Had a Great Fall (An Olivia Thompson Mystery) (3 page)

In three large gulps, Olivia had finished her coffee. She wondered if it would be too demanding to ask Nate for a refill.

“Just what we needed. Two psychopaths.” Nate tapped her notepad. “Any other tips on who I should be looking for?”

“Well for one thing, he may not by a psychopath. That’s a very specific personality trait. We also have to consider the possibility that we aren’t dealing with a serial killer at all. So far we only have one body. The death could’ve been accidental.” Olivia thought it was interesting that he had kept Melanie for three weeks before killing her.

Nate looked at her doubtfully. “All that torture and you think the death was an accident?”

“I don’t think that. I just said that it’s possible. He might have been planning to keep the girls for his own perverted fantasy.” She stood up. “I need a break. Point me in the direction of the coffee?”

“I’ll get it.” He reached for the mug. After a quick glance around the room, he kissed Olivia. “I could get used to these working conditions.”

“I don’t think Vince is going to be very happy when he finds out you’ve replaced him.” Olivia leaned back against the desk. She enjoyed the view as she watched him cross the room. A few other detectives had arrived in the last couple of minutes and they all greeted him. Olivia noted that he was cordial to all of them, but not overtly friendly.

“Hey.”

Olivia’s head swiveled in the direction of the voice. She found a serious looking guy hunkered at a nearby desk. Somehow both she and Nate had missed his arrival.

“Hi,” she said, not sure how to respond.

“I’m Barnes.” His head tilted. “You’re Tucker’s girlfriend.”

She couldn’t tell if he was making a statement or asking a question. “I’m Olivia.”

“I’ve seen your picture on his desk.” Barnes stood and came closer. “You’ve been the talk of the station lately.”

“Me? Why?” She wasn’t sure she liked the way he was looking at her.

“Tucker is a bit of a mystery. He never talks about his personal life. We know that he was married, then divorced. But that’s only because of the vanishing wedding ring and a few mail deliveries from divorce lawyers.” He squinted at her, eyes scanning her from head to toe. “But then you came along. He’s been different lately, and I suspect that’s because of you.”

She didn’t like what he was insinuating. “Nate and I have been friends for over ten years. And I’m not willing to discuss his personal life with you.”

“You’re out of his league, you know? He’s an average detective that has already passed his prime. Give him five more years and he’ll be fat, bald, and on the path towards becoming an alcoholic.” Barnes was so deep into his tirade that he didn’t notice Nate stepping up behind him. “You should get out now while you’re still young and attractive.”

Nate stepped around him, smoothly handing Olivia her coffee. “I see you’ve met Detective Barnes. I’d like to congratulate you for not punching him.”

“Yet,” Olivia added.

“Barnes is working the missing persons’ cases,” Nate explained “He’s also a giant prick.”

“I noticed,” she muttered, sipping her coffee. She turned to Barnes. “I’ve found that guys who are giant pricks are typically compensating for their tiny pricks. Care to comment?”

He first glared at her, then smirked. “She’s sassy, Tucker. You should try to hang onto this one. I think I might like her.”

“Glad to have your approval.” Nate took a seat and swiveled his chair away from Barnes, effectively ending the conversation.

“I need to get to class soon,” Olivia said. She noticed that Barnes was backing away slowly, clearly still listening.

“I can drive you.” Nate’s hand brushed her bare leg.

She fixed him with a level stare. “Nate. I can get to work just fine on my own.”

“I know.” He smiled sheepishly. “I’m just not ready to say goodbye yet.”

“Well played.” She froze as his hand traveled further up her leg. “Feeling bold, Detective Tucker?”

“You can’t dangle those killer legs in front of me and expect me to restrain myself.” He reached up and loosened his tie a fraction of an inch.

More and more people were filing in to start their day. Olivia recognized a few familiar faces, and many people looked surprised to see her. “Your partner is here,” she said.

Nate’s hand quickly dropped away, but it was too late.

“Olivia!” Vince’s voice bellowed across the room. He sauntered over with a goofy grin on his face. “Tucker finally decided to bring his woman into the station. This is a big day.”

“Indeed.” Olivia noticed that Nate’s face had turned red. “Unfortunately, I was just getting ready to leave.”

“What?” Vince played disappointed. “So soon? We haven’t had a chance to catch up yet.”

Olivia stood and reached for her notepad. As she shoved it into her bag, she said, “Let’s do that over a beer sometime, okay?”

“That sounds like an excellent plan.” Vince turned to his partner. “I’m sure Nate will be glad to set that up.”

“Thrilled,” Nate muttered. “I’m going to walk Olivia out. Make yourself useful while I’m gone and see if you can get the official report from Leo.”

Vince rolled his eyes. “Sure thing, boss.”

Olivia waited until they were outside before saying, “You really should try harder to make friends, Nater.”

