Callahan And McLane: Targeted Part 31

"I sent him away," said Nora. "I had to answer to the a.s.sistant chief about why a witness was hanging around our investigation. I managed to explain away his appearance at the Fujioka murder, but I'm not about to get called in again. He needs to not be seen with us."

"He didn't say anything to me," Ava said as disappointment flowed through her. She wasn't surprised that someone had questioned his role, but she missed having him around to share ideas with.

"I a.s.sume he has his own caseload to work on," answered Nora. "Sorry about that," she added in a sincere voice.

"You let it slide by for a long time," said Ava. "More than you should have."

"I told him the two of you will have a roommate if I lose my job over it."

Ava grinned at Nora's matter-of-fact tone. "Find anything?" she asked Zander.

"They appear to be organized by program. There's the mentoring program, fund-raising events, school programs, and community outreach." He set aside a small stack. "This is all mentoring from 2005 to 2010. The older years must be in one of the other boxes."

Ava removed the lid of another box and sifted through the ledgers as Nora and Keith did the same with the remaining boxes.

"Did you talk to Regina Zuch again?" Ava asked.

Nora and Zander exchanged a look as smiles crossed their faces. Ava's curiosity was piqued. "What happened?"

"Regina didn't want to come back to the department, so we surprised her with a visit to her home."

"And?"

"We met her current boyfriend." Nora grinned. "They were still in pajamas." She wrinkled her nose. "The house smelled like s.e.x and cigarettes."

"Oh, Lord." Ava's stomach did a mild spin; she knew that odor. It'd hung around her sister.

"Regina sent him home once she realized we weren't leaving. I guess having her son locked up gave her a bit of freedom that she doesn't usually get."

"Did she even ask about Micah?" Ava quickly scanned a notebook and set it in the "nope" pile.

"She did when I first called," said Zander. "At first she wanted to know when he was being released, and I thought she was concerned for him, but I think she was trying to figure out when to kick out her guest."

"That's horrible."

"I agree," said Nora. "Although it has to be hard with your adult son living in your house. He should be on his own."

"I don't see Regina encouraging that," said Ava. "In our first interview, she seemed desperate to keep him close to her. She let him do whatever he pleased to keep him happy. I think she likes having him around."

"I think she uses him as a subst.i.tute for a man in her life," said Zander in a serious tone. "There's something really unhealthy there. The way she talked about him gave me the creeps. She tries to keep him dependent on her, and she wants him to need her even though he's a grown-up. I don't think she knows how to have a healthy relations.h.i.+p with a man her own age. She treated the guy that was there like a piece of dirt. I hate to say it, but it was like he was there to scratch an itch for her and once he'd done his role she wanted him gone."

Dread filled Ava's chest. "You don't think she's . . . um . . . being inappropriate with her son, do you?" The thought made her ill.

"I don't think so," said Nora. "I'll wager she brings in an occasional man for that part."

None of them speculated out loud about whether she'd snared any cops in her web.

"Did you ask her about other women with kids in the program?" Ava asked.

"We did," Nora said. "We focused on Vance Weldon since she'd had a relations.h.i.+p with him. She claimed she wasn't aware of any other women he'd been involved with."

"Vance's wife said she didn't know about other women, either," said Ava. "I think she tried to look the other way when she suspected something was going on."

Ava had learned the hard way how to find out if her ex was cheating. Asking directly had triggered lies. She'd resorted to following him. It hadn't felt good, but it'd gotten results, and she'd taken immediate action. What would I do if I ever suspected Mason was cheating?

If I asked, he'd tell me.

It'd be a sign that something had gone seriously off track.

"Regina gave us the name of two women who 'rubbed her the wrong way' at events." Nora made air quotes with her fingers. "She couldn't explain what she meant by that term, but Regina seems very narcissistic. I suspect these are women who steal her thunder when they're in a room together."

"Let's see if their kids' names are a.s.sociated with our murdered cops." Ava suspected Nora was right. "Did you get anything else from her? Did she have any new thoughts on why Micah confessed?"

"I told her we believed he was protecting someone," said Zander. "She seemed surprised and claimed she had no idea who that person could be. I believed her. If she's a liar, she's a really good one."

"Here's some mentoring records from the late 1990s." Keith held up a small stack of notebooks. "Do you want me to start reading them?"

"Yes." Ava wrote the four men's names and those of Micah Zuch and Jesse Parish at the top of an empty whiteboard, and added the children's names Keith had found in the office computer. "The director said Vance Weldon didn't partic.i.p.ate in this part of the program, but keep an eye out for his name in case he was wrong. Jesse Parish should turn up under Lucien Fujioka's name at some point, but I want to know who else mentored him and may have dealt with his crazy mom."

"Read slowly," Nora instructed. "Don't skim. You'll miss something."

"When you find the cops' names, list the child's name and parent and year a.s.signed underneath it," Ava added. "I'll keep digging through the boxes for the rest of the years."

Zander and Nora each grabbed a few ledgers and took a seat. Ava quickly sorted out the rest of the notebooks and the room grew quiet. An hour ticked by as they read, and each of them occasionally added a new name to the whiteboard. Ava made herself read every line.

Mason Callahan.

She smiled at the sight of his name in a record from fifteen years ago. He was proud of the work he'd done for the organization. "Did Mason know we pulled the computer records when you talked to him this morning, Nora?"

"No. I saw him before that."

