by C. M. Sutter
“Yes, that’s correct.” Mary took Roger’s hand and squeezed it.
Jack spoke up, “Would it be common for either girl to leave their phones or purses in the trunk and to leave the car unlocked?”
Mary began to cry. Roger responded to the question. “Detectives, these are twenty-two-year- old girls. They don’t even sleep without their cell phones right next to them. Jenna just bought that car last month. She’d never leave it unlocked. She was very proud of her car and kept it clean and locked at all times, especially someplace like a mall parking lot. Megan always complained about how picky Jenna was with it. She’d park quite a distance from other cars just so she wouldn’t get any door dingers.”
I stole a glance at Jack. “So it would be unlike either girl to leave her phone or purse behind.”
“Absolutely.” Mary wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Ma’am, do both girls work?” Jack asked.
Mary nodded. “Jenna has a decent job. She’s a medical assistant at a doctor’s office. Megan is still in school. She has the summer off, of course. This fall will be her last year, unless she continues on to get a graduate degree. She wants to be a biology professor.”
“She sounds ambitious, and they’re both responsible? Twenty-two is still young,” I said.
Roger looked at both of us. “Megan is very responsible. Jenna has been her best friend since kindergarten, and we aren’t her parents, but she seems very responsible too. They’re both good girls, detectives.”
“Is there anyone who was angry with Megan? Somebody she’s mentioned that had a bone to pick with her?”
“Nobody we can think of,” Roger said.
“Can we just get a quick list of names? Friends, schoolmates, that type of thing?”
Mary got up and walked into the kitchen. She returned with a pad of paper and a pen. She and Roger took the next ten minutes writing down every name they could come up with. “This is all we can think of at the moment.” Roger tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to me.
“Thank you. You’ve both been very helpful.” I handed them our cards. “Please call if you think of anything more.”
We shook their hands and told them we’d be in touch. Mary walked us to the front door, and we left. I called the lieutenant as Jack drove. Clark told me Kyle and Dan were back and going over the car in the evidence garage. He also said Todd and Billy had a copy of the parking lot footage, and they said it wasn’t good.
I hung up from the call. “Crap.”
“What?”
“Clark said he was told the video footage wasn’t good. I didn’t take that to mean it was fuzzy footage. I think it’s going to tell us exactly what we were dreading all along.”
Chapter 28
“Are you ready to go downstairs and check out our new guests?” Jeremy asked when Matt walked into the kitchen.
Matt rubbed his eyes and dragged his fingers through his hair. “Man, I was out for the count. What time is it?”
“Ten thirty. You need to start getting up earlier, dude. I’ve been sitting here waiting for you since eight o’clock. Didn’t you hear those two wailing all night long? I went down there twice and zapped everyone.”
“Seriously? I didn’t hear shit.” Matt poured himself a glass of milk and grabbed a piece of raisin bread. He sat down at the table. “Did you check them out at all?”
“Yeah, earlier. I took breakfast bars down for all of them at nine. They look good, but the lighting is pretty dim down there. We’ll give them a quarter dose of Xylazine so we can get them outside and take our time checking them over. I don’t trust that redhead.”
Matt chuckled. “Yeah, she nailed you good with her boot heel. What did you do with them?”
“I threw both of their boots into the burning barrel. Those things are dangerous. Finish your milk. We have work to do. I’ve got to decide what to do with Liz too. I think she should go at a clearance price. It would be a quick way to get rid of her.”
Jeremy opened the basement door and headed down. Matt guzzled his milk and jammed the bread into his mouth. He followed behind Jeremy and went directly to the cabinet around the corner and pulled out a new vial and a syringe. He poked the needle through the rubber stopper and drew up a quarter dose of Xylazine. Each girl would get half of that. It would be enough to knock them out for close to an hour.
The screaming echoed off the damp basement walls. Jeremy stuffed two spongy earplugs into his ears. “Damn noise. We’ll take care of that in a second. Ready?”
Matt nodded.
They rounded the corner. Jeremy had the cattle prod in his hand. Gina and Carley sat in their cages, their heads facing down and not making a peep. Liz screeched from around the corner.
“I’ll be right back.” Jeremy set the prod down and got a flashlight out of the cabinet. He walked around the corner, shined the flashlight in Liz’s face, and knelt down in front of her cage. “You have quite a lump on your head, Liz. I’ll make you a deal. You shut up right now or I take you outside and crack you across the face with a shovel. That will really give you a lump. In fact, you’ll likely be dead. I can have you in the ground next to Beth in less than an hour. So, what’s it going to be?”
The screeching stopped.
“That’s what I thought.” He got up and walked back into the main room. “Now”—he cocked his head to the side and smiled—“we have to deal with you two.” He picked up the prod and headed for Megan’s cage. “You’re going first, Red.”
She screamed and shook the cage violently. Jeremy stuck the prod through the links and gave her an extra hard zap. Her body arched and stiffened. She fell back, momentarily unconscious.
“Hurry up and give her the needle.”
Matt reached through the wires and grabbed a handful of hair. He pulled her closer, then he stuck the needle in her neck and released half of the drug. “She’s good.”
