Control Freak ✔️

27 dungeon master

Several months later.

"Your thoughts, Mr. Hayakawa," Seguerra said as the two men stood just outside of the penitentiary walls.

"Well, while our prime suspects are on the run, and it is evident that they've played a critical role in these crimes, I don't think we should neglect the suspects we still have available in the city. I'm not completely sold on Caleb's father's innocence, but I also can't deny that all the evidence leans one way. All of these killings have a common link. But then what's her motive? Money? I'm having a great deal of trouble believing this is some kind of plot for money. It would be easier to just get married or pregnant. But on the other hand, I'm also having trouble believing she's some kind of raging sociopath with this uncontrollable thirst for killing. I think there are competing interests. And I definitely think there's more than one killer. But I still can't seem to fit the pieces together."

Seguerra took his phone out from his pocket, holding it up in front of him to show the picture he had taken. "You're as sharp as ever, Mr. Hayakawa. But today, I've beaten you to the punch."

"Mr. Clark. It's been awhile," Seguerra said as a large man in an orange jumpsuit was led into the room and forced into the chair opposite Seguerra.

Fred Clark leaned forward in his chair, with his elbows resting on his knees and his chained hands dangling in between.

"Orange looks good on you," Seguerra chided. "Really makes that neck tattoo pop."

Clark didn't respond. He kept glaring, with his jaw clinched and his lips tight.

"Don't worry, I didn't come just to chat. I bear gifts," he continued. "I can get you out of here—today—if you help me with this one little issue I'm having."

Clark's ears perked up. "Nice to see I've got your attention," Seguerra crooned. "So, tell me about Ivy Quinn... Who is she really to you?"

"What's the old man talking about?" one of the guards asked Sam as they stood watching on the other side of the glass.

"Seguerra's got it all figured out," chirped Sam with a confident glimmer in his eyes. "He realized something was off about this suspect, Ivy Quinn, the more he tried to dig into her past..."

"In order to have any chance at apprehending Ms. Quinn with enough evidence to lock her up and throw away the key, I first had to accept that we all, including myself, have underestimated the quick-witted and strategic brilliance of this maniacal beauty," Sam remembered Seguerra saying.

"I spent months attempting to understand the person she was before her parents' murder, and that led me to dig more into the Quinns. Mr. Quinn made his fortune in real estate, while Mrs. Quinn was a superintendent of a school district. No military history for either of them or any of their family members. I think Mrs. Quinn fenced in college. The point I'm getting at is nothing about the Quinns makes me believe they were capable of raising up this highly-trained super soldier: one skilled at hand-to-hand, infiltration, intel-gathering, and neat and tidy assassinations. You're not just born with that. And no disrespect to the deceased, but the Quinns have the survival skills of an infant. So, where did she get that?

"Anyway, after a mysterious death, the bodies of her parents were never found. Ivy then gets an emancipation order and chooses to continue living on her own in her parents' house. Suspicions of Ivy murdering her parents is quickly extinguished after just one look at Ivy Quinn: this frail, bubbly blond cheerleader with eyes of summer. I had my suspicions as well, even going so far as to dig for old school attendance records. Sure enough, she was at school around the time her parents were believed to have been abducted. Ivy couldn't have kidnapped her parents, then, unless she had help. But who would've helped her?

"She had a ton of friends, maybe a crazy boyfriend looking to live out his greatest murder fantasy. Believe me, I looked into a lot of it. The search led nowhere, so again, I began to doubt my theory. It was not a friend of Ivy's who abducted her parents, so then, who do the Quinns know that would've done something like this? Jealous associates at the country club, political rivals? Or possibly someone who knows their habits, the layout of their house, and intimate details of their lives.

"In many cold cases, simply too much time has passed to be able to piece all the connections a person could have at a particular point in their life. Luckily, there's usually some kind of paper trail to assist in putting things together. What did I find in this instance? Bank statements. Bank statements listing checks made payable to a name of particular interest: Fred Clark.

"Fred Clark is a man born in one of the country's poorest districts, to a prostitute mother and an unidentified father, likely one of her clients. He dropped out of school when he was twelve to work in the factories. Arrested, charged, and eventually convicted for embezzlement conspiracy. Spent seven years in prison. It is unknown whether he has any family, or children of his own, as it is not uncommon for many of the children born to poor families in this area to be born outside of a hospital and never have a birth certificate recorded.

"Fred Clark gets out of prison and gets a job as a gardener, after working in a factory his entire life. The first job he gets is with the Quinns. He cuts their grass, tends to their garden, and sees their daughter, everyday when she gets home from school. This same gardener just so happens to reappear in this same daughter's life several years later and kidnaps her boyfriend. Now that's just too big of a coincidence to pass up. At this point, I'm headed to the Quinns' house with a shovel in my trunk. I tear that backyard up. I dig up the whole garden. I knew I'd find those two bodies. My theory wasn't prepared for what else I found..."