Betrayed (A Jenny Watkins Mystery Book 2)

by Becky Durfee

  At that moment Officer Fazzino walked in, and Natalie immediately announced, “Danny, she thinks it was Orlowski.”

  Officer Fazzino looked at Jenny in disbelief. “You told her?”

  Natalie jumped in before Jenny could speak. “She didn’t say this guy killed Allison, but she did say she saw him kill that girl in Georgia.”

  Looking defeated Fazzino said, “Yes, she does claim to have seen him murder that girl.”

  “Do you believe her?” Natalie demanded.

  Fazzino stayed quiet for what seemed like an eternity. He looked at each person in the room, one at a time, his expression giving no indication of the answer. Finally, in a monotonous tone, he replied, “I believe it’s worth looking into.”

  Fazzino’s uninspired response had an apparent effect on Natalie. She took several breaths and spoke out loud, although it appeared she was talking mostly to herself. “You’re right. I can’t allow myself to get excited over this. I’ve gotten excited over too many leads in the past, and they all turned out to be dead ends. I have to assume that this guy didn’t do it unless you can prove it to me.” She shook her head. “But, damn, I had this man in my house. I expressed gratitude to him.” She closed her eyes. “If it turns out he actually did this, I will be positively sick.”

  Jenny couldn’t imagine how awful it would feel to be cordial to the man who killed your daughter.

  At that moment the front door opened; a pre-teen girl with long braids bounded into the house carrying a soccer ball. Her father, wearing a shirt that said coach, followed. While the girl stopped in her tracks to look quizzically at the visitors, the father approached Fazzino with an extended hand. “Danny…good to see you again.”

  “You too, Craig. You’re looking well.”

  “Natalie, who are these people?” the girl posed.

  “Well, Savannah Banana, they’re here to talk about Allison some more. They’re still working on solving the case. Nothing bad is happening, I promise.” With a smile she added, “How was practice?”

  “Good,” Savannah replied. “We scrimmaged and I scored a goal.”

  “Awesome job. I’ll tell you what; why don’t you run up and take a shower, and then by the time you’re done we’ll be finished here and we’ll get a pizza.”

  “But I don’t want to shower. I showered yesterday.”

  “And you just played soccer. You need a shower,” Natalie stated flatly.

  “Can the pizza be from Mario’s?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Natalie said. “Now go take that shower.”

  Savannah leapt up the stairs and disappeared from sight. Craig turned to Officer Fazzino. “Are there any new developments?”

  “Kind of,” Fazzino replied.

  Natalie walked over to her husband and pointed at Jenny, “This woman is a psychic. You should have seen what she just disclosed to Danny. It was amazing.”

  “Was it about Allison?”

  “No, but she has her suspicions about Allison,” Natalie replied. “She thinks it might have been a cop.”

  Craig looked at Jenny. “Really?”

  Before Jenny had the chance to respond, Natalie added, “She thinks it was one of the cops who worked on Allison’s case. I’ve even told you about him. He was the one who found Allison’s cell phone.”

  Zack and Jenny exchanged a bewildered look. “Did you just say he found her cell phone?” Jenny asked.

  Natalie looked at Jenny, apparently surprised by the reaction. “Yeah, he found her cell phone. He prided himself on that, actually. It was in an area that had already been searched once, but it didn’t turn up until he went back and took a second look.”

  “One of the messages Lashonda sent me had to do with a cell phone.”

  Natalie’s eyes widened. “What did she say about it?”

  “That’s just it,” Jenny said, “I haven’t figured that out. The only thing I know is that it’s important somehow.”

  “It seems a little suspicious to me,” Zack surmised, “that a cell phone would just suddenly appear in an area that had already been searched.”

  “One step ahead of you,” Fazzino replied, leaning his head toward the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. With the click of a button he said, “This is Fazzino.”

  A fuzzy voice blared through the device. “Anderson. What do you got for me Danny?”

  “I want you to look up the file for Lashonda Williams and tell me who found her cell phone.”

  “Who found her cell phone?”

  “Yes,” Fazzino repeated. “Tell me which officer found her cell phone.”

