LET'S PLAY (Det. Jason Strong(CLEAN SUSPENSE Book 10)

by John C. Dalglish

  Jason thought about it for a minute. “I guess. Maybe you should call Lucy and ask her what’s normal.”

  “Good idea. I knew there was a reason I let you hang around.”

  The line rang twice before being picked up. “Blue Cab.”

  Vanessa was pretty sure she could smell smoke through the phone. “Lucy?”

  “Yes, this is Lucy.”

  “This is Detective Layne; we spoke to you yesterday.”

  “Of course, what can I do for you?”

  “I have a general question. Is it normal for a driver to take a lunch?”

  “Normal? I guess. Most will eat in between fares, usually sitting in the cab.”

  “So, would two hours be considered a long lunch?”

  “Very. The drivers only make money when they’re taking fares.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the time.”

  “You bet.”

  Vanessa hung up and looked at Jason. “She used the word ‘very’ to describe how unusual a two-hour lunch was.”

  Jason turned the car into a small subdivision and stopped in front a plain ranch home. “Here it is. I’d guess we’re less than twenty minutes from the River Walk cab stand.”

  Vanessa studied the house. White painted stucco, grey roof shingles, and almost no landscaping. The garage door was closed and no vehicle was in the driveway. “That would leave him nearly an hour and a half to stash a girl on one of those lunch breaks.”

  While they sat there, the garage door started up, and a white minivan backed out. Jason jumped from the car. “It’s him.”

  He did a slow trot to a point where he could speak through the driver’s side window as Vanessa came up on the passenger side. Jason showed his badge while Vanessa moved slowly around the vehicle, looking in the windows. When she had gone all the way around, she joined Jason on the driver’s side. He was having a hard time hearing Bonitez over the noisy van.

  “Mr. Bonitez, would you mind shutting off the van?”

  The man hesitated but then complied.

  “Thank you. My partner and I would like to speak to you about some missing girls.”

  “From the River Walk?”

  “Yes.”

  Bonitez rolled his eyes. “I’ve been through this over and over.”

  “Actually, I specifically want to ask you about four nights ago. Did you have a young girl as one of your fares?”

  Bonitez hesitated. “Yeah.”

  Vanessa and Jason exchanged looks. Jason produced the flyer of Tammy-Jo. “Was this her?”

  A quick glance. “No.”

  “What time did you have this fare?”

  “Around closing time. I took her to the Days Inn on East Houston.”

  Vanessa nudged Jason. “Probably Jennifer Landers.”

  “Mr. Bonitez, do you usually take a lunch during your shift?”

  The cabbie looked confused, and Vanessa sensed he was trying to figure out what the best answer was. He opted for middle of the road.

  “Sometimes.”

  “About an hour or so?”

  “Sometimes, sometimes not that long.”

  “Do you ever take a two-hour lunch?”

  “Uh…No. That would get me an earful from Frank.”

  Jason held up the log sheets he had in his hand. “Well, I found at least four times when you took a lunch of roughly two hours.”

  Bonitez did his best to keep his composure. “I don’t know when I would’ve done that. It must be a mistake.”

  “How so?”

  “I probably forgot to write down a fare.”

  “But that could get you fired, couldn’t it?”

  “Look, I sometimes skip writing fares to make some extra cash. I’m not alone, lots of drivers do it. Please don’t tell Frank.”

  Jason gave the log sheets to Vanessa and got out a card. “Here’s my number. Call me if you remember anything else.”

  Bonitez took it. “Of course.”

  They left him sitting in the driveway and walked back to their car. Vanessa was suspicious. “He’s hiding something.”

  “Yeah, but it might be just what he says. He’s skimming from the cab company.”

  Vanessa wasn’t convinced. “Maybe, maybe not.”

  *******

  Sarah Banks closed her office door and picked up the phone. A minute later, she heard his voice.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Gavin, it’s me.”

  “Hey, I was just thinking about you.”

  She laughed. “You always say that when I call.”

  “Maybe because I’m always thinking about you.”

  “That’s very sweet. A lie, but sweet.”

  “Just trying to rack up the brownie points.”

  She laughed again. In fact, she noticed that since Gavin Newman came around, she laughed a lot. However, her reason for calling wasn’t a laughing matter.

  “Gavin, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course, anything.”

  “It’s a little sensitive and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.”

  “Okay…sounds serious.”

  “It is.”

  “Well, like I said, anything.”

  Sarah took a deep breath. “You would never share anything I told you in confidence with someone else, would you?”

  Gavin didn’t respond immediately, and when he did, there was an undercurrent to his voice. Sarah sensed she may have hurt him. “Are you asking if you can trust me?”

  “No…yes. Gavin, I don’t mean to suggest…”

  “You’re more than suggesting it.”

  Sarah began to panic, afraid she may have crossed some invisible line that would take Gavin from her. “Let me explain, please.”

  His silence signaled her to go ahead.

  “A situation has come up here at work, and it could cost someone their career. I want to make sure we’re on the same page about things we discuss.”

  When he spoke again, he seemed calmer, his voice softer.

