Her Mother's Killer (21 page)

Dennis looked past him at his niece who hid behind the curtains. Yeah, if he had a prime piece like that, Dennis knew he wouldn’t welcome the interruption.

He knocked on the door. No response. He knocked a little louder and looked at the rental car the man had been driving. It was parked across two spaces, the lights still on. 
Great. The guy had probably been on a bender. Passed out drunk with the TV blaring.

“Management. Open up.”

“Don’t you have a key?”

He turned and looked at the jackass Smith. “Don’t you have a wife?”

His eyes bugged out and his mouth hung open. “Hmph.” He stalked away and slammed his door.

Dennis slipped the keycard in the slot and opened the door.

“Mister?”

He walked to the TV and turned it off. How did he feel? Irritated the occupant was so rude to have the television blaring and just leave like that? Surprised no one seemed to be there? The place looked deserted but there was a smell, something he couldn’t identify. As he turned to check out the bathroom, he saw the man laying face down on the floor beside the bed. Blood stained the carpet.

Bile rose in his throat. The faint metallic scent of blood overpowered the stale cigarette smoke odor.

He rushed out of the room to the office. He held on to call 911 and then promptly threw up in the trashcan.

* * * *

Rusty, Thea and Duncan sat around the kitchen table eating and discussing the recent murders.

“Now, according to the FBI, there is not enough evidence for us to link them. Yes. They all looked alike, and they are within a fifty-mile radius, but truthfully, that’s all we have to go on.” Rusty shook his head. “They were all killed differently. Well, at least several different ways. But there’s something there, I can feel it.”

“Sexual assault?” Duncan asked. He hated to be going over this in front of Thea, but she wouldn’t leave even if he threatened her. This seamy underbelly wasn’t something he wanted her to know about.

“No. None. But there was evidence of ejaculation on the scene.”

“Why is that important?” Thea asked.

“Well, it means he is more turned on by the killing. The act of rape isn’t what floats his boat. It’s the killing,” Rusty explained.

Her face paled and her throat worked. Duncan reached out and took her hand. He knew she was imagining her mother’s murder. He should never have let her listen to this.

“You said they were killed differently? Maybe they’re not connected,” Thea said.

“No evidence to refute that, I admit. But there’s something…”

His beeper sounded. He looked at the pager and cursed.

“Mind if I use your phone? My cell’s in the car.”

“Sure,” she said and nodded to the phone on the wall.

As Rusty called, Thea cleared away the plates and Duncan looked over some of the notes he had made. His cell rang before he could really start to make sense of anything.

“Perry here.”

“Boss,” Michelson said. “We got us a problem at Crocker Inn.”

The young man’s voice wavered.

“What’s up?”

“There’s been a suicide.” His neck muscles tensed. “Shooting from the looks of it but I haven’t gotten too close.”

“You have to if you want to investigate.”

“Well, boss, you know I never did this kind of thing before.”

“Yeah. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Know him?”

“Not personally, but he signed in as Jason Warren.”

His blood turned to ice and he looked at Thea who was watching him with concern.

“Okay. Did you call the county coroner?”

“Yeah, Doc Sawyer’s on her way.”

“What is it, Duncan?” Thea asked.

“It’s Jason.” He stood and then pulled her into his arms. “He committed suicide over at the Crocker Inn. Looks like he shot himself.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. Her face bone white.

“He’d never do that.”

Jealousy speared through him. He knew in his gut she would never go back to Jason Warren now, but they’d had a history together. They’d spent holidays and anniversaries and mornings in bed together.

“Listen, Duncan, he would never do that. He would never do that to his parents.”

“That doesn’t preclude him from committing suicide.”

“He had a cousin who’d committed suicide. It tore the family apart.”

“I gotta go,” Rusty said. His lips flat and his brow furrowed. “They found another woman about five miles outside of town.”

“Local?”

“I don’t know. There was no ID as usual.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I may be at this all night but we need to get together tomorrow. Maybe with some fresh eyes, we might be able to pick up on something.”

“No problem. I have a possible suicide so I need to get dressed and get going also.”

“Thanks for the meal, Thea. We need to do it another time, really soon.” Duncan didn’t mistake the deep tone in his friend’s voice.

“Off limits, jackass.”

Rusty just smiled and headed out to his job.

“I’m going to give Chase a call and have him over here in a little bit. I don’t like you staying alone.”

Thea propped a hand on each hip. “I’m going with you. He was my husband. Someone will have to identify him.”

That thought gnawed at his gut. Why did she have to keep reminding him of what she’d been to Warren? It wasn’t as if it could compare with anything the two of them shared.

Shit. He didn’t need this now.

“Identification will happen later. I need you to stay here and out of the way. I need to do my job.”

Her eyes studied him for a second and then she nodded.

He gathered up his things, his own nerves rising with each minute that ticked by. Chase pulled into the drive within minutes. Duncan leaned down, kissed her mouth and headed upstairs to change. Keeping his mind clear of Thea was going to be hard, but he had to do it to find the bastard who was threatening her. After that, he would deal with the feelings she brought out in him. And they would have their talk, whether she liked it or not.

* * * *

Thea paced through the house, her nerves stretched tight and ready to break. She didn’t like the implications of what was going on and she regretted that Duncan had found out. Yes, he’d been helpful. But she could have discovered a lot of what he had, it just would have taken her longer. She didn’t want him in danger, not because of her. And she knew it was more than feeling guilty. How did she feel about her ex getting it?

