Murder Stalks (34 page)

“
It’s you. Someone from
Tony’s past has come back to seek revenge. He grew up in that boys’
home with you.”

“
How did you
know?”

“
You killed my baby, my
Ashley.”

“
What? That’s insane. How
could you think that?” Ally asked, tears forming in her
eyes.

“
The box. Weren’t you
going to explain to me how you killed each one of your victims in
your sick little game of revenge?”

“
God, no! Yes, I was with
Tony at the home. Eventually, I was going to approach him and thank
him for being so nice to me, but I had some stuff I had to work
through first. The only secret I have is that my father raised me
as a boy and I’m still screwed up from it. I wear men’s underwear,
and I use...” She hiccupped a sob and her voice trailed away. “I’m
screwed up but I’m not a killer. I can’t believe you’d think
that.”

“
What was I to think?
You’ve been acting strange. You threw a book at me. Then I find out
you knew Tony at the boys’ home. Someone has been... Oh God, I
don’t know anymore.” Marissa threw her hands into the air, her
voice rising with frustration.

“
I’m a freak, so sue me,
but I’m not the killer. I could never--I think I’m gonna be
sick.”

“
I need to leave,” Marissa
said, heading towards the door.

“
Wait, you said someone
from the boys’ home might be seeking revenge. What if he comes
after me?”

“
I don’t know. Call your
boyfriend.”

“
Marissa, if someone is
out to get revenge on Tony, he’ll go after you. You’re safe here.
Call Tony and have him come by.”

“
I don’t feel safe
here.”

“
Listen, I’m sorry. I’m
one screwed up bitch, but I’m not a killer. You’re safe here. Call
Tony.”

Marissa jerked her phone out of her purse
and started to dial. The screen was blank. “Crap, its dead. Do you
have another phone?”

“
In my bedroom. Call him
from there.”

Marissa walked down the hall, fear making
her steps short and crisp. She entered the small bedroom at the
back of the house and saw drawers spilled out onto the floor. Piles
of men’s underwear littered the place. She stepped around a box
filled with dildos and leather straps. Her head began to pound
harder. Ally had been telling the truth, she was one messed up
chick.

The machine at her house picked up on the
first ring. Tony hadn’t checked the messages. She dialed his cell
phone, but it rang through to voicemail. Sighing, she slammed down
the phone. What to do now? She had to find Tony.

She heard a man’s voice coming from the
front of the house. Hesitantly, she peeked down the hallway and saw
a tall man dressed in police blues. Was this Ally’s boyfriend? He
may be a jerk, but he was a jerk with good timing.

“
Excuse me,” Marissa said
as she entered the living room.

“
Hi Marissa, I’m Michael
Rains. I think we met once before.”

“
Yes, I remember.” She
smiled and let out a breath. “Maybe you can help me. I need to get
in touch with Tony, but I can’t find him.”

“
Tony sent me over here,”
Michael said, “He’s tied up and wanted me to wait with you until he
could get here. He’s concerned about you.”

“
When will he be
here?”

“
I’m not sure. He’s with
the chief. They’re talking about reinstating Tony. Apparently,
they’ve had a break in the case and they’re close to finding the
killer.”

Marissa almost wilted with relief. “Oh God,
that’s great.” She flicked a glance at Ally, ashamed of her earlier
thoughts, but still not entirely comfortable with the side Ally had
shown her today.

Michael held up a DVD. It was ‘Titanic’.
“Tony said this was your favorite movie. He suggested we watch it.
He hoped it might calm you, help keep you occupied until he could
get here.”

“
I don’t
know...”

“
Sure. Marissa, please
stay.” Ally stepped in front of Michael, blocking his view of her
face. The desperation in her eyes convinced Marissa.

“
I’ll stay for one movie,
and then I’m going to go to the station and wait for Tony.” Marissa
noticed relief wash over Ally’s face. Confusion muddled Marissa’s
thoughts, leaving her wondering how much of Ally’s tale about last
night had been true.

