Deadly Obsessions (Kensington-Gerard Detective series Book 3)

by K. T. Roberts

  “In this mobile home?” Jessie pointed. Wells nodded. “Okay, I’d like to find out if he caught this guy’s name and what he looked like this time. The problem is, the three witness descriptions we currently have are all different.” Jessie left and knocked on the neighbor’s door. She was back thirty minutes later. “This neighbor describes our guy as having reddish-brown hair, black rimmed glasses, and a large nose.”

  “A guy of many disguises. He doesn’t want us to find out who he is. Did he have a name for him?”

  “Yeah, he said his name was Lionel Daymer.”

  “Lionel Daymer?” Zach said scratching his head. Guardino interrupted.

  “This guy is onto you and playing cat and mouse. Lionel was Jeffrey Dahmer’s middle name. Okay, guys, we really need to step up our investigation,” Guardino said to his team. “Gerard, would you call in an APB with these photographs. Make sure you include the make, model and year of the Sebring, and don’t forget the tag number. Then call every hospital along the way to see if Keenan’s there.” Guardino turned to the other members and gave out orders. “Continue canvassing the park; check everything, under the mobile homes, everywhere for clues. Leave nothing to chance.”

  “Listen, we need to find this Morton guy before he does something to this Joey kid,” Jessie said, her anxiety showing.

  “Don’t go there, Jessie,” Zach said. “Young kids get hurt all the time. The kid could have fallen, anything could have happened. Focus on what’s in front of you.” She gave Gerard a slow nod and sighed.

  Wells continued. “The owner called Keenan’s son. He should be on his way over here now.” He stopped talking when a beat up ’93 Chevy pulled up in front of the mobile home and a man who appeared to be in his forties got out and walked toward the detectives. “And it looks like he’s here.”

  “I’m Ryan Keenan,” he said to Guardino, who’d stepped forward. “I understand you’re looking for my father?”

  “Yes.” Guardino held out his shield. “I’m Detective Guardino. These are Detectives Wells, Kensington and Gerard from the NYPD, and we came here to ask your father some questions about Ralph Morton.”

  Ryan shook his head, his eyes half-lidded. “This must be pretty important with four of you here. That Morton guy has been trouble ever since he moved in.”

  “Do you know where your father went?”

  “No. It wasn’t until George, the owner, called to tell me you guys were here that I even realized he went somewhere. He never goes anywhere except to work, so I’m completely befuddled. He would have told me. I’ve been calling him for a few days, but sometimes he takes the phone off the hook, so that’s what I thought he’d done. And since I’m only down the street, I figured I’d buzz over here and see him, but then I got busy. You know how that goes. Anyway, did you knock on the door?”

  “I did and there wasn’t any answer.”

  “Well wait, I have a key,” he said removing the key ring from his pocket and fished through for the right key until he found what he was looking for and shoved it into the lock.

  “Mr. Keenan, can you step aside and let us enter first. I don’t mean to alarm you, but it’s never a good idea to just enter a residence without us doing a check first.”

  “No, I don’t mind. Why? Do you think that son-of-a-bitch Morton did something to him?” he unlocked the door and stepped aside.

  The four detectives rushed in with their guns drawn and found nothing but a dirty trailer that smelled like a locker room.

  “You can come in now that we’ve checked.”

  “God, this place stinks.” Ryan walked the length of the mobile home and opened all the windows. “Please come inside so we can talk.”

  “Does your father have a cell phone?” Guardino asked.

  “No. Dad’s a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to new technology. So can you tell me why you’re looking for Morton?”

  “He’s a person of interest in two murder cases and a kidnapping.”

  “Holy shit!” Ryan exclaimed. “Well if my father’s with him, you can be sure he didn’t go on his own, nor would he hurt a flea. I won’t vouch for Morton. He’s a weirdo. My sister and I have been trying to get dad to throw that bastard out ever since he arrived. Dad took him in after Morton’s girlfriend threw him out.” He jerked his head back as though he suddenly realized what Guardino had said. “Oh my God,” he exclaimed. “I’m having a delayed reaction here.” His hands began to shake. “I just processed what you said about your belief that he killed two women! Is one of them his girlfriend?”

