Family Honor (5 page)

She grabbed with both hands and began eating, at the same time offering a small, "Thanks."

"Sure." Mel smiled again and waited for Juicy's timeframe.

The second burger went down more frantically, and it was then that Nate could tell Juicy knew their victim. Her eyes welled up but she tried hard to fight the emotion. After
she'd
polished off three burgers, she wrapped the others up and popped a stick of gum in her mouth. "Her name is Linda.
Was
Linda
."

"Do you know her last name?" Mel prodded gently.

Juicy shook her head. "She stayed at Sister Catherine's shelter a couple blocks over." She nodded behind her. "The sister should know her name.
Her
and Linda were friendly. Anything she owned, you'll prolly find it there."

"Sister Catherine's," Mel repeated. "Did you see Linda yesterday? Notice anyone she was with?"

"We
was
together until about three. Then I went to have my hair done. Never saw her again after that."

Nate wondered what she had 'done' to the straggly mop of hair, but
didn't
voice his thoughts out loud. Instead, he asked, "Has anyone new been hanging around lately? A vehicle you might remember?
A different man that caught your attention?"

Both of them shook their heads.

"So you don't have anything on him yet?" Juicy motioned toward the picture of Linda.
"The guy who did that.
No idea
who
he is?"

"Not yet," Mel admitted. "But we're working very hard on it. The case is the number one priority for my team."

Juicy scoffed. "We ain't a priority for nobody. Who cares if a few hookers disappear? People prolly think the guy's doing the city a favor."

Nate's gut churned and he took a step forward. "We don't think that.
We're
going to find the son-of-a-bitch who did that to Linda and the others, and make him pay. I promise you that. I guarantee it."

Mel glanced at him, a look of surprise in her eyes.

He went on, "But the two of you need to face a hard fact. This guy
isn't
singling out the teeny boppers that were here when we pulled up. He's going after, shall we say, more
mature
women. Think about it for a minute. All three of the victims have been your ages.
Might be a good time for you to find a new line of work."

That idea met with blank stares. "At least take a break from it," he suggested.

Shelia chuckled.
"Pipe dreamin', my man."

Frustration welled in his chest. "Then you both need to be extra careful out here. Stay in pairs if you can. Watch each other's backs."

 
"Guys 'round here don't want to pay for no two-fers. No way we be staying together, it just
ain't
happening. "

"Make him think it's happening," Nate snapped. "Use the buddy system as long as you can. When one of you has to leave, the other one should notice the man
you're
going with. Remember his car. Look him in the eye." He pointed two fingers at himself then turned them on Sheila in an 'I'm watching you' manner.

"Yeah, right."
Juicy snorted and looked at Sheila. "Let him know you remember his face, so after he kills me he can come back for you."

They erupted in laughter.

Nate shook his head and took a step away.
This conversation is going nowhere.
"You ready?" he asked Mel.

"Yeah."
She tucked a business card into each woman's hand. "If you think of anything, or need anything, call me. I'll do whatever I can."

"You send that hansum Brady Marshall back ova to see me?" Sheila grinned, her gold tooth sparkling in the sunlight.

"I'll mention you asked about him." Mel chuckled, glancing over her shoulder as she walked to her car.

Nate climbed in and buckled his seatbelt. He held in his frustration until
she'd
pulled away from the curb, then it came bubbling out. "Damn it!
It's
like a joke to them. Maybe we
shouldn't
have cropped that picture so nicely. Let them see the slash marks across Linda's neck. Let them see the all the blood."

"Maybe."
Mel nodded. "I know it's aggravating, but you can't take this so personally. Those women make their own choices every day. You warned them. It's up to them what they choose to do with your information."

"I'm not taking it personally." His voice sounded petulant, even to his own ears. "I'm simply passionate about what I do."

She glanced at Nate sideways and smiled. "I'll remember that. Sister Catherine's should be just a ways up here." Mel turned onto the next side street and began studying building fronts. She pulled over in front of what appeared to be a shelter and stopped. "Pretty sure this is it." She punched a few buttons on her smartphone and nodded. "Yep, this is it."

Nate unbuckled and got out. They walked side by side to the front door, and Mel rang the bell.

A small, blonde-haired girl threw the door open and stared up at them.

"Hi," Mel offered.

The child just stared.

"Is Sister Catherine here?" Mel asked.

She turned her wide-eyed scrutiny on Nate.

"I love kids," he muttered through his teeth-gritting smile.

"Me too," Mel added. "Isn't she precious?"

"I was being sarcastic," he explained.

"I could tell that," Mel said in a sing-song voice. She leaned forward and got nose to nose with the girl. "You could tell that too, couldn't you sweetheart? Is your mommy here? Is the nice lady who runs the place in there?"

