Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (8 page)

“Or anywhere upstream either
,” Yoshi added.

“Right,” Ron said. “Speaking of which, we
have
identified a few possible sites upstream where she might have
been dumped—most likely the fish hatchery a mile or
so upriver. But we didn’t find anything there, other
than the fact that they’re close by. Most likely
, somebody rolled her out of their trunk and into the
water, policed up the site, and then drove away. Two
minutes tops.”

“No tracks?” I asked.

“Nah. Half the places
are asphalt; the other half are gravel—no imprints off
either one.”

I nodded.

“So,” he continued, “the killer pulls
up, unloads Sophie, and dumps her in the river. Current
grabs hold of her and she floats off downstream. Killer
thinks he’s in the clear and drives away fat
, dumb, and happy. Maybe he even thinks Sophie’s headed
down to the Columbia and out to sea. But, whatever
—bad news for him: he apparently doesn’t know the
river. Turns out he drops her in just above a
big sweeping left-hand bend and not long after she
hits the water, that big dress she was wearing snags
on a tree. A couple of hours after that, a
fisherman wonders why his line’s hung up. He wants
that hand-tied fly back, so he investigates and hello
! There’s our victim, floating facedown in the water. We
’ve interviewed her boyfriend, her relatives, her coworkers, her neighbors
—hell, we’ve even interviewed all the people who live
in the area where her body was found hoping somebody
saw something. One farmer says that same night, his dogs
went crazy barking—woke him up. But by the time
he grabbed his shotgun and got outside, there was nothing
there. Might have been a car, but could also just
have been a fox or a raccoon.”

“And these reports
are all in here?”

He nodded. “Every one of them
.”

“What about the phone call?” Toni asked. “She got a
call at the club?”

“So her sister says. We checked
her cell phone records. Call that came in just before
ten originated from a pay phone—right in front of
the restroom of the fuckin’ club. Someone must have been
watching her the whole time, picked their time, and called
her up. Bouncer sees her go outside and drive away
. Doesn’t notice anything else.”

“No cameras there?”

He shook
his head. “None. Bouncer says people are in and out
all night long. Nobody stood out.”

“You guys found her
car at an airport lot, right?”

“Yeah. One of those
over on International Boulevard.”

“Explanation?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Two
possibilities. Sophie drove herself there for some reason, and that
’s where she was abducted. Or else, the killer drove
there and left the car.”

Yoshi said, “We figure it
’s the latter and that the killer was hoping that
when we found her car, we’d think that Sophie
jumped on an airplane and disappeared on her own.”

“He
must’ve thought that we’d find the car before
we found the body,” Ron said.

“If ever,” Yoshi added
.

“If you’re right, it means there were probably two
people,” Toni said. “After he dropped the car off, someone
probably drove him away.”

Yoshi nodded. “That’s right. But
we don’t know anything about a second car.”

I
nodded. “What about the boyfriend?” I asked.

Ron shook his
head. “Innocent kid. Love-struck. He was crushed. He’s
Dave Crosby’s kid, you know.”

“West precinct Captain Dave
Crosby?”

“Right—Captain Dave. Married to Katherine Crosby. As in
, her honor Superior Court Judge Katherine Crosby.”

“Kid has a
rock-solid alibi. Both parents say he was home with
them that night.”

“He’s twenty-five, and he still
lives with his parents?” Toni asked.

“Nope. Don’t worry
,” Ron said. “Ain’t nothin’ weird going on. Kid’s
in his third year of law school. He has an
apartment in the U-District, but his mom keeps trying
to drag him into politics. She wanted him to go
to a breakfast meeting with her early the next morning
, so he just stayed with them. Apparently, before he moved
out, he had his own poolside bungalow at the family
compound, and that’s where he stayed that night. Note
I say ‘compound.’ These people ain’t exactly paupers. Her
honor inherited a shitload with a capital S some time
ago. Anyway, Mom and Dad said the kid got to
their place at eight thirty after a karate class he
teaches downtown. Stayed in the rest of the night. Meanwhile
, Sophie’s at Genesis with her sister and some other
folks until ten when she drives away.”

“Any patterns with
known serial killers?” Toni asked. “Remember that guy you told
us about last year? The guy who snips off the
fingers of his victims?”

Ron smiled. “Yeah. Mr. Finger Snipper
, the fuckin’ wacko. Good news, though. Sophie Thoms had all
her digits when they pulled her out. It wasn’t
the same psycho.”

“But maybe another?”

He laughed. “There’s
plenty of psychos to go around. But this doesn’t
fit with anybody we know. Most of the time, there
’s some sort of sexual assault with those guys, or
some other kind of mutilation or trauma. Here, there was
nothing.”

I nodded and considered this. “Young woman. No sexual
assault. No trauma. You think that means it was somebody
she knew, maybe?”

He shook his head. “No idea one
way or another. We’ve considered the same thing, though
.”

