by Andrew Hess
As Mark inched closer, he saw the detective meet up with an attractive thin girl with long straight black hair. Her facial features resembled the detective; making Mark realize they were sisters.
“That puts an interesting little twist on things.”
He pressed on; staying in stride with the trio as they walked through campus; staying a few feet away, but close enough to hear the detective mention the Rachel Walker and Nicole Sherman murders. His ears perked up at the sound of the detective accusing both girls of being murdered.
Mark stopped dead in his tracks staring at the girls. How the fuck do they know those two little bitches were murdered? He thought about each of their deaths; walking through each step of his planning and execution trying to find the flaw that caught the police’s eye.
“She lived in a house with three other housemates,” the younger girl said loudly to her older sister.
Mark’s heart started racing. His head turned from side to side as he stumbled and collided with the detective; causing both to fall. His hands braced for the impact; stopping him before his face hit the sole of the detective’s three inch heels.
“Sorry,” he said with a mixture of urgency, panic anxiousness. ”I’m late for class.” Mark steadied himself and continued jogging down the path away from the detective and her little sister.
Mark ran for the library; stopping at the steps to regain his composure. He struck the metal railing with his foot; repeating the kicks until his foot started to throb.
He wanted to scream, but walked to the side overlooking the parking lot and mouthed the words. “Fucking bitch; they know….they know and I’m screwed.”
Chapter 77
Mark hurried home to his apartment. He knew it was a matter of time before the police figured out who he was and where to find him. It didn’t matter if they knew his name or not. It only mattered that they knew someone murdered all three girls.
Mark raced up the narrow stairs and burst through the paint chipped door into his old smelly apartment. He dropped to his knees and pulled out every backpack and duffle bag he could find; throwing them onto the bed as he ran around the apartment collecting clothes, toothbrushes, hair brushes, soaps and razors. He wanted to make sure the police couldn’t find anything they could use in his room; leaving no DNA or any shred of evidence behind.
As he stuffed a pile of clothes into a small duffle bag, he heard a knock on his door. Panic set in as he turned around slowly; remembering how he was careless by leaving his door open. Anyone could’ve seen him; his landlords, neighbors and even the police if they were smart enough to figure out his name.
His eyes fell on the thin brunette standing in his doorway wearing a pair of sweatpants and black t-shirt.
“You going somewhere,” Jess asked.
Mark looked down at his hands; shoving the last pair of jeans into the bag. “Uhhh yeah; I figured I’d go home for a few days.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow,” Mark replied as he moved around the room; collecting his cleaning supplies.
“Tomorrow,” Jess asked. “What about your classes?”
“I’m taking some time off.” He stopped what he was doing and walked back to Jess. The corners of his mouth dropped as he gave her the sad puppy dog eyes. “My Aunt passed away last night. I wanted to get back for the funeral.”
Jess put a consoling hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” she said sympathetically. “If there’s anything I can do…”
“Thanks.” Mark reached over to put his arms around her; pulling Jess in for a tight hug.
He held her tightly; not wanting to let go. It reminded him of the hope he briefly felt after Nicole’s death; hope that he would find happiness with the girl from across the hall. But then he remembered how she turned him down when he took her out and instantly felt the suppressed anger building within him.
Mark broke from the embrace and pretended to wipe invisible tears from his eyes. “I just need some time alone. I’m gonna spend the night here packing and cleaning.”
“Does Val know?”
“No, I’ll leave a note under their door in the morning.”
Jess grabbed his hand; giving it a gentle squeeze. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Thanks; I will.” Mark watched Jess leave the room and he was quick to close the door.
A part of him wanted her to come back to his room or for him to walk across the hall; take her in his arms and plant a big kiss on her, but he knew better. Mark slapped himself in the face; waking him from his sickening puppy love feelings.
“Pull yourself together man,” he whispered. “You gotta clean this place up before they find you.” Mark hurried to the sink; pulling out a roll of paper towels and a bottle of bleach. “This should do the trick. Time to pull a little disappearing act.”
Chapter 78
Rodney and I walked Amanda to the library and made sure she got to class safely. It was hard to contain our excitement. We had our first possible suspect in the case and no margin for error. Everything had to be done by the books. I reached for my phone and stabbed at the numbers on the keypad until I heard a ringing in the speaker.
“Who’re you calling,” Rodney asked.
I held up a finger; signaling one minute to Rodney as the call connected to the D.A.’s office. “Hi Miss Colon; it’s Detective Ali Ryan.”
“Hello Detective,” she replied. Her voice was stern and sassy with a hint of sweetness to it. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I need another warrant for the New Paltz campus.”
“Another one,” she asked in disbelief. “You were just issued one. What do you need another one for?”
“We need access to the guest logs for Estrada Hall and Lennox Hall for the last couple of months. We now know the killer is either a current student or has recently left the university, and may have a long standing history with at least one of the victims.”
“That’s a lot of ifs and maybes Detective.” She took a long pause; mulling her decision over before making a judgment. “When do you need it by?”
