by Scott Pratt
“You’re a gem. Donna, do you have any idea where Paul would go?”
“Paul stayed to himself. He wasn’t the outgoing type. He never spoke about his personal life, and I don’t think he has any family. I have no idea where he’d be.”
On the way back to headquarters, Lukas and Brooke brought Captain Hunter up to speed on what had occurred over the past couple of days. Hunter told them that the vehicle Dolan had carjacked had been located, but Dolan was in the wind. He agreed to place a security detail on Gabriele.
When they arrived at headquarters, Hunter told them to take a few minutes to get their thoughts together, then they would formulate a game plan. Lukas nodded. He had to catch this bastard. Lukas had no doubt that Dolan would have killed Gabriele. Dolan was their killer. He’d murdered and tried to frame Rodney Odell, he’d killed Razzy and the other girls.
Lukas thought about calling Gabriele, just to apologize again and make sure she was okay, but ultimately, he decided against it. She’d made it clear how she felt. The relationship between Gabriele and Lukas was more than likely finished. He leaned against the wall, trying to clear his head, when Brooke walked around the corner.
“Need you two over here.” Captain Hunter called them back into the squad room, and the three sat down. “We’re going to need warrants drawn up for Dolan’s arrest for kidnapping and assault, and we’ll need search warrants for his car and home. But you two aren’t going to be in on it.”
“What?” Lukas stood. “What do you mean? It’s our case. I’m not quitting, and you’re not taking me off this case.” Lukas knew he was overstepping, but he didn’t care.
“Calm down, hotshot. I’m not taking you off the case. But you two have been going on this all day, and you’re not going to be worth a damn to me tomorrow if you stay here all night writing warrant applications. I’m calling in some more suits to help us. So, go home, both of you. Get some rest and be in here bright and early tomorrow.”
Brooke smiled sheepishly. “There’s just one small problem, Captain. I don’t have a car.”
“Yeah, right, I forgot. I’ll make arrangements to get you home, and you can have another car issued to you tomorrow. I’ll call your chief myself and tell him what’s going on.”
“I’ll take her home,” Lukas said.
Hunter looked at them both. “Okay, whatever you want. Do you want me to call your chief, Detective Stevens?”
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Fine. Now go, both of you.”
They started walking toward Lukas’s car when Brooke looked at her watch and said, “Listen, you really don’t have to do this. It’s been a long day, and you’ll have to make a trip back over here after you take me home. It’s already late.”
“I’m not taking you home. You’re staying at my place.”
“No, I couldn’t do that.”
“Yes, you can. Where’s Sierra?”
“My mother’s staying with her tonight. When this started to break, I didn’t know if or when I’d make it home so I called her and asked her to spend the night.”
“Then just come on over.”
“I’ll need clothes, everything. It’d be too much hassle.”
“I have a washer.”
“Seriously, I don’t want to cause you any more trouble. I mean, you’ve had a rough night already.”
“If you don’t feel comfortable, I’ll be glad to take you home,” Lukas said. “But this just seems to be the best option. We can both be back in here early tomorrow, and it will give us some time to talk about a plan.”
“Can I wear your pararescue pajamas?”
“They’re sweats, not pajamas, and yes, you can wear them.”
“Okay, but I’m starved, too. A girl’s gotta eat.”
“We’ll pick up some take out on the way.”
They picked up some food, drove to Lukas’s, and ate. When they were finished, Lukas straightened up the house while Brooke took a quick shower. She came back out wearing his pararescue sweats and one of his JCPD T-shirts
“Thanks for the duds,” she said.
“They look better on you than they do on me.”
There was a long pause. Finally, Brooke broke the silence. “How was Gabriele when you saw her?”
“She said she needs some time,” he said after a pause. “She’s angry. I think it’s over between us.”
“It was probably a combination of shock and medication.”
“Maybe, but she just seemed, I don’t know, different. Things haven’t been going well lately anyway.”
“Give her time.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” Lukas said. “Dolan knows we’ll be watching his place, right?”
“Unless he’s a complete moron, which obviously he isn’t.”
“He won’t go back there, so we have to think ahead. So far, he’s been a step ahead of us. We’ve played right into his hands. Until today, that is. Now we know who he is. We have him off his game, at least temporarily. He’s on the run. We have the initiative. I say we keep the pressure up, but the problem is figuring out where he’d go. Let’s look through his employee file.”
Lukas retrieved the file from the kitchen and laid it down on the coffee table in the living room. They both took papers from the files hoping to find something that would lead them to him. They read in silence.
“Find anything interesting?” Lukas asked after a few minutes.
“Not really. On his application, under next of kin it says none. Did he do that intentionally, or could that actually be true?”
“It’s rare that someone his age doesn’t have a next of kin somewhere. But I guess it’s possible.”
Brooke threw her part of the file back on the table and let out a sigh. “A whole lot of nothing. No disciplinary record, no next of kin or significant other. Just an address that’s of no use to us.”
“It’s the same here.”
“He’d need money,” Brooke said, “so we check his financials and bank transactions.”
