Maniacal: A Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Book 1 (4 page)

“Does Morris legally live here? You said you were his guardian.”

He smirked. “This is his address on record, but is he ever around? No, ma’am. I see that boy now and then when he comes home to shower and put on clean clothes. He’s out with his crew most all day and night.”

“Does Morris have a job?” I asked. I watched Jack jot down everything Terrance was saying.

Mr. King laughed and slapped his knee. “He sure does. That’s if selling drugs and stolen goods is a job.”

“Mr. King, I don’t want to prolong this more than I have to. We’re here to inform you that Morris has passed away. We’ll need to know everything you can possibly tell us about his friends, his hangouts, and so on.”

“Oh my, my, my, dear Jesus… did he overdose on something?” Terrance wiped his eyes and shook his head. “It was only a matter of time.”

I stole a glance at Jack and let him continue for me.

“Mr. King, we need to know if Morris had enemies or if anyone has threatened your family.”

“What… enemies? I don’t know. Like I said, he hardly comes home anymore. Why are you asking about that?”

“Morris met up with foul play, Mr. King. He was murdered,” Jack said.

Terrance hung his head and whispered what sounded like a prayer.

Jack waited out of respect, then continued, “We’re going to need you to identify the body since you were his guardian. We have a picture with us today, but you’ll still need to come to our county morgue for an official ID.”

I opened my iPad and brought up the picture Doug had taken of Morris on the autopsy table. We made sure he was exposed only from the chin up.

Terrance studied the photo while a tear rolled down his cheek and fell to his shirt. He reached for a tissue, blew his nose, and cleared his throat. He nodded. “It’s Morris.”

“Mr. King, the reason we’re here is because his body was found in our county. Now keep in mind, Washburn County is thirty-five miles from here. Do you know if Morris knew anyone out our way?”

“Can’t say that I do. That boy didn’t talk much, especially to me, even though I was his only kin. He was court ordered to live with me when his mama died ten years back. She was a junkie, nothing but bad news. His old man, my brother, Leonard, has been in the system for fifteen years.”

“Prison?” Jack asked.

“Waupun. Haven’t seen the man since he was sent up. He’s no good.”

Jack wrote it down. “No other siblings?”

“Nope, it was only Morris.”

“What about his boys—the crew Morris hung with?” I asked.

“I only know first names, but they all live nearby. Devon, Kev, Marshon, and James come to mind. That’s all I know.”

Jack wrote down the names.

“Did Morris have a cell phone?”

“Cell phone? Yeah, sure he did.”

“Would you happen to know what service provider he used? There wasn’t a cell phone on his person, but we could order up his records if we knew the provider and number.”

“Give me a minute.”

Mr. King rose and walked down the hall, his shoulders slumped. He entered the second room on the left. There were sounds of drawers opening, papers shuffling, and drawers closing before we heard footsteps walking the hallway back toward us. Mr. King had a phone bill in his hand.

“Morris’s phone bill came last week. Guess he won’t be needing it now.” He handed it to me.

“Thank you, sir. This should be a big help. Did Morris have his own bedroom here?”

“Yeah, sure, that’s where the phone bill was. I put all his mail in his room.”

“How often do you think he actually came home?” Jack asked.

“Once a week, I suppose.”

I gave Jack a hopeful glance. “Would you mind if we took a look in his room? I’d hate to go through the red tape of getting a warrant if we don’t need to. There may be something in there that could help us.”

“It’s a mess, but go ahead. He won’t care anymore.” Terrance led us down the hall to Morris’s room. “This is it.”

“Okay, thank you. We won’t take too long.” Then I told Jack, “We better glove up.”

Jack and I entered the small, darkened room. I flipped on the light. Only one bulb lit up in the three-bulb ceiling fixture. I looked up. The other two were definitely burned out. The bed was unmade, clothes were strewn across the floor, and the room was a mess. We opened drawers, looked under the bed, and checked the closet. A shoebox on the top shelf caught my attention. The dozen or so shoes in the closet were tossed on the floor as though they meant nothing. Why keep a box?

“Jack, can you reach that shoebox? Let’s take a look inside.”

“Yeah, sure.”

