25
Milledgeville Public Safety Office
1:00 p.m.
Phelps had called and demanded Tony come to his office. No doubt someone at the Student Center or one of Parton’s friends had reported his visit. Maybe Dr. Alexander had filed a complaint, but he doubted that scenario. The woman had been as rattled as Joanna over the visit.
Tony issued a final warning to her. “Do not walk out that door until I’m with you.”
“You said that already.” She dropped into a chair in the lobby. “I’ll be right here waiting, honey.” She plastered on a fake smile and dug out her cell phone. “I’ll just play on Facebook. See what all my friends are up to.”
The visit to Alexander had unsettled her. Besides the breakdown in the bathroom at the gas station, she had picked at her lunch. Seemed distracted and distant. She’d said it was only because she remembered going to the clinic and being given her first prescription of birth control pills about a month before she was abducted. Dr. Alexander had been Dr. Kato then. Milledgeville was a small town, made sense that victims would have been to some of the same places and met some of the same faces. His thoughts on the matter had done nothing to calm her. If anything he’d made her more upset.
As for Facebook, he had a feeling she had about as many friends as he did, all of whom could be counted on one hand.
When the receptionist buzzed him through to the chief’s office, Tony glanced at her one last time. She never looked up from her phone.
The short walk to the chief’s office gave him about ten seconds to consider what the hell he was going to do next. He was no closer to finding Tiffany than he had been when he arrived. Something had to give here.
As he’d suspected, Chief Buckley from campus security waited with Phelps.
Phelps said, “Have a seat, Mr. LeDoux.”
“Where are we on the official investigation?” Tony settled into the chair next to Buckley. “I assume things are going well since the two of you are able to take valuable time and assets away from the search to speak with me.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass, LeDoux.” Buckley looked to Phelps.
Phelps said, “You dropped by the walk-in clinic this morning and met with Dr. Alexander.”
“Do you have someone following me?” He directed the question to Phelps. He didn’t expect Buckley to have the assets to spare. After all, he had two students missing.
“Dr. Alexander was in a terrible accident about two hours ago,” Phelps said. “She survived but she’s in critical condition. They airlifted her to Macon.”
“Will she make it?”
“Don’t know yet.”
“Do you suspect foul play?” Someone would have had to act fast to make that happen. They didn’t leave the clinic before quarter of ten.
Phelps shook his head. “Actually we suspect she was trying to kill herself. The one witness to the accident says it looked as if she drove straight into that power pole.” He shrugged. “Don’t know yet.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Whatever they wanted to know, he wasn’t drawing them a map.
“The reason I called you,” Phelps went on, “is that my detective just told me Dr. Alexander’s nurse said she was very upset after meeting with you and your wife. The doctor said she needed to run home for a few minutes and left a clinic full of patients.”
“We’d like to know what the two of you discussed.” This from Buckley.
“The doctor and I didn’t discuss anything relevant to the case,” Tony clarified up front. He didn’t see the harm in sharing what he had so far. “Both Tiffany and Vickie had recently been prescribed birth control pills by Dr. Alexander. In fact, the nurse mentioned that Alexander did a complete physical on Tiffany and Vickie. I don’t know about Vickie, but my niece had a complete physical when she was home over Christmas break. I can’t imagine she would have bothered with another this soon, which tells me Alexander requested it as a requirement for issuing the birth control prescription.”
Phelps considered the response, and then shook his head. “Maybe Alexander has been milking insurance companies by scheduling unnecessary tests and such but that just doesn’t feel like a reason to want to kill herself.”
Tony shrugged. “You got me, Chief.”
“We don’t have you, LeDoux,” Buckley spoke up. “That’s the problem. It seems as though you’re conducting your own, separate investigation and I, for one, don’t feel that’s conducive to finding these young women.”
“Did you find Conway’s or Alexander’s cell phones?” Tony asked. He looked from one man to the other.
“Not Conway’s,” Phelps admitted, “but we do have Alexander’s.”
“If my visit and the mention of my niece upset her that much, I would suggest you find out who she called after we left. Maybe that call was the reason she aimed for the power pole.”
