Nothing to Fear (44 page)

Mia bit her lip. “There’s more. We got some new bodies today. An old woman that lived in Randi Vaughn’s old building from eleven years ago and one of her former partners. Our ME noted the same silencer pattern as we saw on Dr. Lee and Kristie Sikorski on both victims. The old lady was Jackie Williams.”

Abe flipped open his notebook. “I found Williams in the old police reports from Conway’s arrest. Sue had hidden from the police for a few days, but Williams was watching, saw when Sue came back to Randi’s apartment, and reported her. This old lady was tortured before she died. Bleach was poured in her eyes, blinding her. Her tongue was also cut out.”

“My God,” Ethan murmured, horrified. “My God.” He cleared his throat. “And the second one?”

Mia winced. “Leroy Vickers testified against Sue. Let’s just say he won’t be doing that again.”

Abe sighed. “We put the other people involved in Conway’s arrest in protective custody. The arresting officer and his family, the prosecutor.”

There was quiet, then Clay cleared his throat. “Have you heard from Lou Moore?”

Mia nodded. “She called a few hours ago. Bryce Lewis spilled his guts. Sue contacted him out of the blue a few weeks ago. They hadn’t spoken in years. The Lewises’ wouldn’t let him visit her in prison and he’d thought she was still there. Sue said she needed money, gave him a sad story, so he wired her money from his uncle’s credit card. She met him here in Chicago and together they drove to Maryland. He claims he didn’t know about the kidnapping until right before they stormed the beach house. He claims she promised nobody would get hurt, that they’d get their money for the kid, then give him back.”

“Moore said Bryce Lewis didn’t seem like the brightest bulb in the chandelier,” Abe said. “She suspected some kind of learning disability, maybe diminished capacity.”

Dana nodded. “That’s consistent with what I know about Sue’s mother. She was a junkie and a drunk when she was carrying him. That he was affected is no surprise.”

“He knew about the tattoo,” Abe said. “Apparently Sue liked to quote their father who said Adopt, Adapt, and Improve. I couldn’t place it.”

Beside her, Ethan tensed. “The Motto of the Round Table,” he murmured. “It’s a joke.”

Mia looked sick. “A joke?” She had trouble even saying the words.

“I’m afraid so. The Monty Python group did this comedy skit in the seventies. A robber goes to rob a bank and realizes he’s in a lingerie shop. He says ‘Adopt, Adapt, and Improve, the Motto of the Round Table,’ then steals underwear,” Ethan said sadly. “Sue’s done that often over the last week, adapting her plans to fit the situation.”

“Hell.” Mia stood up and paced. “We have eleven dead people and no idea where this woman is. She’s setting the stage and all we can do is chase her after the fact.”

Ethan held up his hand. “I thought we had ten. McMillan, Rickman, Samson, Sikorski, Dr. Lee, Beverly, Sandy, and the optometrist makes eight. Williams is nine, Vickers ten.”

“We found Fred Oscola’s body,” Abe said with a grimace. “It was found in a hotel this afternoon. Apparently Sue left the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the doorknob when she left so housekeeping left the room alone.”

“Until they started to smell him,” Mia added. “We had to get dental records to make a positive ID. Sue didn’t leave much else. Not only were his fingers gone, but she cut off his penis. Julia says he was alive at the time.”

“She hated him especially,” Dana said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Mr. Oscola used his power as a prison guard to force sex from the female inmates. This is consistent with Sue’s whole attitude on sex. Sex is power. There was serious sex abuse in her background.” Dana slid a sheet from her notebook onto the table. “I went to talk to Sandy Stone’s friends today. Yell at me later, but I knew they wouldn’t talk to you without a court order. I got some addresses we can check.”

Abe picked up the sheet. “We would have had that court order by tomorrow. We requested it today.”

Dana shrugged. “You have this a day sooner then.”

Abe blinked and focused and Dana wondered how much sleep he and Mia had gotten last night. “Her foster home, too.”

Mia stopped pacing long enough to glance at the sheet over Abe’s shoulder. “Why?”

“We were thinking that Sue might go back to a house where she felt alone and isolated to hide Evie and Alec,” Dana said quietly. “This drama she’s setting up, it’s personal. So the setting should be personal, too. She may have planned to use her uncle’s house. She hated that place. It stands to reason that the replacement site will be every bit as hated.”

Mia slumped in the chair next to Dana. “What else you been thinking, kid?”

