Текст книги "Heartless"

Автор книги: Patrick T. Phelps

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

“My thoughts exactly,” said Ralph. “I had one of my officers take a look at the underside of the lodge while you were still dreaming of lollipops and rainbows this morning. And he agrees that the screws were pulled out from outside, just like you suggested. Now that tells me that either Alexander got outside without anyone noticing or that someone else helped him get out.”

 “If Alexander was able to get outside, he could have been the one who planted the supplies on this trail.”

“Entirely possible,” Ralph said. “But I don’t think so. You see, as soon as I discovered this lovely path, the painted heart symbols and the supplies, my little brain immediately told me that these were arranged by someone else. Someone who was planning on assisting Alexander in the murders and his escape. Someone who knew the timing of it all. These hearts painted along this path look too new to have been out in this weather too long. They are as fresh as a schoolyard bully’s mouth during recess.”

“Straus?” Derek questioned.

“I do not know who helped Alexander, nor do I know why. But I do know that wherever Alexander is, he didn’t get there by himself. And, while I don’t know for certain, I also believe that whoever called in that note of yours to the rental car place, is the someone who can answer all my questions.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Henry Zudak needed to breathe. He had to alert someone, anyone about what was happening. He heard, though he couldn’t be certain of the exact words used, that Mark Rinaldo was dead. That shocked him more than he thought it would. After all, he knew that Alexander Black had escaped after killing three men inside of William Straus’s lodge, and that one of the victims was Henry’s old co-worker, Peter Adams. Henry also knew that his name was found on a list with a bunch of other names that he recognized and that two of the names, Adams and Curtis, were crossed out in blood. He knew that Alexander would be looking for him and for Mark, but, still, the shock of hearing that Mark was dead was hard to handle.

Then there was the more pressing issue of breathing. He certainly had enough experience remembering how to breathe when stressed. The months after the whole “O’Connell incident,” as he began to refer to it as, found him suffering from near-constant panic attacks.

The psychologist he met with told him that panic attacks are nothing more than his body not knowing how to process an overload of stressors hitting it all at once. He prescribed a mild sedative to help Henry through the more troubling attacks and suggested that Henry learn some “yoga breathing exercises” to help manage the more “palatable” attacks.

Henry was certain that he packed his sedatives when he hurriedly threw his suitcase together, and he knew exactly where he placed the plastic amber-colored bottle when he unpacked that very same suitcase just two days ago.

“On the sink, next to the toothpaste, behind the folded washcloths,” he thought to himself. If only he could reach them from where he was kneeling. Though he wasn’t sure that the pills would really do him any good, the thought of getting to them at least gave him something to shoot for.

A goal.

An objective beyond his primal objective of breathing.

He knew he couldn’t talk and ask whoever it was standing behind him holding the rope tightly across his windpipe for a quick time-out. He had tried screaming to get the attention of anyone who may be in the room next door or even out in the hallway, but his scream was locked deep in his lungs.

And as black speckles began to fully cloud his vision, he accepted that breathing would not be something he would be doing anytime soon. Certainly not in time to save himself.

As the black speckles began to flash at their outer edges, Henry gave up the goal of getting to his pills and turned his thoughts to his wife. Her name was Abigail, and she would soon be getting back to the hotel room. He wished that the last thing he said to her had been “I love you” instead of “Make sure that no one follows you back from the store, and please don’t forget to pick up some Fritos.”

“Damn,” he thought as the black speckles covered his entire vision. “Damn.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Derek and Ralph had just finished ordering breakfast when Derek’s cell phone began to vibrate. Glancing at the caller ID, he saw that his client, Thomas O’Connell was calling.

“It’s my client,” Derek said to Ralph. “Should I take the call outside?”

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, I sure would like to hear what that client of yours has to say.”

Derek knew that Ralph was sticking his neck out by allowing him to be part of the investigation, and though Derek believed that maintaining his client’s confidentiality was of high importance, he also didn’t want to make Ralph think he was keeping information from him.

“How about we step outside, and I’ll put the speaker phone on?”

“I like the way you think, Derek Cole.”

