Perfectly Broken

by Jullian Scott

“I just wanted to thank you,” Lawson said, unaware that Cassie’s heart was still pounding. “Tasha and I are going on a date tomorrow night and I’m fairly certain that’s because of you.”

  “I didn’t do much,” Cassie said, smiling. “I hope it works out for the two of you.”

  “We’ll see.” He nodded down the street. “Want me to walk you to your car?”

  She still had almost a block to walk and it would be nice to have the company. “That would be nice, Lawson. Thank you.”

  “As a former city girl, you probably know how to take care of yourself,” Lawson said obliviously. “But I’m still an old-fashioned guy.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Cassie said. She remembered how careless she used to be before her abduction. She would walk home alone at night, even cutting through dark alleys without a care in the world. Even in the best of neighborhoods that was a stupid thing to do. “How is the playground planning going?”

  “Good. We made most of the big decisions earlier this morning. We are ready to start the work next weekend.” He cast her a sidelong glance. “Can we count on you to help out? And maybe the boyfriend?”

  “I’ll have to check with Jack, but you can count me in.” Cassie hoped that the case would be neatly wrapped up by then. “I’ll even bring my own hammer.”

  “Hot.” Lawson grinned. “Try to convince the boyfriend to come. We could use the help and it would be nice to get to know him better. Make sure he’s good enough for you.”

  Cassie stopped next to Jack’s car. “You don’t have to worry about that. If he isn’t working, I’m sure he’d love to help out.”

  “Alright then. See you next weekend?” he said, backing away slowly.

  “Next weekend.” She waved and opened the car door. As she tossed her purse inside, she noticed a piece of paper stuck under the windshield. It was probably a flier announcing a sale at one of the shops in town.

  Cassie started to crumple it without looking at it, but something made her stop. She flipped it over and read the text written in hurried scrawl.

  Mallory is waiting at your house. If you don’t come alone, I will kill her. You already left her behind once. Are you prepared to do it again? See you soon, Cassandra.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Jack

  Jack’s morning was spent trying not to think about Cassie as he flipped through the case files for the thousandth time. The station was surprisingly busy for a Sunday morning. Two families had been found murdered in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods on the north side and Suza had thrown extra resources at the investigation.

  It was hard to concentrate with so much activity swirling around the room, but Jack was grateful for the noise. Running on no sleep, if he got too comfortable at his desk he was afraid he might nod off.

  “Stone. Tell us about the girl you brought in yesterday.” Two of the younger members of the squad, Rick and Mike, leaned over their desks to gossip.

  “No thanks,” Jack replied without looking in their direction.

  “Come on. We need a break from all this murder and mayhem. Humor us,” Mike said. “It must be pretty serious for you to bring her into the station.”

  Jack clenched his jaw hard to keep from telling them off. “I prefer to keep my personal life private. I’m sure you can understand that.”

  “I think you broke that rule by bringing her here yesterday,” Rick said with a smirk. “She’s pretty, Stone. Excellent body.”

  “Tight ass,” Mike added.

  “I encourage you both to shut the fuck up,” Jack said, unable to hold back any longer.

  Rick just laughed. “I had no idea you were so sensitive, Stone. We can’t be the first guys to comment on your hot girlfriend. Or do other things on her…”

  “We aren’t friends. You know that, right? I’m not your frat brother. I will have no qualms about punching you in the face.” Jack glared hard at both of them. “The two-week suspension will be more than worth it.”

  While the other detectives all formed friendships and spent time together outside of work, Jack kept mostly to himself. He occasionally grabbed lunch or a beer with a couple of the older detectives, but mostly avoided the younger guys. Now he was reminded why.

  “Chill out, Stone. We’re just trying to get to know you better. No need to get so defensive.” Rick leaned back in his chair.

  Jack’s phone lit up with Cassie’s name and suddenly he didn’t give a damn about the men around him. He answered quickly, “What’s wrong?”

