Visions of Death

by B. T. Lord

  “If he did, he didn’t stick around. We have yet to find his vehicle.” She smiled. “That Cade is a character. “I was lucky to get three words out of him.”

  “That’s a speech by his standards.” She laughed. “So what do you think happened here?”

  “Hard to say. Except for the victim’s pocketbook and the bootprints left in the sand, which could belong to anyone, we haven’t uncovered any evidence that directly links DeeDee and Richard to actually being here.” She shook her head to herself. “I’ve had some pretty baffling cases throughout my career, but I’ve never had one with multiple homicides where we didn’t find one shred of trace evidence that connects anyone to the murders. It’s downright spooky.” Ana tilted her head. “You’ve got a weird look on your face.”

  “Who do you know who doesn’t put a pass code on their cellphone? Especially a young woman who lives with her parents and is probably desperate to keep her private life private?”

  “I see your point. I thought it was strange myself.”

  “I checked and saw the passcode function was turned off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell me when it was turned off. What’s even stranger is that when I called DeeDee’s boyfriend and asked him, he was adamant that she did have a passcode. One that she was careful not to share with anyone, including him.”

  Ana watched his expression change. “Okay, that weird look on your face just got weirder.”

  “We know DeeDee placed her last phone call to Richard last night. According to her text to Tim, she had a plan. I think it’s safe to assume that Richard was part of that plan.”

  “What if her intention was simply convincing Richard to take her off the island? He’s a fisherman and knows his way around a boat, or at least has access to one. It’s a two-hour ride to Portland. He could have made the trip out and back in one night.”

  “Her suitcase was still in her room.”

  “If you’re scared enough, your first priority is removing yourself from the scene. Could be she was planning on staying in a hotel until the ferry brought her mother over. At this time of year, she’d have no problem getting a room for two nights. If I were to put myself in her shoes, that’s what I would have done. I’d charge whatever I needed to my parents’ credit card and deal with the consequences later. The important thing was to feel safe.”

  “I agree.”

  Ana lifted an eyebrow. “I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

  “But what if DeeDee walked into a trap? What if after meeting up with him, she realized she was in danger? She may not have been able to call for help, so she did the next best thing. She removed the passcode function from her phone, stashed her pocket book under a shrub in the hopes we’d find it and see who her last phone call was made to.”

  “It’s certainly plausible.”

  They were interrupted when they heard a shout from one of the technicians.

  “Deputy Martin, Ana! You’re going to want to take a look at this.”

  The two walked back along the path that led out to the main trail towards a white clad technician standing near a row of shrubs. When they arrived, he pointed to two of the more prominent bushes.

  “There are several broken branches here, as if someone fell against them. You’ll also notice the scuff marks along the snow and mud.”

  Ana leaned over to get a better look. “It looks as though someone was dragged over here and thrown into the shrubs.” She gently pulled aside the snapped off branches, uncovering scattered coins on the ground. “Whoever it was must have hit the ground hard enough for change to fall out of their pocket.”

  Ellis leaned in over her shoulder and peered at the broken undergrowth. “Many of these branches are completely torn off, as if hit by a heavy weight. DeeDee looked as though she weighed 110 pounds, if that. Richard, on the other hand, was muscular and weighed at least 225.”

  “That’s not all,” the technician spoke up. “I found this on the other side of the shrub.”

  He handed them an evidence bag that contained a man’s dark blue knitted hat.

  “The plot thickens,” Ana remarked. “Great work, Kyle.”

  She and Ellis moved back onto the path. “We don’t know for sure who fell against the shrub. It could have been Richard.”

  “Or,” Ellis interjected, “it could have been DeeDee. I know Rob didn’t find any bruising on her hands or body, but she was wearing heavy clothing. Therefore, for the sake of argument, let’s say Richard brought her out here with the intention of killing her.”

  “Why here though?”

  “If our theory is correct and she contacted him in the hopes he’d take her off Eagla, he might have used that to his advantage by telling her he had a boat docked here. Look around. He couldn’t have picked a better spot. It’s isolated without any chance of anyone hearing her screams for help. So they come out here and somewhere along the way, she realizes she’s made a terrible mistake. She has enough presence of mind to stash her pocketbook in the bushes before she makes a break for it. Unfortunately, he catches her. He throws her into the shrubs in an effort to incapacitate her. She puts up a struggle and manages to rip his hat off his head. However, he’s too strong and overpowers her.”

  “That all makes sense up to the point where he dumped her body in his father’s fishing trawler. Why do that when he had this entire area in which to hide DeeDee’s body?”

  Ellis gave her a crooked grin. “That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet.”

  “Did he do it as some sort of statement against his dad?”

  “By all accounts, he was planning on taking over the business when Zack retired. And his dad consistently paid off victims of his bar brawls.”

  “Then I’m flummoxed.”

  “Let me take a picture of the hat so I can show it to John. He should be able to tell me if it belongs to Richard or not.”

  “And even if he can’t, we’re still golden.” She pointed through the plastic to the rim of the hat. “Hair fibers. This should tell us if it’s his or not.”

