The Water

by Nancy Jackson

  The corner of Randy’s mouth turned up. “So am I. It feels like I will get caught any moment playing boss in my dad’s chair.”

  They both chuckled. Bracket’s office still looked the same. Randy knew he was still interim and couldn’t bear to touch one thing, one picture, one cute family memento, nothing.

  Once there, Randy shut the blinds and Carrie shut the door. It felt odd to Carrie seeing Randy behind the desk rather than next to her in the chair beside her.

  “Well, what else happened while I was out yesterday?” Carrie asked.

  Randy looked down at the desk and opened the file before him. He knew it would be hard telling Carrie that he had hired another agent who would be her partner. He took a deep breath and mustered all the courage he had.

  But before he could say a word, there was a tap on his door. “Yes?” asked Randy.

  The door opened slightly and Gerald’s head poked through. He could see Carrie sitting in there with Randy and was unsure what to do, so he just jerked his head at Randy in a motion indicating that he should come out.

  Sensing he knew what it was about, Randy stood and left the room. In just a few seconds, the door reopened.

  “Carrie, I’d like you to meet your new partner, Lainey Tate,” Randy said as he ushered Lainey into the room. Lainey stood tall and proud, even a little stiff from nerves, Randy surmised. She smiled broadly and reached her hand out to greet Carrie.

  Carrie knew she should shut her mouth, but her chin felt frozen. That was what Randy wanted to talk about this morning, she thought.

  At first glance she saw a late twenty-something attractive lady with very dark, almost black hair, done up on top of her head in a random messy bun that made her look incredibly stylish in an unassuming casual way.

  As Carrie stood and shook Lainey’s hand, she noticed that her eyes were bright and expectant. Almost like a puppy wanting to engage a new friend. Her smile was broad and… genuine, thought Carrie. She stood respectfully though, waiting for Carrie to take the lead.

  Carrie liked what she saw, but she wouldn’t officially form an opinion, just yet. Trust and respect wasn’t something that Carrie could just offer to someone. It was hard enough to have trust and respect for those who had proven themselves over time, much less those she had just met.

  They all sat in their respective chairs. Lainey sat straight and slightly forward in her chair. Carrie sat casually back in her chair with her legs crossed while Randy sat forward with his forearms resting on the desk.

  He looked straight at Lainey. “I had hoped that there would be time to get you acclimated gently to our office, but we don’t have the luxury of time right now. I gave you the obligatory paperwork to fill out when you came back to the office yesterday evening. I trust you’ve filled that out.”

  “Yes, sir.” Lainey handed Randy the thick manilla envelope of paperwork she had been carrying with her.

  “Wonderful. I’ll look at this and make sure everything is in order. In the meantime I will have you go with Carrie so she can fill you in on everything that’s going on with this current case. Do you have any questions for me?”

  Lainey shook her head. Randy stood, and Lainey and Carrie followed his lead. “Carrie can you hang back a minute? Lainey if you will wait just outside, this will be quick,” said Randy.

  As soon as Lainey stepped outside the door and it clicked shut, Randy and Carrie stood looking at each other. “So this is it,” said Carrie.

  Randy nodded. Words hung in the air unspoken. They knew them by heart without uttering a one. Carrie reached out to shake Randy’s hand. They shook, and for a brief moment their hands held suspended between them.

  Then Carrie let go and turned to leave.

  Lainey was standing dutifully outside the office door waiting for Carrie. She was nervous, but it barely showed. Carrie was a legend in the local law enforcement community and it thrilled Lainey to be partnered with her.

  She was also somewhat apprehensive too. She had not just heard the accomplishments, but the rumors too. She wanted to learn from Carrie, and be a partner who served her well. But she also wanted to learn to navigate her moods and emotions well, too.

  As Carrie walked out of the office, she smiled at Lainey. She wanted this to be a new start. She wanted to go into this new partnership on a positive note. She wanted to learn to work in a new role with a new partner. But there was a knot of apprehension in her stomach.

