Page 12 of Their Wicked Games

Having enough information to bring in the DEA to take over the case, Rio concluded the interview and stood. “I’ll type up this statement and you can read it through and sign it. I’ll hand the information over to the DA and then it’s up to Mr. Cross to go speak to him.” He stood and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

As he headed back to his desk, Jenna came in the front door with Kane. Both of them appeared strained. He placed the statement pad on the desk and went to speak to them. “I’ve interviewed Deke Williams, the guy who used his truck to block the road.”

“Did you get anything out of him?” Jenna rubbed her temples.

Rio smiled. “Yeah, we have him hogtied and ready for roasting. He admitted to everything and gave details about the meth lab and why you were kidnapped. I’ll send his statement to the DA, but he wants to call in the DEA because these guys were working across states.”

“That’s good because we’ll need you and Rowley to handle any blowback about the shooting.” Jenna sighed. “We’ll need a meeting as soon as you’re able. We have a list of possible suspects for the homicide. I’ll be in my office if you need to run anything past me.”

Nodding, Rio glanced at Kane and cleared his throat. “Sure, never a dull moment, huh?”

“You can say that again.” Kane headed for the stairs to their office, one hand resting on the small of Jenna’s back.

TWELVE

Visitation was one of the perks Jimmy Two Cents, aka James Earl Stafford, enjoyed. He had no loyalty to anyone, so when offered the chance of a few luxuries to spill his guts, he jumped at the idea. Although, no one could call him a rat because nobody knew he gave out tidbits of information like candy. He revealed just enough at a time to obtain what he needed. Chained hand and foot, he followed the guard to the visitation room and took a seat in his allotted space. There wasn’t any privacy, just a seat and phone surrounded by a Perspex screen. His visitor was sitting there, waiting for him as he’d arranged. He corresponded with many people but had selected three to do his bidding. It hadn’t been too difficult to teach the three of them his code. On each visit as they sat face to face, he’d explained it in simple terms. He smiled to himself as a confident person peered at him through the murky screen. He could tell by their demeanor that they’d completed the mission. “Did you visit the forest this weekend as planned? I hear the fishing is really good at this time of year. Did you catch anything?”

“Yeah, three big ones.” The person behind the screen smiled triumphantly. “Do you have any other suggestions? We had so much fun and can’t wait to go hunting or fishing again.”

Jimmy Two Cents chuckled, seeing the excitement in the eyes staring at him. “This time it’s a little different and will demonstrate your loyalty to me. I’ve never asked anyone to try this before. It takes a special person, one like me, to achieve success. Unless you consider it to be too difficult? I’ll understand if you’re not ready yet. Hunting bear is a specialty.”

“Bear?” The person blinked, realization dawning on them. “That would be complicated.”

At first encounter, he’d given them all code names, names they signed their letters with as his pen pals. He could see the concern in his visitor’s eyes and shook his head. If this person had a conscience, they wouldn’t be able to complete their task. He smiled and leaned a little closer to the barrier. “Any fool can go fishing in a group but it takes skill to be out there on your own. Trust me, you will feel so much better when you’ve completed this task. You’ll be stronger and self-reliant… and you’ll enjoy it.”

“Okay.” The person swiped at their nose and shrugged. “What the heck. I’ll do it.”

Jimmy waved a finger at his visitor. “Don’t forget, bear will be difficult to take down. Use a good rifle, and maybe add a few extra shots just to make it interesting. Or a knife always adds a special thrill. If you succeed, move next onto elk, and don’t forget the trophies.”

“It will be hard to bag an elk.” The visitor narrowed their eyes. “I like elk.”

Annoyed, Jimmy glared at the visitor. “If you allow your feelings to interfere, you might as well quit now. You’re no good to me.”

“I’m not a quitter.” The visitor’s hand white-knuckled on the phone receiver.

Nodding, Jimmy shrugged. “Fine, prove it to me. Come by to visit me when you’re done. I want to see a change in you. Everything that happens to you, shows in your eyes. You can never hide the truth from me.” He hung up the phone, stood, and indicated to the prison guard to take him back to his cell.

“You look happy. Did you just receive some good news?” The prison guard looked at him suspiciously.

“Oh, you know me, every day in here is a blessing.” He imagined the slaughter in the forest and smiled. His hand had extended far beyond the prison walls and, yeah, that made him happy.

THIRTEEN

With the team assembled in the conference room, Jenna requested an update from everyone and then turned to look at the list of suspects she’d added to the whiteboard. “This is all the information we have, so I want you to hunt down these people and do a background check. We’ll split the list and get to work interviewing them first thing in the morning.” She used her pen to point at the white board. “Alicia Palmer, twenty-three years old, out of Fallen Rock Crescent, she works at the local dentist. Bill Ripley is a college student who lives on campus, and Jesse Davis is a rancher from Mustang Creek. They’re members of a crossbow club. All are marksmen and they compete in competition together.”

“I’ve known Jesse Davis since grade school.” Rowley looked up from his notes. “I don’t believe he’s capable of killing kids.”

“We can’t be sure what anyone is capable of doing.” Kane leaned forward on the table, his fingers clasped. “These are the only two groups of three people we have discovered who go hunting regularly and compete at a high level. It’s a place to start, is all.”

Clearing her throat, Jenna looked around the table. “Moving right along. The other group of three we discovered are Geoff Bannister, a bartender at the Cattleman’s Hotel. He lives out at Alpine Ridge. Carl Harper, we don’t have any details on him whatsoever, and Lonnie Barlow, a local man who works at the general store and lives out on Maple.” She glanced from face to face. “There are six of us and six suspects. I’ll take suspect number one and we’ll go around the table from Kane and so on, so we each have one to hunt down. Any questions or concerns? Nope? Okay, get at it.”

After taking her seat, Jenna pulled her laptop toward her, accessed the DMV, and entered her suspect’s name: Alicia Palmer out of Fallen Rock Crescent. She was twenty-three years old and her occupation was listed as a dental hygienist. She currently worked for the local dentist. She had no criminal record and a search of social media confirmed her skill with the crossbow. She had many images displaying her wins at events throughout the state. In more than one photograph, she was pictured beside two men mentioned as her team. After following the links, she discovered the media pages of Jesse Davis and Bill Ripley. She turned to look at Kane. “I’ve found Bill Ripley’s social media page. From what I can see, the three of them were heavily involved in competition.”

“Yeah, same.” Kane tapped away on his laptop. “Ripley is clean. He’s at college and lives on campus. I didn’t find too much about him at all. He doesn’t have many friends on his media page. I figure he’s kind of a loner.” He shrugged. “Or he spends all his time studying or shooting his crossbow. Not everybody in college is a party animal.” He looked at Carter. “What did you find on Rowley’s friend?”

“Jesse Davis runs a cattle ranch out of Mustang Creek.” Carter removed the toothpick in the corner of his mouth and smiled. “Squeaky clean, this guy hasn’t even had a traffic violation, but then I’ve seen the most violent murderers with a clean rap sheet, so that doesn’t mean much.” He sighed. “From his social media pages, he’s a player. Over seventy-five percent of his friends are women. He posts a ton of images, many of them are with the group of people he competes with. Some were taken in the forest. It seems his game of choice are elk.” He leaned back in his chair, spinning it from side to side. “One thing of interest, he reads true crime and has a passion for serial killers.”

Beside him Rowley snorted and Jenna stared at him. “What’s so funny?”

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