‘Very smart’, Jude remarked. Tim looked at her surprised.
‘She did remember his voice, but as far as she could determine it was a local accent. When the whole thing was over he told her to stay down, still holding the gun to her head. A few moments later she heard a car drive off and then she ripped off the tape.’
‘Did she tell you why she didn’t report it?’ Jude asked.
‘Yes, she felt ashamed, and since she wouldn’t be able to give a description she couldn't see the point.’
‘And just because of that these men get away with rape’, Susan said indignantly. ‘Women sometimes blame themselves, and why? Anyway, she called the hotel and said she wasn’t feeling very well. She then went back to Tangent.’
Tim looked at Jude. ‘As I said earlier, this one is raped but not killed. Dawson isn’t our guy. And you know what that means, don’t you?’
Jude nodded her head in defeat. ‘A fourth victim very soon, probably Amy Donovan.’
‘Do you have her phone number Susan?’ She wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it over to him.
‘And here is the number from Palthrow’s colleague’, Connely said, handing it over to Tim.
‘Jude, can you call the colleague, I’ll try Donovan in the meantime.’
Tim dialed Donovan’s number, while Jude used the landline to call the other one. He let it ring five times on the other end, then hung up. After a few minutes he tried again and left it ringing till he got her voice mail. He left a message, asking her to call him the minute she heard this and added that it was only about some information he needed, nothing to worry about. Turning to Haynes and Connely he said: ‘We’ll have to start on the Klamath list right away, that has become a priority now.’
‘You think something will come out of it?’ Connely asked.
‘I don’t know, but to me it’s clear that Dawson raped these women, or at least tried to, and that our murderer is obsessed by them too. There has to be a connection and the list is one of the possibilities.’
‘That will be a big job boss’.
Tim looked at him angrily. ‘This whole thing is a big job Connely, but that won’t stop us going for it all the way. We have to find him before a fourth body turns up.’
Connely shifted uncomfortably in his chair. ‘I didn’t mean it that way boss. What I meant was that we have to search blind, and that it won’t be easy.’
‘If you wanted easy then you shouldn’t have applied for this job’.
Jude put down the receiver. ‘Her colleague couldn’t give me a lot of information. Palthrow did extra training every Friday in the head office in Albany. She always took the same train back. On Monday she didn’t show up and she hadn’t called in sick either. Tuesday afternoon her colleague went by her house but she wasn’t there. Because her phone had been on voice mail all the time, her boss advised her to report her missing. I asked her if Palthrow ever mentioned that she had been raped, but she knew nothing about that. A few weeks ago she was on sick leave for a few days, but that was because of the flu.’
‘The flu’, Tim repeated pensively, ‘I doubt it but it doesn’t get us a lot further.’
‘How about Amy Donovan?’ Jude asked.
‘No answer. I left a message.’ He tried to make his voice sound light, but he felt a shiver down his backbone. He just hoped it wouldn’t already be too late. Before his eyes came the image of the torn up bellies with the flies and maggots and he shivered again.
‘I don’t know how you all feel about it’, he said suddenly, ‘but I could do with some food. Pizza would do me fine.’
‘A chicken salad for me’, Jude said.
After lunch they discussed the strategy for the search on the CD from Klamath prison, and finally agreed on the way they would go about it. They all left the office at four.
‘Are you going back to Springfield today?’ he asked Jude when they arrived in the parking lot.
‘No, don’t think so. I can as well stay here and maybe go to a movie tonight. Anything worth while seeing?’
‘I was planning visiting David in hospital.’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘Care to join me?’
She frowned. ‘Maybe not such a good idea.’
‘Why not?’
‘I think he will prefer talking to you and I would only be in the way.’
He shook his head. ‘David isn’t like that at all. I bet he would like nothing more then to get to know his replacement.’
‘Tim, you don’t have to feel responsible for me, I told you that already. I don’t mind being on my own and I can very well take care of myself.’
