“This is all for you,” Richard quietly stated. “Everything he’s done over the past two weeks has all been about you. The notes, phone calls, breaking into your condo…Sandy Irvine. All for you.”
Oliver dropped heavily into the chair in front of Holland’s desk. “So, you’re saying that he cut Jennifer Clayton’s baby from her body for me?”
“Not for you, Oliver…because of you.”
“I’m not fucking following. If you have a point to make, Richard, I suggest you make it.”
“I don’t think he would have killed April if he’d known about her pregnancy. Somewhere in his sick, demented mind, he feels vindicated by saving Jennifer Clayton’s baby as well as Sandy Irvine’s. He handed you Sandy Irvine as an offering, Oliver. He feels he’s making restitution.”
“Restitution? He can go fuck himself! Nothing he does will ever bring April back. And when I get my hands on him, I will kill him, Richard. You can bank on that!”
“Easy, big guy,” Holland replied, watching him intently. “Are you going to be able to handle this case? If not, let me know now. I can’t have you running in, guns blazing. There could be others out there. Others we don’t know about.”
Oliver laughed without humor. “Do you honestly think he’s going to simply roll over like a good dog and hand you the names to more victims? You’re kidding yourself.”
“Maybe you should take a few days off. You’ve been through a lot in the past two weeks. You’ve been shot. You—”
“No,” Oliver interrupted, sitting forward in his chair. “I’m not taking a few days off. I’m fine. Now, let’s get back to what we know. He took Sandy Irvine from a public place. We’ll need to go over the footage from the restaurant’s cameras.”
Holland continued to study Oliver through narrowed eyes. “You’re sure you can handle this?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But I damn sure intend to see it through till the end, with or without the FBI’s help.”
Richard made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. “If you screw this up, I’ll have you locked up right alongside him.”
Oliver ignored Holland’s threat and got to his feet. He moved over to a large map hanging on the wall.
Picking up a marker, Oliver located the fast food restaurant where Sandy was taken. “What we know so far is that the Silencer took Sandy from here.”
He touched the designated spot on the map with the marker. “And drove her approximately twenty minutes to a place I’m assuming is his home.”
Oliver studied the map to get an approximate on a twenty-minute distance in all directions, and then followed his course with the marker. “He’s in this vicinity.”
Holland got up and moved to stand next to Oliver. “That’s a large distance to cover.”
“How long before the video footage from the restaurant is ready?”
Richard moved back to his desk. “I’ll call Okaloosa County now. They were also looking at the surrounding businesses as well and gathering what footage they can.”
Oliver absently nodded; his gaze fixated on that map. Where are you, you son of a bitch…
* * * *
Oliver arrived at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department an hour later. He followed the sheriff and a couple deputies to a room in the back of the station.
The sheriff gestured to a large screen on the wall and moved to engage the feed. “It’s not good news. I looked over it and didn’t find anything. The fast food restaurant where the victim was taken doesn’t have cameras near the bathrooms. Only on the drive thru and the ordering counter.”
Oliver watched as the feed began to run an hour before and after Sandy Irvine’s time at the fast food chain.
“If he forced her into his car,” the sheriff questioned from behind Oliver, “how did her vehicle end up on the side of the road, ten minutes from there?”
Good question, Oliver thought. “My guess is once he had Mrs. Irvine where he wanted her, he locked her inside and went back to retrieve her vehicle.”
The sheriff stepped up next to Oliver. “But how did he get back to her vehicle?”
“My guess is he walked,” Oliver replied, his gaze glued to that screen.
The sheriff grunted. “Maybe. But if the drive to the location where he took Mrs. Irvine took twenty minutes to get there from that restaurant, that has to be several miles.”
Oliver spoke without looking away from the video feed. “He let Sandy Irvine go for a reason. He knew we would question her about her abduction. He wanted her to tell us exactly what she did. It’s his little game of cat-and-mouse.”
“What are you saying?”
“He drove her in circles,” Oliver softly replied before facing the sheriff. He knew he wouldn’t find anything on the security feed. “How far was her car located from the restaurant?”
The sheriff answered immediately. “Approximately ten minutes.”
Oliver shook his head. “How many miles?”
“I’d say five miles.”
Facing the security feed once more, Oliver stated, “He walked to that restaurant to get Sandy’s car. He also walked home from where her vehicle was found on the side of the road. The place he took her is somewhere between that restaurant and the place her vehicle was found.”
“That’s still a five-mile radius,” the sheriff pointed out. “And there are literally thousands of homes in that proximity.”
Oliver had already surmised as much.
The next two hours were spent with Oliver watching video feed after video feed while talking out the investigation with the Okaloosa County sheriff. Oliver liked the man. He exuded intelligence as well as confidence. He reminded Oliver of the police chief in Baldwin County, Alabama. Both men were extremely efficient and damn good at their jobs.
“I’ll check with local hospitals and doctor’s offices,” the sheriff announced. “If he cared enough about that baby to bring him a surrogate to feed him, maybe he’s taken him to a doctor as well.”
Oliver nodded. “I would also check the pharmacies for prescriptions filled in the past two weeks. Just in case the baby was taken out of the county for a checkup.”
