Relentless (Elisabeth Reinhardt Book 1)

by Nancy Alexander

  “Well,” Lou began rising, “let me introduce myself,” he said crossing the room extending his hand with a smile.

  CHAPTER 37

  COOKIE CRUMBS

  Snow was falling more heavily now. Dense, soft flakes clogged up their windshield wipers and dragged visibility to near zero. They inched along trying to stay on the road and follow the GPS directions that also were having trouble in this weather. He was waiting for them. Their first real chance to learn what had brought the killers to this area. The ‘Parkland Killers’, as the press had dubbed them, had come here for some reason and they were about to find out what that was. The two story white plank house was barely outlined against a snowy mountain backdrop, set far back from the road with a large front lawn and long driveway. They could make out a silhouette in an open doorway. A man stood on a big front porch with a wheelchair ramp leading down to the driveway. He was large with broad shoulders; as they approached he offered them his hand. “Clint Raines,” he said, “how can I help you guys?”

  Marie and Robert stomped the snow off their boots and entered. “We’re here about some murders, Mr. Raines,” Marie explained after brief introductions, “and we think you can help us find the killers.”

  “Well, I can’t imagine how I can help,” he said, “but come on in. Mary Beth has some hot coffee brewing in the kitchen, we can talk in there.”

  They followed their host across a worn, but homey living room and entered a kitchen, cluttered with comical roosters and farm animals in primary colors. Displayed on the refrigerator were report cards, children’s art work and school tests marked with A’s and B’s along with a three-generation picture taken at a portrait studio featuring Clint, Mary Beth, three small children and a grey-haired man and woman dressed up and formally arranged. A plate of iced brownies sat on the table.

  “What’s all this about then,” Clint began and Marie explained about the crimes, the witnesses sketches from the Asheville mess, and some of the evidence that was leading them to look for his cousin, Jake. Clint Raines looked at his wife, who turned pale and sat stark still. There was silence in the room, save for the soft sound of fresh coffee dripping into the pot. Marie glanced back and forth between them.

  Clint cleared his throat and asked, “What is it you want to know about him?”

  “Have you seen him lately?” Robert ventured, stepping out of the chain of command. Marie glanced at him but let it go. She knew he was impatient to get moving on this case and was ready to get back to Hurricane but he interrupted a train of thought she was about to pursue.

  Clint didn’t answer right away but finally said, “Yep, he dropped by here October or thereabouts. Said he was in the area on business. We sat and talked a bit, right here in the kitchen like this,” he motioned to the group of them around the table, “Had those two squirrely friends of his with him. Asked a lot of questions about the family. I thought he seemed mostly interested in Reggie Lee, she was my little sister. He always had a thing for Reggie. Pestered her all the time when we was young. She said some awful things about him. Never did know if them things was true or not. Mama thought she was making things up. Then one day she disappeared. Never did hear another word about her. She was just gone.”

  “So, Jake wanted to know about Reggie?” Marie prompted.

  “Yep, he kept pushing me to tell him where she was and when I seen her last, but I ain’t seen or heard nothing about her for years,” Clint said softly. Again he looked across at his wife as if trying to decide about something.

  “Is there something else, Mr. Raines?” Marie prompted slowly.

  “Well, it was strange back then. He was what you call obsessed with her and then she disappeared and no one did nothing about it. Folks wouldn’t go to the cops and we was too young to figure doing anything like that. My Pa, he’s strange like that. Won’t talk to the police or nothing like that. Dale and me though, we searched those woods. We was pretty big by that time. Reggie she must a been about 13 or so me and Dale woulda been about 17 or 18 at the time. We were worried about her. We thought he’d killed her and left her up there in those woods. Never did like that fella much, sneaky and mean as a snake. We took the dogs up into those woods and everything. Searched every inch of them woods more than a week it took us. Only thing we found was stuff in an old shack up there in the mountains. Awful stuff - looked like knives and blood. We got scared and ran back to tell Pa but he told us to shut up about it and never tell anyone what we found, said that the cops would come around and start up trouble. Said he wouldn’t have no strangers stomping around his land. That was the end of that. Dale and me, we were really upset about it. Never did understand Pa’s reaction. Don’t know if he believed us or not. Maybe he already knew about that shack. Just don’t know. Me and Dale, we never talked much to Jake after that. Wasn’t too long after that he moved off the farm and then we all got married and that was the end of that.”

