Silent Death: A Chilling Serial Killer Thriller (A Caine & Murphy Thriller Book 3)

by Dominika Waclawiak

  When Sara got back downstairs, Lorelei took one look at her face and sobbed into Mark’s shoulder.

  “You found her?” Mark asked.

  “I did. She’s in the master bedroom closet. She’s been strangled. I don’t think the police should find me here.” Sara said. Lorelei’s eyes squinted as she pulled herself away from Mark and launched herself at Sara.

  “You did this. You killed her. She had stopped looking for them so many years ago. She had given up. You and that man came back into her life and now she’s dead. This is all your fault.” Sara stood there and took it. She put her hands on Lorelei’s shoulders.

  “I know how you feel. My father was murdered too. I blamed everyone. But I didn’t kill your mom. I found out about the missing girls yesterday. I don’t know what your mother was involved in and she didn’t tell me when I saw her a couple days ago.” Sara explained.

  “I don’t want to look at you,” Lorelei sobbed and turned towards Mark. “Let her go. Mom would have wanted her gone.”

  “What do you mean?” Sara stopped her drift towards the front door.

  “My mother made me swear to not go to the police about the missing girls. Instead, she told me if anything happened I was to call you. And now here you are and she is dead.”

  “I don’t know what’s happening here. Everyone knows more than I do. Will you call me and tell me what’s going on? When you are able?” Sara finished.

  “I’m not stupid, Sara. Don’t insult me. Just leave. Get out of here. I don’t want to see you. My mother is dead and I don’t want to see you.”

  “I think you should leave.” Mark said. “I’ll go find Madeleine and call 911.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just so sorry.” Sara said backing away from the pain and misery that she had caused. “I’m so sorry.” She said and got out of there.

  11

  Sara Caine drove directly to Johan’s apartment. She had tried calling him several times since he had given her the film reel but the phone had gone straight to voicemail. He wasn’t going to ignore her any longer. Sara needed the truth about what he involved her in. Lorelei had said missing UCLA girls. But the missing girls in Janice’s room were all actresses.

  Another thing that Lorelei had said was her mother had stopped searching for them for years. It sounded like there were two sets of missing girls. Was that how Johan got involved? Did he know about the first set? The only person who could answer that question was him.

  She banged on his door until her arms were numb. No one was there. The woman next door finally poked her head out.

  “He’s not here, honey. He hasn’t been here for days.” His neighbor said.

  “Do you know where he might have gone?” Sara asked. The woman shook her head.

  “No. I didn’t even see him leave. He’s always so good about telling me to water his plants if he’s going out of town. But he didn’t do that this time. It’s all very strange, really.” She said.

  “It sure is.” Sara said through gritted teeth.

  When she got back into her car, a wave of fear crashed into her. She slumped against the steering wheel and let out her own anguish. After she’d gotten herself back under control, she decided she needed a plan.

  Whatever he had gotten her into, she would see through. Another woman was dead. A woman she’d spoken to days before. Before she knew what the film was and what it would mean for people looking into it.

  She wanted to go to the police herself. But then that would involve Johan. And she remembered her first case where he had become the prime suspect in a man’s murder. Would they still have that file if they put his name into the LAPD database?

  Her memory refused to dredge up the cop’s name from that earlier case. What was she trying to achieve through that line of inquiry? Stop focusing on Johan, she thought. Instead, Eva needed to help her find Madeleine Richard’s killer. Eva had warned her she was going in over her head but what choice did she have?

  She wiped the tears away from her eyes and took a deep breath. You can do this, lady, she said out loud. Even though she’s spoken with countless ghosts, nothing scared her more than seeing a dead body. All the life force gone and only a shell left behind.

  She didn’t think she’d get Madeleine Richard’s face out of her mind. How cops got so used to death, she’d never understand.

  She started the car. Where was she going to go now? She wasn’t sure if Lorelei would tell the police that Sara had been there. Sara didn’t really know why she wanted her to keep that information from them but she did. She felt it was important.

  She would go to Ritchie. They needed to look over that film reel to see what prompted Johan to bring it to Madeleine Richards. Perhaps Ritchie could also help convince Eva to help her with Madeleine’s murder. She knew Eva would want to go straight to the LAPD. After all, once a cop always a cop. It had only been a month since she had quit. She drove.

  Ritchie and Sara watched the film frame by frame and Sara found it hard to concentrate on the surroundings as the agony of the woman and her death unfolded in minute detail in front of them. It had taken her several minutes to fully suffocate and was excruciating to watch.

  “I don’t know if we will figure out where this furniture is from. I’m not seeing anything jump out at me.” Ritchie said. “If she suffocated in this room then that would mean he must have built it to not have any ventilation?” Sara wondered aloud.

  “I would think he would have to make a box that was fully leak-proof.”

  Before they could continue, a pounding sounded on Ritchie’s front door. Sara looked at Ritchie. “Did you call Eva?”

  “Don’t be a baby, Sara. You found a dead body and I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to tell Eva. Isn’t she supposed to be your mentor?” He asked.

  Sara bit her lip. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She said and got up to open the door.

