by W L Knightly
She handed him a piece of yellow construction paper that had been cut into the shape of a four-petal flower, and on each one was a name and a stick figure-style drawing of a person. Written in the middle of the flower in a child’s handwriting were the words, “My family”.
Jake read the names. “Mommy, Daddy, Missy, and Emma.”
“Who is Missy?” Jo asked. “Did Madden have other children? Perhaps with another woman from a previous marriage or something?”
Jake shook his head. “No, this was his only family. Unless this is his sister, or perhaps Alyssa had a sister or friend who came around a lot.”
Jo took the paper. “I’ll mark it in evidence, and I’ll keep looking. Maybe she will turn up.”
“I’ll look around and see if there are any family photo albums.”
“The child’s room is clean,” said Jo. “And if there are any photographs or albums, they would most likely be in the family room or stored on a bookshelf.” She followed Jake as he headed for the stairs.
“We’ve already found the bills. Nothing interesting there. No storage rentals, no leases, nothing out of the ordinary, and no extra utilities for other residences.”
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t any. He’s hiding somewhere. And I’d say it needs to be local if he wants to keep his eye on things.”
“Yeah, but with most of his potentials out of town, I think he might use someone else for his cover. He could be sleeping on a relative’s couch in another state, waiting to kill my father.”
“I have a feeling that’s not the case, but it’s a good idea to call him and tell him that he needs to keep an eye out. And ask about your brother. I want his address.” Jake needed to know where the Hangman might have shifted his focus. He could involve the local police in other areas if needed.
“I’ll call him now while we look,” she said, releasing a long breath. “This is always such hard work, going through all of this shit. I hate touching other people’s things. It’s always bad energy no matter how you go about it.” Her nose wrinkled like she’d smelled something terrible, and she took out her phone and dialed her father’s number. “I’m going to put it on speaker since it’s official business.”
Jake wondered why she would do that and figured she didn’t want to get stuck talking to him for too long. So, while he stood listening, he looked around the room for any sign of albums or photographs.
“Dad, hey. It’s me and Jake. You’re on speaker, and we’re at Madden’s house doing a search with other officers.” Jake thought it was smart of her to warn her father about the other ears, and he could almost hear a plea in her voice as if she were begging him not to embarrass her in front of her peers.
“Jesus, Josephine. What’s so important that we have to share this conversation with the entire department?”
She looked around, but Jake knew that almost everyone else was in other rooms. “We’re alone,” he said.
“Dad, I need to know where my brother is.”
Michael gave a sound of displeasure. “There you go, calling me Dad when you need something. I’ll be sure and remember that.”
“Father,” she amended. “I need to know where Kyle stays. You can text me his address, but I need to know where the Hangman might be headed next. And I also need you to keep an eye out. He could be going after you next.”
“I can look after your brother. There’s no need to involve him in all of this.”
“No,” said Jake. “We need the address or information for wherever he is. You can cooperate and help me, or I can get the feds involved. They are already sniffing around, hoping to take control of this.” Jo gave him a sideward look as if she believed his lie. He shook his head to reassure her.
“I am addressing my daughter. And this is a family matter.”
Jake’s temper flared, and the man needed to know that he was in control. “No, it’s part of the investigation, and you’re talking to both of us. I respect your right to privacy, but with you being wrapped up in this case so tightly, I’m going to have to insist on your cooperation.”
“I’m a busy man—”
“And we’re busy too, so stop wasting our time.” Jake was ready for war. He didn’t like the senator anyway. His entitled attitude was more than Jake could tolerate.
“Enough. I just wanted to ask you about my brother. Did you ever get in touch with him and tell him about the Hangman?”
“I told you I would, and I did.”
“And what was his response?” she asked.
“He didn’t say much. He’s not fazed by such things the way others are.”
“Because he’s a sociopath.”
“Dammit, Jo. Is there anything else? I need to get to a meeting, and this is not the proper time to discuss your brother and all of his complications.”
“Fine, but keep an open line of communication for me. This won’t be the last time I call. And don’t forget to send me that address.”
“I’ll call you later when you’re home alone.” His end of the call went dead, and Jo’s shoulders slumped with relief.
“That went well,” she said with a sarcastic tone. “Now I’ll get a lecture later.”
“And hopefully the address to your brother’s house. That’s something.”
“Yeah, something I wouldn’t normally want.” Suddenly, she pointed across the room. “Have you looked in there?”
Jake turned and looked where she pointed. There was a tall bookshelf and at the bottom was a row of doors. “Not yet. But it looks like a good place to keep photo albums.”
“I agree. In fact, my mother had something like this, and it’s where she kept stuff like that.” She walked over and opened the bottom doors, one by one, but it wasn’t until she came to the fifth one that she looked over at Jake and smiled. “Bingo.”
She stepped aside, and Jake could see several other boxes, along with two thick albums. “Don’t get too excited. We might only find what he wants us to find.”
