A Serial Affair

by Natalie Dunbar

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Reed countered diplomatically. “Let’s work the list of potential victims and suspects for addresses and phone numbers.”

  Marina eyed the program on her laptop. “I’m with you, but I’ve got to finish the information for VICAP first.”

  Reed leaned forward on his desk. “And what’s that going to buy us again?”

  “When I put our case information in VICAP, we should get a list of other crimes that could have been committed by our killer and some behavioral clues to help us find him or her.”

  “Fine. How much do you have left to do?”

  “A couple of hours.”

  “Well maybe we can check out some of the people on the list after lunch.”

  Marina tapped her desk. “I’m in.”

  Between the Merriwhether University records office and the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles, Reed was able to locate an address and phone number for Sherianne Gellus in Palantine, Illinois.

  Making their way through the lunchtime traffic, Reed and Marina arrived at Sherianne Gellus’ office building. It was in a strip mall off Colonial Parkway.

  The gold-edged sign above the door of the brown brick structure sported the names Cameron, Webster and Leslie in elegant black letters. Sherianne was an associate in the law firm.

  One of the secretaries showed Reed and Marina back to Sherianne’s small office. Blond and fresh-faced as her sister had been, Sherianne was taller, more solidly built, and there was a hard glint in her green eyes.

  As soon as the office door closed, Sherianne’s polite smile disappeared. “Can you refresh me on why you’re questioning me?”

  Reed told her that they were looking into the murders of some young men who had gone to Merriwhether University.

  “Which young men?” Sherianne’s expression gave nothing away.

  Marina answered. “We don’t know if there have been other victims yet, but so far we have Elliot Washington, Colton Edwards and Aubrey Russell.”

  “I’m not sorry about those deaths,” Sherianne stated flatly, “but then I think you know why. Those men were rapists. They used the date rape drug on my sister, raped her and then lied about it in court. They hurt other women on campus, too, and got away with it.”

  “I’m sorry about what happened to your sister, but as you know, the young men accused of raping her were proven innocent in court,” Reed said, fixing Sherianne with a sympathetic glance.

  The pencil in Sherianne’s fingers snapped. She shot Reed a look filled with fire. “Yes, because the local prosecutor’s office was nothing against the hot-shot lawyers the fraternity hired. Why do you think I went to law school? I’ve never forgiven myself for not being able to do more to help my sister. I don’t know a single person who really believed they were innocent. They bragged about what they got away with.”

  “Did you feel that you needed to do something to make them pay for what they had done?” Marina asked softly.

  “Yes. Hell, yes, I needed to do something to make them pay. That’s why I’m a lawyer, that’s why I’m still in counseling and that’s why I take rape cases for free.”

  Sherianne’s eyes were shiny with tears.

  “So you had nothing to do with the deaths of Colton Edwards, Aubrey Russell and Elliot Washington?”

  “No, nothing.” Sherianne grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and blew her nose. “But I’ll tell you one thing,” she continued in a gritty tone. “When you find your murderer, whoever it is, I’m volunteering for the defense team, free of charge. And I’m a damned good lawyer.”

  In the stunned silence, Reed made notes.

  Marina studied hers and realized that they had yet to ask a crucial question. “Ms. Gellus, I can understand your anger and hatred for the men accused of raping your sister, but Elliot Washington wasn’t one of them.”

  “That’s because he was Carrie’s ex-boyfriend and she willingly had sex with him. He was the reason she was at that frat house in the first place!”

  A tear slipped down Sherianne’s cheek.

  There’s no accounting for the depths some people will sink to, Marina thought. With an effort, she closed her mouth. Something tied her insides so tight she had to force air into her lungs. She should be used to situations like this, but she wasn’t. Her sympathies were with Sherianne and despite the other woman’s edgy personality, she felt like a bully. After all, what would she do if she knew men who hurt her cousins and got away with it? She didn’t even want to think about it.

  Marina straightened in her chair. “Do you suppose Elliot was the one who gave your sister the date rape drug?”

  “Yes, I do.” Sherianne grabbed another tissue and wiped at her eyes. “I—I tried to talk to Carrie about it, but she wouldn’t even consider it. She had blinders on as far as he was concerned.”

  Reed read the date that Elliot had been killed and asked Sherianne where she was and what she’d been doing on that night.

  Sherianne faced him head-on. “I was with my boyfriend, Wyatt Ames, that evening and all night.”

  “What were you doing on February eighteenth?” Marina asked. That was the night Colton Edwards had been killed.

  “Now that I’ll have to look up.” Sherianne pulled her open desk calendar closer and flipped through the pages. “I was in New York, meeting with one of our major clients.”

  Marina cast her a doubtful glance. “All night?”

  The other woman actually smiled. “No, but you don’t think I grabbed a late flight back to Chicago, killed one of those men, and then flew back to New York, do you?”

