Following Reed back to his mother’s house, the officers made a report and then left for another call.
The entire incident made Reed mad enough to bite a brick. His knuckles were swollen and the sucker punch had left him with a black eye. Next time, if there was a next time, he’d be ready.
Inside the house, his mother tried to fuss over him, offering to defrost a steak for his face and eye or to make him an ice pack. Reed used some of the adrenaline still surging through his veins to fix his own ice pack.
“Honey, I’m so sorry. You’ve been trying to tell me just how much this neighborhood has changed. I love it here so much I haven’t wanted to hear it,” she mused sadly as he stuffed ice cubes into the pack.
“It ain’t about the neighborhood,” he said with certainty. “This is about a coward who won’t face me in the daylight. It’s on anytime I come in my place or yours at night. This is personal.”
Trudy Crawford gave him a doubtful glance. “You’ve still got friends in this neighborhood. Who could have it in for you? What about you busting Chelsie Hawkins for killing his girlfriend? Maybe someone thinks you had something to do with the big drug bust over on Platter Street. Most folks here were glad to have the riffraff removed from the neighborhood.”
Bristling, Reed shook his head. “I don’t know. It could even have something to do with the task force at work, but I think that’s a stretch.”
“Whoever it is, I don’t like seeing your handsome face messed up like that,” she mused.
“Really?” he mocked. “Put yourself in my shoes.” He winced as he placed the pack on his face, covering the eye.
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“I am the police!” he exclaimed.
“Well, couldn’t you have asked for backup?”
“Against what?” Reed adjusted the icepack on his eye and the swollen part of his face. “People watching in the dark? Someone throwing a bottle? I never really saw anyone or had any contact until tonight.”
His mother patted his hand. “You’ll still fill out a report on this?”
Reed nodded. He really wouldn’t have much of a choice anyway. From what he could see, he had a black eye. The swelling wasn’t going down, either.
Insisting that his mother get her rest, Reed left the house. Just outside he spent several moments staring into the dark. The cat-and-mouse game had been getting on his nerves, so he was glad that there’d finally been some real action. Most exasperating was an opponent bold enough to sucker punch you in the dark and spineless enough to run away when real action resulted.
Taking the steps, Reed put more swagger in his walk. He was ready for more action, whenever it came.
The next morning Marina took one look at Reed and stared, momentarily speechless. He had a black eye and one side of his face looked slightly swollen. “You get in a fight?”
“Someone in the old neighborhood caught me in the dark last night and sucker punched me. We fought, but he got away.”
“You do a police report?”
He nodded. “They came out and did a preliminary. I finished up this morning.”
“So what’d they say?”
“They’ll watch the house. I can call for backup whenever I’m in the area.”
“Next time you visit Trudy, I want to do backup.” Marina huffed. She knew Reed could take care of himself, but the need to pound whoever had sucker punched Reed to a pulp was so strong her hand formed a fist.
“I’m a big boy. I don’t need your protection.” He virtually snarled.
“Okay.” Chalking it up to sore bear syndrome, Marina moved closer to examine his battered face. She wanted to gently smooth the dark hair back from his forehead and to take the pain away. She wanted to give him a hug. Neither would be professional behavior and neither would be appreciated. To get herself past the emotional moment, she blinked a couple of times. Then she realized she was holding her breath.
Reed scowled at her. “You looked your fill?”
As usual, Marina rose to the challenge. “Not exactly. I’ve never seen you like this. Are you sure it has nothing to do with what we’re doing on the task force?”
He shot her an impatient glance. “What’s there to consider? I’ve never been in that damned fraternity.”
“Maybe we’re getting too close to the killer.”
Reed expelled a breath on a huff. “We’ve got nothing but a list of suspects and a lot of questions.”
Marina glowered at him. “My goal for today is to whittle that list down. You can spend the day snarling in your corner or you can help.”
“Back down, tiger,” Reed admonished. “I had planned to help. I’m part of this team, too, remember?”
Satisfied, Marina nodded. “Coffee?”
“Yeah.”
She passed him a cup of the gourmet blend she’d picked up on the way in.
Thanking her, he sipped it gratefully. “Since I was in early, I scanned the list on the student activities chart for Merriwhether and found the Women’s Campus Crisis Center and the Student Advocate Office. Between the two, we should be able to get a list of all the victims and the accused.”
“What about the warrant for records from Alpha Kappa Epsilon?” Marina asked, combing through the stack of papers on her desk.
“We should have it today, along with the warrant for you to search records at crisis center and student advocate offices. It’s on my list to check with Judge Stevens’ staff.