“Hunter should have those ready when we go in tomorrow morning. He also needs somewhere to hide.
“We’ll check all known associates, which at this point shouldn’t take long.”
“What about the nurse, what was his name?”
Brooke reached for her notebook, then remembered his name. “Tom Clifford.”
“Right. Would he go there? Abby said they were close.”
Brooke hooked a wet strand of hair out from behind her ear. “That’s our best bet at this point. Hell, it’s the only bet as far as I know.”
“If he’s using Clifford’s place, he’s probably ditched the car by now. He’d have to assume Clifford knows what’s happened, so if he is there, we may be looking at another kidnapping situation. Or worse.”
“Unless he’s in on it, too.”
Lukas walked to the kitchen, pulled two bottles of water from the refrigerator, and tossed one to Brooke. “Unlikely,” he said sitting back down on the couch.
“Agreed.”
“We could call him from a blocked number to see what he says. If Dolan’s not there we haven’t lost anything, and then we can warn him.”
“But if he is there and the alarm bells go off we could put him in danger.”
Lukas reached for the remote and turned on the TV. “Let’s see how much press it’s getting.” When the picture materialized it showed Sarah Anderson from news channel 39 standing at the site where Brooke and Lukas had crashed into Dolan’s car and tumbled down the embankment. He flipped through the stations and found that the same news was being reported by two other local stations as well. “Looks like there’s no hiding from it now. So, if he’s at Clifford’s, we should assume Clifford is already in trouble or worse. I wonder if he has a wife and kids?”
“Okay, now I’m starting to get f
reaked out. We have to do something,” Brooke said.
Lukas turned off the TV and laid the remote on the coffee table. “No phone calls. It’s too risky. I’ll phone Hunter and see about sending some cars by Clifford’s house. If everything is on the up and up, we’ll have him call us.”
“I like that better.”
Lukas first made a call to Donna Blalock in the ER to get Clifford’s address and phone number. He also learned that Clifford was married and had two small children, both girls. Lukas asked Donna to warn the nurses on staff to be wary of Dolan. He told her that it was unlikely he would approach any of them, but he was obviously dangerous, and they needed to be careful. Next, he phoned Captain Hunter and explained the situation to him. Hunter said he’d take care of it, and for Lukas and Brooke to stand by. He received a return call from Hunter twenty minutes later who said that Clifford had been contacted and apprised of the situation.
Brooke grabbed a throw from the love seat and curled up with it. “It’s hard to believe this guy has no friends or family.”
“Maybe it drove him to kill prostitutes and kidnap co-workers.”
“And then he disappears into thin air.”
“Tomorrow’s going to be another long day. I’m gonna take a shower and hit the sack.”
“I think I’ll call mom and check on Sierra. Then I’ll sack out, too.”
“There are extra blankets in the closet in the spare bedroom. Oh, and there should be an unopened tooth brush in the vanity over the sink in the bathroom where you showered.”
“Thanks for letting me stay here. Appreciate it.”
“No problem.”
When Lukas finished his shower and put on some sweats and a T-shirt, he walked back through the house to check on Brooke. She’d left the door to the spare bedroom open, and he peeked in. She was lying on her side, facing away from him, curled into a fetal position. She seemed to be at peace. He briefly wondered what it would be like to crawl into the bed beside her, but he dismissed the thought and turned toward his own room.
Damn, what a day.
Just as he started to take a step, he heard a soft voice. “Night, Lukas.”
“Night, Brooke.”
“We’ll get the guy tomorrow.”
“I hope so.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lukas and Brooke arrived at police headquarters at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Captain Hunter briefed them on the previous night’s progress. A plain clothes detail was set up on Dolan’s apartment, but there had been no sign of him, which wasn’t surprising. Search warrants had been completed for Dolan’s home, vehicle, phone, and financial records.
Lukas drove downtown and was lucky enough to find a judge, one with whom he was familiar. Judge Gaston Walker always made himself available when emergency search warrants were needed. Lukas admired and respected Judge Walker, and he was always the first choice when Lukas needed a signature.
The judge signed off quickly as usual, and Lukas headed back to the station. He stopped off at a local coffee shop that served a great caramel latte and picked one up for both Brooke and himself.
Back at the station, he entered the now sparsely populated squad room and sat down at the table where Brooke was looking through the paperwork the other suits had worked on the night before.
“I’ve been thinking about our next move,” he said, handing Brooke her coffee. “I think the secret is going to be his associates, be they here or somewhere else. Any idea where he lived before he showed up here?”
“No, we didn’t talk much during the Citizen’s Academy. He asked a few questions, but nothing really out of the ordinary. I can’t wait to slap a pair of cuffs on him.”
“He probably used Gabriele. Pumped her for information, followed the investigation. Planning his next move the whole time. I think he probably used Odell to place the bodies after he killed them. That’s why we got the leads on the red car and black male as the suspect initially.”
“And he planted the evidence in Odell’s house. But what about the DNA taken from Razzy?”
“Not sure about that one. Maybe had sex with her.”
“I don’t think so. She was tortured. There was real anger behind her killing.”
“Searching Dolan’s place should turn up some answers.”
