Terror & Tears

Chapter 34

The past few days had been incredibly quiet. No bodies had been found, no one went missing. It was as if the entire city had held its collective breath and was just now exhaling. Three full days and there was nothing. There had been no murders in the city at all. The FBI and the task force had continuously kept working. Darrell and Gayle had kept abreast of all the details and now were just waiting. Sitting in the task force room, Darrell watched as all the people in there were looking, reading, marking and re-marking certain papers, maps and pictures. Darrell felt an uncomfortable and strained silence in the room. The trepidation was thick.

Something was still nagging at the back of Darrell’s head. Maybe it was because this was his last case until he retired, or maybe it was something else. He wasn’t sure, but it was making him touchy and irritable. He hadn’t been sleeping the best; he kept waking up at 2:37 am. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t fall back asleep. It was like his subconscious was trying to tell him something and he wasn’t paying attention to it. He needed a distraction. Something to take his conscious mind off the task at hand. He looked over at Gayle and she seemed just as distracted as he.

“Wanna do something with me?” Darrell said.

“Sure, I could use a break. All the words are starting to combine together.”

“Come with me.” Darrell motioned as he grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair.

“Where are we going?” Gayle asked. She had not seen Darrell like this since the other night when she had been distracted from dumping the two bodies.

“You’ll see!” Darrell spoke. As they got in the elevator and rode it down the four floors to the parking garage, Darrell watched Gayle in the reflection of the metal elevator doors. Gayle didn’t notice that she was being watched by Darrell who was taking in every little movement and facial expression. When they got to their destination they both got out and Gayle looked at Darrell and said

“My car or yours?”

“Might as well take mine, you don’t know where we are going.” Darrell smiled as he talked to Gayle.

When Darrell pulled up at the bowling alley, the look on Gayle’s face said it all.

“What are we gonna do here?” Gayle mocked. “Interrogate the pins?”

“You know, you are one funny lady! “ Darrell said nothing else. He got out of the car, went into the alley, asked for his size 13 shoes and went to lane 7 and put them on. Gayle followed suit, getting shoes and a soda.

Darrell inputted their names into the computer and then took his warm up shots. Two strikes. Gayle warmed up with a spare. Gayle started the game with a spare and then the two went back and forth until they had bowled three complete games.

Finally Gayle spoke.

“So, are you going to tell me what we are doing here?”

“Distraction!” is all Darrell said.

Gayle took off her shoes, put on her street shoes and looked at Darrell.

“Well partner, I’m outta here. I’ve had enough distraction for one day. Are you gonna stay?”

“Yes, I’m not quite done here; want the keys to get you back?”

“No.” Gayle said, “I’m fine, I’ll take a cab back and then see you tomorrow”

Darrell waved to Gayle as she left and then he got up and bowled some more.

His mind was focused on the pins but his subconscious was trying to tell him something and he was determined to figure it out. After another two hours at the alley, Darrell decided that he had had enough. He gave back the shoes, paid for the lane and then went and sat in the parking lot. He wasn’t sure what time it was but it was dusk now, and before too long it would be summer.

“I sure as hell hope this is over with before the damn snow comes!” Darrell turned the key to the on position without turning it any further and he realized that he needed gas. He turned the key a little more and his pride and joy started, he drove to the gas station and as he was filling the tank, the elusive thought had finally wrapped around to the front of his brain.

“TWO GIRLS, THREE DAYS OFF!” that was the magic that Darrell had waited for. He figured it out. He still didn’t know who his killer was but he knew why they were being killed. And he had ‘the kill list’ on his coffee table.

Darrell peeled into his driveway, slammed the car into park and then bolted into his house. Schrödinger was annoyed by all the sudden movement. Darrell parked himself on the couch and rifled through all the paper on his coffee table. He found the piece of paper he was looking for and then grabbed a notebook from the floor and started to go down the list of names on the paper. In his notebook he wrote on the top

KILL LIST

These were the women that had either been killed or had been released. The list the clinic had faxed over to Darrell was extensive, twenty seven pages double sided, going back five years. The last two girls, Tracey Alcott and Dianna Wharton, were found together and they were the last two to be murdered that were on the master list. If the UNSUB was going in order he would be hunting for Stephanie Lange, Melissa Thorne, Gina Sinclair and Denis Frasier. Darrell picked up his phone and went to dial Gayle’s number. Something stopped him and he dialed Agent Frie instead.

Darrell discussed what he had come up with and the Agent agreed to help him contact the women on his list. They would do groups of four at a time and see what that netted them. Agent Frie didn’t ask about Gayle and Darrell never offered an explanation.