  “Okay. Just give me a sec.”

  “Thanks,” Fazzino said. He then turned his attention back to everyone in the room. “Now let me just make it clear that even if Orlowski turns out to be the one who found Lashonda’s phone, that doesn’t make him a murderer. It just might mean he’s a cop with extraordinary eyesight and good instincts.”

  Craig put his arm around Natalie, who was clearly unnerved. As anxious as Jenny was to hear the results, she knew that Natalie’s anxiety had to be immeasurably worse.

  Fazzino continued. “And even if Orlowski is the perpetrator, this evidence will be circumstantial at best.”

  Natalie, as if oblivious to Fazzino’s comments, put her hand on her forehead and posed, “Do you know what a fit I pitched when I found out the phone was in a place that had already been searched? I demanded to know who had been in charge of that area the first time so I could have his job.” She chuckled in disbelief. “And it may turn out that the phone wasn’t even there during the initial search. And the person I complained to…the person I regarded as a hero in all of this…the person I complimented for being the most competent person on the force… was actually her killer?”

  “We don’t know that yet,” Fazzino reminded her.

  Natalie sighed as she regained her composure. “You’re right,” she once again reminded herself. “We don’t know that yet.”

  Jenny wanted to get Natalie’s mind off of the wait. “Mrs. Easton,” she began. “I was also led to a house, presumably by Lashonda. The name on the mailbox of that house was Hawkins, and the house was on…” Jenny turned to Zack. “What was the name of that street again?”

  “Old Schoolhouse Road,” Zack said.

  Jenny returned her attention to Natalie. “Does that name ring a bell?”

  Natalie looked at Craig with a puzzled expression. Craig shook his head, giving Natalie the confirmation she needed to declare, “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “It seems nobody has,” Jenny replied disappointedly.

  Fazzino’s walkie-talkie came alive. “I’ve got the file here. It’s thick as hell. It’s going to take me a while to figure out who found the phone.”

  Natalie’s face deflated as Fazzino pressed the button and leaned toward his shoulder. “Don’t stop looking ‘til you find it.”

  The disappointment was palpable. Natalie left Craig’s side and resumed her seat, turning to Jenny. “Have you spoken to Quinette?”

  “Quinette?”

  “Quinette Williams. Lashonda’s mother.”

  “No ma’am,” Jenny confessed. “I haven’t done that yet.”

  Natalie pulled her phone out of her pocket as she spoke. “Craig, can you find out what our guests like on their pizza?” She dialed a number and put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Quinette…I’m doing well. Listen, I think you and Ty should drop whatever it is you’re doing and come over. There’s some pretty intense stuff going on over here…It’s too much to say over the phone; you’ll need to see it for yourself. And if I remember correctly, you like pepperoni and sausage on your pizza, right?”

  Once the food had been delivered, Craig took Savannah upstairs under the transparent guise of a father-daughter dinner. Soon after, Quinette and Ty Williams arrived looking incredibly apprehensive. Without the typical pleasantries, Quinette immediately posed, “What’s going on here?”

  “Well,” Natalie began, taking their coats, �
�this is Jenny, a psychic from Georgia, and her husband Zack.”

  Jenny didn’t bother to correct her.

  “She says she’d received some messages from Lashonda,” Natalie continued.

  Quinette and Ty exchanged a puzzled glance. “Messages?” Ty asked. “What kind of messages?”

  The couple followed Natalie out of the foyer and into the living room. They both stared at Jenny, silently demanding an explanation. “Well,” Jenny began, “I got a visual about her ring, and I distinctly got the impression that a cell phone is going to prove to be important.”

  “And get this,” Natalie interrupted, but then she stopped herself. She shook her head. “Never mind. Keep going.”

  Jenny continued. “She also led me to a house on Old Schoolhouse Road. The people who live there are named Hawkins. I haven’t been able to figure out what the connection is there, and I’m hoping you might know what it is.”

  “I don’t know anybody named Hawkins,” Quinette said flatly. “Okay, I…” she closed her eyes and shook her head. “You say…” She clearly had so many questions she couldn’t pick just one.

