by C. M. Sutter
Horbeck spoke up. “The wives showed us recent photos, boss. I snapped duplicates of them with my phone. Since neither of us has actually seen the deceased men, we don’t know if it’s them or not.” Horbeck pulled out his cell phone and handed it to Lena.
She studied both photos of the deceased men and nodded. “I’d say that’s them, but I can’t give a positive ID until I have them on the autopsy table. We’d probably need a DNA sample as well to confirm it.”
Jamison continued where Horbeck left off. “We brought their toothbrushes along, and we have approximate height, weight, hair and eye color, and ages of both men from the wives.” He tore the pages out of his notepad and passed them to Jason. “I’ll bring the toothbrushes downstairs once we get back to the station.”
Lena gave Jamison a grateful smile. “Sir,” she said as she addressed Clark, “Jason and I should get the bodies to the autopsy room, considering the heat outside.”
“Yep, I agree. Give me one minute.”
Clark called Kyle’s phone and asked if they were finished with the bodies. Kyle said they were still processing the scene, but they could work with Lena and Jason later if they needed anything more.
The lieutenant addressed Lena. “Go ahead, you two. Kyle and Dan will talk to you further outside. They’re still processing the scene, but the bodies can leave.”
Lena and Jason pushed back their chairs and stood. “Thank you, sir. We’ll update you in a few hours when we know more.”
Clark nodded, and they left.
“All right, do we have enough to give the press?” He glanced at his watch. “We have ten more minutes—anybody?”
I spoke up. “One thing we haven’t addressed is the fact that these four men all look to be between forty and fifty. If there’s any connection among them, could it be that they’re all experiencing a midlife crisis, hence the notation of being a cheater?”
“Good point, Jade,” Captain Sanders said. “Were those questions asked of the wives?”
Jack responded about the interview we had with David Smith’s widow. “She said everything was fine in their relationship, given the marriage was in its tenth year.”
Clark addressed Jamison and Horbeck. “Guys, did you ask those questions too?”
Horbeck answered, “Absolutely, boss. They both denied anything going on, but the spouses are usually the last to know, aren’t they?”
“I’d agree with that. Jade, I want you and Jack to go back to the Smith home and confiscate any computer or tablet that’s in the house. We already have a warrant for that residence. I’ll get warrants for the computers at the other men’s homes once Lena and Jason tell us definitively if the bodies are indeed Larry Taylor and John Leiter.”
Todd and Billy walked in right as we were wrapping up the meeting.
“We enhanced the photo of the young woman at the truck,” Billy said. “Here are a few dozen copies of the still shot we put together of her face.” He handed several stacks of photos to the officers, and they passed them out.
“Great job, guys,” Clark said. “We need to keep six copies aside for the press. They can get that image, along with the profile, on their next news segment. Okay, let’s get out there and continue where we left off. I’ve heard there’s still quite a mob of spectators outside. Thanks, everyone, now let’s go catch these sick individuals.”
We filed out of the conference room and followed the hallway to the south exit. I told Clark that Jack and I were heading to the Smith household. If anything was hidden on their home computer that could indicate infidelity, Todd and Billy would find it.
Chapter 39
“Thank you for lunch, Mama. It’s so much fun to see how far I can stretch the cheese in my sandwich,” Mariah said.
“You’re just weird,” Mandy grumbled as she sat in the backseat and picked at her cuticles.
Alice turned toward Mandy, her left arm across the back of the truck’s bench seat, and glared. “Watch your mouth, young lady. As a matter of fact, I like to stretch the cheese in my grilled cheese sandwich too.”
Mandy huffed. “Whatever.”
Alice rearranged herself and faced forward again. She pulled the bobby pins out, smoothed her stray hairs, and put the pins back in place. The side window was open just enough to have a breeze blowing through. She pointed out the windshield for Mariah to turn left on Eighteenth Street.
“I want you to weave your way in through the back streets. I’m sure Silverbrook and Highland are closed off to through traffic, but move in as close to the church as you can. Let’s see if we’re getting our fifteen minutes of fame.”
