The Case of the Sin City Sister (29 page)

Eve stayed in the car and watched as they wheeled the victim out on a gurney and placed him in the back of the ambulance. Even before Daniel came out and confirmed it, she knew it was Steve. She didn’t really know what Pauline’s boyfriend looked like, and she never even got a clear look at the victim’s face, but she just knew. She had just finishing saying her prayers when Daniel
returned. The look on his face told her everything she wanted to know about the man’s identity and his condition.

“It went straight through his carotid,” Daniel explained as he took his seat and shut the car door. “His neck,” he added, not sure Eve knew where the carotid artery was. He just shook his head.

“Was it a fight?” she asked.

“No one’s talking,” he answered. “But I don’t think this was the result of a common disagreement between cell mates.”

“Why? What makes you say that?”

“It happened too quickly, too methodically, and the guard said the guy has been in lockdown since he got here. He wasn’t on his best behavior when he arrived, so they kept him in isolation. He’s not had time to make enemies. This was his first time actually out in an area with the other inmates.”

There was a pause in the conversation.

“You think it had to do with Pauline?” Eve asked, trying to understand what had just happened.

He nodded. “I think so.”

“But what makes you think that? What happened exactly?”

Daniel turned to Eve. “Whoever did this knew what he was doing.”

Eve closed her eyes and said another prayer. She was praying for Steve and Dorisanne and Pauline and for herself; she wasn’t even sure who or what she should be praying for anymore. When she finished, Daniel was looking at her. “What?” she asked.

He shook his head, and she knew the news was not good.

“Daniel, what is it?”

“The guard said he had a visitor this morning, about an hour ago.”

Eve wanted to stop him from telling her anything else, but she also wanted to hear the truth.

“The man stayed just a few minutes and then took off. The guy I talked to said Steve seemed pretty upset after he left, wanted to make a phone call, kept saying his girlfriend was in trouble.”

“Did the guard let him make the call?”

Daniel shook his head. “He just thought it was a ploy for Steve to call and threaten his victim, and he had already made his calls last night.” He waited. “He was right to think that. Lots of guys do anything they can to call their wives or girlfriends and try to talk them out of making a statement or going through with the charges.”

“So what happened?” Eve asked.

“He sent him to the cafeteria for breakfast, told him he couldn’t make any calls. That was the last time he saw him.”

Eve ran through everything Daniel was telling her.

“This guy that came to visit him, did the guard have a description?” She had a very sick feeling she knew who the visitor was.

“Better than that, he had a photo.” Daniel handed the picture to Eve.

She didn’t have to study it for long. She recognized the man in only a second. She had already gotten more chances than she needed to retain that image in her memory. He was the same guy from the casino, the guy on the motorcycle, and the guy she had just encountered at the hospital who had chloroformed the nurse and chased her. It was as if she and Daniel were on the exact same path as he was, only in regard to Steve and getting to the jail, they had arrived too late.

“Do you think Steve told him something about where Pauline and Dorisanne might be?” She dreaded hearing Daniel’s answer.

“I do,” came more quickly than she was prepared.

She felt the tears gather. She reached up to wipe them away and Daniel took her by the arm.

“But I don’t think he’s gotten to Dorisanne and Pauline. I think they’re safe.”

“Yeah, but for how long?”

Daniel didn’t have an answer to that question. “Where’s the book?” he asked, pulling his hand away. “That’s all we have, and we need to pay attention to it. If Dorisanne kept a code in there for how to reach the FBI, she must have information in there about where she and Robbie might hide.”

Eve dried her tears and handed the address book to Daniel. “There’s nothing in there,” she said. “I looked at all of the listings while you were in the jail. It’s just names of friends and business places she would go.”

“But that’s all we need, one name, one place,” Daniel reminded her. “Let’s go through them again. Maybe if I read them aloud to you, something will jump out.”

Eve didn’t respond, but she saw little hope in figuring out a clue that way. She had gone over every contact. Nothing stood out, and she knew that to try to call every number would take way too long. The man on the motorcycle would have gotten to her sister well before they could get through the first couple of letters.

“A,” Daniel began.

Eve shook her head. “Don’t start there,” she said. “Start at the back.”

“Okay.”

Eve waited.

“How about the W’s?”

She nodded, and just as he was calling out the listings, she remembered something very important. “Marcus Winters,” she shouted, remembering the name of the man whose receipt she’d kept. “Call Marcus Winters.”

The look on Daniel’s face told her that it was a name he recognized. “Who did you say?” he asked.

She repeated it, and before she could say anything else, he had his phone out and was placing a call.

FORTY-NINE

Daniel dialed the number while Eve leaned in to listen. She could hear the phone ringing. After the fourth ring, a sleepy voice answered.

“Hello.”

“Is this Mr. Winters?”

There wasn’t an answer.

“My name is Daniel Hively. I’m a friend of Dorisanne Divine.”

Eve could hear the man clearing his throat.

“Divine,” he said, pronouncing it correctly, just as Daniel had done. “Not Divine.”

“Yes,” Daniel responded.

“It’s 2245 Lone Star Place,” was what he said next.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel replied.

“It’s 2245 Lone Star Place,” he said, repeating himself, “89048.”

