Authors: Lisa Jackson
Hot Blooded (40 page)
“So now you’re pulling out the feminine wiles arsenal?”
“I’m just trying to convince you,” she said, stung that he’d seen through her ploy. Then again, she’d been foolish to use it. “I just want to be here, okay?” He frowned darkly and seemed about to argue again, but she placed a finger to his lips, shushing him.
“Please, Ty, we’ve got to do everything we can to catch this creep. Before he hurts someone else.”
“That’s what I’m trying to prevent,” he said, “because I’m afraid you’re the next target.”
“Then stay with me.”
“All right, but if there’s the hint of trouble, we’re outta here.”
“It’s a deal.”
Frowning, he finished his coffee in one gulp. “Let’s go down to my house. We’ll pick up the dog and a change of clothes and then, if you’re so damned hell-bent on spending the night here, we’ll come back.”
“I am,” she said, slipping into a pair of flip-flops and carrying the mugs to the sink. She set the alarm, locked the door and followed Ty to his car.
The night was dark and humid, clouds blocking the moon. Insects hovered near the porch light and crawled on the windows. Along the street a few neighboring houselights burned and through open windows came the muted sounds of televisions, dishwashers, music or conversation. She wondered if she’d ever feel safe here again, would ever open her windows and let in the breath of wind, listen to the sounds of crickets, or would she forever be paralyzed, locked up tight.
Don’t let John do this to you,
she warned herself,
don’t let him win. Find the bastard.
Several cars were parked along the street, some she recognized, others she didn’t.
Ty must’ve noticed her checking out the vehicles. “The second one on the left. That’s the unmarked,” Ty said. “Your private bodyguards.”
“You can tell?”
“I was a cop, remember?”
“Yeah,” she said, climbing into the Volvo and slamming the passenger door shut, “but the truth of the matter is that’s about all I do know about you. The rest is pretty vague.”
He flashed her a disarming smile as he eased the car
around her circular drive and nosed onto the street. “Hey, I’m an open book. What do you want to know?”
In for a penny, in for a pound,
she thought, fiddling with the strap of her seat belt. “First off, I assume there is no Mrs. Wheeler?”
“Just my mother. Lives in San Antonio. A widow.” From the sideview mirror, Sam saw the unmarked pull into the street. Headlights flashed on.
“Not too subtle, are they?” Ty glanced in the rearview mirror. “I was married a long time ago. High-school sweetheart who didn’t like being married to a policeman. We were divorced before we had kids, and I’ve never seen the need to walk down the aisle again.”
“What about girlfriends?”
“One in every port,” he teased, then sobered, the dash lights reflecting in his eyes. “I really haven’t had the time. Anything else you want to know?”
“Probably, but I’ll worry about it later.”
Cranking the wheel, he turned into his driveway, then pulled the keys from the ignition and cut the engine. Sam reached for the door handle, but he grabbed her arm, stalling her. “Look, Samantha, I know we haven’t known each other all that long, and I’ll admit that my reasons for meeting you weren’t on the level. I lied to you, and we both know it. It was a mistake, believe me. I just never intended to get involved with you. But I’m not hiding anything, all right? There’s no deep, dark secret I’m keeping from you. If I had this all to do over again, hell, I would have been straight with you from the beginning, but that’s not the way it worked out.” He pulled her close and dropped a chaste kiss on her lips. His breath was warm against her face. “Trust me, darlin’, okay? I’ll do anything to get you out of this mess. Anything.” He traced the line of her jaw with a finger, then let his hand drop. “I feel like it’s my fault this is all happening to you, to the other women.” Pain crossed his eyes and
tugged at the corners of his mouth. Cords stood out in the back of his neck. “I swear to you…I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe. I mean it. Just…have a little faith.”
Her throat closed as she stared into his night-darkened eyes. He seemed so sincere, so determined. So guilt-riddled. “I do,” she said, but stopped herself from admitting more, that she was afraid she was falling in love with him, because it was foolish. The words would have sounded silly and trite, and the truth of the matter was, she couldn’t trust her own emotions.
Headlights flashed as the unmarked drove slowly past. “I think we’d better get going,” Ty said as he released her.
