The Water

by Nancy Jackson

  “Are you ready to go?” Randy asked Sandy.

  Sandy walked up to Randy and ushered him into the next room. “What about Lisa?” Her eyes searched Randy’s face. She didn’t want to just leave Lisa.

  “What about her?” Randy didn’t have it in him to put forth care and concern for anyone other than his wife right then.

  Sandy tilted her head in irritation. “Has anyone talked to Beth at Safe At Last? Can we take Lisa back there?”

  Randy once again shrugged his shoulders. It was too much effort to think enough to derive a conversation.

  “How should I know? I’ve had enough to think about and to do to find both of you. Pardon me if I missed a detail.”

  “Can I have your phone?” Sandy asked as she reached her hand out.

  As Randy laid his phone in her palm, the marks where the zip ties had been were vivid red and blue. It was a painful reminder he needed to muster up some patience.

  Beth scrolled through Randy’s previous calls to find the one she knew to have been Safe At Last’s number. Finding the right one, she pressed the phone to dial.

  As she heard Beth’s voice on the other end of the line, Sandy drummed up all the courage she could and said, “Beth, it’s Sandy.”

  “Are you all right? Thank God they found you! Is Lisa there with you?”

  A sigh of relief escaped Sandy, and she answered affirmatively to all Beth’s questions.

  “Beth, Lisa has been through so much and is feeling so ashamed and afraid. Can she please come back to Safe At Last? Gus is dead, and he is no longer a threat to her. Please…" Sandy pleaded.

  A moment of silent air filled the space between them. “Yes, she can come back, on a trial basis that is. Bring her here.”

  “Thank you so much Beth!”

  As soon as Sandy ended the call with Beth, she handed the phone back to Randy and smiled before rushing back into the kitchen to tell Lisa the good news.

  “Are you sure she wants me back?” asked Lisa.

  “Yes, she does. She cares about you Lisa. We all do.” Sandy pulled Lisa into a big bear hug.

  “You are worth something Lisa. Never forget that. Promise me you will never forget that you are worth something.”

  Sandy could feel Lisa’s head nod and she smiled.

  Chapter 14

  Sunday had been a quiet day. After the chaos of the previous two days, everyone was ready for some peace and calm.

  Randy had nothing but love in his heart for Sandy. The topic of Safe At Last had finally demanded attention, but was quickly resolved with a loving nod from Randy.

  He got it. He understood. When he had seen Sandy, so fresh from the horrific ordeal that both women had gone through, reach out without a second thought to Lisa, he had understood.

  Randy also understood why Sandy had called Carrie instead of him. A wound like a hot rock rested in his chest. He had wanted to be the husband Sandy would call, but he hadn’t been, but that would change.

  Sunday morning Sandy pleaded with Randy to go with her and the kids to church. Finally, he gave in. It wasn’t the dusty old type of religious ceremony he had remembered from the few times he had been in his younger days. It was actually very pleasant.

  Bracket had only gone into the office for a few hours on Sunday. It was quiet there, and he was able to get caught up on the enormous piles of paperwork an operation like the one the previous day generated.

  He thought of Carrie and Randy and wondered how they would be able to work together after this. But he had seen them go through tough times before and they had come through it even stronger. He felt confident this time would be no different.

  Beth spent extra time with Lisa at Safe At Last. She had spent time listening to the girl’s reasoning behind why they felt compelled to run away. She knew it had made sense to them at the time. They were not used to trusting anyone and were convinced that they had to fend for themselves once again.

  There had been other discussions throughout the house about the reason for the house security and affirmations about coming to Beth with any concern no matter how large or small.

  Carrie had spent the day home alone in her sweatpants. She’d picked up her phone repeatedly to call Bracket or Randy to find out what was happening, but would always put it back down.

  She was concerned for Sandy, Lisa, and Jenny and she wondered how she would repair things with Randy. She also wondered how Bracket would resolve her actions, with discipline or expulsion. She wondered if they had caught Gus and if he was the killer of the girls.

  In all her wondering though, she had stayed sober. A remarkable feat in and of itself, but with the windfall of events over the last couple of days, she would have normally fled straight to a bottle of whiskey.

  But she wanted to be completely clear-headed when she went to work on Monday morning.

  And so she was. Carrie walked into the office slightly early Monday morning with her head held high. She navigated her way to Bracket’s office where he sat behind his desk still doing paperwork.

  At the tap on the door facing, he looked up and smiled. “Good morning Carrie. Sit.” He stood and motioned for her to sit, then moved around the desk, shut the door, and pulled his blinds.

  “I’m surprised that I haven’t heard from you since you left,” said Bracket.

  Carrie looked at her lap where her legs were crossed. She plucked at the ripple her pants made and thought through her words carefully. “Well, you requested that I stay away and not come back or call.”

  She looked up then just in time to see Bracket bellow out a full throttle laugh. “That never stopped you before!”

  Carrie grinned. “No, it hasn’t, but I did a lot of thinking, not drinking, thinking. I took a long look at myself and how I do things. I have to do things differently and I have to change. There is no other option.

