Obsession (22 page)

“Unfortunately, public opinion determines whether or not you are rising to the occasion.” He studied Dan for a moment. “Can you, without reservation, say that you’re performing at the peak of your ability?” Pratt asked. “That you’re making decisions without bias?”

“If you feel I’m failing in either area—if any of my deputy chiefs or captains or detectives feel I am failing in any way—I suggest you take the appropriate steps.” Dan stood.  “Meanwhile, I have a job to do.”

Before Dan reached the door, Pratt asked one last question. “What about Agent Harris?”

Dan turned back to ensure there was no misunderstanding. “If she goes, I go.”

“And if the attention the media deluges on her puts her in danger, now that Spears is free, is of no consequence to you?”

Fear trickled past the anger. Dan refused to validate that ridiculous question with a response. He would protect Jess.

He walked out the door. 

The mayor could play his power games with someone else.

~*~

BPD Conference Room, 6:17 p.m.

“Tate Murray was killed in a car crash three years ago this past May,” Wells read from the notes she had collected. “He was on his way to school for a seniors’ meeting the day before graduation.”

Jess studied the notes and photos posted along the timeline on the case board. “Was a cause listed for the accident?”

She couldn’t get the connection between him and the latest disappearance out of her head. But the poor boy was dead. His parents could be seeking some sort of belated revenge. But why now? And why these five girls? Then again, their only connection seemed to be to the latest victim. The boy’s name was Tate, not Tim, which would seem to eliminate any link to the texts Reanne had received.

Neither Amy Porter nor Dana’s parents believed for one second that Dana was or ever had been suicidal. A text from Jess as she and Burnett had left Warrior, had gotten Griggs in touch with both parties. Though Jess would have preferred to do the follow-up interview herself, Burnett’s command performance at the mayor’s office had precluded the possibility.

Since her arrival back here, Detectives Wells and Harper had been bringing her up to speed on the leads she had asked them to follow up on. Now, with Harper settled at the conference table finalizing calls, Wells hovered at the case board with Jess. She felt confident she looked as tired as the two of them. No one was getting any sleep to speak of. The faces of these girls haunted Jess’s dreams. That last text she’d gotten from Spears added another layer of apprehension. Not to mention the incident with Burnett and then Sullivan disappearing.

Jesus Christ, she needed a break.

“He was the passenger in a Honda Civic with a friend, fellow basketball teammate Josh Sever,” Wells recounted. “Sever attempted to pass a farm tractor and hit an SUV head on. Sever survived for a few hours, but he died as well.”

Jess elbowed aside all the other troubling thoughts and focused on this longshot of a lead. “Did the Murrays sue?”

“There’s no record of a lawsuit. Sever’s insurance company may have paid the family a settlement to preclude that kind of action.”

Jess tapped her pencil against her chin. If the parents had held a grudge about their son’s death, it would surely have been against the driver of the car. And the driver was dead. There was just no logical reason to add the Murrays into the scattered pieces of this puzzle that refused to click together. Except for the therapist and Dana.

And the idea that there was nothing logical about any of the disappearances.

“Still no word from Sullivan’s attorney? No sign of her or the white Taurus?”

“Nothing on Sullivan. Williams’s secretary insists he’s out of the office and unreachable.”

“I don’t know why I’m surprised.” Jess turned away from the frustrating board. “He’s probably out looking for her.” Hoping that whatever happens doesn’t come back to bite his reputation in the ass.

That Sullivan was still unaccounted for was not a good sign. Damn it. What had the woman been thinking? Where the hell was she?

“Ma’am,” Sergeant Harper placed his cell phone on the table, “that was the last name on the list of blue Ford trucks, 1969 to 1974.”

“All one hundred three?” She was impressed. Harper had set out to contact every owner to determine the driver of the vehicle as well as its whereabouts.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She winced, tried to cover it with a smile. “Let me guess, not a single one ties to any of our missing girls or their families, friends, or whatever.”

“That would be an affirmative.”

Damn it! Was one little break too much to ask for?

“Jess.”