  Ellis took out his cell and snapped a couple of photos of the hat. When he was done, he said, “Of course, the scenario I just outlined doesn’t explain the needle prick Rob found on DeeDee’s arm. If she was killed in the same manner of Mallory – injected with air after being sedated – none of what we’ve found here makes any sense at all.”

  “It does if Richard isn’t the killer.”

  “I know,” he replied. “Which means we may have a third victim on our hands.”

  Ellis walked back to the broken shrubs and stood looking at them for a few minutes. He then returned to where Ana was standing.

  “What if Richard wasn’t alone?” he abruptly asked.

  “You mean he had some sort of accomplice?”

  “This murder may be different because it wasn’t committed alone. What if there was someone else involved? Someone who changed their minds about killing DeeDee, leading to the altercation near those shrubs? Richard had a temper. He could have very easily lost it when whoever it was decided to back out of whatever plan he had in mind for DeeDee.”

  “Does anybody spring to mind?”

  Ellis grimly met her eye. “Yes.”

  “Where were you last night at about 4 am?”

  “I told you I was home in bed and asleep.”

  Ellis was seated in his interrogation room, across from an increasingly nervous John.

  After leaving Ana and her team to finish their sweep of the area, he’d tracked down John and driven him to his mini-police station.

  “Why do you keep asking me that?” John demanded.

  “Because we have reason to believe Richard had help abducting DeeDee Reid last night. You two were always together. So either you helped him, or you know who did.”

  “Richard didn’t do this!” John exclaimed.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because he’s not that kind of person.”

  “But he’s the kind of person who can beat up bar patro
ns at the drop of a hat? Come on, John. That makes no sense.”

  “I’m telling you, he’s not a murderer.”

  “Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Richard isn’t a killer.” John start to relax when Ellis suddenly added, “Maybe you’re responsible for killing Mallory and DeeDee. You saw the way Mallory was constantly jerking Richard around. I’m sure you hated seeing your best friend treated like that. Once she got pregnant, you knew it would ruin Richard’s life, so you decided to do something about it. Knowing how close Mallory and DeeDee were, you needed to make sure DeeDee kept her mouth shut over Richard being the father, so you killed her as well.”

  “That’s not true!” he said, his eyes frantic with fear. “I had nothing to do with what happened to them. I swear.”

  Ellis sat back in his chair. “When I asked you if you knew who the father of Mallory’s baby was, a strange look came over your face and you clammed up. I think it’s time you tell me the truth, John. I’m going to figure it out sooner or later, and it will go easier for you if you stop the lying.”

  John hung his head and nervously passed his hand over his cheek.

  “Alright,” he finally sighed. “I noticed that Richard seemed off. Like something was really bothering him. I asked him a few times what was wrong, but he wouldn’t tell me. The last time I asked, he just about bit my head off, so I shut up.”

  “When was this?”

  “It started about two weeks before the bonfire. He’d just fly off the handle for no reason.”

  That was when Mallory discovered she was pregnant.

  “The night of the bonfire was the worst I’d seen him. We’d all been drinking and having a good time. I went off to get some more beer from my truck and got into a conversation with one of the guys. When I got back about twenty minutes later, he’d changed. He was snapping at everyone and just being a total ass.”

  “Did you find out what set him off?”

  John shook his head. “Everybody was a little drunk. Nobody noticed anything.”

  Ellis leaned in and caught John’s eye. “The truth, John.”

  The young man’s eyes darted around the room, as if he’d find a means of escape if he just kept looking. His shoulders finally sagged when he realized the only escape was to stop lying.

  “He – um – he’d gone off to talk to Mallory. They only talked for a few minutes, but when he came back to the bonfire, it was obvious he was really pissed off. I just figured she was giving him her usual shit.”

  “How was his demeanor when you left the bonfire?”

  “He didn’t say a word. And he was in one of those moods where I didn’t dare say a word either.”

  “And you’re sure you drove him home?”

  “Uh huh. It was probably a bit after 11:30 that we arrived at his house.”

  “After dropping him off, would Richard have had any other mode of transportation to get back to Pleasant Point Beach if he wanted to?”

  John looked miserable. His face said it all. He was betraying his best friend who, it was becoming clearer, may be a murderer.

  “His Mom has a key rack near the front door. He could have easily grabbed one of the keys and driven off in either his mom’s car or his dad’s truck. They go to bed early so they wouldn’t have known if he had.”

  “Would you pull up the sleeves of your sweatshirt?” John gave him a quizzical look. “Please do as I ask.” With trepidation, the young man slowly pulled up the sleeves. “Let me see your hands.” John splayed his hands on the table and Ellis quietly examined them. “Thank you.”

  He took out his cell and found the picture of the hat found at the pond that morning. He showed it to John. “Do you recognize that hat?”

  John took the phone and studied the photograph. His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he swallowed hard. He put the phone on the table and shoved it towards Ellis.

  “It’s yours, isn’t it?” Ellis asked.

