Six Killer Bodies (9 page)

“And she agreed?”

“Only because the D.A. offered to do something for me,

which he later reneged on.”

“But the ploy didn’t work?”

“My father must have suspected it was a trick. He showed

up in disguise, slipped a note into my sister’s pocket.”

Her eyes went wide. “What did it say?”

“That he was proud of us, and he would see us soon.”

“And have you heard from him since?”

Wes hesitated, but he hated her thinking the worst of his

parents. “Dad came up to Carlotta a few weeks ago at a

rest area in Florida.”

“She’d planned to meet him there?”

“No. He must have been fol owing us. I was there, too, but

I was in the car. He just walked up to her at a vending

machine. Right under the nose of police.” He grinned.

“He’s got bal s.”

Meg looked less than convinced. “And then he

disappeared again?”

“Yeah. But he said he’d been keeping tabs on us.”

“Did he say what they’ve been doing all this time?”

“He said my mom had been sick some, and that he’d been

gathering evidence to prove his innocence.”

“So he’s going to come back?”

“I think so.”

Meg stared at him. “Wow. I can’t believe all these things

have happened to you.”

He shrugged, feeling worldly. “Believe it.”

He could almost see the wheels in her head turning, but

then she started sucking on the plastic stir stick, and he

was totally distracted. She glanced at her watch. “I have to

get going.”

“Big plans?” he asked casually.

“I’m committed to help out Habitat for Humanity today.”

She rol ed the printout and stuffed it into her shoulder

bag. “What about you, are you moving bodies today?”

“I’m on call, so maybe. And I’m trying to locate a guy

named Jett Logan. Do you know him?”

She squinted. “Yeah—he’s an ATO. Alpha Tau Omega. Big

party fraternity. How do you know Jett?”

“Uh…I don’t. But I’m trying to get a message to him from a

mutual friend.”

Meg angled her head. “ATO is having a Hawaiian party

tonight. Go with me.”

“Do you think Logan wil be there?”

“Yes, but more importantly, I’l be there.”

“Okay,” Wes said, his heart beating faster.

She picked up the wilting bouquet of flowers. “I’l be in

front of the ATO house, say, at eight?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’l be there.”

She walked to the door, then turned back. “Wes?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the flowers.” She bounced out of the coffee

shop and into her electric car like a ball of sunshine. He

was dismayed at how much he wanted to go after her. But

he needed to drop by the morgue and fish around for

answers to the questions in The Charmed Kil er case he’d

promised Carlotta he’d look into. And he needed to do it

before the Oxy wore off and left him with another raging

headache.

He’d just wheeled into the morgue parking lot and was

locking up his bike when his regular cel phone rang. He

pul ed it out and his stomach clenched at the sight of Liz

Fischer’s name on the screen.

He flipped up the phone. “Hi, Liz.”

“Hi there, handsome. What are you doing tonight?”

He closed his eyes tightly. He wanted to be with Meg…but

Liz was a sure thing, and sex might help him deal with the

lack of Oxy.

But Meg was also his connection to Jett Logan, and he

didn’t want to disappoint The Carver.

“Uh, I have a commitment later, but I could come over

earlier, around seven?”

“See you then,” she said, then ended the call.

Wesley closed the phone and moved toward the morgue,

nursing unease. His involvement with Liz made him

uncomfortable, especially when he was feeling a strange

sense of momentum about his dad’s case. Randolph had

shown himself to Carlotta twice in the past few months,

and now they’d uncovered a bug in the townhouse. If their

dad had planted the device, would their absence from the

house make him wonder if something was wrong? Would

he reappear soon? And if he did, would he reveal himself

to Wesley this time?

Wes glanced around the parking lot, alert for any signs of

being fol owed. When he saw no one, he fought

disappointment. Then he reminded himself that now

would be a crummy time for Randolph to appear, when his

name had been mentioned in connection with The

Charmed Kil er case. Remembering Carlotta’s comment

about Randolph’s possible involvement with one of the

victims, Wes hardened his jaw.

He didn’t want to believe that Coop had anything to do

with those murders. But what if proving Coop’s innocence

made his father look guilty?

9

Peter looked up from his cereal and newspaper as Carlotta

walked into the kitchen, eyeing her pantsuit. “I thought

you were off today.”

“Uh…Lindy asked me to come in for a trunk show,” she

lied. Peter would be livid if he knew she’d planned to use

her Saturday off to run down leads in The Charmed Kil er

case.

Disappointment creased his face. “I was hoping we could

hang out by the pool.”

“Another day,” she promised with a smile, stopping at the

fridge to pour a glass of orange juice.

“Did you sleep well?”

Her thoughts returned guiltily to Jack’s late night tuck-in.

She’d slept soundly until the daylight had fallen across her

face. “Yes, thank you. You?”

He nodded absently, but the pinched look around his eyes

betrayed him. She wondered how much her being in the

house, as well as her father’s situation, were contributing

to his insomnia. On top of her and Peter’s awkward

attempts to repair their relationship, her father had

dragged the poor guy into his mess by calling him a couple

of months ago. Randolph had asked Peter for his help in

clearing his name at the firm where Randolph had once

been a partner and where Peter now worked. Of course

Peter had agreed. He’d do anything to get back into her

good graces, she realized.

“You look tired,” she murmured, caressing his cheek.

“Just a lot on my mind,” he said, folding his hand around

her fingers and kissing the tips. Then he touched the

charm bracelet she wore. “I heard these bracelets were

supposed to foretel the future.”

“Ha, ha,” she said nervously.

“What kind of charms do you have?”

She tried to pul away. “It doesn’t matter. It’s sil y.”

“Then show me,” he said, turning her wrist. “Does that

one say ‘aloha’?”