  Jenny stood up and walked over to the Williamses. She gently took hold of both of Quinette’s hands and looked sincerely into her baffled eyes. “I understand,” she whispered. “And I will tell you the whole story. Hopefully by the time I’m done this will all make sense, and then we can start trying to decipher Lashonda’s messages.”

  Still looking lost, Quinette followed Jenny into the kitchen with Ty closely behind. They sat down at the table, and Jenny began the long process of telling the story from start to finish. Even Natalie had been unaware of some of the details, so she was just as entranced by the account as the Williamses.

  Jenny noted the way the two women wordlessly took each other’s hands when some of the more upsetting details were disclosed, providing each other with the silent solace that only a fellow mourning mother could deliver. These women clearly had a bond that most people would mercifully never understand, brought together by the most horrific of circumstances. As Jenny spoke to them she wished this friendship had never been forged and they were still perfectly happy strangers.

  Sadly, that was not how their lives unfolded.

  At the end of the explanation Quinette posed, “Do you have any idea if the same person is responsible for all three crimes? Nobody here knows if the Allison’s and Lashonda’s cases are related.”

  “I don’t really know, unfortunately,” Jenny confessed. “It would make sense if they were; the MO is the same. He seems like he’s a crime-of-opportunity type of guy. If he sees a young woman alone in the middle of the night, he acts. But,” she continued, “I know there’s the added element of Michael Boyd in Lashonda’s case. I don’t really know anything about him other than what I’ve read online, and I’m not sure how reliable those accounts are. Do you have a feeling about Michael?”

  “I wish I did,” Ty said. “It would be so much better if we knew which direction to focus. Besides, if he didn’t do it, he deserves an apology. But if he did do it, I’d like to go over there and kill him myself. Either way I can’t bring myself to look at him. Not until I know the truth.”

  “Well, hopefully Lashonda can let me know one way or the other.” Jenny leaned her elbows on the table. “Let me ask you this…Do you happen to live in the house she grew up in? I might be able to get a reading if I can spend a little time in her old room.”

  “No, we downsized once Lashonda moved out. She was our youngest, and we didn’t need a house that big after the kids were gone,” Quinette explained sadly.

  “I see,” Jenny replied.

  At that point Fazzino’s walkie-talkie blared. “Fazzino? This is Anderson.”

  “Fazzino. What’d you’d find out?”

  “Orlowski found the phone.”

  The silence that followed spoke volumes. Fazzino briefly thanked Anderson, and then the quiet resumed. After a moment Ty noted, “That’s pretty telling.”

  Fazzino held his hands up. “Let’s not jump the gun. This may just be a coincidence.”

  Clearly the majority of the people in the room believed that it wasn’t.

  With a promise to keep investigating, Jenny and Zack said goodbye to the two families and Officer Fazzino. As soon as she sat down in the passenger seat Jenny succumbed to a series of yawns, the consequence of too little sleep the night before. “Thanks for driving,” she said to Zack. “I’m not sure I could keep the car on the road.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “I just want to stop at a store or something to get some munchies. Then I’ll get you to the hotel so you can get some sleep.”

  “Thanks.” Jenny closed her eyes and remained quiet during the ride to the hotel. She knew there was a lot to discuss, but she didn’t have the energy to dedicate to such a serious conversation. There would always be tomorrow.

  Once the pair arrived at the hotel and checked in, Jenny and Zack dragged their suitcases to their adjoining rooms. “Goodnight,” Jenny said flatly as she slid the key card into the slot. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Goodnight, chief,” Zack replied as he disappeared into his room.

  Jenny walked into her hotel room, noting that it looked neat but not fancy. She looked longingly at the pillows as she plopped her suitcase on the king-sized bed, unzipping it to retrieve her toothbrush, toothpaste and pajamas. She did her nightly routine quickly, climbing between the sheets with an exhausted sigh.

  Very quickly she felt waves of sleep wash over her. She nestled into the blankets, enjoying the warmth, feeling the events of the day disappear from her mind.

