Freak (27 page)

“She is smart.” Jerry grinned. “The kid works damned hard. Hate to lose her now that her internship’s all but done.”

His phone vibrated again. Sighing, he pulled it out of his shirt pocket. It was Torrance. The detective had left a voice mail and now he was sending a text message. Had his former partner not been listening when Jerry said he was finished? He clicked on the text.

CALL ME RIGHT NOW. URGENT
.

“It’s Mike,” he said, frowning. “I guess I’d better call him back.”

Annie sat up straighter. The frown lines crinkling her face told him she wasn’t happy. “But you said all that was done. Abby Maddox is—” She stopped, realizing that she had just said the name they both hated out loud.

“I’m sure it’s about something else.” Jerry gave her a reassuring smile. “Be two minutes, hon. Order me another glass of wine?” It was only one-thirty. He didn’t want the afternoon to end.

She settled back into her chair. “Sure, why not. I’ll have one, too.” She lifted a hand to signal their waiter.

Since it was raining outside, Jerry crossed the restaurant and ducked into the hallway where the restrooms were. He pressed a button on his phone, and it took only one ring before Torrance picked up. Jerry didn’t bother with pleasantries.

“This better be good, Mike. I thought I made it clear—”

“Jeremiah Blake is dead.”

Fifty points. That’s how much Jerry guessed his blood pressure had just shot up. He knew Torrance wouldn’t be telling him this if it didn’t have everything to do with Abby Maddox.

Jerry counted to three, then said calmly, “What happened?”

“He was found in his bunk, strangled with a zip tie. Face looked like a fucking grape. And there was a message carved on his chest. It said ‘I freed Abby Maddox.’”

“Christ.” The images in Jerry’s mind were horrifying. “Suicide?”

“That’s what they initially thought, but now they’re not sure. Someone snitched. It might be murder.”

Jerry said nothing. He already knew what Torrance was about to ask.

“Pal, is there any chance you could go down to Creekside, throw your police ID around, see if you can get in to see Maddox? Just until I can get there. I’m stuck working on the vic we found this morning, which I’m still convinced ties to Blake somehow. Unfortunately a fresh dead body takes priority over a dead serial killer in prison.”

Jerry squeezed his eyes shut, trying to process it all.
I FREED ABBY MADDOX
. What did that mean?

“And I’ve been thinking,” Torrance said. “We know Blake was obsessed with Maddox, but remember how you kept saying it felt like we were missing something?”

“Yeah.” Jerry held his breath.

“We were so focused on what Blake thought of Maddox that we never thought to ask what
Maddox
thought of
Blake
. When they cleaned out his cell, they found a cell phone. Can you believe that? A cell phone in prison? Apparently it’s becoming a fucking epidemic, and I’m hearing it’s the guards who
sneak them in. There are a ton of texts in there from a couple of different numbers. We can’t seem to trace them, but from the messages, I’d bet my left titty the texts were from Maddox. She’s been communicating with Blake all along, praising him for his efforts, promising him the world. She played the kid, Jerry.” Torrance was breathing hard. “She played him from the beginning, encouraging him to do the killings so she’d have leverage with the prosecuting attorney to cut a deal. I’d bet my badge she got him killed just to tie up the loose end.”

Again, Jerry said nothing.

“Based on the texts between her and Blake, we might be able to get her on conspiracy charges for all four murders. I want the bitch to burn, pal. I need you.”

Jerry glanced over to Annie, who was waiting for him at their table on the other side of the restaurant, a glass of red wine in her hand. An identical glass of wine was waiting for him at his seat. His wife was looking out the window at the rain, her face content, almost dreamy. They were having the nicest time they’d had together in over a year.

Was he really going to bail on the woman he loved most in the world to go talk to the woman he hated most in the world?

“I’m on my way.”

Jerry disconnected the call. The violent itch at his throat, which had stayed blissfully dormant for the past week, was back with a vengeance. He scratched it long and hard before heading back to the table.

HE WAS CERTAIN
he had heard wrong. Mind you, his ears were usually pretty good. The one thing Annie always said he had going for him was that he was a great listener . . . when he was listening. Which he was now. Very intently. He had driven like mad to get from the restaurant to Creekside Corrections and had made it in just over an hour, and his ears were still ringing from speeding the entire way. Maybe he had misheard her.

