Hunt for a Phantom

by Stephen L Brooks

  Betsy nodded in resignation. “All right. Here comes the lecture.”

  “No; I’m saving that for later. So you made this date to get a line on IronGuy?”

  “That was the idea. I figured Tom --- or IronGuy --- or whatever his name is might at least give me a lead.”

  “And just what were you going to do with this lead once you had it?”

  “I thought you said you were saving the lecture for later.”

  “I’m having second thoughts about that.”

  “You gonna spank me?” Her eyes flashed mischievously.

  Samuelson had gotten off the phone and looked like he wanted to leave; and it was his cube!

  “Maybe later. For now I’m just gonna assume you were going to pass the lead on to me.”

  “Yeah. Of course. Enjoy your fantasies.”

  Samuelson figured the only way to cure his discomfort was to clear his throat and say, “Well, whatever your plans were we have him now. But it’s late; my boss says the lawyer’s not coming ‘till morning, and’ll need time to confer with his client. So he wants us to let him cool his heels overnight and we’ll grill him tomorrow. And I guess I’d have to lock up the both of you to keep you from sitting in on it.”

  “That’s a tempting offer,” Betsy said, “but you can lock us up together some other time.”

  Banning felt a little relieved, now that Betsy was back into bantering mode. He hoped it wasn’t just a mask for her earlier ordeal. “Thanks, I think we both ought to sit in.”

  “You’ll do it outside the interview room, of course,” Samuelson admonished.

  “Of course.” Banning knew that was better for Betsy anyway.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  It was a Saturday, and Rick and Gail were going to visit Dana again. But as they were walking from the parking lot to the hospital Rick stopped and took Gail’s arm.

  “Wait. We still need to talk,” he said.

  “About what?” She tried gently to pull free but he held her tightly.

  He looked about for a moment and said, “This way.” He led her to a spot where some benches were set out to visit patients out doors. There was one separate from the others and they sat there.

  “You told me some things about my sister,” Rick began, “but I got the feeling you weren’t telling me everything you know.”

  Gail turned away from him, silent for a long moment.

  Rick was patient and waited.

  “Yes. Yes, you’re right. There is more.”

  Rick was silent himself for a bit. “Go ahead. Grace and my father are dead. Nothing you can say can change the way I feel about either of them; you know that.”

  “I know.” She collected and composed what must be said. “I told you Grace had been meeting a number of men online.”

  “Yes. I gather by ‘a number’ you mean more than two or three.”

  “Quite a few more.” After a deep, deciding breath she added: “And she had sex with most of them.”

  Rick stared hard at her for what seemed a year to both of them. Gail finally broke the silence. “Please say something.”

  Rick looked away. “It’s not news; not really. I guessed it some time back, even before she was murdered.”

  “Did you ever ask her about it?”

  “Of course; she was my sister and I worried about her. But she basically told me where to go and what to do with myself once I got there.”

  Gail nodded. “That was Grace, all right. Especially if somebody pushed her when she knew she was wrong.”

  “You couldn’t tell her anything.”

  “No; I couldn’t either. And I was her best friend.”

  “Is that why you were trying to keep Dana from seeing guys from the web?”

  “Yeah; I didn’t want her to end up like Grace.” Gail looked toward the hospital building and back at Rick. “And now she’s here, and we’re here.”

  “At least she’s not dead.”

  “She might have been. Hell, maybe she should have been. I’m sure whoever did this to her was betting on it.”

  “Do you think it’s the same one who killed Grace?”

  “I don’t know,” Gail answered. “I heard the cops say they couldn’t find any semen in her.”

  “Then he really didn’t rape her.”

  “Define ‘rape.’”

  “OK; he did everything else to her but. Why not?”

  Gail shrugged. “Guess he couldn’t rise to the occasion.” She frowned in thought, rifling through memories. “Like that guy Grace told me about.”

  “You remember what the guy called himself?”

  “No. No, but maybe it’ll come back to me.” She stood up. “Come on; we’re here to see Dana, aren’t we?”

  They started toward the hospital. “We’ve got one more stop to make after we see Dana,” Rick said.

  “Where’s that?”

  “I think Mitch oughtta know about this.”

  Gail gazed skyward as she realized: “And you want me to tell him.”

  “He’s got a right to know.”

  “Yeah; you’re right, he does.”

  * * *

  “I don’t believe it,” Mitch protested. “You’re telling me Grace was more than just a slut; she was just a... I can’t even say the word.”

  “It wasn’t easy for me to take either,” Rick said, “but everything Gail says sounds true.”

  “So you think she got what she deserved?” Mitch snarled. “Is that what you came here to tell me?”

  “No. My dad got killed too, you know. Do you think he deserved it?”

  Mitch sank on his bed and supported his head in his hands. “No, of course not.” Mitch reached over to his desk and picked up a photo of him and Grace at the beach, taken the previous summer. She was in a brief swimsuit that had scandalized her dad but had resulted in a glorious tan over nearly her whole body. Her smile was wide and amazingly happy, her eyes covered by black-lensed sunglasses. He studied it now, wondering what secrets were masked by those shades.

