Colde & Rainey (A Rainey Bell Thriller)

by R. E. Bradshaw

  “And his obsession with Ellie, did that ever give you pause?”

  “Yes, I worried that he was too invested in her, but she was always so sweet about it. She told him he was her best guy friend, but he wanted more than that, I’m sure. I’m so sorry he ruined her life, after the kindness she had shown him. You know, Ellie was the first person in this town to come to the house after Graham shot her parents. She wanted us to know she didn’t blame us. I was one of the first people she came to see when she moved back to town in January.”

  “One last question, Mrs. Colde. Did Graham ever talk to you about being bullied?”

  “He didn’t complain. He said he was chastised in class sometimes for knowing all the answers, and the bigger boys used to pick him up, jostle him around, which embarrassed him. He was one of the youngest in his class, but he was too smart to hold back. He was sensitive about his stature, but the bullying never seemed malicious. We did what all parents do. We told him to toughen up and ignore them. In hindsight, that probably was not the advice he needed.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Colde. I appreciate your candor.”

  Rainey stood with the other women and stepped aside so they could exit. She had started for the desk, when she turned for one last inquiry. “Mrs. Colde, did Graham know Burgess Read and Adam Goodwin?” These were the only remaining names Colde’s mother had not mentioned from the list.

  Susie stopped at the door. “Why, yes. Burgess was the closest thing Graham had to a real friend, other than the twins. I’m quite sure it was their mutual grief that brought Ellie and Burgess together after the deaths.”

  “And Adam?” Rainey reminded her.

  “Adam he knew, but they were not close. Adam was one of the bigger boys that liked to give Graham a hard time. He was in that shooting club too, now that you mention it.” She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s the whole list of names, isn’t it—everyone my son intended to kill? I’ve looked at that list a thousand times. I’ll never know why he hated them so much and I can’t live my life dwelling on it. My son is dead, Ms. Bell. This Theodore Suzanne, if he had something to do with Wellman’s death, I hope you catch him and put him away forever, this time.”

  As Susie and Harriet exited, Benjy Janson poked his head in the door holding a plate covered in plastic wrap in one hand and a white foam cup filled with something steaming in the other. “My wife insisted that I bring you a plate. She was afraid you were locked in here with no food or water.” He laughed easily. “Her mission in life is to feed the world.”

  “Thank her for me. I am hungry and whatever is steaming in that cup looks fantastic.”

  Benjy brought the gifts from Leda to the desk and put them down. He extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Benjy Janson, and you are the woman with the beautiful family my wife keeps going on about.”

  Rainey offered her hand and her name. “Rainey Bell. Nice to meet you. Your wife is very sweet.”

  “I think so too.” He looked around, saw a cup on the table beside the couch, and walked over to pick it up. “I thought I got everything out of this room earlier.”

  “Were there people in here?” Rainey started scanning the desk, trying to remember how she had left it before they went to the crime scene.

  “I caught Skylar and his latest bed bunny in here earlier. This one is the new preacher’s wife. Christians do some of the most unchristian things, don’t they?”

  Rainey picked up the coffee Benjy brought. “Yes, they do. I actually caught a serial killer in a church parking lot once. He was a youth minister.”

  Benjy laughed, probably because of the irreverence Rainey had voiced in agreement with his statement. “Now that is one of the reasons you won’t catch me in the pew on Sunday. I talk to my God outside. I’d rather be in the woods on Sunday morning, than sitting with hypocrites like Skylar Sweet.”

  “I take it you don’t care for Skylar,” Rainey egged him on.

  “No, he’s a poor excuse for a human being. And that goon he hangs with, Gordon, what a dick. I ran into him poaching on the Read property. I told Leda I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the one that shot Mr. Wise. He’s always high. He probably doesn’t know what he’s shooting at half the time. He’s also coward enough to run away instead of get help.”

  “Did you tell the police you saw him poaching out there?” Rumors were easier to spread than making an official statement. Most people willing to say something in a diner would back down the rhetoric when talking to a badge. Rainey was testing Benjy’s voracity.

