by C. M. Sutter
“Because God said so?” Mandy huffed and took a seat on the couch.
“Watch your tone of voice, young lady. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Lucky? We’re killing people, Mama.”
“God gave us a sign, so it’s his will. There aren’t many people lucky enough to have God give them such an important mission.”
“We’re going against the commandments. Do you think God wants us to do that?”
The springs creaked when Alice took a seat next to Mandy. She peered out the window and gazed at the clouds, then smiled. “Yes, I do, and as a matter of fact, the next one is all yours.”
Mariah giggled and plopped down on the kitchen chair next to the computer. The screen came to life when she hit the power button. “Let’s see who wants to go out with me now. Thank you for sharing the password with me, Mama.” She logged onto the cheaters’ website, as Alice called it, and checked her inbox. “Come look, Mandy. There are three guys that want to go on a date with me. Take your pick. They all look good.”
With a nudge from Alice, Mandy reluctantly got up, walked into the kitchen, and took a seat next to her twin.
“I don’t care. You pick, Mariah.” Mandy stared at the screen, her bent elbows on the table and her head resting in her open palms.
“Fine, be that way. Mama, when should we plan the next date?”
Alice paced in thought, her arms crossed against her chest. “See who wants to go out with you tonight. If there’s more than one, both of you girls are going to work. I have to plan something spectacular.”
Alice kept a watchful eye on Mandy. She knew that daughter was a tougher nut to crack, while Mariah was on board with whatever Alice suggested.
Mariah happily tapped away on the keyboard as Mandy watched in silence. “There we go. I responded to all of them, Mama.”
“Good girl. Now we wait.”
Chapter 20
Jack and I updated Lieutenant Clark on our visit with Whitney Smith as we sat on the guest chairs in his office.
“I don’t think she’s good for the murder, boss. She would have had to get a babysitter, for Pete’s sake, and it’s so gruesome. An act like that takes some planning and a place to do it. We do need to put a BOLO out for David Smith’s car, though. The wife doesn’t have it, and it wasn’t at the crime scene. We have the works—make, model, plate number, year, and color. I’ll tell the city boys to watch for it too when they do their normal rounds.”
“We should get a warrant anyway for the house. Did you go into the garage or ask about power tools?”
“No, but Mrs. Smith said her husband was rarely home. He was in sales and had to schmooze customers, that sort of thing. According to her description of him, he didn’t seem to have a lot of time for the family, let alone puttering in a workshop,” I said.
Clark raised his brows. “So there was trouble between them?”
“Nah—seemed like the typical ten-year marriage and three-kids-under-age-eight type of thing,” Jack said.
Clark sighed. “I’ll have a warrant before the end of the day. Nobody is getting a pass on this. Check their bank records and life insurance policies. See if anything new has been added to the husband’s life insurance policy recently, or if any large amounts of money have been moved in, or out, of their bank accounts. The wife may not have committed the actual crime, but that doesn’t mean somebody didn’t do it for her. When is she coming in to make the ID?”
“Lena said she’d let us know. It should be in an hour or so,” Jack said.
“Okay, get back at it. I’ll get a judge on the horn for the warrant,” Clark said.
I excused myself and picked up the ringing phone on my desk. Billy from the tech department was calling.
“Hey, Jade, I wanted to let you know we went over the tape from the university. Lena’s estimated TOD was ten to fifteen hours prior to when Mr. Smith was found, so we went back to five o’clock yesterday afternoon. There’s nothing on the parking lot cam and nothing at the school entrances until this morning when the faculty started coming in.”
“Thanks, Billy. There’s something sticking in my craw, though. Can you and Todd spare a few minutes?”
“Sure, no problem. We’ll be right up.”
“What are you thinking?” Jack gave me the typical right eyebrow raise as he asked the question.
“That green truck from earlier is bothering me,” I said. I got up, rinsed out my travel mug that was still sitting on my desk from that morning, and poured cold water in it.
“The slow-moving one that drove by the university?” Jack drummed his fingers on his desk as if in thought.
“Yep, that one. Don’t ask me why, but something seemed off, almost like they were too interested.”
“Do you think you’d recognize it again if you saw it?”
“Possibly. Help me remember, Jack. You saw it too. There wasn’t anything unusual about it, though—at least nothing that stood out. What would you say—maybe ten years old?”
Jack leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. “Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s hard to say what it was, though. Could have been a Ford, but at that distance, I couldn’t read any badges.”
“Me, either. I need to pull up a city map. As far as I know, there’s only three ways to access University Drive.”
I looked up when Todd and Billy walked in. Jack rose and wheeled his chair over to my desk. Todd and Billy took the guest chairs.
“What have you got, Jade?” Billy asked.
“Nothing other than a hunch. Come take a look.”
They huddled around my computer screen as I pointed.
“We only have three ways to access University Drive. There’s Washington Street, Decorah Road, and Chestnut Street. There isn’t any retail on Chestnut, so we can rule that out. If there’s any footage of that green truck from Decorah or Washington Streets from last night, it could be a viable lead.”
