by M. Z. Kelly
Oz was giving Bernie some attention as he asked, “Were any of the girls working as prostitutes?”
Joe shook his head. “No. Our investigators originally worked off the theory that our killer was expressing his anger toward women by dressing them up as prostitutes before assaulting and killing them. All that changed recently.”
Joe nodded at Selfie. She worked her remote and we saw photographs of a man named Joshua Brown appear on the monitor. “Mr. Brown worked as a truck driver for several years, driving the interstate highways in proximity to where our victims were found. A few weeks back, our crime analysts went back and relooked at the evidence taken on all the cases. One of the early victims fought back during the attack and DNA of our suspect was found under her fingernails. It recently came back to Mr. Brown.”
“Where is our suspect now?” Leo asked.
“About three years ago he moved to California and changed careers. He became a security guard at Berkshire State Hospital in Pasadena.”
The pictures on the monitor changed and we saw photos of Brown dressed as a state security guard. The identifying information said that he was age thirty-three, about six feet tall. He was handsome, and there was something about his appearance that made me think he was the kind of man who could easily gain the trust of women. I remembered Mo telling me word on the street was that our killer was in law enforcement. Everything seemed to fit, then something else occurred to me.
I said to Selfie, “Didn’t we have a hit on someone…”
She was ahead of me. “Quinton Macy.” Selfie brought his mug shots up on another monitor and said to Joe, “He’s a patient at the same hospital. He came up in our early database searches as committing a crime that had similarities to our first victim.”
She and Molly then took a couple of minutes, talking about the victim that led to Macy being incarcerated at Berkshire State Hospital.
“Do you think Brown and Macy could both be linked to our recent victims?” I asked Rose Castillo.
“It’s possible, but we know that Macy has been in lock-up. It could be that Brown’s been acting as his surrogate, carrying out his crimes.”
Joe nodded in agreement. “It’s time we stopped speculating and head over to the hospital. If we’re right, today is the end of the road for the Interstate Killer, and maybe the man also known as the Reaper.”
THIRTY-TWO
Oz made the decision to send Leo and me with Dawson to arrest Brown, while Darby and Buck were left behind to work our other murders. Darby had lodged a protest, telling the lieutenant he was tired of playing second fiddle. Oz, who lately seemed exhausted and apparently had his fill of the big-mouth detective, told him he would have him playing a clarinet on Hollywood Boulevard if he didn’t get with the program.
I was getting ready to leave the office when I walked by the break room and saw Charlie Winkler, my former partner. I remembered that Darby had said Charlie was telling everyone that I didn’t pull my own weight when we worked together. If there was any truth to what he’d said, I knew that I needed to immediately put a stop to it.
Bernie went with me and sniffed around the floor as I took a seat across from my former partner. Charlie didn’t bother looking up from whatever he was slurping up until I cleared my throat.
“Kate,” Charlie said. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and see you.”
“I heard you were back on the job.” I waited a moment while he finished with what I now realized was oatmeal. “I also heard you’ve been telling everyone that you had to carry me when we worked together.”
“What?”
“According to Darby Hall, you said I didn’t pull my own weight.”
I saw that Charlie’s eyes were bloodshot as he said, “He’s full of crap. All I said was that I covered your back a few times.”
My brows inches together. “What does that mean?”
“I just meant that I watched your back and you watched mine.” He splayed his hands. “I meant, that’s what partners do.”
I took a breath. “Maybe you should explain what you mean to Darby. He’s not helping my reputation.”
“I’ll set the little asshole straight.”
I nodded, again seeing that his eyes were red. It also looked like he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and could use a shower. “You doing okay?”
“I’m getting by. Can’t complain.”
I gave voice to something else I’d recently heard. “I hear you’re seeing Jessica again.”
He shrugged. “I needed a place to stay, and…” He smiled, but didn’t go on.
Charlie almost never smiled. When he did, it meant that he was having sex. “You’re really living with that…that woman?”
Jessica Barlow also worked as a detective at Hollywood Station. She was the bane of my existence. We’d gone to high school together and she’d never gotten over the fact that I’d dated her one-time boyfriend after they’d broken up. Despite some rocky history, Jessica and Charlie had hooked up when they’d been forced to become partners for a short period of time. She was a controlling, manipulative shrew of a woman, and those were her good qualities.
Charlie’s smile was still there. “She’s not so bad…in some ways.”
I stood up and tugged on Bernie’s leash. “Take care of yourself.” I started to walk away, but turned back to him. “And be sure you set Darby straight.”
***
Leo decided to take his own car to Pasadena, telling us he had an errand to run after finishing up at the hospital. That gave Joe and me some time to get caught up on our lives as he drove.
“I see you’re still working on your word power,” I said, referencing his passion for crossword puzzles. He had a New York Times puzzle on the console beside him.
He glanced at me. “What’s a nine letter word that starts with the letter e and means brilliant?”
I smiled. “Sorry, I’m stumped.”
“Effulgent.” Now he smiled. “You can find it in the dictionary right next to my name.”
