“No, it’s Poison Ivy,” Jack said. “I fell in it yesterday. It’s better than it was, but I still have to rub lotion all over my body to keep myself from shredding my own skin because it itches so badly.”
Brian had to work hard to swallow his laugh. “How did you fall in Poison Ivy while you were supposed to be looking through books?”
“We took a break to get some air,” Jack replied, indignant. “Thanks for saddling me with fifty million witch books, by the way.”
“You’re welcome,” Brian replied, nonplussed. “I wasn’t saddling you with the books, though.”
“Yeah, I figured that out,” Jack said. “Don’t think I don’t know what you and Max were trying to do yesterday.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t work.”
There was no way Jack was going to let on just how close Brian and Max had gotten to achieving their goal. “No, it didn’t,” he said. “We went for a walk because we needed some fresh air and I fell into … this.”
“What did Ivy do?”
“She laughed.”
Brian snickered. “Did she at least help you after the fact?”
“Where do you think I got the lotion?”
“I really am sorry,” Brian said. “I’ve had Poison Ivy before. It can be miserable. The lotion should have you back to full capacity by tomorrow, though. Just be sure you don’t scratch anything in the … um … southern hemisphere.”
Jack made a face. “Ivy warned me about that,” he said. “Is that really a thing? She said it happened to Max once.”
“It’s a thing,” Brian said. “I got Poison Ivy when I was younger while camping, and I had to go to the bathroom before I realized what was going on and … well … let me just say, there is no pain worse than that. I think it’s even worse than childbirth, although I have no way of comparing the two.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I’m sorry you’re miserable,” Brian said. “You do seem somehow … lighter, though. I think spending the afternoon with Ivy did you some good. She has a way of bringing people out of their shells.”
“I don’t have a shell.”
“Son, you’re practically a turtle,” Brian said. “Don’t worry, though. You’ll be okay. You’re just adjusting. It will take a little time. Did you and Ivy find anything in the books?”
“No,” Jack said, cracking his neck. “I couldn’t focus on the books after the Poison Ivy incident, so I just left. I think she was going to continue looking, but she said she would call if she found something. I’m guessing she didn’t call.”
“No,” Brian said, shaking his head. “For now it appears the symbols are a dead end. While you were rolling around in the woods with Ivy Morgan, though, I did manage to get somewhere.”
“You’d better stop saying things like that,” Jack said, shooting Brian a look. “You have a big mouth, and if people start talking about us … doing things … I’m going to be ticked.”
“Why? Are you embarrassed to be seen with Ivy?”
“Of course not,” Jack said. “I just don’t want people thinking I’m open for offers. That’s not why I moved here. That’s not what I want.”
“You’ve told me,” Brian said. “I’m not trying to force anything on you.”
“You’re trying to force Ivy Morgan on me,” Jack countered. “Don’t bother denying it. I know exactly what you and her brother were doing yesterday. I’m not stupid.”
“Do you want to know what I think?”
“Not particularly.”
“I think you’re worried because you want Ivy to be forced on you,” Brian said. “I think from the moment you laid eyes on her she’s about the only thing you’ve been able to think about.”
“Are you saying I’m not doing my job?” Jack asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Absolutely not,” Brian said. “You seem like a dedicated officer. Never think that’s what I’m getting at. I just think you’re being … tugged … in a certain direction, and that direction just happens to be on the same side of town where Ivy lives.”
“I think you’re making things up in your own mind,” Jack shot back.
“Well … I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree,” Brian said. “Not that I don’t want to continue this discussion, but I did manage to get somewhere yesterday.”
Jack leaned forward, interested. “Did you identify our victim?”
“I did,” Brian said. “It took some work, but I found her.” Brian reached inside the file on his desk and removed a photograph, the blonde teenager in it smiling brightly as Jack focused on her face. “Meet Mona Wheeler.”
“What do we know about her?” Jack asked, his heart rolling painfully as he studied the young woman, worry over his own ailments quickly fleeing.
“Well, she was originally from Bellaire,” Brian said. “She grew up there, and she graduated from the high school last spring.”
“Why didn’t her parents report her missing?”
“They didn’t know she was missing,” Brian said. “They’re on their way in here now, though, so be careful what you say. The girl was a student at Central Michigan University, and she was just finishing up her freshman year. They were expecting her to move home for the summer this weekend. I talked to them over the phone, and they were … devastated. They honestly didn’t appear to know that she was even missing.”
“How did she end up here?”
“That’s one of the things we need to find out.”
“I DON’T understand. She was supposed to be in Mount Pleasant. How did she end up in Shadow Lake?”
Under normal circumstances, Evan Wheeler looked like he was a bull of a man. His shoulders were broad, his chest barreled. The loss of his daughter had crippled him, though. His skin – which was probably tan and robust on a normal day – was sallow. His eyes were red and puffy from hours of crying, and his hands were shaking.
