Wicked Places (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 4) (15 page)

“You’ve got a charming personality,” Lauren deadpanned.

“Right back at you.”

The sun was fading, causing a chill to move through the air. Ivy ambled over to her tent to retrieve a hoodie, hoping it wouldn’t be too long before Jack returned. She was dying to be present for Scott’s confession, and Jack promised he would retrieve her before heading toward the state trooper station. They expected the guilty party to run. Ivy’s only job was to remain behind and keep out of trouble.

Ivy leaned over to unzip the tent and felt a presence move in behind her. She could practically feel the menace wafting off of the interloper as he erased the distance between them. She opened her mouth to scream – or at least utter a hateful curse – but a hand clamped over her mouth before she had a chance.

It was only then that Ivy realized they’d made a mistake.

I
vy fought her assailant
, kicking out with her feet as she tried to connect with a knee or ankle, but whoever grabbed her was prepared for her efforts and managed to control them.

“Unless you want me to gut you right here, you’re going to stop doing that,” Alex hissed, his voice low and menacing. “I have nothing left to lose, Ivy. I will kill you if you fight me.”

Ivy lowered her eyes, resigned. She made her body go limp as Alex moved to drag her into the woods. There were different ways to fight, and this was the only one that came to mind.

“Stop doing that,” Alex muttered, his tone threatening as he fruitlessly tried to get Ivy to stand on two legs. “You’re really starting to piss me off.”

Ivy pretended to be boneless, forcing Alex to grip her with two hands as he toiled to carry her into the trees. She knew it wasn’t much of a delay tactic, but she didn’t have a lot of options.

It took Alex almost a full five minutes to drag Ivy far enough into the woods that he could speak without lowering his voice. He gave up trying to force her farther away from civilization at that point and finally threw her onto the ground with all of his might.

Ivy rolled to a sitting position, her eyes glittering with mayhem as she looked Alex up and down. He appeared to have become unhinged, a jagged-edged knife clutched in his hand. She didn’t blame him for losing his notorious cool. He was about to go to prison for the rest of his life. The pacing and sputtering man running a hand through his dark hair was a far cry from the one Ivy was introduced to at the beginning of the week.

“I guess it’s you, huh?” Ivy rubbed her sore hip. “Jack is going to kill you. You know that, right?”

“Oh, shut up!” Alex seethed. “This is all your fault. None of this would’ve ever happened if you’d kept your stupid nose out of our business.”

“I think an argument could be made that none of this would’ve ever happened if you hadn’t killed people,” Ivy countered. “I think blaming me for your deficiencies is a surefire way to victimhood. I expected more from you.”

Alex lashed out, backhanding Ivy across the face and causing her to cry out. “I don’t think you understand your situation here, Ivy. You’ve ruined my life. Now I’m going to end yours. I would seriously rethink my attitude if I were you.”

“You’re not me.”

“No, I’m not,” Alex agreed. “I am going to use and abuse you before I put you out of your misery, though. You’re my last chance at infamy. I guess I’d better make this one count, huh?”

J
ACK
tackled
Scott from the side, taking his former friend by surprise when he popped out from behind a tree. Scott wasn’t exactly known for his athletic prowess, so the fact that Jack not only managed to catch up to his old college roommate – but get ahead of him, too – wasn’t a big surprise.

Scott hit the ground hard, gasping as the oxygen vacated his lungs.

“I can’t say I’m not disappointed, Scott,” Jack muttered, rolling the prone man onto his stomach so he could cuff his hands behind his back. “I was hoping it wasn’t you. I didn’t think anyone could be that stupid, but I guess I was wrong.”

“I didn’t kill her,” Scott sputtered, whimpering as Jack pushed him to a sitting position. “I swear I didn’t kill my wife. You have to believe me.”

“Why would I believe you?” Jack challenged. “You ran when I told you about the forensic evidence. An innocent man wouldn’t do that.”

“Do you have him?” Harvey approached out of the darkness, three uniformed troopers flanking him. He had his gun drawn and an excited look on his face. “So it was the husband after all. I guess that figures.”

“I didn’t kill Melissa!” Scott howled. “Please, Jack, if our friendship ever meant anything to you … .”

“Scott, you ran,” Jack exploded. “Why else would you run?”

“Because the forensic guys are going to find my … stuff … inside of Melissa when they do the autopsy,” Scott said. “We had sex in the trailer that night. We got in an argument – like we always did – and it just sort of happened.”