  “Do you think you could lead us to that shack, Mr. Raines?” Marie asked, hardly able to contain her excitement at a tangible link to their suspect.

  “Suppose so,” he said, “been a lot of years, though, may have fallen down altogether by now, but I’ll sure try. When do you want to do this?” he asked.

  “I’d like to start in the morning. Could you come back with us tonight?” Marie asked.

  “Sure,” he said, “have to make a few calls first though. Want to swing by and get Dale?” he asked, “He ain’t too far from here and he might remember stuff I forgot.”

  “That’d be great, Sir, just great,” Marie smiled reaching for her cell phone. “We can start at the farm first thing in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 38

  LOOSE ENDS

  Gus seeing that important police business was about to happen, kept the children busy while the Raines sisters relocated to the ‘cop table.’ They confirmed that Jake, their cousin, had lived with them for years, and was mean, crazy and obsessed with Reggie. They tried to stick to the facts; names, ages, dates - that kind of thing. However, as the discussion proceeded they began to recall details about how Jake behaved and slowly drew a vibrant picture of a psychopathic personality. Neither sister had seen or heard from Jake since he left home, but they heard he had been in jail several times and stopped by to visit their parents when he was in the area. They didn’t know what he looked like now, but said they were willing to look at sketches the witnesses had provided and see if there was anything else they could add that would help the police catch the killers. The girls silently agreed not to tell the police about the jewelry or their suspicions about it. They didn’t want to get their mother in trouble. They agreed to return to the police station in about an hour after getting a babysitter to watch their children. Watching them leave, Lou and Chester thought they could count on the sisters to help them locate the killers, but knew they were withholding information. “They’re hiding something,” Lou said as he watched their station wagon bump over snowy ruts and pull out onto the darkening road.

  At first light, a caravan of police vehicles, including an SUV loaded with bloodhounds, slogged through the newly fallen snow and up the winding road toward the Raines Family Farm. The snow was wet and heavy making visibility a problem. Alcott Earl Raines, coatless in the blowing snow, stood in his doorway pointing his old Winchester at the lead car. Hattie hovered in the background wringing her hands and urging Earl to put on his coat. “You people get off my property or I’ll shoot ever last one of you,” he shouted, his voice hoarse and angry. “Get out of here or I’ll shoot,” he screamed.

  Hattie, hovering, said, “Earl don’t you go shooting these people, put the gun down or we’ll get in trouble.”

  Earl responded by shoving her with his elbow. “Get outa my way,” he growled at her.

  Clint called to him through the blizzard, “Papa, don’t shoot! Papa, me and Dale are here with the police; we’re trying to find some killers.”

  “Ain’t no G-D Damn killers up here on my farm,” the old man spat back, “Yo
u people get the hell off my farm.”

  “Pa it’s me, Dale, we need your help.”

  “Ain’t no cops getting my help. Now, Clint and Dale, you boys can come on in, but the rest of you better get on out of here.”

  “Mr. Raines,” Lou Fairmont called through the howling wind, “I’m with the FBI and we believe that you can help us find these killers. Please, Sir, can we come in and talk with you and your wife.”

  “I ain’t talking to no Federal lawmen,” the old man shouted, “Now get out of here!”

  “Sir, we were talking to your daughters last night, Betty Jo and Patty Sue, real nice girls you have, Sir, they want to help us, too. They came over to the police station last night to look at some pictures for us.”

  “You people stay away from my family,” the old man yelled.

  “Sir, all your children are helping us. We need your help too. Please won’t you let us just come in and talk with you about this?”

  “I ain’t done nothin’ wrong” the old man insisted, but it was clear he was softening a bit.

