Karen Rose - Have You Seen Her?

"When you asked," Davies said smoothly. "I tried to talk to you Monday night, but you were too busy cheering the home team."

Steven sat down again and stretched his legs out in front of him, feeling his cheeks heat and his temper boil. He bit back the words he really wanted to say. "Well, I can't help but notice you're a little out of your jurisdiction, what is it-Detective?" Davies nodded and Steven nodded back. "We also couldn't help but notice you carry pictures of other people's children in a folder, but you don't carry the normal complement of smiling children's portraits in your wallet."

"1 don't have any children," Davies said, just as smoothly, but Steven detected resentment.

"Well, that's a shame. I happen to love mine. Because of soccer games and despite runaway roundups. Now, let's talk about these photos and the purpose for your visit to our fair town. I take it you suspect there's a link between your cheerleaders and ours."

Davies inclined his head, not quite a nod. "I do."

"So who was William Parker?"

Davies smirked. "So you do have a computer."

"We do."

Davies uncrossed his arms for the first time since Steven and Liz had arrived. He leaned forward and pushed the photos apart with one finger, lining up all the "after" pictures edge to edge. "William Parker did this."

'Then why isn't he in a Washington state prison?" Liz asked and Steven saw the first real emotion other than anger or sarcasm pass across Davies's face. It was pain.

"Because the SPD fucked up," Davies said, looking at the pictures as if imprinting them on his memory, although Steven suspected they already were. "Evidence wasn't handled correctly and the defense attorney petitioned it thrown out." He shrugged listlessly. "A judge agreed."

"You were primary?" Steven asked quietly, all posturing gone from the question.

Davies flicked a glance his way before returning to the pictures. "Yes, I was."

"And you want justice this time," Liz finished.

"Yes, I do."

Steven picked up one of the pictures by its corner, respectfully. "I have one of these. By noon I'll probably have two. The psychologist on my team believes he'll be on number three before the end of the week."

"He's escalated," Neil murmured.

"So how do I keep my bulletin board from being covered with pictures like these?" Steven asked. "You wouldn't have come across the country if you hadn't believed William Parker was here. Where is he?"

Davies took the picture from Steven's hands, just as respectfully. "Under your noses."

"I don't know any William Parkers." He looked at Chambers. "I assumed you ran a list."

Chambers nodded. "I did. We have ten William Parkers in the Raleigh-Durham area. Knowing a little more about him would be a big help," he added wryly.

Davies huffed a mirthless chuckle. "You know him, all right, but not as William Rudolf Parker." He reached into the pocket of the shirt he wore beneath his sweater and drew out another picture, this one a snapshot. "Here he is." He tossed the snapshot on the table where it landed on top of the photographs of the four mutilated corpses.

Steven's heart stopped as the face in the snapshot registered.

"Holy Mother of God," Chambers breathed. "Kid in a freaking candy store."

"Who is he?" Liz asked with a frown.

"You know him," Davies said to Steven. "Don't you?"

Steven's heart kicked back into motion. Into overdrive. He picked up the picture, his hand trembling. The face in the snapshot was younger, but he recognized the dark eyes, the surly mouth that even then wore a smug smile. He looked up at Davies and swallowed. "Yes, I do. And you're right, I don't know him as William Parker." He looked up at Liz. "This is Rudy Lutz. He's the quarterback at my son's high school." And the one directing all the malice against Jenna, he added to himself, a shiver of fear racing down his spine.

Liz sat down hard. "Shit," she said.

Thursday, October 6, 11:00 A.M.

After an hour they were able to pretty much piece together the checkered history of Rudy Lutz, a.k.a. William Rudolf Parker. The evidence the SPD had gathered had been strong. Davies swore no mistakes had been made. But something went wrong just the same.

"So his first victim was his girlfriend," Liz said thoughtfully.

"So much for puppy love," said Chambers, looking at the photo with distaste. The girl had been strangled, sexually assaulted, then stabbed. Repeatedly. "What a sick bastard. And he was only fifteen at the time?"

"He went for older women," Davies said dryly. "And apparently they went for him. Every girl he murdered met him away from her house so there was never any evidence of forced entry."

Liz pushed the folder away. "How'd you catch him, Neil?"

Davies's cheeks darkened under the black stubble of his beard. "After we found the last victim, a kid called in and said he'd heard Parker in the locker room the week before boasting that he'd fucked her."

"Gina Capetti," Liz said quietly.

Davies's lip curled and again Steven saw pain in the man's eyes. "We had forensic evidence from Laura Resnick, his first victim. Semen sample. We brought Parker in, he had an alibi, but it wasn't airtight. We found witnesses who'd seen him with Gina Capetti and were willing to testify. Judge ordered him to give a blood sample. DNA matched the semen found in Laura Resnick's body. We arrested him, but because he was fifteen, they let him be tried in family court."

Steven frowned. "Four vicious premeditated murders and he goes to family court?"

Davies shrugged. "He had a very… lenient judge."

"So you go to family court, what happens?" Lieutenant Chambers asked.

"Everything's set up, then the defense moves to have the semen evidence stricken."

"Because?" Liz prompted.

Davies's lips thinned. "Because they said the evidence had been stored inappropriately."

Nobody asked how or by whom. It didn't really matter at this stage.

"And without the semen evidence you had no case," Liz finished.

"We couldn't tie him to Laura Resnick, the first victim, so the whole case crumbled like a house of cards. Parker walks away, free as a bird. His whole record is sealed. But the community knew what he'd done. His parents had tried to keep his name out of the press, but it just wasn't going to happen. Crowds gathered, some threw bottles, most just picketed. Parker Senior's import business suffered. Nobody wanted to do business with the father of a monster like William. Senior had to declare Chapter Eleven, sell the house. They moved away, then just disappeared."

"It's hard for a whole family to just disappear," Liz observed.

"Mrs. Parker's father is a multimillionaire."

They all nodded, well aware of the power of cold, hard American cash.

"Lutz is the maiden name of Mrs. Parker's paternal grandmother." Davies looked frustrated. "I thought for a while they might have left the country. Gone to Switzerland or France."

"Not if they wanted their son to play football," Steven returned and Davies nodded.

"As I recall, that's what Parker Senior was maddest about," Davies reused. "He didn't care that four girls were dead. That every bit of evidence pointed to his son. He cared that William wouldn't get to play high school football and get picked up by the college scouts."

Steven sighed. "So his parents take him out of Seattle, then pop up as new residents to Raleigh-Durham, erase a year from Rudy's age, and have ' fourteen '-year-old Rudy start high school all over again with a whole new set of girls to choose from," he said, punctuating the word in the air.

Lieutenant Chambers huffed his disapproval. "Like I said, kid in a freakin' candy store."

Liz rubbed her forehead. "You all do realize that none of this is proof Rudy had anything to do with Lorraine or Samantha."