  “Yeah. My mom knitted it for me last year.”

  “We found it this morning at the pond you took me to.” John closed his eyes, his face suddenly ashen. “Do you care to tell me how it ended up under a shrub?”

  “I – um –” He hesitated for a long moment, then whispered, “I lent it to Richard at the bonfire. He was supposed to give it back, but he never did.”

  Ellis knew John was telling the truth. There were no marks or scratches on him at all to indicate he’d gotten into a scuffle with the missing fisherman. Being smaller and heavier than Richard, and already demonstrating that he was intimidated by his friend’s temper, Ellis didn’t think he’d be crazy enough to push Richard into the shrubs.

  Yet someone had been shoved into the bushes hard enough to break several branches and leave marks in the snow. If it wasn’t John, then who? Was it DeeDee?

  Not having enough to charge John with aiding and abetting, he had no choice but to let him go.

  He turned off the recorder and was in the process of locking up his office to return to Watson Pond when his cell rang. Looking at the display, he saw it was Chloe.

  “I was doing some additional digging on the victims’ group of friends and I uncovered something I thought you’d find interesting,” she said when Ellis answered the phone. “A year before Tim Rice started dating DeeDee Reid, a teacher filed a complaint that he was harassing a fellow student. The girl had broken up with Tim and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.”

  “It’s strange that wasn’t handled by the locals.”

  “The teacher wasn’t originally from the Coffins. I guess she didn’t know how things worked before you came along. It seems that once the selectmen realized what she’d done, they took it upon themselves to talk to Tim and get the matter straightened out. There’s been no trouble since then.”

  “Or at least any trouble that’s come to my attention,” Ellis pointed out.

  “Right. God, that has to be so frustrating for you.”

  “You have no idea. What’s the teacher’s name? I’ll go and have a chat with her.”

  “You’ll need to travel to Portland for that. She left the school after the term ended and returned to the mainland. I took the liberty of calling her myself after finding the complaint. I emailed you a copy of our discussion. She didn’t have much to add. She saw Tim and the girl getting into several arguments. She finally felt compelled to file the complaint when she saw Tim push the girl into the wall after yet another heated row. She was disgusted at how the whole situation was handled, feeling that he should at least have been arrested for assault. She had a few choice words about the patriarchal way of policing the Coffins.”

  “She’s not wrong about that. Cade keeps a tight leash on the goings on here.”

  “She protested the selectmen’s handling of the whole affair by quitting. It’s really a shame because by all accounts, she was an extremely dedicated and well-liked teacher.”

  “Great job, Chloe. Looks like I’ll be having another discussion with good ol’ Timmy.”

  Mulling over what Chloe had just told him, Ellis finished closing up. He climbed into the SUV and had just started the engine when his cell rang again. This time it was Ana.

  “What’s up?” he answered.

  “You’d better get back out here ASAP. We found Richard.”

  Ellis hurried as quickly as he could over the slippery trail to a spot almost halfway around the pond. Drawing closer he saw a team of white clad technicians milling about the beach area while another technician was in the water, snapping pictures at what appeared to be an upright tree stump sticking out of the pond. It wasn’t until he rounded the bend and came into full view of the scene that he stopped short.

  “What in God’s name—” he whispered.

  Several feet from shore, flanked by the forensic photographer, was Richard Huntson. Yet it was the position of the young man that left Ellis baffled and uneasy.

  Ana approached him, her face equally puzzled.

  “We came around the curve
in the path and saw what we first assumed was a tree stump standing upright in the water. However, when we took a closer look, we realized it was Richard.” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “He’s dead, Ellis.”

  “But he’s kneeling in the water,” Ellis replied. “How is that possible?”

  “I have no idea. That’s not the half of it though. We’ve been passing back and forth here for the past few hours. If he’d been here, we would have seen him. When you passed by on your way to interview that young man, you would have seen him too. But you didn’t. And we didn’t.”

  She looked out towards the body that was now being gently pulled into shore. “How the hell did he just appear in the water?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  God forgive me. I didn’t want to be a father. And I couldn’t have DeeDee spilling the beans.

  It was all everyone on Eagla could talk about.

  For six weeks following the discovery of Richard’s body, the islanders found it hard to believe he was capable of murdering two women. The wet note found in his jacket pocket when his body was laid out on the shore of Watson Pond proved otherwise. It had been short and succinct, but it said it all. The theory Ellis had been building – that Richard killed Mallory to keep from becoming a father before killing DeeDee to keep her from telling what she knew – had turned out to be accurate.

  Immediately following Richard’s funeral, the population strove to put the entire incident behind them. The murders had been solved. It was a shame two women lost their lives at the hands of a demented young man, but the nightmare was over. It was time to move on and forget it had ever happened.

  The Huntsons tried their best to rebuild their lives. Although they lived in a small, tightknit community, they weren’t shunned because of what their son had done. It was understood Richard was responsible for his own dark and warped actions. Rather, it was they who kept themselves apart as they mourned and attempted to understand something that could not be understood.