Wild Break

by Tripp Ellis

  "That kid was an asshole," JD said. "But I don't think he killed Lauren. He probably couldn't find his own ass with two hands and a flashlight. He's going to strangle a girl in an alleyway, get her down to the water, and dump her without anyone seeing? No way!”

  "He doesn't really fit the profile," I said.

  "What is the profile?" JD asked. "Brenda hasn't been able to definitively tie these crimes together yet. I feel like we're chasing our tail on this one."

  "That makes two of us," I said.

  My phone buzzed. I looked at the display. “Speak of the devil.” I finished chewing before I answered. "Tell me something good.”

  "The rope used to bind Lauren’s wrists and ankles is extremely common,” Brenda said. “It’s sold at every hardware store and boat shop on the island. It's a nylon/poly blend. Sorry. I wish I could narrow it down more."

  "We should check credit card receipts to see if Jasper Perry recently purchased any rope like that."

  "I think you should do that," Brenda said, placing the burden squarely on me.

  I thanked her for the information, then called Isabella and asked her to take a look at Jasper’s credit card records.

  "Hang on a second," Isabella said. A moment later she replied, “Nope. Nothing. Doesn't mean he didn't pay cash, though.”

  "Thanks."

  "Anything else?"

  "Not at the moment."

  "I'm sure I'll be hearing from you again," she said before hanging up.

  There was a slightly devious tone in her voice, almost like she enjoyed doing me favors, building up credit to ask for one in return at a later date.

  We finished the meal, left the restaurant, and stepped onto the sidewalk. I breathed in the fresh air and surveyed the revelers that strolled the sidewalks, hopping from bar to bar. It was early in the afternoon, and there were still plenty of listing drunkards, tacking from one side of the walkway to the other.

  I watched a girl heave in an alley, then rally. She wiped the sludge from her face, took another sip of beer, then staggered toward the next bar.

  My phone buzzed again. I pulled out the device from my pocket and looked at the screen. This time, Denise was calling. "You guys need to get down to the station. There's someone here you need to talk to."

  27

  "She's pretty shaken up," Denise said when she greeted us in the lobby of the Sheriff's Office.

  "Where is she now?" I asked.

  "She's in the conference room with her friend, Molly."

  "What's the victim's name?"

  “Sawyer Ramsey. I called Brenda, she's on the way over. She's going to run a kit, an STD panel, and a toxicology screening. It sounds like Sawyer was date-raped. I told her not to do anything until Brenda examines her. Don't go to the bathroom. Don’t wash your hands. Nothing. I told her we want to preserve the evidence as much as possible."

  “Good thinking,” I said.

  Denise led us to the conference room and introduced us to the two girls.

  Sawyer sobbed at the table, blotting her eyes with tissue.

  Anger boiled under my skin. I was getting tired of seeing these young girls get abused. At least she was still alive. I hoped she could give us useful information about her attacker.

  Sawyer had long wavy hair that was sandy-blonde. She had a fresh face with a few freckles and stunning blue eyes that were red and puffy now.

  JD and I took a seat, and I spoke softly. "Can you tell me what happened?"

  Sawyer sniffled. Between jerking sobs, she said, "I don't really know."

  I was silent for a minute, letting her gather her thoughts.

  She sniffled again and wiped her nose, then composed herself. "The last thing I remember is talking to this cute guy at Bumper."

  My hands balled into fists. I breathed out an angry exhale. I knew exactly where this story was going.

  "This guy bought me a drink, and that's the last thing I remember. Then I woke up this morning in a hotel room with these guys. I have no idea how I got there. And…"

  She started sobbing again.

  "It's okay. Take as much time as you need,” I said.

  She grabbed another tissue and wiped her eyes, then blew her nose. "I woke up, and I didn't know where I was, or how I got there, but I could tell… you know… that something had happened."

  "To be clear, when you say that something happened, you mean…"

  "I mean, I was sore. You get what I'm saying? It hurt, and I was bleeding."

