Chasing Constellations (The UGS Constellation Series) (4 page)

             
When David placed his hands on his hips, Elisa saw the butt of his service revolver sticking out just beyond his hand and she knew that the man would see the badge affixed to his belt. She watched as the man’s glaring eyes danced between David and the badge once, then again as they got wider when he really saw what it was. Mutely the man nodded to David after a moment. At that nod, David tipped an invisible hat at the lady with a softly muttered, “Ma’am.” David caught the man’s eyes and hesitated for just a moment, then turned and came back to the booth where Elisa silently sat.

            
 
“I wish I could do more, but well, I do what I can when I see that kind of crap.” Elisa was still silent as she watched David shake his head before once more resuming his meal, although he watched the other table out of the corner of his eye.

             
“You’re causing a scene! We’ll discuss this as soon as we get home!” Waving the waitress back over, the man ordered that their food be boxed up as carry out instead of dine in. Elisa watched from the corner of her eyes as his gaze cut across the nearly empty bar before it landed with a scowl on her and David. He then shook his head and turned back to the woman and told her to gather their things before he reached into his wallet and headed to the bar to pay for the meal. Once he settled the bill the man roughly grabbed the woman’s arm and jerked her out of the door with such angst he nearly caused the poor woman to drop the white containers. Elisa had no doubt that that would have angered him even more as their meal would have hit the ground in an aromatic spray. 

             
Elisa turned her attention back to David, her eyes as wide as saucers after viewing the confrontation before dropping back down to the table with a sad shake of her head. She knew there was nothing, neither of them could do, the man hadn’t actually hit the woman or threatened her with physical harm, but it was obvious that he had intended to and if they weren’t there then he probably would have. As it was, he would probably scream at the poor woman more when they reached the privacy of their own home. That’s not the life she would ever wish on anyone, and one she most assuredly would have had had she married Alex. She wanted a relationship that was built on trust and love, one where she was a partner and not just a piece of arm candy or a maid or cook. Thinking about the angry man led her thoughts once more to the case at hand, however, and she resigned herself to telling David what she hadn’t mentioned in front of his coworkers.

Chapter 6

              “Have you noticed anything else, Detective? With the letters the person has been sending to the papers? I did… but I’m not sure it’s a valid point.” Elisa said as she brought their conversation back to where it had been before the interruption.

             
              “I think it’s safe for you to call me David. And yes, I have but I can’t put my finger on it.” David shook his head before he returned his attention to Elisa. She knew it was clearly written on her face that she wanted to say something, but when she peeked at him through her brows because of her lowered head, she saw that David wasn’t going to push her. He merely waited for her with an arched brow.

             
Tilting her head to the side, Elisa pursed her lips slightly. “The handwriting is different for each of the letters. The wording is similar but it just doesn’t seem like it’s the same person. I don’t know, I could be off by a mile here, but it just seems odd that they would be so radically different from each other.”

             
“No, I think you’re onto something there. I’ll see if Agent Monroe can have one of his experts take a look at everything and compare them. Maybe we’re looking for more than one person, hell it could even be a copycat.”

             
“Thank you. I know I’m probably just grasping straws, but I figure that any little thing helps and this just screams at me that something else is going on, I just don’t know what.”

Slipping her hand around the mostly empty glass of water, Elisa tilt
ed her head back and let the cool liquid soothe her dry throat. The shrill ring of the phone from behind the bar dragged her attention from her inner thoughts of the past few hours. Elisa watched as the bartender dropped the towel he was using to wipe the bar down in order to answer it. She couldn’t tell what he was saying, but it was obvious as the man’s gaze zeroed in on David that he was looking for the detective. Setting the phone on the top of the bar, the man walked over to their table and waited patiently for the detective to turn and acknowledge him. “Captain called, you’re needed back at the station pronto.”

“
Yeah, OK, tell him I’m on my way. Thanks Carl.” With a nod the man returned to the bar, Elisa watched curiously as he lifted the phone and muttered into it before placing it back in its cradle and ending the call.

“Thank you for taking the time to listen to me David; if I find anything else I’ll call the station.” Sliding from her seat, Elisa began to gather her things
to head out of the bar and return home.