“I see you’re still full of humility.”
He cocked his head toward me. “And you, you’re still…” He paused before continuing. “Maybe the word I’m looking for is unsettled.”
“You know me pretty well.”
“Problems with…I forget his name.”
“Noah.” I took a moment, trying to come up with a way to summarize what was happening between us. “We’re having a little bump in the road.”
“Tell me about it.”
Joe already knew my family situation, so I took a couple of minutes, filling him in on the latest regarding the Revelation and the Tauists, and telling him that Collin Russell had lied to me. “To make matters worse, Noah doesn’t seem to understand my determination to find who’s behind the murder of the man who raised me.”
“How long have you two been dating?”
“Just a few weeks.”
“He’ll either get it one of these days or he’ll never get it. I had an ex who never got it—I mean about police work and finding justice. That’s why she’s an ex.”
I took a moment, deciding there was a lot of truth to what he’d said. Some people never got the passion that went with police work, and if Noah didn’t get that and my personal determination to find who was behind my dad’s murder, I knew we would never make it.
We drove in silence for a couple of minutes before I said, “What about you? Anyone in Joe Dawson’s life these days?”
He took a moment before looking at me. “There is someone. We’ve been off and on for a while.” His eyes found the road again. “Sharon gets it—my job, I mean. Just not sure if she gets me.”
I laughed. “I don’t know if anyone really gets you, Joe.”
He studied me for a moment. “I think you do.”
I was surprised by what he said. “I think we both get each other. We should appreciate that.”
He smiled. “Oh, believe me, I do. There are some things I never take for granted. You’re one of th
em.”
I was touched by what he said and felt my eyes misting up. “I appreciate that—a lot.”
We were quiet for a minute as he turned off the freeway. I took the time to reflect on friendship, how rare it is in today’s world. I realized that, except for Leo and my brother, there was probably no one I was closer to than Joe, Natalie, and Mo. I was grateful for having them all in my life and made myself a promise to always try to do the best by them.
When we hit the surface streets, my thoughts drifted to my sister. “I don’t suppose there’s anything new with Lindsay?”
“Actually, that’s part of the reason I came to see you.”
My pulse quickened. “What’s going on?”
He glanced at me again. “Remember that guy I mentioned a while back that we took down who was involved in The Swarm?”
“I think you said he wasn’t very cooperative.”
“He’s been in solitary for a while now and I’ve spent a lot of time working him. He’s starting to talk.”
“Does he know anything about Lindsay?”
He shook his head. “No, but he said there’s some problems at the top in the organization. You remember how The Swarm was supposedly controlled by the original members?”
I nodded. “There were the seven, chosen by someone at the top, but two of them have been taken down, leaving five.”
“Yeah. Anyway, the guy told me there’s been some infighting. That’s part of the reason they’ve gone underground. I think there’s a power struggle going on.”
I released a breath. “That doesn’t sound good for my sister.”
“Maybe…”
When he didn’t go on, I said, “What is it?”
“It’s just a hunch, something that’s been gnawing at me every time I talk to this guy.”
“What kind of hunch?”
He took a moment, maybe gathering his thoughts. “Remember how your sister killed her own father to save you?”
I would never forget that Lindsay had realized her father had been stalking me. She’d shot and killed him after he’d killed my then boyfriend, Jack Bautista, and he’d shot me. Lindsay had saved my life, but that act took her having to kill her own father. It’s something that I knew had haunted her, and we’d talked about several times.
“Yes,” I said. “In some ways Lindsay made the ultimate sacrifice for me. I’ll never forget what she did.”
Joe nodded. “Someone like that…” his pale eyes fixed on me, “…I think your sister has a deep understanding about what’s right and wrong. She’s someone who saw a lot of evil, including what her own father did, and was determined to make the world a better place.”
What Joe hadn’t said was that my sister had been molested by her father. He’d taken advantage of her in the worst way imaginable. But what he’d said about making the world a better place now filled me with sudden hope.
“Do you think…” My emotions were surfacing, and I took a breath. “Could Lindsay have purposely gone with her captors to try and stop them?”
Joe studied me for a long moment. “You tell me, Kate. Your sister murdered her own father to stop his killing spree. She saved your life. And, just maybe by going with her captors, she saved your life again. I’ve been wrong a time or two, but I think maybe Lindsay is out there somewhere and, in her own way, she’s trying to stop a group of killers.”
THIRTY-THREE
I spent the rest of the drive to Pasadena mulling over what Joe had said. The more I wrestled with what he’d suggested, the more it seemed like a real possibility. I remembered Lindsay turning and locking eyes with me before she’d boarded a helicopter and headed away with her captors. Had that been a silent message to me about her real intentions?
And, despite being held prisoner by the group, I knew that Lindsay wasn’t someone who easily gave up her beliefs or her sense of right and wrong. If she had gone underground with The Swarm to save my life, it only deepened my resolve to find a way to help her.
