Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (15 page)

“You never spoke to her?” I asked Ben.

“No. I heard her speak at a symposium once but never got to talk one on one.” He was looking nervous now. His eyes were darting around and wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

I took that cue. “You seem to be holding something back, Benjamin. You seem nervous about something. Maybe you knew Julia better than you admit.” Deacon thankfully moved behind me in Brooks’ line of vision. The sight of the huge cop made him squirm a bit more. “Interesting you would know about that summer home since you said you didn’t know her that well.”

He said nothing. I continued, “You also mentioned her late father. He just passed away four months ago. Do you keep up on people you hardly know?”

He stood and said, “I don’t have to answer your questions. You aren’t the police. Well, maybe he is.” He looked at Deacon.

Deacon moved forward, towering over Brooks, and spoke softly. “Yeah, I am, and I think you need to go to meet the investigating officer of four murders. He’s gonna need to officially ask you some more questions. Do you think your colleagues might wonder about that?”

“Is that a threat?” he demanded.

“No, it’s police protocol. You may even make the papers, that we were questioning you in regards to a quadruple murder investigation.” Deacon was playing it to the hilt.

Brooks sat back down. I peeked around Deacon and asked if there was anything more he’d like to say.

Deacon stepped back, and Brooks stared at the floor. He then looked up to me, meeting my gaze, and said, “Julia and I were having an affair about six months ago. We did meet at the symposium, and she sort of attached herself to me. She was staying at her summerhouse, and she would call me at my home, not even caring if my wife was there, and demand we see each other. She was crazy. You remember that movie ‘Fatal Attraction’? God, it felt like that. Finally, the day she got a call about her father dying, she stopped bothering me. She went to Bad Axe to see him. After that I didn’t hear from her again, except she called me about two days ago. She said she was in town and wanted to see me. I told her it was over, and she just laughed and said I was nothing to her and hung up. That’s why you surprised me with your question about her, Miss Wickens. I wasn’t expecting you to know about her.”

“Could also explain why you were included in the murder attempt today. That light bar would have gotten you and not just Penny.” I was deducing.

“She wouldn’t try to kill me, would she?” The panic was in his eyes now. “Damn that bitch!”

“Gee, Ben, sounds like you might want to cooperate with the police just to save your own neck.” I kept at him. 

He was silent for a long time. Buck came back to the door and signaled me to come out. I did.

“What’cha got?” I asked.

“Well, my friend Stryder said he knows Julia Waters real well. Seems most the boys in and around Lake Orion knows Julia, if you know what I mean.” He grinned, handed me a paper with Waters’ address, then asked, “How’s Mr. Fancy Pants doing?”

“Well, he was also knowing her real well, too, and he confirmed that she’s back in town.” I looked into the room again. Brooks was quiet on the couch, and Penny was watching me from her chair. I smiled to her. She waved her little finger at me.

“Think we need to take a ride up to Lake Orion?” Buck asked.

“Yeah, but I think we need to bring Trapper in on this with some reinforcements.” I was being cautious.

“I’m also amazed that Brooks just happened to be on the show today, him being involved with Waters. Something more is going on. I’m calling Trapper in on this now,” I said and took my phone out and went down the hall. Buck went into the dressing room.

I got hold of Trapper and briefed him on everything since I last talked to him about the attempt. He said he would see if he could get a search warrant for Waters’ home. I gave him the address that Buck gave me. I asked him about Brooks. He said he would send a car to pick him up and take him into protective custody, which meant a warm cell for the night. Trapper said he would call when he got the warrant, knowing our little gang would just show up there anyway. He hung up again without a good-bye. I went back to the dressing room.

I told Brooks that I talked to the investigating officer, and he was sending protection for him. He thanked me and went quiet again. I took Penny by the hand and led her out into the hall.

“Penny, who sets up your guests for the show?” I asked.

“Davey Morgan is the person who schedules the guests. Why?” she replied.

I asked where we might find him. She took my hand, and we walked through the maze that Buck and I had run through earlier. We got to an office and went in. There was a girl sitting at a desk who stood when Penny and I walked in.

“Hi, Penny, glad you’re all right.” She beamed.

“Thanks, Joy, is Davey in? I need to ask him about today’s guest.”

“Yeah, that was strange. He set up this guy Brooks at the very last minute, bumping another guest, and then said he had to leave. Brooks came in, and I had to take him to the studio.” She looked somewhat overwhelmed.

“So, when did you see Davey today?” I asked.

“Not since early this morning. He left around 8:30 and didn’t come back till after the big excitement in the studio, then left for the day. He said he wasn’t feeling well.”

I looked at Penny. “How well do you know this Davey?”

“He’s been with us for about three months. He does good work.”

I looked at Joy, gave her one of my website cards and asked her to call me if Davey came back again. She said she would. I took Penny out, and we went back to the dressing room. I told Buck about what we had just found out. I sat facing Penny.

“OK, earlier someone tried to drop a bunch of lights on you and Brooks. Buck and I chased an unknown person, and we lost him somewhere in the studio. Maybe he never left. This Davey schedules Brooks, gets him in here and then disappears until after the accident. We were watching for a stranger in our midst. We didn’t look at people who belonged here.” I was guessing.

She was quiet then looked sad. “Someone I had gotten to know tried to kill me. That is so bad.”

