Wonderland

by Jennifer Hillier

  The picture Donnie had knocked over was a four-by-six framed photo of Glenn Hovey in better days. Compared to his current employee ID photo, this Glenn Hovey was about thirty years younger, thirty pounds lighter, and he had a full head of hair. He was standing at the front entrance of the park beside two other boys, and the big colorful sign above them said WORLD OF WONDER. Upon closer inspection, Vanessa realized that the boy on the right was a young Oscar Trejo. Oz hadn’t changed much; the only real difference was that his hair was longer and shaggier, and parted in the middle à la Scott Baio of Happy Days fame.

  “Any idea who the third guy is?” she asked Donnie, who glanced over at the photo.

  “That’s Nick Bishop,” he said. “If you ever go up to the fifth floor of the admin building where the management offices are, you’ll see old pictures like this framed on the wall of the reception area. Haven’t seen this one, though.”

  “They really do go way back.” Vanessa had never seen a picture of Wonderland’s owner before. He was clean-cut and handsome, with a sardonic smile that suggested he was a bit of a wise-ass. She turned her attention back to Donnie. “Okay, so what’s in the box?”

  “I had to pry this one open, too.” Donnie flipped up the lid where the latch was now busted. “Glenn Hovey liked to keep things locked, clearly.”

  Vanessa looked down. “I can see why.” The box was filled with a bunch of Wonderland ID cards. One by one, she picked them up, examining each card carefully. There were twenty-four in total, all belonging to teenage boys. “Hot damn.”

  Of the two dozen cards, five were names she recognized; the rest were unfamiliar. A tingle went down her spine. The five she knew belonged Tyler Wilkins, Kyle Grimmie, Aiden Cole, Blake Dozier, and Jack Shaw.

  “Bingo,” she said under her breath. “Got you, motherfucker.”

  She picked up Jack Shaw’s ID card. The others were made of white plastic with the Wonder Worker’s photo right on it and a magnetic strip running down the back. Shaw’s was simply a business card with his name and picture. The date underneath his photo said May 24, 1985, which was probably the date it was issued.

  “If this is in here with the others,” she said, holding up Shaw’s card, “and assuming these are Glenn Hovey’s souvenirs, then I think we might know who burned Jack Shaw’s house down.”

  “That’s a lot of victims,” Donnie said. “Almost enough to fill a school bus. Do you think he killed all of them?”

  She looked through the ID cards again, lining them up on the bed side by side, according to the dates of issue shown underneath the photos. The oldest one dated back to 1995, the year the park reopened as Wonderland. The newest one was Blake Dozier’s.

  “He’s been doing this a long time. And they’re all blond. How did I not notice that before?” Vanessa frowned. “I wonder if the rest of these boys are missing, too. Or did they turn up dead somewhere outside of Seaside?”

  “That’s easy enough to check into, I’ll get Nate Essex on it.” Donnie paused. “If they are, how much you want to bet that Carl Weiss worked some of their cases? Or maybe all?”

  “Shit, you’re right.” Vanessa stared at the detective. “It’s not just Hovey, Weiss is also a common thread in all of this. I almost forgot about him. He’s in Cabo. I wonder if he’s back by now.”

  “Did Weiss work at World of Wonder back in the day? Under Shaw?”

  “Maybe,” Vanessa said. “A lot of the old-timers here in Seaside did. But he’s older. Oscar Trejo, Glenn Hovey, and Nick Bishop are all in their late forties now. Carl Weiss is probably in his early sixties. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know Hovey personally.”

  “You think they’re together on this? Serial killers working in tandem?”

  Vanessa thought hard for a moment, then shook her head. “I hate to make that leap. Whatever the connection, it’s not coming to me yet. It will, though. My gut tells me Weiss knows more than what’s in those files.”

  Their cell phones pinged at the same time. Checking, they both looked up at each other.

  “Did you get the same message I just did?” Vanessa said.

  “Only if it’s the one that says Glenn Hovey’s in custody in Las Vegas.” Donnie grinned. “The fucker’s been out of state this whole time.”

