Our plan was to meet in the police department conference room with Detectives Andrews and Fitch at nine a.m. tomorrow. That would give us time to enjoy breakfast at a real restaurant as opposed to the inside of the cruiser with the console as our table. With the list J.T. had started over dinner tucked safely in my purse so it wouldn’t get misplaced, we said good night to each other at my hotel room. J.T.’s room was two doors down.
“What time do you want to head out in the morning?” he asked.
I calculated how long breakfast would take and the distance from the hotel to the police department. “How about seven thirty?”
“Sure thing. I’ll bang on your door then. Good night, Jade.”
“Good night.” I closed the door and looked through the peephole. Suddenly, a finger blocked the glass, and I heard a chuckle.
I called out from behind the closed door. “Go to your room, J.T., and you aren’t funny.”
“Yeah I am, and admit it, you think so too.”
I heard him laugh as he walked away. I ducked into the bathroom and turned on the shower faucet. I hoped the hot, relaxing water would send me off to dreamland quickly.
Out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later and propped up in bed with pillows behind my back, I checked my emails and sent a short text to Amber to see whether she was still awake. If she responded, I’d call her and chat for a bit. If not, I’d try her at some point tomorrow. I turned on the TV as I waited and caught the tail end of the news. After five minutes of useless commercials, the anchorman began the final segment with breaking news.
“Channel 4 at Night has received word that yet another local woman has gone missing. Twenty-three-year-old Molly Davis is still unaccounted for after being absent from a party that was given in her honor. Family members say numerous calls to her phone went unanswered. The young woman’s car was located several hours ago at the public trails along James Street, where she often ran. But after an extensive search of the area, Molly remains missing. At this point,” the newscaster said, “foul play is highly suspected.”
I sat up in bed and clicked the volume higher. Right then, I hoped Amber was asleep and wouldn’t return my text. I needed to hear more about this latest missing woman. A photograph of Molly Davis came across the screen with her height, weight, and hair and eye color listed next to it. I paused the TV, took a picture of the screen with my phone, and continued with the broadcast.
“If anyone has seen this young woman, you are asked to contact the downtown police headquarters immediately at the eight hundred number shown across the bottom of the screen.”
“What the hell?” I dialed J.T.’s phone, hoping he hadn’t fallen asleep yet.
He picked up on the third ring and groaned. “Miss me already? Don’t you ever sleep?”
“J.T., I just watched the news, and they said another woman went missing today.”
“No shit? Why didn’t anyone tell us?”
“I don’t know. It sounded like she was supposed to be somewhere tonight and didn’t show up. Maybe it was only called in a little while ago. The news broadcast said her car was located at some public running trail, but she wasn’t with it. Sounds like the family may have searched for her on their own without luck and finally called the cops. The police must have taken her absence seriously enough, given the circumstances, to allow the news to broadcast it already.”
“I’ll be right over.” J.T. abruptly clicked off.
“Damn it.” I dove out of bed and threw on my bathrobe. I didn’t need J.T. laughing at my sheep-patterned flannel pajamas.
Within five minutes a knock sounded on my door. I squinted through the peephole just in case. J.T. stood on the other side, wearing plaid flannel pajama bottoms and a white T-shirt. I opened the door, and he marched through. He stared at me with threatening eyes. “Don’t even.”
I grinned and felt relieved. We sat at the table together. “Here, take a look at this. I paused the TV and took this picture during the segment.” I handed him my phone.
“Smart thinking, Jade. Tell me word for word what the newscaster said.”
I went over everything I could remember with J.T.
“So, what do you want to do? Should we leave tonight’s legwork for the locals, then address this new situation and everything else on our list, in the morning?”
“Yeah, I suppose so. Other than interviewing the family, there probably isn’t much the cops are doing tonight, anyway. They may tow her car to the evidence garage, and that will give us a good opportunity to mention the other cars too.”
J.T. stood and filled a glass of water for each of us then took his seat again. He passed a glass across the table to me.
“Thanks. You know there’s a chance of finding this girl before he kills her, if she was actually abducted by the same guy who drains their blood. As of right now we don’t have evidence that he’s killed any of the women right away.”
“True. I think we need to dig into the cult world tomorrow. We have to find out who in the area has a fascination for human blood. The cops can handle everything else on our list.” J.T. guzzled the water. “Get some sleep, Jade. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day.” He pointed across the room. “Turn that boob tube off, or you’ll never go to sleep.”
I closed the door behind J.T. and climbed back into bed. I clicked off the television. With a quick glance at my phone, I checked to see whether there was a return text from Amber, but there wasn’t. I reached for the lamp, turned the switch, and hoped to power down the gerbil wheel for the night and get some sleep. I closed my eyes and felt myself drift off.
