ONCE BOUND

by Blake Pierce

  Jenn looked at the railroad deputy chief sternly and said, “Light a fire under somebody’s ass and get that railroad psychologist down here ASAP.”

  Then, turning to the local police chief, she said, “Go get this man a cup of coffee.”

  Powell nodded mutely and left the room.

  Riley took Jenn aside and asked quietly, “Do you think he’ll ever be able to get back to work?”

  Jenn thought for a moment and said, “I doubt it.”

  Riley nodded and said, “He’ll probably be struggling for the rest of his life. It’s a horrible thing to have to live with.”

  Riley smiled and added, “But you did some good work just now.”

  Jenn felt flooded with warmth at Riley’s praise.

  She remembered back to how her day had started—how her communication with Aunt Cora had left her feeling inadequate and unworthy.

  Maybe I’m of some use after all, she thought.

  After all, she’d always known that empathy was a quality she lacked and needed to cultivate. And now at last, she seemed to have taken at least a few steps toward being a more empathetic agent.

  She also felt energized by the promise she’d just made to Brock Putnam:

  “I promise—you’ll get justice. I’ll make sure of it.”

  She was glad she’d said it. Now she was committed to it.

  I won’t let him down, she thought.

  Meanwhile, the two conductors and the engineer continued to talk quietly, commiserating about the awful experience they had all endured, but which had been especially awful for Putnam.

  Suddenly, the door to the room opened and Chief Powell looked inside.

  He said to Cullen and the FBI agents, “You’d better come with me. A witness just showed up.”

  Jenn felt a jolt of excitement as she and the others followed Cullen down the hall.

  Were they about to get the break they needed?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  As Riley followed Powell down the hall along with the other FBI agents and Bull Cullen, she wondered …

  A witness? Are we really going to get a break this fast?

  Years of experience told her that it wasn’t likely.

  Even so, she couldn’t help hoping that this time might be different. It would be wonderful to wrap this case up before anyone else was killed.

  When the group arrived at a small meeting room, a stout woman in her fifties was pacing inside. She wore heavy makeup and her hair was an unnatural shade of blond.

  She hurried toward them. “Oh, this is awful,” she said. “I saw her picture on the news a little while ago, and I recognized her right away. Such a horrible death. But I had a feeling about her—a bad feeling. A premonition, you might even call it.”

  Riley’s hopes sank a little.

  It usually wasn’t a good sign when witnesses started talking about “premonitions.”

  Bill guided the woman to a chair.

  “Sit down, ma’am,” he said. “Take it easy and let’s start from the beginning. What’s your name?”

  The woman sat down, but she just fidgeted in her chair.

  Bill sat in a nearby chair, turning it a little to talk with her. Riley, Jenn, and the others also took chairs around the meeting room table.

  “Your name?” Bill asked again.

  “Sarah Dillon,” she said, giving him a wide smile. “I live right here in Barnwell.”

  Bill asked, “And how did you know the victim?”

  The woman looked at him as if surprised at the question.

  “Well, I didn’t actually know her. We exchanged words on occasion.”

  Bill asked, “Did you see her this morning—before she was killed?”

  Sarah Dillon seemed more surprised than before.

  “No. It’s been a couple of weeks or more since I last saw her. Why does that matter?”

  Riley exchanged glances with Bill and Jenn. She knew they were all thinking the same thing.

  A couple of weeks or more?

  Of course it mattered a great deal.

  When Powell had said a witness had shown up, Riley had imagined someone who either knew the victim personally or had seen something truly material to the case—the actual abduction, perhaps. Still, she knew that they needed to follow up on every possible lead. So far, they had nothing else to go on.

  Riley said, “Tell us about your interactions with the victim.”

  Sarah Dillon scratched her chin.

  “Well, I’ve seen her around town. Occasionally, I mean. In stores, on the streets. Also at the train stations, both here and in Chicago. I take the train to Chicago every week or so, to see my sister and her family there. I’ve seen her getting on or off the train, either here or in Chicago. Sometimes we’ve been in the same car together.”

  Sarah Dillon’s eyes darted about for a moment.

  Then she asked in a near-whisper, “Do you think I’m in any danger right now?”

  The woman was striking Riley as less coherent by the moment. She didn’t know how to answer her question. Why did the woman imagine she might be in danger? Did she have any good reason to worry at all?

  Offhand, Riley doubted it. For one thing, she’d gotten a good look at the corpse at the crime scene, and she’d seen a photo online of the other victim. Both women were slight of build and dark-haired. Their faces were somewhat similar. If the killer was obsessed with a particular type of victim, this much more robust woman certainly didn’t fit it.

  Riley asked, “What information do you have?”

  Sarah Dillon squinted.

  “Information? Well, maybe not information exactly. But a strong feeling—really, really strong. Something was very wrong about that woman. I’ve known it for a while now.”

  “How so?” Jenn asked.

  “Once, on the train up to Chicago, I tried to strike up a conversation with her. Just small talk, the weather, the kind of day I’d had, my sister in Chicago and her family. She seemed friendly enough at first. But she started getting standoffish when I asked her about herself. I asked her, ‘What do you do in Chicago?’ She said she went there to visit her mother, who was in a nursing home.”