“True, and it would have to be after dark,” Jack added. “Now we need to find out what businesses closest to the intersections with University Drive have cameras facing the street.”
Todd spoke up. “We can access that information. Zoom in closer and the business names will pop up on your map. Let’s go with Washington Street first. It’s likely to be the busiest street at night. First Bank has an ATM outside. That camera faces the street.”
I wrote that down. “What else would for sure?”
Jack pointed at Safrony Auto Mall. “They’ll definitely have cameras and probably more than one facing the lot. I bet they’re always on too, especially with the rash of car thefts lately.”
“How busy are you guys today? If we called ahead and had two businesses near each intersection pull their footage from last night, could you guys spare a few hours to look it over?” I asked.
They both agreed. I located two businesses on Decorah that would likely have cameras too and made the calls. Todd and Billy left at two o’clock to see if they could track down a green truck on one of the businesses’ camera footage for me.
I got up, stretched, and rotated my neck. Crackling pops sounded. I wondered if Billings and Clayton had called in yet from Madison. I rapped on Clark’s half-opened door.
“Hey, boss, have you heard from Clayton and Billings yet?”
He looked at his watch. “Yeah, Clayton updated me. They interviewed the man again that called in the tip from the news segment. He didn’t know much more than what he told Jamison on the phone, but he did give them the name of the minister and the church this guy and his family went to. Hopefully, they’ll get a last name and more information from the minister—that’s if John Doe is even the right guy.”
I rubbed my knotted neck. The tight muscles were giving me a headache. “We have to check every lead, even if we are chasing our tails once in a while.”
“Yeah, I know,” Clark said.
“I’m up for some coffee. How about you?”
“Thanks, Jade. That sounds good.”
I saw Jack talking on his phone and indicated with my raised coffee cup that I was making a fresh pot. He nodded, so I started a twelve cupper.
“Who was that?” I asked when he hung up.
“Lena called. She said they got the tox report back for John Doe. Because there wasn’t an obvious cause of death, she had them check for all types of poisoning too.”
“Lena is a smart woman.” I filled the carafe and poured the water into the pot, added six heaping tablespoons of grounds into the filter, and turned the pot on.
“Yeah, and they got a hit.”
“Are you serious?”
“Sure am. Let’s tell Clark.”
Jack led, and I was right on his heels back to the lieutenant’s office.
“Boss, Lena got a hit on the tox report for John Doe,” Jack said.
Clark slid his paperwork to the side, took off his reading glasses, and motioned for us to sit.
“Well, what did it say?”
“She said it came back positive for ethylene glycol poisoning.”
“Antifreeze? So a quick but extremely painful death, then the guy was nearly gutted and had his eyes removed?”
“Now, David Smith had his heart pierced and his skull drilled into. It seems like there’s a certain amount of vengeance going, and it’s only directed at men. If this killer was just that, a sadistic killer, wouldn’t they kill anyone that was convenient?” I asked.
“Don’t know for sure, but it made me wonder how David Smith was subdued,” Jack said. “I asked Lena if she was going to order a tox report for poisons on him too. She is, but she also said after shaving David’s head, she saw a large wound on the back of his skull indicative of blunt force trauma. She said it made sense after realizing he had a broken nose. When he was hit from behind, he likely fell forward, causing that injury too.”
“That means somebody lay in wait and cracked him in the head from behind.” I wrung my hands. “That could mean he was still alive when his wounds were inflicted.”
Jack agreed. “According to Lena, he probably was.”
“There’s something connecting these two men, but we’ll never know what it is unless we learn John Doe’s real identity,” I said.
I heard the coffeemaker beep and went out to fill our cups. I handed Clark his first.
“Thanks, Jade. Okay, Jack, get on those bank statements and life insurance policies. Jade, go downstairs and see if Kyle has come up with anything on those tire tread imprints. Was anything else found at the scene?”
“I’ll ask him that too, boss. The last I heard before we left the university was that nobody had found anything lying on the bleachers or in the grass.”
Jack went back to work at his computer with a fresh cup of coffee. I left mine on my desk and went downstairs. I entered the forensics lab and saw Dan checking slides under the microscope. Kyle was sitting at his computer. He looked up when I entered the room.
“Hey, Jade, what can I do for you?”
“Anything on the tire treads?”
“Actually, the tread pattern belongs to All-Terrain truck tires. There are a handful of manufacturers for those types of tires. I’m narrowing it down right now for the specific brand.”
“So there’s no way that imprint is from a car tire?”
“Nope, truck for sure.”
“Okay, ring me when you get a match. Thanks, Kyle.” As long as I was down there anyway, I approached Dan to find out if he had anything. “Any trace or fingerprints, Dan?”
“Actually he did have partial fingerprints on the sides of his face, but it’s tough to get a full print from skin. Even with the partial, there weren’t any matches in the system.”
“I knew I was hoping for too much. Okay, thanks.”
I wanted to run up the stairs to give Jack my news, but I knew to walk at a normal pace. The doctor said my right foot needed another month to be completely healed. I entered the bull pen with obvious excitement written across my face, and Jack noticed immediately.
“What’s up?”
