The Trophy Exchange (46 page)

Sixty

The phone on Lucinda
’
s desk blinked fast from its burden of accumulated messages. Some of them were stupid, some of them were administrative, some of them were both. A few were from reporters trying to sidestep the public information officer and weasel information out of her. Only one captured Lucinda
’
s interest. It was from Vivienne Carr asking her to please visit her daughter Julie in the county jail as soon as possible.

She made a few calls to watch commanders around the city emphasizing the urgency of the need to find Kirk Prescott before he killed again. She had no leads to follow so she headed off for the jail hoping something would turn up while she was there.

She checked her gun at the front desk and followed her escort down the dreary halls. Cackles, shrieks and pleas for help, erupted from the cells she passed. Insults about her looks, her clothes, her walk mixed in with the verbal cacophony. She stared straight ahead and kept walking until she reached Julie
’
s cell.

Julie, in her orange jumpsuit,
was
stretched out on top of the blanket on her cot staring at the ceiling. When she heard the key slip into the lock, she sat up and spun around. Her face
,
pulled tight by worry, broke into a smile when she spotted Lucinda.
“
Lieutenant, you came. I knew you would.
”

Lucinda stepped into the cell and took a seat beside Julie on the bunk. What a depressing place. Hard bed. Stainless steel toilet with no seat and no lid. Not enough room to spit. I
’
d just die first, Lucinda thought.
“
How are you doing, Julie?
”

“
Not bad for a murderer.
”
Julie winced at the word.
“
Nothing makes you more popular in jail than killing an abusive husband,
”
she said with a bitter laugh.

“
Why did you want to see me?
”

“
I need to make a decision. I think I know what I should do but I wanted to talk to someone I can trust first.
”

“
Me?
”
Lucinda asked.

“
Yeah, kind of funny, isn
’
t it? You put me here and yet you
’
re the person I trust the most.
”

Lucinda nodded and smiled.

“
My mom is so emotional. My lawyer, well, she
’
s real nice and all, but I think she
’
s more concerned about getting her face on TV than on doing the right thing.
”

“
So
,
what
’
s your dilemma?
”

“
The DA made an offer. If I plead guilty to manslaughter, I get ten years, five suspended. The lawyer said if I behave myself that would mean I can get out in three years or maybe even less.
”

“
Not bad,
”
Lucinda said.

“
That
’
s what I thought but my mom and my lawyer have me so confused.
”

“
What did your mother say?
”

“
Not much. Every time I suggest that I should take the deal she starts crying and says
“
my baby in prison
”
over and over again.
”

“
What about your attorney?
”

“
She doesn
’
t want me to take the deal.
”

“
She doesn
’
t?
”

“
No. She thinks she can prove self-defense. She says she
’
s certain if I go to trial, the worst I
’
d get is straight probation.
”

“
She could be right, Julie.
”

“
But it just doesn
’
t feel right, Lieutenant. Not to me.
”

“
What you mean, Julie?
”

“
I killed somebody. I took a life, Lieutenant. I should be punished for that. I know my mother said he deserved to die. But still
. . .”
Julie shook her head.

“
Still what?
”
Lucinda asked.

“
Still, I know I could
’
ve walked away. I know he was sound asleep. I could have
–
I should have
–
slipped into my car and driven away from it all. I had no right to take his life. I deserve more time in jail. Not less.
”

“
What are you going to do?
”

“
I think the right thing would be to take the deal and serve some time. But what do you think?
”

“
I don
’
t think putting you behind bars is going to make society a safer place, Julie. But it sounds like you
’
d find it a bit easier to live with yourself if you served some time.
”

“
You
’
re right,
”
Julie said with a smile.
“
Thanks, Lieutenant, you
’
ve been a big help.
”

“
All I did was listen.
”

“
Yeah, but I needed somebody to listen. I needed someone to talk it out with, so thanks.
”

Lucinda stood and walked toward the bars to call to her escort. She turned back around before she did.
“
Julie, can I ask you a personal question?
”

“
Anything, Lieutenant.
”

“
Did your ancestors come from Africa?
”

Julie laughed.
“
You
’
ve been talking to my mother-in-law, haven
’
t you?
”

Lucinda
nodded and grinned.

“
That woman is so screwed up. She thinks I
’
m black. She thinks I look black. At first, I thought it was funny. I almost told her the truth about Africa, but her attitude just pissed me off. So what if I had black relatives? I didn
’
t but so what if I did?
”

“
Would you mind telling me the truth about Africa?
”
Lucinda asked.

