Delusional

by Terri Breneman

  Toni held out her hand. “I finished mine a half hour ago.” She put the newspaper on the floor.“I love that you call it Starbuckets. Make yourself comfy, you guys.”

  “Here,” Vicky said, pulling a cup from the holder and looking at the writing on the side. “This is a triple venti low-fat latté.” She looked at the other cups before handing one to Boggs. “Same for you.” She pulled a third for Patty. “Here, this one has sugar,” she said. “And I was clueless for you, Johnnie, so I got plain black. It sounded butch.” She was grinning as she handed the cup over.

  “Actually that’s perfect,” Johnnie said. “Thanks.”

  Toni and Boggs sat on their couch with Vicky and Patty each taking one of the leather club chairs. Toni noticed that Patty was wearing the same clothing she had on last night and couldn’t help but smile. Johnnie pulled one of the oversized ottomans over and sat near Patty. She had her messenger bag with her.

  “So what’s the big emergency?” Boggs asked, sipping her coffee. “Jeez, I should be bouncing off the walls by noon.”

  “Okay,” Vicky began. “I met with Joshua Andrews’s two kids this morning. The daughter is obviously distraught, but seemed very organized. I let them inside their dad’s house and she began an inventory to check and see if anything was stolen. I think she was still in shock, but she was doing what she thought she could.”

  “What about the son?”Toni had removed the lid to her coffee and was blowing on the hot liquid.

  “Get this,” Vicky said, grinning. “The boy is a total flamer, but incredibly sweet. And here’s the kicker. He said his dad was very active in Fairfield’s PFLAG organization.”

  “Ah, well, that makes sense,” Toni said.

  “Sure, that’s what I thought. That’s why I called Patty.” She looked over at a now blushing Patty.

  Before anyone could make a comment, Johnnie spoke. “Yes, it’s my fault that Patty didn’t finish the background checks last night,” she said. “We played Detective Firebrand really late and then we got too tired.”

  Toni thought she looked almost embarrassed. “Been there, done that,” Toni replied. “I was so tired last night I barely made it up to our bedroom.”

  “But we finished them all this morning,” Johnnie continued. She took her laptop out of her messenger bag and booted it up.

  Patty was grinning and nodding.

  “Cool,”Toni said,smiling back at Patty and giving her a quick wink. “Well, we can assume that our killer is still on the anti-gay thing, since Mr. Andrews was an active member and parent of a gay son. At least we may have the connection. The next question is figuring out how he picks his victims. There are a lot of gays and lesbians in Fairfield and even more friends and parents of gays. We’ve got to figure out his pattern.”

  Patty took Johnnie’s laptop and started typing. After a few moments, she spoke. “Okay, we ran backgrounds on the eight possible hits from the license plates. We were able to throw out four of those. Three of those have moved out of state and one was totaled about a month ago.”

  “Perfect. Let’s hear the names of the ones who are left,” Vicky said.

  “Joe Jackson, the weird neighbor,” Patty said.

  “Great,” Boggs said. “We might have a lunatic living behind us?”

  “It gets better,” Patty said. “Peter Johnson, your favorite investigator, Charlie Jones and David Davidson.”

  “Who in the hell names their kid David Davidson?” Toni asked. “Shouldn’t there be a law against repetitive names?”

  Vicky rolled her eyes.

  “And Charlie Jones is an ex-cop,” Patty added. “He was on the job until about six years ago.”

  “I remember him, good cop. He was shot a few times by some punk. He took medical retirement,” Vicky said.

  “Do you think he went crazy?” Boggs asked.

  Vicky thought for a moment. “I didn’t know him that well, only by reputation, but I haven’t heard anything strange about him.”

  “His van is registered to him and to Help Services,” Patty added. “It’s a shelter and mental health clinic.”

  “Then maybe someone at the shelter used the van,” Toni said.

  “I’ll call Charlie tomorrow and set up a meeting with him. Maybe he can think of someone there who might have taken the van.”