“You aren’t even going to believe this. Kyle said the tread was from a truck tire.”
“No shit?”
“It’s a fact, Jack, and a viable lead. Now we have to wait for Billy and Todd to get back with some good news. I hope to God they found that truck on one of the businesses cameras.”
I checked the time—four thirty. Our opportunity for lunch had come and gone hours ago. I opened the cardboard box from the doughnuts I’d brought in that morning and was surprised to see three left. I poked at one, and it was still soft. I grabbed all three with napkins and handed one to Jack, one to Clark, and enjoyed the last one myself.
Chapter 21
“Come on, Mandy. Get over here and decide. I’ve already picked my guy,” Mariah said. She kicked her legs up on a vacant chair and drummed her fingers against the tabletop while she waited.
Mandy dried her hands on the tea towel and hung it smoothly over the oven handle. Alice took her place at Mariah’s right and looked over the profiles of the two remaining married men that were more than happy to have an illicit rendezvous with a beautiful twenty-year-old blonde.
“Mandy, sit your butt down on this chair,” Alice insisted. “You’re picking one of these men, and you’re doing it now.”
“You pick for me, Mama.”
“Nope, it’s on you. You’re part of this family, and you’re participating in this cleansing. It’s God’s will, now sit.”
Mariah pulled the chair out for Mandy. “I’d pick this guy. He’s younger than the other one and cuter.”
“What the hell is the difference, Mariah? Does it matter what his age is or how cute he is when he has a hole in his head?”
The sting caught Mandy by surprise. She held her cheek and stared at the floor. Tears dropped to the linoleum beneath her chair.
Alice stood above her, her right arm outstretched and ready to slap Mandy for the second time. “If I ever hear you curse again, I’ll rip your tongue out.”
“She means it too, Mandy. Now pick one of these guys.”
Mandy pointed at the man who used the screen alias Loverboy.
A smile lit up Mariah’s face. “Good choice. That’s who I would have picked too.”
“All right now, Mariah, go ahead and set up the date with both of them. Make one for seven o’clock and the other for seven thirty tomorrow. Since my note went unnoticed with the law, we’ll have to let the public know why these men are paying for their sins. I know what the perfect clue will be.”
“Tell us, Mama,” Mariah pleaded.
“Not yet, but you’ll see tomorrow night. For now, I have to come up with the right tools.”
Chapter 22
“Jade, I have the tire results,” Kyle said when he called my desk phone.
“Awesome, go ahead. I’m writing it down as you speak.” I grabbed my notepad and flipped to the last empty page.
“Well, because of the unique tread style, these look to be the BFGoodrich All-Terrain truck tires. Since the tread pattern is still defined, I’d venture to say they’re under a year old.”
“Okay, so all we need to do is call the local places that sell that tire and have them pull their records for the last year or so for somebody named Dean something.”
“That’s right. Hopefully the guy was actually local. Didn’t Clayton and Billings go to Madison to interview that man from the tip line?”
“Yeah, and they should be back any minute. They called Clark twenty minutes ago, but the call went dead during the update. They must be in a bad cell-reception area, and I’m anxious to hear what they found out. That’s the main reason we’re still hanging around. Anyway, thanks, Kyle.”
Clark came out of his office and sat in one of my guest chairs. “Anything?”
“Hell yeah. Kyle has the make of the tires and the models of truck that tire is most often used on. Now if we get a last name and Billy and Todd come up with the truck I described on any of the businesses cameras from last night, w
e should have our guy.”
“Or girl,” Jack said.
I looked toward Jack. “It seems so improbable, but you’re right. Could a woman be that gruesome? She’d definitely need assistance to get David from the back of the maintenance shed to the tenth row of the bleachers.”
“Don’t forget, there were several people in that truck we saw,” Jack said.
“True enough.”
The bull pen door opened, and Clayton and Billings walked through.
“Finally! Please tell us you have something.” I pushed back my chair and stood. My adrenaline was kicking in—likely from too much coffee. I needed to pace.
Clayton spoke up. “We didn’t get a lot more from the caller than what he told Jamison.”
I suddenly felt deflated and sat back down.
“But,” Billings added, “the minister of the Crossroads Church in Madison told us a little more. According to Minister Grant, the husband was looking for someone to exorcise his wife, who was alleged to have demons. That’s how the minister originally met Dean. He explained to Dean that he didn’t do exorcisms, but he’d welcome the family to join the church and he’d pray for the wife’s recovery. Dean and the daughters came to church several times alone and asked for prayers for his wife, Alice, who was in the hospital. Minister Grant said Dean never became a member and only showed up at church a handful of times and then disappeared. He said he felt bad for the family because they always looked so distraught.”
“Did you get a last name, though?”
“Sorry, Jade, but he didn’t have the family surname. He said the church doesn’t pry and they only get last names when people actually join as members.”
“Okay, but did he verify that the sketch was Dean?”
“He said as far as he could recall, the sketch did look like Dean. He also said he hadn’t seen him for several years.”
“So what do we know for sure?” Clark asked as he turned my guest chair toward the rest of the detectives sitting at their desks.