She nodded. “See? It makes no sense.”

“I don’t know,” he murmured. “Hawaii sounds like a

romantic place to visit. And the champagne glasses, wel …”

He grinned. “That could give a man hope.”

She blushed.

“And let’s see, is that a puzzle piece?”

“I haven’t put together a puzzle since Wesley was a kid.”

“But you’re a puzzle,” he said with a smile, then squinted.

“Is that…three hearts?”

From his sour expression she could tel he’d done the

math and didn’t like the bottom line. “See, I told you it’s

sil y.” She gently pul ed her wrist out of his grasp.

“What’s the last charm?”

She gave a wave. “A woman doing yoga. Maybe that’s a

sign I should start exercising more.”

“You look perfect to me.”

She gave a little laugh, happy that she didn’t have to reveal

the charm of the woman lying down with her arms crossed

over her chest, corpselike. “Thank you, Peter.”

“I do worry about you. Michael Lane is stil out there.”

“The store is stil providing a security guard to watch over

me. And everyone there knows Michael.”

He sighed. “Then I guess if you can’t be here with me,

being at work is the next safest place to be.”

“Right,” she said with a forced smile. “I’d better get going.

Do you have the keys to the rental car?”

Peter pointed to the keyless remote and ignition key lying

on the end of the table. “Have you given any more thought

to setting a date for our Vegas trip?”

“No, but I wil .” She picked up the key, then dropped a

good kiss on his mouth before walking toward the sliding

glass door.

“Can we do something tonight?” he called.

“I’d like that,” she said. “I’l call you later. Have a great

day!” She waved and closed the door behind her, juggling

the cup of juice. Her chest felt tight over the lies. Guilt

always seemed to be close at hand when she was around

Peter. But if she could help prove Coop wasn’t The

Charmed Kil er, her head would be clear enough to get on

with her life. At least that was the story she was sticking

with.

To assuage her mind a tiny bit about lying to Peter, she

swung by the mall, thinking if Michael Lane was watching

her, she’d want to give him the chance to approach her in

a public place. Inside the mall, she visited kiosks, jewelry

shops, and department stores that sold charms, asking

about the people who’d purchased them lately. She

showed the sales clerks Michael Lane’s picture, hoping to

trigger a memory.

“Isn’t this the guy who jumped in the Chattahoochee

River?” one woman asked.

“Yes,” Carlotta admitted. That wasn’t the memory she’d

been hoping for.

“Haven’t seen him, except on TV. Why are you asking

questions?”

“I knew one of the victims,” Carlotta said, thinking of the

prostitute Pepper and the cheeky conversation they’d had

only days before the woman had been found stabbed. “I’m

simply making my own inquiries. And I knew Michael

Lane.”

“You think Michael Lane is The Charmed Kil er instead of

the guy they arrested?” the woman pressed.

“All I know is that with recent budget cuts, the police

department is shorthanded,” Carlotta offered. “I’m just

trying to do some legwork for them.”

“Oh, I see.”

She knew she could get in a world of trouble for making it

sound as if she was working with the APD, but she was

desperate. She also knew there were about a thousand

places in Atlanta alone that sold charms, not counting the

Internet. Add to the mix the fact that some stores had

removed their charms from display in deference to the

highly publicized rash of kil ings, while other stores had

added them to take advantage of heightened interest, and

it was difficult to tel which stores had been sel ing charms

before the serial kil er had made the trinkets infamous.

The police and the GBI were no doubt working those leads,

but she suspected they were taking the angle of proving

their prime suspect—Coop—guilty.

As she moved through the mall, she kept looking over her

shoulder for Michael, but she didn’t notice anything

suspicious. After checking all the possibilities and coming

up empty, she returned to the rental car, standing back in

the parking lot and making sure no one else was around

before she depressed the button on the keyless remote.

When the doors unlocked with a chirp instead of an

explosion, she sighed in relief. Jack said he was stil trying

to find out who had put the bomb underneath her Monte

Carlo, but with the device in so many pieces, his

investigation to this point had yielded no leads.

After she slid behind the wheel of the Civic, Carlotta

reached into her bag for the notebook containing her

notes and clippings about the murders. The Atlanta

Journal-Constitution had featured profiles on each victim.

The first victim, Shawna Whitt, had worked at a chain

bookstore in midtown, which also doubled as a textbook

store to nearby Georgia Tech. Carlotta drove the rental car

there next.

The bookstore was relatively empty due to the summer

break. Carlotta walked around, jingling her charm bracelet

loudly and feigning interest in it every time she got close

to a female employee, giving them an opening to make

conversation about The Charmed Kil er case. No one took

the bait. Finally she bought a coffee at the café, allowing

her charm bracelet to jangle noisily on the counter while

she waited.

“I like your bracelet,” the server commented. She wore a

name tag that read “Monica.”

Carlotta smiled. “Thank you. I stopped wearing it for a

while when that serial kil er was on the loose.”

The woman’s face clouded, then she leaned in and

whispered. “A girl who used to work here, Shawna, was

one of the victims.”

Carlotta gasped. “How awful. Did you know her?”

Monica nodded and handed over the coffee. “Shawna had

a bracelet like that one.”

Carlotta extended money for the drink and dropped a bil

in the tip jar. “Do you know where she got it?”

“She bought it as a birthday gift for herself.”

“These bracelets are supposed to be unique. Do you

remember the charms that were on your friend’s

bracelet?”

The woman squinted. “I remember a little phone, and a

pair of hands that were locked, like a couple.”

Shawna Whitt had mentioned the intertwined hands

charm in an entry on The Charmers online community

forum that Carlotta had come across after the murder. The

site had since been taken down. “What other charms do