  With a shot she sat up in bed. She ran quickly to the door that connected her room to Zack’s, pounding mercilessly until Zack answered. He looked puzzled as he stood in just flannel pants with a bag of potato chips in his hand. “What’s the matter?” He asked.

  Jenny was frantic. “I know what happened to Lashonda.”

  Chapter 10

  Without being invited in, Jenny pushed past Zack into his hotel room. “It was horrible,” she recounted with a shiver as she sat on the edge of Zack’s bed. “But at least now I know.”

  Zack sat down next to her. “So what happened?”

  Jenny sighed to calm her nerves before she began. “Lashonda brought me back to that dollar store parking lot. She was sitting in the back of a car, feeling comfortable, presumably waiting for her roommate, but then the car started moving. She felt confusion at first, but that turned into panic as they continued to drive. She made a fuss, demanding to know where they were going. A male voice told her to shut up, and then a gun appeared in her face.

  “She tried to reach for a door handle. She was fully prepared to jump out of the moving car and run for it. But there were no handles. The doors could only be opened from the outside.”

  Zack understood. “Because it was a cop car.”

  Jenny nodded. “Because it was a cop car.” Jenny wiped her face with her hands, trying to shake off the fear that had gripped her throughout the vision. Her attempt was unsuccessful. “She knew, Zack. She knew she was going to die. Right there in the back seat she figured out that this was what had happened to Allison, and she was fully aware that she was about to meet the same fate.” Jenny let out a shaky breath. “Do you know how horrifying that is?”

  Putting his arm around Jenny, Zack replied, “I can’t even begin to imagine.”

  “The next thing I knew I was in the midst of the attack, seeing it from Lashonda’s point of view. It was incredibly dark. I couldn’t see much of anything, including the attacker’s face. He had me pinned by my forearms while he raped me.” Jenny ran her fingers through her hair. “He seemed so angry, just like he had been during Morgan’s attack. But I did get one piece of information that is very telling. Lashonda took off her own ring. It was apparently a little loose on her, and she was able to wriggle it off with her thumb and pinky finger even though Orlowski held her forearms.”

  “What? Why would she
do that?”

  “So she could leave a calling card. A little message that Lashonda was here. During a brief moment where she had that one hand free, she threw the ring into the distance. It made a clanking sound. It hit something. After hearing the sound, the man demanded to know what she had done, but she didn’t answer, God bless her.” Jenny looked squarely at Zack. “I think the cops need to stop looking for who has the ring and start looking for where it is. I think that will give them the answers they’re looking for.”

  Zack frowned and nodded, showing how impressed he was. “That was pretty savvy of her.”

  “Yes, but unfortunately three years have gone by and no one’s found it. Poor thing. She did everything she possibly could to leave a clue, and it’s just sitting there.”

  “Do you think that’s why her spirit lingers?”

  Jenny looked down at her lap and whispered, “Maybe.”

  Despite her best effort to prevent them, tears filled Jenny’s eyes. Zack noticed, and with his arm still around her, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  Jenny nodded while wiping her eyes. “It’s hard, that’s all,” she confessed. “I’m completely freaked out right now. And I’m so tired, but I know I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight. Not for a long time anyway. That image was just so horrible; I’m not going to be able to shake it any time soon.”

  “Well, you can sleep here if you want,” Zack posed. Jenny looked around the room, noting the single bed, and then looked skeptically at Zack. “I’ll be a gentleman, I swear,” he added. I just thought it might be comforting to not be alone.”

  Jenny realized as a married woman the correct response was to decline his offer, but the thought of going back into her room and attempting to sleep alone was far too disturbing. “You know what? I think I’ll take you up on that. It’s the only way I’ll get any rest.”

  “Okay, just let me clean up a little,” Zack said, standing up and wiping chip crumbs off the comforter. “I didn’t realize I’d have company.”

  Jenny smiled at his well-intended but feeble attempt at chivalry. Once Zack was done tidying, Jenny slid under the sheets and lay down, facing the outside of the bed with her back to the empty space that Zack would soon occupy. She was nervous and uneasy, but at least she wasn’t frightened.