Invitation to Die

by Jaden Skye

  “Sometimes it works that way,” Tracy murmured, “when we’re fortunate, when the stars line up right.”

  “We’re always fortunate, one way or another,” Clay repeated.

  “Always? Come on, Clay.” Hunter looked at him warily. “How fortunate are the victims and their families? The stars can line up anyway they want, when a killer’s on the loose all hell breaks out. It’s up to us to help then, not the stars.”

  “Of course we make things better,” Clay replied as there was a knock on the door.

  Probably lunch, thought Tracy, interested to see this side of Clay and wanting to know more about it.

  Clay got up and opened the door. Not only was the delivery guy there, but Candace’s sister Margaret stood beside him, looking taut and frightened.

  Tracy went right over to greet her. “Come on in,” she said. “We’re so grateful you’re here.”

  Tracy led Margaret past the delivery guy and into the room. Clay took the food, paid for it, and joined them.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Tracy asked Margaret. “You can have mine.”

  “No, not at all.” Margaret was ill at ease. “But thank you. Actually, I’m glad to see you again,” she said in a trembling tone. “I was going to come in anyway, but when I heard that they last saw Candace jogging at six a.m. I wanted to talk to you right away.”

  “We heard she was seen about a mile away from your home,” said Tracy. “Candace must have slept at Wayne’s place after all.”

  “No, it wasn’t Wayne’s house.” Margaret’s voice got shrill.

  Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “Not at Wayne’s place. Whose?”

  Margaret plunged in quickly. “Candace must have slept at Andy’s house that night. That’s the block she was seen jogging on.” Then she sighed. “You would have found it out sooner or later anyway,” she said.

  “Who’s Andy?” Hunter took a step closer. Tracy wanted to tell him to step back, give Margaret space to deal with this, but a sense of urgency had come over him once again.

  “It’s not what you think, none of it,” Margaret insisted.

  “Who’s Andy?” Hunter repeated forcefully.

  “Let’s go easy on Margaret,” Tracy interjected. “She’s not the culprit here, she’s helping us out.”

  “You’re right, I’m sorry.” Hunter backed off. “We’re all geared up, as you can imagine.”

  “Of course, I understand, it’s okay,” said Margaret, nevertheless throwing Tracy a grateful glance. “Andy was Candace’s ex-boyfriend. They’d been together for three years.”

  “Planning to get married?” Hunter asked.

  “No, it was never really right between them,” Margaret replied.

  “But Candace was still involved with her ex?” Clay sounded surprised.

  “Not involved like it seems,” Margaret insisted. “Candace cared about Andy, they were always good friends and stayed that way after they broke up. They still got together to talk from time to time. Actually, Candace was helping him get over the breakup. The news of her engagement to Wayne hit Andy like a rocket. Everything happened so fast.”

  “I can only imagine,” Hunter murmured, clenching his jaw. Tracy wondered if this reminded him of what happened with his own marriage. Did his wife fall in love with someone else and leave him? Did he leave her?

  “Wayne was out of town that night,” Margaret continued, “and Candace must have had dinner with Andy. They had dinner about once a week. It was purely platonic. She told me.”

  “Doesn’t sound so platonic to me if she slept at his place.” Hunter stood up, irritated.

  Margaret spoke louder. “It was platonic. I know it for a fact. She just slept there because it was convenient. Most likely she slept on the couch.”

  “Oh, come on,” Hunter shook his head. “Why wouldn’t she just go home?”

  “Things were rough between Candace and my father. And after she made the date for the wedding they got rougher. Candace didn’t like being around Dad,” said Margaret. “When Wayne was in town, she stayed at his place most of the time. That night he was away on business.”

  “Convenient, wasn’t it?” Hunter murmured.

  “What are you suggesting?” Tracy broke in.

  “I’m suggesting that Candace may not have slept on the couch that night, as her lovely sister wants us to think,” Hunter responded. “I’m thinking Wayne may even have found out about where Candace was staying and got mad about it. Things like this happen all the time, don’t they?”

  “You’re pointing the finger at Wayne?” Tracy was stunned.

