The Queen of Hearts (Mountain Springs Mysteries, #1)

by J. E. Mann

  “Reach into my right pocket and pull out my phone.”

  Rach reached in and pulled out my phone.

  “Hold down 5 and put it on speaker phone.”

  Rach was nodding in a very strange way. “Ok Jake. I’ll do that. I’ll do whatever you want if you would please just slow down a little.”

  “No time for that boss, make the call.” The phone started ringing as the roundabout to the theatre came in to view. After two rings, Alzono came on the phone.

  “Hello, Jake?”

  “Yeah Alonzo. Listen we lost him. Can you activate the GPS on that number I gave you last night?”

  A few seconds of silence and then Alonzo came back “Booting up now, will take a few seconds.”

  “Alonzo,” Rach said “I think we aren’t going to make it.”

  I was driving in the circle of the roundabout. One of the cars honked its horn. I paid no attention to it.

  “What do you mean Rachel,” Alonzo asked.

  “Jake is driving very wildly and I don’t know if we are going to survive.”

  A laugh from Alonzo. “First time letting him drive, huh? Listen, he doesn’t follow any traffic rules, but he is very good. I’ve never been in an accident with him.”

  “See,” I said, “Praise from Cesar himself.”

  We were going around for the seventh time. How long did a computer take to locate somebody?

  “Ok, he’s on 21st street, heading west.”

  Rach pointed at an exit opposite from us. “There, that will take us…

  I cut the wheel hard to the left. We cut off two cars as I went across the roundabout. Rach’s hands flew to her eyes. She covered them as I raced down the exit west toward 21st street. As I drove, I thought about where Don was heading. There were bars, restaurants, and some manufacturing plants down that way. What wasn’t there was Don’s home. Where was he going?

  “Can I look now?” Rach said, almost pleading.

  I looked at the One Way sign that was pointed the other way from where we had just come from.

  “Probably not,” I said. After ten more minutes of driving that would have had Rach gorging her own eyes out, we parked right in front of one of the higher class of Mexican restaurants. Rach noticed we weren’t moving anymore and slowly lowered her hands.

  “How many people did we hit?”

  I snorted. “Please. I did ten times better than those vans that pick people up from the airport.” She looked at the restaurant.

  “Should we go in and pick a table to watch him?”

  “No need boss. Our prey has decided to eat in the fresh air.” I pointed toward the veranda. Don was just getting a drink order from his waitress. He was not looking at a menu. We sat there for a few minutes watching him.

  “He could be waiting for someone,” I said, “It’s a two person table. It could have been the only table available.”

  “No,” Rach said, the tone of her voice coming back to normal, “No, he’s not here to eat. He’s picking up his drink with his right hand. His silverware is on his left, but he’s not moving it to the right. Also, he’s been staring into the restaurant for the past two minutes. He’s doing what we’re doing Jake. He’s here to watch somebody.”

  We watched. Don was taking his time, no hurry to finish his drink. Rach suddenly leaned forward.

  “Did you see that?”

  “No, what happened?”

  “He picked up his phone and then sat it back down. His used his thumb to press a button on the side of it. He just took a picture of somebody in there.”

  I thought about this for a second. “Ok, let’s assume he’s our bad guy. He’s using the client list to find out who’s been naughty. Why take a picture? He knows what they look like. Trying to gather proof to convince a jury of his mind that they need killing?”

  “Possibly, or taking a picture of the elk right before you shoot it. Most serial killers take a trophy from the victim to remind them how they felt when they killed them. But some of them want to remember the hunt as well. Stalkers have pictures of their victims doing everything. It’s a sense of power and control.”

  I nodded. “Of course, there could just be a hot girl in there he wanted a pic of. I’m going in there. Find out what is so interesting our boy feels the need...”

  A cell phone rang. Not mine. Rach reached into her pocket and pulled it out.

  “Hello?” Pause, then her face fell. “How long ago?” Another long pause. “Any idea who...” A very long pause. Rach sighed. “Ok, we’ll be there in a minute. What’s that noise?” Pause, pause. “That’s new. Be there soon.” She ended the call and looked at me.

  “Man or woman?” I asked.

  “Woman. Alyson Davis. Rodriguez caught it so quickly because she was dumped two buildings away from where he was eating his lunch. Lit on fire about sixteen minutes ago.

  I exhaled. “Don could have done it. Killed her and worked up an appetite. The silver lining here is that the victim being a woman points to a male killer.”

  Rach smiled a very tired smile. “Not necessarily. Alyson’s husband made the confirmation. And then Alyson’s girlfriend also showed up to confirm. Both didn’t know about the other. I could hear them screaming at each other over the phone.”

  “Makes you wonder who she thought she was cheating on.”

  “No specific gender profile, no sexual orientation. It’s cheating. You cheat, you die.”

  I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. “We need to start clearing our way out of this jungle. It’s not going to be fun or easy, but we need to move people from suspect list and clear them. We are going to start with Don here.”

  Rach looked back toward the restaurant. Don was still looking and not eating. “We are going to follow him for a while, “I continued, “See what he does and where he goes.”