  Marina didn’t answer. If she’d been in Sherianne’s shoes she might have done it in a heartbeat.

  “We’ll need the name of your client and the hotel you used so we can check it out,” Reed said.

  “I’ll have our secretary get you a copy of my travel voucher and I have one of Wyatt’s cards,” Sherianne said. “Is there anything else?”

  “We need your alibi for October fourteenth of last year, too,” Marina said.

  Sherianne made a show of retrieving her appointment book from a desk drawer and checking the date. There was nothing written on that date. Sherianne closed her appointment book, looking a little less confident. “I’m going to have to get back to you on that one. Maybe Wyatt or one of my friends can help me remember.”

  Thanking her, Marina accepted one of Wyatt’s cards and waited for the secretary to make a copy of Sherianne’s travel voucher.

  With the information in hand, Reed and Marina prepared to leave. “Thanks for making this process easier,” Marina said. “We’ll get back to you if we have more questions.”

  Sherianne eyed them speculatively. “Will you tell me when I’m cleared?”

  “You’re not exactly a suspect,” Reed assured her, “but you’ll know if we can’t verify your alibi and you become a suspect.”

  Marina rode back to the station deep in thought. Sometimes there was just no justice for the innocent victims. She sympathized with Sherianne Gellus more than she would ever admit out loud, but knew that if Sherianne proved to be their serial killer, she would bring her in. Her feelings didn’t matter when it came down to a killer. As she watched Chicago scenery whiz by, she actually found herself praying that Sherianne Gellus was not the killer.

  She felt Reed’s gaze on her for long stretches of highway and when they stopped for red lights, but he maintained the silence. She appreciated that. When their glances met, she gave him a smile and went back to looking out the window.

  Back at the station Reed wasted no time in calling Wyatt and verifying Sherianne’s alibi for the night of Elliot Washington’s murder. Wyatt wasn’t sure if he’d been with Sherianne on October fourteenth of last year, but he was trying to figure it out. Reed arranged for Wyatt to come in to sign a statement.

  Marina busied herself with confirming that her data had been received and entered into the VICAP database. She didn’t even look up when Reed left the room.

  The fragr
ant scent of strong coffee preceded Reed as he reentered the room. “Coffee?”

  Marina pushed her laptop safely out of the way. “Sure, thanks.” She sipped the hot liquid, abruptly aware that she had a low-level headache. She needed another coffee. Reed had fixed hers the way she liked it, with lots of cream and sugar. With a satisfied sigh, she drank deeply.

  With his own steaming cup of coffee Reed eased back into the seat next to hers. “Want to talk about Sherianne Gellus? Get it off your chest and out in the open?”

  “What was this? A bribe?” she asked, swallowing and removing the cup from her lips.

  Reed chuckled. “I’ve been trained in interrogation tactics so I know how to loosen tongues. Seriously though, she had good reason and enough anger to go after Elliot and Colton.”

  Marina glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “But what about Aubrey? She had no reason to go after him.”

  “Maybe it’s a case of anyone who was part of the fraternity at the time her sister was assaulted is fair game.”

  “I don’t think so.” Marina shook her head. “It’s something more. I’d bet money on it.”

  “Speaking of which, you lost the bet we made yesterday. Remember? I bet you that the link between the victims would be that fraternity.”

  “The jury’s still out on that one,” she reminded him. “There could be other victims and we still don’t know why they’re being killed.”

  Reed expelled the air in his lungs in a huff. “Huh, we’ve got a damned good idea. It looks like we’ve got a serial avenger at work here.”

  “The operative words are ‘looks like,’” she reminded him.

  “All right. Anything to keep me from winning the bet,” Reed whined, just to be annoying.

  “I always pay my debts,” she reminded him, “even if it means buttering your ego with that little statement you dreamed up.”

  “Or doing whatever else it is I want you to do,” he added.

  Marina tossed him a saccharine smile. “Let’s get back to work, Lieutenant.”

  “Don’t tell me I’m getting on your nerves,” Reed taunted.

  “All right, I won’t tell you.”

  Reed made a harsh sound in the back of his throat. “I’ve been working hard, so I’m going to enjoy my coffee break. If you don’t want to talk, I’ll find something else to do.”

  Realizing that he was serious, she stopped him. “Wait, Reed. I’m sorry. I would like to talk to you. I’m just a little edgy ’cause I’ve got a headache.”

  He dropped back down into his chair. “Waited too long to drink that coffee, huh?”

  “Something like that,” she admitted. “So how’s Trudy?”

  Reed gave her a halfhearted grin. “She’s happy. She’s got a date scheduled with some guy she met on the Internet dating service. If he tries anything, I’ll break his legs. I’ve been a nervous wreck trying to think of ways to protect her.”

