by Dale Mayer
“No, ma’am. I get that. I am sorry for your loss. Thank you for your time.” Kate hung up the phone, and, staring down at the information, her stomach got queasy. “How though? Just how the hell did that happen?” she whispered to no one.
At that, she turned on her email and checked for the concerned citizen email that had been sent to Bill, the ex-cop, the guy who had lost his son. Kate read it intently. Nothing was on the surface, but something was underneath. An intimation that something needed to be done, something more. Was that it? Was killing Jillie’s killer it? Was that what needed to be done? Was it that these people needed to be dealt with in kind? And, if the city wouldn’t do anything to fix it, then the survivors would do something?
Not that the city would come and fix the intersection after they had already refused once, but Pamela—and her proxy—actually wanted these people to pay for killing their loved ones. The oldest motive in the world: revenge. As Kate sat here, staring, Rodney came into the bullpen, crowing in delight.
“The mother is no longer quite so cocky.”
Kate looked up at him. “And?”
“Apparently Pamela was making phone calls, trying to get somebody to kill the guy who killed her daughter. In her opinion, Pamela didn’t feel he did enough time.”
“She was trying to hire somebody, right?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Did you already hear that from the father?”
“No. But he did intimate that Pamela wasn’t right in the head, and that’s why they were keeping her locked up.”
“So she had a cell phone, but it had no battery, so she couldn’t contact anyone.”
“I bet she’s not that stupid. Do we still have people at the house?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Have them search her room for a battery for that cell phone,” she said.
“You think she’s behind this?”
“I’m not sure, but we’re close. We’re very close.”
“She couldn’t have done it on her own. Not being blind. Not the way they had her locked down.”
“No, she wouldn’t have, especially with her failing sight. And I don’t know that she even knows about the other victims, the loved ones they left behind. It could be that she set something into motion that somebody else took up, and it eventually took on a life of its own.”
“Jesus, but who?”
“We don’t have a shortage of suspects. Unfortunately we still have too many, but I’m thinking of the father who sent us the email. The ex-cop.”
“But wouldn’t that have just sent him on Pamela’s trail?”
“Yes, I’m just not sure who else knew though.” With that, she picked up the phone and called him. “Bill, it’s Detective Kate Morgan. I’m calling about that email you got again. Did you tell anybody about it?”
“Sure, a couple people.”
“Anybody in particular?”
He laughed. “Yeah, for sure. You were talking to him today.”
She ended the call, telling Rodney, “I have to go.”
Rodney called out, “Hang on. I’m coming.”
She nodded. “Let’s move fast.”
As it was, Rodney drove, and they headed out to the pizza corner. “Seriously, it’s him, the owner?”
“No, I don’t know anything yet, but he’s one of the people Bill told about the email.”
“Why would Bill do that?”
“Because when he got it, Bill was pretty disgusted. He wanted everything to be within the law,” she murmured.
“Do we believe him?”
“Hell no, I don’t believe him. I don’t believe anybody at this point.”
“So,” Rodney begins, thinking out loud, “Pamela, in her pain, reaches out to the ex-cop and to at least one other person, hoping she can get someone to take action on her behalf? And what? Once this guy gets started, he’s not ready to stop?” He glanced at Kate, then put his gaze back on the road.
Kate shrugged. “Maybe he just figured it was a perfect time for him to get revenge for all those accidents that happened over the years in front of his business. And now that he’d the courage to do something, he would clean the slate and a few other things.”
When they walked into the pizza store, the young kid was behind the counter again.
“Where’s Aaron Carlton?” Kate asked.
“He just went up to his place. He should be back in about five minutes or so.”
She nodded and ordered a slice of pizza. “How’s he been lately?”
“Ha! He’s been on a high, actually happy for a change. I figured at one point in time he might have sold the business or something, he seemed so cheerful.”
“Interesting, sometimes life is like that.”
“Maybe. It’s all good though because you know he’s had a pretty shitty life at times too.”
“Yeah? Why is that?”
“His sister was killed a few years back, maybe four or five years back. Not right now, like all the others, or the ones that are all of a sudden happening. It was like a few blocks up and around.”
“Another traffic accident?”
“No, another cycling accident. He and his sister used to ride together all the time.”
She nodded.
When the door opened, and the owner walked in, he took one look at them, and the smile dropped from his face. Aaron turned, and he booked it.
Kate took up the chase. She heard the kid yelling behind them. But she didn’t stop. With Rodney on her heels, the two of them split, Kate going one way around the block, and Rodney going the other, and, by the time she came out on the far side, she saw the owner racing toward a vehicle. He was frantically punching a key fob to get it to start. She tackled him at the car, and he slammed her cheek into the sidewalk, grazing it over the concrete into a nice road rash. But she had him.
He immediately screamed, “Police brutality, police brutality!”
She quickly handcuffed him and pulled him to his feet. “Really? And what about all those kids you killed?” Aaron stared at her. “You know the ones, and the guy who needed glasses… the one you killed … for Pamela.”
