Cause to Fear

“Regret?” Ramirez asked.

“Yes. He dolled her up and made her as beautiful as possible because maybe he didn’t mean to kill her.”

“Right down to shaving her…nether regions?” Finley asked.

“Yes.”

“And tell them why you think we’re dealing with a serial here, Black,” Connelly said.

“Because even it if was a mistake, the fact that the killer did her nails and shaved her denotes patience. And when you add that to the fact that this woman was quite pretty and free of blemishes, it makes me think he’s drawn to beauty.”

“He has a funny way of showing it,” someone else spoke up.

“Which leads me back to the line of thought that maybe he didn’t mean to kill her.”

“So you think it was like a date gone bad?” Finley asked.

“We can’t be sure yet,” she said. “But my first reaction is no. If he was this deliberate and careful with the way she looked before dumping the body, I think he likely put that same kind of care into selecting her.”

“Selecting her for what, Black?” Connelly asked.

“I think that’s what we need to find out. Hopefully Forensics will have some answers to lead us down the right path.”

“So what do we do until then?” Finley asked.

“We bust our asses,” Avery said. “We dig as deep into Patty Dearborne’s life as we can, hoping to find some clue that will help us find this guy before he does it again.”

When the meeting ended, Avery headed across the conference room to have a word with Ramirez. Someone needed to inform the parents of Patty Dearborne and she felt the need to do it. Speaking to grief-stricken parents, while incredibly difficult and emotionally draining, was usually one of the best places to find a lead right off the bat. She wanted Ramirez with her, wanting to keep working on the balance between their personal and professional lives. It was still tricky, but they were slowly getting the hang of it.

Before she made it to him, though, O’Malley came into the room. He was speaking on the phone, clearly in a hurry. Whatever he was dealing with, it must have been pressing for him to have missed the meeting about the Patty Dearborne case. He stood by the door, waited until everyone except Avery, Ramirez, and Connelly were gone, and then closed the door. He ended his call with a quick and almost rude “Yeah, later,” and then took a deep breath.

“Sorry I missed the meeting,” he said. “Anything big come up?”

“No,” Connelly said. “We’ve got the woman ID’ed and now need to tell her family. We’re working on the assumption that whoever did this will do it again.”

“Black, can you send me a quick report explaining the details?” O’Malley asked.

“Yes sir,” she said. He never asked her for small things like that. She wondered if it was another of his not-so-subtle tests. She’d noticed him being more lenient with her over the last few weeks, more willing to give her more responsibility without interference. She was sure it all had to do with them asking her to take sergeant.

“While both of you are here,” O’Malley said, looking at Avery and Ramirez, “I’d like to have a word. A few words, actually…and I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll make it quick. First…I’m totally fine with the two of you seeing one another outside of work. I thought long and hard about breaking you up here at the A1 but damn it…you work too well together. So as long as you two can tolerate the in-jokes and speculations, you’re going to remain partners. That good?”

“Yes sir,” Ramirez said. Avery nodded in agreement.

“The next thing…Black. The whole sergeant thing…I’m going to need a decision soon. As in, within forty-eight hours. I’ve tried to be patient, letting you work things out. But it’s been over two months now. I think that’s fair.”

“It is fair,” she said. “I’ll let you know something by tomorrow.”

Ramirez gave her a look of surprise. Truth be told, her response had surprised her, too. Deep down, though, she thought she knew what she wanted.

“Now, on this lady-in-the-river case,” O’Malley said. “It’s officially yours, Black. Take Ramirez with you, but let’s keep it professional.”

Avery was a bit embarrassed that she found herself blushing. Ah God, she thought. First a shopping spree and now blushing over a boy. What the hell has happened to me?

To keep things rolling and not get thrown off of her game, Avery turned things directly back to the case. “I’d like to be the one to notify the family.”

“We can delegate that to someone else,” Connelly suggested.

“I know. But as terrible as it sounds, parents receiving such terrible news are usually the best resources for information. Everything is raw and open.”

“My God, that’s pretty heartless,” Connelly said.