Together they walked into his house and it seemed to Sam like eons since she’d stormed out the other night, angry with him for lying to her. Oh, Lord, so much had happened since then and yet it had only been a few days ago.
A few days ago when Leanne had still been alive.
Heart heavy, she followed him to his loft and dropped onto a corner of his bed as he threw a change of clothes and shaving gear into an athletic bag. Thoughts of Leanne Jaquillard darkened her mind. If only she could have helped. If only she’d returned Leanne’s calls earlier. If only…oh, Lord, she couldn’t keep doing this. Hands clasped between her knees, she stared at the carpeting and felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. “I feel like that if I would have talked to her, if she and I had met somewhere, this could have been prevented,” she said.
Ty caught her reflection in the mirror over his dresser.
“John…He told me that he’d made a sacrifice for me. He killed her…because of me…and…she’d tried to reach me and I wasn’t there for her.”
Ty zipped the bag, then dropped to a knee in front of her. With a finger, he lifted her chin, forcing her gaze to his.
“You don’t know that. Chances are you both would be dead
right now. Come on, Samantha, don’t do this to yourself. It’s a terrible tragedy, God knows, but don’t blame yourself.”
“You’re a great one to talk. Didn’t you just take a serious guilt trip when we were in the driveway?”
“But I pulled out of it.”
Tears filled Sam’s eyes all over again. “She was killed because she knew me. If she hadn’t…”
“Don’t go there, Samantha, please,” he said softly. “What we have to do now, you and I, is get the guy. It’s what Leanne would want.”
“It’s what anyone would want.”
Blinking, she pulled every ounce of gumption she could find deep within. “You’re right,” she said with renewed conviction. “Let’s go get him.”
“Oh, we will,” Ty promised as he reached into a top dresser drawer and pulled out a pistol.
Every muscle in Sam’s body went instantly rigid. “A gun? You’ve got a gun?”
“I thought we’d established that I was with the Houston police? Don’t worry, I’ve got a license. It’s legal.” He found a clip on a shelf in his closet and snapped it in place. Flipping on the safety, he slid the pistol into a shoulder holster, strapped it in place and whipped on a jacket. “Just in case.”
“I don’t like guns, not any kind of guns,” she argued.
“And I don’t like men who kill women to get their jollies. If anyone tries to harm you, they’re gonna be sorry.” She thought he was teasing, trying to lift her spirits, but she caught the hard glint in his eye and knew he was serious. Dead serious.
So if this guy’s “the one” as you told Sam, then why is he so elusive?
Melanie asked herself as she dialed her boyfriend’s number and leaned back in her bathtub. It was the middle of the night. So why wouldn’t he be home?
Maybe he just turned off his cell so that he wouldn’t be awakened at hours like this.
Or he might be with another woman.
That thought was like a knife twisting in her chest.
God, Mel, you’ve got it bad.
As she watched a drop of water hang on the faucet, she waited, knew he wouldn’t answer and that she’d leave her third message on his cell phone. What was it about him that she found so darkly irresistible?
“Leave a message,” the recorded message advised her.
“Hi, this is Melanie again. Just wondering what you were up to.” She tried to keep her voice light, but inside she felt like an idiot. She was chasing him, just as she had a dozen other good-looking guys who’d mistreated her in the past. There was something wrong with her—she didn’t have to have studied psychology to recognize that she always went for the wrong type—but still, she couldn’t seem to break herself of the habit. “An addict,” she told herself as she set the handheld on the counter and closed her eyes. She’d added bath crystals and drew in the scent of their fragrance as steam rose toward the ceiling. “You’re a love slave. Just like your mother and your sister.” Every woman in her family had endured the thoughtlessness of the men. Her mother had been married half a dozen times and never found happiness, her sister was still married to the jerk who beat her when he got drunk and she, the independent one, always chased the tall, dark and dangerous ones.
Things would get better…though. Tomorrow she’d call Trish LaBelle again over at WNAB. She hadn’t gotten through yet, but Melanie wasn’t giving up. Not on her boyfriend and not at a better job—either at WSLJ or a rival station.
It was time to move up in the world. She smiled. Imagined herself behind the microphone hosting
Midnight Confessions.
