“Ms. Elle,” Horace said between sobs, “she said Willie had to go. He’d messed up everything, and why should he get away with that? Me and Boris, we didn’t want to do it, but Ms. Elle, she said we had to or we’d get fired. We didn’t want to get fired. We did it just the way she told us to. We just did what we was told to do.”

“Nice work, partner,” Sam whispered, beaming with pride as Freddie gently coaxed a confession from Horace.

Freddie pushed a yellow pad across the table. “Write it down, exactly the way it happened.”

Horace dried his tears and reached for the pen with his left hand. As Lindsey and Byron had suspected, the killer was left-handed.

In the adjoining room, Hill worked over Boris. “Elle told us what you did. She said it was your idea to kill Willie.”

“She said what? It wasn’t my idea!”

“That’s what she said.”

“I don’t understand. Why would she blame me? I just did what she told me to do. I always do what she tells me to.”

“Have you killed for her before this?”

“No! I’ve never killed anyone before. It made me sick to do that to Willie. He wasn’t a bad guy. He made a mistake. But Ms. Elle... She said he had to go. We couldn’t let him get away with ruining everything.”

Hill pushed a yellow pad across the table. “Write it down. Exactly the way it happened.”

“Excellent,” Sam said as it all came together.

“We’ve got enough to charge all of them with first-degree murder of Willie,” Charity said. “I want the results of the DNA tests before we pin Lind’s murder on her.” She handed the warrant to Sam.

Sam grabbed the extension off the wall and dialed the morgue.

Byron Tomlinson answered.

“This is Holland. We’ve got the warrant. Can you get down here to take a swab for me?”

“On my way.”

“Thanks.”

While she waited for Tomlinson, Sam went into her office to look up the phone number for the law firm Elle had requested. She left a message with the answering service and then took a moment to check her own phone for messages. She was delighted to find a text from Nick.

On the way home. Heard you got into another scrape while I was gone. I can’t leave you unsupervised for even a day. Missed you. See you in the morning.

Sam smiled as she reread the message. It felt like forever since she’d last talked to him. She couldn’t wait to hear his voice and have his strong arms wrapped around her. The anticipation gave her a much-needed adrenaline boost.

Her desk phone rang as she was getting up to return to the observation area.

“This is Tim Russo returning your call about Elle Jestings.”