“But effective,” O’Malley said. “Good deal, Black. It’s four fifty right now. With any luck, you’ll catch them getting off of work. I’ll make sure someone texts you the address within the next ten minutes. Now get to it. Dismissed.”

Avery and Ramirez took their leave. Out in the hall, the nine-to-fivers were starting wrap up their day. But for Avery, the day was far from over. In fact, with the task of breaking the news of a young woman’s death to her parents on the horizon, Avery thought it was going to turn out to be one hell of a long night.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Dearbornes lived in a quaint little house in Somerville. Avery read over the information that had been texted and emailed to her while Ramirez drove. Patty Dearborne had been a great student, in her senior year at BU with intentions of becoming a counselor for a behavioral health firm. Her mother, Wendy, was a trauma nurse who rotated through two different area hospitals. Patty’s father, Richard, was a business development manager for a large telecommunications company. They were a well-to-do family with not a single speck of dirt on their record.

And Avery was about to tell them that their daughter was dead. Not only dead, but that she had been dumped into a frigid river completely nude.

“So,” Ramirez said as he wound through the rustic little streets of the Somerville neighborhoods. “Are you going to take the sergeant gig?”

“I don’t know yet,” she said.

“Any inkling?”

She pondered this for a moment and then shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. It seems small in comparison to what we’re about to do.”

“Hey, you volunteered for this,” he pointed out.

“I know,” she said, still not certain why. Yes, her thoughts about getting a good lead were true, but she felt like there was something else. Patty Dearborne had only been three years older than Rose. It was far too easy to see Rose’s face on that frozen body. For some bizarre reason, it made Avery feel that she needed to break the news to the family. Maybe it was a maternal-based urge, but she felt that she owed it to the parents in some strange way.

“So let me ask you this,” he said. “What makes you so sure this isn’t just a one-time thing? Maybe an ex-boyfriend just lost his shit. Maybe this is a one and done.”

She grinned briefly because she knew he wasn’t arguing with her. Not really. She had noticed that he liked to get glimpses into how her mind worked. His rebuttal of her theories was simply a way to get her primed up.

“Because based on what we know about the body, this guy was careful and meticulous. An enraged ex-boyfriend would not be so careful about not leaving bruises. The finger- and toenails are the clincher for me. Someone took their time with them. I’m hoping the parents will be able to provide more insight into the sort of woman Patty was. If we know more about her, we’ll know exactly how much of the primping was done by whoever dumped the body.”

“Speaking of which,” Ramirez said, pointing ahead. “Here we are. You ready for this?”

She took a deep, shaky breath. She loved her job but this was the one part she absolutely dreaded. “Yeah, let’s go,” she said.

Before Ramirez had time to say another word, Avery opened the door and stepped out.

She braced herself.

***

Avery knew that no two people responded to grief in the exact same way. That’s why she was not all that surprised when, fifteen minutes later, Wendy Dearborne was nearly in a state of shock while Richard Dearborne was a loud and frantic mess. At one point, she feared he would become violent when he slapped at a vase on the kitchen table and sent it crashing to the floor.

The weight of the news hung heavy in the room. Avery and Ramirez had remained quiet, speaking only when asked a question. In the silence, Avery saw two pictures of Patty in the living room; one was on the mantel above the fireplace and another was a canvas hanging on the far living room wall. Avery’s suspicion had been right. The girl had been absolutely stunning.

Wendy and Richard were both sitting on the couch in the living room now. Wendy had gotten slight control of herself, letting out the occasional gut-wrenching sob as she lay against Richard’s shoulder.

With tears streaming down his face, Richard looked at Avery. “Can we see her? When can we see her?”

“Right now, Forensics is still trying to determine what might have happened to her. As you might imagine, the cold water and frigid temperatures make it harder to find clues or evidence. In the meantime, there are a few questions I’d like to ask you that may help us find answers.”

Both of them wore looks of confusion and absolute horror on their faces but it was clear that Wendy would be no help. She was stunned into silence, taking the occasional look around the living room as if checking to make sure she knew where she was.

“Of course, whatever questions you have,” Richard said. Avery thought the man was tough deep inside – perhaps trying to figure out some answers on his own.

