Heartless: a Derek Cole Mystery Suspense Thriller (Derek Cole Suspense Thriller Book 1) (18 page)

“Damn,”
he thought as the black speckles covered his entire vision.
“Damn.”

Derek and Ralph had just finished ordering breakfast when Derek’s cell phone began to vibrate. Glancing at the caller ID, he saw that his client, Thomas O’Connell was calling.

“It’s my client,” Derek said to Ralph. “Should I take the call outside?”

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, I sure would like to hear what that client of yours has to say.”

Derek knew that Ralph was sticking his neck out by allowing him to be part of the investigation, and though Derek believed that maintaining his client’s confidentiality was of high importance, he also didn’t want to make Ralph think he was keeping information from him.

“How about we step outside, and I’ll put the speaker phone on?”

“I like the way you think, Derek Cole.”

Derek answered the call and quickly told Thomas to “hold for one second” while he and Ralph made their way out of the small diner and into Derek’s rental car.

“Okay, Thomas. I’m back. Had to get somewhere quiet. Is everything okay with you?”

“Fine. What did you find out in Albany? Did that ass-backwards police chief get in your way?”

Derek glanced at Ralph, apologizing for his client’s remarks. Ralph blinked an eye and nodded his head towards Derek’s cell phone.

“No problem at all. Have you heard from your parents yet?”

“Yes, and that’s one of the reasons I am calling you. My father called me around 11:00 last night to tell me that he and my mom are safe and sound in the Bahamas. I assume you don’t want to know which island they are on nor which hotel they are staying at?”

“Correct. If I need to know, I’ll find out. Did you talk with both your parents?”

“Yes. Why do you ask that?”

“Just want to make sure they’re both safe.”

“I spoke with my mother last evening after they got to their resort and with my dad just a few minutes ago.”

“Perfect. You were saying something about your father?”

“Yes. He knows where I am staying and knows I’m safe, and since he and my mom are together and very safe, he wants you to call him and give him updates on your progress.”

“Fine. Text me over the number where I can reach him.” Derek glanced at Ralph who was still holding his gaze on Derek’s cell phone. “You probably didn’t hear yet, but Doctor Mark Rinaldo was killed late last night.”

“Oh, I did hear,” Thomas said. “I won’t tell you where I am, but just know that I can get Chicago news and Chicago police radio on my cell phone. What I heard was that his head was bashed in, unlike what happened to Zudak.”

“What happened to Zudak?” Derek asked. Ralph lifted his gaze and met Derek’s eyes.
 

The questioning look in his eyes let Derek know that Ralph had no idea what happened to Henry Zudak.

“Looks like my brother has crossed off more names. Zudak was found in a hotel outside of Chicago. I guess he was strangled to death. His wife found him dead in their hotel room.”

“If it’s your brother who killed these two, that means he is in Chicago and is probably actively looking for you. You need to assure me that you are in a very secure location and that you have an exit strategy in case your brother pays a visit.”

“If you saw where I was and knew who was around me, you wouldn’t worry at all.”

Ralph shot a strange look to Derek and mouthed
“who was around me?”
to Derek. Derek shrugged his shoulders and made a mental note to try to find out more about Thomas’s location if and when knowing became important.

“Listen Thomas, I’ll call your father as soon as I can, but I need to know if you let anyone know that I was headed to Albany?”

“No one. Why?”

“Did you call Hertz and have them leave a note for me, welcoming me to Albany?”

“Hell no,” Thomas said. “If you got a note, that means that someone else knows you are on the case. That really concerns me.”

“Me too,” Derek said.

“Any idea who it could have been who left that note?”

“I have a short list of possibilities,” Derek said.

“Well I’m sure my name is on that list, but I promise you that I had nothing to do with it. I hope you believe me.”

“I do,” Derek said honestly. “Wouldn’t make sense for you to hire me only to set me up.”

“Listen,” Thomas said after a short pause, “I need to get running. Please make sure you call my father and keep me informed about any developments. I assume that you will be headed back this way soon?”

“You text me his number, and I will call. As far as my next steps with this investigation, I will let you know when I figure it out. You stay safe.”

“Talk with you soon.”

It was the relaxed tone of Thomas’s voice that most worried Derek. While he was happy that his client believed he was safe and protected, Derek couldn’t help but wonder why Thomas seemed to be a man without a care in the world. Maybe his attitude was the curse of being the only child of wealthy parents, or maybe his parents were overly protective since they had already lost, or thought they’d lost, their other son, and had no interest in ever losing letting anything happen to Thomas.

Whatever the reason for Thomas’s apparent relaxed nature, Derek assumed that a relaxed attitude was better than a paranoid one, though the latter seemed to Derek to be more appropriate.

The two men walked back into the diner just as their food was being walked over to their table.

“I’ve always had good timing when it came to food,” Ralph joked. “So, you headed back to the Windy City?”

“I don’t know,” Derek said. “I’m surprised that you didn’t hear about Zudak.”

