A Killer's Watch (5 page)

“According to the police report, her mother thought she was studying
at a friend’s house, and subsequently spent the night there as well. No one
knew that she was missing until she didn’t come home after school today.”

“Pretty typical teenage stunt,” Jeri commented. “Did she go
to the club alone?”

“No, her friend, Sandra Hunt, met her there, then left
before she did. Police found her car at the club, but no sign of a struggle, or
of Allison.”

“Looks like we’re about thirty minutes away,” Ethan told
him. “Let us know if you hear anything else.”

“Yep,” Dylan answered, then paused. “My gut is telling me
that this is our guy. Two girls, same age range, missing within days of each
other can’t be a coincidence.”

“Nope, it’s no coincidence,” Jeri agreed. “I’m with you,
he’s moved on to his primary targets now.”

“Any luck tracking the convicted pedophiles in the area?”
Dylan asked, hopefully.

“Not yet. There are a few we haven’t spoken with in Iowa,
but so far, everyone has an alibi. Same goes for the Kansas pervs Monique and
Chloe have interviewed.” Ethan programmed the Well’s address into the
navigational system as he spoke.

“It’s entirely possible that he’s not in the system, that
these are his first kills,” Jeri added.

“These may not be his first kills, but you can bet that he
didn’t just wake up last week and decide that he liked teenage girls. I’ll run
a search for misdemeanor crimes, like peeping toms and such, which fit the
profile. May end up giving you guys more legwork, but it could pay off.”

“At this point, we’ll take what we can get. Thanks, Dylan.”

“No problem. I’ll be in touch.”

“Two girls in two days, this guy is not wasting any time,”
Ethan commented as he turned the car around. “If he’s holding them both, he’ll
need privacy as well as room to have his fun.”

“Didn’t you say that Anson frequently used abandoned warehouses
as kill rooms? In the Bayou, and Charleston, he upgraded to private homes. So,
I suppose his watcher would follow suit.”

“Yes, warehouses, abandoned buildings of any kind, really.
It wasn’t until he came to the States that he started buying houses for the
kills.”

“With the amount of farmland in the area, old buildings are
plentiful. So are homes with acres of privacy. He could be anywhere,” Jeri
tapped her fingers on the armrest.

“Until we have a better handle on his home base, there’s no
use in searching for his location, which could be a serious waste of time.”

“Agreed. I hate to say it, but we’ll know more when he dumps
another body.” Shades of disgust colored Jeri’s words.

“What are the odds he’ll go back to Clevestone?  I mean, he
has to know that the locals are on high alert for anything suspicious.”

“That may be true, but there are plenty of back roads, and
stretches of empty highway, in and around Clevestone, that he could dump the
body with little risk.”

“Still, it will be telling if he continues to use
Clevestone.”

“Yes, it will,” Jeri flipped open her tablet. “Going under
the assumption that the first two women were practice kills, I’m eliminating
Topeka from the triangulation. Using Clevestone and Marsville, in Kansas,
Smathers in Nebraska, and Appleton in Iowa, we can pinpoint a more accurate
location for his home base.”

Drawing lines between the towns on her tablet, Jeri
pinpointed a section of
Kansas, near the Iowa
border.

“We’ll focus the search for known pedophiles, as well as misdemeanors
relating to the crimes, to a twenty
-
mile radius
around Breville, Kansas.”

“Never heard of it,” Ethan commented.

“Neither have I, but it’s as good a place to start as any,”
Jeri told him. “We have to find common ground between the missing girls. How is
he targeting them? What do they have in common?”

“They’re both teenagers, for one. Don’t they all do the same
things, like thrive on social media, shop, and go to school?”

“Social media. That’s where we start. Shelby Torrent had a
laptop in her room, and her mom said that she has a smart phone, which is
missing. Odds are good that Allison has the same. Our perp could be finding
them online, if they visit the same chat rooms, websites, whatever. I’ll get
Anna on it,” Jeri grabbed her phone, sent a lengthy text to Anna.

“Surely the police are already on this, at least for the
individual girls. Now that we have a likely second victim, similarities can
begin to surface.”

“I doubt that the cops are even considering that these two
cases are connected. We’ll find the similarities before they even know to
look.”