“I know it’s going to seem like a strange question,” Avery said. “But was Patty the sort of girl to get really intricate with grooming and fingernails? Things like that?”

Richard let out a whimper and shook his head. He was still crying but was at least able to form words between his hitches for breath. “Not at all. She was actually sort of a tomboy. On any given day, I bet you’d find dirt under her nails before you found them with nail polish. She did get dolled up from time to time but only on special occasions. She sometimes paid a lot of attention to her hair, but she’s not – she wasn’t– a girl’s girl, you know?”

Correcting himself on wasn’t seemed to break something within Richard Dearborne. Avery hid her own little cringe as her heart broke for him. It was enough to make her decide not to ask the next question she had planned – a question about the frequency in which Patty shaved her legs. Avery thought it was a safe bet that if she was a tomboy who cared little for her nails, she probably wasn’t obsessive about shaving her legs. There was no need to ask the question to a man who had just lost his daughter.

“Do you know of any enemies Patty had? Anyone she had a history of problems with?”

The question took a moment to sink in. When it finally did, the flicker of anger she had seen earlier returned to Richard Dearborne’s eyes. He got up from the couch but was held in place by his wife’s groping hand on his wrist.

“That motherfucker,” Richard spat. “Yes. Oh yes, I can think of someone and I bet you anything…oh God…”

“Mr. Dearborne?” Ramirez asked. He had slowly gotten to his feet, perhaps anticipating some sort of rage-filled lashing out from Richard.

“Allen Haggerty. He was a high school boyfriend that just wouldn’t let go when things eventually ended two years into college.”

“Did he cause any problems?” Ramirez asked.

“Yeah. So much so that Patty had to get a restraining order placed against him. He was waiting outside of her classes for her. It got so bad that Patty lived here last year because she didn’t feel safe at the dorms.”

“Did he ever get violent?” Avery asked.

“If he did, Patty never said anything. I know he tried to touch her – hugs and kisses and things like that. But she never said anything about hitting her.”

“The note…”

Wendy Dearborne’s voice was so light that it was like wind. She would still not look at Avery or Ramirez. Her eyes were downcast, her mouth partially open.

“What note?” Avery asked.

“A note that Patty never showed us but we found in her pockets while doing laundry while she was living here,” Richard said. “The creep left a note pinned to her dorm room door. She never said so, but we think it was the deciding factor in her moving back here. I don’t remember it word for word but it talked about how he thought about killing himself because he could not have her but how it sometimes made him angry. Some dark stuff about how if he couldn’t have her, no one could.”

“Do you still have the note?” Avery asked.

“No. When we confronted Patty about it, she threw it away.”

“How long did she stay here?” Avery asked.

“Until last summer,” Richard answered. “She said she was tired of living in fear. We made the decision that if anything happened with Allen again, we’d directly get the police involved. And now…now this…”

A heavy silence blanketed the room, until finally he looked up at them. Avery could feel the father’s grief and rage in that stare.

“I know it’s him,” he said.

CHAPTER FIVE

As Avery and Ramirez staked out the block surrounding Allen Haggerty’s address, she received Haggerty’s file via email. She was surprised to find little on it. He had three speeding tickets since the age of seventeen and had been briefly arrested at a mostly non-violent protest in New York City four years ago, but nothing serious.

Maybe he just went a little nuts when Patty tried leaving him, she thought. She knew it happened from time to time. It was, in fact, one of the most prominent excuses given by violent husbands who beat their wives. It came down to jealousy, a lack of control, and feeling vulnerable.

No one was home, so within an hour and a half of informing the Dearbornes that their daughter was dead, there was an APB out for him. While canvassing the neighborhood, Ramirez once again showed Avery just how in tune he was with her. “This whole thing is making you think of Rose, isn’t it?” he asked.

“It is,” she admitted. “How did you figure that out?”

He smiled. “Because I know your face very well. I know when you’re pissed, I know when you’re embarrassed, uneasy, and happy. I also noticed how you quickly looked away from the pictures of Patty in the Dearborne house. Patty wasn’t much older than Rose. I get it. Is that why you insisted on breaking the news to her parents?”

