“Honest. My treat,” he said as he pulled the car over to the curb.
“Where are we going?” Randy asked.
“To a gourmet restaurant just around the corner,” Logan said leading the way down the street and around the corner.
There was a hot dog vendor cart with a Martini-Rossi umbrella.
“I knew it,” Randy said, “I knew you were too cheap to really buy me a good lunch.”
“You speak not of what you know, dunderhead. These are original Vienna Franks from Chicago. None better at any price. You just wait before you take a cheap shot at my character. This is gourmet at its finest,” Logan informed him.
As usual, Logan was right.
CHAPTER THIRTY- FIVE
“Sarah, it would be better if you didn’t spend the night at your friend Casey’s house tonight. We have to leave by no later than 10:00 a.m. for the airport tomorrow,” Terry said.
“Aw, come on dad. I will be home at 9:00 a.m. for sure. Her mom knows we are leaving and that I have to be home on time,” Sarah pleaded.
“Honey, I know but still…”
“Please dad. I won’t get to see Casey for three whole weeks.”
“That’s not the end of the world. You’re going to being seeing all kinds of new things. The time will just fly by. Besides I imagine you will be texting back and forth a great deal of the time,” he said.
That’s different. Besides, you’re the one that wants to go on this dumb trip. I’m just a kid and don’t have any real say in it,” she pouted.
Terry shook his head. You try to spend time with your kids and take them to new and exciting places and they act like it is a death sentence. Sometimes it felt like a losing battle.
“I think this is a really bad idea but I guess…”
“Oh thanks daddy, you’re the best. I’ll call Casey and tell her,” she said, skipping off to the kitchen to call her friend.
Why had he given in? It wasn’t a good decision and he knew it. Kids. Or maybe it’s the parents. He gave in when he knew he shouldn’t have. Guilty for not spending enough time with her? It didn’t matter; he had said okay so he would have to live with it.
“Casey’s mom is coming to pick me up,” Sarah said happily.
“Look, I’m not kidding. You had better be walking through that front door by 9:00 o’clock. I don’t mean 9:01, got it?”
“You bet. I’ll be home before that, I promise,” she said, putting her arms around his waist.
He was a sucker for a good hug so he patted her on the head and stroked her long blond hair. She was so much like her mother in many ways. She had blonde hair, bright blue eyes and freckles on her nose. She was as smart as a whip and able to wind him around her little finger. She was a miniature copy of her mother.
“Do you have everything packed that you’re going to need on the trip?” he asked.
“You bet. I checked it all again earlier today. I got it all,” she said.
“Alright. What about the stuff you’re taking to Casey’s? “
“All set,” she said and pointed to a small bag by the door.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang and he opened it to find Casey’s mother standing there. She was tall, attractive, and had obviously taken some time to put on makeup before coming over.
“Dr. Ryan, nice to meet you,” she said, holding out her hand.
“Mrs. Jackson. And please, it’s Terry,” he said shaking her hand.
She had long delicate fingers but her handshake was strong and firm. No wimpy handshake from this woman.
“Please call me Robin. I’m not married,” she said, slightly blushing. “Is Sarah ready?”
“You bet. She begged me to let her stay the night. I’m sure she told you we were leaving in the morning and she had to be home by 9:00 o’clock.”
“Only about three times” she said, giving a quick laugh, “I think you have impressed that fact on her sufficiently. I’ll be sure and have her home on time.”
She had beautiful white teeth that must have cost a bundle of money.
“Sorry. It’s just that she sees time as an abstract thing. 9:00 o’clock means anytime from nine o’clock until almost ten,” he said.
“Not to me. I’ll have her home in plenty of time,” Robin said.
“I’m sorry, I’m so rude. Please come on in?” he said opening the door wider.
“No, really. Maybe some other time. I just need to collect Sarah. I’m taking them to the water slide park,” she told him.
“Good plan. Let them wear themselves out first.”
“Heck, I’m going with them. I love going down those slides as much as the kids do,” she said.
“Really? I never would have guessed it.”
“I’m kind of a thrill seeker. I love adventure. The trip you’re taking sounds just wonderful,” she said.
“I only wish Sarah thought that,” Terry replied.
“She’ll have fun once you get going. All kids are the same. Once she sees how beautiful the southwest is, she will enjoy herself,” Robin assured him.
Nice lady, Terry thought to himself. Maybe I should give her a call when we return. She seemed like she would be a lot of fun and the two girls got along famously.
“Hey dad, I’m ready to go. I’ll be home tomorrow as instructed,” she informed him.
“I know. Robin has assured me of that as well,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.
“Love you kid.”
“Love you too dad,” she said and headed for the car.
“You’ll have to tell me all about your trip when you get back,” she said.
“I’ll do that. Maybe you and Casey could come over and I’ll fix us dinner.”
“Now that’s an offer no woman could refuse. I look forward to that,” she said as she turned to leave.