“True. Why don’t you call Monique, give her an update. She
and Chloe can head over to Breville, start working on the list Anna compiles.”

“There’s no shortage of perverts to check out, that’s for
certain,” Jeri glanced up before making the call. “We need a break in this
case, if Shelby or Allison have a prayer for survival.”

~~~

“Do you mind if we take a look in Allison’s room?” Jeri
asked Trudy Wells. The woman’s attempts to be stoic were interrupted by
frequent bouts of hysteria. Jeri waited for a calm moment, before making her
request.

“Of course, but the police have already been there. They
took her laptop, and her diary. Allison will hate that!” Tears began to well
again.

“Allison will be grateful, if those things help us find
her,” Jeri tried to sound reassuring.

“Yes, yes, that’s a good way to look at it. Right this way.”
Stoic once again, Trudy led Jeri and Ethan up the stairs and down a short
hallway. The door to Allison’s room stood open.

“I just can’t, not yet, but you go ahead,” Trudy told them,
hesitating near the doorway.

“Of course, thank you,” Jeri replied, sympathetically. “We
won’t be long.”

The bed was missing a canopy, and mint green, not pink, was
the primary color, but save those exceptions, Allison’s room was eerily similar
to Shelby’s. Both girls embraced their femininity, had crushes on the same
stars, and had a desk, surely meant for studying, but currently covered in more
knick-knacks than books. The space where Allison’s laptop sat was obvious, as
it was the only clear spot on the desktop.

Ethan headed for the desk while Jeri moved to the closet.
Opening the door, she was surprised to find a girl, sitting in the middle of
the closet floor, surrounded by discarded clothes, crying her eyes out.

“Hi,” Jeri said softly, kneeling down to speak with her.

“It’s all my fault,” the girl wailed, grabbing onto Jeri’s
arm.

“What’s your fault,” Jeri kept her voice soft and soothing
as she sat beside the girl.

“Allison is gone, and it’s all my fault. I left her at the
c-c-c-club,” the girl hiccupped the response through a barrage of tears.

“You must be Sandy, Allison’s best friend,” Jeri patted the
girl’s arm as she spoke.

Sandy nodded, then covered her face with both hands.

“Some best friend,” she cried. “I left her there. I knew
better, but I did it anyway. Now she’s gone…”

“Sandy, listen to me,” Jeri kept her voice stern, but
steady. “It is
not
your fault that Allison is missing. But I could use
your help to find her. Do you think you can do that? Can you help me?”

Lowering her hands, Sandy looked at Jeri, long and hard,
while the tears slowed.

“How?” she finally asked.

“By talking to me. By telling me everything you remember
about last night, and everything you know about Allison’s life. What do you
say, will you help us?” Jeri sensed Ethan’s presence in the doorway, but
Sandy’s eyes widening
,
as she looked up
,
clinched the fact that he had joined them.

“I’m Jeri, that’s Ethan. We want to find Allison, but we
need information. Information that you might have.”

“Sure, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” Sandy had
not looked away from Ethan. Jeri could hardly blame her.

“Good. Can we go downstairs, talk in the living room?”

“Sure,” Sandy replied, then stopped. “Umm, maybe we should
talk in here. I don’t want to get Allison in trouble with her mom,” she
whispered.

“Okay, we can talk in here,” Jeri whispered back. “First,
why don’t you tell us about the club? Had you been there before, you and
Allison?”

“Yes, we go just about every weekend. Last night was the
first time we went on a school night. We had to sneak out,” she dropped her
voice, as if that were still some kind of secret.

“Okay, so you went out without permission. No big deal,
we’ve all done it. What time did you get there?”

“Around seven-thirty. We were supposed to ride together, but
Allison changed her mind at the last minute. She told me to go ahead, and that
she would meet me in the parking lot. She was only about ten minutes late,” Sandy
frowned, wishing she had waited for her friend.

“So, you meet in the parking lot, walk in together, right?”

“Yes. It was packed, but we found a table.”

“Were you drinking?”

“No, not the way you mean. The club doesn’t serve alcohol,
not at all. That’s one reason our parents let us go on the weekends. It’s
mostly just dancing, and, you know, meeting up with friends.”

“Okay, I get it. Good, clean fun, right?”

