“I think you should do what you want,” I say. “I think that’s what everyone should do.”
“But, that could affect my relationship with…other people,” she says.
“That’s a consequence of every action you make,” I say, starting the car. I pull out of the parking lot and begin our drive back to the station. Lauren doesn’t say anything.
* * *
I unwrap my sub as Lauren sits across from me at Meats, Etc. She’s barely talked—giving one word answers to everything I say—so I was hoping that stopping to get some lunch might help her become more talkative. Though, the fact that I texted Romano and he told me that my apartment is still being investigated doesn’t help my mood.
“Julia is the most obvious suspect right now,” I say. “She could have gotten all the information she needs about her victims. She could have known that Philip had extra income coming in and she could have stopped by the bar and figured out by watching him. I doubt he would remember the secretary of the adoption agency he used. And with Glenn Erwin, she could have known he had some connection to Detroit. I’m sure if we look into his records, we’ll find that he has family here, or that he lived here when he was younger.”
“It’s certainly possible,” she says.
I lean back against the restaurant’s bench. “Are you angry at me?”
“No,” she says.
I try to read her face, but I’m simply not as good at it as she is.
“Is something else upsetting you?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Everything is fine.”
Well, there are three deadly words. My phone vibrates. It’s from Philip Herdon’s wife, Hailey.
“Excuse me for one minute,” I say to Lauren before pressing answer. “Hello, Mrs. Herdon.”
“Detective Rodriguez,” she says. “I just remembered something and I thought I should tell you in case it has something to do with these serial murders.”
“I always love help on my cases,” I say.
Lauren smirks at me. I shrug. It may not be true, but at least I’m trying to be kind.
“Well, Philip was being harassed by this guy who played the piano sometimes at our church,” she says. “He told me that this guy said he was worried about Philip’s soul.”
“Church pianist,” I say. “That is interesting. Did this guy happen to know about your husband’s habit of inventing charges at the bar?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “It’s possible. The church isn’t that far away from the bar.”
“Well, if they can’t find an answer in Jesus, they find it at the bottom of a bottle,” I say. I feel a sharp pain in my knee as Lauren kicks it. “Right. Anyway, can I have this guy’s name?”
“His name is Jack Hamlin, and for some reason, I was given to believe he’s also an officer of the law.”
I stare blankly at Lauren. She raises an eyebrow.
“What?” she asks.
“Uh, Mrs. Herdon, I am going to look into this,” I say. “Thank you for your tip.”
“Of course. I hope you find the killer.”
“I hope so too,” I say. “I’ll talk to you…sometime later, probably. Have a good day.”
“Goodbye, Detective Rodriguez.”
I hang up.
“What is it?” Lauren asks.
“Jack Hamlin,” I say.
“What?” Lauren asks. “Romano’s new partner?”
“Apparently, he had been stalking Philip Herdon and failed to mention it to us,” I say. “And, apparently, he was worried about Philip’s soul. Lots of coincidences are just lining up.”
“Why wouldn’t Jack tell us any of this the whole time we’re investigating Philip’s death?”
“I think that’s a question we need to go ask him.”
* * *
Jack Hamlin is hunched over his desk. I know that he and Romano were working on some case where a grocery store cashier was shot after closing up, but it’s a low-profile case and they’ve had plenty of time to help us on our case. Which means that Hamlin knows exactly where our investigation has been going and he hasn’t been concerned at all that it could lead back to him.
“How are we going to do this?” I ask Lauren.
“I’ve got it,” she says, taking Philip’s autopsy off of my desk. She walks up to Jack’s desk and I follow her. “Hey, Jack. I was flipping through Philip Herdon’s autopsy. I was wondering if you could take a look and tell me what you think. It just feels like there’s something different from Glenn Erwin’s murder.”
Jack hesitates for a second before he takes the folder.
“I’ll look into it in a couple minutes,” he says. “I just need to write up my report on my own case.”
“This is really important,” Lauren says, tapping on the folder. “This is the fourth crucifixion in total and the killer is becoming more violent. It would be great if you could look at it right now.”
He glances up at the two of us. “You can’t get anybody else to look at it?”
“We’ve had a few people, but they haven’t been able to find anything. Since you’re new, we thought you might be able to find something unique that we wouldn’t normally catch,” Lauren says.
Jack glances back down at the folder. I can feel my heart racing as he flips over the folder. The first few sheets of paper are just information about Philip Herdon’s body, but after that, there are photographs of his body and, unless Jack is a full-blown sociopath, it should affect him.
Jack flips the folder closed, not even looking past the first page. “I don’t see anything that you wouldn’t have caught. The two murders are likely different, but that doesn’t mean anything. You said yourself that the murderer is escalating the violence he commits. That’s it.”
“Really?” Lauren asks. She flips the folder back open and turns to one of the pages with a photograph of Philip’s crucified body. “Why don’t you look at the photographs, too?”