Aaron didn’t say anything.
“But you liked it, didn’t you?”
“What’s not to like,” he said calmly.
“Yeah, you’re in control, right? You get to say who lives and who dies.”
He shrugged. “I had a list.” He glared at her.
“And was Pamela the one who started it?”
“Yep, I’d thought about it before. I mean, I really did think about the whole revenge angle, but I didn’t get past that. Until she contacted me, and then I was just like, She’s right, and we have to do something.”
“What about all the others?”
“What others?” he asked.
“These last two at the intersection, for starters—Candy and Sally.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“The two females who were just killed days apart?”
Aaron shrugged. “No, that wasn’t me.”
Kate stared at him hard but believed him. Brandon. She turned and looked at Rodney.
His eyebrows were up, as he studied the shop owner. “How many did you kill?” Rodney asked.
“There was another recent accident here a few blocks away, and that person is in the hospital right now,” he said.
“And why him?”
“Because he’s a pedophile.” Aaron shrugged. “Why the hell should he live?”
“So, you used your vehicle in order to take down somebody else?”
“That’s the thing. Once you start down this pathway, you realize just how much you can clean up in the world,” he said enthusiastically. “That’s a reward all in itself.”
“And how many other bike accidents did you and your vehicle have a part in?”
“Well, first, for five years now, I tried hard to make it look like the city needed to fix the traffic pattern. So, in memory of my sister,
I killed someone near the university annually. But that didn’t work out because the city refused. Then later, when I found out Pamela was reaching out, suggesting doing more, I contacted her. We met a few times. It was a fluke that we happened to be there at Sally’s accident scene. Besides I had this list and worked my way through it. And since then, slowly I’ve been picking off various people.”
Kate still didn’t have the killer who took Candy’s and Sally’s lives, the one they’d been looking for this past week or so. Instead she found Aaron, who had killed multiple others annually. She shook her head. “How do you choose your victims?”
“Some are related to other accidents. And some are related to just being shits.”
“You said you didn’t kill Candy or Sally, the last two at the intersection.”
“No, I didn’t. I honestly watched those two happen, but something was weird about them.”
“Yeah, something was weird about it. What though? Did you see the shithead guys at the time of the accidents?”
“Jesus, those students? Yeah, I saw them.” He shook his head. “What a mess.”
“Why?”
“Because they were either high or stoned or something. I don’t know. But they were obnoxious. They were hassling Pamela and another guy at the same time. She asked me not to make a scene, so instead I added them to my list but didn’t get a chance to carry through there. Anyway this obnoxious guy was a bully to everyone. … I saw it happen over and over. Mostly he picked on women or injured people. Although, not too long ago, maybe a month ago now, this one guy was being bullied for talking to the one female, the one who died at the intersection a few days ago.”
“Candy?”
Aaron shrugged. “Don’t know her name. But she was part of that bully crew. Not the red hoodie chick.”
“Right,” Kate confirmed. “Candy.”
“Regardless that other woman was there too—the second woman in that bully group. Both of the women who seemed to be part of the bullying group are now dead.”
“How do you know that both Candy and Paula belonged to Brandon’s group?”
“Because they were both talking to that one guy ahead of time, right before the one female pushed him down.”
“So Candy pushed down some guy. Did you recognize him or see them try to push the guy into the traffic afterward?”
Aaron stopped, stared out at nothing. “You know what? At the time I wondered what was going on because it looked odd, but so many people were around that I figured no one could tell—or would tell. But the fact of the matter is,” he said, with a nod, “the ringleader almost tapped the guy on the back of his head. And, if they were all part of the same group, that would explain why so many people were around, and, of course, they could have hidden anything they wanted to do with that kind of a mob, simply by distracting people.” He nodded. “Yeah, the little shits”—he grinned—“they killed that guy.”
“Okay, and what do you know about the dead females in that group?” she asked.
“Hmm, whatever. I mean, they had their reasons.”
“That’s it? These bullies send the women to their death, and that’s it? Whatever?”
“Yeah, whatever. But I didn’t see them do anything.”
“Now if only you saw a little more than that.”
“You could always find the other blind woman,” he said.
“There are two? Both bullied by Brandon’s gang?”
Aaron nodded. “She’s younger, like a student—eighteen, nineteen, twenty.”
“I’d like to talk to her,” Kate said. “I’d really like to get her statement.”
He volunteered the other name. “Pamela, who you already know about, is one of the blind women, and the other one was Catherine, I believe.”
“And why are you being cooperative all of the sudden?” Kate asked.
“Why not? I’m proud of what I did. I intend to confess, but I’ll be telling the jury exactly what I did and why. It’s all good.”
“And which blind woman hired you?”
“Neither. The younger one didn’t have any money. Besides, she was pretty desperate. But it was Pamela’s idea, and we planned everything out together.”
“How did you get in touch with her?”