She loved him.

“Duncan can handle himself.”

She glanced at Chase but kept pacing. Duncan had waited until his brother had shown up and then left them alone.

“I know.” But she didn’t. Now everyone knew about the two of them, including the killer.

“One thing I can’t figure out is why?”

She stopped. “Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I find you attractive and if Duncan wasn’t head over heels for you, I would take a whirl at you myself. But one thing I can’t understand is this fixation first on your mother and now on you.”

She shrugged still trying to ignore the zinging of warmth shooting through her. Duncan was
 
not 
head over heels for her.

“I have no idea. I guess if I did, I would be able to figure out who it is.”

She shivered. Someone she knew. Her stomach knotted and soured. She’d known it all this time, but somehow ignored it.

“I just can’t imagine being that fixated on someone.”

Chase’s brow was furrowed, his hands rested on his lean hips. She couldn’t help it, she laughed.

He glanced up evidently surprised by her merriment.

“I can’t help it, Chase. You…” And she flopped onto the sofa, laughing more. “You can’t think of fixing your attentions on a woman for more than a few days, let alone twenty years. The look on your face is priceless.”

A self-depreciating smile lit his face. “Now, Thea, if you would just dump my brother, I’d fixate on you all you wanted.”

Despite the tension, or maybe because of it, she erupted into giggles again.

“You know, you’re hard on a man’s ego, Thea.”

* * * *

Duncan parked his truck beside the coroner’s hearse. With a sigh, he got out and headed toward the room Jason Warren had once occupied.

The Crocker Inn was an old throwback from the days before the interstate system. It was situated on Highway 84 and had once been one of the busiest motels in the area. But then Interstate 20 had been built and all the traffic gravitated to it.

The structure was weatherworn and in need of repair, the paint either faded or peeled away. All the doors faced the outside of the one-story structure. The building was a huge U shape with a miniscule pool now out of commission for the winter.

The cold north wind blew through the parking lot, stirring up small bits of gravel and dust. He squinted his eyes against the debris and forged ahead.

The scene just outside of the room resembled a circus. Morbid onlookers fought for the best spot in which to watch the proceedings. Several of his deputies, most of them not in uniform, were trying to hold everyone back away from the door. He didn’t recognize any of them so he figured they were from out of town.
 
How would they have gotten word so soon if this isn’t a busy road?

“Sheriff.” Sam, all of twenty-one and as eager as a new puppy, came rushing forward. Apparently he was no longer sickened. “Glad you’re here. Doc’s in there now and these people are getting out of hand. Some of them even wanted to tour the scene.”

“Good Lord.” He strode forward at the sound of angry shouts. Several of the onlookers were insisting on getting closer and were shoving his officers around.

“That’s enough!” Everyone, including his deputies, froze. “Now, what I need is for you two,” he said, pointing to Charlie and Sam, “to take everyone aside and ask them what they saw. Anyone unwilling to cooperate will be hauled in for questioning.”

“You always did know how to make an entrance, Dunc,” LouEllen Sawyer said from the doorway, a smile curving her lips. The fifty-something doctor had been their coroner since before Duncan had taken the job of sheriff. She was blunt, but good at her job.

“Lou, hate to bring you out on a Saturday night.”

The doctor shrugged. “Not like I have much to do when I’m on call. Nothing turns off a date more than leaving him to visit the dead.”

Duncan followed her into the room. “Well?”

“Murder.” She stripped off her latex gloves. “No gun powder on his hands. Gun was left but it’s lying on the floor. So, I have a feeling it was left here for a reason.”

“What reason would that be?”

“How the hell should I know? You’re the policeman.” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “The caliber was a .44, silencer on it, of course.”

His cell phone went off again.

“Perry.”

“Hey, Rusty here.”

“Reckless, whaddya find?”

“Young woman, black hair, green eyes. Halfway between the hall where the dance had been held and the inn.”

His bones chilled.

“How was she killed?” But he already knew the answer.

“Shot to the head, probably a .44. How’s the suicide?”

“No suicide. Murder, possibly a .44. I think our two investigations just became one.”

Chapter Seventeen

Duncan took a swallow of old coffee and grimaced. Bitter and stale. He didn’t have a choice. He needed something to keep him going tonight.

As he paced the small area behind his desk, he tried to find the one thing that was missing. Something, somewhere had to link the death of Jason Warren, the murdered women and Thea’s stalker. He had no proof, but he knew they were connected. It was that one tiny bit of information, something he’d stored in his brain that would break the case. He settled his hands on his hips and leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“Does that work?” Rusty asked.

Duncan opened his eyes. His friend looked just as haggard, even more so since he still wore his tux. His hair was a mess and the circles under his eyes told Duncan he was suffering as much as Duncan was himself.

“There’s something. I don’t know what it is, but this all ties together.”

Rusty nodded and sauntered to the chair situated in front of Duncan’s desk. He collapsed into it, his expression mirroring Duncan’s.

“Yeah, I agree. Other than these women look like your girlfriend, there isn’t anything else to go on.”

“Agreed. Girlfriend?”

Rusty raised one eyebrow. “What would you call her?”

He didn’t dignify the question with an answer. Girlfriend seemed too insignificant a word for Thea and what she meant to him. There was a tiny part of his brain that knew the answer but he pushed aside those thoughts. He had to deal with the here and now. He had to find the killer. Then he would figure out what came next for the two of them.