Colde & Rainey (A Rainey Bell Thriller)

by R. E. Bradshaw

  “Brothers in arms forever,” Rainey said. “He lived by that.”

  “Well, I’m glad he was around,” Morgan commented, patting Bill on the chest. “I’m told I wouldn’t have his namesake here, if not for your father. That’s an amazing story. Someone should write about it.”

  Harriet responded to Morgan’s suggestion. “I asked Wellman why he didn’t write the story down. He said we only knew what he chose to tell us, and without the details it was just another story of ordinary men surviving that hellhole in an extraordinary way. He said they all had stories like that. It was a hell of war.”

  “And then they were spat on,” Bill said, injured by the dishonor to his father.

  As a salve to Bill’s wound, Harriet offered, “It was a turbulent time in our country. The public is more supportive now of our soldiers coming home from wars they don’t necessarily agree with. That pleased Wellman immensely. Duty can have no political agenda for the soldier. I believe the Vietnam vets are to thank for that shift in public perception.”

  “And yet, there is so much more to be done to help our soldiers recover from the injuries they’ve suffered, both mentally and physically,” Rainey said.

  Morgan piped in excitedly, “Bill worked on a program to help soldiers with head injuries recover brain function.”

  “Did Theodore help you with that program?” The man stalking her family was never far from Rainey’s mind. She wanted to know more about him.

  Bill sat up, assuming a more professional air. “Actually, it was his idea. This kid is brilliant. His social skills are underdeveloped, but the part of his brain that can write code is incredible. I couldn’t believe all the things he knew about the human mind.”

  “Where do you work?” Might as well interrogate Bill while he was sitting in front of her, Rainey thought.

  “Programming by Genius in Research Triangle Park.”

  “I know someone else that works there: Joey Erickson,” Rainey said, putting the puzzle pieces together in her mind.

  Bill smiled. “Joey, yeah, he’s a cool kid, different, but cool.”

  “He’s kind of a ward to a friend of mine. In fact, he’s at my house right now.”

  Bill’s smile vanished. “You know he hangs with Theodore. They share social deficiencies in common, so they sort of ended up together. They are both incredibly talented, just extremely—”

  Rainey spoke up, “Joey has Asperger’s. I can see how a brain injury like Theodore’s could mimic the same effect. And yes, I knew they were friends. Theodore has not been to my house, or at least I’m unaware if he has, but he and Joey were given carte blanche at my wife’s women’s shelter. They helped her with a program for her computer system.”

  “Is that how he got all that information for the game?” Harriet asked. Obviously Bill had let her know what he and Rainey found.

  “Do you have access to military-grade surveillance equipment?” Rainey asked, knowing that’s what it would take to break into her security system.

  Bill’s face answered the question before he did, as concern wrinkled his brow. “Yes, we do. We have to know how everything works in order to make the virtual training videos.”

  Morgan was unaware of the undercurrent of the conversation. “They use virtual actors because it’s cheaper than real people. Soon, we won’t see real people at all in the movies, right honey?”

  Bill turned to his wife. “Well, a combination, like the movie “300.”

  Rainey’s mind was racing through scenarios. Was Theodore in her house? Did he trick Joey into wearing a camera? How safe were the people in her house tonight? If he was watching Rainey, he knew she was not at home. In fact, if he was watching that closely, he knew she was in his old hometown. If he killed Wellman Wise because of what he knew, then he may suppose Rainey knew it now. At least nothing was moving outside. That was some comfort.

  Morgan bantered on, changing the subject that apparently did not interest her. “Speaking of actors, do you know what Ellie told me? She said that estate she just inherited was worth over two million dollars. She said she was giving up auditioning forever.”

  Harriet chimed in, “Well, she sure used as much of Burgess’s money as she could trying to be famous.”

  Rainey snapped out of her thoughts of Theodore. “Benjy told me that he and Burgess were in a death metal band in high school. Ellie doesn’t look like the type to hang with the Goths. I pictured her as a cheerleader and homecoming queen.”