“We’d do that right now,” Phelps tossed back at him, “except her text and call history was deleted, but we’ll get the records in a couple of days. Just like we got Tiffany’s and Vickie’s.”
Frustration tied a big knot in his gut. Tony hadn’t seen those records yet. “You didn’t mention you’d received those records.”
Phelps shook his head. “No point. The only unknown calls were to a burner phone, ironically the same one. So we know the girls were communicating with the same person. We just can’t track the number to that person.”
Damn it. Tony gritted his teeth. Another dead end.
“Who is this woman with you?” Buckley asked. “My students seem to believe she’s some big shot Hollywood producer.”
Some of Tony’s tension eased at the idea that Joanna had pulled that one off.
“I will get a warrant if she doesn’t voluntarily provide a hair sample,” Phelps reminded him.
Tony barely stifled a smile. “She’s my girlfriend who’s helping with my search for Tiffany. Since she was with me during the time Conway was murdered, she has a firm alibi. Good luck with that warrant.” He stood. “Unless you have an update for me, I’d like to get back out there. This is day eight, gentlemen. How many victims are found alive this late in the game?”
Since neither top cop seemed to have any news worth sharing, Tony walked out. In the lobby, Joanna wasn’t in her chair. He spotted her staring out the plate glass window near the door. The tension around his chest relaxed a fraction. The urge for a couple of shots of bourbon roared through him.
Gotta stay focused.
Joanna didn’t ask any questions until they were in his car. “What did he want?”
“To know who you are.” He backed out of the slot. “A Hollywood producer?”
She grinned. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“It did.” He wondered how she would take the rest. “Alexander left the clinic and drove herself into a power pole. She’s in critical condition.”
“I guess she wasn’t so happy to see me.”
Tony glanced at her. “That’s cold.”
“Yeah, well. What’s cold is being kidnapped, raped and treated like an animal for fourteen days.”
That shut him up. If Tiffany had suffered that treatment, he would make whoever was responsible pay or die trying. If? He knew it was happening and he wasn’t smart enough to find her much less to stop it. He slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “Goddamn it.”
When a moment had passed, Joanna said, “We can still find her in time before the worst happens.”
There was none of her usual smart-ass attitude or anger in the words. He glanced at her. Hoped to hell she was right.
“We need to find Martin,” he said then. “We know she was connected to Conway. Maybe with his murder she might be willing to talk.”
Joanna sent him a skeptical look. “If she’s not dead already.”
Clinton Road, Macon, 3:30 p.m.
Tony knocked on the door of the duplex and waited for Kayla Maples to answer. Another knock and then another and the dead bolt finally clicked. His frustration had maxed out by the time the door opened. Sean Waldrop, the Wild Things manager, stared out at him.
“What the—” Waldrop tried to close the door.
Tony easily forced it open. “We have a couple of questions for you and your friend Kayla.”
Having just gotten out of the shower, hair wet and a towel wrapped precariously around his hips, Waldrop backed away as Tony and Joanna barged in. “She’s not here. She has class. What the hell do you want now?” He gestured to his face. “If you keep fucking with me, I swear I’m reporting your ass.”
Tony felt badly that the guy was sporting a shiner because of him. He should have been more careful about where he punched him.
Joanna moved close enough to stick her face in his. “I need to speak to Hailey. Now. But she’s not home. Have you seen her?”
Waldrop backed up another step, his head moving adamantly from side to side. “I haven’t seen her in a week. I heard she’s all busted up over Miles’s murder.”
“What do you know about his murder?” Tony asked.
Another shake of his head. “I don’t know shit. I hardly knew the guy. Hailey’s the one you want to talk to about him.”
Joanna took Waldrop by the arm and ushered him over to the sofa. “Why don’t you call your friend Kayla and ask her where we should look for Hailey?”
Waldrop picked up his cell from the coffee table. “Sure. I got nothing else to do.” He glared at Tony. “Except prep a club for opening.”
Tony sat down on the other side of him. “I’m sure your boss will understand your need to do your civic duty.”
The call to Kayla provided a list of nightspots. Joanna entered each into her phone. Tony thanked the little creep and they headed for the first club on the long list.
He glanced at Joanna. She hadn’t said much since her meltdown in that gas station restroom. “You okay?”
