Chapter 3 #2
She sank back, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. She looked around the room. “I don’t know what the hell happened, Debbie,” she wailed, “but I’m not giving up yet.”
She sensed a soft, gentle wind blowing through her space, yet knew it wasn’t real.
When she meditated, she knew to always expect the chance of something much softer, much gentler coming toward her.
So this feeling of a soft, gentle wind was meant to soothe her soul.
However, right now, all she felt was conflict, so harsh and hard to even contemplate that her friend had been murdered.
But then again, her “peaceful” death didn’t make sense either. How did somebody, just thirty-two years old and in her prime, up and die?
People had to die from something, and the doctor saying her heart just stopped wouldn’t cut it, no matter how true it might appear to them.
*
Eric walked into the office, and his partner looked over at him. Cody Kar, while brilliant, was not the most considerate. He was rough around the edges, abrasive even.
“Hey,” Cody greeted him. “Got the preliminary autopsy report on your one case.” He waved a file at him.
“Yeah, I saw it. I called her friend.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that was fun.”
“No, it sure wasn’t. She’s of the opinion that her friend was murdered.”
“She might think that, but that doesn’t mean we have anything to go on to prove such a thing,” Cody pointed out. “With no indication of a clear path to move forward, you and I both know there won’t be funding to continue this case.”
“No, there sure won’t,” Eric conceded, with a nod, “and the department will stick to that.”
“You’re not kidding,” he muttered. “So, barring new information, we need to focus on my case anyway.”
“I know. I can’t even believe the shit we get up to. So, we’ve got some asshole walking into women’s bedrooms, even though they’ve got tight security, raping and murdering them while in their own beds.”
“Not to mention that they are then tucked up way too nice. Safe in a way.”
“And yet not safe apparently,” Eric muttered. They both just looked at each other, frowning, because this was the case everybody hated.
“We have no idea why these individuals were selected. We have no idea if the rapist had some process to his crimes, which we don’t understand yet. No idea about anything really.”
“What about forensics?”
“No forensics either.”
“Figures,” Eric muttered. “How the hell are these guys always getting away without leaving any forensic information behind?” he muttered. “Just a little bit to help us out would be great.”
Cody laughed. “Yeah, just a bit would be great, but you and I both know that a little bit won’t necessarily show up. These cases are getting a little harder every time, it seems.”
Captain Louis interjected, as he walked past, “Which makes us believe that this guy has done this before.”
“Agreed,” Eric muttered, “and that just makes it even more imperative to catch him this time.”
“Yeah, well, where are you at?” A crease formed in the captain’s forehead.
Both Eric and Cody had an idea what was coming if the answers weren’t just right.
Eric began, “We went through all the case files last night.”
Cody added, at his side, “And we talked to the neighbors, who had nothing to say. Basically they heard nothing, saw nothing, and the latest victim wasn’t the kind of person to invite trouble.”
“Nice lady is all you got?”
“She was a teacher, and nobody has any idea why she would have been targeted,” Eric replied, knowing full well that it would piss the hell out of Captain Louis.
Eric continued. “She lived alone, had no enemies, and never caused a ruckus. Nobody would have thought to even worry about her because she was always home, safe and sound.”
“But somebody noticed her,” the captain barked, “and somebody kept an eye on her, and somebody decided that she would suit quite nicely.” The captain’s tone was harsh. “We need to catch that somebody before he turns around and does this all over again.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Cody noted, “but, so far, it’s too early in the investigation to say much of anything about it, Cap.”
Just then Meghan walked by, nodding at him awkwardly. “I’m about to broaden this quite a bit more for you,” she began.
“And how is that?” Cody asked.
“I found similar cases in the last two years.” She turned to Cody. “You did ask me to look.”
“How many?” Cody asked sharply.
“Three.”
“Could be just a coincidence,” Eric suggested, his gaze moving from Cody to Cap, then back at Meghan, and she just shrugged. Eric frowned. “So, are we really thinking this guy has done this at least three other times plus our two open ones and not been caught? How? Why?”