  “No, Sir, we don’t think you did anything wrong. We think you can help us, Sir. There’s a lot of us out here, sir, trying to find some real bad men and we really need your help. Can we please come in out of the cold and talk for a bit?”

  “Papa, please let us come in,” Clint called out.

  “Don’t go shootin’ no one, Pa,” Dale added. Through the wind they could hear Hattie pleading with her husband to let them come inside and talk.

  “It’s just talk, Earl,” she said, “just for a little bit. Our boys are out there in the cold, too. Please, Earl, let them people come on inside.” And she added, “Get your coat on too; you’ll catch your death in this cold.”

  “Oh, Okay,” he muttered, grudgingly stepping back from the doorway, “but I’m holding onto my gun.”

  The team spent about half an hour briefing the Raines family on the reason for their visit, explaining that they needed to locate their nephew Jake. “Ain’t my nephew,” the old man grumbled,” comes from her side of the family,” he jerked his thumb in Hattie’s direction. “Real sneaky that kid was, always spying on people. Didn’t put in one good day’s work the whole time he was here neither, ain’t that right,” he asked his sons.

  “Right Pa,” Clint agreed. “Real lazy SOB, ya ask me.”

  “Oh, Earl,” Hattie butted in, “He weren’t nothing but an orphan; somebody had to look after him didn’t they. And he did help clear the dinner dishes most every night,” she continued, “not like some boys I know,” she added slyly cutting her eyes toward her sons. Silently the team agreed to break up the couple and interview them separately. While Chester and the Raines sons went outside to organize the search teams, Lou settled down with Earl in the great room and Marie went into the kitchen where Hattie made a pot of tea.

  “So,” Marie began, “tell me something about Jake.”

  “Oh,” Hattie settled into her tale, “he were a good boy at heart, always saying nice things about my cooking and such. Real grateful he was. Never got over his mother’s death, she was my sister, you see. Got real strange after she died. Jealous-like. Pushing people around and such. They say he nearly kilt his baby sister one day, pushed her buggy down the steps. She got pretty bad hurt, had to go to the hospital and all. That’s what they say. Don’t know if that was so or not. He never did talk about his family. Thought of us as his family, he says. Always asks about them when he drops by. Always asked about each of my kids by name, even Reggie Lee...” she paused then said “she was my daughter.”

  Marie noticed the past tense she used and wondered if she believed that Reggie was dead.

  “Been gone a long time now. Maybe she ran off to get married, not sure what happened to her.” Marie had to decide which issue to follow up on. Jake or Reggie. She decided it was Jake.

  “When was the last time you saw Jake, Mrs. Raines?” Marie asked.

  “Oh, just a bit ago I reckon, just before the first big snow.”

  “Can you tell me what you all talked about?” Marie probed.

  “Sure enough, remember it like was yesterday. Got a good memory, I do. Remember all my own Mama’s old recipes. She’s the one was such a good baker in her day. Taught me everything I know about pie making. Make her pies to this day, every single Thursday, I do. Most times my girls come by to help me and take them uptown to sell.”

  “That’s great,” Marie smiled, “so you were telling me about the last day you saw Jake.”

  “Well, Jake and those two good-for-nothing friends of his dropped by. He helped Earl out with some chores and I gave them some corn muffins and breakfast cake, the kind with them cinnamon crumbs on top. Jake said he was doing real good. Now what did he call that work? … venture capital something,” she said, “I don’t rightly know what that is, but he said it was going good. Then he asked about each of the kids, where they was living and working and such. He remembered them real good, always asked about them. So we talked about that and he asked about Reggie Lee again, always does ask about her. Such a sweet boy. Told him the same story I always tell him. That I heard from old Miss Whitten down at ‘Cheryl’s Hair Do’ said she’d heard from Miss Grace whose daughter lived near Watauga, North Carolina that she saw a girl looked just like Reggie when she was shopping in Asheville. Spittin image of her they said. Told him I ain’t heard nothing more about her since then but I thought she was maybe living down in that area.”