“Right.” Sandy looked between Jeri and Ethan, grateful that
they understood.

“Did you dance?”

“What? No, not last night. We basically hung around, waiting
for Trey to show up, which he never did. Allison was all dressed up…” she
stopped, not wanting to rat out her friend.

“Trey is Allison’s boyfriend?” Jeri asked softly.

“No, but she likes him. They talk, every now and then, in
school. He’s older, a senior. She was hoping he would notice her last night.”

“And you’re sure he never came?”

“Well, he wasn’t there by the time I left, around
ten-thirty. Allison wanted to wait for him a little longer, but I had to leave.
My curfew’s earlier than hers.”

“Did anyone else pay attention to you, or to Allison?”

“Not really. A few boys asked Allison to dance, but she
wasn’t interested. She really wanted to see Trey.”

“Think back, was there anyone older, hanging around, or
watching you guys? Was there anyone outside, when you left?”

Sandy thought hard about the questions, but shook her head.

“No, the crowd was a little older last night, but no one
bothered us. And I didn’t see anyone when I left, except for a few kids smoking.”

“Did you notice anyone hanging around in the parking lot?”

“No, and I looked. I was so careful, I even made Allison
stay on the phone with me while I walked to the car.”

“That was smart,” Jeri said, approvingly. “And it tells us
that Allison definitely had her phone, in the club.”

“Oh, yeah. She always has her phone,” Sandy’s eyes started
to well up with tears again. “That’s why I was so worried today, when she
didn’t come to school, and she didn’t answer my calls, or my texts. It’s why I
came straight over, after school.”

“That was a big help, I’m sure,” Jeri told her. “Tell me
what else you and Allison like to do, besides go to the club.”

“We both ride horses, and we like going to the movies, but
who doesn’t? And we go ice skating, but not as much as we used to. Since
Allison got a crush on Trey, we sort of go wherever he might be.” Sandy looked
down at her hands.

“How do you know where to find him?” Jeri asked, no hint of
judgment.

“We follow him on Instagram, and Twitter.”

Stalking in the twenty-first century, Jeri thought, but
didn’t say.

“Is that why you thought he would be at the club last
night?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t.”

“Can you think of anything else that might be helpful? Has
anyone been texting Allison, or calling her, anyone that made her uncomfortable?”

“No, not that I know of, and she would tell me something
like that.” Sandy
started to cry again.

“You’ve been a great help, Sandy, thank you. If you remember
anything else about last night, or anything at all, no matter how small, call
me.” Jeri pressed a card into the girl’s hand.

“There was something, but I don’t think it means anything,” Sandy’s
brows drew together in a frown. “Allison told me that she felt like someone was
watching her.”

“Watching her? Where?”

“Here, in her bedroom. She started keeping her shades
closed, even in the daytime, but she still felt like someone could see her.”

“Did she only feel that way here, in her room?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, only here. But how could that be? Her room faces a
field, and you can’t see in with the windows closed.”

“I don’t know, Sandy, but we don’t discount our feelings.
You should always listen to your instincts.” Jeri took
Sandy
’s
hand. “Why don’t you come with us downstairs, Sandy? You can keep Allison’s mom
company.”

“Okay. Did I really help?”

“Yes, you did.” Nodding at Ethan, Jeri escorted Sandy out of
the room. Trudy Wells still waited at the top of the stairs.

“Trudy, we’d like to search Allison’s room for cameras, if
that’s okay with you.”

“Cameras? What on earth for?”

“Sandy told us that Allison felt that she was being watched
lately. It may mean nothing, but we’d like to check it out. Do we have your
permission?”

“Of course. Search the whole house, if you like. Cameras?
Who would put cameras in her room?” Trudy started down the stairs.

“Maybe no one, but it won’t take long to check. We have a
device in the car that will help.” Jeri followed behind Trudy and Sandy, while
Ethan began searching Allison’s room visually for surveillance cameras.

By the time Jeri made it back upstairs, he had checked every
nook and cranny for a camera, but found none.

“If there’s a camera in here, it’s well hidden,” he told
Jeri, as she pointed the handheld box around the room.