by Viva Fox
“It was pretty much exactly the same-minus the troll aspect.” Steve laughed at his own comment.
“Mm,” Laura nodded. “Jones said they’ve found a few bodies like this lately.”
“I guess a few covers it. There was one who was found up in North Park last spring. But she was found in the lake, so she may or may not have been strangled. She had bruising on her neck but there was also water in her lungs.”
“And the other body?”
“Moraine State Park…up in Butler County. She was found on the shore. She was clearly strangled, but the killer used a rope instead of his hands.”
“Unlike our troll victims who were strangled with bare hands.” Laura sat up. Talking about the case made her ready to get to work.
“Yep.” Steve sat up beside her.
“How did you know?”
“Know what?” Steve smiled. He tucked her hair out of her face.
“About this case. You seem to have really done all of your research.”
“What do you think I did all day after you left?” Laura raised an eyebrow.
“You used a serial killer case for the two of us to get back together?”
“Well, I didn’t really know it was a serial killer case.” Steve got up and went into the bathroom. He left the door standing open. “But I didn’t want you going off to another part of the state without me.”
“I can investigate cases without you.” Laura got up. She started pulling clothes out of the closet. “I’ve done it before. I carry a gun. And I know how to use it.”
“I know that.” Steve came out of the bathroom, this time wearing boxer shorts. “ But at the end of the day, I enjoy our team work. I guess I thought that maybe…if I could show you how good we were together…” He reached for her. Laura let him pull her against his mostly naked body. “I thought that I could prove to you that we were meant to be together-even if I’m an idiot.” Laura shoved his chest.
“As long as you are willing to own that you will always be an idiot for what you did.” Steve was momentarily silent.
“What about Stephanie?”
“What about her?”
“Do you think you can….” He hesitated. “Forgive her?”
“Why do you care?” Laura took a step back. “Why do you care if she and I are friends or not?”
“Because she admits that she made just as big a mistake as I did.” Laura was suddenly suspicious. And uncomfortable.
“So you want to keep spending time with her?”
“Laura, that is not what I said.” Steve’s tone was rising. He seemed more on edge now. “I don’t want you to lose your friend.”
“Of course not.” Laura stepped away. “Because if I do then you can’t see her anymore.”
“Laura, come on-.”
“Steve you let me make my decision when it comes to Stephanie. Don’t worry about it.”
“Ok, fine. Forget I brought it up.” Steve went back into the bathroom for more clothes. He dressed as Laura gathered clothes.
They were ready in a few minutes. Steve looked over at her, more sympathetic. She didn’t like that look.
“Do you want to grab breakfast? Just coffee?”
“No.” She realized that her distrust for him had come back. If she got back together with him, this would be her life. She’d always be wondering if they were actually good. If he was looking at other women, if he wanted someone else. Friends, babysitters, teachers, trainers, coworkers-they’d all be potential threats. She didn’t think that she could live like that.
“Ok.” Steve reached out. He took her hand. “Laura-.”
“Don’t.” She murmured. “I can’t right now. We’ll talk later.”
“Ok.” Steve leaned in and kissed her on her cheek. “I’ll see you around.”
They walked down to the lobby together. Laura wondered if there was a way they could overcome these issues. She loved him so much. Last night had proven that. She wanted nothing but to be with him. Maybe after they went back to Philadelphia she’d suggest therapy.
******
Laura spent the day pouring over case files. One huge thing that had come out of last night was Steve’s information about the other murders in the area. There was no clear connection between the case that she was currently working and these. Aside from a few small add ups.
Lana Miller, the woman found dead in North Park, had been a jogger like Sandra Wilks. The other two-Melanie Taylor from Moraine and Emily Watson from Clearwater-had been hikers. That made Laura believe that someone was killing at random. They were taking advantage of women alone in isolated areas. The only thing she could definitely connect was that he knew their routines and was following them.
But why suddenly use a rope for Taylor? Why had he taken that kind of time? There was no mention in Taylor or Miller’s files of the two being found with their shirts pulled up. That seemed to be the only trademark that their man used.
And why suddenly latch into the troll in Clearwater? An experienced killer wouldn’t want to expose himself like that-unless he’d suddenly decided to start playing with the authorities. Maybe it had been too good an opportunity to pass up. Plus, Watson was the only body that he had attempted to hide. If it was the same killer, he was getting away from water. Yes, a creek ran through Clearwater, but he’d left Watson a good mile from it. And there was none near Wilks.
At the end of the day though, there was nothing. No clear connection, no evidence, nothing. Laura felt like she was still at square one.
The one thing she did notice was that Jones had worked every case. Yet he’d been more interested in sleeping with her than in getting into detail of the past cases. She wondered why.
Laura decided to take the case information back to the hotel with her. She thought she might work better in a place where she could switch into yoga pants and nap if she wanted to work all night. She hadn’t been spread out longer than fifteen minutes when there was a knock on the door. Expecting Steve, she opened it to find Tom instead. He smiled at her.
“Thought that you might want some dinner.”
