“On the construction crew?”
“Tony thinks the guy quit before he could get arrested. I heard Lister had to file for bankruptcy, which means he’s probably sitting around in his big house in North Marine. He used to hire a lot of ex-cons and illegal immigrants.”
“I don’t think the Ravisher has ever been to jail.”
“But I think he has had a few encounters with the mental health community,“ Garcia said. “Either that, or he’s developed this persona, the Ravisher, for his own ends.”
“If that’s the case, he will be judged competent to stand trial.”
“With a history of mental illness, maybe not. But someone like the Ravisher could have been having problems since childhood. Kids with mental illnesses can fall through the cracks; some end up in a counselor’s office and are medicated. Some go to institutions, and there’s only one in Marine for young people...”
“Haven Rest.”
“My next stop.” The server brought the pizza and walked away. “I’ll be spending my time looking in their records to search for a past patient with no name, face, or past crimes. I’ll have to rely on the profile.”
Cal scooped a piece of hot pizza from the pan on to his plate. “White male, eighteen to forty-nine years old, etcetera, etcetera...”
“And how many unstable white male teenagers go in and out of Haven Rest every year?”
Cal took a bite, but the sauce almost burned his tongue. He swallowed quickly, then wiped his lips with a napkin. “The last time I went to Haven Rest was to get an interview with Adam Moore, that kid who murdered his mother and sister. He cut up their faces...”
Garcia put down his mug. “I thought about Adam, but he never harmed anyone else.”
“Carolyn’s ex was one of his teachers at North Marine. Said he was a nice kid.”
“Was the Ravisher a nice kid? Who knows? It’s like grabbing at the air.” Garcia cut into his slice of pizza with a fork. “I got a call from my guy in the Blue Diamonds...”
“About the meth lab explosion?”
Garcia looked up, grinning. “No, Cal. My guy has his theory about the Ravisher. Want to hear it?”
“Why not?”
“The Ravisher could be a son of a former Blue Diamond. My guy couldn’t tell me which one, but advised me to take a look at some of the local Diamonds who have gone to prison or died over the last ten years.”
Cal shrugged. “Why would the Ravisher have to be the son of a Diamond?”
“He was a bit vague, as if he was afraid to give me too much information. He’s close to the guys at the club-house, he has to be careful.”
Cal lowered his voice to a whisper. “Is he a cop?”
Garcia nodded. “If I can get him to come in from the cold, he can tell me more. In the meantime, I’ll be doing leg-work, talking to Lister and visiting Haven Rest.”
“Sonya, my step-daughter, is interested in the investigation; so much so, she made a list of suspects. Don’t laugh yet, Ben. She mentioned Justine Kent, who’s a long-term patient at Haven Rest. Justine claims to know who the Ravisher is, and is sending e-mails to another girl, Piper Jones, an old classmate of hers from the Crandall Academy—”
“Didn’t she stab a classmate?”
“She attacked a boy at Crandall. Justine is a schizophrenic, so whatever she says can’t be trusted, but she did mention the Blue Diamonds in her e-mails, and that the Ravisher was once a patient at Haven Rest—”
“You don’t say?”
“I do say, Ben. You might want to visit Justine while you’re there.”
Garcia filled his mug with more beer from the pitcher. “You know, Cal, Captain Schultz is just being careful. The meth lab explosion brought in the FBI, and it may take some time—”
“That’s all right, I can wait.” Cal took a bite of the cooled pizza. “I didn’t ask Sonya why her friend Piper didn’t come to you about Justine and her e-mails, because girls that age will lie for their friends, and Sonya and I just started speaking again. But the name, Justine Kent, made me think of Angela Kent. She was a rape victim...”
Garcia put down his fork. “I had just been promoted to detective, but Roger Bass–he’s retired now–was assigned to the case. She was brutalized, her nose and jaw broken. There was more than one attacker. The little girl was locked in another room, and left there for days. Angela Kent was tied to the bed and raped, but not before getting beat, her jaw broken. She and the girl were both found at an old hunting cabin in Lamont, past North Marine. Bass was only assigned as a sort of consultant, because Lamont never had to deal with such a brutal rape case before.”