  “There are already a few things I’ve heard about him that are jarring,” Hunter dove in. “The naked paintings he buys and sells, the quick engagement. And he’s in and out of town a great deal. That gives him an opportunity for many things.”

  “Whoa, slow down,” Tracy insisted, but Hunter couldn’t. It was disturbing to realize that since Tina had gone missing they really hadn’t fixed upon any suspect. Hunter needed someone and now he was honing in on Wayne. He definitely had some cause to be concerned about him, but Tracy felt Hunter was blowing this out of proportion. The danger of that was getting sidetracked, or in a horrible situation like this, letting the real killer slip under the radar.

  “We have to talk to Wayne immediately and ask him some tough questions before we go down that road,” Tracy broke into the momentum quickly.

  “I want both Wayne and Andy in here, together, as soon as possible,” Hunter said to Clay.

  “That’s not a good idea.” Margaret began breathing more quickly. “There’s no reason for it. You’re stirring up more trouble. Neither of them had anything to do with her disappearance.”

  Hunter shook his head, returned to his desk, and sat down behind it. “I’m not stirring up anything, sweetheart,” he replied. “The trouble’s already stirred up in this case. Big time, in case you haven’t noticed. Our job is to stop trouble in its tracks.”

  Margaret turned to Tracy breathlessly. “He’s making a mistake to suspect Wayne,” she repeated, looking more agitated than when she’d arrived.

  “Do you think it could be Andy?” Clay moved in on the conversation then. “Sounds like he was the last one to see her alive.”

  “Andy, a killer? Absolutely not.” Margaret was horrified by the idea. “He’s a sweet, gentle man. He always has been. He loves Candace dearly.”

  “What went wrong between them?” Hunter demanded.

  “Nothing went wrong. It was just never really right.” Margaret spoke intensely. “When Candace met Wayne, everything changed in a second. She said she knew instantly that he was the one.”

  “Spare me the details.” Hunter wiped his brow. “Love at first sight, electricity.”

  “How did you know?” Margaret’s eyes got wider.

  Clay stepped in more strongly then. “It’s okay. This kind of scenario happens all the time,” he said. “It happens to the best guys too.” Then he glanced at Hunter out of the corner of his eye.

  “Let’s look at the bigger picture for a second,” Tracy interrupted. “We need to develop linkages. Did Wayne or Andy even know the other two victims, Shannon or Tina? Was there any way they could have had dealings with each other?”

  “I have no idea.” Margaret’s voice got lower. “I can’t see how.”

  “Call Sergeant Harding immediately and get Wayne and Andy in here ASAP,” Hunter said. “This is no laughing matter.”

  “No one’s laughing, are they?” Margaret flashed Hunter an angry glance.

  “He means well.” Tracy came closer to Margaret. “He’s on a mission to keep your sister alive. The truth is that he cares tremendously.”

  Tears filled Margaret’s eyes. “My family’s devastated, my father’s in a panic. Do you think my sister’s still alive? Do you think you’ll find her?”

  “I do,” Tracy spoke firmly. “The killer kept the second victim alive for almost two weeks.”

  “Thank God,” said Margaret, “t
hank God.”

  “That’s assuming it’s the same killer,” Clay interrupted.

  “That’s a lot to assume, isn’t it?” Margaret’s eyes filled with tears again.

  “Yes, you’re absolutely right there.” Hunter’s voice softened. “For all we know we could have three different killers on our hands. We can’t rule that out yet either.”

  “We can’t rule it out and can’t rule it in,” Tracy interrupted, taking Margaret’s hands and squeezing them. “No matter who took your sister, I promise all of us will do everything in our power to bring her back alive.”

  “Thank you, thank you,” Margaret uttered as she turned and fled from the room.

  Chapter 17

  Within half an hour Wayne and Andy both arrived at the FBI office and were seated opposite Hunter. Wayne was a dashing guy in his late thirties. He had dark, wavy hair, great features, and wore a purple shirt that was unbuttoned at the top. Not surprisingly, he seemed frazzled as he looked nervously around the room. Andy, slim and almost fragile, had light sandy hair and was dressed in jeans and an old shirt. Sitting there, he looked incredibly sad.

  Hunter took a deep breath before speaking and Clay pulled up a chair next to Andy.