  “Sarah, I would never do anything to hurt you, especially when it comes to your career. I promise I haven’t said a word to anyone.”

  She allowed herself a smile. “I know. I’m sorry if I hurt you, I just had to be sure.”

  “I understand. Talk to you later?”

  “I’ll call you when I’m headed home.”

  She hung up, feeling better for asking, but still worried. There still might have been a forgotten slip that could cost her everything.

  *******

  Jason took the bag of food from the drive-thru attendant and handed it to Vanessa. After getting their drinks, he rolled his window up, and pulled away.

  They ate as he drove toward the station, not talking. Finally, with his burger gone, Jason asked the same question he’d asked at least once a week for the past few months.

  “You and Rob doing okay?”

  She smirked as several fries disappeared into her mouth. “Yeah…we’re trying again.”

  “I didn’t know you ever stopped trying.”

  She laughed. “You know what I mean.”

  He did. After losing the baby, Vanessa had needed time to heal before trying to get pregnant again.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “What about you and Sandy?”

  “What about us?”

  “Are you ready for another little one?”

  “She is and I guess I am. There’s something very special about watching Nina with Penny. That big dog loves her, and is incredibly gentle when they play, but it makes me think Nina might like a brother.”

  “A brother?”

  Jason laughed. “Yeah, I told Sandy if she got pregnant again, it had to be a boy.”

  “Ha! I bet she loved that.”

  “Her reaction was about the same as yours.”

  “So you’re trying then?”

  “Actually, did I ever tell you Nina was a surprise?”

  “No.”

  “Yup, we were still being careful at the time.
I figure it’ll happen again and when it does, good.”

  He turned into the station parking lot just as Vanessa finished her fries. She gathered up the wrappers and they walked toward the building. “What now?”

  “I think we catch up with Eli, then brief Banks.”

  She tossed the bag in a trash can. “Sounds good.”

  Chapter 9

  When they got off the elevator, Eli was sitting at Jason’s desk. He stood, relinquishing the chair to its rightful owner. “Hey, you two. Did you find the cabbie?”

  Jason nodded. “He says he never saw the girls. Did you find Martin?”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t remember the girls, but admits he may have talked to them. I believe he fancies himself a ladies’ man.”

  Vanessa laughed. “You couldn’t tell it from his photo.”

  “So what next?”

  “I think it’s time to run things past Banks. Let’s see if she has an idea.”

  All three detectives got up, grabbed their notes, and went over to the office. Jason knocked and leaned through the door. “Lieutenant?”

  She looked like she’d just gotten off the phone and seemed surprised to see him. “Jason, I didn’t know you guys were back.”

  “We are. Got a few minutes?”

  “Of course.”

  Jason went in and was followed by the other two. When Vanessa and Eli had grabbed a chair, Jason picked up a marker. Standing by the whiteboard at the end of the room, he started to write, explaining as he went.

  “First victim, Melinda Gomez, went missing on December 15; she was buried on December 22. We know that based on the day the man above her was buried.”

  He dropped down a line.

  “Victim two, Rosalind Garner, disappeared on January 24, her whereabouts unknown. Victim three, Joann Heddon, disappeared on February 27, her whereabouts also unknown.”

  He checked the piece of paper in his hand, then continued. “Tammy-Jo Cousins went missing on April 1, still missing.”

  He moved over to an open space and restarted at the top. “We have four people of interest. First, Anthony Martin. He’s a worker on the River Walk and has had contact with at least two of the victims. We’ve confirmed he was working on the other two nights.”

  Banks interrupted. “Does he have an alibi?”

  “Just that he talks to lots of girls.”

  “That’s not an alibi, what about his whereabouts at the time the girls disappeared?”

  “He was on the clock, that’s his alibi.” Jason turned back to the board. “Second is Ricardo Bonitez. He’s cab driver who worked all four nights but claims he never picked up any of the missing girls. His alibi is the cab logs, but there’s a gap around the time each girl disappeared.”

  Banks stopped him again. “How does he explain that?”

  “He says he was taking fares but not writing them down, skimming money from the cab company.”

  “That’s mighty thin.”

  “Yes, but we can’t place the girls in his cab. Thirdly, we have Dennis Purdom. He’s had contact with at least two of the girls, Tammy-Jo and Melinda Gomez.”

  “What’s his alibi?”

  “We didn’t really get one before his mother shut down the conversation.”

  “His mother?”

  “Yes, perhaps you’ve heard of her. Barbara Purdom.”

  “Of Purdom Construction?”

  Jason nodded.

  “And she cut you off?”

  “Like a slice of ham; she told us to call her lawyer.”

  “Interesting. Anyone else?”

  Jason nodded. “Nathan Wolsey. He’s the manager at the cemetery where Melinda Gomez was found. He dug the grave she was found in on the night before the funeral.”

  The lieutenant’s eyebrows went up. “That’s convenient, if you want to bury a body.”

  “Yes, but we only have the one body, which means we can only tie him to one victim, and possibly only by coincidence.”

  Jason sat down and all four stared at the board. Jason hoped somebody would see something he didn’t. Eli hadn’t said a word since they came in, and Jason recognized his blank stare; it matched the one he was wearing.

