State of Life: A Mystery Thriller Novel (Virgil Jones Book 12)

by Thomas Scott

  Karen put the gold in her bag and moved to the door. Once they were outside, Karen turned to her brother and said, “This is all for the best, Don. We’ll take care of Sam, and then neither of us has anything to worry about.”

  That’s one way of handling it, Don thought.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Karen said, not realizing the words she just spoke would be her last.

  Don pulled out his father’s gun and shot his sister in the head. He took the gold from her bag and ran it back inside the cabin. Then he went back outside, picked up his sister’s body, and carried her back to his special place in the woods, speaking to her the entire time, as if she could still hear him. “I’ll stop when I’m ready, and guess what, Karen? I’m not ready. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready. I took another one not long ago. And I’m getting ready to do it again. Bet you didn’t know that…or did you? Oh, and fuck Sam. He isn’t getting a penny, and neither are you. Do you hear me, Karen? Not one goddamned cent.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  By the end of the day, Nicky and Wu had found three more girls living in various parts of the country, bringing the total number of girls still alive and well up to eleven. Sandy hadn’t yet returned from interviewing the various investigators who’d originally worked the cases, and while they were waiting for her, Virgil, Murton, and Rosencrantz were still reviewing the data sets that Becky’s program had churned out. They soon discovered that at the rate Nicky and Wu were locating the girls who’d simply gone off on their own, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find any commonalities between any of the girls and Lisa Tate.

  “You know what we need?” Virgil said.

  “I need a beer,” Rosencrantz said.

  Murton looked at his brother, and said, “If you say what I think you’re going to say, you get to tell her. Not me.”

  “I’m not sure what else we can do, Murt,” Virgil said. They were in Virgil’s office, each of them with stacks of paper in their laps. “We need more data. Essentially half the girls we’re looking at have been found. Nicky and Wu are confident they won’t find Tate because they’ve been looking and haven’t found one single thing that indicates she is alive, and none of the girls have anything that links them to any one particular person. We need to go back further.”

  “How much further do you think?” Rosencrantz said.

  Virgil turned his palms up. “I’m not sure. I’d like to go back another three or four years. We’ll put out a request to every county in the state.”

  “Then you’re definitely telling her,” Murton said.

  “What’s the matter?” Rosencrantz said. “Afraid of your wife?”

  Murton gave him a dull look. “No, but why suffer the consequences of someone else’s decision?”

  Rosencrantz turned the corners of his mouth down. “I can see that.”

  Virgil hit a button on his desk phone, then said, “Hey Becks, see you in my office for a minute?”

  “Sure. Be right there.”

  Murton stood up. “I’ll be in the break room.”

  Rosencrantz stood as well. “I have to pee.”

  A few minutes later when Becky walked in, she said, “What’s up?”

  Virgil gave her his best nice-guy smile. “I’ve got good news and bad news.”

  Becky frowned and said, “Where’s Murt and Rosie? I thought you guys were going through the data.”

  “We are. They, uh, just stepped out for a second. I’m sure they’ll be right back. Anyway, the data your program is putting out is great. That’s the good news.”

  “What’s the bad?” Becky said.

  “We need more of it because so far not one single shred of it connects Lisa Tate to anyone…at all. I’d like you to put out an immediate high-priority request to every county in the state for all case files on missing teenage girls going back four years.”

  Becky wasn’t surprised. “Anything else?”

  Virgil hesitated, then gave her the brow. “No, except, if I’m being honest, I thought you might blow a gasket or something.”

  Becky smiled at him. “You know me…I’m a go-getter. And stop with the brow, Spock. When do you need it?”

  “The sooner the better.”

  “How’s first thing tomorrow morning sound?”

  “A little like a miracle,” Virgil said. Then he lowered his brow and said, “What have you done?”

  “Like I said, I’m a go-getter. I already put the request out. At the rate Nicky and Wu were turning up the missing girls—the live ones, I mean—I knew we’d need more information. Except I asked for five years, not four.”