Dana knew she was forgiven. “That this is all about revenge. Randi betrayed her, not once, but twice. She’s had ten years to plan this. It’s going to be symbolic and include all the pain she’s experienced. I’d like to better understand what that pain was, real or perceived. Have you heard from the prison?”

“Yeah.” Abe flipped a few pages in his notebook. “Sue roomed with Tammy Fields, that woman you were talking about, for five years.”

Dana winced. “Then that’s how she found us. Now we know about Fred Oscola.”

“No surprise based on how we found him,” Mia said. “Whacking his fingers was business. She needed them to scare the Vaughns.”

“Whacking his business was personal,” Dana finished wryly and every man in the room cringed. “So we know she was probably raped in prison. How long was Oscola there?”

“Her whole ten years,” Abe said, still looking uncomfortable.

“Long time to have to bear that.” Dana looked at Mia with a frown. “Don’t take this wrong, but if I’d been forced like that for ten years, I’d be looking to make the person who put me there suffer the same.”

“Then she shouldn’t have killed Oscola,” Mia said.

“Maybe he got greedy,” Dana replied. “We won’t know until we find her, but I’d sure be watching Randi Vaughn closely. Whatever Sue’s got planned for her, it won’t be pretty.”

“What about you, Dana?” Abe asked softly. “What does she have planned for you?”

Dana mentally pushed her thoughts in the box. The box lock was become more fragile each moment. “Not much better. I’m every social worker who ever took her from her parents or made her live where she didn’t want to live, do what she didn’t want to do.”

Mia leveled a stare at Ethan. “Are you armed?”

Ethan nodded, his jaw tight. “Within the parameters of Illinois gun laws, yes.”

Mia’s eyes flickered. “Right. Dana, do you still have your .38?”

Dana thought about her gun, still in the pocket of her robe on her bed where she’d left it in the hurry to get to Evie the day before. Never had she been so careless, leaving her gun loaded, out of its usual hiding place. “In my apartment. Can I go there and get it?”

“I’ll go instead,” Ethan said firmly.

Mia glanced at Abe as if Ethan hadn’t spoken. “Conway might be watching her place.”

“I’ll go instead,” Ethan said through his teeth.

Abe hesitated. “If she’s watching, seeing Dana might draw her out into the open.”

Ethan lurched to his feet. “No. You won’t use her as bait.”

Dana tugged on his arm. “Sit down, Ethan. Please.”

Ignoring her, he continued to stand, pointing at Mia. “Last night you were ready to put her in protective custody for offering herself as a trade. What are you thinking?”

“That I’ve got eight bodies in the morgue, Mr. Buchanan,” Mia said evenly. “Dana is one of my best friends. Do you think I’d put her in any more danger than she’s already in?”

Ethan’s frown was menacing. “You will not make her bait.”

“We’ll be there,” Abe said. “On the street watching.”

Ethan shook his head. “And if Conway’s waiting inside?”

Abe didn’t budge. “Dana can wear a wire.”

Twin bands of dark red had risen to Ethan’s cheekbones. “So you can hear the pop when Conway comes up behind her and plugs a nine mil in her skull? With all due respect, Detective, no fucking way.”

“Mr. Buchanan,” Abe said calmly. “The woman has killed eleven people in the last week. She is holding two hostages. I’ve got the Vaughns sitting in a fishbowl at the Excelsior and so far, no bites. We’ll send uniforms to all the addresses in this list to warn them, and maybe we’ll catch her that way, maybe not. I see this as an acceptable—”

“Acceptable?” Ethan thundered.

“An acceptable, controlled risk,” Abe continued, still calmly. “As long as Dana is willing.”

“I am,” Dana said quietly. She stood, framed Ethan’s face between her palms. His eyes flashed and burned. She could feel him tremble. “Ethan, this is the right thing to do. Besides, it’s not like she couldn’t have killed me at any time today. She could have been waiting outside the police station, even. I can’t go on like this much longer. Please understand that I have to do this, as much for me as anyone else.”

Ethan pulled from her grasp and looked at Mia. “You go with her.”

Mia shook her head. “Conway saw me, that first night at Hanover House. She knows I’m a cop. She sees a cop and she stays hidden. We’re nowhere, then.”

Ethan jerked his head toward Abe. “Him then.”

Again Mia shook her head. “If she was waiting for Dana outside the hospital last night, she’s seen us together. Same song, second verse.”

Ethan’s jaw twitched. His fists curled and uncurled. “Then I’m going with her.”

Dana looked at Mia and Abe. “All right?”