“Just dandy.”
“I know what happened to you and to Ellen was unthinkable.” Now might not be the time, but what the hell. He’d spent more time stepping on his dick the past few days than not. “But it feels like there’s something more. Like you’re not being completely forthcoming on what really happened.”
She stared out the window, her face turned as far from his as possible.
“Maybe there’s something you haven’t told me,” he suggested. “Maybe about the girl who died.”
“Carrie Cole.” She glanced at him then. “That was her name.” She exhaled a big breath. “I’ve never told anyone about her. Ellen and I made a pact never to talk about what happened.”
Outrage shot through Tony and before he could stop the words, he hurled them at her. “She was murdered by the people who took you and you never told anyone? You just pretended she never existed. Was it because you didn’t want to get involved with an even more complicated investigation? Or did you just not give a shit?”
The scenario didn’t really fit with his perception of Joanna so far. What the hell was he thinking? He didn’t know this woman. His fingers tightened on the wheel when what he wanted to do was pull over and shake the hell out of her.
“I guess you had to be there to understand. We were afraid to tell.” She glared at his profile then. “Do you have any idea what that kind of fear is like?”
Actually he did. But he hadn’t been eighteen at the time. “Sorry.” He glanced at her, hoped she saw the truth in the word. “I shouldn’t have said those things. I’m certain you did the best you could.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but I did what I had to do.”
It was quite possible he really had gone over the edge the way his former boss had suggested, but he believed her.
Sometimes what you had to do was the best a person could do.
10:30 p.m.
After hitting seven clubs, they had still found no sign of Martin. They’d driven back to her house. Her dog had peered through the door at them. Her Jag wasn’t in the garage, so they’d driven to Wild Things. The club was the only place—according to Kayla—Martin frequented that they hadn’t dropped in on tonight.
The music was way too loud. The crowd was way too young. Tony led the way, cutting through the throng. He corralled the manager in his office. Wouldn’t you know, his friend Kayla Maples was there, too.
“It’s Friday night,” Waldrop warned as he stood from the desk. “I don’t have time for any of your shit.”
Tony waved him off and turned his attention to Kayla, perched on the cluttered desk. “You have her number, don’t you?” He suspected that was exactly why they hadn’t found Martin at any of the locations Kayla had given them hours ago.
She shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “Yeah. I guess I do.”
“Text her. Tell her you got something really important to tell her. You can’t talk about it on the phone.” Tony leaned down, put his face close to hers. “Do it now.”
Kayla crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe we should call the police, Sean.”
Waldrop glared at Tony. “Maybe so. I think this fed is overstepping his bounds.”
Tony was on the guy before his words stopped echoing in the cluttered little room.
“Look.” Joanna moved between them, pushing Tony back. “Miles was murdered. You two know this, but you don’t even want to know how. It was totally gruesome. We’re really worried about Hailey. We have reason to believe she’s next on the killer’s list.”
The fury on the manager’s face slipped. He and Kayla exchanged a look.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Kayla asked. “Maybe you just want to harass her the way you’re harassing us?”
“If something happens to her and you could’ve helped,” Joanna went on, “you’ll feel like shit. Trust me.”
Kayla heaved a sigh and plucked her cell from her back pocket. “Tell me what you want me to say.”
Joanna repeated the message, watching over Kayla’s shoulder while she typed. Once she’d hit Send, Tony held out his hand. “You won’t mind if I hang on to your phone while we wait for her response.”
She rolled her eyes and slapped it in his palm. “You leave with my phone or fuck with it somehow and I’m calling the police for real.”
They followed the two back out into the fray. Waldrop immediately stormed behind the counter shouting orders at his two bartenders.
Joanna claimed the only stool at the end of the bar and ordered vodka straight up. When the bartender looked at Tony, he declined. He leaned against the counter next to her. The music was too loud for conversation so they watched the mob of bodies moving on the dance floor. The place was full of college-age revelers. Tony wondered how many had fake IDs sporting birth dates that proved they were over twenty-one?
Had Tiffany done this?
Of course she had and lowlifes like Conway and Martin were just waiting to strike.