The two weeks Samantha had been in Mexico had
been the best of Melanie’s life…as she’d essentially become Dr. Sam, even spending her late nights in Sam’s house. She’d met her boyfriend only a week or so before and they’d really clicked…she remembered how he’d loved her in Sam’s big bed and even now she quivered with anticipation.
Yes, she thought, slowly lathering her body, things were going to change for the better. Melanie would make it happen. One way or another.
Rick Bentz stared out the bug-spattered windshield as Montoya ignored the speed limit and flew down the highway.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that there are three guys missing?” Bentz asked, drumming his fingers on the armrest. The car was hot and smelled of stale smoke. “All three of them are connected with Annie Seger or Samantha Leeds and they all lived in Houston when Annie died.”
“Everything about this damned case is strange.” Montoya had been smoking. He flipped his cigarette butt outside and rolled up the window, giving the air conditioner a chance to cool off the sun-baked interior of the unmarked cruiser.
They were driving back from White Castle, where they’d talked to Mrs. Ryan Zimmerman, a sharp-tongued woman who had no kind words for her husband.
“I shoulda listened to my folks and never married him,” she’d said in all her self-righteous fury. “He’s no good. I don’t know what I was thinking. And now he’s lost his job. Just didn’t show up one day. How’s that for irresponsible?”
She’d sat in the living room of her condominium surrounded by boxes, evidence that either she was moving out or giving Ryan the heave ho.
“Why are you askin’ about him, anyway?”
When Montoya had explained that he was a “person of interest” in the murder of Leanne Jaquillard, she’d changed
her tune and attitude faster than you could blink. “Ryan would never do anything like that. I mean he’s big and physical and has a temper, but he’s no killer,” she’d insisted.
Montoya had been patient and explained they just wanted to talk to her husband, but Mrs. Ryan Zimmerman decided to clam up and told them to go away. If they wanted to talk to her again, she’d said, she would insist that a lawyer be present.
“So Zimmerman’s gone. No forwarding address, no job,” Montoya commented as he soared past an eighteen-wheeler zinging down the highway. Bentz scrabbled in his shirt pocket for a nonexistent pack of cigarettes. He had to settle for a hit of nicotine from the last piece of gum in his pack. Montoya flipped on a pair of wraparound sunglasses. “And Kent Seger’s MIA as well. Just up and left All Saints with no visible sign of income.”
“Yep.” Bentz winced as Montoya began to pass a sedan with an old man huddled over the steering wheel, his gray-haired wife so small she was barely visible in the passenger seat. Something bright flashed from inside the car, something blinding that dangled from the rearview mirror. Bentz flipped down his visor.
“And then there’s Samantha Leeds’s brother,” Montoya ranted on. “He’s dropped out of sight as far as the family was concerned, but, low and behold, he was working in the very town where his sister was a DJ, right during the thick of things. Seems a little too convenient to me. Maybe there’s something to Wheeler’s theory that Annie Seger was murdered.”
Bentz had to admit it had some merit, but he lost track of the conversation when Montoya pulled ahead of the sedan and Bentz recognized the object that had been blinding him. A rosary was looped around the sedan’s rearview mirror and the clear, glittering beads were refracting the hell out of the intense sunlight.
“I’ll be damned,” Bentz said as Montoya whipped across the lane to make his exit. “Did ya get a look at that?”
“At what? The Taurus?”
“No, I’m talking about what was in it. That old couple had a rosary tied to their rearview mirror.”
“So? They probably had a plastic Jesus, too.” Montoya braked for a stop sign. The unmarked car shuddered to a stop. He wasn’t getting it.
“A rosary,” Bentz repeated. “With beads spaced in a distinct pattern…“’
“What’re you talkin’ about? So the beads are spaced for the damned prayers, yeah I know…” His voice faded, and he sent Bentz a look of disbelief. “You don’t think our guy used a rosary as a garrotte, do you?”
“I think it’s worth checking out.”
“So what does this mean…that the guy’s some kind of priest?” Montoya let a flatbed pass.
“Probably not. You can get those things anywhere, probably even on the Internet.”