Ava pressed her lips together, wondering what he'd think of the way they were digging through the company's history. He'd approve. He'd asked a few times if she'd heard back from the director. She spotted Denny's name a few pages after Mason's and checked the board to see if that child had been listed under any of the other cops yet.

Dammit. She went to the board and wrote Scott Nickle under Denny's name. He now had six names listed.

Are we going down a dead end?

She glanced around the room, wondering who else was thinking the same thing, questioning if they were wasting precious time reading through old logs.

Zander finished his stack and grabbed one of Ava's books, determination on his face.

If Zander hasn't given up on this lead, then it's still a good one.

"Got a shared name," Zander announced. "Finally." He went to the board and pointed at Scott Nickle. "Samuelson mentored him the year after Denny." He added the name and year under Louis Samuelson's name.

Elation filled Ava. Now we're getting somewhere.

"I'll see what I can find on Scott Nickle and his parents," said Zander. "These two records are nearly fifteen years old. Keep looking." Zander moved to one of the computer stations in the room.

Ava noticed Keith looked enviously at Zander at the computer but turned his attention back to the written record in front of him. She did the same, hoping to find Scott Nickle's name linked with Lucien Fujioka. Or anyone else. The fact that today was Halloween and their killer seemed preoccupied with horror movies weighed heavily on her mind. Will we have another murder tonight?

How could their killer let the popular, horror-filled holiday pa.s.s by?

I wish Halloween were another week away.

As she moved on to the records of another year, Ava spotted Mason's name again. She continued reading down the page and froze, the letters jumbling together. Her gaze went back up to Mason's name and checked the name of the child. She looked at the board, not seeing that child listed anywhere. She grabbed the ledger she'd just set aside and flipped pages until she found her first sighting of Mason's name and read the name of the child from that year.

Scott Nickle.

"Has anyone heard from Mason since he left this morning?" She fought to keep a quaver out of her voice.

Zander looked sharply at her over his computer screen. "What's wrong?"

She swallowed, a sense of unease settling in her bones. "Mason mentored Scott Nickle the year before Denny." She leaned over and dug in her bag for her cell phone.

"Who?" Keith asked.

"Her fiance," Nora supplied. She spun in her seat to face Zander in the back of the room. "Zander, have you found anything on Scott Nickle?"

Ava listened to the ringing of Mason's phone. Pick up, pick up, pick up.

I'm jumping to conclusions.

He's fine.

Voice mail. She left a message for him to call her and then searched her contacts for Ray's number.

He answered immediately. "Lusco."

"It's Ava. Have you heard from Mason today?"

"Not lately. I've been trying to stay off his back, knowing he was helping you guys."

"Nora told him to keep away from the case this morning. He didn't tell you?"

"No." Ray's tone grew concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I haven't heard from him all day. Do you know where he might be?"

"I don't. I've barely talked to him since Denny's funeral."

"Ava," said Nora. "Mason told me he was going over to Cops 4 Kidz this morning."

She stared at the detective. "Why didn't you say that earlier?"

"I forgot until right now. He was very vague, saying he hadn't received his minutes from the last meeting and was going to go pick them up in person."

"What's going on?" Ray said forcibly in her ear.

Ava turned her attention back to her call. "I don't know. His name has come up in some research we're doing on the mask cases and now I'm concerned because I can't reach him."

"s.h.i.+t," said Ray. "Let me ask around a bit." He ended their call.

Ava set down her phone. "Zander?"

He looked up from his computer and shook his head. "I'm still looking. It's like Scott Nickle doesn't exist. I've estimated his current age, based on fifteen-year-old records, to be anywhere between twenty and thirty-five, but I can't find anyone with that name and in the right age range that lives in Oregon or Was.h.i.+ngton."

"Add Idaho and California," suggested Ava. "Everyone look and see if you can find a parent name somewhere. Maybe there're mentions in the other ledgers that aren't about the mentoring program?"

Nora picked up a notebook, flipped through it, and gave a small moan. "This is going to take forever."

"Nothing when I add the two states," stated Zander.

"Try females in the age range of forty and sixty-five with that last name," said Ava. "Let's see if we can find his mother. Start with just Oregon and the Vancouver area." She held her breath and watched Zander's expression.

"s.h.i.+t. I get seventeen names just in our state. I'll look at it by county." He glared at the screen.

Mason, where are you? She dialed again. Voice mail. She punched in a text. CALL ME.

Keith moved to look over Zander's shoulder. "I'll see what I can find on the three names in Was.h.i.+ngton County. You take the four from Multnomah. Then we can look at Clackamas and Clark County." He sat at the computer terminal next to Zander and tapped on the keys.

Ava went back to her ledger. The names and dates blurred on the pages.

I can't just sit here.

She focused on the pages and made herself search for Nickle.

34.

The pain radiating through his body felt like a baseball bat blow to his funny bone that had been multiplied ten thousand times.

Mason's head hit the porch as he fell, and his nose crunched on impact.

His body no longer worked, his brain unable to send commands to his muscles. But out of the corner of his eye, he recognized a face.

Scott Heuser knelt beside him, his stun gun still pressed to the back of Mason's neck.

Agonizing bites of electrical pain reverberated through his muscles and bones. Heuser removed the stun gun, but Mason's body continued to rebel, and he fought to breathe through the blood clogging his nose. One thought echoed through his mind.

I'm in deep s.h.i.+t.