Cause to Fear

by Pierce, Blake

  The one bit of information they did have on the latest body had come from fingerprints. The girl’s name was Sophie Lentz. She was a nineteen-year-old Emerson College sophomore. A pair of officers were currently out on duty to inform Sophie’s roommate. Based on college records, her parents lived in New York, having moved there right after Sophie got into Emerson. This was a minor relief to Avery, as she would not be involved with informing the family.

  The current meeting was not an actual meeting, as there was no new information to go over. Avery knew it was really just a gathering to await any results Forensics might turn up. Still, she thought it best to keep their minds active and sharp so she did her best to recap what they knew without being redundant.

  “I think this might be some form of art for our killer,” Avery said. “The absolute nature of it—the cleanliness, the shaving, the lack of jewelry. And we know Sophie Lentz had jewelry on because the indentations are on her fingers from where she was wearing rings.”

  “But if it’s art,” O’Malley said, “why is he creating it only to destroy it?”

  “Maybe the deaths are part of the art,” Avery suggested. “The fact that both of these girls were quite pretty, nude, and show no signs of rape or other abuse makes me go to the exact opposite end of the spectrum. He is not taking these women for any sort of physical pleasure. There’s something more to it for him. It’s almost like a respect thing. That or like I said at the reservoir, it could be a guilt thing. He could be disposing of them out of guilt. Guilt and disgust are the only driving factors I can think of that might cause a man to take these beautiful girls and then dispose of them after cleaning them. He doesn’t want them for sex because maybe he has some sort of aversion to it.”

  Connelly wrote some of this down on a legal pad in front of him. “The first one was from BU and now this one from Cambridge,” he said. “So there’s no one specific area he’s targeting.”

  “And the bodies are turning up in an even wider area,” Avery pointed out. “Watertown to Cambridge.”

  A knock at the door had all of them turning in sync. Two familiar faces from Forensics came into the room—a seasoned vet named Amy Reed and the resident science nerd by admission, a young guy named Christopher Paulson. Amy was carrying a series of printed pages and from the look on her face, Avery assumed they had found something.

  “Two things for you,” Amy said, walking to the head of the table and wasting no time. “First, the little fragment of cloth we found on her fingernail…which, by the way, it’s a miracle it wasn’t washed away when she went into the water. It was so damn cold that it sort of froze on as well as clung to the small tear in her fingernail. Anyway…there was nothing notable about the material itself. It was just a basic washcloth. However, when we analyzed the bit of fabric, we found trace amounts of household bleach as well as acetone.”

  “Homemade chloroform,” Avery said.

  “Exactly,” Amy said.

  “What was the second thing?” Connelly asked.

  “The tattoo on her lower back,” Christopher said. “There were trace amounts of bleach there as well. While her entire body appeared to have been cleaned, there was a slight redness to the skin around the tattoo. Closer analysis reveals that the area had been scrubbed heavily, as if the killer was trying to remove it.”

  “That’s it?” Connelly asked.

  Amy gave him a slight frown and nodded. “Yes. That’s all we had to go on at one o’clock in the morning.”

  Sensing a cranky and tired Connelly on the brink of being an asshole, Avery took the papers from Amy. “Thanks so much, Ms. Reed. This is great.”

  “Any time,” Amy said. She gave Avery a smile as she and Christopher took their leave without glancing back at Connelly.

  When the door was closed, Avery scanned the printouts from the lab. Most of it went over her head but she still liked to have as much information as possible.

  “Chloroform,” she said. “So at least now we know how he’s getting his victims.”

  “Yeah, but is that lethal?” Finley asked.

  “In high doses, it can be,” Avery said. “It’s also pretty quick and efficient if it is ingested. Add to the mix that this was a homemade batch and that makes it even deadlier.”

  “It’s worth pointing out that the art theory looks a little more likely now,” Ramirez said. “Someone tried to scrub that tattoo off. But if they wanted it off bad enough, they could have just sliced the skin off.”

  “It also says that our killer isn’t too smart,” Avery said. “To think you could scrub a tattoo off speaks of either low intelligence or some sort of break with reality.”

  “And what about the ice?” O’Malley said. “Is that a solid link?”

  “I’m leaning towards yes,” Avery said. “The cold makes the skin pale, almost wax-like. There’s also the cryptic letter he sent us where he actually refers to ice directly.”

  “Well, I hate to break it to you all,” Connelly said, getting up and rubbing at his eyes. “We’re not getting a break in this cold weather for several weeks. So this asshole has a virtual paradise on his hands if we don’t nab him soon.”

  A brief silence passed through the room, broken when Ramirez got to his feet and clapped his hands loudly a single time. “Right then,” he said. “I guess I’ll put some coffee on.”

  Avery appreciated the effort. Sure, it was nearing 1:30 in the morning, but this was a job that sometimes just didn’t give a damn about a sleep schedule. She watched Ramirez leave the conference room and when he did, she thought about the conversation they’d had before receiving the call about a body being discovered at Fresh Pond Reservoir.

  I’ve sat on this long enough, she thought timidly. And is there really a better time than while in the midst of a case that’s kicking our asses?

