***
Pierce walked back to his car in the diner’s parking lot and sat there for a few minutes, checking his email. When he finished that, he just stared out the window, wondering what to do. He was off until late tomorrow night, when he and his partner would be on call.
Thirty-six hours with nothing to do.
God, he hated days off.
His house was in such immaculate condition that he was at the point where he had to find projects to keep him occupied, like with his search for the perfect cabinet hardware. He considered doing some yard work, but he disliked it as much as cooking, and usually hired pros to do the work.
There was a... special project.
He had worked on it for months, and nearly had it completed, but he had no intention of ever finishing it, because to do so would mean that he had crossed a dangerous line.
The truth of the matter is that the project frightened him, and he truly didn’t trust his own intentions.
While he had never been a farmer, Pierce had worked construction during the summers when he was younger, and knew basic building techniques and how to work heavy equipment.
After renting a digger, Pierce had dug a hole on his property that was ten foot by ten foot and a dozen feet deep. The rear of the hole lined up with the rear wall of his basement, and after constructing the forms and reinforcing them with rebar, he poured concrete to make the walls and floor. The ceiling consisted of thick planks of wood, which were double layered, sealed, and covered with dirt and fresh sod.
With the room completed, Pierce broke through the rear wall of his basement with a three-foot long 20lb. sledge hammer. When he placed the paneling that had covered the wall back over the opening, the room became hidden from view.
Pierce told himself that he was building a private place to store food in case of an emergency. He told himself that he was just doing a bit of wise preparation in case of a catastrophe or natural disaster. And while it was true that the room could certainly hold a goodly amount of food, he had also equipped it with a waterless composting toilet, along with a cot, and there was also a vent and a fan to circulate the air inside.
It was a safe room, or a place to hide from home invaders, or possibly even a refuge in which to wait out a nuclear event, or maybe it could become a sanctum.
But if that were true, then why did he fashion a door for it that had a section in its middle that could be slid aside or locked only from the outside, as if it were a space to send in food or water to a captive?
He could call it anything he liked but... it was a cell. Pierce had built a hidden cell in his basement, and yet, it had no lock on its door.
Pierce refused to place a lock on the steel door, because once he did that, he feared what would come next, and truly wondered if it would signal the end of his sanity, and the beginning of a living nightmare for Amy Lowe.
***
Pierce pushed the basement room from his mind, along with Amy Lowe, and forced himself to think about the case and how it had stalled. Once he did that, he came to a decision.
He would drive into the city and canvass the area where Jenny Liu went missing. He had talked to a few shopkeepers, but not all, as some storefronts had been closed on his last visit. One good thing about Saturday is that most shops were open and there would be people available to question.
He decided that he would talk to shop owners first, before going to the nearby apartment building and speaking to its residents. He was on a quest to find someone who saw something, anything, and with his mind on work, Pierce was a happy man.
CHAPTER 12
They were in Manny’s car, which was still parked at the diner.
Dave listened without speaking as Manny told him his plan. He wanted Dave to kill his wife so that he would gain sole custody of the kids and get to keep his house. While Dave was killing her, Manny would make sure that he had an airtight alibi. And yes, he knew that the cops would suspect that he hired someone to murder her, but there would be absolutely no way to prove it because no money was changing hands.
Dave stared at him.
“You hate your wife that much?”
“She’s trying to take my kids away, Dave, so yes, I hate her that much.”
“Hypothetically, and I do mean hypothetically, how would I go about doing this? I mean, I would have to know when, so that you can plan your alibi.”
“I have all the details worked out. I’ve thought of everything. The cops won’t even look your way because you don’t know her.”
Dave laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You, that’s what’s so funny, you must think I’m an idiot. A second after I kill your wife, you’ll be handing that video you made over to the cops.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’ll claim that I killed your wife as a threat to you, to try and make you hand over the video to me. Then you’ll be a hero for turning me in and get to keep your kids, while I spend years wasting away on death row.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Hell no, Manny, you just want to use me to do your dirty work, after that, I’m expendable.”
Manny sighed.
“Buddy, you have no faith. Remember when I said that I thought of everything? Well, I did, reach down between the seats, in the cup holder.”
Dave sent Manny an odd look, but then did as he said. His hand came up holding a silver-colored object. When Dave gave it a good look, he saw that it was a micro tape recorder, and that it was running.
“You’re taping this!”
“Exactly, now turn it off.”
Dave turned off the tape, but then backed it up and listened. Manny could clearly be heard asking him to kill his wife.
Dave shut it off.
“What’s going on?”
“Don’t you get it, buddy? That’s yours. That’s your insurance against me sending the cops the video of you killing Dunham. If I give the cops the video, then you’ll just give them that tape and they’ll know that I ordered my wife’s death. It’s like what they said during the Cold War, it’s mutually assured destruction. If I rat on you, you can rat on me and we’ll both be fucked, but why would we ever do that. Get it?”
