The Perk (38 page)

He found nothing.

He repeated the search on the east side. Nothing.
He walked under the bridge to the north side of the highway. The purse and shoes
might have been carried downriver; the river must have run stronger at some
time since that night. He followed the river on the west bank two hundred
yards. Nothing. He crossed the narrow river and worked his way back toward
the bridge on the east bank. He stopped.

Lodged in a clump of debris was a black shoe.

He cleared the debris away. It was a high-heeled
shoe. Black leather. Dirty. He used his pen to pick the shoe up. He carried
the shoe out in front of him just as he had carried Meggie's wet clothes to the
washer that morning. He arrived at the bridge and climbed up the bank. He
placed the shoe on the hood of the car and found a plastic trash bag in the
console. He put the shoe into the trash bag and tightened the draw string. He
got back into the car and put the bag on the passenger's seat. He started the
engine and pulled onto the highway heading east toward Austin. He glanced at
the trash bag.

Was that Heidi's shoe?

The pink granite Texas State Capitol at Congress Avenue and
11th Street marks the northern boundary of downtown Austin. Ten blocks due south,
the Colorado River forms the southern boundary; in town, the river is called Lake Austin. Seven blocks to the east, Interstate 35 runs north-south through town. People
without money live east of the interstate; people with money live west. People
with a lot of money live on large lots fronting Lake Austin.

Randi Barnes lived on
one such waterfront lot on Lakeshore Drive. Was she the former Randi Barnes
Geisel? Beck turned into the circular driveway. He parked behind a late-model
silver Mercedes-Benz coupe under a porte-cochere. He got out with the black trash
bag. It was 11:00
A.M.
His appointment with the Travis County medical examiner wasn't until one, so he
had decided to try Randi first. He had not called ahead. He wasn't sure why.

The house was a Mediterranean-style villa with a
white stucco exterior, a red-tiled roof, and palm trees and lush tropical
plants lining both sides of the slate walkway to the front door. Beck rang the
bell. The door opened on a short middle-age Hispanic woman dressed in a black
uniform and a white apron.

"Hi. Is Randi home?"

"
Señora
, she
is still in bed. Maybe you come back later?"

She started to shut the door, but Beck said,
"Would you tell her Beck Hardin is here?"

"
Señora
does not like to be wakened."

From inside, a familiar voice: "Who is it,
Lupe?"

Lupe pushed the door almost shut, but Beck heard
her say, "Beck Hardin."

The door suddenly swung wide. Standing there on
a white marble floor in a thick white bathrobe was Randi Barnes—the same Randi
Barnes, although she had aged since Beck had last seen her. But it was obvious
where Heidi had gotten her looks; Randi had her daughter's blonde hair and blue
eyes, but the wear of forty years showed on her face. She had put on some
weight, but she appeared as solid as the goat rancher's daughter she had been
twenty-four years before. She had always created quite a stir at the goat
auction. She held her arms out to him.

"Beck!"

He stepped into her arms, and they hugged.

"Come on in." She looked down at the
black bag. "Trash?"

Lupe closed the door behind them, and they walked
into an expansive sun-drenched living room with white walls, a white vaulted
ceiling, and white furniture. A bank of windows looked out onto a pool shimmering
in the morning light and the blue water of Lake Austin beyond. Randi led him
to a fluffy couch by the windows. They sat at opposite ends.

"It's been a long time, Beck."

"Twenty-four years."

"You visiting or staying?"

"Staying. In Fredericksburg."

"Thought you were never coming back?"

"My wife died."

"Oh, Beck, I'm sorry."

"I've got two kids, five and ten. I needed
help."

"From J.B.? Is he still alive?"

Beck nodded. "He's changed."

"You and him talking again?"

"He wouldn't talk back then, now he won't
stop."

"That's good. How's Aubrey?"

"Not so good."

"I haven't seen him since the divorce, but I
still check the paper to see if he won. Not sure why."

"They're favored to win state."