“I am going to ask you to repeat that.” Jerry stared at the superintendent, an attractive, curvy black woman who reminded him of an old girlfriend he’d had long before he married Annie. “What do you mean, she’s not here? Where else would she be?”

“Abby Maddox was accepted into the Be Smart program.” Alicia Elkes returned his heated gaze with a cool one of her own. “Ergo, she’s not here. Because she’s out. Doing her job.”

“That’s what I thought you said.” Jerry felt like someone was playing a trick on him and that any minute, he was going to find out he’d been
Punk’d
. He gripped the sides of his chair in an effort to stay calm. The superintendent’s office was decorated in a soothing mix of yellows and lavenders, but it wasn’t helping. He forced a smile, but it probably came out a grimace, judging from the suddenly wary expression on the superintendent’s face.

“Why am I just hearing about this now?” Jerry tried to soften his tone. “She’s only been at your facility for one week. And she’s in here for a violent offense.” Despite his best efforts, his voice got loud again. “You let violent offenders out so they can
work
?” Glimmers of shiny spittle flew into the air.

Elkes pointedly wiped her cheek with a long, manicured fingernail. Her nail polish matched her lipstick. Bright coral. “We’re a minimum-security prison, Mr. Isaac.” She spoke slowly, obviously choosing her words carefully. “Do you understand that
one hundred percent
of our inmates will be released at some point? Therefore our focus is on rehabilitation, not punishment.”

“But everybody here is a criminal.”

She frowned at his choice of words. “They’ve committed crimes. They’ve broken the law. But the majority of our
offenders
are not bad people. They’ve just made bad choices. It’s in the best interest of society that we prepare them for a life outside of prison in the hopes that they won’t reoffend. The Be Smart program, if successful, will boost morale for the inmates and keep kids from going down the wrong path. Abigail Maddox is a perfect fit for Be Smart. I had no qualms about expediting her acceptance into the program.”

“Because it’s underfunded, and you were desperate for the publicity.”

Elkes’s face hardened, but she didn’t respond. Which meant he was right.

Jerry sat staring at her in disbelief. What the hell kind of sick place would allow Abby Maddox to be part of a program that allowed her to go
outside
? He had heard of the Be Smart program, and while it sounded like it had potential, it involved inmates leaving the prison, something Jerry couldn’t wrap his mind around.

“Do you people have any idea what Abby Maddox is capable of?” Jerry tugged on his turtleneck and willed himself not to scratch. “Do you know who you’re dealing with here?”

“Mr. Isaac.” Alicia Elkes sighed, folding her hands on top of Maddox’s manila file folder. “I don’t mean to overstep, but you are the retired police detective she assaulted, right? I realize this is personal to you. I’m sorry.”

Yet the superintendent didn’t seem sorry at all. A year ago, Jerry would have yelled. Nowadays, he no longer possessed the vocal strength to yell, and it was frustrating beyond all measure.

“Why didn’t anybody notify me?” His voice was painfully hoarse. “Someone should have let me know that the woman who did
this
to me would be running around free during the day.” He yanked down the top of his turtleneck and allowed the woman to get a good look at his scar. Her dark eyes widened as she took in all four inches of the purplish brown puckered flesh. It never failed to shock. “So as you can imagine, your news is not good news, ma’am.”

Elkes rolled her chair back a few inches. “Mr. Isaac—”

“Call me Jerry. My father was Mr. Isaac.”

“Mr. Isaac. Did you not just consult on a police investigation where Miss Maddox helped solve a series of murders? Which is the reason she was transferred here?”

“I did what I had to do to save young women from being murdered. And I’d do it again. Because I survived. Others didn’t.” Jerry took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “But that doesn’t mean I would have agreed to her participating in an outside work program, had I been consulted.”

“It wasn’t the Department of Corrections’ job to consult you.”

Fuck you
. “Then there are flaws in your system.”

“I never said it was perfect.” Elkes sighed. “But you did catch the killer, didn’t you? With her help?”

Jerry didn’t know how to answer this. The issue wasn’t that Jeremiah Blake was the killer. It was that
he hadn’t acted alone
. “Jack the Zipper was an immediate threat.”

