For some reason though, I wasn’t completely convinced Curtis Duggar had done any of this. I wasn’t thinking that because he was my friend, I just didn’t get that vibe from him. Nothing about him, or his life, screamed crazy-break-into-your-house-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-kill-a-baby-pig-then-write-threats-on-the-wall-in-blood-psycho. Something about the case was just wrong. It was as if there was this one piece of vital information that was missing, and no matter what I did, I couldn't put my finger on it.
Perhaps it was the fact that I’d been unable to locate Rodger, Arnold was dead, and Tyler had an alibi for Sunday night. Curtis, despite his proclamation of innocence, was the only other person who had connections to that night that couldn’t validate his whereabouts, which led me back to the ex-husband. Was it him? Did he decide that he'd invested too much time and effort into JoJo’s recovery, drive up to Mora only to find her in the arms of another man and snap?
No, I decided. The calls started long before JoJo and I became romantically involved. They started soon after she came back to Mora, her phone records showed a sporadic pattern of calls from the same number, which turned out to be the prepaid cell phone, each of which lasted only a few seconds.
But for some reason, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around Curtis as the perp. The nagging feeling gnawed at my stomach until the pictures and words on the board blurred together. I needed to get to the bottom of this, find out if Curtis was the stalker, and if he wasn’t I needed to find out who was and why. First I needed to find out what happened to Rodger Byers. He was the only other person I could think of who could have had something to do with this case. He was still missing and no one, not even his family, knew where he was.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. This was pointless, so I stood and decided that I was done for the day. I picked up my keys and headed out of the office. “I’m heading out,” I called to the deputy at the front desk and pushed open the door to the station.
The afternoon was gloriously bright; I squinted against the brilliance and headed toward the car. JoJo was home, probably pacing the kitchen waiting to here if Curtis finally confessed to terrorizing her or not. I got into the car and headed to her.
***
I found JoJo in the kitchen when I finally made it home. She looked exhausted yet relieved “Did he confess?” she asked, rushing into my arms as I entered the room.
I exhaled and slowly shook my head no. “He says he’s being set up, that he didn’t do it. I asked him where he was that night and he told me he couldn’t tell me because it would kill his wife, so far all I know is that he was here.”
JoJo nodded and released me. “Well,” she said brushing her hands on her apron, “if he won’t tell you where he was, it’s probably because he was here.” She paused, opened the spice cabinet, and blindly felt around.
“I just don’t understand why he’s doing it. What if it’s not him?” She stared at me, her brown eyes as wide as saucers.
“It’s got to be him,” I assured her. “His fingerprints were on the pig’s body. I agree with you, I don’t know why he’s doing it, but if it’s not him who else could it be?”
JoJo shrugged. She pulled a bottle of almond extract from the cabinet and set it down on the counter. “I don’t know. Have you found Rodger yet?”
“No,” I said. “We haven’t. There’s no one else it could be? Your ex-husband, or someone you had a problem with in L.A, or even someone you had a problem with in high school?”
She tilted her head to the side and stared off into space, silently pondering the question. “No,” she finally said. “I kept mostly to myself in high school. I think Curtis was one of my only friends. I had a problem with Rodger, Tyler and Arnold in high school, but only because of what they did to me. Oh and Blair, but I don’t think it’s her who is doing all this. In L.A. I kept mostly to myself. The friends I had there were Kyle’s friends. And as for Kyle as the culprit, it’s not likely. It was his idea to divorce me, he was finished with the relationship, there’s no reason why he would start bothering me now.”
I nodded; everything she just said made perfect sense. Except for Blair Thomas, we never checked up on her. Maybe it was high time I found out what she’d been up to.
***
The following morning I made the long drive to Seattle with nothing but the radio to keep me company. I glanced at the file on the passenger seat beside me. The face of a teenage girl peered back at me from the black and white photocopy of a high school yearbook photo.
I knew it was a long shot, visiting Blair. She didn’t have anything to do with the attacks and the calls; I knew that for a fact. She was probably angry with JoJo for what she thought happened, but to seek revenge now just seemed pointless.
This fact was confirmed when she opened the front door, greeting me warmly. “Good morning Chief,” she cooed in a high-pitched voice. “Please come in. Excuse the mess, the kids like to take advantage of the fact that I’m distracted.” She motioned to her very pregnant belly and waddled into the kitchen.
“What mess?” I joked in response and followed her to the kitchen.