“Back then Pamela had more of her sight, so she was still using a laptop and had a cell phone. I did try to contact her a couple months back, but I couldn’t get a hold of her.” He frowned. “I wasn’t even sure if she was still alive.”
“Yeah, she is, but she might not be happy about it just now.”
He laughed. “When you make a decision like this, you need to be proud of what you are doing. You need to do it for the right reasons because you’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life,” he said.
Now, if Kate had said those words to him, there would have been a warning and a different tone in her voice. But, in his case, he seemed legitimately proud of everything he’d done. She shook her head, spoke to Rodney. “I need to go talk to this other woman, Catherine.”
“It’s all right,” Rodney said. “I’ve got a cruiser coming for Aaron.”
She nodded and looked at Aaron, handcuffed, leaning on his car, but she turned to address her partner. “Now we need to find that other woman, and maybe we can get this wrapped up.”
“Maybe,” Rodney said. “But I wouldn’t count on it just yet.”
“I know. Brandon’s pretty slippery.”
At that, her prisoner said, “Yeah, that’d be the big guy, the asshat who thinks he’s big man on campus.”
“Was he the one … What did you see him do?” she asked.
“He’s the one who reached up to the woman in the red hoodie.” And he put a hand to her, as if to demonstrate, albeit with the handcuffs, “And went boom!”
“Did you see him shoot something?”
He shrugged. “That’s what it looked like. The person jolted, like she had been shot, but then carried on. With the hoodie, I didn’t know it was a woman, until I heard the news later that day. Anyway, the group of bullies were helping her stay on the bike. She carried on and rode out into the middle of the road, even though they were yelling. I think to everybody else it would look like they were trying to stop her or to warn her. But you know and I know differently. I don’t think that’s what it was at all.”
“What do you think it was?” Rodney asked.
“I think they were cheering her on.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she said sadly.
Just then the cruiser pulled up. She looked over at Rodney. “You coming with me?”
“Hell yes. Let’s go talk to this last person.”
Catherine’s last name and address were on several of the complaint reports. Thankfully they found her at home, sitting with her family. When they walked in, the family looked relieved to see them.
“We’ve been trying to figure out what to do about this,” Catherine’s father said nervously. “She said these guys have been hassling her at the university a lot.”
“They won’t be doing it again,” Kate said flatly. “I do need to get your statement though.”
And her statement was very similar to what they had just heard from Aaron. Luckily she had a friend who witnessed this bullying too.
Kate nodded. “I will need to get that in writing. Can you and your friend come into the station tomorrow?”
“Sure, I can bring them down,” her father said. “Thank you.”
Kate nodded. “Sounds good. Now we need to go talk to these guys.” At that, she turned to look at Rodney.
He smiled. “The three are showing up tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Let’s get Brandon in too now.”
At that, the young blind woman called out. “It’s Brandon. That’s the guy’s name.”
“Yes, we know who he is. Not to worry. He won’t be doing it again.” She hoped for the best when she said that, but she also knew that lawyers could make her life difficult.
*
&nbs
p; When Kate walked into the station the next morning, she was more than happy to see Brandon was here with his lawyer as well. She tried not to smile because it hurt her face where it had met the pavement yesterday. She looked over at Rodney. “This should be fun.”
“Only when it’s over. Should we talk to his buddies first?”
“Yeah, I think so. We can see if Walter, Jonathan, and Tony are smart enough to get themselves a plea deal.”
“I don’t think any of them get it yet,” he said.
“At least one dead victim is from their bullying—Trent, Candy’s potential boyfriend. Plus the two women—Candy and Paula.” Kate held up one finger and shook her head. “No, Aaron talked of killing a woman. Never confirmed who she was. It could have been Paula, since she didn’t have the same ice bullet wounds as Candy and Sally.”
“Right,” Rodney agreed. “So we count Sally instead of Paula in Brandon’s kill column. So maybe three deaths on the bullies.”
“At least.” Kate shook her head. “We can always throw Paula’s death in the mix. See if we can get them to disclaim that death, kinda incriminating themselves on the other three.”
They walked into the first interview room to see one of the guys standing against the wall, an insolent look on his face.
“Three counts of murder, Walter, that we know of so far.”
He looked startled, and then his face paled.
Kate nodded. “Did you think you would just continue playing God, deciding who gets to live and who gets to die?”
“Do you really think Brandon gives a shit about you guys?” Rodney asked, as he pulled out a chair and gestured for the young man to sit down.
She shook her head. “Did you really think that Candy had to die?”
“We didn’t have nothing to do with Candy,” Walter said nervously.
“Well then, one out of three isn’t bad, right?” Kate asked, all serious.
“It’s still two counts of murder,” Rodney said.
“I didn’t want to do it,” he blurted out suddenly, looking frantically back and forth between them.
“Of course not. I supposed Brandon made you do it, right?”
“You don’t know what he’s like.” Walter sat down, as the words poured from him. “If you want to be anybody on campus, you have to toe the line with him. You have to do what he says.”
