The Anniversary (28 page)

34

35 S

36 R

1 5 2

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 153

Wednesday, April 26

It was almost eleven o’clock, and the law firm had fallen silent.

1

It was Melanie’s favorite time to work, the time she got the most 2

done. During the day there were endless phone calls and meet-3

ings, crises demanding attention. Late at night, she could finally 4

concentrate, work without interruption.

5

For the past two hours, she’d been at her computer, skimming 6

case citations. She’d been drafting a response in the Leverett ap-7

peal when she’d decided to check the case law, to be sure that 8

none of the cited cases had been overturned since the hearing.

9

At first, she’d planned to check just one or two, the key opinions 10

relied upon. But one thing led to another, and now, here she was.

11

Of course, she could have assigned the task to some junior asso-12

ciate. But while the task was largely mechanical, it was vitally 13

important.

14

For some reason, she was feeling sad tonight, and at first she 15

didn’t know why. Then she saw them in her mind’s eye, those two 16

scared faces: Penny and Wilbur Murphy. The couple who’d lost 17

their savings. It wasn’t her fault.
It wasn’t.
Still, the guilt was 18

there. She’d gone to law school with the notion of making the 19

world a better place.
I used to be a nicer person,
she thought. The 20

sadness weighed on her.

21

The phone rang on her desk, a shrill insistent sound. She 22

picked it up right away, grateful for the distraction.

23

“Melanie White,” she said.

24

“Melanie. It’s Mike.”

25

At the sound of his voice, an electric current seemed to run S 26

through her body.

R 27

1 5 3

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 154

A M Y G U T M A N

1

“Is it okay to talk?” he asked tersely. “I’ve got some things to 2

tell you.”

3

Before he said anything further, she knew why he was calling.

4

“The watch,” she said. “It belonged to Diane.”

5

“I just got the call,” he said.

6

Melanie rolled her chair from the desk, turned away from her 7

computer. She stared out the window blankly, holding the phone 8

in her hand. “So what’s next? What happens?”

9

“They want to get hold of the watch. And whoever this 10

woman is who had it, they want to talk to her.”

11

“I’ll call her.” Melanie was thinking out loud. “Explain the sit-12

uation.”

13

“Tell her they’ll try to work with her. To protect her privacy.”

14

Melanie’s heart was pounding.
Happy Anniversary, Melanie.

15

The words flashed through her mind. She didn’t want to think 16

about what they meant, those letters sent to her and Callie.

17

“So what’s the status of the investigation?” she asked. “Are 18

there any significant leads?”

19

“None that’s gone anywhere, at least so far as they’ll tell me.

20

They’ve talked to the guy Diane Massey was dating, but he’s 21

pretty much been cleared. They were also looking into possible 22

links to the book she was working on. When she was killed, she 23

was finishing up a book about Winnie Dandridge.”

24

“That Texas black widow?” Melanie asked.

25

“Right. That’s the one. Diane had been threatened by a pal of 26

Dandridge’s, but nothing’s panned out so far. This guy, he’s still 27

the strongest lead, but he’s got pretty good alibis. The thing is, no 28

one’s had any reason to think that her murder could be linked to 29

the Gage case.”

30

“What about Lester Crain? Did you look into that at all?”

31

“The watch will be checked for fingerprints, but Crain didn’t 32

kill Diane Massey.”

33

“Why? How can you know?”

34

“The crime scene. It’s not Crain’s. The signature of a sexual 35 S

sadist always stays the same. There may be some variation, but 36 R

the core — it’s always there.”

1 5 4

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 155

T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y

“The signature?” Melanie recalled the term, but wasn’t clear 1

on its meaning.

2

“Think of it as a calling card. A sort of identifier. Crain always 3

tortured his victims before killing them. His gratification didn’t 4

come from killing. It came from causing pain. Now the ways that 5

he tortured his victims varied. That led to some confusion. It 6

took some time for the different jurisdictions to see that the mur-7

ders were linked. They were focusing on the techniques instead 8

of the act of torture itself. In fact, the shifts in techniques were 9

just efforts at improvement. Crain changed his M.O. — his spe-10

cific techniques — as he found more effective ones.”

11

Melanie’s mouth felt dry. “And Diane. You’re saying she wasn’t 12

tortured? So Crain couldn’t be the killer?”

13

“That’s right.”

14

“But I don’t understand. People change.”

15

“I’ve never seen a signature change, not the essential parts.”

16

There was something in his voice, a certainty, that stopped 17

Melanie from pressing. It sounded a bit far-fetched.
Never?
But 18

Jamison was the expert.

19

Another thought occurred to her. “What about Gage’s signa-20

ture? Are there . . . similarities?”

21

“No. Totally different. Gage was a necrophile. He killed 22

women to control their bodies. He killed them and then he raped 23

them.”

24

“Right.” Melanie’s stomach churned. It was something she’d 25

always tried not to think about, that particular fact. He’d killed 26

them,
then
had sex. The women had been just bodies to him.

27

He’d referred to them as
subjects.

28

Jamison was going on. “According to the M.E.’s report, there’s 29

no sign that Diane was molested. The victimology is different, 30

too. Crain targeted runaways and prostitutes. Women living on 31

the edge. Heavy makeup. Big hair. That was his physical type.”

32

“And the victimology — that stays the same too?”