  “I hope you can catch up while we run. We need to get down to the police precinct as soon as possible. I’ll do my best to fill you in while we drive. Ask questions if you need to.”

  Lainey nodded and followed Carrie out of the office. The drive from the office to the precinct needed to be three times longer than it was, in order to fill Lainey in on everything, but Carrie had hit the highlights.

  Inside, Carrie found Rick and Mike and introduced them to Lainey. “These are the two you need to watch out for Lainey,” Carrie said with a smile. There were dozens of good detectives in the city, but these were the two she enjoyed working with the most.

  Rick smiled, but wasn’t in the mood to socialize. He hadn’t slept a wink last night. Thoughts of these young girls and his own daughters, haunted him.

  Not getting home until one in the morning, he was exhausted and assumed he would fall right to sleep, but he hadn’t.

  Rick summarized what had happened the day before, the visit to Lawdie’s, bringing Maggie in, then interrogating Tiny and his men.

  Maggie had gone with a social worker from DHS until they determined further how to help her. She would sleep the night in their custody. Tiny and his crew were in holding.

  “So, here’s what we know. Tiny has a house near Lawdie’s where he keeps young girls. Maggie looked at a map for us to see if she could remember where it was. We also looked at tax records. We think we have the house and have patrolmen watching it in case Tiny’s men try to run with the girls.

  “There is a waitress slash dancer at Lawdie’s that recognized the man in the sketch. She also thought she recognized Sam from the picture. We were about to get details when we were so rudely interrupted by one of Tiny’s men.

  “When we turned back around, she was gone. We have to find her and we have to get into that house and see what girls are there. Lawdie’s is shut down and we have a warrant to search. We should have the warrant for the house by now as well.

  Carrie’s mind was swimming. All this activity was wonderful and felt like they were making solid ground forward, but was this going to move them forward on the drownings?

  “What are you thinking,” asked Mike. He could tell by the look on Carrie’s face she was overexerting mental energy.

  “I’m thrilled at what you guys have uncovered. I just have a sinking feeling in my gut, that although this is wonderful, it may not help me find my killer.”

  Mike was thinking and nodding. “Well, do you have any other leads you feel you should work?”

  “No, so we will work these with you and see what pans out. I want to find that man in the sketch and Sam. Those are the closest links to my case.”

  “Then we need to find that waitress. You two come to Lawdie’s with us and we’ll search for any information at all on her and I’ll send another team to the house.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Carrie and Lainey were pulling up to Lawdie’s. The exterior reminded Carrie of an old frontier store front, only on a much larger scale. The word Lawdie’s was plastered in four foot high neon letters that spanned a broad arch over the front doors.

  An officer in uniform guarded the door and Carrie nodded to him as the four of them entered. It was quiet and empty.

  “The office is back this way. I don’t hold much hope that he carried W-4 forms on all his employee’s, but you never know. Sometimes they surprise me,” said Rick.

  The office in front of where Tiny’s lair was, looked more like a working office than his did. There were file cabinets and a desk with a computer. They divided up the area and do
ve in with their gloved hands. Carrie had quickly volunteered to take the first filing cabinet.

  After an hour of searching, Carrie finally found what she’d hoped for. “Found it!”

  They all stopped and came together in the center of the room. “They did have W-4’s on the employees. At least some of them.” Carrie laid the folder on the desk and the other three huddled around. She flipped the papers a page at a time.

  They were a little in awe that the file was so thorough. They even had copies of drivers’ licenses attached. Drivers’ licenses meant photos.

  Carrie turned the pages much slower than she probably needed to, which created an atmosphere of suspense, but she didn’t want to rush this. She didn’t want to hurry past and fail to find the person they needed.

  “Her!” exclaimed Rick. Before them was a license photo of a forty-six-year-old woman named Jennifer Jenson. The woman looked much older than she should have looked at her age.

