Dead Even Read Online Free PDF Page B

back, he ran a stop sign in my town.” Evan picked up the story. “The officer who stopped him found an outstanding warrant for another Curtis A. Channing, and over Channing’s protests that they had the wrong man, he was hauled out to the county prison, since the arrest had been made on a Saturday night.” Evan leaned back in his chair. “The following Monday, when the courthouse opened, Channing went before a judge, proved his identity, and was released.”
    “And he then proceeded to murder how many women?” Jared shuffled through the stack of notes he’d made the night before.
    “Three women named Mary Douglas,” Anne spoke softly, “and two other women. My sister, Mara, would have been his sixth victim, if he’d had his way.”
    “Where is he now?” Will asked.
    “In hell, where he belongs,” Anne Marie replied.
    “So what’s this got to do with this Archer Lowell?” Will asked.
    “All of the victims—including his intended victim, Mara Douglas—had a connection to a man named Vincent Giordano. He killed his family in cold blood, and was convicted and sentenced to several life sentences,” Evan told Will. “Sentences he’ll never serve, because the evidence used to convict him was all tainted, all fabricated. They had to let him go.”
    Will whistled long and low. “That had to hurt.”
    “More than you could imagine.” Evan grimaced.
    “How were Channing’s victims connected to Giordano?” Will pushed his plate aside and rested his arms on the table.
    “Mara was the child advocate who recommended that the court terminate Giordano’s parental rights to his sons,” Evan said. “One of the other victims was the judge who ordered that termination; the other was Giordano’s former mother-in-law. The other three Douglas women were killed by mistake. Channing hadn’t done his homework too well at first. He’d been a little sloppy there in the beginning.”
    “So you were able to put Giordano back into prison as Channing’s accomplice?” Will surmised.
    “No. Not only was Giordano still behind bars while the killing was going on, we have not been able to positively establish that the two men ever met. Giordano, of course, swears he never met Channing and has no idea who he is.”
    “I’m confused. I don’t understand what this has to do with this other guy, this Archer Lowell.”
    “Shortly after Giordano was released from the county prison, my sister Amanda’s business partner was found with a bullet through his head.” Evan spoke levelly. “Not long after that, another close friend of Amanda’s was found murdered.”
    “And Lowell, who had been convicted of stalking and assaulting your sister . . .” Will’s fingers began to beat softly upon the table.
    “Was still in prison,” Evan told him.
    “And your sister?” Will asked tentatively.
    “Is alive and well because of Miranda and the local chief of police,” Evan said. “Giordano came after her.”
    “But what was the connection between your sister’s partner and her friend—the two deceased—and Giordano?” Will accurately followed the sequence.
    “There was none to Giordano,” Evan said, “but they were both people who had pissed off Archer Lowell. Both had given statements to the police about Lowell’s actions; both had made it very clear they were going to testify against him at his trial. Their testimony was the main reason Lowell’s attorney insisted that he accept the plea offered by the D.A.”
    “Strangers on a Train,” Will murmured. “You do mine, I’ll do yours. . . .”
    “Exactly.” Miranda nodded, then added grudgingly, “You figured that out a lot faster than we did.”
    “Channing offed people who had connections to Giordano, Giordano took out people who had connections to Lowell. So if the pattern holds, we could expect Lowell to be going after people who have ties to Channing,” Will said.
    “That’s the way we see it.” Miranda munched a potato chip.
    “So, if we’re