Dave gripped the recorder tightly in his hand.
“Yeah, just one thing though, I’m not killing your wife. Why should I? Now that I have this, I don’t need to fear that video, do I?”
“I’d thought you might say that, and here’s why you’re going to kill her anyway, it’s because if you don’t, I will go to the cops. Sure, they’ll have me on tape talking about having my wife murdered, but they’ll have you on video actually strangling someone to death. I like my chances better than yours, hmm?”
“Fuck!”
“Yeah, fuck, but it doesn’t have to be fuck. We can both come out of this in one piece if you’ll just kill my wife. Don’t you see, Dave? Once you kill her there’s no way I’m turning you in now that you have that tape, because they’ll be able to prove that I hired you to do it. And you’ll never use that recording against me, because then you’ll screw yourself too. Take a few minutes, think it over.”
Dave did just that, turning it over and over in his mind. When he was done, he asked a question.
“Your wife, when, where, and how?”
Manny grinned, reached into his jacket, and handed Dave an envelope.
“Typed instructions about the when and where, I’ll leave the how up to you, but I vote that you give her the same thing you gave Dunham. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreamed of strangling her myself.”
Dave opened the envelope and found a picture of a woman with dark hair and green eyes. Her features were sharp, and he was sure he’d recognize her if he ever saw her in person. He began reading the typed instructions.
“Next Sunday? Why next Sunday?”
“It’s perfect,” Manny said. “The kids are spending that weekend with Susan’s parents, that’s my wife’s name, Susan. Meanw
hile, I’ll catch a flight the day before to hang out with some old friends in Florida, one of which is now a State Trooper. Not only will I be too far away to have killed her, but I’ll have a kickass witness to my whereabouts.”
“This gym she goes to, why did you pick it? Is it that secluded?”
“It is on Sunday. That gym is on the second floor, in a little strip mall, the gym opens at six a.m., while the rest of the shops don’t open until eleven on Sundays. Susan always works out early and she always parks in the back and takes the stairs. There might be a camera, so you should wear a mask, but the parking lot is surrounded by tall hedges on three sides. If you surprise her as she comes up the stairs, she won’t stand a chance.”
“What if she sleeps in?”
“Improvise, do whatever it takes.”
“Where does she live? How do I find her?”
“It’s all there on the sheet, name, address, phone number, and right now she and the kids are staying at her sister’s place. You can whack her too if you want. I never could stand her sister.”
“Shit, Manny, does it have to be that day? That’s not giving me much leeway.”
“I know, but the bitch has to die then. The timing is perfect.”
Dave folded up the instructions, sat back, and stared out the windshield.
Manny peeked over at him.
“So... do we have a deal?”
Dave just nodded.
“Good, good, and hey, believe it or not, I’m sorry about this. I always liked you Dave, you know that, and once we get past all this... well, it’ll all be good again. Hell, you’ll probably end up with Dunham’s job.”
Dave got out of the car, but Manny called to him and he leaned back in.
“What is it?”
Manny smiled.
“Before long, my wife will be in the ground and the kids will be back home with me where they belong. And shit, things at the job will be better too with Dunham gone. Hell, murder solves a lot of problems.”
Dave stared at him flatly.
“Go to Florida next week and set-up your alibi. I’ll take care of your wife.”
Then, he shut the door and walked away.
***
Manny watched Dave until he got into his car and drove off.
He tapped the steering wheel with his fist, as he talked to himself.
“This is gonna work, it’s gonna work.”
He knew that when he returned from Florida the cops would be waiting for him, but so what? He’d have an alibi, they wouldn’t be able to find evidence of a pay off, and he held no life insurance on his wife. Eventually, they would have to classify it as a random killing and move on.
Manny put his car in gear and headed home, and never once did he notice the white van that was following him.
CHAPTER 13
Pierce spent most of the morning talking to shopkeepers and their employees. As he expected, no one saw anything, and most seemed annoyed that they were being bothered. Pierce wondered how they would feel if Jenny Liu had been someone they knew, someone they loved.
He had canvassed the last of the shops and businesses and was walking towards the apartment building when he spotted a familiar face. It was Jake Collins, the rookie who had found Jenny Liu’s cell phone.
“Hey Collins, what are you doing here?”
Collins was wearing a blue sport coat with a pair of chinos. He reached into the jacket and took out one of the flyers with Jenny Liu’s face on it.
“I had some time, so I thought that I’d ask around, see if anyone remembered seeing her.”
“You’re off duty, aren’t you?”
“Yeah... why, is that a problem?”
“The department frowns on it.”
“Oh, so why are you here?”
Pierce opened the file folder he’d been carrying, inside was a picture of Jenny Liu.
Collins laughed.
“Great minds think alike; did you learn anything new?”
“Nothing, and I’ve hit every business two blocks east and west of here. What about you?”
“I didn’t find anyone who saw Liu, but I found an old man who saw the van.”
