by Paris Morgan
“I don’t have anything else that might help. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’ve given us more information and an actual picture of him that we didn’t have before. Thank you so much.” I glanced through the pages as we made our way out to the car.
“Leslie, look at this. He beat us to it again.”
All of the pages she’d copied for us had his name, but his face was blacked out.
“He could have done this years ago.”
“Yeah, but we both know he didn’t. He came back here in the past few weeks and did this. I don’t think we’re going to find much at the other places, but it can’t hurt to ask and see if they have any information to add to what we’d just learned.” She rubbed her arms briskly, trying to shake off the chill that seemed to surround us both.
***
The library and newspaper office didn’t have anything else to add to what we already knew.
“Want to get some lunch at the hamburger place we saw on the way into town?” I could feel my stomach starting to rumble.
“Absolutely. I didn’t have breakfast, and could eat just about anything to get some energy for this afternoon.” She settled into the passenger seat for the short drive.
The waitress that took our orders could tell that we weren’t from the area. “You folks passing through or looking to settle down?”
“Oh, we’re here for work. Doing some background information checks on a resident from long ago.”
She eyed us skeptically as she smacked her gum. “Who you checking up on?”
“He used to live here about thirty years ago.” Leslie studied the menu as she spoke his name, “Henry Stevens.”
There was another smack of her gum. “He wasn’t a good guy. I wouldn’t hire him.”
“Why do you think that?” I could tell she was getting more nervous the longer we set there.
She looked around to make sure that nobody was paying attention to us. “He killed his mom a few weeks ago. Nobody had seen or heard from him in thirty years, but that was because he’d been kicked out of school for terrorizing some of the women. I think my mom was there when it happened.”
“Is there any chance we could talk with her? We work with the FBI, and this background check is really important,” I asked, hoping to persuade her.
Leslie put her menu down and turned to face the waitress. “We don’t want to mess up and pick the wrong guy, you know? Anything she can tell us would be great.”
“I guess I could give her a call.” She bit her lip nervously. “If she says no, then I won’t be able to help you.”
“Thank you,”—I looked at her name tag—”Sherry. What do you recommend for some good food? We’re starving.”
“Get the triple burger, and add the cheese. We also have okra or fries as the side.”
“I’ll take one of those and have the fries.” It sounded perfect, and completely unhealthy, which was exactly how I was feeling at the moment. “Time to live dangerously.”
“Same for me, but I’ll do the okra.” Leslie put both the menus together and handed them to Sherry.
“I’ll get these put in for you and give my mom a call. We’ll see if she’s in the mood for visitors.”
“Thank you. We really appreciate it.”
She walked off, and I glanced out onto the street where people were moving around with no apparent cares in the world.
“Do you think she’ll do it?” Leslie started playing with the sugar packets on the table.
“I certainly hope so. We need to find out that one personal element that’s missing. Everyone was scared of him, but there had to be one person that actually considered him a friend.”
“People with his type of issues don’t normally have any close friends. If he had, then he probably wouldn’t have left home or turned into what he is today.”
I slapped my forehead. “That’s what we’re missing. Was there an accident and someone died in the year or two before he left? He might have killed them and it was labeled an accident instead of a homicide.”
“Why don’t we split up after lunch? You can go see Sherry’s mom, and I’ll go to the police station. Divide and conqueror.”
“Works for me,” Leslie agreed, just as Sherry appeared with our burgers. “And so does that.”
Sherry placed the burgers in front of us and slid a piece of paper with an address on it to the center of the table with the check.
“If y’all need anything else, just raise a hand and I’ll get it for you. Hope you enjoy your day.”
“Everything looks wonderful, Sherry,” I assured her with a wink.
“Mmm, it’s delicious,” Leslie mumbled around her first bite.
“Good luck,” Sherry whispered and walked away.
“Do you get the feeling that someone here in town still has connections to our suspect?” Leslie asked between bites.
“Yeah. There are too many hushed tones and worried glances that someone might hear what they’re talking about.”
I grabbed the check and money Leslie handed me before I walked up to the counter. She took the address and waited for me to pay.
“It’s really hard to get around when you’re used to using your phone all the time. Guess I’m going to walk over to the library and take a gander at the city map they had on the wall.” She laughed as she reached for her phone. “Whoops, can’t tell you to text me at a certain time because I don’t have my phone.”
“Meet at the police station at one thirty?” I tossed her the keys, because Sherry’s mom might live farther away.
“You trust me to drive?” She mimicked revving the engine. “Oh, wait, I drive for a living. You have nothing to worry about.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. If I hadn’t been the passenger on many occasions, you might have been able to pull that off with me.”
She wiggled the keys and got in, leaving me to take a leisurely stroll through the park to the other side of the square where the police station was located.
The bell jingled as I opened the door, and the officer at the desk looked up. “Can I help you with something?”