I thought about this for a second and then said
, “I’m sure you have a suspect list.”

He nodded
. “Sure. ’Cept it’s more of a ‘person of interest
’ list, really. I hate to say it, but it’s
damn short and the fact is, so far we don
’t have anything that would lead to bumping any of
them up to suspects yet. In fact, I got more
reasons to take most of ’em off the list altogether
. Most everyone has a solid alibi. I just haven’t
done it yet. We need a break on this case
and so far, it ain’t coming.”

“How ’bout anything
from CIs?”

Ron shook his head. “We got all our
people squeezing every snitch they got. So far, no one
knows anything. Or, at least, no one’s talkin’.”

I
nodded. “How many people you got working on this?”

“Between
you and me? We’re down to fifteen. But that
knowledge is a serious fuckin’ state secret and if you
tell anybody, I’ll deny it and then right before
I get canned, I’ll kick your ass, Captain Jerry
be damned.”

“Fifteen? Really? I thought there were like forty
people on the task force.”

“There were. Politics put ’em
on. Economics took ’em off. Technically, they’re all still
on. But a bunch of guys have been quietly shuffled
back to their normal duties. Be different if we actually
had any of them things called leads, but as it
is, I don’t have enough going on to keep
that many people busy anyway.”

I nodded and thought about
this. “Understood. Aside from babysitting Cecilia, where do you want
us working?”

“That’s not enough? Oops,” he glanced at
Toni. “I forgot. You guys are going to solve this
for us.” He nodded. “Good. That being the case, you
tell me. Where do you think you can help?”

I
thought about it for a second, then I held up
the DVD. “How ’bout we do this? Why don’t
Toni and I study the evidence today and tomorrow, and
then we can hook back up on Monday after your
meeting. We’re seeing Nicki Thoms at ten Monday morning
. We’ll give you a call when we’re done
.”

He nodded. “Good. And seriously, something to keep in mind
. Even though we like to keep things light around here
, we’re committed to solving this case and we’re
happy to take help from wherever we can get it
.” He paused for a second. “Even from a couple civilians
such as yourselves.”

“Do you think what he said about
Sophie was really true?” Toni asked. “All those nice things
?” We were in my Jeep driving north on Fourth Avenue
on our way home. The downtown traffic on Saturday afternoon
was light, and we were making good time.

“Who? You
mean Gaston?”

“Yeah.”

I tried to recall his speech. “I
don’t know. He sounded sincere. Cecilia said Sophie was
doing well at work, but Gaston made her sound almost
like a saint.”

“Yeah. Oliver stuck up for her too
,” she said. “Cecilia seemed pretty much down on both girls
at first until Oliver defended her. Gaston seems like he
lands on Oliver’s side, that’s for sure.”

I
nodded. “Yep. Keep in mind that he was on stage
today, trying to raise money for a new fund. He
’s a pro at that. I get the impression that
the hail-fellow-well-met persona of his is quite
polished. Even if he knew of any faults Sophie might
’ve had, he’s not going to bring ’em out
in front of three or four hundred potential donors.”

She
nodded. “That’s true.”

We drove for several minutes, listening
to Demi Lovato playing softly on the radio, asking us
to give her heart a break.

“The pictures get to
me,” Toni said, interrupting the music.

“Sophie’s pictures?” I
remembered the large posters in the ballroom.

“Yeah.”

“How so
?”

“I don’t know. It’s like, I always get
a little wierded out when I look at pictures of
people who are dead—especially young people, and especially black
-and-white pictures. It makes me realize how fragile all
this is.” She looked outside, scanning the view as we
drove, before turning to me. “It’s like one day
it’ll be me up there looking down on the
people.”

I nodded slowly. “I get that. It’s like
the photos seem to take people basically just like us
and freeze ’em in time, all young and full of
life. And then later, when you look at the pictures
they look like they’re just standing there, right in
front of you, having a good time. It’s like
it could be us.”

“I know. And that big picture
of Sophie’s just like that. It’s like she
’s not even gone. I know it shouldn’t, but
it kind of creeps me out.”

I made the turn
onto Blanchard. “Maybe she’s talking to you.”

She spun
abruptly in her seat and looked at me. “Why do
you say that?”

I shrugged. “Just talking.”

She turned back
and stared straight ahead without speaking. Several seconds passed.

“You
okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.” She turned back
to me. “But that’s the weird thing, Danny,” she
said. “You hit it. When I look at the picture
—those eyes in particular—they’re like Mona Lisa eyes
.”

“Mona Lisa eyes?”

“Yeah. You know: sad, haunting eyes. They
follow you around, wherever you go.” She shivered and clutched
her arms together. “It’s weird. I get feelings.”

“What
kind of feelings?”

She thought for a second, then shrugged
. “I don’t know—just feelings, you know? It’s
unsettling.” She looked at me. “You don’t feel any
kind of connection when you look at those pictures?”