  “I sure as hell did,” he answered immediately.

  “Do you know if they questioned him?”

  “The guy laughed at me. Said Gordon Terrell was the best shot in the county. That’s a small town for you. Good ol’ boys win every time.”

  “You really think he did it, don’t you?” Rainey was pushing Benjy. She wanted to see if he angered beyond the mild display so far.

  “Whether he did or not, I don’t want him poaching in those woods. My son and I hike in there all the time. I don’t want to be the next victim of an accidental shooting. If you ask me, there is nothing accidental about pulling the trigger. You either know your target and see it clearly or you do not shoot. It is as simple as that.”

  “Do you hunt, Benjy?”

  “No, but I used to shoot some at the range. I was in the shooting club with most of the people I can’t stand now. At one time, we were friends, but then the shooting happened and a bunch of other stuff and we all went our own way. Well, except Skylar and Gordon, they have been inseparable since grade school, which is probably the reason no one has ever just kicked either one of their asses. There are always two of them, three when Adam was around.”

  “Did you ever see anyone bully Graham Colde?”

  “Yes, all the time. The jocks were relentless.”

  Rainey needed clarification. “By jocks, do you mean Skylar and those guys?”

  “Yes, especially Skylar. I’m telling you, Skylar Sweet is a prick. He always has been. I don’t hate many people, but that son of a bitch is at the top of my list.”

  Rainey stopped the smile that tried to creep to her lips. Skylar was on the top of everyone’s list. “Do you know about the list found in Graham’s pocket the morning of the shooting?”

  “Yes, everybody does.”

  “Do you have any idea why your name was on it?”

  Benjy’s body language changed. He deflated from his moral superiority somewhat. “I wasn’t always a grown up. I did my share of stupid things. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me now, but I was Goth back in high school, long dyed black hair, painted nails, piercings sticking out of me everywhere. I was even in a death metal band with Burgess Read. We were such dorks.”

  “How did that get you on Graham’s list?”

  “The Halloween before the shooting, we took Graham into the woods and scared him so bad he fainted. Then, of course, we told everyone.”

  “What exactly did you do?” Rainey needed to know how traumatizing the event might have been.

  “We went out to this old graveyard. It’s up in the woods on the Read property. Burgess and Graham had been friends forever, but as we got older, Graham just—well, now that I have my own kid, I realize he was just maturing at a slower rate than we were. He was still reading graphic novels and talking about superheroes. We were after chicks and weed. Graham was always trying to hang around.”

  “He was cramping your style.”

  “Yes, but nobody meant to really hurt him. We just wanted him to go away. So we took him out there to the old graveyard. There used to be an old crumbling mausoleum back there. It’s gone now and the bodies have been moved, but back then the caskets were still inside. We pried the door open and Cassie Gillian dressed up in a costume to look like a dead girl that had been hit by a car. She had pig’s blood all over her. We start telling this ghost story about a girl killed on prom night and then she pops out. Graham fell over instantly. He woke up and fell over again. Finally, Burgess got wo
rried and we took Graham home, but he never forgave us for that.”

  “Did Burgess know Graham fainted at the sight of blood?”

  Benjy looked surprised. “No, I don’t think so. None of us did. Even being the dicks we were, I don’t think we would have done that if we knew.”

  “He couldn’t control it. Fifteen percent of the population faints at the sight of blood. It’s actually thought to be an innate phenomenon left over from our caveman days,” Rainey explained.

  “Wow, that throws a whole new slant on his reaction. Damn, kids can be so cruel.”

  “Yes, they can,” Rainey agreed.

  Benjy was ready to move on. “Well, if you’re ever in town again, bring your beautiful family by the diner. Leda would love that.”

  “Thank you, Benjy. It was a pleasure to meet you and your lovely family, as well.”

  He smiled back at her on the way out the door. “Watch for a Janson in the sports pages. I think that boy of ours is going to be a star.”

  “I’ll do that,” Rainey replied, while thinking about genetic prodigies.

  With Benjy gone, and the door closed behind him, Rainey sat down at the desk again. She reopened the file and looked at Graham’s list.

