Hunters

  “You did a thorough job on her.”

  The caller paused to take a long drag on his cigarette. “Thanks, Boss. That means a lot. I’m sorry you didn’t get to see her up close. I cut her face to honor you. I did it just like you did.”

  “I should have had the courage to do more than I did.”

  “You will, man. You will. Hey,” the caller said, “if you don’t, I would be honored to take care of your bitch for you. I’ve got another one on the hook right now, but I could drop her if you need my services. I owe you for what you did for me in the joint.”

  “No,” Malcolm said, “I have to do it. I need to do it myself.”

  “I understand. Good luck, Boss.”

  “Derrick?”

  “Yeah?’

  “Don’t get sloppy,” Malcolm said.

  “Yeah. Roger that.”

  ***

  Martinez was hoping that Livi would answer her phone. There was no way she was going to leave a message. In all honesty, a larger part of her was hoping that Livi would not answer the phone.

  “Hello?”

  No turning back now, she thought. “Livi, this is Monica Martinez.”

  “Hello,” her voice warmed. “Did you find something out about the jogger?”

  “Not yet. I was calling because,” she paused, “Because I thought about you suggesting that we,” she paused again struggling for the words that were not coming naturally to her.

  “Have dinner again?” Livi supplied.

  “Exactly.”

  “That sounds great. I look forward to getting to know you better. Let me check my schedule and I will call you this evening to set something up,” Livi said cheerfully.

  “Sounds good.”

  Livi disconnected the call and turned to Nora. “You were right,” she said flatly. “A little attention goes a long way.”

  Nora nodded. “Let’s figure out how to pump her for information and get you out of this as quickly as possible.”

  9

  “Hey, Jones. It’s Glade from homicide.”

  “Hey, Ben, how are you?”

  “Same old shit, Jones. And yourself?”

  “I’m good. Great, really. I’m getting married again,” Detective Jones told him.

  Glade chuckled. “Is this number three or four? I can’t keep up.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Isn’t it always.”

  “No,” Jones told him, “I mean it’s wedding number four but this is the second go ‘round for me and wife number two.”

  Glade paused, squinted and considered the information. “So, four weddings, three wives. Number two’s the repeat?

  “You got it.”

  “Well, I am a detective, after all. You gonna stop with this one?”

  “Y’know, here’s the thing, Ben- me and number one were too young to be married, and too young to have kids. We did both. The pressure, the immaturity, the police academy… It all just took its toll. Number two was the love of my life. I fell hard for her. But that break up was all on me. I let the pressures of the job get to me and I turned into a real asshole. Number three was a rebound. I treated her just fine, kept my job out of our lives, but I never loved her like she deserved to be loved, and she knew it. So, I’m taking everything I’ve learned and I’m going to get it right this time.”

  “Good luck. I mean that. But I ain’t getting you a wedding gift until your five-year anniversary.”

  Jones laughed. “Sherry’s okay?”

  “Absolutely. Perfect.”

  “Good to hear it, but I know you didn’t call to hear my life story.”

  “Too late,” Glade teased him. “But yeah I called about your missing girl.”

  “Oh shit. Not good if homicide’s calling.”

  Glade said, “don’t get ahead of yourself. You heard about our vic in the park?”

  “Yep.”

  “College girl just like your case. Same general description as your missing. I was hoping you’d keep me in the loop in case it’s the same dirt bag. I’d like to compare notes and see if there is any connection between the two girls. I’d like to catch this bastard, but honestly, I hope it’s not the same guy.”

  “Me, too, Ben. I heard he messed her up pretty bad. Sexual assault, and sliced up her face.”

  “Let me tell you something that we kept off the news. It was all post mortem. Coroner thinks she died from heat stroke, and he did the rest after.”

  “What?!” Jones growled out a noise of disgust. “Better for her, I guess, but…”

  “He’s a sick little fucker, that’s for sure.”

  Jones snapped his fingers several times. “Hey. Hey! Malcolm Cole is both a rapist and a cutter. I wonder…”

  “Get me the forensic report on Cole. I’ll take a look while you look for the girl. And one more thing.”

  “What’s that?” Jones asked.

  “Which college did your girl go to?”

  “UTSA.”

  Glade shook his head. “Our girl was from St Mary’s so that’s one possible connection to cross off the list.”

  Glade could hear Jones shuffling papers for a few moments. “Yes and no. Jennifer Golden was a St. Mary’s drop out. Don’t cross it off just yet. Thanks, Ben.”

  ***

  “I’m going to be honest with you,” Livi said, “I haven’t been out with very many women. I got kind of a late start at this in my life. I don’t know what to say or do half the time.”

  Martinez needed to find a way to encourage her to stay without encouraging anything more. She patted Livi’s arm. “Just let yourself relax. We can just be friends, get to know each other, see where it goes.” She smiled. “I may seem irresistible in my police uniform, but once you get to know me as a person, you’ll probably lose interest.”

  “Okay,” Olivia laughed. “That sounds like a plan.”

  “Do you meet a lot of women because of your job?”

