The Campus Killer (Detective Ali Ryan Series Book 1)

by Andrew Hess

  “Fine, I’ll go. But before I forget, I’m having some people over on Sunday for a Halloween party. You should come by.”

  Mark heard every word they said. His smile widened as he hissed under his breath. “This is perfect. Who knew camping would be such a great idea?”

  Chapter 52

  Saturday morning came quicker than anyone expected. It started out as a bright beautiful sunny morning with a slight chill that sent shivers down the spines of every student as they arrived at the base of Mohonk Mountain. Twenty-two college students followed the trail guide up the mountain; stopping briefly to check out the sights of the towns below.

  This was Christina Tyler’s third year living in New Paltz. She always stared up at the lighthouse in the far distance of Mohonk Mountain and wondered what it would be like to stand up there looking back at the people below, but she never could bring herself to try. It took moving away from her old housemates and onto campus before she realized there was a whole other world out there waiting for her to explore it.

  “All right guys,” Marty shouted from the front of the pack as he led the group into a large clearing. “We’re going to setup camp here. For those not spending the night, hang tight for now. Marie and I will bring you back down the mountain in a few hours.” He raised his hand and pointed to the trail we stood on. “This is Spring Farm Trailhead. This is the main path we’ll be using. Try to stick close to it so you don’t get lost.”

  The group walked into the clearing and threw down their bags. Several students started working on their tents while others stood around talking with their friends and sipping water from plastic water bottles.

  “We should get started on ours,” Christina said with a squeak in her voice.

  Kevin stared at her; ready to make a joke at her high pitch voice, but instead smiled at her as he unloaded the pink and gray tents from their bags. He wrestled with the silver poles; trying to place them inside the lining of the tent walls. Just as he managed to get one side in place, it would fall on him as he worked on the other side.

  “You want some help,” Christina asked.

  “No,” Kevin snapped. “I got this.”

  Christina took a step back from him. She hated when he got like this. Whenever he felt even the slightest bit annoyed, Kevin snapped at anyone nearby. It was one of the reasons why most of the housemates opted to leave after the first year of living together.

  “Does anyone need any help setting up their tents,” Marty shouted as he walked up and down a row of students setting up their tents; stopping inches from Christina and Kevin. “How about you guys? You need any help?”

  Kevin looked up at Marty while setting a pole in place. “Huh,” he replied as the pole fell down; letting the tent collapse on Kevin for the fifth time. He fought his way out of the tangled mess of gray tent pieces; staring at Marty with a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

  Marty extended his hand to Kevin. “Looks like you could use some help.”

  “I’ll be fine. I almost had it,” Kevin pushed the hand away and crawled out from the tent.

  “Suit yourself, but if you change your mind just give us a yell.” Marty walked off to check on the others.

  Christina threw her hands on her hips. Kevin could see her shadow beneath him. He turned around. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “When was the last time you went camping or setup a tent?”

  “Never,” he replied.

  “Then maybe you should’ve let him help you.”

  “I don’t need any help.” He reached in and pulled the poles out. “I just need to figure out how to get these damn things in place.” Kevin tried to get a pair of poles to line up, but threw them down in anger.

  Christina took him by the hand. “Maybe you just need to relax for a few minutes. We can come back to it later.”

  Kevin pulled away from her and walked towards the path; finding Marie standing in his way.

  “I see you’re having some trouble with your tent.”

  “Ya think?”

  Marie bit her tongue; desperately wanting to put Kevin in his place, but took one look at Christina’s embarrassed face and decided not to. “Look, I’m taking a few people to the Lemon Squeeze. You should come with us and take your mind off this tent for a while.”

  Kevin glared at the tent. “What about the…”

  “Forget it for now,” Marie interrupted. “It can wait till we get back. Besides, you should have some fun while we’re out here.”

  Christina clasped her hand around his. “Come on Kevin; let’s have some fun.” She tugged on his arm like a child urging his parents to follow them.

  “Fine, let’s go.” Kevin stomped after Marie as she counted the number of students going up the path. “Wait, what the fuck is a lemon squeeze?”

  “You’ll see,” Marie said as she led the group up the path and crossed onto another.

  It took them nearly an hour to reach a large section of rocks and boulders sitting at the base of a cliff.

  Kevin stared in disbelief. “I think we went the wrong way.”

  Marie smiled in return. “No, we’re right where we’re supposed to be.” She looked up into the wall of the cliff. “This is the Lemon Squeeze.”

  “And we’re supposed to do what exactly?”

  “Hope you’re good at climbing.” Marie climbed over the first set of rocks as she made her way to the wall. The group was hesitant, but quickly followed her.

  “She’s joking right?”

  “Stop being a baby.” Christina climbed over the rocks and tried to keep up with the others. “You coming or you gonna chicken out?”

  Kevin shook his head a followed Christina. His long legs took bigger strides while Christina struggled with her shorter steps until they reached the wall.

  “Everybody here,” Marie asked. She placed a foot on the wall and took a head count. “Looks like we’re all set. I’ll go up first and help you guys.”

