“When did you leave the house for good?”
“After one of them killed the dog. I don’t know which one actually did the deed, but I do know one of them must have. I’d agreed to take care of this poodle for a friend over Christmas break, so it wasn’t actually my dog. I was just watching it while she was out of town. Anyway, I left Christmas Eve morning to meet another friend for coffee, when I got back, the dog was gone. I searched that house from top to bottom for that poodle. I couldn’t get Sam or Eric to admit to anything. But I suspected the way they were acting that they’d done something bad to that poor dog. I tried for two weeks to find her, the dog that is before my friend came back from vacation, but I never did find it. I ended up having to tell her when she got back that I’d lost her dog. I didn’t have the heart to tell her my roommates probably got rid of it. She wouldn’t speak to me after that. Who could blame her?”
“What makes you think they killed the dog?” Josh asked.
“I knew them. They were always doing stuff like that. Mean stuff. I moved out four months later into an attic apartment I found in Fremont. It wasn’t the best living conditions. But at least I was away from those two psychos.”
Again, Skye went through the routine of asking for DNA. Adam didn’t balk. He readily agreed to be eliminated.
Skye and Josh mulled over what they’d found out on the way to the last known address they had for Eric Nunley. It was an upscale, brown-brick Tudor house in Laurelhurst where the roommates had once called home.
Josh pulled the van to the curb while Skye was still communicating with Leo. “It seems Eric Nunley was enrolled at UDub from 2007 to 2014. After getting a degree in astrobiology, he went on to graduate school. I guess that’s why he was there for so long. But Leo says as far as Nunley got was obtaining a master’s degree in that subject. He never enrolled in the doctoral program.”
“What the hell is astrobiology anyway?”
“The school website says it’s the exploration of life outside of Earth.”
“You’re joking?”
“Nope. That’s what it says.” Skye glanced up to get her first look at the house. “No wonder those guys were impressed by the digs. They must’ve thought they’d hit the jackpot as far as off-campus living was concerned.”
“Yeah, but get a load of all the surveillance cameras on the eaves of the house. This place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”
Skye made several videos of the outside of the house that showcased all the cameras and sent them back to Leo for further study. “Do you think Lakin got this far?”
“Only one way to find out,” Josh said, opening the door to the van.
On approach to the front door, Skye spotted a business card and bent down to pick it up. It belonged to Mark Lakin. “Here’s your answer. Lakin stood here in this same spot, knocked on the door the night he was killed.” She handed the card off to Josh.
“The message on the back is asking for Nunley to call him. Do you think this is what got Lakin killed?” Josh looked up and stared at the camera overhead. “I think that one tracked us all the way from the street. Nunley’s bound to know we’re here.”
Skye pushed the fancy doorbell button and waited. No answer. She did it again. Still no response. “If he’s in there he doesn’t want to face us. Lakin probably rattled him. I bet no one’s ever gotten this close to him before now.”
They turned to walk back to the car. “That’s okay. We’ll wait and come back under cover of darkness. Maybe Leo and Reggie will be able to come up with the floor plan. If not, maybe talk to one of the roommates and jog their memory as to the layout.”
“We’re getting inside?”
“I don’t see any other way around it. If Nunley won’t come to us, then we’re forced to go to him.”
****
“The best way to deal with those cameras is to either cut the power off or jam the system,” Reggie explained. “Either way, there’s a risk to getting inside. You don’t know, he could have the place rigged to explode just by opening a door.”
“That’s a scary thought,” Judy shared as she offered up another scenario. “What happens when you get in there and he’s waiting for you? You won’t have any idea of where to go. And you guys we’ll be in the wrong because you’re not supposed to be in somebody else’s house. He could shoot you and call it justified.”
“That’s a risk we need to take. Because we either need to eliminate him or cement our suspicions. The fact that Lakin left his card and ended up dead hours later is not something we can just ignore.”
“I did ask Lance Davis to draw us a map of what he remembered the floor plan looked like. He faxed it over. As you can see, it’s rough, but you get the idea,” Skye said, handing off the paper to Leo. She pointed to the lower level. “That’s a basement. That’s where Lance said they kept the kid locked up for two days. And I think that’s where we’ll find what we’re looking for.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Anything that points to him being involved in Jennifer’s abduction. Any indication he might have another house…somewhere. How much is this guy worth anyway?”
“Upwards of twenty-five million and we’re still uncovering assets.”
“Then Laurelhurst can’t be the family home,” Josh proffered. “There has to be another giant house somewhere nearby. Are his parents still alive?”
Leo looked up from his laptop. “Records show the father is deceased. Date of death 2007. The mother took off about twenty years ago. Nothing indicates where she ended up or what happened to her. But we’ll keep digging.”
Skye added that to her notes. “2007 is when he entered college and made the claim about being a trust fund baby. Maybe he did away with daddy and became the trust fund baby to match his claim.”
“Let’s stick with the facts and not go jumping to conclusions,” Josh cautioned. “We have enough to think about just getting into the house without detection. How feasible is it to jam the system?”