33

“Not always,” Jamison admitted. “Especially when the killer’s 34

under stress, he may jump victim pools. Take Ted Bundy, for ex-S 35

ample. He had a type. Pretty, young women with long, dark hair R 36

1 5 5

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 156

A M Y G U T M A N

1

parted down the middle. Then when he started to decompensate, 2

he killed that child in Florida. But that was the beginning of the 3

end for him. A sign he was falling apart. Under normal condi-4

tions, these guys stick with a type.”

5

“Like Steven killed slender blondes.”

6

“Right.”

7

Women who looked like me.
She thought but didn’t say that be-8

fore quickly moving on.

9

“What about forensic evidence — fibers, fingerprints, any-10

thing like that?”

11

“I don’t know,” Jamison said. “It’s an ongoing investigation.

12

They wouldn’t tell me much. There’s something else I meant to 13

ask you. That anonymous note you mentioned. What did it say 14

again?”

15

“Just ‘Happy Anniversary. I haven’t forgotten you.’ And then 16

her . . . this nickname she used to have.” At this point it seemed 17

slightly absurd to be concealing her identity. But she felt some 18

sort of obligation to keep the secret while she could. She could 19

still let Callie come forward herself, allow her that measure of 20

control.

21

“What sort of paper?”

22

“White, eight-and-a-half-by-eleven. Some sort of lightweight 23

bond, I guess.”

24

“Handwritten?”

25

“No, it was typed. Or maybe printed from a computer.” The 26

line of questioning was filling her with a vague sense of forebod-27

ing. “Where are you going with this?” she asked.

28

“The detective in charge of the investigation had been going 29

through Diane’s correspondence. When I mentioned the note to 30

him, he had a lot of questions. I’m thinking that there’s a pretty 31

good chance Diane got a similar note.”

32

33

As she walked through the door that night, Melanie realized with 34

surprise she was hungry. When was the last time she’d felt that 35 S

way? She really couldn’t remember. The craving for barbecue 36 R

she’d had the other night returned with renewed force. She could 1 5 6

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 157

T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y

almost smell the smoky meat, taste the bite of pickle. She 1

thought of Virgil’s near Times Square, Brother’s somewhere 2

downtown. But chances were slim to none they were open, and 3

even less they’d deliver.

4

Flipping through the Yellow Pages, she had a sudden thought.

5

The pork buns you got at Chinese restaurants, maybe they’d do 6

the trick. Not that the taste would be the same, but the texture 7

was pretty close. The spongy bread, the tender meat. At least it 8

was worth a try. Chinese restaurants were everywhere, open day 9

and night. She found an ad for one nearby, called, and placed an 10

order.

11

Hanging up, she almost started to laugh, imagining her father’s 12

reaction. He’d be amused at her ingenuity but still horrified.

13

They’d both been purists about barbecue, refusing to compro-14

mise. “Daddy,” she whispered softly. Tears pricked her eyelids.

15

She yearned for the closeness she’d had with her father until 16

Steven Gage.

17

As a baby, it had been assumed that Melanie would be her 18

mother’s child. After four sons, Patricia White had been thrilled 19

with her infant daughter. She’d named her after Melanie Wilkes, 20

the perfect lady in
Gone with the Wind,
an exemplar of the tradi-21

tional virtues of southern womanhood. As a child, Melanie had 22

found herself dressed in pale pink dresses with starchy lace.

23

White ruffly anklets. Shiny patent shoes. She slept on an enor-24

mous canopy bed with piles of silky pillows, took ballet lessons 25

twice a week, had dozens of flaxen-haired dolls.

26

But the older she got, the more Melanie chafed at her mother’s 27

instructions. She’d excelled at sports, running track and develop-28

ing a mean backhand. When she was eight, her mother had told 29

her, “Never beat a boy at tennis.” By then, she’d already known 30

that her mother was the enemy. She’d respectfully listened to this 31

new injunction, nodded and said, “Yes, ma’am.” But she’d sat 32

there silently thinking,
That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.

33

Richard White was an eminent labor lawyer with a national 34

reputation. It had always been assumed that at least one of his S 35

sons would follow him to law school. Maybe not all of them, but R 36

1 5 7

2nd PASS PAGES

13713_01_i-vi_001-344_r4jn.qxd 4/21/03 8:03 AM Page 158

A M Y G U T M A N

1

at least one or two. Over the years, though, all four had taken dif-2

ferent paths, so when Melanie opted for a legal career, her father 3

had been thrilled. Like her father, Melanie had gone to Prince-4

ton, then law school at UVA. In the back of her mind, she’d 5

thought someday she might join her father’s practice. Even after 6

she married Frank, the fantasy stayed alive. He’d retire long be-7

fore she did. By then, they’d have kids. Nashville was a great 8

place to raise children. She’d move down with her family.

9

If it hadn’t been for Steven Gage, might she have gone home?

10

At times, she thought it was likely. Other times, she didn’t know.

11

The only thing she could say for sure was the case had changed 12

everything. “You cannot represent Steven Gage.” That’s what 13

her father had said. At first his reaction had surprised her. She 14

saw now she’d been naive. It wasn’t that his values didn’t have 15

substance, just that they weren’t absolute. After all, her parents 16

and Dahlia Schuyler’s parents moved in the same social set. The 17

families lived just blocks apart in the wealthy enclave of Belle 18

Meade. While her father had never much liked the Schuylers, 19

that didn’t seem to matter. Their differences were more akin to 20

family squabbles than the battles of warring clans.

21

Melanie had argued with her father for hours, called him a 22

hypocrite. He’d taught her that everyone deserved representa-23