  “I’ve noticed you keep referring to the woman he lived with as his girlfriend,” Wells said. “Do you know that for a fact?”

  “No. I just assumed it from the way he spoke of her. I know she had a kid and Morton really missed him. If he’s on a killing spree, I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.

  “Calm down, Ryan,” Wells said. “There’s no point in getting yourself all worked up. Please continue.”

  Ryan blew out a nervous breath. “Okay,” he spread his hand across his chin and forehead trying to think. He kept shaking his head in disbelief “Did you talk to the neighbors?”

  “Detective Wells did.”

  “And what did they say?” Ryan asked.

  “The guy over here,” Wells pointed out the window, “said the same thing the owner did. He heard them say something about taking the kid to a Disney something.”

  “Are you saying he has his girlfriend’s kid with him?”

  Guardino’s brows arched. “We believe he kidnapped the child.”

  “Oh God! Trust me,” he held up his hand, “my father would never take part in anything like that. I’m sure he doesn’t even know who this kid is.”

  “We don’t know any of that, Ryan. That’s why we need to speak to your father.”

  “My father is a diabetic,” he said rushing to the refrigerator. “He has to have injections twice a day. If he willingly went for a few days, he would have taken the vials with him.” Ryan opened the door of the refrigerator and counted. “He should only have fourteen vials, but there’s twenty-two in here. That means he’s gone four days without his shots.” Ryan was visibly shaken. “He rarely goes anywhere, but I can tell you from experience, if he does, that’s the first thing he packs. What should I do?” he turned to and fro, “Call Missing Persons or do you handle that? God, without his meds, Dad can go into a diabetic coma and die.” Panicked, he turned to Guardino. “You’ve got to do something. He could be in a coma by now.”

  “Can you confirm the kind of car your father drives?”

  “He owns a 2008 Sebring…white. Morton is the one who’s been driving it most of the time.”

  “Ryan. Try to relax. I can see you’re getting yourself all worked up. Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet,” Guardino said. “Let’s take one thing at a time. Did you call your sister to ask if your father was there visiting her?”

  “I did after George called me to say you were here.” He shook his head. “He’s not there.”

  “Hopefully, we’ll find something in here that will give us a clue as to where he’s headed.”

  Ryan took a deep breath and blew it out. “It’s okay for you and your team to look around for clues if you want.”

  “Do you have ‘power of attorney’?”

  “No. Because if I did, I would have thrown that son-of-a-bitch out long ago.”

  “We need a warrant to search and we do have one on the way,” Guardino said, “although if something is out in the open, I can use it.” It wasn’t long before curious neighbors stood a short distance away and watched the men going in and out. A few questioned those they saw, but the officers knew better than to reveal anything.

  “I’m not going to stop you from searching,” Ryan said. “All I care about is finding my father.”

  “I’m sure, but we need it for our own protection and for the case we’re building against Morton.”

  “I can’t imagine where they went.” Ryan started
looking around, and opened every drawer he saw. “Is that out in the open enough?” he asked, continuing through the trailer, when he found something. “Is this anything?” he asked and handed the papers to Guardino.

  “It sure is. It’s a MapQuest printout of directions to Connecticut and a ten-day weather forecast.”

  “That’s where Morton’s family lives,” Jessie blurted out. “I got that information from the database.”

  “Excellent. Do you have an address and phone number?”

  “I do.” Jessie took that as her cue to call Morton’s mother. She stepped outside. Shortly after, she walked back inside. “The mother said she hasn’t heard from him, but will let us know as soon as she does.”

  “Did she ask why we were looking for him?”