“I’m hoping so. I’m doing some research on an accident that happened to a high schooler about thirty years ago.”
“Oh, the Bradford kid. Yeah, I was still in grade school when it happened, but it really affected us.”
“Can you tell me a little bit more about it? Was there an incident report?”
“What kind of research are you doing this for?” he asked cautiously. “It’s an old case, but we don’t just hand out information.”
I pulled out my wallet and badge. “I’m doing some background research with the FBI, and this case was mentioned. I just need to do my due diligence. You can call the FBI number listed and ask for Agent Watson. He’s the one on this case.”
“Sure, give me just a minute.” He took my license and the card over to the desk to make the phone call.
Evidently, he was able to reach Agent Watson pretty quickly because he came back over to where I was standing.
“I got the okay. You check out. Let me get the files and meet you over there at that table.”
He was only gone a few minutes, and returned with a thick file that he set on the table. “It’s really funny. You’re the second person that was wanting to look at these in the past month.”
My ears perked up. “You wouldn’t happen to have a camera in here that would have a picture of the person that asked about this case?”
“Normally we would, but we were having strange power outages that day. Nothing taped all day because of it.”
“Crap. He’s been one step ahead of us each time.”
“Oh, you know, there was another file that I didn’t notice when he asked for these. Here’s the one I missed.”
I scrambled to look through it first.
The Bradford case had been ruled an accident because a pair of teenage boys had been out hiking when Jason and Henry had stumbled into a ravine
. Henry had pulled Jason up, but his leg had broken. In the time it took Henry to get back and call someone, Jason had passed out and the coyotes had killed him.
From the information in the file, there had been some discussion about the timing of the events. Henry had been questioned about the order of what happened, and only once did he change anything. After a few hours, his mother had suggested they let him go home due to lack of any evidence other than it being a terrible accident.
When the Bradford’s were questioned, they didn’t raise any concerns about the circumstances, or who had been with their son at the time of his death. Jason had been an adventurous person, and they hadn’t seen anything wrong with the boys going out exploring. While devastated, they believed it to be a freak accident.
“Do you normally have a problem with coyotes attacking people?” I asked curiously.
“Not as much now as we used to, but there were rules that we kids didn’t play in the woods for those reasons. We still get a sighting every once in a while, but mostly it’s from hunters that are out in the deep woods, who already have guns with them.”
“Do you have any impressions about the accident or the man who came in last week?”
“Nah. He seemed perfectly normal. I didn’t really get any red flags from him that made me suspicious. He was just a newspaper guy looking for information.”
“Did he give a name? He had to have some sort of credentials for you to give him the files, right?”
“Yeah. He had a press pass, and I called to make sure that he was an employee. They mentioned he was just a consultant, but honestly, there wasn’t anything that stood out.” The officer shrugged. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking for anything out of the ordinary, and it had been a really crazy day. When the electricity goes out, people assume that we need to come patrol more.”
“Dude, I’ve been there, and I completely get it. People get crazy when they don’t have lights on anymore.”
“I can keep your card, and if he comes back, I’ll be sure to call you,” he offered.
“That would be wonderful. I highly doubt he’s going to come back. I think he got what he was looking for, but just in case, we would really appreciate it. He’s connected to something pretty urgent.” I started toward the door, and then realized that I hadn’t cautioned him.
“Also, don’t mention this to anyone. We’re trying not to spook him.”
“Of course. No point in warning the suspect that you’re watching them,” he chuckled.
“Something like that. Thanks.” The bell jingled as I left and went to wait for Leslie on the park bench.
***
When she pulled up, I hopped inside the car. I’d meant it when I’d given her the keys; she could drive my car with no problem. There was no point in changing drivers when she was already in the seat.
My door closed, and she immediately began talking.
“Sherry’s mom wasn’t much help. That feeling of fear we picked up on was definitely a part of the problem. She was reluctant to talk about him even now.” Leslie headed out to the freeway.
“Was there anything that she was willing to talk about?”
“Mostly, it was about the fact that he was a looker. All the girls wanted to date him until about middle school. Then he started doing things that were just mean. They’d catch him in and around the locker rooms all the time.”
“It wasn’t until he started wanting to date the girls in high school that the problems began?”
“Yeah. He would ask someone out, and when they turned him down, they’d have a “gift” in their lockers. At first, it was harmless, and then Jason died. The entire school knew that it wasn’t an accident, but no one was willing to come forward and talk about it.”
I tilted my head to check the rearview mirror. “He has them all so scared that even thirty years later, none of them are willing to talk about him.”
“Well, when you consider that his mother was just murdered in her home, thirty years later…” She let the thought hang there.
“It wasn’t just a way to hide the evidence, but to remind everyone what he’s capable of as well.”
“We knew he was dangerous, but this is an added layer of evilness. It explains what happened and why he came to town on his own.”