  “I remember her in high school,” Harriet said. “In a small town, the school is pretty much our social life. We went to the football games and plays. Ellie was the head cheerleader and starred in all the productions. Everyone was so proud of how she bounced back from the tragedy. Burgess was an excellent musician, even if he did dress rebelliously. He was handsome, artsy, could paint, sing, play most instruments. They hooked up right before they graduated.”

  “Hooked up?” Morgan laughed. “Mama Wise, when did you become so hip?”

  Harriet joined in the laughter. “I watch TV. I’m keeping up with the times.”

  “I know why Ellie hooked up with Burgess,” Bill interjected. “He got that internship to work in Wilmington at one of the studios. He was brilliant with sound. I talked to him that summer. I was home just after I graduated from college. He asked me if he should go to school and I told him he could learn more working in the industry. As it turned out, I was right. He moved right up the food chain. Last I heard, he was running one of the sound studios down there.”

  “Ellie left because her looks were beginning to fail and she needed to find that rich man to take care of her the rest of her life,” Morgan said, with an assurance that turned all heads toward her.

  Bill chuckled. “What makes you say that?”

  “Oh, I watch “Real Housewives.” I know how women like Ellie operate.”

  “Burgess had all that money coming. Why did she leave him?” Rainey asked.

  Harriet answered the question. “Old man Read hung on forever and no one really knew how much money he had. He died after Ellie left Burgess, but before they were divorced. He’d roll over in his grave if he knew Ellie Paxton was living in his house. He always called her a gold digger.”

  “This is why we aren’t living in a small town, Bill,” Morgan said. “Everybody knows everybody’s business.”

  “How did he die?” Rainey asked.

  “They found him slumped over on his boat, apparent heart attack. Not far from where they found Wellman.” Harriet finished the sentence and then went quiet.

  “Who found your father?” Rainey’s brain was crunching facts. The prickly feeling was returning.

  “Ellie. She has a habit of going for a cold dip, even in winter. She says it keeps her skin soft,” Morgan answered, because Bill and Harriet were lost in thought. “She said the salt water in California was better, but for now the sandpit would do. Anyway, she usually goes early in the morning, but she went to Raleigh that day. She went for a swim after she got home.”

  “So, she was gone when the shooting took place?”

  Harriet looked up from her shoe gazing. “Oh, you don’t think Ellie shot Wellman, do you? She loved him. He spent hours with her after the shooting. She looked at him like a father, said so many times. Ellie would have no reason to kill Wellman. I think he thought someone was killing all the people she cared about. Cassie was her best friend, Ely was her brother, Burgess her husband, Adam had been Ely’s best friend, all these people were connected to her.”

  “I know,” Rainey said, leaning forward. “That’s what makes this puzzling. She is either the most unlucky person in the world, or these things were done for her benefit in some warped mind.”

  Bill was putting his own puzzle together. “What if Theodore does remember his old life? What if he’s still obsessing over Ellie? That would explain a lot of things.”

  “Your father warned him to stay away,” Rainey said. “In an erotomania personality, someone with attachment issues, the
person can sometimes be forced to remove obstacles to their obsessions. If something or someone gets in the way, these types of personalities can become extremely unpredictable.”

  “Why would this guy still be obsessed with Ellie after all these years?” Morgan asked.

  “A person with this personality disorder believes the individual they fixate on is in fact in love with them. A smile from a colleague becomes a declaration of true love. Opening the door for a woman can signal to her a love match. There is no way to convince a person with an erotomania attachment that the person does not return their devotion. Worst case scenarios end up in the murder of the object they desire but can never have.”

  Morgan looked at Bill. “You are now forbidden to open doors for strange women.”

  “And you don’t smile at coworkers,” Bill added.

  Harriet spoke next. “You know so much about deviant behavior. I’m sure you’ve seen the worst of us humans. No wonder you wear a weapon.”

  “Well, I seem to attract trouble, as my wife says, so I’m prepared should that happen.”