  I cringed. My stomach twisted with revulsion. I wanted to beat the snot out of the guys who did this.

  "When you woke up in the hotel room, who was present?" I asked.

  "The guy that I met at the club, and his friends."

  "What was his name?" I knew the answer.

  She struggled for a moment. "Jasper? I think?"

  The muscles in my jaw flexed.

  I leaned in and whispered in JD's ear. "Go tell Daniels we need an arrest warrant for Jasper Perry."

  "With pleasure," Jack said.

  He pushed away from the table and exited the room.

  Denise stayed with me.

  "What happened after you left the hotel room?" I asked.

  "I called Molly and told her what happened. She told me I needed to go to the police right away. I caught a cab here, and she met me." The two exchanged a sympathetic glance. "You're just an awesome friend, you know that?"

  The two girls hugged each other and sobbed.

  "I don't mean to get personal, but you haven't taken a shower or used the bathroom, have you?”

  Sawyer shook her head. "No. And I gotta pee real bad. And it burns."

  "Just hang tight. The medical examiner will be here in a moment. Everything's going to be okay," I assured.

  "What if I have some kind of fucking disease? What if I’m pregnant?" She burst into jerking sobs again.

  Brenda pushed into the room with concerned eyes. I pointed to the victim, and Brenda took over. "It's going to be okay dear," Brenda said in a comforting voice. "Don't worry about a thing."

  JD and I left Brenda and Denise to handle the evidence collection.

  I strolled down the corridor, into the main office area. Phones rang, fingers clacked on keyboards, and the smell of coffee wafted through the air. I poured myself a cup and mixed in cream and sugar. It was stale, hot, and better than nothing.

  We waited around until the judge issued a warrant, then headed back to the Sun Palace with two other patrol units.

  The douche-bags were just where we had left them. We stormed into the room with guns drawn, shouting for the scumbags to get on the ground. In no time, they were all facedown on the grimy floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

  The deputies stuffed them into the squad cars and took them to the station. A sea of curious revelers watched the whole thing go down. It was just another crazy spring break story they'd be able to tell when they got home.

  We searched the hotel room and found a bottle of Rohypnol, a common date rape drug. It would render the victim unconscious, or at the very least, compliant.

  We didn’t find any nylon rope.

  At the station, the perps were separated and placed into interrogation rooms. I was anxious to get a little one-on-one time with Jasper. I had to resist the urge to put my fist into his face.

  He sat at a table in the tiny interrogation chamber with his hands cuffed in front of him.

  JD and I took a seat opposite the little dick-head. I set a bag of spicy chips on the table along with a small bottle of water.

  He eyed them curiously.

  “Go ahead,” I said.

  He pulled apart the seam of the bag and clasped a few chips between his fingers. He crunched on them, and it didn’t take long before he twisted the top off the bottle of water and took a swig.

  "Seems like you're in a lot of trouble," I said. I placed the bottle of Rohypnol on the table in front of him. "It's pretty pathetic that you need to use this stuff to get laid.”


  “That's not mine.”

  "We found it in your hotel room."

  "There are three other guys staying in that room. I’m telling you, it’s not mine."

  "When the toxicology report comes back and shows that Sawyer has that in her system, you're gonna have some explaining to do.”

  "The sex was consensual."

  "She doesn't remember a thing,” I said.

  "That's her problem," Jasper said. “It’s her word against mine. And I say it was consensual.”

  "What if I told you I got toxicology reports back from the medical examiner that show the presence of Rohypnol in both Grace Livingston, and Lauren James?”

  Jasper kept a straight face, but his mask was beginning to crack. His face twitched slightly, and his eyes blinked nervously. “Who is Grace Livingston?”

  I pulled out my cell phone and showed him a picture. There was a faint trace of recognition in his eyes. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Positive. This doesn’t have anything to do with me."