“It’s convenient that you’re just mentioning it now,” Harvey pointed out.

“If you two agreed to divorce, why would you be having sex?” Jack asked.

Scott shrugged. “We were bored and didn’t have anything better to do,” he said. “After the argument … well … we were both keyed up. I only ran because I knew that the police would think I was guilty when the realized we had sex. I didn’t kill her, though. You know I don’t have it in me.”

Right up until he bolted from his chair, Jack would’ve agreed with Scott. Now he wasn’t so sure. “If you didn’t do it, Scott, who did?”

“I don’t know,” Scott replied, angry. “I know it wasn’t me. I want a lawyer.”

“You can have one,” Harvey said, retrieving Scott from the ground and handing him off to the troopers. “Read him his rights and transport him to the station.” Harvey waited until Scott was out of earshot until he fixed his sympathetic eyes on Jack. “I’m sorry. I know he was your friend.”

“I’m starting to wonder if any of them were every really my friends,” Jack admitted. “I’m not bothered by you arresting him. If that’s what you’re worried about, don’t.”

“What is bothering you?”

“I never pegged Scott as being capable of murder,” he said. “He’s apparently an idiot and a philanderer, but I just can’t reconcile that man being in good enough shape to carry Melissa’s dead weight.”

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Harvey asked. “He might have panicked about the semen and made a boneheaded move. I’ve seen stranger things.”

“I don’t know,” Jack replied. “I … .” His heart rolled when Ivy’s face popped into his head. “We need to get back to the campsite.”

“Why?”

“Because if Scott is telling the truth, I just left my girlfriend alone with a murderer who has absolutely nothing to lose.”

“
H
OW
many teenage
girls have you killed?” Ivy asked. She was stalling for time, hoping Alex would be happy to crow about his accomplishments. If she held on long enough, either Jack would find her or she’d discover a way out of this situation on her own.

“Eight,” Alex replied. He didn’t even need a moment to think about it.

“Who was your first victim?”

“Oh, that was a girl from college,” Alex said, smiling at the memory. “Her name was Sydney Armstrong.”

Ivy knit her eyebrows together. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because that was the girl Jack had a crush on back in the day,” Alex answered. “Don’t you remember? We started talking about her during our hike – and I was really disappointed when the conversation shifted to you and your ex-boyfriend. I wanted to relive her death through Jack’s misery, but you stole that from me.”

“What happened with her?”

“Well, from Jack’s perspective he was besotted with her and followed her around like a lost puppy dog,” Alex said, his disdain for Jack obvious. “It was a mystery when she disappeared on her way home from the bar one night. It was a media circus for a week when no one could find a hint of what happened to her. It was a legend when no one found her body.”

“Where is she?”

“I dumped her down an old well in the woods close to the dorms,” Alex replied. “To my knowledge, she’s never been found.”

“How nice of you.”

“It was an accident really,” Alex said. “I wanted sex and she didn’t want to give it up. I was dying to tell Jack I nailed her because I knew it would crush him. Do you have any idea how annoying it was to pal around with Jack? Women flocked to him. He was the hot one and the rest of us … well … the rest of us were just his lesser friends.”

“Is that your excuse?” Ivy scoffed. “Are you going to blame being a sociopath on Jack?”

“I’m not a sociopath, Ivy,” Alex countered. “I’m a psychopath. I feel love and desire. I’m not great with guilt. I do feel emotions, though. I just like the killing. I fought the urge for years. Each time I killed I told myself it would be the last time. Finally, I just realized I am who I am and embraced my true self.”

“You’re so … sick,” Ivy said, disgusted. “How did you get your hands on Hannah Gibson?”

“Oh, she looked like an angel,” Alex intoned. “She had long blond hair and bright blue eyes. They were almost as pretty as yours. She was angry about having to go camping with her parents. When she snuck out to meet up with some teenagers she met earlier in the day – I was watching her so I knew exactly what she was planning – I grabbed her off the trail.

“I knocked her out because I was worried about people overhearing us,” he continued. “She was heavy for a tiny girl, but I knew about the clearing because I found it during a walk earlier. I knew it was far enough away to have fun, and remote enough to let her scream without detection.”

“She wasn’t found in the clearing, though,” Ivy pointed out.

“No. She was raped there, though,” Alex said. “I thought she was down for the count. She’d been whimpering throughout our … date … but she’d gone quiet. Imagine my surprise when she took off running.”

“You chased her to that area,” Ivy surmised. “Then you killed her there and didn’t want to bother dragging her back to the clearing.”