Jack refuses to look down, staring at the background of his computer screen. “I don’t need to. I read the text.”
“Detective Hamlin,” Lauren says.
He glances over at her. There’s a pain in his eyes that reminds me of a wounded animal.
Lauren’s voice is a little gentler. “Did you know Philip Herdon?”
Jack rubs his thumb against his bottom lip.
“I don’t see how that’s pertinent—”
“It’s a question that requires a simple yes or no answer,” I interrupt. He gives me a withering look.
He gives me a withering look. “Yes,” he confesses. “I did know him. Now, let me explain why I didn’t tell anyone—”
“I think it’s pretty obvious why you didn’t tell anyone,” I say. “You had something to hide.”
“I had myself to protect,” he retorts. “I didn’t kill him, okay?”
A couple of other police officers have turned to try to listen to our conversation. Jack lowers his voice.
“We both went to this church called Soulful Church. I had known about him stealing money from the bar because my friend, Jamie Gambon, is the owner. Jamie had noted that he wasn’t making as much of a profit as usual…I had worked in a restaurant that had a bar and I knew how some of the bartenders would take some extra cash, so I drank there a few times a night and watched the bartenders. I know what Philip was doing. I saw it.”
“So is that why you began stalking him?” Lauren asks.
“No, it wasn’t stalking,” he says. “I just…I wanted Philip to stop, so that Jamie’s business wasn’t suffering and I didn’t want to bring the law into it because that could cause bad publicity for Jamie. Jamie trusted everyone who worked for him, and this kind of thing would cause him to become cynical. I just wanted to get through to Philip. I mean, we went to the same church. I thought I could show him what he was doing wrong, but I approached him a few days before he went missing and told him to stop stealing, and all he said was that he couldn’t stop because his family needed the money.”
Jack shakes his head violently. “No,” he says. “It’s not me. I swear. I was working half the time during those murders.”
“None of us can be certain of that,” I say. “The time of death is too ambiguous.”
“I didn’t kill all those people!” he says. “I swear. I believe in Jesus and I believe he wanted us to take care of each other. I would never take a life unless it was to save an innocent life.”
“Well, our killer thinks he’s saving innocent lives by crucifying them,” I say. “So, what you’re saying isn’t very reassuring.”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “There is zero evidence I murdered either of these people. All you have is that I knew Philip.”
“And you tried to hide that fact,” I insert. “And you were stalking him. And you knew about the broken commandment that he was killed for. And you’re religious. That’s a much longer list than you’re making it out to be.”
“Do you really think that if I had killed Philip, I would have confessed all of that to you?” he hisses, glaring at me. “You’ve never liked me. You’re clearly letting your personal feelings interfere with the investigation.”
“Oh, if you want me to include my personal feelings into this investigation, I would have already dragged your ass into the interrogation room,” I say.
Lauren elbows me. “I think he’s telling the truth,” she mutters. “He’s not showing any signs that he’s lying.”
“Some people are just good at lying,” I say. “Some of them don’t exhibit any body language when lying.”
She turns to Jack. “Jack, when you were following Philip, did you notice anybody else hanging around him other than his wife and daughter?”
He shrugs. “There was guy he worked with that he hung out with—I think he was a bouncer at the bar. Bulky guy, bald, about a few inches taller than me. And, uh, Philip might have been cheating on his wife because there was some chick that I saw with him sometimes after he was done working.”
“Do you know her name or can you describe her?” I ask.
“I don’t know her name, but she was in her mid-twenties, thick blond hair, and she was really thin. I bumped into her once to start a conversation with Philip and I remember she had cross earrings because she was always tugging on them.”
I turn to Lauren. “Julia.”
“Julia,” she echoes.
Jack looks between the two of us. “So, can I get back to working or do you want to interrogate me further?”
I take out my cell phone and send a text to Romano.
Me: Your partner knew Philip Herdon and stalked him. Can you come keep watch of him?
I shove my phone back into my pocket. “Romano is going to come watch you. Don’t do anything stupid.”
I walk back to my desk. Lauren follows me.
“Don’t you trust me when I tell you that I think he’s innocent?” she asks.
“I trust you. I just don’t trust anybody else,” I say. “Besides, I’m sure he is innocent. I just want him to remember for the rest of his life what happens when he impedes an investigation.”
“I don’t know whether I should be flattered or think that you’re an asshole.”
“They’re not mutually exclusive,” I say.
“I’ve noticed.” She leans over and kisses me. “I love it.”
Her words feel like they should be filled with admiration or adoration, but there’s something distant in her voice. It’s like she’s saying it from the other side of the world, but she’s right here in front of me.
Chapter Twelve
Lauren
When Tobias and I run back into New Hearts adoption agency, Julia isn’t sitting behind the secretary’s desk. Instead, Patrick White is there, talking to someone on the phone.
“Yes, Mr. Luzier, we’ll see you on Friday,” Patrick says. “Absolutely. We’re excited to see you too. I’ll talk to you soon. Goodbye.”
