Heartless: a Derek Cole Mystery Suspense Thriller (Derek Cole Suspense Thriller Book 1) (19 page)

“I do find it interesting that she didn’t make Alexander’s list. And when I called her and her husband, Stanley, she didn’t sound all that concerned about Alexander being on the loose. When I told her that he’d killed two doctors already, the only thing she asked me is whether or not Straus was one of the victims. I found that a bit odd.”

“Have you contacted them since?”

“Nope. Did try, though. Calls went right to voicemail.”

“As far as my client goes, I suppose that I’m just being too suspicious. It doesn’t make any sense for him to hire me if he is working with the man I am trying to stop.”

“Also a good and fair observation,” Ralph said as he folded his short, thick arms across his chest. “And what about your client’s parents?”

“Not sure. I’ve never spoke with them. If they are in the Bahamas, then they probably shouldn’t be on my list.”

“Well, I did speak with them,” Ralph said.
 
“And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that he would have arranged for all them doctors to be killed if Alexander wasn’t doing it already. Boy, was that man pissed off.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”
   

“Yup, I sure would be. But not the type of angry that your client’s dad was, though. I’d be mad as hell, but he seemed to me the type of mad that drives people to do things they may not normally do.”

“And the mother?”
   

“Cried most of the time on our call. Kept saying that she should’ve known that her baby didn’t die. She sure was upset and genuinely shocked. He stayed shocked for only a minute or two before he started with that special type of anger I told you about.”

“I’ll take your word for it and keep him on my list.”

The waitress walked over and handed the check to Ralph. She gave a quick smile to Derek before returning to her spot behind the counter.

“I’ll take care of that,” Derek said.

“Take care of what?” Ralph said. “The check? Now Derek, you do insult me. I consider you to be my guest, and if my mother up in heaven is looking down on me and sees me letting a guest pay for a meal, she’d find a way to haunt me for months.”

Once Ralph paid the breakfast bill, and the two men were back driving in Derek’s rental car, Derek asked Ralph to give Stanley and Michelle Mix another call.

“I’ll tell you what,” Ralph said. “We get ourselves back to that lodge, you call your client’s father, and then I’ll give the Mixes another call. Sound fair?”

“Sounds good.”

Derek gave a quick glance at his cell phone and saw that he had received a message from his client.
 

“Thomas must take orders well. His text message includes his dad’s cell number and a reminder that his dad wants updates right away.”

“I’d sure like to listen quietly to that call, if you don’t mind?”
   

“Not at all.”

Derek and Ralph arrived back at the lodge ten minutes after breakfast was paid for. Parked in the driveway of the lodge were three New York State Trooper cars.

“Either something is about to be filtered down to me, or we have ourselves yet another problem,” Ralph said.

“Add a new officer to your team, Chief Fox?” Captain Jared Smith asked as Ralph and Derek were walking up the driveway to the lodge’s front door. Smith was a twenty-two year veteran of the state police and believed that rules and protocols were in place for damn good reasons.

“Not that my department is any of your concern,” Ralph said through a smile, “but this is Derek Cole. Good friend of mine and an experienced private detective.”

“You haven’t shared any case information have you?” Smith asked as Ralph reached the front door of the lodge. Instead of giving way, Smith stood, with arms on hips, blocking access to the inside of the lodge. “Ralph, I asked you a very simple question.”

“Now, I have not known you all that long, Captain Smith, but I have to believe that simple questions is about all you can ask.”

“I’ve been hired by Thomas O’Connell to protect him and his parents from whomever killed the men in this lodge,” Derek answered, hoping to ease the palpable tension in the air. “Chief Fox has not divulged any case information, despite my repeated requests. Perhaps you can help me with my case, Captain?”

“I don’t even want you near this scene,” Smith said to Derek though his eyes were fixed on Ralph’s. “Nothing personal, but I prefer to work with professionals, not people who pretend to be something they aren’t.”

“Well now, that attitude of yours is concerning,” Ralph said to Smith. “So concerning in fact, that I’ve changed my mind. Derek Cole,” he said to Derek while extending his hand, “as the Chief of Police of the town of Arietta, New York, I’d like to extend you an offer to become a temporary officer of my department.”

Smith stood shaking his head, clearly not impressed with Ralph’s impetuous way of managing a police force but also fully aware that his position with the state police did not give him any authority over how Ralph, or any other department chief, ran their business.

“What you do with your little department is your problem, not mine,” Smith said as he cleared the entrance into the lodge. “I came by to do a bit more investigation and to let you know the latest developments. Can you and your newest officer give me ten minutes or your time, or do you have to run over to HR and fill out some new employee forms?

“I suppose we can spare you the time,” Ralph said, moving into the lodge and over to his zip lock bag containing his cigars. “Shall we sit right here, or would you be more comfortable elsewhere?”
 

Over the next ten minutes, Captain Jared Smith let Ralph and Derek know that both Mark Rinaldo and Henry Zudak were killed in the Chicago area.

“Chicago PD found no notes on either of the bodies.”

Smith then discussed the statewide search for Doctor William Straus.

“Straus’s car was captured on several traffic cams. Seems that he headed back down towards Long Island. We have images of his car on the Tappan Zee, the GWB, and at a stop light on the island.”

“He have a house or an apartment on the island?” Derek asked.