“What at Catholics R Us?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of
www.rosary.com.”
The light changed.
“Holy shit,” Montoya muttered, gunning the engine. The cruiser shot forward. “This is really sick stuff.”
Amen,
Bentz thought, but didn’t say it.
“You know I can’t divulge patient information, Samantha,” Dania Erickson said in that well-modulated I-know-better-than-you voice Sam remembered from her days sitting through psych lectures at Tulane. Sam had finally caught up with her old nemesis. Finally, the “doctor was in” at Our Lady of Mercy in California and not happy about being disturbed.
Tough,
Sam thought as she held the receiver of the phone in the office she shared with the other DJs to her ear and stared at the composite drawing of the killer, a flat image that stared up at her through dark lenses. Music from a prerecorded program, some kind of soft jazz, played through the speakers, and the buzz of conversation drifted in through the open door.
Dania had always had something to say back in those days at Tulane, had always tried to ingratiate herself with the teachers, including Dr. Jeremy Leeds, who had ended up as Sam’s husband. Sam suspected that her marriage had
always rankled Dania, and now Dania wasn’t giving an inch. Sam and Dania had been playing phone tag for nearly a week and had finally connected, not that it was doing any good. “Anything I have is privileged information.”
“I realize that, but there’s a serial killer on the loose here in New Orleans. The police have linked him to Annie Seger, Kent’s sister. He could be a murderer, Dania.”
“Doesn’t change anything, you know that. I did treat Kent years ago, after his sister’s suicide, but other than that, I can’t divulge any information. It could cost me my job.”
“We’re talking about women’s lives.”
“I’m sorry, Samantha. Truly, but I can’t help you.” With that she clicked off and Sam was left holding the receiver of the phone.
“Great,” Sam muttered. It was Thursday afternoon and in less than half an hour she was supposed to attend a special staff meeting. Everyone at the station was on pins and needles. The police had installed taps and tracers on the phones, the staff was warned not to say a word about a link between Dr. Sam’s
Midnight Confessions
and the serial killer, but somehow the word had leaked out. As if she were Pandora and had set Chaos free, the city blamed her for the monster who was stalking its streets.
WSLJ had been besieged with calls. The press wanted interviews. Listeners demanded information. The phone lines never stopped flashing.
George Hannah was thrilled. The audience for
Midnight Confessions
had grown seemingly exponentially overnight. It was the one show to listen to, part of daily conversation at Café du Monde over beignets and café au lait, or the buzz in the bars on and off Bourbon Street, or part of the evening news or water-cooler conversation in the business district. Cab drivers, oil workers, bartenders, accountants, college kids—they all had an interest in
Midnight Confessions.
Samantha Leeds, AKA Doctor Sam was the Big Easy’s
newfound celebrity, more infamous than famous. Yes, George Hannah was beside himself, and the rumors of his selling the station for an obscene sum ran rampant down the “aorta” and raced through the crooked hallways of the station.
Eleanor was worried sick. She wanted to cancel the show. Popularity was all well and good, but this insanity was too much.
Melba couldn’t keep up with the phone lines.
Gator was sullen as opposed to Ramblin’ Rob’s amusement at “the whole darned thing. You’ve created a damned sideshow, Sam, my girl,” he’d said early in the week as he’d clapped her on the back and laughed so hard he’d ended up in a coughing fit that sounded as if his lungs were about to explode.
Tiny was run ragged and Melanie, looking tired, complained of being overworked, needing a raise and wanting a bigger part of the show—better yet, her own show would be nice.
Sam had been offered a job at another radio station in town and some kind of media agent in Atlanta had phoned her, suggesting that there were bigger markets, that she might want to move to New York or LA.
Which wouldn’t be a bad idea, considering. If she moved back to the West Coast she could be near her father.
And thousands of miles from Ty.
That thought made her wince. She’d come to love him, there was just no doubt about it, and in the past couple of weeks he’d become an integral part of her life—him and that big, slow-moving dog of his—had moved in for the most part. She didn’t kid herself that he loved her; no, he was protecting his interests and absolving some of the guilt he felt because he was certain he’d stirred up this whole mess.
All in all, Sam’s life had become a madhouse.
