The Promise (32 page)

It was Officer Simpson down at the station, “Mike, I hate to bother you at this late hour, but they found the red Mercedes.”

              Gallagher was trying to clear the cobwebs out of his slowly emerging consciousness. “What Mercedes?”

              Then, he shot up in bed.

“My Mercedes, are you sure? Where is it?”

              “It was discovered behind the stadium at the university. The tags match up. It’s the car, Mike. We got it.”

              “That’s great news, Simpson. Surround it with our people. As soon as daylight hits, we are going to have the lab boys go over it with a toothbrush!”

              “You won’t have to worry about our men covering it. They’re already there. You need to be there, too.”

              “It’s just a car. It’s not going anywhere.”

              “Neither is the guy they found in the front seat with two bullet holes in the back of his head.”

              He was fully awake now. “I’m on my way.”

Chapter Fifty
-six--malcolm Oden?

             
As Gallagher drove to the University of Georgia, he phoned his partner, “Halloo?” she mumbled incoherently.

              “If they are dragging my sleepy ass out of bed, you’re getting the same treatment.” He taunted her. “We’re cops. We serve and protect. We eat doughnuts. We drink coffee.”

“We have no life. We are much maligned. We are often constipated,” she finished his thought. “What is it, Mike?”

              “They found the Mercedes with a dead guy in it. I need you down here to tell me if it’s the same guy you saw meet Morgan earlier today. Then, I want you to hustle back to school and tail Morgan all day. If he brushes his teeth, tell me if it’s Colgate or Crest, got it?”

              “If I’m going to follow him, he better brush his teeth, Gallagher. I’ll meet you in twenty.”

              “Wait, Elie, aren’t you forgetting something?”

              “Gallagher, I’m still asleep!”

              “Since you’re not psychic, you need to remember this before you pass out and forget we had this conversation. We are at the parking lot behind the university stadium. Be there or be square!”

              “I’ll be the one wearing Partridge Family pajamas. David Cassidy and I will see you soon, Gallagher.”

Click.

              The detective laughed and then put in a call to the Chief who was also on his way to the site. “Boss, isn’t this something? Just when I thought the case was starting to get boring, how soon can Dr. Lowe’s people get there?”

              Parker replied, “They’re there. This is our chance to nail this case down in a way we haven’t been able to since the beginning. I’m hopeful for you, Mike. You’ve been busting your ass.”

              “All of us have, Chief, I’ll see you in a few.”

Hanging up he quickly dressed and headed out. Arriving at the football stadium he drove around to the rear part of it and immediately saw several patrol cars, an ambulance and the forensic van.

As he nea
red the Mercedes, he saw that the body of the man was still in the car. The DNA people wanted to get all the evidence they could before they disturbed the interior of the car or the victim in any way.

He jumped out and headed over to the Chief who was standing with Jay Jolosky, one of Dr. Lowe’s men. “What do we have here, Jay?” Gallagher asked.

              “A deceased victim, two gunshot wounds to the left side of the head. It appeared he was shot while sitting in his car. Perhaps waiting for someone? The window was rolled down on the driver’s side. It’s a warm night. All he would have to worry about was mosquitoes.”

              “And a killer,” added Gallagher. “Does it appear he was surprised by the person who did this?”

              “Absolutely,” agreed Jolosky. “He never saw this coming. He was just sitting in his car, enjoying the night and then, bam, bam, lights out.

              The detective turned to his boss, “Any ideas, Chief?”

              “Dead man, two bullet holes execution-style. That’s all I know. Maybe a search of the car will tell us something.”

              It was time for Gallagher to go over to the car and see the man close up for the first time. He was pretty damn curious to see if it was the same guy he had seen at Verna Oden’s funeral.

If so, he would know two things for certain, the doodler at the memorial service was dead and so was Malcolm Oden. If this wasn’t the guy, then the resurrected legacy of the assistant headmaster was still viable.

He approached the car and as he drew even with the figure inside he took a deep breath and fully faced the man seeing him clearly.

              It was the same man from the funeral.

May Malcolm Oden rest in peace.

              Gallagher let out a huge sigh of relief. He thought to himself, “
Well, Odin, now you’ve lost two of your soldiers. Skol!”