Randi picked up a pack of cigarettes, pulled one
out, tapped it against the back of her hand several times, then lit it. She took
a long drag then exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"I guess you're here about Heidi?"

Beck nodded. "Aubrey asked me to look into
it."

"Paying off an old debt?"

"Maybe. I'm the judge now."

She smiled. "Did Stutz finally die?"

"Unfortunately, no. He found a
better-paying job."

"He needs to find dirt six feet down.
How'd you get elected out there?"

"By default."

She gestured at Beck's jeans. "Speaking of
dirt …"

Beck had carried the dirt from the river onto
Randi's white sofa. He jumped up and dusted the dirt off the sofa.

"Don't worry about it, Beck. You been
playing in the dirt?"

"The river. Where I found this."

Beck placed the trash bag on the couch and
opened the top to expose the shoe.

"Randi, is this Heidi's shoe?"

"
What?
"

Randi leaned over and held her hand out as if to
touch it.

"Don't. Might have fingerprints."

Randi examined the shoe closely. "Where'd
you find it?"

"The river, where it crosses 290. Her
shoes were never recovered, so I figured the guy might've tossed them. River
seemed like a good place."

"And it was still there?"

"Downstream about a hundred yards. Is it
hers?"

"I think so."

Randi stood and walked to the windows. She was
quiet for a while.

"She was so beautiful, Beck." She
turned back to him. "Did Aubrey show you her pictures, at the
house?"

Beck nodded. "Yeah."

"She could've been a star, Beck."

"Then how did she end up in that
ditch?"

Randi stepped over to a potted plant and stuck
the cigarette butt into the soil. She motioned for Beck to follow. He stood
and followed her up a marble spiral staircase with a wrought-iron railing and into
an all-white bedroom. The walls were covered with glamour shots of Heidi:
Heidi's face; Heidi bent over to show off her cleavage; Heidi looking
twenty-five and sexy; Heidi the sexpot; Heidi the semi-nude Playmate wannabe.

"Kim showed me her portfolio."

Randi didn't flinch. "I took those. She
had a perfect body. She could've been Playmate of the Year."

"You wanted her to
pose in
Playboy?
"

"Don't look so shocked, Beck. It's a
straight shot to Hollywood. We were going together."

Her eyes glistened. She turned away and went
over and sat on the bed.

"I died with her."

Randi put her face in her hands and sobbed.
Beck wasn't sure what he should do, so he went to her and sat beside her. He
put her arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him.

Randi and Aubrey had double-dated with Beck and
Mary Jo. But Randi had always touched Beck or brushed against him or looked at
him in a way that had made him uncomfortable. She now turned her face up to
him and looked at him that way. Then she stood before him and dropped her
robe. She was naked. She sat on his lap and kissed him hard. He smelled her
perfume and tasted her last cigarette. She leaned into him, and they fell back
onto the bed. He rolled her off him and got out of the bed.

"Randi, I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Either way."

Beck walked out and went downstairs and out onto
the covered patio fronting the pool. Beck stood at the edge of the patio and
inhaled the cool breeze off the lake. Rowing teams were gliding downstream out
in the center and several small sailboats tacked in the distance, their white
sails capturing the wind and the sun.

"I'm sorry, Beck."

Randi was now wearing a tee shirt and jeans.

"Heidi never called you that night?"

"No. I figured she was at Kim's."

"Why didn't you call to check?"

She sighed. "It was New Year's Eve, Beck.
I was drinking and fell asleep on the couch. Didn't wake up until the
call."

"Your statement said she was wearing jeans.
But she was found wearing a skirt."

"She changed."

"You knew?"

"I figured. I did the same thing when I
was her age. So did Mary Jo, remember?"

Beck nodded. "Aubrey wants to find this
guy."

"He needs to find a life."

"He wants you back."

"I'm never going back there."

"He'll come here."

She laughed. "Aubrey in Austin? I don't
think so."

Beck had seen no sign of a man of the house, so he
went fishing.

"What are you doing these days?"

But his real question
was,
How can you afford this place?

Randi didn't answer.