And a killer was stalking the streets.
A killer who had remained silent for nearly a week.
But he hadn’t gone away, Sam was sure of it. He was biding his time, watching, ever-present, ready to strike again. She sensed it every time she picked up the phone, every instant she pressed one of the blinking lights on her console, every night when the sun went down.
It was just a matter of time.
Sam had attended Leanne Jaquillard’s funeral, a small event with most of the girls from the Boucher Center in attendance. Leanne’s mother, Marletta, had been in the tiny, hot chapel near the river, and when Sam had tried to give her condolences, Marletta had turned a cold shoulder. Marletta hadn’t been as openly hostile as Estelle Faraday had been years before at Annie Seger’s funeral, but the message was the same: Marletta blamed Samantha for her daughter’s death. In this case Sam couldn’t argue. If Leanne hadn’t known her, chances were she’d be alive today.
The police had thought the murderer might attend the funeral and they’d had undercover cops inside the church and hidden cameras taking pictures of the small group of mourners.
John hadn’t made an appearance.
Or no one saw him.
In the meantime Sam spent days poring over her notes, her nights in Ty’s arms. They made love as if each night would be their last, and Sam wouldn’t let herself think where the relationship would lead, if anywhere. It was doomed, started on lies, based on a mutual need to bring the killer to justice.
In her waking hours, when not preparing for the show and coming up with topics she hoped would entice John from hiding, she’d read through the information Ty had gathered on his family, inhaled everything she could about serial killers and the psychology of murder, then trying to make sense of the clues she had as to “John’s” identity and
his motivation. And what was with the dark glasses? Did he always wear them? Was it part of his disguise? Sam had a theory.
She dialed the police station, left a message for Bentz and before she was finished checking her e-mail, received a call back.
“This is Rick Bentz. You called?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Sam said, “I want to run something by you.”
“Shoot.”
“From the minute I received that publicity picture of me, the one with the eyes cut out, I had this feeling that whoever sent it to me was trying to give me a message, not just terrorize me, but I thought there might be some sort of subliminal information that even he might not realize he was passing along.”
“Such as?”
“That he didn’t want me to see him, or recognize him, that…there was some symbolism with the eyes being mutilated.” She picked up the composite picture sitting on the desk. “And both eyewitnesses said the guy was wearing sunglasses, even though it was night, right?”
“Yep.”
“At first I thought it was just part of his disguise, but maybe there’s another message here—that he can’t stand to see what he’s done, that he doesn’t want to witness his own act.”
There was a pause. Bentz was mulling it over.
“And then he calls and there’s all these religious references, and one of my first thoughts was that he was making reference to John Milton’s
Paradise Lost.
He calls himself John, which could be anything from John Milton to John the Baptist, that part I’m not clear on.” She stared at the computer drawing. “I had discarded the idea, but now I’m not so sure. Somehow I think he’s referring to himself as Lucifer, that he was somehow thrown out of heaven or
paradise and even though he’s blaming me, I’d guess he’s blaming himself.”
“This is your theory?” he said.
“Part of it, yes. I do have a degree in psychology,” she said, bristling. “A doctorate. I’m not your usual dial-a-shrink.”
“Hey, I didn’t say you were wrong. I’ll give it some thought. And meanwhile, you keep safe. This guy’s not done.”
“George should have canceled this.” Eleanor eyed the crowd packed into the courtyard of the old hotel. Palm trees glittered with thousands of lights, huge pots were filled with fragrant blossoms, and mannequins dressed in differing costumes loitered through the hallways, courtyard and hotel lobby. While waiters served champagne and hors d’oeuvres on large trays, music from a jazz combo positioned on the second of three balconies filtered over the crowd.
Champagne flowed from an ice sculpture of the station’s logo and George Hannah, smooth in his tux and practiced smile, was in his element, working the crowd, shaking hands, making small talk, looking, as ever, for investors for WSLJ.
“He couldn’t have canceled,” Sam said, “it was too late. This had been planned for months.”
“Then he could have done it up right. Found a decent place to have it, even rented one of the plantations for the night. This place is falling down.” Eleanor’s dark eyes flashed as she gazed up at the stucco walls and terraced rooms with their green shutters and filigreed railings. There were cracks in the plaster, some of the paint peeling.
