Once Lured

by Blake Pierce

  Riley’s voice was shaking now. She knew she had to control herself. She couldn’t break down in tears or shout with rage.

  “Has the time come to forgive Larry Mullins? I leave that up to the boys’ families. Forgiveness really isn’t what this hearing is about. It’s just not the point. The most important matter is the danger he still presents. We can’t risk the likelihood that more children will die at his hands.”

  Riley noticed that a couple of people on the parole board were checking their watches. She panicked a little. The board had already reviewed two other cases this morning, and they had four more to finish before noon. They were getting impatient. Riley had to wrap this up immediately. She looked straight at them.

  “Ladies and gentleman, I implore you not to grant this parole.”

  Then she said, “Perhaps someone else would like to speak on the prisoner’s behalf.”

  Riley sat down. Her final words had been double-edged. She knew perfectly well that not one single person was here to speak in Mullins’s defense. Despite all his “good behavior,” he still didn’t have a friend or defender in the world. Nor, Riley was sure, did he deserve one.

  “Would anybody like to speak?” the hearing officer asked.

  “I would just like to add a few words,” a voice said from the back of the room.

  Riley gasped. She knew that voice well.

  She whirled around in her seat and saw a familiar short, barrel-chested man standing in the back of the room. It was Jake Crivaro—the last person she expected to see today. Riley was delighted and surprised.

  Jake came forward and stated his name and rank for the board members, then said, “I can tell you that this guy is a master manipulator. Don’t believe him. He’s lying. He showed no remorse when we caught him. What you are seeing is all an act.”

  Jake stepped right up to the table and leaned across it toward Mullins.

  “Bet you didn’t expect to see me today,” he said, his voice full of contempt. “I wouldn’t have missed it—you child-killing little prick of a weasel.”

  The hearing officer banged her gavel.

  “Order!” she shouted.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Jake said mock-apologetically. “I didn’t mean to insult our model prisoner. After all, he’s rehabilitated now. He’s a repentant child-killing little prick of a weasel.”

  Jake just stood there, looking down at Mullins. Riley studied the prisoner’s expression. She knew that Jake was doing his best to provoke an outburst from Mullins. But the prisoner’s face remained stony and calm.

  “Mr. Crivaro, please take your seat,” the hearing officer said. “The board may make their decision now.”

  The board members huddled together to share their notes and thoughts. Their whispering was animated and tense. Meanwhile, there was nothing for Riley to do but wait.

  Donald and Melanie Betts were now sobbing. Darla Harter was weeping, and her husband, Ross, was holding her hand. He was staring straight at Riley. His look cut through her like a knife. What did he think of the testimony she just gave? Did he think it made up for her failure all those years ago?

  The room was too warm, and she felt sweat breaking on her brow. Her heart was beating anxiously.

  It only took a few minutes for the huddle to break up. One of the board members whispered to the hearing officer. She turned toward everybody else who was present.

  “Parole is denied,” she said. “Let’s get started on the next case.”

  Riley gasped aloud at the woman’s bluntness, as if the case were about nothing more than a parking ticket. But she reminded herself that the board was in a hurry to move on with the rest of their morning work.

  Riley stood up, and both couples rushed toward her. Melanie Betts threw herself into Riley’s arms.

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you …” she kept saying

  The three other parents crowded around her, smiling through their tears and saying “thank you” over and over again.

  She saw that Jake was standing aside in the hallway. As soon as she could, she left the parents and ran to him.

  “Jake!” she said, giving him a hug. “How long has it been?”

  “Too long,” Jake said with that sideways smile of his. “You kids today never write or call.”

  Riley sighed. Jake had always treated her like a daughter. And it really was true that she should have stayed in better touch.

  “So how have you been?” she asked.

  “I’m seventy-five years old,” he said. “I’ve had both knees and a hip replaced. My eyes are shot. I’ve got a hearing aid and a pacemaker. And all my friends except you have croaked. How do you think I’ve been?”

  Riley smiled. He’d aged quite a lot since she’d last seen him. Even so, he didn’t seem nearly as frail as he was making himself out to be. She was sure he could still do his old job if he was ever needed again.

  “Well, I’m glad you were able to talk yourself in here,” she said.

  “You shouldn’t be surprised,” Jake said. “I’m at least as smooth a talker as that bastard Mullins.”

  “Your statement really helped,” Riley said.

  Jake shrugged. “Well, I wish I could’ve gotten a rise out of him. I’d love to have seen him lose it in front of the parole board. But he’s cooler and smarter than I remember. Maybe prison has taught him that. Anyway, we got a good decision even without getting him to freak out. Maybe he’ll stay behind bars for good.”

  Riley didn’t say anything for a moment. Jake gave her a curious look.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Riley said. “If Mullins keeps racking up points for good behavior, his early release will probably be mandatory in another year. There’s nothing you or I or anybody can do about it.”

  “Jesus,” Jake said, looking as bitter and angry as he had all those years before.

