Big Bad Easy (11 page)

“How disfiguring was his costume?”

“Very. If you showed me a picture of the guy in real life, I couldn’t tell you if he was the same person. He had spikes on his face and she’d painted him green. I think they were Martians or aliens or something from some sci/fi show. Not my thing.” MeShelle was full of displeasure this evening. He preferred her smiles to the frowns she’d been giving all night.

“Got pictures of the event?” He didn’t have much of a chance of identifying the guy if there weren’t photos.

“On my website, my personal website.” She handed him a card. “There’s also links to other people’s photo streams. You might get lucky. Not with me, of course. I’m not beefy enough for you.”

He ignored MeShelle’s attempt at humor and gave her a small shake of his head. “Thanks. Oh, one more thing. Anyone else hanging out with the skinny, cracked out guy?”

She pulled a notepad out of her drawer and made some notes. He wondered what had triggered her thoughts and if they were about him. “Not that I know of, but I’ll put a call out for you since you look like you want to deck the guy.” Her dark rimmed eyes sparkled.

“I would if I knew who he was. I’m reaching at what might be nothing. It’s a feeling I’ve got.” A hunch that he based on the two creepy men in the park, and how one of them managed to get Zara so worked up that she’d start a fight. Of course, there were plenty of skinny, cracked out men in the city, but none of them were close to Zara that he knew of.

“Do you think that I should be worried if I see him again?” MeShelle tapped on the desk.

“I can’t rule him out, but I don’t have my hopes up. If you’re worried about security, I can take a look at what you have in place.”

She smiled like a cat that just caught a bird. “I have someone for that, but thank you.”

Jameson pulled his phone from his belt to look at a text message. Zara told him not to come by the gym, but to meet her at her place at eight. He would miss the workout, but he could use the extra time. He was going to check out Ms. Velasquez’s bar of choice and then go bug those two guys who worked at Zara’s local. Somehow, those two were involved, and if not, they needed to stay far away from his woman.

Jameson caught himself as his thoughts crashed into his reality. His woman? He had no right to call her that, but he damn well wanted to keep doing it. First, he had to help Decker solve this case to prove that Zara’s car break in wasn’t related.

A call came through as he was leaving MeShelle’s office. He answered it. “Yep, what’s up, Decker?”

“Two things. Report of a peeping Tom that the captain wants you to check out because the woman is asking for the big man. That has to be you, buddy. Ain’t nobody larger than you in the district, maybe on the whole force.”

“Shove it, Decker.” He said it without malice, though. For the moment, he liked Decker and how the man thought.

“After that, we need to talk about the Velasquez case. New stuff.”

“Like?”

“She reported her car broken into and purse stolen as well.”

“Yeah, that we knew.” Then, Jameson said what he feared. “He took her license, and we never caught the guy.”

“Yep, and nope.”

“Fuck it. When was the robbery? I can’t remember the date.”

He heard papers being flipped before Decker answered, “Early December of last year.”

A piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Damn. We have to talk later.”

“Yep. We’ve got ourselves some parallels.”

“I’m thinking that Velasquez’s man—before this recent guy—met her by stealing her license, figuring out where she lived. I’m reaching, and I know it.”

“I don’t think so, Kelly. I talked to her friends today, and they said she was a crazy exercise freak like Robinson.”

“Makes sense since she was a Dominatrix.”

“No shit? That little thing?”

“Just wait for the other parts, but go ahead and give me the details about the peeping Tom. I’ll knock that out and then we’ll pick this over until we get something.” Velasquez did like people to watch, and Zara never closed her curtains. Was the guy lining up his next victim? This last case was turning out to be much more than he’d expected. Felt fucking great to be back in it.

Chapter Nine

“He was there. I saw him, Linnie. Creeping around, looking at that girl running her ass off on that thing.” An old woman with frizzy gray-black hair shook her hands at a younger woman and stomped her stocking feet. Ida wasn’t happy. “You think I’m crazy.”

“No, momma,” the younger woman disagreed, “I think you’re drunk.”

“I am not. I was earlier, but I stopped when Harold came over.” She crossed her arms and harrumphed. “You can’t blame everything on my drinking.”

“This I can.”