He stood in the door watching her walk to her car. Very nice indeed he thought to himself. He waved as they drove out of the driveway. He would definitely have to have her over sometime. Soon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-S IX
Bull knocked on the hotel door.
“Who is it?”
“Detectives Locker and Harding.”
“Just one minute. I need to put something on.”
“Fine,” Bull said looking at Jonas.
A few minutes later the door opened and she let them in.
“Sorry about that. I was just getting ready to take a bath,” she told them.
“No problem. Marcia, we need to get a DNA sample from you. It’s painless and only takes a second,” Bull said.
“DNA sample? How do you do that?”
“I just run a cotton tipped swab inside your cheek and around your gums. That’s all there is to it,” he explained.
“That’s it?”
“Yep. Nothing to it,” he said.
“Gee. Well I guess that would be okay. Does that mean you think I had something to do with Andy’s suicide? Do I need to call a lawyer?”
“Oh heavens no. We are just eliminating people and one of the best ways is to use DNA. We already expect to find yours in the room. Now we can check it against others we may come across and then start identifying those. Gives us sort of a baseline,” Bull said.
“I don’t follow you on that but if it will help, go ahead. What do I need to do?”
Jonas took out a plastic bag with three long cotton swabs in it.
“Just open our mouth and I’ll rub these along various areas in your mouth. I’ll try not to cause any discomfort,” he assured her.
“Okay,” she said opening her mouth wide.
Jonas slid the cotton tipped swabs around each cheek, across her gums and under her tongue. He placed each swab in the plastic tube when he was finished.
“That does it,” he said as he placed the last one in the bag and sealed it shut.
“That wasn’t too bad,” Marcia said running her tongue around the inside of her mouth.
“We should be able to release the apartment back to you by tomorrow. Y
ou won’t have to stay cooped up here much longer,” Bull told her.
“Well hooray for that bit of news. I’m getting a little sick of these same four walls. I need to do a ton of laundry,” she said.
“It won’t be long now,” he assured her as they were leaving.
They headed to Sharon’s boyfriend's house. They could hear the music coming from the house as they pulled into the driveway.
“Party?”
“Sounds like,” Bull said.
They knocked on the door but no one answered. Bull knocked louder but still they got no answer. Finally Bull just opened the door. Lying on the couch was a totally naked woman, her arm draped across her eyes. Bull looked at Jonas and shrugged. Hey looked around the room and there were beer cans and liquor bottles everywhere.
“Must have been some party,” Jonas shouted at Bull. Bull just nodded his head. He was looking for the source of the music. Finally he located it and shut off the thing. Stillness suddenly enveloped the room.
“That’s better,” Bull said.
They looked around and no one else was in the front room.
“Let’s check out the rest of the house,” Jonas said.
Bull went over to the girl on the couch and placed a finger on her neck, checking her pulse. She moaned but didn’t wake up.
“She’s fine,” he said.
“I can see that,” Jonas replied, not cracking a smile.
“Let’s check out the rest of this place,” Bull said, ignoring Jonas’ innuendo.
They went from room to room and found another couple in one of the bedrooms. They didn’t bother to wake them. Next they went upstairs and found the boyfriend, Mike, in a bed with two other naked girls. It had been some party. Bull shook Mike by the shoulder. He moved but didn’t wake up.
“Mike,” Bull said, shaking him harder.
“What man?” he said without opening his eyes.
“Mike. It’s the police. I need to you get up.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, turning over on his side.
“Get up man,” Jonas said, pulling his head up by his ear.
“Hey. Cool the shit,” he said, trying to get his ear free from Jonas’s grip.
Finally they succeeded in getting him to open his eyes and set up.
“What are you guys doing here?” he asked with slurred speech.
“We need to talk to you. Why don’t we go down to the kitchen so we can get this over with,” Bull said.
“Whatever, man,” he said, standing up. He wobbled on his legs for a few seconds before he shook his head. He was naked as well, “Man, that was some party,” he said to himself.
“Looks like it,” Jonas agreed.
“Like what?”
“Like it was some party.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” he said.
He fumbled around and found a pair of shorts and they went down to the kitchen.
Whoa. Like what time is it?” he asked looking at his bare arm.
“One o’clock,” Bull told him.
“In the morning or afternoon?”
“Afternoon,” Jonas said.
“Wow. Too early man. So what do you guys want?” he said as he shuffled over to the refrigerator and opened the door.
He looked inside for a few seconds before pulling out a beer, “You guys want one?”
“No, thanks. What we do need is a DNA sample from you,” Bull said.
“DNA sample?”
“Yes. We need to get a quick sample so we can eliminate you from the suspect list,” Jonas said.
“Suspect list? I’m still on a suspect list?”
“Everyone is at this point. DNA tests are the best way to narrow the pool of suspects,” Bull said.
“Is this going to hurt?”
“No,” Bull said and explained the same procedure to him as he had done with Marcia.
He didn’t seem to follow it much better than she did but that was to be expected in his current state. Just as they were about to start, the girl from the couch walked into the room. She was still totally naked.
“Hi guys,” she said, not attempting to cover up.
