Chance Reddick Box Set 1

by David Archer

  "Yes, I expect you to believe me. I don’t know where you guys keep coming up with all these crazy ideas, anyway."

  "She was smiling when she called you Jake," Tina pointed out.

  "Just in case you haven’t noticed, that’s my name. Jake, remember?"

  "Yeah, but there was just something about the way she said it."

  Jake stared at her for a moment, then shrugged again. “Whatever,” he said. “I can assure you that Ms. Lambert is not interested in me, nor I in her.”

  "Okay, fine," Tina said, giving in. "Jake, it’s okay if you think she’s cute, you know."

  "I don't really have an opinion one way or the other," Jake said. "And I'm not sure why it would be anybody else’s business if I did think so. Which I don’t, just so you know. Besides, she’s got a boyfriend."

  "A boyfriend? I didn’t hear her say anything about a boyfriend."

  "She didn’t have to say anything about it,” Jake said. “She was wearing a man’s college class ring on her index finger, and she doodled ‘Steve and Angie’ on her backpack. She has a boyfriend, trust me."

  "Yeah, but Jake…" She trailed off. “Everybody needs somebody to care about, Jake. Even you.”

  “And maybe there is somebody I…” Jake cut himself off. "I think it’s time we get our focus back on the case. I think that’s a whole lot more important than any fantasies you might be having about my love life, don’t you?"

  Tina huffed, and the rest of the ride was spent mostly in silence.

  * * *

  The two of them made their way through the dormitory building, looking for the room they had been told to go to. After showing their identification to the security desk and explaining that Zoe Castellanos’ friends and family were expecting them, the security guard gave them directions, but he had told them to turn the wrong direction out of the elevator. They managed to find the right room anyway, and Tina knocked on the door.

  A tall, young, blonde woman opened it for them and it was clearly obvious to both Tina and Jake that she had been crying only moments earlier.

  "Marcia Sanders?" Tina asked. The woman nodded her head solemnly. "My name is Tina Reynolds, and this is Jake Claridge. We're with Pete Dixon Investigations, and we need to ask you some questions about Zoe Castellanos."

  "Yeah, we've been…" Marcia's breath caught and she looked down for a moment, the grief still clear in her voice. "We've been expecting you," she finished quickly before moving out of the way to let the two investigators step into the room.

  Tina and Jake stepped inside, where they immediately noticed two other young women sitting at the table. One had a bathrobe tied tightly around her, and the other was in sweat pants and a T-shirt. Both of them looked as if they had also just finished crying. Jake offered a sympathetic smile to the women, but he knew that it wouldn’t really mean anything to them.

  Marcia closed the door behind the two investigators and joined her friends by the table. She wrapped her arms around herself as if that was the only thing that was keeping her together.

  "This is Danielle and McKayla," Marcia said quietly, indicating the other two. Neither of the young ladies offered a hand or even acknowledged the introduction. Jake and Tina ignored the unintentional slight.

  "Where is Zoe's family?" Tina asked quietly. "I thought they were meeting us here, as well."

  "They're packing up Zoe's room," Marcia explained. She pointed down a corridor and explained, "Down there, second door on the right." Tina nodded. "I should warn you, though," Marcia started again before either investigator could move in that direction. "They don’t talk a lot. I think they really are taking this pretty hard."

  "I'll talk to them," Tina said, more to Jake than anyone else. Jake nodded, then approached the table and sat across from the two girls who were sitting there. Tina went down the hall, and Marcia followed Jake’s lead and joined her friends at the table.

  "My name is Jake Claridge," he introduced himself, showing his ID. "I know this has to be a very hard time for all of you, but I'm hoping you won’t mind answering a couple questions for me?"

  Danielle and McKayla exchanged a look with Marcia, and then all three of them nodded their heads.

  "I understand that Zoe Castellanos was missing for a little over a week. Who was it that reported her missing?" Jake asked.

  "Danielle did," Marcia answered when it seemed like no one would respond.

  The girl in the bathrobe looked up timidly. "She missed two whole days of lectures and seminars," she said, her voice small and timid.

  "I take it that was out of character for her?" Jake asked.

  "Very much so," Danielle answered. "Coming to school here, that was her dream. Her father had been a student here before he ever met her mother. He always talked about how amazing a school it was and how he always hoped his daughter would get her own education here. He died a year before she was ready to go to college, so this was kinda her way of remembering and honoring her dad. This school, getting her education, that was her life. She wouldn't have been willing to risk it for anything. I mean, the library almost literally became her second home. If she wasn’t attending a lecture, she’d either be in the library studying, or working on her computer down at the coffee shop."

  "Did Zoe ever talk to any of you about someone following her? Or, maybe just somebody acting a bit strange around her?"

  The girls took a moment to think before Danielle responded, "No. Nothing like that."

  "Is it possible that she wouldn't have told you if something like that were to happen?" Jake asked, to make them think it through again.

  "No way," Marcia immediately responded. "We told each other everything. Family problems, boyfriend problems, troubles at school, we shared everything and we never judged. I mean, one time Zoe thought one of her professors was hitting on her, and she came to us immediately, worried that something horrible would come from it. It turned out to be nothing, but she knew she could tell us anything, no matter what it was."