He laughed. ‘You can’t blame me for feeling a little bit responsible after I made you work on a Saturday. Don’t forget I’m your boss and I decide what happens.’
‘Not in my spare time you don’t,’ she teased. ‘But if you insist I’ll come along.’
Fifteen minutes before the end of the afternoon visiting hours they entered David’s room. He looked much better. His leg was still plastered but the traction was removed. There were still a few tubes sticking out of the bandages. Tim avoided looking at the bottle next to the bed were the fluid that came out of his chest was gathered.
David removed the oxygen mask when he saw them come in. ‘Hi stranger’, he said and looked a little indignant. ‘How did I deserve the pleasure of seeing you again?’ His breath was still rasping.
‘Sorry David, but it has been a mess in the office, hardly time to eat a proper meal anymore.’ Pointing at Jude he said: ‘I took the liberty of introducing you to your replacement. I thought you might want to get to know her.’
Jude approached the bed and shook David’s hand. ‘Jude McCool, pleasure to meet you.’
Tim had put two chairs next to the bed and gestured Jude to take a seat. He saw David looking at Jude judgmentally.
‘And?’ David asked her. ‘Do you like Corvallis?’
She nodded. ‘Yeah, it’s fine.’
‘You look a lot better than you did last week’, Tim said joking. ‘By the looks of it you can go home tomorrow.’
David sighed. ‘Yeah, tomorrow. I wonder if I really would want that. Nobody’s waiting for me at home. At least here I see people all day, and besides, I need another operation, probably tomorrow morning. It didn’t work out the first time.’
‘Oh no, another operation? Why?’
David nodded. ‘I won’t bore you with the details, but it comes down to the fact that the metal plate that they put in my leg is not doing its job. But enough about me. Any progress on Bodini and Fitzpatrick?’
‘No’, Tim sighed, ‘not really. Yesterday we found a third one.’
David didn’t seem very surprised. ‘Identified yet?’
‘Not officially, no, but we do have an idea.’ Tim told him the whole story about Dawson.
‘So, Dawson is behind bars but for a whole different thing. It will soon be clear if he’s your man or not. If he is, there shouldn’t be any more bodies.’
‘We are indeed not sure Dawson is our man’, Jude said. ‘It’s almost a certainty that he raped the women in the pictures, but further than that… I don’t know.’
David looked thoughtful. ‘Very strange that the murderer picks the women Dawson raped. That can’t be a coincidence.’
‘You’re right’, Tim answered. ‘There has to be a connection between them. Maybe they have been in prison together. We’re going to look into that on Monday.’
‘The ten million dollar question is: how could the murderer have known Dawson had copies of the surveillance tapes? And why does he point to the departure times of the trains they took with the watches?’ He frowned. ‘If I were you, I would look in to the personnel in the station again.’
‘Maybe’, Jude said, looking at Tim. ‘What strikes me as odd is that there isn’t much time in between the murders. When you consider the profile of a serial killer, there is always a cooling off period.’
‘That’s beside the point’, David said. ‘You can gi
ve him any name you want: a serial killer, a spree killer, the result is the same.’ Jude bowed her head and didn’t say anything. As Tim saw David getting tired, he decided to cut the visit short. Looking at his watch he said: ‘I think we should go now so you can get some rest.’
‘No need to, I can rest all day here. Anyway, I’m glad I met my replacement.’ He smiled at Jude and threw a meaningful look at his colleague.
Except for a few cars the visitor’s parking lot was empty.
‘Nice man’, Jude said as she got in the car. ‘I think he will recover soon. His spirits are good.’
He looked at her sideways as he started the engine. ‘Would you mind that?’
She looked startled. ‘Of course not. You will have your partner back and I can go back to Springfield.’
Tim couldn’t help wondering if she really meant it. He was sure the murder cases interested her and he had never had the feeling she wanted to go back to Springfield in a hurry. For one reason or another he felt irritated by her answer. Maybe he had judged her wrongly, but then he had never been an expert in women’s psychology. ‘Shall I take you back to your car, or do you feel like grabbing a bite to eat?’ he said hesitating slightly.