  “And that’s not fun?”

  “Loads,” I said

  Later that night, I found myself back at the restaurant. Don had led us nowhere and I dropped Rach back at her townhouse around seven thirty. I felt the itch, the bug bite of accomplishing absolutely nothing. I had driven past the restaurant, made a U turn, and after a few minutes, was seated near where I had seen Don.

  Was I hungry? Not really. I just did not want to go back to my apartment and stare at the celling for hours. The menu was a little pricey compared to where I usually ate, but the steak sounded good and I also ordered a bottle of beer to wash it down.

  “The dark draft,” I said handing the waitress back, “Only way to go.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I was on my second bottle and wondering how long it took to cook a rare steak when I felt a tap on my left shoulder. I looked around to see a smiling older man. He was a little on the skinny side, but he was also one of the most powerful people in Mountain Springs. He was the District Attorney and a very good friend to Rach and I.

  “Smiling Dan Moss,” I said, “Have a seat.”

  He nodded and took the chair across from me. “Jake, how are you?”

  “Still alive. That’s about the best I can say right now. How about you?”

  “Meeting some friends for dinner. They aren’t here yet.” He looked around. “Is Rachel here?”

  I shook my head “Just me tonight. Wish we had something for you.”

  “Jake, if history has taught me anything, it’s that the cases that come quickly to my desk are almost always losers.”

  The waitress walked by and was momentarily startled by the new figure at my table. I waved her over. “My friend here will have Scotch, about ten years old please.” She nodded and walked towards the bar.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Dan said.

  “Please, first sign you have a drinking problem is when you drink alone.”

  The waitress returned with the DA’s drink. He took a swig and set the glass down.

  "This one is hard, I'm not even going to lie and say it's not." I said when my steak arrived. I was conscious enough to not start eating right in front of a ma
n who had no food coming to him.

  "Serial killers are a tough. Most times you have to wait and let them make the mistake.'

  "You getting any heat on it?"

  He nodded. 'A little. Most are scared people and you can't fault them for that. If twenty more bodies show up, I might have a problem. But if that happens, I'll pack up my wife and get out of town."

  The steak smelled amazing, but I resisted. "You would have to accept a insanity plea, right?"

  Dan smiled. "Jake, I don't even know who is killing people or why."

  I leaned forward. "Common. Cutting out hearts. The person has to be insane."

  "Or they think when there caught they will need a defense and insanity sounds like a good one. Cases can be held up for years trying to figure that one out."

  "That's if they ever get caught,' I said looking around, "Sometimes, I'm getting the feeling we are looking for a...a..."

  I trailed off. Six tables away from me, being helped into a chair by James, was Rach. She looked beautiful in her dark red and black dress. Had she gotten the idea to come here the at the same time I had. I turned away quickly, but Dan had spotted her too.

  "I thought you said Rach wasn't coming here."

  "I meant. Not with me." Lying to a prosecutor, that was a new one. He pointed at Rach and James while he took another drink. "Her boyfriend has good taste. That bottle of wine is known only to real experts."

  I grunted. "Boyfriend? She's been out with him maybe three times."

  Dan studied me over his glass. After a moment, he made a decision "Jake, you might want to be better informed about your boss's social life. She has been out with him almost every night."

  I thought about this. Over the last month, had I noticed Rach not paying attention as much? Maybe really eager to close up shop? She didn't talk about her and James. Because, business and personal were always separated. That was her rule not mine. James had not been eliminated as a suspect, not completely. And Rach always said you needed to be one hundred percent sure.

  "Jake? You still there?"

  I focused back on Dan. "Yeah, sorry. Let me ask you something."

  He nodded his head. "Go ahead."

  "What if someone you knew was breaking their own rules. This person invented and lived by these rules, but something changed. Would you be right to point this out to them?"

  He rotated his wrist as he pondered the question. "Is this person in danger by breaking these rules?"

  "No, but someone else might be."

  "Then you would have to tell them. They might hate you for it, but if it will save someone, you have a code of ethics to point it out."

  He waved at someone at the bar. He stood up. "Thanks for the drink. Be careful Jake. Your question sounds like the time I told my daughter she was breaking the rules she set up in order to have her own car. Wouldn't talk to me for days. Called me a monster before she did."

  I smiled a smile that I did not feel in the slightest. "Someone very smart once told me. There are such things as monsters, but there are also different types of monsters."

  RACHEL

  Dreading a bad ending, I entered the makeshift waiting area and signaled to James to come back with me. I had never asked him to the station before and from the look on his face, he didn’t think stopping by was anything out of the ordinary. He should be worried, this was the first time I ever needed to sit down and interview him. Until now, James was not heavily on the suspect list and I told Jake that I didn’t want to interrogate him, but we needed to clear as many people as we could. Sadly, Jake felt that my interrogation would reveal more information because we had become closer during our relationship.

  “Rach,” he had said that morning, “ if you can tell me with no hesitation that James is completely innocent, then we can take his name off this wall and move one.” He had waited while I struggled for a response. I thought that James was innocent, but that was a very long way from knowing. So I had done the unthinkable. I had called James and asked him to meet me in police headquarters. Jake wanted to come, but I refused. I was angry at him, mostly for showing me how far I had gotten sidetracked.