The girl stepped back and closed the door in Mel's face.

Mel straightened and exhaled upwards, the breeze ruffling her hair. "Okay, so we try this again." She pressed the doorbell a second time.

It was answered immediately by a petite woman sporting a closely cropped haircut, wearing jeans and a tank top. "Help you?" she asked pleasantly.

"We were looking for Sister Catherine," Mel replied

"You found her." The woman wiped her hands on a rag. "You'll have to excuse
me,
we're painting one of the bedrooms."

Nate blinked. She
didn't
look like any nun he'd ever known. The ones from his short stint in Catholic school probably
didn't
own jeans and wouldn't be caught dead in skimpy tops. He could visualize them painting a room, still wearing their long black habits with crisp white wimples surrounding their faces.

"No problem." Mel flashed her badge. "I'm Detective Curtis with the WPD, and this is Agent Willis. We're hoping you can help us identify a woman from a photo we have."

"Not Linda!" Sister Catherine clutched the door frame for support.

"Linda?" Mel asked.

She nodded.
"Linda Mains.
She never came home last night.
That's
not something she'd do. I've been worried sick all day."

"Are you willing to look at a photo of our victim?" Mel held it upside down. "It's not pleasant."

"Yes, please! I have to know."

Mel turned the photo over and the nun tightened her grasp on the jamb, sobbing. "No!
Linda, no!"

"I'm so sorry." Mel clutched the woman's arm. "Can we help you inside?"

"No." The sister heaved a few more deep breaths then attempted to compose herself. "I'd rather not bring this into the house. We've got children staying here."

"I know." Mel smiled. "Cute little blonde thing answered the door."

"Sandy!" She scowled.
"Doesn't know a stranger.
I'm going to have to talk to her about that."

Mel shrugged. "She wouldn't let us in."

Sister Catherine wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "That's something I guess." She glanced around the still neighborhood. "It's a different world out there now. If someone like Linda wasn't safe…."

Nate had to speak up. "You know what Linda did for money, don't you?"

"Of course I know," the woman snapped. "I'd just about gotten her talked into applying for a secretarial job I'd heard about. We even found a nice, used dress for her interview. But Linda
wasn't
quite ready. Her husband used to beat the crap out of her, you know. She had zero self-esteem left."

"We didn't know," Mel replied. "But we'd like to. It would really help us to hear anything at all you can remember about Linda. We need to see her things."

The nun glanced over her shoulder at two children racing down the hall.

"We'll keep it low key. They don't even need to know we're cops, if you prefer that."

Sister Catherine chuckled bitterly. "These people will know you're cops, you can believe that." She inspected Nate. "Not you, in your fancy black suit.
You're
something different.
Agent,
did she say? Are you FBI?"

He peeled off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie. "Don't say that like it's a bad thing. You of all people should realize that
I'm
one of the good guys. The more we can learn about our victims, the sooner we can get the killer off the street."

With some reluctance, she stepped aside so they could enter the house. As Nate passed her she muttered, "Then pretty soon, another killer shows up. Maybe
you'll
catch him too. But none of this is going to help Linda, is it?"

"It won't bring her back," he conceded. "But to honor her memory, don't we at least have to try?"

"Yes, we do," the sister agreed. She inhaled and let out a slow, shuddering breath. "Thank you. Please, come this way."

He followed her down the hall, pausing only for a moment when Mel squeezed his hand.

* * * *

Nate glanced at his watch as they entered the homicide department bullpen later that afternoon.
Almost four-thirty
.
They'd
spent a couple of hours at the shelter looking through Linda's things, before Mel started playing with two of the children. The sister had enlisted his help moving two large pieces of furniture before they left. He
didn't
mind, as far as he could tell there were only women and children staying there. By the time they left, the residents and Sister Catherine were pleasant and joking with them.

As he followed Mel into the war room, the thought crossed his mind that
he'd
been trailing her for a good portion of the day and it was actually a pretty nice position to be in. She
wasn't
bone skinny like most of the women they'd interviewed. Mel had curves in all the right places and standing behind her had its definite good points.
 

She tacked the picture of Linda up by the others and looked at the white board where Stone had written in bold print
Linda Mains
.

He joined them in the small room. "I've done as much digging on her as I could since you texted me.
Haven't
come up with much. Captain gave us Sam to help out. She's been running similarities on the three cases all afternoon."

"Good." Mel nodded and looked at Nate. "Samantha Becker is one of our newer detectives but she's a hard worker and gets things done."

"Fine.
I've
been feeding info to the FBI technical analysts too. They'll let us know if they get anything."