by Rick Reed
Fortunately, she had one good friend in Dugger, Rosie Benton. She and Rosie were friends since grade school and had kept in touch over those years away from home. Rosie had agreed to let Penelope stay with her while Shaunda attended the Police Academy. During that time Pen had made a best friend, Patty Burris, the driver here.
Yesterday evening when Shaunda got the panicked call from Joey saying his wife was having the baby she’d called Pen’s bestie to come and spend the night. Patty said she was tied up. Now she knew why Patty was tied up.
Shaunda leaned in the driver’s side window and shone her flashlight around the front and back. “You might want to zip up before you get out of the car,” Shaunda said to Brandon.
Patty’s face turned red. “I’m sorry Mrs. Lynch.”
Not as sorry as you will be if you get pregnant.
“Brandon,” she said to the boy. “I’d ask you what’s up, but it’s a little obvious.”
“Hello Chief,” Brandon said, and yanked at his zipper. “What are you doing out this early in the morning?”
Shaunda kept her expression neutral. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“We were just talking Mrs. Lynch,” Patty said. “Honest.”
Brandon didn’t try to hide his grin. “Yeah Chief. Just talking.”
Shaunda didn’t need to ask if his mother knew where he was or who he was with. Brandon’s father died six years ago while working for Black Beauty Coal and Claire had had little control over the nineteen-year-old. Claire had given him everything and in return he gave her problems. Shaunda wondered when he’d get killed by some girl’s father or go to prison.
“Patty, does your mom know where you are?”
Patty’s head bobbed up and down, then side to side. “I told mom but she might have been asleep. You won’t call her will you Mrs. Lynch.”
“Patty, for starters, when you see me in uniform I’m Chief Lynch, not Mrs. Lynch. No, I’m not going to tell your mother. You are. What would happen if she knew about this?” Patty was an only child too and her mother worked two jobs to make ends meet even with what Shaunda paid Patty for helping with Pen.
Patty didn’t answer but Brandon slumped in the seat and groaned. Shaunda said to him, “Brandon, I swear if you say anything to piss me off I’ll tow the car and lock you up for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I’ll give you Patty’s ticket for reckless driving and no headlights. You’re the one that put an unlicensed driver behind the wheel.”
The real reason Shaunda wasn’t burying him in traffic citations was because Claire would be the one paying them, not Brandon as he never had a job. Plus, she wanted to keep Patty from getting caught up in the same old groups of bad boys that were in every high school. With teenagers if you told them no, they did just the opposite. Unfortunately, some girls had to learn life’s lessons the hard way. She had.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Shaunda said. “Patty, you get in the Tahoe. Brandon you go straight home and don’t sass me. Claire won’t be able to help you if you get on my bad side. Got it?”
Patty literally jumped out of the Jeep’s door and climbed into the chief’s Tahoe. Brandon scooted over the console and plopped into the driver’s seat. “Can I go now Chief Constable Lynch?” he asked in a mocking voice that only a hoodlum teenager can perfect.
“Brandon, I don’t have to tell you how dangerous those places are.” Brandon’s father had died in a mine cave-in.
Brandon said nothing. He stared straight ahead with one foot on the brake and one goosing the gas.
She slapped the roof of the Jeep and said, “Get out of here. No more warnings.”
The Jeep disappeared down the road and turned back toward Main Street. When it was out of sight Shaunda heard the engine gunning flat out. She let that go and got back in the Tahoe. Patty was sitting stiff as a board, her eyes locked onto the dash mounted shotgun.
“I keep that for skunks,” Shaunda said. “Like that one.”
Patty’s hand went to her mouth and she giggled.
“What were you thinking girl?”
Patty was silent and embarrassed but she was at that age of natural defiance. Sixteen was hard for a girl. Not a woman, not a child, adventurous, afraid of many things, trying not to disappoint, an overriding need to discover what life had to offer. In other words, vulnerable and capable of great hurt and great kindness and love. It was almost time for momma bird to shove Patty out of the nest. She made a mental note to have a sit down with Patty’s mom.
