by Dale Mayer
“That’s true,” she said sadly. “Like I said, there are no second chances in life.”
“But there are.” Simon was getting really annoyed at her.
“No, you’re just living in dreamland.”
“And what are you living in?” he snapped.
“Reality,” she whispered. And she disconnected again. Even though he tried hard, it blew him away that somebody who supposedly didn’t have any abilities and didn’t know how this worked was capable of shutting him out, even though he seemed incapable of shutting others out. How did that work? It seemed like everybody else was better at this, and they weren’t even psychics.
Frustrated, he sat back down again and sent Kate a text. I contacted the blind woman again.
Good. Did you get an address, a location?
No, but she’s not at the husband’s apparently.
So she’s at the mother’s then. The mother said something about her, but also said that she wouldn’t let anybody in to see her.
We need to track her down.
I might have a better idea. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.
Chapter 20
Back at the station Kate led her guest into an interview room, where they went over Bill’s statement.
“On the drive over,” Bill said, “I found the email too.” Bill flipped around his laptop, so she could see it.
She read it in surprise. “Interesting,” she murmured. “Can you forward that to me?”
He nodded, then flipped the laptop back around and quickly sent it to her.
Rodney looked at her. “Who is it? Do you know?” When she frowned, Bill spoke up.
“Honestly I think it’s the blind woman. She made a couple references in there. And I know that she came to the process late.”
“And it kind of fits.” Kate considered what Simon had said about the information that he had.
“That email certainly isn’t criminal either,” Rodney noted.
“No, of course not,” she murmured. “It just makes it all that much more important that we figure out what’s going on with her.”
Bill shrugged. “I haven’t seen her in a long time. She came a lot to the intersection, and then she didn’t come anymore. Until this week. At least I thought it was her.”
“Did you ever see her with anybody?”
He nodded. “A couple times she was with an older man. Her father maybe?”
“Or maybe her husband?”
“No, I don’t think so. I would say older.”
“Hmm,” Kate murmured, “that’s interesting.”
As soon as they finished writing up Bill’s statement, which was recorded as well, and she’d arranged for a ride back home for Bill, Kate walked to her computer and quickly looked up all the relatives around Pamela.
Rodney said, “We’ve got an address for her mother. I confirmed it.”
“Good, I thought we did. Local?”
He nodded. “Yeah, they’re in town.”
“Then let’s go have a little talk with her.”
“Do you think they’ll let us in?”
“It depends. It also depends if I can get Simon to help at all.” Rodney raised his eyebrows at that. She shrugged. “I know. I know. I just feel like something very strange is going on here.”
“We have a lot of parts and pieces. Eventually we’ll get all of it.”
“True, I just don’t understand why though. I wish we could also find the other person from that incident where Candy pushed down her guy friend instead of Pamela, as Brandon wanted Candy to do. All that happened at the same time as the blind woman—presumably Pamela—got pushed by somebody.”
“The two women in our group of bullies are dead, and the four rich guys aren’t likely to talk to us again, especially if we don’t have more information to use against them.”
“And I don’t want to bring them in just yet. We don’t want to tip our hand.”
“Depending on what we’ll be accusing them of, it’s already too late.”
“I suspect that’s why we already have two dead young women on our hands. And I don’t want there to be a slew of young men either.” Rodney stared at her. She shrugged. “I don’t know whether Brandon thinks he can’t trust anybody or if it’s just the females.”
“So you think he’s cleaning up?”
“I do,” she said quietly. “But I don’t know that it’s related to any of these other accidents—those yearly occurrences.”
“No, maybe not. We also don’t know for sure that the recent deaths are even related to each other.”
“I know, yet … these two—Candy and Paula—are definitely related, being in the same gang and all, and that’s what we have to keep our eye on. Plus, Candy and Sally were probably killed with the same ice-bullet contraption. So right there it seems we have a cross-over from our annual deaths to these most recent ones. I still think we have two killers.”
“Or,” Rodney suggested, “one killer with two MOs.”
Kate groaned. “I just want some answers.” And, with that, she looked over at the two boxes of paperwork from Dr. Agress’s office and groaned again. “We haven’t had a chance to go through this collection either, and we need to. Colby will have my head if I don’t get through this, after all the fuss I made.”
“Let’s do it now. We can push back the visit to the mother’s place for an hour,” he said, checking his watch.
“Let’s see if any names here pop at least.” After only a few minutes, Kate sat back. “Looks like Pamela had lodged several complaints against the group of kids.” She shook her head. “Yeah, even before her horrible accident.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded. “Yes, apparently they harassed her a couple times, badly enough that she was quite nervous around them. They even scared her little girl at one point, when Pamela and Jillie were walking on campus, heading home.”
“Assholes,” he muttered.
“I know, and we have it here in black-and-white.”
“Do you think that’s what Dr. Agress was trying to hold back?”
“I don’t know. Either way it’s not good news for Brandon. But, so far, outside of being an asshole, we don’t have anything bigger than that.”
