Apex Predator

by J. A. Faura

  Just before he reached the door, Willis heard Zeidler say to Logan, “Oh, and Bart, since this delay is caused by the people’s busy schedule, you won’t oppose a motion to reduce bail for Mr. Pedroza, will you?”

  Bart waited a couple of seconds and looked at the clerk before stammering, “Well, ah…”

  Drew had reached the door to the courtroom and made his way through it quickly lest he start laughing out loud in the courtroom and really screw up his relationship with Logan.

  Grady was back from talking to Mia Reynolds’ family members. Nothing to really note or bear down on. Father was rock solid, mother and sisters were typical upper middle class. He had also talked to the detectives talking to the teachers for both girls and had not come up with anything promising. Both girls went to private school and had teachers with significant credentials and meticulous backgrounds that could be verified. All had checked out.

  Most of them were women anyway. The ones that were males could not be more different from the profile they were working off of. They were mostly over their mid-50s, mostly of European descent and most had very mundane lives that could also be traced back almost minute by minute during their time away from school. They had families of their own with which they spent a great deal of time or clubs they belonged to or organizations they were a part of, all of them able to account for their time almost down to the minute.

  They had also talked to the custodial staff. There they had actually developed a couple of possibles. Two of the yard maintenance workers had done some time and completed probation, but neither was a violent offender nor any type of sex offender.

  Both were Hispanic and had agreed readily to speak with the detectives on the case. Both offenses had to do with having relations with an underage girl, usually 16 or 17, when they themselves were 20 and 21 years old. They’d been cleared immediately.

  He had also had an opportunity to speak with Mark Mullins and had gotten pretty much the same story from him.

  Even with the profiles they were working from, there just didn’t seem to be anyone within the girls’ known circle that could be their guy. Extended family was next, all the uncles, cousins, second cousins, close friends, anyone that had spent time with them or even been at the same party was being interviewed as well.

  The Reynolds family was planning on coming by the station later with Mrs. Reynolds’ sisters and brother. Mr. Reynolds was coming in from Phoenix where he had been for the past year, so it was mostly for emotional support that he was coming in.

  Grady walked in his office and slammed the file on the desk. Damn it, they should be further along than this by now. Someone saw these girls together, liked them, targeted them and went hunting for them, and he was watching the police now. He knew they were talking to people; too many people were involved now.

  The question was, was he enjoying the attention or was he panicking? Grady was assuming that this prick was probably amused by the attention, he hoped anyway. If he was panicking, he was probably hundreds of miles from New York by now and they would have to hear about some sort of similar case in Montana or Florida or some other state before they got back on his trail.

  While he was looking out the window, as he was apt to do when he didn’t know what his next play would be, Grady heard a small tap on the window of his office. It was one of the secretaries with two other women, “Detective, Mrs. Reynolds and Ms. Hunt are here to see you.”

  Grady turned around, stacked the files neatly on his desk and stood up. “Mrs. Reynolds, please come in.”

  Gina Reynolds walked into his office. Like every other mother, her eyes had dark circles under them and she looked like she had aged 10 years in the last week.

  Gina turned and brought her sister into the office, she was holding her hand, “Detective Grady, this is my sister Nancy. She is Mia’s favorite aunt and watches her from time to time. They are very close. She watched Mia the weekend before she went missing.”

  Nancy walked into the office, not looking much better than her older sister. She had also clearly been put through hell and her face was still streaked with makeup.

  Grady motioned to the chairs in front of his desk, “Please, both of you, have a seat.”

  They both sat down, shoulders slumped over, faces totally defeated.

  “Ms. Hunt, as you know, we are trying to figure this thing out. The fact that Mia and Emily were both taken within a day of each other makes us think that whoever did it had a chance to meet them or see them or spend time with them at some point while they were together.

  “You see, when we see a direct connection like this in two cases, the best way to find out what happened is to look at everything, everyone and everywhere the two girls had in common. So, Ms. Hunt, can you think of any of your friends or colleagues, soccer coaches, anyone that knew the girls and spent time with them?”

  Nancy sat with her head in her hands and thought. She shook her head, “You guys have already talked to all of my friends that knew them or had seen them together. Actually, I think a couple of my friends are still talking to some of the detectives.

  “But I can tell you right now it’s none of them. These are all people I’ve known since college. They’ve seen the girls together in passing maybe once or twice in the last three or four years. None of them spent any time with them or actually even really talked to them.

  “My old roommate would be the one that has spent the most time with them and she is one of the ones that your officers are still talking to.

  “There really is no one else. I mean, I see their dance teachers and the teachers at school when I go pick them up, but I really wouldn’t be able to tell you that I’ve noticed anything out of the ordinary about them.”

  Grady was taking notes and comparing them with the list they had already compared with the entire family’s possibles and they had pretty much come to the same conclusion.

  Without any sort of forensic, eyewitness or hell, even circumstantial evidence, there just wasn’t anything to go at anybody with.