It was going to be interesting identifying this character now that he was added to the disappearance of Allison Taylor.

He couldn’t wait to confront Dr. Morgan concerning this latest development.

Was this
just a random murder that coincidentally entwined itself in the Allison Taylor disappearance? Or did it put Dr. Morgan front and center in the case?

Gallagher held up his lucky mascot and whispered, “Any time you get a good idea of what in the hell is going on here let me know!”

Mick just stared back at him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say!” Gallagher murmured, “You’re just as clueless as I am, Mick!”

Chapter Fifty-
seven---The promise Uncovered

             
Elie drove up and made a beeline for Gallagher. Breathlessly, she whispered, “We need to talk right now!”

The detective looked gave her a surprised look and allowed himself to be led off to the side. “We need a search warrant. You’re not going to believe what I have uncovered over there!”

              Gallagher looked at her and smiled. “I see you have had your doughnuts and coffee. Glad you could join the rest of us on the planet. What’s up?”

              His partner was shaking she was so excited, “The Promise is not a secret club based upon loyalty among the girls, Mike. It’s more than that.

It’s a prostitution ring of high school girls that services older men in the community, like Redding Shaw and his cronies. Can you believe that? And, here’s the kicker, guess who heads it up?”

              “Don’t tell me, Raven…”

              “ Dr. Theotis Morgan, the ethical headmaster of the Colony school.”

              “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

              “I tried to. But, you weren’t answering your phone. God only knows what was more important than this.

When you called a few minutes ago, I decided to tell you to your face. It was far too delicious to tell you on the phone!”

Suddenly she noticed Gallagher’s physical condition, “You look like you’ve been hit in the face with a truck, Mike, and you smell like it was from Long Island. You okay?”

              Gallagher’s mind was spinning. He hoped it wasn’t the alcohol, but the significant news he had just been given.

It had been an eventful hour since he got the phone call awakening him. Not only was he processing a possible murder with Verna Oden, he was now contemplating a definite homicide, with a little prostitution thrown in for good measure.

Thankfully, the vice department would handle this latest discovery, assuming Elie was right and it could be proven.

“I’m fine, a little rocky. Where’d you get this information, Elie?”

             
“I have two sources, one is a secretary in the school office. She was horrified to see the list of girls and their clients on a computer.

She called me and when I pressed her after looking at the list, she backed off and tried to rationalize it as pertaining to something else. She’s scared. But, I think she’ll testify.

The other source is this,”

She pulled out a sheet of paper with handwriting on it. It was a booking sheet, similar to the one used to contract performers in a school or a community event. It had Redding Shaw’s name on it as the client. The girl he hired was none other than Allison Taylor.

Gallagher was stunned. “Where’d you get this, Elie?”

              “After I tailed Dr. Morgan, I snuck back to his office that night and did a little investigating work on my own. We can’t use this evidence because I obtained it illegally, but, trust me, there’s more.

I just wanted you to see it with your own eyes.”

              The detective frowned at her. “Elie, I don’t want you doing something like this again. We can get these people without being illicit about it. Don’t start pulling this crap, okay?”

              “I won’t have to now. We have what we need to start locking this case up!”

              “Elie, a call-girl ring of high school girls is not the case we are trying to solve here…”

              “Maybe it is, Mike. What if Allison Taylor was kidnapped because of her involvement in this girl for hire scheme? Then, it would be connected, right?”

“Sure. But, we have to connect it. Before we can even do that, we have to prove there is a prostitution ring.

Right now we have a secretary who may or may not testify and you rummaging around in the dark without a search warrant is hardly promising.

A prosecutor would tell us we are fourth and long with a Hail Mary chance in hell.”

              The Chief walked up. “Hello, Larsen. Pretty exciting night, eh?”

              “Understatement, Chief. I just gave Gallagher more excitement.”

              “I hope it had something to do with Alka-Seltzer,” Parker laughed.

              Gallagher wasn’t smiling.

He was focused on the dead man in the car. “Chief, we have a corpse here, Allison Taylor is still missing and now, it appears, we may have a connection between Miss Taylor and a prostitution ring involving the Colony high school girls.”