“I want more than fifteen minutes, Mama. They don’t even know our names yet.”
“It’s a figure of speech, idiot,” Mandy said.
Alice swung her arm that lay resting on the seat back and caught Mandy off guard with a fist to the face. Mandy held her left temple while salty tears ran down her cheeks and dropped off her chin.
“I told you that was enough of your smart mouth. Now look what you made me do.” Alice huffed and looked forward again. “Turn left on Decorah, sweet pea. We’ll take that to Silverbrook and see how close we can get.”
Mariah swung left and drove three blocks north to Silverbrook. The next intersection was cordoned off with police tape. That was as far as she could get.
“Look at all the cops, Mama. We’re going to be famous.” Mariah giggled and chewed on her fingers. She bounced up and down on the seat.
“That isn’t the point, Mariah,” Alice said as she scanned the street ahead of her. “We’re trying to rid this county of men like Daddy. Park the truck. I’m going to take a closer look.”
“Can I go with you?”
“No, honey, sit here with your sister and keep an eye on things. I’ll be right back.”
Alice left the truck and crossed the street. She followed the alley behind the houses and gathered with the group of onlookers that lined up behind the yellow police tape.
“What happened here?” Alice asked as she squeezed between people hoping to get a glimpse of something.
“Don’t you know? It’s been on the news, and the police have been out here for hours,” the woman standing next to Alice said, then she quietly went back to praying the rosary.
“I’ve been out of town until now. So what happened?”
“Two innocent men were brutally butchered and set out on display before the entire city, I’ve been told.”
Alice snickered. “I doubt if many men are innocent about anything.”
The shocked woman turned to Alice, her mouth agape.
“What’s with the look? I’m only telling the truth.” Alice walked away and crossed the street to the alley, then headed back to the truck. She climbed into the passenger seat and settled in.
“Did you see anything, Mama?” Mariah asked.
“Nah—they had barricades up blocking the front entrance. There wasn’t anything to see except a bunch of worrywarts and people praying for the poor victimized men. I took a few pictures you can look at later. Let’s go home and watch the news coverage.”
Mariah clicked the blinker and pulled out. She made a U-turn and went back the way she had come.
“Why do you keep looking in the rearview mirror?” Alice asked as they approached the edge of town. She’d noticed Mariah checking it every few seconds.
“Don’t look back, but there’s been an unmarked black car behind us for several blocks now. It’s about five cars back, and it turns every time I do.”
Alice looked through the side mirror and saw the vehicle gaining on them.
“What should I do, Mama? There’s a train coming, and I’m going to have to stop.”
“You aren’t stopping.”
“But there are cars in front of me.” Mariah looked at Alice with fear written across her face.
Mandy spun in the jump seat and peered through the back window. “We’re finally going to get busted.”
“Blow past all of them, now!” Alice
looked at the cruiser again—it was only three cars back. The blue and red lights came on between the headlights and above the windshield. “Gun it, Mariah.”
“The train will hit us, Mama.”
“You can beat it, now go!”
Chapter 40
We drove west so we could merge onto the freeway. From North Bend, getting to Richfield where Whitney Smith lived was easiest via State Highway 45. I called her and said we were on our way, but I didn’t say why. We knew from previous experience that anything could “accidentally” disappear from a computer’s history with a twenty-minute heads-up. We didn’t suspect Whitney of anything, yet we’d rather have our own specialists look at the computers for themselves.
I ripped my sunglasses off and stared through the windshield with a laser focus, my hands gripping the dashboard.
Jack jerked his head toward me. “What the hell are you looking at?”
“Get ahead of these cars, Jack—hurry!”
“Why?” He gunned the gas pedal before I had time to answer.
“It’s them, the green truck. I know it’s them! Son of a bitch, there’s a train coming, and I think they made us. Look, they’re passing the cars ahead of them. Hit the lights!”