  It would probably be a long time before he would answer a random call from Cassie and not immediately assume that something terrible had happened. He had seen too much terribleness in his line of work and Cassie would always be at risk until Carver was captured.

  Cassie was calling with a pretty solid theory of the case. Her hunch that Mallory had been involved with an older man made sense. Her home life had been terrible and she would have been desperate to find someone that would promise to take care of her. But there was no mention of anyone fitting that description in Mallory’s file.

  When it was time to hang up with Cassie, he felt a strong desire to tell her that he loved her. He didn’t even care that Jack and Mike were sitting close enough to hear. He just needed Cassie to know. There was an uneasy feeling in his stomach telling him that it was important.

  It didn’t take long to track down an address for Mallory’s younger sister, Nikki. Jack knew he would have a better chance of getting information by talking to her in person, so he selected the least-terrible undercover car from the lot and headed west.

  Nikki Gifford lived with foster parents near the edge of the city. She was a senior in high school these days and she had just gotten back from church when Jack arrived at the house. Nikki spotted him as she was waiting for her foster parent to open the door to their small house.

  “You a cop?” she said bluntly.

  “Nikki Gifford?” Jack asked, though it was obvious she was Mallory’s sister. Nikki looked almost exactly like Mallory in the picture he had stared at in her file. “I’m Detective Stone. I have a few questions about your sister.”

  “Mal? I don’t talk about her.” Nikki turned to the woman holding open the door. “Let’s go inside, Deb.”

  Jack tried again. “I have reason to believe that your sister may be with a very dangerous man. I’m hoping you can help me discover the identity of that man.”

  “My sister ran away, Detective. She got tired of my parents beating her and she left me. If she’s tied up in a mess now, I don’t see how that is my problem.” Nikki had a hard edge about her that was usually reserved for women much older.

  “It’s possible that your sister didn’t go with this man willingly. He has a proclivity for taking women without their permission.” Jack noticed that Deb was moving in, ready to pull Nikki away. “I only need a few minutes of your time and then I’ll let you get back to your day.”

  “Maybe you should talk to him,” Deb said.

  Nikki sighed loudly, sounding very much like a typical teenager despite the circumstances. “Fine. I will give you ten minutes.”

  They faced off across from each other at the kitchen table. Deb offered Jack a drink, but he declined. If he only had ten minutes, he wanted to spend it getting answers.

  “Did your sister have a boyfriend when she disappeared?” Jack jumped straight to the important stuff.

  “No.” Nikki gave him a blank look. “Is that really what you wanted to ask? The cops already did this questioning five years ago.”

  “Humor me.” Jack moved on. “You say there wasn’t a boyfriend. Was there an older guy in her life, someone who was out of school but still hung around Mallory?”

  Nikki opened her mouth to give a sharp retort, but something stopped her. “An older guy? How old?”

  “Late twenties maybe. Old enough that he shouldn’t have been hanging around a sixteen-year-old girl. Old enough that someone would have noticed.” Jack had met too many men like that in his time as
a detective. He could spot them a mile away, lurking around girls half their age. They always had an excuse to be there, but it was never a good enough reason.

  “Nolan.” Nikki’s entire face crumpled. “He was her tutor. She studied with him after school and I used to get jealous over the time they spent together.”

  “Do you remember Nolan’s last name?” Jack tried not to let his feelings show. This was the most hopeful he had felt in a long time.

  “Reynold. I remember because that was my best friend’s first name and I thought it was weird that it was Nolan’s last name.” Nikki blinked hard. “Do you think he took my sister?”

  Jack didn’t want to lie to her, but he didn’t think that Mallory had been taken like the other women. He was fairly sure she had been willing, at least in the beginning. “I think it’s possible that your sister is with Nolan Reynold and he might be holding her against her will. But I won’t know for sure until I find him. Is there anything else about him that you remember?”

  “No, not really. Well… I don’t know how relevant this is since I only met him once, but he gave off this weird vibe.” Nikki scrunched her forehead at the memory. “He stared too long and always had this weird smile on his face. It wigged me out.”