“It’s being renovated,” Sam pointed out, searching the crowd for Ty. “I’ve seen work crews coming and going all afternoon while we were setting up.”
“This hotel should have been demolished fifty years ago.”
“It’s part of New Orleans history.” Sam knew the reasons they’d chosen this smaller hotel. It had character, was situated in the French Quarter and was cheap. George had worked a deal. Which was good for the Boucher Center, who would reap the benefits. Yes, they’d had some complications from the work crews who were restoring and renovating the old rooms, but the hotel staff had bent over backward trying to accommodate the crowd and the workmen had cordoned off the reconstruction areas.
Conversation buzzed throughout the courtyard as the music played. Samantha managed to keep her cool, though she caught surreptitious glances cast her way from some of the guests. She understood why. Her name had been in the papers and on the local news, tied to the series of killings and the maniac who called her. She thought of Leanne. How the girl had looked forward to this event and now was dead. Sam’s heart wrenched. Guilt weighed heavily on her mind. If only she’d called Leanne back sooner, if only she’d read her e-mail, if only…John hadn’t known about her. Her jaw set.
How had John known how close she’d been to Leanne. Who the hell was he? Someone close to her?
Who?
Someone she considered a friend. Through an arbor, she saw Gator lurking near the bar and tossing back one drink after another. Tiny, looking awkward in a too-small tux standing away from the crowd while nervously smoking a cigarette. Ramblin’ Rob was schmoozing with a local television hostess and Melanie, in gold lame and five inch heels, was keeping a close watch on every move George Hannah made.
Renee and Anisha, dressed up in high heels and long dresses, practically beamed as they, along with the directors of the center, explained about the programs to the guests who inquired.
Leanne should be here.
Sam tried to ignore the guilt that had been her constant companion since the girl’s death..
She’s dead because she knew you. Murdered by a psychotic maniac.
“Don’t go there,” Eleanor advised as if reading her mind. She, too, was looking at the knot of people collecting around the table for the Boucher Center. “I know what you’re thinking. You couldn’t help it.”
“I don’t know. I think that if I would have responded to her, called her back sooner or did
some
thing different, she would be alive today.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Eleanor advised, though she looked nervous and drawn despite her makeup, jewelry and shimmering black dress. She’d insisted upon plain clothes policemen and Bentz had agreed. Hotel security was supposed to be mingling through the crowd and yet Sam had the sinking sensation that if John wanted to be here, he would be. The composite picture in the paper wouldn’t be a deterrent, if anything, she thought, trying to second guess him, the fact that the police had some idea of what he looked like would present a challenge. She spotted Bentz, tugging at the collar of his white shirt, looking uncomfortable standing guard in one doorway. Across the courtyard, Montoya was leaning against a pillar and surveying the crowd.
“Try to enjoy yourself,” Eleanor advised.
“You, too.”
“I’ll smile if you will,” Eleanor said and managed to do just that as George Hannah approached and introduced her to some parish officials.
Sam forced a grin even though she noticed two people she would rather avoid. Her ex-husband was parting the crowd and heading in her direction while Trish LaBelle was holding court near the bar.
“Samantha!” Jeremy called and she gritted her teeth as he reached her and brushed a familiar kiss across her cheek.
“Don’t,” she warned. “Why not?”
“Just don’t.” She saw a flash of anger in his eyes and something else, something darker. “It makes me uncomfortable.” Where the devil was Ty?
“A kiss on the cheek? After what’s been going on with you? For the love of Christ, Sam, I would have thought you would take any friend you could get.”
“I have to draw the line somewhere.”
“So you start with ex-husbands?”
“I only have one,” she reminded him sharply as he snagged a glass of champagne from a tray.
“So far.”
“Ever.”
“You know, Sam, in my professional opinion, all this bitterness indicates that you’re still not over me.”
“Can it, Jeremy. That’s a crock. You and I both know it. Now, what is it you want? Didn’t you say something about there being something going on with me? What’s that?” The combo, joined by a smokey-voiced singer, lit into a slow rendition of “Fever.”