by Kate Morris
Lorena rushed into the house and said without preamble, “It’s not Willoughby. I just got a call from Craig. He sent two agents to talk to the man’s poker friends. They verified he was there the afternoon that Hailee was abducted. His wife also told Craig that he was home by nine-thirty that night. Also, the urgent care verified he was there last night from the time of nine p.m. until nearly eleven because there was a long wait to be seen.”
Jack hovered over his name, “Well that almost puts him out of the running. There’s still a possibility that he managed to take Hailee and still make it to his poker game. But, he looked like death warmed over. I don’t think he could’ve killed Neumann last night.”
“I don’t think he could’ve anyway. Christof Neumann was a fairly large man, and Nathan Willoughby was lean, skinny almost, and definitely not very strong looking. Plus, Trix just called me. I would’ve recognized Nathan’s hoarse voice.”
“Yeah, and I think Trix definitely knew Christof,” Jack said.
“Oh, yes, they knew each other. I don’t know how, but they did,” she said and paced non-stop. “I want to get the records of the three doctors’ patient lists from their private practices. We already got a big hit on many of the murdered women being patients at the free clinic. I just wonder if any of them were going to the private practices of the doctors who work at the free clinic, too.”
“You think he’s one of the doctors?”
She bit her lower lip and frowned. A knock on the patio door let Jack know that their food was there. He opened, paid and tipped the kid, and took their take-out into the kitchen.
“Awesome,” Lorena said.
“That oughtta’ open up your sinuses,” he said, smelling the garlic and spice coming from her food.
“Did you get mine made extra spicy?”
“Is the pope Catholic?”
She smiled and said, “Thanks.”
They gathered their boxes and grabbed drinks from the fridge and couched it. Jack was glad for the break. He needed fuel and caffeine and had even opted for a Coke instead of water. Although he didn’t want the calories that came with soda, he needed the jolt of brain food and energy from the caffeine and sugar. They ate in silence for a while.
“We need access to those patient files to cross-reference if any of the dead women went to the private practices,” she said after a few minutes. “I already texted Craig about it. He’s working on it.”
“Good,” he said. “Are there any other men that work in the practices or the free clinic?”
“One, he works for Dr. Banko at his private practice,” she said. “He’s only twenty-one, though. There’s no way Trix is that young, but Craig’s looking into that, too. Also, he’s gay, so I don’t think he’s the Tooth Fairy. These women were all raped and had evidence of forced sexual assault.”
“Yeah, that lead looks pretty bleak,” he said and finished his meal. Then he grabbed another Coke from the fridge.
“We also know it isn’t Dr. Banko. He can barely hold himself erect,” she said with a sad grin.
“Hey, that’s gonna be me someday,” he joked.
“Don’t worry, partner,” she said. “I’ll prop you up with a stick.”
“Ouch,” he teased. “That’s harsh.”
She nodded ruefully and said, “That leaves us with Dr. Martin and Dr. Cromwell.”
“Really? Those aren’t the best candidates, either. And, Lorena,” he started and paused, “if we go accusing a doctor of murdering women in Portland, and we end up being wrong, we can kiss our careers goodbye.”
“I know,” she said. “We need to make some connections.”
She rose and went to the whiteboard. Then she kicked off her running shoes and left them in the middle of the floor. Next, her hoodie was also stripped and landed in the same heap. She was the worst sort of slob ever. Jack had to resist the urge to pick up her things and take them to her bedroom where they belonged.
“Cromwell’s younger than we would’ve thought for Trix.”
“And Martin’s probably too old,” he countered.
She bit the inside of her cheek, which caused her lips to purse in thought.
“Martin’s kids go to Hailee’s school,” she said.
“We don’t know where Cromwell’s go,” he countered again, and she wrote a question mark on the board for that one.
“I’ll text Craig and see if he can get that for us,” she said.
“We need backgrounds and history on these men. We should also keep digging on Nathan, the nurse. I don’t see that lead as completely closed yet, not in my book.”
“Right, there’s still a possibility, even if it’s slim.”
Jack’s phone rang, and he answered it on the first ring. “Foster.”
“Hi, Jack,” Liz said on the other end of the line. “Can I come over? I’m in the neighborhood.”
He walked out onto the deck for privacy and noticed that Lorena shot him an inquisitive glance. Then she immediately went back to her work. She was too engrossed in studying their new whiteboard, which, unfortunately, didn’t have much written on it.
“You’re in my neighborhood?” he asked with sarcasm.
“Okay, fine,” she said. “I need to see you. Can I come over? I can be there in five minutes.”
“Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind with or without my permission.”
“Sorry, I just really need to see you,” she said.
He agreed to the meeting and waited on the dock for her. True to her word, she showed up in five minutes. She wore long, brown leather high-heeled boots, a knee-length cream wool coat and carried a matching bag. She looked like a movie star with her oversized sunglasses and perfectly coiffed blonde hair. He didn’t take her inside. Whatever she wanted to see him about could be discussed without Lorena being present.
“I just wanted to say thank you for what you did with Victor. My son and I are not going back there.”
“Where will you go?” he asked, concerned about her and her young boy.