  “Alright. Thanks, Nikki. This has been really helpful.” Jack couldn’t use Nolan’s weird vibe in a court of law, but he believed that she had good reason to be wigged out. He was more certain than ever that Nolan was the man he had been hunting for two years.

  Nikki followed him to the door and hesitated before asking, “Did I fail my sister? If I had told someone about Nolan back then, Mal would’ve come home right away.”

  “You don’t know that for certain.” Jack felt pity for the poor girl. She had been hating her sister for the last five years under an assumption that probably was false. “All that matters is that you told me now and it’s not too late to help her.”

  Jack called in the name Nolan Reynold to the Chicago Police Department tech team while he was walking away. He needed to get an address for Reynold as soon as possible. He also needed to get some back up before charging into a monster’s lair.

  “Peterson. Tell me good news.” Jack greeted the nerdy guy sitting at his desk. Normally, he would’ve been annoyed at someone relaxing in Jack’s chair with his feet on his desk, but Peterson was an exception. He was the best techie in the department, and he always followed through on any ridiculous request Jack gave him.

  “I got you an addy. It just so happens to be less than three blocks from where that Miller girl was found.” Peterson handed Jack a sheet of paper.

  At the top, the name Nolan Reynold was typed in bold letters. Beneath it was a picture of a man in his late twenties. Next to the picture was a list of basic stats: date of birth, ethnicity, height, and weight. Plus, a lengthy section detailing his criminal past.

  “Reynold has an interesting history,” Jack said as he scanned the list.

  “Lots of pervy stuff. Mostly hitting on young girls and occasionally sleeping with them. Nothing ever stuck because the girls all denied it on the stand. The ones that were legal all claimed it was consensual.” Peterson flipped a pen in the air and caught it cleanly. “Still, a 28-year-old man sleeping with an 18-year-old girl doesn’t seem legit.”

  “Reynold isn’t running for citizen of the year.” Jack spotted an address at the bottom of the page. “You confirmed that he’s been working construction over the past couple of years?”

  “I didn’t find him on most of the site employee lists. But I was able to pull his taxes and despite being a perv, he happens to be an avid tax-payer. I also tracked down some electronic pay-stubs connecting him to at least some of the construction companies.” Peterson gave Jack a triumphant look.

  Jack knew better than to ask too many questions about his tactics. “Do I want to know how you did that?”

  “Do you have a good lawyer?” he countered. “Let’s just say, nothing is completely secure. Besides, we’re the good guys. We’re allowed to bend the rules a little bit.”

  “Fair enough.” Jack thought about the rules he had been breaking by dating Cassie and decided he couldn’t be a hypocrite. “I owe you, man. Let’s get beers soon.”

  “We can celebrate you bagging this asshole.” Peterson stood, stretching his lanky frame. “You think it’s really him?”

  That wasn’t an easy question. So far, there wasn’t any real proof that Nolan Reynold was the Carver. But Jack’s gut told him that he had found his man. “I think it’s more likely than not. I’ll know for sure as soon as I check out this address.”

  “Good luck man.” Peterson gave a weak salute. “Try not to get killed.”

  It was good advice, if a bit obvious. Jack didn’t expect Reynold to go down without a fight. That was why he was headed to Suza’s office for support.

  “You really think this is the guy?” Suza asked, studying the sheet of paper that Jack had handed to him.

  “I do. I’m almost sure of it.” Jack glanced at Suza’s victim wall and saw Cassie staring back at him. “As hard as it is for me to say this, I can’t go after him alone.”

  “Of course you can’t. Not only would that be stupid, it would be a huge violation of procedure.” Suza dropped the paper onto his desk. “Get Conway and Evans. Meet me out front in fifteen.”

  “Sir?” Jack wasn’t sure he had heard correctly.

  Suza retrieved his gun from the top drawer of his desk. “If this is the bastard, I’m going to be there to see his face when you slap the cuffs on him.”

  “You want to keep an eye on me.” Jack couldn’t remember the last time Suza had tagged along with one of the senior detectives. “What gives?”

