As Marina joined the crowd of well-wishers she found Javier looking suave and debonair at the punch bowl. “No drink and no date, Dad?”
“I told you, I’m turning over a new leaf. What’s your excuse?”
She eyed him quizzically. “Do I need one? I just wanted to spend some time with my family.”
He gave her an affectionate hug. “That’s as good a reason as any. How’s the task force coming?”
“It’s coming.” She kissed his cheek.
“So you’re keeping the men of Chicago safe from this serial killer?”
“We’re still going through the investigation, Dad. We don’t have a suspect yet.”
“So we’re all in danger then.”
“Not everyone, Dad. There’s a lot of people who don’t fit the profile and we’re still working that.”
Javier smiled at her. “I just can’t get over the fact that my Marina is a hotshot FBI agent.”
Marina returned the smile. “I’m proud of you, too, Dad.”
“And what did I do?”
“You finished that painting for the recreational center. You’ve got your own place for the first time in years and you’re doing great.”
Javier shrugged. “Hey, this being alone is like what they say for Alcoholics Anonymous, one day at a time.”
“You don’t have to do it for me,” she reminded him. “I’m claiming my own mistakes these days.”
“This break has been good for me, too,” he admitted. “I’ve started thinking about what I really want and why.”
“I’m proud of you,” she repeated. Minutes later she saw him out in the center of the room doing a salsa with her aunt Anita.
A movement across the room captured her attention. Her cousin Janisa was beckoning to her. She made her way there. The two cousins hugged and sat to catch up on the things that had been going on in their lives. Then Janisa told Marina that she was ready to arrange a blind date between Marina and a friend of her husband’s.
Marina opened and closed her mouth in silence. Just the other day she’d been feeling lonely. She couldn’t fathom why she wasn’t really interested in meeting someone now, even someone prescreened by her family. The thought of learning someone new while she did task force business had no appeal. She decided to pass. “I’m too busy right now,” she explained. “Maybe when we’ve caught this killer and everything has returned to normal.”
That was what she told her cousin, but thinking back on how she’d been feeling lately, Marina realized that she hadn’t felt lonely since she’d started working the task force with Reed.
Eyeing her speculatively, Janisa nodded and said, “Just let me know when you’re ready.”
“Sí.” Marina hugged her cousin once more. “I will.”
Minutes later everyone gathered around the lighted cake to sing “Happy Birthday” to Chico. After a bit of cake and ice cream, Marina said her good nights.
The look she’d seen on the fraternity club president’s face still haunted Marina as she made her way home from the family birthday party. She was sure he’d already known the connection between the serial killer’s victims and it had been something so bad that the national organization had to get involved in the release of information. What could be that bad? she wondered as she used her key to enter her refurbished brownstone.
The colorful, plush interior was just as warm and inviting as when she’d left it, but she knew all too well what was really missing; someone who loved her. Marina satisfied herself with taking a seat at her contemporary desk and switching on the computer. She played a lot on the Internet, so this did not feel like work.
She started the first search by entering the fraternity’s name into the search engine, just to get a general idea. The sight of no less than four hundred fifty thousand results made her sigh. Until she had more of an idea of what she was looking for, it wouldn’t do to narrow the search. She waded into the pile, cutting time by reading the short summaries listed on the pages of the search engine.
Halfway down the page she stopped at a result that had her groaning. She’d been in training at the academy when the events in the article had gone down.
Several members of the Alpha Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Chicago’s Merriwhether University have been charged with the rape of a co-ed at the frat house during Pledge Week. The co-ed, whose name is being withheld, also accuses frat members of using a date rape drug. Frat members contend that the sex was consensual and that a tape was made of the incident with the co-ed’s full knowledge. The university has censored the organization. If the charges stick, several members could go to prison and the fraternity will be banned from campus. Several campus support groups have reached out to the victim who has sought and received university psychological services.
Marina skimmed several articles that basically repeated the facts in the first reference article, which had been in the Chicago Tribune. Then she found another article that addressed the trial.
Things are going badly in court for the prosecution team pitting Carrie Ann Gellus against several members of Merriwhether University’s Alpha Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The fraternity has benefited greatly from hiring several high-profile members of the legal community including Connor Lawrence, Peter Saville and Finnegan Forbes. A key piece of evidence, the videotape of the alleged rape, has been rendered all but ineffective through the skillful efforts of the defense team. At no point during the taped incident does Ms. Gellus refuse the advances of the accused. The prosecution contends that Ms. Gellus had been drugged and was therefore not fully aware of what was going on. They have been unable to prove that a drug was used. Ms. Gellus had admittedly been drinking and did not remember the incident until several days later.
