Freak

by Jennifer Hillier

  Torrance shook his head. “No, something doesn’t fit. Blake’s name and face have been all over the news. Why would the killer stage a copycat when he knows damn well we already arrested Jack the Zipper?”

  “Maybe he panicked,” Jerry said. “Or maybe, somehow, he didn’t know the killer was arrested. We’ll know more once we ID her. How much longer for the prints?”

  “Any minute now.” As if on cue, Torrance’s phone rang. He answered the call, muttered a few words, then disconnected. Deep sigh. “Fuck. Her prints aren’t in the system.”

  “Guess that would have been too easy.”

  They both fell silent, thinking.

  “I stand by my original thought,” Jerry finally said a moment later. “My guess is she got killed for totally unrelated reasons, and the killer panicked.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Torrance said, pacing. “That doesn’t feel right to me.”

  “Well, you’ll have to find out who she is and who she knows. Once you do that, you’ll get some answers.”

  Torrance raised an eyebrow. “What happened to ‘we’?”

  “What?”

  “You said I’ll get some answers,” Torrance said, looking at him closely. “As in me. What happened to ‘we’? You don’t want to help me with this?”

  “Nah.” Jerry shook his head. “I think you can handle it.”

  “You serious?” Torrance was surprised. “You’re not going to see this through?”

  “I already have seen it through. Jack the Zipper’s in prison, and that’s all I agreed to help with. Whatever this is, it’s not my problem.” Jerry gave his former partner a rueful smile. “I’m not interested in any more of this, Mike. I’m meeting a beautiful woman for lunch, and once I get back from it, I’m turning in my consultant’s ID.”

  “Damn. I thought we were having fun, pal.”

  “Not my idea of a good time.” Jerry held his hand out to Torrance, who shook it slowly. “I’m out, Mike.”

  * * *

  Jerry hadn’t seen that smile in so long, and he soaked up every bit of it. It was like sunshine on his face. That one smile could cure world hunger, replenish the ozone layer, solve America’s debt crisis. Okay, maybe he was exaggerating, but it really was the best smile he’d ever seen, and it filled him up just to be on the receiving end of it.

  It felt natural being with Annie. He desperately wanted to reach over and touch his wife’s hand, but he didn’t want to push things. He didn’t know if the smile held the promise of anything beyond this afternoon, and he had gone into this date refusing to have expectations.

  He also didn’t know where things stood between her and the PSSU basketball coach. He hadn’t seen them together lately, but then again, he wasn’t following her anymore.

  Annie beamed at him, her face soft and glowy in the brightly lit tapas-style restaurant. They’d just finished lunch, and she was nibbling daintily at her crème brûlée, eyes closing with every bite. She loved crème brûlée. Jerry wondered if the basketball coach knew that.

  “So tell me how the appointment went,” she said. “Will the surgery be invasive?”

  Jerry took the last sip of his wine. “He said it wouldn’t be. I can expect to be under for a couple hours, maybe more. I’ll never sound like Barry White, but he can do things to help with the scratchiness. And I’m still going to have a scar. Recovery should take a couple of weeks.”

  “But it will look better?”

  “A lot better. Smaller, flatter, much less noticeable.”

  “Good.” Annie smiled. “Then you can get rid of those turtlenecks. I miss seeing your scrawny neck.”

  “Hey now, honey.” He laughed. “It’s not that scrawny.”

  For the first time in months, she didn’t bristle at his term of endearment. Instead, she laughed with him, diving back into her dessert.

  He had screwed up his courage and called her the day before to invite her out to lunch. Dinner had seemed a bit too intimate. He’d been scared to make the call, worried she’d hang up or, even worse, be cold toward him. He’d pressed her speed dial number five times before finally allowing the call to go through. Morris had been telling him for a long time that his worst sin was pride, and he thought now that the big guy was right. Annie had agreed to the lunch right away, and had even suggested the time and the place. It made Jerry wonder why he didn’t just call his wife ages ago.

  “So.” He fiddled with his empty wineglass as he formulated his next question. “How are things going with the basketball coach?”

