Bloodstain (6 page)

Chapter 8

The Press conference was held outside the front doors of the police station. Lieutenant Patton stepped to the podium at precisely
two. Behind him stood the Mayor, the Chief of police, Captain Garza, Doctor Davis, and the two detectives.

The lieutenant looked out over a ring of microphones towards three cameras, and ten or so repor
ters. He began with a statement:

“The City of San Antonio, in conjunction with the City of Austin, is conducting an investigation i
nto the deaths of four young women. All four appeared to have been killed by the same individual.

We are following several leads
, and are asking for the help of the public. If you see anything suspicious, please call. We believe each of these women was snatched from a public place.

No effort is being spared in the search for this
perpetrator. We ask for the public’s vigilance and cooperation with our investigation.”

He looked up from his notes and scanned the crowd.
“Questions?”

Devin James stood up, rather than
raise his hand, and spoke over the other reporters. “What information do you have on the victims?”

“They
’re thin with black hair, the ages range from nineteen to twenty-four, and anywhere from five-seven to five-nine in height.”

“That’s a pretty specific description. Do you know why he’s targeting
these women?”

“We have a theory but I won’t discuss it.”

Devin James was not ready to yield the floor. “Why is Austin involved?”

“The first victim we
’re aware of was found in Austin.”

“That you
’re aware of?”

“Yes. We’re not ruling out the possibility of a victim
, or victims, that have not yet been discovered.”

“How were the wom
en killed?”

“Gunshot to the heart.”

Another hand came up, and the lieutenant took the opportunity to get away from James. He answered that question, and several others, before passing the podium off to the Mayor.

*******

Norman sat in his plaid recliner watching the news conference. He was drinking an orange crush soda, his favorite on these special days. The girl was tied in the bedroom, all her clothes removed. The news conference had pre-empted his afternoon watching of “Mayberry RFD” but he’d seen something that stopped him in his tracks. He sat down to watch.

As the Mayor stepped to the podium, he walked in front of a female detective standing in the back. She
appeared to be five- seven or so and thin, with black hair that fell to the middle of her back.

There you are!

The mayor was reassuring the public and made reference to the two fine detectives who were leading the investigation.

Jason “something” and Vanessa Layne.

He needed to get closer to Detective Vanessa Layne.

*******

Jason and Vanessa were relieved none of the questions had been directed at them. Neither liked the limelight, and felt it could compromise the ability to do their job.

As they walked back into the station, Jason overheard a blonde talking to Desk Sergeant Connor.
The girl was clearly upset with the answers he was giving her.

Jason and
Dave were long time friends, and a gunshot had relegated Dave to a desk job. He usually drew the front desk assignment. Dave Connor was trying to be patient. “I’m sorry ma’am, but that’s the law.”

“
I don’t care if it requires forty-eight hours for her to be considered missing; I’m tellin’ you she’s in trouble.”

Jason gestured to Vanessa he would catch up with her
, and walked over to where the blonde was standing. She was tall, a little over weight, and when she turned around, her red lipstick was smudged, and mascara was running down her face from crying.

“Excuse me, M
iss...?”

“Donald….Brooke Donald”

“Miss Donald, is your friend a man or a woman?”

“She’s a woman. Stephanie Morris. We walk together, if you know what I mean.”

“I understand. Do you have a picture of her?”

“Sure. I tried to give it to this ape
, but he wouldn’t take it.”

Jason gave his friend a knowing smile
, and took the picture from Brooke. His pulse quickened. “How tall is your friend…Stephanie, did you say?”

“Yes,
Stephanie Morris. She’s about five-eight, like me. Sometimes we share clothes.”

“I’ll take it from here, Dave.”

Jason introduced himself, and had Brooke follow him up to Homicide. He asked Brooke to sit next to his desk, pulled out a pad, and sat down beside her. “Okay Brooke, where do you and Stephanie usually ‘walk’ together?”

“South Presa”

“And when was the last time you saw your friend?”