  “So what did you decide on?” she asked, figuring that he had had to come up with something sneaky to get around Trudy. He wasn’t going to tell her, but Marina maintained eye contact and waited him out.

  “We’re going on a double date,” he confessed finally.

  Marina laughed out loud. “You, Trudy, her date and who else?”

  Reed eyed her speculatively. “I hadn’t really decided.”

  She smiled back, waiting for him to ask her. He wanted to, she could see it in his eyes. She even decided that she would say yes because she knew that a night out with Reed and Trudy would be a lot of fun.

  The silence grew long and Marina’s smile faded naturally. She watched Reed finish his coffee and get back to work. Staring down at her list of suspects, she worked on keeping her expression neutral, but deep inside the little exchange with Reed felt like a rejection and it hurt.

  CHAPTER 7

  It was Reed’s turn to care for his mother and he was running late. He came up the side street and turned onto her street. It was sort of dark because the streetlights were out again. The porch lights on the neighboring homes saved the street from looking truly dangerous, but Reed wasn’t fooled. There were still a lot of shadows that the porch lights failed to penetrate.

  Coming in at night, whether at his own place or his mother’s, had become complicated as he grew more and more convinced he was being stalked. He refused to believe it had anything to do with the task force. At his house last night the menace in the dark had turned out to be a stray cat. Tonight he was looking for a bigger culprit. Someone had been playing a cat-and-mouse game with him and he was determined to find out who and end it once and for all. He only hoped none of it spilled over and caused his mother or anyone else to get hurt.

  Switching off the ignition, he pulled out his flashlight, checked his gun and put it away. He didn’t really think he was going to have to shoot anyone; he was in the old neighborhood, after all. Things had changed, but he still knew a lot of people here and a few that remained had been his friends.

  Reed opened the door of his truck and climbed out into warm summer air. The sound of crickets and the faint sound of cars on the street two blocks over filled the night. He shone the flashlight up and down the street and found only a squirrel, an owl and a cat slipping into one of the yards.

  Someone was watching him. He could feel it. The back of his neck itched. Senses tingling like crazy, he left the street and walked up the sidewalk to traverse the area between his mother’s home and the neighboring one.

  Tensing, he headed into the back with his flashlight illuminating the way. None of the sounds that reached him were anything out of the ordinary, but he felt a lurking presence. Focusing, he looked for an attacker. His imagination was going crazy. What if there was more than one of them? What if they were intent on doing more than roughing him up? What if they wanted to kill him?

  Shaking the useless questioning process from his mind, he rounded the back of the house. He could handle this.

  Out of nowhere a hand caught his wrist and tugged him forward into a hard fist. “Oomph!”

  Reed literally saw shards of light piercing the dark as his head jerked back on his neck with the impact. The flashlight went tumbling to the ground. Reacting quickly, he threw solid punches to his attacker’s torso. His face and eye hurt like hell.

  As he maneuvered back and forth with his opponent, Reed couldn’t shake the certainty that he knew his attacker. In the dark, he couldn’t see the other man’s face beneath the stocking cap. Both men grunted beneath the brutal force of the blows given and taken. A combination of skill and luck kept both men on their feet.

  Reed went on the offensive. Maneuvering the other man with his fists and placement of his body, he forced the fight toward the side of the garage.

  The bright light in front of the garage came on suddenly, blinding Reed.

  “Reed? Reed is that you?” his mother called from an opening in her bedroom window.

  He maintained his concentration, throwing a hard right that rocked his opponent’s head back. He followed it up with a left and watched his attacker warily through slitted eyes. They were both panting. The other man backed into the shadows near the corner of the garage with just a bit of his face and dark hair readily visible.

  With one eye swelling and sweat dripping into the other, Reed was a sorry case. He needed to press his advantage and nab this guy. “Yeah. Gimme a minute,” he rasped in an effort to soothe her nerves.

  “I’m calling the police,” she called back.

  Reed pressed forward on a savage surge of adrenaline. He couldn’t afford to let her distract him any further.

  The other man threw a barrage of butterfly punches. It was a setup.

  Blocking and stepping back a bit, Reed sparred and looked for the right moment to throw his best right fist.

  In a surprisingly gutless move his attacker turned and ran for the back fence.

  “Hey!” Reed called after him. Pursuing, he closed on the back fence just as his attacker gracefully leaped up and over. Reed fo
llowed, lifting himself on arms that trembled and cursing himself for not spending more of his workout time running.

  Charging after the other man, Reed redeemed himself as he steadily reduced the distance between them. Lungs burning, he ran on, intent on catching his quarry. “Stop! Police!” he shouted.

  The other man ducked into another yard just as a police squad car drove up and swerved around, effectively blocking the alley.

  Reed’s attacker had disappeared. Reed flashed his badge and ID, then the two uniformed patrolmen helped him search the area.