  "That's not what your friends say," I lied. We hadn't even talked to them yet. But Don Juan here didn't know that.

  "Whatever they said is bullshit,” Jasper replied.

  I lifted a surprised eyebrow. "Really? You’re calling your friends liars?”

  There was a long moment of silence.

  The muscles in Jasper's jaw flexed as he stared me down. Sweat sprouted on his forehead. Curiosity got the best of him. “What did those assholes say?"

  I tried to hide a smile. I knew he was about to crack.

  28

  “Maddox says the Rohypnol is yours," I said, still lying. “He says you drugged these girls, then assaulted them. They're all putting this on you. They say they weren't involved."

  Jasper's cheeks flushed, and the veins in his neck bulged. His muscles tensed, and he snarled, “That's bullshit! They all took turns on her, too!”

  I exchanged a quick glance with JD, then focused my attention back on Jasper. "If you want to have any chance of a future, you'll start talking now."

  He hesitated for a long moment. "All of these girls were willing. We may have just helped them along a bit."

  “By spiking their drinks?" JD asked, snidely.

  “Hey, they were all conscious when I had sex with them. I can't speak for anybody else."

  "Who all was involved?" I asked.

  "All of them. They all took their turns."

  “And then you strangled them so they wouldn't talk. Then you disposed of the bodies in the water," I said.

  Jasper’s face twisted into a scowl. "What are you talking about, man? I told you, I didn't kill anybody."

  "What about your friends?"

  "They didn't kill anybody either."

  JD and I exchanged another glance.

  “Walk me through this, one by one,” I said. “When did you meet Grace Livingston?”

  “I told you, I don’t know who that is.”

  “Look again.” I showed him the picture of Grace on my phone.

  Jasper hesitated for a moment. "Maybe she looks kinda familiar."

  “Where did you meet her?"

  He stalled for another long moment.

  "Three girls are dead, and another one is accusing you of sexual assault,” I said. “When this shakes out, we’ll have evidence to tie you to all of them. All your friends are pointing the finger at you."

  I paused to let it sink in.

  "You know, people think death by lethal injection is painless,” I said. “But there's a lot that can go wrong during the process. First, they sedate the subject, rendering the inmate unconscious. Then the inmate is given a paralytic which causes complete and sustained paralysis of the skeletal muscles, including those of the diaphragm and the muscles responsible for respiratory function. Then the inmate is injected with a potassium salt that causes cardiac arrest.”

  Jasper listened with increasing discomfort.

  I continued, “All of this is supposed to happen while the subject is unconscious. But sometimes the order of those chemicals get mixed up. It's purely an accident, mind you. But sometimes the inmate is paralyzed and suffocates on the table before being injected with the sedative. It's a horrible way to go. Of course, no one would ever do this intentionally. But things happen."

  The fear grew in Jasper's eyes.

  "You'd most certainly receive the death penalty for the deaths of three girls," I added, trying to put the fear of God into him.

  "I think it was Tide Pool where we met Grace," Jasper finally admitted. "But I didn't kill her."

  "What happened?"

  "This was all Maddox's idea. Look at me, I don't need to drug chicks to get laid."

  I stifled a groan. “Tell me about Grace.”

  "She had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend. Caught him cheating, or something. She was pretty upset. She drank everything we gave her. I guess Maddox slipped something into one of her drinks. I swear, I didn't know. She was pretty eager to get back at her boyfriend, if you know what I mean. I took her back to the motel, and we had sex. But I swear, she was still conscious. It was consensual. I passed out after that, and I don't know what happened."

  "How did she die?" I asked.

  "I don't know. She woke up the next morning, got dressed and left. That was the last time I saw her until you showed me her picture."

  I exchanged a curious glance with JD, then refocused my gaze on the little scumbag. "You're saying she was alive the next morning when she left your hotel?"

  “Are you deaf? That's what I'm saying."

  "You're sure about that?"

  "Positive. I'm telling you, man, I'm not a killer. That's wack!”