“I…. I’m not really hungry.” She motioned over her shoulder at the desk. “I just spread out paperwork.”
“Paperwork that I can probably give you a better explanation of rather than reading it. Come on. No sex this time, just dinner.” He winked at her. Laura didn’t really like it, but she did want case information. So she went along.
“Ok.”
They took his car to an Outback which was about five miles up the highway. Once the waitress had brought their drinks, Tom started talking.
“Do I think there’s a connection between the cases? Probably. But I don’t have any clear evidence of it.”
“Well yes, that’s what I gathered from reviewing the case files.” Laura stirred her iced tea. “I don’t know. It just seems so random to not be connected.”
Their food came. Tom kept attempting to switch the topic. He brought up Steve a few times. Laura was hesitant to breach it.
“I just don’t know,” she finally admitted honestly. “Like I really don’t know. I always thought…” She trailed off, shrugging.
“That he was the one?” Tom nodded. “I always hear that from women.”
“So I take it you’re not involved with anyone?” Tom made a face, shaking his head no.
“My relationship with women is…” He searched for his words. “Awkward, to say the least. I’ve never been very good with them.”
“Really?” Laura was surprised. “I took you for a total ladies’ man.”
“Hardly.” He laughed. “You and I just seem to have a decent connection.” He smiled, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “Maybe it’s the job, right?”
“Maybe,” Laura agreed chuckling to herself. “I have to say it’s what first drew me to Steve. Not many women want a cop for a wife. Or a girlfriend.”
“I can imagine.” She was sure that he did. Women didn’t really like men who were cops either. It was a dangero
us business.
By the time they left the restaurant, Laura was feeling calmer. She still didn’t have any answers on her case, but she felt better about Jones. Maybe they really did just have a connection that she was missing. It was ok.
She slipped into Jones’s car. On the front seat, she saw a receipt she hadn’t noticed on the first trip. She picked it up.
“Sorry about that,” Jones apologized. “I’m a man. Typically messy. Just throw it anywhere. I’ll clean it up later.”
As she was putting it aside, Laura noticed it was for a bagel place on Wilson Road. She knew that name. She just couldn’t place why. She also caught note of the date and time on it. It was from 6:04 in the morning. Why so early? She figured it was just the cops’ life.
But then she realized the date. It was the same date that they had found Sandra Wilks body. And Wilson Road was the road which lead into the park.
Laura felt a sudden chill on her spin.
“What is it?” Tom looked over at her.
“Nothing.” Laura dropped the receipt into the cup holder. “Not a thing.”
“It’s nice to really talk to a woman.” Jones nodded as he drove back towards the hotel. “I don’t get to do that very often.”
“I’m sure you don’t.” Laura wondered if what she was suspecting was real. Had she had a killer in plain sight in front of her all this time?
It made sense. He had covered all of the cases. If a body was found, he was one of the first ones on the scene.
He’d pulled into the hotel parking lot. But he’d parked in one of the darker corners…away from the streetlights. Earlier he’d been parked only a few feet from the doorway.
“Laura, what are you thinking?” Jones looked over at her. “You shut down on me after you found a receipt. What is that receipt making you think?”
Laura looked up at him.
“Nothing. It’s your car, your receipt.”
“So if I want to buy bagels at a store that’s only a mile from where we found a body last week that’s my business?”
“Yes.”
“And what time did we find the body?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Sure you do. What time did they find the body?” Laura let out a shaky breath. She hadn’t even brought a weapon with her. It was back in her hotel room.
“The call came in at 7:15.”
“Right.” Jones was smiling at her. “I’m not good with women, Laura. Because I hate them. At the end of the day, I really hate them. I was the youngest of four children-three girls. My mother was so disappointed that she had a boy. I broke her streak.”
She couldn’t be hearing this. She couldn’t be sitting in a car with a man who was about to come clean to murders.
“Do you think she paid me a bit of attention?” Jones brought one hand down on the steering wheel. “Of course she did. She or my sisters. I grew up hating them-all of them.”
“So you…” Laura tried her best negotiator voice. “So you started taking it out on women?”
“I did. It did make me feel a little bit better.” He hit the unlock button. But there was only one click. He’d only unlocked his door. “I’ve been trying to go for nice, simple women. But the minute I met you, I knew that you were going to be a fun choice. You were the most adventurous of my choices.”
Now he was getting out of the car. He walked around the side, yanking her door open. He was reaching in, grabbing her hair. Laura cried out more in surprise than in pain. She pulled in all the self-defense methods that she knew. Her heel went down on his foot, her knee trying for his crotch. But he was bigger, stronger than she was and he could twist her with no effort.
“Laura, don’t fight me. None of the others did.” His hands were suddenly wrapped around her neck. Laura tried to gasp in a breath and failed. His hands were tightening, squeezing. Laura had never thought she would die this way. To be murdered by a serial killer she had missed the signs so greatly? Never.
Her vision was starting to blacken. Just as she knew she was about to lose consciousness, she heard a huge explosion. Jones’s hands loosened on her throat. Laura was falling to the ground, landing on top of his now crumpled form.