  “Okay, fill me in,” Hunter finally started. “Wayne is engaged to Candace, but she spent the night before she went missing sleeping at her ex-boyfriend’s place. What’s wrong with this picture? Someone tell me.”

  Andy swallowed hard and Wayne gave Andy a fierce glance.

  “Did you know about this before?” Clay asked Wayne.

  “I just heard about it on the way over.” Wayne was deeply unsettled.

  “Fill us in about this, Andy,” Hunter demanded.

  Andy closed his eyes slowly. “Candace and I are only friends now. But she still cares about me. We had dinner at times, we wanted to talk.”

  “About what?” Wayne’s face grew nasty.

  “She was trying to help me get over things,” Andy said softly.

  “Get over what? The breakup?” The thought of it was tremendously disturbing to Wayne.

  “Does this bother you, Wayne?” Hunter slowly rubbed it in, wanting more of a reaction.

  “I knew Candace and Andy stayed friends, talked once in a while,” Wayne spoke between gritted teeth. “I had no idea Candace was helping him get over their relationship. That’s going too far.”

  “Why?” asked Andy, almost teary-eyed. “We’d been together a long time. It was a terrible shock when our relationship ended so suddenly.”

  “This is truly pathetic,” Wayne muttered.

  “You had no idea that they were still so close, is that right?” Hunter kept at it.

  “I had no idea,” Wayne replied, “and I don’t like it. It sickens me.”

  Candace usually slept at your place when you were in town, isn’t that right?” Clay joined in.

  “Absolutely,” said Wayne. “She was my fiancée.”

  “But you were out of town a lot.” Tracy entered the conversation now.

  “Yes, I was, and so what of it?” Wayne turned to her defiantly. “Is that an excuse for her sleeping at her ex’s place?”

  “She slept on the couch,” Andy insisted. “What’s the big deal about it? She didn’t like having to deal with her father. Your relationship put a huge wedge between her and her dad.”

  “Did she talk to you about that too?” Wayne looked as if he were about to grab Andy.

  “She talked to me about a lot of things,” Andy said, petulantly. “We were going to stay friends forever.”

  Wayne’s face turned beet red. “Oh, were you now? I never heard a word about that.”

  “Candace never told you?” asked Tracy.

  “No, she didn’t,” said Wayne. “And, believe me, that was never going to happen.”

  Tracy thought this was a perfect moment to take it to the next level.

  “What do you think happened to Candace, Wayne? Who do you think took her?”

  Wayne stood up from his seat quickly and then sat right down again. “I have no idea, I wish I knew.”

  “There were hard feelings between her and her father. Could that have had anything to do with it?” Tracy was flailing around, trying to get him to open up.

  “Candace’s father?” Andy was horrified by the suggestion. “Never, ever,” he gasped. “Kevin Barclay is a wonderful man. He’s a pillar of the community. Everyone can turn to him for anything.”

  A sneer crossed Wayne’s face.

  “How about you, Wayne?” Tracy pushed harder. “Could you turn to Kevin Barclay for anything?”

  “As a matter of fact the guy can’t stand me,” Wayne replied. “He even tried to get his friend Pastor Boyd not to schedule our wedding. Can you believe that? He tried, but failed. You can’t interfere with a person’s life like that. That really upset Candace, too.”

  “It must have pissed Kevin off that he couldn’t do it,” suggested Hunter.

  “Sure, it pissed him off, but so what?” Wayne sneered.

  “Kevin was upset with you because of the kinds of paintings you bought and sold, wasn’t he?” Hunter dug at Wayne deeper.

  Wayne glared at Hunter. “My paintings are art,” he replied.

  “Paintings of naked women,” Hunter interjected.

  “From your point of view, naked women. From my point of view, art,” Wayne retorted.

  Hunter refused to let Wayne off the hook, though. “Did you frequent prostitutes, too?” he asked.

  Wayne stared at Hunter stonily. “I beg your pardon?” he said a smirk on his face..

  “You heard me,” said Hunter. “Do you know a woman named Tina Drew?”

  Wayne stood up as if he would punch Hunter, but then he sat down. “Wait a minute, that’s the first victim, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is,” said Clay quietly.

