The Killings (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 1) (5 page)

Melissa had returned home thirty minutes earlier and texted Olivia announcing her arrival. When Olivia reached the landing outside their apartment, the door flew open and Melissa wrapped her in a hug.

They entered the apartment and Olivia halted in her tracks when she saw what was on the coffee table. “What the heck is that?”

“Exactly what it looks like.” Melissa picked up a red handled axe and held it menacingly at Olivia. “I brought it from home.”

“Melissa. God,” Olivia said. “Someone will just use it on us.”

“I’m keeping it in my room.” She lowered the axe and leaned it next to the sofa. “Have you been following the news reports?” Melissa asked.

“Yeah. They haven’t reported our names yet.”

“Well, they just did. It’s in that rag of a paper, the
Courier
. We ought to sue them,” Melissa said. “Or use the axe on them.”

Olivia sure wasn’t pleased that their names were in the paper in connection with the killings. “Did they say anything else about us except our names?”

“‘University students.’ But they didn’t say which university. Yet. That won’t take much time before some stupid reporter puts us at risk by telling other facts about us.”

“Is this why you came back early?” Olivia asked.

Melissa plopped onto the sofa. “No. If I knew our names were in the paper, I might have stayed home for a while longer.” She clutched a pillow to her chest. “I just wanted to be here with you. My parents were so concerned for me, it made me feel weird. I want to be able to talk about it sometimes, but I feel like I’ll just upset them. I wanted to come back and talk with you.”

“I’m glad,” Olivia said. She told Melissa about her conversation with Ynes.

“Oh, Liv. I don’t know. That guy sounds very dangerous. It might be too risky.”

Olivia said, “There’s something else.” She told Melissa how she had the distinct sensation that someone was following her home last night.

Melissa sat up straight, her forehead creased with worry. “So what do you think today? Was it your imagination?”

Olivia shrugged. “I’d like it to be.”

“Oh, no.” Melissa stood, went to the windows, and pulled the cord at each of the front bay windows to lower the blinds. “I wish this apartment was in the back of the building.” She turned to Olivia. “Should we call the police?”

“Let’s see if it happens again,” Olivia told her.

“God.”

“Come on. Let’s go eat. Maybe we’ll get followed on the way home and we can jump the guy and take him out,” Olivia said.

“Oh, God.” Melissa picked up her jacket from the chair and muttered, “Why didn’t I stay home?”

***

Olivia and Melissa headed down College Avenue towards the area of restaurants and shops where they planned to have dinner. As they passed apartment buildings and a convenience store, a young man who had just parked his car along the street, stepped out of it and onto the sidewalk. It was Jack, the young guy who had arrived outside of Gary and Christian’s apartment around the time Olivia and Melissa found the bodies.

Melissa called to him. “Hey, Jack.”

“How are you?” Olivia asked. “We’re going to dinner if you want to come.”

When they got closer, the girls could see that the left side of Jack’s face near his jawline was swollen and full.

“I’ve got a tooth abscess so I’ll pass,” he told them. “I’ve got a dentist appointment tomorrow morning. Another time, though.”

“Can we get you anything?” Olivia asked.

“I’ll be all right,” Jack said.

“How are you doing?” Melissa asked. “Since, the murders?”

“Okay. Mostly.”

“If you ever want to get together and talk sometime, it might be good for all of us,” Melissa offered.

“That’s probably a good idea.” He put his hand to his jaw. “I’m going in and going to bed.”

“Hope you feel better,” Olivia said.

The girls wished him luck with the dental appointment and continued down the hill. They walked into Davis Square, and as they passed an Irish pub, one of their friends called to them and invited the girls to join them inside for a drink. They agreed and stood at the bar with five friends from the university. The bar was crowded with young people and neighborhood residents enjoying an Irish band playing their original rock-infused traditional songs. The group of friends ordered several appetizers, chatted with each other, and clapped along to the music. After two hours, Olivia and Melissa excused themselves and strolled through the busy square to a different pub for dinner. Tiny white lights were strung along the branches of the trees that lined the main street and warm golden light spilled from the windows of eateries and pubs. Pumpkins, mums, and cornstalks decorated doorways and window boxes.

