“It’s possible. What do you want us to do?”
Brady let loose a tired sigh. “Try and get him to talk. If the blood type matches the victim’s, then arrest him.”
“What about a door-to-door search?”
“It’s nine-twenty. I’m not going to wake up half the city now. Check the blood type, talk to Roper. If we still haven’t located the victim by morning, we can talk more about a door-to-door search.”
Brady gave his officers a curt nod and wished them luck.
John Roper looked uneasily at the porn mags that had been dumped on the table in front of him. “They’re not mine,” he said.
“What were they doing in your room?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your brother-in-law storing them down there, is that it, John?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“What is it, John, yes or no?”
“I don’t know. There’s no law against having them, is there?”
DiGrazia smiled thinly. “No, there isn’t. But I thought you were being chemically castrated. What the fuck use do you have for these magazines?”
“They’re not mine.”
“You’re lying, John. You think we’re fucking idiots?”
Roper didn’t say anything.
“You still like hurting women, don’t you, John?”
“No.”
“You at least like looking at pictures of them being hurt.”
“I told you those aren’t mine-”
“John,” Shannon asked, “tell us why you had this bus schedule.”
Roper, distracted, looked over at what Shannon was holding. As he peered at the schedule and noticed the Revere to Somerville route, his small, gray eyes turned dull. “I never saw that before.”
“You never saw it before, huh?” DiGrazia asked. “And we’re fucking idiots, is that what you’re trying to say?”
Roper’s mouth opened and closed. He shook his head.
“John,” Shannon explained, “we found a shirt of yours stained with blood hidden in your closet. We’re having the blood analyzed right now. We know your blood type, we know the victim’s, we’re going to know pretty soon if you abducted her. Why don’t you help us now while it can still do you some good?”
Roper’s eyes glazed over as he listened to Shannon. The phone rang. DiGrazia picked it up and listened for a moment. When he put the receiver down his face was flushed with anger.
“Where is she, you little shit?” DiGrazia demanded.
Roper blinked several times at him, his small eyes seeming to grow more distant. DiGrazia moved quickly towards Roper, grabbing him by his shirt collar and swinging him out of his chair. He pushed the ex-convict hard into the wall.
“I asked you where she is,” DiGrazia demanded, breathing hard, his face inches from Roper’s.
“I want a lawyer,” Roper said, his tone impassive, his expression calm.
DiGrazia reached back and swung a thick, ham-hocked fist into Roper’s gut. There was a soft thud and Roper’s skin turned a queasy gray, but other than that there was no reaction from him. DiGrazia reached back and delivered another blow, this one to the side of Roper’s skull. Roper fell to the floor, but again there was no real reaction from him. DiGrazia backed away, his smile stretched tightly, his eyes sharp, black points. When Roper could, he asked again for a lawyer.
“John, we’ve got you for this one. You might as well help us,” Shannon said.
Roper pushed himself to his feet. He looked through Shannon as he again repeated that he wanted a lawyer.
DiGrazia gave Shannon a questioning look but it was obvious Roper had shut down and no amount of beating him was going to get him to tell where he had left Janice Rowley. Shannon told Roper that they were going to book him for kidnapping and he could see a lawyer in the morning.
Susan was sitting on the living room sofa watching TV when Shannon arrived home. It was past two in the morning and she was wearing a red flannel robe, her skin pale white in contrast to it. Dark lines ran under her eyes. She looked exhausted. Shannon explained why he was so late and why he had missed his appointment with his therapist. He knew Susan knew about him missing his appointment. Susan listened to his explanation and while she didn’t like it, she accepted it.
That night he had a restless time of it. Every time he’d start to drift off he’d see images of Janice Rowley, her thin body dotted with blood, her hands and feet bound, her eyes wild with terror-and he’d be jolted awake. Eventually he fell asleep. A little after four he woke with his heart pounding. He jumped out of bed and dressed quickly. He felt a sense of urgency, one he didn’t quite understand. Before leaving the bedroom he whispered to Susan that he had to go. She murmured something unintelligible and fell back asleep.
A light rain fell as Shannon drove towards the industrial park where Janice Rowley’s car had been found. When he got to the park he turned left and headed in the direction of the Indian restaurant where she had stopped to pick up dinner. He drove a half dozen blocks and then turned down an alleyway. Lining the alleyway were a series of rundown warehouses. The one on the end had boards nailed over its windows.
Shannon got out of his car and checked the entranceway to this warehouse and found the door bolted shut. He then walked around the building and checked the windows. With just a little pressure from his hand, the boards covering one of the side windows slid off. Someone had pulled them off recently and had placed them back in position. Shannon shined a flashlight through the hole and saw a small body lying in the corner. Something glinted from it. Shannon ran back to his car and radioed for an ambulance. He then ran back to the window and climbed through the opening in the boards.
The body lying on the floor was Janice Rowley’s. She was naked, her hands and feet both bound. A red rag had been stuffed in her mouth. There were cuts all over her body, small lines of blood everywhere and one big puddle under her neck. The glint came from the steak knife that had been pushed into her throat.
Shannon removed the rag from her mouth and then put his fingers against the side of her neck. He was able to detect a faint pulse. She was still breathing, barely, but still breathing. He covered her with his jacket and told her everything was going to be okay, that help was on the way. He squeezed her hand but got no reaction.
He checked the door to the building and saw he needed a key to unbolt it. Swearing to himself, he kicked it once and felt something crack in his shin. He clenched his teeth and kicked the door again and felt the wood frame give way. The third time the door kicked open. At least the EMV guys would be able to get in…
Whatever he did to his shin hurt like hell. He hobbled back to Janice Rowley. Her breathing was fainter. He knew she was slipping away. A heaviness welled up in his chest as he pleaded with her to hang in there. He didn’t know what to do with the knife in her throat. The blade had been pushed in about an inch. He got on his knees and gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She was gone before the ambulance arrived.
Chapter 4
Later, he found that John Roper had committed suicide in his cell. Roper had wrapped his jail-issued blanket around his head and had asphyxiated himself. It would’ve been a painful way to kill yourself. A difficult way to kill yourself…
DiGrazia arrived at the station after six in the morning looking hung over, his eyes bloodshot, his skin pallor not quite right. He admitted with a sick grin that he had hit the scotch hard before going to bed. He asked Shannon how he knew where to find Janice Rowley. Shannon couldn’t answer him because he really didn’t know. When he woke he had a grim realization of what he was going to find, but it wasn’t until he had gotten in his car and started driving that he had any idea of where he was heading. It was as if something had taken over, as if something had delivered him to that warehouse and to Janice Rowley.