Revenge of Innocents (17 page)

“I’m hanging up, honey.” Carolyn disconnected and placed her head in her hands. Jude must have been terrified her father would be released from jail. They had to find her. Without a victim, the DA would have no choice but to withdraw the charges and release Drew. She unscrewed the cap from a bottle of water on her desk and took a long swallow, then went to tell Kevin Thomas the bad news.

Friday, October 15
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6:30
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arolyn saw the black-and-white sheriff’s unit when she steered the Infiniti into the circular driveway. Marcus was outside talking to the deputy. She’d called and told him not to press charges against Jude. Ventura PD had already broadcast an attempt to locate on the Jeep Wrangler.

On the way home, Carolyn had stopped off at the bus depot since Jude had mentioned staying there in the past. Mary Stevens had called Reggie Stockton to see if he knew where Jude had gone, as well as the girl whose cell phone she’d had in her possession at the hospital.

Marcus had changed into a pair of jeans and a red turtleneck sweater. When he saw Carolyn, he walked over to the Infiniti, opened the door, and extended his hand to help her out.

The evening air was damp and chilly. The weather report had predicted rain. She could already smell it in the air. She stepped into his open arms, pressing her head against his chest. “I’m so sorry, Marcus. I should have let Social Services find a placement for Jude. I blame myself because I left her alone in the house. I was going to ask Josephine to come in, but Jude swore she’d be fine, that all she wanted to do was sleep.” She pulled away. “Did she take anything valuable? Rebecca said she tried to get into your safe.”

“With a hammer,” he told her. “All she did was ding it up.”

“How did she know where it was?”

“You can find anything if you look long enough,” Marcus told her. “That old Wrangler isn’t worth more than a few grand. Rebecca was bent out of shape, though. I promised her I’d replace everything Jude took.”

“Where’s Bear?”

“He went home with his tail between his legs. He’s lucky I didn’t fire him. The guy is supposed to protect me from terrorists and foreign agents, and he’s outsmarted by an eighteen-year-old girl. Was Jude standing nearby when you punched in the alarm code?”

“I don’t think so,” Carolyn told him. “No, wait. The night I brought her home from the hospital, she was right behind me. I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, she was in a new place, so I just assumed she wanted to stay close. You think that’s how she got the code, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, placing his hands on his hips. “I should have replaced the alarm pad with a palm sensor like I have at the office. I didn’t think I needed it since we had on-site security, and I don’t keep classified material in the house.”

“How did she get past Bear?”

“She threw some pots and pans out the back door. By the time Bear ran around to see what was going on, she’d already taken off in the Wrangler.”

“Did it have much gas in it?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Marcus said, kicking a snail off the driveway. “She took Rebecca’s money, then picked up another three hundred from the drawer in the kitchen where Josephine keeps the cash I give her for groceries.”

The deputy walked over, clearing his throat to get their attention. “I think I’ve got what I need, Mr. Wright. We didn’t list any of the items the girl took as stolen, but we’ll send out notices to all the pawnshops.”

“Thanks, Officer,” Marcus said. “Jude’s been through a rough time. Make certain your people go easy on her if they find her. We just want to know that she’s safe.”

Carolyn didn’t say anything, but there was a lot more at stake than Jude’s safety. If the DA decided to withdraw the charges against Drew, he could sue for false arrest. Technically, the district attorney could prosecute without Jude’s cooperation, but it wasn’t the wisest way to proceed. If the case went forward and Drew was acquitted, he could never be prosecuted again for those specific crimes. A person could spend more time in prison for sex offenses, particularly those committed against minors, than for murder. The Butterfield case, where the son had murdered his mother, was different as the defendant had a prior felony conviction.

They stood side by side on the front porch, gazing out over Marcus’s avocado orchard. “Tell you what,” he said, “why don’t we take Rebecca and go out for a nice dinner? We can go to that French place you like so much.”