“My sister lives in Boulder now,” she said. “I spoke with her last night. We’re going to move there. I also talked to that agent you’re working with, Agent Ferguson.”
“Yeah, Craig. He’s a good guy.”
“He’s going to help me with Victor. He says if I don’t ever want to come back here to go to court, then I don’t have to. Because Victor has abused me and Hailee, I can move the kids to a new school without Victor’s permission or getting in trouble with the courts. He also connected me with a good lawyer in Seattle who’s going to help keep Victor out of our lives.”
“You can trust Craig,” he said. “He has a lot of connections, and he’s really smart about the law. But how would that work with Hailee? You aren’t her mother. Victor’s her father, her legal guardian.”
“They said that since she’s eighteen now, she could make that choice for herself.”
“Do you think she’d choose to go with you?”
“Oh, my gosh,” she said. “Absolutely. Yes, I’m one hundred percent sure she’ll want to go with me.”
“Liz, do you think Victor or his friends had something to do with Hailee’s disappearance? All bullshit aside, do you?”
“No, I know Victor loves her. Sometimes I think she’s the only person he actually loves, if he’s capable of that. I told him about my suspicions about his brother, but Victor just became so angry. I just tried to keep her away from Christof.”
He nodded and thought once more about the dark secrets that some families hid “Thanks for telling me this. I don’t want to waste any more time hunting for the wrong man. Hailee’s running out of time. We need to find her. We need to find her in the next twelve to twenty-four hours.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m starting to think it might not happen, Jack.”
“Don’t. My partner and I are close to breaking this open,” he said, hoping it was true. “I’m glad that you and Klaus are safe and leaving the city, though.”
&nbs
p; “I feel safe for the first time in a long time,” she admitted and removed her sunglasses.
She wasn’t wearing as much makeup as she normally did, and the yellowy remnants of a black eye was spotting up her complexion. It was like a punch to the gut. He wished he would’ve shot Victor instead of just shoving him.
“Jack, I don’t think I ever really loved him,” she said.
He inhaled a shaky breath and held it. “I’m sorry about that, Liz.”
“I know. I knew you would say that, too. You’re so very much different than him.”
He nodded with a grim expression. “Are you going to stay in Colorado?”
“I…”
“Jack!” Lorena blurted and came onto the deck. “Sorry, but I just got a call.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve got a hit on three patients who…”
She glanced at Liz and stopped.
“I’m sorry,” Liz said. “I should probably get going anyway. I just wanted to stop and tell you what was going on.”
“Thanks, Liz,” he said. “I’m glad things are gonna work out for you and your son.”
He hugged her and excused himself. As he turned to go, Liz grabbed his forearm and stayed him.
“I wanted to come by and also tell you that I remembered something…”
“What?” he urged.
“It’s probably nothing,” she said, her brow wrinkling. Jack nodded for her to continue. “I just remembered earlier today that Christof was…well, he was really vain about his looks…”
“We noticed,” Lorena said.
“He asked about where Hailee and Klaus went to the dentist. We told him about our orthodontist instead because he wanted to get one of those retainer thingys that straighten your teeth without braces. You know the kind I mean?”
Jack nodded, feeling a sudden panic setting in.
“He only had one tooth that was just slightly crooked. It was ridiculous really.”
“And?” Lorena prompted very impatiently.
“He ended up going to see Dr. Martin for his Invis-Align retainer and getting fitted for it. He said how helpful he was and that they talked for a long time about…I don’t know what about…in his office. It was just the one visit, and Dr. Martin had his retainer made and shipped to him in California. I don’t know. That’s probably worthless. It was just the only thing I could think that Hailee and Christof had in common. I just thought it was a weird coincidence that Hailee and Christof were both patients of Dr. Martin.”
“And so were three more,” Lorena said, landing the fatal death toll on Jack’s ears by telling him in code that three more of the dead women were patients of Dr. Martin.
“Thanks, Liz,” he said. “We appreciate…”
“Well, you know Dr. Martin lives just across the lake from us, right?”
He paused, too stunned to speak at first, “What?”
“Yes, you talked to his family that first day, remember? He’s great, a real family-oriented man. He even took the kids out on his boat quite a few times when we first moved in last year at the end of summer before Victor got a boat. He said his own kids didn’t really like boating anymore. Then he said they were spoiled. We laughed about it. Whose kids aren’t spoiled these days, right? Of course, Victor never had the time to do anything on the lake with the kids. Honestly, I don’t even know why he bought one. Perhaps Dr. Martin can help you with the investigation.”
Lorena said, “I was about to tell you that, Jack- about us having interviewed the wife already. We need to go. Now.”
A bead of sweat broke out on his forehead. A shiver trickled down his back. This was it. This was the end. The case was solved. Dr. Rudolph Martin was Trix, the Tooth Fairy. Now all they had to do was find him before he killed Hailee, too.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Lorena
“We never talked to him,” she told him as he sped along the freeway. “We talked to his wife, remember?”
“Yeah, vaguely,” he said.
Lorena frantically typed on her laptop as he drove. She was hunting down information on Dr. Martin, anything she could find.