  "And what about Lauren?" I asked.

  "I already told you. I left her in the alley."

  "Did your friends take turns?"

  "I don't know. Ask them."

  "And what about Sawyer?"

  "After we met her at Bumper, she came back to the hotel."

  "And I guess Maddox roofied her drink?" I asked, with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

  "Yeah. It was all him."

  JD and I glared at Jasper for a moment.

  “And did you use condoms with all of these girls?”

  Jasper shrugged, sheepishly. “Maybe not all of them.”

  I was beginning to feel confident that he had left evidence behind.

  "If you guys think I’m this big bad killer, why would I let Sawyer walk out of the hotel room? Think about that! It doesn't make sense with your theory."

  We said nothing.

  "You guys are looking for a killer, and it ain't me. It ain't my friends."

  I grabbed the bottle of water from the table, much to Jasper’s chagrin.

  “Hey, I’m not done with that.”

  “I’ll get you another one,” I said.

  We left Jasper to stew in his own juices in the interrogation room. In the hallway, JD asked, “You believe any of his story?"

  “I’m sure a more accurate picture will begin to develop once we turn them against each other.”

  I bagged the bottle of evidence and dropped it off at the crime lab. Soon we’d have Jasper’s DNA profile.

  29

  We talked to Maddox, and Jasper's two other friends. They started spilling the beans once they believed the others had turned on them. Of course they each denied, or minimized, their own involvement. Each of them also claimed to be innocent of the murders. Maddox denied using the Rohypnol and blamed it all on Jasper. I figured a night in jail might cause them to come forth with even more information.

  A text from Finley buzzed my pocket:

  [Have you thought about my offer?]

  [I’m considering it.]

  [Meet me at Wetsuit. Perhaps I can persuade you?]

  [Okay.]

  [45 minutes?]

  [Sounds good.]

  With the creeps behind bars, they wouldn't be out on the streets anytime soon. It would gi
ve us a little more time to gather evidence and see what we could make stick.

  The island was a madhouse, so we left Jack's Porsche at the station and walked to Oyster Avenue. Fresh posters of Chloe-C had been plastered on every available space, advertising her free concert. They were stapled on telephone poles, glued to the sides of dumpsters, placed in windows of restaurants and bars, affixed to alley walls, and the backs of newspaper dispensers.

  Jack noted one of the posters. "That reminds me. I forgot to tell you what happened after you left Chloe’s boat.”

  We strolled down the sidewalk, heading toward Wetsuit, weaving through the mass of drunk spring breakers.

  "I'm listening."

  "So after you left, I'm just standing there, minding my own business, and this total hottie saunters to me, telling me how big a fan she is."

  I knew where this was going.

  "I played along for a little while. She's telling me how much she loves my music, and how it's always been her fantasy to, you know…"

  I kept listening.

  "And let me tell you, this girl was hot. Like hot, hot! And of course, I'm faced with the inevitable moral dilemma. Because, I’m happy to indulge her fantasy..."

  "So what did you do?"

  JD sighed. "I had to come clean. I told her I wasn't who she thought I was. I said I was just Jack Donovan—a lowly deputy with the Sheriff’s Department."

  "I'm proud of you."

  Jack's face crinkled up. "I'm not some scumbag. I would never pretend to be that guy just to get laid. But let me tell you, it was painful to come clean. I thought for sure she'd lose interest. That would have broken my heart.”

  “But she didn't?”

  “She said she didn't care who I was. She was more than happy to pretend. Well, hell, if she wanted to role-play, I was all about it. She grabbed my hand and pulled me below deck. We found an empty compartment and went at it. She insisted that I sing songs to her the whole time. And, I must say, I'm not half bad at singing, especially when I have the proper motivation. And she was a good listener." There was a wide grin on Jack's face.

  "Are you gonna see her again?"

  "I gave her my number. I told her to call me if she wants a repeat performance."