  Riley knew just how he felt. It was heartbreaking to imagine Mullins going free. Today’s small victory now seemed much more bitter than sweet.

  “Well, I’ve got to be going,” Jake said. “It was great seeing you.”

  Riley sadly watched her old partner walk away. She understood why he wasn’t going to hang around to indulge in negative feelings. That just wasn’t his way. She made a mental note to get in touch with him soon.

  She also tried to find a bright side to what had just happened. After fifteen long years, the Bettses and the Harters had finally forgiven her. But Riley didn’t feel as if she deserved forgiveness, any more than did Larry Mullins.

  Just then, Larry Mullins was led out in handcuffs.

  He turned to look at her and smiled wide, mouthing his evil words silently.

  “See you next year.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Riley was in her car and headed back home when she got the call from Bill. She put her phone on speaker.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “We’ve found another body,” he said. “In Delaware.”

  “Was it Meara Keagan?” Riley asked.

  “No. We haven’t identified the victim. This is just like the other two, only worse.”

  Riley let the facts of the situation sink in. Meara Keagan was still being held captive. The killer might be holding other women captive as well. It was all but certain that the killings would continue. How many killings was anybody’s guess.

  Bill’s voice was agitated.

  “Riley, I’m losing my mind here,” he said. “I know I’m not thinking straight. Lucy’s a great help, but she’s still awfully green.”

  Riley understood perfectly how he felt. The irony felt palpable. Here she was beating herself up about the Larry Mullins case. Meanwhile in Delaware, Bill felt as if his own past failure had cost a third woman her life.

  Riley thought about the drive to wherever Bill was. It would probably take nearly three hours to get there.

  “Are you finished there?” Bill asked.


  Riley had told both Bill and Brent Meredith that she would be in Maryland today for the parole hearing.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Good,” Bill said. “I’ve sent a helicopter to pick you up.”

  “You what?” Riley said with a gasp.

  “There’s a private airport near where you are. I’ll text you the location. The chopper is probably there already. There’s a cadet on board who’ll drive your car back.”

  Without another word, Bill ended the call.

  Riley drove in silence for a moment. She had been relieved when the hearing had ended during the morning. She wanted to be home when her daughter got out of school. There had been no more arguments yesterday, but April hadn’t said much at all. This morning Riley had left before April was awake.

  But the decision had obviously been made for her. Ready or not, she was on the new case. She would have to talk to April later.

  But she didn’t have to think long before it seemed perfectly right. She turned her car around and followed the directions Bill had sent her. The surest cure for her feeling of failure would be to bring another killer to justice—real justice.

  It was time.

  *

  Riley stared down at the dead girl lying on the wooden bandstand floor. It was a bright, cool morning. The bandstand was housed in a gazebo right in the center of the town square, surrounded by nicely kept grass and trees.

  The victim looked shockingly like the girls in the photos Riley had seen of the two victims from earlier months. She was lying face up and so emaciated that she appeared to be positively mummified. Her dirty, torn clothing might have once fit but now looked grotesquely large on her. She bore old scars and more recent wounds from what looked like the lashes of a whip.

  Riley guessed that she was about seventeen, the age of the other two murder victims.

  Or maybe not, she thought.

  After all, Meara Keagan was twenty-four. The killer might be changing his MO. This girl was too wasted away for Riley to be able to determine her age.

  Riley was standing between Bill and Lucy.

  “She looks like she was starved more than the other two,” Bill remarked. “He must have kept her for a lot longer.”

  Riley heard a world of self-reproach in Bill’s words. She looked at her partner. The bitterness showed in his face as well. Riley knew what Bill was thinking. This girl had surely been alive and held captive when he’d investigated this case and come up with nothing. He was blaming himself for her death.

  Riley knew that he shouldn’t blame himself. Even so, she didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. Her own regrets about the Larry Mullins case still left a bad taste in her mouth.

  Riley turned around to take in her surroundings. From here, the only completely visible structure was the courthouse across the street—a large brick building with a clock tower. Redditch was a charming little colonial town. Riley wasn’t really surprised that the body could have been brought here in the dead of night without anybody noticing. The whole town would have been fast asleep. The square was lined with sidewalks, so the killer hadn’t left any footprints.

  The local police had taped off the square and were keeping onlookers away. But Riley could see that some press had gathered outside the tapes.

  She was worried. So far, the press hadn’t caught on that the two previous murders and Meara Keagan’s disappearance had all been connected. But with this new murder, somebody was liable to connect the dots. The public would know sooner or later. Then the investigation would become a lot more difficult.

  Standing nearby was Redditch’s police chief Aaron Pomeroy.

  “How and when was the body found?” Riley asked him.

  “We’ve got a street cleaner who goes out to work before dawn. He found her.”

  Pomeroy looked badly shaken. He was an overweight, aging man. Riley figured that even in a little town like this, a cop his age had handled a murder or two somewhere along the line. But he’d probably never dealt with anything this disturbing.

  Agent Lucy Vargas crouched beside the corpse and studied it closely.

