“That means Dexter Hughes…”
Ed slammed his hand on the wall. “That’s his name! I was sitting here trying to remember the other guy who was there that day. That’s gotta be who the last cell is for.”
Suzanne had regained her composure.
“If you’re right, and Dexter is put in the last cell, then what? And who is the guy doing this?”
Ed’s answer chilled them all.
“I don’t know who he is, and I don’t want to know what’s next.”
Chapter 13
Jason received a call the next morning from Lieutenant Banks.
“Go see Doc Josie when you get here.”
“Okay. What’s up?”
“You would have me ruin the surprise? I wouldn’t think of it.”
The phone went dead. Jason called Nina, who was just leaving the house. “Hello?”
“Morning, Nina. You heading in?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Banks called. She said we need to go see Doc Josie first thing; I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay. She say why?”
“Nope. Said it was a surprise.”
“A surprise? Okay, see you in about twenty minutes.”
*******
Jason found Dr. Jocelyn Carter staring through a microscope.
“Morning, Doc.”
She pulled her head back, rolled her eyes, and went back to the scope with a chuckle. “Maybe for you, Detective. For me, it’s more like afternoon. Got a call at midnight to come in and process a car.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Nina came through the doors and joined them. Jason stopped her before she had a chance to wish Doc Josie a good morning. “She’s been here all night.”
“Oh. Did you find out what the surprise is?”
“I was just about to ask. So Doc, is this car you mentioned our surprise?”
Doc Josie got off the stool and walked to her office with the detectives in tow. Grabbing a sheet of paper, she handed it to Jason.
“If this set of prints is what you’re referring to, then yes, this is your surprise. Those partial prints were found on the car.”
Jason gave her a quizzical look. “Let me guess. You’ve seen them before.”
“Very good. You should be a detective.”
Nina couldn’t help herself and started laughing. Doc Josie continued.
“Not only have I seen them before, I’ve seen them recently. They match the ones we pulled from the two missing persons cases you’re working.”
Jason looked up from the print sheet. “Who does the car belong to?”
“A Suzanne Cooper. It was found abandoned, keys still in the ignition, behind a plaza near her home last night. Lieutenant Banks said they haven’t been able to find Miss Cooper.”
Nina walked over to a table, put her briefcase down, and popped it open. After rummaging for a minute, she pulled some papers out. “What was that name again?”
“Suzanne Cooper.”
Jason watched as his partner ran her finger down the sheets. She stopped on the second page. “It’s here, Jason.”
“Are those the McCollum reunion lists?”
“Yes, and she’s on them.”
Jason moved for the door as Nina packed up. “Thanks, Josie. Go home and get some sleep.”
“You’re welcome, and I plan on doing just that.”
*******
Lieutenant Banks was in her office when they got to the second floor.
“Got a minute, Lieutenant?”
“Sure. Find your surprise?”
“Yes. Do you have the report from the scene?”
She slid the file across the desk.
Nina followed Jason into the room and sat next to him opposite the lieutenant. Jason picked up file, but didn’t open it.
“We’ve got a connection between the three missing cases, besides the fingerprints.”
“Okay. Please fill us in.”
Nina pulled out the phone lists and slid them across the desk toward Banks. She picked them up, glanced at them, and then up at Nina. “What are these?”
“Those are the phone lists for this summer’s ten-year class reunion of McCollum High. All three of our victims are listed on them.”
The lieutenant looked at them with a disbelieving stare.
“You’re suggesting someone is stalking, then taking their classmates before the reunion. You’re kidding me, right? It sounds like a slasher film.”
Jason shrugged his shoulders.
“I know it’s thin, but right now it’s the only link we’ve found.”
“Thin is one word for it. What’s next?”
“We run a record search on everyone listed.”
“So, you’re thinking the person or persons taking these people, or at very least possibly the next victim, are on these lists.”
Jason nodded. The lieutenant stared at the sheets for a minute. “When’s the reunion?”
“The fifth of next month.”
“Okay. I’m going to have a press briefing on this at three this afternoon. We’ll see if the public can help us. Somebody must’ve seen something. I want you two present. In the meantime, that’s a lot of names, so you better get started.”
Jason and Nina gathered their files and left the office. Nina gave Jason a grin. “Press briefing with Banks. Boy that sounds like fun!”
Jason just laughed and rolled his eyes.
*******
Chelsea was cold. The basement was damp, and the blanket didn’t give much protection. In addition, the chain was rubbing her ankle raw. She had spent the last several hours trying to figure out who their captor was.
“Suzanne?”
“Yeah.”
“I think the guy doing this has to be related to Billy.”
“Why?”
“Well, it doesn’t make sense for someone to go to all this trouble without a personal connection.”
Ed agreed. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Billy was my best friend, but I don’t remember much about his family. His dad was dead by the time of the accident, and I think he had only his mom and brother.”