Carolyn listened to the wind rushing through the trees. Her despair at the overall situation was beginning to take hold. If she wasn’t careful, she could lose Marcus. They’d only lived together a short time. He had stress of his own. His company had recently lost a number of government contracts. He needed a woman who would be there for him, not someone who brought home more problems. “I’d love to go out tonight, honey, but I have too much to do. You and Rebecca go without me.”

“Are you sure? We could go out tomorrow night.”

She reached up to kiss him. He cupped his hands under her hips and pressed her tight against his body. “Now that our houseguest is gone,” he said, “maybe we can pick up where we left off last night.”

“Oh, Marcus,” Carolyn said, pulling away. “How can you forgive me for getting you involved in all this? Our beautiful wedding…” Her voice trialed off. “I’ve ruined everything.”

“No, you haven’t, sweetheart,” he said, cradling her in his arms again. “I wouldn’t love you if you weren’t such a caring person. No one would want to get married with all this going on. At least you’re in a position to do something.”

Carolyn chewed on a cuticle, stopping when she saw blood oozing out around her nail. As a child, she’d gnawed on the loose skin around her fingernails to the point where she looked like a person with leprosy. The kids stayed away from her, fearful they would get a disease. It was funny how old habits could resurface when a person was under stress.

“Helping Jude was the right thing,” Marcus told her.

“I’m not so sure about that now.”

“She did what she did because she’s scared. If I was in her shoes, I might have done the same thing. Her bastard father made her life a living hell. If you can’t trust your parents, who can you trust?” He fell silent, his hands closing into fists at his side. “I think Veronica knew. She just chose to ignore it. How could she not know? It went on for years.”

Marcus’s mood kept rising and falling. He was a positive person by nature, yet even he’d been short-circuited by the events of the past few days. “If Veronica knew,” Carolyn said, peering up at him, “she paid a terrible price. I saw the pictures from the crime scene.”

“Once we get through this, everything’s going to be great. Our wedding will be even better. We’ve got more time to plan, take care of all the loose ends. Now, are you going to be waiting for me tonight?”

Carolyn’s eyes drifted down. “I need to talk to Drew.”

“What?” Marcus said, his voice elevating. “I don’t want you anywhere near that despicable man.”

“You don’t understand. He’s the only one who knows where Jude might have gone. He knows her friends, her hangouts.”

“Leave it to the police.”

“I’m going to play him, Marcus, make him think I’m on his side. The police are his enemies now. He’ll never talk to them.”

“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed. “You’re insane. How can you look at me and tell me you’re going to intentionally manipulate a murderer?”

“Have you forgotten?” Carolyn shot back. “That’s what I used to do before my promotion. And I was good at it, really good. Besides, there’s a chance that Drew might be innocent. Hank probably came down on him hard, thinking he could crack him. Men won’t humble themselves to the degree that a woman will. Even if they did, it probably wouldn’t work. Women are softer, less confrontational. Please don’t fight me on this, Marcus. It’s something I have to do.”

Marcus glared at her, then went inside the house and left her alone on the porch. Carolyn waited for a while before she went to reason with him.

She found him at the bar in the den, making himself a martini. She took a seat on a bar stool. “If you insist, I won’t go,” she told him, placing her hands on the marble counter. “Jude is desperate, Marcus. She’s a young girl, alone and afraid. Forget about the case. Think of what could happen to her. She hasn’t recovered from the beating. Good Lord, she was trying to starve herself to death. She threw up this morning, probably because her stomach isn’t used to digesting food. She may try to leave the state. A few hundred dollars isn’t going to last very long. What’s she going to do when it’s gone? Think about it, then tell me I should leave it to the police.”

He gulped down the martini before answering. “Go,” he said, gesturing with his hand. “When this is over, you’re going to turn in your resignation.”

Carolyn’s yanked her hands back as if he’d slapped them. “Is that an ultimatum?”

Marcus set his glass down. “Yeah, I guess it is. Try to see things from my perspective. I love you, Carolyn. I don’t want to have to go to the morgue and identify your body. I may not be the richest guy in the world, but I earn enough that my wife doesn’t have to risk her life for a living.”