“We’ve done it before, but the trick is to figure out his set up. Whatever jamming I come up with has to work on whatever software he’s using…like clockwork. Not a near-miss, it has to be on target.”
“Did the videos I made help at all?”
“Some. I’ll try different hacks until I come up with the one that works the best. That’s all I can do.”
“We trust you’ll work your magic, that’s all we can hope for.”
Nineteen
The neighborhood was very upscale, a place where landscapers showed up daily to tidy up gardens, pool cleaners maintained custom waterscapes, and a private security vehicle patrolled the streets.
But by ten that evening, the routine deliveries had come and gone, and residents were settling in for the night.
Josh cruised by the stately English Tudor several times before parking two blocks away by a little neighborhood grocery store.
They knew before going in that the stately manor had expansive rooms, a minimum of four thousand square feet total. Because it was so big, they wouldn’t have time to explore all of it, so they had to pick their hotspots, get in, get out quickly without lingering too long. They decided it was best to start in the basement.
But first, they had to actually get inside.
“Has it ever occurred to you we’re getting pretty good at being cat burglars?” Josh pointed out.
“What do you mean pretty good? Don’t sell yourself short. We excel at breaking and entering.”
“We should have borrowed Atka. We could have pretended to chase her into the backyard for cover.”
Skye grinned at the idea. “I guess we’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way, climb the fence and break in through a back window.”
Josh pulled on a pair of gloves and opened the van door. “Feel like a little walk? Time to stretch our legs.”
Walking hand in hand and at a pace not meant to draw attention, they looked like any couple out for a leisurely evening stroll.
&
nbsp; At the corner of the block, Josh got the go-ahead text from Reggie. “Looks like we’re a go.” They turned into the alleyway as if they were merely taking a short cut. When they reached the house, Josh kept lookout while Skye scaled the fence, and then he did the same.
Once in the backyard, they kept close to the hedges for cover until they reached a side door with a window next to it. Using Lance’s rough sketch, they’d picked it as their best way inside.
Josh worked the screen off before taking a flathead screwdriver and inserting it between the glass and the window frame. Prying it up, he applied light force on the glass until he removed it from the frame. Setting it aside, he lifted Skye through the opening. She landed on her feet, ready for anything.
Josh dropped down beside her.
They waited a few seconds before Reggie texted the all-clear that no alarms had been triggered, signaling that he had successfully turned them all off.
They found the basement door off the kitchen, but it was locked. Skye pulled out the small toolkit she used to pick the lock, then carefully opened the door. She shined her flashlight down the steps, looking for any signs of traps or trip wires.
On the fourth step, they noticed a homemade contraption with wooden clothespins, a double A battery, and wires, that if tripped, was set to start a fire.
Moving a little more slowly, they reached the lower level without incident. In one corner of the basement, they spotted a folding table he’d used as his mini-lab. From the look of the chemicals he had all the ingredients lined up to make chloroform and a few other illegal substances.
Skye began leafing through some loose papers on the worktable when she spotted something that looked very familiar. “Take a look at this.”
Josh snapped one last picture of the lab area before moving over to where Skye stood. “I know this place.” Looking over her shoulder, Josh studied the floor plan for a few minutes. “This is the lower level of Jennifer’s apartment building. And this other photo is from her unit.”
“Yep. We need pictures of everything on this table before we leave.”
Josh obliged by spreading several items out so they would better show up in the photographs.
Skye checked her watch. “We need to speed things up. We’re almost bumping up against luck. I’ll go upstairs and do a quick sweep of the rest of the house.”
“Be careful. Meet you by the window in ten.”
She was about to leave the basement when she spotted the animal cages lined up in the back of the room. “My God. Do you think he experiments on these poor little rabbits and raccoons? There must be a dozen of them here. Poor babies. Sierra would love to have one of these bunnies.”
“We should call animal control after we get this guy and get them in here to save them all.”
“I wish we could do it now.”
“You know we can’t. That would tip him off. We’re not ready for the big reveal yet.”
She shined her flashlight on the opposite wall and pointed to another worktable where several small wooden containers with an open-faced front were lined up like displays. The shoebox-sized crates depicted scenes with action figures, male and female, that had been tied to chairs using rope and twine. “What the heck is this?”
“I believe they’re called a dioramas.”
“And?”
“It’s a model using three-dimensional figures, from the looks of it, mini versions showcasing a particular scene.”
“Like an exhibit you’d see in a museum?”
“Yeah. Exactly.”
“Weird hobby, depicting action figures in bondage. Something to do to keep him busy when he’s not killing people?”
“Busy hands don’t make him creative.”
“Killer hands,” Skye lamented as she took off upstairs.
Nine minutes later, she was already waiting at the window when Josh appeared at her side. “Did you lock the door back on the basement?”
He nodded. “Find anything upstairs?”
“Not a thing. It was clean, too clean.”
“I know, I took a quick look at the kitchen. Not even a dirty dish. It’s like Nunley doesn’t really live here, just drops in once in a while to work in his lab and torture those animals.”