If Michael had been rough with her last
night, Marissa should urge Ally to back away from this
relationship. Maybe staying and watching how they interacted would
make their problems more clear. Marissa wondered if Ally thought
she needed the emotional boost from having a boyfriend. She vowed
to get Ally involved in a support group for battered women. It
would be difficult, because who would believe that Ally would put
up with abuse? But abuse affected all types of women, not just
small, defenseless waifs.

“
Would you ladies like
something to drink?” Michael asked.

Ally stood. “I’ll get it.”

“
Don’t bother.” He looked
at Marissa. “Wine? Soda? Water?”

“
Water would be great,”
she said.

Michael returned and twisted the lid off a
bottle of water, then handed it to Marissa. She thanked him and
settled in the chair next to Ally’s. The movie started, but she
couldn’t concentrate. She wasn’t in the mood to watch a movie, but
she had to do something while she waited for Tony. Hopefully, this
whole mess would end soon, and she and Tony could discuss starting
over without the shadow of a killer hanging over them.

Chapter 37

Jackson Spade wasn’t satisfied. The Juniper
Police Department had made a mistake when they took Tony into
custody. It was possible Tony had been lying this entire time,
playing him for a fool, but Spade didn't believe it for a minute.
He prided himself on how easily he could read people. From his
first impression, he thought Tony was a straight shooter, no funny
business and no hidden secrets. He laid it out on the line and if
you didn’t like him, then so be it. But Tony as a serial killer was
hard to believe.

Spade thought about going to his
supervisors, but having Tony in jail threw a glitch in his plans.
The FBI had agreed to help the Juniper PD with Ally Underwood, but
once the news of Tony’s arrest had come across the wire, his
supervisors had pulled back. Damn, he hated being turned down. If
he asked for manpower to investigate and his boss said no, then
he’d be off the case. But if he called in more favors, looked
deeper and found something, then he could present the evidence to
his boss and they would have to let him press forward.

The first call Spade made was to the
Philadelphia Boys Home for Displaced Children. He hated throwing
around the weight of the FBI without the search warrant to back it
up, but time was critical. The director finally released the
records to him after Spade explained how two former guests of the
home were in mortal danger and one of them had already lost a child
to a deranged killer.

They had looked at the publicly available
list of children who had lived at the home, but now Spade had their
records. He searched for boys who had problems. The list was long,
too long to make anything out of it. Most of the boys at the home
had so many problems that the paperwork looked like the who’s who
in juvie lock up.

Next he ran the list against death records
and came up with four people who were no longer living, Casey
Beaven, William DeForest, Ronald Hugh, and Andrew Carson. Maybe a
clue in how they died would help Spade to figure out who the killer
was.

He placed a phone call to the county coroner
where Casey Beaven died. Casey had drowned in a pool. Nothing
special, no sign of foul play, just a normal drowning.

Next he called the coroner where William
DeForest had died. DeForest had been impaled with a glass bottle at
a concert. The man who had killed him was still behind bars and had
no connection to the home.

Ronald Hugh fell asleep at the wheel and
died in a car crash. No drugs or alcohol in Ronald’s system, just
exhaustion. Nothing strange there.

When Spade called Louisa Gonzalez, the
coroner in the city where Andrew Carson died, he ran into a
snag.

“
I have a death
certificate from the boys’ home where Andrew grew up. It was signed
by you,” Spade told her.

“
Impossible. Andrew Carson
did not die. I never signed a death certificate for him.” Louisa
said with a Spanish accent, her tone crisp and
professional.

“
Are you sure? Maybe it’s
someone else you’re remembering,” Spade said.

“
Very sure. You can talk
to Detective Hugo Gonzalez, he is my husband and I remember that
case well. Andrew Carson disappeared. His mother insisted we issue
a death certificate, but I refused.”

“
His mother?”

