Chapter 8
Ollie
Les certainly had our attention. It wasn’t a smoking gun, but it definitely gave us something to follow up on. We asked Les a few more questions, he didn’t see Nick on the night that Cody disappeared, or last night when Andy was taken. He also told us that chair in front of the main computer had been adjusted. Les was 6’4” and Nick was just under 6’. Les said that he always has to lower the chair when he takes over for Nick.
I said, “So, Nick was doing something at the computer.” I turned to Jeff, “Is Nick tech savvy enough to delete surveillance footage?”
Jeff sighed, “Nick is my backup when I am out of the office. He has access to the system, I don’t know why I didn’t think of him before. I should have told you earlier, but it never occurred to me that Nick would be involved.”
I said, “To be fair, I never asked if anyone else had access, that should have been one of my first questions.”
We let Les go home after he had answered all the questions we had.
I turned to Jeff, “Okay, what do we know about Nick Houston?”
Jeff pulled out a file from his desk and started to read. He said, “He’s worked here about two years. Before I hired him, he worked as a bouncer in several local bars and clubs. He had started college to get a law enforcement degree but never graduated. He’s not married and has no kids. I’ve never had a problem with him, Ollie. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you all this before”
I sighed, “It’s okay, Jeff. We know now. As of right now, He and Marla are at the top of our suspect list.”
Jeff nodded, “I understand, but why would Nick want to hurt these guys? And there were two people carrying Cody and Eric. Do you think Marla is his helper?”
I sighed, “Yes, there were two people with Eric and Cody, but we only saw one with Andy. Andy also doesn’t fit the profile of the other two victims. Why were they targeted?” I paused for moment, “Maybe, Nick was the helper.”
Elliot asked, “What do you mean, Ollie?”
Blake said, “Nick might not be the mastermind behind this whole thing. Maybe he was recruited by Marla to help because of his position.”
Jeff nodded, “That makes more sense to me. Nick is a decent security guard, but he’s certainly not a member of Mensa. I don’t mean he’s not smart, he’s just more of a follower than a leader.”
Between listening to parts of the conversation and my thoughts of Andy, I had a thought. I asked Jeff, “You said Nick is not married. Does he have a significant other?”
Jeff shook his head, “Not that I know of.”
Bob, the day shift security guard was now in the room, he heard the last part of our conversation. He laughed, “Yesterday at the end of my shift, I saw Nick and Marla. They weren’t being exactly professional. It was more than just two coworkers talking.”
Jeff asked, “Why? What happened?”
Bob sighed, “I didn’t hear what they were saying, but they looked pretty chummy and like they were making plans to meet later. When Nick saw me, he blushed and quickly turned away and left to make his rounds.”
Blake asked, “Who is Marla?”
Jeff said, “She’s the desk clerk that works the same shift as Nick. Hotel policy says that employees aren’t supposed to date.”
I asked Bob, “But you didn’t hear what they were talking about?”
Bob shook his head, “Sorry Detective, no.”
Blake asked, “Can you show us the footage of Cody and Eric being carried out again?”
Jeff brought up the footage again, Blake, Elliot and I were looking over his shoulder.
Elliot said, “The second person is a bit smaller.”
I nodded, “Yeah, it could be a female. I wanted to check on that today too.”
Blake turned to Jeff, “Do you have any footage of Nick making his rounds?”
Jeff shrugged, “I’m sure I do. Why?”
Blake said, “I want to compare him to guys that carried Cody and Eric away. Maybe we can see if they have the same walk and posture.”
Jeff quickly began to search for footage of Nick making his normal rounds. He took a screen shot of Nick walking down the hall with his back to the camera. That was the view that we had of the bigger person that was carrying Cody and Eric. Jeff took a screen shot at a similar location in the hall of our kidnapper. He displayed them on the screen side by side.
Elliot said, “They are the same height and build.”
I nodded, “Yep. Hey Jeff, can you show them both walking?”
Jeff brought footage of both men walking down the hall and playing them side by side.
Blake said, “I think we definitely have a person of interest.”
Elliot and I nodded, “Yep.”
I asked, “Do you have any footage of Marla walking down the hall?”
Jeff sighed, “I can look, but the desk clerks are not supposed to leave the front desk. If they need something from any of the guests they are supposed to call the room or send someone else to talk to them.”
Blake said, “I think we need to talk to both of them.”
I thought for a moment, “If we talk to them, it might spook them. I don’t want to risk them panicking and doing something to our victims. Do you think we have enough to get a search warrant?
Balke shrugged, “We will have to ask the Captain. I still want to look at all the forensic reports, we should go back to the station to form a plan.”
Jeff opened his file and wrote down Nick’s address on a Post-it note; he handed it to me. He then picked up his phone to call HR to get Marla’s address. He handed me another Post-it.