“Sorry about that. I guess I need to head out and get back to the station. Before we leave give me a number where I can contact you. If I have any more questions I can just call in ask instead of waiting for you to call us.” David said as he withdrew a small
notepad from his inner coat pocket. Elisa rambled off her number, watching as he scribbled on the paper. When she finished, he flipped the book closed and replaced it in his pocket, but then shocked her when he handed her a card with his contact numbers on it. She hadn’t even seen him pulling it out, but surmised that he must have a few hidden in the same pocket. While she placed the card into her purse, David put enough money on the table to cover their bill and the tip, an extra amount the Elisa noticed and smiled over, before leading them toward the door.

“I take it you come here all of the time, if the bartender knew you. I’m not sure how long I’ll be in town, but I am renting a place not too far from here, if I do happen to find anything else out I’ll let you know as soon as possible. Thank you for lunch and for the chance to give you what I had found out. I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to hear me out, even more so since you pulled in some of the others to hear me as well. That was something I wasn’t expecting.”

As they made their way out of the bar, and to their own cars, Elisa and David paused once more just past the threshold.
“Look, I know you’re not supposed to tell anyone but I really do think the killer is going to hit someone near here. And I honestly think that man, Chase Ricter, is someone you need to talk to. If he’s not directly responsible then he knows what’s going on. I don’t know how I know it, I just do.”

“I can’t tell you anything, you’re right, and I don’t know if it will pan
out, but I promise we
will
look into everything you gave us. You be careful, I don’t want your picture sliding across my desk as another case related to this one. You have no training, no way to protect yourself, and I won’t be there to make sure nothing happens. If you find out anything more you call and you tell one of us, don’t try to investigate this on your own, it’s not your job to. Let us handle it and please don’t take any chances! Think of my poor heart if you do anything! You’re a beautiful young lady and I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you.” David said as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his keys, he nodded and Elisa smiled.

“I promise, if I find anything you’ll be the first one I call, and I won’t do anything stupid. Just… just take care of yourself; this case won’t get solved if you’re not there to chase every lead.”

After
shaking hands with the detective, Elisa made her way back to her own car and finally back to her house she had rented. Once she walked through the door, she dropped her purse and keys onto the small table beside the door and kicked off her sensible shoes that pinched her toes. Scrunching her toes in the thick pile carpet, since it was early and she had nothing better to do Elisa decided to call it a night. She left a trail of clothing through the house, along the hall as she made her way to the bathroom and a richly deserved long soak in a hot tub with her favorite book and a mountain of soothing lavender bubbles. With a pleased smile she let the bubbles and the book soothe away the aches in her ribs and sank down until the water and bubbles just started to touch her lower lip.

Chapter 7

Back at the station, David met up with the rest of the team to go over the case up to and including the discoveries that had been presented to them earlier by Elisa.

After f
illing them in on what had happened at the restaurant, David even told them of the man and woman which earned the sad shake of everyone’s head, he told them of the additional information. Which confirmed what the Captain had thought, about Elisa not telling them everything, just like a good journalist, or even a cop, she hadn’t told them everything until it was clear that the men actually were going to listen to her.

Moving to where the other men had pulled the corkboard into their war room, stationing it beside the other case facts in a room adjoining the one with their offices, all of the men watched as David took small pins and tacked them to the map on the wall.

He used red pins to mark off the known deaths caused by the Zodiac and blue to chart off those that Elisa suspected, but were written off as accidental.

David then stepped back as Sam walked forward and with a large rubber band marked off the circle of red pins. His hands shook as he then used two more rubber bands as a way to map out the bisecting lines. As all four men stepped back from the map on the wall and watched in amazement at the signal they all knew only too well
.

“I’ll be damned. She was right.”
The Captain’s amazed words were echoed by each and every man present. “What did the prisoner say?”

“He didn’t have much to say.” Sam said. “Just that he had read the papers and was curious. When I asked him why he was struggling, he claimed he was scared and didn’t know what was going on. We had to release him because apparently whoever arrested him didn’t read him his Miranda rights, and even if they did, there wasn’t anything to charge him with other than obstruction and we can’t prove it.” Finally Sam wrenched his eyes from the board and turned to face the Captain.