  “U.S. Marshals are escorting Hovey back on the first flight, and he’ll be here in a few hours.” Vanessa checked the time. “You okay finishing up here? I want to go to talk to Weiss, find out what he knows, once and for all. Assuming he’s home.”

  “Yeah, I got this,” Donnie said. “By the way, you’ll want to stop at the store and pick up a bottle of whiskey. It’ll help.”

  “I don’t drink whiskey.”

  “Not for you, for Weiss.” The detective chuckled. “He’s more likely to talk if you get him liquored up, and he loves his whiskey. Don’t let his wife see it, though. He’s not allowed to drink when she’s home.”

  “Okay, I’ll pick up a bottle of . . .” She frowned. “What’s a good brand?”

  “A good brand is Macallan,” Donnie said. “But don’t waste your money on that. Jim Beam, twenty bucks, do just fine.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” Vanessa headed for the stairs. “Owe you one.”

  “You can pay me back by letting me sit in when Glenn Hovey gets here,” he said. “And Deputy, be careful when you talk to Weiss. Remember what I always say.”

  “All ears lead back to Earl,” Vanessa said over her shoulder. “Got it.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  On the way to Carl Weiss’s house, Vanessa’s cell phone rang. She picked up through the unmarked’s Bluetooth, and a bunch of static blared through the speakers. “Castro.”

  “Uh, hi . . . this is Jacob Wei? I received a message that you called?” The voice on the other end was young, polite, and uncertain. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner. I wasn’t able to get a cell signal to check my voice mail until now.”

  It took Vanessa a moment to place the name. Oh, right. Jacob Wei was Aiden Cole’s roommate, and she’d tried calling him twice the other day. She pulled over onto the side of the road. She was halfway to Weiss’s house, but she didn’t want to drive and talk at the same time. Reaching for her purse, she pulled out her notepad and pen. “Hi, Jacob. Thanks for calling me back.”

  “No problem. I’m working on a fishing boat, and so I don’t get cell phone reception until we’re back in Alaska. Uh . . . your voice mails said you were calling about Aiden? Did you find him?”

  “We did,” Vanessa said. “I’m so sorry, Jacob, but Aiden is dead.”

  There was a long silence on the other line. When Jacob spoke again, his voice sounded as if he was crying. “I thought . . . I mean, obviously I knew that could be the outcome, but when you called, your message said he was still missing.”

  “He technically was still missing at that time. I’m so sorry.”

  “Shit,” Jacob said. “I gotta call his dad. What happened?”

  “It’s an ongoing investigation, so I don’t have all the details yet, but his body was found at Wonderland.”

  “Aiden is Homeless Harry?” Jacob sounded horrified. “Are you shitting me?”

  “You heard?”

  “The boat has Wi-Fi. It’s spotty but it popped up in my Twitter newsfeed. It’s seriously Aiden? What happened to him?”

  “We’re working on that, I promise. When did you last see Aiden?”

  “At the closing party,” Jacob said. “He wasn’t there long. He wanted to get back to Seattle that night to hang out with a friend before going back to Bainbridge the next day.”

  “Do you know the name of the friend?”

  “Only her first name. Caitlin.”

  Vanessa blinked. She wasn’t expecting him to say a name at all, let alone a girl’s name. In the file, Carl Weiss had noted Aiden’s plan to stay in Seattle before catching the ferry
home to Bainbridge Island, but the friend’s name was unknown. Vanessa assumed it was because Weiss had asked around, and nobody knew. This was way beyond shoddy police work. This was someone not even trying a little bit . . . or someone who was deliberately trying not to get to the truth. Her opinion of the former deputy chief, whom she hadn’t even met yet, plummeted even further.

  “Did Aiden say who Caitlin was?” she asked. “Last name? How did they know each other?”

  “No idea about the last name. But they liked each other. In, like, more than a friend way. That’s why he was going to see her. He was pretty excited about it.”

  “Were they in a relationship?”

  “It was going that way,” Jacob said. “But she lived in Seattle, and he was working in Seaside, so they didn’t see each other much. And they kept things on the down low.”

  “When did they meet?”

  “Sometime in mid-August, maybe a couple weeks before the season ended.”