“Yo. Whatcha need?” Mike asked.
“A beer if you got it.”
“Can do,” he said and took one from the refrigerator, popped the top and handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said and turned around and walked back to the front room.
Bull and Jonas just watched her leave.
“Can we get this over with?” Mike said, not paying one bit of attention to the girl.
Within a few minutes they had repeated the procedure and were walking back to leave. The naked girl was lying on the couch, drinking her beer. She waved as the two detectives walked by.
“Gonna’ stay and party with us?” she asked.
“Not this time,” Jonas managed to get out.
“Too bad,” was all she said.
“We will leave you to your grieving about Sharon,” Bull said to Mike.
“Hey man, we all grieve in different ways.”
“Well, yours is one of the more unique,” Bull said.
“Works for me,” he said closing the door.
“We should grieve like that sometime,” Jonas said as they got back into the car.
“He was suffering,” Bull said.
“I could suffer like that a time or two,” Jonas replied.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Logan and Nelson were not having quite the same success. Drs. Keller, Richards, and Sorenson were among those present at the attorneys. They thanked them for coming and started to have the technician they had brought with them take the DNA samples.
“Sorry gentlemen, but that is not going to happen today. Dr. Winegardner has changed his mind and you will have to get a warrant for any DNA samples of University personal.
Logan just looked at the attorneys for a moment before getting up and walking out of the room. He knew there was no use getting into a verbal confrontation with them. The most disturbing part of all was the absence of Dr. Ryan.
“I don’t get it. I thought we had this discussion already?” Randy said as they stepped out to the reception area.
“I’m not really surprised. What really bothers me is where was Ryan?” Logan asked.
“Guess he didn’t feel like coming since they weren’t going to give the DNA samples.”
Logan walked over to the receptionist and asked about Dr. Ryan.
“Did you call his house?” Randy asked.
“Several times. We get his answering machine but he hasn’t called back yet,” she said.
“Could you try again?”
“Certainly,” she said, hitting the redial button. Randy could hear it ringing three times before the answering machine clicked on.
Logan had gone down the hall to the restroom.
“Want me to leave another message?” the receptionist asked.
“No. That’s okay. Thanks,” he said.
“I’ll keep trying every ten minutes or so,” she assured him.
“Any luck?” Logan asked when he came back into the room.
“Just the answering machine. You’re sure he hasn’t left yet?”
“I doubt it. His tickets are for tomorrow. Maybe he’s at the Fitness Club again,” Logan suggested.
“Maybe we should take a ride over to his place and see if we can track him down. I sure would like to talk to him once more before he hightails it out of here on vacation,” Randy suggested.
“Sure. We can’t do much here. Before they left, he thanked them all again for coming and assured them he would be seeing them again soon. It was met with stony silence.
Logan drove while Randy flinched, complained and shut his eyes several times.
“You’re nuts. I would rather be in a running gun battle than riding with you,” he said as they pulled into the drive way.
“Heck, I was on my best behavior. You should see me when I’m feeling aggressive.”
“No thanks. I’ll
drive from now on if you don’t mind,” Randy said.
“The honeymoon is over. You’re starting to complain about my driving.”
“I’m not complaining. I simply am trying to live a little longer.”
They went to the front door and rang the bell. They expected the punk girl to open the door again but instead no one came to the door.
“Want to check out the Fitness Club?” Randy asked.
Instead of answering, Logan pushed and the door opened.
“Dr. Ryan, it’s the police,” he yelled out, looking into the front room.
No answer from inside.
“Indianapolis Police,” he yelled louder, but he got no reply.
Logan upholstered his firearm and stepped inside. A lamp was lying in the middle of the floor on its side. He slowly stepped into the room and saw a chair turned over by the breakfast bar. Randy took his gun out as well and nodded that he was going to go the other way down the hall. Logan acknowledged and kept going toward the kitchen. Obviously a struggle had taken place. Two dishes were on the floor, one in pieces and the other upside down. Another chair was lying on its side. He could see no blood on the floor or any blood trail.
“In the bedroom,” Randy yelled.
Logan backtracked and went down to join Randy. Lying on the floor was Terry Ryan.
“Get an ambulance. He is still alive,” Randy said as Logan put in an emergency call.
It seemed like a lifetime but it was actually only minutes before the paramedics arrived.
“He has an irregular heartbeat. Very weak,” the paramedic said as he attached an I.V. into Ryan’s wrist.
“Is he going to make it?” Randy asked.
“Not sure. He is in bad shape. Another fifteen minutes and he would be dead.”
There was nothing they could do except watch as the medics worked on the limp body of Ryan. Finally they stabilized him enough to place him on a gurney and they rolled him out to the ambulance. Seconds later, lights flashing and siren wailing, they were off to the hospital.
“Well, that is another piece of the puzzle. This thing is out of control. Whoever is behind this is either killing, or attempting to kill off a lot of University personnel,” Logan said.
BLONDE DECEPTION - The Logan Files Page 14