“Let’s hope.”
Captain Hunter appeared in the doorway and summoned Lukas and Brooke into his office. They spent the next thirty minutes going over theories. Hunter seemed to think Dolan had left town. Lukas wasn’t sold on the idea. Either way, they all agreed that Dolan wouldn’t show up at his apartment. They knew he’d need money, transportation and a place to stay. It had taken all morning, but Hunter’s ad hoc task force had located Dolan’s bank. They were watching his accounts for any activity, but none had been detected. Lukas had Hunter contact the ICAP people and pull records for stolen vehicles, which were subsequently put out to state and local agencies. The best chance of finding anything significant was most likely going to be his apartment. But they weren’t ready to move on it just yet. An online search had been completed with Dolan’s identifiers which had provided a few additional addresses that were currently being searched. But so far, they looked to be former addresses or different Paul Dolans. As Lukas and Brooke stood to leave, Hunter stopped them.
“You guys did good last night. There’s no doubt in my mind what would have happened to that nurse if you hadn’t stopped him. We’ve got him on the run. Let’s finish this thing.”
Lukas said, “We will, Captain.”
“I have one question before you go. Did you know there was someone else behind this the night we found Odell?”
“We didn’t lie to you, Captain. We had doubts, sure. And there were loose ends just like I told you. When we pulled on those ends they came unraveled.”
Hunter sat back and looked at Lukas, then at Brooke over his reading glasses. After what seemed like an eternal silence, Hunter took off his readers and tossed them on his cluttered desk. “Next time fill me in. And I mean totally. Dismissed.”
Lukas led Brooke back to the squad room. Dolan’s name had been run through all the department’s databases, including his NCIC record. The guy was squeaky clean. All Lukas could find was a traffic ticket and a shoplifting charge as a juvenile. He also noticed that Dolan was a part-time nurse for the county detention center. He called and spoke to a supervisor over the medical department, but they didn’t have any additional information on possible associates for Dolan.
“Nothing,” Lukas said to Brooke. “He’s vanished into thin air.”
Brooke squeezed Lukas’s arm. “Lukas, I just thought of something. When cadets come into the Citizen’s Police Academy, they fill out an application and there’s a mandatory section that requires them to list a next of kin. He might have written something bogus, but it’s worth a shot.”
She put a call in to the community relations office at the Kingsport Police Department. She was put on hold for a few minutes while the person on the other end found the records. She ended the call and looked over at Lukas. “He listed a Pam Wilcox. She lives on H Street here in Johnson City. I have a phone number, too. Right now, it’s all we have.”
“I say we take a shot.”
“Don’t you think we should tell Captain Hunter?”
“We’ll tell him if something pans out. Let’s go. I’m driving.”
“Makes sense, since I don’t have a car.”
They headed out. Lukas felt his pulse quicken as he brought his Crown Victoria up to speed. Dolan being at Wilcox’s house was probably too much to hope for, but it was possible. Regardless, it felt good to finally be on the guy’s scent.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lukas picked a vantage point that gave them a relatively unobstructed view of the house from about two blocks away. It was a single-level structure with blue siding and white shutters
, situated in the middle of the block. The shades were pulled. There was a silver Volkswagen Jetta in the driveway. Lukas called in the location and requested backup.
“What’s our play?” Brooke asked as she watched the house through binoculars.
“I’ll take the front, and you get the back.”
“What about the backup?”
“We go now. I don’t want marked units or uniforms to spook him if he’s there.”
They got out of the car, jogged across the street, and walked through yards to avoid detection. The crisp snow crunching under their feet made a silent approach impossible. Lukas waited for Brooke to get into position, then stepped up on the porch. He stood to the side of the front door and knocked. He heard footsteps from within. “Open the door! It’s the Johnson City Police Depa—” His announcement was cut off as three shots slammed through the door inches from where he stood. He dove from the porch, crouched beside a bush, and prepared to return fire.
Brooke came running around the side of the house holding her gun. “Are you hit?”
“No! Get to the back!”
Brooke ran back around to the rear of the house with Lukas close behind her. Just as they cleared the side of the house, Lukas noticed movement beyond a hedge thirty feet away. Brooke indicated she’d seen it, too. He motioned for her to fan out to the left. He moved to the right and forward. Brooke and Lukas inched along with their weapons trained on the hedge.
Lukas felt tension in his neck, and his arm still ached from the stab wound. When they cleared the hedge, they noticed an alley that ran behind the houses. An engine started from somewhere to their left. They broke into a run and saw a green Ford pickup truck turn left onto the main road from the alley and disappear.
Lukas grabbed his radio and called in the description of the vehicle, direction of travel, and the fact that shots had been fired. He could already hear sirens in the distance.
“We should clear the house,” Lukas said.
They walked to the back door, which was standing open, and made entry just as marked and unmarked units began to arrive. Lukas and Brooke cleared the house methodically. The last room they entered turned out to be the bedroom. They swung into the room and found Pam Wilcox lying on the bed with her throat cut. Her eyes were wide open and her face was pale. There was no doubt she was dead.