“Ran a practice in Chicago for a while,” she said. “His wife was a pharmaceutical sales rep and is now a stay-at-home soccer mom that does bake sales & fund-raisers. I still can’t believe we talked to her.”
“It was a while ago, Evans,” he said. “And, besides, she didn’t know anything. We weren’t looking at her family as suspects. We were canvassing the neighborhood to determine if anyone had seen anything that day.”
“I know but how did we miss this?”
“I didn’t,” he said with a cocky grin. “I told you he was probably a dentist.”
Lorena groaned and looked out the window at the shadows falling on the land as dusk settled in. She kept pushing, trying to find that thing about Martin that would positively, without a shred of doubt, link him to being their serial. Craig sent her a text.
“Jack, this is it,” she said.
“What’ve you got ‘cuz we’re almost to his house?”
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “It’s a story about Rudolph Martin when he was a small boy. It’s a newspaper article in the Louisville Courier. It’s the story of his mother’s murder. She was found buried on the family farm…crap, down by the pond. Oh, Jesus. Look.”
She tipped her laptop toward him, showing Jack the photo of Mrs. Martin, probably a photograph her family turned in to the newspaper for the story. She was beautiful, blonde pin curls perfectly styled in place, a floral print, button-down dress with a white apron over it. Even her shoes looked like the ones Trix dressed his girls in.
“What’s it say about him?”
“Nothing, he was a minor. It just says that he was taken into protective custody and that he would be going to foster care until the state decided what to do with him.”
“And his dad? Does the story jive? Does it say that the dad killed her?”
“Oh, yes,” she said and scrolled to the next story Craig sent her. It was the court trial. “There was no doubt. Even back then, they had a lot of evidence. There were blood splatter remnants on the kitchen floor. Her body was autopsied. It was the husband. Man, what a creepy-looking freak.”
She flipped the phone so Jack could see Rudolph’s father and grimaced as Jack scowled back at her. Even though the photo was a black and white, Lorena could see the pure depravity in his expression and the insanity in his light eyes. He had the same eyes as his son, the ones that had smiled so kindly at Lorena in the free clinic.
“The next time Rudolph pops up on the radar, it was for a minor incident where he was mistaken for a Peeping Tom at college.”
“I’m sure he wasn’t mistaken, either,” he said.
“No,” she agreed. “It may have been his first foray into stalking.”
“We still need to go at this carefully,” Jack reminded her. “All we have right now is circumstantial. We need forensics.”
“Won’t be long now,” she said. “Craig’s working on the warrants.”
“Good,” he said as they pulled into his ex-wife’s neighborhood again.
“He also just texted that they did send some agents over to the clinic to talk to them after we found Stephanie Pearson’s body and figured out that she worked there. It wasn’t in the file yet. They only talked to…guess who?”
“The good doctor.”
“Yep, talked to Martin. He was convincing enough that nobody there could possibly be involved that the junior agents dismissed it.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Yeah, really is. We could’ve been here a week ago.”
Lorena was tired of visiting this neighborhood. She just wanted this nightmare to end. She’d be glad to finish this and go back to Cleveland, to Grace, to her regular detective duties, and to the city that Jack’s ex didn’t inhabit.
“Hey, I’ve got something else,” she said. “He and his wife own another property besides this one. Actual
ly, they own four. The third one is in Olympia, Washington. But he must own something far outside the city because it’s on twenty-three acres. Let me text Craig, see if he can bring any similar murders up in that area.”
She sent a quick text and went back to her screen on her laptop of property ownership in Martin’s name.
“The other property listed is about an hour north, I think. It looks like it’s a home and forty acres. Let me get an aerial map pulled up.”
“Sounds like a good place to take women.”
“Yeah, this is perfect. Completely surrounded by trees. Remote. Small lake.”
“What’s the fourth property?”
“Look like commercial real estate.”
Jack sighed as they pulled into his drive and put it in park. “Yeah, but it could be a front for hiding more women away.”
“Sick,” Lorena said, thinking out loud how demented this man would have to be. It was just so strange. When she’d met him, she hadn’t gotten a bad vibe from him. She hadn’t been looking at him like a suspect, though. She’d been after someone else. “I didn’t tell you earlier, but when I was at the free clinic…”
“What is it?”
Lorena paused before explaining, “I thought I heard his voice. It freaked me out a little. I only talked to him on the phone once, but I thought I heard his voice standing out in the crowd of people talking in that lobby. When I turned around, I fully expected to see him there ready to shoot me or something. It was spooky. But, then I just saw the doctors talking and the dental assistants and the feds all talking. I didn’t realize until about twenty minutes ago that I had actually heard him. I talked to Martin. He didn’t sound like the man on the phone. I think he has this…”
“What? A Darth Vader voice changer for the phone calls?” he joked, and Lorena slugged his arm. “I’m kidding. What does he have?”
“This whole other side. I think he can make himself sound and appear like an innocent, old man. But…I don’t know. I think he’s something else. I should’ve walked over and confronted him. I knew in my mind that I heard the same voice.”
“You need to listen to your instincts better,” he reprimanded.