“These are photo cases,” she said, pulling out one of the boxes. “And look, this is full of cards.” She passed it over to Jake. “Some are still in the envelopes, and I’m sure there are return addresses.” She flipped through a few of them, her fingers working quickly through the stack.
“I’ll take those and a couple of the boxes, and you get the rest.” Jake sat on the floor, and Jo did the same, bringing one of the heavy books into her lap.
“People just don’t do photos this way anymore. I mean, I love physical copies, but I always forget to take them off of my phone.”
“Maybe that would change if you had kids.” He thumbed through the cards. “Most of these are from Kellen Madden while he was away in the military.” He put the one stack aside and went for the photo box. There were several of Emma as a baby, the much younger face of Madden lit up with a smile. “He really loved his little girl.”
“I used to wonder if my father loved me like that.”
“I’m sure he does just as much. He just didn’t stick around to show it.”
“My mother said something once. It didn’t make sense until I found out about Kyle. It stuck with me, and it made me feel bad.”
“What was it?”
Jo kept flipping through the album one page at a time as she spoke. “She was on the phone with a friend, and granted, I just caught the tail end of the conversation. But she said my father never wanted a girl and that it was painfully obvious by his choice how he felt about me.” She looked up from the book. “His choice was my brother. To stay with the other woman and have a son.”
“Dads can suck. Mine did.” He put the next stack down and started on another one, hoping it was more than more photos from Emma’s birth.
Jo looked down, and her eyes widened. “Jake, I think I found Missy.”
She turned the album around, and tucked inside the clear plastic protector was a photo of a girl in a cap and gown. Behind it was a copy of her graduation program.
“There has to be a name in that,” said Jake as Jo
opened it. He dropped the stack he was working on and scooted closer to her.
Reading the small italic print, they went through the list of names. “There’s a Melissa.”
“And another one.” Jake pointed to one farther down on the list.
“So which one is she?” Jo sighed. “I guess it could be worse. There could be three.”
Jake snapped his fingers. “What we need to find is Alyssa’s maiden name.”
“We could find it on their marriage license and see if it matches either of these. Let’s hope she’s related on Alyssa’s paternal side and has the same last name.”
“I might be able to ask Hilda. She might remember if there was anyone else in the picture. She said that Alyssa’s parents had passed away. The left her the other house. Maybe she knows if there was another sibling.”
About that time, a text came through on Jo’s phone. The notification sounded like a little bleep. “Let’s hope it’s my father with that address.” She glanced down at her phone, and her mouth popped open with a gasp.
“Is everything okay?” Jake reached out to touch her hand.
“The body of a man has been found in the lake. My first thought is Clay White.”
Jake turned the phone around and saw for himself. “Let’s finish up here, and we’ll drive over. It might not even have anything to do with our case.”
She looked down at the photo of the girl. “I say we keep this with us.” She waved the graduation program and photo.
“It’s been several years. We’ll get the others on the hunt for a more recent photo and see if they can find anything with either of these names.”
“I agree. Now, if my father would only send us that address. And let’s not forget, we need to check on Preston. He’s bound to be back today.”
“The good thing is, if we’re having hell finding him, then maybe so is the Hangman.”
Chapter 22
Jo
They left the Hangman’s farmhouse of nightmares and bad memories, and all Jo could think of was how horrible it must have been for the man to lose his wife and child and have to go home to all of the reminders every day.
Each time her phone pinged, she glanced at it, cursing all of the nonsense texts and social media notifications from her favorite podcasts and websites. The least her father could do was send the damned address, but she knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. He was always making things harder than they had to be, as long as it was easy for him, and that was the story of her life with him.
Early on in life, she had accepted that he hadn’t wanted a daughter, and she had learned he didn’t have time for her and her needs. Why should this case be any different? She had hoped that meeting him would change things between them, but even then, she could hardly stand to be around him.
Her mother had told her a million times it was her way with people. Her instincts were stronger than normal, and her discernment of people was spot-on, a gift she should trust no matter what.
Jake sat next to her in the driver’s seat, and she couldn’t help but feel how distant he had become since their last blowup, but she knew better than to bring it up again. Rehashing their feelings wasn’t going to do either of them any good. They were partners, at least for a little while, and they’d never be anything more. Jake would go on to retire like he’d wanted all along, and she would be the solo detective. She was okay with that.
Wasn’t she?
She had to accept how things would go between them, and that was that.
Jake skidded to a stop as he passed the road he needed to turn on. “Dammit, Jake,” she said. “You scared the life out of me.”
“Sorry, this is our turn. And it pays to test your brakes now and then.”
She thought her neck was going to snap with the force, but by the time she worked up the nerve to complain, they were turning down the road to join the other cop cars that had parked every which way along the banks of the water. “Dang. I thought we had half the unit on the Madden house.”
“We did, but the other half is here,” said Jake.
She noticed that Chief Milner had even stopped by. She walked over to greet them as they got out of the car. “I’m glad you could make it over. How’s it going over there?”