His wife, Cathy, was even worse. She hadn’t uttered a word since entering the police station. Instead, she’d sat in the chair, covered her mouth with her hand, and proceeded to rock herself. She was obviously in shock.
“We were hoping you would know why she was over here,” Brian said.
“I have no idea,” Evan said. “She was at school. She had finals this week. We expected her to come home on Saturday. I mean tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday, right?”
Brian nodded. “Sir … .”
“How did she die?” Evan asked, cutting Brian off. “Where did you find her?”
“She was found in a ditch on the other side of town,” Brian said carefully. “She was … stabbed multiple times.”
Cathy made a mewling sound in the back of her throat. Evan leaned over and rested his arm on her shoulders. It was supposed to be soothing, but Evan couldn’t soothe himself, so helping his wife was out of the question.
“Was she raped?” Evan asked, forcing his face to remain solid.
“There were signs of sexual activity,” Brian said. “We can’t be sure if it was rape until we’re further into the investigation.”
“Well, my daughter was a good girl,” Evan said. “If she had sex, she was forced to do it. She didn’t do … that.”
“Are you sure?” Brian asked.
“Of course I’m sure,” Evan snapped. “She’s my daughter.”
Jack leaned forward, keeping his voice low and even. “Sir, there is absolutely no offense intended here. It’s just … teenage girls aren’t known for talking to their fathers about sex. I’m not insinuating you’re wrong. We just have to be sure.”
“She was a good girl,” Evan said, his voice firm.
Jack glanced at Cathy. “Mrs. Wheeler, can you confirm that?”
Jack wasn’t surprised when Cathy started shaking her head. Evan blanched. “What?”
“She didn’t want you to know,” Cathy said. “I didn’t blame her. I knew you wouldn’t take it well. I took her to get birth control pills before she left for the school ye
ar.”
“How could you?”
“I didn’t want us to be grandparents at an early age,” Cathy said. “I wanted her to be as safe as she could be.”
“Well, good news,” Evan snapped. “Now we’re never going to be grandparents.”
Cathy dissolved into tears again.
“Sir, I know you’re upset,” Jack said. “I don’t think … .”
“Don’t tell me how to react,” Evan said. “I’m just … that was my baby.”
“I understand,” Jack said. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
“We both are,” Brian said. “We do have some questions, though.”
“I know,” Evan said, rubbing the heel of his hand against his eye. “Go ahead. I know you have a job to do.”
“When was the last time you saw your daughter, Mr. Wheeler?”
“Over Easter,” Evan said. “She came home for the holiday and then went back to school in the afternoon on Easter Sunday.”
“Was it normal to go so long without seeing her?”
“She was a college student,” Evan said, shrugging helplessly. “She was caught between being a kid and being an adult. She was trying to cement her independence.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“She was … I don’t know … different,” Evan said. “She was still my daughter, don’t get me wrong. She wasn’t the same kid we raised, though. I was hoping a summer at home would get her back to where she was.”
“We need more details,” Jack prodded.
“She was running with a bad crowd,” Evan said.
“Drugs?”
“No,” Evan said, shaking his head. “That’s one thing I’m sure about. There weren’t any drugs.” He shot a look in Cathy’s direction for confirmation. “Right?”
“I wouldn’t have sat back and let her take drugs without telling you,” Cathy said, frustrated. “Drugs are not the same thing as birth control.”
“I don’t want to talk about this here,” Evan said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Fine,” Cathy said. “Just don’t … look at me like that. It’s not my fault she’s dead.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“Then stop acting like it.”
This was going to spiral out of control if Jack couldn’t get it under control. He cleared his throat. “When you said she was hanging around with a bad crowd, what did you mean?”
“You expect a certain level of … change … in your child when they go away to college,” Evan said. “I expected some partying. I expected some trouble adjusting to harder classes. I expected new political interests. What Mona was doing was … different.”
Jack waited.
“She started talking about … weird things,” Evan said. “She got really into religion, only it wasn’t a normal religion.”
“What kind of religion?”
“It was weird,” Evan said. “She kept talking about people being passengers. She stopped believing in Jesus all of a sudden, and she started talking about being vessels for an alien passenger on this Earth until she passed on to some other form of … higher living. These are her words, mind you. I don’t believe in any of that nonsense.”
“She never said she believed she was a passenger,” Cathy said. “She was just … interested … in this new religion. She couldn’t stop talking about it.”
“It was crazy,” Evan said.
“When did you first notice a change in her demeanor?”
“I guess it was around Christmas,” Evan said, rubbing the back of his neck. “The first time I really noticed it was when we were getting ready for Mass on Christmas Eve and she told us she wasn’t going. She said she wasn’t a Christian and she couldn’t go into the church because it would be blasphemous.”
“What did you do?”
“I yelled at her,” Evan admitted. “I thought she was just being difficult to be difficult. She is … she was … still a teenager. They say and do things just to get a rise out of you sometimes.
