A City Of Dread: Carter Peterson Mystery Series Book 7 Read online

  Wayne Sofia had approached our vehicle on foot, managing to catch us both off guard by knocking on Sarah’s window.

  I got out and walked around to where he stood. “What have you got for us?” I asked as Sarah got out and made a face at him from behind.

  Sophia said nothing, choosing instead just to stand there with his hand out, a small, decorative object resting in his palm.

  “May I?” I asked, immediately recognizing the insignia on the piece. I decided to keep the information to myself for the time being.

  “That’s why I contacted Detective James,” Sophia said. “It belongs to you guys, now.”

  I picked the object up without touching the face or the back, hoping to preserve any prints or DNA that might exist.

  “Where, exactly, did you find it?” Sarah asked as she stared at what appeared to be a hat pin.

  “Follow me,” he said and took off toward where the building used to stand. A few seconds later we were standing roughly ten feet from where Robbie Kramer’s body had been discovered. “Right there. The foreman of the demolition crew saw it fall out of an old pallet when one of his men began moving the piles around.”

  “I turned and looked over at one of the ten wheel dump trucks parked nearby. “This equipment belong to them?”

  “Correct.”

  I jotted down the information painted across the truck’s body and stuck the pin in my pocket. “The foreman around?”

  “The entire crew left for lunch about ten minutes before you arrived,” Sophia said.

  “OK. Well, we appreciate the call,” I told him.

  Sophia turned heel, and without another word, walked over to his red pickup, climbed inside, and drove off.

  “Any ideas about the pin?” Sarah asked.

  “Yep. It’s a hat badge pin. This particular one has an insignia on it belonging to the Army’s First Cavalry Division.”

  “I’m assuming you know that for a reason.”

  I nodded. “It’s the one Jackson Cole belongs to. This particular division of troops is involved in the fight over in Afghanistan.”

  Sarah took out her phone, placed a call to James, and shared the news. “Are you sure?” I heard her ask shortly after explaining the significance of the strip mall find. “OK, bye.”

  “They already have Cole in custody,” I said, half joking, as Sarah put the phone down.

  “You’re not too far off. Apparently, Jacko is no longer running around up in the mountains. According to an incident report that came in less than ten minutes ago, an individual matching Cole’s description just stormed into some sandwich shop in York and beat the living crap out of Jared Posner.”

  Chapter 19

  “I guess it’s all hands on deck,” I said to Detective James as he pulled up next to us down the street from The Shallows condominiums.

  “Oh, yeah, it’s on,” he replied. “Looks like Cole decided to save the taxpayers a bundle of money by not making us chase him across the Appalachian Trail.”

  “Not that it’s going to be any less challenging to nail the guy down here,” Sarah said.

  I shrugged. “At least we’ll have home court advantage.”

  “Somehow, I find little comfort in that statement,” Sarah responded. “He just walked into a sandwich shop in broad daylight and sent a man to the hospital.”

  “Sarah makes a good point,” James said. “Care to see our boy Cole in action?”

  Sarah looked back and forth between the two of us with furrowed brow. “Wait. What?”

  “Somebody shoot a video with their phone?” I asked James.

  “Not just a video, Carter, but eight different videos. I simply chose the best one,” James said then pulled his car ahead and parked up in front of us.

  “I’m not sure I want to see it,” Sarah said to me as James walked up to our car and jumped into the back seat.

  “Here you go,” he said. “Just hit play when you’re ready.”

  Sarah held the small screen horizontally and we started watching the video. There was sound, but it wasn’t coming from Jackson Cole. He said nothing, choosing instead to focus his energy on pummeling the living daylights out of Posner’s face. I lost count at fourteen blows as Cole pinned Posner against the wall, left forearm against Adam’s apple, delivering blow after blow with his right fist. A number of patrons did their best to intervene, but Cole shrugged them off, punishing Posner until the Army bully was satisfied. As soon as Cole removed his arm, Posner fell to the floor in a heap.

  It was at that point Cole turned and walked calmly out of the shop, leaving a restaurant full of stunned patrons with jaws hanging wide open.

  “That guy is a wrecking machine,” James said.

  “Anyone give any indication what Cole was driving?” I asked.

  “Several individuals called in make, model, and license plate number, but Cole’s not stupid. He won’t stay behind the wheel of that particular vehicle for long. Not after the stunt he pulled.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Sarah asked.

  “We think he may show up at his condo to grab some of his belongings, or make a guest appearance over at Robbie Kramer’s apartment,” James said as his phone whistled in Sarah’s hand. “We’ve got two units hiding near her place. Bruce Scott said he’d let us know if Cole shows up down the street here at his condo. And, we just issued a BOLO.”

  Sarah handed James his phone. “I think your girlfriend just texted you.”

  “Kind of difficult to get a message from your girlfriend when you don’t have one,” James said as he checked the screen. His expression changed as he tapped the phone and placed it against his ear. “Text came from Walter. Wants me to call him.” James tapped the screen again and held it out in front of him.

  “Hey, Detective,” Bruce answered. “One of my owners just informed me that Jackson Cole’s already been here. Come and gone.”