My phone alarm buzzed on the nightstand. Instinctively, I turned toward the window to see if it was really morning, but the blackout curtains made it impossible to know. I hoped my phone was playing tricks on me. I rolled to that side of the bed, climbed out, then remembered that at six thirty in the morning, it was dark, anyway. I found my reading glasses on the credenza, put them on, and crawled back into bed. Squinting, with my phone cupped in my hand, I read the time—6:30. “Damn mornings. Why can’t nights last a little longer?”
I scrolled through my emails, deleted the spam, and checked for texts. There wasn’t anything from Amber yet. She was probably just waking up too. With a deep sigh, I threw back the blankets, started the four-cup coffeemaker, and hit the shower.
My phone rang as I applied the light makeup I wore every day. J.T. was calling.
“Do you like pancake houses?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure, as long as they have bacon too.”
He chuckled. “I’m pretty confident most of them do. I’ll be banging on your door in about three seconds.” He clicked off and pounded on my door.
I peeked out, knowing I wouldn’t see anything but a fleshy-colored finger over the hole. I pulled the door open, anyway.
“That wasn’t very safe. I could have been a bad guy.”
I laughed. “Then I would have shot you, so quit putting your finger over the peephole. I swear, you’re just like a kid.”
“Are you ready?”
“Give me five minutes to brush my teeth.” I closed the bathroom door behind me and heard the television go on. I brushed, rinsed, applied lip balm, then dropped the tube into my front pants pocket and came out. The channel was turned to the morning news. “Anything on the girl?”
“Nah, but I’m sure we’ll find out something at the precinct. Let’s go eat.”
We didn’t linger too long at the pancake house. After two cups of rich coffee, a four-pancake stack, and four strips of crisp bacon, I was ready to go. I was thankful the staff was quick and efficient and brought our check as soon as we finished our meal. We needed updates on this new case as well as more answers on the existing ones. We were in the cruiser and heading toward downtown Gary by eight fifteen.
J.T. had received a parking pass yesterday when we arrived. All he had to do was swipe the card and the gate would lift. We pulled into the parking garage. The guard recognized us and waved us through. Parked on the fourth level, we took the footbridge to the building and entered. We checked in at the counter, grabbed two coffees, and made our way down the hall. We were intercepted by Captain Sullivan, who had apparently arrived just ahead of us.
“Agents, got a minute?”
I nodded. “Sure thing.”
We were fifteen minutes early, so we joined him in his office. I took the inside guest chair, and J.T. took the one nearest the door.
“Have you been briefed on the latest abduction?”
“Not yet, sir. All we know is what I caught on the ten o’clock news last night. We haven’t seen Andrews and Fitch yet this morning.” I checked the time. “They’re meeting us in the conference room at nine o’clock.”
“I’ll be sitting in on that too. We had patrol officers searching along that stretch of trails last night and canvassing the area. Nobody had anything useful to tell them. Fitch and Andrews were out there for an hour or so. The patrol units briefed them on what they knew. That’s likely what we’ll hear this morning. Go ahead”—he jerked his chin toward the door—“I’ll grab some coffee and meet you in there.”
“Yes, sir.” J.T. and I left his office then reconvened with our coffees in the conference room down the hall. We took the same seats we’d had yesterday and waited for the others to arrive.
“Got the notes?” J.T. asked.
“Sure do.” I opened my purse and removed the folded slip of paper along with my notepad. J.T. placed his notepad and pen on the table.
“Here they come.” I tipped my head at the three of them on the other side of the glass wall. Detective Fitch opened the door and said good morning. She took a seat across from J.T. Andrews sat next to me, and Captain Sullivan sat at the head of the table.
The captain leaned back in his chair and stretched. Then he locked his fingers behind his head. “Okay, let’s hear the latest.”
Andrews spoke up. “We walked the trails on foot until two a.m., sir. Four patrol units joined us with two canines, and three units in squad cars drove along James Street and around to the back of the lake. We didn’t find a body, a piece of clothing, or anything that appeared disturbed. Everything will be checked again now that it’s daylight. But up to the point where we called it a night, we didn’t find a thing.”
“What about her vehicle?” I asked.
“The forensics team has it in the evidence garage and went over it throughout the night. There’s no sign of a struggle or unidentified prints inside.”
“What was the position of the seat?”
Detective Fitch responded. “It was in the correct position for a woman who’s five foot three, Agent Monroe.”
I wrote that down then remembered from the newscast that Molly Davis was indeed five foot three. “I watched the segment on the news last night. What was the event that was supposed to take place in her honor?”
“According to the officer who took the statement from her parents, she was promoted at her workplace to assistant manager. Her folks were throwing a party for her.”
J.T. wrote that down. “Where did she work?”
Fitch checked her notes. “At First Federal Bank on Sixth and Montclair.”