  Gina looked across the desk and with a glimmer of hope in her eye asked Grady, “So is there anything, detective? Have you gotten any information from Emily’s family?”

  Grady looked at her and knew he had to keep up the front, “It’s still too early to tell, but nothing really promising so far. The whole department and the FBI are cooperating with other law enforcement agencies to develop as good of a case as we can, but it’s still too early.”

  Grady had gone through this with one or another family member from the other families, so he was used to the routine and to the standard lines he had to deliver.

  As he was talking to Mrs. Reynolds, he was also looking at Nancy Hunt out of the corner of his eye, and she had something on her mind. She looked like she had something to say and was debating whether to say it or not.

  Grady helped her along, “Ms. Hunt, anything you can think of, and I mean anything, can be helpful to us. Sometimes even things you might think have nothing to do with what we are doing end up breaking cases open, so if there is anything you need to tell us, please, now is the time for you to do it.”

  Nancy had her face in her hands and was shaking her head, “I’ve told you everything…well, almost everything.”

  Gina looked at her with her mouth open and her eyes wide, “What do you mean almost everything! Nancy, what the hell is the matter with you! We’ve been at this for over a week! You say what you have to say right now! I can’t believe you!”

  Nancy was crying now, “It’s no big deal, Gina! I knew you’d make a huge deal out of it, but it was no big deal!

  “The weekend I watched Mia and Emily, I had a friend from work watch them for a couple of hours so I could go with my girlfriends to The Lion King.

  “He came over with DVDs and watched them for four hours and then left. It was nothing. He works at my office and I’ve known him for three years and he just couldn’t hurt a fly. Talk to him. Ask him anything you nee
d to, I am sure you’ll see he isn’t the guy you’re looking for.”

  When she was finished, she still found her sister staring fiercely at her. Gina actually slapped her across the face, “How dare you! How dare you hold this back! She is my daughter, your niece!”

  Grady came around the desk to get in between them as Nancy stood up to leave, “See, this is exactly why I didn’t tell you, because I knew you would be a total bitch about it!”

  She started to turn and Grady held her back by her arm. Gina went to move toward her again and this time Grady stood in front of her, “Mrs. Reynolds, Gina! I need you to leave, now. Now!”

  Gina was about to protest when Grady gently led her out as he was talking to her, “She won’t say anything else as long as you are in the room. She’s right, it’s probably nothing, but I think I’ll get much further if I talk to her alone.”

  By this point Grady was holding her by the shoulders outside of his office and was getting her to calm down, “Now, why don’t you go grab a cup of coffee while I finish talking to Ms. Hunt.”

  Gina didn’t say anything. Tears still streaming, she walked away to get herself some coffee. Grady watched her walk away and then looked at the back of her sister’s head as she sat in his office. She was young and inexperienced and to Grady she gave off the selfish and self-involved air of most young women in New York, but still she was genuinely grief-stricken and remorseful, and she was ready to talk.

  Grady hadn’t been just blowing smoke when he’d said it was probably nothing, but once again that sixth sense that all homicide dicks develop after spending years and years on the job was beginning to make some noise in Grady’s head.

  He walked back into the office, sat down in his chair and handed her a tissue, “Are you alright?”

  Nancy took the tissue and wiped her eyes and nodded.

  Grady went on, “Alright, Nancy, take it from the beginning and tell me about this friend of yours that watched the girls.”

  Nancy wiped her eyes again and went to answer, “He’s just someone who works at my office, his name is Donald Riche. He is just this guy who works as a runner for the firm. Pretty friendly.

  “He has always been really nice to me and to everyone else, as far as I know. He dresses neatly and pretty much keeps to himself, but it’s not like he’s antisocial either, you know. He’s just one of those people that always seem to be there with a nice word or just willing to listen to you.”

  Grady was taking down notes furiously, while still trying to keep eye contact. “Alright, do you know where Donald lives?”

  Nancy thought about it and answered, “Not really, to be honest with you. I just know he has a small apartment over by Houston Street. I know he rides the subway and the bus to work.”

  Grady kept writing, “Okay, what else do you know about him?”

  Nancy thought about it and answered, “Not much, really. I mean, when he offered to watch Mia and Emily, he told me he had watched his nieces a bunch of times. He is really a nice man, you know, really gentle. Not the type that would hurt a fly.”

  Grady, still taking notes, went on, “Anything else? What does he look like?”

  Nancy shrugged her shoulders, “You know, just regular, I guess. You know, about five nine, maybe a little taller, not really heavy, but not really skinny either. I think he’s probably in his mid-30s, but looks a little younger. He has dirty blond hair and glasses. Wears a suit and tie every day and as far as I know I don’t think he’s ever missed a day of work since I’ve been there.”

  Grady finished writing and looked up, “So, do you think we might be able to talk to Donald if we go down to the office or if we call him to come in?”

  Nancy thought for a second and answered, “Sure, I don’t see why not. Some policemen have already been talking to some of the other people at my office, so I don’t think he would have a problem with it.”

  Grady reviewed everything he had written down and looked at it against the profile.