As I thought about trying to find justice for both my sister and my love-dad, I wondered how Noah would react to both of those commitments. It seemed likely that he would take issue with my determination to help them by putting my own life at risk. That possibility again made me question whether or not we were a good fit.
I knew from what I’d read on my iPhone that Berkshire State Hospital was a five hundred bed, Spanish-style facility built in the late 1930s. It housed individuals who were considered to be a danger to themselves and others due to mental illness, those who were considered mentally disordered offenders, and subjects who were deemed incompetent to stand trial. Because the facility was considered to be a hospital, guards were not allowed to be stationed in the wards, but rather were called in if there was a disturbance.
That fact had been blamed as part of the reason a psychiatric technician had recently been murdered on the hospital grounds. The state was in the process of building more secure enhanced treatment facilities, but, due to costs, that hadn’t yet transpired. I’d known individuals who had worked in similar settings. It often fostered an us-versus-them mentality, and it made me wonder if Joshua Brown had used his position to abuse those under his control. I also wondered if he and Quinton Macy had crossed paths while in the hospital.
When we arrived at Berkshire, a sense of foreboding immediately overwhelmed me as we parked, met up with Leo, and walked with Bernie toward the administration wing. An involuntary shiver moved through me when I thought about the inmates that had been housed here over the years, and the likely horrors they’d endured during a period when patients had few rights.
“I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time here,” Leo said, echoing my thoughts as we made our way up the Spanish pavers to the entrance.
“It’s pretty intimidating,” I agreed, noticing the rows of buildings that were adjacent to the main structure that I knew must be the patient housing units.
Joe, never one to hold back, gave us his opinion. “I think we just landed smack in the middle of the cuckoo’s nest, kids.”
Things only got worse when Joe announced ourselves to the front desk staff and, in general terms, explained why we were there.
“I’ll have to find an administrator, so have a seat,” the clerk said. She picked up a telephone that was ringing. “How does that saying go? Good things come to those who wait.”
Joe reached over the counter and snatched the phone away from her. He then took the opportunity to demonstrate he had zero patience for bureaucrats. “Listen to me, sweetheart. I’m a federal agent. I don’t have time to wait around while you dispense your idiotic folk wisdom, answer phones, and locate some schmuck in a cheap suit. Get the hospital administrator out here now or I’ll go find him myself.”
The woman blanched and took the phone back as Joe handed it to her. After making a call, she swallowed and said, “Someone is on their way out.”
A couple of minutes later, a door closed down the long hallway and an older man began walking toward us.
“Looks like the wizard has come out from behind his curtain,” Joe said.
The administrator, who was indeed dressed in a cheap suit, finally reached us and introduced himself. “I’m Dr. Marlow. How may I help you?”
Joe took a moment, giving him some basic information about our need to talk to Joshua Brown, without going into all the details. “Where can we find him?”
“I happen to know for a fact that he’s not here today,” Marlow said.
Joe glanced at me, back at the administrator. “Where the hell is he?”
“He took a patient to Los Angeles recently, but hasn’t returned.”
“Why is that?”
“I’m not sure.”
Dawson took a step closer to Marlow and lowered his already baritone voice. “Tell us what the hell’s going on.”
Marlow huffed out a breath and turned red. “Mr. Brown assisted one of our staff transporting a patient to a clinical drug trial. I’m afraid none of them have been heard fr
om in the past twenty-four hours.”
“What’s the name of this patient?” I demanded.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss patient records. It’s privileged in…”
Joe brought out his badge and held it up to Marlow. “Listen to me. We have reason to believe Brown, and maybe your patient, are behind some recent killings. Unless you cooperate, I’ll have you placed into custody for failing to cooperate with a federal investigation.”
It was a complete bluff, but it had its intended effect. Dr. Marlow took a breath and mopped his forehead. “The patient is Quinton Macy.”
THIRTY-FOUR
As we drove to the address Dr. Marlow had given us for Quinton Macy’s psychiatrist, I told Joe what I knew about Macy. “As you already know, he came up in our original NCIC search. He’s been in Berkshire for about a decade. The crime that resulted in his commitment to the hospital was similar to our first victim, but was less sophisticated.”
“He was learning his craft,” Joe said. “I’ll bet he’s been working behind the scenes with Brown all these years.”
“And they’re probably working together again,” I agreed.
A half hour later, Leo and I were standing on Dr. Ellen Moore’s porch with Bernie, as Joe rang the bell several times. Nobody answered. The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows across the house, which was set back from the street in a rural area.
“According to what Marlow said, Dr. Moore is married, with two kids,” I said, keeping a tight rein on Bernie’s leash. “I’ve tried her cell number, and she isn’t picking up. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“No lights on in the house,” Leo said, after looking through a window.
“Let’s check around back,” Joe said.
We went into the back yard and knocked on the French doors. The house was dark and looked deserted.
I pulled out my iPhone. “Let me try her number again.”
As I dialed, I looked over and saw that Joe had a rock in his hand. I knew from working with him in the past that he wasn’t big on either patience or search warrants. “No time for chit chat, Buttercup.”
