Murder Stalks (27 page)

“
Damn it, how can I
believe you? You ran a background check on me.”

“
I ran a background check
on everyone. Look, Rex, my past, my future, it’s all wrapped up in
this. Someone is preying on my family, making me pay for something.
God only knows what. Everyone associated with me is a suspect.
Spade is combing through my past. Anybody unaccounted for or living
nearby is a prime suspect.”

“
Why didn’t we figure this
out earlier?”

“
Who’s the ‘we’ you’re
talking about?” Tony asked.

“
The department, our team.
We’ve been working this as a straightforward sexual predator case.
We haven’t been checking for messages other than the letters carved
on the victim’s backs. Well, your back too. This is about revenge,
not just some sicko preying on innocent women. He meant to force
you out, throw you off guard.”

“
Who could possibly be
this mad at us?” A tear formed at the corner of Marissa’s eye. Tony
reached over the back seat and swiped it away, but he couldn’t
swipe away their problems that easily.

“
It could be anybody.
That’s why I’m going to get my job back today.”

Chapter 26

Tony sat across the desk from Randall,
gripping the arms of the chair until his knuckles turned white.
Nothing about this meeting was going right. Randall wanted Tony to
jump through hoops so he could come back to the department. Randall
was digging into his private life, questioning why he and Marissa
separated.

He’d been handed an edict to visit the
department’s psychologist. The last request was too much.

“
Why desk duty?” Tony
challenged.

“
You’ve been through a
lot. You could use a break. There’s nothing wrong with admitting
you’re stressed. Sometimes you have to take a break.”

“
Now is not the time for a
break, sir.”

“
Rex, Michael and Janice
are doing a competent job at the moment. They can handle the load.
You need time off of the streets. Your caseload has been full since
Ashley’s death. You never took the time you needed to mourn for
her. It’s understandable, but now you have the chance.”

Tony wanted to pick up his chair and toss it
through the conference room window, but that wouldn’t look good on
his psychological evaluation.

His hands were tied. Without the information
from the department’s crime lab, he may never put together enough
pieces to figure out who the killer was. But if he came back to
work, he would have access to the documents.

“
Give me a week to
decide.” Tony clenched his hands tighter, forcing them to stay on
the chair so he didn’t jump up and choke Randall.

“
Sure, that’s what I was
thinking. We’ll extend your paid administrative leave for another
week. That should give you enough time to make a
decision.”

Tony walked out of the conference room,
anger making his stride longer than normal. He pushed open the
security door and spotted Marissa.

“
Come on, let’s go,” he
said, looking past her out the door. He couldn’t meet her gaze, not
yet. The truth hurt. He had been suspended from his job. If he went
back to work, he wouldn’t really be working. How could he stop the
killer if he wasn’t on the police force? Failure was the only word
that came to mind. He was a total and complete failure, not even
capable of keeping his job.

“
Tony, what did he say?”
Marissa asked.

“
Later.” He grabbed her
hand and led her out to his car. He slammed the door, put the key
into the ignition and jumped the car into drive before Marissa
could get her seatbelt on.

“
What is wrong with
you?”

“
My hands are tied. I
can’t do anything to fix this mess.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
The chief won’t let me
work if I come back now.” Tony punched the accelerator. He felt out
of control. He swerved around cars on the freeway and took the next
exit. He needed to find some place to let off his steam.

“
He won’t let you
work?”

“
No. Said he talked to a
psychologist who thinks the stress would be too much to come back
to work in my former job. He suggested a desk job.”

“
A desk job?”

“
Yeah, a desk job. I can’t
catch this killer if I’m sitting behind a desk answering calls from
disgruntled citizens.” Tony slammed on the brakes, barely in time
to avoid running through a red light.

“
Tony, why don’t you let
me drive?”

His eyes settled on Marissa, finally seeing
her for the first time since coming out of the police station.
Stark white hands gripped the dashboard. Bulging eyes and a sheen
of perspiration gave her a wild look. He had to get control of his
actions.

“
I can drive.”

“
You’ve been going a bit
too fast.” Marissa relaxed her arms and dropped her hands from the
dashboard.

“
I’m fine now, really.
I’ll go slower. I need to go for a swim, but I can’t leave you
alone.”

“
I’m not a baby. I can
watch after myself.” Her words were sharp, her posture
stiff.

“
You don’t get it, do you?
Until we find the next girl, the one who belongs to the ‘S’, then
you’re at risk. We’ve interrupted his flow. He’ll strike out. Maybe
at someone else, maybe back at you.”

“
I would be ready. He
wouldn’t be able to get me.”

“
We don’t know that. So
far, it looks like he’s had a fairly reliable pattern with the
names. What if he wants you and I’m not there?”

“
I’ll be fine at the
natatorium with you. We’ll be in the same building for goodness
sakes. Maybe we should try to set a trap for him. Like a
sting.”

“
No. I’m not risking you
or the baby.” Just the thought of her being in danger made Tony
want to pull Marissa close and hold her until all of this craziness
with the killer went away.

“
Good, because I didn’t
really want to be the bait.” Marissa grinned.

Tony smiled back and drove the rest of the
way in silence. He wouldn’t use his wife as bait for this sick
bastard. If the killer was in a position of authority, possibly law
enforcement, then he would probably be wise to the set-up. They
were in a no win situation. No leads, no evidence, and no way to
draw the killer out.

****

Marissa followed Tony into the natatorium
and took a seat in the stands. Her stomach rumbled and an intense
wave of hunger passed over her. She’d eaten breakfast, but lunch
was at least an hour away. She dug change out of her purse and
headed for the snack machines.