  “Yeah, I gave her the old bullshit story.” Jessie pinched her nose to filter out the smell. “It smells like a men’s locker room in here.” Guardino grinned. “What is it with your criminals, Guardino. They all live in places that stink like a hellhole?”

  “Jessie, the mother?” Zach asked. “What did you tell her?”

  “I just told her it was imperative that we speak to him, that he was our lead witness on a case we were trying to solve and without him, we’d lose and the criminal would be free to continue killing.”

  “Good job.”

  She snorted. “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know.”

  “No you didn’t sweetheart.” They both stopped talking and stared at one another. Zach caught Guardino’s smile as he pretended not to notice. Jessie made a face at Gerard, then moved back by the opened door during Guardino’s conversation with the son. Her gaze landed on the state of disarray the trailer was in. Dirty dishes in the sink, clothes strewn about, a collection of papers on the counters and tabletop, and beer bottles scattered everywhere.

  “Guys, you know the drill,” Guardino said, “Anything out in the open is fair game. Everything else is off limits until we have the warrant in hand.” He turned to Ryan. “I have to ask you to step outside now, Ryan.” The man acknowledged and walked down the steps. “We’ll keep you posted about your father and his whereabouts.”

  “How soon do you think you’ll know something?”

  “It’s hard to say, but why don’t you go home and wait for our call.”

  “I’d like to stay here and wait for more information.”

  “Ryan, there’s really no reason for you to hang around. I know you’re upset and want the answers right away, but we may not have them for days.” Guardino held up his hand, “I swear, the minute we know something, we’ll contact you.”

  An hour later, the warrant arrived with a team of investigators who began an extensive search for evidence.

  “Looks like we’ve found the mother lode in here,” one of the detectives shouted from the back. “I just found several boxes of ammunition for a 9mm Glock—that’s the kind of gun used to kill both victims, isn’t it?”

  Jessie emerged from one of bedrooms. “Well, lookie, lookie,” she squealed holding up a small box, “here’s an empty cell phone box, complete with receipt and serial number…and a sales contract with Ralph Morton’s name on it.” She grinned. “How convenient is that?” She keyed in the number of one of the guys at the precinct who owed her a favor and asked him to obtain a warrant for the phone carrier, then called Verizon and requested a search on Morton’s calls and texts, telling them a warrant was in the works and would be delivered soon.

  “Another not so bright criminal,” Zach said. “Sooner or later, they all screw up and leave something valuable behind. Good catch!”

  A loud crash caught everyone’s attention as one of the investigators tripped over the garbage can and slammed his knee against a wooden chair. It sent the trash scattering all over. “Dammit,” he cradled his leg, “it’s too small a confinement for so many investigators.”

  “Are you alright?” Guardino asked.

  “No. I’m not.”

  “Then go outside and take a break.” Guardino turned to face the three investigators now gawking at of the team members. “He’s right, Mike.”

  “I agree. Let’s have just two of you in here.” Guardino pulled on a pair of gloves and picked up the trash and tossed it back into the receptacle and carried it outside to the picnic table. “Go investigate other things. I’ll get the garbage.” He began to sift through the garbage when he came upon a crumbled up ball of paper. He gently unraveled the paper and pressed it with his hands to read when he noticed it was a handwritten list of names. He sat down on the bench and checked over the list. “Gerard, Kensington, come take a look at this,” he said holding it up.

  “Holy crap!” was Gerard’s first words. “That’s a manifesto. Look at the names on this list?” The pair each stood behind one of Guardino’s shoulders and watched as he slid his finger down the list.

  “Oh, my, god,” Jessie said, “this is a list of people he’s planning to kill. There are lines across our two victims’ names.”

  Gerard’s eyes scanned the list and opened wide with surprise. He climbed over the bench to sit down next to Guardino. “It appears those with a two next to it means they’re next to die. We’ve got to stop this maniac.”

  Guardino rubbed his forehead. “But why did he start with the number two? There’s not a person on this list with the number one. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Since when does any criminal make sense?” Zach asked.