The sheriff nodded to one of the deputies in the room. “Go ahead and get started on it. I want as many men as we can spare working this.”
“Yes, sir.” Both deputies left the room.
Oliver turned and met the sheriff’s gaze. “Mrs. Irvine told me that the man who took her brought her to that house specifically to feed the baby. He mentioned the words colostrum and beestings to her.”
“Colostrum?” A small indention appeared between the sheriff’s eyes. “I’m not familiar?”
Oliver nodded. “Most men aren’t. Hell, I had to look it up. Apparently, colostrum contains antibodies to protect a newborn against disease. It’s found only in mothers who have recently given birth or are close to giving birth.”
“He could have researched it online,” the sheriff pointed out.
Oliver considered that for a moment. “Or he works in the medical field. I’ll have our analyst pull all male nurses and doctors in the surrounding areas, see if anyone has a record.”
The sheriff pinched the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“Needle in a haystack.” Oliver ejected the video feed disk and plucked up the others resting on the table in front of him. “I’d like to take these home with me. I’ll go over them again tonight. Hopefully, I’ll see something we missed.”
“Go ahead. I have copies.”
Oliver left the sheriff’s department and drove to the fast food joint Sandy Irvine had been taken from.
He wouldn’t find anything there. But hopefully, he’d get a feel of what the Silencer saw, what he…felt.
Chapter Thirty-One
The fast food restaurant was busy with people in a hurry to eat and run. After locating the evening manager, Oliver was able to enter the women’s restroom without encountering much trouble.
There were three st
alls along the wall. Two smaller ones and one larger one that had a handicapped logo on it.
Sandy Irvine had explained that she used the stall on the end. She’d heard the water come on shortly after her arrival.
Oliver entered said stall. He noticed the sink was too far away to be able to see shoes from under the stall. Also, the crack in the door didn’t allow for a view of the sink, either.
He unlocked the stall door and stepped out.
It would easy for an unsub to wait against the wall and grab a potential victim from behind.
The mirror in front of Oliver provided a good view of the wall behind him. How had Sandy Irvine not seen the face of the man behind her?
She’d told Oliver that she was too afraid to look, for fear of her unborn child.
Oliver left the bathroom and sought out the manager once more.
Though the manager was a bit on the heavy side, she was about Sandy’s height.
Oliver waved her over. “Would you mind helping me for a moment?”
“Sure.” She followed Oliver into the women’s restroom.
With a nod to the first stall, Oliver explained. “I need you to go in there and tell me what you see.”
She did as he insisted.
Oliver stepped up to the sink and turned the water on. “See anything?”
“No.”
He switched off the water and moved to stand against the wall. “Thank you. You can come out now.”
Once she stepped from the stall, Oliver grabbed her from behind, his gloved hand, covering her mouth.
She made an involuntary sound against his palm, but her gaze never moved to the mirror in front of her.
Oliver quickly released her. “I’m sorry about that, but I needed you to be caught off guard in order to get a good feel of what happened in here.”
She laughed nervously. “You surprised me.”
“How come you didn’t look in the mirror to see who’d grabbed you?”
Her humor fled, and her head tilted to the side. “I honestly don’t recall. All I know is that you gave me a start. We can do it again, if you’d like?”
“No, you did good,” Oliver assured her. “You’ve been a bigger help than you realize.”
Oliver hurried back to his rental car, already on the phone with Nancy. “Cross-reference all male nurses and doctors in the surrounding hospitals and clinics who live within ten to twenty minutes of the restaurant where Sandy Irvine was taken.”
“Okay. You’re thinking the killer lives near the abduction site?”
“I don’t know,” Oliver answered, backing out of the parking lot. “But there’s a good chance he does.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. His other victims were found in different states.”
Oliver pulled out into the heavy Destin traffic on his way to the Santa Rosa General Hospital. “But there’s been no victims that we know of, for the past six years, until now. It’s just a hunch I’d like to eliminate.”
“I’m on it.”
Thank you, Nancy.”
Oliver ended the call and drove back to the hospital in anticipation of questioning Sandy Irvine once more.
He arrived ten minutes later and softly knocked on the open door to Sandy Irvine’s room.
She sat up in bed, one of her eyes partially open.
“Hi, Mrs. Irvine. I hate to put you through anything more, but I was hoping to ask you a few more questions.”
She nodded her consent and muted the television hanging on the wall. “Come in.”
Oliver entered, careful to keep his demeanor friendly.
He pulled up a chair next to her bed in order to be at eye level with her. “How are you feeling? You look a lot better.”
“I can see out of my left eye now. The doctor says the baby is doing good, and that I should be able to go home tomorrow. They want to keep me overnight until all my tests come back.”
Oliver sent her a reassuring smile. “That’s good news.”
She licked her lips. “What do you need to know?”
“You mentioned before that you didn’t get a look at the man’s face who took you.”
“That’s right.”
Oliver held her gaze. “I’m wondering if maybe you did, and you can’t remember. Sometimes the mind blocks out traumatic incidents. It’s a way of coping with things we’d rather not remember.”