“That was fun,” Melissa said. “And only Mike brought up the murders.”

“I was glad the topic shifted to other things so fast and we didn’t have to dwell on the killings,” Olivia said.

“Yeah, I don’t think any of them even knew we were at the apartment that night,” Melissa said.

“Mike knows we were there, but he doesn’t know we were the ones who found the bodies. He asked me about it, but I said we didn’t see much,” Olivia said. “I left it at that. I didn’t say we were first on the scene.”

“Good thinking. They mustn’t have seen the news article reporting our names.”

“It won’t take long before that bit of news starts circulating,” Olivia said.

The girls entered the pub and were seated in a back booth. They ordered iced teas and entrees and chatted about their classes and graduate school applications. When the meals came, they dug in with gusto. They planned to watch a movie together when they got home but couldn’t decide which one to pick.

“Something light. Maybe, a comedy?” Melissa suggested.

Before Olivia could reply, both of their phones buzzed with incoming text messages and they lifted the cell phones to see who was contacting them.

“A university text and another one from Ynes,” Olivia said as she bent closer to read the messages on the screen in the darkly lit pub.

“Same,” Melissa said as she read her texts.

Olivia’s blue eyes went wide and her pulse started to race. When she looked up and across the table at Melissa she could see her friend’s hand shaking as she held her phone in front of her.

“Jack,” Olivia said. The word choked her. Her eyes misted over and she had to swallow hard to speak.

“Someone killed him,” Melissa said, her voice trembling. “Why is this happening?” Panic sparked in her eyes. “What the hell is going on? Who is doing it?”

***

The girls paid for their meals, rushed out of the pub and ran up College Avenue to Jack’s building. The police cars’ blue lights flashed against the houses, and people gathered in small clusters across the street. Cops’ radios squawked snippets of conversations that were impossible to make out.

Olivia and Melissa scanned the groups and found a few friends standing together staring at the building that Jack had called home. Ynes was with them.

“What have you heard?” Olivia asked her.

“I found out about it from texts and tweets that went out,” Ynes told her. “I thought you’d want to know.” Her face looked pinched and tired. “We haven’t heard much.”

“Was he stabbed?”

Ynes nodded. “Just like the other guys.” Her fingers shook as she brushed her long hair behind her ears.

A young man they knew stepped closer. “Jessie found him. He was at the bottom of the stairs.” Jessie was Jack’s girlfriend.

Olivia and Melissa exchanged a look. “If they found him at the bottom of the steps,” Olivia whispered, “the killer must have attacked right after we talked to Jack.” She shuddered, feeling light-headed.

“The killer must have been right here. He must have seen us talking to him.” Melissa’s voice sounded strained.

“Damn. Damn it. If we had taken him to dinner, he’d still be alive.” Olivia brushed at the tears that were threatening to fall.

Melissa slipped her arm through Olivia’s. Olivia could feel her friend shaking next to her.

“Do you remember anyone nearby when we were talking to Jack?” Olivia asked.

Melissa tried to recall. “People walked by us and I think people were on the opposite sidewalk, but no one sticks out.”

“I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, either.” Olivia watched the cops buzzing in and out of the apartment building. She thought of Jack’s girlfriend finding him. “Poor Jessie.”

“Poor Jack,” Melissa added.

“We need to tell the cops we saw Jack earlier this evening,” Olivia said.

“Just wait a few minutes before we go over. I can’t do it right now.”

Olivia nodded. She scanned the crowd that had gathered. Students, young professionals, neighbors, a few little kids. Everyone stood in small groups, speaking in hushed tones. As Olivia’s gaze traveled over the people, her eyes passed over a lone person standing off the sidewalk at the corner, in the gutter of the road under the streetlight. It was a slender woman about Olivia’s age. She had spikey, short blonde hair and was dressed in jeans and a fitted brown leather jacket. Her hands were shoved into her pockets. Something seemed familiar about her and Olivia flicked her eyes back to the woman. The blonde had turned her body to face Olivia, and her eyes stared across the crowd like lasers. Olivia looked at the woman trying to place her, wondering if she should acknowledge her by waving.

An unmarked police car tore up College Avenue with its siren blasting and it halted in front of Jack’s building. Olivia turned and nudged Melissa.