  Martinez nodded. “I do get a fair amount of attention, again, when I’m in uniform. But it’s not an ideal situation if you want something serious. People may think they want to be involved with someone in law enforcement, but the realities of this job are a lot different than the fantasies.”

  “Is serious what you’re looking for?”

  “I’m not looking.”

  Livi frowned. “Does that mean I really have assumed too much and been too forward?”

  “No, I mean, I’m not actively looking. Love will find me when it finds me.”

  “That’s a nice way to look at it.”

  “May I ask a personal question?” Martinez inquired.

  Livi shrugged.

  “You mentioned that you’d been married to a man, so your attraction to women…” She didn’t really know how to continue. She still doubted that this supposed attraction to women was real, but she didn’t want to seem defensive or shut down. She knew she had to seem somewhat open if she expected Livi to do the same.

  “It’s not new. It’s just newly acknowledged. My marriage was…” Livi pursed her lips for a few moments… “not good. It’s really still too painful to talk about. But it isn’t the reason… I guess I’m not against having another relationship with a man, the right man… or the right woman.”

  Martinez was surprised to see actual sadness in Olivia’s eyes, and maybe even a little bit of tears. Perhaps she was not the person Martinez had come to fear that she was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry open any wounds.”

  She laughed quietly. “I must be making a great impression.” She dabbed at her eyes. “Some wounds never really close.”

  While Martinez wanted to push her further, and wanted to hear Olivia’s take on what went down with her husband the night she had killed him, she had no reasonable way to take the conversation any further in that direction.

  “Argh,” Livi said and grabbed her margarita. “Tell me about your job. If the realities are a
s bad as you say, maybe we can end this,” she waved her hand around in a circle, “whatever this is, here. Tonight. At Taco Cabana.”

  Martinez smiled at her. This was what she had expected from Livi; gentle, careful prodding for information. She jumped in with both feet. “I’m a patrol officer. But I spend a lot of time with homicide, so I see the worst of the worst. Right now we have two open cases. One is the guy in the park that I came to see you about. Not a particularly nice guy, so that leaves us with a large pool of suspects. And the other is a college girl who seems to have been abducted and killed. I’m sure you’ve heard about both cases on the news.”

  “I hadn’t heard about the guy until you showed up at the door, but I must confess, I searched the internet and read all about him after I spoke to you. That girl in the park, though is the stuff nightmares are made of.”

  “I know. That’s part of the reality I was talking about. It’s not always easy to see the good in people when you deal with stuff like this every day. I’m always suspicious, always on guard. In fact, I have to force myself to sit out here on the patio, in the open. You’ll notice,” she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, “that my back is to the wall.”

  “I’m sorry. We can eat inside,” Olivia was wide eyed.

  “No, no, I have to make myself do things like this. I don’t want to be wary of everyone every day.” Martinez paused, wanting to get her phrasing just right. “It’s bad enough that when I think about that poor girl in the park, I just want to go out and find the bastard that did it, and take him out myself.” She noticed that Olivia had flinched slightly when she had heard that statement. “So, you see, I have to keep doing normal things so I can stay normal.”

  Olivia nodded and sipped her margarita. For several moments she said nothing. Finally, she quietly asked, “when someone like him gets killed, how hard do y’all look for whoever killed him?”

  “The two detectives on the case are split on the issue. One thinks whoever did it, did the city a favor. The other one thinks that vigilantes are dangerous and should be stopped at all costs. But both of them, all of us, have to put everything we have into finding everyone who commits a crime. It’s our duty. We are sworn to do it.”

  “Which detective do you agree with?”

  “Both.”

  Olivia appeared surprised. “Both?”

  “The world in general isn’t going to miss a guy like that. But our process is designed to keep us from arresting and imprisoning the wrong person. When untrained citizens take the law into their own hands, an innocent person could be mistaken for a guilty person, and…” Martinez held her hands up and left it at that. “Which one do you agree with?”

  “I guess I can see both sides, but I’d feel safer if all the bad guys in the world were gone.”

  Martinez came to the realization that they had both talked, and both revealed nothing of any real substance. She came to the conclusion that Olivia was either completely innocent, or very cagey. Sadly, it was the same opinion she had arrived at the restaurant with. She was getting nowhere. She needed to end the date and try and figure out if there was a way to get Sherman to look into Olivia Carrasco without giving away what she had done.

  ***

  Olivia awoke late in the night yelling and crying. Nora was at her side very quickly, reassuring and comforting her. They were the same age, but at times she felt that Nora was like a mother to her- the mother she’d never really had.

  “What was it this time, Livi?”

  “Guns and blood. So much blood.” She buried her face in Nora’s shoulder and cried. “I don’t even know who was bleeding.”

  Nora pushed her back and smoothed the damp strands of hair away from her eyes. “Livi, I think it’s time you stopped doing what you’ve been doing. I know you believe you’re working for the greater good, but what about what’s good for you? Keeping this up is only making your nightmares worse.”

  “I can’t stop.”

  “How many have there been now?”

  Olivia clenched her jaw. “I don’t count.”

  “I know you do.” Nora said softly. “I’ve only taken one life and I still have nightmares about it.”