  Vanessa also had been quiet, but the look on her face gave Jason hope. He could see the wheels turning. “What is it, Vanessa? Do you see something?”

  “Well…we know from experience that most serial killers have a pattern, one they rarely deviate from, but here we don’t have a clear indication of what his pattern is. Where the victims are missing from is a constant, but that’s it.”

  “Okay, so?”

  Vanessa stood and went to the board, pointing at the name Melinda Gomez. “Miss Gomez is the only one we have an end result, so what if we form the pattern based on her alone?”

  “Okay…makes sense, but how?”

  “Melinda went missing on December 15 and she was buried on December 21, because the funeral was on the twenty-second, right?”

  Jason was trying to catch up to where his partner was going. “Right.”

  “So that gives us a window of six days before he killed her, or at least buried her. If we use that number from the day each of the other three went missing, we can assume Rosalind would have been buried on January 30, Joann on March 4, and finally, Tammy-Jo would be on April 6.”

  The room went silent as each detective realized what Vanessa’s theory meant. The date was April 4, meaning they were looking for two more bodies, and might only have two days left to find Tammy-Jo.

  Banks moved first. Pulling her laptop toward her, she punched in some words, then swung it toward the detectives. As they watched, a map of the San Antonio area came on the screen, followed by a series of little red dots that popped up like measles on the city.

  Jason looked at the search window on the computer. “The dots are cemeteries?”

  “Yes. The search shows roughly forty-five cemeteries.”

  She swung the computer back to her and made the map smaller, then turned it back so they all could see.

  “If you assume that a cemetery in the middle of the city would attract too much attention to be digging around in after dark, then that leaves only nine cemeteries similar to San Isidro where victim one was found.”

  “But we can’t search nine cemeteries, and if we could, how? You can’t dig up all those graves.”

  Vanessa pointed at the board. “We have two dates, January 31 and March 5, when the funerals would have taken place. If the pattern holds, we need to search the graves of funerals held in the nine cemeteries on those two days!”

  Jason was unconvinced. “Wow! That’s a stretch.”

  Banks liked it. “It’s all we’ve got. Do some research and let me know if you ID a grave you want to search.”

  “You’ll dig it up?”

  “Not if I can help it. You do your research and I’ll work on a solution. I have an idea.”

  The detectives looked at each other, shrugged, and went to work. When they left the office, Banks was already on the phone.

  *******

  The best source for funerals was the San Antonio News. Vanessa was able to pull up past issues, including obituaries, on the newspaper’s website. Jason had placed a call to Terry Orman at Blessed Grace funeral home and learned that the number of deaths on an average day in San Antonio is roughly thirty. Not all had a funeral within a few days, but it gave them an idea what the scope of their search would be.

  The first date Vanessa punched in was January 31, and she found nineteen funerals scheduled for the day. Jason had hung a map of the San Antonio area up on the conference room wall, and Eli had his laptop open. Vanessa read off the cemetery name for each funeral.

  “Mission Park South.”

  Eli punched it into his computer. “1700 Military Drive.”

  Jason was holding some pins, but didn’t move.

  “San Fernando Cemetery One.”

  “1100 South Colorado.”

  Still another cemetery inside the Highway 1604 Loop, no
pin required. They decided on using the 1604 Loop as their boundary because outside that was where the countryside became much more rural.

  “Holy Cross Cemetery.”

  “2628 Mission Road.”

  This address was marked, Jason using a red pin to signify the January 31 date. It went on like this until all nineteen were checked, and then Jason switched to yellow pins as Vanessa started with the listings from March 5. Just six pins were on the map when they were done; four red and two yellow.

  Jason wrote the addresses down along with the contact numbers given to him by Eli. He looked at the list, then his partners. “I guess I’ll go tell Banks what we’ve got.”

  He left the conference room and turned the corner, knocking on the lieutenant’s door.

  “Come!”

  Jason opened the door and leaned in. “We’ve got six possible, Lieutenant.”

  “Let me see.”

  He handed her the note and waited while she studied the list.

  “Okay, let’s start with victim three. It’s just two graves so I’m going to request permission to search those first. I’ll let you know when I get the thumbs up.”

  Jason nodded and headed back out the door.

  *******

  John Patton sat at his desk signing requisition forms. Paperwork had been bad when he was in charge of Homicide, but as captain over multiple departments, he’d nearly lost his mind signing stuff the first few weeks on the job. Now, it was just part of the everyday routine.

  His phone buzzed. “Patton.”

  It was Mary. “Lieutenant Banks is on two.”

  “Thanks.” He pushed line two. “Hey, Sarah.”

  “Hi, John. I need to speak to you, mind if I come up?”

  “That’s fine. Maybe you could sign some of these forms for me while you’re here.”

  “Your signature stuff is above my pay grade.”

  The captain laughed. “I wish it was above mine.”

  “I’ll be right up.”

  Five minutes later, Patton heard a knock. “Come in.”

  Sarah Banks entered with a sheet of paper in her hand. She walked over and sat down in front of the captain’s desk, sliding the paper toward Patton.