by C. M. Sutter
“I found the dealership,” Kate said enthusiastically. “Oh, but it looks like there’s more than one in the general area. The owner has two dealerships, one for KIA and one for Nissan.”
I tapped my fingers on my desk. “Are they both in Oneida County?”
“Yes, one between Minocqua and Hazelhurst and another farther east near Three Lakes.”
“That’s good. How about that restaurant?” I asked.
“Nothing yet,” Billings said.
“I’ve got one in Eagle River,” Clayton said.
I frowned. “Eagle River is quite a distance east of Highway 51, isn’t it?”
Clayton nodded. “Eagle River is due east of Arbor Vitae. Why does that matter?”
I shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t, only that it isn’t along 51 like the other touristy towns. That was a chain restaurant, though. Let’s see if there’s more than one.” I typed the name of the restaurant into the search bar and began scrolling the places to eat in Lincoln County. “I have one too, and it’s a few miles north of Tomahawk and west of Highway 51 on N along the shores of Lake Nokomis. Northern Lincoln County and southern Oneida County might be our sweet spot.” I clicked on a map of north central Wisconsin counties and hit Print. It looked as though the right area would be anywhere between Tomahawk and Minocqua within a few miles east or west of Highway 51. I retrieved the map and showed it to my colleagues. Jack came out of his office and joined us at my desk.
“What have you got, Amber?”
“A tighter area than before, I hope. We need to call the car dealership in southern Oneida County.” I turned to Kate. “Which one was that?”
She checked her computer screen. “It was the KIA dealership, but the Eagle River restaurant and the Three Lakes car dealership are near each other too.”
“You’re right. That means we need to check both areas and find out how far they set their advertising parameters. We’ll find the areas that overlap and concentrate on lakeside cabins there that are rented through the hunting season. There’s no sense in going about this without a plan.”
Jack rubbed his cheek. “It sounds like the best idea so far. Go ahead and make those calls, and let’s keep our fingers crossed that we’re on the right track.”
Chapter 24
Highland National Golf Course, St. Paul, Minnesota
“Did you see that?” Leon Curry shielded his eyes from the sun.
Dan Everson whistled and gave a knuckle bump to the man who would likely shoot well under par on the back nine. “Dude, how in the hell did you get on the green in one shot? I totally need more golf lessons.”
“I didn’t mean Billy’s shot. I saw somebody stumbling around near the tree line way up there on the right.”
“Are you sure?” Dan asked. “Maybe it’s somebody hiding until we get closer. There’s no logical reason to be out here this early in the morning if you aren’t a golfer.”
Leon pointed at the grove of trees fifty yards ahead along the right side of the fairway. “Come on. We need to check this out.”
Billy pocketed his tee. “No way. I’m staying put where it’s safe. I don’t need to be thumped on the head with the butt of a gun and have my clubs stolen. I’m calling the cops. We don’t need people lurking around who didn’t pay to golf.”
“That person didn’t look like they were lurking, they looked injured. I want to make sure before you start getting the police involved.” With a quickened pace, Leon headed toward the tree line.
“Hang on, I’ll go with you,” Dan said. He looked over his shoulder at Billy. “Keep your eyes on our clubs.”
Leon and Dan jogged ahead to the edge of the fairway but stayed within sight of Billy. Billy’s comment resonated in Leon’s mind. Being blindsided by somebody popping out from behind a tree in that darkened space wasn’t on the morning’s agenda. They crouched and peered below the tree branches.
“See anyone?” Dan asked.
“No, but I just heard a branch snap up ahead.” Leon jerked his chin to the left. “Keep your eyes peeled.”
They continued walking with slow deliberate steps.
Dan cupped his hands around his mouth. “Who’s in there? Come out right now or we’re calling the cops.”
Another snap sounded and then a loud crash. Startled, Leon jumped backward from the sound only ten feet away. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know, dude, but I think we ought to get out of here. Maybe you saw a bear.”
“Standing on two feet and wearing clothes?” Leon crouched again, then saw her. “Holy shit, Dan, it’s a woman. Hurry, give me a hand.”
The men climbed into the thicket and lifted her out. She flailed against their grip.
“Ma’am, calm down, we’re trying to help you.”
The weeds and twigs lodged in her hair made it appear that she’d been in the elements for some time. Her torn clothing, several sizes too large, obviously didn’t belong to her, and her shoeless feet were bloody and scraped.
“What happened to you? Can you tell us who did this? Where did you come from?”
The men stared into the face of a woman whose eyes were not only black-and-blue but also blank and often rolled back in her head. She jabbered incoherently as strings of drool stretched from her cheeks to the grass under her head.
Leon jerked his chin at Dan. “Call 911. She may have been overdosed. There is something seriously wrong with this woman.”
