Deadly Connections Page 3

  I moved to the desk. A couple of pieces of paper were on it with a child’s handwriting, some schoolwork, and a few comic books. I looked but didn’t touch them. Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman.

  “Gary is into comics,” Audra said from the doorway. “He would spend so much time and money on those stupid things. I didn’t see the point of them, still don’t. But Logan loved it. I think it was a way for him to connect with his dad.” Her face tightened. “Although Gary would get furious if Logan touched them, or damaged them in any way. They were so valuable to Gary. He finally bought cheap comics for Logan to play with, but even then, he got angry that Logan didn’t treat them better.”

  “Did Gary and Logan get along?”

  She shrugged. “Overall, I guess. Gary was busy with his job. He’s an insurance salesman, and he has a lot of clients, puts in a lot of hours, and that would take away time from Logan. But, I guess I have to admit, Gary would try. When he wasn’t busy. And Logan, well, he’s like all little kids. He just wanted some of his father’s attention. It’s been hard since the divorce, his shuttling between Gary and me.”

  “How long have you been divorced?”

  “Eight months. It was the best thing for Logan. And me too.” She looked away. “Gary could drink at times, especially toward the end. And we fought a lot. It was rough.”

  “Was he abusive?”

  “Nothing like that.” Still no eye contact.

  “Do you have any other kids?”

  “I have an older daughter, Debbie, from a previous marriage. She’s going to be devastated. She loves Logan.”

  “Did your daughter get along with Gary?”

  She shrugged. “I guess. Debbie was already twelve when I married Gary, and she didn’t spend a lot of time with him.” She was being evasive. “She’s in college now and hardly sees Gary.”

  “Tell me about Logan’s friends, other than Terrell.”

  “Oh, he has a few friends from school, but he didn’t see them much because they live farther away. He has some friends on his baseball team, although he’s not very good. It was important to Gary. There aren’t any other kids Logan’s age besides Terrell in the neighborhood.” She glanced around, then stepped into the room. “Huh.”

  “What?”

  She pointed to the desk. “There’s a little Batman figurine that’s missing. Logan practically wore it out.” She put her hands on her hips. “Maybe he took it to Gary’s house.”

  I looked where she did, didn’t see anything. “So there’s no one Logan would run off to see? No other friends?”

  She shook her head.

  “May I look in the closet?”

  “Sure, and the dresser, if you want.”

  I looked in the closet first. Logan had a lot of clothes, a few pairs of shoes. Nothing hidden. The dresser had a lot of T-shirts with superheroes on them. I gave the room one final look, then looked at Audra. “I think I’m finished here.”

  She turned quickly, desperate to be away from her son’s room. I followed her back downstairs and we stopped in the entryway.

  “Oh,” I said. “Did Logan have a cell phone?”

  “Yes. Not until Gary and I divorced. It was so much easier for Logan to keep in touch with us when he was at the other’s house. I monitored his calls, and he didn’t have a data plan, so he couldn’t text or use the Internet.”

  “Who’s the carrier?”

  “Verizon.”

  “Both you and Logan are on that plan?”

  “Yes.” The answers were becoming shorter.

  “One final thing, for now. May I take your laptop? We’ll want to check it, just routine.”

  “Sure, whatever you need.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t know how much I’ll be doing at the moment, and I can check email on my phone.”

  “We’ll return it as soon as possible.”

  “It’s no problem.” She went into another room and returned with a thin laptop. “Here you go.”

  I took it from her. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” I’d had to deliver that line before, and it never got easier.

  “Thank you,” she said, but it was rote. She’d gone into shock and wasn’t feeling much at this point. The tears would come again, but right now she appeared numb.

  I had a business card with all my contact information in my pocket. I handed it to her. “If you think of anything that might help us find Logan’s killer, please call me at any time.”

  She took the card and stared at it. “I’ve got to call my family.” Her thoughts were coming disconnected.

  “Where do they live?”

  “Maryland.” Then emotion crept back into her tone. “Find whoever killed my baby.”

  Those words stayed with me as I walked out the door and down the sidewalk. I sat in the car for a moment to gather myself. Discussing the death with a family member was difficult. Unfortunately, I had to do it again.

  Chapter Three

  As I walked past a silver Toyota Tacoma and up a long driveway, the screen door to the ’50s ranch-style house opened.

  “Are you that detective?”

  The speaker was a man in his late thirties with short hair and a military bearing.

  “You must be Mr. Pickett,” I said.

  He nodded curtly. “Yeah. Audra called me. Come on in.”

  Over the years, I’d grown accustomed to people handling their grief in different ways. At that moment, it seemed that Gary Pickett was working hard at concealing his grief over his son’s death.

  Gary whirled around and stalked into the house without holding the door open. I stepped up onto the porch and grabbed the door before it swung shut. By the time I entered the house, Gary was already down a hallway, past a closed door, headed toward the kitchen. He sat down at a round table near a long island and gestured for me to take a seat. I sat down across from him. A news program played on the TV in the family room. He grabbed his remote and shut it off.

  “How did Logan die? Audra didn’t tell me.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I said. He brushed that off with a glare. “She doesn’t know much,” I went on. “Neither do we, just yet.”