Jeff said, “Nick lives in an apartment about 10 minutes from here, on Palmetto Drive. Marla lives in house on Hickory Lane.”
We thanked Jeff as we rushed out the door and drove back to the station. I gave Blake the forensic report on both Cody and Eric’s case, I didn’t have one for Andy. We knew that he was taken from the parking lot, we really didn’t have a crime scene for them to investigate.
We sat at a table as Blake spread the pages of the file out. He said, “Okay, we have two guys from out of town, both in town for business. Cody for meetings and Eric for a job interview. Both men are in a relationship with a woman, Cody is married and Eric is engaged. They both hook up with another man, Cody with an old friend and Eric with a guy he met in the bar. After they have a little fun, the hook-ups leave and our victims are hauled away. Now it looks like two hotel employees are our prime suspects.”
I sighed, “That about sums it up.”
Blake continued, “Andy is attacked in the parking lot, he spent the night with coworkers. He didn’t go to anyone’s room. We have two people carrying Cody and Eric away, but we only see one person dragging Andy away.”
Elliot nodded, “We don’t know if the second person was waiting behind the cars.”
Blake sighed, “That’s true. We also know that Cody and Eric were taken away in a light-colored SUV. We have no view of the license plate. We don’t know what kind of vehicle Andy was taken in. I think Ollie is right we need to find out what kind of car Nick and Marla drive?”
Elliot jumped up, “I’m on it.” He went to his desk and began to search the DMV database.
Blake and I continued to look through the report. Elliot said, “DMV record show a red 2021 Honda Civic registered to Marla Nelson.” He typed a little more, “A 2019 Chevy Blazer is listed under Nick Houston’s name.”
I asked, “What color.”
Elliot sighed, “Light gray.”
Blake asked, “Can you bring up the footage of vehicle?”
We moved to my desk, and I loaded up the video of Cody being put in the back of the SUV. As the back hatch was shut, Blake said, “Freeze it.”
I clicked my mouse on the pause button. Blake asked, “Can you enlarge that?”
I enlarged the picture. Elliot said, “That looks like the Chevy logo to me.”
I nodded, “Yes it does. Damn, why didn’t I focus on the vehicle sooner?”
Balke said, “Don’t worry, Ollie. You looked at everything else; The SVU was the only thing you didn’t have detailed notes on.”
Elliot said, “Okay, so now we think Nick resembles the guy carrying our victims away, and his vehicle matches the one used to haul them away. Sorry, I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but this all seems circumstantial. We really have no proof.”
Blake nodded, “You’re right Elliot, now we need to find proof.”
Cody and Eric
Cody and Eric heard the door being unlocked.
Eric said, “It must be about noon.”
Cody nodded, “Yeah, I guess I am a bit hungry.”
The same man that had been bringing their meals to them all week entered and handed each of them a bag from Taco Bell. He immediately left the room and locked the door, without saying a word.
Eric sighed, “I suppose we should be thankful that they are giving us a variety. I mean it could be McDonalds every day.”
Cody chuckled, “Yeah, thanks for helping me look on the bright side of this ordeal.”
Eric asked, “How long do you think they are going to keep us here?”
Cody shrugged, “I don’t know. I just hope someone finds us soon.”
Eric took a deep breath, “I’m not sure anyone has even reported me missing.”
Cody asked, “So you really didn’t tell anyone that you were coming to Miami?”
Eric shook his head, “No.”
Cody paused a moment, “What where you going to do if you got this job?”
Eric shrugged, “I was going to have to work up my courage to break my engagement to Kayla. Once I did that I could never stay in Chicago anyway. I’m sure her whole family is going to be pissed at me.”
Cody asked, “What would they do?”
Eric said, “Her dad is pretty big in the business community, he would probably make sure I could never find another job in Chicago.”
Cody asked, “Do you have enough money to start over?”
Eric smiled, “Yes. I have been stashing money away for the last year. Kayla’s dad gives out quarterly bonuses; I started a secret account at different bank than my account that Kayla knows about. Kayla knows about the bonuses, I just told her that I was saving it for our honeymoon. She thinks we are going to Europe for two weeks.”
Cody chuckled, “You have this all planned out, don’t you?”
Eric nodded, “Yep, I just need to grow a pair and tell Kayla it’s all over.”
Ollie
My mind was back on Andy; all the leads we were finding were only about Cody and Eric. Yes, we needed to find them, but I needed to find Andy. I know Captain wanted me to sit this one out, and that is why he called Blake in to help. I know I should probably not lead the investigation of my missing husband, but I was only doing what Ridge would do. I know he would not sit back if anything like this ever happened to Lucas.