“Ex-wife lives in Stony Brook. Our people met with her and believe her story that she hasn’t seen or heard from Straus in over a year. He did have a leased apartment on the island, but his neighbors say they haven’t seen him in several weeks. We went through the apartment wall to wall. Didn’t find anything. Straus has a son, but he moved to Kentucky. We contacted him, but he stated that he hasn’t spoken with his father in six years.”

“Thinking he’s hiding out somewhere on the island?” Ralph questioned while drawing deeply on an Arthur Ave Maduro.
 

“Trail goes cold. Based on the direction he was traveling when we last caught an image, he is either on the island, or he continued heading south. We have departments up and down the coast keeping a sharp eye out for him.”

“Well, we sure do appreciate you keeping us informed and up to date, Captain,” Ralph said. “but we already knew about Rinaldo and Zudak. Words travel fast in today’s age.”

“I figured you might have found out through whatever communication methods you have, but I wanted to keep you up to date. And there are a few other things that I’d be surprised that your network has informed you about.”

Derek straightened his back and silently hoped that Ralph wouldn’t say anything that would either delay or prevent Smith from telling them about the other developments in the case.

Ralph stood silent.

“We had three pings to Straus’s cell phone. Three pings of interest, that is. He made a call to the main number here at the lodge at zero-9:33 the day of the murders. Call was never connected. Next we have a call received from the lodge thirty-six minutes later. That call lasted less than five seconds. The last ping we discovered was from Straus’s cell phone to a hospital in Manhattan. Traced it to a Doctor Brian Lucietta, whose name should sound familiar since it was on the list found at this crime scene. We contacted Lucietta, who is either very stupid or very smart. He denied talking with Straus and contends that he hasn’t spoken to him since they stopped working together at Hilburn Psychiatric over ten years ago.”

“Ain’t surprised by any of what you said,” Ralph said. “Either Straus called this lodge to find out if the murders were all taken care of, meaning that he was involved in their planning, or he wanted to see if Curtis or Adams would pick up the phone.”

“And the call back?” Smith asked.

“Either from his accomplice or from someone who wanted to know where he was headed to so that he could take care of Straus as well.”

“Do you find the fact that no list was found on either Rinaldo or Zudak interesting?”

“I do, indeed. I do find that peculiar.”

“We haven’t been able to contact Mix. He’s either gone very dark, or his body hasn’t been found yet.”

“I was actually planning to give them a call,” Ralph said. “In fact, since we’re all here together, how about I make that call right now?”

Ralph retrieved a folded sheet of paper from his wallet that sat bulging in his back pocket. As he dialed the numbers read from the sheet of paper, Smith told him to put the phone on speaker.

“I doubt that anyone will answer, but just in case, I’d like to hear every word said.”
 

As the connection was made, and Ralph’s cell phone’s speaker reported rings, Derek glanced down at his iPhone to both make sure that he hadn’t accidentally deleted the text message from his client that contained Ken O’Connell’s cell number and to check for any other messages that may have come through. The text from Thomas was still there, along with a notification of five missed calls and four voice messages.

“Ain’t gonna answer, seems. But, the fact that it is ringing tells me that Mix’s cell phone is on. Isn’t that correct, Captain Smith?” Ralph asked as he closed his flip phone and buried it back into the front pocket of his khakis.
 

“If you are suggesting that we try to ping his phone, we’ve been trying that for the last two days.”

“Any reason why you can’t locate his cell phone?” Derek asked, after having checked the missed calls and not recognizing any of the numbers of the missed calls.
 

“Verizon suggests that Mix may be in an area with poor coverage. His phone may ring on our end, but he may not be receiving any notifications. His phones are both somewhat current Samsung models that have been on his account for over a year. They are not burner phones, so he isn’t trying to hide using technology.”

Derek thought about calling his client’s father with Ralph and Smith but felt that doing so may violate his confidentiality clause he signed and lived up to with every one of his clients.

“There’s one more thing that I think you two will be interested in hearing,” Smith said, talking more to Derek than to Ralph. “Ralph said that you were hired by Thomas O’Connell to protect him and his parents from whomever is going around killing people?”

“Yes,” Derek confirmed.

“Before I ask why you think coming all the way up to Piseco Lake instead of staying around your client is a good way to offer client protection, I want to ask you what your client told you about his parents. Specifically, his father. Where they are, anything they plan on doing, etcetera.”

“My client told me that his parents flew to the Bahamas to get to a safe place. Just this morning, my client told me that he had spoken to his mother last night who told him that they landed safe and sound and were headed to whatever resort they are staying at. My client also told me that he spoke with his father early this morning. He said that his dad wants to get updates directly from me regarding my progress with the case.”

“And have you called him with an update yet?” Smith asked.

“Not yet.”

“Can you give me a valid reason why you don’t call him right now so that we can all speak with him?”

“I have a reason, but you probably won’t like it,” Derek said.

“Try me.”

“I believe in client confidentiality. What my clients say to me is for my ears only.”

“That may be a good policy, but didn’t I just hear Chief Fox hire you as an officer for the Town of Arietta Police force?”

Derek knew enough about how police departments work to know that withholding case information wasn’t widely approved of.

“I am afraid that I may have to resign my position with the town,” Derek said to Ralph who just smiled back.