“I looked up the articles. The little girl, Justine, was drugged for most of it.”
“Angela’s attackers wore condoms, which tells me that these guys weren’t in it to fulfill any kind of sick fantasy. I think they were hired to attack Angela Kent. Bass thought the same thing, but nothing was found in the cabin. The bed had been stripped, although Angela was still tied there, blindfolded the whole time. That morning, before she was found, she said someone washed her. Soap and warm water. Even brushed her hair. Her nose and jaw were broken, so she was only gagged part of the time. She couldn’t open her mouth to scream with a broken jaw. She was also drugged. Morphine was found in her blood. Same with Justine.”
“Who would have hired men to attack Angela Kent?”
“The one thing that always bothered Bass was how Angela and Justine were taken. They lived in a nice home in Holland Hills. Angela’s husband, Philip, was an engineer. The little girl was some kind of prodigy. Art or music. Anyway, they were taken from the home, or this was what Angela told us later.”
“Why is that strange?”
“Why take the kid? If the rape was a sick fantasy on the part of the attacker, why would he want a kid around, screaming and crying?”
“Maybe they had plans for the kid.”
“Philip Kent was never questioned, never under suspicion.”
“So Bass thought Philip Kent wanted his wife to get raped, with his daughter around?”
“She never saw the assault, she was knocked out in another room.”
“Do you think Justine would remember now?” Cal asked.
“I wonder how Angela Kent is doing these days. Philip was never the same, he went looking for his wife’s rapist, and his anger would seem typical, wouldn’t it?”
“He did his time, a few years for assault.”
“The mild-mannered engineer cut off Jimmy Hepler’s nose, knocked most of his teeth out. Angela saw him in a store, pointed him out to Philip. She was blindfolded and drugged, but Jimmy has a southern accent as thick as molasses, and Angela insisted one of her attackers had an accent, his breath smelled like chewing tobacco. Several southerners live in Marine, but only a few were white and Blue Diamonds. The Diamonds were already a strong presence in this town, and it made sense to Philip that his wife’s rapist would be a Blue Diamond. Philip went to the club-house by himself one night and waited for Jimmy Hepler to appear. Unfortunately for Jimmy, he was alone. Kent attacked him behind the building, bashed him in the face with a metal ball bat, then cut his nose off.”
“He branded the guy.”
“We never had any real proof Jimmy attacked Angela Kent, but Philip went to prison for assault.”
“Then Justine turned out to be schizophrenic.”
“I always thought Philip Kent was one beer short of a six pack. Bass later wondered if Kent went after Jimmy to purposely get the heat of suspicion off him, or he wanted to make sure Jimmy did not testify against him in court if Bass and the Lamont police could prove he had anything to do with Angela’s attack.”
“He was trying cover his own tracks by coming off as the avenging husband and father?” Cal asked.
“Exactly.”
“But why a sexual assault? Keeping her tied up for days?”
“Maybe he wanted to teach her a lesson.”
br /> “They can’t still be married...”
“My guess is no, but I plan to find out.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Why did you want to come out here again?” Bobby asked.
Sonya turned on her camera. “I want to take a look at the houses that weren’t finished.”
Bobby, Piper, and Jess followed Sonya up the main drive in Whispering Pines, the September afternoon crisp and sunny. They walked through the cul-de-sac, past the beige house, taking a short cut to the same skeletal structures, covered in plastic, that Tony and Kristen Beck had visited only a few nights ago.
Try-outs for cheerleading had come and gone. Jess had passed on it, but so did Piper, which came as even more of a surprise to their friends.
“Freshman girls don’t get picked, anyway,” Piper said. “Maybe next year...”
Jess had been sleeping soundly in her room when Piper, Bobby, and Sonya arrived, having forgotten that she had agreed to go with them to Whispering Pines after school. She was still sleepy, her hair sticking up, fresh bandages on her face. “I don’t care if I ever cheer again. Maybe I’ll do something else.”