“Yes, but Abby Maddox isn’t.” Elkes leaned back in her chair.

There was so much Jerry wanted to say, but he bit his tongue. Literally. He relaxed his jaw, tasting blood. “Where is her group right now? What school?”

“I am not going to give you that information.” Elkes moved Maddox’s file to the corner of her desk. “She’ll be back in the facility in two hours. You’re welcome to speak with her then.”

Jerry rubbed his temple. The woman really didn’t get it. “This can’t wait two hours,” he said, standing up. “The teenage killer she helped find? Jeremiah Blake? She may have arranged his murder.”

He pulled out his phone. Torrance had emailed him photos of Blake dead in his cell, which Jerry hadn’t wanted to see, but now he was glad he had them. He showed them to Elkes, whose dark eyes widened in horror. Her hand went to her mouth and she seemed unable to speak for a few seconds.

“Ms. Elkes, I need to speak with Maddox
now
. Wherever she is, you get her back here before somebody else shows up dead. Because I guarantee you somebody will.”

“I—”

“Do it!” Jerry roared, his damaged vocal cords finally finding just the right groove. For the first time in a year, his voice thundered. He knew it wouldn’t last. He leaned in and pointed a finger right in her face. “You listen to me, and you listen to me good, Ms. Elkes. I am heading to my car. In three minutes I’m going to call you and you are going to give me the location
of Abby Maddox’s Be Smart group. If you don’t give it to me, I am going to personally contact the Department of Corrections and let them know what a pathetic facility you’re running here. And then I’m going to give interview after interview about your lack of competency on every news outlet that’s been hounding me for the past year, about what a ridiculous failure the Be Smart program is, and I’m not going to hold back. If somebody else dies and Abby Maddox is responsible, then I’m holding
you
responsible. Do I make myself clear?”

“I will get that information for you.” Alicia Elkes’s condescending, professional demeanor was finally beginning to crack. Obviously the things she cared most about were her job and the reputation of her facility, and Jerry had just threatened both. She was visibly upset, her lips quivering. “What else can I do?”

“Cross your fingers she’s there,” he said, and left.

SUPERINTENDENT ELKES CAME
through with an address.

It took Jerry an hour to arrive at Grove High School, where Abby Maddox’s Be Smart group was speaking. As soon as he saw the chaos in the parking lot, his heart sank.

A cluster of inmates, maybe a dozen or so, all dressed in bright blue button-down shirts and thick black slacks, were standing by the front entrance of the school. Abby Maddox wasn’t among them.

Torrance hadn’t arrived yet, and might not, depending on what the police officers here had to say to Jerry. Flashing his temporary police ID, which had expired a few days ago (not that anyone would notice), he headed toward a senior officer. Not senior in terms of authority, senior as in he had thinning steel-gray hair. Guy probably should have retired a few years back.

“Hey, Jerry!” Bill Wozniacki said, shaking his hand. “I heard you were consulting for the PD. Good to see you.”

“Hi, Bill.” Jerry forced a smile. He liked Bill, they’d worked together a long time back in the day, but he was in no mood for pleasantries. “Good to see you, too.”

“How long you been retired now, bro? Three years?”

“Two.”

“How’s Marianne? I was just saying to the wife the other day—”

“Whatcha got for me, Bill?” Jerry said in his best no-nonsense voice. There was plenty of time for catch-up later.

Bill was a seasoned cop and he didn’t blink. “The school called us about thirty minutes ago, telling us they lost one of the Be Smart inmates. We didn’t even know it was Abby Maddox until we got here. Apparently someone set off a flare in the auditorium during the talk, which caused a ton of smoke and set the fire alarms and sprinklers off. Three hundred kids panicked, everybody rushed the doors, she slipped out.”

“She slipped out?” Jerry repeated in disbelief.

“Heads are gonna roll, I know.” Bill shook his head. “Anyway, she’s gone, Jerry. We found Maddox’s shirt, pants, and shoes stuffed into a trash bin behind the stage.”

“So she had help,” Jerry said. “If she’d ditched her prison garb, then someone brought her clothes. Shit.”

“Not just clothes. A guard’s uniform. Couple of the kids we questioned said they saw a CO slip out the back entrance, but they didn’t realize it was Maddox.”