“You’re too clever,” she laughed. “Please, have a seat, would you like a cup of coffee?”
“If it’s not too much trouble.” I said.
Blair carried two mugs of coffee to the table, handing me one as she sat down. “Thanks,” I said, accepting the cup.
“Not a problem. Now tell me, what can I do for you?”
I stared down at the coffee, trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation. I took a deep breath, looked up, and said, “Did you know JoJo Reeves in high school?”
Blair pursed her lips and nodded. “I did.” She looked down at the table, staring at it quietly. A few minutes of silence passed. Upstairs something crashed and the delightful shrieking of Blair’s two boys traveled down the staircase. Shaken out of her stupor, Blair looked up. “I feel awful for what I did to her in high school.” Tears brimmed in her dark eyes. “If only I’d known, I never would have-“
I reached out and gently placed my hand on top of hers. “It’s okay,” I said. “You were young, you had no idea. Anyone else in the same situation would have done the same thing.”
Blair shook her head no. “I was awful. I spread all those nasty rumors about her, then she just stopped coming to school. I heard she went to California.”
I nodded. “She did, but she came back last summer and now she’s being harassed by someone. They broke into her house this past weekend and left a dead animal in her kitchen. I’m trying to find out if anyone from high school held a grudge against her, or if she had issues with anyone.”
“We had our issues, you don’t think I had something to do with that?” she asked indignantly.
“Absolutely not,” I assured her. “I’m just trying to get a feel for the past. You were there; you went to school with her. Think about it, is there anyone you can think of who would want to hurt her now for something that happened in the past?”
“God, I don’t know. I mean, JoJo and I, well we didn’t exactly run in the same circles. From what I remember, she pretty much kept to herself. She was friends with that blond kid with the name like the ball pit thing in baseball. I just can’t remember his first name.”
“Curtis,” I supplied.
“Yes,” She slapped the table. “That’s his name, Curtis Duggar. They were friends. Other than him though, I have no idea.”
“Well, if you can think of anyone else who might have had a problem with her, give me a call.” I pulled a card out of my shirt pocket and handed it to her. “If you think of anything at all. Even if it seems trivial, please let me know.”
Blair took the card and nodded. “If I remember anything at all I’ll give you a call.”
“Well, thank you for your time,” I said. “I appreciate you talking to me.”
“Oh, no problem, anything to help.”
We both stood, I was headed toward the door when Blair said, “Pleas
e tell JoJo I’m sorry. I was a stupid girl who thought she was in love. Turns out I was wrong.”
I nodded when a thumping on the stairs caught my attention. I turned to look as a boy came jumping down the stairs, a second, younger, darker haired boy followed him.
“Mom, I’m hungry,” the older boy whined.
I stared at him like I’d been sucker punched. The boy looked like Emma, a lot like Emma. I looked from the boy to Blair, back to the boy.
“Like I said, I was wrong.” Her voice caught on the last note and tears shimmered in her eyes. She whisked them away quickly, muttering, “Damn pregnancy hormones.”
“One more question.” Blair looked up, her eyes red. “What ever happened to him?”
“Rodger?” she whispered.
I nodded. Blair shrugged. “I don’t know. He left for college and I never heard from him again. Maybe he’s dead, maybe he pulled that stunt with the wrong girl, and she killed him. Hell, maybe he killed himself, or maybe he’s running around raping unsuspecting women, I don’t know and I don’t really care.”
“Thank you for your time,” I said and let myself out of the house. So let’s see what I know now that I didn’t know before. Rodger had a violent streak. Rodger liked to rape women. He raped JoJo, he raped Blair, hell maybe even some other women. I still don’t know where he was, whether or not he was alive and I still didn’t have any new information about the case.
On the drive back to Mora, I decided that maybe there was no case. Maybe Curtis was the culprit. Maybe this was no complicated whodunit case and that the right bad guy was the one I currently had locked in a cell. Maybe the nightmare was behind us and we could finally start a life together.
Chapter Twelve
“Emma has a brother,” Steve announced as he unclipped his gun from his belt. The clip slid smoothly out of the gun and was placed on the table where it made a soft thud.
I turned to Steve and gaped at him. “Excuse me?”
He glanced up and repeated, “Emma Grace has a brother. Well, more like a half brother. I went to see Blair Thomas this morning. She’s got two kids, a third on the way and her oldest bears a remarkable likeness to Emma.”