The beat officer rolled his eyes at Jameson as he walked up to him. “They’ve been arguing like that since I got here. Can’t get a word in to ask any questions. I have no idea how the operator got anything out of her.”

Jameson gave the cop a quick nod. This guy was one of the best on regular patrol. He would be in plain clothes in no time. “I got only sketchy details. Give me what you’ve got.”

“Call came in on the non-emergency line three hours after she saw a man watching a woman exercising. He may or may not have masturbated. That part wasn’t clear. I get the idea from the argument here that the older lady had passed out from drinking. When she woke up, she called the police, which made the daughter angry. The daughter says her momma dreamed it. I knocked on the door when I got here, and they’ve been yelling at each other since. Quiet day, so I was letting them get the steam out. The old lady is a firecracker.”

Jameson knew how sharp Ida could be under the influence. Ida was a woman who’d chose to go through life pickled, and although she was an alcoholic, she was a very functional one. “I got this.”

He strolled toward the women with his arms wide open as if he would give both of them a hug at the same time. “Now, Ms. Ida, why don’t you take a load off and tell me all about it? I’m due to take down a creep since you and your brick intimidated the last group of them.”

“Aw, big man, good to see you.” Ida turned to her daughter. “You see, Linnie? This is how you treat your elders and get something done.” She patted Jameson on the chest as she hugged his waist. “My big man here is gonna do me right.”

“Sure thing, Momma. I’m gonna get ready for work. Just knock if you need to talk to me, officer. I can tell you right now that I didn’t see anything.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll be sure to find you if I need you.” Jameson settled on the porch steps beside Ida. “Now, Ms. Ida, tell me what you saw.”

“A man peeping, clear as day.”

“Where was he?”

“Thank you for not telling me I imagined it. Tired of hearing that from everyone. I don’t imagine things. I done fried all those brain cells. I can only tell you what I see and hear, and I saw that man. Hands in his pants, too.”

He felt bad for her, not being believed. On an ordinary day, he’d probably not give her accusations much weight, but this case had changed the atmosphere. A voyeuristic Dominatrix dead, and the case had a thin connection to Zara. He’d have to check for reports of peeping toms around the murder victim’s neighborhood. “Not here to tell you what you saw, but I do need to know where.”

“In that yard, over there.” She pointed to a lot that someone hadn’t mowed in a while with tall bushes and vines everywhere. “Stood in the back, looking past our house to one that a way.”

“One second.” He gestured to the officer to take a look at the overgrown yard. Telling the guy what to look for wasn’t necessary. “Which house?”

“The baby blue one with the green trim. Lawd, when they painted that house, I nearly fainted. Those are some crazy colors. Pretty girl lives there, tiny thing, with her boyfriend and baby. She does all that exercise like you and my Zara, but she don’t get all big like you.” Ida squeezed his upper arm.

“What time was this?”

She hung her head. “This is where I get all embarrassed. You gonna do like Linnie and not believe me now.”

“Not true, Ms. Ida. Some things I just have to know to write the report.”

“About ten this morning, then I fell asleep. I think my heart got all a twitter and crazy when I saw him playing in his pants. I reached for the phone right then. I did, but I never made it.”

“That’s all right.” It wasn’t, because three hours was a lot of time for a man, even on foot, to get somewhere far away. Any possible signs that someone was hanging around had probably vanished. “Can you tell me what he looked like?” Maybe this would also point to a skinny guy with a cracked-out look, or even better, for Ida to identify the guy as Tim from Zara’s local. He had “creep” stamped all over him. He probably bullied the younger cousin, too, which was why that kid had such a hang dog look about him.

Ida frowned and scowled and shook her head. “He ain’t a big man like you. I’m sorry. He was just too far away. He was wearing jeans and a white shirt,” she offered helpfully.

Jameson smacked his leg. He wanted some kind of description, but Ida looked like tears would spill out of her eyes at any moment. “All right. We’ll do what we can. Look around the area. If you see him again, let us know.” He handed her his card. “That’s my cell number. Call me directly. And don’t you worry. We’ll figure this out. I’m gonna talk to my officer over there.”

“All right, big man. You coming to the party tomorrow?”

“Did I miss something?”

“I guess you and Zara aren’t as close as I want y’all to be.”