Around ten, Reed got his warrant and took off for Merriwhether. Marina rode with him, but she had appointments with the Women’s Campus Crisis Center staff and the Student Advocate Office.
At the crisis center, Marina interviewed Nona Richard, a slender, chocolate-skinned, African-American woman with a short afro and big earrings. A former student, she was now one of the staff members. In a calm, no-nonsense style, Nona informed her that under the leadership of one of its worst college presidents, Merriwhether had gone through a shameful period where an unusual number of women on campus had been preyed upon. Many of the resulting accusations of rape and assault had been buried in administrative bureaucracy. Other complaints had died in the police bureaucracy due to lack of evidence.
Of the few cases that made it to court, the most famous was the case of Carrie Ann Gellus, a female student who lost her case due to the skillful maneuverings of the high-profile lawyers representing the Alpha Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Carrie’s death signaled hard times for the fraternity and the university when it became clear that the university had not followed federal law mandates for college campus handling of rape and assault victims and their rights.
Sitting across from Marina in a navy-blue summer suit, Nona’s eyes sparkled with heartfelt emotion. “Understand, the Gellus case wasn’t the only one. There were a few that were successful in terms of convictions and sentencing.”
Marina showed Nona the search warrant. Accepting a file from Nona, Marina scanned for the names of the serial killer’s victims. They were all there. There were also accused men on the list who were not members of the fraternity and some from the local population who had entered the campus to prey on the female students.
“That’s confidential information,” Nona reminded Marina.
“Of course. The information will be processed and used by the task force to help find the killer.” Marina scanned the pictures decorating the office walls. Several depicted groups of women protesting and conducting strategy meetings. There were also pictures of staff members outside the courthouse, physically and emotionally supporting what Marina guessed were some of the rape victims.
Marina pointed to an emotional scene on the courthouse steps. Friends and supporters held two crying women while a third woman faced the media in front of the courthouse. The picture told an emotional story that pulled at Marina, eliciting more emotion than she was ready to give.
“Was that picture taken during one of the trials?” she asked.
Nona’s gaze focused on the picture.
She smiled. “Yes. That’s Elizabeth Hatcher, the first director of the crisis center, facing the media. She fought the university for funding and a charter to set up the Women’s Campus Crisis Center. We didn’t have much staff then, so she gave a lot of herself. She really was a catalyst for changing things for women on this campus.”
“Where is she now?” Marina asked. She wondered how far Elizabeth had taken her job as catalyst. Had she led the women she helped past the lines of legally acceptable behavior? Something in the emotional scenes pictured on the wall made Marina think that Elizabeth Hatcher would have information pertinent to her case.
“Actually she’s gotten her doctorate, and moved on to head up the Victim’s Crisis Center over at St. Joseph Hospital. She’s still in the news from time to time. We’re very proud of her. I have one of her cards if you’d like to get in touch with her.”
Marina studied the notes she’d made. “I would. Thanks.”
“It must be hard for you,” Nona remarked as she made copies of the files for Marina.
Marina glanced up from removing the staples from a stack of sheets. “What’s hard?”
“I was just thinking out loud. I meant that it must be hard for you to go after a killer who has been avenging crimes against helpless women.”
Marina froze. If she’d been thinking it herself, it was only a matter of time before someone else mentioned it, she reasoned. Lifting her head, she met Nona’s gaze without blinking. “Last time I checked, murder was a crime.”
“Yes, but you know what I mean. What’s happening is a sort of justice in itself.”
Marina shook her head. “I can’t let that matter. I’ve sworn to do my job and uphold the law, no matter where my sympathies lie.”
Nona’s brows went up. “Well you have my sympathies.” She went back to copying the documents.
Marina stared at her, wishing she could read Nona’s mind. Nona had a hunch or knew something important about the serial killer. “Do you know who might be killing those men?” Marina asked point blank.
Taking the stack of copies from the hopper, Nona’s lips settled into a stubborn line. Her eyes were hard. “Of course not.”
“Withholding evidence is a crime,” Marina reminded her.
“But I’m giving you plenty of evidence.” Nona handed Marina two of the stacks of copies.
Marina didn’t bother to respond. If she didn’t get the information she needed, she’d come back to grill Nona.
Stashing the copies in her briefcase, Marina thanked Nona for her help. Then she left the crisis center and went two buildings down to the Student Advocate Office.
The office was housed in the building that used to be the Student Activities Center, so it was big. The interior had been remodeled to provide separate offices for each of the staff members and a couple of conference rooms.
A boyish-looking redhead in an Oxford shirt and dark slacks, Brennan Stallworth, was the chief of the Student Advocate Office. He studied Marina’s badge and ID carefully. Then he pulled out a bunch of folders and rested his folded hands upon them.
