I got down on my knees and hugged her around the neck. “I’m so glad you’re just a baby, and that you’re a dog. I’m not sure I could handle being a mom to a person.” I kissed her on the lips.
When I let go of Lola, she shook her whole body as if she was shaking off water after a bath. Then she licked her lips and left the room. It’s nice to be so loved.
Lola went to slurp some water while I went to my desk and called my mom.
“Hey, are you busy?” I asked.
My mom sounded harried as usual, like there is never enough time in a day. “Nope. What’s up?”
“I’m working on a tough one, and I just wanted to call and say I love you.” I’m not sure why this matter had me missing my mom, but I needed to tell her.
“Thanks babe, I love you, too. Is everything okay?” Her voice changed from harried to concern.
“Jackie’s daughter has an online crush, and Charles and I were just looking into it for her.” I took a breath. “Mom, I think I’m going to be sick.”
“What on earth? What’s going on?” Concern change to scared.
“We are pretty sure the online crush isn’t a teenage boy.”
“She’s a lesbian? Oh, dear, who cares? It’s all the rage these days.” There was a bit of laughter in her words.
I had to laugh, even though I didn’t really feel it. “No Mom, I’m sure no one would care about that. We think it’s a man, not a boy, a man preying on a fourteen-year-old girl.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Mom?”
“Mimi, I just don’t know what to say. I’m so glad I’m not raising kids in this day and age.”
“I know. I’m not sure I ever want to have kids now. I’d want to shelter and protect them, but it’s just not possible to be there all the time.” My heart felt sick.
“I love you, Mimi. I’m going to call your sister and have a talk with her.”
“Great idea, Mom. I love you, too.” I hung up the phone and stared out the window.
My sister, Ann, has two kids, a boy and a girl. I was pretty sure they were getting to the age where Ann had to start worrying about this kind of crazy stuff. Mom would just mention what I was working on, and hopefully, Ann would get a hint and pay closer attention to what her kids were doing on their computers.
Jackie and Charles entered my office from the hallway. They moved like synchronized swimmers, each sitting and leaning forward in their chairs across from my desk. Somehow, this all felt so surreal.
“I wanted to tell Jackie everything with you in the room,” Charles said to me.
“Go ahead.” I braced myself to hear everything again.
Jackie sat quietly, but I could see her hands shaking.
“I want you to give Catey her phone back today. I’m not sure if you can get it to her by lunch.”
Jackie looked at her watch. “I can do that.”
“I’ve put a GPS tracking device in with the battery. She’ll never know it’s there.” Charles took a deep breath. “Tell her you talked to us, and that we told you to trust her. Trust is so important in a family, and you want her to trust you, too.”
“What?” Jackie looked pissed.
“I’ll know where she is. But I want this guy to contact her. Something makes me think he’s going to plan a meeting in the next couple of days.”
“Who exactly is he?” Jackie started rocking.
“He’s a grown man. I know where he lives, but I’m not going to tell you. If you stop him too soon, you’ll just push him on to the next fourteen-year-old. I know your concern is for your daughter, but what if another mother was being selfish, and this is why this creep has moved on to Catey?”
I interrupted. “We need to stop him for good.”
Charles glared at me. I sat back and shut up.
“I can’t let Catey go too far. What if this guy seduces her? Did you see any of the text messages?”
Charles gripped the phone in his hand. He flipped it open and pushed a few buttons. “Do you really want to see them?”
“No,” Jackie hesitated. “I mean yes, I want to see what this pervert has been saying to my baby girl.”
Charles handed Jackie the phone. We watched her scroll through the messages.
“How do I delete these?” Jackie asked.
“You don’t,” Charles said. “She needs to think you were never able to get into her phone.”
“Bullshit. I’m not leaving this porn on my baby’s phone,” Jackie said, barely above a whisper.
“Yes, honey, you are,” I said. “I promise, as soon as he makes contact for a face to face meeting, we’ll get him, and then we’ll turn the phone over to the police. We need the evidence. Understand?”
Jackie dropped the phone into her lap and bowed her head. “This is the shit that happens to other people, not to me and my family.”
Charles (who just so happens to be missing a sensitivity chip) said, “Wake up, Jackie. This is real life, and sometimes the shit hits our very own fans. We’re just lucky that you’re a smart and intuitive parent who noticed something was wrong. This is our chance to keep this from happening to anyone else.”
I waited for a response, but Jackie said nothing.
“I’m going to call a friend and find out everything I can about this guy. I have his name, his cell phone number, and his address. That should be enough to find out a few other things. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything.” Charles stood.
“Are we done here?” I asked.
“I am. Jackie needs to get over to the school and talk with Catey, so she has a chance to contact Dylan/William as soon as possible. The sooner a meeting is planned, the sooner we nail this pervert.”
Jackie flipped her daughter’s cell phone shut and stood. “Thanks so much, you two. I’m so lucky to have you as friends.”
Jackie walked out of my office through the door that led to the kitchen. That meant she was leaving, because that was the fastest way to the parking lot. I’d never seen her so distraught.