I broke out of my deep thoughts when the Captain walked in. He said, “Ella Williams is here, she wants to talk to you guys.”
Blake asked, “About what? Ollie called her a few hours ago with an update.”
Captain said, “She says she might have some new information.”
We immediately ran the interview room, Ella was already seated, wringing her hands as we walked in.
I said, “Mrs. Williams, Captain said you might have some new information that might be helpful.”
Ella sighed, “I’m not sure. I was sitting in the hotel room after you called me this morning, I was bored and trying to take my mind off of Cody for a while. I checked my Instagram account, I found this.”
She handed me her phone, I asked, “What is it?”
She said, “Cody was tagged in a post from someone I don’t know.”
I looked at her phone and saw a picture of Cody standing there in just his underwear. There was a caption, “This man is a cheater. He cheated on his wife with another man!” I showed the phone to Blake and Elliot.
Ella asked, “Do you know anything about Cody being with a man?”
I sighed, “I’m sorry, Ella. Yes, Cody and Jared were together that night. It was after Jared left that Cody was abducted.”
She said, “Well then you need to arrest this Jared guy then. It’s obvious that he kidnapped Cody for his own deprived sex games.”
I shook my head, “We have already talked to Jared, we told you that. We do not believe he is involved in any way. They are old friends and after they met for drinks, they both just got a little carried away.”
Elliot added, “Besides, we have another victim taken under the same circumstances. We have surveillance footage of both victims being taken from the hotel and the people in that footage don’t match Jared.”
Blake sighed, “Ella, we weren’t trying to hide anything from you, we just didn’t think telling you would help anything.”
Before the conversation veered any further off course, I said, “We can discuss all of this later, I think we need to see who is behind this post. Please Ella, let us do our job and as soon as we find Cody, you can have a talk with him.”
She sighed, “You’re right Detective. What do you want me to do?”
I said, “You should go back to your hotel, and we will call you when we know anything more. Thank you so much for bringing this information to our attention.”
Ella nodded, “Please, just bring him back safe.”
I tried to give her a reassuring smile, “We will.”
She walked out of the room and returned to her hotel to wait for us to call.
Blake said, “Good job on getting us back on track Ollie, sorry about that.”
Elliot nodded, “Yeah, sorry I got carried away there too. I should not have told her about the other case.”
Blake said, “Yep, we need to be careful about what we say about other cases.”
I took a deep breath, “Okay, so we need to find out who posted that picture.”
We went back out to our desks; I opened my Instagram account and found the post. I followed the account to see if they had any other posts. There were exactly two posts. The picture of Cody and a similar picture of Eric. I was both disappointed and relieved that there wasn’t a picture of Andy. Every new piece of information that we found made me believe that Andy’s case was not related to Cody and Eric’s.
Elliot said, “The screenname is “JusticeSeeker”. It looks like a new account, these are the only two posts and they only have 4 followers, one of which is now Ollie.”
Blake was already on the phone calling Mark and Kyle to see if they can find out who “JusticeSeeker” is. He hung up the phone and said, “They’re on it, Mark said he should be able to find out within the hour.
A half an hour later, Mark called Blake with a name. Blake said, “That’s no big surprise, thanks Mark. We appreciate the prompt response.”
Blake ended the call and I asked, “Well?”
He grinned, “Marla Nelson.”
I stood and said, “I’ll go ask the Captain to get us a search warrant.”
I quickly explained all the new information that we had and that we wanted to go search Marla Nelson’s house. He agreed that we had probable cause for a search and called the DA.
As I turned to leave the Captain’s office, he asked, “How are you holding up, Ollie?”
I sighed, “I’m doing okay. The more I learn, the more I am convinced that Andy’s case isn’t related to this one.”
He nodded, “Thank you for keeping focused on finding Cody and Eric. Don’t worry, if Andy isn’t with them, we will find him.”
I forced a smile, “Thanks Captain. And thanks for calling Blake, him being here has helped me stay on course.”
Captain smiled, “I’ll let you know as soon as the warrant comes through.”
I rejoined Blake and Elliot, and we laid out a plan to execute the warrant.
I brought up a Google map of 2854 Hickory Lane, Marla’s house. That part of town was where many lower-middle class families lived. It wasn’t a bad part of town, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as many other areas. That was no surprise, I’m sure a hotel desk clerk doesn’t earn six figures. From the map, we could see that there was a Church about two blocks from the house. We could use the parking lot as staging area before we went to the house. We would be able to park the equipment truck, police cars and ambulance that we always took on these raids.
We called the team that would help execute the warrant, the team leader met with us so we would all be on the same page. He was going to surround the block in case Marla or Nick decided to run once we were at the door. At least we were hoping Nick would be at Marla’s house so if we found what we were looking for, we could arrest them both at the same time.