Skye climbed out the window first, followed by Josh. Once outside, Josh slid the glass pane back into place before they headed for the back fence and the alleyway.
Skye looked at her watch. “Two minutes to spare. Text Reggie that we’re out.”
Hand in hand, they walked back out of the alley the way they’d come in, calm as two lovers bundled up next to each other, nuzzling all the way back to the van.
But to get back to the safe house, Josh had to take several evasive maneuvers to be sure they weren’t followed. It took twice as long, but it was better safe than sorry.
After pulling the van into the garage, they headed into the kitchen. True to his word, Tanner had left them chicken salad sandwiches in the refrigerator.
While eating, Josh uploaded all the pictures to Reggie’s laptop, who then distributed the files to everyone, including Harry.
“Meeting in fifteen minutes and get Harry conferenced in,” Skye instructed in between bites of food. “We might be closer to knowing who the killer is.”
The group gathered in the living room, some stretched out on the couch, others lounged in chairs. Judy and Reggie sat on the floor in front of the fireplace.
“Harry, are you on?” Skye asked.
“I’m here. I was just reviewing what you sent over.”
“At this point, Josh and I feel that Eric Nunley is our guy. We think he killed Lakin because he got too close. We found Lakin’s card in the front yard of the house, so we know he was there the day he died.”
Because he couldn’t sit still, Josh paced the room. “The house was clean, obsessively clean. No dust, no cobwebs, and I can guarantee you no fingerprints. But we did grab a rag he’d tossed in the trash next to his stash of chemicals. It might provide a DNA profile to check against the blood from the Kleenex. As it stands right now, the chloroform lab in the basement is the biggest thing we have to tie him back to Stacey Dysart’s abduction.”
“Plus,” Skye tossed in, “We plan to compare all the DNA from the roommates just in case they were feeding us a line. What do you think?”
“Maybe I’m getting soft in the head,” Harry began. “But I still don’t understand why this guy had to kill Lakin.”
“I think I know why,” Skye offered. “Look what Lakin’s death did. It upset the entire apple cart. It took the spotlight off Stacey and Jennifer and derailed the investigation. This guy’s already told us he wants to play, remember? Killing Lakin was his way of taking back the game, taking back control. It’s all about control.”
Josh turned to glance down at Reggie. “I want everyone to start digging. We need everything we can find on Eric Nunley. By morning, I want to know who his kindergarten teacher was. And Harry, we need you to pull anything you can from the police and federal computers, any records at all that might lead us to where Nunley is now. It’s time we take control of the game for good.”
Twenty
“There’s no DNA match from the roommates,” Leo explained later the next day. “Not even an iffy result. None of them is your serial killer. And there’s more bad news. Harry ran a background on Eric Nunley. No one’s seen or heard from Eric since 2014. Period. No activity on his credit cards, no withdrawals from his sizeable bank accounts, no IRA contributions, no hits on his social security number, and no record of him re-upping his driver’s license when it came up for renewal in 2016, not anywhere in the country. We double-checked names, passport activity, airlines, you name it, we checked it all out. Eric Nunley’s gone.”
“But he’s not. He’s coming and going in his house,” Skye insisted.
“Are you sure about that?” Leo asked, slapping down a DMV photo of Nunley. “He doesn’t fit your brown hair, brown-eyed phantom. As you can see, at five-eight, Eric’s the wrong
height. He’s got blue eyes and blondish hair. He’s not your guy. There’s someone else using the house. Think about it, there’s no mortgage on it. With Eric out of the way, anyone could take up residence there, anyone who knew him. Because Eric really is a trust fund baby. Or was. His family once owned a paper mill and became a worldwide distributor of notebooks, fancy notepaper, and all kinds of writing materials.”
“What does the family do now?” Josh asked.
“Nothing. There was no one left but Eric and he up and sold the company in 2014 to a Canadian competitor…and then vanished.”
Skye’s stomach dropped. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this. It’s looking less likely that Nunley is even alive. Look, I’ve never put so much pressure on you guys before, but I am now.”
She pointed to the whiteboard. “We have to do a better job narrowing down who our killer is. Maybe look at his list of crimes and see if geographic profiling would help us. If it isn’t Nunley living in that house, then who is it?”
Brayden had never seen Skye so worked up or full of anxiety. “I say we stake out the house. We take pictures of whoever shows up.”
Josh traded looks with Skye. “Might as well let him. Winston, you go with him.”
“I’m not even gonna complain this time,” Winston said. “I’m already sick of this case. It’s driving us all up the wall like no other case before. I mean, we’re not even allowed to go home. We’re hanging out in this place because we’re not safe there. I’m fed up with the whole thing.”
“You’re right about that,” Skye huffed out. “But Laurelhurst is a swanky neighborhood. You won’t be able to just sit at the curb and wait, especially in broad daylight without a good reason for being there. You’ll need some type of ruse. Otherwise, a resident won’t hesitate to call the cops on you. And you might not get a second chance to take a picture.”
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