  “You’re asking me if I knew her? Do I need a lawyer? Am I under suspicion now?” Wayne was agitated.

  “Guys who buy and sell paintings of naked women might enjoy seeing prostitutes,” Hunter continued.

  “That’s ridiculous. Just shows your own narrow, petty mind. Only someone who knows nothing about art would say that,” Wayne retorted.

  “Actually my mother was a world famous painter,” Hunter replied. “I know a great deal about art. But right now, I’m hunting for a serial killer. And I’m trying to save your fiancée’s life.”

  Wayne calmed down then and looked at the floor. “No, I don’t know Tina, I never used prostitutes. Why would I?” he replied. “I have the most amazing woman in the world.”

  “So what happened to her, Wayne? What happened?” Tracy demanded.

  “I don’t know. Why ask me? I wasn’t there. Ask Andy,” Wayne replied, disgusted. “Candace was at his house when it happened. Did he take her somewhere and hide her, so he’ll never have to lose her again?”

  Andy gasped in horror. “Did you?” he flung back at Wayne, ash white.

  The entire room grew silent.

  “You’re a nut,” Andy breathed in Wayne’s face. “Candace went jogging this morning. She always did, she loved jogging. Someone who knew her routine must have grabbed her.”

  “But it wasn’t her routine to be sleeping at your place, was it?” Wayne focused hard on him.

  “Did she have any enemies who knew her routines, was anyone after her?” Clay continued.

  Both guys looked at Clay as though he were crazy. “Absolutely not,” Wayne shot back.

  “Definitely not,” Andy echoed. “Candace was the most fantastic woman in the world. Everyone only wanted the best for her. Ask her friends, ask the people she worked with.”

  “We have, we are,” Clay jumped in. “And we’ll find the link here. I promise. It’s only a matter of time.”

  There was a hard knock on the door then and all of them jumped.

  “Who’s that? Who are you expecting?” asked Clay, as he went to the door and opened it quickly.

  To everyone’s surprise Kevin Barclay stoo
d there, looking even more agitated than before. “Can I come in?” he asked, half reeling.

  “Oh my God, what timing,” Wayne mumbled.

  Kevin charged into the room, looked at Wayne and Andy quickly, and then dropped into a chair.

  “Sergeant Harding told me these guys would be here now,” Kevin started. “I want to hear what they have to say. And I have plenty to say myself, as well.”

  Andy walked over to him quietly and put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “This is just a routine interview, Mr. Barclay,” he said, trying to soothe him. “Neither Wayne nor I have the least idea who could have taken Candace.”

  “I just heard that she spent the night at your place, Andy.” Kevin looked over at him.

  “Wayne was out of town,” Andy said softly. “Candace and I are just friends now. We talked, it got late, and she stayed over. Then she went jogging first thing in the morning.”

  Kevin nodded fitfully, not so much as throwing a glance at Wayne.

  “Yeah, I got it,” said Kevin. “You’re a good man, Andy. Sorry this happened to you.”

  “Thank you very much,” said Andy.

  “Happened to him? How about me? I don’t exist?” Wayne’s face grew dark.

  “Do I exist in your life?” Kevin practically spat back at him. “Did you enjoy grabbing my daughter away from me?”

  Wayne looked appalled. “Grabbing her? Candace and I knew we belonged together at first sight. It was mutual, entirely mutual.”

  “That’s true,” Andy piped up, trying to calm Kevin. “Candace told me that herself. She said the minute she saw Wayne she knew he was the one.”

  “And that means she cuts her father out of her life?” Kevin asked.

  “It wasn’t Candace who cut you out,” Wayne interrupted, looking very tired suddenly. “It was you who kept bad-mouthing me to her. You were making her choose between us.”

  “Wayne comes from somewhere out West,” Kevin piped up. “He’s an orphan, never had a mother or father of his own. He has no idea what family loyalty means.”

  Tracy felt punched in the gut when she heard that, instantly protective of Wayne.

  “Whether or not someone had parents means nothing about a person’s loyalty and ability to love,” Tracy spoke up for him. “In fact, some people who’ve experienced terrible losses can love even more.”