  “They met at Wonderland?”

  “Yeah, she was down for the weekend with her family. Turns out they knew each other in grade school. He hung out with her at the beach after work that day, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

  Vanessa jotted the information into her notepad. “And why was it on the down low?”

  “Uh . . . Aiden was sort of already seeing someone,” Jacob said. “I mean, not to make him sound like a douche, but he kind of had to keep Caitlin under wraps. But he was planning to end it. With the other one, I mean. He was really into Caitlin. He wasn’t an ass. He was, what’s the word . . . conflicted.”

  “He told you all that?”

  “Yeah. Aiden was my roommate and one of my best friends. I told the other detective all this.”

  “You told Carl Weiss that Aiden was involved with two girls?” Christ, Weiss, she thought, feeling a stab of anger. Did you do any work at all, you old, useless bastard? “What else did you talk about with Deputy Chief Weiss?”

  “Pretty much the same stuff you’re asking me now. Did I think he was the type to run away, did I know of anyplace he might be. Between you and me though, it felt like he was just going through the motions. I don’t think he really gave a shit about Aiden. I felt like he could have done more, you know? I know Mr. Cole thought so.”

  “I’m sorry you felt that way,” Vanessa said. “Tell me about the other relationship Aiden was in. Who was she?”

  “Uh . . . it’s not in the file?”

  “Confirm it for me.”

  “Well, it was the Dragon Lady herself,” Jacob said. There was a pause, as if he was waiting for a reaction from Vanessa. When he didn’t get one, he said again, “The Dragon Lady? As in, Bianca Bishop?”

  “What?” Vanessa wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “Are you talking about the CEO of Wonderland?”

  “It started at the beginning of that summer,” Jacob said. “At first when Aiden told me, I was, like, whoa, because she’s ancient, you know? She’s like, in her thirties. But Aiden told me she pursued him pretty hard. She wanted him bad. I told him it wasn’t a good idea to go there, but he didn’t listen, hopped right on the train to Cougarville. It wasn’t just the age difference, you know? I mean, she’s the CEO. Can you imagine if it was the other way around? Like, a middle-aged male CEO and a teenage female Wonder Worker? People would freak.”

  Midthirties was hardly middle-aged, but Vanessa wasn’t about to correct him. “So then Aiden and Bianca Bishop were having sex?”

  Jacob barked out a short laugh. “It was more like, what kind of sex weren’t they having? He spent almost every night at her apartment inside the park. He was, like, never in our room. Which was fine with me, because those dorm rooms are tiny, but it was seriously four or five nights a week, every week. I was, like, dude, how are you getting any sleep? But it turned out not to be a problem, because she pretty much let him set his own hours. I mean, that was part of the reason he was with her. She let him do whatever she wanted at the park.”

  “Back up. There’s an apartment inside Wonderland?” Like everything else, this was news to Vanessa. An apartment inside an amusement park was an unusual thing—why had no one mentioned that to her? Why hadn’t Oscar? Her head was beginning to hurt.

  “Yeah, on, like, the top floor of the admin building. It’s pretty swanky from what Aiden told me. Dragon Lady stays there during high season. Made it real easy for Aiden and her to hook up. I mean, they’d fu—” Jacob cleared his throat. “They’d have sex during his lunch break. He’d just pop over to the admin building for a quickie.”

  “Did anybody know they were involved, other than you?”

  “I doubt it. He wasn’t even supposed to tell me. Dragon Lady was, like, super paranoid about anybody knowing her personal business. Once, Aiden tried to take a picture of the two of them, just so he had something to look at, you know? She found out and went crazy. Deleted it and then broke his phone, then had to buy him a new one. I think that’s when things started to change for Aiden. It’s like he realized that maybe all the hot sex wasn’t worth it.” A sigh wafted from the other end. “Why are the crazy chicks always the ones who are good in bed? Anyway, you want me to send you the picture?”

  Vanessa almost dropped her pen. “You have it?”

  “He texted it to me right before she went ballistic. It’s nothing that racy.” Jacob sounded almost disappointed. “From what I remember, you couldn’t see a lot, but it’s clear they were involved. Pretty sure it’s still in my phone somewhere. This is a new phone, but everything should have transferred over. I don’t delete anything.”

