“We’ve got a lot of loose ends and we need to tie them together. We know that in both cases the victims were raped and we know that there was overkill. That leads me to believe that either the UnSub knew both victims, or that it was personal to him in some way. We need Royce to confirm if the rape was complete or if there was pre-ejaculate only like in the Parker rape. We also know that Babcock was killed at the lake and that Parker had been at the lake earlier in the day before she was attacked. That’s a lot of similarities.”
Closing the Babcock folder, Martin leaned back, “I talked to the family last night at the scene, but they really didn’t tell me anything that would help with the case. Understandable, considering what happened. They moved in from the lake last night and stayed over at the Pine Ridge B&B. What say we take a ride over there and talk to them together?”
Tate closed the Parker folder. “Sounds good to me, maybe they’ll remember something that they forgot to tell you last night in the chaos of the moment. On the way back we can stop at the morgue and save Royce or Daniel a trip to the courthouse.”
The decision made, both men grabbed their hats and coats on the way out. Even though summer was just weeks away the chill of spring still hovered in the mountain air. In the parking lot they agreed to take the SUV since Tate was on duty for the city while Martin had worked the night shift the evening before and was officially off-duty today.
Tate turned down his radio. “You know that we can pretty much rule out that Parker’s murder was linked to her marijuana use, right? I really don’t have any reason to doubt what Troy Donaldson told me about that night at the party or his own drug use. I’m pretty sure that the Babcock boy’s tox report will confirm Ketamine in the bloodstream just like Saralyn Parker’s did. Right now the only common denominator other than the way they were killed is the lake. Did you happen to ask the Babcocks if they knew Saralyn Parker?”
Martin shook his head. “The Babcocks live just across the state line in Chadron and had come up to the lake for a long weekend. I didn’t want to bring up that we’d had a similar homicide with them until we had more details. Both of them were upset, but Mrs. Babcock was on the verge of a breakdown. I had Caroline over at the B&B call Doc Shriver over once they were checked in. He gave her something to settle her down. As bad as we need answers, it didn’t seem right to keep at it with her as upset as she was.”
Pulling the SUV into the Pine Ridge B&B, Tate parked the vehicle. Both men sat for moment staring at the building, not wanting to question grieving parents. Picking up his hat from the back seat, Martin turned to Tate. “Sitting here won’t make it any easier.”
CHAPTER 15
Gavin passed two women bent over and fussing with flowers in a huge ceramic pot near the entrance. He pushed through a set of double doors into the state of the art center where his mother lived, then wrinkled his nose and grumbled, “Damn that nasty old people smell. Don’t they ever bathe?”
Pausing, he glanced into a sunny community room, his eyes searching for her. Gavin wasn’t surprised that his mother was not one of a gaggle of blue haired old women clustered around a TV watching some reality show.
Shaking his head, he muttered in frustration, “Shit. I pay a fortune for this place and she won’t leave her room.” Frozen in the doorway, Gavin closed his eyes willing his mother to appear. You used to love flowers Mama, you could be outside right now. Those women wouldn’t care about your scars. They wouldn’t Mama, they’d love you, just like I do. Winking at an old woman who stopped watching television to look up at him with a searching blank stare, Gavin moved through the elaborately decorated lobby and into the heart of the center. Not slowing, he passed the reception desk and took a left down a long, sterile, white-painted hallway. Only now his steps slowed as Gavin approached the last door on the wing.
His mother’s room.
Gavin paused outside the door to Silvia Wheeler’s room and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Pasting a smile on his face he pushed into the room. At first he thought his mother was sleeping, but as he took a step closer to the bed her eye fluttered open. For a brief moment he caught the fear in her expression before she was swallowed back into the nothingness that she lived in. Standing next to the bed, Gavin stooped to kiss his mother’s forehead.
Gavin grasped her small, blue-veined and paper-thin hand and asked, “How are you Mama? It’s me Gavin, remember?”
Nothing. Not one damn word.