  His eyes scanned back and forth between the two pages from top to bottom and then he did it again, and he couldn’t help but feel a little chill beginning to work its way up his spine. He was going to have to go out and speak to Donald Riche as soon as possible and he was taking Mark Mullins with him for sure.

  In the meantime they would run his name through all the pertinent databases. Get some prints and wash those through all the other databases that made sense.

  Grady wanted to have a file on this guy before they contacted him.

  He wasn’t sure why, but he had a very strong feeling that if they came at this guy the right way, with the right information, they might be able to get something useful if there was anything to be gotten, and something told Grady there was definitely something here.

  It might be nothing major, but something to go on in any case. “Well, we’ll be in touch with you and with Mr. Riche, Ms. Hunt. Don’t worry, you’re probably right it’s nothing, but we have to follow every lead we get.”

  Nancy was nodding and wiping away her tears. She stood up, shook Grady’s hand and left his office. On her way out, she walked past Detective Mullins who also noticed her wiping her eyes as she walked by.

  He got to Grady’s office, still looking back at Nancy, “What gives? Where’s her sister? Why was she so upset?”

  Grady was standing behind his desk with his hands on his hips. “It looks like we might have our first bona fide possible. A guy that the aunt let watch the girls the weekend before they went missing, he…”

  Before he could finish, Mark Mullins interrupted, “Donald Riche.”

  Grady smiled, “How’d you come up with that?”

  Mullins said, “Just finished talking to the Wu family. Emily told them all about Donald and watching DVDs. We’re running a background on him and I have a couple of unmarked cars on the way to the office to pick him up.”

  Grady held up his hand, “Call them back. Call the unmarked cars back. I want to come at this guy sideways. I want him to think this is all routine, he is just one of dozens of people we are talking to.

  “I will call him at his office and ask him if we can come by his house to talk to him. It will put him at ease to be in a familiar environment and it will let us know just what kind of character this guy is.

  “In the meantime, run the DMV check, priors, anything on this guy. Talk to the personnel office of the brokerage firm and track down any other places of work before then.

  “I want to go talk to him loaded for bear. It may be nothing, but like I said, looking at the profile we’ve got and the people we’ve been talking to, this guy comes as close to it as anyone else we have talked to. How did it go with the custodial staff?”

  Mullins shook his head, “All immigrants, Russian mostly, some can barely speak English and most hold two or three jobs, so they literally do not have time in a 24-hour day to do anything like this.”

  Grady nodded, “Figured as much, most of the maintenance staff falls into the same category. Mark, if this guy doesn’t pan out, I think we’re really going to have to bite the bullet and assume it is going public in the next day or two.”

  He walked over to the window, hands on his hips, “Nope, if we don’t get anything to hang our hat on from this guy, we’re going to have to go public and ask for help.”

  Mullins was nodding, “What do you think about this guy Riche?”

  Grady turned around, “I don’t know, sounds vanilla enough, but he’s one of the closest matches we have to the profiles we’ve developed. And honestly, I’ll wait to hear back from what we come up with on all the background, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t starting to strike me a little funny.”

  Mullins looked at him, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I mean 30s, a job, not bad-looking, and no one has known him to talk about a date or a girlfriend or anything other than work. All of a sudden he offers to watch two six- and seven-year-olds out of the blue on a Friday night, two six- and seven-year-olds
that go missing the week after. Yeah, it sounds a little hinky to me too.”

  Grady was back looking out of the window with his arms crossed and biting his bottom lip, “Yup, let’s get everything we can on the guy, his family, his nieces, DMV, everything, and then let’s go talk to old Donald and cross him off the list or get ready to bring the hammer down.”

  Mullins nodded, turned around and before he left turned back toward Grady, “How much of this, if any, do you think Loomis knows?”

  Grady raised his eyebrows at the question, smiled and turned around to look at Mullins, “Assume the guy knows exactly what we know and assume that he’s probably got everything there is to get on this guy.”

  Before Mullins could answer, Captain Freeman had walked down the hallway to Grady’s office.

  Nick Freeman was the consummate politician. He had been in the department for more than 24 years and had never taken a wrong step in the span of that career. Grady had been wondering how long it would take Freeman to come pay him a visit. Freeman had a kind of manic energy about him, like he couldn’t stand still. He was tall and thin, balding and seemed to be shaking all the time.

  He got to Grady’s office, looked from Mullins to Grady, and kept his voice low and conspiratorial, as if he was letting them in on something he wasn’t supposed to be telling them, “So you guys heard, I take it?”

  Grady rolled his eyes, “No, Captain, we haven’t heard yet, what’s the word?”

  Freeman made a show of being exasperated and shook his head, “The Garcia kid from the Chronicle has been asking questions. The cat’s out of the bag. I don’t know if it came from inside or if he has another source, but he definitely connected the nine girls and is asking some really uncomfortable questions and they’ve gotten to the commissioner.”

  He turned to Grady, “Bob, I want you to sit down with him and see what he has. I want you to give him as much as we have without compromising anything.”