The Captain’s
voice came out as a deeper growl than usual; his eyes were nearly closed with the force of his glare. “We
might
be able to nail him for resisting arrest and intent to harm, but that would be a moot point since no one read him his rights, any judge would throw it out. So we had to let him walk.”

They all moved to another long table, each with a
notepad as they jotted down whatever they thought was important.

This impromptu meeting had turned into a sharing of more facts, and most of the men were in various stages of annoyance over not being able to apprehend anyone or stop the murders from happening. It was later in the day when they all gathered around the table, sharing whatever they had discovered through the day. It had been trying on the men, as evidenced by the empty cups and paper plates that littered the table as well as the mostly eaten dinner boxes and wrappers.

As yet they only had the one man left that could even be a potential suspect and that was only because of his having been seen at each and every scene. The captain ordered one of them to follow this Chase Ricter, to find out where he was staying and what he had been doing after being released.

“
For hours I had the rookie trail this Chase man. Apparently he first went to a cheap hotel on the other side of town, and then out to a grocery store. The man stocked up on an odd assortment of salty and sweet snack foods, but nothing of any real substance. Then he went on to the library, where he had wandered aimlessly for hours before he made his way back to the motel. Seems he doesn’t really have anything to do during the day, at least not what we've noticed with only one day of observing him.” The Captain looked up from his notes and pierced each of his team with a silent look, checking to see if they had anything to add.

What they didn’t know at the time was that Chase was staying mere blocks from Elisa.

“Seeing that the man had no intention of leaving for the night, I called in a marked car to keep an eye on the place. The poor rookie detective needed to go home, so I don’t expect him in bright eyed and busy tailed in the morning.” Said the Captain with a smirk as the rest of the men chuckled.

Clearing his throat, Mike gained everyone’s attention before continuing
, “That being said, I did a search on our Mister Ricter.” He paused and turned to his notes for a moment, the flipping of the pages the only sound in the room. “Ah, here it is. Mister Ricter does have a driver’s license; however, that’s the only thing we were able to find. It’s like he doesn’t exist, but it’s almost more like he was given a new identity or something which is a distinct possibility. I can’t rule it out, but I can’t say it is an absolute fact either.”

“Also, I took the liberty of running Miss Jones as well. She’ll be twenty six in December and she’s a graduate of Wayne Community College with a degree in journalism
, like she said. Here’s the interesting part; she’s the sole surviving member of her family other than an elderly paternal grandmother that raised her, when she was seventeen, after the murder of her parents. The report stated that it was a robbery gone wrong; her house was broken into just as the parents were getting home and both were shot at point blank range. Elisa was gone at a friend’s house for the night and thankfully didn’t witness it. Their case is still open.” Mike said.

Glancing around with a sad look
to his face, Mike closed his notes and let the others stew over he had just revealed.

“But you don’t believe it was a robbery?” Captain Alan leaned forward, pressing his bent arms against the table as he studied Sam.

“No Sir, I don’t. Her father was the DA for Wayne County, and nothing was reported as missing from their house. It could be that they robber had just broken in when the parents came home, but something tells me this was a hit.” Mike said.

Sam shook his head as he answered. “It’s too… clean. No prints, not even a casing. Whoever it was knew to ghost the rounds and clean up any tells that could lead to their arrest.
And damn that’s rough, poor kid.

“
No wonder she latched onto this case, she never got any closure from her parent’s deaths. I did look into the accidental and suicidal deaths, and she’s right. They aren't only tying in with the time frame like we figured they would, but the methods are… distinct. It should have been caught though I’m not sure why it wasn’t. And that last one… his gun
is
missing. As far as the coroner was able to determine there was a single shot of a.22 against the left temple, they removed the slug, but there was something else. I called the next of kin about it, Alan Farenze wasn’t a southpaw, he was right handed and he detested violence. He apparently had no reason to kill himself and the family is still confused about why he did it, he’d just gotten promoted to district manager at Montgomery’s Food and Supplies and just got engaged.” Sam’s deep voice spoke for all of the men as each one nodded to him.

“I’m sure we’re missing something, but for now we’re at a stand-still. W
hy don’t we call it a night? Go and get some sleep, and we’ll come back with fresh eyes tomorrow.” Having said that David was the first one to stand and cleared his trash before leaving the station and heading home.