  “I rationalized that I was helping Sandy and helping to keep the girls safe, but it quickly spiraled out of control before I could even reach out for help.

  “I betrayed Randy, and that regret is as sour as vinegar. He has been my best friend for years and with me, no matter what. I don’t even dare to hope that he could ever forgive me.”

  “But maybe he can.” Randy’s voice came from over her shoulder. He had slipped quietly in Bracket’s door while she and Bracket had been talking and had heard Carrie’s painful words.

  Carrie jumped up and whirled around. Tears washed her eyes, and she fought to push them back from where they had come. “I’m so sorry, so very sorry.” But she lost the battle, and the tears escaped their boundaries and washed down her cheeks.

  “I can’t say I understand. Saturday I hated you with a passion. But after seeing Sandy alive and then seeing her ability to move forward, love, and forgive, I felt challenged to do the same.

  “Yesterday she and I talked a lot. She is incredibly grateful you came to her aid. You were her champion and I need to see that you were acting to, hopefully, resolve the issue quickly, and for no other reason.” Randy looked down as if his words had suddenly escaped him and were dancing around on the floor somewhere.

  “Let’s sit down and talk,” said Bracket, and they all sat back down.

  “I have to admit that I don’t even know what went down after I left Saturday. I disengaged on purpose to reset myself. Pride’s death, Jenny’s escape, and Sandy and Lisa’s abduction hit me hard, very hard,” said Carrie.

  Bracket and Randy filled Carrie in on all the details of the case and how things had happened. Had Gus lived, he would have been charged with kidnapping Lisa and Sandy, and manslaughter for Pride. Even though she had died of a heart attack, it was Gus’ actions that had brought it about.

  “What about the drownings? Do we have any evidence that Gus was the murderer?” Carrie looked back and forth from Randy to Bracket.

  Bracket shook his head and took a deep breath. “No. Agents and techs have been over both of his residences and we can’t find anything. If they were spur-of-the-moment killings, t
hen there would have been nothing pre-meditated at home to link him to them.”

  “We have to get back into the war room to see what we have and what we no longer have,” said Randy.

  Carrie looked over at Randy and studied his face. “Are we still partners? Can you… will you forgive me?” Carrie asked.

  Randy’s jaw clenched and released a few times as he stared straight ahead. “I want to forgive you. Is that good enough for now?”

  Carrie nodded her head. “That’s more than I could have hoped for.”

  Back in the war room, Randy and Carrie stood before two large whiteboards. They had filled one before the weekend's events. Today they had pulled another one in and were moving things around.

  Gus was dead and neither one thought he was the killer. They moved his photo to the new whiteboard and wrote deceased over the top.

  They moved Pride’s photo over with Gus’. She was never a suspect, but the fact that Cami had lived with her gave her a strong link to the case.

  Remaining on the whiteboard were Cami’s photo and Mandy’s photo. They had a photo of Sam with a question mark near the bottom of the board. They weren’t sure where she played in to all of this if she did at all.

  “What about Sam? In my gut it somehow connects her, but I can’t imagine how or where. We need to see if we can find someone who saw or knows that man and get a photo or a sketch,” said Carrie.

  They stood quietly for a moment and looked at the pitiful amount of remaining pieces of evidence. Forensics had found no leads in the debris around the sites. The few footprints found were not distinct enough to get a print from. Most of the area surrounding the crime scenes had grass of some sort, mostly tall and unmowed.

  Both girls were prostitutes, girls of Gus’. Previously they had thought that link meant something.

  “I don’t believe that Gus was the killer, but these were both Gus’ girls. What if that fact is a trigger to the murder? What if a competitor wanted to remove Gus’ girls for some type of revenge?” Carrie looked at Randy to see how he would respond.

  Randy stood staring at the board. His hands were shoved deep in his pants and wrinkles of indecision creased his face. Finally, he turned to Carrie.

  “That could be a link. Do we have a list of Gus’ competitors?” asked Randy.

  Carrie shuffled through some files and found one name, “Rudy Vargus,” Carrie looked up from the file to Randy. “He can’t be the only one though.”

  “Get on the computer and check out known associates. I’ll get in touch with OKCPD Vice and see what they have.” Carrie was already plunking the keyboard before Randy finished his sentence.

  Carrie was still digging and searching a few minutes later when Randy came back into the war room.

  “Vice gave me info on three different men. One we have a name on - Rudy Vargas. The other two are Gene, a.k.a. Tiny Simmons, and Herman Merrell.

  “According to Vice these are the main players in this area. However, they have heard no talk on the street that there was contention between them. Yes, they were competitors and therefore enemies, but they each had their own territory so to speak and kept to that.

  “Also, they are all under Alexander Volkov and knew better than to raise a stink with each other for fear of death.” Randy finally stopped and looked up at Carrie.

  “Did you find anything besides what I found?” asked Randy.

  Carrie breathed out a heavy sharp sigh, “No.”

  She stood next to Randy as he put photos of the three new suspects on the board and wrote in pertinent notes.

  The board still looked sparse when Randy finished and stepped back.

  “It doesn’t feel right to me. Does it to you?” Carrie asked Randy.