  “I was thinking aloud.”

  “Christ,” Jess said, “everyone except mom is listed as a two. She’s a three.” Sliding her finger further down the list, she stopped at the listing for Arco. “Hey, Arco Technologies is on the list without any numerical value next to it. With the mind of this sicko, he’s probably planning to blow the friggin’ place up. We need to warn them,” Jessie said.

  “This guy isn’t too bright, is he?” Zach’s expression was befuddled. “It looks like he’s oblivious to thinking law enforcement won’t start checking his place of residence or finding out what he’s done.” He looked at Jessie. “Maybe he wants to get caught.”

  Guardino was still searching through the remainder of trash, and half listening to their conversation when he found another wad of rolled-up paper. He unfurled it, pressing it with his hands in order to read the handwritten note. His eyes scanned the writing. “Wait until you hear this one,” he said, and read it aloud.

  Dear Mom,

  Please forgive me for the things I’ve done, but I’ve been screwed so many times in my life, it’s time to pay all those bastards back.

  Ralph Crabtree Morton

  “He signed his full name on a letter to his mother? Six-year olds do that,” Zach said scanning the letter carefully. “This guy is one sick son-of-a-bitch.”

  Blowing air out, Guardino kept shaking his head. “Well, I may have questioned it before, but this pretty much proves Morton’s our guy.”

  “Listen,” Zach said, “we need to bring our captain up to date and tell him we may have to head to Connecticut at some point. I called him earlier but he was out. We’re going to head back to the precinct to see him when he does return. In the meantime, Jessie and I will make calls to warn those individuals on the manifesto. From our office, we’ll call CPD and ask them to safeguard these people. You go ahead and focus on this investigation and we’ll hook up later.”

  14

  “LONG DAY TODAY,” Zach said and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I am beat. How about you?”

  “Yeah, I’m bushed. This case is keeping me up at night, only I’m not counting sheep, I’m trying to figure out how we’re going to catch him. I keep reviewing the facts over and over in my head just to see if there’s something we’ve missed, but nothing is jumping out at me. I just wish we’d catch Morton so we could move onto the next case…” she released a low laugh, “Right,” she groaned. “The next one is likely to be just as bad, if not worse.”

  “You’re not sleeping because of Joey Vincent.”

  “Y
ou’re right,” she gave a slow nod. “That’s the whole thing in a nutshell. I’m wishing I’d never worked in Missing Persons. Honestly, none of these jobs are easy. We all take it home with us, but it’s just the kids.” She bit her lip. “I see their scared faces and I just wish I could stop imagining all sorts of bad things happening to these poor children. I want to swoop in and take him away from it all. I guess my biggest fear is whether he’s still alive.” She tapped her pen on the surface of her desk.

  Zach didn’t comment, but instead, pulled the manifesto from his folder and eyed it again. “I think the two top important people are mom and dad. How about we each take one of them and then split the rest in half.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He surfed through his phone to check his messages and released a sarcastic laugh. “Guess who called me?”

  “I don’t want to guess. Just tell me, okay?”

  “Alan.”

  “Alan? You mean your father?”

  “Yep.” She watched him erase the message. “In the trash with you.”

  “Zach. Maybe it was important.”

  “Too bad. Too late.” He snickered. “Hey, did I tell you I saw him last week?”

  “No. What did he have to say?”

  “Nothing, because I didn’t give him a chance. Actually, he didn’t even see me until the waitress put me at a table across from his. I stopped at Wolfgang’s for dinner and he was there with some chick.”

  “You weren’t angry he was with another woman, were you?”

  “No. It’s certainly been long enough. I know he loved my mother. From the look on this chick’s face, she’s madly in love with him. Silly woman.”

  “Oh stop. You didn’t feel that way all your life. Be reasonable. I think it’s nice he’s found love. Why don’t you want to call him? It’s been a long time since you’ve spoken outside of the courtroom.”

  “I’m not sure I can forgive him, Jessie.”