I set down the dish I’d been drying and threw the damp towel over my shoulder. “I don’t understand. Why did you go to see Blair Thomas? I thought everything with the case was finished. I thought the DA was about to file formal charges against Curtis.”
“It is and they are,” he said as he crossed the kitchen and retrieved the gun case from atop the refrigerator. “There are just a few loose ends that need to be tied up, things I want to double check because an innocent man going to jail will not rest easily on my conscience.”
“I understand that,” I replied shortly. “I just want to make sure that I know what’s going on, I hate being in the dark. So just to be clear, Blair Thomas is a loose end?”
Steve nodded. “So is Rodger Byers. Even if he had nothing to do with Curtis stalking you, he’s still a missing person. It’s my job to at least attempt to find him, and when I find him I’m going to file at least two rape charges against him.”
“Two?” I echoed.
Steve nodded. “You and Blair and anyone else who comes forward saying he did the same thing to them.”
“So Blair’s son…”
Nodding more, Steve’s head moves. “And Emma. Poor Blair, I feel for her. She feels bad for what she did to you.”
“Poor her,” I muttered finding it hard to feel sympathy for someone who helped destroy my life, even if the same thing happened to her. “Did she tell you anything useful?”
“No,” he said. “Blair doesn’t know what happened to him, she thinks maybe he tried to hurt the wrong girl and got himself into trouble.”
“Like arrested?”
“No, like dead. He’s not in the system, I checked.”
“Oh,” I said. This was rapidly starting to spin out of control and it was becoming too much for me. If I had known that coming back to Mora would have caused this much trouble I never would have come back. I would have taken Emma somewhere, anywhere, far, far away from here. It was too late now, Pandora’s Box had been opened, and all her evils had spilled forth.
Steve cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “What are you thinking about over there?”
I swallowed and glanced up at him. I couldn’t tell him that I wished I’d never come back, it would hurt his feelings because if I’d never come back I never would have met him and I never would have taken the steps to get help. Like the help even really helped. Steve and I were like really good friends who kissed and made out every now and then. And sex? Yeah, forget it. I still couldn’t get to that point. Even thinking about it freaked me out.
“JoJo?”
“Sorry,” I said shoving the negativity out of my mind. “I just wish this would hurry up and be over already. I’m sick of being anxious and scared all the damn time.” I turned and walked back toward the sink where the rest of the dishes were waiting to be finished. I plunged my hands into the soapy water and fished out a slippery dish.
Steve crossed the kitchen, his boots falling heavily on the wooden floor with each step. He stood behind me and wrapped his hands around my waist. With his lips at my neck he said softly, “It will be soon enough, you just hang in there for a little longer. Pretty soon this’ll just be a bad memory.”
I didn’t buy it. I wasn’t the kind of person who easily forgot things. It wasn’t in my nature. I was a runner, not a fighter, I ran away when things got to be too much and right now, I was battling a serious case of fight versus flight. I wanted to pack a bag, throw it and Emma, into the car, and drive far, far away from here.
Steve nuzzled my neck, “You know that, right?” His breath was warm against my cool skin. I nodded and rinsed the dish. “I’m going to go shower and change. Maybe we can go out to dinner and take Emma to see a movie.”
“Sounds good,” I mumbled even though it really didn’t.
***
The next morning I went to see Dr. Conrad for my weekly appointment. She looked at me strangely, as I sat down across from her. I settled into my usual seat and stared down at my hands. She waited until I was settled completely before she asked me, “What’s going on?” concern and something else, lacing her voice.
“I’m so sick of all this,” I said, teeth gritted. This morning had been the worst so far. I turned on the TV while making Emma’s lunch. On the news they were talking about the case, Curtis’s wife was weeping for the interviewer, crying about me and how I was ruining her and her children’s lives. I wanted to drive to Port Angeles and strangle the woman. Did she not realize what kind of man her husband was? Did she not realize that his actions had affected my child?
“Sick of what?” she asked.
“All this, the Curtis thing, the rape thing, Mora… I’m sick of it. Every time I turn on the television, there’s some sugar frosted bimbo talking about it, or worse, Curtis Duggar’s wife calling me a homewrecker and saying derogatory things about me. I just want… I want it… and I want to… shit I don’t even know. I just want to go away. I don’t want to hear about it anymore, I’m tired of hearing about it on TV and its all Steve talks about. I’m so frigging over it. I just want it to stop and I want it to be over already.”
“You’re angry.” Dr. Conrad observed.
Confined Page 13