  James closed his eyes and shook his head. “When?”

  “Right after your detectives left the condo to go speak with the woman who lives adjacent to our building.”

  “Wait. Weren’t you actively watching for him?”

  “As best I could, but I got a call about a problem concerning the rec center across the street. Guess he must have showed up while I was dealing with the fix over there.”

  “That’s convenient,” James said as he looked at both of us. “OK, give me the name of the owner who spotted him, would you please?”

  “That would be Connie Lund.”

  “Do you know if she had any opportunity to speak with him?”

  “She did,” Walter replied. “For several minutes, according to Connie.”

  “OK, Walter. I appreciate the heads-up. Let’s stick with our original plan for the moment. I’ll call you back, shortly.”

  “Sure thing, Detective James. I’ll wait for your call. Sorry about all of this.”

  James tossed his phone down on the seat beside him. “We’ve been played. Cole must have been watching us the whole time. Bet he worked his magic to get the manager out of the building as soon as we left.”

  “Probably watching us right now,” I added. “What do you want to do?”

  “We’re obviously blown, so it might make sense for one of us to speak with Connie Lund. See if she’ll give us anything.”

  “I’ll go,” I said. “Cole’s got no beef with me.”

  “Other than us poking around inside his condo without a warrant,” Sarah said.

  “She makes a good point, Carter. He might not be a fan of our escapades.”

  “Maybe I’ll draw him out, then. Either way, we need to act. Who knows what his next move might be? We sit on our hands and someone else gets killed, it’s on us.”

  I saw Sarah look back at James and nod before she turned to me and said, “Please, please be careful. Take the car. I’ll sit tight with James in the cruiser.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I started the car as they climbed out.

  “I’ll call Walter and
tell him you’re coming,” James said before closing the back door.

  I gave them a wave and headed down the road, looking left and right for a possible spots Cole might be lurking. There were no less than twenty viable locations along the tenth-of-a-mile stretch. It was an unsettling feeling, to say the least. I wasn’t exactly scared, but I was in no mood to take a bullet, either.

  I parked illegally, positioning my car as close to The Shallows entrance as I could without parking on the lawn. A quick glance toward the doors told me James had successfully clued Walter in, as I could see his silhouette standing by.

  I checked my weapon, pocketed my car keys, and began what felt like the longest walk I’d taken in quite some time.

  It was everything I could do to look cool and composed as I made my way toward the gaudy excuse for good architecture, keeping my fingers crossed I’d be granted the opportunity to take the same stroll in the opposite direction a little later on.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt Walter squeeze my shoulder, reminding me I’d succeeded with the first leg of my task. “Connie’s expecting you,” he said. “You can go right in.”

  “Thank you, Walter. We really appreciate your help.”

  “Thank you,” he replied. “I haven’t had this much adrenaline flowing through my veins in … well, forever.”

  I slapped his shoulder and headed inside Connie Lund’s unit.

  I never thought I’d be so happy to be served the same cheap coffee we’d choked down earlier in the day, but here we were.

  “Mr. Peterson. So nice to have you visit again so soon. Please, sit. I’ve got coffee all set to go.”

  “You’re too kind, Connie. The pleasure is mine. So, I understand you spoke with your neighbor Jackson Cole earlier today.”

  “Oh, yes. Poor Jacko. He looked so exhausted when I had the pleasure of bumping into him.”

  “Mind if I ask what you two talked about?”

  She frowned. “Well, I suppose I did most of the talking. He seemed quite upset about the man.”

  “The man?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I assumed Bruce had already shared the story with you,” she said as she poured us both some coffee. “Well, I stepped out into the hall earlier to go check my mailbox and saw a man on his hands and knees, right in front of Jacko’s door. He had a wire coat hanger in his hand, with one end slid under the door. I walked up behind him and asked what he was up to. I’m afraid I startled the dickens out of the man. He claimed he’d dropped an important document which slid under the door, so he was trying to fish it out. I suppose the look on my face gave me away. You see, I wasn’t buying his cockamamie story for a second. So … he got to his feet and skedaddled out of here.”

  “Had you ever seen this person before this morning?”

  “Once, maybe twice, but not recently. I think he might be a renter.”

  “Connie, it would be very helpful if you could provide me with a detailed description of the man.”

  “Tall,” she said. “Just under six feet, perhaps. I’d have to say he was at least fifty. There were wisps of grey hair sticking out from beneath his ball cap. Not an ugly man, but not necessarily good looking, either. Just … average.”

  “Where did he go when he left? Did you happen to see what he was driving?”

  “He left through the front entrance and headed down the street on foot,” she replied.

  I picked up my coffee and took a few sips to be polite. “Any other particulars you can recall about him?”

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry. My encounter with this man was so brief, I….”

  “Not a problem,” I said. “The information you provided will be quite helpful. Getting back to Jacko. Did he tell you where he was planning on going when he left here?”

  “He didn’t, but I got the impression he was very interested in tracking down the man with the coat hanger.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “When I described the man to Jacko, he said, ‘That guy, again? I hope, for his sake, he’s better at hiding than I am at seeking.’”