She had been looking through the side window all the time but now turned her head towards him. She looked tense. Shrugging her shoulders she said: ‘As I said before, you don’t have to feel responsible for me.’
‘Is that a yes or a no?’
She smiled. ‘Well, why not? We have to eat anyway.’
‘How would you feel about having something at my place?’ He knew he was skating on thin ice. ‘My omelets are known all over town’, he smiled.
She returned the smile with her eyes. ‘An omelet?’ She curled her lips as if she was trying to taste it in her mouth. ‘Yes, that sounds good, but only if I can make the salad. My salad is famous all over Springfield’, she laughed.
‘That’s settled then. I think I’ll be able to find a bottle of Pinot in the fridge.’ He felt like a toddler with his first tricycle.
‘Hmm, nice house’, she said as he stopped on the driveway.
He grinned. ‘I love the neighborhood, quiet and not too far out of the center.’ He opened the front door and let her in. Luckily the cleaning lady had been the day before, so everything looked neat and clean. The sunset bathed the living room with soft light. Jude looked around in admiration.
‘I’m impressed’, she said smiling. ‘If your kitchen is as immaculate as this, then I’m very happy to start the salad.’
‘I have to admit that as far as cleaning goes, I put my faith in the cleaner’s hands, but… I’m responsible for the contents of the fridge,’ he laughed in relief.
‘I was under the impression you only had pizza or Chinese, or am I wrong?’
He rubbed his belly. ‘A while ago I decided to jog every morning, and so far I managed once. So, no more take away for me, only healthy food. If you please follow me into the kitchen?’ he said with a bow. After he put a few bread rolls in the oven and put the ingredients for the salad on the table, he poured two glasses of Pinot. Jude sat down at the kitchen table and started preparing the salad while Tim beat the eggs.
‘Would you mind if we eat in the living room? I would like to watch TV, see what they say about this morning.’
‘Not at all, I’m rather curious myself.’
They took their prepared plates and glasses to the living room and Tim turned on the TV. After a few minutes the CNN news started. The murder was the second item, after a report about the meeting between Obama and the head of state of South Korea. The camera zoomed in on the yellow canvas tent behind the camper and went on to the group of people next to the bushes. Slowly the camera zoomed in on Susan, the sobbing boy on her lap. The reporter talked about the two victims that were found earlier and without effectively using the word ‘serial killer’, it was obvious that that was what he meant.
‘I should have known’, Tim said when the mayor of Corvallis filled the screen.
‘Mister mayor’, the reporter said, ‘can you tell us something about the recent murders of young women here in town?’
‘Well,’ the man said nervously, ‘I can only confirm that fact, but I can assure you that our police force is doing everything possible to catch this criminal as soon as possible.’
‘Isn’t it the case that someone has been arrested regarding these murders?’ Tim saw a nervous tic in the mayor’s eyelid.
‘You would have to ask the head of police.’
‘We will certainly do that mister mayor, but certainly the head of police reports directly to the mayor.’
‘That is correct, but it is too soon to draw any conclusions yet. This is an ongoing investigation as you well know.’
‘So you confirm somebody has been arrested?’
‘I am not confirming anything sir. You can’t put words in my mouth. The only thing I can confirm is that the police are working on this case day and night and that they look into every lead they have.’
‘Is the FBI going to be involved in the investigation?’
‘Not at this moment’, the mayor said. ‘The Corvallis police force is more than competent to lead this investigation. I have the fullest confidence.’
‘Thank you mister mayor.’
The reporter turned his face back to the camera. ‘This is CNN reporting from Corvallis Oregon. We will keep you updated with our news flashes about the investigation into these horrible murders.’
Tim sighed. ‘Our mayor has a lot of confidence in the force. I hope we don’t have to disappoint him.’