Suzanne’s memories were the same. “The whole time I knew Billy, I only heard him talk about two people. His brother and his mom. I think the brother’s name was Ronnie…Lonnie. Something like that.”
Ed remembered. “Donnie. His brother’s name was Donnie.”
Chelsea pulled her blanket tighter around her. She wasn’t feeling well. She had vomited once a few hours earlier, and it had just added to the stench surrounding them.
“That has to be it, she said. “It must be the brother. How old was he when Billy died?”
She could hear Ed rolling over before he answered, his chain scraping the floor. “Eleven or twelve, I guess. I’m not sure. I don’t even see how knowing who he is helps us. In fact, it may make it worse.”
The basement went quiet again. Knowing who their captor was should have helped, but it didn’t. In fact, it made him all the more dangerous if he found out they knew.
Chelsea could now guess at what Donnie had in mind, and she didn’t like it.
Chapter 14
Jason looked at his watch. Four hours of poring over the files of the three missing persons, and still no hint at who might be taking them. Nina was equally engrossed in the phone records, and when she looked up at him, her red eyes told the story. They needed a break.
“Two hours to the press conference. Want to get something to eat?”
Nina stretched out and groaned. “Definitely.”
“Want to bring the phone records?”
“Definitely not!”
*******
They got back with twenty minutes to spare. Lieutenant Banks was waiting for them.
“Let’s go, you two.”
The three of them rode down to the first floor together. When they came out of the elevator, a small group of reporters was waiting for them in the briefing room.
In its early days, the
room had been the patrol prep room, but that was done elsewhere now. The department hadn’t spent any money to make the press corps comfortable. It was still just desks and white concrete walls.
Devin James gave a nod to Jason, followed by a big smile for Nina. When Sarah Banks came into the room behind them, Jason saw the reporter’s face go immediately blank. Jason smiled to himself.
Is everybody afraid of this woman?
Jason and Nina stood at the back of the small stage, the only addition to the room, as the lieutenant walked to the podium.
“Thank you for coming. We are investigating the disappearance of three people in the San Antonio area. The cases appear to be connected, and we’re seeking the public’s help.”
On a screen behind the lieutenant, three photographs popped up.
“The first is Ed Garland, 28. The second is Chelsea Burt-Morris, age 28. Last night, a third person went missing. Her name is Suzanne Cooper, age 29.”
Devin James stood up. “What’s the connection between them?”
Lieutenant Sarah Banks did something Jason had never seen before. She ignored the senior reporter from the San Antonio News. But what really surprised Jason, was when James sat down without a fuss. Lieutenant Banks carried on where she left off.
“All three have gone missing in the last six days. We’re asking the public to let us know if they have seen any of these people. We’ve set up an eight hundred number for people to call if they have any information on the whereabouts of these individuals.”
She paused, and Jason expected James to try his question again, but he stayed seated.
“The lead investigators on this case are Detective Strong and Detective Jefferson. I will let them answer any questions you might have.”
With that, the lieutenant stepped back and motioned for Jason and Nina to step up. Jason looked out over the group. “Questions?”
Devin James stood again, and asked the same question. “How are the three connected?”
“First of all, in all three cases, we’ve found fingerprints from the same individual. We do not have an ID on this person yet, but we believe the prints belong to the perpetrator. Also, we have phone records from all three of the missing persons, and there is a number that connects them.”
A different hand went up. “What’s the number?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t reveal that.”
James was still standing. “Do the three know each other?”
“We don’t know. It’s possible, but we’re unable to say for sure.”
Nina stepped forward. “I have a handout, with the full description of each person and the location they were taken from. It will be on the table by the door.”
Lieutenant Banks, moving so swiftly she caught Jason by surprise, leaned in to the microphone. “That’ll be all. Thank you for coming.”
And the briefing was over.
Jason didn’t like these things and treated them as a necessary evil, but he was impressed with the way Sarah Banks handled it. In the elevator, he said so.
“Short and sweet, my kind of press briefing.”
Lieutenant Banks gave him a half smile. “Give ’em what you want them to have, then go back to work.”
Jason thought it might be the best philosophy for dealing with the press he’d ever heard.
*******
As the senior writer at the San Antonio News, Devin James could have a glass-paned office and a walnut desk, but he’d turned the perk down every time it was offered. He’d kept the same heavy schoolteacher-looking desk he got when he moved to crime duty more than twenty-five years ago.
Whenever they would offer him a new office, Devin would politely decline, saying he preferred the bustle of the pressroom. Truth was he didn’t like the idea of being inside a ‘glass cage,’ as he referred to the offices.
He pulled up the rolling chair that matched the age of the desk and got out his notes from the briefing. Something was nagging at the back of his brain, and he couldn’t get it to come out. He knew if he were patient, it would eventually make its way to where he could remember it. Unfortunately, it was taking longer these days to reveal those nagging thoughts in his memory.