  The muscles in his square jaw pulsed. “I should be at work, you know. If this hadn’t of happened.” He tapped the table with a finger emphatically. “But I can’t concentrate.”

  “What do you do?”

  “I sell insurance. I should be at the office now, but like I said …” His voice trailed off.

  He wore khakis and a short-sleeved shirt, and had on strong cologne. I wondered if he needed to keep a routine, still getting ready for work to keep his mind off his missing son.

  “What happened last Saturday night when you came to pick up Logan from Audra’s house?” I asked.

  Hard blue eyes bored into me. “I normally pick up Logan on Fridays, but I had a conflict, so I couldn’t get him until Saturday. Did Audra tell you that?”

  I shook my head.

  “I was running a little late, and I called Audra to tell her that. When I drove up to her house, Logan wasn’t around. I parked and went up to get him, like I usually do.”

  I studied him carefully. “You called Audra to tell her you were going to be late?” This I hadn’t heard, either.

  “Yeah, but she didn’t answer. I left her a message. I also called Logan a little before that, and he said he’d be home and waiting for me.”

  One more thing I hadn’t heard, and I made a mental note to follow up on it.

  He scowled. “When I went inside, Audra was surprised. She had no idea where he was.” The index finger tapped the table hard. “Did she tell you that she lets him run around outside, and she doesn’t watch him?”

  “She told me that at first she knew he’d be in the front yard, then that he was at his friend Terrell Anderson’s house.”

  He snorted. “She may have said that, but she doesn’t keep track of Logan. When we were married, she didn’t watch him, and she doesn’t now. It doesn’t take much to have a kid d
isappear.” Anger laced his tone. “She said she got distracted, but I know her. She wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Audra told me you came into the house without knocking.”

  His shoulders tensed. “Yeah. I called for Logan, and he didn’t answer. Audra was mad at me for walking in, but I was worried about Logan.”

  I didn’t catch a lot of concern in his demeanor, more annoyance at his ex-wife. “What did you do when you realized he wasn’t around?” I asked.

  “We checked his room and the rest of the house, then went outside and searched all around for him. We couldn’t find him anywhere. Audra ran over to the neighbor’s, but he wasn’t playing outside there, either. Then Latoya Anderson came over and we looked everywhere. We called out for Logan some more, and I drove around the neighborhood. But he was gone.”

  “You didn’t notice anything, or anyone, suspicious?”

  “Like I told the other cops Saturday night, no.”

  “Audra said the two of you fought a lot.”

  He rolled his eyes. “She told you about our divorce?” I didn’t reply, and he went on. “She and I didn’t get along, okay? But whatever she might’ve said, it’s not true.”

  “Okay,” I said noncommittally. “Did Logan have any trouble with his friend Terrell?”

  “Not that I know of.” He bit his lip, in anger or grief, I wasn’t sure. “You have to keep your eye on kids. You can’t take any chances.”

  I ignored the slight against his ex. “Is there any reason why Logan would run off? Any reason why he might not have wanted to visit you last weekend?”

  He fixed hard eyes on me. “Why wouldn’t he want to come with me? I’m his father.”

  I shrugged. “Just asking the question.”

  He shook his head. “Logan and I got along just fine. He was an okay, kid, you know? He was happy. He enjoyed coming over here.”

  “How often did you see him?”

  “I have … had him on Tuesday nights and every other weekend.”

  That didn’t seem like much to me, I thought. But I didn’t know how custody arrangements worked these days.

  “What kinds of things did you and Logan do?”

  “I don’t know.” He looked away, and for the first time since I’d been there, his face softened. “We would ride bikes. I fixed up an old Camaro, and he liked that. I’d take him for drives, going fast. He thought that was pretty cool. When he was younger, he and I built a couple of model cars together. Well,” he held up a hand, “I mostly build them, and he watched. He seemed to have fun with it.”

  “He liked comics?”

  “You heard that from Audra?” I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve collected comics since I was a kid. I have a big collection. Audra couldn’t stand them, but Logan thought it was cool.”

  I waited to see if he’d say anything about Logan not touching his prized possessions, but he didn’t. I glanced around. The kitchen was exceedingly neat, nothing on the counters, no dishes in the sink. Did that come from a military background?

  “Did you let Logan read your comics?”

  He shook his head. “No way. A lot of them are really valuable. You don’t let a little kid mess with stuff like that.” His face was stony. “I bought him some of his own, that he could rip up or wrinkle or whatever.”

  “And you were okay with that?”

  “I don’t know why he couldn’t be more careful with them, but whatever.”

  “Logan played baseball?”

  “Yes, on a rec team.”

  “Did he enjoy it?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” He glowered at me, waiting for me to go on.

  “May I see Logan’s room?”

  “Sure.”

  He pushed back from his chair and stood up, his shoulders squared. I wondered if he ever relaxed. He marched downstairs to a small room off a great room with a pool table and beer signs on the walls. A small display case held a collection of knives.

  “What branch did you serve in?” I asked.

  “Marines.”

  “Thank you for your service.”