“Me, too,” Piper said. “Let’s do this new thing, and then watch Kelly and Courtney want to do it.”
Jess giggled. “Let’s dye our hair.”
Bobby gasped, then grinned. “What color?”
“Red. Like Sonya’s.”
Sonya’s smile was good-natured. “I was walking down the hallway, and this boy yelled,’Hey, Woodpecker!’ So I called back,’Hey, Peckerhead!’ And it was the same guy from home ec class, Jess. The one who dropped the egg.”
“You mean, Everett?” Jess asked.
“Everett Lock?” Piper asked.
“I guess,” Sonya said.
“Dane Lock is his older brother. Dane plays football. A quarterback.”
“He’s my cousin’s boyfriend.”
“Ev is a goofball,” Piper said. “He would insult a girl just to get her attention.”
“Sometimes he’s just insulting,” Bobby said.
“I like your new hat,” Jess said.
“Thanks.” Bobby readjusted the blue beret on his head, which matched the blue polo shirt, the collar up. “A birthday present from last year.”
“What’s the date today?” Sonya asked.
“The fifteenth.”
Sonya lowered her camera. “I can’t believe I forgot.”
“What’s wrong?” Bobby asked.
She shook her head. “Dad didn’t even mention it...”
“What?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Bobby threw a look at Piper, but stayed quiet as Sonya took a few pictures.
“I’m not so much interested in the houses as the location,” she said. “Anyone could cut through here.”
Sonya stared at the cement slabs that had been intended for foundations, a few abandoned pieces of lumber and roof tiles on the ground.
“This is nowhere near Jess’s house,” Bobby said.
“He would have to take the long way around,” Sonya said. “But he would have access to almost every back yard.”
They turned, seeing what Sonya did. The incomplete houses were on a hill, the rise providing a view of the back of every house that did not boast a wooden privacy fence.
“Perfect for a peeper,” she said.
“Peeper?” Bobby asked.
“Kristen told me that her brother Tony used to work on the crew that built these houses. One of the guys was caught peeping into the bedroom windows of some of the houses. The guy quit before he could get fired.”
Bobby grinned. “How did Hot Tony know about it?”
“Hot Tony?”
“Tony Beck is hot,” Piper said.
Sonya rolled her eyes. “Tony was on the crew, and I’m sure word got around about the peeper. Kristen said Tony saw the guy at the mall, but couldn’t remember his name. What interests me is that he wasn’t arrested, which means that his behavior was being kept quiet, for some reason.”
“Boys being boys?” Bobby asked.
“Exactly. Someone was protecting this guy.”
“But he quit.”
“He was embarrassed, he had been caught.”
“Would this peeper guy be dumb enough to come back to the area and attack Jess?” Piper asked.
“Peeping is how some rapists start out,” Sonya said. “They get more and more into their fantasies before they attack for the first time.”
“Do you think the police know about this guy?”
“Kristen said Tony told Garcia.”
Sonya took a few more pictures, focusing her lens on the back yards and then walked farther into the woods behind the unfinished houses. She peeked into the trees, finding a back road that led to another entrance to Whispering Pines. “There’s more than one way in and out. He had to have a vehicle.”
“You think he parked out here?” Bobby asked.
“Maybe.” She took another picture. “He could have come back this way after he attacked Jess. He had time...”
“And not one neighbor noticed him?”
“He ran through Jess’s yard, and could avoid people by staying to the hedges and back yards until he came to the cul-de-sac. He would have had to cut through here.” She turned to Jess. “Did you see which way he went out of your yard?”
Jess shook her head. “I think he ran towards the back, not down the driveway. But I can’t say for sure.”
“Before you left the house, did you send out any Tweets or e-mails?”
“To all of my friends.”
“How many?”
“School friends and on FriendsRing.”
“I found some of the same friends on your list as on Bobby’s and Piper’s.”
