The Hunt

Eleven

Mark and I looked at each other, both of us thrilled about what Mrs Nichols was going to tell us. She seemed very calm, as if her story was someone else's.

"Let me make you some coffee first , this will take time. And I want you to read something." She finally said, She went to the kitchen and after a short while she came back, carrying a tray and a Manila folder "Hal was a good man, and a decent police officer, one of the best in this whole town. He loved his job and was committed to it." A hint of nostalgia appeared in Mrs Nichols' voice. "I don't want you to misjudge him for one single mistake, God knows he wanted to go on with that case." Mrs Nichols opened the folder and looked for some papers "Yeah, here it is. It was in 1991, some students were accused of gang raping a girl."

I held my breath, knowing we had given a huge step to solve the case. "Can we take a look at that file, Mrs Nichols?" 

"No, wait. I will give them to you, but let me finish first. Hal led the investigation and made some arrests, but he was invited to forget about it. Someone came, the father of one of the students I think, and somehow this man managed to have Hal burying the investigation."

An uncomfortable silence appeared, Mrs Nichols lost in her memories and Mark and I shocked with the news. Finally, it was Mark who asked.

"Do you know the name of that man? It's important for us."

"I wish I knew, but Hal never told me. All I remember is that he came homereally upset and angry, and for some time he even thought of quitting the force. I wish he had done, possibly he would be alive by now."

I held the woman's hand, knowing my next  question could hurt her even more "Mrs Nichols, do you remember if Hal had some visit or someone threatened him the days  before he died?"

"No, no, but he was in a peculiar mood now that I think of it. He was a reserved man, and even more after that incident, and I had learned not to ask if he didn't tell me." Mrs Nichols stared at us "Do you...do you think that whoever killed those men killed Hal too?" Her voice broke.

"It's possible, yes." I admitted " You've been very helpful, Mrs Nichols. Thanks so much."

"This is my card, Mrs Nichols. We'll stay for two days here, so if you remember something else, please call us okay?" Mark said.

"I will. Good luck, detectives."

"Vernon?" I asked when we were out of Mrs Nichols' house.

"Vernon. We will have to talk to him again. That son of a bitch, bet he doesn't even think what he did is why his son is dead." 

"One thing, let's not mention this to Captain Blake, at least for the time given.  Let's see first if he actually found something okay?"

"You're right, he might know about this fuckin' mess. God, I feel like calling Internal Affairs  right now."

"What for? Nichols is dead, and he would be the only to be blamed. As bad as it is, we won't change a thing ." I heard the buzzing of my  cell phone, with Kate's number showing in the display "Hey, Kate, what do you have for us?" There was no one around, so I connected the free hand speaker so that Mark could hear too.

"I managed to gain access to the victims mail accounts, and during the last months someone was reminding them of Vicky. They only said that , "Remember Vicky?" "

"We think we know who she is. Can you send us the emails?"

"Sure, but there's something else. All three victims started emailing each other after the first email mentioning Vicky. They seemed to be quite angered about that, blaming each other. I tried to trace the account, but it was from a different one each time, so that's a dead end."

"It's okay, no problem about that. It sort of coincides with what we found out here. Thanks Kate, bye." 

Kate's emails didn't take long to arrive, and they were really clarifying. As she had said, there were no threats in them, just one question.  

"Remember Vicky?"