The Travis County Forensic Center is located at 12th and Sabine
a few blocks east of the capitol; the three-story white limestone building
abuts the interstate that divides Austin into crime-free and crime-ridden.

"Closer to our customer base," Travis
County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Leonard Janofsky said, apparently a morgue
joke. He was a board certified forensic pathologist, and he was wearing
Longhorn burnt orange scrubs and New Balance sneakers. His hair was gray, and
he had the gaunt look of a runner. "Never had a judge come in. Must do
things differently in the country."

"It's different all right," Beck said.

"You ever find the guy?"

"Not yet."

"How long you got?"

"Seventy-six days."

"That's right. New Year's Eve. Well, we
preserved tissue and blood from the victim in case you do."

"Why?"

"DNA testing gets more sophisticated every
year. We've solved a lot of cold cases with old DNA and new tests."

"Tell me about Heidi."

They were in the deputy M.E.'s office. Beck was
sitting in the visitor's chair, Dr. Janofsky behind his desk. He was looking
at his autopsy report.

"Let's see, the
body arrived on January 1, 2003, at 1:17
P.M.
, and was positively identified by Aubrey Geisel, father of
the deceased, and Randi Geisel, mother of the deceased."

Beck had seen his wife's dead body, but he
couldn't imagine walking into a morgue to identify his daughter's body.

"External examination … Deceased is clothed
in a white blouse, black skirt, black undergarment. Hands and feet are
bagged. Jewelry … silver loop earrings, ankle bracelet. Body is that of a
normally developed female. Height, sixty-eight inches. Weight, one-ten. No
wounds, scratches, or bruising evident. No defensive marks on her hands. Genitalia
… no evidence of bruising or injury. Pubic hair has been shaved."

"Did you find any pubic hairs from the
guy?"

"No. I found a few threads, cotton, from a
towel. She wiped herself or he wiped her."

"Was he trying to remove evidence?"

"Why bother? He left a lot of himself
inside her." Back to the report. "Internal examination … No
injury to any organ. No perforation of the nasal septum."

"What does that mean?"

"It means she wasn't a user, or at least
not a regular user. She had no damage to her nasal passages, which is a sign
of repetitive cocaine insufflating."

"Insufflating?"

"Snorting. It might've been her first
time."

"Why do you say that?"

"Cocaine particles were evident in and
around her nostrils and on her breasts and on the inside of the blouse."

"Which means?"

"She sneezed. Regulars don't sneeze when
they snort cocaine. Wasteful. But no dirt particles were found in her nasal
passages."

"And that means?"

"She didn't inhale dirt. She was dead
before she was dumped into the ditch."

"Could she have walked to where she was
found?"

"No dirt on the soles of her feet. No
shoes arrived with the body."

"Cause of death?"

"Cardiovascular failure caused by acute
cocaine intoxication. Her heart stopped. She insufflated a significant amount
of cocaine, enough to cause sudden death."

"How do you determine that?"

"We analyze the liver. See, the liver's
function is to clear the body of toxins, so it tells us what was in the body
just prior to death. We found very high levels of benzoylecgonine."

"Which is?"

"Which is what cocaine breaks down into
once it enters the liver."

"So if the level of this benzo … stuff
is high, that means she had snorted a lot of cocaine?"

"Exactly. The liver was trying to clear it when she
died."

"How does that work, a person dying from
cocaine?"

"When a human being snorts cocaine, the
onset of the effects occurs within five minutes and peaks at about thirty
minutes. The cocaine acts to block the catecholamine reuptake and that causes
sympathomimetic syndrome. So the central nervous system and cardiovascular
systems become highly agitated. Tachycardia. A heart attack. And
investigators found diet pills in her room. Stimulants. Would have
exacerbated the effect."

"Did she suffer?"

The doctor shook his head. "There's a very
rapid progression from inhalation to death. She passed out before she suffered
respiratory arrest. She just went to sleep."

"When?"

"Time of death was between ten and
midnight."

"And your official opinion as to manner of
death?"

"Accidental overdose."