Jeremy turned and headed for Jenna’s cage. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Jenna,” she said quietly between muffled sobs.
“Well, Jenna, it’s nice to meet you.” He stuck the prod through her cage and hit her with it. She grunted until she passed out. “Give her the drug.”
Matt repeated the same process he had used with Megan. He pulled the ring of keys out of his pocket and opened their cages. Jeremy had already opened the cellar doors.
“Enjoy a little daylight and fresh air, ladies. It’s beginning to stink down here.”
Jeremy yanked Megan out by her leg and tossed her over his shoulder. Matt did the same with Jenna. They dropped both girls on the lawn behind the house. That corner was hidden from view even though they’d hear if a car came down the driveway anyway. They stood above the women and looked down at them.
“What do you think?” Matt asked. He rolled Jenna over and looked at her arms and legs. “Don’t see any tats. That’s a good sign.”
Jeremy did the same with Megan. “Here’s one, but it’s a small four-leaf clover on her ankle. Nothing too serious.” Jeremy laughed. “Aren’t four-leaf clovers supposed to be for luck? You know, the luck of the Irish? Hmm… the red hair, she must really be Irish. Sorry, hon, today isn’t going to be your lucky day.”
They looked closely at both of their faces, their teeth, and their figures. “I’d say we did pretty well considering it was dark outside,” Matt said.
“Yeah, maybe that’s the best way to go. Blitz attack in the dark… I like it. They should go for a high price too. We’ll be out of here in a month, for sure. Vegas, here we come.” Jeremy picked up the limp, rag-doll redhead and slung her over his shoulder again. “Okay, let’s get them back in their pens before they wake up.”
Chapter 29
We met up with Todd and Billy downstairs in the tech department where they had the video footage ready to go. They sat in roller chairs next to the computer. The lieutenant, Billings, and Clayton were there too. I asked Billings how the interview with Jenna’s folks went. He shrugged and suggested w
e compare notes upstairs later.
“Is everyone ready?” Todd asked. “First I want to say we looked over the mall security footage throughout the common areas. Nobody followed the girls as they shopped. Here’s what we have, though, from the café camera facing the parking lot.”
We crowded around the computer monitor.
“We were able to narrow things down pretty quickly since the café had the time stamp on the receipt from Megan. Here we go.”
Todd pointed out that even though the images were dark, the two women were indeed Megan and Jenna. The footage showed them from the back as they left the café and crossed the sidewalk. The clarity faded in and out with the parking lot lighting as they walked to the car with shopping bags in their hands.
“Everything looks normal so far. Nobody is following them,” the lieutenant said.
Todd nodded. “Keep watching.”
The ladies were almost across the parking lot, and the car lights blinked.
“That’s where Jenna hit her key fob to unlock the car. Watch what happens as they get closer and pop the trunk.”
My eye caught the image of a vehicle moving slowly into the frame on the right side of the computer screen. It came from a darkened area of the parking lot. Jenna and Megan had just reached her car and were going to the trunk.
“Shit! It’s a white van.” I leaned in close to the screen, as did everyone else.
What we were witnessing happened a good distance from the cameras. The fuzzy, blurred footage made it impossible to see the make, model and license plate number of the van. It never came close enough or faced any camera directly so we could zoom in on the plates.
“Watch this. These guys are smart, and they know the exact location of the cameras. The van hides everything that’s going on. Nobody exits from the camera side of the van, so we don’t know how many people are involved. We timed the footage. From the point where the van stops to where it leaves again covers roughly forty seconds,” Todd said.
“You can’t see anything happening. The girls put their bags in the trunk, the van shows up then leaves less than a minute later, and when the car comes back into camera view, nobody is there,” I said.
Billy agreed. “That pretty much covers it. The only thing we’re almost certain of is that this abduction and the Carley and Gina abduction was done by the same crew.”
“I wish there would have been cameras at the beach. We could have compared vans. This is obviously a panel van—no side windows. Did Mrs. Stevens mention that—no side windows?” I asked.
Clark spoke up. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ll call Gibson and find out. Okay, we know these guys are still somewhere in the area. I’d venture to say they’re closer to us than Milwaukee. Reanne was found in Washburn County, and now Megan and Jenna came up missing, and they both live just west of North Bend.” Clark stood and paced while he rubbed his forehead. “We’re going to have to do a county-wide search. Let’s get that video footage to the news stations and see if anything pops. There could have been someone at the mall last night that noticed the van in the parking lot. Billings and Clayton, you take care of getting the footage on TV.”
Clayton pushed back his chair and stood. “Got it, boss.”
“Jade, I want you and Jack at the mall. Find out who was at that café last night. Talk to the hostess, waitress, and customers—interview everybody, even if you have to bang on their doors. Interview the security guard again that drove around the parking lot last night. See what he remembers before the mall closed.”
“We’re on it, Lieutenant.” I jerked my head toward the door to get Jack’s attention.
We went back upstairs to get our necessities. With one swipe and a pull of the desk drawer, I had my cell phone off my desk and my purse out of the drawer. I dropped my cell in the front pocket of my blazer as I slipped it on over my shoulder holster. Jack secured his gun too, grabbed his phone, and we left.