Devin’s attachment to antiques ended with the desk. He bought himself a new computer every year, and this year’s model was a very nice Dell laptop. He turned it on, waiting briefly for it to boot up, and began writing the story from the briefing.
As he typed out the three names, he couldn’t shake the feeling he knew them. It was as if he’d done this story before, where he’d typed these names out together. He stopped what he was doing and pulled up the search window for the San Antonio News archives. After typing in all three names, he hit the search button.
In just a few seconds, a story James had written over ten years ago popped up.
The Billy Jarvis suicide. I knew those names were connected somehow.
The reporter began to read his story, and some of the details started to come back. He remembered showing up at the house in the north San Antonio neighborhood after hearing a scanner report.
It was a tragic scene, and it stayed with him for a long time. A screaming mother, crying neighbors, and the feeling it was all so senseless.
As he went through the article, the three names he’d searched stood out in bold print, but there was a fourth name. Dexter Hughes. He was also there that day. If the three missing were connected by the suicide, it could mean Hughes would be next.
Devin opened up a phone book, and ran his finger down the large number of Hughes listed in the San Antonio area. There was no guarantee the man still lived in the city, but the first three people missing had all remained local, maybe Hughes was also still around.
There was over eighty Hughes listed with the initial ‘D.’ Most were eliminated by the entire first name being listed, but James was still left with seven names.
He began dialing, and hoped Dexter Hughes didn’t have an unlisted number.
Four numbers later, no luck. Number five was an answering machine.
“You’ve reached Dex, Trish, and the boys. Leave a message.”
Devin hung up. He checked the address matching the fifth number. It was in West San Antonio.
Next, he got up, and went to the file cabinet behind his desk. In it, Devin kept the files containing his notes from every story he’d ever covered. It took some digging, but in short order, he found the file marked ‘Jarvis Suicide.’
Taking it back to his desk, he opened it up, and read what he’d jotted down ten years before. He was looking for any mention of family of Billy Jarvis. If the disappearance of these people was tied to the death of Billy Jarvis, it made sense to him a family member would be responsible. He hoped he had the names of Billy’s relatives in the file.
Eventually, he found a reference to the family. Billy had a father who was already dead, his mother was named Betty Jarvis, and a younger brother.
James went back to the phone book. He knew this time he was looking for a woman who may have remarried and no longer had the same last name.
James found the last name Jarvis had far fewer listings than Hughes, and only ten with first names starting with B. One listing said Betty. He dialed the number.
“Hello?”
“Hello. Is Betty Jarvis there, please?”
“Who’s calling?”
“My name is Devin James. I’m a reporter for the San Antonio News.”
“She’s not here. Can I give her a message?”
“Yes. Could you ask her to call me?”
“Sure.”
James gave the man his phone number and hung up.
*******
Donnie put the phone down and stared at it. The call scared him. He still had one person left to capture. The last thing he needed was a reporter calling and asking questions.
He’d watched the news on TV earlier and had seen the story about the missing people. The same ones he had in his basement.
It was clear he needed to move faster.
Chapter 15
Devin James decided to go past the Hughes house on his way home. He’d called again, and got the answering machine again. He wanted to stop by, check his theory, and then alert the police. After all, he had nothing but his suspicion to suggest anything might be wrong at the Hughes home.
He turned the corner onto their street, and discovered the house numbers in this neighborhood were on the brick mailboxes by the street. He followed the numbers down the road until he came to the Hughes. The house was a large, two-story brick home with dramatic dormers on the second floor and an immaculate lawn. Two trees, the ones you trim into odd shapes, stood guard on each side of the black front door.
There was a car in the driveway with the trunk open. A tall, dark-haired woman in a pantsuit was handing bags of groceries to two children. She grabbed the last bag herself, shut the trunk, and walked toward the house.
James parked and got out, moving across the lawn toward the door. “Mrs. Hughes?”
She stopped and turned to the reporter. “Yes?”
“My name is Devin James; I’m a reporter for the San Antonio News. Is your husband home?”
“I don’t think so, Mr. James. His car’s not here. Why are you asking?”
“I’m doing research for a story, and his name came up as a source for some background.”
She continued up the walk and unlocked the door. The kids took their bags inside. “Oh. Did you call Dex at work?”
“No. I didn’t have the number.”
“If you’ll wait a minute, I’ll get it for you.”
“That would be great.”
She disappeared inside with her groceries, and a few minutes later, returned holding a business card.
“He’s a sales rep for a billboard company. This is his card with his cell number.”
James took the card and gave her one of his.
“If I don’t reach him, would you have him call me?”
“Sure.”
She closed the door, and James immediately started dialing while on his way back to his car.
FOR MY BROTHER (Det. Jason Strong(CLEAN SUSPENSE Book 3) Page 7