“Do you know that girl? Over there near the side street?” Olivia asked.

“Where? Who?” Melissa craned her neck.

Olivia looked back to the corner. The girl was gone. Olivia’s eyes swept the crowd but she couldn’t locate the young woman.

“Who?” Melissa asked.

“I don’t see her anymore. She must have left.”

“Why do you ask about her? Who is she?”

“I don’t know. She seemed familiar. She was staring at me for a minute. It felt weird. I thought I should wave or nod or something but then I wondered if she was looking at someone next to us.”

“Maybe that’s what she was doing. Maybe it just seemed like she was looking at you.”

“Maybe. It seemed like she was staring at me though.” Olivia examined the crowd again to see if she could locate the girl, but she didn’t see her anywhere. Olivia felt slightly uneasy because of what seemed like the blonde’s attention on her, but she couldn’t understand why it unnerved her. She tried to shake the feeling off.

Olivia and Melissa crossed to the other side of the street when they saw a woman officer head to her cruiser. They told the police officer their names and that they had seen Jack several hours ago. They also reported that they had been the ones to discover the murdered bodies of Christian and Gary. The officer took down the information and the girls returned to where they were standing on the other side of the street. People had begun dispersing. Ynes stepped away from the students she was with and moved next to Olivia and Melissa.

“Did the officer tell you anything?” Ynes asked.

Olivia shook her head. “We saw Jack earlier tonight. We passed his car when he was parking it. We asked him to join us for dinner.”

“Obviously, he didn’t,” Ynes said.

Olivia shook her head again.

“It freaks me out,” Melissa said. “The killer must have been watching the building. He must have seen the three of us talking.” Her eyes flashed with worry. “What if the killer comes after us? What if we’re next?”

“I don’t think so,” Ynes said. “It’s only guys that are getting killed. So it seems.”

Melissa stared at her. “You think so?”

“So far, anyway. It seems like the killer has it in for men.”

Olivia processed Ynes’ words. “You think the killer knows the guys? Has some sort of vendetta against them?”

“Who knows,” Ynes said. “Maybe it’s someone who has a view of the world that these guys don’t fit into.” Her words were laced with disgust.

Olivia spoke softly. “If the killer is that football player, Adam Johnson, why would he kill Jack?”

“Maybe because Jack was at Gary and Christian’s apartment right after they were killed?” Ynes suggested.

“The killer must have seen Jack smoking outside the building when he was fleeing from the crime scene. But how would the killer know who Jack was? How could he find Jack so easily?” Olivia asked.

Ynes said, “The killer must have thought that Jack could identify him, so he killed him to silence him. I wonder if the killer did know Jack. He found out where Jack lived, at least.” Some people called to Ynes before Olivia or Melissa could reply. “I’m going home,” she said. “I’ll give you a call, Olivia. We can decide if we should pay a visit to that gym I told you about.” Ynes gave Olivia and Melissa’s arms a small squeeze. “Hopefully the cops will figure all this out.”

“Will they?” Olivia asked no one in particular.

“Maybe. How soon though?” Melissa asked.

“Not soon enough,” Olivia said.

“Liv, do you think the killer knew Jack?” Melissa asked. “That scares me. What else does the killer know?
Who
else does the killer know? Us?”

Olivia’s brow was creased with worry. “The thought that the killer knows us scares me to death. But even if the killer does know some of us, what’s the motive? Why is he killing them? Understanding that is the key to this whole thing.”

“Well the cops better figure it out. And they better find the suspect fast. Before this lunatic can kill someone else.” Melissa pulled gloves out of her pockets and put them on.

The girls decided to leave and followed the side streets back to their apartment house. As they approached their front porch, Olivia looked over her shoulder and said, “At least nobody followed us home.”

“Ugh. Don’t even joke. I can’t take it.”

They unlocked the front door and trudged up the stairs to the sixth floor. “Why is there no elevator?” Melissa groaned as she led the way.

“Put that on your wish list for your next place,” Olivia told her.

Melissa pulled her key out to unlock their apartment door. “What’s this?” she asked.

“What?” Olivia looked over her friend’s shoulder.