  Annie put her spoon down and wiped her lips carefully with her cloth napkin. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small pot of lip balm. Jerry recognized it instantly. She’d discovered it in Paris when they’d gone on a tour of Europe a few years back, and had loved the stuff so much that she continued to order it online. Jerry remembered the taste—like honey and brown sugar.

  She rubbed some balm on her lips. Her eyes were soft. “Is that really what you want to talk about?”

  “You think it’s weird?” Jerry met her gaze with a steady one of his own. “No matter what, we’re still friends, aren’t we?”

  “It’s not about that. It’s just that I figured you already know how it’s going, and therefore don’t need to ask. You follow us, don’t you?”

  Jerry felt his face grow hot. She knew about that? And here he thought he was being so stealthy, switching the old Honda for a Jeep she’d never seen . . .

  Annie gave him a dry smile. “What? You don’t think I know you? I married a cop turned PI. You might be unpredictable to everybody else, but not me. And I like the Jeep. It suits you.”

  Well, shit. There was nothing to say to that.

  He couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t answered the question about her boyfriend, but before he could figure out another way to ask without sounding like a nosy prick, his phone vibrated. His hand reflexively went to his shirt pocket, but it stopped two inches short.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “Check it. I’m enjoying my dessert anyway.”

  “It’s okay.” Jerry put his hand back in his lap. “I can’t imagine who it would be. I told Torrance earlier today that I was done. Things are picking up at the office but nothing that can’t wait.”

  “I’m sure Danny can handle it.”

  “Actually, she has the week off. She’s studying for midterms.”

  “She left you on your own to run the office?” Annie’s voice held a trace of amusement. “And here I thought that girl was smart.”

  “She is smart.” Jerry grinned. “The kid works damned hard. Hate to lose her now that her internship’s all but done.”

  His phone vibrated again. Sighing, he pulled it out of his shirt pocket. It was Torrance. The detective had left a voice mail and now he was sending a text message. Had his former partner not been listening when Jerry said he was finished? He clicked on the text.

  CALL ME RIGHT NOW. URGENT.

  “It’s Mike,” he said, frowning. “I guess I’d better call him back.”

  Annie sat up straighter. The frown lines crinkling her face told him she wasn’t happy. “But you said all that was done. Abby Maddox is—” She stopped, realizing that she had just said the name they both hated out loud.

  “I’m sure it’s about something else.” Jerry gave her a reassuring smile. “Be two minutes, hon. Order me another glass of wine?” It was only one-thirty. He didn’t want the afternoon to end.

  She settled back into her chair. “Sure, why not. I’ll have one, too.” She lifted a hand to signal their waiter.

  Since it was raining outside, Jerry crossed the restaurant and ducked into the hallway where the restrooms were. He pressed a button on his phone, and it took only one ring before Torrance picked up. Jerry didn’t bother with pleasantries.

  “This better be good, Mike. I thought I made it clear—”

  “Jeremiah Blake is dead.”

  Fifty points. That’s how much Jerry guessed his blood pressure had just shot up. He knew T
orrance wouldn’t be telling him this if it didn’t have everything to do with Abby Maddox.

  Jerry counted to three, then said calmly, “What happened?”

  “He was found in his bunk, strangled with a zip tie. Face looked like a fucking grape. And there was a message carved on his chest. It said ‘I freed Abby Maddox.’”

  “Christ.” The images in Jerry’s mind were horrifying. “Suicide?”

  “That’s what they initially thought, but now they’re not sure. Someone snitched. It might be murder.”

  Jerry said nothing. He already knew what Torrance was about to ask.

  “Pal, is there any chance you could go down to Creekside, throw your police ID around, see if you can get in to see Maddox? Just until I can get there. I’m stuck working on the vic we found this morning, which I’m still convinced ties to Blake somehow. Unfortunately a fresh dead body takes priority over a dead serial killer in prison.”

  Jerry squeezed his eyes shut, trying to process it all. I FREED ABBY MADDOX. What did that mean?

  “And I’ve been thinking,” Torrance said. “We know Blake was obsessed with Maddox, but remember how you kept saying it felt like we were missing something?”

