“You’re working alone?”
“Yes.”
“What do you do when you need to use the bathroom?”
Linda’s face reddened. “I use the bushes across the road. The chief said if it was good enough for the male deputies then it was good enough for me.”
“The man is an ass.”
Linda laughed. “I won’t argue.”
She returned to her patrol car. As she was getting in, Linda thought she’d glimpsed a face peering at her, from beyond the fence and above the hedges. It could have been Rowland, but it didn’t seem likely.
Does Joey have company in there?
Linda left the police car and ran over to the fence. It was a few inches taller than she was, but she was able to pull herself up and look over it.
Nothing. Nothing and no one. Maybe she’d imagined it, or she’d glimpsed an animal in one of the trees. Linda returned to the car, dumped out the cold coffee in her cup, then poured more from the thermos. After picking up her phone again she brought up the book she’d been reading. It was a romance novel. Linda loved books and had been a voracious reader since high school. As she became engrossed in the novel again, Linda didn’t notice the man looking at her from behind the gate.
Chapter Seventeen
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
As their plane circled for a landing, Brad Owens tried to get in contact with Jake Raines’ assistant, Rhonda Wheeler; however, he only reached her voicemail. He declined to leave a message. Then, Owens remembered that it was the weekend. Maybe Rhonda was sleeping late and ignoring her phone.
Beside Owens, Erica stirred from the nap she’d taken and sat up straight in her seat, as she looked out the window.
“We’ll be landing soon, good. I want to speak with Max Raines while we’re here.”
“I’m more interested in talking to his father again, now that we know about Wildcard’s connection to Traveler.”
“I still think they’re two separate people. It just doesn’t make sense that Traveler would change from targeting prostitutes all of a sudden. He’d also have no reason to kill Wildcard’s chosen victims.”
“The criminal profilers agree with you, but there’s still a chance that the cases are linked. Oh, and that was great work this morning, you coming up with Rowland’s brother as a Traveler suspect. It hadn’t occurred to me to think of him that way.”
“Chief Connors seems certain that Jude Rowland’s brother is a murderer. The next time we talk to Rowland I want to ask him what he knows about the man.”
“It may be very little, Rowland was only nine when his brother left town.”
“Yes, but maybe they’ve stayed in contact.”
Erica’s phone received a text. It was the reply to a question she had asked the task force leader.
“Whitford says that they’ve determined the call girl’s true identity. She was working under the name of Tessa White, but her real name was Mary Robinson. She was on record as having been a teen runaway. Her only arrest was for solicitation. That arrest took place in Key West; at the time she was eighteen. Whitford has agents in the Daytona Beach area tracking down where she’d been during the last days of her life.”
“I saw a photo of her; even dead she looked beautiful. Someone should remember seeing her.”
* * *
With the possibility that they might have to take a suspect in for questioning, Erica and Owens requested a patrol car to accompany them to Raines’ home. When the unit arrived, Owens leaned on the windowsill to tell the two cops that they were to remain on standby in case an arrest was made. As he was turning away to head to the Bureau car waiting for him, Owens heard a familiar name come over the police radio.
The cop behind the wheel was raising his window, but Owens tapped on it to get him to lower it again.
“Did I just hear the name Rhonda Wheeler mentioned?”
“Yes, sir, there’s an ATL out on her, an Attempt to Locate bulletin. The mother thinks she’s gone missing.”
“Miss Wheeler is the assistant of the man we’re going to see. Her disappearance might be related to our case. Forget what I said about standing by, I want you two to accompany us when we talk to Raines.”
The cops said they understood, and Owens returned to his own vehicle, where he filled in Erica.
* * *
“Missing? I don’t like the sound of that.”
Owens swallowed hard. “Neither do I.”
Erica noticed the worry in Owens’ eyes. “She’s likely fine, Brad; no one has a reason to hurt her.”
Owens blew out a breath. “I pray nothing has happened to Rhonda. I really like that woman.”
“I know. I saw the two of you outside the hotel the other morning. You looked happy.”
“It was one of the best nights of my life, and no, we didn’t sleep together. After dinner we went to a bar, then an all-night café. We talked for hours, Erica. I haven’t felt a connection like this with anyone since the early days with my ex-wife.”
Erica laid a hand on his arm. “We’ll find her.”
The cops took off with their lights and siren going. Owens hadn’t expected that but was grateful for it. By following behind the police car, they arrived at Raines’ home in a matter of minutes.
Raines opened his front door to stare at the patrol car, then looked over at Erica and Owens as they exited their vehicle. The cops shut off the siren as Raines came down his front steps.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re here to see you again and we want to speak to your son as well,” Owens said.
“You want to talk to Max, why?”
Owens ignored the question and asked one of his own.
“Do you have any idea where Rhonda Wheeler is?”
“She doesn’t work weekends, but I heard she was missing; her mother called here looking for her.”
“Let’s go inside where we can talk,” Erica said, and before Raines could protest, she sprinted up the steps and into the house through the open door.