******
It took her a minute to come back to her senses. When she did, she realized that Steve was leaning over her.
“Steve?” She croaked out.
“Laura.” He looked down at her. “Are you ok?”
She realized now that she had been out longer than she thought. There were two other men kneeling beside her. She could now see their uniforms as paramedics. She tried to sit up slowly.
“Easy.” Steve caught her arm. “Easy. How do you feel?”
“How did you know?” Laura ignored his question. “How?”
“I didn’t.” Steve shrugged. “I was waiting here at the hotel for you. I saw his car pull down here so I started out to see what was going on.” Laura rubbed her throat. She was going to have bruises for sure.
“So you came down here?”
“Not until I saw him with his hands on yours. I thought it was….” He trailed off. Laura knew what he thought.
“I love you.” She whispered.
“I love you too.” Steve ducked his head to kiss her. “Come on.”
******
Tom Jones was truly the worst cop. After digging through several Allegheny County cold case files, they found a variety of murder cases that he had covered. His finger prints were linked not only to five more of those, but to the most recent cases including the one in Clearwater Park.
Everything that he had told Laura about hating his mother and sisters was true. His home computer was a mass of journal entries ranting about them and women in general. Several weeks ago, he’d asked a woman out. He’d promised to stop killing if she’d agreed. She’d told him that she didn’t date cops. There was an entry from the night that he and Laura had slept together. He’d been planning to do it that night, but murdering women in hotel rooms went against everything he stood for. The bodies were too easy to find. He wrote that he had dumped Sandra Wilks so close to the trash because that’s what women were-trash.
He had been telling the truth-he had known about kids partying in the Clearwater barn for years. He had been up just recently to notice the activity of the Clearwater Troll. It had seemed like a perfect opportunity to amuse himself at the police expense. Unfortunately, it had also backfired. He might have been more successful if he had not made the special trip back to leave the note after Sandra Wilks murder.
Laura Allbright decided to return to being a cop immediately after healing from the incident with Tom Jones. She and Steve Lewis did not stay in Philadelphia much longer. Steve took a job in Cleveland, Ohio and Laura followed him. They knew that they were going to be a family of cops forever. After seeing one of them nearly die at the hands of a criminal, the danger was much more real. But the move solidified them. They knew the risks, and they were willing to go through that for each other. They were the only ones they could ever dream of settling down with, and they were going to take on this life together.
THE END
Riding a Bad Boy
Emily stared into the bottom of her purse, scraping together enough change to make a long distance call and wondering how this day had gone so wrong. This wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she shut the door on her old life, locking it with a finality that she felt all the way down to her bones. In her mind this trip would have gone smoothly, would have been the prefect transition from old to new. But life rarely goes to plan. Or smoothly. All that she cared about now was getting to her sister’s place.
Her sister would understand. She had long ago broken free from their father. And despite his claims to the contrary, she managed to create a life for herself without him. Emily kept hidden the fact that she still talked to Marin. It was only a couple times a year and only a brief call when she could sneak away, but Emily held onto that connection to her sister with a white knuckle grip. She knew full we
ll that doing so defied her father and Shane. It was the one thing she allowed herself to disobey and she couldn’t find it in herself to be sorry about it. She was thankful now for that stubborn streak they could never train out of her, because Marin was her lifeline right now.
She had spent the better part of her drive today trying to go back and figure out when things started to go wrong between her and Shane, until she was going back trying to figure out when things had ever been right between them. And why things had to go so far before she realized that.
She could live with him telling her what to do. What to wear. How to act. She could even live with him talking to her father behind her back as if she was a child in need of constant direction. But when he hit her it was like the dam broke.
All of those things she told herself she could live with tumbled down around her until she was standing amongst the ruins of the life she thought she was creating. The humiliation was debilitating, but she took that first hit like a punishment for all the lies she let herself believe. That one hit she could deal with because it was what she needed to finally see what loving him was costing her.
Standing at the kitchen sink just that morning, facing another day of washing his laundry, cooking his meals, taking his insults, seemed too much to bear. Leaving while she had the nerve and while she still wore the reminder of why she was doing it plainly on her left cheek seemed like a good idea.
It all made so much sense at the time. Leaving him. Leaving her father, her duties. She had no job, Shane didn’t allow her to work outside of the house. No friends that weren’t Shane’s friends first. There was no love between her and Shane anymore, if there ever had been to begin with, so no heartbreak to contend with. She allowed herself be only a little sad that after all these years she had so little to leave behind. She tried to think of it as a blessing that made leaving so easy.
But now, sitting at the scarred up counter of a greasy spoon only one state and not even 400 miles from home, she was beginning to lose confidence in her plan. She should have taken Shane’s car brand new turbocharged BMW, but instead she wanted to prove a point. She wanted to make her break on her own, so she had taken her old beater of a car. It was a tank on gas and had more rust than paint but it was hers. Well if she was looking to prove a point then that hunk of junk that barely limped its way to the truck stop was it. Point taken, universe.