Deserving of Death (CJ Washburn, PI Book 1)

by James Paddock

  The perp may have been sloppy in the past in his attempts to get the finger pointed at CJ, but this time he made up for it in volume. CJ could see no possibility of talking his way out of it any longer. And maybe that’s as it should be. There would be no reason to go after Trish again, or Stella, as long as CJ was in jail. Maybe, for a time anyway, all the murders would stop.

  But that’s the wrinkle, isn’t it? CJ thought. The murders won’t stop, not forever anyway. A serial killer has an obsession to do what he does. His reason, his need, doesn’t go away just because someone else gets his lethal injection. He will kill again, if not in Tucson, somewhere else. Tucson may not even be his first.

  The door opened and in came Agent Stratton and Detective Payne. CJ sat up a little straighter in anticipation of learning why Dan was there. Did they allow him to come in just to deliver bad news? Had Trish made a turn for the worse?

  They both sat down and looked at him across the table.

  “What?” CJ demanded.

  “The number one person of interest, we just wanted you to know,” said Stratton, “is not you. We’re telling you this because we have to keep this information just between the four of us. No leaks.”

  “Four of us?” CJ said. He sat up even straighter.

  “Well, five, if you count Chief Rague. Myself, Agent Crane, Detective Payne here and you. I’ve made a request for two more agents. We have to tell you because we don’t want you spilling to anybody who we’re investigating, not even your attorney.”

  CJ let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Tommy Clark.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s why Bunko isn’t on this little task force. He’s friends with Clark.”

  “Yes. However, we don’t believe he has anything to do with the murders. He’s just too close to the suspect.”

  “The agents and I were meeting with Chief Rague Monday afternoon,” said Dan, “presenting our suspicions concerning Clark, when this thing with you and Trish went down. The chief, at the time, was a little leery to start suspecting one of our own. When you were picked up yesterday morning, the whole theory pretty much got squashed in light of the evidence against you. This morning, however, he’s changing his tune. He’s congratulated Bunko on a job well-done and reassigned him to a series of home invasions up in the north area. Bunko didn’t even blink at how unprecedented the reassignment was. He took it and ran.”

  “What happened this morning?”

  “Nothing in particular, if you’re thinking another body. What happened is we met with the chief again to present additional evidence. Although Officer Clark was on duty Monday, he took the afternoon off, supposedly to meet with a realtor about buying a house. That was enough to turn the chief a few degrees. He assigned a task force to work with the two FBI agents to quietly investigate Officer Clark.”

  “Have you been able to determine if that’s what Tommy was actually doing?”

  Stratton shook his head. “Not yet. We’re working on it but what we don’t want to do is spook him. We want him believing that all our focus is on you.”

  CJ nodded his head. “I understand.” For just a few seconds there, his hopes had been up. Now, for the good of the investigation, he’d be stuck in jail.

  “I’m sorry. Can’t even remove the cuffs. Have to put on the full pretense.”

  “I’ve given a recommendation to Chief Rague that I bring one other person in on this,” Dan said. “I need someone on the ground who can keep her mouth shut, and who already knows what’s going on.”

  “Stella?” She was the first person who came to CJ’s mind.

  “Oh, hell no, CJ. There’s no way I could pry her away from Trish’s bedside, nor would I want to. Besides, she’s civilian. By-the-way, Trish was taken out of coma this morning.”

  The relief on CJ’s face must have been visible.

  “I’m sorry, CJ. Should have told you right off. Things are looking much better with Trish. Stella and Pat are right there with her, along with her brother.”

  Pat! CJ had totally forgotten about his ex-wife, thinking that Trish was all alone. Stella and Pat and Josh. “That’s good,” he said, more to himself than the two men. Then something else occurred to him. “Trish was able to tell you what happened. Right? That’s the main reason why the chief changed his mind and you two are here right now.”

  “Well, yes. There’s that, and the fact that your blood test came back with a massive dose of Rohypnol.” Stratton said. “It appears that Dr. Blask was right; you were injected with a roofie, enough that you’re lucky you’re alive. He believes that there'd have been no way for you to have driven during that time, let alone commit a murder. As far as your daughter, she wasn’t as coherent as we’d have liked, but she did say enough to confirm about half of what you’ve told us, making the rest of it, if not believable, at least conceivable. By-the-way, Mister Washburn, when were you planning on telling us about your son, Agent Joshua Washburn?”

  “Yeah, CJ,” Dan said. “I knew the two of you were estranged, but you never said anything about him going the bureau route.”

  “We were estranged because I had no idea where he was,” CJ said. “As far as I knew, he was living on the streets. He was an angry young man when he walked away over six years ago. I never heard from him until yesterday, figured he was gone forever. Believe me; no one was more shocked than was I.”

  “What was he angry about?” Stratton asked, “if you don’t mind my asking.”

  “His parents getting divorced. Trish took it pretty well, but he never did.”

  “So now he’s talking to you, I gather.”

