Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,123

first.”

“Sir, I meant to only speak with Special Agent Smith by phone, I had no idea he would just show up. Although having his insights so quickly, did help us move our case along.”

“Then there’s the matter of the safehouse and the private security people.” This time Stedaman paused and waited for Aaron’s explanation.

“Honestly, sir, when I called my friend about using his safehouse, it was more in thoughts of getting Ms. Nowak into a safe environment so she could recuperate from the pneumonia. It wasn’t until later that I realized she’d be a material witness. The security team, was actually Matt Edgars, whom you’ve met and his wife, a trained nurse.”

Stedaman rubbed both his hands over his face and Aaron relaxed slightly.

“Okay, this case is going to be one big mess forensically. I doubt we’ll be ready to take it trial before the end of the year, if then. You’re going to be assigned to it and nothing else until after the trial.” He sat forward and pointed a finger at him. “And no more going off script for any reason, got me?”

“Yes, sir.”

Aaron left the room, realizing he’d escaped with his job intact. Then he paused and stared at the white board full of cases listed below each officer’s name. Under his was just one word. Serial.

And he had to wonder. When this was all over, would he be glad he still had that job?

Epilogue

The trial started one year to the day that they found Art’s body.

Paula and Brianna testified early, setting the table leading up to finding Art and the subsequent investigation. Aaron was glad they were done early and could stay away from the courthouse for the rest of the testimony from all the other witnesses. It was grueling to hear about how each person was murdered and where their bodies were found—at least the one’s they could identify.

Some of the bodies and body parts in the cold room turned out to be from runaways on the missing and exploited children database. Those Ramos and her team were able to match. It was the older people whose families had given up on them long ago that still remained unidentified, and probably would forever.

All in all, Armbruster was charged with eighteen counts of murder and two of assault with intent to kill, for his actions against Dr. Greenly and Kirk F, both of whom testified to what they endured at the killer’s hands. For Kirk F’s testimony, his Nana, Brianna, Paula all sat in the seats to give him support, as well as Frank Castello, his wife, Jake Carlisle, and Katie and Matt Edgars.

Today, they’d all been present for the final sentencing. Armbruster received eighteen life sentences without any chance of parole. The monster had been stopped forever.

“How did the fallout with the area blood banks go?” Jake asked him. They’d all gathered for pizza and drinks at Castello’s safehouse, which was now Paula’s home.

The former Deputy U.S. Marshal and Brianna had discussed changing the townhome from a safehouse into a steppingstone residence for women coming out of the secure shelter. A place for them to find independence and security while finishing school or starting into the workforce—something many of them had never done. Paula was to be the live-in manager of the house that could hold four single women or two families, depending on the number of children the women had. She would live rent free as part of her salary, which the Edgars Security and Investigations Group were now paying. The first residents—two single women—were to move in next week.

“At first the state wanted to do an in-depth investigation, but the only actual blood they could identify as being part of Armbruster’s scheme were the five bags from Kyle and three from Art. They traced the lot numbers of two used bags from Art to patients and they were notified,” Aaron said, as Brianna slipped into the spot on the sofa beside him.

She’d asked him to move into her place a month after Armbruster’s arrest, and she wore a diamond engagement ring now. His life was pretty good these days, except for the unsettled feeling he had about being a cop. In one of their late-night talks, he’d confessed to Brianna that his anger over Kirk F’s kidnapping had him wanting to shoot Armbruster between the eyes when he stormed the building with the others. Protocol had kept him in check. Being called on the carpet for more minor steps over the protocol line ate