“I don’t know,” she stated, as she stared at him. “That’s for you guys to sort out. All I can tell you is that I went looking for anything potentially connected, like, too clean, and this is what I came up with.” She handed out copies of the files to each of the three men.
Eric glanced through these files and groaned. “That would be really, really shitty if these are all connected.”
“It is possible. They were all young women, all lived alone, and all in town.”
Eric interjected, “But they weren’t all in the same boat, from what I recall.”
“There are a lot of different circumstances,” Meghan pitched in, her tone critical.
“On one, the boyfriend was a very good suspect, which you’ll see when you read the case, but they never could come up with the evidence to charge him.
So, maybe, maybe not.” She half shrugged and pointed. “I think these are all viable.”
“If you think they’re viable,” the captain noted, “then we need to take them seriously. Better get to work reading those cases.” He gave a nod to Eric and Cody.
Eric took the stack of paperwork, walked over to his desk, and sat down. If these three were really connected cases, that was bad news. He looked over at Cody. “How the hell could we have missed all these?”
“If they’re all connected,” Cody replied, frowning, “then it’s not the kind of connections we’re usually looking for. It’s got to be something different.”
“But one was a suspected boyfriend, John Jones—which that name alone always seemed fishy to me—so I remember reading the initial investigation on that case. Plus, his mugshot, with all that facial hair and the messy long hair, made him look as if he was wearing a disguise, don’t you think?
” He frowned as he opened the file in his hand.
“They had a really ugly breakup, and the boyfriend had an alibi, but it was his brother, so nobody really trusted his alibi. Yet they also never found any connection to John Jones. No forensic evidence, no criminal history, no nothing. He’s still got eyes on him periodically and is still considered a suspect. ”
“Okay,” Cody noted, “but being a suspect is nothing. Outside of being in a very shitty situation, it doesn’t prove anything, and it’s not something we can ever take to court.”
“Agreed, and we have absolutely nothing viable to present in court on this current one of mine either,” Eric pointed out. “We have to take another look at each one of these cases. So let’s go back to the beginning and start with fresh eyes.”
He got up, walked over to a large map on the wall, and pulled out a few pins because he needed to see Debbie’s murder in relation to these three rape-murders that may somehow all be connected.
“I know there’s no visible connection but…
Let’s map the locations for Debbie’s death and these three other victims just in case.
Add in the one from six months ago and our new one.
These killers hunt in a certain area and won’t change that, as long as they are still finding victims. Also I’ll set up a whiteboard with these three other cases and their suspects, if any. Let’s see what they have in common.”
It didn’t take long for them to realize that all the cases were committed within a few miles of each other. Including Debbie’s case…
As a matter of fact, it formed a nice, neat, and tidy square when they looked on the map. “Well, crap,” Eric grumbled. “Looking at these cases in this way, it does seem that we have a connection.”
Staring up at the wall, Eric quickly added sticky notes with time of day, age of the female victim, occupation, and the fact that they were or were not in relationships, and that resulted in several more easily identifiable links.
The two detectives stared at it and shook their heads.
Then Eric added pictures of the victims—all young, short-haired brunettes, just like Debbie.
“So, now we can possibly see Debbie as our fourth victim of this same guy. However, no rape was involved here which makes it an anomaly and that’s concerning. ”
“I would agree with that,” Cody stated.
Two other men in the department walked over and took a look. Then the discussion got hot very quickly. They were pretty fired up, their voices raised and faces red, when the captain joined them.
“Okay, so it looks as if we have a serial rapist and killer here,” Louis stated, as he stared at the data. “But why the hell did it take us so long to put that together?”
Eric looked from him to the wall, shaking his head.
He offered, “Because the cases cross different precincts. Only one of these prior rape-murder cases is one we handled. That’s deliberate.
And now the current murder—no rape—on Debbie is a timeline difference.
Each of these are almost a year apart only now they are getting closer in time.
The next one could be only four months away.
Just finding out that we didn’t even know about these others, and now here we are, with potentially a fourth victim, is pissing me off. ”
“Gentlemen, this is a hot mess,” the captain declared, his tone sharp. “Figure out this shit, and be quick about it.”