After he hangs up, Tobias and I step up to the desk.
“Where’s Julia?” I ask.
“She was upset about her father passing away, so I gave her the rest of the day off,” he says. “Is there a problem? Is she in trouble?”
“The fact that it’s her father that passed away could be why she represents The Father,” I say to Tobias.
“Represents her father?” Patrick asks. “What’s going on here?”
“We just believe that Julia may be responsible for some crimes,” Tobias says. “Do you have her address in your employee personnel files?”
“We should have it here in our computers.” He clicks the mouse a few times and the printer starts whirring. He turns back to us. “Okay, first, I would like to say I don’t believe Julia would do anything wrong.”
“You guys are really big on that idea that you’re all a big family, aren’t you?” Tobias mutters.
“I’ve known her since she was young—I got her this job,” he says. “I don’t think she’s capable of immoral behavior.”
“People surprise each other all of the time,” I say.
Patrick shakes his head. “At the very least…could you keep New Hearts’s name out of the papers?” he asks. “For most businesses, getting your name involved in something bad can cripple business, but for us…our business is about doing good and morality. I really don’t want the number of adoptions to drop because of a controversy.”
“Mr. White, this is more than a controversy,” Tobias says. “This is serial murder.”
His whole face goes white. “Serial murder? Julia wouldn’t be involved in that.”
“Well, then, we’re just going to question her and see if she knows anything,” Tobias says. He holds out his hand and Patrick reluctantly gives him Julia’s address.
Chapter Thirteen
Tobias
I park in front of Julia’s house. It’s a small, one-story, dark blue house with white shutters and a white door the looks oddly small.
“We shouldn’t ambush her,” I say. “Only one of us should go in.”
“It should be you,” Lauren says.
“Really?” I ask. “Usually, you’re the one who makes more sense to talk to people with your ability to read them, and you’re just generally a nicer person.”
“But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. First Epistle to Timothy,” she quotes. “And the whole thing about how Adam was formed first and Eve was deceived by the serpent. She’s more likely to listen to you since you’re a man.”
I stare at her. “How can you know those things are in the Bible and still be a Christian?”
“Well, that quote is more about women in the Church at Ephesus than anything else. They’re letters, they require context,” she says. “But a lot of fundamental Christians read it differently. And I’d like to point out that Eve may have been deceived by the serpent, but Adam just went along with what Eve said. I think it makes more sense that Eve listened to a talking snake, who may or may not have been the Devil.”
“None of this makes sense to me,” I say.
“I know.”
“I’ll go talk to her,” I say. “I’ll call you if I need back-up for this little ninety pound woman.”
“I’m pretty sure that Mary Fitzgerald wasn’t that much heavier and she put two nails into you.”
“Touché,” I say, opening my car door. I walk up to Julia’s house and knock on the door. I glance around as I wait for her to answer. She has a small white car parked in the driveway, so somebody has to be here.
Half a minute passes by. I knock again. Louder. More insistent. I’ll be damned if one tiny little person wastes my time while I’m trying to track down a sadistic serial killer.
After another nearly thirty seconds pass by, Julia yanks open her door.
“Did you need something?” she b
lurts out.
“Yeah,” I answer. “Why were you hanging around with Philip Herdon?”
She gapes at me. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, you’re a little too far into Jesus to lie well,” I say. “I know you knew him, I know you were hanging around with him. I may hate my source, but he’s not stupid enough to make up a story like this. So, I’ll ask again: why were you hanging around with Philip Herdon?”
“I…” She bites her lip. “We were having an affair, okay?”
“You want me to believe you were having an affair with Philip?” I ask. “You? The one with crosses and Bible verses all over your desk?”
“It was mostly emotional,” she says, wrapping her arms around her waist. “I don’t do well at dating, but he took an interest in me. He showed me some really nice places in the city. My feelings got the best of me. God told us that our hearts are deceitful and can’t be trusted, but I was caught up in the moment.”
“So why didn’t you tell us that you knew him when we came to the agency?” I ask. “You had to know he was one of the reasons we were there. The two murders have been all over the news and I could understand someone not paying attention to who they were if they weren’t having an affair with them, but you don’t have an excuse.”
“I couldn’t say anything when I had two of my bosses around,” she says. “Mr. Lush and Mr. White believe that we’re this tight knit family that doesn’t keep secrets. I didn’t want them to think I wasn’t trustworthy.”
“Why should I believe you now when you didn’t tell me the truth before?” I ask.
“Why else would I have been hanging out with Philip?” she asks. “I was in love with him.”
“I don’t know,” I say, cupping my chin, pretending to ponder the question. “Maybe you were trying to figure out if he was as sinful as you thought. Maybe you were trying to get him alone in order to kill him. It could be a number of different motives.”
Violence of the Father (A Trinity of Death Romantic Suspense Series Book 2) Page 8