  “This should be good,” Kevin whispered.

  Marie stepped down; eyed up the wall and scaled it. Her fingers dug into the wall; grabbing chunks of it for leverage. Her feet moved swiftly like a cat climbing a tall tree. It took her nearly a minute before she reached the top; struggling to pull herself over the edge.

  Her face reappeared a moment later; peering down at the group. “Okay, who’s next?”

  Kevin and Christina watched as a boy their age took a run up the wall; reaching the top with no trouble. He waited at the top and helped another girl, a few years younger than them, up the wall.

  Kevin waited until half the group was up the cliff before making his way to the front of the line. He started to claw his way up and reached the halfway point and froze; unable to find the right foot placement to continue.

  “Just place your foot on that rock to your left,” a boy shouted from above. “Come on; put your left foot on that rock and swing your body to the right so your hands and feet are on both walls.”

  Kevin hated taking orders from people; hated getting help even more. But he had no choice. He was stuck in the middle of a cliff. His only choice was to take their help and climb to the top or fall to the bottom once his arms and legs got too tired.

  He did was he was told; slowly inching his way to the top. The first boy that reached the top was there along with Marie. They extended their hands; grabbing Kevin by the arms and pulled him to the top.

  An intense wave of emotion swept over Kevin as he sat at the edge of the cliff. He looked up at the group around him. “Thanks guys.” He crawled to his feet and watched Christina. “This is incredible!”

  “Hold on; I’m coming up,” she shouted. Her shorter limbs made it harder to reach both sides. “I can’t do it. I can’t reach.”

  “Here, let me help,” a man shouted as he climbed up behind her. The man’s hands were soft and reassuring as they guided her up the cliff until the curls of her hair peaked over the grass. Kevin’s hands were there to grab her and helped pull her up to the top followed by
the man with the short spiked hair.

  “Thank you,” Christina sighed heavily; gasping for breath. She took one look at the man that helped her and gulped down the air.

  “No problem,” Mark replied as he helped Christina to her feet.

  Kevin stared him down as if he was looking at a ghost but shook it off as he led Christina away. They hugged tightly and followed the group up another hill. A thin layer of clouds lingered at their feet; placing a gray film over their view of the towns below.

  Christina took out her camera and snapped a few pictures with her SLR. “This is so beautiful. I’m really glad we did this.”

  Kevin took her by the hand; stared deeply into her eyes. “You know what? I’m happy we did this too.” He leaned in and kissed her gently on her lips.

  She smiled and bit her lip where his piercing brushed against her skin. “Come on; we should get back to the group.”

  Kevin gave a half smile and walked hand in hand with Christina. His mood had lightened up and thought of the group as more than just a bunch of annoying people. He was beginning to look at them as friends. “Hey, I don’t know if anyone’s interested, but I’m having a party tomorrow night. You’re all invited.”

  Everyone gathered around him in excitement; trying to find out the details of the party. But no one was as happy as Mark who hid behind the group with an unmistakable grin plastered across his face.

  Chapter 53

  It was a crisp Saturday morning. Each day seemed to get colder; bringing winter closer to our doors. I stepped out from my bed and stared at my typical biker’s shorts and shirt.

  “I think it’s getting a little too cold for you,” I laughed as threw them in the laundry bin and pulled out a fresh pair of black workout pants and an orange zip up sweatshirt.

  I hurried out to my favorite spot; finding an unexpected surprise waiting for me in front of the old bridge. Rodney stood there in a pair black workout pants with white stripes down the side. They clung to his legs; telling me it had been years since he used them.

  “What are you doing here,” I asked.

  “Figured I’d join you for your morning run.”

  “You…run…when was the last time you did that?”

  “Laugh it up Ali.” He reached his arm across his thick chest and pulled it with the other. “So what if it’s been a while?”

  I started stretching my legs; pulling my foot up towards my back; doing lunges and bent over trying to touch my toes. I looked to my left and found Rodney clumsily trying to copy everything I did.

  I put my hand on his back. “Why don’t you really tell me why you’re here before you hurt yourself?”

  Rodney looked around; making sure no one was near us. “I talked to Esposito yesterday about working this case with you. He wants us to keep it under wraps.”

  “I know; he told me the same thing.”

  “No, I mean he doesn’t even want us working on it at the station. No other officers are allowed to know about it, and we’re only allowed to discuss the case with a few select people like the head of the forensics team, the D.A., the M.E. and him.”

  I knew the Lieutenant wanted to keep the public from knowing anything about the case. He was worried if his bosses found out about him screwing up the investigation and was directly responsible for a killer getting away with the murders; they’d demote him or worse fire him.

  “So how are we supposed to work the case if we can’t do it at the station?”

  “That’s why I’m here. We have to work on this on our own time. What better way to do it than while we get in shape?”

  I looked Rodney over; noticing the spare tire around his waist and chuckled. “You have a long way to go before you’re back in shape.”

  He looked down with his bottom lip stretched out past the upper lip and turned the corners of his mouth up. “Well, round is a shape.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at his dumb joke. “You realize this is a three mile run right?”

