The Hunt

Ten

"This case makes no sense at all." 

"Not at all, let's hope Harvard gives us some light ." Mark answered."You know, Kellie and I were talking about her offer and we decided to stay here." He made a pause "Probably with all the elections she thinks it's better staying here."

"She's absolutely right." I smiled, sensing how relief overcame me. Last thing I wanted was losing Mark as a partner."Will call her later, when we arrive. The Campus Police said  they would look for a place to stay, a small inn or something." I took a look at my cell phone "It's a place called Friendly Inn, it sounds good. Oh, by the way, I asked Tom to email me the interview with the victims' wives, maybe there's something we missed ."

"Good, it could help us revising them with fresher eyes.  Still, I would want Tom to have another interview with Jessica Thomas, maybe pressing her a bit would do. And Tom does know how to play the bad cop role."

I couldn't but laugh. Mark was right, Tom Bradford was a great partner and an excellent cop, but if any of us needed someone to put some pressure on a suspect, he definitely was your man. That didn't mean he was rude to people under arrest or whatever, he was absolutely respectful to their rights." Sure he does! Hope he gets more results than we did."

We made the rest of the trip talking about this and that, nothing connected to the case . It was a really beautiful autumn day, and the trees all along the road were amazingly red and yellow, and I enjoyed every mile of it. 

"Well, here we are. The headquarters of Campus Police must be somewhere near, if I'm not wrong... Eureka, that's it." Mark parked the car not too far from the main entrance. Just like all the other buildings around it, Headquarters was made of solid red brick, with a huge grass area in front of it.

"We are detectives Mitchell and Davidson, from D.C." We announced ourselves to the young officer in the reception desk.

"Welcome Detectives, Captain Blake is waiting for you. " He got up from his chair and guided us to Captain's office. It had views to a well attended garden, with some incredibly beautiful trees in it. 

"Nice to meet you, Detectives."Captain Blake, a friendly looking man in his late forties smiled at us. "Your Chief told me why you came here. I made some previous research, and we have nothing connected to the years the victims were here."

"We heard about the death of the only detective who still lived here, of that year Department."

Blake went serious "Nichols, yeah. A sad thing in fact. He stumbled and fell from his roof, dead in the act. Do you think it has something to do with your case?"

"It's possible, something must have happened here in 1995. And whoever is killing these men is trying hard to keep it unnoticed."

"I will call Mrs Nichols and tell her you're going to her place, this is the address. In the meantime, I will take a more detailed look at our files. Maybe I skipped something."

"Thanks Captain."

"Oh, by the way. My wife insisted me on inviting you for dinner, after you've settled. If you agree, we can meet here let's say at six. I hope having more news for you."

"Thanks again, Captain. "

Harold Nichols 's house was only ten minutes away from the Headquarters, so we decided not to take the car. It was an inviting October day, with a still warm sun. All along the way, hundreds of students came and went to their Colleges.  When we arrived to the address Captain Blake had given us, we saw a sixty something year old woman cleaning her garden.

"Mrs Nichols?" I said, with no answer.

"Mrs Nichols?" Mark tried again, this time louder. The woman turned around, clearly startled, and looked at us.

"Who are you? I don't need anything."

I took my badge out "Mrs Nichols, we're Detectives Mitchell and Davidson. Captain Blake said he would call you, to."

"No, he didn't." She stopper suddenly "God, ths deafness of mine. I should have taken the phone here, always miss the calls. But come in, Detectives. How can I help you?"

"We know it's hard, Mrs Nichols, but we need to talk about your husband." I said, hoping to sound as sympathetic as possible.

"It's about what happened in the 1990s, right? I told him to follow his instincts."