  A heavy sigh fell from my lips as I closed the door as calmly as possible after James had passed me. His cologne wafted past my face making me regret my position as a detective even more. We had spent many days together throughout the investigation and this one conversation could end it all. I had never realized exactly how attached I had become to him and I was tempted to derail the whole situation just to avoid it. Part of me wondered why I had completely disregarded the way he made me feel that day he had run in to me on the street. The time had come, to either end this half-assed relationship or find out if he truly was the nice guy Karen had always said he was. After all, the questioning was all in the name of helping the victims that died, not about my personal interests.

  “Good to see you again,” I smiled and said as James walked in to our cold empty room. With great will power I held on to my tongue and tried to keep the focus on the investigation.

  “Please sit,” I motioned to both chairs in front of me. The floor seemed oddly appealing and I hoped James didn’t notice my reluctance to look him in the eye. Soon, I joined James across the table. I laid my folder out in front of myself, “What’s this?” James was starting to come around. He looked a little on edge as he found the steel chair that was moved out for him near the table. If we wanted this over as soon then everything needed to be ready to start. Once he was seated, I opened my file and placed it on the table and took my own seat

  Put on your game face I repeated mentally. Finally when I looked up at James I could see the concern and confusion in his eyes. I had been so lucky that he willingly walked in to the office to begin with because he was going to want to run when everything was over. Before I had even begun to ask any questions he was already leaning forward toward me with his hands clutched together, a bit defensive in my option.

  “I want to make this as easy as possible. I have to ask you some questions,” he huffed and crossed his arms while he leaned back, but he did nod. ”I just need to know where you were three nights ago.” One of his eyebrows shot up. I hadn’t expected him to shut down after being so willing to show up.

  I had to start somewhere. After all, I had been lying to James this whole time. With a smooth motion I grabbed some of the papers and began shuffling and sorting them with a few taps, “James, let me just get this in the open, I have been working this case. Now I know you’ve been led to believe something different but it’s now my job to remove you as a suspect in the case. You want to be removed right?”

  Although my emotions were being rattled, my job skills came back clear as day in to position and I was no longer James’ girlfriend, I was a detective doing my job. Maybe Jake had been right, maybe there was a fine line between relationships and my job but I seemed to have it handled. I would have to thank him for that piece of advice later when I saw him.

  James sat forward with his head bent down toward the table. His body wasn’t moving, but his eyes were. They darted across the table. Then his hands began to come together and he made a wringing gesture. I casually slid an already playing recorder on to the table between us; he would have to forgive the formalities.

  “So you used me? You’ve been using me this whole time…” His glance darted away from me when I finally looked him in the eye, “… I can’t believe you.”

  “James, I can’t sit here and tell you I’m sorry because I’m not. I have a job to do and I’m doing it. Our relationship is outside of all of this,” my hands circled in the air, “just answer these few questions and it’s all over, we’re done, and you can leave. Everything else is outside of here.” I dropped my voice on the last word to indicate that he could leave his anger about our relationship outside of this interview; hopefully he picked up on it. He wanted out of the room as badly as I did, “Right now we know that you were associated to almost every angle of this case. You are a member of the CO Singles dating
group, your father’s restaurant is where the first victim was murdered, you also have access, and you associate with the victim’s wife Gloria. Do you have an alibi?”

  Curtly, I shut my mouth and put my hands together to wait for his response. This was possibly the worst waiting I had ever done in my life. He could just get up and walk away at any moment because I had no real ground to hold him there. I was just hoping he would cooperate with me and give me his answers.

  The interrogation room that Ben had let me use for the first time, made me feel safe. I’m sure Jake would have agreed to the location too if he was there. Thankfully he wasn’t. I didn’t need his personality to conflict with all of the other emotions that were whirling around in the tiny room.

  “I had nothing to do with those murders.” He sat quite irritated looking back at me. Something in the pit of my stomach told me that he wasn’t going to give me the answers that I was seeking. If James wanted to play the game that way fine, I was prepared to play. “Rachel, you know I had nothing to do with this. Why don’t you believe me?”

  My beliefs had nothing to do with questioning so I side-stepped his question. “But you know of multiple murders?” His answer really piqued my interest. Why would he bring up more than one if I only asked about the Ghangis K?

  “I watch the news, you should know that. My job is to consult with people who are mentally unstable.” I didn’t see how his job correlated to the news or the multiple murders. He had sincerely caught me off guard with his answer. “So, as a psychiatrist, is it reasonable to say you follow the news in order to learn more about different psychiatric anomalies?”

  He pondered the answer, “Sure, if you want to say that.”

  “I want the truth, not an assumption James.”

  “Here we go!” He threw his arms in the air before crossing them again. “You’re so based in factual evidence you can’t even relate to people!” I felt that sting rush through my body again and my face going red, that same fight or flight feeling I had before, and I glanced quickly toward the two-way mirror before readjusting myself.