“Yes. Good catch.”

“It happens from time to time,” he said.

It wasn’t until 10:08 that Avery’s phone rang. Connelly was on the line, sounding both tired and excited. “We’ve located Allen Haggerty coming out of a bar in the Leather District,” he said. “We’ve got two of our guys holding him for you. How soon can you be there?”

The Leather District, she thought. That’s where Rose and I were earlier today, thinking how good our lives were and how timidly we were repairing our relationship. And now there’s a potential killer in that same location. It feels…weird. Like coming full circle in some strange way.

“Black?”

“Ten minutes,” she answered. “What’s the bar?”

She took down the information and just like that, Ramirez drove them into the very same area of the city where she had, less than twelve hours ago, been enjoying time with her daughter.

Knowing that was something that Wendy Dearborne would never again get to do sat heavy on her heart. It also made her a little angry.

Quite frankly, she couldn’t wait to grill this little sonofabitch.

***

The two officers who had located Allen Haggerty seemed happy to hand him off. One of the officers was a guy Avery had gotten to know fairly well – an older man who would likely be retiring within a few years. His name was Andy Liu and he always seemed to have a smile on his face. But not now. Now, he seemed irritated.

The four of them met outside of Andy Liu’s patrol car. In the back seat, Allen Haggerty peered out at them, confused and clearly pissed off. A few people passing by to bar-hop on a Friday night tried to see what was going on without being too obvious.

“He give you any problems?” Ramirez asked.

“Not really,” Andy’s partner said. “He’s just a little drunk. We were almost ready to take him to the precinct and give him a nice interrogation room, but O’Malley said he wanted you to talk to him before we made that sort of decision.”

“Does he know why you want to speak with him?” Avery asked.

“We told him about Patty Dearborne’s death,” Andy said. “That’s when he really lost his mind. I tried to keep it civil in the bar but in the end, I had to cuff him.”

“That’s fine,” Avery said. She looked into the back of the patrol car and frowned. “Do you mind if we borrow your car for a second?”

“Help yourself,” Andy said.

Avery took the driver’s side while Ramirez slid into the passenger seat. They angled themselves to the side to peer easily into the back at Allen.

“So how did it happen?” Allen asked. “How did she die?”

“That’s still not clear,” Avery said, not seeing any reason to be vague with him. She’d learned a long time ago that honesty was always the best approach if you wanted to get a proper read on a potential suspect. “Her body was discovered in a frozen river, under the ice. We don’t have sufficient information to know if that was what killed her or if she was killed before being thrown into the river.”

That might have been a little harsh, Avery thought as she watched a soft shock fill Allen’s face. Still, seeing that genuine expression on his face was all she needed to have a good feeling that Allen Haggerty had nothing to do with Patty’s death.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Avery asked.

It was clear that he was having to struggle to think about it. Avery was pretty sure that by the time the night was over, Allen would shed more than a few years over his now-deceased lost love.

“A little over a year ago, I guess,” he finally answered. “And that was purely coincidental. I ran into her as she was coming out of a grocery store. We looked at each other for like two seconds and then she hurried off. And I don’t blame her. I was an asshole to her. I got pretty obsessed.”

“And there has been no contact since then?” Avery asked.

“None. I faced the facts. She was done with me. And being obsessed with someone really isn’t the way to win them over, you know?”

“Do you know of anyone in her life that might be capable of doing something like this to her?” Ramirez asked.

Again, there was a struggle behind Allen’s eyes as he tried to piece it all together. As he thought about this, Avery’s phone rang. She glanced at the display and saw that it was O’Malley.

“Yeah?” she asked, answering quickly.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“Speaking with the ex-boyfriend.”

“Any chance he might be the one we’re looking for?”

“Highly doubtful,” she said, continuing to watch the sorrow overtake Allen’s face in the back seat.

“Good. I need you back at the station on the double.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“That depends on how you look at it,” O’Malley replied. “We just got a letter from the killer.”

