Wren Delacroix Series Box Set Page 26

  “I don’t suppose the school has surveillance videos?” said Maliah.

  “No, we asked,” said Reilly. “First thing we asked. Couldn’t get that lucky.”

  “But this school has horrible security,” said Maliah. “How’d this kid get in? Wasn’t the library locked? How’d that girl get in to run the track?”

  “The track is outside,” said Reilly. “And it’s open to the community. It’s a public track. But the library, he seems to have broken into.”

  “Yeah, there’s a door in the basement that he rigged so that he could get in,” said Wren. “At least, that’s how it looks. All the doors have an instant locking mechanism, so it’s all done on a timer, but if you wedge an eraser into the lock, it won’t shut.”

  Maliah nodded slowly. “Yeah, I have to admit, that sounds like something we would have figured out how to do when I was in high school.”

  “He could be a student,” said Wren. “He could have done this during the day, and then come back at night.”

  “But he could have easily been a teacher or the principal or the janitor,” said Reilly. “They all had access to the school, but via keycards that they would scan, which would have been logged, showing them on site during the time when the body was being laid out.”

  Maliah’s fingers flew across the keyboard.. “Okay… give me a minute.”

  “For what?” said Wren.

  Maliah squinted. Typed a little more. Used her mouse. And then nodded, her features relaxing. “Okay, according to the logs, the principal and the history teacher were both in the building at the time when the body was being laid out. The janitor has a morning shift. He checked out at noon.”

  “Wait, you’re looking at the school’s logs?” said Wren.

  Maliah nodded. “Yup.”

  “Hey, I thought we agreed no more hacking into things,” said Reilly. “Hacking is illegal, and we are the police, and—”

  “Oh, come on,” said Maliah, glaring at Reilly. “This is faster than filling out all the paperwork to get the records. If you need them for an arrest, we can do it the slow way, but if I can get in, then I’m going to get in.”

  “That was fast,” said Wren. “I can’t believe you did that so fast.”

  Maliah laughed, looking pleased with herself. “What can I say? I do what I can.”

  “Badass,” said Wren, grinning at her.

  “Thank you,” said Maliah, grinning back.

  “All right, back on topic,” said Reilly, “it still doesn’t eliminate anyone.”

  “Well, it seems awfully complicated for the janitor,” said Wren. “I can’t see him wedging open a door.”

  “And if the principal and the teacher are already in the building, why tamper with the lock?” said Reilly.

  “To throw you off?” said Maliah.

  “Right,” said Wren. “Because this killer is half evil genius and half impulsive mess. I forgot. Nothing makes any sense at all.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Peter Baker dropped his back pack on the table in the room that Reilly and Wren had set up in the school to talk to suspects. Since they had more than one person to see that day, it seemed easier than chasing them around the school.

  Peter was Bristol’s boyfriend. He was a skinny guy with greasy dark hair which hung in his eyes. His clothes hung off his frame. He had dark circles under his eyes. “I want my mom here if you’re going to question me.”

  “Okay,” said Reilly. “That’s fine. We can do that. We’ll call her, okay?”

  “Won’t matter if you do,” said Peter. “She’s not here. She went to Ohio to see my grandfather, because he’s sick. I asked her to stay, because my girlfriend freaking died, but she wouldn’t. She just left.” He sank down in a chair, looking sullen. “I needed her, you know?”

  “Sorry,” said Reilly. “So, what about your father?”

  “Not in the picture,” said Peter.

  “Okay,” said Reilly. He looked Peter over. “Well, that makes things a little tough for us, doesn’t it? When’s your mother get home?”

  “I don’t know.” Peter shrugged. “I’m not letting anyone screw with me, though. I know how this goes. People are going to think I did it, because I’m Bristol’s boyfriend, and it’s always the boyfriend. Well, I didn’t do it, and I’m not going to let you guys force me into some kind of confession.”

  “Hey, no,” spoke up Wren. “That’s not what we’re here for. Honestly, we’re looking to eliminate you, that’s all.”