“The sooner the better.”
“Fine, have someone meet me at the courthouse in an hour. I’ll see if I can get a judge to grant you the warrant.”
A smile crept over my face as I thanked her and hung up the phone. Rodney stared at me with a raised eyebrow.
“What,” I asked.
“I know that look,” he replied. “You want me to go down there and get your warrant; don’t you?”
I folded my hands and bated my eyes playfully. “Please Rodney; it’d be a big help.”
“How is it you’re the detective and I’m always stuck doing the grunt work?”
“Because you love me.”
He sighed heavily and shook his head. “Fine, I’ll go.” I strolled back towards the north side of campus; hearing Rodney calling after me. “Where the hell are you going?”
“I’m gonna track down Christina Tyler’s housemate; the one we know about. Maybe he can tell us more about the other two guys that lived there.”
Chapter 79
After getting Kevin Graham’s address from one of the officers at the station, I decided to walk the mile long stretch between campus and Grove Street. The house looked a little beat up and old. The windows were boarded up making me question if I had the right address. It was a large blue house. Judging by the boarded up windows I figured at least three to five people could live in there. I walked towards the house; finding cobwebs hanging from the roof of the porch.
“I take it someone’s a fan of Halloween.” I gave a hearty chuckle and climbed the steps to the front door. I opened the screen and let my knuckles rap loudly on the wooden door. “Mr. Graham, this is Detective Ali Ryan. Mr. Graham, I may have a lead on Christina’s killer and need your help.”
The door swung open instantly with Kevin standing inside with a look of anger and sadness in his eyes.
“Did you find anything? Did you find her ki
ller?”
“Can we talk inside,” I asked. I didn’t need his voice carrying throughout the neighborhood. It was bad enough we were pushing closer to the end of the semester; closing the possibility of catching the killer before winter break. I didn’t need Kevin’s shouts and loud accusations to spook off the killer any sooner.
Kevin stepped aside allowing me to enter the house and into a narrow hallway next to a small staircase. We passed a small door on the right and found ourselves walking into a small brightly lit kitchen.
Kevin took a seat at the table and kicked a wooden chair out for me to sit in. “If you’re not here to tell me you caught the son of a bitch then what do you want?”
“I need the names of your other housemates; the ones that lived with you the same time Christina did.”
“Why do you need them?”
“It came to my attention that you and Christina had two other male housemates. Since we’re investigating all possible leads, I figured it’d be best to get them out of the way.”
Kevin gave a blank stare before speaking their names. “Brian Rivera and Nick DeFalco.” Kevin’s face grimaced at Nick’s name.
I took note of the name and continued questioning him about the housemates. “Did they get along with Christina?”
“We all did…for a while.”
“What changed?”
“Brian was a drinker; a heavy drinker. He would come home from class and pop open a beer the minute he walked in the door. After about three he’d walk into town and hit up the bars. We’d find him passed out on the couch, the porch, the kitchen table even the floor. We started thinking he had an alcohol problem and even brought it up to him a couple of times, but he just snapped at us and would storm off to another bar.”
“Was he ever violent to you or Christina?”
“No, he was the opposite. After shouting for a couple of minutes, he’d just get really quiet and kept away from us.”
“When was the last time you heard from Brian?”
“A few months ago. He moved out of the house last spring and got himself into rehab and AA meetings over the summer. He called us up sometime early August wanting to take Christina and me to dinner to thanks us for helping him realize he had a problem.”
“So there was no hard feelings at all?”
“None that I knew of. He seemed happier than he was when he lived here and told us he moved back to Nyack to stay with family.”
“What about your other housemate Nick?”
Kevin’s eyes gave an angry stare that sent a shiver down my spine. Nick was a nice guy at first; got along with everyone; even helped out around the house.”
“And then?”
“And then he became obsessed with his girlfriend Brianna. I mean I don’t blame him. She was hot; who wouldn’t wanna spend all their time with someone like that?”
“Okay, so he wanted to spend a lot of time with his girlfriend.” I waited for Kevin to confirm the statement. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Usually no,” Kevin replied. “But like I said he was obsessed. He made sure to drive her everywhere, picked her up and dropped her off at every class and if she wanted to hang out with her friends, he had to go too.”
I was beginning to see a pattern with their former housemate; one that didn’t sit well with me.
“How did his behavior change at the house?”
“He was distant; barely around and annoying when he was here. We couldn’t stand him anymore.”
“Annoying how?”
“When he first moved in we did everything as a house. Then he became obsessed with Brianna and was never around. So we stopped inviting him out with us. He’d find out about it later and throw a hissy fit over not asking him to go.”
“So you guys cut him out of your lives completely?”
“We were sick of him being so hot and cold with us. We needed to do something to get rid of him, so we just ignored him and pretended like he wasn’t there.”
“I’m sure that went over well.”