  “Bill told me about your past. You must have nine lives,” Morgan commented. “And you’re so normal. I’d never come out of the house, if I’d lived through all that. I’d figure my luck had run out.”

  “She doesn’t need luck.” It was Harriet commenting. “She’s Billy Bell’s child. I suspect her DNA has kept her alive more than providence.”

  “There is always a way out, until you give up. That’s what Dad said Billy kept saying in the jungle. He thought Billy Bell was the bravest man he’d ever known. I told him once that I was going to be a brave soldier just like him and win lots of medals, but you know what Billy said when I told him that?” Bill waited a second, but he really didn’t want an answer. “He said, ‘Don’t confuse courage with pride, Bill—”

  Rainey finished her father’s oft-repeated warning, “It’ll get you killed.”

  “I’ve always remembered that,” Bill said, reflectively.

  “Wellman and Billy, they were a different breed. You don’t find too many of those types of men around anymore,” Harriet said, adding, “I’m extremely proud to have known them both.”

  “Me too,” Rainey said, toasting with her cocoa cup.

  “It’s snowing again,” Morgan said, looking out the window.

  “Snow is better than ice,” Bill said. “Hopefully, I won’t be getting up in the middle of the night to start the generator.”

  Morgan patted his knee. “Just wait until you’re changing diapers and three a.m. feedings.”

  Rainey laughed. “Yep, you should sleep as much as possible now. I haven’t felt rested in two years.”

  “May I see your children?” Morgan asked. “Leda said they were precious.”

  Rainey pulled out her phone and found the picture they took at Christmas. She handed the phone to Morgan. “The biggest boy is Mack. The other boy is Timothy, and the girl is Weather.”

  “How absolutely beautiful. Look at these babies, Bill.”

  The Wises passed Rainey’s phone around, while she showed them more pictures. It was eight-thirty when they finally ran out of stories to swap. Harriet was exhausted, understandably, and excused herself to her bedroom, after making sure Rainey’s sleeping arrangements had been made.

  She hugged Rainey, before leaving her in the hallway. “Thank you so much for coming. I do hope you will come and visit me. You remind me so much of your father, and it was always a joy to have him around.”

  “I’ll do that,” Rainey said, and she meant it.

  Harriet squeezed Rainey’s hand. “I know you’ll find out who killed Wellman.”

  “I’ll do my absolute best, I promise. I won’t let them allow this case to go cold. I’ll stay on it.”

  “I know you will. You’re Billy’s daughter. You will make things right.”

  With Harriet’s expectations weighing heavy on her, Rainey returned to the study. She reviewed the files one more time. Still, no smoking gun jumped out at her, literally. No one had a motive to kill all of those people. Each individual had a reason to kill one or more, but not all.

  Ellie gained financially on the death of her parents, brother, and husband, but the links to the other deaths were thin. Skylar may have killed Adam with Gordon’s help, because he was going to tell or blackmail them over the rape. Maybe Leda and Benjy were blackmailing Skylar. Why not just kill them then? Too obvious, maybe. Rainey scanned to the next living soul on the list, Benjy. His reasons, along with his wife’s, were compelling, but the two actual perpetrators of the rape remained alive. Why kill Burgess Read? Maybe his death was an accident and it was simply muddying the water. Cassie Gillian’s death was never questioned as anything but an accidental overdose. And then there was Theodore, the only person with a reason to kill them all and the means to do it, his mind. If this were a criminal conspiracy, it would take a brain of enormous capacity to pull off. Cunning, ruthless, and patient criminals were the hardest to catch and the most dangerous.

  Rainey closed the file and opened the laptop. Bill had written the password down. She typed it in and waited for the computer to wake, before finding the game folder. She started the game and watched the opening movie again, looking for things she may have missed earlier. She paused the video at each scene change, amazed at the details that popped out at her. In the killer’s lair, where she had been tortured, she saw her clothes on the floor by the bed, just as she’d seen them in the crime scene photos. Most of her memories came from those photos and were not memories at all, but information her brain used to fill in the gaps in the dreams it sometimes sent to haunt her. It was difficult at times to distinguish between what she actually remembered of that night and what she dreamed had happened. The movie revived the memory of the experience, but with a morbid curiosity she watched.

