by Liz Bradford
Baker’s voice sounded in her ear, “Jamison, follow them. Find out where he lives.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wow, that was a quick trip to the park,” Miller commented. “Do you think we spooked him?”
Baker replied, “No, I think he learned what he wanted and wasn’t comfortable with personal questions. We’ll find out who he is and where he lives and knock on his door tomorrow. For now, let’s call it a day.”
Miller’s wife stayed with Callie while Becca and Jared went to the van with Miller to give the Captain their ear pieces and mics. “Good job, everyone,” Baker said. They all removed their wires. “Palmer is safe, and we have a pretty good idea of who our killer is. Miller, did you get a picture?”
“Sure did. Not that it proves anything.”
“No, but we can show it to the ladies who gave us the descriptions and run it through the database to see who he really is,” Becca said. “Thanks for coming, guys.”
“No problem,” Miller said. “We’ll get him tomorrow.”
Jared wrapped his arm across her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
She squeezed his waist. “I’m scared.”
Becca’s phone rang. Who on earth is calling me in the middle of the night? She pulled the covers up over her head, but she knew she had to answer it. As she reached for the phone her hand bumped it, knocking it to the floor. “Darn it!” It stopped ringing. Rather than finding it she laid her head back on her pillow. But it started ringing again. Groping around the floor she found it and answered it without even opening her eyes or looking at the caller ID, “What?”
“Hey, babe.” Jared’s voice came across the line.
“Why are you calling me at,” she looked at the clock on her nightstand, “5:17 in the morning? I’m supposed to be able to sleep for another hour.”
“Becca, we have another body.”
“What?!?” she sat up in bed.
“You heard me. I’m coming to pick you up. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Fine. Just let yourself in.”
“Okay. See you in a few.”
“All right.” They hung up, and Becca slowly pulled herself out of bed and wandered to the bathroom. She got ready in a daze. She was so tired. Once again, she had let Jared stay too late last night. Even though all they did was watch TV, they had gotten sucked in, and before they knew it the clock read a quarter to midnight. And of course, they had to finish watching and find out which of the ridiculous choices of houses the couple picked. Becca was just putting on her shirt when she heard Jared come in and up the stairs. She walked to the stairs as she buttoned her shirt.
Jared greeted her with a kiss and handed her a large cup of Starbucks. “Hey, you about ready? We have a witness this time, so I want to get there.”
“A witness, that’s good.” Her sleepiness was fading.
Jared reached over and played with the top of her shirt. He chuckled, and she gave him a sleepy confused look. “You didn’t button your shirt correctly.”
She looked down at her shirt; she had misaligned her shirt and then skipped a button in the middle. She laughed and after handing her coffee back to Jared started unbuttoning it. Jared turned his face, “Becca!”
“Oh, sorry,” she said and turned around to finish fixing it. After years of living with him she sometimes forgot that that’s not what their life was like right now. She admired that he averted his eyes though, because she knew that he didn’t want to.
“Ready now?”
“Well, I guess. Can you get Callie while I get her bag and such? I’ll call Amy and tell her we are bringing her over.” She went downstairs calling Amy on the way. She found Callie’s backpack and then went to the coat closet where Becca kept a bag ready for Callie if she should need to go to Amy’s in the middle of the night because Becca had been called onto the job.
Jared carried a still sleeping Callie down the stairs, and the three went out to Jared’s truck.
They headed to Amy’s house where Becca carried Callie upstairs and put her down in the spare bed in Tabitha’s room where Callie slept when she was there. Amy poked her head out of her room as Becca was about to head down the stairs.
“Hey, don’t tell me it’s another victim in the case you guys have been working on.”
Becca nodded.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Becca.” Her sister gave her a brief hug, and then Becca left.
Jared pulled up to the curb and parked in the exact spot they had last night. Becca’s stomach lurched. He had left this woman at the same park Becca went to with Callie. It wasn’t right! She and Jared didn’t exchange any words, but she was sure he was just as disturbed as she was. How was she going to keep bringing Callie to this place?
Jamison pulled up as they got out of Jared’s truck. “Hey, guys,” he greeted them. Becca was a little self-conscious about them arriving together, but that didn’t matter right now.
“Hey, Adam,” Becca said. “Please tell me you were able to follow Stuart all the way home last night!”
“I wish I could, but he evaded me. Half a mile down the road, and he ducked into a little shop, I waited outside a few stores down, but he never came out. After maybe ten minutes I went in, and he was nowhere in sight. I can only assume he went out the back, and he was long gone by the time I went out there.”
“Bummer!”
The three of them made their way under the police tape and joined Captain Baker and Detective Miller by the body. Everything was exactly the same as the previous five victims. There was a bouquet of flowers and a note. The flowers were pansies, and the note said “I have paid for my sins. I hated when I should have loved. But will no longer harbor hate in my heart.” Unlike last time, they had no idea who this woman was. There had been no missing person’s report filed that matched her description; Becca knew that without a doubt.