Trying again, Gavin asked, “Did you like the new clothes that I had sent over for you? You look really pretty today, Mama.”
More nothing.
Pulling a chair close to his mother’s bed, Gavin sat and then reached to push Silvia’s thin, graying hair back from her forehead, careful not to disturb the black patch that she insisted on wearing over one eye to cover her scar.
“You’re due a haircut, Mama. I’ll get someone over here to take care of that for you. I brought you a present today, want to see?” Reaching into the shopping bag, Gavin pulled out a soft bodied baby doll with dark curly hair and eyes that opened and closed.
Silvia turned to look at her son for the first time since he entered the room. She reached out for the doll and snatched it from Gavin’s hands, pulling it tightly to her chest.
Gavin chuckled, “You like that Mama?”
Smiling Silvia reached out to touch Gavin’s face lightly with one hand. Haltingly she spoke, “B-baby.”
Covering her hand with his own, much larger one, Gavin closed his eyes, remembering a different mother. He turned his mother’s hand over in his own and pushed the sleeve of her dress up, revealing a faded tattoo. Using one finger he traced the three rings on her arm.
“One for each of us, huh, Mama? Our family, joined forever, just like the circles on your arm.” Gavin pushed the sleeve down to cover the tattoo and fought to control his anger. Leaning forward he spoke quietly into her good ear. “You should have gotten only two rings, Mama. That bastard didn’t deserve one. He didn’t deserve us either. You know he did this to you.” Gavin ran a hand over the scar that marked her missing ear.His father had cut the ear off in one of his drunken rages. It was a wonder she survived the man.
Silvia slid her hand free and pulled her new baby closer. She closed her eye and gently rubbed the doll’s back in a soothing motion.
Leaning back in his chair, Gavin sighed. It was getting harder to come here and pretend that she would ever be normal again. The blank look on her face was proof enough without the black patch covering her right eye. The patch hid the scars of a tortured life spent with a bastard of a man, but nothing could ever cover that look. “If the fucker wasn’t already in hell, I’d give him a one way ticket there myself, Mama.”
No response.
Gavin stood. “I’ve got to go Mama, but I’ll be back. I’ve got work to do. Got to pay those bills, you know. I’ll be back real soon. I love you, Mama.”
No response.
Gavin made a quick stop at a local liquor store and then checked into a hotel two blocks away. Draining his third glass of whisky, he opened his computer for a little late night freak show before bed.
CHAPTER 16
Entering the B&B, both Tate and Martin respectfully removed their hats and stood at a small table that Caroline Spencer used as her registration desk. Before Tate could ring the silver-plated 1950’s era school bell sitting on the polished wood table, a large woman with graying hair pushed through a pair of swinging doors that lead from the kitchen. Wiping her floured hands on an apron covered with teacups and roses, Caroline Spencer stepped forward to greet the two lawmen.
“I suppose you’re here to see the Babcocks. Just a shame, I tell you, a shame what those poor folks are going through.”
Even though the visit was a somber one, Tate had to fight back a smile. Getting a word in with Caroline in the room was almost impossible and today was not going to be different.
“Well, you boys go on into the sitting room and take a chair. I’ll let the mister know th
at you’re here. Now that poor woman, if she’s finally asleep you will not wake her up. You hear me, boys?”
Realizing that she had paused to take a much needed breath Tate jumped in. “Caroline, we’ll do our best not to upset Mrs. Babcock, but we do need to speak with them both.”
Giving the men a hard look and a brisk nod Caroline turned and began a slow climb up creaking stairs to the second floor landing. Still talking, her voice carried down to Tate and Martin. “Just a shame I tell you. A sad, sad shame.”
Martin took a seat in a faded blue wingback chair while Tate looked out a lace covered window into the back yard. Moments later, the stairs creaked in protest, announcing Caroline’s return. She had the remaining Babcock child pulled close to her side. Shooting a frown Tate’s way and speaking quietly to the boy she steered him through the swinging kitchen doors, giving Tate and Martin some much needed privacy to speak with his parents. The kitchen doors were still moving when both Mr. and Mrs. Babcock came down the stairs. Mr. Babcock’s arm curved protectively around his wife’s waist, holding her up as they entered the small sitting room. They sat side-by-side on the sofa.