Joanna elbowed him and nodded to the entrance. Martin strode in as if she owned the place. Tony moved away from the bar and merged into the mass of bodies. He cut across the crowd and came up behind Martin.
She stalled a few feet from the bar. Joanna lifted her glass to her.
Tony moved up beside her, putting his hand at the small of her back to usher her toward Joanna.
Martin took one look at him and bolted.
He went after her.
She was out the door and headed for her car when Tony caught up with her.
“Do not touch me!” She yanked her arm from his grasp.
Joanna joined them.
“Your partner is dead,” Tony warned. “I’m sure you’ve heard the details of how he died. The knife nicked a lung first. While he gasped for air, the second stab of the blade clipped the aorta. He probably lived two or three minutes. Long enough to feel the pain and watch the blood spurt out of his body...and to think about what he’d done to deserve being murdered.”
“Stay the fuck away from me!” Martin backed a few more feet away, her backside bumping against her Jag.
Joanna moved in on her, pressing her body against the other woman’s. Tony resisted the natural urge to pull her away.
“Do you know what your friend did to me?”
The words were filled with hatred.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martin argued. She pushed at Joanna. “Back off!”
“You’re running out of time, bitch,” Joanna warned. “Watch your back or you’ll end up like your friend.”
A cruiser rolled into the parking lot. The driver’s side window came down. “Do we have a problem here?”
Tony grabbed Joanna by the shoulders and pulled her away from the other woman. “We’re fine, Officer. Just a little misunderstanding.”
The cop’s flashlight flicked from Tony’s face to Joanna’s and then to Martin’s. “You okay, ma’am?”
Tony wanted to kick something. Of course he thought Martin was the victim.
“I just want to go home,” she said, her voice wobbling and her eyes shining with tears.
“Go on, ma’am. I’ll just stay put until you’re on your way.”
“Thank you, Officer.” Martin shot Tony a knowing look and rounded the hood of her Jag.
True to his word, the officer didn’t leave until Martin’s taillights were out of sight.
Though Tony knew it would be pointless, they hit all the spots Martin frequented once more, and then drove back to her house.
They weren’t going to find her again tonight.
Rather than drive away immediately, Tony parked and turned off the engine. “We can wait for a while. See if she shows up.”
“Probably a waste of time.”
The silence went on for a couple of minutes. She checked her phone. He checked his even though he knew for once he hadn’t received a call or a text.
“What did Conway do to you?” Maybe he was an asshole for asking. She hadn’t mentioned anything before except that Conway was the person who lured her into a trap. Apparently there was more...a lot more.
“He raped us, Ellen and me, while we were unconscious...before he handed us over or whatever. I mean—” she shrugged “—I suppose it’s possible it was someone else, but he was the one who drugged us.”
Tony closed his eyes and prayed Tiffany hadn’t been raped.
“We were both so naive. Stupid little virgins trying to play with the big kids. Got ourselves into something we couldn’t handle.”
He reached across the console and put his hand on hers. “You didn’t get yourselves into anything. I’m thinking you were selected. They were looking for a certain type. Not necessarily height or weight, hair color or eye color, but a certain background and intelligence. All the known victims were from nice families, doing well in school, never in trouble. There’s a pattern—it’s just not the usual pattern when looking for serial offenders.”
“None of the victims were troublemakers,” she agreed. “Perfect school records. Normal, middle-class families.”
“There’s your pattern,” he said. “Tiffany and Vickie fit that same pattern.”
“But not the other girl,” Joanna said, her voice small in the darkness. “The third girl was hostile and lived on the street. She had tats and did drugs.” She drew in a big breath. “Like I told you before, they made us fight for food.”
Tony stared at her profile. The moonlight softly framing the outline of her nose and her chin. She’d pretty much glossed over the details when they’d talked about this before. “Fight as in hand to hand?”
She nodded. “Sometimes they provided rudimentary weapons, but mostly it was hand to hand. If you won, you ate. At least in the beginning.”
Tony knew how difficult that would be for someone who’d never had to fight for their lives before—someone who’d been protected by a good, loving family.
His hand closed around hers. “I’m glad you survived.”
Her fingers tightened against his. “Maybe one of these days I’ll be glad, too.”