  Eva stood furious, her face red and her palms clenched. “Are you out of your mind?” She spat out and stomped into the room.

  “I should have told you, I’m sorry,” was all she got out before Eva spun around and jabbed a finger in her direction.

  “You left a crime scene. You found the body, and you left the crime scene. Do you know how that makes you look?” She said it in at dangerously low voice. Sara’s heart dropped. She preferred Eva yelling.

  “I didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to be there,” she said.

  Eva shook her head. “That’s the problem. You don’t think. You should’ve called me and I would’ve come and we would’ve met the police together. What were you doing there? Why didn’t you call me to come with you?” She asked.

  “Madeleine called me and invited me for lunch. She wanted me to meet her daughter. She knew my father, remember? I didn’t go there to find a dead body,” she said. “I panicked and Lorelei Richards wanted me out of there. She screamed that it was all my fault.”

  “This is bad, Sara. This is really bad. We need to call the police and tell them you were the one that found the body,” Eva said.

  “No. If we do that, then they will make it seem like I am guilty. Didn’t you tell me once that the police focus on whoever found the body? That a lot of times the person who found the body is the one who actually killed the person.” Sara asked.

  “But you have me to vouch for you,” Eva said.

  “But you aren’t a cop anymore. Didn’t you leave the force with a cloud over you? Over Eddie Larson and the killings?” Sara asked and saw Eva flinch. She hadn’t meant to put it that way but she couldn’t help defending herself. She knew what she had done wasn’t right. But she wanted to escape Lorelei’s accusing eyes. That was the real truth.

  “You should call the police,” Ritchie added.

  “Thanks a lot, Ritchie.” Sara said but knew they were right.

  “So now what do I do? Without making me look like I’m guilty of something?” She watched Eva have an internal dialogue with Anderson. It was disconcerting to watch.


  “I don’t know but this is a major misstep on your part.” Eva said and threw herself on the couch.

  “We’ve been watching the film to see if we could get any clues from the furniture. He created an old silent film set. I pulled up some movies from the silent era and the layout and furniture are similar. In fact, the whole setup looks similar, all the way down to the cardboard window in the back.” Ritchie said changing the subject.

  “She took three minutes to die.” Sara said. “Whatever this room he made is, it has to be in a bigger room. It has to have a way to suck out all of her air very slowly,” she said.

  “Or he makes it so air proof that once he turns her air off, she breathes the oxygen until there is no more in the room.”

  “Oh my God. Look at this.” Ritchie said and pointed at his computer screen. Eva and Sara went up to him and peered past his finger. He pointed at a mirror right behind the woman. The woman’s body lay crumpled underneath.

  “I’m not understanding what I’m seeing,” Sara said.

  “It’s her. It’s her in the mirror.” Ritchie said.

  “Maybe that’s just a photo of her.” Eva said.

  “No, if you look at these other frames.” He said and rewound the film frame by frame until the mirror was empty. “See, see what I mean. The mirror is empty and then she’s in it. But she’s lying dead underneath.”

  “What could’ve made that happen?” Eva said. Sara shook her head too scared to even think.

  12

  Sara Caine and Eva Murphy sat across from Detective Sandy Martinez and Detective Lou Gutierrez in a tense silence. Sara’s nerves went through the roof when they stepped into the interrogation room and only Eva’s presence was keeping her together right now. They apologized for making them wait for over an hour in the waiting room and when Sara and Eva stepped inside, they plied them with water and coffee. The detectives were friendly enough and that worried her. Eva prepared Sara for the tactics the detectives would use to break a suspect and, to her surprise, they used many of the things Eva said they would. The waiting to get her edgy, the drinking to force her into needing to relieve herself and then letting her go. She was afraid of what they would try next. Until Eva schooled her on the techniques, Sara hadn’t considered herself a suspect. The detectives’ style proved Eva right. She was a suspect.

  “Thank you for coming in, Sara,” Detective Martinez started. He turned to Eva. “We’ve heard a lot about you, Mrs. Murphy.”

  “I’m not sure what I can tell you about Madeleine Richard’s death. I was a child when we last crossed paths. She was my parent’s friend.” She made eye contact with each of the detectives before she continued. “I reconnected with her only a week ago.”

  “We’ve checked the call logs of everyone involved and we wanted to know why Madeleine Richard called you the night before she was killed?” Detective Gutierrez asked. Eva told her to answer as truthfully as she could but the advice didn’t make her nerves any better.

  “She called to invite me to brunch.” Sara said.

  “And did you accept?”

  “No,” Sara lied.

  “Had you ever met Lorelei Richards before?” Detective Martinez asked. Sara shook her head no.

  “I knew Mrs. Richards had a daughter, but she was younger than I was and I don’t remember her from the few times that Mrs. Richards came over to my family home for dinner with my parents. I myself was young at the time and I don’t really have a recollection of Lorelei ever coming by.”

  “So you have no idea of the investigation that Madeleine Richards was running?” Sara struggled not to show her surprise at their knowledge.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Wasn’t Madeleine a professor of film studies at UCLA?”