The selections ranged from candy to cookies
to chips. Although tasty, the candy was full of sugar and fat and
the cookies weren’t much better. The chips were nutritionally
deficient and soaked in salt. She hadn’t had a problem with
hypertension or gestational diabetes with her last pregnancy, but
she didn’t want to eat junk food if she could help it.

“
You know, the food in
there isn’t good for you.”

Marissa turned to find Ally standing behind
her. “Hey, Ally. I was going to see if I could get an appointment
with you tomorrow.”

”
Sure, I should have an
opening.” Ally’s gaze moved to Marissa’s injury and her eyes
flashed with anger. “Are you okay?”

“
Oh.” Marissa reached up
self-consciously and touched the white bandage with her fingers.
She had almost forgotten about the cut with everything else that
had happened yesterday and today.

“
What happened? I can help
you if you need to get out of a bad situation. You do know they
have shelters, right? No questions asked.”

“
What? Oh, no it’s not
like that. I’m not living with my husband right now. Well, actually
I am now, but that’s because of, well this,” Marissa said, pointing
to her head.

“
I don’t understand. Your
husband did or did not cause that?”

“
He didn’t. I was attacked
in my apartment and Tony saved me.”

Ally reached out and grabbed Marissa’s
wrist, her fingers painfully digging into her flesh. “Did they get
the guy?”

“
No. He
escaped.”

“
There’s not a lot of
crime in Juniper. Wonder what he...” Her eyes rounded. “It wasn’t
the killer? The one who’s already killed four women?”

“
Actually, they think it
was.”

“
No.” Ally blew out a
quick breath. “You’re very lucky.”

“
I know.” Marissa reached
down and subconsciously stroked her stomach, putting a protective
hand over her womb.

“
I have a protein bar and
an apple. They’ll be better for you than anything you get out of
one of these machines,” Ally offered.

“
Thanks. I’m
starving.”

“
Call the club and book an
appointment. I would love to work with you tomorrow. I think
improving your upper arm strength would be a good idea.”

Marissa nodded as Ally passed her the food.
“I’ll call when we finish here.”

Marissa took a bite of the apple, mulling
over the conversation she’d just had with Ally. Her trainer was
nice but there was something strange about her. Marissa shrugged as
she took another bite of the apple. She felt a wet hand on her
shoulder and spun around. She was ready to yell at the jerk
dripping water down her back but the words died on her tongue when
she saw the anger in Tony’s eyes.

“
What are you doing out
here?” Tony asked sharply.

“
Excuse me?”

“
I lifted my head out of
the water to check on you and I couldn’t find you
anywhere.”

“
I was hungry.”

“
Damn it, Marissa, you
scared the heck out of me. Why didn’t you tell me you were hungry?
I thought--”

Marissa’s anger rose to match Tony’s. She
hated being treated like a child and Tony had pushed her too far.
“I don’t know why I didn’t, but don’t yell at me. I’m starving. I
need a snack to make it through the day.” Marissa turned and
stalked back to her seat on the bleachers. Tony followed, his bare
feet making a squishing sound as he padded behind her.

“
Marissa, you can’t wander
around right now. I need to know where you are at all
times.”

“
Don’t you think I know
that? But I was just out there at the machine getting some
food.”

“
You were talking to
someone. What’s her name?”

“
Are you questioning me
about who I talk to now?”

“
No. I saw her talking to
Michael Rains a few days ago. I forgot her name.”

“
Ally Underwood. She works
at the club where I work out.”

“
What does she
do?”

“
Is this twenty
questions?”

Tony shrugged his shoulders and raised his
hands like he was totally innocent.

Marissa groaned, deciding answering his
questions was better than fighting. “She’s a personal trainer.”

“
You have a personal
trainer?” Tony’s eyes dropped to her legs as he reached out to
touch her hip.

“
Yeah. I started a few
weeks ago and someone suggested I hire Ally. Supposedly she knows
what she’s doing.”

“
I’d say so. She looks
like a professional bodybuilder.”

“
She’s teaching me quite a
bit about weightlifting. I’m going to set up an appointment for
tomorrow.”

“
I don’t know,
Marissa.”

“
If you want, you can work
out at the club as my guest or you can leave me in Ally’s more than
capable hands. I think she could fight off almost
anybody.”

“
Maybe you could work out
while I’m on my call with Spade.”

“
Great. Now that that’s
settled, I’m going to chow down on this protein bar and
apple.”

“
I’ll change and we can
get out of here. This case is driving me crazy, and I’m not even a
part of it anymore.”

Marissa’s heart squeezed in her chest. Tony
was worried and his worry was spilling over onto her. She wanted to
make him feel better, but how could she when she didn’t even know
if she could trust him again?

Chapter 27

The day started out slow. The oppressive
heat turned what should have been a glorious day into another
reminder of his failure. The man inspected his face in the mirror,
glad to see the cut wasn’t visible. As he’d done since the
incident, he used a small amount of thick stage makeup to cover the
gash.

Marissa had gotten away. He still couldn’t
believe Santos had barged in and taken his prey. Finishing up in
the bathroom, he moved through his house like a cat on the prowl.
He needed to find someone satisfying. Someone who would be higher
stakes. He didn’t have any prospects that would work. His ‘S’ was
gone. He had searched for someone to take Marissa’s place, but had
found nothing. Another strikeout. Fuck.

Relief was what he needed. Relief from this
unbearable heat and from the anger that was ever present. Maybe he
should find a willing whore and take his aggression out on her, but
that was too risky. Whore’s were a dime a dozen but their deaths
would be investigated, just like Arisa’s had. Arisa had been a
clean kill but picking up a whore wasn’t clean.