  Virgil wasn’t upset, but he was a bit of a control freak. “That’s good thinking, Becky, but you probably should have told me first. I am your boss, after all.”

  “Jonesy, you’re talking to the woman who once convinced the state’s National Guard I was the lieutenant governor. I’m not afraid to break a rule every once in a while. You’re also my brother-in-law, so I get to push you around a little. It’s one of the many benefits of being married to Murt. As benefits go, it’s pretty much at the bottom of the list, I’ll give you that, but a benny is a benny, right?”

  The next morning Sandy set off with Cool and Ross to finish interviewing the investigators of the girls who’d been located. Becky was inputting more data into the system with Nicky and Wu’s help. Rosencrantz, along with Virgil and Murton were still going through the data, trying to find a connection when Virgil’s desk phone rang.

  “Hey, Jonesy. It’s Patty. How are you?”

  “I’m well, Patty. How are you?”

  Patty Doyle was Rick Said’s niece, a young woman Virgil had once rescued from certain death after she’d been kidnapped and locked in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse. And because Virgil and Said were business partners in the sonic drilling operation, he and Patty had remained close over the years.

  “I might need your help.”

  “What’s wrong? Is your Uncle Rick okay?”

  “Oh, yeah, he’s fine. That’s not why I’m calling.”

  “How can I help?” Virgil said.

  Patty let out a sigh, then said, “When I was going to school at IU, I had a part-time gig tutoring a young girl. She was ten or eleven at the time if I remember correctly. Anyway, we sort of stayed in touch over the years, and she and her family recently moved to Shelby County. I ran into her by chance about a month ago and told her what I was doing at the cultural center. She took an immediate interest, so I gave her the nickel tour, and by the end, she was so excited, I offered her an internship at the center so she’d have something substantial for her college applications.”

  “Sounds great, Patty.”

  “It was until she didn’t show up a few days ago. When I called her house, no one answered. You’ve got to understand, this is a really responsible kid, so I chalked it up to some type of family emergency or something, and since I was pretty busy that morning, I didn’t give it much more thought. Anyway, about an hour after I got home, her parents called me, and they were frantic. She’s missing and hasn’t been heard from since.”

  Virgil sat up in his chair. “What’s her name?”

  “Kelly Price. She’s seventeen years old.”

  “What did Ed say? What’s he doing about it?”

  “Who’s Ed?”

  Virgil mentally palmed his forehead. “Sorry. Ed Henderson. He’s the sheriff of Shelby County.”

  “Oh, yeah. Okay. According to Kelly’s parents, they’ve been searching, but they can’t find her anywhere. This isn’t the type of kid to just take off, Jonesy. Someone has her. I’ve been through this before, and I know you know that. She’s in trouble. I can feel it. I’m hoping you’ll get with the sheriff and see what else he can do.”

  Virgil was nodding into the phone. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll get one of my men down there right away. Tom Rosencrantz.”

  Patty was quiet for a few seconds, then said, “Listen, I don’t mean to sound
disrespectful, but wasn’t he the guy who couldn’t find me when I was missing? I heard he wanted to give up. If it hadn’t been for you…”

  “Patty, you’re not really going to want to hear this, but I got lucky. I was in a position to receive some information that simply clicked with me, and when it did, that’s when I found you.”

  “Jonesy…”

  “Listen Patty, I’ll get Rosencrantz headed that way right now, as soon as we get off the phone. I’ll have Murton go as well if that makes you feel better. I’ll also call the sheriff myself and speak with him. We’re working a statewide task force right now, looking into missing teenage girls, so we’ll add her information to the data we already have and see what turns up. Fair enough?”

  “Yes, I guess so. This is a good girl, Jonesy. You guys have got to help her.”

  “We’ll do everything we can, Patty. I promise.”

  Virgil gave Murton and Rosencrantz a quick briefing and sent them down to Shelby County. Then he had a thought, something that should have occurred to him earlier, but hadn’t. He went to the operations room and sat down with Becky.