  “We saw in Mrs. Richards address book a meeting scheduled with you two days ago? May we ask what that was about? If she was a close friend of your parents, and we know your parents are dead, why would she suddenly contact you out of the blue?”

  “I was going through some of my father’s things and found her number. Like I said before, I remembered her from the times at my parent’s place. You must also be aware my parent’s murder was never solved. I’ve been trying to uncover the truth of their deaths and, when I saw her name, I was hoping she might have some new clues as to what happened to my father and mother.”

  “And did she have any new information to give you?” Detective Martinez asked.

  “No, she did not have any new information, but it was nice to reminisce with someone who knew them. There aren’t many people like that.” The detectives didn’t seem convinced but Sara hoped they believed her lie. The room fell silent.

  “Is there anything else you want to ask Ms. Caine? I’m not sure what else she can tell you.”

  “What exactly is your relationship to Ms. Caine, Mrs. Murphy?” Detective Martinez asked in a not so friendly manner.

  “I’m a former LAPD detective and I wanted to help. She didn’t kill Madeleine Richards. You don’t have evidence that contradicts that, do you? This feels like a fishing expedition.” Eva said and Sara wasn’t entirely sure if her straightforward manner would help.

  “We are in the process of making inquiries and tracking what Mrs. Richards was up to in the weeks leading to her death. We’ve found anomalies in her schedule. People appearing out of the blue in the last month, Ms. Caine being such a person. You are in a close relationship with a man named Johan Luken?” Sara jolted out of her seat by the sound of his name. They knew about him.

  “He is my boyfriend. I don’t know if he knew Mrs. Richards. You will have to ask him.”

  “Mr. Luken is on the list, Ms. Caine. Is there anything else you might want to share with us?” Detective Gutierrez said and studied her face. Sara did her best not to twitch or blink or do anything that might be out of character and reveal her guilt.

  She felt guilty even though she hadn’t killed Madeleine Richards. She was lying to the LAPD, and it didn’t feel like it was the greatest idea. Eva explained that they couldn’t find out about the films or they would be on the top of their list. The way this interrogation was going, Sara thought she was already their prime suspect.

  “I didn’t kill Madeleine Richards.”

  “Where were you on the night of Mrs. Richard’s death?”

  “She was with me.” Eva stated.

  “That seems convenient.” Detective Martinez said.

  “I’m a former LAPD detective, Detective. I would hope that you would show me some courtesy. Her whereabouts are verifiable by a third party. I’m also sure there are cameras around the downtown loft where we parked our car and got to our associate’s house. Why would we lie to you? We want Madeleine Richards’ killer found just as much as you do.”

  “Did you ever meet Mrs. Richards?” Detective Martinez asked.

  “I did not.” Eva stated. “We’re done here. Do you have any other questions?”

  “Don’t leave town in case we need to ask you any more questions.” Everyone stood up. The room vibrated with unfriendliness and Sara was happy to get the hell out of there.

  “Do they really think I killed Madeleine Richards,” Sara whispered to Eva as they made their way out of the precinct.

  “They’re covering all their bases. I doubt you’re a serious candidate but you recently entered her life, and they had to check you out. Let’s hope they don’t uncover you were the one who found Madeleine’s body. THAT will be a bigger problem,” she said.

  “Why did you let me lie like that?”

  “What other choice did I have? Never leave the scene of the crime again, Sara. Are you listening? Never again. I vouched for you in there and if there’s any blowback, we’re done.”

  Sara nodded.

  13

  Lorelei and Mark sat on the couch holding hands while the LAPD searched her mother’s house. Lorelei spotted the coroner’s truck pulling up into the driveway and grief washed over her. She squeezed Mark’s hand and choked down another sob.
Her mother was dead. Her mother was dead for the same reason Sara Caine’s father died all those years ago. The missing girls.

  Mark pulled her into him and whispered, “You should tell them about the girls who disappeared.”

  “My mom spoke to the police yesterday. Now she’s dead.” She whispered back. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

  “You can’t be serious, Lorelei.” Mark whispered back and she could tell he didn’t believe a word she said to him.

  “My mother was murdered and I trust no one.” Lorelei turned away from him as one of the detectives in charge of the case came back into the living room. He had introduced himself but she couldn’t remember his name.

  “So Ms. Richards. If you’re up for it, I’d like to ask you about your mother?” Lorelei nodded. He perched on the edge of an easy chair across from her and took out a small notebook.

  “I’ll reintroduce myself. My name is Detective Gutierrez and I’m going to be handling the case along with my partner, Detective Martinez. You mentioned that you were planning to have a lunch here with your mother?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Was today’s lunch special?” He prodded.

  “I wouldn’t call it special but it wasn’t typical. My mother and I have been estranged for the last couple of months. We just got engaged,” Mark squeezed her hand, and she fought with herself not to pull it back. “I let her know yesterday. She invited us over to lunch so she could meet him.”

  “And how did your mother sound?”

  “She was overjoyed at hearing from me and ecstatic to meet Mark. I’m an only child and our engagement was important to her.” Lorelei watched the detective as he jotted the information down.