CHAPTER SIX

Even before Avery and Ramirez were able to get into the precinct, Avery could tell that this situation had gotten out of hand. She had to carefully maneuver the car through the A1 parking lot to not hit reporters or clip news vans. The place was an absolute circus and they had not even gotten inside yet.

“This looks bad,” Ramirez said.

“It does,” she said. “How in the hell did the press find out about this letter if it came directly to the precinct?”

Ramirez could only shrug as they got out of the car and hurried inside. A few reporters got in the way, one of whom practically stepped out in front of Avery. She nearly collided with him but sidestepped him just in time. She heard him call her a bitch under his breath but that was the least of her concerns.

They fought their way to the door, with reporters clamoring for comment and flashbulbs going off. Avery felt her blood boiling and would have given anything in that moment to punch one of those nosy ass reporters directly in the nose.

When they finally made it into the precinct with the doors closed and locked securely behind them, she saw that the inside wasn’t much better. She’d seen the A1 in a state of urgency and disarray before, but this was something new. Maybe there’s a leak in the A1, Avery thought as she walked quickly toward Connelly’s office. Before she reached it, though, she saw him storming down the hallway. O’Malley and Finley were marching behind him.

“Conference room,” Connelly barked.

Avery nodded, taking a right a few feet further down the hall. She noticed that no one else was milling around the conference room door, meaning that this meeting was going to be small. And those types of meetings were typically not pleasant. She and Ramirez followed Connelly into the room. The moment O’Malley and Finley were also inside, Connelly shut the door and locked it.

He threw a sheet of paper down onto the conference room table. It was covered in a clear plastic sheet, causing it to slide almost perfectly in Avery’s direction. She picked it up carefully and looked at it.

“Just read it,” Connelly said. He was frustrated and looked a little pale. His hair was in disarray and there was a wild look in his eyes.

Avery did as instructed. Without removing the single sheet of paper, she read the letter. With each word she read, the room seemed to grow colder.

Ice is beautiful, but it kills. Think of the gorgeous sparkle of a thin layer of frost on your windshield on a late fall morning. That same pretty ice is killing plant life.

It’s efficient in its beauty. And the flower comes back…always comes back. Rebirth.

The cold is erotic, but it maims. Think of being extremely cold coming out of a winter storm and then curling up naked with a lover under the sheets.

Are you chilled yet? Can you feel the iciness of being outsmarted?

There will be more. More cold bodies, floating into the afterlife.

I dare you to try to stop me.

You’ll succumb to the cold before you find me. And while you’re freezing, wondering what happened just like the flowers burdened with frost, I’ll be long gone.

“When did this come in?” Avery asked, setting the letter back on the desk for Ramirez to read.

“Sometime today,” Connelly said. “The envelope itself wasn’t opened until about an hour ago.”

“How in the hell did the press know already?” Ramirez asked.

“Because every local news network also received a copy of it.”

“Holy shit,” Ramirez said.

“Do we know when the media got their copies?” Avery asked.

“It was sent via email a little over an hour ago. We assume it’s so it would get there in time to make the eleven o’clock news.”

“Where was it emailed from?” Avery asked.

“Oh, this is the screwed up part…well, one screwed up part,” O’Malley said. “The email address is registered to a woman named Mildred Spencer. She’s a seventy-two-year-old widow that only has the email address to keep in touch with her grandkids. We’ve got someone talking to her right now, but all signs point to the account being hacked.”

“Can we trace the hack?” Avery asked.

“No one at the A1 has the capabilities. We’ve called the State Police to try to crack it.”

Ramirez was done with the letter, sliding it back to the center of the table. Avery slid it back over to her and eyed it again. She did not read it again, but just studied it: the paper, the handwriting, the odd placement of sentences on the paper.

“Any initial thoughts, Black?” Connelly asked.

“A few. First, where’s the envelope it came in?”

“Back at my desk. Finley, run fetch it, would you?”

Finley did as he had been asked while Avery continued to pore over the letter. The handwriting was pristine but also sort of childlike. It looked like someone had gone to great lengths to perfect it. There were also a few key words that jumped out to her as being quite odd.

“What else?” Connelly asked.