  “You know, she was always after me to have sex with her. I mean always; every time we were together. And I always refused. Maybe if I’d said ‘Yes’ none of this would have happened.”

  Gail sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulder. “I’m no shrink, but when I think of all the conversations Grace and I had, especially for the last year or so, I wonder.”

  “Wonder what?” Rick asked.

  “I think Grace had something wrong with her; she seemed to crave sex, like some kinda addict.”

  Rick and Mitch glanced at each other but avoided looking at her.

  “I know,” she said, smiling crookedly. “You both probably want to take a swing at me, and you’re waiting to see who goes first.”

  “I wouldn’t hit you,” Rick said.

  “I know. But I bet you feel like it.” She rose and held his shoulder now as she continued, “Don’t you think I’m angry? I’ve had to protect her dirty little secrets all this time. Sure, we’ve shared secrets since we were little, and I guess the secrets were little back then. But as we got older, the secrets weren’t so little anymore, and they got to be pretty scary. But Grace; well, she knew I wasn’t a saint either, and threatened to tell my mom what I had been up to.”

  Both boys were listening steadily now.

  “Yeah, I went around a bit; but Grace was getting in way too deep. And she’d brag about it; send me pics of the guys she’d been with.” She paused as she realized: “Hey, you know I think I kept a lot of those. Maybe even all of them.”

  “Where?”

  “In my laptop. It’s out in the car.” She dug in her purse for her keys and started for the door.

  “Hey, where’re you going?” Rick asked.

  “I’ve got an idea. I’ll just be a second.”

  Of course it took longer than a second but Gail returned with the laptop and set it up on Mitch’s desk. She opened her Pictures folder and slid the pointer over several until she found the one she wanted.
“I kept ‘em all in here.” She clicked it open and a preview screen that resembled a cross between a yearbook page and a police rogues’ gallery appeared. The photos fell in alphabetical order by their tags, which were the men’s screen names.

  “The creep that Dana was supposed to meet called himself IronGuy.” She found the picture immediately and was about to enlarge it when she gasped.

  “What is it?”

  “This guy here,” she said, sliding to his photo and opening it instead. The tag said IronGuy.

  “Is this the guy they found in the room with Grace and you dad?” Mitch asked Rick.

  “I don’t know.”

  Gail said, “But that’s the guy Dana was supposed to meet, and this is the last guy Grace had a thing with.”

  She fiddled with the pictures some more. “There was another one she told me hung out with IronGuy; here he is.”

  The second picture was labeled Stones.

  “We’ve got to take this to the police.”

  “No way,” Mitch said. “You wanna give the cops all this to use to trash Grace? You know they’ll spread it all over the news and the Sun.”

  “Everybody already knows how and where Grace was found, and what she was doing there. Don’t you want to find her killer?”

  “Sure, but... all right. But just these two pictures: the one called IronGuy and his buddy Stones. They don’t need to know anything else.”

  “Okay, that’s fine with me.” Gail sent the pictures to her phone. When she had checked to insure their arrival and saved them there she shut down her laptop.

  “And another thing,” Mitch added. “Let’s not take this to the cops.”

  “But you just said...”

  “We’ll turn ‘em over; but remember that guy Banning?”

  “The PI?”

  “Yeah. He might be more discreet.”

  * * *

  “You sure you’re all right?” Banning asked after Betsy had come into work, much sooner than he expected.

  “Yes, I’m fine. He didn’t get to do anything to me except manhandle me.”

  He looked at her as she made a show of setting work out on her desk. She was reserved, which was not normal for her. Betsy’s exuberance was one of the things he valued in her; also one of the things he found enormously attractive.

  Suddenly she stopped, rested her hands on her desk, and lowered her head.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m okay.” Almost immediately she said, “No, I’m not.” She stood and faced him. “I was foolish to go after that guy the way I did.”

  “I don’t know. He was still in pain when those cops put him in the car. He was particularly protective of a certain delicate area, where I think you did some damage.”

  Her grin was crooked. “Yeah; I did get in one shot.”

  “Look, you were very brave to go after him like that. And I think with some practice, you might be able to take care of yourself against guys like that. At least, you know where to hit first.”

  “But it didn’t stop him.”

  “No, but it slowed him down. So keep it up. Only next time if you want to work undercover, include me in on it. Even Emma Peel had John Steed.”

  She laughed and he was glad. “Yeah, but don’t expect me to show up in any black leather catsuits anytime soon.”

  “Well, when you’re ready for that I want you to model it for me first.”

  “Oh, definitely. In fact...”

  The front door opened and Banning recognized Rick Fleming. Behind him were two others. A little hesitantly they came in.

  “We don’t have an appointment,” Rick said. “Is this a bad time? Are you busy?”

  “No, Rick; come on in.”

  “Mr. Banning, we have some information for you,” Rick said. With him were Mitch and a girl Banning thought he recognized but couldn’t place. The girl was holding on to her phone like it was gold encrusted with diamonds.

  “Sure, Rick. Why don’t the three of you come in?” He signaled with his head for Betsy to join them as well and the five gathered in the inner office. “Now, what is it?”

