Buddy, Thursday night is going to be big. Something might be on the news about Dad, about the neighbors. You okay with that?"
"You catching them?"
"Both of them." Cooper set down his pencil. "Can I come to the meeting?" I thought about it for exactly 1 second.
"You can come. You'll sit with Detective Ashcroft in the back. When it's done we go for pizza. Deal?"
"Deal." He picked his pencil back up and started writing again. Then, without looking up, he added, "Mom would love this."
Wednesday, 10:00 in the morning, the grand jury handed up the indictment.
Preston Holloway, 17 counts of felony criminal mischief, two counts of felony harassment, one count of felony menacing of a minor. Total exposure at sentencing, 12 to 15 years Colorado state prison. Vivian Holloway, eight counts of accessory to crime, six counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of filing a false report for the CPS complaint she'd submitted against me the day before. Total exposure, three to seven years.