  Sarah Dillon fingered her purse nervously.

  “Then I started asking questions about her mother—what her health was like, how long she’d been in a home, that kind of thing. She started getting defensive, and in a few minutes she didn’t want to talk to me at all. She got out a book and pretended to read it, like I wasn’t even there. Whenever I’ve seen her on the train since then, she does the same thing—acts like she’s never met me. I just thought she was rude, standoffish. But now … well, I’m sure it was something else.”

  “Like what?” Jenn asked.

  The woman let out a grunt of disapproval.

  “Well, you’re the people in law enforcement. You tell me. But she was hiding something. I’ll bet she was mixed up in something illegal. Something that got her killed. And now …”

  She shivered all over.

  “Do you think I’m in any danger?” she asked again, peering nervously around the room.

  “Why would you think that?” Bill asked.

  Sarah Dillon looked like she could hardly believe the question.

  “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? There were other people on that train. Lots of people. None of them are exactly friendly these days. And ever since I talked to her, I’ve noticed some of them looking at me strangely. Any one of them might have been the killer. She didn’t tell me what she was mixed up in, I don’t know anything about it. But the killer doesn’t know that. He might think she actually told me something—something he doesn’t want me to know.”

  Riley suppressed a sigh of impatience.

  She said, “I really doubt that you’re in any danger, Ms. Dillon.”

  The fact was, Riley was quite sure of it. The woman was paranoid, pure and simple.

  “But you don’t know that,” the woman said, her voice growing more shrill. “You can’t know for sure. An
d I’ve got such a terrible feeling. You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to protect me.”

  Chief Powell got up and patted her gently on the shoulder.

  “You wait here for just a moment, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

  The woman nodded, then sat silently. She looked as if she were on the verge of tears.

  The police chief quickly returned with a uniformed policeman.

  He said to the woman, “This is Officer Ring. He’ll watch after you for a while. Right now, you should just go home. Officer Ring will make sure you get there safely.”

  The woman let out a gasp of relief. She got up from her chair and left the room with the policeman, gazing happily up at him as he held the door for her.

  Bill shook his head and said to Chief Powell, “What are you going to do? Give her round-the-clock protection? Because that’s just going to be a waste of time and resources.”

  Powell chuckled slightly.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Landry Ring has got a calming effect on people. He’s almost uncanny that way. That’s why I picked him to take her home. By the time they get there, I’ll bet Landry will have her convinced that she’s in no danger at all.”

  Jenn was frowning.

  “That sure was a waste of time,” she said.

  Maybe, Riley thought.

  But she had a nagging gut feeling about what the “witness” had just said …

  “Something was very wrong about that woman.”

  … and …

  “She was hiding something.”

  Riley sensed that Sarah Dillon might not be altogether wrong.

  She asked Powell and Cullen, “Did Reese Fisher have any family members living here in Barnwell?”

  Powell said, “Just her husband, Chase. A local chiropractor.”

  “And has he been interviewed?”

  “Of course,” Bull Cullen said. “Chief Powell here and I both talked to him. He’s got a clean alibi—he was in his office this morning when it happened.”

  “I want to talk to him again,” Riley said.

  Cullen and Powell glanced at each other with surprise.

  Powell said, “I’m not sure what good that will do. He’s pretty shaken up about all this.”

  Riley wasn’t sure what she expected to find out. But if Reese Fisher was harboring some sort of secret, her husband might be able to tell them what it was.

  “I want to see him,” Riley insisted. “Right now.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  The railroad’s deputy police chief looked thoroughly annoyed by Riley’s request to re-interview Reese Fisher’s husband. But Riley was in no mood to back down.

  Bull Cullen said, “When I asked you FBI guys to come out here, I didn’t expect you to waste my time.”

  Feeling her temper escalate, Riley pressed her lips together to prevent snapping back at the man. She heard Bill let out a low grumble beside her.

  Before Riley could think of a civil response, Jenn spoke up. The young agent sounded just as condescending and patronizing as Cullen had been toward her back at the crime scene.

  “Oh, we won’t interfere with your excellent work, sir. Just give us a car and we’ll go see Mr. Fisher on our own. We’ll get out of your way for a while. You and your team can keep right on doing the really important stuff. You might start by booking a comfortable place for those three men back in the interview room to stay the night.”

  Cullen grimaced at Jenn’s obvious contempt for him.

  “I’ll do that,” he said, puffing up his considerable physique in an attempt to exert male authority. “And I’ll book a place for the three of you as well. Meanwhile, Chief Powell here will show you to a vehicle.”

  Powell’s heavy, bloodhound-like jowls hung in an expression of bewilderment as he watched Cullen stalk away. Riley knew what Powell must be thinking. Surely he was worried that an FBI team and the railroad police were starting to look like a bad mix, and he was going to get caught in the middle of an ugly situation.

  Finally Powell shook his head and led Riley and her team outside to a parked vehicle. He gave them the keys and directions to the Fisher home.