“
Not at all. My great-great
. . .
jeez, I don
’
t how many greats
. . .
a bunch of generations ago, anyway, members of my family set out for Africa to make their fortune in gold. It didn
’
t work out exactly as they planned. The gold wasn
’
t all that easy to find. Life was a little too rough. They didn
’
t give it more than a couple years before they gave up, but I guess they were too proud to go back home to England. They set sail for America instead. My mom has some journals one of them wrote in about their disappointment in the Dark Continent, as they called it, the hardship of sailing across the Atlant
ic
in steerage and stuff like that. Mom read some if it to me when I was younger. It seemed like a fairytale to me. Nothing about it seemed real until my mother-in-law learned a little piece of the story. Then it turned real
. . .
and real ugly.
”

Lucinda said,
“
Thank you,
”
and shook Julie
’
s hand.
“
You
’
ll do fine. The time will pass before you know it.
”

When Lucinda stepped outside of the jail, she inhaled deeply, sucking in the fresh air of freedom. She did not feel nearly as optimistic about the next few years of Julie
’
s life as her last words to her indicated
. It’ll be hell on earth
, she thought.
A little bit of dying every single day.

Hatred is the root of so much violence. Hatred and rage. Racist hatred set the stage for the events that led to Julie taking her husband’s life. Hatred and rage has to be part of Kirk Prescott’s motivation, too. What prompted his ritual trophy exchange at every murder? What hatred urges him on? What rage drives him?

She could guess at some of the answers but she didn
’
t know anything for sure.
Unless I know what motivates Kirk Prescott, will I ever find him?

Sixty-One

Lucinda returned to the station and found Ted hard at work in the conference room.
“
Ted, please tell me you
’
ve found Kirk Prescott.
”

Ted grimaced.
“
I wish. No one
’
s reported the slightest trace of him. I finally got a social security number, though, and got a lot more detail for the timeline.
”
He handed a sheet of paper to Lucinda.

She scanned down through Kirk
’
s birth, list of schools, the murder of Bethany Hopkins and his conviction, his stay in juvenile hall, and his transfer to Prairie View Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
“
You have no details for the time spent in these institutions?
”

“
They
’
re both claiming confidentiality issues. They refused to release any information about disciplinary records, treatment, anything.
”

“
We
’
ll have to get a subpoena, I guess.
”

“
We can try but it might not be worth the effort, Lucinda. When I mentioned the possibility, they said they would fight the release of any information and gave me the name and number of their attorney. He told me that he could tie it up in the courts until the day I retired.
”

“
I imagine, then, it
’
s unlikely he killed or seriously hurt anyone at the hospital or they
’
d be a bit more cooperative.
”

“
Maybe. But maybe not. They assured me more than once that I must be mistaken in my suspicions about Kirk Prescott. They insisted they never release a patient until it
’
s been determined he is no longer a threat to himself or to anyone else.
”

“
Yeah, right,
”
Lucinda said with a roll of her eye.
“
Did they inform any of his family members about his release?
”

“
No. Legally, he had no family. He was a ward of the state.
”

“
At least you got his release date
–
almost two years ago just before Christmas.
”
She walked over to the murder timeline board.
“
A little more than three months before the Waverly murder where the victim wore someone else
’
s Sarah Coventry daisy pin.
”

“
After his release, all we have is a series of minor crimes leading from the Midwest to the East Coast. Drunk and disorderly, trespassing, loitering, shoplifting. Nothing that earned him more than an overnight stay in one county lock-up or another. One incident on the list is quite timely
–
a loitering charge in Waverly two days before the murder there.
”

“
How did he manage to track down Evan?
”

“
I don
’
t know but I do have a theory
–
sort of,
”
Ted said with a defensive shrug.

“
What
’
s that?
”

“
You know, it makes a lot of sense in my head but once I say it out loud, it might suddenly seem very stupid.
”

“
Spit it out, Ted.
”

“
Look at the timeline of Kirk
’
s life. For two of his drunk and disorderly charges and three of the loitering charges, he was picked up at a public library.
”

“
And public libraries have computers and
I
nternet access.
”

“
My thinking exactly. I asked at the hospital. They have computers at the hospital but no
I
nternet access for patients. I had to squeeze to get that innocuous tidbit out of them. So I called the library involved in the most recent drunk and disorderly up in Pennsylvania. Although it was more than a year and a half ago, the librarian remembered that day. She said Kirk
’
d been at a computer terminal when suddenly he jumped to his feet, ranting, raving and knocking books off
the
shelves. That
’
s when she called the police.
”

“
Did they remember what he was looking at on the computer? All he needed to see was one picture of Evan and he
’
d know he was his brother.
”

“
They couldn
’
t remember a thing about what he was accessing. But I was thinking the picture would be a dead giveaway, too. I
G
oogled Evan Spencer and came across a lot of press coverage about his work with Doctors
W
ithout Borders. There were more than a few photos. But Kirk wouldn
’
t know Evan
’
s last name. How could he find him on Google without it?
”

“
It wouldn
’
t be a stretch for him to work on the theory that his brother followed in his father
’
s footsteps and became a doctor, too. It would take more hours than I can imagine to track down every doctor with the first name of Evan but it sounds like Kirk spent a lot of time in libraries and he could have done just that.
”

“
So he comes to the area and starts killing people? Does that make sense?
”

“
To a sociopath, making sense is not a real priority. The other possibility, Ted, is that he didn
’
t commit the first murder in Waverly. We need to check out the locations along his path. Let
’
s call the towns where the petty crimes occurred and find out if they have any similar unsolved homicides of women. Maybe we
’
ll find out where he got hold of that daisy pin.
”