Derek answered the call and quickly told Thomas to “hold for one second” while he and Ralph made their way out of the small diner and into Derek’s rental car.

“Okay, Thomas. I’m back. Had to get somewhere quiet. Is everything okay with you?”

“Fine. What did you find out in Albany? Did that ass-backwards police chief get in your way?”

Derek glanced at Ralph, apologizing for his client’s remarks. Ralph blinked an eye and nodded his head towards Derek’s cell phone.

“No problem at all. Have you heard from your parents yet?”

“Yes, and that’s one of the reasons I am calling you. My father called me around 11:00 last night to tell me that he and my mom are safe and sound in the Bahamas. I assume you don’t want to know which island they are on nor which hotel they are staying at?”

“Correct. If I need to know, I’ll find out. Did you talk with both your parents?”

“Yes. Why do you ask that?”

“Just want to make sure they’re both safe.”

“I spoke with my mother last evening after they got to their resort and with my dad just a few minutes ago.”

“Perfect. You were saying something about your father?”

“Yes. He knows where I am staying and knows I’m safe, and since he and my mom are together and very safe, he wants you to call him and give him updates on your progress.”

“Fine. Text me over the number where I can reach him.” Derek glanced at Ralph who was still holding his gaze on Derek’s cell phone. “You probably didn’t hear yet, but Doctor Mark Rinaldo was killed late last night.”

“Oh, I did hear,” Thomas said. “I won’t tell you where I am, but just know that I can get Chicago news and Chicago police radio on my cell phone. What I heard was that his head was bashed in, unlike what happened to Zudak.”

“What happened to Zudak?” Derek asked. Ralph lifted his gaze and met Derek’s eyes.

The questioning look in his eyes let Derek know that Ralph had no idea what happened to Henry Zudak.

“Looks like my brother has crossed off more names. Zudak was found in a hotel outside of Chicago. I guess he was strangled to death. His wife found him dead in their hotel room.”

“If it’s your brother who killed these two, that means he is in Chicago and is probably actively looking for you. You need to assure me that you are in a very secure location and that you have an exit strategy in case your brother pays a visit.”

“If you saw where I was and knew who was around me, you wouldn’t worry at all.”

Ralph shot a strange look to Derek and mouthed “who was around me?” to Derek. Derek shrugged his shoulders and made a mental note to try to find out more about Thomas’s location if and when knowing became important.

“Listen Thomas, I’ll call your father as soon as I can, but I need to know if you let anyone know that I was headed to Albany?”

“No one. Why?”

“Did you call Hertz and have them leave a note for me, welcoming me to Albany?”

“Hell no,” Thomas said. “If you got a note, that means that someone else knows you are on the case. That really concerns me.”

“Me too,” Derek said.

“Any idea who it could have been who left that note?”

“I have a short list of possibilities,” Derek said.

“Well I’m sure my name is on that list, but I promise you that I had nothing to do with it. I hope you believe me.”

“I do,” Derek said honestly. “Wouldn’t make sense for you to hire me only to set me up.”

“Listen,” Thomas said after a short pause, “I need to get running. Please make sure you call my father and keep me informed about any developments. I assume that you will be headed back this way soon?”

“You text me his number, and I will call. As far as my next steps with this investigation, I will let you know when I figure it out. You stay safe.”

“Talk with you soon.”

It was the relaxed tone of Thomas’s voice that most worried Derek. While he was happy that his client believed he was safe and protected, Derek couldn’t help but wonder why Thomas seemed to be a man without a care in the world. Maybe his attitude was the curse of being the only child of wealthy parents, or maybe his parents were overly protective since they had already lost, or thought they’d lost, their other son, and had no interest in ever losing letting anything happen to Thomas.

Whatever the reason for Thomas’s apparent relaxed nature, Derek assumed that a relaxed attitude was better than a paranoid one, though the latter seemed to Derek to be more appropriate.

The two men walked back into the diner just as their food was being walked over to their table.

“I’ve always had good timing when it came to food,” Ralph joked. “So, you headed back to the Windy City?”

“I don’t know,” Derek said. “I’m surprised that you didn’t hear about Zudak.”