“I don’t need more friends,” he replied, easily dismissing her advice. “Why do you even care?”

“Because you are my best friend and I know that you are an amazing guy. I don’t know why you won’t let anyone else see that side of you.” She grabbed his tie and used it to pull him close. “Then again, at least I don’t have to share you with anyone.”

“I don’t know.” His arms went around her waist. “I think Barnes is a big fan of mine.”

“I think you are delusional.” She pushed up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “Is it safe to assume that you will be working late tonight?”

He nodded slowly. “That’s a safe assumption. Would it be too presumptive to assume that you won’t mind me coming over late?”

“I’ll take you any way I can get you.” Olivia gave him another kiss, this one longer, before pulling away. “Go solve crime, Tucker.”

“In a minute.” He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “I just want to enjoy the view first.”

Olivia laughed and worked her hips extra hard as she sauntered out to the street. It only took her a second to flag down a cab. Once she was inside, her phone vibrated with a text message.

Nate: Forgot to tell you something.

Olivia: What?

Nate: You’re my best friend, too.

Olivia: Duh. I’m your only friend.

Nate: Thanks, Thompson.

Olivia: I love you anyway.

Nate: Good. See you tonight.

The cab driver didn’t notice that she was intently focused on her phone.

“You got a thing with the police department?’ he asked.

“Not the whole department,” she replied without thinking. Quickly, she added, “I’m helping a detective out with a case.”

“You should be careful,” the cabbie said. “Bad things have been happening to pretty girls like you.”

Olivia subconsciously touched her scar. “Maybe so, but pretty girls like me are also capable of doing bad things.”

Something sharp poked Dani in the back. She tried to use her hand to move the object, but was surprised to find that she couldn’t. Her eyes were open, but the room she was in was completely dark. It would take time for her eyes to adjust.

One thing she knew for sure- she wasn’t in a good place. Dani could practically smell death in the air.

“Maddy?” she whispered so quietly that she almost couldn’t hear it herself. She desperately wanted to know that her friend was okay, but she was also frightened about who else might be lurking in the dark.

No one responded.

Her vision finally started to pick up subtle outlines in the dark. She also discovered that while her left hand was tied to something, her right hand was free. When she reached beneath her to move the sharp object that was stabbing her, she learned that she was actually lying on a mattress. It was a hard mattress with springs poking her, but it was a mattress all the same.

The room that she was in was small, with concrete walls on three sides and bars on the forth. It was best described as a prison cell. Only in this cell, she didn’t have to share bunk beds with anyone. She was alone.

After she was able to adjust herself so that the springs weren’t completely making her miserable, she started groping at what was binding her left arm. It felt like some sort of large shackle, not something she could remove on her own in the dark. There was nothing she could do, no amount of struggling that would free her. She just had to wait.

As she waited, Dani plotted her revenge on the person that had abducted her.

It must’ve been hours later. The room was slowly filling with light from a small barred window near the ceiling. A door opened somewhere in the distance and loud footsteps came closer until the hulking figure stood just on the other side of the bars.

“You have been distracted all day, man.” Vince glanced over, taking his eyes off the road for just a second. “Trouble in paradise?”

“I’m concentrating on the case,” Nate said, easily sidestepping his partner’s implication. “You should be concentrating on the road.”

Vince laughed. “Further proving my point. You never let me drive.”

“I’m feeling generous today.” Nate quickly checked his phone just in case he had missed a message from Olivia. It was her first day back at work since her abduction and injury. Even though Nate knew her attacker was in a coma in a hospital bed, he still felt uneasy about her resuming her normal life. It was part of why he had been so distracted. “Melanie’s friends weren’t very helpful. Let’s hope the other contacts have more to offer.”

“They’re just college kids, Tucker. They are focused on classes and parties and getting laid. They aren’t paying attention to suspicious strangers that might abduct their friends.” Vince pulled his car into a spot in front of one of the dorm buildings. “Try not to make them cry this time.”

Nate glared at him. It hadn’t entirely been his fault that the girls at the last stop had all become hysterical. They had already been upset because their sorority sister was dead. Nate’s questions were just bad timing. “Teenage girls have never been my biggest fans.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Vince turned off the engine and opened his door. “Just try not to be a dick.”

“Sure. And you should try not to be such a pushover. We need to get some answers soon.” Nate wasn’t interested in babying people that might have information. “Is this it?”

“It is.” Vince looked up at the building. “Dani’s room is on the eighth floor. Her roommate should be home. When I called, she said she would wait for us.”

They found their way inside and followed a group of laughing girls onto an elevator. Nate did his best to avoid eye contact, but they struck up a conversation anyway.

“What’s with the suits?” The girl closest to Vince asked. She was clearly the pack leader.