  “What about this David Davidson dude?” Boggs asked. “What’s his story?”

  “We don’t know much yet,” Patty said. “He’s a salesman for a pharmaceutical company.”

  “Hmm. That might give him access to the insulin,” Toni said.

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Johnnie added, sipping at her coffee. “I’m going to stop by my office after we leave here and do a full background check on all these guys. Maybe something will pop up.”

  “I’m sure Peter will come up clean,” Boggs said. “I mean he’s working for us. I think I’ll have a chat with Sam and see what turns up.”

  “What do you know about Joe Jackson?” Toni asked.

  “Aside from owning a van,” Patty said, “not much. He works at the county library as an archives specialist, whatever that means. None of our suspects has any priors. A bunch of law- abiding citizens.”

  “At least we’ve got some suspects in mind,” Toni said. “But what really bothers me is how he’s picking his victims. There’s got to be something that we’re missing here. We’ve got the two prostitutes, because I’m almost positive those are connected, Maggie, the bookstore owner and the dad. The last three had ties to the gay and lesbian community and the prostitutes were, well, prostitutes. This guy seems too precise to just pick random folks. There’s got to be something there, and we’re just not seeing it.”

  “Maybe after we’ve done a thorough background,” Vicky said. “It could be something as simple as attending the same high school or having the same dentist.”

  Toni nodded. She took another sip of her coffee. “Wow. Having the same doctor or dentist, now there’s an angle that might make sense. A crazy doc. Well, whatever the hell it is, it has to be very significant to our killer. Once we find that, we should be able to figure out who he’s targeting next and why.”

  “Sounds like quite a long shot,” Johnnie said. “But I’ll dig up as much as I can.”

  Vicky closed her notepad. “Here’s the plan. I’ll call Charlie this afternoon and set up a meeting with him. Johnnie will do the FBI thing.” She grinned. “Who knows what you feds have at your disposal.”

  Johnnie smiled and rolled her eyes.

  “Boggs, you talk to Sam and dig a bit in Peter’s world,” Vicky continued. “Patty, you see what you can find out about Mr. Weird Neighbor and the salesman.”

  “What about me?” Toni asked.

  Vicky narrowed her eyes in thought. “Hmm. I know, maybe you could find out about this shelter that Charlie works at. What kind of clients are we looking at and stuff like that.”

  “Okay, I can do that,” Toni said. “Not nearly as fun as your jobs, but I can do that.”

  “That’s what you get for passing up working at the Bureau,” Johnnie said, giving Toni a quick wink.

  Toni laughed. “Maybe you’re right. My favorite part of being an attorney is finding the missing pieces.”

  The gang chatted for a bit, finishing their huge cups of coffee. By the time they left, Toni was thinking more about the upcoming football games for the day instead of a serial killer out on the loose.

  Chapter 11

  Toni arrived at the office a little earlier than normal on Monday morning. She had a motion hearing on one of her burglary cases and wanted to be prepared. She hung up her trench coat on her tiny and wobbly coatrack and glanced at her reflection in the small mirror behind her door. It was barely big enough for her to see her entire head. She checked her hair, earrings and teeth. All accounted for and everything looked fine, but she ran her fingers through her hair anyway. She was wearing her favorite gray wool slacks, matching blazer and a white silk blouse. I actually look like a lawyer tod
ay, she thought.

  She removed her blazer and looked at the coatrack. There was no way in hell it would handle both her coat and blazer. She sighed and hung her blazer carefully over the only spare chair in her office before sitting at her desk. As usual, it was piled high with various files and statute books. She pulled out the file for the hearing and reread her notes, making a few additions here and there.

  The defense counsel had filed a motion to suppress evidence and statements made by the defendant. He argued that the consent to search was involuntary because the defendant only had a sixth-grade education. Although that was a valid argument, the defense failed to point out that the defendant had been arrested almost twenty times and knew the procedure better than most rookie cops. He’d been given his Miranda rights, and as far as she could see, the police officers did everything strictly by the book in this case. She doubted the hearing would last more than fifteen minutes.