“Shouldn’t be,” Ralph said as he shoved a folded piece of toast, heavily dipped in egg yolk into his mouth. “You should understand the filters involved in police work. See, once the state police took over my investigation, they started handling all communications between other departments. I know they contacted Chicago, and I also know that Chicago is gonna send any intel back to the state police. Hell, they probably don’t even know that some police department of a tiny town is involved. And that is just fine with me!” Ralph paused to drink a swallow of coffee and to take another bite out of his toast. “So when something happens in Chicago, the powers to be out there call the powers that be here, that being the state police, and I get filtered out. I betcha I get a call before too long from the state police letting me know about Zudak and any details that they deem me worthy of knowing. Till that happens, I focus on what I can focus on. And that is solving this mystery.”

“The fact that two of the doctors whose names were on the list you found at the lodge were killed in Chicago confirms that Alexander is not working alone,” Derek said.

“Well, I think we agree on that matter. But how do the murders in Chicago prove that?” Ralph asked.

“I highly doubt that Alexander learned how to drive a car while he was held up in those rooms of his. Which means that for him to get to Chicago as quickly as it appears he has, that he either took some form of public transportation or was driven there. And based on those pictures of him in that file, I don’t think the public transportation option is likely. And, while I don’t like to make any rash assumptions, I am liking Straus as the accomplice.”

“Now that is something that I’d like to hear more about. Your figuring that Straus is the guy behind this whole mess. You keep talking, and I’ll get to eating. Don’t mistake my not asking questions as me not paying attention. My mamma told me never to eat with food in my mouth, which I plan on having for the next few minutes.”

As Ralph gave his focus to the plate of food in front of him, Derek began talking about his suspicions.

“First off, Straus is a major player in this whole Alexander Black thing. It was his lodge where Alexander was living and his lodge where three men were killed. Now why in the world would those doctors be at his lodge and Straus not be there? Second, his car is spotted speeding away from the crime scene around the time the murders happened. Based on what I’ve read about Alexander, I highly doubt that Straus, who must be in his fifties, could have defended himself against someone strong enough to drive a knife through Roger Fay’s neck and three inches deep into a tree. Third, that whole path and supplies mystery almost certainly points to someone helping Alexander. And fourth, what I found outside under Alexander’s bedroom convinces me that either Alexander was able to go outside at will or that someone else removed those screws and made the hidden trap door. And if Alexander was allowed to go outside at will, then he wouldn’t have needed a trap door.

“Also, the fact that no one seems to know where Straus is, and yet his body hasn’t shown up floating in some lake and his name hasn’t been crossed off the “death list,” makes me think that he is alive and also makes me very, very suspicious.”

Ralph finished the last bit of coffee in his mug and signaled to the waitress that he needed another cup. Without a word to Derek, he returned his focus to what was left of his breakfast and resumed to his task of quieting his hunger.

“Well?” Derek asked. “Any thoughts?”

“If I disagreed with anything you said, I promise you that I would have made my differing opinion known.”

“But there are other options, don’t you think?”

“Other options?” Ralph questioned.

“Think about it, why does it have to be that Roger Fay was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? He knows the area well, and I read a note in the file that suggested that some stranger had a run in with Alexander and the doctors outside of the lodge one day. Maybe Roger wanted to see what the heck was going on in the lodge after getting a good look at Alexander. Isn’t that an option?”

“I suppose it is,” Ralph answered.

“And my client, Thomas O’Connell. Who can say that he’s not the one who is helping out Alexander? Or his mother, his father, or any of the people on that list? Let’s not forget about Brian Lucietta. Did you speak with him at all?”

“I was able to track him down. Seems the good doctor took an administrative position in a psychiatric hospital in Manhattan. I called him at this office after all hell broke loose. He didn’t seem worried in the least,” Ralph said.

“Guess I should add him to my list of suspected accomplices.”

“I don’t think so. Not yet, anyways,” Ralph responded. “From what I dug out about Lucietta, he is more concerned about his legacy than he is for his life. I betcha he and Straus made quite a team.”

“Is he taking any precautions?”