She sat up straighter in bed, confusion shining in her partially open eye. “You think I blocked out seeing his face? I remember him grabbing me from behind, the terror I felt at hearing his voice in my ear. How could I forget his face?”
“I don’t know,” Oliver softly replied. “Maybe you truly didn’t see him. But I’d like to try something, if you’re willing?”
She hesitated, nervous energy exuding from her. “I’m afraid, Mr. Quick. What if I don’t want to remember?”
Oliver experienced an internal battle in that moment. Mrs. Irvine had been through a terrible ordeal, and she was well over eight months in her pregnancy. But if the Silencer wasn’t caught, and soon, he would kill again. Of that, Oliver was certain.
He looked Sandy straight in the eye. “We believe the man who took you is a serial killer known as the Silencer. If he’s not caught, and soon, the likelihood of him killing again is very probable. You’re the only person he’s taken so far that has lived to tell about it. If there’s something your mind is suppressing, we need to pull it out. It could very well help us catch him before he kills again.”
The eye, partially open, filled with tears. “Okay, I’ll try.”
“Thank you, Sandy. I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. I need you to close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing.”
Her half-open eye slid shut.
“Now breathe. Nice, deep breaths. Think back on the last day you worked. You’d just left your job to go pick your daughter up from daycare. What happened next?”
“I started feeling lightheaded and shaky, so I pulled through the drive thru at a fast food restaurant.”
Oliver didn’t move. “You ordered a milkshake,” he coaxed, his voice even and smooth. “And then drove to your daughter’s daycare.”
“No…” She slowly shook her head. “I parked and went inside. I wanted to use the restroom before I got back on the road.”
Oliver could see her eyes darting around behind her eyelids. Her mind was alight with memories. “The bathroom was empty when you went inside.”
“Yes. I was in there alone. But the door opened, and I heard the water come on. I opened the door to my stall… I was looking through my purse for my lipstick…”
That was something she’d left out previously, Oliver noted, watching her intently. “You washed your hands.”
Her head began to move from side to side. “No… I-I couldn’t find my lipstick. My head was pulled back. Someone was behind me, holding me. I could smell his cologne. His hand was on my forehead, holding my head back against him. I opened my mouth to scream, but he covered it. I couldn’t breathe.”
“The mirror, Sandy. What did you see in the mirror?”
“I— He forced my eyes open. He said that if I made a sound, he would kill me. My baby, all I could think of was my baby.”
“The mirror, Sandy. Concentrate on the mirror.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “I…my eyes burned. The room grew blurry. The mirror… He…”
The only eye she could see out of flew open as far as her injury would allow. “I saw him! Not clearly, but I saw him! His hair color…pale. White or blond, I can’t be sure.”
Oliver wanted to dive over that railing and hug Sandy Irvine.
She blew out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help more.”
Oliver stood. “You helped more than you know. Thank you, Mrs. Irvine.”
She gave a small nod. “Catch him. Please.”
“I intend to.” He turned on his heel and left the room.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The following morning, Ol
iver finished off an entire pot of coffee while going over the Silencer case.
There were fifteen folders laid out on his bar, containing fifteen victims. Including April.
Oliver stared at her beautiful picture for long moments before closing her folder and opening Jennifer Clayton’s.
The Silencer had taken Jennifer’s baby.
Oliver scanned the notes from the autopsy, stopping once again on the contents of Jennifer’s stomach. She’d been fed. The Silencer had repeatedly drowned her before cutting her up, which was his way of throwing the FBI off his trail. He’d wanted to pin her death on the Dockside Killer. But he’d known Oliver would figure it out.
Which was why he’d deposited her body beneath the pier in Panama City Beach. If he’d taken her to Alabama, she would have been listed as one of Wendel Bedford’s victims, without question.
Oliver studied the pictures of Jennifer Clayton’s body. He wanted me involved. But why?
He read the report once again, determining that Jennifer had been drowned not long after the baby had been removed from her womb. Her stomach contents were too fresh.
So, he kept her alive for a week, removed her baby from her body before drowning her, resuscitating her and then cutting her up.
Oliver flipped that page over, ran his fingertip down the paper until he found what he sought. Jennifer Clayton had been drowned in fresh water. City water, to be exact. Probably from the same bathtub he dismembered her in.
Picking up his cell phone, Oliver put in a call to Nancy.
“I’m still working on it,” she chirped, answering on the first ring.
Oliver figured that. “Cross-reference the doctors and nurses around Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay County with homes on one-acre lots or bigger in the Destin area. Preferably homes purchased in the past six years.”
“You got it.”
After hanging up with Nancy, Oliver put in a call to Richard. “I believe he’s in the city limits of Destin, on an acre or more of land.”
“Where are you, now?”
“At my condo,” Oliver explained, already opening another file.
“On my way.”
Placing the cell phone back on the bar, Oliver examined the contents of the folder. He’d been over most of the Silencer case a hundred times before walking away from the FBI. But he’d also been too close to the case. It had been too difficult to be objective while mourning and searching for April’s killer.
Oliver Quick Page 13