  She glanced over the case law she’d printed on Friday, making sure she knew the facts of each case by heart. It wasn’t as though this was a life-or-death hearing, but she liked to be prepared. She was still new at this job, only working at Metro for a little over a year. After about twenty minutes, she slipped on her blazer, picked up her files and headed to the courtroom.

  Boggs was standing at the soda machine when she saw Toni leave her office and head off in the opposite direction. She was grinning and her eyes were glued to Toni’s backside.

  “It’s not like you haven’t seen that before,” Sam Clark said, grinning. He reached down and retrieved his Diet Coke from the machine. He popped open the can and took several gulps.

  Boggs didn’t stop looking at Toni until she disappeared around the corner. “Some things never get old,” she replied. She watched her boss take several more gulps of soda before putting another dollar in the machine. She grabbed the next can of Diet Coke as it fell into the slot. “I’ll hold this one for you so you can continue to drink that one while we walk to your office.” She grinned and shook her head. She followed him around the corner to his office, closing the door behind her.

  “What’s up?” Sam finished off the can and tossed it in the nearly full small blue recycle bin next to his desk. He held out his hand for the other soda. He was nearing sixty years old and his gray hair was cropped short. He was a little rotund and had an ever-present smile on his face. He was one of the few veterans of the office that still had an optimistic outlook on life. He was seldom seen without a Diet Coke clutched in his hand.

  Boggs handed him the second soda. “I want to talk to you about Peter,” she began. “Not the usual crap, like he drives me nuts, but I want to know what you really think about him.”

  “Something I should know about?” Sam opened the new can and took another swig before setting it down on his desk.

  “Vicky’s working a serial murder case,” she said, stretching her legs out in front of her. “His van matches the suspect vehicle.”

  “Anything else?” Sam’s face gave away nothing.

  “Aside from the fact that I think he avoids scut work and he barely speaks to me? No. That’s it.”

  Sam dug through some files in his desk drawer. He pulled out one folder and handed it to Boggs. “Here. This is my personnel file on him. Nothing official. If it were anyone but you, I’d tell you to go to hell. But I know you, and you wouldn’t be asking if there wasn’t something there.”

  Boggs took the file. “Thanks, Sam. I appreciate that.”

  “Off the record?” Sam took another slug of his soda.

  “Sure.”

  “I don’t like the guy. He does his job, but only the bare minimum. And I don’t like the way he treats you or some of the attorneys. It’s like he’s better than everyone else. It’s nothing specific, you know. Nothing I could point my finger at and call him on it. But it’s just that underlying attitude that rubs me the wrong way. I feel like he’s rolling his eyes at me when I ask him to do something. He’s not, of course, but it feels like he is. If I had a real reason to fire him, I would.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Boggs said. She glanced at the file on her lap. “I’m going to snoop a little, but nothing out in the open. I’ll let you know what I find out.” She stood to leave. “And by the way, you owe me lunch today. The Chiefs beat the Broncos, in case you missed that.” They regularly bet on football games and the loser had to buy lunch on Monday.

  Sam shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about the taco place?”

  “You’re cheap, but that actually sounds good.” She opened the door. “I’ll stop back by around noon, okay?”

  Sam nodded as he took another gulp of his Diet Coke.

  Toni walked out of the courtroom with a grin on her face. The hearing had gone well and the judge decided that the statements and evidence would not be suppressed. The defense attorney had stopped her before she left and asked for a recommendation and plea agreement. That meant she probably wouldn’t have to prepare for a trial. Toni told him she’d have the agreement e-mailed to him by this afternoon.

  After three detention hearings and six bond hearings, Toni was grateful to return to her office. She grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator in the lunchroom before sitting down at her desk. She hadn’t even opened the bottle of water when the phone rang.

  “There’s a Mr. Hamilton on line three for you,” Chloe said.