“Don’t know. He just cut me off and asked me to let him know if I felt that his life was in danger. Pompous son of a bitch just cut me off and wished me a fine day.”

Derek’s head was swimming. In most of his cases since going freelance, he only had one person to track down. One person to find, alert authorities about and to worry about. While Alexander Black was certainly Derek’s most obvious concern, the cast of potential characters who may be helping him was only being decreased after a body was discovered.

“And why is Michelle Mix’s name absent from the list?” Derek barked, frustrated by the realization that the list of confusing items about the case was still not complete. “Maybe she has something to do with this whole thing.”

“I thought the same thing. In fact, I have yet to hear you say anything that I can’t honestly say that I haven’t thought of,” Ralph said with his breakfast plate cleaned and his mug refilled with black coffee. “But I do have to say that Fay is not a suspect.”

“Why is that?”

“First of all, while I didn’t know the man, those who did tell me that he was more of a loner and a loser than an accomplice to a few murders. Second, him being all dead doesn’t help put Alexander out in Chicago. His car is still parked in his driveway. Plus, he kept a journal. And, while I am not a fan of going through a dead man’s personal thoughts, I did read his. And from what I read, he wasn’t the person who met Alexander outside of the lodge. Furthermore, you’d think that if he was scheming something that he’d at least make some mention of it in his diary. Not a peep or an innuendo about anything suspicious.”

“Okay,” Derek said after a short pause. “Your points make sense. I’ll scratch Fay off my list of suspects,” a somewhat relieved Derek said. “How do you feel about the nurse Michelle?”

“I do find it interesting that she didn’t make Alexander’s list. And when I called her and her husband, Stanley, she didn’t sound all that concerned about Alexander being on the loose. When I told her that he’d killed two doctors already, the only thing she asked me is whether or not Straus was one of the victims. I found that a bit odd.”

“Have you contacted them since?”

“Nope. Did try, though. Calls went right to voicemail.”

“As far as my client goes, I suppose that I’m just being too suspicious. It doesn’t make any sense for him to hire me if he is working with the man I am trying to stop.”

“Also a good and fair observation,” Ralph said as he folded his short, thick arms across his chest. “And what about your client’s parents?”

“Not sure. I’ve never spoke with them. If they are in the Bahamas, then they probably shouldn’t be on my list.”

“Well, I did speak with them,” Ralph said.  “And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that he would have arranged for all them doctors to be killed if Alexander wasn’t doing it already. Boy, was that man pissed off.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Yup, I sure would be. But not the type of angry that your client’s dad was, though. I’d be mad as hell, but he seemed to me the type of mad that drives people to do things they may not normally do.”

“And the mother?”

“Cried most of the time on our call. Kept saying that she should’ve known that her baby didn’t die. She sure was upset and genuinely shocked. He stayed shocked for only a minute or two before he started with that special type of anger I told you about.”

“I’ll take your word for it and keep him on my list.”

The waitress walked over and handed the check to Ralph. She gave a quick smile to Derek before returning to her spot behind the counter.

“I’ll take care of that,” Derek said.

“Take care of what?” Ralph said. “The check? Now Derek, you do insult me. I consider you to be my guest, and if my mother up in heaven is looking down on me and sees me letting a guest pay for a meal, she’d find a way to haunt me for months.”

Once Ralph paid the breakfast bill, and the two men were back driving in Derek’s rental car, Derek asked Ralph to give Stanley and Michelle Mix another call.

“I’ll tell you what,” Ralph said. “We get ourselves back to that lodge, you call your client’s father, and then I’ll give the Mixes another call. Sound fair?”

“Sounds good.”

Derek gave a quick glance at his cell phone and saw that he had received a message from his client.

“Thomas must take orders well. His text message includes his dad’s cell number and a reminder that his dad wants updates right away.”

“I’d sure like to listen quietly to that call, if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all.”

Derek and Ralph arrived back at the lodge ten minutes after breakfast was paid for. Parked in the driveway of the lodge were three New York State Trooper cars.

