My Soul to Keep (4 page)

It was not a pleasant read. Someone identified only by the initial
“D” had been doing awful things to the poor girl, plus she was terrified of a “W” and wanted to run away.

“
The boyfriend’s name is Deacon,” Ruben mentioned.

“
And Mr. Henderson’s first name is Dean. Maybe she didn’t just randomly wander into their house, after all.”

Ruben pulled out his phone.
“I’ll have Jimmi track down Deacon and have uniforms bring him in.”

“
I think another visit to the Hendersons is in order,” Nicole stated.

Ruben frowned
, but nodded.

They covered the three blocks quickly. Nicole pulled up to the
Hendersons’ house to find nearly an army of people streaming in and out of the house. Most held “Missing” signs. They had to elbow their way through the crowd.

Mr. Henderson rushed up to them.
“Any word?”

“
No, I’m sorry,” Nicole said. “But can we speak with you?

“
Of course, anything,” he said, as his wife joined him. He draped his arm over her.

“
In private?” Ruben suggested.

“
We have no secrets,” Mr. Henderson said.

“
Really,” Nicole insisted. “We should talk somewhere with less people.”

Mr. Henderson escorted them into his home office. The copy machine whirred as it produced more
“Missing” flyers.

“
What is it?” Mr. Henderson asked. “I’ve got another ten volunteers coming in a few minutes who I’ve got to brief.”

“
You said earlier that you had no idea who Megan was,” Nicole stated.

“
Is that her name?” the wife asked. “The dead girl? Her name was Megan?”

“
Yes,” Ruben answered. “But we think your husband may already know that.”

“
What?” the man said seeming genuinely surprised. But criminals were some of the best actors out there. Especially pedophiles.

“
We have an indication that not only did you know Megan,” Ruben said, “but you knew her intimately.”

“
I’ve never seen her before,” Mr. Henderson asserted. “
Never.”

“
In her diary she mentions a ‘D,’” Nicole added.

“
Have you looked in the phone book lately?” Mrs. Henderson asked. “There are a lot of ‘D’s out there.”

“
But Megan ended up here,” Nicole pressed. “Why?”

Mrs. Henderson wrapped her arm around her husband
’s waist before she spoke. “I have no idea, and neither does Dean.”

“
Maybe we should take this down to the station?” Ruben suggested, as a shout went up outside. Everyone poured from the office to find a group of people surrounding a young woman.

“
Dad? What the hell is all this about?” the girl said.

“
Roxy!” the parents shouted, rushing to their daughter.

Nicole looked over to Ruben
, who shrugged. Could the case of the missing girl be this easily solved? Roxy just randomly walking home?

* * *

Ruben allowed the sense of jubilation to wash over him. The volunteers were happily going home, the missing princess found. He took a moment to enjoy the sensation. Seldom did his job as a homicide detective allow him this type of unqualified joy. A missing girl, assumed dead, was found.

You didn
’t get a bigger win than that.

However
, there was still a truly dead girl to bring justice to, so he stepped forward and Roxy extracted herself from her mother’s embrace.

“
It was Megan in my bed?” Roxy asked.

“
Shhh…” Mrs. Henderson said. “We can do this later.”

“
No, Mom,” Roxy said. “I want to help.”

“
Where were you last night?”

The girl blushed.
“I went to a rave and did some weed, then fell asleep at my boyfriend’s house.”

“
Roxy!” her mother shouted.

B
ut the girl just shrugged. “What? My bad.”

Ruben could care less what typical teenage high
jinks the girl was into. They needed to know about the victim.

Nicole guided them to the living room.
“How well did you know Megan?”

Roxy shrugged.
“Not very. I mean, she went to my community college, but she was all about studying. She never partied, so clearly, our paths didn’t cross much.”

Mr. Henderson shook his head. He didn
’t seem to know his daughter quite as well as he thought he did.

“
Were you a part of her study group?” Ruben asked.

“
What, you mean geek central? Um, no way,” Roxy answered.

“
Did you see her last night?” Nicole asked.

“
Sorry, no. Me and my crew went to get a few slices before he headed out to party,” Roxy answered.

Nicole looked to Ruben. He nodded. It was time to get into some touchier stuff. Nicole leaned forward to the girl.
“Roxy, I’ve got to ask you some hard questions, and I need you to answer honestly.”

“
Yeah, sure.”

“
No!” Mrs. Henderson cried out, shoving herself between Nicole and her daughter. “No.”

“
Mr. and Mrs. Henderson,” Ruben said. “We can do this here or we can take Roxy down to the station. She’s of legal age, we are not required to have her parents present.”

Mrs. Henderson
’s blotchy face screwed up even tighter, flaring a bright red. “And if we want a lawyer?”

“
It just makes your husband look more suspicious,” Ruben answered.

“
Dad?” Roxy said. “What are they talking about?”

Nicole leaned forward again.
“We have some suspicions that your father may have had inappropriate contact with Megan and, therefore, with you.”

Roxy leapt from the couch.
“No. No way. Dad may be a nerd, but he’s a good dad.”

Nicole reached out and touched Roxy
’s arm. “I know how hard this must be, but we’ve got to be sure there isn’t a significant reason that Megan ended up at this house.”

Roxy crossed her arms.
“She’s never been here. Never to visit or anything. I have no idea how she got here, but my dad had nothing to do with it.”

