AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Marzillo pulled the clasped hands up and apart, revealing a king cake baby identical to the other two they’d found. “No rigor whatsoever, which fits with the time frame Stanton gave us.”
“Okay, so,” Jo said, forcing herself not to pace. “Our killer picked a different location, most likely because they didn’t have a better option. They left off the ceremonial trappings, likely for the same reason. Helen wasn’t one of the women who hung out with Madison and Naomie, which means they most likely had to branch out since we’ve got Chelsea under police protection and Julia isn’t pregnant. They also weren’t able to get Helen to go quietly, the way they did with the others, but still went through with it all despite the risk. What does that tell us?”
“They were obsessed,” Peterson said.
“Or they had some reason why the murder had to take place tonight,” Arnett said, hand in the air signaling he was trying to think. “From the start we assumed our killer latched on to Lucifer Lost to shift blame. But what if we’re exactly wrong? What if this is some sort of three-part ritual that needs to be completed within a certain period of time? Either by actual Lucifer Lost or some psycho obsessed with Lucifer Lost?”
Jo nodded. “Okay, let’s follow it through. We’ve been working with several theories. One is a fully random serial killer just looking to kill pregnant women—but most likely they’d go elsewhere or wait until it was safe to kill again. Our second theory is Travis or one of his associates from The Velvet Volcano is using the Lucifer Lost trappings to get rid of women who are problematic. That could create time pressure, too, if Helen was about to go to the police or some such,” Jo said.
“So we need to find out if Helen has any connection to The Velvet Volcano,” Arnett said.
“What about the embezzled money?” Marzillo asked. “Was Helen one of the other women who had a second grant taken out in her name?”
“Not according to the documents Naomie had on her, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t know something about it.” Jo stared down at Helen’s slack, frightened face. “So in addition to finding out if she’s connected to The Volcano, we need to find out if she’s associated with Triple-B, and if so, whether she got a grant from them.” She started walking back toward the hill. “And we need to talk to the boyfriend asap.”
CHAPTERFORTY-FOUR
But Wesley Jackson couldn’t tell them where exactly Helen had attended prenatal class. She went to several different places for several different services; he’d lost his job as a restaurant manager during the pandemic and was struggling to find another, so money was tight and her medical insurance was limited. Helen hadn’t had any issues with anyone following or harassing her, or any enemies that he knew of. He didn’t recognize any of the other women’s names, but that didn’t mean Helen hadn’t known them. She worked an unpaid internship, and spent her evenings with him—he’d have known if she was working at a strip club.
As Jo and Arnett strode back toward the buildings of the strip mall, she pulled out her phone and placed a call to Sandra at Triple-B.
“Helen Jackson?” Sandra answered Jo’s question. “Yes, she’s a client here. Why?”
“Did you hold classes today, or were you closed due to Naomie’s passing?”
“We considered closing, but decided Naomie would want us to stay open for the sake of the clients. We scaled back our services, though, while we work out how to manage now that Naomie is…”
Jo saved her from struggling to find the right words, and zoned in on the implication. “I don’t know much about non-profits. How will that work? Can they hire someone else to fill in, or does whoever takes over need to be vetted by the board?”
“That’s part of what they’re trying to work out. But for now, Julia and Rhea are covering as much as they can.”
Jo made a mental bookmark for that and returned to her original topic. “Was Helen one of the people who attended your prenatal class today?”
“I’m not sure. We have two, one at five and one at seven. I do remember seeing her today, though.”
“Did she know Naomie or Madison? Or Chelsea and Julia?”
“I’m sure she’s met Naomie, all of our clients did, and since Julia teaches most of our classes, I’d assume she knows her, too. I can’t say regarding Madison or Chelsea.” Her tone rose. “You’re using past tense. Is Helen okay?”
Jo stopped walking, and explained as quickly and diplomatically as she was able. “I have two important favors to ask you. First, is there some way you can send out another email blast to all your employees and clients asking if anyone knows or saw anything out of the ordinary today, especially regarding Helen?” She dictated the number of the tip line.
“Of course. I’ll send it now.”
“Thank you. The second is, can you look into Helen’s accounts and make sure there’s nothing strange going on with her grant applications or anything else?”
“I can double-check first thing in the morning.” She sounded doubtful. “But I’ve already been going over everything since we found the other discrepancies. There’s not really any other way Helen or any other client could have accessed money they weren’t entitled to.”
“I understand. Thank you so much.” Jo disconnected the call and stared up at Arnett. “So that’s three people associated with Triple-B. No way is that a coincidence.”
Arnett nodded. “But are we looking at a killer inside the ranks of Triple-B, or outside of it?”
Jo shook her head and tapped on Chelsea’s contact. When Chelsea picked up, Jo dove straight in.
“Helen Jackson,” Chelsea said. “No, that doesn’t sound familiar to me. Maybe we were in class together or something but we never hung out.”
Jo thanked her and hung up the phone. “Dammit, dammit, dammit.”
“What? This narrows things down considerably,” Arnett said as he swung into a turn. “Helen didn’t have a personal connection to the other women, and she wasn’t involved in the money issue. Her boyfriend is sure she wasn’t a stripper. That leaves us with an obsessed psycho stalking Triple-B, looking for pregnant women to kill. Now that we know what kind of monster we’re working with and where to look, we’ll catch him in no time.”