“Slow but sure. We found another person of interest, and now we’re going to work on identifying her. Hopefully, she can tell us where Kellen Madden has been staying.”
“He’s hiding somewhere like a snake, waiting to slither in and take another one of our men.” Chief Milner turned and pointed toward the shore, where a body bag lay zipped up. “Let’s hope we can find out who that poor bastard is.”
“I have an idea,” said Jo. “I take it there wasn’t an ID?”
“I have one of our divers down there now looking for his wallet. With any luck, he’ll find it, but the chances are slim with that sludge bottom. He’s got a nice-sized bullet hole in the head, and his arm is messed up, probably from the body dump. Looks like a professional hit, and I’m pretty sure it’s got nothing to do with your other case.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Jake. “You never know what kind of twist you’ll get with the Hangman.”
“I’d like to get some of my own photos of the body,” Jo said. “I’d like to compare him to a name I have. Kevin has a DNA comparison, and we’ve found some evidence at the scene. The only thing is that we can’t find the man.”
“Who is he?” Milner asked.
“A man by the name of Clay White.”
“Clay White,” she repeated like she was thinking hard about it. “Hitman out of New York?”
“That’s him. Do you know him?”
“I know the name. Patrick told me about him. He said he put his father away.”
Jo turned to Jake. “So, O’Connor had a connection to him in life and in death? That’s interesting.”
“Yeah,” said Jake with little enthusiasm. “Never a dull moment.”
She walked down to the banks where the ground got mucky and realized her boots would have made for a better choice than heels as she sank into the mud. “Dammit!”
Jake looked down and shook his head. “You’ll learn that proper footwear is important.”
“I keep a spare pair of shoes in my car, but since I’m in yours, I just ruined a fifty-dollar pair of pumps.” She was glad she didn’t wear any of her higher-end designer pumps on the job.
Jake unzipped the body bag as she got out her phone. “Look around his neck for any traces of lesions,” he said. “Remember, if he’s our guy, he’s had a rope around his neck.”
As the bag parted, the bloated face stared out at them. The body was in severe decomposition and smelled horrendous.
“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to tell him apart from anyone.” Jo snapped the shots quickly so he could close the bag. The other officers had cleared out, and it was all she could do to keep from vomiting.
“I see a few scratches,” said Jake. “And then there’s the shoulder. It’s not from the dump.”
“The other victims of the Hangman all had shoulder wounds in the very same place. This could be our man. If he was with the Chief when he was killed, perhaps he played a part in his game.”
“That would be different from the rest. Serial killers rarely change their habits. They find something that works, that gives them the satisfaction, as well as makes them feel security in what they are doing, and they stick with it.”
“Unless you introduce the element of surprise,” said Jo. “I’d say a hitman showing up to kill you might be the type of surprise that would throw you off your game. So, what if he didn’t bother leaving him there for us to find because he wants us to know this was a different circumstance?”
“That’s possible,” said Jake “Get those photos, and once we have a positive ID, we’ll know more.”
About that time, the diver came to the surface. “Nothing.” He pulled off his mask, and one of the other officers helped him out of the water. Once he was stand
ing on solid ground, he shrugged. “The visibility is shit, and there’s nothing saying he had his wallet when he went into the water or that a current didn’t carry it off. And as for a murder weapon, the same thing could happen.”
Jake recognized the diver. He was one of their officers who liked to go in for them from time to time when needed, and while he’d been trained, it wasn’t the same as an official recovery dive. “Thanks, Lindy.”
“No problem.” The man walked to his squad car and began to remove his wetsuit, which he’d put on over his shorts and undershirt.
Jo still felt the need to look away. “I think we have enough here to make a positive ID, and if he’s our man, then we’ll know it.”
“Has your father sent that address yet?”
She glanced at her texts. “No, not yet. I don’t know what he’s doing, but it pisses me off.”
“He’s trying to keep the upper hand. If he doesn’t hurry up and keeps on interfering, I’m going to ruin his career with an obstruction of justice charge.” Jake’s tone was ugly and harsh, and while he wasn’t directing it at her, she felt like he could be a little nicer about her father.
Jo hated the way he and her dad had gotten into the argument hours earlier, and she knew if she was going to get her dad to do anything, she had to go about it a different way. “You being a hothead doesn’t help anything, Jake.”
“I’m not a hothead. I’m just trying to get shit done.” He zipped up the body bag and then stormed away.
Great, now I’ve pissed him off again. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Jake stayed pissed off. It was really nothing new. She couldn’t even kiss him without him having a problem with it, and with how fucked up things had been with them, she knew to let him have his space.
She noticed that the other officers had already given up on the jabs and teasing, and things were back to normal. Part of her wanted to know what had happened with the woman at Blue’s, especially when they’d gone to his house. She wondered why Jake didn’t sleep with her, and if it had anything to do with what the lady had said about him not getting it up. In her own experience, he didn’t seem to have a problem, but then she hadn’t gotten that up close and personal with him. Yet, a small voice in the back of her mind said as she stared at him from across the distance.