  “Our killer’s awfully confident,” Lucy said.

  “How do you figure?” Riley asked.

  “Well, he’s putting the bodies out for display,” she said. “Metta Lunoe was found in an open field, Valerie Bruner by the side of a road. Only about half of all serial killers transport their victims away from the murder site. Of those who do, about half conceal them. And most bodies that are left in view are just dumped. This kind of display suggests that he’s pretty cocky.”

  Riley was pleased that Lucy had paid good attention in class. But somehow she didn’t think that cockiness was this killer’s point. He wasn’t trying to show off or taunt the authorities. He was up to something else. Riley didn’t yet know what it was.

  But she was pretty sure it had something to do with the way the body was laid out. It was both awkward and deliberate. The girl’s left arm was stretched straight above her head. Her right arm was also straight but placed slightly to one side of her body. Even the head, with its broken neck, had been straightened to align as well as possible with the rest of the body.

  Riley thought back to the photos of the other victims. She noticed that Lucy was carrying a tablet computer.

  Riley asked her, “Lucy, could you bring up the photos of the other two corpses?”

  It took Lucy only a few seconds to comply. Riley and Bill crowded next to Lucy to look at the two images.

  Bill pointed and said, “Metta Lunoe’s corpse was a mirror image of this one—right arm raised, left arm to the side of the body. Valerie Bruner’s right arm was raised but her left arm was placed across the body, pointed downwards.”

  Riley stooped down and took hold of the corpse’s wrist and tried to move it. The whole arm was immobile. Rigor mortis had fully set in. It would take a medical examiner to determine the exact time of death, but Riley felt pretty sure that the girl had been dead for at least nine hours. And like the other girls, she’d been moved to this spot shortly after she’d been killed.

  The more she looked, the more something nagged at Riley. The killer had gone to so much trouble to arrange the corpse. He’d carried the body across the square, up six stairs, and had meticulously manipulated it. Even so, its overall position didn’t make sense.

  The body wasn’t aligned with any of the gazebo walls. It wasn’t related to the opening of the gazebo or to the courthouse or anything else that Riley could see. It seemed to be laid out at a random angle.

  But this guy doesn’t do anything random, she thought.

  Riley sensed that the killer was trying to communicate something. She had no idea what it might be.

  “What do you make of the poses?” Riley asked Lucy.

  “I don’t know,” Lucy said. “Not many killers actually pose their bodies. It’s weird.”

  She’s still really new to this job, Riley reminded herself.

  Lucy hadn’t caught on that the weird cases were exactly the ones they routinely got called in for. For seasoned agents like Riley and Bill, weirdness had long since become numbingly normal.

  Riley said, “Lucy, let’s take a look at the map.”

  Lucy brought up the map that showed where the other two bodies had been found.

  “The bodies have been placed in a pretty tight cluster,” Lucy said, pointing again. “Valerie Bruner was found less than ten miles from where Metta Lunoe was found. And this one is less than ten miles from where Valerie Bruner was found.”

  Riley could see that Lucy was right. However, Meara Keagan had disappeared quite a few miles to the north in Westree.

  “Does anybody see any connections among the locations?” Riley asked Bill and Lucy.

  “Not really,” Lucy said. “Metta Lunoe’s body was in a field outside of Mowbray. Valerie Bruner’s was just along the edge of a highway. And now this one right in the middle of a small town. It’s almost as if the killer was looking for places that have
nothing in common.”

  Just then Riley heard shouting from among the onlookers.

  “I know who did it! I know who did it!”

  Riley, Bill, and Lucy all turned to look. A young man was waving and shouting from behind the tape.

  “I know who did it!” he cried again.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Riley took a careful look at the man who was shouting. She could see that several people around him were nodding and murmuring in agreement.

  “I know who did it! We all know who did it!”

  “Josh is right,” a woman next to him said. “It’s got to be Dennis.”

  “He’s a weirdo,” another man said. “That guy has always been a ticking bomb.”

  Bill and Lucy hurried toward the edge of the square where the man was shouting, but Riley held her position. She called out to one of the cops beyond the tape.

  “Bring him over here,” she said, pointing to the man who was doing the yelling.

  She knew it was important to separate him from the group. If everybody started pitching in with stories, the truth would be impossible to untangle. If there was any truth in what everybody was yelling about.

  Besides, reporters were starting to cluster around him. It wouldn’t do for Riley to interview the guy right under their noses.

  The cop lifted the tape and escorted the man toward them.

  He was still yelling, “We all know who did it! We all know who did it!”

  “Calm down,” Riley said, taking him by the arm and leading him far enough away from the onlookers to be able to talk to him unheard.

  “Ask anybody about Dennis,” the agitated man was saying. “He’s a loner. He’s weird. He scares girls. He annoys women.”

  Riley got out her notepad, and so did Bill. She saw the intense interest in Bill’s eyes. But she knew they’d better take things slowly. They barely knew anything just yet. Besides, this man was so agitated that Riley felt wary of his judgment. She needed to hear from somebody more neutral.