“Either something is about to be filtered down to me, or we have ourselves yet another problem,” Ralph said.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Add a new officer to your team, Chief Fox?” Captain Jared Smith asked as Ralph and Derek were walking up the driveway to the lodge’s front door. Smith was a twenty-two year veteran of the state police and believed that rules and protocols were in place for damn good reasons.

“Not that my department is any of your concern,” Ralph said through a smile, “but this is Derek Cole. Good friend of mine and an experienced private detective.”

“You haven’t shared any case information have you?” Smith asked as Ralph reached the front door of the lodge. Instead of giving way, Smith stood, with arms on hips, blocking access to the inside of the lodge. “Ralph, I asked you a very simple question.”

“Now, I have not known you all that long, Captain Smith, but I have to believe that simple questions is about all you can ask.”

“I’ve been hired by Thomas O’Connell to protect him and his parents from whomever killed the men in this lodge,” Derek answered, hoping to ease the palpable tension in the air. “Chief Fox has not divulged any case information, despite my repeated requests. Perhaps you can help me with my case, Captain?”

“I don’t even want you near this scene,” Smith said to Derek though his eyes were fixed on Ralph’s. “Nothing personal, but I prefer to work with professionals, not people who pretend to be something they aren’t.”

“Well now, that attitude of yours is concerning,” Ralph said to Smith. “So concerning in fact, that I’ve changed my mind. Derek Cole,” he said to Derek while extending his hand, “as the Chief of Police of the town of Arietta, New York, I’d like to extend you an offer to become a temporary officer of my department.”

Smith stood shaking his head, clearly not impressed with Ralph’s impetuous way of managing a police force but also fully aware that his position with the state police did not give him any authority over how Ralph, or any other department chief, ran their business.

“What you do with your little department is your problem, not mine,” Smith said as he cleared the entrance into the lodge. “I came by to do a bit more investigation and to let you know the latest developments. Can you and your newest officer give me ten minutes or your time, or do you have to run over to HR and fill out some new employee forms?

“I suppose we can spare you the time,” Ralph said, moving into the lodge and over to his zip lock bag containing his cigars. “Shall we sit right here, or would you be more comfortable elsewhere?”

Over the next ten minutes, Captain Jared Smith let Ralph and Derek know that both Mark Rinaldo and Henry Zudak were killed in the Chicago area.

“Chicago PD found no notes on either of the bodies.”

Smith then discussed the statewide search for Doctor William Straus.

“Straus’s car was captured on several traffic cams. Seems that he headed back down towards Long Island. We have images of his car on the Tappan Zee, the GWB, and at a stop light on the island.”

“He have a house or an apartment on the island?” Derek asked.

“Ex-wife lives in Stony Brook. Our people met with her and believe her story that she hasn’t seen or heard from Straus in over a year. He did have a leased apartment on the island, but his neighbors say they haven’t seen him in several weeks. We went through the apartment wall to wall. Didn’t find anything. Straus has a son, but he moved to Kentucky. We contacted him, but he stated that he hasn’t spoken with his father in six years.”

“Thinking he’s hiding out somewhere on the island?” Ralph questioned while drawing deeply on an Arthur Ave Maduro.

“Trail goes cold. Based on the direction he was traveling when we last caught an image, he is either on the island, or he continued heading south. We have departments up and down the coast keeping a sharp eye out for him.”

“Well, we sure do appreciate you keeping us informed and up to date, Captain,” Ralph said. “but we already knew about Rinaldo and Zudak. Words travel fast in today’s age.”

“I figured you might have found out through whatever communication methods you have, but I wanted to keep you up to date. And there are a few other things that I’d be surprised that your network has informed you about.”

Derek straightened his back and silently hoped that Ralph wouldn’t say anything that would either delay or prevent Smith from telling them about the other developments in the case.

Ralph stood silent.

“We had three pings to Straus’s cell phone. Three pings of interest, that is. He made a call to the main number here at the lodge at zero-9:33 the day of the murders. Call was never connected. Next we have a call received from the lodge thirty-six minutes later. That call lasted less than five seconds. The last ping we discovered was from Straus’s cell phone to a hospital in Manhattan. Traced it to a Doctor Brian Lucietta, whose name should sound familiar since it was on the list found at this crime scene. We contacted Lucietta, who is either very stupid or very smart. He denied talking with Straus and contends that he hasn’t spoken to him since they stopped working together at Hilburn Psychiatric over ten years ago.”

