rules. I figured it was time for me to do the same. Time for me to punish the guilty.”
“So you started to hunt. Only you didn’t start with Donnie.”
“No. Not him. Gregory had to pay first. He was the ringleader.”
“Of course. The quarterback in high school. The leader of the pack.”
“You take out the leader, and the rest fall.”
Joel thought most of the straps had been cut. He waited for his moment to attack.
“I only did to them,” Dane’s voice roughened, “what they did to her!”
Chloe’s breath expelled in a soft sigh. “It was Gregory’s letterman jacket buried over her face, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, yes, I had to cover her up. I had to cover her up after—”
“After what you’d done.” Chloe nodded. “Yes, I understand. You felt guilty. You’d hurt her, and you wanted to take it all back, but it was too late. You showed remorse when you covered Portia up and you buried her—”
“No!” Dane yelled. He loomed over the exam table and gripped the scalpel even tighter, as if he’d lunge and stab Chloe with it.
Not happening.
“They killed her!” Spittle flew from Dane’s mouth. “Not me! They killed—”
And the bastard did lunge across the exam table. He went for Chloe with his scalpel.
Joel roared and shot up. He grabbed Dane and threw the bastard as hard as he could. The scalpel sliced over Joel’s arm, blood sprayed, and Dane thudded into the wall.
Chapter Thirty-One
Chloe yanked off the tape that covered Joel’s mouth. “Are you okay?” she asked him, voice shaking.
“I will be.” He tore away the loose restraint straps still over him. Jumped off the table and took the scalpel from her.
All right, if he could move that quickly, then Joel was okay. She was able to breathe again.
Dane was on his feet. He gripped his weapon. Staggered forward. “I didn’t hurt Portia—”
“Yes, you did!” Chloe retorted grimly. Did he think he could lie now? Not happening. “It’s the only scenario that makes sense.”
“No!”
“Yes!” How dare he—
“Chloe…” Joel warned as he stood protectively before her. “We’ve got a crazy doc with a scalpel. Let’s try to not send him into a killing fury.”
It was way too late for that. Surely Joel saw that? After all, he’d just been strapped to the exam table. And he was the one with blood dripping from a head wound and from his neck. That’s why I have to keep talking and keep Dane focused on me. I don’t want Joel injured again. She moved to Joel’s side. “You must have killed her,” Chloe told Dane. “How else would you have known which area of her spine was injured? Only the killer would have known. Her killer. The man who put a jacket over her face because he felt too guilty looking at her. Only her killer because he was the one who put her body in the ground and hid her away. Gregory, Ray, and Donnie might have been bastards, but they weren’t killers. They didn’t break Portia’s spine and bury her. But…”
Dane’s breath was heaving. His eyes—so wild. Angry.
“But they were taking her away from you,” Chloe concluded. “That’s what they were doing, weren’t they?”
“I loved her.”
Another part of the story. Another reason why you covered her face when you buried her. “You wanted Portia. You grew up in this city. Spent your whole life here. But you didn’t go to her school. In fact, you’re younger than she is so…did you live in the same neighborhood?” Chloe was considering and discarding possibilities as fast as she could. “You went to a private school. You told me that once. That’s why you weren’t at Portia’s school. She was older, at a different school. A beautiful girl. You wanted her to like you, but she didn’t.”
The quarterback.
“Oh, no.” Chloe exhaled. “She fell for Gregory, didn’t she?”
“Portia had been kicked around her whole life!” Spittle flew from his mouth. “I kept telling her that she deserved better! I would see bruises on her that Gregory had left. Bruises! I told her that he was trouble. I told her he wasn’t worth her time. So he could toss a football? Big deal. I could play baseball! I was the best homerun hitter on the team.”
“Oh, yeah,” Joel growled as he tried to pull Chloe behind him once more. “I’m sure you were a fucking slugger. Still are.”
Dane’s stare whipped to him. “They were going to run away together. Can you believe that? She’d been in foster care her whole life. I knew she