“Well, there is one thing different this time,” Baker stated, “We have a witness. He’s over there waiting for you, Palmer.”
“Thanks, Captain.” She and Jared headed over to the middle-aged man in running attire. “Hello, sir. I am Detective Palmer, and this is my partner Detective Johnson. We heard that you saw something and have information for us. Can you tell us what you saw?”
“More than saw, I took a picture.” As he pulled out his iPhone he said, “I was going for my early morning run down the path and had stopped at the water fountain over yonder to refill my water bottles when I heard a noise. I quietly snuck behind that monument pillar thing and peered around it. Saw some guy laying that lady down on the ground. I heard about the murderer that you guys have been trying to catch on the news, so I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture before I called it in just in case you couldn’t get here in time, which I guess is a good thing since you didn’t. Seconds later he was gone. I thought about tackling him and doing a citizen’s arrest, but I was too freaked out.”
“Don’t blame you on that one at all,” Becca said, “Can we see the picture?” She was anxious to see it. Would it clear or condemn Stuart?
“Sure, here. It’s really dark since I turned the flash off, didn’t want to alert him to my presence.” She took the phone from the man, and she and Jared looked at it. They then looked at each other. Becca almost dropped the phone, but Jared caught her hand and the phone. Stuart.
“Thank you so much, sir. We will need to keep your phone for a short while until we can get this image taken off and put in our system.”
“Of course, and whatever else you need from me. My little sister is a single mother about the age of these women, so I really want you to catch this guy.”
They directed him to a uniformed officer to get his written statement, and Jared and Becca turned and went back to where Baker, Jamison, and Miller were standing. They all looked at them with expectation, waiting to hear what the witness had said.
“It’s him,” Becca said softly. “It’s Stuart. And we have an actual photograph to prove it,” she added showing them the phone. A shi
ver went down her spine.
“You okay, Palmer?” Jamison asked.
“Yeah, it’s incredibly unnerving to think about the fact that I was talking to him at this park last night, while this poor woman was being held by him and on the brink of death…”
“Actually, Palmer,” Henry said, “This victim has been dead longer than the others had been when they were found. I’d say closer to twenty-four hours for this one. Also, preliminary exam suggests her injuries are more extensive. I’ll know more once I’ve gotten her on the table, but I believe the cause of death may not be strangulation. Those ligature marks look postmortem.”
Becca was fighting to keep her emotions in check. Part of her wanted to just turn to Jared and collapse in his arms in a weeping mess, another part of her wanted to hunt down this evil sociopath and put a bullet in his head, and yet another part of her just wanted to hurl. She decided she needed to harness a bit of the anger she was feeling to keep her from crying or puking. “Let’s get him, guys.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jared followed Becca into the break room. He was a mess, and it was showing. He hadn’t been able to focus for the last few hours since they got back to the station. With another victim being found, Becca now had a target on her back. She was holding it together, but how? He wasn’t quite sure. Jesus, I need your help. Give me the clarity of mind to do my job. But more than anything, please protect Becca.
“Okay, Jared,” she said as she filled their cups with fresh coffee, “You need to snap out of your funk and get to work. I need you to be my partner, not my boyfriend right now. Think about this as a cop not as the man in love with the killer’s next target, unless of course that infuriates you enough to do your job even better.”
She was incredibly attractive when she got bossy, and that wasn’t helping anything. He banished the thoughts. She was right; he needed to think like a cop right now. “How are you doing it today, Becca? Aren’t you scared?”
“Terrified, but more than that, I’m angry. We know who he is now. All we have to do is figure out where the heck he is and go take him down!”
He desperately needed to tap into some of her intensity right now.
“Jared, I love you, and I’ll be damned if this man tries to take me away from you. It won’t happen. And I know you feel the same way.”
Her choice of words surprised him. Even back in her non-Christian days she was very conservative in her speech. She was angry.
“Put your self-control aside for a minute and get angry if that’s what it takes. And drink some more caffeine to wake up.”
He downed about half of his hot coffee and then refilled the cup. She smiled at him and then looked at the door. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew as soon as she pulled him down by his tie and planted a quick kiss on his lips.
“Now, Detective Johnson,” she said changing her tone to an exaggerated professional one. “We have work to do, a killer to catch. Can I get some quality work out of you this afternoon?”
He laughed at her. The way she stood there with her head high and her hand casually resting on her hip told him she was quite pleased with herself having accomplished part of her goal in bringing him to the break room.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a sloppy salute. “But seriously,” he added as they left the break room, “Thanks, Becks, I needed the pep talk. Sorry I’ve been useless this morning.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jared. I understand, and I know how little sleep you are running on. But I need you, okay?”
“Absolutely,” he looked at her with a smile as they walked back into the conference room.
They got back to work, and Jared was finally able to give his full, well mostly full attention to the job. It was difficult to banish the memory of her tender lips brushing against his in the break room, but he managed to get work done anyway; they had to catch this guy before he hurt the woman Jared loved.
