Jon Talton - Powers of Arrest

“I’m sorry.”

“You lingered on one,” he said.

“Only because he was older and bald. I keep thinking about what Lauren’s sister said, about how Lauren was afraid she was being stalked by an older bald man.”

“Something’s got to tie them together. Three separate attacks, sixty miles apart from each other. One was on a trained police officer, and I can vouch for her toughness. Another was on a well-built young man. And this guy went after two young women at the same time, and after knocking Noah Smith out. Then he comes back and kills him. Thinks he’s an artist. Now we know all these killings were done by the same guy. But we don’t have the key that connects them.”

“Aren’t there random murders?”

“Sure,” he said. “But this random is very rare. It’s common to read about supposedly random murders, but the victims are all prostitutes, sometimes all working on the same strip. Or they’re dark-haired women who remind the killer of someone in his life. Anyway, whoever wrote that note was taking credit, as if he specifically chose his victims. They’re going to bring in an FBI profiler. But I already know what he’ll say. White male. Narcissist, sense of grandiosity. Probably had a screwed-up childhood. Maybe impotent: none of the autopsies showed the presence of semen. Noah and the girls used condoms, and the killer took them. He’s very precise. He’s done it before…”

“Hold that thought.” Cheryl Beth stood and sprinted into the hall, catching up with Allison. She brought her back and introduced her to Will.

“Allison was Noah’s girlfriend,” she said. The girl sat, but upright in apprehension, and Cheryl Beth thought about breaking the news to her easy, she was very good at that. But, no, she would trust Will.

“Allison, I’m a detective with the Cincinnati Police,” he said, his voice even and friendly. “I’m working on some cases that are related to what happened to Lauren and Holly.”

“Yes.” A little girl voice.

“Were you friends with them?”

“Only school friends,” she said.

“Ever hang out together?”

Allison shook her head.

“How long have you been seeing Noah?”

“About a year,” she said. “Ten months.”

“Did you ever feel like anything wasn’t right?”

She clenched her hands. “If you mean do I think Noah did it, the answer is no. There’s no way. He’s gentle and kind and…”

“It’s okay,” Will said. “I meant something else. Did it ever seem like anyone was following the two of you? Anonymous phone calls? Anything creepy?”

She was silent, and then shook her head.

“We were normal. We went to movies. We rode our bikes together. Noah’s in a lot better shape than I am.”

“Does he have any enemies?”

Cheryl Beth was struck by how Will used the present tense to refer to Noah.

“No!” Allison shook her head adamantly. “He made friends so easily.” Then, tonelessly, “Especially women.” She raised her head and spoke more forcefully. “Do you think someone is trying to frame him for killing Holly and Lauren? Please tell that awful detective from Oxford.”

Will nodded. After a silence, He produced the same file folder. “I want to show you some photographs. I’m not saying these are suspects. But they might be. I want you to take as much time as you like, and really look at each one. Ever see any of these men.”

He handed her one photo at a time. She took the each one and slowly ran her fingers over it, then handed it back. He was very patient and Allison was diligent. It took a good fifteen minutes. Cheryl Beth was impressed that Will was eliciting information now, before Allison knew the worst and would probably fall apart.

She handed them back. “I’m sorry, Detective Borders. I’ve never seen any of them.”

“I know this seems out of left field, but did you guys ever watch LadyCops: Cincinnati ? The reality TV show?”

“No. There’s not much TV time when we have a slave driver like her.” She smiled fondly at Cheryl Beth.

Will smiled slightly and let a couple of beats pass. “Did you ever go to the bar where Noah met Holly and Lauren that night.”

She pursed her lips. “Yeah, we used to party up there…”

Cheryl Beth watched Will’s expression subtly change. The color momentarily left his face. Then he rearranged himself and leaned forward.

“Allison, there’s no easy way to tell you this, so I’m going to say it…”

Will was usually aware of every difficult step, but the long walk from the hospital floor back to his car was over before he even realized it. His mind was in a bad place elsewhere. Back in the car, he filed the mug shots in his brief case. The photos had included Kenneth Buchanan-taken off his law firm’s Web site-the sergeant and diving instructor who were also Kristen’s lovers, along with three other cops and four sex offenders. He pulled out his iPad, logged into the department intranet, and posted what he and Dodds had agreed on to the publicly available police blotter.

Body found in Spring Grove Cemetery

By Detective Will Borders

A man’s body was discovered at approximately 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Spring Grove Cemetery. The unidentified male was white, between the ages of twenty-five and thirty. Cincinnati Police Department homicide detectives responded, although the cause of death was unknown and may be suicide. A routine autopsy will be conducted. Anyone with information in the case should contact Cincinnati Police or Crime Stoppers.

He clicked “post” and the system responded immediately.

Then he sat back and digested the words of the mousy little nursing student: We used to party up there…

Those were almost the same words John had said to him when they were sitting on Will’s balcony, talking about Miami. Will hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but why would John be hanging around Oxford?

Why did John have the same brand of shoe that left a print on Kristen Gruber’s boat? For that matter, why had John gone to Kristen’s funeral, a woman he had met once? It’s not as if John was deep into the life of the city or looking for an excuse to dress up.

Will stared at the steering wheel, feeling numb inside. If he were examining this evidence about anyone else than his stepson, his son , he would think this is the only person he had encountered who had a connection between Kristen and Oxford. John had met Kristen. He had partied up at Oxford. It was circumstantial, so far. But circumstantial evidence could be the building blocks of a homicide case.

He laughed mordantly. Cindy was afraid John was involved with drugs. Right now that would be a relief.

John had wanted to tell Will something when he stopped by on Monday night. Did he intend to confess? The memory made Will angry and woozy at the same time. He should have pushed him.

All Will needed was some of John’s DNA to test against the hair found on the boat. Matching the shoe-print could also be probable cause. So would getting Cindy’s permission to enter the house, where he could search John’s room, and find Kristen’s badge, gun, wallet, and keys, as well as the underwear of all the victims. Right that moment, he should pull out his cell phone and call Diane Henderson or Dodds. Then he should call the police in Oregon and find out if they had any unsolved homicides from the time John was in Portland, especially ones involving a knife.

He left the phone in his suit-coat pocket.

Maybe that female nursing student-Allison?-was a potential suspect. She would have a motive to kill two rivals being screwed under the stars by her good-looking boyfriend, and then coax him to the same fate. She didn’t have the strength for it. And how did she know Kristen? He was reaching to the moon.