  “Mr. Banning, this is Gail; she was Grace’s best friend.”

  “Glad to meet you, Gail. I assume from the way you are clutching your phone that the info is on there?”

  “Yes. We did some research on our own, from some pix that Grace sent me.” She expertly thumbed the controls of her phone. “I had these pictures on my laptop and saved two of them here.”

  “What are the pictures?”

  “They’re of men Grace met online. I have two of them here we thought were important.”

  Banning noticed that, while she had obviously opened the file with the photo, she was reluctant to show them yet. Was it a sense of drama, or lack of trust? “What about the other pictures? They might be important too.”

  “Mr. Banning, we came to you instead of the police because of Grace. Some of the stuff in the papers and on TV has all but called her a slut. We want to help find her killer, but we don’t want to do any more damage to her memory than has already been done.”

  Banning nodded and smiled. He glanced at Betsy. Her instincts had already put Rick and Gail together. Looked like the guy had picked a good one.

  “I respect that, and thanks for you faith in me. Can I see the photos?”

  Gail brought the phone over and Betsy looked from the side as Banning studied it. He again glanced at Betsy, who nodded and got Banning’s Phone from his desk.

  “Do you know anything about this IronGuy?” Banning asked as Betsy handed him the phone.

  “I just know that IronGuy was the one Dana had gone to meet,” Gail said, “and we think Stones might be his partner.”

  Banning pulled up the photos from his Phone and held it next to Gail’s phone. “See for yourself. IronGuy was arrested last evening for assault, battery, and attempted rape.” He pulled up another picture. “And Stones is the corpse found next to your sister and father, Rick.”

  Rick was looking closely at Banning’s picture of IronGuy. “Say, this looks like a mug shot.”

  “It is,” Banning said. “You see, we had our own up-close-and-personal with him.”

  “Yeah,” Betsy said. “With me it almost got too personal.”

  Gail gasped. “You mean he attacked you? You’re the one he’s charged with trying to rape?”

  Betsy nodded with a twisted smile. “As the result of a little unauthorized undercover work.” She touched Gail’s arm. “Which I don’t recommend.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t be hitting the net for guys anymore.”

  Banning and Betsy thought that was a safe bet as they noticed the sheepish grin on Rick’s face.

  “What about this IronGuy?” Mitch asked. “You’ve got him and his picture; and I know cops can trace people through their email and all, right?.”

  “That’s right. In fact, the computer tech at police headquarters who’s been working on this found a name for IronGuy: Brad Cole.”

  “Then why didn’t the cops arrest long ago for attacking Dana?”

  “Yeah,” Gail added, “why didn’t they just pick him up?”

  “Because Brad Cole is dead.”

  As the others in the room digested this, Banning started thinking. “But you know, when we talked to his widow we didn’t have this picture.”

  * * *

  The door opened and Mrs. Cole peered at the man and woman on her front step. “You two were here before.”

  “Yes, we were. I’m sorry to bother you again, but we have some new information.”

  “About my husband?”

  “We’re not sure. We have another picture to show you, if you don’t mind.”

  Mrs. Cole closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know why you’re here. My husband has been dead for several years; and I know he didn’t commit any crime when he was alive. How can he be a criminal from the grave?”

  “That’s not what we think, Mrs. Cole, believe me. But perhaps someone is
using your late husband’s name illegally, and he is the one we’re after.”

  “Please,” Betsy said, “we know your husband was a good man. If we’re right, and someone is committing crimes using his name, we want to set the record straight.” She stepped forward and touched Mrs. Cole’s arm. “May we come in? We just need a moment to show you a picture or two and then we’ll be gone.”

  Mrs. Cole looked at each of them and said, “All right. But just for a moment.” She stepped back and let them in.

  Banning brought up the picture on his Phone. “Is this a picture of your husband?”

  Mrs. Cole peered a long time at the image. “I’m not used to these new-fangled digital things.”

  Banning had a fleeting thought of matching her up with the old guy at the hotel.

  “No,” she said, straightening, “it’s not my husband. “But he is familiar.” She scanned some framed photos on a shelf and selected one which she showed to them. “This is my husband here.” She indicated him on the photo. “But I think that other man is here too.” She took it back and scanned the faces. “There he is; I thought I knew that face. He was a member of my husband’s lodge.”

  They looked at it and studied the faces. He brought up the second of Gail’s pictures on his smartphone. He was there too. Banning glanced at Betsy, who nodded.

  “Mrs. Cole, do you mind if I take a picture of this?”

  “No, I’m sorry; I can’t let you have this. I only have a few pictures of my husband, and I treasure every one.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t explain that better,” he said. “I’m not going to take it; just take a picture of it with this.” He held up his Phone.

  “On that? Well, I guess they’re putting cameras into most anything these days. Of course, go ahead.”

  “Thank you.” Banning set the camera to the highest def he could and snapped the picture. “Now, one other thing: can you give me a list of names, a kind of guide to the photo?”

  “Of course. It’s on a card on back of the picture.” She turned it around. A 4” x 6” card taped to it had a list of the names and which row they were in. It was perfect. Banning took a shot of that as well.