  “Exactly,” said Reilly. “We find out that you’re not responsible for this, and we’ll be done looking into you. So, do you think you could talk to us without your mother present?”

  “I don’t know,” said Peter. “That sounds kind of dumb of me to do. I’m not dumb.”

  “How about we ask you some questions, and you see if you want to answer them?” said Reilly. “Anything makes you feel uncomfortable, you say you’re done, and we’ll come back when we can have your mother here.”

  Peter sighed. He looked them both over. “Yeah, whatever.”

  “You’re consenting, then?” said Reilly.

  Peter hunched down, glowering across the table at them. “Fine. Sure.”

  “Okay, so, um, several days ago, the day Bristol was found. Can you account for yourself around 4:00 in the morning?” said Wren.

  “Not really,” said Peter. “I mean, I was in bed, asleep, but no one was watching me sleep. My mother was asleep too. So, I mean, I don’t know if that counts.”

  “And last night,” said Reilly. “Yesterday evening around 8:00, where were you?”

  “I was home alone, because my mother left me alone,” said Peter. “While I’m in the middle of grieving. What kind of mother does that? You know?”

  * * *

  “Noah,” said the young man, offering Wren his hand. “Noah Adams.”

  Wren took his hand and shook. “I’m Wren Delacroix. I work as a consultant to Detective Reilly here.”

  “Detective,” said Noah, offering him his hand. “Good to meet you.”

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” Reilly gestured to the seat where Peter Baker had been sitting recently.

  Noah sat down.

  “How are you?” said Wren.

  “Well, not great,” said Noah. “I mean, my girlfriend is dead. I’m pretty upset about it.” He didn’t look upset, though, he looked very… clean. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and very white sneakers. His hair had product in it. Noah was the boyfriend of the second victim, Megan Wallace.

  “So, when was the last time you heard from Megan?” said Reilly.

  “Well, that’s the thing,” said Noah. “I was worried about her. It had been over a week, and no one was doing anything. I talked to people about it. I talked to teachers, and everyone acted like, you know, she was just avoiding me, like it was no big deal. But, I mean, clearly it was.”

  “Any reason she would have avoided you?” said Wren.

  “No,” said Noah. He looked down at the table, traced a whirl of the fake wood grain stamped onto it. For a moment, he looked younger than seventeen. He looked like a little boy who was about to start crying. Then he sucked in a breath and got himself under control. “Look, she was dead for all this time, that’s what I heard. Like a week or something? And no one was doing anything. No one listened to me.”

  “Right,” said Reilly. “I’m very sorry about that.”

  “Megan didn’t have, like, a mom,” said Noah. “She was all alone except for me, but no one cared what I thought.” He traced the wood grain in the table again.

  “We know this is tough,” said Wren. “But it would help us if we could ask you some questions to try to eliminate you.”

  “Oh, sure.” Noah looked up at them, nodding, almost eager. “I want to help any way I can. I want you to find who did this, and I don’t want you wasting time on me. I know you have to look into me, because I was her boyfriend. I know all about that police procedure stuff. I think it’s really
interesting. So, I get it. And anything you need from me? DNA samples, fingerprints, anything, I’m totally willing to give that to you.”

  “Your father owns a handgun,” said Reilly. “Would you have access to that gun?”

  “Well, no. It’s in a safe,” said Noah. “But I think it got stolen. I don’t know. You’d have to ask my dad about that.”

  Reilly scribbled a note to check into that. “What we need is to know where you were yesterday evening around 8:00.”

  “I was out looking for Megan,” said Noah. “That was what I’d been doing every day this week, because no one was paying attention to me, so I felt like I had to do something on my own. So, I went around to various places where she sometimes hung out and I asked if anyone had seen her.”

  “And people could confirm that you came by?” said Reilly. “People at these various places?”

  “I’m sure they could,” said Noah.

  “Can you write us out a list?” said Reilly.