“
Are you sure?” Ruben pressed.

“
Yes,” Roxy said forcefully. “And if you want to ask me any other questions, I think I’ll take Mom’s advice and get a lawyer.”

Ruben sighed. He
’d pushed too hard. Nicole looked up at him. He shook his head. Now that the girl had lawyered up, there was no point in taking the family down to the station.

Nicole rose.
“We are so sorry to inconvenience you.” She put her hand out to Mr. Henderson. “But we are glad to see your daughter safe and sound.”

“
Yeah, right, like you did anything to help us,” he said, looking down at Nicole’s outstretched hand.

Ruben wasn
’t too thrilled with the man’s dis of his partner, but he could understand his attitude after they had just accused him of molesting not only a strange girl, but his own daughter.

The phone at Ruben
’s belt jangled. He pulled it out of its hard case and read the text—“Deacon’s at the station.”

Before they could make it to the door, Nicole
’s phone went off. “It’s Joshua. We need to stop off at the morgue first.”

“
Good. Let Deacon stew for a while,” Ruben said. They had another “D” to interrogate.

Nicole missed Kent. Not just to warm up the sheets on these cold winter nights, but to help bring clarity to the case. Oh, sure, he’d make her work for it, but at least when the FBI profiler worked, it felt like they were getting somewhere. Maybe somewhere bizarre, but moving forward. Sure, they had pulled the boyfriend in, but the way Megan described the molestation, it didn’t sound like it was being perpetrated by someone her own age.

Kent would probably have solved the crime already.

As they walked down the long hallway to the autopsy room, Nicole texted Kent, “Got a weird one. Right up your alley.”

She hadn
’t expected an answer, not since she hadn’t heard from him in weeks, so she was a little surprised when her phone vibrated almost immediately.

“
Email me the case files.”

Nicole should have been surprised, but she wasn
’t. All of the ‘I love you.’ ‘I miss you’ texts had gone unanswered, but the moment a heinous crime was on the table, Kent was Johnny on the spot.

“
Will upload as soon as I get back to the station,” Nicole texted back.

“
Whatcha got?” Ruben asked, looking over her shoulder.

“
Just Kent offering to help on the case.”

“
Oh, so your wayward Holmes has decided to grace us with his presence?”

Nicole shook her head, wanting this exchange to end quickly.
“No, he’s going to do so remotely.”

“
Kent’s still out in the field?” Ruben asked with more than enough sarcasm for two. “Trying to be the next Bourne?”

“
He got recruited, Ruben. I was there. They threatened to charge him with his break in at the Pentagon if he didn’t go with them.”

“
Well then, maybe Kent shouldn’t do things that leave him susceptible to blackmail.”

Nicole ground her back teeth. Discussing Kent with Ruben never went well. Why did she even bother?
“The point is he didn’t
want
to go.”

Ruben turned her to him.
“Or that’s what he wanted you to think. How can a guy that tightly wound be content in our little berg?”

“
He’s coming back,” Nicole asserted.

“
When, though?”

That
, she couldn’t answer, and Ruben knew it. “So are you just rubbing salt in the wound, or what?”

“
No,” Ruben said, shaking his head slowly. “I just want you to see you happy.”

“
Well, I am.” Of course, she wasn’t. Kent had been gone for months, and who knew how much longer he’d be gone, but Ruben didn’t need to know that. “So you can stop worrying.”

He took a step back.
“
Never
.”

Nicole groaned. This is why they would have broken up even if Kent hadn
’t shown back up. Ruben didn’t know when to take a hint. A knight in shining armor got a little old when you couldn’t walk two feet without him riding in to sweep you off your feet. At that point, it was more like hijacking than rescuing.

Luckily
, then they passed through the glass sliding doors of the autopsy room, having them whoosh closed behind them. The cold air of the morgue was a relief, helping to cool her angry cheeks. The smell of formaldehyde, however, was not so welcome.

They came upon Dr. McGregor sewing up Megan
’s “Y” incision.

“
Well?” Ruben asked.

“
Well, what?” McGregor countered.

“
Joshua said you had something for us?”

“
The kid’s a little liar,” McGregor grunted, then nodded to the assistant who stood in the back of the room. “No offense, you little shit.”

“
None taken,” Joshua said, joining them at the autopsy table.

“
The autopsy didn’t show anything,” McGregor said. “Medically, she is in perfect health.”

“
Except for the part where she is dead,” Nicole commented.

“
Yeah, except for that,” Joshua said, stroking Megan’s hair in a completely creepy manner. “Looks like she is just sleeping.”

The lab assistant looked up.
“Maybe you should kiss her and see if she wakes up,” he said to Ruben.

“
Joshua, you may have your job back, but let’s be clear, you will never get my respect back,” Ruben rumbled.

“
Touchy much?” Joshua countered. “Look, I practically cracked the Plain Jane case. You might want to give me a little more respect.”

“
Really? You were contacted by the serial killer and then irresponsibly went to meet her?”

“
Which led Detective Usher to the FBI profiler who had been kidnapped, I believe right under your nose,” Joshua shot back.

Ruben clenched his fist next to Nicole. Never a good sign.
Right about now, she wanted to track down the police officer who had given Joshua a hematoma on his kidney and give one to the officer for making them deal with the hipster.