  Carrie lifted out the page and walked over to the copier and made two copies of the page, giving one to Rick and the other to Lainey. She then continued to look through the folder. No one else stood out to them, but they bagged the file to take back to the precinct just in case.

  “I know you guys built rapport with her and I feel she will open up to you guys because of it, but I need to get to this woman. How do you suggest we handle this? If we all four roll up on her, she’ll either panic and babble out everything, or she’ll clam up and scream lawyer.”

  The four of them stood thinking and playing out scenarios in their minds for just a moment before Rick said, “Let Mike and I go see if we can get her and bring her in. We'll emphasize that it is only for questioning and that she is not under suspicion for breaking the law. Once at the precinct we can take turns visiting with her.”

  Carrie liked that idea. “Okay. Sounds good. Have we finished here? Get the tech guys to take that computer in and finish combing over things and we will take off.”

  Back in the hot car, Carrie cranked the engine and the AC, and smiled. Lainey watched and felt like she was on the outside of an inside joke.

  As they drove back to their office, Carrie asked, “Lainey I know you have been dumped into the middle of this case rather late in the game, but just from what you know so far, what are your thoughts?” Carrie was hoping her fresh eyes would show her the forest instead of the trees.

  Lainey swallowed and thought. Her mind was darting like fire sparks from the anxiety of being put on the spot. Then she took a deep breath and looked at Carrie.

  “You said someone drowned three young women. They murdered all three the exact same way. All three were prostitutes. Have you in your experience seen thugs like Tiny get rid of people that way?” She stopped for only a brief second before resuming.

  “From where I stand, it looks like a serial killer with a psychopathy and an agenda. I am thrilled that all these girls are being found and helped, and that Tiny and his crew may be taken down, but the only thing I can think of that will come out of this for our case is if we get a lead, back to where our girls might have come in contact with their killer.”

  Lainey stopped to see how Carrie would react. Carrie drove in silence as she navigated the early morning traffic. Lainey was right and confirmed exactly what she had been thinking all along. As wonderful as this bust was, it was a rabbit trail that was taking them off course.

  “I agree. That’s what I’ve been thinking. Let’s get back to the office and go over things again. I want to get you all the details and see if there is something we’ve seen so many times it doesn’t stand out to us any longer.”

  Lainey felt relief at Carrie’s words. She wanted more than anything to do a good job and have Carrie's approval.

  Back at the office Carrie took Lainey to her desk, Randy’s old desk and helped her get settled in. Randy had laid a file on the desk for Lainey with a list of login credentials, and password codes. Carrie took a few minutes to get Lainey up to speed on their system.

  Lainey had worked in law enforcement for several years now and it was an easy transformation from one type of system to another. They were all basically the same, just small variances in operation.

  Once acclimated with those few housekeeping issues, Carrie showed Lainey the war room where they were working on the drownings.

  Lainey strolled up to the first board with wide eyes, soaking it all in. Carrie stood back and watched, assessing Lainey. She’s sharp, thought Carrie. The way she studied certain things and moved quickly over others; and the way Carrie could see in her eyes that her internal wheels were turning, thinking, calculating.

  Finally, Lainey stopped at a huge map with pushpins they had up. The red pins were murder sites. The blue pins were other points of interest such as Pride’s house, Gus’s two houses, and the SAL house.

  Lainey tapped the location of Lawdie’s, “See, this is several miles away from all this other activity. It doesn’t fit.” She turned to look at Carrie.

  Carrie studied the map. Oklahoma City is a large city in area. With so much land, it has spread like an uncontained water leak through the years. The area where all the current pins were could be contained in less than a three-mile radius, small for this city. Lawdie’s was at least nine miles to the west.

  “I see what you’re saying.” Carrie knew Lainey was right, but she still couldn’t pull it together. She suddenly turned and went to retrieve a file which was lying on the table.