Jack flipped on the cruiser’s red and blues and hit the siren. He gunned the cruiser and tried to get ahead of the cars in front of us. The train was approaching fast, and the sound of its horn blasted loudly as the truck flew over the tracks with seconds to spare. I yelled out and punched the dashboard with my fist.
Jack slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop within feet of the train. There was nowhere for us to go. The vibration from the powerful locomotive rattled our coffee mugs in the cup holders and knocked my sunglasses to the floor. The truck made it to the other side in the nick of time and disappeared into the afternoon sunlight.
“Did you get a plate number?”
“No—I was too focused on not crashing into the train. I can’t believe you saw the truck with the sun hitting us square in the face,” Jack said.
“Get out. We can’t let any of these cars move until we find out if anybody saw the truck’s license plate number.”
I jumped out of the cruiser and began talking to each occupant of the first five cars in line. They weren’t going anywhere anyway with the train still passing by. Everyone was shocked by the stunt they’d witnessed, but nobody we spoke with recalled a plate number.
“Damn it,” I said as I climbed back into the cruiser, “I should have figured we wouldn’t get that lucky.”
“It’s a pretty brazen act for them to come into town. That’s telling me they didn’t realize we knew their vehicle—until now. What do you think they were up to?”
“The same thing they were doing at the track field—gloating. They wanted to see how many people were interested in their work. Those sick sons of bitches. Could you tell how many people were in the truck?”
“I saw two for sure—possibly three.”
“They have to live somewhere west of town. That’s the direction they came from on the university video too. Let’s get the computer and get back to the station. I want to go through all those receipts that were in David Smith’s car. I have the one from the post office too.”
My head was on a swivel as Jack drove. I wasn’t expecting to see the truck again. That was just wishful thinking on my part. We arrived at Whitney’s house fifteen minutes later.
Jack pulled into the driveway and parked. The yard looked worse than it had the first time we were there. Whitney needed to hire somebody to maintain that mess. We exited the car and walked up the sidewalk, and she met us at the door.
“Detectives, come in. Have there been any updates on David’s case? I saw the news earlier. It’s unbelievable.”
Whitney led us to the kitchen, where we sat at the table. She pulled three glasses out of the upper cabinet and set them down, then took an icy pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator. She sat across from us and pointed. “Please, help yourself.”
Jack poured lemonade for all of us as I spoke.
“Whitney, we believe what you saw on the news earlier is relative to David’s case. There’s something connecting these murders, and we’re pretty sure it’s the same perpetrator in all of them.”
“But what I saw on the news sounded so violent.”
“Yes, it was. They all were. We’re going to need your home computer. Actually we’ll have to confiscate any device that connects to the Internet. We hope to get those items back to you as soon as possible.”
“Why? I’m not giving you my cell phone. I don’t have any other phone in the house.”
“David had his own phone, correct?”
“Yes, and I have no idea what happened to that unless it’s in his car.”
“It isn’t, we’ve already checked. Actually his car can be released back to you in a day or so. There could be evidence on your computer that you aren’t even aware of. Our technical specialists will take a look.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“We don’t know yet, but please, any home computer, laptop, and tablets that were used by David need to go with us, right now.”
“This is ridiculous. My kids use the computer for everything.”
“Ma’am, it’s important. Like I said, we’ll get the computer back to you as soon as we can.”
“Fine. I have two laptops and one tablet. I’ll be right back.”
We listened as Whitney stomped down the hallway a little louder than necessary. I was sure she was trying to make her anger known.
She returned with her hands full and cords dangling. “I don’t know if David used a password or not. We had separate accounts and email addresses.”
“Was there a particular computer he used more than the other?” I asked.
“He used the Dell most of the time. The kids used the other one for their homework.”
“Thanks, Whitney. I’m sure our tech guys can figure it out. Do you know if the devices were synced to each other?” Jack asked.
“I couldn’t say. I’m not a techie.”
“Okay, we’ll get these back to you as soon as we can, and I’ll call you in a few days about picking up David’s car. Again, you have our condolences.”