  "What was this professor's name?” Jake asked. “What did he teach?"

  Marcia looked surprised at the question, and then tried to backtrack as if she had said more than she had meant to say. "It really was nothing. Zoe said so herself, said it was just a misunderstanding."

  "It probably is just that, Marcia, but I don't want to take the chance it might be important," Jake insisted. “Please tell me who it was.”

  The young woman hesitated for a moment longer before she looked down at the table and said softly, "It was Dr. Harmon. He teaches European history."

  "Thank you," Jake said, committing that name to memory. "Now, tell me a little bit about Zoe. Was she outgoing, extroverted? Would she have willingly climbed into a car with a stranger, for instance?"

  "The exact opposite," Danielle answered. "She was one of the least trusting people I ever met. The only reason she trusted us so much was because we lived with her for three years. She wouldn't trust a stranger at all. If somebody approached her, she would get away as quickly as she could."

  Jake nodded his head, making notes of everything they were saying, before he finally turned to the one girl in the group who had yet to say a single word. The girl in sweat pants and a T-shirt, McKayla, kept looking down at her hands, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She was constantly moving and fidgeting, her hands playing with the loose threads of her top or sweats, and Jake understood her behavior instantly. For whatever reason, McKayla was feeling guilty about something, and Jake knew that he had to find out what it was.

  "McKayla," Jake spoke up. The girl turned and looked up at him, making eye contact with him for the first time since his arrival. "You've been awfully quiet. What do you think about all this?"

  McKayla stared at him sadly before glancing at her friends beside her. They gave her reassuring looks, but that didn't take away the look of despair that was in her eyes. She turned back to look at Jake again.

  "It's all my fault," she said quietly after a moment.

  "McKayla—" D
anielle said, but Jake held up a hand quickly.

  "How is it your fault, McKayla?" he asked gently.

  She took a deep breath and started to explain.

  "Last year,” she said, “I noticed that Zoe was getting really depressed sometimes. There were a lot of times when she would just sit in her room, wouldn’t come out for anything, and I know I heard her crying in there more than once. She was normally so gentle, but whenever she got depressed, she would start biting people’s heads off, and I cornered her one day and asked her what was the matter. I told her it was really obvious she was having some kind of problem and it was getting way out of hand, so I tried to get her to go see the school psychologist. They have some really good counselors there, and I really thought it would help her. I told her if she wouldn't go on her own, I was going to go and tell them I was worried that she might hurt herself, and she knew that could go on her permanent record, so she finally gave in." McKayla looked back down, her hair falling over her face as if to hide the fact that she was close to tears.

  "If I hadn't made her go, nobody would’ve known she had a problem," McKayla went on after a moment, her voice cracking. "She wouldn't have been taken and she wouldn't be…"

  She cut herself off, finally letting the tears she had been holding back flow down her face. Danielle and Marcia quickly reached out and put their arms around her and McKayla was quick to wrap her own arms around the both of them.

  "McKayla, I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to be completely honest with me, but first I want you to understand something," Jake said, his voice gentle but urgent. "It wouldn't matter if she had gone to the psychologists or not. We feel certain that the man we're looking for targets people who display visible symptoms of depression or related issues, whether they have seen a doctor or not. From everything you just said, Zoe was clearly displaying behaviors associated with depression, which is what attracted the attention of this particular monster. Do you understand me?"

  McKayla nodded, weakly. “Yes,” she said softly.

  "Good. Now I need you to answer one more question for me. How did you know that the suspect is going after people who have emotional problems?" Jake asked. He knew that the neither the LVPD nor PDI had given any kind of public statement about that conclusion.

  McKayla raised her head and looked at him, her face showing confusion. "It's all over the news," she said.

  "Yeah," Marcia agreed. "They say he goes after people who are getting help for depression."

  Jake stared at her for a moment, but he was raging on the inside. He had read enough to know that it was never good when the press started revealing details of an investigation before the authorities were ready to make announcements.

  "Mr. Claridge," McKayla mumbled, untangling herself from her friends and wiping the tears off her face. "This may be a stupid question, but how would this guy know what to look for? How would he know which girls have problems like that, unless he’s got access to their medical records or something?"

  Jake sighed. "It’s often been said that serial killers are some of the best psychologists. They can often read people better than most doctors could ever hope to do."

  Chapter 7

  Down the hall, Tina was having no better luck with Zoe’s mother and brother, who were somberly packing her things into boxes.

  “What was Zoe like as a child?” Tina asked. “Was she adventurous? Did she get into mischief a lot?”

  Mrs. Castellanos shook her head. “Never,” she said. “She was like an angel. She wouldn’t even think of doing anything without letting me know before hand.”

  Alex, Zoe’s brother, nodded his head in agreement. “Zoe’s idea of being adventurous was to curl up with a book.” He grinned at a memory. “She had this habit, whenever she found a book she really liked. She read it all the way through, then go back to the beginning and start again. I’ve seen her read the same book five or six times in a row. She always said she got more out of it each time.”

  “According to the school, Zoe had some depression problems. Did she always have them?”