  Alarm bells were going off in Marie’s head. They had the Asheville connection! They had gone to Asheville hunting for Reggie. He was still obsessed with her. They really had to find that girl before he did. She made some quick notes on her iPad along with an IM for Will to follow up.

  Hattie was going on about Jake and how sweet he was, she was enjoying telling her story and before she realized it she said, “…always brings me little trinkets he does. Every time he comes here. Got me a pretty little box to keep them in, too.”

  “Trinkets?” Marie echoed her mind racing. “What kind of trinkets,” she asked.

  “Oh, just little things, jewelry and such,” Hattie was worried now and tried to back away from the subject by offering more tea.

  “I’d love to see those trinkets. Hattie, could you get them for me?”

  “Well,” she hesitated; more worried now, remembering she had promised Jake to keep those presents a secret and here she had gone and told her girls and now the federal police! “I’m not sure …I’m not supposed to….” sentence trailing off.

  “Not supposed to?” Marie softened her tone, “not supposed to what, Hattie?” Hattie was quiet now, squirming a little. “Hattie,” Marie pressed, “it could be important. There are young girls being hurt, we really need to find Jake and talk to him.”

  “Oh, dear,” Hattie interrupted, “Our Jake wouldn’t do anything like that, he were a good boy. Now maybe those friends of his weren’t so good, maybe they pushed him into doing things.”

  “Is that how you remember them then,” Marie asked, “Jake being pushed around by his friends?”

  Hattie stopped for a minute. Her eyes glazed over as she remembered watching Jake and his friends from her kitchen window one day. They were arguing. Jake punched one of them in the face and grabbed the other one by the neck. At first she thought they were just playing, the way boys do, but then she remembered their voices. Pleading with Jake to stop, telling him they’d do whatever he wanted them to do. The memory frightened her. Could she have been wrong about him all these years? Could he have done what these law people thought he done?

  Marie’s voice broke through her haze, “Hattie, please, we need your help. Your trinkets could help us. You want to help us, don’t you? You don’t want more young girls to be hurt now do you? What if it were your own daughters we were talking about. You would want to protect your daughters, right…?” Marie stopped mid-sentence realizing that she’d made a drastic mistake.

  She instantly knew that was exactly what happened and exactly w
hat Hattie had not done. She had known and had not protected her own daughter. Hattie looked like she’d just been slapped. Red-faced she sat perfectly still looking at her hands shaking in her lap.

  “Hattie, are you ok?” Marie asked realizing what had just happened. She worried that Hattie’s rising anxiety about her daughter’s fate might block further cooperation. Softly she repeated, “Hattie you want to help people be safe, don’t you?”

  “I don’t want no one to get hurt,” Hattie responded trance-like.

  “Of course you don’t,” Marie murmured as Hattie slowly got up from her chair.

  I have to give my trinkets to the police if they say they need them, right? It can’t do nobody no harm, she thought as she climbed the stairs. Jake wouldn’t be mad about a thing like this, would he? After all, these were the police, they wouldn’t steal my jewelry. That’s why Jake said to keep it a secret, wasn’t it? So nobody would take my things. And besides, he was such a sweet boy; he couldn’t be the man they were after. They probably just need his help finding these bad people, him being an adventure capital person and all.

  Reluctantly, Hattie placed the jewelry case on the table and stood waiting. Mesmerized she watched while Marie put on blue rubber gloves and took pictures of the box before she opened it. Hattie could tell the moment that Marie opened the case her expression changed. It was intense, like a cat about to pounce on its prey. It scared her. “Somethin’ wrong, Miss?” she asked in a trembling voice.

  “No, Ma’am,” Marie reassured her, “You just sit back down, Hattie, you did the right thing by showing these to me.”

  She gave Lou a significant nod while he sat angled toward her just inside the living room talking to Earl. Her look was victorious and Lou knew instantly they had good, hard evidence that would tie these men directly to the victims. Marie didn’t touch any of the pieces inside the box. Using a tweezers she moved items around and angling the box she took several close-ups. When she raised her eyes, Hattie’s eyes met hers. She was worried and scared.