He nodded in agreement. “We’re just starting out, ma’am.” All he could really say was they had great sex and enjoyed exercise. With what Decker had told him earlier, he assumed he’d have a late night talking about the case. That meant no following the lines of her muscles with his tongue or feeling her pussy contract around his cock.

“Am I gonna get in a mess of trouble if I push you two together by inviting you and not telling her about it?”

He doubted that Ida would ever get into a mess of trouble with anyone but her family. “That’s up to Zara, but she seems kind of soft on you.”

“It’s the soldier in her. She sees me as someone to protect. She ain’t never seen me clock someone with my brick.”

“I hope I never see it.”

“Well, yes. I don’t like wielding it.” She patted his leg. “You come. Tomorrow. Six o’clock, but try not to look like a cop. I got some family who don’t much care for y’all, seeing as how y’all have busted them a few times.”

“I’ll try to look less official.” Everyone told him he couldn’t ever look like anything but a cop, no matter what he wore.

“Thank you, my big man. Give Zara some love from me. Linnie ain’t gonna let me out of the house after this.”

“Might be for the best.” Jameson saw Ida into the house and went to talk to the officer near the spot where she said she saw the man. “Any luck?”

“Someone had definitely stood there.” He pointed to a patch of vines and leaves crushed to a dark green from where something heavy had been. No tell-tale footprints, though.

Jameson nodded. “She’s a drunk, but she saw something.”

“I’ll ask for increased patrol, but I’m not going to get it.” The officer shook his head. “Captain’s been a tight-fisted ass with the resources lately.”

“You know what?” He had a plan, and it involved drawing some pretty shaky lines between the crime against Zara, the peeping Tom, and the Velasquez murder. Perhaps the captain would grant him a kind of last request. “Let me handle that. Decker and I are working on something together.”

“You and Dickhead?”

“Yes. Saints won the Super Bowl, and Decker and I are working together. Start looking for the pigs flying.”

****

Jameson rubbed his face and leaned his head on the steering wheel of his car after he parked around the corner from Zara’s apartment. Exhaustion spread through him along with the knowledge that he’d not had a good workout for two days. That alone was enough to make him cranky, and the cheap Chinese carryout dinner with Decker had contributed to his supreme bad mood.

Velasquez had had her purse stolen from her car when she was at her day job at a shop along Maple Street. She’d had a wad of cash, so none of her credit cards were used, making solving the case close to impossible. He and Decker both groaned at that detail. They’d have no chance at linking the thefts, and the captain looked at them sideways when they presented their case that another woman might be in danger.

“We are cops in one of the quietest district in New Orleans, but people still get murdered and shot. That is life in the Big Easy.” The captain crossed his arms, daring them to ask for more.

They’d both argued with him. “Velasquez liked people to watch. What if the ex got jealous that some other guy was getting what was his? He goes in, convinces her to have sex the way she likes it, and goes too far. Now, he needs a new woman to stalk, breaks into another car—”

Jameson chimed in. “This time Ms. Robinson’s, to see where she lives.”

“Right. Add to that the peeping Tom—”

The conversation was full of them interrupting each other. This time the captain stopped their back and forth. “Which we have no proof of due to a drunk old lady’s fainting spell.”

“He was in the same neighborhood, just a few blocks from Ms. Robinson’s, watching a lady exercise.” Decker wasn’t letting this go.

Jameson added, “Velasquez exercised a lot at the park according to her current boyfriend. Ms. Robinson does that, too. This guy has a thing for well-toned women.” He applauded the man’s taste in body type, but he loathed the way the man went about meeting the women.

The captain shook his head as he turned out the light of his office. “You two make a good case, and it pleases me that you’re working together. But—”

“Here it comes.” For the first time that Jameson noticed, Decker was giving the captain hell.

“Yes, Decker, don’t let him rub off on you, but here it comes. You two have no real evidence, just shaky connections that would fall apart like a cheap Mardi Gras throw. Get something better, and I’ll have a car circle around more than they do now. Otherwise, we just have a guy jerking off around very fit women. I will let you have one more guy to catch the peeping Tom, though. I hate those guys. Next thing you know, he’ll be at the pool wanking off while watching children. Creeps.”