  “The new victim. I don’t see here in the file if we have an id yet.” Carrie shut the file and sat down at the computer in the war room. She typed furiously as Lainey stood by and waited.

  Tapping the screen to show Lainey, she said, “Here is the list of evidence found at the scene. Let’s print this out and go over it line by line.” Carrie clicked to print two copies and gave one to Lainey.

  “Let’s sit here and look at this evidence list. If anything looks odd to you or stands out to you, circle it and make a note.” Lainey nodded.

  About half way down the list Carrie came to the items, red ink pen, blue ink pen, black ink pen, mechanical pencil… She sat looking at those items. Her mind was firing synapsis, but not connecting with anything. She knew those items, but from where?

  She shut her eyes and retraced their steps over the last week. Had it only been a week and a day, thought Carrie? She mentally went over each person they had interviewed, each person they had come in contact with. Then it hit her. The funny little man at the diner and the park.

  “I’ve got it!” Lainey looked up with eyes as big as saucers. She was alert and ready to charge in whatever direction was deemed necessary.

  “There was this funny little man. I know he was younger than he looked, but he looked like an eighty-year-old man that had been dropped here from the 1950s.

  “We first saw him at Penny’s diner when we went to meet Beth, Lisa, and Jenny. He was there eating. Nothing unusual, except I noticed him because he seemed so out of place.

  “Then when Randy and I were at the park on Monday, he was sitting on a bench and acting strange. He had a pocket protector with pens in it. No one does that anymore.” Carrie’s voice was escalating with excitement. She tapped the paper, “These pens could be his!”

  “How do we find him?” asked Lainey.

  “There may be DNA, but if he isn’t in the system, then that won’t help until we catch him. He was at Penny’s which is close to downtown. He may be a regular there. We need to talk to the waitress, then we can go back and talk to Carissa, the girl he was talking to on the bench.”

  Carrie grabbed the file, and she and Lainey flew out the door. She wanted to rush in and grab Randy to go with them, but knew she couldn’t.

  The drive to Penny’s was uneventful. Carrie and Lainey were excitedly throwing out thoughts and suppositions regarding new theories.

  It was ten a.m. when they pulled up to the diner. Once inside, they looked around. It was mid-morning on a workday. Alice, their previous waitress waved at them and
asked them to take a seat.

  They did, and ordered coffee when she came to take their order. “Alice,” began Carrie, “we are actually here to ask you about a man who may be a regular customer here.”

  When Alice stopped pouring the black liquid she looked at Carrie, just a tad weary. “Okay.”

  “The last time we were here with Beth and the girls, there was a man sitting in that booth there.” Carrie pointed to the third booth from the corner booth. “He looked like he had dropped out of the 1950s.”

  As soon as Alice heard that, she relaxed. That man gave her the creeps and she wouldn’t mind saying so. “Yes, he comes in here from time to time. Not real often, and there doesn’t seem to be a regular pattern, but he has been here before.”

  “Do you know anything about him? Does he pay with a credit card?” Carrie was holding her breath in anticipation.

  “No, sorry. He is always a cash only kind of guy.”

  “Do you know his name?” Alice was shaking her head before Carrie had even gotten to the end of the question.

  “Is there anything at all that you can think of to tell us about him?”

  Alice stood and looked off into nowhere, thinking hard. She had detested the man so much that she spent as little time as possible waiting on him when he was here.

  “I think he drives an old Plymouth. I remember that because I thought how fitting it was that he would drive that kind of car. Let me see… Alice was tapping her chin trying to remember more. “It was a faded blue, and I think the name was a Retalent, or something.”

  Lainey jumped in. “Reliant?”

  “Yes! Reliant.”

  “My grandpa had one years ago.” Lainey shrugged at why she should know such a thing and smiled.

  Suddenly Carrie remembered that Randy used to always take notes profusely, and so she had never had to. Now they were sitting there, and no one was taking notes.

  “Lainey, you got a notepad?” Carrie’s face was twisted in a hopeful question mark.