  He ignored that, went into the bedroom, and gestured for me to come in. “Logan slept in here.”

  Not his room, just where he slept, I thought.

  The room was tiny, with a twin bed with white sheets and blanket against one wall, a metal desk in a corner, a small dresser, and a closet.

  “Mind if I check around?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Go ahead. The other cops did that when they were here. I don’t know what you’ll find.”

  I felt his eyes on me as I looked at the bed, then under it and in the dresser, then in the closet. It didn’t take me long. There was nothing in the dresser drawers, and only one child-sized plaid shirt hanging in the closet. It was a decidedly different feel than Logan’s bedroom at Audra’s house.

  Gary looked around at the sparseness. “Logan brought his stuff with him.”

  Not inviting at all, I thought. How much fun was it for Logan here? “His stuff?”

  “He’d bring clothes from his mom’s house, so why would I keep anything here? And he packed the things he might want to play with for the weekend as well.” His explanation was as lame as the room.

  I nodded. “I’m sure it was mostly about spending time with you.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Audra thought he might’ve brought a little Batman figurine over here.”

  “I think I remember it around. I don’t know where it is now.”

  “Nothing on the walls?” I observed.

  He shrugged. “Logan didn’t seem to care, and I wasn’t much into decorating.”

  “Did he spend much time in here?”

  He stared at me for a second. “I don’t know, I guess. We didn’t have a ton of time together, and I’d try to entertain him.”

  “You liked having Logan visit?”

  “Sure,” he said without conviction, then suddenly, “Let’s go back upstairs.”

  I clenched my hands, then relaxed. Good lord, he’s like a board, rigid, no emotion, I thought. I took a last look around and followed him back to the kitchen. This time, he didn’t sit down. I again remained in the doorway.

  “So after you searched the neighborhood, then what?”

  He stood a bit straighter. “We called the police. They sent two officers over. We talked to them, and they said they’d look around.” He shook his head in disgust. “Man, that was a waste of time. Logan was gone. I finally came home, and I didn’t sleep a wink. The next day we looked for him more, but of course he was nowhere to be found.” Anger caught in his throat. “Until now.”

  “When you came home, what did you do?”

  He glanced away. “I watched TV.”

  “Alone?”

  He took his time answering that. “Audra doesn’t know, but I’ve been dating a woman. She was here.”

  “Did Logan know her?”

  “He’d met her a time or two, but he didn’t know we were dating. She never spent the night when he was here. I called her Saturday night, and she came over. I didn’t want to be alone,” he tacked on.

  “What’s her name?”

  “Kristi Arnott. I suppose you’ll want to talk to her.”

  “That’s correct.”

  He gave me a number, and I memorized it. “Did you talk to anyone else that night?”

  “No, just Kristi.”

  “What about last night?”

  “I was home, alone.”

  “All night?”

  “Yeah. I spent the day trying to find Logan. I was exhausted.”

  “You have a step-daughter?”

  “Yeah. I don’t see her much. She’s off at college now.”

  I didn’t even need to ask the question about his relationship with her. No love lost there.

  “Logan was found in an alley on the next street up from you. Did you know the people in that area?” I asked.

  “No, just seeing people as I pass by. I don’t know many of the people in the old nei
ghborhood. I work a lot, and my friends don’t live in the neighborhood. I have no idea why Logan–” now he choked up a bit, “why he would be playing anywhere but Audra’s or Terrell’s house.”

  I gave him a moment. “Have you ever been in trouble with the law?” I’d been waiting to ask this, as I’d wondered if it would shut him down.

  “No,” he snapped. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “Where are you from?”

  “What does that matter?” Then he said, “Sacramento.”

  “Do you have a laptop?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “May I take it? We need to check it.”

  “Oh, I get it.” He took a couple of steps toward me. “You think I might’ve done something to Logan? Are you crazy? He was my son.” Again, I waited. His eyes were cold. “You want it, you can get a warrant.”

  That I will, I thought. I met his gaze. “Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”

  He stared at me. “Find out who killed my son.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  Chapter Four

  I sat in my car and stared at Gary Pickett’s house. He didn’t seem overly broken up about his son’s death. Or he was holding back his emotions really well. Just because he wasn’t acting the way I thought he should, did that mean he was responsible in some way for his son’s death?

  I had conflicting information from Audra and Gary. He seemed certain she didn’t keep a close eye out for her son, contrary to what she’d said. She indicated he had a temper, which he denied. Who was telling the truth, or were they both lying? One thing was certain: I wasn’t ready to take either of Logan’s parents off my suspect list yet. I pulled out my phone and dialed Ernie.

  “What’re you doing?” I said when he picked up.

  “I finished talking to the neighbor, Larry Blankenship, and I was heading back to the office.”

  “Do me a favor. I need a warrant for Gary Pickett’s laptop. He didn’t want to surrender it, and I want to know what’s on it. I think he’s hiding something.”

  “Not a good move on his part,” he groused.

  “Uh huh.”

  We discussed the details of the warrant, and Ernie said he’d get on it right away. I ended the call and thought for a moment. I knew I’d have to circle back to Audra and Gary, but for the moment, I had another stop to make.