Two Graves (A Kesle City Homicide Novel) (20 page)

“There you go, all done,” he said, hesitantly. “I was wondering, you know. I have to write the same exam as you. I’m really going to be late if I have to ride my bike. I was wondering if I could get a lift from you.”

Sheila looked him up and down. The look she wore now said it all. The welcome smile was gone. She no longer needed him and there was not a chance in hell that he was going to get into
her
car. All she did was laugh in his face and floor the accelerator. As they pulled away, he could hear their laughter.

*

Andrea’s joy seemed to be filling the enclosed space, forcing out the air. She needed to be outside. She needed to be alone for a moment to settle her thoughts and accept her good fortune.

She made her excuses and left the table. She accepted several congratulatory handshakes and pats on the way to the door. Finally, she escaped to the sidewalk.

The air was stifling but felt like a cold breeze. Andrea started along the sidewalk, fighting the urge to skip and sing. She understood John Travolta at the end of
Staying Alive
. She would have loved to go out and
strut
. Instead, she just walked along; enjoying the sense of freedom that success was giving her. True, she wasn’t a household name, yet, but this play was the start. From here on, she was sure she was going to make it.

Tomorrow, she would telephone her sister! Janie had never questioned if she would make it. To Janie, it was only a matter of when. Now, with the income from the show coming in, Andrea could afford to bring Janie out for opening night.

Her mind on plans, Andrea did not see him until he was right beside her.

*

He could not believe his luck. Only an hour ago, he was consulting his small book, comparing the picture with the girl in the restaurant. Now, Sheila had left the restaurant alone and was walking down the street. She was in no hurry, just walking down the street as though she had no place to go.

He was beside her before she even noticed him. He held out his map to her and she stopped. She looked almost happy to see him. She obviously didn’t recognize him. He was startled when she spoke to him first.

“Can I help you find something?”

He was momentarily at a loss for words. He suddenly wondered if this was a good idea. He had no plan. Why was he rushing? He was terribly exposed.

But you need this!

No, he could control the desire.

Not desire – need.

Was it becoming a need? He had a mission. The mission required him to kill – did he also need to kill? He was always prepared now. He always had a knife, cuff ties and duct tape. Just in case because it did feel so good. He felt himself get hard and the smile changed his face.

She’s leaving.

He looked at her suddenly wary face. Quickly, he stepped close to Sheila.

“You see this knife?” He moved the map slightly to the side so she could see the gleam of the shiny blade. He sensed her starting to step away and moved closer. “Don’t try to run. I’ll cut you if you try to run. I’ll cut your face. Just be calm.”

*

Andrea looked into the man’s eyes and knew he meant what he was saying. He had looked so harmless. Short, tubby. Nobody you would be afraid of. But his eyes weren’t friendly. They were cold, so cold.

An older man and woman walked by. For three very rapid heart beats, they were close enough to touch. For half a second, she considered trying to run. He must have sensed her thoughts. He pressed the knife tight to her side.

“Don’t,” he warned.

She hesitated again.

Then, the couple was past and her chance was gone.

He took her into the alley beside a doll maker’s store.

Up ahead was a dumpster. It had been left at a slight angle to the wall. Behind, a small set of steps led down to a delivery entrance. A small awning with a single light covered most of the stairwell. She glanced back at the street but could see nothing around the dumpster.

“I don’t have any money.”

“
I don’t have any money,
” he mimicked. “What makes you think that I care about your money? That is all you ever thought impressed people, isn’t it?”

She was at the top of the steps. He let her stand there for a moment longer. He wanted her to see the filth of the alley. He wanted her to know what she was going to die in before he broke the light and plunged her into his dark nightmare.

“I don’t want your money, Sheila. Money doesn’t mean anything to you. But I know what you need – your clean little world. Everything and everyone sanitized. Isn’t that right, Sheila?”

He pressed the knife against her back so she would take a step down into the stairwell. “You don’t want to get dirty, Sheila? It is time to learn how dirty the world is.”