Martin shook hands with the parents. He spoke in a hushed tone to the couple, “Mr. and Mrs. Babcock, this is Tate Echo, he’s the police chief of Pine Ridge and we’re working the case jointly.”
Tate stepped forward and shook hands with the grieving couple, expressing his sympathy for the loss of their child. He took a seat across from the Babcocks and pulled his notepad out, waiting for Martin to open the dialogue.
Measuring his words carefully so as not to further upset the grieving couple, Martin said, “Tell us about your day yesterday, beginning from the time you arrived at the lake until you noticed that your son was missing.”
Mr. Babcock cleared his throat. “We got to the lake about nine yesterday morning and checked in. Went to the cabin and unloaded our stuff, and then me and the boys took a boat out on the lake.” Choking back a sob, he continued, “We only caught a couple fish but Justin caught the biggest one and he…he couldn’t wait to tell his mom.” Reaching out in silent support Mrs. Babcock caught her husband’s hand, holding it tightly in both of hers.
Seeing the couple struggle to maintain their composure, Tate waited before speaking, giving them a minute to collect themselves and their thoughts. “After you came in from the lake what did you do then?”
Mrs. Babcock pulled a wadded up tissue from her hand and blew her nose. She lifted a tear stained face to meet Tate’s. “Lun..lunch. We took sandwiches down to the dock so that I could see the fish. The boys had left them tied to the dock.” Large tears pooled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Stumbling over her words she tried to continue, “My baby’s last lun…”
Mr. Babcock wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her close as she sobbed. Shaking her head, she pushed away from her husband and turned to face Tate and Martin. In a burst of strength she said firmly, “I want you to find whoever did this. I need to….”
Martin spoke up, “We intend to find Justin’s killer, ma’am. I promise that we--”
Tate cut Martin off before he could make promises they might not be able to keep. “Mr. and Mrs. Babcock, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that we catch the killer.” Steering the conversation back to a more productive line of questioning Tate asked, “Now, what did you do after lunch?”
Mr. Babcock continued, “We hiked around the lake and did some geocaching.”
Tate looked up at this. “Geocaching? That’s when you use a GPS to play a high tech game of hide and seek right?”
Mr. Babcock opened his mouth to speak but stopped when his wife excitedly grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and shook her husband’s arm.
“Richard! Oh, my God, Richard, oh, God.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He took his wife by the arms.
Jumping up from her seat on the couch, Mrs. Babcock took a few steps away from the sofa, wrapping her arms around her middle. She faced the three men in the room. “Richard, the place where Justin was. The place that they found Justin, that’s where we found the cache yesterday afternoon. And that man. You know, that man who was in such a hurry. Oh, Richard what if he took Justin?” Collapsing back on the couch and burying her hands in her face, Mrs. Babcock’s shoulders shook; her sobs barely audible through her hands.
Giving her a minute, Martin finally spoke up, “Tell us more about the geocaching, and this man you mentioned.”
Mr. Babcock explained that they used their laptop to search the geocaching website for caches in the lake area before programming them into their GPS and going out to search for them.
Tate took notes and wrote down the web address for the geocaching site, as well as the Babcock’s login ID and password so he could log into their account. “Now I need you to think back to the man you met there and describe him for me. What color hair did he have? How was he dressed? Anything that you can think of could be helpful.”
Questions and answers went back and forth and Tate and Martin didn’t notice the passing of time until the third time Caroline stuck her head in to announce lunch. Deciding it was time to give the family a break, both men stood to leave.
Tate shook hands with Mr. Babcock, and handed him a business card. “Give me a call if you remember anything else and we’ll touch base with you again before you leave Pine Ridge.”