An artist sketch at the end of the article showed Carrie Ann as a fresh-faced co-ed with blond hair and green eyes. She looked like an innocent. Marina knew that people were innocent until proven guilty, but she never once doubted that Carrie Ann Gellus had been raped.
With an aggravated moan Marina stopped reading to thrust frustrated fingers through her thick hair. Her head dipped. She’d known it would be something like this. Known it. One fist pounded her desk. Sometimes she hated her job, especially when people harmed others and hid behind the law, making her the bad guy.
When she felt calmer Marina went back to combing through the articles. Twenty-year-old Carrie Ann Gellus had lost the court case. She’d killed herself in the aftermath.
Beads of sweat broke out on her brow. Marina felt sick, angry and trapped. The facts made it entirely possible that her serial killer victims were frat house predators who had preyed on female students and got away with it. It was highly likely that one of their victims or someone close to one of their victims was making sure they now paid for what they’d done.
Marina scanned several articles about the trial for the names of the young men involved. She formed a list: Aubrey Russell, Colton Edwards, John Stuart and Dean Hafner.
Elliot Washington’s name was not on the list of young men accused of raping Carrie Ann. Marina pondered that fact. There had to be a connection.
In a few other articles concerning date rape and Merriwhether University, Marina saw that a number of female students had come forward after Carrie Ann’s death to report several incidents of date rape and suspected date rape centering on the Alpha Kappa Epsilon fraternity and some other organizations. As a result, the fraternity had been censored and banned from campus for several years.
Marina’s thoughts pushed forward as she processed what she’d learned. She couldn’t bring herself to read any more of the articles identified by the search engine. There’d be plenty more time for that tomorrow.
It was hard to believe that the answer to her serial killer puzzle would be as simple as scrubbing the list of frat house victims and those close to them, and establishing alibis. That was her next course of action unless Reed had a better idea. Of course she’d also compare her new list of suspects with an FBI profile of the serial kil
ler.
Briefly she toyed with the idea of calling Reed to tell him what she’d discovered, but why ruin what was left of his evening? As she prepared for bed, her mind was still so busy with what she’d discovered that she picked up the phone and called Reed anyway.
He answered in a low, intimate voice that made her want to reach through the phone to touch him. She wondered if he was alone then squashed the thought.
“It’s Marina,” she explained quickly. “I didn’t want to disturb you, but after our trip to Merriwhether today, I did some searching on the Internet and what I found is troubling.”
“To say the least,” Reed put in quickly. “I’ve been helping Ma with an Internet dating service, so I did some online searching after that for myself.”
“Hey, we’re the Merriwhether crew. Great minds think alike,” she murmured, trying to imagine Trudy on a date with a guy she’d met on the Internet. Maybe it was something she should steer her dad into. Not!
“Did you see the names of the guys involved in the court case with Carrie Ann Gellus?” Reed asked.
Nodding, Marina stretched out across her bed. “Yeah. I copied the list and it includes all our victims so far except for Elliot. There were a couple of new guys, too.”
“Think they’re in danger?”
Marina adjusted the phone on her ear. “They should at least be warned. We may have to protect them. Then we need to verify this connection between the serial killer victims as soon as possible.”
Reed cleared his throat. “If our serial killer maintains the schedule he’s been keeping, we’ve still got some time to figure this thing out completely.”
“Let’s not count on that,” Marina said, nibbling on her bottom lip. “I’m going to put everything we’ve got into the database. It’ll help us find our killer.”
“Why don’t we discuss what’s really bothering you?” Reed said, hitting her with an arrow seemingly out of the blue.
She swallowed slowly, her free hand massaging her forehead. Reed knew her all too well. Keeping the edge out of her voice was a struggle. “I think these guys are lowlifes and scum, Reed. I think they raped a lot of women on campus using the date rape drug, alcohol and brute force, and they got away with it.”
“Did you finish reading all the articles in the search engine?”
“No.” She wasn’t about to tell him that tonight she’d lacked the stomach for it. She’d find it tomorrow, get all the facts, and do a damned good job. Tonight she had the luxury of easing her conscience and getting mentally prepared for what was sure to come.
“You don’t have all the information so don’t be so quick to judge. It’s not our job anyway, remember? We’re trying to catch a serial killer.”
“I don’t need you to remind me of my job,” she snapped. She softened her tone. “My job is to protect the innocent.”
“Those guys from Alpha Kappa Epsilon won the court case, Marina. That makes them innocent.”
Marina spoke from her heart. “In the eyes of the law, yes, but you can’t tell me that we don’t all answer to a Higher Authority.”
“No, I won’t, because I believe in God. If those guys really did rape Carrie Ann Gellus, they’ll have to answer for it. Don’t beat yourself up over this, Marina. We’ll do our jobs the best we can, whether we like it or not.”