  Sam and Danika walked out of their lawyer’s office feeling more dejected than when they went in. By the time they returned home, Sam was practically livid. “My brother and sister cheat us out of a million bucks, my brother puts a gun to my head and threatens to kill me, the lawyer wants a retainer for an amount that’s so ridiculous he’d be the only one who makes any real money, and on top of all—”

  That’s when the doorbell rang. Sam looked at his wife and said, “Are you expecting someone?”

  Danika said she wasn’t, so Sam got up and went to the door. When he pulled it open, at first he couldn’t believe who it was. Had Danika not followed him to the door, Sam probably would have beaten his brother to a pulp.

  Don held up his hands, and said, “Sam, I’m sorry for what I did, and especially for what I said. Really, man, I’m sorry.”

  Sam shook his head in anger. “I don’t care. You pulled a gun on me, asshole. Get the fuck out of here.”

  “Sam, you can accept my apology or not. I hope you do, but that’s not the only reason I’m here.”

  “Oh yeah? Let me guess. Are you on the run? Did your bookie catch up with you? The casino throw you out again?”

  “Sam, shut up and listen. Karen is missing. She’s gone, man. I haven’t been able to reach her for days.”

  Sam gave his brother a nasty laugh. “The two of you screwed me and my wife out of a million bucks. You put a gun to my head. Do you actually think I give two genuine shits that Karen—who is now fat with cash, by the way—can’t be found? Well guess what? I don’t. The last time you and I spoke, you said if you ever saw me again you’d kill me. So I’m only going to say this one more time before I call the cops: Get the fuck out of here.” Then he slammed the door in his brother’s face.

  Once Sam had calmed down, he and Danika continued with their conversation. Danika took her husband’s hand and said, “Look, let’s forget about the lawyer for a few minutes, okay? I’m more concerned about Don.”

  Sam gave his wife an odd look. “Don? Why are you concerned about Don? He put a gun in my ear, and not only that, he had it cocked and ready to fire. If Karen hadn’t been there, he might have killed—”

  When Sam interrupted himself, Danika said, “What? What is it?”

  Sam looked down at the floor and held up his hand. “Hold on a second, please. I’m trying to remember something.” After a few minutes, he looked at her and said, “Remember the day we found out my dad was dead?”

  “Of course.”

  “When we arrived at his house, I was mad that they’d waited so long to call me. But you pulled me aside and during that moment, we both knew something didn’t feel right about the whole situation.”

  “That’s because it wasn’t.”

  “I know,” Sam said. “Except, with everything that was going on I was too overwhelmed to think clearly. But now that some time has passed, I’m getting a bad feeling about something, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the money or the will or any of that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll tell you in a second, but first, tell me why a few minutes ago you said you were concerned about Don.”

  “I misspoke,” Danika said. “I meant to say that I was concerned about us, and what sort of manipulation Don was trying to pull off this time…with you. With us.”

  “Me too. And I think I know what it is.” Sam looked his wife right in the eyes. “That night when I went to confront them…the night he pulled the gun on me, he was so mad I thought he was going to do it. He told me I had ten seconds to turn and walk away, and that if he ever saw me again, he’d kill me.”

  “I know all this. We’ve talked about it for a week.”

  “But I just remembered something, Danni. When he put the gun in my ear, I told him he didn’t have the balls to do it. To kill me. That’s when he said, ‘I don’t have the balls? Who do you think killed—,’ but then Karen screamed his name and stopped him from finishing.”

  “Sam, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “Yeah. I think Don or Karen, or both, killed my dad.”

  “Oh Sam, do you really think they could do something like that?”