“Around
five-thirty or six last night. We were talkin’ by the road when a guy pulled up in a black pick-up with a white bed-topper. I went over to talk to him, but he said he wasn’t interested. Asked me to send Stephanie over.”

Vanessa
, who was at her desk across from Jason, was listening in. “Did he ask for her by name?”

Brooke turned and looked at the questioner.
“Who’s she?”

“That’s my Partner,
Detective Layne.”

Brooke turned back to Jason.
“No, he didn’t call her by name. Just said ‘tell the tall, dark haired one to come over’.”

“What did he look like?”

“Average guy, I guess. Don’t know how tall, seein’ as he was sittin’, and he never looked at me. Just kept starin’ straight ahead. White, dark hair, maybe mid twenties.”

“Do you think you could give a sketch artist a try?”

“Sure, but I don’t think I remember much detail.”

“I’d like you to try anyway.”

“Okay. Now?”

“Yes. I’ll get him up here as quick as I can.”

*******

The sketch artist did his best, but Brooke
wasn’t much for description. True to her word, she didn’t remember much detail, and Jason was forced to admit the drawing looked like a white guy with dark hair. Not much help.

Brooke had tried her best, in between requests for help finding her friend, and Jason assured her he would file the report
, and start the search. He didn’t tell her why he was willing to move on her case ahead of the forty-eight hour rule.

Jason and Vanessa both felt they
weren’t looking for a missing girl, but instead, their next crime scene. Their gut told them wineglass had taken Stephanie Morris.

The fact the pick-up
is black, and has a white bed topper, was new information and it helped narrow the search. The problem was vehicle records don’t list bed toppers and the number of black pick-ups in the greater San Antonio area was huge. Still, each piece of info helped.

They thanked Brooke for her help
, took the picture of her friend she’d brought with her, and got a description of what Stephanie was wearing. Jason promised to call if they found anything.

Vanessa sat at her desk looking at the picture of the missing girl while Jason walked Brooke out to the parking lot. When he came back, she looked up at him
, and Jason saw the strain on her face. She spoke for both of them.

“Man, I hope we’re wrong about this one.”

Chapter 9

Norman waited patiently for the red light to change. He
didn’t hear any noise from the back of the pick-up, and he liked it that way. Only once did he have to stop and re-secure one of the girls. That had been Marcie Walker, and he’d made sure it hadn’t happened again.

The light turned and he headed around the west side of Canyon State Park.
He’d seen the pictures on TV of the service road, and figured it likely the gate was locked, or watched, or both.

He knew of an unattended
archery range down a gravel road and, being that it was summer, no one was likely to be there. It wasn’t archery season and there were no lights to shoot by. It was just getting dark when he pulled up.

He sat in the truck for nearly a half hour to make sure there
wasn’t any activity. He’d passed a logging truck about a mile back, but figured they would have gone home by now.

He got out and went around to the back of the
pick-up. Lifting the topper hatch, he found the girl laying on her side, staring at him.

I
love the fear in your eyes, Marcie.

Grabbing her taped ankles, he dragged the naked woman toward him. She tried to kick
loose but it was pointless.

Once he had her on the tailgate, he slit the duct tape around her ankles
, and made her walk in front of him toward the woods. The girl frantically looked for a place to run, someone to save her, but they were alone.

They entered the woods
, and walked about fifty yards, when Norman decided it was far enough. “Stop here.”

He turned her around and forced her to sit by the base of a large tree.
She started to whimper through the tape over her mouth.

Norman reached into a bag he was carrying
, and pulled out a wine glass, setting it down near the girl. Next, out of the bag came his nine-millimeter pistol. The girl’s eyes got huge, and she tried to get up, but Norman pinned her to the tree with his foot. The time in captivity had taken most of the fight out of her, and she slumped back, resigned to what was coming.

Norman took the gun and placed it against the girl
’s chest, directly over her heart. He watched as she pressed her eyes closed, waiting.

*******

Joe stumbled over a root, falling forward, and the chain saw he was carrying went sailing. “Dang it! I told you it was getting too dark.”