Kevin fidgeted in his chair. “It almost went better than we expected. He shouted a little while he packed his bags so we left the house for a bit. We came back two hours later to find the house trashed and him gone.”
My notepad was filled with everything Kevin said. “Do you know where he went?”
“I heard he moved into a studio apartment not far from here. Brianna messaged me at the end of last semester and told me she finally ended things with him.”
“How’d he take that one?”
“She wouldn’t say, but told me she was moving to Connecticut just to get away from him.”
“What’s Brianna’s last name?”
“Cataldi,” Kevin replied.
I jotted down her name along with all the information Kevin gave me about their relationship. “I think that’s everything for now.” I stood up from the table and flipped the notepad closed. “If you think of anything else that might help the investigation, don’t hesitate to call.” I strutted out of the house feeling satisfied. For the first time in the investigation, I had a suspect in mind. I just needed to know how he was connected to Rachel and Nicole.
Chapter 80
I hurried back to campus; hearing the clicks of my heels hitting the pavement as I rushed to get back to Rodney. I grabbed my cell from my pocket and dialed him as I crossed Main Street.
“Hey it’s me,” I shouted into the phone. There was excitement in my voice with every word I spoke. “Where are you?”
“I’m heading back to campus now; why?”
“We got a suspect. I need you to drop what you’re doing and pick me up. I’ll meet you in front of the administration building.”
Within ten minutes I found myself standing at the curbed entrance to the New Paltz Administrative Building. My feet were sore and thought I felt a trickle of blood down the bottom of my foot. Rodney pulled in with the squad car.
“You mind telling me why you beckoned me?”
“We have a suspect.” I threw myself into the passenger seat and closed the door. “His name is Nick DeFalco and is a former housemate of Christina Tyler.”
Rodney shook his head as if he thought everything would magically fit into place. I told him about the meeting I had with Kevin Graham and how their relationship with Nick diminished over the span of a few months and that Nick was obsessed with his girlfriend Brianna.
“So where do we go from here,” Rodney asked.
“We can’t afford to waste any time. Drop me off at the station so I can look up Nick in the system. I’ll send over a picture of him to your phone so you can show it around to the RAs and RMs; maybe someone will recognize him.”
“So you still want me to get those guest logs?”
I nodded my head. “If he slipped up, even for a second, I want to know about it. If he used an alias, maybe we could match that name to his picture.”
“What about the girlfriend?”
“I think we need to get the Lieutenant’s help for that one.”
Chapter 81
My feet couldn’t carry me fast enough. My mind ignored the blistering pain from my feet as I ran from the parking lot through the double doors of the station; making a beeline for the Lieutenant’s office.
“I’m in the middle of something Ryan,” he barked from behind the desk. “Come back in an hour.”
“But sir…”
“But nothing Detective. Unless it’s life or death I don’t wanna hear it. Whatever it is can wait till tomorrow.”
My blood was boiling red hot. I was being dismissed again; just like I was every time I brought up the possibility that the deaths on campus were more than accidents. I didn’t care what he was busy with. To me, nothing was more important than finding the man responsible for these three murders.
“Fine,” I snapped as I turned on my heel to walk out the door. I glanced over my shoulder at him. “I figured you’d want to know that we have a possible suspect in mind for the campus murders.
” I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me.
I took a deep breath and painfully peeled away from the Lieutenant’s door. A second later I could feel the wind from the door pulling me back as the Lieutenant stood there with his hands on his hips.
“Tell me everything you got.”
I sat down in the chair opposite the Lieutenant and walked him through my day and everything Kevin Graham divulged to me. I could see in the Lieutenant’s eyes that he was chomping at the bit to bring Nick DeFalco in for questioning, but wanted me to finish my story first.
He looked up from the desk once I was done. “So who is this Nick DeFalco guy and who else knows him?”
It was almost as if he expected me to know all about the suspect in a matter of moments. “I have Rodney questioning the RAs and RMs on campus and we know about his ex.”
“Good, bring her in for questioning.” Esposito beamed with confidence that we had this case all but wrapped up and ready to close.
“That’s easier said than done sir. His ex moved to Connecticut at the end of the spring semester. We don’t know where to begin looking for her and then there’s the matter of the Connecticut Police…”
“Don’t worry about them. I’ll put in a call and get you authorization to bring her in. You just worry about finding out everything you can on DeFalco.”
I was shocked. The Lieutenant was giving me free rein to run the investigation how I wanted to as long as we took down the sick bastard that killed three women and made the department look like fools.
I sat down at my desk and typed Nick’s name into the system. He didn’t have any priors or tickets. In fact, he barely had any registry in the system at all. It was another dead end. I had no other choice but to run a full background check on our suspect; something I’d have no other choice but to wait for.
Chapter 82
I spent hours waiting for an answer; from the background check; from Rodney; even a call back from my sister would be better than sitting at my desk waiting for something to happen. It was tiring; so tiring that I felt my eyes drooping low; my arms falling to the sides of my chair and a sudden urge to crawl into my bed and throw the covers over me.