“Shouldn’t be,” Ralph said as he shoved a folded piece of toast, heavily dipped in egg yolk into his mouth. “
You
should understand the filters involved in police work. See, once the state police took over my investigation, they started handling all communications between other departments. I know they contacted Chicago, and I also know that Chicago is gonna send any intel back to the state police. Hell, they probably don’t even know that some police department of a tiny town is involved. And that is just fine with me!” Ralph paused to drink a swallow of coffee and to take another bite out of his toast. “So when something happens in Chicago, the powers to be out there call the powers that be here, that being the state police, and I get filtered out. I betcha I get a call before too long from the state police letting me know about Zudak and any details that they deem me worthy of knowing. Till that happens, I focus on what I can focus on. And that is solving this mystery.”

“The fact that two of the doctors whose names were on the list you found at the lodge were killed in Chicago confirms that Alexander is not working alone,” Derek said.
 

“Well, I think we agree on that matter. But how do the murders in Chicago prove that?” Ralph asked.

“I highly doubt that Alexander learned how to drive a car while he was held up in those rooms of his. Which means that for him to get to Chicago as quickly as it appears he has, that he either took some form of public transportation or was driven there. And based on those pictures of him in that file, I don’t think the public transportation option is likely. And, while I don’t like to make any rash assumptions, I am liking Straus as the accomplice.”

“Now that is something that I’d like to hear more about. Your figuring that Straus is the guy behind this whole mess. You keep talking, and I’ll get to eating. Don’t mistake my not asking questions as me not paying attention. My mamma told me never to eat with food in my mouth, which I plan on having for the next few minutes.”

As Ralph gave his focus to the plate of food in front of him, Derek began talking about his suspicions.
 

“First off, Straus is a major player in this whole Alexander Black thing. It was his lodge where Alexander was living and his lodge where three men were killed. Now why in the world would those doctors be at his lodge and Straus not be there? Second, his car is spotted speeding away from the crime scene around the time the murders happened. Based on what I’ve read about Alexander, I highly doubt that Straus, who must be in his fifties, could have defended himself against someone strong enough to drive a knife through Roger Fay’s neck and three inches deep into a tree. Third, that whole path and supplies mystery almost certainly points to someone helping Alexander. And fourth, what I found outside under Alexander’s bedroom convinces me that either Alexander was able to go outside at will or that someone else removed those screws and made the hidden trap door. And if Alexander was allowed to go outside at will, then he wouldn’t have needed a trap door.

“Also, the fact that no one seems to know where Straus is, and yet his body hasn’t shown up floating in some lake
and
his name hasn’t been crossed off the “death list,” makes me think that he is alive and also makes me very, very suspicious.”

Ralph finished the last bit of coffee in his mug and signaled to the waitress that he needed another cup. Without a word to Derek, he returned his focus to what was left of his breakfast and resumed to his task of quieting his hunger.

“Well?” Derek asked. “Any thoughts?”
   

“If I disagreed with anything you said, I promise you that I would have made my differing opinion known.”

“But there are other options, don’t you think?”
   

“Other options?” Ralph questioned.

“Think about it, why does it have to be that Roger Fay was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? He knows the area well, and I read a note in the file that suggested that some stranger had a run in with Alexander and the doctors outside of the lodge one day. Maybe Roger wanted to see what the heck was going on in the lodge after getting a good look at Alexander. Isn’t that an option?”

“I suppose it is,” Ralph answered.

“And my client, Thomas O’Connell. Who can say that he’s not the one who is helping out Alexander? Or his mother, his father, or any of the people on that list? Let’s not forget about Brian Lucietta. Did you speak with him at all?”

“I was able to track him down. Seems the good doctor took an administrative position in a psychiatric hospital in Manhattan. I called him at this office after all hell broke loose. He didn’t seem worried in the least,” Ralph said.

“Guess I should add him to my list of suspected accomplices.”

“I don’t think so. Not yet, anyways,” Ralph responded. “From what I dug out about Lucietta, he is more concerned about his legacy than he is for his life. I betcha he and Straus made quite a team.”

“Is he taking any precautions?”

“Don’t know. He just cut me off and asked me to let him know if I felt that his life was in danger. Pompous son of a bitch just cut me off and wished me a fine day.”

Derek’s head was swimming. In most of his cases since going freelance, he only had one person to track down. One person to find, alert authorities about and to worry about. While Alexander Black was certainly Derek’s most obvious concern, the cast of potential characters who may be helping him was only being decreased after a body was discovered.

“And why is Michelle Mix’s name absent from the list?” Derek barked, frustrated by the realization that the list of confusing items about the case was still not complete. “Maybe she has something to do with this whole thing.”

“I thought the same thing. In fact, I have yet to hear you say anything that I can’t honestly say that I haven’t thought of,” Ralph said with his breakfast plate cleaned and his mug refilled with black coffee. “But I do have to say that Fay is not a suspect.”

“Why is that?”

“First of all, while I didn’t know the man, those who did tell me that he was more of a loner and a loser than an accomplice to a few murders. Second, him being all dead doesn’t help put Alexander out in Chicago. His car is still parked in his driveway. Plus, he kept a journal. And, while I am not a fan of going through a dead man’s personal thoughts, I did read his. And from what I read, he wasn’t the person who met Alexander outside of the lodge. Furthermore, you’d think that if he was scheming something that he’d at least make some mention of it in his diary. Not a peep or an innuendo about anything suspicious.”

“Okay,” Derek said after a short pause. “Your points make sense. I’ll scratch Fay off my list of suspects,” a somewhat relieved Derek said. “How do you feel about the nurse Michelle?”