He pulled it down and opened it on the bed. Inside was a .22 Ruger revolver, a stack of cash, and plenty of bagged pills.

“Yeah, that’s not good.” I took several pictures with my cell phone. “Crap—now what? This isn’t our jurisdiction.”

“Call the lieutenant and see what he says. We haven’t had a predicament like this before.”

I agreed and made a quick call to Lieutenant Clark and explained the situation. I told him the room didn’t appear to be a crime scene, yet the things we’d found so far could be considered evidence related to Morris’s murder.

I looked around as I spoke. “The room is a mess, Lieutenant. What should we do?”

“Okay, I’ll make calls to the proper authorities in Milwaukee. I’ll explain the situation and have them meet you at the residence. Turn over the evidence you found to them and they can take it from there.”

“Will do.”

Jack and I found Terrance sitting in the kitchen on the only chair that wasn’t covered with an accumulation of junk. We stood.

“Mr. King, we found some illegal items in Morris’s room that are going to be confiscated. As long as your fingerprints aren’t on any of those items, you’re in the clear. The Milwaukee PD is coming by to take what we found and to fingerprint you. It’s in your best interest to cooperate with them. It shouldn’t take long.”

Terrance nodded. “I never go in that boy’s room other than to set his phone bill in there. I don’t know what he has, and I sure haven’t touched anything illegal.”

“We understand and appreciate your cooperation. We’ll wait here for them to show up. Should only be a few minutes.”

“Mr. King, do you have a pastor or someone to contact for funeral arrangements?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, Brother Tate Johnson at Calvary Baptist Church two blocks away. He’s a good man and our local minister. I’ll take care of it. When will Morris’s body be brought home?”

“It might take a while, but we do need the official ID as soon as possible. This is a criminal case, Mr. King, and we have investigating to do. As soon as we have something concrete to go on, we’ll let you know when the body can be released.”

“I’ll come by tomorrow,” he said.

I saw the cruiser pull up to the curb. We handed Terrance our cards, and I told him we’d be in touch.

“Please call either of us if you think of anything else that might help. We want to apprehend Morris’s killer as soon as possible.”

We shook his hand and went outside with the shoebox to explain the situation to the officers.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket. The lieutenant was calling back.

“Hey, boss.”

“Jade, here’s how we’re going to do this. I talked to the third district PD, and they want you to stop in before you head back. You’ll go over everything you guys know up to this point with them. Ask for a Detective Lindstrom. Apparently he knew Morris and the boys he runs with. It looks like this may end up being a joint effort, but they’re fine with taking the house off our hands.”

“Got it. I’ll update you after we talk to them. The officers just arrived, and we’re explaining the situation to them. We’re giving them the items we found as we speak.”

I hung up, and we left. From there, we had only a six-block drive to the third district police station.

“This looks like the place,” I said as Jack pulled up. “Let’s see what Detective Lindstrom knows.”

Jack parked, and we walked up the sidewalk to the Cream City brick modern-looking police station. The curved facade held green-tinted windows that spanned the entire front of the building. We entered at the ground level, approached the reception counter, and introduced ourselves to the officer. I told him we were there to speak with Detective Lindstrom. He nodded, asked us to wait, and disappeared through the gray steel door behind the counter.

The lobby was nice, clean, and brightly lit for a police station. Black granite floors sparkled beneath our feet, and the cushy green guest chairs in the waiting area were comfortable. Matching potted ficus trees flanked each side of the double glass entry doors that bore the police department logo facing the street side.

Five minutes had passed, and the door finally opened. A fortyish looking tall gentleman walked toward us and extended his hand. I sized him up immediately. He was dressed nicely in a starched white shirt tucked into black pleated trousers. A dark blue paisley-patterned tie was double Windsor knotted around his neck. He had a thick head of blond hair and pretty blue eyes. He looked like a decent guy.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Detective Bill Lindstrom,” he said as he vigorously shook our hands.

I introduced Jack and myself, then we followed him back to his desk. Their bull pen was huge. Twenty desks filled the room, with plenty of activity going on. Each desk faced another, likely partners grouped together. A guest chair sat to the left of each desk. Glassed-in offices surrounded the bull pen, and the hallway to the right led to the interrogation rooms and holding cells.