  As Riley drove, she said, “Jenn, I don’t blame you for not liking Deputy Chief Cullen, but—”

  Jenn interrupted, “Huh-uh, that’s not it. I don’t like having hangovers or bronchitis. I don’t like it when my car won’t start. I don’t like TV commercials. I don’t like anchovies on my pizza. But that guy …”

  She let out a slight growl, then added, “He’s a whole special kind of unlikable, if you ask me. He practically stinks of testosterone.”

  Bill let out a hearty laugh, but he made no comment.

  Riley couldn’t help but be impressed by how vividly Jenn expressed her dislike.

  But still …

  Riley said, “Well, you’re going to have to work with him. We all will. So get used to him—for as long as it takes to solve this case, anyway.”

  In her rearview mirror, Riley saw Jenn cross her arms in a gesture of silent annoyance.

  Riley hoped Jenn was listening to what she’d just said and would take it seriously. On the other hand, she guessed that there might be an upside to Jenn’s hostility toward Cullen. Maybe it would give her something to think about besides whatever might be going on between her and the mysterious Aunt Cora.

  Anyway, Riley couldn’t complain about Jenn’s work so far today. In the past, she’d always felt that Jenn could be like the proverbial bull in the china shop. But she’d handled the situation with the engineer—the “hogger”—surprisingly well.

  And it was no small accomplishment as far as Riley concerned. The ability to show empathy toward victims really was an important item in a BAU agent’s toolbox. That didn’t seem to come naturally to Jenn, but she was learning it well.

  It was only a short drive across town to the address they were looking for. As Riley parked in front of the place, she noticed that it was of a familiar design—a cluster of clean new apartment buildings with pitched roofs, arched windows, and balconies. Based on similar places she’d seen before, she felt pretty sure the buildings surrounded an open area that included a large swimming pool.

  Riley, Bill, and Jenn took the elevator to the third floor, then knocked on the apartment door.

  Riley was startled when the door first opened. Due to some trick of the light, she almost mistook the man inside for Ryan. They were of similar height and build and complexion. His blond hair was barely touched with gray.

  But the resemblance quickly faded, at least somewhat, and Riley felt herself relax a little.

  “May I help you?” the man asked.

  “Are you Chase Fisher?” Riley asked.

  “I am.”

  Riley and her colleagues showed their badges and introduced themselves.

  The man looked somewhat distressed.

  “The police were here this morning,” he said. “I answered a lot of questions. This is a really hard time for me.”

  “I know, and I’m very sorry,” Riley said. “But we’ve just joined the case, and we’re looking for a fresh perspective. We’re extremely anxious to catch your wife’s killer. We’re hoping you might be able to help us.”

  She recognized that this man was of a different temperament from Ryan. Her ex-husband would be annoyed, but Chase Fisher just sounded tired.

  He nodded and led them inside. It was a fair-sized apartment with lush rugs and a balcony. Riley guessed that it had three bedrooms, and that at least one of them was used as an office. She remembered hearing that Chase Fisher was a chiropractor, and his wife had been a librarian. Riley guessed that his practice must be elsewhere. And it must have been a reasonably prosperous practice for him and his wife to live in a place like this.

  There were no family portraits, and Riley sensed right away that the couple had had no children. There were a few tasteful paintings on the wall, and a glass case was filled with golf and bowling trophies.

  Overall, the place
seemed studiously respectable and pleasant. Even so, Riley caught a scent of melancholy in the air. Her instincts told her that this hadn’t been an entirely happy household even before Reese Fisher’s murder.

  The group sat down on the comfortable furniture.

  Riley said, “Mr. Fisher, I know you’ve been asked this before. But where were you at the time of your wife’s murder?”

  “I was in my office in town,” Fisher said.

  “And can anyone account for your whereabouts?”

  “Certainly. My receptionist, and at least a couple of my morning patients. I guess you already know that I’m a chiropractor.”

  Riley was still paying close attention to his demeanor. She was sure that that his alibi checked out. Bull Cullen might be obnoxious, but he wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t have overlooked a detail like that. But at this point, Riley was more interested in how Fisher answered her questions than in what he actually said.

  “Did you see your wife at all this morning?” Riley asked.

  “No,” he said. “She’d spent the night in Chicago, visiting her mother who is in a nursing home there. She came in on the morning train. As far as I know, she never got home.”

  Riley felt an odd tingle, a feeling that Fisher was leaving something important unsaid.

  Probe gently, she told herself.

  She asked, “Has her mother been told what happened?”

  Fisher shifted slightly in his chair.

  “Yes, I talked to Nadine as soon as I could. The poor woman—she’s not very coherent anymore, and she had a hard time grasping it. She was very upset, and the call didn’t go well. I hope the people who take care of her can help her understand and cope with it. She’s in no condition to come down for the funeral. I’ll have to pay her a visit soon.”

  A silence fell. Riley let it settle for a moment.

  Then she nodded toward the trophies and said, “I see you’re a golfer. And a bowler too.”

  He looked surprised at the comment. Of course, Riley knew that it seemed like a strange thing for a detective to mention at such a moment. But Riley had her reasons.