“No, what we need is a confession or some forensics. And the trouble is, because Brandon says he’s having an affair with both of them,” Rodney stepped in, “his DNA could be all over the place, and we have a logical explanation for it.”
“Yes. I don’t know about the other guys’ particular sexual relationships, his three gang members. However, they all confirmed that the ‘relationships,’ such as they were, had been a shared mess between them.”
“How is that even normal?”
“It’s not normal, but self-expression, exploration, trying to outdo each other? It all fits.” She gave a wave of her hand. “Maybe not common sense or smart choices, but again it’s nothing we’ll get Brandon or his buddies on as criminal.”
“Unless he did do something to those two young women.”
“I am interested in the fact that Bill said that he saw Brandon step up to the first victim—Sally.”
“But do you really think nobody would have seen him shoot her?”
“If he held his hand out and just popped her one in the general direction, I don’t know what it would take, what kind of a firing mechanism it would involve to shoot those ice bullets.”
“Hell, a BB gun, an air gun? Something with some force but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a pistol.”
She looked at him. “It could be one of those small ones that are easily hidden in the palm.”
“We just have to find that weapon.”
She nodded. “And because the ice pellets melt, no forensics would allow for a match against a weapon.”
“And again, we have to catch him with it. Which means a warrant for his place, but we don’t have enough for that yet.”
“No. That’s another reason to go talk to Pamela.” She looked at
the rest of the information Dr. Agress had been forced to turn over. “Dozens and dozens of complaints are in here. Even if we just stick to the years when Brandon was around”—she pulled up just the last year’s worth of complaints in one folder—“I bet thirty complaints are in here.”
“Not necessarily all against him though.”
“No, but I bet a lot of them are.” She sat at her desk to sort through them. “Out of these twenty-four complaints in the two last years, sixteen are against Brandon or his group.”
“Wow, and the four male bullies are still there.”
“Because none of the accused were ever dealt with. We need to make some phone calls.” And she grabbed her phone and handed him the list to split.
As it was, Lilliana walked in. “I can help.”
Owen followed behind her. “Me too.”
And, with the four of them, they split up the list and made phone calls to the sixteen complainants in question. When they all put their phones down about forty-five minutes later, they just stared at each other.
“These guys are sheer assholes.” Kate almost growled.
“The gist I got,” Lilliana said, “after comparing notes with Rodney and Owen, is that they surrounded their target, threatened them, pushed them—in one case knocked them down the stairs. In another case they knocked a woman over, and she broke the heel on her shoe, so she tripped on a lower step. Another one fell on the sidewalk in bad weather and slick mud. She already had a condition that made it difficult for her to walk, and she didn’t have a walker or anything with her that day. All the complaints were withdrawn, or they refused to follow through, and it took these phone calls and some pressure for them to confess that they were threatened. I got two people who wouldn’t even say that much. They wouldn’t talk about it, and they got very scared.”
“In other words, the threats are of an extreme nature.” Kate grimaced, shaking her head. “Whenever we get these assholes charged, we need to contact these people and let them know that they don’t have to be afraid for their lives from this guy or his pals again.”
“Not until the whole group of them is locked away,” Lilliana said. “You don’t dare right now. Their fear of that group is keeping them alive. If Brandon ever sees his victims again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he wouldn’t take it a step further.”
“I think he did. I can’t reach this guy, Trent.” Kate tapped at the last number on her list. She brought the name up in the database. “And that’s why. He’s dead.”
“How did he die?”
She sat back, quickly reading. “Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?”
“He supposedly fell off the top of a building.”
“And we’re calling it suicide?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned at the information. “The first responders found no suicide note. The investigators found no typical suicidal actions beforehand. He was thought to be a bright student and happy.”
“So, what do we—”
Kate pulled out her phone again and dialed Trent’s parents. When she identified herself to Trent’s mom, Kate explained that she and other detectives were taking another look at her son’s death, as it might pertain to others on campus. The mother said, a simmering rage in her voice, “You need to look at those assholes.”
“Who is that, ma’am?” Kate asked, instantly putting the phone on Speaker.
“He was being tormented by a group of people on campus. Because he had Tourette’s, they were always bugging him and mocking him, and there was nothing he could do.”
“Did he say what they were doing to him? Like did they physically attack him?”
“Several times. He would never press charges because they kept swearing they would make him pay if he did. I don’t know what the threat was, but it was always bad enough that he wouldn’t turn them in. I begged him to talk to his dean, and he finally did put in a letter about it, a formal complaint, but it never went anywhere, as far as I know.”
“Did he withdraw that complaint?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible,” she said, her voice heavy. “I know those guys tormented him mercilessly.”
“Did he ever go up on the rooftop before?”
“Yes, all the time. He loved to watch the stars up there. And, no, I don’t believe for a moment that he committed suicide,” she snapped, her voice once again revealing her grief and anger. “It wasn’t his style.”