“Like it or not,” she repeated halfheartedly.
“Are you going to be okay?” Reed’s voice oozed compassion and understanding. “Do you want me to come over there?”
Marina sighed. Of course she would be okay. She’d simply needed to talk. The eagerness that leaped through her at his offer to come over was downright embarrassing. It made her want to slap herself. Was she that eager to see Reed at eleven o’clock at night?
“Marina?” The concern and caring in his voice was like a mental caress.
“I—I’m fine,” she managed to say. “I just needed to talk.”
“So I’ll see you in the morning?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “Have a good night.”
With his salutation Marina pried the phone from her ear and placed it back on the cradle. Covering her eyes with her fingers she moaned, “What is wrong with me?”
Later, as she climbed between the sheets, the answer was all too obvious. She was falling for Reed Crawford again.
CHAPTER 6
Marina arrived early the next day to finish going through the search engine results. Reed had been right in his assertion that she’d been jumping to conclusions. Although the guys from Alpha Kappa Epsilon accused of rape had been found not guilty, a separate case against two other members had been successful and several female students had come forward to complain to the college administration and the police about the treatment of women at the Alpha Kappa Epsilon fraternity house. The fraternity was banned from campus for several years and two members had actually gone to jail for raping a female student, Jody Payton.
Marina added the names of the convicted rapists, Roger Thayer and Darrel Purvis to her list of likely serial killer targets. She added a note to check to see if they were still in prison. Based on the articles she’d read, they were. Then she added Jody’s name and Carrie Ann’s sister, Sherianne, to the list of people she and Reed needed to talk to.
Reed arrived around a quarter to eight laden with Starbucks’ coffee and a small bag of pastries and bagels. “You okay? I figured you’d get in early,” he explained, unloading the feast on the edges of both their desks.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, then thanked him for bringing breakfast. “Let me show you what I’ve come up with.”
Reed read through the list that included Lissa, Elliot’s ex-girlfriend, Jody Payton, the woman who had been raped and taken the group to court, and Sherianne Gellus, Carrie Ann’s sister. “Any male suspects? How about someone refused entry into the fraternity?”
Marina inclined her head. “I can’t imagine us finding that in any records. We’ll have to ask some of the guys.”
“There’s only women on this list,” he remarked between sips of coffee. “I know I’m repeating myself, but isn’t the average serial killer a lower-to middle-class white male in his twenties or thirties?”
Marina licked the cream cheese off her lips. “Yeah, but maybe we’re not really looking for a serial killer. Maybe we’re looking for a serial avenger.”
Reed’s eyes darkened. Swallowing, he speared her with a glance. “Serial avenger as in someone avenging wrongdoing like a rape on a college campus?”
Marina shrugged. “Why not? It’s the strongest thing we have to go on. And remember, there have been female serial killers.”
Reed stated rummaging in a pile of folders on his desk that had come out of his briefcase. Checking the label on one, he handed it over. “I don’t think you’ve seen this.”
Marina checked the C.P.D. label. “‘Serial Killer Profile for Washington, Russell and Edwards Murders.’ No, I haven’t seen this. When did it come in?”
Reed’s gaze was steady. “Yesterday. I saw it just before we took off for Merriwhether. I didn’t get a chance to look at it, so I took it home. I wasn’t holding out on you, Marina, I just forgot about it for a little bit.”
She let her lips curve upward. “I don’t think you were trying to hold out on me,” she admitted, “but maybe you should start doing something about the early onset of Alzheimer’s.”
“Funny, real funny.” Visibly relaxing, Reed sat back in his chair.
Marina opened the file. “What do you think?”
Reed tapped his fingers on the desk. “Just read it. I’m not sure it’ll be that useful.”
She scanned the paragraphs.
Killer is most likely a white male in his mid-twenties to early thirties who knew each victim through an association with Merriwhether University. Killer appears quiet and unassuming but harbors rage against the victims due to their perceived prowess and success with women. Killer may also harbor resentment from slights or imagined slights that occurred durin
g his time at Merriwhether. This could also include someone refused entry into the fraternity.
Marina tossed the file onto her desk. “Perceived prowess and success with women my ass!”
Reed chuckled. “It’ll probably get adjusted when we tell them what we found at Merriwhether and on the Internet.”
“I hate to see stuff like this in conjunction with Merriwhether. It’s like a slur on the name of our school,” she admitted.
“You wouldn’t want them to cover this up, would you?”
Fisting her ink pen, Marina tapped her open notebook with it. “Hell, no. But if the university administration had jumped on this when the complaints started, it probably wouldn’t have gotten so bad.”
A Serial Affair Page 6