  “Yeah, yeah, no problem.” Noah reached into his back pack and got out a notebook.

  “What about the day that Bristol Cannon was found? Where were you around 4:00 in the morning?”

  “Oh, I think I was in bed,” said Noah.

  “Anyone can confirm that?” said Wren.

  “Maybe my mom,” said Noah. “Or my dad. I mean, I think they were both asleep too, but they would have known if I left.”

  * * *

  “So, I suppose there’s a reason I’m here instead of having my planning period?” said Tobias Harrison, who was the teacher who had access to a handgun.

  “Yes, well, I’m sure you can guess why we’re here,” said Reilly.

  Tobias slumped in the chair. “If we’re going to play a guessing game, I’m out. I really have no idea what this is all about.”

  “You’re working in a school where two students have been murdered, and you can’t guess?” said Wren.

  “Oh, right,” said Tobias. “That woman called me to ask about guns, but I told her that I don’t even have the ammunition for that gun anymore. Seriously, it belonged to my father. I’m not into it. My brother definitely isn’t into it. I should probably sell the gun. I didn’t shoot anyone. That’s what I told the woman on the phone. And if you’re here to try to accuse me of something, forget it.”

  “Well, we’re here to try to eliminate you,” said Reilly.

  “Oh, that’s a very nice way of putting it.”

  “We were actually here earlier in the week,” said Wren. “Before the body of Megan Wallace was found.”

  “Right, I don’t know the Wallace girl,” said Tobias. “I had Bristol in class, but not Megan.”

  “You weren’t in that day,” said Reilly.

  “No, I had issues with my brother,” said Tobias.

  “What kind of issues?” said Wren.

  “Is that really important? You guys come here to get all up in my private business? Really?”

  “Well, is there a reason you’re hiding it?” said Wren.

  “No.” Tobias was defiant. “I’m not hiding anything. You’re accusing me, and you’re taking up my time. Why don’t you come to the point?”

  “Where were you yesterday evening around 8:00?” said Reilly.

  “Where I always am,” said Tobias. “At home, with my brother.”

  “Your brother again,” said Wren.

  “If you must know,” said Tobias, “my brother has special needs.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “He’s severely impaired. He can’t live on his own. I have to take care of him.”

  “You do?” said Reilly. “Not your parents?”

  “We lost both of our parents in a car accident several years back,” said Tobias. “What else do you want to know, huh? You want to know that I never wanted to be a teacher, that I had a degree in history, and I was planning to go to grad school, get a doctorate, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to take care of my brother that way? That it would be a lot of debt and no guarantee of a job after I finished? You want to know that?”

  “Mr. Harrison,” said Reilly. “We’re simply trying to establish an alibi for you.”

  “Well, I have my brother, so I didn’t get a doctorate. Instead, I got my master’s in education, and now, here I am, trying to babysit brats all day. So, no, I don’t have an alibi, unless you count my brother, who’s very easily manipulated, so his word is worth nothing. But I was with him, like I’m always with him, when I’m working my ass off to feed and clothe him. Good enough for you? Can I go now?”

  * * *

  “Okay, what do you think?” said Reilly, looking at Wren.

  She shook her head. “Oh, no, this isn’t my area. You are the one who’s good at interrogation and stuff. You tell me what you think first.”

  “Well, it’s hard to say, because these kinds of cases are different than your run-of-the-mill homicide. The motivations are very different. But right off the bat, I noticed that we had two people who weren’t cooperative, both the teacher, Mr. Harrison and Bristol’s boyfriend, Peter.”

  “You draw any conclusions from that?”

  “People are usually polite to the police, unless they’re assholes,” said Reilly. “Or unless they’ve got some inflated idea of their own importance and think the cops can’t touch them, and that’s kind of a psychopathic thing to think, am I wrong?”

  “No, you’re right,” said Wren. “But sometimes psychopaths are very interested in law enforcement. It’s power. And Noah did mention knowing all about police procedure.”

  “Yeah, but that kid, he was really upset. He almost started crying.”