  Toni thanked her and grinned. She and Jake Hamilton had been friends since undergrad. He was an architect and had started his own company last year. It was also last year that he finally went public with being gay. Prior to that he’d been rather closeted, fearful that his being gay would prevent him from getting a job at an architectural firm. Now that he had his own firm, he lived with his partner quite openly.

  “Hiya, handsome. Are you calling to RSVP for Thanksgiving?”

  “No, but I will.” He chuckled. “We’ll both be there and we’re bringing raspberry cheesecake and wine. But that isn’t why I called.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I’m in the middle of meetings right across the street from you. I was wondering if you could pop over to Phil’s Deli around eleven thirty for lunch? My treat.”

  She glanced at her calendar and saw she was free until two that afternoon. “I’d love to. I’ll meet you over there.”

  He disconnected without saying anything else and she just smiled. Jake’s happiness over the past year was almost contagious. She was anxious to see him and catch up. She looked at her watch and saw that she had about a half hour before lunch. She popped online and looked for Help Services,the shelter that Charlie Jones ran. She found nothing out of the ordinary and it appeared to be just a normal nonprofit shelter with no religious affiliation.

  “I believe our waitress is flirting with you,” Toni said after their orders had been taken.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “Aside from the fact that I’m so not interested in girls, she has to be what, twelve years old? Don’t you have to be at least sixteen to hold a job? You’re a prosecutor, do something.”

  Toni laughed. “They’re getting younger every day. We were at The Cat’s Meow a while back and I swear an entire junior high school class came in. Jeez.”

  “Okay, on to more important things. Don and I are already planning our annual Christmas party, so you might as well pencil in December twenty-second.”

  Toni and Jake continued talking throughout their meal. The hour passed quickly and Jake had to leave. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer but I’ve got another meeting,” he said. “This has been tons of fun. Next time I’m downtown we have to do this again. And I’m so excited about turkey day. It’s going to be fabulous.”

  They got up to leave and Toni spotted Vicky across the deli. She was sitting at a booth with a man. As they passed by, she and Jake stopped to say hello. Toni introduced Jake, although Vicky already knew him.

  “This is Charlie Jones,” Vicky said, gesturing to the man across the table.

  Toni reached out to sh
ake his hand, as did Jake.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Jake said. “I hate to be rude, but I’m running late for a meeting.” He said goodbye and kissed Toni on the cheek. “See ya later, sweetie.”

  Toni started to leave.

  “Do you have a minute to join us?” Vicky asked.

  Toni glanced at her watch. “Sure, I’ve got a little time.” She slid in the booth next to Vicky.

  “I was telling Charlie that someone with a van like his was seen in a neighborhood where there have been some reports of a Peeping Tom.” She smiled at Toni. “He’s been telling me about his shelter.”

  Toni nodded to Vicky, acknowledging the ruse and turned her attention to Charlie. “What kind of clients do you have there?” Even though she already knew from her research, she didn’t want him to know that.

  “Mostly schizophrenics and a few bipolar types, but we have some that are dealing with developmental disabilities.”

  “Toni used to be a psychotherapist before becoming one of our prosecutors,” Vicky said. “So she knows what you’re talking about.”

  “That’s great,” Charlie said, beaming. “We have a day treatment program for the chronic folks and some structured classes for the others. There’s also an area that houses the ones that are homeless, as long as they’re willing to work.”

  “What kind of staff do you have?” Toni asked.

  “I got my MSW after leaving the department and I run the overall facility. We have four case managers who are all social workers and two master level therapists. We also have a doc that comes in once a week for the meds. What kind of clients did you see?”

  “I mostly worked with adolescents,” Toni said. “Suicidal, homicidal and the gamut of personality disorders.”

  “Gee, that’s tough work,” Charlie said.

  “Not nearly as hard as adult chronics,” Toni said.

  “Do all your staffers have access to the van?” Vicky asked.

  Charlie answered while still looking at Toni. “The staff can take the van out at any time. When no one is using it, the keys are hanging on a nail just outside my office.”