“Patty, you know I appreciate everything you do for me. I appreciate how you treat Pen and watch out for her.” Penelope was sixteen, wheelchair bound from the age of eight. Shaunda homeschooled her and Patty was reliable when she couldn’t be home—except for last night. Because Joey was at the hospital with his wife, Shaunda had taken his shift and Pen had spent the better part of the evening and overnight by herself. Shaunda checked in from time to time. “I know I rely on you more than I should. Most girls your age wouldn’t be gentle and patient and helpful and trustworthy. If you need more space I’ll understand. If you need more money I can understand that, too. I can tell you one thing, you need to stay away from that boy. He’s nothing but trouble. He’ll hurt you.”
Patty’s eyes welled up and silent tears ran down both cheeks.
Shaunda got a few tissues from the console and gave them to her. “It’s better to cry now than have regrets later. Trust me on this.”
“I’m sorry Chief Lynch. I’m sorry if I let you down. I thought he really liked me. I can’t believe how that jerk acted.”
“Did he do something to you Patty?”
She didn’t answer.
Patty was wearing a thin red sweater over a button-down shirt and blue jeans. Shaunda turned on the dome light and said, “Fix your shirt.”
Patty re-buttoned her shirt and Shaunda saw a button was missing at the top. Patty’s throat was an angry red color. A red Shaunda was all too familiar with. Brandon had choked her.
“Answer me Patty. Did he hurt you?”
Patty covered her face and sobbed until she was literally shivering.
“That little bastard,” Shaunda said through clenched teeth and threw the Tahoe into gear but Patty grabbed her arm.
“Don’t, Mrs. Lynch. He didn’t…he didn’t get that far. I don’t want to see him again. I can’t see him again…”
Shaunda put the Tahoe back into park. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out before saying, “Take your time hon. Whatever you tell me is between us unless I have to beat the little rat into cat chow.”
Patty snickered through her tears but remained silent with the tissue hiding her eyes. “He wanted me to…to…and when I wouldn’t he said I was the ugliest girl in school and I should be honored that he wanted me. He said the other girls would be jealous. I laughed at him and told him he was pathetic and that’s when he…”
Shaunda waited for Patty to finish without interrupting. She had a knot in her stomach and the rage in her heart was like a living thing.
“He grabbed my throat and pushed me against the door and started feeling me all over. I tried to fight but he was too strong. Then he just stopped and told me to get out and shoved me out of the Jeep. I was afraid he was going to do it right there. Instead, he told me to get in and drive and I’d better not get caught or he’d have me arrested for stealing his car. When you stopped the Jeep, I wanted to tell you but he said I’d be arrested ‘cause I didn’t have a license. I was scared my mom would find out. I’m sorry.”
Shaunda knew two things. One, Patty was young and didn’t realize what Brandon was. A sick monster. Two, Brandon had put her behind the wheel. He was the one responsible. He knew his mom would protect him and he wanted to humiliate Patty because she wouldn’t put out.
Shaunda suddenly felt old. She had put a heavy responsibility on a sixteen-year-o
ld. Patty wasn’t family but Shaunda had tried to put her in that role because she needed help, she needed family to help with her daughter, be a friend to Pen. It was partly her fault that Patty had made such a bad choice in the first place. Patty would want to date. Go to parties. Have other friends. How could she do that when she was always being asked to come and basically babysit? Shaunda knew she’d have to find some way to give Patty a break, take that responsibility off her shoulders and let her just be a friend. She wasn’t sure how she would do it but she had to try.
She’d start by apologizing to Patty’s mom for all the long hours she’d needed Patty to come and sit with Pen. The mother needed the money, and she was gone a lot, but if anything happened to Patty it would kill her and Shaunda would never forgive herself.