  “True,” said Wren. “Of course, Peter seemed upset too.”

  “Mostly at his mother for leaving him.”

  “Wanting his mother isn’t a very psychopathic thing for him to do,” said Wren. “He would be self-assured and think he could handle everything on his own.”

  “But psychopaths are also really good at mimicking human emotions and doing and saying things just to manipulate people.”

  “Also true,” said Wren. “That’s why I don’t know what good it was to talk to these guys, really. We can’t know if they’re lying.”

  “Well, we interviewed them to try to determine if they had alibis or not.”

  “And none of them do,” said Wren.

  “Except maybe Noah,” said Reilly. “We’ll get the uniforms to check over that list he made for us. But honestly, even if people do remember seeing him for a few minutes here and there, it’s not necessarily enough to eliminate him.”

  “So, this was all a waste of time?” said Wren.

  “Nothing’s a waste of time in an investigation like this. You never know what you’re going to need to know later on,” said Reilly. “How about partners? Could any of these guys be working together?”

  “Well, maybe we should have asked them,” said Wren. “Do either of the boys have Mr. Harrison as a teacher?”

  “We could find that out,” said Reilly.

  “You know what I’m thinking, though, is Tobias Harrison’s brother. He didn’t really say what’s wrong with his brother, did he?”

  “No.”

  “So, what if his brother killed the girls? What if Tobias is getting rid of the bodies for him?”

  “Possible,” said Reilly. “I’m not sure it makes sense, though. Why not dump them? Why make those videos and everything?”

  “Yeah, the videos are throwing us off,” said Wren. “Let’s say that the brother first killed Megan, maybe in a similar manner, out in the woods or something. He sat with the body for a while, working up to his attempt to molest the body, and then maybe Tobias discovered him. Tobias hid the body, thinking maybe no one would find it, but—”

  “But the brother did it again,” said Reilly. “And this time, Tobias can’t get there in time to hide the body. It’s discovered. So, he goes and makes videos and uploads them to try to throw the police off the trail.”

  “And
dumps the first body in the library,” said Wren. “I don’t know. It’s a little complicated. Maybe I’m reaching, or being a little too creative.”

  “We should check it out, anyway,” said Reilly.

  * * *

  Later that evening, Reilly was sitting in his car, across the street from Garth Gardner’s house. He shouldn’t have looked up Janessa’s fiance’s address with police resources. It was a bad call, and it was against the rules, and it showed a certain moral failing as well. Reilly was trying to convince himself to start the car and drive home and forget all about this, because it was ridiculous.

  What was he even going to say to this guy?

  Nothing good could come of his being here, and he knew it.

  So, he was going to put the keys in the ignition, start the car, and drive back home. Maybe he’d go to Billy’s, get a beer or two. Maybe Maliah would be there. Maybe he’d even take her home. What did it matter at this point?

  Reilly took a deep breath.

  He opened the door to the car, got out, shoved his keys in his pocket, and shut the car door.

  Aw, hell, this was not what he should be doing.

  He straightened his tie and his suit jacket and had a long stare-down with Garth Gardner’s house. It was a nice house. It was in one of those developments out near Route 9. Perfect commuter location. There was a big back yard. He bet Timmy would like the back yard.

  God damn it.

  He stalked across the street and climbed the steps to the front door of the house. He knocked.

  At first, no one answered, and Reilly told himself it was a sign. It was a reprieve. Now, what he needed to do was get his ass back across the road and get out of here.

  But he didn’t. He knocked again.

  This time, Garth answered the door. He looked surprised. “Can I help you?”

  “You know who I am, right, Garth?” said Reilly, smiling widely.

  “I can’t say that I do,” said Garth.

  “I’m Caius Reilly. I’m Janessa’s ex-husband.”

  Garth’s eyes widened. He took a step back. He was a little afraid.

  Reilly smiled wider. “I just want the truth, Garth. Janessa won’t give it to me, so I came to you.”