“Most women attacked on campus during the period you inquired about were either processed through the Women’s Campus Crisis Center, which was a fledgling organization at the time, or they were processed through the local police. Most of the complaints died in the administrative process for a variety of reasons. The women who came to the Student Advocate Office were out of the norm. They were fighters and they were determined to see justice done for the crimes committed against them.”
“And did they get justice?” Marina asked, studying him.
Brennan inclined his head. “Some did. Nothing is ever one hundred percent guaranteed.
“How did your office help them?” Marina asked.
“In several cases we interceded with the university to argue for their rights and get them fair treatment. We supported several of the students who took the legal route by lending a hand with evidence gathering. We also helped others through the university process to pursue punitive measures against their attackers.”
“Is that all?” Marina fought hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
“We also brought several of the victims together and they formed support groups.”
Support groups? Marina knew that victims often banded together to form a psychological bond to help one another through a shared traumatic experience. She wondered if this could be the key to her serial killer. “Do you have documentation on the support groups?”
Brennan shrugged. “It really wasn’t an official function of this office. It sort of happened and it seemed to help more than anything else as far as moral support to the victims. We had to stop referring people to the support groups when a couple of the members got together and physically attacked a male student on campus.”
She stopped writing in her notebook to lean forward. “Was the male student who was attacked one of those accused of rape or assault?”
Brennan nodded. “Yes, but the university could not condone any sort of vigilante justice. It also caused problems for us since our office receives federal funding through the university.”
“Do you have the names of the women involved and the male student who was attacked?”
“There’s a copy of the campus police record of the incident in one of the files. It should have everything you need.”
“May I see them now?” Marina asked, holding out her hands.
“Certainly.” Brennan stood. Walking to a desk in a corner of the room, he placed the folders on it. “You can use this desk while you go through the files. We have a copy machine in the back that you can use to copy the documents you need.”
Thanking him, Marina settled herself at the desk and started scanning the material in the folders. Her first task was to find the campus police record and get the name of the victim and two women involved in the vigilante incident. She found the information buried in the middle of the stack.
Marina read the campus police record twice. One of the names in it flashed in her brain like a red alert. She was on to something. Containing her excitement, she attached a sticky note to mark the file containing the record and placed it in the pile of items to be copied.
Because of the way the material was organized, it took some effort for Marina to tag the different support groups and their participants. The group with the women who had attacked the male student on campus was a major part of her search. Finally she placed all material with references to the support groups into the pile of material to be copied.
With her briefcase full of copied documents, Marina strolled to the place where she’d agreed to meet Reed.
On the grass beneath a tree with his knees drawn to his chest, Reed was people watching and enjoying the day. He wore the black eye like a badge of courage, but the sight of it still made her angry.
“Did you get the info on the frat boys?” she asked, taking a seat beside him. The simple act resonated with her, bringing back myriad memories of days like this.
“I got it.” Reed shifted so she could rest her back against the trunk of the tree. “They were prepared to give us a minimum of information so it was a good thing we had the warrant. They’re a slimy group if I say so myself.”
“Here, here,” Marina agreed. “Details on their sliminess?”
“They videotaped what they did to Carrie Ann and were selling it on the Internet. Sherianne found out and took legal action to make them stop. She also used it, among other things, to get them banned from campus.”
Marina shuddered. To be violated the way Carrie Ann had been was unforgivable, but to be violated and have it made so public was more than anyone should have to bear. “Before or after she killed herself?”
Reed’s head dipped. “Before.”
Marina forced her throat to work. Sometimes she hated her job. “Anything else?”
“She wasn’t the only victim they taped. Several tapes were confiscated by the police.” Reed plucked a blade of grass and car
efully shredded it with his fingers. “Their records show that Elliot was one of the ringleaders in the aggressive behavior against women. The fraternity’s reputation took a nosedive when he and some of his buddies joined. Since Elliot used to be Carrie Ann’s boyfriend, he convinced her that he wasn’t involved.”
Rubbing her forehead with a forefinger, Marina nodded. “Did you get a list of all the members accused of rape and assault?”
“Yes. It’s in the car and all our victims are on it.” Reed got to his feet. “We should be getting back.”
In the car on the way back to the station Reed asked about her visit to the Women’s Campus Crisis Center and the Student Advocate Office.
She told him about the support groups formed with the help of the student advocate and crisis center offices and the vigilante attack on a male student. Then Marina dropped the bomb. “The male student attacked on campus was Aubrey Russell. In addition, one of the women involved in the attack was in a support group with Nona Richard and Sherianne Gellus. She got six months in jail and two years probation.”
A Serial Affair Page 8