  “Send it to me right away, please. Do not get back on your boat until I have it, okay?” She thought hard. “So how did the relationship end?”

  “Uh . . . Dragon Lady ended it,” Jacob said. “I didn’t get the details, but Aiden told me she broke it off before he could. He was kind of upset, even though it’s what he wanted anyway. I guess nobody likes being dumped. The way he described it, it’s like Bianca had gotten what she wanted from him and had decided she was done. He felt kind of . . . used. They argued, she said stuff, he said stuff, and at one point he threatened to go to Human Resources and file a sexual harassment complaint.” A foghorn in the background blared. “He would never have done it, but he was pissed, you know? I told all this to Weiss.”

  Yeah, well, he didn’t write it down. Vanessa jabbed her pen angrily into the paper as she made notes.

  “Listen, I only have a couple more minutes, but are you planning to talk to Aiden’s dad again?” Jacob asked.

  “I will at some point. Aiden’s case is now a homicide, so I’ll be updating him when I can. Why?”

  “When you do, please don’t tell him about Aiden seeing Bianca Bishop. I never told Mr. Cole about it. I couldn’t, because it would have been a direct violation of bro code, you know? Aiden would never have wanted his pops to know he was messing with some older lady, and the CEO of Wonderland, no less. It would have, like, embarrassed him.”

  “I can keep that to myself for now,” Vanessa said. “But I can’t promise I won’t tell him ever. Jacob, do you think Bianca Bishop could have been involved in Aiden’s disappearance, or even murder? Did he ever talk about her being violent? Or making threats?”

  “Other than breaking her phone, you mean?” A bitter laugh. “Nah, there was nothing like that. He would have told me. And I mean, she was the one who ended it, so why would she hurt him?”

  “People have all kinds of reasons to hurt other people,” Vanessa said. “Whether they make sense to us or not.”

  “I guess,” Jacob said. “Anyway, I should go. I need to give Aiden’s dad a call. He can be a little intense, but he’s actually a really nice guy. I meant to touch base with him so many times, but I got busy—” He got choked up again.

  “It’s okay. You were a good friend to Aiden, you know that, right?” The mothering instinct in Van
essa took over as she did her best to sound reassuring. “You had his back. That’s obvious.”

  They said their goodbyes and Vanessa disconnected, seething with anger. If it turned out that Weiss had deliberately screwed up Aiden’s, Tyler’s, and Kyle’s cases, she would have no problem being their families’ star witness when they sued the bastard and the police department for gross negligence.

  Her phone pinged. Jacob Wei had come through; he’d sent her the picture of Aiden with Bianca Bishop. She clicked on it so it filled the entire screen of her phone.

  The photo, clear and unfiltered, showed Bianca lying on her side, fully naked. Aiden Cole was also naked, and he was spooning her from behind. The shot was clearly taken postcoitus, as both their bodies were glistening with sweat. The CEO’s hair, a vibrant red, was spread out on the pillowcase, and her eyes were closed. Aiden was grinning into the camera, a smile on his young face.

  As Jacob had said, it wasn’t exactly racy, but boy, was it ever intimate. She saved the photo to her phone, and then emailed it to herself to be on the safe side. Then she called Donnie Ambrose.

  “That was fast.” He sounded surprised. “Done with Weiss already?”

  “Haven’t even gotten to his house yet. Listen, if things are under control at Hovey’s, I need you to go to Wonderland and talk to Bianca Bishop.”

  There was a slight pause on the other end. “The Dragon Lady? I’m afraid to ask why.”

  “I just spoke to Aiden Cole’s roommate from three years ago,” Vanessa said. “And he told me Aiden was sleeping with Bianca. He even sent me a naked photo of the two of them that Aiden texted him, which I’ll forward to you. I want you to talk to her, find out what she knew about his disappearance. Hey, did you know she has an apartment right inside Wonderland? She was probably there the night Blake Dozier climbed the wheel.”

  “I don’t know if I want to see the picture.” Donnie sounded disgusted. “You know how I feel about Wonderland.”