Page 91 of The Last Straw

“I don’t think they have that kind of relationship,” Floyd said. “His wife recently died after a long bout with Alzheimer’s, and Wyrick has worked for him for years. They’re partners for sure, in the best sense of the word.”

And then Charlie and Wyrick entered the building, and both cops clammed up.

“We have a little info for you,” Floyd said. “Allen Carson found out why the passage and tunnel were likely there in the first place,” and then related the story as Carson had told them.

Charlie was dumbfounded. “Good Lord. So the original reason was just a way for rich guys to see hookers without their wives finding out.”

“Secrets and lies are never really buried,” Wyrick said.

“Yes, ma’am. Are you ready to do this?” Floyd asked.

Charlie nodded. “Lead the way.”

The detectives turned and moved through the lobby, then down a long hall on the south end of the ground floor to apartment 115.

“This is it,” Floyd said, unlocked the door and walked in, turning on lights as they went.

Wyrick moved through the rooms, looking at the layout and the fixtures and the bookshelves surrounding the gas fireplace in the living room on their left.

“This apartment is a reverse layout of the one Rachel Dean was in,” Charlie said, then glanced at Wyrick. “Everything okay?”

She nodded. “Just getting a feel for the place.”

“So what do you think?” Charlie asked.

She shrugged. “Even though the lights are on, it feels dark. I’m going to walk through all of the rooms first and then backtrack to begin a search and go from there.”

“You and Charlie do your thing and give us a shout if you find something,” Floyd said.

“I’m going this way,” Wyrick said.

“Then so am I,” Charlie added. “I already left you on your own once in this damn place, and I nearly lost you. That’s not happening again.”

Wyrick wasn’t going to argue with that, and began walking through the rooms but nothing popped. So she backtracked and began in Sonny’s bedroom, picking up small items, trying to get a feel for him, or lock in on a vision. Except for a slight nausea just being in the energy, she got nothing, but she knew it was because the girls had never been here.

“We’re not going to find souvenirs or trophies of his conquests,” Wyrick said. “He’s too careful...and patient.”

“That’s for darn sure,” Mills said as he searched through the drawers of a dresser. “I’ve never worked a case where a killer waited so long between kills. And if you hadn’t caught on to those other women being missing, we would never have known Rachel was one of four.”

“He’s right,” Floyd said as he walked out of the bathroom. “But once we pulled those case files, little things began to add up.”

“How so?” Charlie asked.

“Oh. Right! We never did share what we learned as to why the cases on the other missing women were closed.”

Then Floyd began to explain about the carefully crafted letters that led each manager at Detter House to assume the missing woman had simply moved on to greener pastures.

“But when we compared the letters from each file, the writing on all three letters was the same,” Mills added.

Floyd nodded. “Right! And then, as we began backtracking, we also found out there was a different manager in charge at each time, so that when another woman went missing, there was no one to raise concerns about this happening before—no continuity to be tracked. And there were so many years between abductions, that the officers in Missing Persons never caught the location as being a hot spot for missing women...until Wyrick saw it,” Floyd said.

“Serial killers are often particular about attention to details. We need to look for some of Sonny’s handwriting,” Charlie said. “If it’s the same as what’s in the other files, that will be one more fact to add to your case against him.”

“He doesn’t have a study,” Wyrick said. “But there’s a small desk in the living room. We can look there. And if we don’t find anything here, we can always go to his office.”

They left the detectives in the bedroom and headed back to the front of the apartment.

“I’m going to check the kitchen first for handwriting...to see if he wrote a grocery list rather than putting it on his phone,” Charlie said, but there were no signs of lists.

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