“Ellie!” he shouted, and ran out of the locker room onto the deck. She was standing at the edge of the pool, one hand holding a lane divider and the other clasped over her mouth. In the pool was a boy. He was resting on the bottom at the six foot mark and the water was tinged pink around him. As Luke walked closer, he could see the body was missing its head. It was floating a few feet out, face up. The eyes were half open and the mouth was set in a gasp with water sloshing in and out of it.
“Ah crap” Jimmy said, kneeling at the edge of the pool.
Luke stood next to Ellie who turned and buried her face in his shoulder, crying.
“I think it’s Jason Margot,” Luke said.
“Damn,” John whispered, coming up behind them.
Jimmy turned and threw up all over the deck.
Jaxon turned to the swim coach, Will Francis, and asked, “So the kids open up every morning?”
“Yes. They get everything ready for practice,” Will said.
“Does anyone else have a key?”
“Yes, several people do, including the head lifeguard, snack shop manager, and the management company.”
“What time do the kids usually show up?”
“Probably around 7:15. Practice starts at 7:30.”
“Right. Thank you Mr. Francis. Please help keep all the kids out of the area for a while. The pool will be closed for a couple of days while we gather evidence.”
Jaxon walked over to where Harrison and his little group were sitting. “You guys keep showing up whenever something happens. If I didn’t have in my possession proof you didn’t do anything, I’d swear you were involved. You’re lucky I have that proof.”
He knelt in front of Ellie. “Are you alright?”
She nodded. He could tell she wasn’t, but couldn’t do anything about it. Sally hadn’t arrived yet, but when she did, he’d have her talk to the girl.
“Think you guys can talk about it?” he asked them all.
He watched them all nod.
“Who wants to go first?”
“I found him, so I guess I will,” Ellie said.
He listened as she went through the trauma of finding the decapitated boy. The story was pretty consistent with what the coach had described and then what the boys told him next. He felt bad for them. They seemed to be getting caught up in a lot of stuff kids their age shouldn’t see. His cell phone rang and he looked at the number expecting it to be Sally. It read ‘unavailable’ and the number showed up as 000-000-0000.
He answered it. “Jaxon.”
“Hello Detective.” The voice was grating and high pitched. It had a metallic quality to it and he could tell it was being electronically altered. It drew out the word ‘Detective,’ mocking him.
“Who is this?” Jaxon asked.
“Did my little gift help?”
“What gift would that be?”
“The picture, of course. You really didn’t think the animals were meant for you, did you?”
“Not really. But we had already identified the boy yesterday morning.”
“So you say. I was becoming worried you would never honor him. Five months is a long time to find someone, isn’t it Detective?”
The voice was hurting his ear. The way he liked to drag out his title caused a kind of feedback through the speaker of the phone and he had to pull it away from his head. He saw Sally walk up and he frantically signaled for her. She walked over briskly.
He put his hand over the phone. “Call downtown,” he whispered to Sally, “Have them set up a trace on my cell. Hurry!”
She took out her phone and moved away.
“Still there Detective?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Come now, Jaxon. We don’t have much time. Can’t you think of something more useful to ask me?”
For some reason, Jaxon could think of only one thing. “Why?”
“That’s better. That wasn’t too hard was it?”
Jaxon remained silent.
“Because I can, Detective.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“Help me.”
“There you go. You just answered that question yourself.”
“Where are you?”
“Tell Winston I like her yellow blouse.”
Jaxon’s eyes snapped up as his heart leapt into his throat.
The line went dead.
They searched the area and finally found a battery powered web cam mounted to a lamp post at the southern end of the pool complex. It was the kind of video camera hunters used in the woods to track game.
Jaxon found out an hour later the image was uploaded to a server run by the manufacturer of the web cam and the video was accessed through a log-in page for each individual user. No personal information was kept on the users. All you needed was the serial number for the hunting cam to access the website. He would have his I.T. guys see if they could pull any information on where he was accessing the server from.
“Any luck with the cell phone?” Jaxon asked Sally.
“Nothing useful,” she said. “The call was placed using an internet based phone service. Basically you can call from anywhere in the world and pick your number you want displayed on the caller I.D. The internet company is based out of Moscow. Good luck trying to get any information out of the Russian Mob.”
“I think we may need to get the FBI involved. They may be able to get some information we can’t access. I’ll call Holt in Washington today.”
Emory Holt was a FBI agent out of D.C. who handled the District of Columbia and the surrounding counties. Jaxon hated involving the FBI, but he felt he had no choice at this point. Things were getting out of hand and they needed some help.
“Your call, Boss. I know we need help, but they will come in here and take over.”
“I’ll try and approach it from an informational stand point first. See if he’ll stay out of it for now,” Jaxon said.
“Knowing Holt, he’ll want in,” she said.
Jaxon shrugged. What could he do? Kids were dying.
A commotion at the entrance of the pool caught their attention.
“I don’t care sir,” a patrolmen was saying, loudly, “this is a crime scene and I can’t let you pass.”
“I know that. Just get a message to Detectives Jennings and Winston that Burt Lolly needs to see them. I have some more video. They’ll definitely want to see it.”
Jaxon walked up with Sally and said, “Mr. Lolly. What have you got?”
“Everything,” Mr. Lolly said, his face pale and troubled. He had the look of someone with information he really didn’t want to possess. “And you won’t believe it.”
Chapter 24