“Did her folks say anything about the frequency of her running at those trails?” J.T. asked.
“Actually they did. They said she went there often.”
“So maybe somebody had been watching her. Any CCTV cameras in the area?”
“Unfortunately not, Agent Harper.”
Captain Sullivan spoke up. “So what’s the plan for today on this newest abduction?”
“May I bring something up, sir?”
“Go ahead, Agent Monroe.”
I took a sip of coffee to wet my throat. “First off, we have to keep in mind that this person isn’t holding these ladies for ransom. Their lives are in danger every second he has them. That much is obvious from the bodies that were found. Because of the weather, we don’t know how long they were dead prior to being dumped. He could have kept them alive for minutes, days, or weeks, except for Heather, but we just don’t know. What I do know is there’s no time to waste. We could actually find this girl before he kills her and drains her blood, if it is the same man. Does your department have anything at all on this guy, even one tiny clue to go on?”
The room fell silent.
“I guess I’ll take that as a no. Has anyone checked into cults?”
“Cults? Suggesting what?”
“I’m suggesting that somebody has a reason to drain these women of their blood, sir. If these abductions were only about murder, the girls could be killed in any manner of ways and dumped. Chances are they wouldn’t necessarily be nude, either. The ME said none of them were sexually assaulted. And what about their cars? What happened to them? Has anyone even looked for them? Corrine and Taylor’s cars were never located, or at least they were never documented as being located. They could have been parked at the killer’s home for all we know. Was there ever a BOLO put out for the vehicles?”
J.T. nudged me under the table with his foot. I felt my face getting hot, and he probably saw it.
I took a slow, deep breath. “I’m sorry, but these have been open cases since Corrine went missing in October. The police department isn’t any closer to solving these crimes than they were on day one. And since Corrine went missing, two more young ladies have died. Just yesterday another woman disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I asked for one tiny clue, so I’ll ask again. Does anybody know anything?”
Andrews responded with a touch of sarcasm. “In our own defense, Agent Monroe, Corrine and her car were missing. She could have been a runaway. Anyone at her age legally has the right to disappear.”
I shook my head in impatience. “And nobody thought it odd that three weeks later, it happened again with Taylor?”
Detective Fitch replied that they didn’t. “It wasn’t until the bodies were found that we knew it was an abduction, and that was a good time later. The cars didn’t seem important by then.”
“You do realize it’s only Fitch and me on the case full time, Agent Monroe? You have to cut us some slack.”
“I’d hate to have the families of the dead girls hear you say that, Detective Andrews. Anyway, we’re here now, and we intend to make progress in days, not months.” I looked at the captain, who hadn’t said much during the meeting. “Captain Sullivan, if you’re serious about catching this guy, I’d suggest putting more officers on the case.” I glanced from Fitch to Andrews. “Who interviewed the department coworkers at the hospital where Heather worked?”
“They don’t work the weekend shifts,” Fitch said.
“And they don’t have houses where you could have gone to conduct the interview?”
She gave me a blank stare.
“See where I’m going with this? Now back to my second question. Do any of you know anything about cults in the area?”
Captain Sullivan rubbed his temples. “There’s a local group of troublemakers that go by the moniker Crimson Clan. You can take that name any way you want. I don’t know if it’s just what they call themselves or if it’s an indication of some type of cult.”
“Who runs it?”
“A punk by the name of Alex Everly. He’s someone to start with, and he has an extensive jacket.”
I wrote down the name. “Good, now what about people claiming to drink blood, vampires, that sort of thing? Are there vampire raves in Gary?”
Andrews laughed as he slapped the table with his open hand. “This is Indiana, not Transylvania.”
“So you don’t actually know?”
Andrews stared at me without speaking.
“Okay, Agent Harper and I are going to spend the day checking on those types of places. We’ll conduct the interviews with Heather’s coworkers at the hospital too. I hope when we reconvene later, you’ll have found out something new with the Molly Davis situation. I’d suggest calling private tow companies and junkyards about the cars too, but that’s just my opinion. The killer may have left his DNA behind.” I stood and jerked my chin at J.T. “Come on. We have work to do.”
J.T. and I left the building and headed to the parking garage.
“You know you’re going to get a call from Spelling soon,” he said.
“Why, because the captain is going to tattle on me for being too harsh?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly why. You were out of line in there, Jade.”
“J.T., we’re here to help find the criminal, not babysit and do all the work for the police department. These are grown-up law enforcement officers. They’re supposed to know how this works. It’s been more than three months since Corrine went missing, and they don’t have any leads at all? That doesn’t sit well with me.” I stopped in my tracks just before we reached the car.
“What’s wrong?” J.T. asked.
“We have to go back inside. We need computers to work with and a location for Alex Everly. Let’s head to the tech department. They can let us use their extra computers for a while.”