  “His mouth was moving and words were coming out, so, yeah, I guess you could say he’s talking to me.”

  “I have a daughter who won’t stop talking,” Stratton said.

  “How old is she?”

  “Five.”

  Dan and CJ both smiled in understanding. “It’ll change when she becomes a teenager,” CJ said. “Then she’ll talk to everyone but you unless she needs money.”

  “I keep hearing teenage daughter stories and am starting to get a little worried.”

  “As you should,” Dan said. “Back to what I was saying. I’m proposing bringing in Officer Bowers, and maybe even her friend in admin. She’s familiar with the case already and has proven her discretion.”

  “Meanwhile I’m stuck right here. The world needs to believe you all have your man.”

  “And as long as the world believes that,” Stratton said, “Officer Clark, or whoever this perp is, will likely ease back on his killing spree, at least for a while. Give us some time to sort through the evidence.”

  “What about the van in which we were kidnapped? What kind of vehicle did the witnesses see and what does Clark drive?”

  “That’s just it. The only thing consistent from the witnesses was black and van. Make and model is everything from GMC to Toyota and even Mercedes Benz, from smoked glass windows to blacked out windows to paneled with anything but Arizona plates. One individual insisted it had New York plates. Another swears that it was Nevada. Clark drives a ten-year-old Ford Galaxy, light gray, not black, registered in Arizona. It’s the only thing in his name.”

  “I can testify that the windows were smoked glass,” CJ confirmed, “as I could see out of them, but I doubt very much anyone could see in. Never saw plates. The fact that Clark has only a gray Ford Galaxy doesn’t mean he can’t have something stolen that he keeps hidden away somewhere.”

  “We’re hoping that’s the case, otherwise we may be barking up the wrong suspect tree and there’s someone else we haven’t even considered.”

  “Could he have a partner?” CJ asked.

  “The chances of that for a serial killer are so nil,” said Stratton, “we haven’t even taken it into consideration.”

  “But let’s look at this. He abducts us with the van and then dumps me into a motel. He then goes back for Stella’s car.”

  “He didn’t check you into the motel u
ntil almost 10:00 that night.”

  “When did he steal Stella’s car?”

  “Dave and Stella got back to the house about 4:30," Stratton said. "Her car was gone then. She thought at first that you and Trish had taken off somewhere with it so until Dave got the call from me telling them about Trish getting hit by a car, they were more angry with you than concerned. By-the-way, they said that when they returned, the house was unlocked.”

  “When we went out for a walk, we didn’t have a house key, so we left the back door unlocked.”

  “The perp just walked in and found Stella’s car keys. You guys played right into his hand. He couldn’t have stacked the deck any better.”

  “Here’s the rub, though. What did he do with the van, with me in it, while he was stealing Stella’s car?”

  They all silently considered that question.

  “What time did Trish get hit?” CJ asked.

  “The first 911 call came in at 3:25,” Stratton said.

  “Stella found her car gone at 4:30. That’s only an hour. It seems to me it’d be rather risky to try to go back for it. How would he know when anyone would return? How would he coordinate two vehicles by himself? When he dumped the body yesterday morning, he purposely left the motel key next to it. I don’t think he fully thought that through. How was I supposed to get into the motel room without the key? There wasn’t a second key found, was there?”

  Stratton shook his head. “I see where you’re going. In order to leave the car key in your pocket he’d have had to have dropped the car there first because after leaving the motel key at the crime scene he couldn’t have gotten back into the motel room to leave you and the car keys.”

  “The chicken and egg thing,” Dan said, “unless there was a second motel key and the perp took it with him. We need to check with the desk clerk to determine if he gave out one or two keys.”

  “Speaking of the desk clerk,” CJ said, “did he have a description of the individual who checked in?”

  “The guy had the memory of a nat. No surveillance system. Nada. The perp checked in under your name using your credit card.”

  “That means he accessed my wallet. Have my wallet and credit cards been dusted for prints that aren’t mine?”

  Dan and Stratton looked at each other.

  “I can’t imagine he’d be that stupid,” Dan said.

  “Consider the bank robber who wrote his demands for money on the back of instructions from his parole officer,” CJ said. “We all have our stupid moments.”

  “Which I’m sure you can attest to in the last few weeks,” Dan said.

  CJ nodded his head. “No argument there.”

  “Okay,” Stratton said. “We’re going to talk to the motel clerk again and run your wallet for prints.”

  “I think you need to seriously be considering if there are two individuals here,” CJ said. “I fail to see how it could have all been done otherwise. He couldn’t have accomplished it by himself without using a taxi service, and that would leave a trail.”

  “True, but we have to check it anyway. A lot of stuff to do with such a small team.”

  “I’d say forget the taxi for the time being,” CJ said. “Here’s how I think it went down. The perps were parked down the street watching the house, discussing how they were going to get to us. Then, much to their surprise and pleasure, we stepped out and headed off for a walk. We entered the trail and they guessed, correctly by-the-way, that we’d return by that trail, so they parked the van in such a way that we’d walk right into it. Perp number one stayed with the van while perp number two entered the house, discovered the car keys and thus began formulating the new plan, which was to kill Trish, use the car to dispose of her body and then put me in it.”