“Where?” Pierce said, as excitement entered his voice.
Collins turned and pointed at the apartment building.
“The guy lives on the third floor. He says he saw a van come to a sudden stop and then a guy jumped out and stood by that burned-out building. The old man had something heating up in the microwave, and when the buzzer went off he went in the kitchen to get his food, when he came back, the van was driving away.”
“He never saw Liu?”
“No, just the guy who got out of the van; he says he thought he was taking a leak against the building, but he never got a good look at him.”
“Do you have notes?”
Collins reached into his jacket again and took out a small notepad. Pierce noticed that it was the same type that he carried.
The kid had taken detailed notes of everything he’d done that morning. The names of the people he’d spoken with, which apartments they lived in, and the time it took place. The apartments where no one answered were noted down as well, and there were three pages of notes concerning his conversation with the old man.
When Pierce turned to the last page, Collins pointed at an entry on the bottom.
“As you can see, I did get something out of him.”
Pierce looked to where the kid was pointing.
“A 2006 Ford Econoline Cargo Van? Is he certain that’s what it was?”
“He said that he’s sure about the make and model, but not the year. He has to go for Dialysis treatments three times a week, and he said that the van they use to pick him up in is the same one he saw that night, only it was white and unmarked.”
“Damn good work, Collins, damn good, our witness said it was a white van, but she doesn’t know makes and model. Now we can narrow it down.”
“You have a witness?”
“Actually she’s a survivor, two guys in a van tried to abduct her, but she fought them off.”
Collins pointed down the street.
“How about telling me all about it over lunch, Detective? There’s a deli around the corner there that’s pretty good.”
Pierce nodded yes, and was surprised that he had an appetite after the huge breakfast he’d eaten, but it had been a good day so far. Amy Lowe’s marriage could be ending, providing him with a second chance, and the case had made some progress.
They began walking and Collins asked Pierce a question.
“Where’s your partner?”
“At home I guess, we’ve got the day off.”
“And you’re out here looking for witnesses? I thought you said that the brass frowns on that?”
Pierce looked over at the rookie and smiled.
“Fuck ‘em.”
CHAPTER 14
SIX DAYS LATER
Pierce and Detective Albert “Al” Finder pushed their way through tall weeds and into a small clearing, where the vehicle belonging to Karen Dunham sat parked beside abandoned railroad tracks.
Pierce’s partner, Bob Jerold, was back at the station. Pierce had given him the task of finding owners of white, Ford Cargo Vans, who also had been charged with a violent crime.
If any of them were also named Jack, the name that Valeria Mangieri remembered overhearing, then they would be put on a separate list and investigated as soon as possible. It was a longshot, but it was a chance, and Pierce was hoping that it would pay off.
Finder pointed skyward.
“A traffic chopper spotted the vehicle from the air, then, a patrol car came and investigated. It belongs to my missing woman, but judging by the odor coming out of that trunk, I think this is more your case than mine now.”
Pierce signaled for the crime scene tech to force the trunk open. When the lid popped, they saw the body of Karen Dunham.
“Damn, I was just handed this case a few days ago. I had hoped that this one had just run off
somewhere to chill out,” Finder said.
Pierce leaned in and studied Dunham, but didn’t touch anything. The coroner had yet to appear, and the crime scene techs still had to do their work. The odor was wicked, but Pierce had worked many homicides and, if he had not gotten used to the odor of a corpse, he at least knew what to expect, and endured it.
“It looks like she was strangled, but for what?” Pierce said. “Her car is here and so is her purse and jewelry.”
“It sounds personal, but as far as I could tell she had no lovers. It was her mother who reported her missing. She told me that all she ever did was work, but that no one at the job had seen her since Friday.”
“Have you gone there and talked to her co-workers?”
“Two days ago, and reading between the lines, the woman was not well-liked. She also recently fired a few people, but I wasn’t going to start thinking the worst until I knew for certain that she hadn’t just up and left on her own.”
“Who was the last one to see her alive?”
“A guy at work, his name is Dave Owens. He and a friend of his named Jack Murphy saw her Friday night, after that, she vanished.”
Pierce stared in at the corpse.
“The friend’s name is Jack?”
“Yeah? Why? Does it mean something?”
Pierce shrugged.
“Probably just a coincidence, the name Jack has been on my mind lately.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Finder said.
“Me neither, where did she work?”
***
Dave saw Finder talking with another man and knew immediately that he was also a cop. The man was about his height, a bit skinny, but strong looking, with a set of intense eyes that seemed to take everything in at once.
The fact that there were two of them, and the grim look on their faces, also told him that Dunham’s body had been discovered and that the new cop was a homicide detective.
He slumped in his seat; he was hoping that Dunham’s body wouldn’t be discovered until after he had time to deal with Manny.
“Another cop?” Manny said. He was standing outside his cubicle.
Monsters (A Detective Pierce Novel Book 1) Page 6