“I’ll take you home, but I need you to be truthful with me. If he did anything I need to take you by the hospital and have you checked.”
“Nothing happened, Mrs. Lynch. I’m being honest.”
Shaunda put the Tahoe in drive and pulled away from the curb. She believed her.
“Are you going to tell my mom?”
Shaunda glanced over at the girl. She remembered Patty, the eleven-year-old she’d met in the grocery store. Pen was in the wheelchair by then and headstrong, wanting to do everything by herself. Pen wanted a box of Hostess cupcakes but there was very little money in the food budget back then. When she’d looked up Pen was gone. Shaunda had searched every aisle calling her daughter’s name and then she heard giggling. She found Pen and another girl her age in the book aisle looking at a teen magazine. She couldn’t remember when she’d seen her daughter so happy, or comfortable, with another person of her age. The two had hit it off immediately and became besties. Patty’s mom was strict. She could just imagine what the girl would go through when they got there.
“Patty, I’m going to let you decide what to tell her. If you’re positive he didn’t do anything, and I mean any sexual contact, I’ll let you off near your house. It’s always better not to lie,” she said, lying herself.
Patty was quiet for the remainder of the trip but when they neared her home she said, “I’m not going to tell her. You know how she is. She’d get into it with his mom and she hardly has time for anything now. I’m not hurt.”
Shaunda pulled to the shoulder down the lane from Patty’s home. The Burrises lived less than a mile from Shaunda separated by farm fields. Patty opened the Tahoe door and then came across the seat and hugged Shaunda. “Thanks Mrs. Lynch. Please don’t tell Pen. I’ll tell her if I can work up the nerve.”
“Go on. Get out of here already,” Shaunda said and Patty got out, shut the door, and walked toward the back of her house.
Shaunda watched until Patty was out of sight, then put the Tahoe in gear and pulled back onto the gravel lane. She was dead tired, but her morning wasn’t quite over yet. She had a meeting with King Jerrell this afternoon for his nonsense task force and she had one or two things to do before she got to bed. Thirty minutes tops, then home, skip breakfast and get some sleep.
Chapter 4
Angelina Garcia was in her mid-twenties, with skin the color of yellow coal, dark thick hair pulled back in a ponytail, and dark eyes. She started her career as a part time temporary civilian IT person for the Evansville Police Department, fixing glitches in the data systems that linked EPD to other law enforcement agencies in the state and federal databases. What she had really longed for was to become a detective. But after seeing the result of some investigations, the body count, the damage done to victims, suspects, and policemen alike, she decided that her five feet three frame could be put to better use.
She came to Jack’s attention early in her work for the EPD when he was searching for a serial killer who was using nursery rhymes to select his victims; all children. She had proven herself invaluable in finding the pattern that led Jack to the killer. This, in turn, brought her to the attention of the Chief of Police. Suddenly she was a full-time employee working with computers to crime map the city. Her expertise soon was in demand and she was assigned wherever needed.
She met her husband, Sheriff Mark Crowley of Dubois County, while working on the Mother Goose case, married, semiretired, and had started working on a consulting basis with the Evansville Police Department. Next, she established her own cyber security and consulting company.
She had recently helped Jack and Liddell when they became involved in a human trafficking ring in Liddell’s hometown of Plaquemine, Louisiana. Her work on that case brought her to the attention of the FBI, ICE, DEA, ATF and DHS. The government loved their initials. She wondered why there were always three letters.
She became somewhat of a legendary computer mercenary and straddled a fine line between legal, ethical, moral, and Angelina’s way of doing things.
“Pay up,” Jack said holding his hand out and Liddell put a twenty dollar bill in it. Jack looked at her and said, “When we were told to come to the chief’s office I bet him you were involved somehow.”
“You’re smarter than you look,” Angelina said. “Is Double, erm, is Deputy Chief Dick going to be involved in this? I ran into him in the hall.”