Later in the afternoon, after hours of research, Becca was about to reach over and squeeze Jared’s leg, but the Captain walked in. She snapped her hand back to her own lap.
“All right, folks, I’m ready for the low down. Give me what you’ve got so far.”
After six hours, they had found a fair amount of information about the killer. Becca started with what she had found. “Well, we have a confirmed identity, from both the sketches and the photographs, of one Stuart Monroe.” She made a few clicks on her laptop and his image came up on the screen. “He is from Delaware and has no apparent local connection. No North Carolina driver’s license or mailing address. No family or friends that live in the area. Not even a Facebook friend. As far as his family history, it tells an intriguing tale as to what has brought him to where he is today. His father is serving a life sentence at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Delaware for first degree murder.” She switched the screen to the senior Monroe’s arrest file. “He strangled his wife, Stuart’s mother, when she tried to leave him when Stuart was, catch this, five years old.” Becca picked up her water bottle and took a drink.
Then she continued. “It gets weirder from there. He was placed with multiple foster families over the years, but when he was eight, he was placed with a deeply religious family, but they were not Bible believing Christians, they were part of a sect that has since been labeled a cult. Bible-distorting Christians is more like it. He was with them until he was twelve. More than enough time to develop a demented view of God’s wrath. He was removed from the home when the foster parents were convicted of five counts of child abuse.”
“Wow, impressive work,” Baker said. “Question about stoning, answered. Strangling? Following his father’s MO. Well, then.”
“There is more, sir.” Adam hijacked the screen with a few clicks on his computer. “There’s a missing person report for him from Delaware.” Stuart’s picture came up on the screen. “Along with his son, Freddy, definitely the boy we saw last night.” The picture of a slightly younger version of the boy came up. “And his wife, Jane.”
Her picture came up on the screen, and Becca dropped her water bottle on the table. Her stomach slammed forward. “No…” The word barely passed her lips. She looked at the Captain. His eyes were wide with recognition.
“This is all my fault.”
“Palmer, outside.” The Captain turned and opened the door.
She stood without making eye contact with any of the guys and walked through the door Baker held open for her. She steeled herself for the scolding she was sure was coming. Jane Monroe had come to her back in the spring, looking for help and all Becca did was offer a listening ear. She didn’t do anything to help Jane.
“Rebecca.”
She looked up at him, surprised that he used her first name.
“Don’t blame yourself.”
“But, Captain… I deserve whatever reprimand you have in store.”
He shook his head. His eyes, while firm and authoritative, held compassion. “I read your report, while, yes, I do think you should have pushed for more and followed up more thoroughly. You are not responsible for Stuart’s actions in any way.”
“If you aren’t going to yell at me, why did you bring me out here?”
“Because I didn’t want you to process this in front of the guys. You are in charge on this case; you’ve got good leadership skills, but this case is too personal. A good leader doesn’t let their emotions control them and sometimes that takes leaving the room. You need to not berate yourself in front of them. Take it like a leader. Sure, you screwed up, but you are giving this case your everything. Let what happened motivate you to push forward.”
Jared’s heart sat in his stomach. The Captain didn’t look happy, and Becca looked like she was going to be sick. What did he miss?
Jamison looked over at the door. “Anyone have a clue what that was about?”
“Nope.”
Jamison’s fingers flew across his keyboard. “Oh!”
“What?”
“Jane Monroe came in back in April and file
d a complaint about her husband being abusive. Palmer was the reporting detective.”
Jared’s heart hurt for Becca. He turned as she and Baker came back into the conference room. Her nose was a little red, but her eyes were dry and focused.
She looked over Jamison’s shoulder. “Yes. I spoke with her. She came into the station on her own accord. We talked, although she didn’t say much. She complained that her husband was acting weird and controlling. She clearly wanted to get away from him, but she was scared. I have hardly any details because she talked around them. I honestly thought she gave me a fake name when I couldn’t find her in the DMV records.”
Jared rubbed his hands together. “So where is she now?”
Becca shrugged.
The Captain stepped closer to the screen where Jane Monroe’s missing person file was still up. “How long have they been missing from Delaware?”
Jamison answered, “Since last November. Apparently, a neighbor reported them missing after not seeing them for over a week.”
Becca sat back in her chair next to Jared. “I’m beginning to fear the worst for Jane. Look at her. She looks just like the women he has been killing. Dark hair, same kind of build, and she was thirty-three when they went missing. I think it is most likely that she was his first victim.”
Jamison said, “In addition to her coming in here, there are several reports of domestic violence back in Delaware. And I just found that she filed for divorce right before they went missing.”
“There’s the trigger event,” Miller added. “His wife files for divorce, and he snaps and does exactly what old pops did when he was a little kid. But gets such a rush from it that he decides to keep going, punishing other mothers for taking their kids away from their fathers. It’s all falling into place.”