“How will that help?” Jess asked.
“I plan to give the names to Garcia, but I wanted you to tell me if you had communicated with any of them.”
*****
“I’ve never met any of my friends from FriendsRing,” Jess said.
They had returned to Jess’s house, using her lap-top in the kitchen.
Piper read through Sonya’s hand-written list, her eyes stopping on RomeoBoy, who had appeared on all three lists. She handed the paper back to Sonya. “Some of these look familiar, but all I do is IM.”
“Same here,” Bobby said.
“Did you ask Kristen if she ever went on FriendsRing?” Piper asked.
“I forgot to ask her.”
“Is it true she’s going back to her job?”
“She went back last night. I told her to be careful.”
“Are the cops helping her?”
“I don’t think Garcia wants her doing it.”
“She’s alone over there?”
“I hope not.”
“Maybe Hot Tony will come by to look in on her,” Bobby said.
“And you would be right over there,” Piper said. “Stalker alert.”
Jess giggled, but Bobby did not blink. “Everything was fine until they moved out of my building. The manager wouldn’t give me their new address.”
“Kristen’s family lived in your building?” Sonya asked.
“They all lived one floor above us. Hot Tony would get up every morning to go running. To build up his endurance.”
“Did he wear a shirt?” Piper asked.
“Not in the summer.”
“When did they move away?” Sonya asked.
“Last fall,” Bobby said.
“Did Tony know Rick?”
“No. I never saw them speak to each other.”
“Did they go to school together?”
“Yes. Until Rick dropped out three years ago. But he ended up at the alternative school for eleventh grade.”
“And Tony was the football star.”
“Where does he live now?” Bobby asked.
“On Hunter Avenue. Not far from my Aunt Sue.”
“Don’t get any id
eas, Bobby,” Piper said.
“Hot Tony is in my past. I have moved on.”
Sonya shook her head. “No wonder the MPD have so few leads. I’m starting to wonder why Garcia isn’t questioning every guy in the East Marine area who has ever been arrested for assaulting a female.”
“That would be a long list,” Piper said.
“And they would have to be able to put a suspect at the crime scene,” Sonya said. “And who saw him, in his ski mask, besides the victims?”
*****
“Sonya, I know one of the names from your list,” Piper said.
They were outside of Jess’s house, standing in the yard, waiting for Robin to pick them up. Bobby had already left on his scooter, Jess going back to bed.
“Who?” Sonya asked.
“RomeoBoy. But the boy is actually a girl, her name is Ariel, and she wants to meet.”
“Do you want to?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never met another girl for coffee before. Or a boy.”
“In a public place?”
“Of course.”
“I thought you didn’t like to meet people that way.”
“She seems nice.”
“You want to hook up?”
“I don’t know. We have a few things in common, but I’m new to this...”
“I wonder if RomeoBoy was one of them Jess Tweeted that morning.”
“Maybe. I could ask Ariel.”
“Don’t go anywhere with her alone.”
“The Ravisher is a guy. Besides, my mom is taking me and picking me up.”
“When are you going to meet her?”
“Tonight.”
“Does your mom know you’re meeting this girl?”
“No. She thinks I just want to go shopping.”
*****
“I’m sorry, Sonya,” Aron said. “I didn’t mean to forget. Would you like me to take you to the cemetery?”
Sonya sat with her father at the kitchen table. “I can’t believe I forgot...”
“You’ve had a lot on your mind.”
“Maybe we can go after dinner.”
“That’s fine. I can pick up some flowers.”
“Cal never forgot Mom’s birthday. He would always buy her a box of chocolate truffles.”
“Her favorite. She liked chocolate more than jewelry. I bought her a bracelet once.”
“Gold or silver?”
“A silver charm bracelet. After you were born. A little baby bootie charm on it.”
“I have it. Cal gave it to me when he cleaned out her things.”
“That must have been hard.”
“A lot of her clothes and stuff went to GoodWill.”
“You had a few boxes when you moved in.”