“Oh, joy, this is going to be a fun case. And we aren’t even making any money on it.” He flicked imaginary lint from his white jeans. “I’m going to make sure the GPS is working on Catey’s phone.”
I tried to busy myself with paperwork and scheduling appointments, but my mind kept going back to Jackie and Catey. After a couple of hours, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I got up and went to Charles’s office.
When I peeked in the door, I could see he was intent on something. His office was smaller than mine, or maybe it just seemed smaller because he had so many gadgets in it. I had filing cabinets, and he had shelves of computer technology books, hacking devices, doohickeys and thingamabobs I couldn’t even explain. His desk was on the far wall, and he chose to have his chair face the wall instead of the entrance, so I felt like I was sneaking up on him.
“What are you looking at?”
“Something is very wrong here.” He pointed to his computer screen.
I could see a blip. It moved, stopped, and then moved again.
“If Jackie had given Catey back her phone, it would be pretty much stationary. The phone was at the school for less than ten minutes, and then it started moving. It’s been following a weird pattern for over an hour.”
“What does this mean?”
“Well, I think that either Catey left school right after her mom gave her back her phone, or Jackie never gave the phone to Catey at all.” Charles pushed his blonde locks back with his fingers.
“Oh, shit,” I said. Then Charles jumped up.
“Oh shit, is right. Fuck, I let her read the text messages. Remember what one of the last messages was?” Charles was now pacing in front of his computer screen.
“Come on. We gotta go.” I grabbed Charles by the arm and he didn’t resist.
CHAPTER 4
I could see Jackie sitting in the front seat of the Toyota pickup that Gotcha owned. She sat completely still, staring at the house. She did
n’t even move when Charles drove up behind the truck. I got out of the car before he shifted into park.
I walked up to the window of the Toyota and tapped. Jackie turned slowly to look at me, but she didn’t roll down the window or make any move to get out of the car. I grabbed the door handle and opened the driver’s door.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
She looked at me as if in a daze. “I had to know.” She looked back at the house.
“I went to give her back her phone, but she had left school.” Jackie tried to stay calm, but her voice cracked. “She wasn’t there.” She burst into tears.
I leaned into the cramped space and held her. She wrapped her arms around me and sobbed. I hugged her back. “She’s fine, honey. Have you called home?”
Jackie’s body shook. “My baby. She’s not my baby anymore.”
“Yes, she’s still your baby.” I reassured her.
Charles walked up. “I hate to interrupt this sob-fest, but what the hell is going on?”
I broke away from Jackie. “Asshole.”
“Yes, I’m an asshole, that’s been long established, but this crying jag isn’t going to help us catch this creep.” Charles walked off toward William’s house. “I’m going to check things out.”
I called after him, “Hey, wait up.” To Jackie I said, “Stay right here.”
She wiped her eyes and nodded.
I ran after Charles, who didn’t wait for me. Think it was because of that asshole remark? When I caught up to him, he was opening the gate to the backyard. I followed him. In for a dime, in for a dollar.
We walked around to the sliding glass door. Charles stopped up short.
“This curtain was wide open when I was back here before. Someone has been home.”
“Check the door,” I said. But being impatient, I checked it myself. Locked.
“Give me a minute.” Charles pulled out his phone and walked away.
I did my best to listen in, but Charles had his back to me. I walked up behind him just as he was dialing a number. “What’s going on?”
“I had my friend researching William. I called him to see if he found out where he worked.” Charles put the phone to his ear and stopped talking.
“Where does he work?”
Before Charles could answer me, someone on the other line picked up. “Hi, may I speak with William Garrison?”
I waited while he listened. He tapped his phone and put it back in his pocket. “William left work early today. They asked if I wanted his voicemail.”
“Give me a sec. Stay put.” I ran back to my car and pulled out my lock picks. I was getting into this house, I didn’t care what laws I was breaking. When I got back, I knelt down on my knees and started fiddling with the picks. This was a two-handed operation, and I was concentrating hard because I was a bit rusty.
“This is breaking and entering, Mimi.” Charles stood over me like my protector.
“Not if I don’t get caught.” I kept at it until I heard a click. I had to turn hard because a sliding glass door had a different kind of lock, one that flipped over like a hook. “And we’re in.”
“Stay out here. I’m going in, not you. I’ll take the rap on this.” Charles helped me to my feet.
“Oh, no, it was my picking skills that got us this far. Either we go together, or you stay out here.” I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
I looked back to see what Charles’s decision was, and I saw him looking around. A second later, he was inside the Garrison house with me. Oh, what fun this was going to be. I loved snooping. I just hoped our snooping uncovered something we could use. Mostly, I hoped we didn’t see Catey here.
Charles tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around, expecting something bad. He whispered, “Let’s look around out here, then make our way down the hallway. Very quietly.”
Right, like he needed to tell me to be quiet.
I looked at the room in front of us. The interior looked just like I expected, a tract home layout. We had entered a family room, with tan shag carpet and what looked like a hide-a-bed couch, just a shade darker than the carpet. There was a flat screen TV on the wall of dark paneling, the TV being the only thing updating this room from the 1970s.