  She spoke aloud, quoting one of the Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold, “The lonely man strikes with absolute rage.” She focused on the drawing at the bottom of the page, where the stickman assassin took aim, bloody bodies at his feet. “Were you a lonely man, Graham Colde?” She looked up from the paper, glancing over her shoulder at the freezing fog and low clouds spitting an occasional snowflake. “Is Theodore Suzanne a lonely man now?”

  Chapter Five

  6:20 p.m.

  Overcast, 28.9oF, Windchill 16.5oF

  Rainey spent three hours reviewing the evidence Wellman Wise collected and still she wasn’t sure what he had found. Maybe it was nothing. His phone call to her could have been to warn her about Theodore Suzanne. He may have been killed before he uncovered the clue to the mystery he tried to solve for fourteen years. It was clear from his handwritten notes that Captain Wise believed there were too many dead people on the original list to be a coincidence. He examined the case from every angle, establishing motives for the four living people from the list, although some were a stretch. He scrutinized what he could find about each one’s whereabouts when the other’s died. Leda wasn’t on the list, but she had just as much motive as anyone else, and hers made more sense than some of the others. If the accidents were actually murders, they all could have done it.

  The Captain also tracked Theodore. He contacted his doctors at the hospital after seeing him at his mother’s, but was given no information directly related to his care, just some hypothetical answers to his questions about recovered memories. He seemed to be leaning toward Theodore remembering his past. Wise had asked the doctors if a patient with an injury like Theodore’s could fake the amnesia. They were highly doubtful, but did concede that no one knew how much he might eventually recall.

  One note was of the most interest to Rainey. The doctors were forthcoming about Theodore’s obsession with his own case and the psychological profiling of Graham Colde. He spent his time trying to understand what made Graham kill. He read copious amounts and asked endless questions. The doctors saw no ill effects and it actually helped him process what had happened in his past. When they learned that he had returned home, the doctors said he was probably still trying to connect the dots. Theodore’s behavioral analysis of his former persona became a passion driven by one burning question—what went wrong?

  Rainey emerged from the study just after six and sat down with Bill, his wife Morgan, and Harriet for another meal of ham sandwiches and brownies, with sides of potato salad and pickles.

  Bill leaned back and patted his stomach. “I may never eat another ham sandwich in my life.”

  Morgan stuffed the fifth dill pickle into her mouth, while the rest of them had a second round of coffee after the brownies. Rainey counted because she remembered how ravenous Katie was when she was pregnant and how many jars of Ernie’s homemade pickles she had eaten. Ernie had to make a second batch just for her.

  “Mmm. These pickles are delicious,” Morgan said, chomping on number six.

  Rainey saw the smile creep onto Harriet’s face. “Do you two have something to tell me?”

  Morgan nearly choked on the pickle. Bill’s face turned red. Rainey felt like an intruder, but she couldn’t leave.

  Harriet prodded Morgan. “I ate my weight in pickles when I was pregnant with Bill.”

  Bill gushed, “Well, I guess now is as good a time as ever. Mom, we’re having a baby.”

  Harriet was thrilled and while they were all hugging, Rainey slipped out of the kitchen and went to the foyer where she could look out the large glass panes in the front door. The sky was dark now. The streetlight cast an amber glow on the snow-covered corner, where the Wise home stood. The snow smoothed all the edges, hid all that was unsightly, turning Hominy Junction into a picturesque Christmas card scene. Somewhere out there, a killer may have been lurking, thinking they got away with murder, multiple ones if the Captain was right.

  Rainey had done all she could. She would call Brad Dawson at the Dobbs County Sheriff’s office and tell him what she knew. It wasn’t her place to become involved in an open investigation without being asked. She did as the family requested, reviewed the information. Now, it was someone else’s job to investigate.

  Rainey had more pressing matters. Though related, her reasons for wanting to find Theodore Suzanne had nothing to do with Wellman Wise’s shooting or any supposed murder plots. Her family was of most importance, and being stuck here away from them was frustrating and a bit unnerving. Knowing the security she had in place would probably stop an intruder, she couldn’t help but wonder, if Theodore could invade her privacy as much as he had, what was he capable of doing. Could he hack the locks, disable the system, could he get to her wife and kids?