“
Yes. I’m not sure why she
was so insistent. She’d never come in, just call and call and call.
Very annoying woman. It doesn’t matter anymore, though. He will be
declared legally dead in a few months. So, I guess his mother will
finally get her wish.”

“
Andrew Carson grew up in
an orphanage and his adoptive parents died in a fire when he was
seventeen. He didn’t have a mother alive at the time.”

There was silence on the other end of the
line, then, “Well, shit.”

“
Do you have a picture of
Andrew Carson?”

“
Yes, but I’ll have to
look for the file. Give me an hour.”

“
Great, could you scan it
and email it to me? Also, do you have his prints on
file?”

“
I’ll look, but don’t hold
your breath.”

Spade recited back his email address and
hung up the phone. He leaned back in his chair, wondering who this
Andrew Carson person really was.

Chapter 38

Tony rolled his shoulders, ignoring the
pain. “Rex, I swear, I didn’t kill the woman in my bed. I didn’t
have her carve the letter ‘L’ into my flesh and Marissa didn’t do
it, either. I’m telling you the truth. I’m being set up.”

“
Who is setting you up?”
Rex asked.

Tony ran his hand down his face. The pain
from pulling his skin tight felt refreshing after being cuffed. Rex
had finally taken the cuffs off, but Tony was still confined to the
small interrogation room.

“
Allison Underwood. She’s
the one. She was at the boys’ home with me.”

“
Wait, you’re telling me
they let a girl stay there? No way.”

“
She disguised herself as
a boy. It caused a big stink when they found out. She was there for
a few months. We treated her like crap. Almost as bad as
Wuss.”

“
Who?”

“
Just another boy at the
home. We were jerks, asses, really. Horrible environment for
anyone, much less a girl.”

Rex shook his head and opened the door a
crack to called out, “Sally, place a call to the gym, the one on
Fifth Street, and get Allison Underwood’s schedule for the past
month.” Rex closed the door and took the seat across from Tony.
They stared at each other for a few minutes, neither one saying a
word.

Tony couldn’t stand the silence. He needed
to get out so he could find Marissa. “Call Spade. He’ll tell you
about Allison. She was arrested on an assault charge against a
woman. Believe me, she’s trouble.” Tony sat in his chair, even
though he wanted to get up and pace around the room. He couldn’t
pace, wasn’t allowed to. Instead, he clenched his fists over and
over again.

“
We already know about her
past arrests, but that doesn’t mean she’s the killer. Our suspect
is a man.”

“
Jackson Spade thinks it
could be a woman.”

“
But the rapes?” Rex
said.

“
The women were possibly
raped with an object. It could be Allison. Why won’t you at least
check it out? Why do you insist on looking at only me?”

“
I am checking it out.
Sally is looking at her schedule as we speak. Don’t forget that you
woke up with a dead body in your own bed, and for some reason you
expect us to believe you don’t remember how it got there. Come on,
Tony, give me a break.”

Tony hunched his shoulders forward in
defeat. It came back to Latisha Enzer’s body being found in his
bed. There was nothing in his memory from that night. He barely
remembered the next morning when he placed the call to Rex.

“
I was
drugged.”

“
You could have easily
drugged yourself. And what about the keys and the receipt for the
water park found at the last scene?” Rex countered.

“
I don’t know how the keys
or the receipt got there. I noticed my house keys missing this
morning. I don’t know who the hell is behind this. But it’s not
me.”

“
I want to believe you,
but I need more time to find the truth. I can’t just let you walk
out because I think you’re innocent.”

Tony raised his head, his eyes focused on
Rex’s face. Could Rex really believe he was capable of murder? A
trickle of sweat ran down Rex’s face and wrinkles formed above his
brow. Tony knew this must be stressful for his friend. He wanted to
give Rex the benefit of the doubt, trust him with everything, but
Rex had to believe in him.

“
Rex, can you honestly
believe that I have it in me to murder anyone, much less a child,
my child?”