“Have a seat.” He pointed to the chair closest to his desk and pulled another one over for Jack. “Lieutenant Colgate is out right now. He would normally be sitting in on this, but I’m sure you’ll meet him later. Anyway, I took the liberty of making you copies of each of Morris King’s known associates that has a jacket with us. I know these characters, and most of them are nothing but trouble. Hopefully you can get a little information that might help, but they’re a tight-lipped group. It sounds like we might be working together for a bit.”

“Anything you can do to help us would be appreciated. We’ve never had a murder case that crossed county lines.”

“I understand. So Morris died yesterday, huh?”

“Yes. We have a window putting his TOD in the early hours of yesterday morning, most likely a little after midnight. Two men fishing on a lake in Washburn County came upon his body against the shoreline. They called it in shortly after seven a.m.”

Detective Lindstrom glanced in each direction before continuing. “Lieutenant Clark said his throat was slashed?”

“I’m afraid so. The scene was pretty horrific, yet we didn’t find a shred of forensic evidence.”

He rubbed his chin and raised his brows. “That makes me think the murder would have been from someone else. These knuckleheads Morris knows aren’t that smart. There would have been something left behind just from clumsiness if nothing else. Plus there are plenty of places right in the city to dump a body. It doesn’t sound like the work of the punks in this neighborhood. They aren’t that ambitious to drive to another county to dump off a dead body. Seems like someone thought this one out.”

I shrugged and looked toward Jack. “He has a point, you know.”

“Have you heard of any chatter about Morris? Bragging, posturing, and the sort? Anyone with a beef against him?” Jack asked.

Detective Lindstrom leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “Around here, everyone has a beef against somebody. There’s a lot of gang activity in these parts. They could have been your boy’s best friend yesterday and his killer today. Depends on what’s in it for the person doing the dirty work, if you know what I mean.”

“I imagine this is one of the busiest police stations in Milwaukee,” I said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s for sure. Every year it seems like the number of murders goes up. Anyway, here are the jackets. The names, current addresses, and crimes they’ve committed are enclosed. Give them a once-over and think about what I said. These gangbangers really aren’t that bright. I guess I can close out Morris’s active jacket. For now, I’ll just list him as deceased. Here’s my contact info. I’m sure we’ll catch up in the next day or so.”

We stood and shook Detective Lindstrom’s hand, gave him our cards, and left.

“Let’s find a decent place for coffee,” Jack suggested after we pulled out of the parking lot.

“Sounds good. We’ll look these jackets over carefully and think things through. Tomorrow we can hit the ground running with a better idea of the people who stand out the most.”

I checked the time—five o’clock. We gave the jackets a quick read and shared a carafe of strong coffee.

“None of these guys look like saints,” I said, “but they’re supposed to be Morris’s friends. No matter what, we’ll have to talk to each of them to find out who their enemies are.”

Jack agreed.

By the time we got back to North Bend, it was nearly six thirty. Lieutenant Clark was shutting down his office when we walked in.

“Jade, Jack, anything else to report?” He pulled his office door closed and gave the knob a shake to make sure it was locked.

“Only that Detective Lindstrom gave us the jackets on several of Morris’s boys. That will make tracking them down a whole lot easier. Hopefully they’ll tell us if Morris had enemies too and give us a few names. Usually a crime of passion or rage comes from a person the victim knows, doesn’t it?”

The lieutenant nodded. “Yeah, most of the time.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. “Maybe a good night’s sleep and a fresh set of eyes in the morning will help.”

Jack tipped his head toward the hallway that led downstairs. “I’m going to give this phone bill to Billy and Todd in tech. They can call Verizon and have them pull up the records from Morris’s last night alive. The times and people he spoke to yesterday might lead us down the right path. Once we find out who he spoke to last, we’ll rattle some cages with Morris’s known associates. Jade and I are going to head back to Milwaukee tomorrow, but we’ll catch up with Doug before we leave. He might have more to tell us by then.” Jack started for the door. “Also, Mr. King is stopping in tomorrow to make a positive ID of Morris’s body. I’ll let Doug know that too.”