  “Stone, you are a good detective. You’ve never even come close to crossing a line. You never had reason to.” Suza glanced at Cassie’s picture. “Now you have a damn good reason.”

  Typically, Jack would’ve opposed any attempt at monitoring his activities on the job, but Suza had a point. If Reynold was the man that had hurt Cassie, there was no way to guarantee that Jack wouldn’t be overcome with anger in his presence. He was almost overcome with anger just thinking about it.

  “Fine, just stay out of my way.” Jack pretended not to notice the glare his boss gave him. “I’ll get Conway and Evans.”

  “Get your team-spirit while you are at it,” Suza grumbled.

  Conway and Evans had been partners for fifteen years. They were so used to working together that they sometimes finished each other’s sentences. It might have been endearing if it wasn’t so damn annoying. But Jack was glad to be working with them over a lot of the other detectives, and Conway and Evans were glad to be included in the Carver case.

  “You must’ve done something pretty bad to have Suza attached to your ass like a hemorrhoid,” Conway said when he found out their captain would be joining them.

  “Nah, Suza just wants to see how a real detective brings down a prolific serial killer,” Jack replied easily. He wasn’t about to admit his transgressions.

  They drove to the location in two cars with Jack in the lead. He had a hard time obeying traffic signals on the way, but they couldn’t afford to use their lights and sirens which would alert Reynold that they were closing in on him. The element of surprise was going to be key if Reynold was holding young women in his home.

  Jack drove past the alley where he had found Cassie on that cold October morning almost exactly one year ago. That day felt like a lifetime ago.

  “I noticed she wasn’t at the station today,” Suza said, acknowledging Cassie for the first time. “Where is she?”

  “Living her life.” Jack didn’t want to get into a discussion right now. He needed to focus. “She needed to go home for the day.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be very relieved once we have this guy locked up.” Suza drummed his fingers on the center console. “She’s a tough girl, Stone. You shouldn’t worry about her so much. It seems like she’s recovering well.”

  “He
threatened her.” Jack hadn’t planned to tell Suza about the flowers and note. He was afraid that it would seem like his judgment had been tainted. But here he was, spilling out the whole story. “That’s why I brought her into the station yesterday. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

  Suza had listened to the entire story without interjecting. Even now, it seemed like he didn’t have much to say. “Just keep your cool tonight, Stone. Don’t sacrifice your career over-”

  “Over a woman?” Jack interrupted.

  “Over a lapse in control,” Suza corrected him, allowing a small smile. “A woman might be the only good reason to sacrifice your career.”

  It was the most candid Suza had ever been with Jack. Under a different circumstance, it might have made Jack feel uncomfortable. They were definitely breaking his rule about keeping his personal life private. At least they didn’t have time to dig any deeper.

  “We’re here.” Jack parked the car in the only open spot, right in front of a fire hydrant. Conway and Evans pulled in behind them. “Are you going to let me run lead, Captain?”

  “If you say that you can handle it, I trust you.” Suza raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that what you are telling me?”

  “I’ve got this.” Jack was determined not to screw up any detail of the potential arrest. “By the book.”

  Suza nodded and opened his door. The four of them moved directly to the house. Any time spent stalling on the street would only draw attention. It was important that Reynold not have any time to react. He could destroy evidence or even flee the scene. Conway circled the house to the right and Evans went around the left. Jack waited a couple of minutes to allow them to get situated before approaching the front door.

  The porch was old and rotting in too many places for Jack to feel comfortable. If he stomped hard enough, his foot would go straight through the wood. The broken doorbell had clearly not been functional for years, so Jack pounded hard on the door. The extra gusto behind his punch could be blamed on the mental image he had of Cassie and the other women being locked up in the basement.

  He wasn’t surprised when no one answered. It would’ve been too easy if Reynold had strolled to the door, holding a knife. Jack gestured for Suza to stay at the door while he tried peering through the dirt-covered window. Faded floral curtains were pulled closed, preventing him from seeing anything other than a poor home décor choice.