  “Yeah.” Jerry held his breath.

  “We were so focused on what Blake thought of Maddox that we never thought to ask what Maddox thought of Blake. When they cleaned out his cell, they found a cell phone. Can you believe that? A cell phone in prison? Apparently it’s becoming a fucking epidemic, and I’m hearing it’s the guards who sneak them in. There are a ton of texts in there from a couple of different numbers. We can’t seem to trace them, but from the messages, I’d bet my left titty the texts were from Maddox. She’s been communicating with Blake all along, praising him for his efforts, promising him the world. She played the kid, Jerry.” Torrance was breathing hard. “She played him from the beginning, encouraging him to do the killings so she’d have leverage with the prosecuting attorney to cut a deal. I’d bet my badge she got him killed just to tie up the loose end.”

  Again, Jerry said nothing.

  “Based on the texts between her and Blake, we might be able to get her on conspiracy charges for all four murders. I want the bitch to burn, pal. I need you.”

  Jerry glanced over to Annie, who was waiting for him at their table on the other side of the restaurant, a glass of red wine in her hand. An identical glass of wine was waiting for him at his seat. His wife was looking out the window at the rain, her face content, almost dreamy. They were having the nicest time they’d had together in over a year.

  Was he really going to bail on the woman he loved most in the world to go talk to the woman he hated most in the world?

  “I’m on my way.”

  Jerry disconnected the call. The violent itch at his throat, which had stayed blissfully dormant for the past week, was back with a vengeance. He scratched it long and hard before heading back to the table.

  chapter 31

  HE WAS CERTAIN he had heard wrong. Mind you, his ears were usually pretty good. The one thing Annie always said he had going for him was that he was a great listener . . . when he was listening. Which he was now. Very intently. He had driven like mad to get from the restaurant to Creekside Corrections and had made it in just over an hour, and his ears were still ringing from speeding the entire way. Maybe he had misheard her.

  “I am going to ask you to repeat that.” Jerry stared at the superintendent, an attractive, curvy black woman who reminded him of an old girlfriend he’d had long before he married Annie. “What do you mean, she’s not here? Where else would she be?”

  “Abby Maddox was accepted into the Be Smart program.” Alicia Elkes returned his heated gaze with a cool one of her own. “Ergo, she’s not here. Because she’s out. Doing her job.”

  “That’s what I thought you said.” Jerry felt like someone was playing a trick on him and that any minute, he was going to find out he’d been Punk’d. He gripped the sides of his chair in an effort to stay calm. The superintendent’s office was decorated in a soothing mix of yellows and lavenders, but it wasn’t helping. He forced a smile, but it probably came out a grimace, judging from the suddenly wary expression on the superintendent’s face.

  “Why am I just hearing about this now?” Jerry tried to soften his tone. “She’s only been at your facility for one week. And she’s in here for a violent offense.” Despite his best efforts, his voice got loud again. “You let violent offenders out so they can work?” Glimmers of shiny spittle flew into the air.

  Elkes pointedly wiped her cheek with a long, manicured fingernail. Her nail polish matched her lipstick. Bright coral. “We’re a minimum-security prison, Mr. Isaac.” She spoke slowly, obviously choosing her words carefully. “Do you understand that one hundred percent of our inmates will be released at some point? Therefore our focus is on rehabilitation, not punishment.”

  “But everybody here is a criminal.”

  She frowned at his choice of words. “They’ve committed crimes. They’ve broken the law. But the majority of our offenders are not bad people. They’ve just made bad choices. It’s in the best interest of society that we prepare them for a life outside of prison in the hopes that they won’t reoffend. The Be Smart program, if successful, will boost morale for the inmates and keep kids from going down the wrong path. Abigail Maddox is a perfect fit for Be Smart. I had no qualms about expediting her acceptance into the program.”

  “Because it’s underfunded, and you were desperate for the publicity.”

  Elkes’s face hardened, but she didn’t respond. Which meant he was right.