  “Yeah, kinda,” Alex said. “Whenever she had something big coming, like an exam or something in school, she would start to get down in the dumps, crying and everything. She did that since she was a little kid, I think. Right, Mom?”

  His mother nodded. “Yes, she always did.”

  Tina talked with them for a few more minutes, but then went back out to meet up with Jake. He was finishing with the three girls, so they got into their car to go back to the substation and meet up with the rest of their team.

  Jake called Pete to explain that the press had somehow gotten hold of what should have been confidential information, but the older detective already knew.

  “Station Commander Motley is handling that, trying to get everything back under control,” Pete said. “Go on back to the substation, and the rest of us will meet you there in a little while.”

  * * *

  Chance and Pete had arrived at the law office where Juliana Willets had worked. Her boss, Jerome Langley, had volunteered his conference room and arranged for her family to be there that morning as they entered the office.

  “Pete Dixon,” Langley said. “It’s been a few years. I was glad to hear you were back in business again.”

  “How you been, Jerry?” Pete said. “If you were so glad to hear I was back, how come you ain’t called me and given me some work?”

  “I will, sooner or later,” Langley said, chuckling as he did so. He looked at Chance. “And who is this young man?”

  “Jerry Langley, meet my partner, Chance Reddick. Chance is the one who got me out of the bottle. He helped me sober up, then got this crazy notion that he wanted to be a private eye, so I put his butt to work.”

  Langley held out a hand and shook with Chance. “Mr. Reddick,” he said. “I don’t know how you pulled that off, but an awful lot of folks around here are glad you did. Pete was always one of the best and it’s good to have him back.” He turned back to Pete. “The Willets and some of their daughter’s friends are already in the conference room. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

  He led them into another room where several people were sitting around a large table. Pete and Chance were introduced to John and Mabel Willets, Juliana’s father and mother, and to Robert Olson, Linda Wallingford and Janine Thomas.

  “First,” Pete said, “I want to thank all of you for taking the time to come down here. We sympathize with your loss, and we appreciate your willingness to help as we try to put a stop to the person behind this terrible crime.”

  John Willets nodded. “Whatever we can do, Mr. Dixon,” he said. “There’s a monster out there, and somebody has to stop him.”

  “Then let’s get to it, shall we? Sir, what can you tell me about your daughter to help me understand how she could have been targeted by this killer?”

  “Juliana was an obsessive-compulsive,” her father said. “She was the kind that had to have everything absolutely perfect, all the time. If she hung a picture on the wall, she would spend an hour making sure it was straight. If she wrote a letter, she would go through and make sure every letter was perfect, and if it wasn’t, then she’d tear it up and start over. She would check the door a dozen times to make sure she had remembered to lock it, and was constantly washing her hands. Most of the time, her hands were pruny because they were almost always wet, and if things went absolutely perfect, she would get so depressed that she would be incapable of doing anything else the rest of the day. Just about everybody around her could tell, and from what they’re saying on the news, I think that must be what drew the killer’s attention.”

  “She wasn’t a bad person, though,” Mabel said. “I mean, just because somebody is a little obsessive or gets down in the dumps, that doesn’t make them bad.”

  “Of course it doesn’t,” Chance said. “And she certainly didn’t deserve anything like this. That’s why we’re here, to try to make sure that she gets justice.”

&nb
sp; Pete cast a glance at him, then turned back to the others. “Chance and I are trying to find out about any kind of connections that there might be between all of the victims. Now, we already know that your daughter was not seeing any of the doctors or counselors that the other victims were. Can you think of any other way they might have been connected?”

  John looked at him for a moment, then shook his head. “I'm afraid not,” he said. “Naturally, I’ve been following the case in the news, but I don’t think Juliana knew any of those other women. Juliana was an attorney, and she was pretty much always buried in her work, Mr. Langley can tell you that.”

  “That’s true,” Langley said. “She probably spent most of her time at the library, trying to chase down some old, obscure case reference, or something new and innovative to help us win whatever case she was working on. Either that, or she was guzzling coffee. She had a favorite coffee shop where she could get online and work while she was inhaling caffeine.” He grinned.

  They all talked a while longer, and Juliana’s friends tried to offer more bits of insight into her personality. When the meeting was over, Pete felt that they had a good understanding of just who Juliana had been.

  As they got into the car to drive away, Pete looked over at Chance.

  “You want to give her justice, huh?”

  “Damn right,” Chance said. “We’ll find out who did this, Pete, but then this bastard is mine.”

  “I get you,” Pete said. “Just be careful, okay?”

  “I will,” Chance said. “Who’s next?”

  “Adrienne Moore’s husband,” Pete said. “I’m going to let you and Gabriella handle him. Run me back by the substation and you can pick her up there.”

  * * *

  An hour later, on the northern end of the city, Chance and Gabriella rang the doorbell at Adrienne Moore’s home, and it was opened by her husband. The man was looking pretty haggard, and Gabriella felt a pang of sympathy for him.

  “Mr. Moore?” Chance said. “I'm Chance Reddick, and this is my wife, Gabriella. We are investigators with Pete Dixon Investigations, and we’ve been hired to try to help find out what happened to your wife.”