Andrea was confused and frightened. Her euphoric world was suddenly turned upside down and inside out. She could feel the knife against her back and involuntarily took a step down. She could not understand why this was happening to her. She had done nothing to deserve this. She tried to focus on his words. She heard the name.

Not her name.

The man was mistaken. He wasn’t looking for her. It was all a mistake. He was making a mistake. All she had to do was tell him he had made a mistake.

Relief passed through her body. She stopped her step. All she had to do was tell him that she wasn’t Sheila. She would go away and not tell anyone. That is what she had to tell him. She would just go away and call her sister to tell her the good news. None of this would every have happened.

As she was about to speak, she felt duct tape slap over her mouth.

In a sudden burst of clarity, she realized who this man was.

And Andrea tried to scream.

Jill Thorman stopped and looked at the dolls in the window. She pointed one out to her husband but he didn’t notice her. He was staring up the street. She shrugged and went back to the dolls in the window.

God, he was in a mood. Just like tonight, at the play. He barely paid attention. He had spent the evening fidgeting in his seat. Jill was sure that he hadn’t heard a word of the play. Not that he missed much.

“Mr. Davidson, how are you tonight?”

Jill was startled by her husband’s voice. She turned and looked at the back of the tall man that he was addressing. All she saw was the back. Had she known what would happen in the next five minutes, she would have made more of an effort to see his face. Instead, she played the dutiful and ignored wife and turned back to the window of dolls.

“Fine, thank you, Mr. Thorman. This is a fortunate accident running into you like this. Could I have a private word with you?”

“My wife?” Thorman asked.

“Will be just fine, I’m sure.” Mr. Davidson replied.

“Of course,” her husband replied. He turned to her, with what she would later describe as a forced smile. “I’ll just be a second, dear. Why don’t you go to the restaurant and I’ll catch up?”

He turned away before she could answer. She shrugged and started down the street toward the restaurant. She glanced back in time to see her husband and the other man step into the alley.

*

“Did it work?” Thorman asked.

Hill heard the pleading in the accountant’s voice and despised his weakness. “No, Angelino wants you dead and your wife and daughter brought to him.”

Even in the darkness of the alley, Hill saw the blood drain from Thorman’s face. He waited until the statement fully sank in and then spoke again.

Hill pulled an envelope from his pocket. “You were a bad boy. You kept some of the money.”

Thorman nodded, realizing this man knew everything. “I wanted to make sure my wife and daughter were taken care of. Please, don’t hurt my little girl.”

“Shut up and listen. I don’t do children and I won’t help Angelino do anything to her if I can help it.”

“But…”

“Shut up and listen. Take this,” Hill said, thrusting the envelope at Thorman. I’ve sent your suitcase to the Courtyard Marriot by the airport. You are registered there under your new name. Your passports are in the envelope along with tickets to Paris leaving first thing in the morning.”

“Why?”

“I told you, I don’t do children,” Hill said, reaching in his pocket. He enjoyed seeing the relief flood Thorman’s face – from hope to despair to hope all in the space of a minute.

Hill thrust a large .45 automatic at Thorman who took it. “Take this just in case but get rid of it before the airport.”

Thorman looked down at the gun and then back up at Hill, who now held another gun, pointed at his forehead.

*

Four stores down from the doll store, Jill stopped. She couldn’t understand her husband. Normally, he was paranoid about her walking the streets alone. Muggings happen on the busiest streets in this city, he always said. Yet, he had told her to walk on alone. Then, he disappeared into an alley? Something wasn’t right.

As Jill hurried back to the alley, she thought about her husband’s employers. She knew that they weren’t totally on the up and up. She wasn’t sure exactly who they were but they were not
normal
businessmen. The more she thought about it, the faster she walked.