  “There you are,” Harriet said behind her. She stepped beside Rainey to look out the window. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  “Yes, it makes everything look so pure.”

  “Pure as the driven snow. That must be where that comes from,” Harriet surmised. “It’s warmed up some.” She pointed at a weather station on the wall. “It’s nearly thirty degrees now. Maybe we won’t get that half-inch of ice they’ve predicted. I sure hope not.”

  “There will be massive power outages if that happens,” Rainey commented, remembering the last ice storm to come through the Carolinas.

  “We have a generator, so if the power goes out, just stay put. Wellma— Bill will have it back on in a few minutes.”

  Rainey smiled. “Your son is a good man. It’s a reflection of his parents. Your husband has left you in good hands.”

  Harriet patted Rainey’s arm and smiled up at her. “He did do that. Would you like to join us in the den for hot chocolate?”

  “That sounds fantastic.”

  Rainey followed Harriet to the den where they joined the giddy Bill and Morgan. Now that their secret was out, the mood of the day had shifted. Rainey had been right in telling Bill to inform his mother of the baby. The whole family was glowing.

  Bill stood on their entry and lifted a cup and saucer to Rainey’s hand. He smiled and whispered, “Great advice.”

  She returned the smile and took a seat in the corner armchair.

  Morgan looked over at Rainey. “Bill tells me your dad taught him how to break a pair of handcuffs. I don’t believe him. If they are that easy to break, then why do the cops even use them, or can you only break the cheap kind? You were in the FBI weren’t you? Could someone break the cuffs you used?”

  “He’s telling the truth, the chain between the two cuffs or the part that holds the chain on the cuff can be snapped fairly easily. The more expensive, the easier they are to break. Strength and size are not necessary either.”

  “Then why don’t the criminals just break them and run,” Morgan
asked.

  Rainey did not crack a smile when she replied, “Because we would shoot them.”

  “Oh,” Morgan said.

  Rainey could maintain the straight face no longer and started to laugh, which caused the room to erupt.

  When the laughter died down, she said, “They do break cuffs occasionally, but dangerous criminals are transported with more than a single pair of cuffs to contain them.”

  “See, honey, I wasn’t making that up. He also taught me how to pick the lock on the cuffs and how to use a shim to defeat the ratchet part on the cuff itself. He could also break out of zip ties.”

  Morgan asked Rainey. “Why would your dad know all that stuff?”

  “SERE training. He was in Special Forces. Plus, he ran a bail business, so he stayed up on things even after he left the service for good. It’s smart to know all the ways someone can escape from custody.”

  “What is SERE training?” Morgan wanted to know.

  Bill answered before Rainey could. “Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape.”

  “Billy was quite a character and, as Wellman would testify one hell of a soldier, but he had a heart of gold” Harriet said from the rocker by the couch, where Bill and Morgan were seated. “We were out on the porch one night—he’d come down to fish with Wellman—when he says, ‘Hey, Captain,’—he always called him Captain—‘Hey Captain, I’m going to walk around to Teddy Colde’s house and pay him a visit.’ We didn’t even know he knew the Coldes. It seemed that when he heard about what Graham had done and the trauma Teddy had already been through, he started visiting now and again, taking Teddy for long drives just to talk and get him out of the house. ‘Billy Bell is just one of the good guys,’ Wellman would say.”

  Rainey’s heart felt heavy and light at the same time. On one hand, she missed him horribly. On the other, the stories of her father’s benevolence turned up all the time. Billy, it seemed, spent his spare time helping veterans experiencing PTSD. Even before it was a household word, her father knew these men were damaged and needed help. The ‘never leave a man behind’ mentality stayed with Billy, even after his uniform was packed away for the last time. He was in the National Guard for years, beyond the time he spent on active duty, retiring at age forty, but Billy Bell was in the Army until the day he died.