  “Uh three miles?”

  “Yup; you ready to go?”

  “Uh maybe we can start out slow.”

  Chapter 54

  A mile down the bridge Rodney hunched over; gasping for breath. “No more Ali; I can’t do it.”

  “You wanted to get back into shape.”

  “No more; please.”

  “Fine we can take a break, but only for a few minutes. We don’t wanna waste our adrenaline.”

  “Yeah, that would be terrible.” Rodney dropped to his knees and sprawled out on his back.

  “You shouldn’t lie down if you’re having trouble breathing. You need to walk it off with your hands on your head until your heart regains its composure.”

  Rodney’s eyes were red and glassy. “Shut up already,” he smirked while trying to catch his breath. His head turned to its side and looked up at me. “How do ya plan on catching this killer?”

  “We have enough to know it was someone that knew Rachel and Nicole; probably from school.”

  “Well, that narrows it down to only a few thousand people.”

  “Probably someone that’s known them long enough to know their routines; their habits; their friends.”

  “What are you saying? You think it was one of their friends?”

  “Maybe; or maybe it was someone that used to be.”

  “You’re asking us to look at two and a half years of students that might have known them.”

  “Right; so we need to start by looking at their friends. Maybe one of them remembers either of the girls having a falling out with someone; a friend; a boyfriend; a roommate.”

  “What you’re asking us to do is insane. There’s no way we’ll be able to catch the killer like this. Even if we do figure it out, they’ll probably be long gone by then.”

  “That’s why I want to question the professors too. If the killer did leave town, it’ll turn up on the attendance records.”

  Rodney snapped his fingers; his face coming to life with a theory of his own. “Why don’t we get records from the teachers and find out which students were out the day Nicole Sherman died? Then we can use that when talking to their friends.”

  “Rodney, that’s brilliant. I’ll place a call in to the D.A. first thing Monday morning.”

  “Why; you gotta hot date this weekend?”

  I turned my head in frustration; not wanting to show Rodney why I was upset. “Matthew is; uh out of town.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means I haven’t seen him since we hooked up the other night. He called once to let me know he had to go on some business trip and would call me when he got back.”

  Rodney jumped to his feet. “You want me to hunt him down?”

  “No, I can do that myself if I really wanted to. I just wish if he was blowing me off that he could’ve just leveled with me; said he wasn’t looking for a relationship or something.”

  “Guys are assholes,” Rodney laughed.

  “You’re a guy.”

  “I’m the exception.” Rodney clapped a hand on my shoulder and looked back towards where we started our run. “I’ve had enough of this running shit. How about we head back and get something to eat?”

  “Now that sounds like the partner I know and love.”

  Chapter 55

  Rodney followed me back to my house after grabbing a quick bite from the diner just down the road on Route 9W. He walked me to the door and gave me a hug; whispering in my ear.

  “Cheer up Detective; we got a case to solve.” His massive hand rubbed my back; consoling me momentarily before breaking away from our embrace. “Don’t let that asshole get to you. There’s plenty more out there.”

  “Thanks partner,” I mouthed as I saw a tall, handsome hunk of a man park his car across the street and step out of the driver’s seat carrying a bouquet of flowers.

  “What the fuck,” he shouted from the street.

  I pulled away from Rodney and hurried to meet Matthew at the curb. “What are you doing he
re? I thought you were away on business.”

  “I was,” he snapped coldly. “I got back early to surprise you, but I come back to this.” His finger stretched out; pointing at Rodney. I was sure if it were a knife; he would’ve stabbed him with it.

  “What; you mean Rodney? There’s nothing going on with us. He’s my partner. We went for a run this morning and he wanted to make sure I got back safely.”

  “And I’m supposed to believe that?”

  Rodney walked back to his navy blue truck and pulled a small object from his glove compartment. He walked back and flashed his badge at Matthew.

  “Believe her now,” he snapped before slipping his badge inside his pocket. “Ali, I’ll call you later.” He leaned in close to Matthew. Rodney’s eyes squinted; giving him a hard mean expression I’d never seen before. “You hurt her in any way; you’ll answer to me.”

  I watched Rodney enter his truck and drive down the block. Matthew was dumbstruck as he realized he walked in on something innocent and instantly jumped to conclusions.

  His mocha skin had a tinge of red rushing to his cheeks. “Ali, I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

  I stood with my hands on my hips. “Yeah, you didn’t think. I haven’t seen or heard from you in days. You told me you were going away on some business trip and then you have the gall to show up and accuse me of messing around?”

  He lowered his eyes; pouted his lips and extended his hand with the flowers in them. “I’m sorry. My meetings ended yesterday and I rushed back to surprise you. I figured we could spend the weekend together.”

  I could see the sincerity in his eyes. The anger that burned in him; even for that fleeting moment told me how much he cared about me; about us. I couldn’t fault him for being upset at misinterpreting the situation. I did the same just a few hours earlier when I complained to Rodney that I thought I was being blown off and used for sex.

  I took the flowers from him, smelled the delightful scent of lilies and roses before leaning in to give him a big kiss.