The FBI agents went ahead and contacted the next four girls on the list. The women were willing to come in and talk to the agents and see what they could do to save themselves from being the next victims. Darrell and Agent Frie set the four women on the list up in a motel on the edge of the city. For safety, Agent Talon stayed with the women at the motel. The agents and Darrell told no one what they had done. And went back to the station and continued working. In the meantime Gayle had shown up for the morning shift and immediately asked Darrell what was going on. He looked at Gayle and shrugged his shoulders.

“No clue?! They were all just mulling around when I got here and then when I came back from breakfast - here they were.

“How was your night?” Darrell looked at Gayle. He felt a twinge of guilt coming to meet his mouth but he swallowed it down and listened to what she had to say.

“Has there been any news?” Gayle asked ignoring his previous question. Darrell knowing full well that there hadn’t been.

“Nope, not a peep. It’s like who ever was doing this just stopped abruptly.”

“Weird” Gayle said, “So what’s with the mod squad over there?” Gayle asked again waiting to hear what Darrell would say.

“Like I said no clue” Darrell repeated.

“Hmmm, just gonna have to ask I guess.” Gayle walked over to Agent Gatsburg and engaged in small talk and then asked what all the commotion was about.

All Agent Gatsburg would tell Gayle was that there had been a discovery and that the Agents were running it down. Gayle was persistent about what ‘the discovery’ was and the Agent gave in and told her that they had found the link between the girls. Gayle thanked the Agent then walked back over to Darrell and told him what the Agent had said.

Darrell looked shocked, Gayle thought but she kept that information to herself.

“Did you know?”

“No! I had no idea.” Darrell lied, “I had no idea that they had found the link. Did they say what the link was or what was next? I mean if it was me, I would be bringing in people to interview.”

Gayle watched Darrell closely, but she had no hint that he was lying to her and so she took his sly look as ignorance.

Darrell and Gayle silently went about getting the faxed list that the clinic had sent. He looked at it and snapped his fingers at Gayle.

“Look here, all the girls who were found are on this list.” Darrell said to Gayle, not looking at her.

“Ya, you’re right.” Gayle said. “What do you think we should do?” Gayle asked Darrell. He looked up and said “I think I’m gonna try to contact these women, see what they have to say and see if any are missing or not living in the area anymore.” Gayle nodded in agreement and held out her hand for a couple of the sheets. Doing something was better than doing nothing. Darrell handed her the next 2 sheets and together the two of them started to find names and addresses. When Darrell had decided to start calling he smirked and said,

“Now for the fun!”

Darrell grabbed the phone and hit the line out button and started dialing numbers. He knew that the first four he dialed would end in answering machine calls, and then he would continue on down the list. After an hour of talking to answering machines, boyfriends or husbands as well as parents, Darrell put down the phone and spoke

“Any luck?” he asked.

“Not much” Gayle responded.

“Me either” Darrell said, he picked up the phone again and started dialing numbers. After two and a half hours of continual calling, Darrell stood up and walked over to the communal coffee pot and poured himself a cup of the thick mud-like substance that was in the pot. He emptied the old filter, popped in a new one with new grounds and started a fresh pot. He shuffled back towards his desk and looked at the sheets of paper covering it. From a distance the Wreck of the Hesperus looked less chaotic than his desk, but by the end of the month he would have that corrected. Retirement after this case would be a welcome vacation for at least a month. However, at this moment, retirement was a dream. Darrell took a sip of the coffee in his mug and looked over at Gayle. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t share the information he had with her, but he trusted his gut and decided that his ‘other detective’ knew something he didn’t. Gayle’s desk looked like she had just arrived at work, everything had a place. It was disconcerting to Darrell who was used to his last partner, Shawn Allen. Shawn was more like Darrell, when the cards were down, nothing else mattered. Shawn was Darrell’s partner for seven years before a massive stroke took him from a strong 6’4” athletic bulk of a man in his 50’s to a wheelchair bound mute invalid living with his oldest daughter from his first marriage. Darrell visited with Shawn every chance he could and when he visited it would give Shawn’s daughter Gwendolyn a break for the day. Darrell remembered the day that he was first partnered up with Shawn. He remembered he was resistant to get chummy, especially since he had been with his previous partner for twelve years. Darrell was fortunate to have only had four partners. Most Homicide detectives go through partners like wives or underwear depending on how good you were with the job. Gayle tapped Darrell and he jumped. He was lost in thoughts of the past.

“Ya?” Darrell said.

“You looked so caught up in thought.” Gayle said.

“I was.” Darrell replied “I was admiring our desks and the way that the chaos on my desk seems to make me calmer.”

Gayle chuckled. “If that is what does it for you, then who am I to complain?”

Darrell smiled and went and sat down in his desk chair. He picked up the phone and continued with his phone calls.