A figure had been standing out of sight and listening. It was Max Raines. When he saw the two cops enter, he began sweating, as his eyes darted about.
“When was the last time either of you saw Miss Wheeler?” Owens asked.
“Yesterday afternoon,” Jake Raines said, “and she left early without telling me, which was odd.”
“Do you know why she left early?” Erica asked.
“No, and when I called her phone it went to voicemail. That’s another weird thing, Rhonda always answers or calls back. Damn, I hope nothing has happened to that girl; she’s as good as gold.”
Owens moved up close to Max. “When was the last time you saw Rhonda Wheeler?”
Max averted his eyes from Owens’ gaze and looked down at the floor.
“Mr. Raines, I asked you a question.”
Max used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe sweat from his brow as he mumbled a response.
“I don’t remember.”
“Was it yesterday?” Owens asked.
A nod.
“What time yesterday?”
“I… I don’t remember, sometime around noon.”
Erica spoke to Jake Raines. “I see that your security system includes exterior cameras. Would it be possible to look at yesterday’s video? That should tell us what time she left.”
Raines smiled. “Why didn’t I think of that? Come on back in the office and we’ll have a look.”
Before leaving, Owens spoke to Max. “I’d like to ask you a few more questions, please don’t leave.” Owens followed that request with a meaningful look at the two cops. They both nodded their understanding and turned their eyes on Max.
Jake Raines took a few minutes to cue the correct video of the front door and the sidewalk beyond it, then paused the picture at 12:33 p.m.
“That’s about the time I last saw Rhonda. I left her in here while I had lunch in the dining room. When I came back about forty-five minutes later, she was gone.”
�
�Okay, now fast-forward the tape,” Owens said.
Raines did as asked. Nothing happened on the video until the 1:53 mark. That was when a U.P.S. truck dropped off a delivery, which the housekeeper took. When the same housekeeper left for the day at 5:04, Rhonda Wheeler still hadn’t appeared on screen.
“Does she ever use a different exit?” Erica asked.
Raines was shaking his head no when he remembered something.
“She’ll pull her car into the garage when it’s snowing, and we did get a little snow yesterday. Rhonda might have entered the garage and left that way.”
“Show us the garage,” Owens said.
“Sure, it’s right off the kitchen.”
They moved through a short hallway that took them past the dining room and a library. Seeing the shelves stuffed with books caused Erica to recall the many volumes owned by the victims of Wildcard.
Raines led them through an impressive kitchen that was black & white with chrome appliances. There was a steel door set in the opposite wall from the entryway. After opening it and flicking on a light, Raines released an audible gasp.
“That red Toyota Camry, that’s Rhonda’s car.”
Owens had already been heading for it. He had ridden inside the vehicle the last time he and Erica had been in Chicago. He went down three steps and into the garage to check out the Camry. Nothing looked odd and the car was empty. When he tried the door handle, the door opened. After hesitating a moment, fearful over what might be revealed, Owens popped open the trunk by pulling on a lever next to the seat.
“It’s empty, Brad,” Erica called to him, and she could see the relief in Owens’ eyes.
“Mr. Raines, I think we need to search the house, will you allow it?” Owens asked.
Raines had been staring at Rhonda’s car with a perplexed expression.
“Um, yeah, of course, but what could have happened to her?”
“Don’t let them search, Dad.”
Those words came from Max, who had come into the kitchen with the two cops behind him. Max stood in the doorway of the garage staring down at his feet.
“Don’t let them search… and call the lawyer.”
A stunned expression replaced the look of confusion on Jake Raines’ face. It was followed by a grimace of pain as he spoke to his son.
“What did you do, Max? What did you do this time? Please, tell me you didn’t hurt Rhonda.”
Max kept staring down at his feet. “I want a lawyer.”
Owens came charging up the basement steps. “Where is she?”
Erica moved in front of her partner and kept him from reaching Max.
“Calm down, Brad, we’ll find her. Mr. Raines, we need to search now.”
Raines was staring at his son with eyes on the verge of tears.
“You have my permission.”
One of the cops stayed with the Raines while the other assisted in the search. Owens had to send for Jake Raines when he found that the attic door was locked.
Raines came huffing up the stairs with the perplexed look back on his face.
“I didn’t even know that door had a lock, and I have no idea where the key is.”
“I want to break the door in,” Owens said.
“Go ahead,” Raines told him.
It took three hard kicks to make the wood around the deadbolt splinter. Owens’ groping hand found the light switch just as Erica and the other cop came up the steps. They had searched the rest of the home and found nothing.
Movement and the sound of a muffled voice came from behind a stack of cardboard cartons. When Owens moved around the stack, he saw Rhonda tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth. She looked miserable and smelled worse. Having been held captive for so long she’d been forced to urinate on herself.
There was a lump at the base of her skull and her blouse was ripped open, exposing her black lace bra. Her red hair hung limply but her green eyes were alight with the joy of being found.