Rounding the corner of the alley, she saw the muzzle flash. She did not hear anything but she did see the small spark of light. She also saw her husband crumple into a small ball as he fell to the ground beside a dumpster. She screamed and the man turned toward her. She started to run to her husband but tripped. She landed sprawled out and dazed on the dirty, greasy pavement. She didn’t notice the explosion of brick above her.

When she looked up again, the man was running down the alley and her husband was still on the ground.

Dani’s robe fell to the floor and she slid into the bed beside Mann for the first early evening they had been together in a long while. She let her long, red hair drape across his face, tickling him. He ran one hand along her side, feeling her soft skin and lightly brushing the swell of her breast. Dani lowered herself until their lips gently brushed.

The harsh ring of the telephone startled both of them. Mann sat up too quickly, hitting his mouth against Dani’s chin. Cursing, he reached across Dani and grabbed up the receiver. Behind him, he heard Dani’s cell phone go off. When she hurried into the living room to answer it, he was sure what the call would be about.

“Lieutenant, it’s Greer. We got another.”

“Where?”

“Leantown, East Humley between Fifth and Fourth.”

“Call out the team. I want the area sealed.”

“There’s a complication.”

“Let me know when I get there. I’ll be fifteen minutes at the most.”

Mann pulled on his pants. Dani was already back in the room. She had her clothes on, and was grabbing up her camera equipment. “I’ll follow you,” she said.

Mann was pushing the car as fast as he dared. His siren was blaring but, as usual, other drivers ignored him and didn’t pull over. He laid on the horn and went through a red light. Dani slipped through in the gap that always followed in his wake. In his rearview mirror, he could see her headlights behind him and smiled. She was a good driver. After three years in Los Angeles and another year in both Rome and Mexico City, she had to be.

Mann was forced to ignore his rearview mirror as traffic suddenly snarled in front of him. He blasted the horn again. He wanted to be there before the scene got too old. God knew how long the body had been lying there as it was. And there was also the
complication
, whatever that was.

Leantown which was out of his official jurisdiction. Not that it mattered anymore. Under the new emergency policy, the task force could move anywhere in the city. Still, this was the first test run of the new system. Mann wanted all the various investigation units on the scene immediately. That was the only way they could hope to get anything.

Two blocks from the crime scene, Mann looked behind him. Dani’s headlights had disappeared. As he made the right hand turn he realized what she had done and he hit the horn in frustration. A block back was a one way street. He had taken the longer route which took him a block out of his way. She had taken the shorter route – the wrong way on the one way.

Mann got out of his car and gave Dani a glowering look. She already had her camera out and was turning that annoying red light on him. “Lieutenant, what is going on here? There is a rumor that the Southside Slasher has struck again.”

“As soon as I have any information, I will tell all of you what we have.”

Dani smiled at his “all of you” comment. Except for a mobile radio unit that was still setting up and a single reporter with a pad, she was the only one the scene. “Any comment on the other victim?”

Mann stared at her and realized three things. One, Dani wasn’t covering the Slasher case. Two, he should have let Greer tell him about the complication. Three, he was going to personally shoot Dani’s contact when he figured out who it was.

Dani just smiled and lowered the camera, giving Mann an opportunity to turn away.

As he pushed his way through the crowd of onlookers, Mann opened his badge case and slipped it through the pocket of his T-shirt. The uniform guarding the perimeter of the crime scene lifted the yellow tape for him to slip under and made a note on his clipboard. Mann took a moment to survey the scene. The perimeter was good but there was still no sign of the coroner or CSU van. He glanced at his watch, already fifteen minutes since he got the call. Not good enough.

He followed the white tape on the ground. Each detective entering or exiting the scene would follow the same route.

When Mann reached the body beside the dumpster, he stooped down. The victim, wearing a dark suit, was laying on his side, curled in the fetal position. A small pool of blood ran from his head. Mann could clearly see the bullet hole in the forehead. He could make out the powder burns. Up close and personal. No exit wounds so a low caliber, maybe a .22? The victim was also holding a large caliber automatic.