  Randy shook his head, “No, it doesn’t. But at the very least, we should talk to them and see if they know anything. We got so entangled with Gus that we dropped our focus on gathering info from other sources.”

  “Maybe Mike and Rick can help us. Have you checked in with the Human Trafficking Task Force lately to see if there is anything they could add?” asked Carrie.

  “No. I’ll go do that now. Why don’t you call Mike and Rick to see if they can come over and go over some things with us? Then we can divvy up some of these interviews.”

  “On it,” said Carrie.

  She pulled out her phone and clicked Rick’s name.

  “Yep. How’s it going?” Rick had seen Carrie’s name pop up and got right to the point.

  “Not so good. Randy and I were wondering if you and Mike could come over and go over some of this with us and then help us with some new interviews we want to do.”

  Carrie heard muffled voices as she waited for Rick to consult with Mike. “When?”

  "You let us know. We are here at the office now, but not sure what your schedule is.”

  More muffled voices. “How about in an hour or an hour and a half?”

  “Yeah, that’ll work. We’ll be here,” said Carrie.

  She hung up the phone, sent Randy a text, and then combed through each line of each file word by word. She felt there had to be something they had missed.

  What if the killer was focusing on the human trafficking angle or on someone connected to prostitution? What if it was just someone else and completely unrelated?

  Carrie searched the files for someone independent of the prostitution ring. No one. Not one witness statement mentioned anyone, except the man the girls went with.

  Was there overlap there, she wondered. Had the girls all gone with the same man? Could this be the link, and how would they find out? The girls were dead, and they couldn’t tell us who they had gone with.

  Then Carrie remembered Jenny talking about the man at the Cox Center underground garage. They knew him and would spend time talking to him while waiting for events to let out. She needed to talk to him.

  Frantically thumbing through her files, she finally found a note Randy had written right after their first interview with Jenny. The man’s name was Gary Bright.

  She jotted details down to take with her and suddenly realized that Randy had been gone for almost an hour.

  Frowning, she stood up and pushed her chair back. It screeched across the floor reflective of her own nerves. She was insecure from recent events, and she had a knot in her stomach as she walked to the door of the war room.

  Once in the main area, she searched for any sign of Randy, but there was none. Continuing to walk to their desks she looked about. Then just as she reached her desk she saw that Randy was back in Bracket’s office.

  Her hand shook as she reached for the back of her desk chair. They were lying to her, keeping something from her still. Even if he had only been in there part of the time, it would still have been a long time.

  She tried to focus on her computer monitor as she searched the database for Gary Bright. He was not in the system so she searched the internet.

  A Facebook page popped up, and it wasn’t private. Carrie almost forgot about Randy and Bracket as she scrolled through Gary’s page. You could almost find more out about a person here than on any government database.

  Gary was twenty-nine, had dark hair, and was reasonably fit. He was attractive, Carrie thought. His status said he was single, but several of the pictures showed him with his arms around a girl. Maybe he wasn’t one of those who changed his relationship status every time he dated someone new.

  He worked two jobs. She saw he had a part-time day job at one bank in the area. The name of the bank was there. It was right downtown.

  What if he was the one, the killer? She scrolled through his Facebook page again eyeing him as if he were. Did he fit the profile, Carrie wondered.

  He seemed happy and well adjusted, but then no one hardly ever put anything on Facebook but their very best. He could secretly be lonely and depressed off camera. She jotted down notes on the paper she’d started with Gary’s details. Only meeting him and talking to him face to face would determine the truth.

  “Sorry I
took so long to get back to you. Bracket needed my help on something in his office.” Randy said. He was chipper and happy, very uncharacteristic for him.

  Carrie sat in her chair and just barely looked up at him from her monitor. She didn’t smile. Her face was quizzical as she watched him.

  “What did he need you for?” She asked.

  “Oh, just some paperwork stuff.” Randy glazed over the answer with a brush of his hand as he searched his desk for something.

  The knot in Carrie’s stomach grew. They were hiding something from her. If she broached the subject, she would sound paranoid. She swallowed it all and stood up.

  “Do you remember that guy that Jenny mentioned in her first interview? The one she said her and Cami would often chat with at the garage waiting for events to let out?” Carrie waited for Randy to remember.

  “Yeah, I do.” Remembrance lit Randy’s face.

  “I thought we should take another tack at this. I looked him up and I have two places of work. One is the garage, but another is a downtown bank. He works both jobs part-time.”

  Randy nodded. He knew Carrie so well he knew where she was going with this. She was right; they needed to find him and interview him.

  “Great thinking, but Mike and Randy should be here any minute. As soon as they leave, we will head down there.”

  Carrie nodded and as she turned she saw Bracket in his office standing and looking around at it as if he was just seeing it for the first time. How odd, she thought.

  Apologies for being late, led the way, as Mike and Rick entered the room.

  “Sorry, we got tied up, but we’re ready to get going now,” said Rick.

  Mike grinned at Carrie, but he knew that their time together had passed. She didn’t even engage in mindless flirtation any more. She was changing. He wasn’t sure how or why, but he could tell that she was. She seemed more settled, more focused, and mature.