She slid off the stool. “I’m going to talk to Rebecca before I leave. We’ve already canceled the wedding, so if you want out, now’s the time to do it. The job I do is important. Someone has to do it, regardless of what it pays. I’m a supervisor now. I don’t have to deal with criminals on a regular basis. I have no idea what you do for a living, other than it has something to do with computers. For all I know, you could be a CIA agent. Since you require bodyguards, whatever you do is obviously dangerous.”

“My work is classified,” Marcus told her. “You know I can’t discuss it, Carolyn. I could be prosecuted for treason.”

She fixed him with an icy gaze. “I’ve never once asked you to quit, have I?”

Before he could answer, she walked out of the room. When she reached the foot of the stairs, Marcus caught her from behind and spun her around. “I need you,” he said. “And whether you realize it or not, so does Rebecca.”

“Rebecca may not like what I do,” Carolyn told him, “but she understands. That’s all I’m asking of you, Marcus.” Pulling away, she continued up the stairs.

“How in the fuck did we lose our victim?” a male voice echoed through the detective bay at the Ventura PD.

Mary jumped up and met Hank in the aisle. “Calm down,” she told him, placing her hand in the center of his chest and feeling his heart pounding. “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack. We broadcast the license number on the Jeep Wrangler. Someone will pick her up.”

“Drew Campbell is a murderer,” Hank said, gritting his teeth as he yanked his tie off. “I’m sure of it, even if we don’t have enough evidence yet to convict him. I saw it in his eyes, understand? If we can’t find the girl, the bastard will walk.”

“I know, I know,” Mary said, hating it when he got this worked up. For years, he’d carried around fifty extra pounds and abused his body with alcohol. Although he’d stopped drinking and lost the weight, his arteries might still be clogged. She’d seen it with her father. When they’d conducted the autopsy after he was killed, the medical examiner told her he probably would have suffered a major heart attack sometime in the near future.

She followed Hank into his office, waiting for him to remove his jacket and sit down before she brought him up to date on the most recent developments. “Reggie Stockton is an imposter,” she said. “I got his prints when I went to speak to him this morning. His real name is Reginald Louis Marcel.”

“No shit?” Hank said, giving her his full attention. “Does he have a record?”

“Wait,” Mary told him, “you haven’t heard the best. This guy came here from New Orleans after Katrina and enrolled in high school. His DOB makes him twenty-four years old. At the time of the hurricane, he was pending trial on a narcotics charge, as well as carrying a concealed weapon. The rest of his criminal history was lost, but according to the New Orleans PD, Marcel was one of the inmates who escaped when the jail flooded.”

“Pick him up, for God’s sake.”

“We tried,” she said, sucking in a deep breath. “He walked off his job at Circuit City right after Carolyn and I spoke to him this morning. I met a patrol unit at his mother’s place while you were at dinner. Mrs. Stockton says he came home, packed some of his things, and took off.” She held up a palm. “Hold on, Hank, the story gets even better. Reggie isn’t really her son. She was one of the people holed up in the convention center, if you remember that nightmare. When they were moved out to other shelters, Reggie was mistakenly listed as her son. He’s a good-looking guy, and he has a way with the ladies. She’s a widow with no family. Get the picture?”

“She didn’t know the guy was a thug?”

“Nope,” Mary said, swinging her leg back and forth. “Also, Stockton claimed his father was killed by a New Orleans cop. He said he’d gone out to search for food when a couple of uniformed officers drove by and shot him for no reason. This guy’s good, Hank. I took the bait, and so did Carolyn. New Orleans said there was a rumor that rogue officers were shooting random civilians, but it turned out to be unfounded.”

Mary saw the corners of Hank’s mouth turn down. She placed both her feet on the floor and squared her shoulders off, knowing she was about to be reprimanded.

“You had this guy, right? Why didn’t you bring him in for questioning? We could have put him in a lineup. Benny might have recognized him if he saw him in person.” His fist came down on top of a pile of papers. “Damn it, Mary. Not only have we lost the victim, we may have let the killer slip through our fingers. This was sloppy police work and you know it.”