“He came to town?” she sputtered. “Well, obviously he was here to kill his mom, but you meant he walked freely about, didn’t you?”
“‘Yep. I’m pretty sure he’s got a set of bona fide credentials for just about whatever or whomever he wants to be. They checked to make sure there was a person listed with the name he gave on his press pass, and was confirmed as a consultant. It was in the middle of a power outage, and they were overwhelmed. He can’t remember the guy’s name or what paper he was with, and the cameras were conveniently taken out.”
“Conveniently, huh? Most likely, he forgot to check or write it down, and doesn’t want to get in trouble, which is why he made sure to check on yours.” She shook her head as the traffic thickened on the outskirts of Dallas as we hit a construction zone.
“Are we meeting with Agent Watson?”
“I assumed we’d swing by and see if there were any updates or rumbles as we’re hitting the first part of the month.”
“Sounds good to me.” We were close enough that I wanted to get my phone out and check to see if Shea needed anything.
Once the signal hit, my phone started going crazy. Exchanging a glance with Leslie, I pulled hers out and set it in the holder.
When we placed the phone in the Faraday bag, it not only couldn’t it track our GPS, but all calls weren’t connected until they came out of the bag.
There was no way to know when you’d received a message or call because they would all hit your phone at once.
I had three missed calls from Shea. Hurrying to dial her back, I put a finger in one ear to block out the construction we were slowly passing.
“Shea, is everything all right, honey?”
“Oh, Ryan, the baby kicked me. She actually moved around and kicked my hand.”
I took a deep to steady myself. “That’s great, honey. I thought something was wrong. I’m so glad that it was good news.”
“Aw, sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’ve been thinking that we should name her either Hope, after your grandmother, or Ivy, after mine. What do you think?”
At this point, feeling relieved that she and the baby were fine, I didn’t really care if we name her Princess. “Honey, why don’t we use both? We’ve still got a little while before the she comes, but those sound great to me.”
“Wonderful. I’ll start ordering the lettering for her room. This is starting to feel so real,” Shea gushed with excitement.
“It certainly is, honey. Look, we’re in the middle of construction, but I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Yeah. Drive safe.”
I dropped the phone into the console.
“This case is making me so paranoid. I just knew that something was wrong.” I hit the dashboard in frustration. “Why does everything have to be life or death?”
Leslie gave me an appraising look. “Dude, you’re having a girl. Most of the crisis’ you’re going to have are about her crown being broken, or the unicorn isn’t happy. Girls come with a lot of drama, but you’ll get used to it and learn to tell the difference between serious stuff and the easy stuff you can fix.”
I ran a hand through my hair. I wasn’t looking forward to things like that.
“I’m a guy. I like to fix things and make it all better. I don’t know if I can kiss an imaginary booboo on a rainbow pony.”
“Oh, you’ll get so good at it that you’ll be able to do it with a straight face. You might even find yourself talking to it when she’s not in the room.”
“No way,” I gasped. “I would never.”
“Just wait and see,” Leslie warned. “Anything is possible.”
***
Chapter 4
Leslie
I hadn’t been
looking forward to going back to work, but Agent Watson’s team had been monitoring all reported murders, and the new zodiac sign was just starting.
With no idea what we were looking for, the tech team led by Agent Martha scanned all reports for anything that sounded slightly suspicious or matched previous MO’s.
Ryan had gone completely white when Shea’s calls had come through. If he continued to worry each time the phone rang and assumed the worst, then we’d be letting the Zodiac Master win.
Galen met us as we got to the conference room.
“Any word on Flora yet? Has her condition changed?” I asked hopefully. Adam had called me when Flora hadn’t woken up the next morning, before we had her transferred to the hospital. I’d spent a few shifts with him at her side as he helped me block out that horrible spirit. When it was my turn to be alone with her, I’d tell her all the things that were going on, as if she could hear every word I’d said.
He glanced toward the kid sitting in the corner with a set of headphones on. “Not yet. Once we tell you what’s going on, I’m going to head over there and relieve him for a while. He needs to get out and have some fun with his nephew.”
“What did you have to tell us?” Ryan brushed by, taking a seat at the table.
I was pretty sure that he was uncomfortable being around Galen because of his psychic abilities.
“Martha got a hit earlier on something that seems to point in the direction of something that we need to check out. It’s actually in New Mexico, near Flagstaff,” Agent Watson informed us.
“How many dead do we have?” I gave Galen an apologetic shrug.
“Two.” Agent Watson laughed at the expression on our faces. “I know it shouldn’t be funny, but I think we’re so used to having a lot of bodies piled up that one or two don’t seem like a big deal.”
“The dead aren’t funny,” I agreed, wiping the smile from my face. “Do we know how they were killed?”
“They were smothered by pillows.”