  “Finley, I’d like a word with Connelly and O’Malley in private, please.”

  Finley looked to the two men and they gave him a little nod. When Finley left the room, she noticed he looked a little relieved. She was pretty sure he wasn’t too accustomed to working such late hours. Whatever wringer O’Malley and Connelly were putting him through, they were pushing it hard.

  Avery spoke up the moment Finley closed the door. She felt that if she didn’t, she might quickly change her mind.

  “I’d like to officially accept the sergeant position,” she said.

  Connelly smiled for the first time of the night—maybe for the first time all week as far as Avery knew. “Glad to hear it,” he said.

  “That’s fantastic,” O’Malley agreed. “You’re going to bring a whole new level of intensity to it. I can’t wait.”

  “Of course,” O’Malley said, “you’ll need to take the sergeant exam but you’ll ace that.”

  “I’ll start pushing the paperwork part tomorrow during normal hours,” Connelly said. “There’ll be a transition period of about two weeks or so, but we can handle all of that later. Seriously, Black…I’m glad you made this decision.”

  “Me, too,” Avery said.

  When the conference room door opened up, Avery was hoping it would be Ramirez. She wanted to share the news with him as soon as possible. But it was Amy who came through the door, again with an excited look on her face.

  “I think I might have a lead for you,” Amy said, standing in the doorway. “There was a very slight spot of discoloration on the back of Sophie Lentz’s knee. We thought nothing of it, as it was no bigger than a pea. But we received her medical reports about five minutes ago via email and found that she visited a dermatologist about two weeks ago to have a lesion removed from the back of her knee.”

  “So?” Connelly said.

  “So, the lesion was removed using cryosurgery—using liquid nitrogen to freeze warts, lesions, and skin abnormalities. And the doctor that performed it…well, let’s just say he doesn’t have the best reputation.”

  “And that’s a solid lead,” Avery said, taking out her phone and typing in the notes. “Thanks, Amy. Coul
d you send me the doctor’s information?”

  Amy gave a spunky thumbs-up as she left the room. Directly after she was gone, Ramirez came walking back in. “Coffee’s brewing,” he said.

  Skin abnormalities, she thought. Removing them with ice…for someone that is not in the medical profession, could it be almost symbolic? Maybe even hopeful? Is the killer thinking he is saving these women by killing and freezing them? One way or the other, that’s a very promising lead.

  “Just in time,” O’Malley said, smiling at Ramirez. He then looked at Avery and added: “You can let him know, too. But it can’t be public knowledge for another few days.”

  “What?” Ramirez asked. But no sooner did he ask the question than a thin smile crept onto his face. He looked to Avery, his eyes beaming. “Sergeant Black,” he said, unable to keep in a chuckle.

  “More importantly,” Avery said, “Amy just brought us the first real lead on this case.”

  “But it’s a lead you won’t be able to pursue until morning,” O’Malley pointed out. “Look, I’m not stupid. Get home and celebrate this promotion. But make sure you’re well rested and beating on the door of this lead first thing in the morning.”

  Ramirez chuckled again and took a seat. “She’s going to be a sergeant soon,” he said. “You should probably know her a little better by now.”

  “What do you mean?” O’Malley asked.

  “He means it’s two in the morning and we just got a lead on this case,” Avery said. “There’s no way I’m going back home to sleep…or do anything else.”

  She thought she caught Ramirez blushing a bit as he shrugged. O’Malley and Connelly thankfully remained quiet as she started going through the case files. She bit back a smile, feeling a weird sort of camaraderie pass between them—a feeling she had been missing among her superiors for quite a while. It was nice. It was enough to make her think that she had definitely made the right decision in being promoted to sergeant.

  But the pictures in the case files did not let her dwell on that success for long. In the file, pictures of the frozen Charles River (soon to be joined with pictures of the frozen Fresh Pond Reservoir) loomed dark and foreboding, as if begging her to chisel away at the ice to find the secrets hiding beneath.

  She thought of her new lead, the dermatologist, and it all seemed to come together.

  He might just be the killer.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Deckler Dermatology was located just six blocks from A1 headquarters. It was the sort of building Avery passed every day but paid no real attention to. It was located in a fairly nice part of town but the building was easily one of the worst in the area. The exterior was a bit of a mess, a fresh coat of paint barely salvaging the old crumbling brick. The interior was a little better but not much. There was a general office sort of smell to the place, made no better by the generic paintings on the waiting room wall.

  “I don’t think I’d come here willingly,” Ramirez whispered to her as they sat down to wait to speak to Dr. Eric Deckler.

  “Look around,” she said, indicating the four other people in the waiting room. Two were clearly college-aged kids. Another was an older woman dressed in ratty clothes, probably forced to visit this particular dermatologist by rigid insurance regulations. “I don’t think it’s the first choice for anyone…just a necessity.”

  She tried to think about nineteen-year-old Sophie Lentz coming here with an appointment to have her lesion removed. A college kid without a lot of money. A place like this might be all she could afford. It was an easy scenario to picture, as Sophie had been the same age as Rose.

