Page 37 of Their Wicked Games

Stafford’s communication system was falling into place. Excited, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, many prisoners have conjugal visits, and social visits in an open room where what they say isn’t recorded. It would be easy enough to get a note to the right person, and they in turn would pass the information to their visitor. The visitor would then contact the person involved and give them the message.”

“Stafford already has a ton of privileges, which I gather includes deliveries of food and candy from the outside. He would have the resources to use as bribes.” Jo shook her head slowly. “There are no rules to say a prisoner can’t give another prisoner candy, for instance. It would be checked when it arrived, so it’s not like contraband.”

“He’d probably distribute it along with the books.” Carter leaned against the desk. “He has the perfect setup.”

“There is another angle we should be looking at.” Kane frowned. “How does he choose his victims? What if he is taking out witnesses or people who may have snitched on one of the other inmates. His mail system could control a ton of things inside and outside the prison.”

“We need to get back to it.” Jo moved toward the door. “I’ll try some different questions and see if I can pull anything out of him. He will be expecting me to ask him certain questions, so I’ll move with care.”

Schooling her excited expression, Jenna followed Jo inside and took her seat. She looked across the table at Stafford. He appeared to be sleeping but his eyes opened slowly and anger flashed. Jenna’s fight-or-flight response happened so fast her adrenaline peaked. She wanted to be anywhere but inside a confined space with a serial killer. Jo had retained her composure and sat down without taking her gaze off Stafford.

“We won’t be keeping you too much longer, Mr. Stafford.” Jo leaned forward to peer at the photographs. “Did you find any that don’t belong to you?”

“I can’t rightly say.” Stafford clasped his hands on the table and shrugged. “Looking at images of crime scenes is like looking at a garbage dump. Once you mix it up in a pile, it’s hard to tell who it belongs to.”

Jenna looked up from her iPad. “I hear you have a regular delivery of candy bars delivered to the prison, among other things. Do you keep them for yourself or do you share them?”

“You don’t know too much about the goings on in a prison, do you, honey?” Stafford grinned at her. “Candy, cigarettes, cookies, and cakes are currency. Moving them around for favors never hurts anyone.”

“Have you ever discussed with your psychologist why you murdered people?” Jo crossed her legs slowly and looked at him.

“I’ve never needed a reason, but if you mean ‘how did it make me feel?’—Stafford snorted with amusement—“it’s a stupid question, but they all ask it. It felt good. No, it felt spectacular. I never wanted to stop.” He stared at her and then slowly moved his attention back to Jenna. “In fact, I’ll never stop. It’s only a matter of time. You figure being in prison will stop me? It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“How did you decide who to kill?” Jo lifted her chin. “Did they remind you of someone in your past?”

“You mean, did I need a reason to kill them, like my daddy abused me or some girl embarrassed me at school?” He chuckled. “There are plenty of those twisted freaks in here.”

Needing to know, Jenna leaned on the desk. “So why?” She gave him a direct stare. “Why did you kill your wife?”

“She disrespected me.” Stafford shrugged. “I’ll ask you a question now.” He slid the chain through the loop on the desk so he could scratch his cheek. “Have you ever had some young punk driving a tricked-out truck overtake you and almost run you into the gutter? Or maybe make you spill your beer? Or the woman at the bank who looks at you like you’re trash when you go to the counter?”

Jenna shook her head. “No, not often. So do you mean people who disrespect you become victims?”

“There you go.” Stafford nodded slowly. “See, it was their fault. If they hadn’t dissed me, they’d be alive today.”

“That doesn’t sound like a valid reason to murder someone.” Jo stared down her nose at him. “Those people had families and didn’t deserve to die.”

“In your opinion.” Stafford’s eyes blazed with controlled rage. “Not mine.”

“If you were released tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d do?” Jo’s expression hadn’t changed since she sat down. “No, let me rephrase that. What are the first three things you’d do?”

“Three is generous.” Jimmy Two Cents snorted with amusement. “First, I’d buy me a hunting knife, and the second, I’d kill you.” He swung his gaze to Jenna and his lips curled into a satanic grin. “Sorry, honey, you’d come in third, but it would be worth the wait.”

THIRTY-FOUR

They arrived back in town a little after one and Kane drove straight to Aunt Betty’s Café. They had things to discuss, and Jenna and Jo needed time to unwind. They hadn’t been able to talk in the chopper. The noise was restrictive to any real discussion, although questions burned in his mind. After they’d placed their orders and taken their usual table at the back of the diner, Kane looked at the others. All appeared to be deep in thought. Jenna had cracked the case and placed Jimmy Two Cents slap bang in the middle of the murders. He’d been an accessory and Kane had obtained a list of people who’d visited and called the prison to speak to Stafford. The pen pals were endless and it would take the prison some time to make a list. He ran his finger down the visitors’ list, hoping to match any of them to the suspects. Unfortunately, he found none of them on the list apart from Alicia Palmer. “He was telling the truth. Alicia Palmer is on the list of visitors. She is listed as a girlfriend.”

“Well, we can’t interview her, can we? Anyone else of interest?” Jenna leaned toward him to peer at his screen.

“Hmm.” Kane frowned. “I’ve read everything about Jimmy Two Cents. I know he murdered his wife, but I didn’t know he had a son. From these records he’s visited him.”

“Yeah, he is on my list from Kalo. James Earl Stafford Jr.” Carter lifted his gaze from his phone. “No one of interest. He was just a kid when his father went to jail. Strange he visited his father. Most kids would have hated him for murdering their mom and disassociated themselves from him.”

“You don’t know the circumstances.” Jenna shrugged. “Maybe he wanted to know what really happened. There could be a ton of reasons why he wanted to speak with him. I would if my father had done something like that. I’d want to know if he really did kill her and why.”

“What happened to him when Stafford went to jail?” Jo sipped her coffee. “Is he a person of interest?”

“I don’t think so.” Carter scrolled down his page. “No priors. Not much info on him at all. His last known address is Big Sky. That’s all I have. That’s a ways to travel to visit him.” He held up a finger. “Ah, this might be why. It says in Kalo’s report that Stafford’s mom died recently. Maybe he went to tell him?”

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