  Jerry sat staring at her in disbelief. What the hell kind of sick place would allow Abby Maddox to be part of a program that allowed her to go outside? He had heard of the Be Smart program, and while it sounded like it had potential, it involved inmates leaving the prison, something Jerry couldn’t wrap his mind around.

  “Do you people have any idea what Abby Maddox is capable of?” Jerry tugged on his turtleneck and willed himself not to scratch. “Do you know who you’re dealing with here?”

  “Mr. Isaac.” Alicia Elkes sighed, folding her hands on top of Maddox’s manila file folder. “I don’t mean to overstep, but you are the retired police detective she assaulted, right? I realize this is personal to you. I’m sorry.”

  Yet the superintendent didn’t seem sorry at all. A year ago, Jerry would have yelled. Nowadays, he no longer possessed the vocal strength to yell, and it was frustrating beyond all measure.

  “Why didn’t anybody notify me?” His voice was painfully hoarse. “Someone should have let me know that the woman who did this to me would be running around free during the day.” He yanked down the top of his turtleneck and allowed the woman to get a good look at his scar. Her dark eyes widened as she took in all four inches of the purplish brown puckered flesh. It never failed to shock. “So as you can imagine, your news is not good news, ma’am.”

  Elkes rolled her chair back a few inches. “Mr. Isaac—”

  “Call me Jerry. My father was Mr. Isaac.”

  “Mr. Isaac. Did you not just consult on a police investigation where Miss Maddox helped solve a series of murders? Which is the reason she was transferred here?”

  “I did what I had to do to save young women from being murdered. And I’d do it again. Because I survived. Others didn’t.” Jerry took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “But that doesn’t mean I would have agreed to her participating in an outside work program, had I been consulted.”

  “It wasn’t the Department of Corrections’ job to consult you.”

  Fuck you. “Then there are flaws in your system.”

  “I never said it was perfect.” Elkes sighed. “But you did catch the killer, didn’t you? With her help?”

  Jerry didn’t know how to answer this. The issue wasn’t that Jeremiah Blake was the killer. It was that he hadn’t acted alone. “Jack the Zipper was an immediate threat.”

  “Yes, but Abby Maddox isn’t.” Elkes le
aned back in her chair.

  There was so much Jerry wanted to say, but he bit his tongue. Literally. He relaxed his jaw, tasting blood. “Where is her group right now? What school?”

  “I am not going to give you that information.” Elkes moved Maddox’s file to the corner of her desk. “She’ll be back in the facility in two hours. You’re welcome to speak with her then.”

  Jerry rubbed his temple. The woman really didn’t get it. “This can’t wait two hours,” he said, standing up. “The teenage killer she helped find? Jeremiah Blake? She may have arranged his murder.”

  He pulled out his phone. Torrance had emailed him photos of Blake dead in his cell, which Jerry hadn’t wanted to see, but now he was glad he had them. He showed them to Elkes, whose dark eyes widened in horror. Her hand went to her mouth and she seemed unable to speak for a few seconds.

  “Ms. Elkes, I need to speak with Maddox now. Wherever she is, you get her back here before somebody else shows up dead. Because I guarantee you somebody will.”

  “I—”

  “Do it!” Jerry roared, his damaged vocal cords finally finding just the right groove. For the first time in a year, his voice thundered. He knew it wouldn’t last. He leaned in and pointed a finger right in her face. “You listen to me, and you listen to me good, Ms. Elkes. I am heading to my car. In three minutes I’m going to call you and you are going to give me the location of Abby Maddox’s Be Smart group. If you don’t give it to me, I am going to personally contact the Department of Corrections and let them know what a pathetic facility you’re running here. And then I’m going to give interview after interview about your lack of competency on every news outlet that’s been hounding me for the past year, about what a ridiculous failure the Be Smart program is, and I’m not going to hold back. If somebody else dies and Abby Maddox is responsible, then I’m holding you responsible. Do I make myself clear?”

  “I will get that information for you.” Alicia Elkes’s condescending, professional demeanor was finally beginning to crack. Obviously the things she cared most about were her job and the reputation of her facility, and Jerry had just threatened both. She was visibly upset, her lips quivering. “What else can I do?”