There was a line of trees between Marla’s house and her neighbor on the back side. The team could stay behind the trees and not be seen if Marla looked out her back door or windows. We soon had a plan in place; now we just needed to get that warrant.
DA Bill Taylor walked in just as we finished our planning session, he handed us the warrant. He said, “Let me know when you have our suspects in custody.”
I nodded, “Yes sir, we will.”
We all headed to our vehicles for the drive to Hickory Lane. We pulled into the church parking lot for a final briefing. We waited until all the officers were surrounding the block. Blake, Elliot and I were going to Marla’s house, along with four uniformed officers.
I was glad to see Nick’s Blazer parked beside Marla’s Honda in the driveway. We stopped in front of Marla’s neighbor’s house; there were some kids playing in the front yard. Two of the uniformed officers quickly talked to the kids and ushered them inside the house, telling the mother who answered the door to keep the kids inside until we were finished with our mission. We didn’t want any innocent bystanders to get hurt, especially kids.
I pulled in behind the Honda and the Blazer, parking in the center of the driveway to block them in, just in case Marla or Nick tried to get away. Two uniformed officers went around the back of the house to watch the back door. Once they were in place, Blake, Elliot and I walked to the front door, followed by the other uniformed officers.
As we walked by Nick’s Blazer, I noticed a bed spread that matched the ones in the hotel, I pointed it out to Blake and Elliot. I knew we were on the right track. Once we were all in position at the front door. I pounded on the door and said, “Miamai Police, we have a search warrant.”
We heard footsteps inside the house; it sounded like running. We pulled our weapons and opened the door, it was unlocked. As we entered, I heard the officers at the back door yelling, “Step back inside the house with your hands up.”
Nick walked back into view with his arms above his head. Marla was also standing there with her arms raised.
I said, “We have a warrant to search your house. You both need to sit down at the kitchen table with your hands on top of the table while we have a look around.”
The uniformed officers stayed with Nick and Marla in the kitchen. They complied with my orders as Blake, Elliot and I started to look around. The house had an open floor plan, the kitchen, dining room and living room were all in full view. It was clear that Cody and Eric were not there. We walked down the hall that we assumed led to the bedrooms and bathroom. After we searched those rooms and all the closets, we returned to the kitchen.
Blake nodded to the door on the other side of the kitchen, he asked, “What’s behind that door?”
Marla sighed, “It’s a garage that I had converted into a family room and another bedroom.”
We slowly proceeded to the door and opened it. Just as Marla told us, there was a room with some chairs, a couch and big TV. As we cleared the room, we saw the door that led to the bedroom had a deadbolt and a padlock on it. I called for a battering ram and a minute later we were ready to bust the door down.
I yelled, “Miami Police, we are going to break the door down. If there is anyone in the room, stand back.”
The door flew open on the first try. Blake and I entered the room with our guns drawn. We saw two men in their underwear standing against the back wall.
I let out a sigh of relief, “Cody and Eric I presume.”
The man on the right said, “Yes, I’m Cody Williams.”
The other man said, “I’m Eric Swanson.”
I put my gun back in my holster and said, “You can relax, you are safe now. Are you guys the only ones in this room?”
They both nodded as I felt my heart sink. I really wasn’t expecting Andy to be here, but I was still holding out hope that he might be. An officer quickly went out to the ambulance and returned with two pairs of scrubs for Cody and Eric. As we were leading them out of the room, they saw Marla sitting at the table.
Eric said, “The hotel desk clerk, I knew I heard that voice before.”
I nodded at the officers, and they took Cody and Eric to the ambulance to be checked over by the EMTs.
I turned to Marla and told her to stand up and put her arms behind her back. I said, “You are under arrest for kidnapping and I am sure the DA will be adding a few more charges to that.” I began to read her rights to her.
As soon as I had the handcuffs locked on her, Elliot walked to Nick to cuff him. Nick started to stand and threw the table up, knocking the officers and Elliot onto the floor. He bolted for the back door. Elliot regained his footing and followed Nick out the door. I told the officers to stay with Marla as Blake and I ran out the front door.
I went to the right side and Balke went to the left side just in case Nick was dumb enough to run to front of the house. I heard Elliot yelling, “Don’t move or I’ll have to shoot.”
Everything started to happen so fast; I heard Elliot yelling some more as I stepped to the corner of the house. I wanted to get to back of the house so I could help Elliot, I ran from the corner of the house to get behind a tree that was about twenty-five feet away. I heard the gun shot. My gut felt like it was on fire, I grabbed my stomach and my hand was instantly covered in blood. I heard another gunshot come from the back yard.
Blake yelled toward the EMTs. “Officer down. Get up here, now!”
I fell to the ground, and everything went dark.
To be Continued…
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