“Ain’t surprised by any of what you said,” Ralph said. “Either Straus called this lodge to find out if the murders were all taken care of, meaning that he was involved in their planning, or he wanted to see if Curtis or Adams would pick up the phone.”

“And the call back?” Smith asked.

“Either from his accomplice or from someone who wanted to know where he was headed to so that he could take care of Straus as well.”

“Do you find the fact that no list was found on either Rinaldo or Zudak interesting?”

“I do, indeed. I do find that peculiar.”

“We haven’t been able to contact Mix. He’s either gone very dark, or his body hasn’t been found yet.”

“I was actually planning to give them a call,” Ralph said. “In fact, since we’re all here together, how about I make that call right now?”

Ralph retrieved a folded sheet of paper from his wallet that sat bulging in his back pocket. As he dialed the numbers read from the sheet of paper, Smith told him to put the phone on speaker.

“I doubt that anyone will answer, but just in case, I’d like to hear every word said.”

As the connection was made, and Ralph’s cell phone’s speaker reported rings, Derek glanced down at his iPhone to both make sure that he hadn’t accidentally deleted the text message from his client that contained Ken O’Connell’s cell number and to check for any other messages that may have come through. The text from Thomas was still there, along with a notification of five missed calls and four voice messages.

“Ain’t gonna answer, seems. But, the fact that it is ringing tells me that Mix’s cell phone is on. Isn’t that correct, Captain Smith?” Ralph asked as he closed his flip phone and buried it back into the front pocket of his khakis.

“If you are suggesting that we try to ping his phone, we’ve been trying that for the last two days.”

“Any reason why you can’t locate his cell phone?” Derek asked, after having checked the missed calls and not recognizing any of the numbers of the missed calls.

“Verizon suggests that Mix may be in an area with poor coverage. His phone may ring on our end, but he may not be receiving any notifications. His phones are both somewhat current Samsung models that have been on his account for over a year. They are not burner phones, so he isn’t trying to hide using technology.”

Derek thought about calling his client’s father with Ralph and Smith but felt that doing so may violate his confidentiality clause he signed and lived up to with every one of his clients.

“There’s one more thing that I think you two will be interested in hearing,” Smith said, talking more to Derek than to Ralph. “Ralph said that you were hired by Thomas O’Connell to protect him and his parents from whomever is going around killing people?”

“Yes,” Derek confirmed.

“Before I ask why you think coming all the way up to Piseco Lake instead of staying around your client is a good way to offer client protection, I want to ask you what your client told you about his parents. Specifically, his father. Where they are, anything they plan on doing, etcetera.”

“My client told me that his parents flew to the Bahamas to get to a safe place. Just this morning, my client told me that he had spoken to his mother last night who told him that they landed safe and sound and were headed to whatever resort they are staying at. My client also told me that he spoke with his father early this morning. He said that his dad wants to get updates directly from me regarding my progress with the case.”

“And have you called him with an update yet?” Smith asked.

“Not yet.”

“Can you give me a valid reason why you don’t call him right now so that we can all speak with him?”

“I have a reason, but you probably won’t like it,” Derek said.

“Try me.”

“I believe in client confidentiality. What my clients say to me is for my ears only.”

“That may be a good policy, but didn’t I just hear Chief Fox hire you as an officer for the Town of Arietta Police force?”

Derek knew enough about how police departments work to know that withholding case information wasn’t widely approved of.

“I am afraid that I may have to resign my position with the town,” Derek said to Ralph who just smiled back.

“Then I may have to arrest you for obstruction of justice,” Smith said, clearly tired of the game Ralph and Derek were playing. “There’s a damn good reason I need you to call Ken O’Connell and a damn good reason why I need to hear exactly what you say to him and what he says to you.”

“And that reason is?” Derek asked, knowing that he would have to make the call and violate his own code of confidentiality.

 “Janet O’Connell was the only O’Connell who got on that plane to Nassau.”