“I’m driving,” I said as I took a set of keys from behind the reception desk.
We walked outside, and I pressed the unlock symbol on the key fob. The lights flashed on the second black cruiser in the lot. We got in, and I pulled out of the parking lot. I drove only two miles before I pulled into the Pit-Stop gas station.
“Damn it. Why did I grab the keys for an almost empty cruiser, and why wasn’t this car already filled up?”
Jack chuckled and got out of the car. “I’ll grab a couple of sodas.”
He disappeared inside while I stood at the back of the car, squeezing the gas nozzle and watching the dollars add up. I was glad we weren’t heading to an emergency—the car was bone dry.
Jack returned as I waited for the gas pump to spit out my credit card receipt. He climbed in the passenger side, and I got in behind the wheel. He handed me a gooey, nut-filled chocolate bar and a soda.
I grinned. “Thanks, partner.” I peeled back the wrapper of the decadent sugary treat and took a bite. “Man, I love these things.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were parked at the mall, just outside the café. The timing was good. The café had opened an hour earlier, and the staff had settled into their daily routine. Jack and I approached the hostess standing at the podium. She had already reached for two menus and gave us a welcoming smile. I looked behind me to make sure nobody was standing in line to be seated. I didn’t want to hold anyone up, and I didn’t want anyone to hear our conversation.
“Table for two?”
I leaned in and flashed my badge. “We’d like to speak to the manager, please.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh… certainly, right this way.” She motioned for somebody to come and take her place for a few minutes.
The hostess led us down a short hallway opposite the kitchen. A closed door with a plaque that had PRIVATE written across it was directly in front of us. She knocked on it twice. The person on the other side said to come in.
She peeked around the door. “Mr. Hughes, there are two detectives here to see you.”
“Detectives? Send them in, Natalie.”
He stood when Natalie opened the door wider for us to pass through. I nodded and thanked her. Mr. Hughes looked to be in his late thirties, a handsome man with short blond hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. He had curious but friendly eyes. He was dressed casually, wearing a pair of shorts and a cranberry-colored T-shirt. Behind that closed door and away from the crowd, he looked to be knee-deep in schedules and payroll paperwork. I doubt if he was expecting visitors on a Sunday at noon. He extended his hand to shake ours.
“Detectives, how may I help you?”
I introduced myself and Jack, then I gave Mr. Hughes a condensed version of why we were there.
“Sir, we’re going to need to speak with the hostess and waitress that were on duty last night between six and nine p.m. We also need to know any patrons’ names that paid with credit cards and the names of anyone that made reservations last night. We’ll have to interview them as well.”
“Is this about the incident with the car being in the lot overnight? Why is that such a big deal?”
“Sir,” I said, “it’s a police matter and early in the investigation. We aren’t at liberty to discuss much yet, but I can tell you the video footage from the parking lot last night is going to be on the news. All I can say for now is that the girl that car belongs to, and her friend, are missing. So, can we get those names?”
“Of course.” Mr. Hughes reached into the stack of receipts from last night and started separating the credit card receipts from the others. “It’s only going to help you if their names are on the receipts, right?”
“That’s correct, sir. The reservations list will help as well. May I see that while you’re working on the credit card names?”
“Certainly.” He turned and opened the file cabinet at his back and pulled out a folder containing the current month’s reservation list.
“Here’s July’s list. It goes by week, date, and time. Last night’s reservation list is on the top.”
> “Thank you. If you don’t mind, we’ll sit on the patio for now and go over the names.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be out as soon as I organize all of the credit card payments with names on them.”
Jack nodded as he held the door open for me, and we exited Mr. Hughes’s office. Natalie seated us in a shady spot on the patio with a good view of the parking lot. Jack and I stared out, trying to replay in our minds what might have taken place last night.
“The girls exited right there at the gate and crossed the sidewalk. They walked three quarters of the way across the parking lot without incident while they were watched and targeted as prey. As soon as they opened the trunk, the van pulled up, and within seconds they were overcome and thrown in the van.” I looked at Jack and rubbed my temples. “They must have been disabled somehow to make the abduction go so quickly.” I pondered the event, wondering how it all went down.
Jack spoke up, “Two men can easily overtake two unsuspecting females that are preoccupied with loading bags in their trunk. They didn’t need Xylazine at that point. All they had to do was get them in the van then find some secluded spot to disable them.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I shook my head and thought about how fearful the girls must have been. “Let’s see which names on this list actually include phone numbers.”
We searched through the list and found thirty names that had reservations during our three-hour window. Seventeen of those names included phone numbers. I wrote down each name, number, and reservation time. Calling them seemed far more efficient than driving to each house for a face-to-face interview. We’d pay a sit-down visit to anyone that sounded as though they might have seen something suspicious or questionable.
Mr. Hughes met up with us at our table. He gave us the credit card receipts that had names on them. We compared them to our reservations list and ended up with an additional three names. Later we’d deal with those names and the ones without phone numbers on the reservation list.