Straight ahead was the counter Charles had mentioned earlier that day, but there was no backpack on it. The counter separated the family room from the kitchen, which was neat and tidy,no dishes in the sink, and the dishtowels folded next to the stove. Not so much as a magnet or picture on the refrigerator. How long had this guy lived here?
There was a set of double doors that were wide open and led to the living room. This room had more formal furniture. There was a matching three-piece set of a sofa, love seat and a club chair all centered around a burl wood coffee table. The pictures on the wall were seascapes, originals from what I could see. A stone fireplace graced the wall facing the backyard, a small basket of firewood sat on the floor next to it, and there were pictures in frames on the mantel. This is when Charles’ reminder to be quiet came in handy. He must have seen the pictures at the same time I did. He put his hand over my mouth just as I inhaled deep and loud.
“Oh, shit,” I said quietly under his fingers.
He turned me around to face him before removing his hands. He put a finger to his lips.
I looked back to the mantel and pointed. Charles looked, too. The framed pictures on the mantel were of Catey with her best friend, Anna. In another photo, Anna was standing with a younger girl, and William sat on a picnic table between them. This photo looked to be a few years older than the one with Catey and Anna. I had to turn away.
Charles pointed down the hall, and I let him lead this time. We stopped at the first door, which was open, and saw a small bedroom. It was sparsely furnished with a bed and dresser. There was a lamp on top of the dresser, but nothing personal in the room. I didn’t bother to walk in and look in the closet. We moved on down the hall.
The second bedroom looked much like the first, only it seemed brighter. I’m not sure if it was the curtains, the walls, or the position of the room, but it seemed happier. I know it sounds weird, but the room did seem to have a better aura.
At the end of the hall was a bathroom. The orange wallpaper on the walls and the cream linoleum were dead giveaways as to the last time this room was redecorated. Everything in this house screamed rental, and this was the only room not model home tidy.
The toilet seat was up, and there seemed to be brownish red fluid speckling the bowl. The towels had been pulled from the rack, and were strewn on the floor. I saw this as the first sign something was amiss. I know, brilliant deduction.
Charles stepped in front of me and held me back by putting his hand up. I wanted to push into him, and even past him, heading for what I was sure was the master bedroom. I tempered myself and stayed behind him. I even stepped back as Charles pushed the bedroom door open.
He stepped into the room, and since I didn’t hear him gasp, or the voices of anyone else, I followed him into the room. This room looked worse than the bathroom. The paisley bed cover was on the floor, and the white sheets were askew. I only saw one pillow on the bed, but assumed there were more on the floor. Usually a king size bed has more than one small pillow.
From my vantage point by the door, the bed was centered on the wall to my left, and there was an antique dresser directly in front of me. The top of the dresser was empty, but that was because the contents had been strewn across the floor. The drapes on the window were closed, but they were sheer, so plenty of light entered the space. I thought I saw movement, but it had to be my imagination because only Charles and I were in the room. I saw movement again, and realized it was birds flying in the backyard, fully visible through the sheers. When I looked down at the floor, I also saw men’s shoes and a pair of pants on the far side of the bed.
When Charles walked to the far side of the room, I decided to follow, but I was looking at the items on the floor and slammed into him when he abruptly stopp
ed.
Charles turned to me. “Get out of here now.”
I looked past Charles to the shoes and pants on the floor. They appeared to be lying at a weird angle for being tossed on the carpet, but I didn’t see anything to make Charles send me away.
“Why?” I couldn’t just do what Charles said.
“Don’t argue with me for once. Leave now. Please, Mimi, leave now!” Charles was no longer speaking in low tones, he was shouting at me.
Taken back, I did exactly the opposite of what he asked. I stepped around him toward the far side of the bed. In that very moment I wished, for once in my life, I’d taken orders without question. As I bolted from the room, I saw Charles dialing a number on his cell phone.
CHAPTER 5
I swear I barely made it to the front door before the police arrived. I went back to where Charles had parked to tell Jackie to go home. It was a needless trek as Jackie had already left. I know it shouldn’t have, but her leaving made me suspicious.
When the police arrived and entered William Garrison’s residence, Charles exited. I walked back to see why he stood in the yard instead of coming back to his car. Personally, I wanted to be as far from this house as I could get.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Don’t think so.” Charles looked down the street. “Be warned, the homicide unit is on the way.”
“Great.” The homicide unit could possibly be Nick Christianson. I hoped it was anyone but him. Okay, in truth, I wanted to see him, as it’d been months since we last talked, but I didn’t want to see him at a crime scene.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky, and Nick will be the detective in charge.” Charles gave me a little nudge.
“Or not.”
There were at least half a dozen cops in the homicide unit, so the chances of it being Nick shouldn’t be an issue. But those chances diminished to zilch as I saw the plain cop car skid to a stop in front of the Garrison house. I turned my back to the street and stared at the house.
Textual Relations Page 3