  Sam ran his fingers through his hair. “You tell me. Why wait three hours to call me after Dad died? Why was he still holding a cigarette in one hand, and a lighter in the other? Wouldn’t the EMTs have tried to revive him? If they did, he wouldn’t have been sitting there holding an unlit cigarette. Why did Don already have his wallet, and Karen the keys to the house? What took them so long to get to the funeral home that day? I waited twenty minutes. And why was Don in such a hurry to get him in the ground? When I asked about an autopsy, they looked at me like I was an idiot.

  “The whole thing, Danni, start to finish was a stage play designed to make me think nothing was out of order, that Dad died of natural causes, and I wasn’t in the will. Except we know that isn’t true, don’t we? If they lied about that, who knows what they’re capable of? And Don showing up here, saying he can’t find Karen? Do you know where Karen is? Because I’m pretty sure I do. Karen is dead, Danni. Don killed her and is cleaning up his mess after the fact.”

  “Sam, if that’s true, we could be next. We’ve got to talk to the police. Maybe we should call the Orange County cops.”

  “We’re going to, but first I want to get some advice from an old friend. If we’re going to do this, we’ve got to do it right.”

  “Who are you going to talk to?”

  “Remember my college roommate, Ed?”

  Despite the nature of the conversation they were having, Danni let out a little laugh. “My God, I haven’t thought of him in years. Why would you want to get his advice?”

  “Why else?” Sam said. “He’s the sheriff of Shelby County. He’ll be able to tell us exactly what to do.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ed Henderson was, in almost every way imaginable, exhausted. He’d been acting-sheriff of Shelby County ever since Ron Miles was killed, and since the county council decided to hold a special election, he’d been doing double duty. On one hand, he was expected to be present for his regular work schedule, and on the other, he needed to find time to run a campaign to keep the job he already had.

  He wasn’t happy with the council’s decision to hold the special election, mainly because he didn’t want to be the state’s guinea pig for some new mobile voting app they were cramming down everyone’s throat. What was wrong with doing things the old-fashioned way, like showing up to the polling place and flipping a switch? In a word, nothing. And on top of that, the guy whose company had come up with the idea was the same person who was using some sort of sound technology to drill for natural gas. What a joke. No wonder Ben Holden had always been so grumpy. In addition, he was down in the polls to a former DEA agent, Carla Martin, who was not only cute, but she had a certain sort of federal dreaminess that
everyone seemed to be eating up like it was a hot fudge sundae at the county fair.

  That was Henderson’s mood when Betty stuck her head into his office and said, “There are two state detectives from the Major Crimes Unit here to see you. A couple of the same guys who got Ben killed, if you ask me. And I don’t care what anyone says, including you, that’s the truth. They don’t have an appointment. Want me to tell them to take a hike?”

  Henderson sighed, shook his head, and said, “No, send them in.”

  Betty made a noise, one that Henderson couldn’t quite put his finger on, then disappeared. A few seconds later, Murton and Rosencrantz walked in the door.

  Murton stuck out his hand to shake, and said, “Sheriff, good to see you again.”

  Henderson shook hands with Murton, and said, “You too. Wish I could say the same about your buddy, here.”

  Murton tried to play dumb. “Why? What’d he do?”

  Rosencrantz was making a concerted effort to look at absolutely nothing.

  “His cute little federal girlfriend is flat kicking my ass in the polls, and he knows it. I’m running around trying to explain how I’m going to restore law and order to this county, and everyone’s eyes start to glaze over. Meanwhile, our lovely Agent Martin is going door-to-door with this bubbly, aw-shucks bullshit, wearing cut-off jeans with cowboy boots, a shirt that looks like a Bob Evans tablecloth, and a gun strapped to her hip. Half the constituents think they’re voting for Daisy Duke, and the other half don’t care because they think she’s the poster girl for the NRA.”

  Murton lit up the room with his big toothy grin and said, “Sounds like it’s working.”

  Henderson made a funny noise with his lips. “Is it ever. She’s the showgirl, and I feel like the dumb circus elephant that just knocked down the center pole on the main tent.” Then, “Oh, relax, Rosie. I’m just busting your chops. No different from what she’s doing to me.”