Tim didn’t know how it all happened, but one minute he was gazing into Jude’s blue eyes, the next he was kissing her, caressing her all over her body. He fiddled with his clothes, then hers, and after a few seconds everything lay in a pile on the floor. Their bodies intertwined, her skin felt like silk. He tried to control himself but didn’t succeed. He needed her.
‘Yes’, she whispered softly. She pressed her body against his and the little control he had left vanished into thin air.
Lying on their backs they stared at the ceiling. Tim rolled over and leaned on his elbow to look at her.
‘That was not very smart’, she said, ‘not smart at all.’
‘I’m sorry’, he murmured, not knowing how to react.
She smiled. ‘You don’t have to apologize, I was here too and wanted it as much as you did. But that doesn’t change the fact it was a stupid thing to do.’
‘But why? We are both free people, no obligations to anyone. I don’t understand.’ She sighed. ‘I believe that people have to be in love before they jump into bed with each other. I am never this impulsive. We hardly know each other.’
Her words sobered him up completely. ‘It’s not that we are strangers Jude.’ He felt upset. ‘I was attracted to you from the first time I laid eyes on you.’
She looked him straight in the eyes. ‘I don’t believe that Tim. You hated me because I took the place of David and most of all because I was a senator’s daughter.’
‘True, I won’t deny that, but I did find you very attractive regardless.’
‘I’m attracted to you too, otherwise I wouldn’t have got myself in this situation, but this doesn’t make things easier. Relationships at work are doomed to fail, believe me.’
Tim smiled. ‘Then that problem will be solved soon, won’t it? When David comes back, you just go back to Springfield and we can see each other every evening. No more relationship at work.’
Jude softly stroke her fingers along his chest. ‘What I mean is… you don’t have to make the commitment to take this further just because we had sex. We don’t have to spend our lives like Siamese twins.’
He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Was this just a one night stand? He felt really confused but decided to talk it over with her. This was too important. ‘Jude listen. I’m not the kind of man that jumps into bed with the first woman I meet, but it seemed so natural between us, so
right. I don’t know what you want me to do now. Promise you my eternal love? Ask you to marry me?’
She looked at him perplexed. ‘You don’t get it all do you? I just told you that I don’t want you to feel responsible for me. You can go on with your life, even after tonight. I don’t want any commitment from you.’
He kissed her neck. ‘Don’t you think you are exaggerating? We are adults and we can communicate. Let’s just try and see where it takes us. I promise I won’t put any pressure on you.’
She smiled. ‘Maybe I am a little bit old fashioned, but I care about you and I don’t want you to be sorry tomorrow.’
‘I won’t be, you can be sure of that. And I do care about you too.’
They looked at each other and burst out laughing.
‘How about it?’, she giggled. ‘Do you take me back to my hotel or do I stay here?’ He lifted her up in his arms, kissed her all over her face and took her to bed.
CHAPTER 20
Her hands tried to get a grip on the slippery bricks. Her wrists scraped against the sharp edges and she felt blood pouring down her arms, warm and sticky. Somebody held her ankles in a bench vice and pulled her down, again and again. Frantically she tried to crawl up, but every time she tried the vice got tighter. It was cold and damp in the well and she shivered all over her body. The pressure around her ankles was becoming almost unbearable and she screamed out in horror and frustration. Her left breast felt as if it was on fire and every time she tried to crawl up she felt a sharp sting. She looked up but all she saw was pitch darkness. From the bottom of the well she heard a male voice, grating and mocking.
‘Come on bitch, wake up.’
She recognized that sarcastic, penetrating voice but wasn’t able to associate it with the face that produced it. Why did it tell her to wake up? She wasn’t sleeping, she was trying to get out of this dammed well. In panic she tried to crawl up again when all of a sudden she felt a sharp pain in her side. Her whole body ached and she woke in shock. The pain from the chains around her wrists and ankles was unbearable. The man looked down at her with a grin on his face, his foot jabbing against her ribs. Slowly she began to realize where she was and the pain in her eye and breast came back with an intensity she had not felt before. She moaned when he slapped her face with brutal force.
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