  The sexual assault was handled with quickly changing camera angles, as if the viewer was flipping pages in a graphic novel, showing just enough to let the viewer’s imagination fill in the blanks. The close-up slow motion clip of the letter being carved into the flesh of Stormy Weathers was bloody and gruesome.

  “What the hell?” Rainey sprang from the chair.

  She ran to the door and called out for Bill. He came on a run.

  “What is it? What have you found?”

  Rainey ushered him to the desk, saying, “Graham Colde would pass out at the sight of blood. How does Theodore react around all this blood on the screen?”

  “Uh, well, he doesn’t see it. All of his drawings are in black ink. We take his storyboards and turn it into computer-generated images. Theodore actually refuses to watch and Joey does it for him.”

  “Joey Erickson has seen this game?”

  “Yes, he’s on the team.” Another light bulb moment for Bill lit up the room.

  “I think I’ll have a talk with Joey when I get home,” Rainey said, but was secretly glad it was Joey and not some leak in her security that had invaded her space. “I’m sure he was easily led. Joey is very smart about some things, but socially, he lacks discretion.”

  Bill defended Joey’s actions. “I’m sure he meant nothing more than making it right. He’s a stickler for detail. It probably never crossed his mind that it was inappropriate.”

  Rainey agreed. “I’m sure it was more about the fact that he knows a real profiler and this is what her office looks like. Accuracy is Joey’s thing. He has almost eidetic recall of things he sees.”

  “It’s nice of you to react that way. Most people would be pissed at the breach of trust.”

  Rainey smiled. “Joey is the last person on earth that would breech a trust. If he’s told to keep a secret, good luck getting it out of him. I had hell getting the passwords to the women’s shelter’s computers after he reset them.”

  Bill yawned. “Excuse me. It’s been a very long day.”

  Rainey was growing tired too. “Well, I guess we should get some rest,” she said.

  “What do you think, Rainey? Can you figur
e out who killed my dad?”

  “Bill, there is a lot of information here, but not nearly enough to do a profile. You need someone in law enforcement to buy your father’s theory that these accidents were intentional murders. That’s what it is going to take to gather enough information to come up with a behavioral analysis of this crime, and I’m still not sure if the Colde case is related or not. We could be dealing with a random assailant and your father a victim of opportunity. If the motive for his murder was the investigation into the Colde case, it presents problems of its own. There are many jurisdictions to approach about autopsies and accident reports, photos to analyze, witnesses to interview. It’s just not a call I can make with the little bit of info I have here. While compelling, the file isn’t enough to solve the mystery that obsessed your father.”

  “Well, then we’ll have to convince someone Dad wasn’t shot accidently by a hunter.”

  “I think that’s a good start, and I’ll make that call tomorrow when I get home. I’d like to talk to Joey first. He might be able to give me more about Theodore. I’d like to have all the information I can before I call the Sheriff’s department. Dawson is a good man. He’ll make sure the ball is not dropped.”

  “Okay, I know you’ll do your best. Thank you for the help. You’ll have to let us take you out to dinner sometime, you and your wife.”

  Rainey shook Bill’s hand. “Make sure you have my info before you leave. I’m holding you to the dinner date. Just make sure it’s before the baby is born, or you will never find the time.”

  #

  9:15 p.m.

  Snow, 33oF, Windchill 23.4oF

  Rainey undressed in the guest bedroom and pulled the spare tee shirt she found in the van over her head. The old Victorian’s upstairs rooms were a bit chilly, so she shivered upon hitting the cold sheets. She checked the time on her phone. Katie would be putting the kids to bed about now. Rainey decided to wait a bit before calling. This was the earliest she had been in bed for a long time. The house was quiet now, except for the occasional creaking caused by a gust of wind.