Chapter 25
Our calls to the car dealerships and restaurants proved helpful but still overwhelming. Kate was told that the viewing area for the KIA commercial spanned a thirty-mile radius of Minocqua. After waiting for a callback from the regional advertising director of the restaurant chain, I was told that the commercial for the location west of Highway 51 was aired within ten miles of the restaurant because of the local mom-and-pop competition. The restaurant near Eagle River had a larger reach—twenty miles. Billings made the call to the Nissan dealership in Three Lakes. The overlap of the television commercials for the restaurant and the Nissan dealership was fifteen miles. Now we had to track down and contact the resorts on lakes in those overlapped areas. It would take time, but it was all we had to work with.
I heard the text alert on my phone and felt my heartbeat increase. An incoming text was usually from Jade and, during working hours, could be an extra cause for concern. Kate cocked her head and gave me a pair of raised brows—she heard it too. I slid the phone across my desk and lowered it to my lap. With a tap on the icon, I saw the message was from Jade. I read it silently as I kept the phone hidden from Jack’s view.
“Oh my God!” I hadn’t meant to blurt that out in front of everyone, but I couldn’t help myself. Four sets of eyes turned toward me.
Jack rose from his desk and headed in my direction. “What’s going on?”
“Oops, I didn’t mean to yell that out. It isn’t anything related to our case.”
“So you’re having a reaction to something that isn’t work related? Go ahead and share it with us.”
Jack was busting my chops, and we all knew it. Checking personal messages while at work was frowned upon, yet Jade was well aware of our company policy. I knew anything she messaged me during work hours had to be important. I felt my face go red as Jack held his ground.
I let out a long breath. “Sorry to interrupt our investigation with my outburst. It was a text from Jade about a case she’s been following in St. Paul.”
A frown wrinkled Jack’s forehead. “You mean that latest missing woman?”
“So you’ve been following it too?” I felt relieved.
“It’s national news, so what happened?”
“Jade says she was found this morning—alive—but far from normal.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Clayton asked.
“Jade didn’t go into all the details in her text, but she said the breaking news only showed the woman being put into a waiting ambulance. One of the reporters at the scene said that golfers dis
covered her stumbling around near the tenth green of the Highland National Golf Course in St. Paul at seven o’clock this morning. She had two black eyes, could barely stand, and couldn’t speak coherently at all.”
Kate shook her head. “Poor thing. It sounds like she was beaten and has a concussion. Hopefully she’ll be able to tell the police what happened as soon as her head clears. If her abductor was the same guy who killed those other three missing women, she’s damn lucky to be alive.”
“Weren’t Jade and J.T. supposed to go to St. Paul after those earlier murders?”
I turned my chair to face Jack. “Yeah, except they were working a case in Ohio at that time. I doubt if they’ll be called to St. Paul since this latest woman didn’t die.”
“That’s good. I’m sure the news will have plenty to air once the woman is capable of telling the police what happened.” Jack slapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s get back to our own investigation. Did you guys figure out how many lake resorts are in the overlapped regions?”
Billings ran his finger down our combined list. “It looks like there are twenty-nine privately owned cottages and thirty-two resorts that offer cabins for rent year-round. The problem is, at least seventy-five percent of those have contact forms on their websites instead of phone numbers. That slows down the entire process and doesn’t give us the opportunity to ask a few simple questions that could eliminate them from the list.”
Jack rubbed his eyes. “Okay, highlight and paste your questions into each form that doesn’t give a phone number and then make the calls to the other twenty-five percent that do. Make sure to ask if the cabin was rented under either Brian or Mark’s names.”
“We’re on it, boss,” Kate said.
We dug in and got busy. After dividing the list of resorts that had phone numbers listed, we realized that gave each of us only four resorts to call. We were done in ten minutes.
“This isn’t going to cut it,” I said. “Did anyone actually talk to a human, or did you get a recording that asked the caller to leave a message?”
Billings said he spoke to one person who sounded like a teenager. The kid told him the manager was at the lake repairing paddleboats, but he’d have him call us when he returned to the office.
“Isn’t there any way to force Mark Peters to tell us where that cabin is?” Kate asked.
Jack’s disappointment was evident when he walked out of his office again. “Apparently, matching components in oil stains aren’t enough to charge him with anything. His attorney got him released and told us to back off. We can’t talk to Mark unless we have something new to charge him with. Nothing happening with the calls?”
“It doesn’t seem like any of those resorts actually have an office person who answers phones. I imagine the people in charge are either cleaning cabins or picnic areas, guiding hikes, or repairing a watercraft of some sort.”
“I guess so,” Jack said. “The crazy summer season is starting, and they probably have their hands full. Has anyone responded from the contact form inquiries?”
Clayton checked. “Not yet.”
“Can’t we use our existing warrants to access their credit card records?” I asked.
“Sure, if their credit cards were used while committing a crime, but we have no proof of that. If none of the credit card statements at either house showed a charge to a resort, then we’re out of luck,” Jack said.
“And none of them did.” I rolled the kinks out of my neck and continued. “For all we know, they could have paid in cash or bought a money order. We didn’t find a single paper trail to hang them with.”
Chapter 26
Trish stared into Brian’s eyes and saw nothing but contempt. “How could I be so blind?”
Brian set the beer can on the end table. Condensation ran down the sides and formed a water ring at the can’s base. He grinned. “Go ahead, Trish, have your say. Pretty soon, you won’t be able to.”