  “Had you ever spoken to Jacko about the man before today?”

  Connie took a sip of coffee and paused for a beat. “No. I think not. I’d remember a conversation like that.”

  I nodded, jotted down what she’d told me, and took another sip of coffee. “Approximately what time did you see the man?”

  “I went out to get my mail around nine-thirty. That’s when I saw him.”

  I thought about the timing and realized we’d just missed him. We were in York, witnessing Posner’s interview, while our mystery man was here at The Shallows.

  “That’s all the questions I have, Connie. Again, thank you for your help, and your hospitality.”

  “My pleasure. You, and that lovely Sarah of yours, stop by any time. I’ve always got a coffee cup ready to go for both of you.”

  Chapter 20

  “Jackson Cole is still on the warpath,” I said as I climbed in the back seat of James’s cruiser. “Connie caught some guy shoving a coat hanger under Jacko’s door while we were up in York. She described the guy as about six feet tall, average looks, and wearing a baseball cap. Said she’d only seen him a few times a while back, but didn’t know who he was. Unfortunately, it seems Jacko does.”

  James let his head fall back against the glass of his car door as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I feel a migraine coming on.”

  “I can’t take it,” Sarah said. “This whacko Jacko’s going to kill again?”

  “Not so fast,” I said. “He didn’t kill Jared Posner.”

  “Not from lack of trying,” James responded. “You watched that video. Posner’s likely being wheeled into intensive care as we speak.”

  “James is right,” Sarah said. “Could be he didn’t follow the same pattern because he couldn’t figure out how to get to Posner without someone seeing him.”

  “OK,” I said. “I have a question for both of you. What was the guy with the coat hanger doing, probing under Cole’s condo door? You know, if he wasn’t planting that bloody t-shirt evidence, I might as well turn in my detective’s license right now and go bag groceries for a living.”

  James and Sarah were both silent for a beat, when Sarah said, “The timeline definitely makes sense. We were all there yesterday, and there was no bloody remnant. I go in there today, after some jerk is fishing under Cole’s door, and suddenly a piece of damning evidence is just sitting there on the floor.”

  “Circumstantial evidence,” James said. “At least until we get the lab report back. Don’t forget, there’s a good chance Cole’s been in and out of that condo since yesterday, too.”

  “Oh, speaking of circumstantial evidence,” I said as I reached carefully into my pocket. “This little gem needs to go to the lab, as well.”

  “The hat pin,” James said. “Bet you’re going to tell me you think that was planted, too.”

  “It’s well within the realm of possibility, don’t you think?”

  James grabbed a pair of gloves out of his console. “I’ll give you that.”

  “Too bad it was handled by several different people working over at the strip mall,” Sarah added. “It’s tough for me to imagine we’ll find a clean print on it.”

  James took possession of the pin and examined it more closely. “You said this was the shield for the Army division Cole belongs to?”

  “That’s right,” I said. “First Cavalry.”

  “This thing is pristine, like something he’d wear only with a formal, full-dress uniform. Why would a guy trying to get rid of a victim’s body have this on his person?”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Because, it makes no sense to me, either.”

  “Here’s a thought,” Sarah said. “What if this guy Connie saw screwing around in front of Cole’s door is the same jerk who complained to Mark Cutter about the noise his son was making when they were playing catch?”

  “What’s that about?” James asked. “You two
never filled me in. What kind of details did you discuss with Cutter’s widow?”

  “In a nutshell, Mrs. Cutter never saw this individual, but said the man came from the direction of the condos, and that the encounter happened one Saturday last month.”

  “Mark Cutter told the guy he wasn’t going to make his son stop being a kid,” I added. “Thing is, the only person who might be able to ID this person is Cutter’s kid, but the wife flat out refused to ask him about it while we were there.”

  Sarah tossed her hands in the air. “Her kids still have no idea their father is dead.”

  James nodded. “That’s a tough one. It’s not like we could hit her with obstruction of justice, either. She does, after all, have final say over her children.”

  “Sarah asked me why we’re not looking more closely at her, in terms of being a suspect.”

  “You think she’s capable of having committed these murders, Sarah?” James asked.

  Sarah closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know. This case has so many moving parts, it’s hard to get a feel for what’s really going on.”

  I was about to put my two cents in when something James heard from dispatch over his cruiser’s radio caught his attention. He reached for the mic. “This is Detective James. Repeat that last call, please.”

  James turned up the volume. Possible hostage situation. Suspect armed. Suspect requests your presence at the scene. Six Markham Boulevard. Three units en route.

  “James responding. Five minutes out,” he said as he started the engine of his cruiser.

  Sarah reached for the door handle.

  “Might as well ride along,” James said. “Good chance this is related to our case.”

  “Let’s roll,” I said as I buckled up.

  “You really think this call has to do with Cole?” Sarah asked as she pulled her seat belt across her chest.

  “Pretty likely, knowing what we know.”

  I pulled out my weapon and checked it. “I wonder if our boy found the guy who was messing around outside his condo door.”