Jonathon helped him to his feet.
“Oh, stop your whining. We needed to finish the last tree so it could be brought out tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well, it won’t do us much good if we’re dead from falling on our own saws.”

“Whatever! Just watch your step and take your time. You sure the truck is back this way?”

“Oh, great.
Now we’re lost!”

“Shut-up!”

“I will when I want….”

“No, shush! Look over there.”

Joe stared out towards the direction his friend was pointing. Through the growing
darkness, he could see someone sitting against the bottom of a tree.

As they struggled to make sense of the scene in front of them, the standing figure removed something from a bag
, and laid it on the ground. Next, he removed something else that looked to Joe to be a gun. “Is that a gun?”

“I think so.”

The figure on the ground tried to get up, but the person standing pinned them to the ground with their foot. The gun came up to the chest of the person against the tree.

Jonathon had been crouching
, but now he jumped up. “Hey!”

*******

Norman held the gun to her chest. He hadn’t heard anyone coming, and as he pulled the trigger, a voice reached him.

“Hey!”

As the gun went off, he flinched. The girl slumped over. Norman searched the woods for where the voice had come from. Unable to find the source, he quickly cut the zip tie from her wrists and pulled the tape off her mouth. He didn’t take time to pick up the wine glass, he just ran.

He
didn’t hear the girl moan.

*******

Jonathon heard the gun go off and dove for the ground. Joe was already there. They stayed low and watched as the man gathered some things and ran for the road.

When it was clear he was gone, the two loggers got up and
headed to where the girl was. It was now almost completely dark, and the men dropped their saws to run.

When they reached the tree, they found a young girl slumped over moaning. Blood poured from near her shoulder. Joe pressed on the wound while Jonathon called 911. He kept looking toward where the man had run,
praying he didn’t come back.

“911. What is your emergency?”

“I’m in Canyon State Park, near Archery Road, and a woman has been shot.”

“Is she still alive?”

“I think so, but there’s a lot of blood.”

“Where was she shot?”

“Looks like in the chest or near the shoulder. My friend is keeping pressure on it.”

“I’m sending help. Was this an accident?”

“It didn’t look like it. My buddy and I walked up to see this guy shoot her.”

“Okay
. Can you get to the road to flag down the EMT’s?”

“Yeah.”

Jonathon hung up and looked down at his friend. “I gotta go to the road.”

Joe
’s face was almost as pale as the girls. “Why?”

“Help is
coming and I have to wave ‘em down.”

“Okay. Hurry.”

Jonathon took off at a dead run for the road. He risked running into a tree and knocking himself out, but his adrenaline wouldn’t let him slow down. The ambulance appeared a few minutes later, and he stood in the road until its headlights were on him. It stopped and a flurry of activity led to Jonathon leading two EMT’s to where his friend and the girl were.

“I’m back, Joe.”

Joe looked scared. “I don’t know if she’s still alive. She stopped moaning a few minutes ago.”

“It’s all right, Joe. The EMT’s will take care of her.”

The men moved in and started assessing the girl. Joe got up and walked over by Jonathon. They both stood there, watching silently. Jonathon was praying quietly under his breath. Joe looked at him. “I was doing the same thing the whole time you were gone.”

Jonath
on put his arm around his blood-covered friend.

“She’s in God’s hands now.”

*******

Jason’s phone rang. He squinted at the clock.
One a.m. “Hello.”

“Jason, this is Patton.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There’s been a shooting. The victim’s description matches your missing girl.”

“Stephanie Morris?”

“Yeah.”

“You said shooting… is she still alive?”

“Just barely. She’s at SAG”

“I’m on my way.”

Jason hung
up, his heart was pounding, instantly awake. A survivor could put a face on this guy, assuming it was the same killer. He called Vanessa and Rob answered. “Hello?”

“Rob, this is Jason. Sorry to wake you
but I need to talk to Vanessa.”

He heard some rustling and his partner came on.
“What’s up, Jason?”

“The lieutenant called.
There’s been a shooting and the victim matches our girl, Stephanie Morris. She’s at SAG.”

“I’ll be ready in fifteen.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”