Classmate Murders, Bob Moats [classic children's novels TXT] 📗

caller ID, I went back through the list and wrote down the last number that came up. After about a half hour the sheriffs rolled in followed closely by Trapper and Officer Becker. Sue was a bit more in control and Buck was soothing her. As soon as Buck saw all the cops, he excused himself from Sue, and moved over to a corner of the room and quietly sat in a chair.

"Richards, I told you not to investigate!" He growled.

"I was just visiting an old school friend when all this happened."

Sue looked terrible so Trapper asked a deputy to take her in the other room and let her rest, but to stay with her. He moved over to me.

"What's the word?"

The Sheriff moved next to Trapper as I filled them in on what I knew. I told him about the cheerleader's charges against Nathan Rocco and about as much as I could remember about him from school. Trapper told Becker to get on the radio to the station and see what he could find out about Nathan Rocco, and to make sure that the last two woman on the list were given protection. I stopped Becker and gave him the number off the caller ID. I said he might want to check where it came from. Trapper gave me a look and said "Who's in charge here?"

I said, "Time is fleeting."

He ignored me and said, "If Rocco was accused of sexual misconduct, he might be in the registry. Sheriff, If you don't mind giving me jurisdiction on this, it ties in with three murders I got going now."

The Sheriff was more than happy to avoid the paper work and said so. Trapper went into what was the living room of the house and sat down next to Sue. She was looking slightly better than 15 minutes ago.

"Miss Carter, What exactly did the voice say on the phone?"

"It's Mrs. York, or was, but you can call me Sue. I said hello and I heard some breathing then a voice said 'Sue Carter, you are the fourth classmate to die. Congratulations'. That was all and he hung up.

"Well, it's him, this time he's not getting in or out," Trapper said emphatically. "We are going to need a few men from your office Sheriff, if you can spare them." The Sheriff said no problem and Trapper went on, "I'm going to put in a couple of mine too, station them around outside if need be, he's going to slip up, I'm sure of it and we'll get him."

I looked at my watch, time had just whizzed by and I had to get back to the house to help get Dad to bed. I excused myself and asked Buck to drive me home. As we were heading out the Sheriff stopped Buck and asked, "Hold on there, you Buck Carson?"

Buck said he was and waited for some kind of crap.

The Sheriff grinned, threw his arm around Buck's shoulder and said, "Hell boy, I went to school with your older brother Mark. How is the old fart?"

Trapper was not amused that an officer of the law was being friendly with Buck but let it go. Nothing he could do.

Buck replied, "Mark is doing good, he's been married, second time, about ten years now, four kids and living up in Anchorville. He's a fireman for the county."

"Damn, Mark and I used to get in heaps of trouble when we were young. I haven't seen you since you were just head high to my waist. I heard you were a little hell raiser too." Buck just grinned, Trapper just grimaced. "Tell Mark that Tate Wallace said howdy."

"I'll do that, Sheriff," Buck smiled.

"Hell, call me Tate, we're like family. Have that old coot call me sometime." He handed Buck his card. "Nice to catch up with him."

"Sure enough Tate, I'll call him tomorrow." Buck said. They shook hands and he gave that big walrus smile to Trapper as we headed out.

Outside by the car I said "I'll bet that just made your day."

"Sho nuff." Buck grinned and we left the property.

Driving down Groesbeck Hwy., we sat quietly, reflecting on what had happened.

"You think the killer will try a hit on Sue? With the city and county cops hovering around?" Buck inquired.

"Well, he was gutsy enough to kill three other women while they were hovering, I guess he likes a challenge. But the cops are really on the watch for him now, doubt he will slip through." I said with my head back on the rest, totally wiped out from the day. At one time, in years past, I'd be wired for more to do and probably end up the evening at some bar, dancing the night away. Now I wanted to crawl into bed and just hide my head under the pillow. Growing up sucks. My mind went back over the day, murder and mayhem. I enjoyed reading about it but was it worth being right in the middle of the real thing. I had talked to a woman from my past just an hour before she was brutally murdered, not a pleasant memory.

"What are you going to do now, Spen-sahh?" Buck broke my thoughts.

"Go to bed and hope tomorrow I get no calls about more cheerleader deaths."

"Not going to investigate any more? Man you're not going to disappoint me now, are you?" Buck sounded distressed.