She turned to Wells. Finally, the younger woman had broken through the formality barrier. Now if Jess could just convince Harper to stop calling her ma’am.

“You have something else?” They’d gone over new input from family and friends—which was nothing. They’d reviewed call logs from all relevant phones, cell and landlines, yet again. No usable evidence had been found in the Parsons’ home, on the note to Reanne her friend had kept or in Dana’s car. They had nothing.

“Here’s the information on that
other
phone contact.”

Wells was referring to the text messages Jess had received. The air stalled in her lungs. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and stepped closer. “Let’s see what you have.”

Wells opened a manila file folder that was empty. Jess smiled. She was learning fast. “What does that mean?” Jess pointed to a nonexistent note.

“It’s a prepaid phone,” Wells said “It was registered under a stolen ID.” She covertly pointed to Jess.

The bastard got a prepaid phone in her name!

“No harm done,” Wells hastened to assure her. “Just the made up name and a nonexistent address.”

“Thank you, detective.” Jess added the number to her contact list and labeled it
Tormenter
. There were numerous other labels she could use, scumbag, snake, bastard, et cetera…but there really was no one moniker that defined the kind of evil Spears represented.

“Lori.”

Jess snapped back to attention. “I’m sorry…what?” She shook off the fog to of distraction. “Of course, Lori.”

“Chet,” Harper piped up from his seat at the conference table.

Jess nodded. “Chet, why don’t you call me Jess?” Every time he called her ma’am she felt twenty years older.

Harper shook his head. “I can’t do that, ma’am, my grandmother would roll over in her grave.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Jess’s mouth. “We can’t have that.”

“Wells.”

Jess glanced at Lori who stepped to the far side of the room to take a call. While they were on the whole let’s-get-personal kick, why not go all the way? She strolled over to the conference table.

“Chet, are you married? Children?” There hadn’t been an opportunity to get to know each other beyond name and rank. Besides, she was curious after the interaction she’d seen between these two at the prayer service.

The look he cut in Lori’s direction before he answered spoke volumes. “I’ve been divorced for two years and I have a three year old son.” A smile touched his lips. “His name is David Chester, after both me and my father.”

Chet was short for Chester. “Marriage seems to be a casualty of this profession.” She could vouch for that. As could Burnett.

“Yes, ma’am.” Another of those covert glances at Lori.

This time, Jess openly followed his gaze. “Lori has never been married, has she?”

“No, ma’am. She says her career is her top priority right now.”

Do tell. “Speaking from the voice of experience,” Jess said, “time has a way of slipping through your fingers.” She leaned down and said for his ears only, “Don’t give up. She won’t hold out much longer.”

Jess had noticed how Lori looked at him. These two were in deeper than one or both comprehended.

Chet adopted a confused expression.

Jess lifted a skeptical eyebrow.

He cleared this throat, admitting defeat. “Yes, ma’am.”

The door opened and Burnett walked in. He looked no worse for the wear after his meeting with the mayor. Maybe it went more smoothly than he’d anticipated. Either way, wasting time in the waiting room had been out of the question. She and the detectives had accomplished a lot in the last hour or so.

Since he stood there not giving her jack, she demanded, “Well?”

He slid his hands into his trouser pockets and shrugged. “I still have a job. And we still have our task force.”

Which meant the mayor hadn’t mandated that he send Jess packing. Not that she had been all that worried. It was a free country. He couldn’t make her leave town. She felt confident that Harper and Wells—Chet and Lori—would have continued to work with her either way.

“Great.” Jess gathered her notes and stuffed them into her bag. “I guess that’s all we can get done today.”

“Would you like me to continue attempting to get in touch with Williams?” Lori asked.

Jess thought about that a moment. “If Chet,” she turned to him, “wouldn’t mind following up on Williams, I have another task for you, Lori.”

“Works for me,” Chet confirmed.

“Great. Lori, I’d really like you to see what else you can dig up on the Murray family. Particularly the son. Did he have any friends other than Sever who might have decided to avenge his death at this late date?”