“Our capes are at the cleaners,” he replied with a smile. Vince was always too nice for his own good.

The girls all giggled. The short one said, “I would’ve thought you were more of a shining armor kind of guy.”

“Not since I gave up my horse,” Vince said.

The elevator stopped on the eighth floor and Nate hurried out. The overwhelming smell of hair product and perfume was making his head swim.

“Take care, ladies,” Vince said, shooting them one last smile.

“Really?” Nate said after the door shut. “They are still teenagers, man.”

“I was just being friendly,” Vince said. “You should try it sometime.”

Nate strode ahead. “I don’t need to be friendly to random females. I need to do my job, and so do you.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you need to get laid.” Vince stepped up to the door and rapped hard on it with his knuckles. “It’s a good thing Olivia doesn’t know she’s too good for you.”

“Finally, something we agree on.” Nate smirked. He really was starting to like Vince Monroe, despite his sometimes annoyingly cheerful disposition.

The door opened slowly, a suspicious face peering at them through a small opening. “Yes?”

“Kristy?” Vince asked, sounding even more friendly than usual. He knew how to turn on the charm with the more reluctant interviewees. “I’m Detective Monroe. We spoke on the phone earlier?”

“Right.” Kristy nodded. “You want to talk about Dani.”

“Yes, if you have some time.” Vince flashed his perfect white teeth.

Kristy opened the door wider. “Come in.”

It was a typical dorm room in all respects. Two twin beds, two wooden desks, and two overflowing closets. The room was covered in more pink than an entire bubblegum factory. Nate felt like he was doing something wrong just being in the room.

“You can sit,” Kristy said, gesturing to one of the beds. She perched on the edge of the bed across from it.

Nate chose a desk chair instead while Vince sat across from Kristy. Since Vince was the one that could connect with the college kids, Nate decided to let him lead the questioning.

“Kristy. Detective Tucker and I,” Vince nodded toward Nate, “are hoping you can answer a few questions for us that might help us find Dani.”

“I’ve already spoken with the police,” she said, eyeing Nate wearily. “I don’t know anything. I wasn’t even here when Dani disappeared.”

“Where were you?” Vince asked smoothly.

Kristy twirled a strand of dark hair around her finger. “I was visiting my boyfriend for the weekend. He goes to Madison. I knew that Dani was having a friend stay here, so I figured it was a good time for me to go away.”

“When was the last time you saw your roommate?” Vince took a small notepad from his pocket.

“That Friday morning, before class. We went to breakfast together, downstairs in the dining hall. I had a test that morning so I was distracted. I don’t even remember what she was wearing.” Kristy blinked hard as she looked at Vince. “That’s the next thing you were going to ask me, right? That’s what the other police guys wanted to know.”

Vince shook his head. “No. I wasn’t going to ask you that.”

Nate knew that it didn’t matter what Dani had been wearing. She was being kept somewhere far out of sight. They couldn’t count on someone spotting her outfit somewhere. What they really needed to learn was where she was being held.

“You’re nicer than the other detectives. They were mad that I couldn’t remember anything.” She glanced at Nate. “Is Dani dead?”

“We don’t know.” Nate tried to sound sympathetic. It was direct, but he thought she deserved the truth. “We think she might still be alive, but we don’t know for sure. If she is alive, we need to find her as soon as possible.”

Kristy nodded thoughtfully. “Dani is a sweet girl. I never even saw her raise her voice to someone. She went to class, studied in the library, and went to bed before ten o’clock every night. The fact that she even went to a party that night is shocking. It had to be because of her friend.”

“Tell us about the friend,” Vince said, resuming control of the conversation.

“Maddy. She and Dani were best friends in high school. I met her when she first arrived and we talked a little bit.” Kristy frowned. “She was the exact opposite of Dani. I don’t know how they ever became friends in the first place.”

Vince made a note. “How was she different from Dani?”

“She was… wild.” Kristy checked to make sure Vince understood. “She was a party girl, ya know? She wore skimpy outfits and said lewd things. Maddy was the last person I would’ve thought Dani would hang out with.”

“Do you know anything about their plans for the weekend? Did they talk to you about that at all before you left?” Vince was doing a good job keeping the conversation light. So far, no hysterical crying.

“Maddy really wanted to go to some clubs downtown, but Dani wasn’t old enough yet. She doesn’t turn 21 for a while. I told them about a party that was happening close to campus.” Her lip quivered. “I guess that’s where they were taken.”

Nate cleared his throat, hoping to cut off any potential tears. “How did you hear about the party?”

“A few girls in my marketing class were talking about it. It was supposed to be a pretty big deal, I guess.” She shrugged. “I figured it was a better option for Dani than getting caught trying to sneak into a club. Not to mention that she would’ve been miserable at a place like that. At least with the party, she would be able to get home easily if she wanted to leave.”