An offered knife by the cop helped Owens to cut off the gag; however, Rhonda was crying too hard to form words right away. Owens freed her from the ropes binding her, wincing at the marks they’d left behind on her wrists and ankles. When she was free, he helped her to stand. Rhonda’s steps were unsteady, but she found her voice.
“Max did this. He kept asking me how much you knew about him.” Rhonda pointed to a box that was at the base of the roof’s slant. “Look in there.”
Erica grabbed the box, opened it, and peered inside.
“Women’s panties, but… no, no these belong to little girls. Some of these have cartoon characters on them.”
“Max used those to masturbate into,” Rhonda said. “He wanted me to watch him, but I closed my eyes, still… the sounds.” Rhonda shed more tears as memories raced through her mind.
Owens wrapped an arm around her shoulders while he told the cop to call an ambulance. When they returned downstairs, they found Max bawling his eyes out in the living room as the other cop stood over him.
Erica looked at Max’s father and saw that Jake Raines was crying too, but she remembered his words.
“What did you do this time?” Raines had asked his son.
Max Raines had a history of violence that had yet to be divulged, and yet, Erica was certain that neither the son or the father was Wildcard. As far as she was concerned, Jake and Max Raines were off the list of suspects. That made Jude Rowland and his long-lost brother look all the more likely.
Erica drove behind the ambulance as her partner rode along with Rhonda. She couldn’t wait to put Chicago behind them and return to the town of Sanguine.
Chapter Eighteen
Max Raines was a serial rapist of preteen girls. The rapes had occurred over a number of years and took place in several states.
Jake Raines had bought Max’s way out of trouble four years earlier when his son had been accused of inappropriate touching of a minor. The younger Raines had been in therapy ever since and had never missed a session. Apparently, the therapy had been a waste of time and money. Max was a predator who had caused physical and emotional harm while destroying the innocence of more than a dozen young girls. The one saving grace was that he had never crossed the line into murder.
That might have changed if Rhonda had been at his mercy any longer. She told Owens that she thought he was psyching himself up to kill her.
Max had approached her in the office on Friday afternoon. He began demanding that she tell him what she and Owens had talked about the night before.
Rhonda told Max that it had nothing to do with him, but Max was high on something that had him amped-up. Rhonda made the mistake of turning her back on Max to file something away and felt a flash of pain in her skull. When she regained her senses, she found herself up in the attic and bound to a chair. Max was pacing before her while talking to himself.
“What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?”
He had assaulted and held a woman against her will, and those were just the first of many charges he would face.
* * *
Owens was at the hospital with Rhonda while she waited for her mother to arrive from Virginia. With her daughter missing, the woman had already boarded a flight to Chicago and was scheduled to land within the hour.
Erica had seen the look of concern in her partner’s eyes and realized that his feelings for Rhonda were deeper than she’d believed.
After checking into a hotel, Erica ate a room service meal then worked on her daily report. She was recommending to Whitford that Jake Raines be eliminated as a suspect in the Traveler case. The man had cried when he’d seen what his son had done to Rhonda Wheeler. It didn’t seem likely that he had spent the last sixteen years murdering prostitutes. However, Raines was still a suspect in the Wildcard case, although Erica doubted he was their man.
After eating, Erica settled down with a new book. It was the first of the Johnny Revenge thrillers. Erica flew through the virtual pages on her phone as the story enraptured her.
&
nbsp; The fictional character Johnny Revenge certainly had appeal. Although an outlaw and murderer, he possessed a sense of justice and fairness, along with a wry sense of humor. Johnny got revenge for those unwilling or unable to do so themselves. His targets were mainly criminals.
Erica finished reading at one a.m. and ordered the second book to begin the next day. When the book appeared on her phone, she decided to read the first chapter, but was soon sucked in again.
It was after two when she finally placed her phone on the charger and took a shower. The second book in the series was as riveting as the first and Erica was enjoying the tale. Whatever else Jude Rowland might turn out to be, the man could craft a captivating story.
Erica drifted off to sleep, and as she did most nights, she was going over the facts of the case in her mind. In a few short hours, she and Owens were returning to New Hampshire. Erica wanted to break through Jude Rowland’s cool façade.
When a text was sent to her phone at 6:00 a.m., she received the ammunition she needed to do just that.
Chapter Nineteen
SANGUINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Inside the town’s police station, Chief Connors sat behind his wooden desk with a wide grin showing. More evidence had surfaced that made it appear that Jude Rowland could be a murderer.
The call girl killed in Florida who had been going by the name of Tessa White was traced back to the Daytona Beach hotel bar. Jude Rowland had stayed at the hotel and on the same night where Tessa White was last seen. It had to be more than coincidence that Jude Rowland and Tessa White were in the same Daytona Beach hotel prior to her death.
“I can have a judge issue a warrant for his house, grounds and vehicles,” Chief Connors said.
Erica was shaking her head before he’d finished the statement.
“We don’t want to play hardball with Rowland, not yet. My partner and I will go there and speak to him alone.”
The chief leapt from his office chair and extended his arms.
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