“No, of course not. And he was a good student too, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was. He’d already overcome so many things in his life. But these kids, they just wore him down.”
“And that’s partly why there was suspicion of suicide, correct?”
“That and the fact that he was on the roof. Nobody seemed to think that anybody would go up there.”
“It’s beautiful up there, I imagine,” she said calmly.
“It was, indeed. He used to send us photos of it all the time.”
“And did you ever send those photos that he sent you to the coroner, to prove that he was up there a lot?”
“No.” She hesitated. “Would that have made any difference?”
“I can talk to him about it.” Kate noted Smidge’s name on the autopsy report.
“I’d appreciate it if you could. I really can’t stand to think that they all think my boy would commit suicide.”
“And I’m sorry. I know college can be deadly at times,” she said.
“Not that deadly. He had a new girlfriend, and he was planning on coming home right after the holidays. He was hoping to talk her into coming too.”
“Any idea what her name was?”
“Of course. It was Candy. He was really sweet on her.”
“Wow. When did he start going out with her?” Kate asked the question, as she checked the dates on the student’s death. It was only a month ago. “I don’t know. Honestly it’s all rolling into a nightmare of details that I don’t want to remember anymore,” she whispered. “He was so sweet on Candy, but he said that she was in with a bad crowd and that he would try to get her away from them.”
“You do realize that bad crowd was the same crowd hassling him, don’t you?”
“She was part of that?” Trent’s mom asked.
“Yes, she was one of the group.”
“I don’t think he ever would have gone out with her if he had known that,” she replied in shock. “I mean, they made his life hellish. Not just bad but unbelievably bad. I just can’t see him wanting anything to do with her because of that.”
“Maybe she kept it from him.”
“Yet, according to Trent, she wanted to get away from that crowd, like they were bullying her too.”
“I think they were. Yes, Candy’s mom also said something about Candy wanting to leave that group too.”
“Too bad she didn’t leave earlier with my boy, then my son would still be alive.”
“Candy’s dead, as well.” A few minutes later, Kate hung up the phone and sat here, her face buried in her hands, as she thought about everything. Then her head popped up, as she faced her team. “Candy’s body was found on the bike in the intersection. I only know that she had a bike, as we confirmed that with the university, based on a bike permit, and we found her other possessions in Paula’s dorm room, but I wonder if that’s all of it? Did Paula collect it? Brandon? If he did, what are the chances he still has something of hers? A souvenir, so to speak.”
“It’d be great if we found something with Brandon,” Rodney said, “but, since they were in a relationship, he’d have a logical reason for anything we did find.”
“I guess, but I do wonder how stupid he is.” Kate paused. “Or how overconfident.”
“He’s stupid for sure, but it doesn’t mean he’s that stupid,” Lilliana said. “Yet my vote’s for overconfident.”
“I know. And a warrant would help us find the gun and possibly some of Candy’s stuff. We’ve got so much going on here now, and, although it’s s
tarting to break, we’re just not quite there yet.”
“I think we need to talk to Pamela and see what we can get out of her,” Rodney said.
Kate nodded. “Oh, I agree. I definitely agree with you there. Let’s hope that we can find her and that she will talk to us.” Kate stood, straightening slowly. “Man, this case is twisted.”
“They’re all twisted, one way or another,” Lilliana said. “It’s just a matter of carefully untwisting it so that we can figure out exactly what we’ve got going on.”
“And that’s the problem. There’s so much confusion.” Kate shook her head.
“Seems to me that you need to find this Pamela, ask her questions about all this,” Owen said. “Then go at this bully Brandon again and see if you can get a warrant for his house.”
“I wish I could get that warrant right now”—Kate sighed—“but that just won’t fly yet. We don’t have enough.”
“But you’re close,” Lilliana said. “Think about it. You’ve got a lot. You just need that final clincher that says he’s guilty. Just that one piece, other than the word-of-mouth talk from other people.”
“And that’s where the problem is. Because, so far, everybody with real insider information is dead.”
“Except for his cohorts,” Rodney said.
“Which one of them is the weakest link, you think?” Kate turned to face her partner.
Rodney frowned. “You know what? I’m not sure. But, if you think one of them is a weaker link, you can bet Brandon does too.”
She winced at that. “Maybe we’d better locate all of them and bring them back in for questioning at the same time but in separate rooms.” She stopped, frowned. “Yet I’ve got to get up to Pamela’s place now.”
Rodney spoke up. “I’ll call them in. You want all four guys?”
“Just the three for the moment.” She considered it carefully. “See if we can catch them in a lie and shake something loose.”
“Got it. Are you okay to find Pamela then?”
“Yep, and let’s hope that I can talk to her.”
“Yeah, and let’s hope that, when you do, she has something to say.”
Kate nodded. “Bingo.” And she grabbed her wallet and keys and her jacket, then turned to the others. “I have to go and pick up my car first. Wish me luck.”