I looked up to Buck. “I don’t know the connection between Davey Morgan and Julia Waters, but Brooks being here today, next to Penny, is more than coincidence. Maybe Julia figured she could kill two birds with one stone. Bagging her cheerleader and her ungrateful lover. She and Davey must be in it together. Davey must have been the masked man in Penny’s home, and Julia could have been the little old lady who slashed Sue.”

My cell phone rang. It was Trapper telling me he found a cooperative judge and had a warrant. He had to call the Lake Orion police to get their help, just to make it official. I filled Trapper in on Davey Morgan and our theories. He asked me to get Morgan’s address. I said I would and we would meet him at Waters’ home. I’m sure he wanted to argue about it but just said to not get in the way.

Shortly a car came to get Brooks, and he went off, not in a good mood. We piled into Buck’s van and head out to I-75 North to Lake Orion. It would take a while, so we just listened to the radio playing crappy music and lots of commercials. Buck finally popped in a tape by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and we sang along to John Fogerty the best we could. I checked my map program on my Palm and gave Buck the directions to Waters’ address as we neared Lake Orion.

We pulled into the long drive up to what amounted to be a cabin. There were two police cars and one unmarked car in front of the building. Trapper was standing next to Becker out front with some big-bellied sheriff, talking. We pulled up, and Trapper came over to the van.  “Well, it’s the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Oh, and the Incredible Hulk.” He looked at Deacon. “You can look around, but don’t touch anything. The sheriff’s people just got here, but so far no one is answering the door. The sheriff has a locksmith coming to open it up.”

Buck smiled and said, “Be just as easy to bust the door window.”

“Yeah, I agree, but the sheriff doesn’t want to piss off Waters. I think he may be dicking her, too.” Trapper grinned.

We got out of the van and stood by. After a short while, a truck drove up, and the locksmith got out. He proceeded to open the front door, and the cops went in. Buck said he would stay outside and watch for attacking terrorists. I knew better. Penny and I wandered in, and I asked one of the deputies if I could get some of his rubber gloves. He obliged. I gave a pair to Penny and pulled mine on.

Penny went up to the fireplace mantle and looked at the assorted pictures in frames. She picked one up as I came up beside her. It was a picture of a little girl about six standing next to a man and woman whom I presumed were Waters’ parents. The man sort of looked like Rocco. Penny stared at the picture till I took it from her and said not to dwell on the past. She kissed me on the cheek and went off into the kitchenette.

The cops were buzzing around, digging into closets, drawers and cupboards. Becker called Trapper to the bedroom. I tagged along. He brought up a box from the closet and showed Trapper the contents. In all, Trapper deduced a rope for strangulation, a small bottle of strychnine poison, a mallet with blood on the head and a straight razor.

“Most serial killers will take a souvenir of the victims. This one collects the murder weapons,” I speculated. Trapper agreed.

“Becker, bag the evidence and call in CSU. We got a killer. Sheriff, if you have no problem with us taking over jurisdiction?” The sheriff hesitated but had to agree when he saw the contents of the box. He whistled and said he couldn’t believe that Waters would be a killer. “Can you also put a call out to watch for Waters?” The sheriff went out to his car to radio dispatch and let his people know.

Deacon came in from another room, calling for Trapper. We went into a back bedroom. In the room there was a video camera on a tripod, aimed at a makeshift curtain. Deacon pointed to a VCR on a dresser, next to a television. Trapper found four tapes sitting on the dresser, each marked with the name of one of the cheerleaders. Wickens and Grolich were missing. Trapper put the tape marked “Carter” into the VCR and turned on the machine and the TV. The screen lit with Waters’ face. She was sitting on a stool.

“
I want to tell everyone about my father. He was a hard, mean man, but he had a good side. In 1967 he was a gym teacher, and six cheerleaders decided to make my father’s life a living hell by accusing him of sexual misconduct. He didn’t do it. My father was beaten by police, and fired from a job he loved. For years he couldn’t find work, then he met my mother. She worked at a local church as a secretary, and managed to get him hired in as custodian. They married, and I came along shortly after. My father was miserable for most of my childhood. He drank too much and would often beat my mother if things weren’t going right. But he had a decent side in that he did care, but only when he was sober. He even taught Sunday school. I was twelve when my mother finally had it and ran away. My father became distant from me. I left his house when I was old enough, and he couldn’t stop me. The rest of my life is not important. I never knew about the accusations in 1967 until my father was on his deathbed. He and I talked about it and how it led him to be the way he was. He made me promise to avenge the life that he was forced into. He also made another confession. He had a son by the girl’s gym teacher from the school that fired him, Alice Stone
.”

Penny was shocked and looked at me. I put an arm around her.

“
He never knew until years later when Alice Stone finally tracked him down and told him. It was after I moved out, so I didn’t know about him either until my father lay dying. The years of hard drinking were killing him. He was diseased inside. He died painfully. Now you will meet the last living cheerleader giving her confession for this murder of my father. She will apologize for this crime and atone for it by dying on camera. A tribute to my father. Now I present to you the last bitch, Sue Carter.”
  The tape went blank.

“I guess she had one for each woman set up because she couldn’t be sure who would be last to go. This woman is nuts,” Trapper said quietly.

I said that two tapes were missing, the last two women who were still alive.