"Yeah, well, expect disappointment, I'm worn down. We'll see what tomorrow brings."

"Ok, buddy. I have to work tonight so I won't be camped in your drive. Protect yourself."

Buck pulled into my drive and we said our good nights and I went in.

I got home with time to spare. I went into my room and checked my email to see if whipit had anymore threats for me, there were none. I guess I was a bit disappointed.

I finished helping get Dad to bed and went back online. I just sat there staring at the monitor, almost in a trance before I caught a second wind and went to do a search on Nathan Rocco.

After about three search pages I found an obituary with his name in it. I opened the link and read.

"Nathan R. Rocco, 78, past away December 15, 2008, quietly after a lengthy illness. Mr. Rocco was a janitor at Heavenly Chapel Church in Bad Axe, MI for the last seven years and taught Sunday school for the youth. Divorced, he is survived by a daughter, Julia Waters of Chicago, Ill. Mr. Rocco had attended Michigan State University receiving a degree in physical education. He taught PhysEd for five years in the Macomb County school district before moving to Bad Axe. Donations can be sent to the Heavenly Chapel building fund to add a wing for improved classrooms."

Dead now four months. Well, he couldn't be killing the women, unless his ghost was slipping through the walls to kill. There were no more search links to be found on Rocco, so I did a search on Julia Waters, his daughter. She came up pretty fast as she was a big time criminal lawyer in Chicago. She had received many awards and acclaim for her work for woman's rights and protections from abusive spouses. I read further but there was not much more info, and nothing about her father. Although it did say she came back to her hometown in Michigan once a year to visit family. Didn't say what that hometown was, I presumed Bad Axe, but it did say she was in her late thirties so Bad Axe couldn't be her original hometown.

I wrote down the name of the law firm that she worked at and shut down the browser after checking my email again, nothing important or harmful. I looked up to the clock and it was now almost midnight. I had used up my quota of beer for the night. I put everything away that I had dragged out and put out on my bed during the day. The bed was the only flat surface in my crowded little room that wasn't piled up with my toys or property. Since I moved in with my parents I've been living out of boxes and the limited space in my room made for cluttered living. My mother is amazed that I can pile items upon items to form little towers that could topple over at any shake of my room. I usually drag things out that I need for the day and they are all laid out on the bed, then at bedtime I have to figure where to put all that stuff so I can crawl under the covers.

I crawled into bed thinking about the day and how fate can screw with people's lives. I was thinking about Sue Carter and the miserable life she had. I hoped the police would at least keep her safe. Tomorrow I would try to get in touch with Penny Wickens, from her website she was the most successful of the cheerleaders. She had a small local talk show on cable TV and was high profile around the community for her charitable work. She would probably be well protected by now. The police wouldn't want the publicity of her murder on their hands. I wondered if I should share what I found about Rocco and his daughter with Trapper, or wait till I had more information. Probably wouldn't matter, he most likely has all the gory details by now, he does have the internet. Amazing thing the internet, it keeps us informed, entertained and yet it still has a dark side. Like email threats. My eyelids started to droop so I just let them go into the night.

*


Chapter Six

By 9 A.M. I awoke feeling quite refreshed. No calls during the night to disturb my slumber and no mother banging on the door about some suspicious characters stalking around the house. My first goal of the day was to call Chicago to see if Julia Waters has been out of the state. I knew the police would be doing all the investigating, but this was too close to home for me to just let go. My curiosity was peaked and I couldn't get the thought of people I knew just being killed, and doing nothing about it. That wasn't me.

I dressed and said my good mornings to my parents and went to the front porch to get the local newspaper. The delivery person had thrown it in the bushes again, and bending over for me was getting to be harder to do every day. Again I threatened to not age anymore. I brought the paper in for Mom but checked it first to see what they had said about Joyce Harper. The article was fairly brief, I'm sure at the request of the police. There was nothing much more there that I didn't already know, except I did know a bit more than reported. Marge Holden's murder was in another county so the local papers didn't carry it. I was sure the police didn't want the connection to the two murders in this county to be linked to minimize the panic. I realized this wasn't random serial killings, this was premeditated toward specific persons but the public would believe what they wanted, just like some people believe our government is doing a good job. The local police had stated that it looked like an accidental poisoning by Joyce Harper, looked like, their unofficial statement.