  They had been sitting down for a little less than ten minutes when the waiting room door opened. A nurse waved them in her direction, trying her best to be discreet. They both got up and walked across the waiting room. After the nurse ushered them into a hall and closed the door behind them, she led them to the end of the hall and to an office. She did all of this without saying a word. It seemed incredibly suspicious as far as Avery was concerned. But she supposed it made sense, considering some of the charges that had been brought against Dr. Deckler in the past couple of years.

  In the office, Eric Deckler sat behind a messy desk. His hands were folded in front of him and he looked at Avery and Ramirez with a scowl. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was annoyed by their presence.

  “And what is it this time?” he asked.

  Avery took a seat in the chair in front of his desk without being invited to do so. “Dr. Deckler, that’s not really the way you want to start out this morning, now is it?”

  “I don’t know yet,” he spat. “This is the third unprompted and totally unnecessary visit I’ve had from the police in the last six months. It’s growing a little old.”

  “We’re here to ask about a patient that you saw two weeks ago by the name of Sophie Lentz.”

  “I’m sure you know that I can’t share information with you regarding patients,” Deckler said. He spoke it as if he had said it many times before, using it as a shield of sorts.

  “Oh yes, I absolutely understand that,” Avery said. “However, the case sort of changes when the patient shows up dead, her naked body pulled from a reservoir.”

  Avery watched Deckler’s face, knowing that any guilt or fear would show in the moments after such a revelation. But she saw nothing. If anything, he seemed a bit shocked and taken aback.

  “And I’m connected just because she was a patient of mine?”

  “In a perfect world, no,” Avery said. “But that perfect world would not include your sordid history. A history that includes allegations of sexual misconduct with your patients as well as a stalking charge from ten months ago—a charge filed by a former patient.”

  “I was found innocent in both cases, as you damn well know,” Deckler said. “Otherwise, my license would have been revoked. And believe me, I’ve paid the price. There’s been a significant drop in my number of patients and unless something changes, I’ll likely have to close my practice by the middle of next year.”

  “With all due respect,” Avery said, “I’m not interested in your sob story. I know about the allegations against you and yes, I am aware you were found innocent. But in my profession, I also know that where there is smoke, there is fire. I go where the lead takes me and right now, it has brought me to you.”

  “Well, what exactly do you need to know?”

  “If you can provide alibis for your nights for the last week or so, we’ll be done here.”

  “And do you have any idea how insulting this is?”

  Avery shrugged, waiting for him to provide an answer. As she waited, her phone buzzed from within her pocket. She checked it and saw that she had a message from Connelly. She read it and knew that the next five minutes could indeed be very interesting. The message read:

  Just got info from Patty Dearborne’s parents. She saw Deckler three months ago to have a wart removed from her heel. Bring him in.

  Returning the phone to her pocket, Avery asked: “Do you recall a patient by the name of Patty Dearborne?”

  “I see too many patients to remember their names,” Deckler said.

  “Even the really pretty college girls?”

  “This is going beyond insulting!”

  “Well, I hate to tell you that it’s about to get worse. The text I just received from my supervisor has instructed me to bring you in because of another link. We can do it quietly, or we can take you out through the waiting room while causing a fuss.”

  “You bitch,” he hissed.

  Ramirez stepped forward behind her but she knew it wouldn’t come to that. Deckler was too worried about his reputation. He wasn’t going to cause a scene when just one more bad news story could result in his practice closing down much earlier than he expected.

  Avery stood and gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

  Deckler got to his feet like he was about to storm a battlefield. “You enjoying this? Is that it?”

  “Dr. Deck
ler, there are two dead young women and no guilty party behind bars. So no…I am very far from enjoying this. Now get your ass through that door.”

  ***

  They were back at the precinct at 9:20. The media presence was still lingering, still salivating over the absurdity of the letter the killer had sent out yesterday. Avery did her best to remain as nonconfrontational as she could, opting to take Deckler in through the rear entrance, where the media could not get without passing security.

  Finley met them at the back and escorted Deckler into the building. Avery and Ramirez followed after them but were stopped by Connelly halfway down the hall. He looked a bit more relaxed and calmer than he had last night but that really said nothing.

  “Black, I need a word with you,” he said. “Ramirez, can you see what you can do to help Finley out?”

  Ramirez gave a nod and headed off to do his duty. Avery, meanwhile, followed Connelly further down the hallway and into his office. When he was sitting down behind his desk and in his element, he started to seem like a totally different person. She’d noticed it about him in the past; he seemed more grounded when he was sitting behind a desk, looking over at someone else.

  “Things are going to be getting crazy over the next few days,” Connelly said. “There’s just no avoiding it. Your sergeant’s exam is scheduled for next Tuesday. I can give you a list of the things you need to study but I honestly think you’ll blow it out of the water. Any questions there?”

  “None for right now,” she said.

  “Okay. So here’s the next thing. We’re bringing a rookie into the A1. Well…not a rookie per se. She’s been a beat cop and is coming on here as a detective. We’re hoping she’ll eventually take your place once you have transitioned into the role of sergeant. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d like for her to come alongside of you. It probably won’t be for this case, but the next one for sure. I’d like to say I could ask your opinion on this one, but it’s already been decided.”