“Eventually I just let it go,” he continued. “I figured giving her what she wanted – which I was sure was an argument – was a bad idea. I guess I should have dug my feet in then.”
“You can’t second guess yourself, sir,” Jack said. “You can’t bring her back, and you’ll just drive yourself crazy if you spend all of your time trying to figure out how you would go back and change things.”
“I know,” Evan said. “When she came home for Easter she was a completely different person. She was dressing in these weird ankle-length skirts, and she insisted on making sure her arms were completely covered. She kept going on and on about modesty being key.”
“Did you try to talk to her?”
“We did,” Evan said. “She wouldn’t listen, though. Eventually, we agreed to let her go back to school. We were going to tackle it as a team when she got back under our roof. We figured three months with us would get her back on the right path.”
Jack fought the pinch in his heart. “Can you remember your daughter mentioning any names of the people she was hanging out with?”
“Just one,” Evan said. “In fact, she said his name so many times I thought he might be paying her for the publicity.”
“Who?”
“Chad Hamilton.”
Brian made a face, but Jack opted to ignore it for the time being. Whatever the older detective was thinking it wasn’t something he wanted to share with the Wheelers.
“Can you think of anything else that might be of importance to us going forward?”
Evan shook his head. “No. I just want to go home. I want to take my daughter home. Can I do that now?”
Jack nodded. “I really am sorry for your loss, sir. The only thing I can promise is that I won’t quit until I find out who did this to her.”
“You do that,” Evan said. “Then, when you find him, call me. I’ll take care of the justice.”
Fourteen
“What do you think?”
After showing the Wheelers out, and directing them toward the funeral parlor where Mona’s body was being held, Jack and Brian found themselves back in their office with more answers and another mountain of questions to tackle.
“I think it sounds like Mona Wheeler was involved with a cult,” Brian said.
Jack arched an eyebrow. “A cult?”
“What did it sound like to you?”
“It sounded like a cult,” Jack conceded. “I’ve just never had the misfortune of actually running into one.”
“You’re from the city,” Brian said. “Are you saying they don’t have cults in the city?”
“I’m sure they do,” Jack replied, nonplussed. “I’ve just never interacted with one. Do you want to tell me who this Chad Hamilton guy is?”
Brian narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I know you recognized the name,” Jack said. “Don’t bother denying it. I saw the look on your face when the father brought him up. What do you know about him?”
Brian sighed, leaning back in his desk chair and staring up at the ceiling. “I do know Chad Hamilton.”
“Tell me about him.”
“He was the same age as my youngest son, Sean,” Brian said.
“But … the Wheelers made it sound like this Chad was a student along with their daughter,” Jack argued.
“I know. That’s one of the things that worries me.”
“Go back to telling me about Chad.”
“He was a normal kid when he was younger,” Brian said. “In fact, he was better than a normal kid. He didn’t join any cliques, and he wasn’t one to hang around with the bullying group like Ava and Maisie.”
“So, what happened?”
“I have no idea,” Brian said. “Chad was one heck of an athlete. I can tell you that. He was the captain of the football team, and the basketball team, and the baseball team … oh, and he bowled in his father’s league on the weekends.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
> “No, he was the all-around American teenager,” Brian said. “He got good grades. He was a virtual … golden boy.”
“How well did you know him?”
“Pretty well,” Brian said. “He and Sean were fairly tight. They were on a couple teams together. Chad was always happy to help, and we paid him during planting and harvesting season every year. He was a good worker.”
“This doesn’t sound like a problem kid … err … adult,” Jack said.
“Things kind of … shifted … senior year,” Brian explained. “Chad had his pick of schools. The University of Michigan offered him a football scholarship, and Michigan State University offered him a baseball scholarship.
“My understanding was that he was actually leaning toward the baseball scholarship,” he continued. “His parents figured his career would be longer and he’d be less likely to be hurt if he made it to the professional level.”
“They’re both good schools,” Jack said. “Which one did he go to?”
“Neither. On the first play of the first home football game of his senior year he was blindsided during a hit,” Brian said. “He tore his ACL, and he was done for the season.”
“That happens to athletes.”
“It does, and while Chad was disappointed about missing out on his final football season, he had rehab to get through and they figured he’d be fine by the time baseball season rolled around,” Brian said. “The problem is, by the time baseball season came, Chad was still struggling. He never healed right, and the doctors said they couldn’t go in and fix the damage.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Jack said. “His athletic career was over before it started.”
“Chad didn’t take it well,” Brian said. “He started raising hell all over town. There was a lot of drinking … and partying … and there were rumors about girls, although I’m not sure how true those were because he had a serious girlfriend.
“The real blow came when his scholarship was withdrawn,” Brian said. “His parents didn’t have the money to send him to Michigan State without financial help, and the idea of having to go to community college for two years pretty much crushed the life right out of that boy.”
Wicked Beginning: An Ivy Morgan Mystery Books 1-3 Page 10