“He’s not,” Toomey said and the mood in the room brightened considerably. “Thanks for coming in, Angelina.”
“Anything’s better than sitting at home watching Mark try to put together a crib and changing table using directions that are barely in Chinese,” she said and patted her stomach.
Liddell sidled up to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “You’re just starting to show. Four more months to go. Do you think Mark will have the baby’s room together by then?”
Angelina laughed and looked down at herself. “What was I thinking? I couldn’t keep anything down for two months and now I can’t stop eating. Do you think I’m getting fat? How did Marcie do it?”
Liddell said, “I ate things before she could.”
Angelina smirked. “Yeah. Watching you eat would do it.”
Toomey said, “A few weeks ago I asked Angelina to find a way to simplify our online searches. That girl could teach NASA a couple of things. She went me one better. She created a new search engine and was test-driving it when she stumbled across the things that got you here. I don’t know how this thing Angelina created works. I’ll let her tell you.”
They all took seats again and Angelina set a stack of manila folders on the conference room table.
“I created an algorithm that searches social media, posts, newspapers, television, radio, motor vehicle records, police reports, marriage, divorce, lawsuits, courts, traffic cameras, any surveillance cameras connected to the Internet and some other stuff you don’t need to know about.”
Jack interpreted that as meaning she was illegally hacking government and justice department servers, satellites, and whatnot. If he didn’t know he wouldn’t have to testify in a Senate hearing.
“Bottom line, I can search by key words looking for just about anything or anyone. My system knows all the jurisdictional boundaries connected to the information. I haven’t included all the satellites in the package yet. I would need some kind of permission according to the FBI.”
Jack could tell she was lying about the satellites.
Liddell said, “Can you repeat the part after ‘I created an algorithm’?”
Jack said, “Ignore him.”
“I always do,” Angelina said. “Anyway, I started with something simple to test my system. I searched for unsolved murders in Indiana. Then I searched active missing persons in Indiana. There was a concentration of hits in Greene County and Sullivan County. I’m still tweaking the data. I linked in VICAP—the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program—and insurance company and medical records and found some other interesting similarities. Then I…”
“I’m going comatose here, Angelina,” Jack said. “Just give me the bottom line.”
“In Englis
h. I kept making connections. I expanded the search to include Kentucky and Illinois and got a hit in Illinois similar to the Indiana cases. There were two in Kentucky but the autopsies ruled them out.
“I triple checked my data by calling the investigating agencies and getting hard copies of records. That was how I got involved with Chief Jerrell at the Linton Police Department. I told him some of what I thought I knew and he got excited. He told me the one case I had was his son’s murder. He said he had launched his own investigation. He’d come across some of the cases I was looking through during his own research and was setting up a small task force. He asked me if I would work with his task force. I told him I was on contract with the FBI. He offered to hire me out of his own pocket. I called Director Toomey because I thought it might be a good opportunity to give my program a test run.”
Toomey picked up the story. “I called Chief Jerrell and told him Angelina wasn’t a tool we loaned out. In any case, the FBI is paying her to develop the software. She can’t use it until we’re done testing and approving it. Jerrell was—is convinced Angelina is on to something.”
Jack held his hand out for a file.
“I told you they’d be interested,” Angelina said and handed case file folders to everyone.
“Five victims in a seven year period,” she said. “All in March. All male. Four white. One black. All would be thirty to thirty-one years old now. Except the Illinois victim, Clint Baker, who would be forty.”
She had everyone’s attention.
“Seven years ago, in early March, Clint Baker was found in a muddy wash along the Illinois side of the Wabash River. Near Hutsonville, Illinois, where he lived. His body was found five miles from his home. He was naked, clothes on the shore, empty tequila bottle by the clothes. His wallet and cell phone were with the clothes. His car was found in the driveway at his house five miles away. Police thought he got drunk, walked away from his house, walked or fell into the water and drowned. Drugs and alcohol were involved so it was ruled an accidental death by drowning.”