“What does that mean? Are you finally going to kill me? Why take me all the way to who knows where to do the deed? You could have killed me back in Slinger when you shot my dad.” Tears pooled in her lower lids then dropped to her T-shirt. “For all I know, he’s dead.”
“No loss there.”
She jerked her head up defiantly. “You’re a piece of shit, Brian. Always was and always will be.”
He laughed. “Yet you married me, anyway. I might be a piece of shit, but I’m a hell of a lot smarter than you. I berate you, I punch you, and I ignore you, and it took you nine years to finally have enough. Here’s how it’s going down, Trish. I say when it’s enough, and you accept it. That being said, you’re going to remain my wife and be at my side forever.”
“Doubt it.” She turned her head toward the window.
“Want to run, don’t you?” He followed her gaze out the large window that faced the lake. “Think of the happy families that vacation here.” He crossed the room and sat at her side. “But not you, right?” He pressed the cold barrel of the gun against her cheek and slid it up and down. “You’re stuck in here with me, your husband, and if you try anything, I’ll shoot you square in the face.”
“You’ll be caught and go to prison for murder. How would you and your lover, Mark, live without each other?”
Trish’s head flew backward, and blood poured from her nose. The impact from his fist caught her by surprise. “See what you made me do? Mark is my cousin, not my lover, and don’t forget it. You’re just jealous because I enjoy his company more than yours. Maybe if you were obedient like a wife is supposed to be, I’d give you the time of day.” Brian stood and walked away. He returned from the bathroom with a roll of toilet paper and threw it at her. “Wipe that shit off your face.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Figure it out. You still have one free hand.” Brian checked the time on the windup clock on the fireplace mantel. Three o’clock had come and gone. “I’m going outside to make a phone call. That means your other hand has to be tied, and your mouth needs to be taped. When I return, I’ll make us something to eat.” Brian crossed the room to the table in the kitchenette. He set the gun down and grabbed the tape and rope. He returned to the couch and sat next to Trish. “Turn around so I can tie your hands together.”
She complied.
He circled her joined hands with the rope, made two figure eights between her wrists, then jerked hard on the rope and knotted it.
Trish’s body stiffened, and she cried out.
“Too tight?”
“The rope is cutting through my skin.”
“That sucks.” Brian ripped off a piece of tape and stretched it over her mouth. “I’ll be back in five minutes.” He lit a cigarette and held it next to her eye. She flinched, and he smiled. “Don’t go anywhere.”
Brian walked outside and locked the door behind him. He stepped off the porch, crossed the dusty path, and took a seat on a boulder fifty feet away. With a bird’s-eye view of his surroundings, he kept a watch on the front door even though there was no possibility of Trish escaping.
He dialed the second number on his contact list of two. That phone would be destroyed soon enough, and a new one would take its place.
The voice on the other end answered. “Hello, Brian.”
“Where are you?”
“By cabin number seven.”
Brian’s eyes darted to the path ahead. “You’re already here?”
“Yes, but I’ll bide my time for now and check each cabin’s condition before they’re rented out. Meanwhile, go back inside and enjoy Trish’s company. I’ll drive into Minocqua, have a leisurely dinner, and take a walk around town. I may even pay some old friends a visit. It looks like it’s going to be a nice evening. I’ll be back around eight o’clock after the sun is down. Have you been keeping your car covered with the tarp?”
“Yes, and I haven’t gone anywhere since I got here. Maybe you can pick up some food on your way back. All I’ve eaten for two days is fish.”
Chapt
er 27
We banged our heads together all afternoon without results. A few callbacks came in but got us no further in the investigation. No one we spoke to had rented a cabin to anyone named Brian Cox or Mark Peters.
I thought back and tried to come up with anything we might have missed. I recalled the conversation Kate and I had with Tripp at Bradford Tool and Die. “I have it!” I stood and crossed the bull pen to Jack’s office door. I gave it several raps with my knuckles.
“Come in.” Jack pushed back from his computer and stretched. “Amber, what’s up?”
“I have an idea, boss.”
“Yeah, go ahead.” Jack looked beyond me at the rest of our tribe standing at my back.
“Sorry, but we want to hear this too,” Billings said.
I turned and grinned at my colleagues. “I can’t get the comment Tripp said out of my head.”
Kate spoke up from behind me. “Which one?”
“When he said Brian complained about always running out of gas by the time they reached their destination.”
“But we already know that,” Clayton said.
“Right, but we overlooked one thing.”
Kate spoke up again. “And what was it?”
“Brian had to get gas when he arrived. Why haven’t we checked into gas stations in the area?”
Jack’s shoulders deflated. “There are probably as many or more gas stations as there are resorts. We haven’t gotten any hits on his credit card, so he’s likely paying with cash. With the number of people in and out of gas stations and quick marts attached to them, nobody, especially minimum-wage kids behind the counters, is going to remember seeing him.”
I let out a disappointed sigh. “Can’t we just broadcast his face on the local news stations in that area? It would sure save time.”