  “I’m sorry, you had to kill your own brother. I wish I’d had the strength and the courage to stand up to him back then so you didn’t have to do it for me.”

  “You know what he put me through when we were growing up. I did it as much for me as for you,” Nora said quietly.

  “And I know that’s not true. He would have killed me that night if you hadn’t intervened. I can never repay you.” Olivia squeezed Nora’s hand.

  Nora shook her head. “You confessed to protect me. We’re even.”

  “Never.”

  Nora started to rise from the bed. “Are you going to be able to get back to sleep?”

  “Eventually.”

  “Consider, if not stopping, at least extending this hiatus that you are currently on.”

  Olivia nodded. But she knew full well that she wasn’t on hiatus. “Go tell the others I’m sorry I woke them.”

  “They’ll understand, Livi. Everyone here has nightmares.”

  ***

  Jen had gotten a call from the prosecutor to let her know that Cole had been granted a continuance. His trial was delayed for yet another week. She hadn’t heard anything he said after that. The reasons hardly mattered.

  She was despondent, and quite frankly, terrified. She had told Detective Jones about Malcolm’s recent visit and the threats he had made. Malcolm, had, of course, denied it. Without proof that he had violated the restraining order, there were no further steps to take. Jen didn’t have the money for a security camera to catch him in the act next time he came around. But she knew he was coming for her.

  She sat on the floor, in the corner of her bedroom with her back against the wall. She had her cell phone, her Taser, her brand new handgun, and a glass of iced tea on the floor with her. She had turned on the television on her dresser and set the volume low enough that she should be able to hear any movement in the hallway. All she could do was wait. She knew she wouldn’t be able to survive another week like this. She wanted Malcolm out of her life. Furthermore, she wanted all of his crap out of her garage. Having it there was just one more daily reminder of his presence in her life- as if she could forget his presence for even a second.

  But for tonight, she had a plan. She would wait and watch until the sun came up. At daylight she would barricade herself in the walk-in closet and get a few hours of sleep. When she had rested she would try and figure out what to do with the remainder of the week. And if Malcolm showed up before then, she would kill him.

  The only flaw in her plan was that the sweet tea wasn’t keeping her from feeling groggy. She decided that she needed to finish the glass of tea and put on a pot of coffee. Coffee was not exactly her favorite thing, but drastic measures had to be taken. She drank a few more big gulps of the sweet liquid and sat listening for any noises in her house that were out of the ordinary.

  Jen decided that it sounded like she would have a clear path to the kitchen, but she was definitely taking the gun with her. The problem was that she felt so exhausted she didn’t even want to walk to the kitchen, much less carry a loaded firearm that she was unfamiliar with. She had hardly been able to sleep for weeks on end. She thought it was unfortunate timing that it would all catch up with her now, when she needed to be most vigilant.

  She yawned. She felt her eyes getting heavier. This was not normal. Somewhere deep inside her mind, an alarm started to sound. She held up her glass of tea and looked at it. And she knew.

  10

  Nora looked at Livi and quietly told her, “I need help in the barn.”

  Livi clenched her jaw. The barn was where Nora took her when she wanted a private conversation. The barn was a place where Livi was more likely to hear bad news than good. The barn was a place where Livi could
react to whatever Nora had to tell her without upsetting any of their temporary lodgers. She stood up and followed Nora without a word.

  “Sit,” Nora ordered.

  Even worse than I imagined, Livi thought. She sat on a bale of hay.

  “Jennifer Golden has disappeared… again.”

  Livi leapt to her feet.

  “Sit,” Nora said even more sternly.

  She sat. “Shit,” she said almost inaudibly. “Are the cops going to take this seriously after last time?”

  “I don’t know, but, I hope so.”

  “I knew he’d go after her again.”

  “Before you go off half-cocked,” Nora sat down next to her, “consider that she may have disappeared on her own.”

  “How did you find out about it?”

  “The news. They were speculating as to whether she had gone into hiding until Cole’s trial. The anchor said that Cole couldn’t be reached for comment.” Nora shook her head. “And that’s the part that makes me nervous.”

  “Yeah,” Livi agreed, “he has never passed up an opportunity to put his face on the news and proclaim his innocence.”

  “There is also another girl missing. A college girl, named Terry Smith. It sounds like similar circumstances to the victim from that park out near the arena, “Nora said. “I know better than to think you’re going to stay idle with all of this going on. But Livi, you have to stay smart. You have to be calm and methodical. You have gotten less and less adept at that. Don’t get yourself caught, or killed.”

  “Killed is fine, Nora.”

  “No. It’s not.”

  “I’ve been living on borrowed time since the day you saved me. All I’ve tried to do since then is better the world around me before the grim reaper catches up to me again. Dead is fine. Caught is unacceptable.”

  “Neither is preferable.”

  “I have a lot of work to do.” Livi stood up.

  Nora looked at the ground and nodded.

  ***

  Detectives Glade, and Sherman stood against the wall at the back of the room that the task force meeting was being held in. There were two missing girls in the city. One of them was the victim, and the key witness at an upcoming trial. The other bore similarities to another girl who had gone missing and not come back alive.