“It was a remote environment and as good a place as any to rid myself of her,” Alex said. “It worked, too. No one found her for an entire year. I think she would’ve gone undiscovered forever – just like Sydney – if it wasn’t for you.”

“Why would you risk taking Kylie Bradford when you knew Jack was sharing the same campground?” Ivy asked. “You were just asking for trouble.”

“I couldn’t help myself,” Alex replied. “She was just so cute. Plus, the idea of killing someone under Jack’s nose was too glorious to ignore. He’s always so full of himself. I followed you earlier that day to the clearing. I was hoping you two were going to do it right there so I could get another glimpse of you without your clothes on. I thought it was somehow … poetic … to finish what I started the previous year in such an ideal location.”

“Why did you mutilate her? Did you do that to all of your victims?”

“That was my first time doing that,” Alex said. “It just kind of occurred to me that it would be fun. I also thought I might be able to make it look like animals ripped her apart. She wasn’t out there long enough for that, though. Thanks to you again, of course.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I am dying to know how you found Melissa,” Alex said, cocking an eyebrow. “Do you want to share with the class how you managed to do all of that?”

“Sure,” Ivy said, tamping down her terror. “Have a seat and I’ll tell you a story.”

“
D
ID
you catch Scott
?” Donnie asked, rising from his chair when he saw Jack and Harvey approach.

“I did,” Jack replied, scanning the campsite. “Where is Ivy?”

No one answered his question.

“Did he admit to killing Melissa?” Maria asked.

“Did he say why he did it?” Lauren chimed in.

“Where is Ivy?” Jack bellowed.

The women looked taken aback.

“I don’t know,” Maria replied. “The last time I saw her she was heading toward your tent.”

“How long ago was that?” Harvey asked, watching as Jack strode toward the tent and looked inside.

“About a twenty minutes ago,” Maria replied.

“She not here,” Jack said, growling as he took a second look around the campsite. “Where is Alex?”

“I … .” Maria broke off, biting her lip. “He disappeared about the same time Ivy did.”

“Son of a … .”

“
I
’M A
witch
,” Ivy announced, causing Alex’s eyebrows to fly up his forehead. “It’s the truth. I have powers and I can see things. That’s how I knew how to find all three bodies.”

“You’re a witch?” Alex looked dubious.

“I am,” Ivy said. “I can see things associated with death. It’s a … gift.” Ivy had no idea if Alex believed her lie. She was trying to keep him engaged in the conversation long enough to formulate an escape plan. She had no idea what else to do.

“You’re full of crap.”

“Fine, I’m full of crap,” Ivy said. “How else do you explain me finding three bodies in less than a week?”

“I have no idea,” Alex shot back. “I have a feeling you’ll tell me before I’m done with you, though.” He made a move to approach her and Ivy scooted back to maintain distance between them. She didn’t want to panic, but she was getting perilously close to falling apart.

“You haven’t told me why you killed Melissa yet,” Ivy gritted out. “Did she figure out what you were doing?”

“You’re a curious little thing, aren’t you?”

“I want to know all the answers before I die,” Ivy said. “I think I’ve earned it.”

“Fine,” Alex said, letting loose with an exaggerated sigh. “If you must know, Melissa and I have been sleeping together for the past year. There. Are you satisfied?”

Ivy knit her eyebrows together, confused. “The phone calls.”

“What phone calls?”

“The police went through Melissa’s phone records,” Ivy said. “They assumed she was talking to Maria when she called your house. She wasn’t, though. She was talking to you. That’s why Maria was so confused when Jack mentioned it earlier tonight.”

“Melissa was excessively needy,” Alex said. “She was determined to get me to leave Maria for her. She thought she could take the money from her divorce and we could move someplace else and get some house she desperately wanted. She was an idiot.”

“You were sleeping with Melissa for a year,” Ivy said, mostly talking to herself. “That means you started sleeping with her during your camping trip last year. Did she catch you killing Hannah?”

“She caught me coming out of the woods after killing Hannah,” Alex clarified. “She asked a lot of questions, so I had to distract her. After chasing Hannah through the woods, I was kind of amped up and I couldn’t risk Hannah getting away again so I had to kill her before we could have another round of fun. I settled for getting down and dirty with Melissa in the woods.

“Unfortunately, she assumed that meant we were going to be mated for life,” he continued. “I had to set up meetings so we could do it as often as possible. I knew she would tell Maria if I didn’t capitulate to her demands. It was really annoying.”