There was a brief pause where neither of them spoke, and then Mr. Marcus Winters ended the call.

Daniel hit Redial three times, but the man whose name and
number were listed in Dorisanne’s address and phone book never picked up again.

Daniel and Eve turned to each other.

Eve spoke first. “Could it be that easy?” she asked.

Daniel didn’t answer, but he seemed convinced. He reached into a small drawer hidden under a drink holder and pulled out a small electronic device. Eve recognized it from earlier in their trip. It was a GPS. She watched as he plugged it in, turned on the engine, and typed in the address that had just been given to them. Immediately, a map was displayed.

“Okay, 2245 Lone Star Place,” Daniel said as directions started to be given. He looked at Eve. “We’re going to find her.” He put the engine in Drive and left the city jail parking lot. He followed the instructions and headed south out of the city.

Eve pulled away from Daniel and glanced out the window. She couldn’t believe it might be so easy. She couldn’t believe Dorisanne would just give out an address to a man Eve had never heard of. And how did he know to give it to Daniel? Had Dorisanne expected the family friend to show up and look for her? It just didn’t make sense, and she was worried that this was actually some setup, some trap that she and Daniel were about to walk, or drive, right straight into. She reached over and touched Daniel on the arm.

“I don’t know if this is the right thing,” she said.

He slowed a bit but kept driving as the directions were leading him.

“It’s the right thing,” he responded, without an explanation for his confidence.

Eve closed her eyes. She wanted to believe him, but she knew that the man on the motorcycle had already tried to kill Pauline, was after Eve at the hospital, and had apparently found Steve and had him murdered at the jail. If this was a trap set by him or the people he worked with, she and Daniel could be making a fatal mistake by going to this location.

“I think she must have known we’d come searching for her,” Daniel finally explained.

“How could she have known such a thing?”

“She knows the Captain. She knows you.”

Eve looked at Daniel. “And you,” she added. “You’re the one who’s been coming out here all the time, checking up on her. I’m so grateful for you, Daniel.”

He turned away. And there was something about the way he moved so quickly, the way he had looked since she had told him that she saw Dorisanne at the hospital, the way he had gotten so worried since leaving the hospital. Suddenly, things began to come together. She thought about how earlier he seemed not to want to talk about his many trips to Vegas, the way he so quickly and easily changed everything at his work to come with her, the way people recognized him in the town. Eve knew then that there was something more going on with her friend and his relationship with her sister.

The voice from the GPS gave another instruction about a turn Daniel would need to make.

“You’re in love with Dorisanne,” Eve blurted out.

Daniel quickly faced her. “What?”

“I said, you’re in love with Dorisanne.”

“That’s crazy,” was his reply. And he rolled down his window a bit.

And just like that, several things were clear to Eve. “Your coming out here all those times, that wasn’t for the Captain. You came out here for yourself.”

Daniel shook his head. “She’s young enough to be my daughter,” he answered.

“And Mama was young enough to be the Captain’s. I don’t think age has anything to do with falling in love.”

“And you’re such an expert on this?”

“I’m not an expert on anything,” she replied. “I think we both know that.”

The GPS reported they had about fifteen more miles to travel. Lone Star Place was not in Las Vegas, it was in the neighboring town of Pahrump.

“When did this happen?” she asked.

Daniel didn’t answer at first.

She waited.

“A while ago,” he answered. “After my divorce.”

Eve leaned back into her seat.

“It was before Dorisanne got married. I came out here, and I don’t know—things just happened.”

“What things happened?” Eve wanted to know.

Daniel turned to her and smiled. “Just things,” he answered.

“But why did she marry Robbie? Why didn’t we find out about this? How long did it go on?” She knew she was already asking way too many questions, and there were way too many more rattling around in her mind.

“I broke it off,” he answered. “I just couldn’t see this as something that would work. I’m your father’s best friend.”

Eve thought about what he was saying. “So?” It was all she could think to say.

He made a kind of laugh. “So?” He shook his head. “Are we talking about the same man? Do you remember the Captain?”

“I remember him just fine. And I know you. And I know Dorisanne. If you two fell in love after knowing each other your whole lives, then so what? Don’t you think he would much rather it be you with Dorisanne than Robbie the credit card thief?”

Daniel didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then he blew out a breath. “It doesn’t matter. It was wrong. And I value your father’s friendship. I didn’t want to lose that.”

“I don’t think you’d have to,” Eve responded. “He’s a bear, we both know that. But he also loves you both. You’re both adults and have been for a long time. I don’t think he’d be as against the relationship as you think.”

He nodded but didn’t appear to be convinced.

“What did Dorisanne say?” she wanted to know.

“She said that the two of them never got along anyway. It wasn’t such a big issue for her.”

“How did she take the breakup?”

He shook his head. “She got married in three months.”

Eve didn’t know what to say. She was remembering the wedding, how Daniel had not come, saying he was out of town for that weekend. She recalled her sister’s demeanor and how Eve had even questioned her about the quick timing of the event. Dorisanne had never let on what had happened between her and Daniel. No one in the family, at least as far as Eve knew, had had a clue.

She wanted to know so much more, but before she could ask another question, Daniel made the announcement.

“This is it.” He turned the car into a short driveway and came to a stop.

FIFTY