Those words hung awkwardly in the air. Everyone in the room knew that Dani hadn’t gotten home at all. She had been taken just twenty yards from the party. Someone had found her purse on the ground and turned it in to campus security.

“When did you realize she was missing?” Vince asked.

“I got back Sunday night and neither of them were here. Maddy’s stuff was still there on the floor.” Kristy pointed to a purple suitcase. “I was surprised because it was pretty late. When neither of them had come back by Monday morning, I tried calling Dani. I knew she had a biology test that she never would’ve missed. She never answered her phone, and that’s when I called her mom.”

Nate stifled a groan. They were coming up empty yet again. With low expectations, he asked, “Is there anything that you haven’t told us that might be important for us to know?”

“No… well, there was this one thing.” Kristy hesitated. “I mean, it was probably nothing, but I was walking past the library yesterday and I remembered something Dani told me before she was taken. She said she thought some guy might be following her. She kept seeing him in the library, just watching her.”

“What did she tell you about him?” Vince asked, ready to start taking notes again.

Even Nate was intrigued.

“She just said he was an average looking guy, but definitely not a college student. He was old. Like, early thirties.” She looked apologetically at Nate. “Sorry. I just meant that he was older than us.”

“Do you remember anything else about this guy?” Nate chose to ignore her accidental insult. “Anything at all?”

Kristy bit at her lip as she thought. “No. I’m sorry. When she told me about it, I thought she was just being paranoid. I didn’t really think some strange guy was stalking her.”

“Of course.” Vince nodded encouragingly. “Why would you think something like that?”

“I should’ve listened to her.” Kristy’s voice came out in a whimper. “She was trying to tell me something important and I just ignored her.”

“You couldn’t have known.” Nate didn’t like the way her eyes were starting to glisten. “We appreciate you taking time to speak with us. This has been very helpful.”

She looked at him in surprise. “It has? But I don’t remember anything.”

“You remember enough.” Nate stood. “We’ll let you get back to your day. Thanks for the time.”

Vince waited until they were back outside before saying, “Creepy stalker in the library? That sounds too much like a cliché.”

“It sounds like a lead to me.” Nate slid on a pair of sunglasses. “It’s the first lead we’ve heard all day.”

“It’s a pretty vague lead,” Vince countered. “Lots of creepy people hang out in libraries. They don’t all abduct people.”

Nate ignored him. “Figure out where the library is. Make yourself useful.”

After two hours of speaking to everyone they could at the library, Nate was starting to agree with Vince. The lead hadn’t led them anywhere. The library had security cameras, but the footage was erased every three days. Their one possible chance at identifying the perpetrator had been ruined right on schedule.

“We knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” Vince said cheerfully. The guy literally never had a bad day. “We just have to keep digging.”

“Let’s move on.” Nate wasn’t feeling nearly as agreeable as his partner. “We still need to hit Randolph.”

The second missing girl, Tina Larson, had disappeared from the Randolph University campus almost three weeks earlier. At the time, it had been uncertain whether she was taken or had left voluntarily. When her disappearance was tied to Melanie’s, Tina was officially declared a missing person.

Unfortunately, her trail was the coldest of them all. Nate found himself engaging in a string of useless conversations with people that didn’t even know Tina’s last name.

“This is pointless,” he said after a particularly bold sorority girl pressed her phone number into his hand. “We’re not getting anywhere.”

“It’s late.” Vince checked his watch. “Let’s grab a bite and a beer.”

Nate hesitated. “I’m supposed to meet up with Liv. She’s just finishing up office hours.”

“Bring her along.” He didn’t seem to realize that in this case,
he
was the odd man out. “She might have some useful insights.”

“She’s better company than you, that’s for sure”” Nate pulled out his phone.

“Yeah, but I look better in heels.” Vince grinned his goofy grin.

It was easy to convince Olivia to meet up with them. She was actually a big fan of Vince and was always trying to find an excuse to spend more time with him. For the first hour of dinner, Nate sat back while the two of them chatted like old friends.

“He really made all of them cry?” Olivia looked at Nate with wide eyes. “What did I tell you about being nice?”

“Girl, I’ve been telling him the same thing. But you know how stubborn he can be.” Vince exchanged a commiserating look with her.

“I do.” Olivia nodded emphatically.

Nate finally spoke up. “Okay. Enough of this. I didn’t arrange this little get together so the two of you could list my worst traits.”

“We haven’t even gotten to those,” Olivia joked, her smile adorable. She patted his leg under the table. “Maybe we’ll get there over the next round of drinks.”

“Keep this up and there will be no more drinks!” Nate tried to scowl at her, but she was moving her hand higher, effectively distracting him. “You don’t fight fair.”

Vince was oblivious to her wicked ways. “Olivia is perfect. You should just listen to her and do whatever she says.”