  CJ put his fingers to his forehead and closed his eyes. “Hold on a minute. Let me think through the abduction again.”

  Dan and the agent looked at CJ. After thirty seconds, Dan said, “What are you thinking?”

  “I was tired, dehydrated, hot, thus my senses, my awareness as to threats around us extremely compromised. There was something or someone moving to my right as we came to where the trail stopped at the street. Lurking would be my afterthought, but it didn’t come to me at the time. Then I looked up and saw the van parked in our path. The side door was open six or seven inches, maybe a foot. In the bright sun I couldn’t see anything or anyone in the dark interior. I remember suddenly realizing the van was similar to the one I saw at the third crime scene, where you got me arrested the first time, Dan, but it was too late. I was hit with the stun gun from behind and the next thing I knew I was falling or being pushed into the van. How could he have hit me from behind and then opened the van door and shoved me in, while at the same time subduing Trish?”

  “You’re thinking prep number two was in the van, ready to open the door and receive you?”

  “Exactly. I was hit so many times with the stun gun, I remember thinking there were two guns. How can one person handle two stun guns while handcuffing and taping up two individuals? He only has so many hands. With the shocks hitting me one after the other, I wasn’t cognizant enough to be aware of how many people there were, one or a dozen.”

  “One guy was handling the stun guns while the other was doing the honors with the tape and cuffs,” said Stratton.

  CJ closed his eyes again.

  “What else are you thinking?” Dan said.

  “It’s what I’m remembering. In the van, just as I was blacking out from being thrown around after Trish jumped out, I heard music. There had been no music or radio prior to that and I doubt the perp would have chosen that particular moment, in his rush to get away from the accident scene, to put on some merry tunes.”

  “You’re thinking it was an incoming call on his cell phone?”

  CJ pointed a finger at Dan. “Yes. They would have had to stay in communications with each other. After grabbing us, perp number two followed perp number one out of the subdivision in Stella’s car which means he would have been right behind us when Trish jumped out.”

  “He’d have witnessed it,” Dan said. “And the first thing he’d have done was call perp number one to find out what the hell happened.”

  “Bingo,” CJ said. “Do you think there’s any chance that one of the other witnesses thought to try videotaping the event with the hopes of getting some YouTube footage?”

  “Thus possibly capturing Stella’s car with perp number two driving, trying to get around the accident?” said Dan.

  Agent Stratton sat back, an astonished look on his face. “You two guys should be partners.”

  “We used to be back when we wore the blue uniform,” Dan said, “then CJ here bailed.”

  “Too bad,” Stratton said. “So, we need to start checking cell phone records for our suspect and find out if any witnesses turned on the video cameras on their Smartphones. I have to admit that it all makes more sense than anything else we’ve come up with, though I still think it’s a long shot. A pair of serial killers? It’d be one for the books.”

  “It’s already one for the books,” Dan said. “Cops and ex-cops, multiple states, at least seven bodies.”

  “There’s one other thing you need to be looking at,” CJ said.

  “What’s that?”

  “How did the perp, or perps, figure out where we were? There were only a handful of people who knew we were using Dave’s rental. How did it leak, who leaked it, and to whom did it get leaked? I really hate to say this, but is there any chance the second perp could be Ralph Bunko? He’s got a big beef against me.”

  “Oh, no, CJ!” Dan pushed back in his chair. “Ralph may be a lot of things, maybe even out to get you, but serial killer, no way.”

  “What’s the story with Detective Bunko, anyway?” Stratton asked.

  Dan and CJ told him about the attempted rape charge against Dave McDermott and how CJ was hired to investigate it and found out it was all a hoax, making Bunko, the lead detective on the case, look like a clown. />
  “Barney Fife of Tucson,” Dan said. “That’s what CJ called him to his face in the squad room.”

  CJ held up his hand as far as his taped up shoulder would allow. “I admit that it was probably not the best thing to say about him at the time. Doesn’t mean I was wrong. Dan’s right, though. Bunko may be a lousy detective, but he’s not a killer. Is there any way he could have found out about the safe-house location and without realizing what he did, tipped off Tommy Clark? That’s the kind of thing I believe he’s capable of doing.”

  Stratton stood and pulled out his phone. “Officer Bowers was returned to her regular duties this morning. I’ll call the chief and second Detective Payne’s recommendation that she be reassigned to us. I’ll ask for Officer Kramer, too. We’re going to need the manpower.” While he waited for the connection to be made he added, “You need to be back on the force as a detective, CJ. Your talent is wasted as a PI. If Josh is anything like you, he’s going to make one fine FBI agent.”

  Stratton stepped away to talk with the chief and CJ drifted off, thinking about Joshua and hoping it was time for his meds.

  Chapter 47