She brushed aside an imaginary crumb from the table. “Thank you, and I’m sorry I’m edgy about everything. I wasn’t expecting my husband to die. The funeral is next Wednesday. Just thought I’d let you know.”
We nodded and showed ourselves out. Jack set the computers and tablet in the backseat and climbed in behind the steering wheel. He turned the key and backed out of the driveway.
“What do you think the boys will find on the computers?” I asked.
“Not sure, but if these killings are all about cheating, they’re going to find evidence of that somewhere in the history and hard drive.”
I sighed. “Let’s see if Lena and Jason made a positive ID on the bodies yet. If those men are in fact the missing husbands, we’ll have to put a BOLO out on their vehicles and confiscate their computers too. I want to talk to Jamison and Horbeck. We need a little more information on the husbands.”
Chapter 41
Mariah exited the main road and turned left onto the dead-end street. Tree branches from both sides of the street nearly touched each other in the center. Full foliage hanging from the long limbs created a dark, tunnellike path that ended at the long Blakely driveway. Not many people drove down that street since it didn’t lead anywhere except to Alice and the twins. A cool eeriness took over right at the Dead End sign.
“I can’t believe I did that, Mama. I’m like a stunt driver.” Mariah’s grin spread to her ears.
“You did real good, honey. I’m so proud of you. Those cops have met their match.”
“We could have been killed,” Mandy said as she climbed out of the truck and slammed the door. “You’re an idiot, Mariah. Mama is sucking your brain right out of your head.”
“Don’t even listen to her. She’s no
thing but sour grapes. I don’t think we can risk dumping Larry and John’s cars in town. Apparently, there are too many eyeballs that know the truck.”
“We can keep them here, Mama. I’d love to have my own vehicle.”
“That won’t work, Mariah. They’re probably already looking for the cars. Let’s drive them to another town and drop them off. Mandy can drive one, you’ll drive another, and I’ll follow you. We’ll dump them and all come home together in the truck.”
Alice unlocked the creaky front door and pushed it open. Mandy and Mariah were at her back. The twins plopped down on the sofa, and Alice turned on the TV.
“Let’s see if there’s anything new about Larry and John.”
Alice sat on the ottoman again, just three feet from the TV screen. Mariah rose from the couch and joined her, scooting in close against her mother’s side. Alice looked over her shoulder at Mandy and smirked as she flipped the stations with the remote.
“There, channel twelve has breaking news.” Mariah squealed with delight as she leaned in and rested her elbows on her knees. She hung on every word the newscaster said.
An update had just gone out to all of the news stations with a profile of the person or persons responsible for these recent murders. The screen showed an enlarged photograph of Mariah’s face.
“Mama, I’m on TV! How did they do that?”
“Shush… I have to listen to this,” Alice said as she swiped at the air.
“The North Bend police, working hand in hand with the sheriff’s department, has just put out a profile of the perpetrator responsible for the rash of murders in Washburn County over the last week.”
The newscaster went on to describe what the police and sheriff’s departments were looking for as the picture of Mariah stayed on the screen.
“According to law enforcement, they are looking for two to three women, including the female on the screen, as well as a dark green crew cab pickup. This vehicle could be up to ten years old, and it has BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires on it. It doesn’t have a cap or camper, but it may have a tonneau cover over the bed.” The newscaster looked at her notes and continued reading. “Law enforcement believes this could be the work of a mother and twin daughters that live somewhere west of North Bend. They also said there’s a chance this family moved to the area from Madison and may be religious zealots. The murder victim in the park early last week could have been named Dean. So far, the police do not have a last name. They fear the wife, Alice, and the daughters could be the responsible parties. Law enforcement is depending on you, the viewers, to help them apprehend these criminals and bring them to justice. If anyone in the viewing area knows anything about this vehicle, this woman on the screen, or a family fitting the names and descriptions, please call the North Bend PD or the Washburn County Sheriff’s Department. The numbers are at the bottom of the screen, and you can remain anonymous if you like.”