Mr. Babcock nodded. “We want to go home, but we’re waiting.” His voice broke, “We’re waiting for Justin.”
Once back in the SUV, Tate turned to Martin. “The interview took longer than I thought it would but I think we have some good information. I’m betting that the ME has already sent the Babcock report over to your office. What say we grab a burger from the diner and head back to the courthouse?”
Martin nodded, “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Ten minutes later the bell over the diner door clanged a greeting as Martin and Tate entered. Stepping up the counter near an old fashioned cash register Tate made eye contact through a rectangular opening behind the counter with a huge thick necked man in the kitchen. Burt Walker had been a cook in the Navy before retiring and moving to Pine Ridge over twenty years ago. Tate nodded a greeting and Burt nodded back.
Burt yelled, “Customers out front, girl!”
Reva hurried through the swinging doors connecting the kitchen to the dining area wiping her hands on a faded dish towel as she went. She slung the towel over one shoulder and smiled, “Hello, Tate. Martin.” Pulling a pad from her apron pocket she asked, “What’ll you boys be having today?”
Martin smiled back at her, “Just a couple burgers and some rings to go.”
Reva made a note on her pad and ripped the top sheet off then clipped the order to a stainless wheel spinning it toward the kitchen for Burt. “Get you something to drink while you wait?”
Tate shook his head, “No, thanks. I do have a question for you though. You ever hear of geocaching?”
Reva nodded, “Sure. It’s a lot of fun. Why do you ask?”
Ignoring her question, Tate took a seat on a round swivel stool at the bar. “You and Saralyn ever do any caching out at the lake?”
“Yeah, we did. Me and Saralyn both liked looking for caches. Her daddy gave her a GPS for Christmas last year and we spent just about all our free time looking for them around Pine Ridge. You wouldn’t believe how man--”
Tate interrupted her, “Any chance that you were looking for caches the day that Saralyn was murdered?”
Looking thoughtful Reva replied, “Well, yeah. We did go caching out at the lake that day.”
“Order up!” Burt yelled from the kitchen.
Reva pulled a brown paper bag from the window and moved to the decades old cash register to ring up the order. Holding one finger up, she said, “Let me get this order out for Mr. Brownlee and I’ll be right back with you.” She stepped around the counter with the bag in hand and walked toward an elderly man who sat near the door. Smiling down at him, Reva waited wh
ile he moved a three-legged cane aside and pulled some cash from his pocket before returning to the register to get his change.
Finished with her customer, Reva returned to the men at the counter. “He is just the sweetest little thing. Comes in once a week and takes burgers home for him and Mrs. Brownlee. You know, she can’t get out much anymore. Burt always gives them extra…” Stopping mid-sentence she seemed to remember that Tate and Martin were there on business. “Oh my, I’m sorry, what was it you wanted to ask me about?”
After giving her the description of the man the Babcocks met while they were caching, Tate asked, “Reva are you sure you didn’t see anyone matching this man’s description while you were caching that day?”
“No, like I already told you, we didn’t talk to anyone that day other than when we signed in at the gate. You thinking that geocaching has something to do with Saralyn’s murder?”
Martin cut in, “We’re not sure, but it’s something that we’re looking into.”
Reva’s eyes clouded, “I heard about that kid that died out at the lake. Was he caching too?”
Catching the young woman’s eye Tate asked, “What exactly did you hear about Justin Babcock’s death?”
Reva looked around to make sure that no one else in the diner could hear. “Several of the regulars were talking about it this morning over coffee. Said he was cut up just like Saralyn.”
“And what else did they say? Anything?”
Her voice dropped lower. “Well, Tate, they said that you wasn’t doing a damn thing to catch the killer.” She turned her eyes away. “And then Tim Webber said that some of them was going to talk to Mayor Hooper about having you replaced as chief, but Walt Mabry said they should leave things alone and let you do your job.”
“Order up!” Burt yelled from behind them. Another brown paper bag appeared in the opening between the kitchen and dining area and Reva pulled it down, glancing at the order form stapled to it.
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