He glared at Mia. “And she gets body armor.”

Mia nodded once. “Agreed.”

The room was completely silent as Ethan’s labored breathing quieted. Then Clay cleared his throat. “There is the small matter of nineteen thousand dollars still in her bank account. What do you want to do with it?”

Grimly, Abe held out his hand. “Give me the accounts. I’ll have one of our guys take the money. If we can’t touch her, at least we can hinder her a little bit.”

Ethan’s eyes went hard and flat. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Chicago, Thursday, August 5, 7:30 P.M.

“This is a goddamn stupid idea,” Ethan muttered, climbing the dirty steps behind her.

“Sshh.” Dana threw a frown over her shoulder. “Be quiet.”

Because he saw fear in her eyes, he closed his mouth. She unlocked the door, pushed it open. And exhaled. “Looks clear, Mia,” she murmured into the mike pinned to her shirt.

Ethan pushed past her. Her kitchen and bathroom were clear, as was the second bedroom that was empty of all furniture. He shot her a quick look, but she just shook her head. “This was Evie’s room. Before her attack.”

Her bedroom looked exactly the same as it had the day before when she’d dressed so hurriedly. When she’d been terrified for Evie. Clothes were strewn all over the bed.

“It looks clear,” he said, but she was frowning.

She bent down and picked up her robe between two fingers. Silk, it draped on itself. He remembered it on her. How her pocket had bulged. It didn’t bulge now.

“Mia,” she said into the mike, her voice shaky. “My gun is gone.”

In less than sixty seconds Mitchell and Reagan were there, breathing hard. “No tampering on the front door?”

“No. Evie had keys, so Sue has keys.” Dana shook her head weakly. “I should have thought of that before.”

Mia slid her arm around Dana’s shoulders. “Did she take anything else? Looks like she did some major damage in here.”

“No, Caroline did this.” It was barely audible and Mitchell frowned.

“Caroline was helping her get dressed for our date Monday night,” Ethan said. “It looked like this yesterday when I got here. She changed her clothes to get back to the shelter, because we thought Sue was still there. She left the gun in her robe pocket, on the bed. Is there a way to find out when Sue was here?”

“We’ll ask if anyone saw anything,” Reagan said, but he sounded doubtful.

“Ethan, go to the living room and make her sit down,” Mia ordered. “She looks faint.”

Dana dropped the robe back on the floor where she’d found it. “I’m not going to faint. Why would she steal my gun, Mia? She’s got one. We know that.”

“Is your gun registered to you, Dana?” Reagan asked.

She faltered. “No.”

Mitchell closed her eyes. “Shit.”

Reagan tilted his head forward. “Then who is it registered to?”

Dana swallowed hard. “My mother.”

Reagan lifted his brows. “She really gets around. Why do you have a gun registered to your deceased mother?”

Dana blew her bangs off her forehead. “Because I have a felony conviction for attempted auto theft. I couldn’t get a gun on my own and I was afraid of my ex. My mother put her name on the registration.”

Reagan rolled his eyes. “Mia, you’re going to owe me so much when this is done.”

“I’m good for it,” she snapped. “Buchanan, take her into the living room. Don’t touch anything. We’ll call CSU.”

He led her to the living room where Dana gingerly sat on the edge of the old sofa and bit her lip. “She’s going to use my gun, isn’t she? She’s going to kill somebody with my gun.” The rest of the color drained from her face. “She’s going to kill Evie with my gun.”

Ethan had thought that immediately, but didn’t want to worry her any more than she already was. “You can’t know that, honey. Maybe she just wanted to be sure you couldn’t shoot her with it.”

She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Don’t patronize me, Ethan.”

He sat on the sofa next to her, took her hand. “All right. I thought the same thing.”

She sat there, her eyes fixed on the middle of the floor. “This is worse than my dream.”

“You want to talk about it now?” he asked gently, but still she shook her head, not taking her eyes from that same spot on the floor.

He followed her gaze to the middle of the ugly old throw rug that sat off center and sideways. But it had been off center and sideways yesterday and Sunday night, too. He had only a moment to wonder when Reagan appeared from the back and, also following her gaze, stopped at the edge of the rug. He bent down and started to roll it aside.

“Don’t.” Dana surged to her feet, but it was too late. Beneath the throw rug, the carpet bore a large dark brown stain the width of the rug and easily half its length. Reagan studied it for a moment, then rolled his head sideways to study Dana who just stared like a deer caught in the headlights.