The idea didn’t even fit into the category of longshot, but the Murray scenario just wouldn’t stay out of Jess’s head. “I just want to be sure we aren’t missing anything on these folks.” Good God. She’d given up completely on slowing her digression into her old speech patterns.

“Patterson called me on the way over here,” Burnett said. “One of Reanne’s coworkers remembers seeing a blue truck, older looking, driving past the sandwich shop several times during those last few days before Reanne went missing.” He checked his cell. “The guy’s name is Jarod Rimes. He takes his smoke breaks in the parking lot.”

“I’ll cover that one,” Chet offered.

Confirming that piece of information could make a difference. Too bad the sandwich shop didn’t have video surveillance. Someone had hand delivered those notes to Reanne. “You still have those truck photos so you can see if what he means by older and what we mean are one in the same?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good deal.” Jess loaded her bag onto her shoulder. “Let me know if anything pans out or comes up.”

She was ready for a long, hot soak in Katherine’s glamorous bubble tub. Maybe she’d pilfer through the wine selection and do a little more reorganizing. Jess really shouldn’t get so much glee from the idea.

“Good night, Lori. Chet.”

Jess exited the conference room. She didn’t slow to wait for Burnett. The sooner she got through the horde outside the happier she would be. She stopped at the elevator and pressed the down button.

Burnett came up beside her. “Chet and Lori? Really?”

Jess laughed. “Really.” The doors opened and she stepped inside.

Burnett tapped the button for the lobby and waited for the doors to close.

“They’re still out there in full force,” he warned.

Jess leaned against the wall at the back of the elevator car. “My mother had a saying,
when they’re talking about me, they’re letting someone else rest
.”

The car bumped to a stop on the 2
^nd
floor. An alarm sounded.

Jess straightened, realized that the stop had been triggered by her companion. “Why’d you do that?”

He closed in on her. The intensity on his face made her breath catch. Before she could repeat her question, he moved even nearer, braced his hands against the wall on either side of her.

“Listen to me, Jess.”

She flattened her back into the wall but the move didn’t help. He was still way too close. That same heat that had ignited between them in the wee hours of the morning blazed.

“I don’t care what those reporters out there say or do. I don’t care what the mayor says or does.”

“Did he say something I should know?”

It was difficult to concentrate on the mayor or anything else with Burnett practically on top of her. That subtle aftershave he’d worn since he used his first razor made her unsteady on her feet. The fervency in his eyes scared her almost as much as it drove her body temperature higher and higher.

“He made one point that I should have considered with far more gravity.”

“Whatever it was,” her voice quivered just a little, damn it, “I’m certain it wasn’t as important as all that. Relax, Burnett. We’re doing all we can and—”

“With Spears out, your safety is compromised. I haven’t taken the proper steps to ensure he can’t get to you.”

“You hardly let me out of your sight. You slept right down the hall from me last night.” She shook her head as if the idea were ridiculous. “Like I told you, I can protect myself.” 

“That isn’t enough.”

Instead of calming down, his tension visibly mounted.

The text messages
. Fury belted Jess. And she thought she could trust Wells. See if she called her Lori anymore. “Detective Wells had no business telling you—”

His expression changed to one of suspicion. “What about Wells?”

Crap
. “She wasn’t supposed to tell you that I asked her to do a little digging around in Andrea’s father’s background.” She hadn’t but it wasn’t a bad idea. Then again, she imagined he’d already done that.

The elevator alarm sounded again.

“Security is going to be calling Fire and Rescue if we keep this elevator stopped any longer.”

His suspicion turned to something along the lines of cockiness. “That’s funny. Wells had already taken care of that for me since I felt I couldn’t be objective.”

“That is funny.” The problem was, he wasn’t laughing.

“What are you hiding from me, Jess?”

“Is there a problem, chief?” A deep male voice rattled over the elevator speaker.

“No problem,” Burnett answered without moving. “We need a few more minutes.”

“Yes, sir.”

He leveled the full brunt of his impatience on her. “Tell me now or I will get the answer from Wells.”