The Marradith Ryder Series Part 9
It was Shannon Vega’s experience that strange things usually happened in threes.
First, her boss, Dan, killed a story she had about a car chase on the freeway right along the river. “I’m sorry, Shannon, I know that it sounds like it could be a good one, but someone high up made sure we won’t go public. It had to be big brass, because they spread money out to our competitors to keep it quiet.
I don’t even know it was.
And better yet, they’re excavating a car from the river today,” Dan had that far away look, a former reporter who’d been behind the desk for too long and would love to get out on the street. “Anyway,” he said, breaking out of his reverie, “I promise to give you the next good story that comes through.”
Shannon went back to her desk and put in a call to Ryan Doherty, a police detective who had been assigned the case. “I’m told we can’t go on the air with anything,” she whispered, “but will you give me anything interesting that you come up with?”
“Sure thing. We can discuss it over a beer.”
Shannon paused. It was just like Ryan to want to make a date of it. “Of course.”
The second odd thing, the big one, happened the very next morning, when she got a call that there was a multiple shooting at the LessCost. Shannon and her crew were the first on the scene. The police were tight lipped, but she tried to glean what she could.
Three men were seen talking to Brown, but no one got much of a description; two white men and one black. No one knew where they went.
A security guard was found dead behind the store. He was not shot. His throat had been slashed. The police were working on the assumption that the manager was stealing; perhaps the guard came in on Brown, and he killed him. After that, he just snapped and went on a rampage.
That explanation didn’t feel right to her.
The third thing came the day after that. Ryan gave her a call, excited. He wanted to meet at Fries and Grind, a local sports bar known for its French fries, sausage grinder subs and cheap pints of good beer. She agreed to meet, even though it was not somewhere she enjoyed going. The air was so thick with grease and cigarette smoke she could almost taste it. But she made sure she was there early. She was waiting when Ryan came in. He looked around before sliding into the booth where she sat. “Have I got goods for you, chica,” he said.
She smiled. “Okay, tell me.”
“It’s the weirdest thing. Look, the captain would have my balls if anyone knew I told you this. We were expecting to find a dead body in that car, the one that drove off into the river the other day. It’s possible that the current could have pulled it downstream, but we can‘t be sure. So we pull the records and the car is registered to this lady, Nora Ryder. She’s a school teacher over at Palm Elementary. Her house is at 2940 Clausen,”
Ryan paused. “I thought you couldn’t run this,” he said. Shannon was taking copious notes of his every word. “Let me worry about that,” she made a swiping gesture with her left hand. “You’re one of my best sources, I won’t even come close to revealing you. Go on.”
“So, we started looking for next of kin. And couldn’t find any.”
“You mean, she did not have any family?”
“No, just the opposite. Nora’s married with three kids, and we can’t find them, or the husband.”
“What?”
He grinned. “That’s what we said. Look, the Ryders have an adult son who, until about a week ago, was attending college in Atlanta. He quit. And no one has seen him since. Around the same time, Nora put in for a sabbatical at work, and her husband went on leave of absence from his job. Danny, the youngest kid, was pulled out of school. The parents said they’d decided to home school him. And then there’s the daughter, Marradith, who is sixteen. She was out of school as well, but she‘s on the track system. No one would expect her to be at school for another two weeks.”
“You’re not thinking this was one of these multiple suicide things, where they all ended up in the river?”
“If it were that, we’d have found at least two bodies by now. We have theories, but the whole team is trying to put this one together. The next step was to get a warrant and search the Ryder house.”
Shannon tapped the eraser against her lips, preoccupied. Ryan winked, and she stopped, realizing he probably thought she was doing it for his benefit. “What did you find?”
“There were ropes on the kitchen floor, and a faint trace of blood. Just a few drops. But we found more blood in the girl’s bedroom, just in front of her closet. They’re trying to do a DNA test on it now.”
“Was it enough blood for the person to have been killed?”
“We don’t think so, but probably they were hurt badly.” He licked his lips. “It gets better.”
“Yes….”
“Someone wrote, on the girl’s bathroom mirror, ‘Help Me’ in red lipstick.”
“So they think someone took her?”
“Either that or the parents were going to kill her and she knew it. There’s another little wrinkle.”
“What’s that?”
“When our guys searched LessCost, the one you were at yesterday, they found something. A little pink cell phone. Apparently the night crew did not dump the trash. There was still water on the inside of the thing, and I am willing to bet they’ll find it was river water.
We got in touch with the phone company, and they have that cell registered under Marradith Ryder.”
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© 2009 Lori Titus
Lori Titus’s The Marradith Ryder Series appears in episodes on Flashes in the Dark. Many of her short stories appear on MicroHorror.com, DemonMinds.com, and Shadeworks.org. An upcoming story will also be featured as a pod cast on SFZine.org. For more information see her at http://www.myspace.com/talesforthedark.
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April 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I’m really enjoying this, Lori! As a reporter myself I was glad to see Shannon join the story!
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:51 pm
You will see more of her.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Well from the outside it would look like a family slaying or worse. Here is hoping that shannon doesn’t get in to deep and not make it back out.