The Christine Murders (10 page)

“Really no surprise here, John. She has three prior arrests here in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles about two years ago for prostitution. Down there, she had actually solicited a police officer. Apparently, she’s been keeping herself clean for the past year. Or if she hasn’t, she hasn’t been caught.”

Lawrence turned to his computer screen. “The initial medical report shows the same manner of death; so we have another blue-silk-scarf strangulation. There was no sexual assault, however, in spite of the condition of the body. But this girl was different all the way around.”

“Definitely not a Kelley Grant or Dr. Ann Heald,” Kinsella said. “Well, we’ll see what we can find out at Jaycene’s. They’re open Sundays, so we’ll get there early and beat the crowds. I hope you didn’t have anything else planned this evening.”

“Nope, but I have now,” Lawrence answered.

***

Kinsella was familiar with Jaycene’s, since he’d checked out the action here himself once when he’d found himself too alone on a Saturday night. Perhaps the place was considered upscale but it was just another pick-up joint with pretensions, as far as he was concerned. A meat market. He would not have been one bit surprised if Susan and perhaps some of the other workers here were plying their street trade on the side.

The manager of Jaycene’s was an oily type named Maury Cole, whose face turned ashen when he learned why Kinsella and Lawrence were there. He hurried them into the small cubicle off the bar area that served as his office.

“Susie left earlier than usual last night,” Maury explained. “She told me she didn’t feel good, but I had a feeling she had a date with somebody. Later I learned I was right.”

“Later you learned you were right? What do you mean by that?” Lawrence asked him.

“I mean one of my other girls, Ellie, told me Susie had picked up some guy here last night, and they made a date.”

“Was she in the habit of doing that?” Kinsella asked.

“Yes, sometimes. In fact, she usually hit on somebody every night. Sometimes she got lucky, sometimes not. I didn’t like it, but what could I do? I just told her once, don’t take any money from nobody, at least not on my premises, you know what I mean?” He stopped, noticing their stony faces, worried that he had said more than he should have.

“Look, if you like I can let you talk to Ellie. She knew Susie pretty well. Probably better than anybody else here. They shared serving sections most nights. I’ll get her for you.” He moved toward the door, looking eager for an excuse to leave, his face slick with sweat.

“We will talk to her, but first I’ve got some questions for you,” Kinsella said. “Were you aware Susan had been arrested for prostitution a few times? What you just said sure sounds as if you did.”

Cole gulped, swiping at his wet forehead with the back of his hand. Feigning surprise, he stammered. “What? She was arrested? No, sir, I did not know that. I mean, I honestly was not aware of that. And believe me, if I’d known that . . . well, I mean, I don’t want anything like that going on here. Now what people do on their own time, of course, is their business. I don’t control nobody’s life. I told Susie a few times, no money changing hands here, no soliciting from my customers . . .” He stopped, looking thoroughly miserable, shook his head, and pulled a dirty handkerchief from his pocket to mop his now soaking forehead.

Lawrence gave him a baleful look. “So you did know what she was doing? Are you also aware we could shut you down for that? Who else is working your customers? Are they giving you a cut of what they make?”

Cole put out a hand toward them. “Nobody! I swear! Look, guys, Susan hit on customers and maybe some of my other girls do too. And I’m sure plenty of the customers hit on my girls also. It’s boy meets girl, that’s all, birds and bees and all that shit, you know. What do you think people come here for? Susie just liked men. No crime in that. And they liked her. She was a beautiful girl, a real knockout.” Maury pulled at his collar.

Kinsella and Lawrence continued to stare at him. He was practically shaking now and may have wet his pants, Kinsella thought. The little shit. “Why don’t you go and find Ellie, Maury?”

Cole jumped for the door, eager to get out of the office. He returned in a few minutes with a small, black-haired girl almost as nervous as he was. “Ellie, this is Lieutenant Kinsella and Officer Lawrence. They want to ask some questions about Susie. I thought you would be able to help a little, okay?” He turned to the men. “I’ll be around outside, if you need me again.” He left quickly, pulling the door shut behind him.

Ellie stood there staring at them, clutching a woolen shawl around the top of her waitress outfit. With her tiny dark features and large brown eyes, she looked like a young Audrey Hepburn. Kinsella thought her not the type at all for Jaycene’s and wondered why she was working in a place like this. He motioned to a chair. “Please sit down, Miss, Ellie?”

“Moreno. Eleanor Moreno.”

“Miss Moreno, this won’t take too long. Maury tells us you were friendly with Susan Sayles. So I wonder if you could tell us anything about her private life. Did she have a boyfriend? Anything unusual happen here last night? Did she meet anybody or leave with anybody?”

Ellie Moreno looked both frightened and embarrassed. “Yes, I was friendly with her. I didn’t really see her much away from here, but she did tell me things, private things about herself. I’m just sick about this! I can’t believe she’s dead! But I kept telling her to be careful, with what she was doing.” Her lower lip quivered and her large eyes filled with tears.

“What was she doing?” Lawrence asked.

Recovering herself, she responded. “You know, picking up with so many different guys. It’s so dangerous. I would never go out with anybody in here; I’m only working this job because I need extra money for school, and the tips can be good here sometimes. You put up with some grabbers and all, but I would never go out with any of them. But Susie did, and she always said she could take care of herself. And she did. She was very pretty.” Ellie pulled a tissue from a pocket and dabbed at her wet eyes. “One of the reasons she liked working here, you see, is that guys with money do come here, and Susie only wanted to meet guys with money.”

“She wanted guys with money. Did you know Susan was a prostitute, Ellie?” Kinsella asked her. The girl shot him a horrified look, her mouth dropping open. The shawl slipped from one of her shoulders and she grabbed at it defensively, pulling it tightly around herself again. “I’m not trying to upset you, but I need to know if you were aware of that part of her life.”

Ellie shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Yes, she took money from guys, but all she really wanted was to find somebody who would take care of her, maybe even marry her.” She stopped, considering what to say next. “She did tell me she was arrested once in Los Angeles, but she didn’t say what for. She just told me she made a bad mistake and it involved a guy she liked. She also said he lied about her. You know she came from a poor family. From what she told me, things were never so good. She was just looking for a real relationship, something good that would last. And then she could tell her mother she was settled down. She loved her mom but her mom didn’t approve of anything she did. In Susie’s mind, if a guy paid her, that was good and nice, it meant he liked her. That was why she got so excited about the guy last night. He gave her a one-hundred-dollar tip and really seemed to like her.”

“One hundred dollars?”

“Yes, that’s right, she showed it to me. And when I gave him his final check, while Susie was changing to leave with him, he gave me a fifty.”

“Tell us more about him, Ellie,” Kinsella said. “Tell us anything you remember about this man with the money. You spoke with him?”

Ellie nodded quickly. “Sure did, I was waiting on him when Susie spotted him. Then we switched sections, so she could do her thing with him, you know. He was really classy. I didn’t talk a lot with him, just the drink orders you see.”

Kinsella could feel his pulse beginning to race. He continued to go slowly with the girl, however. She had calmed considerably, and he didn’t want to risk upsetting her and starting tears again.

“What else do you remember about this man, Ellie? Did you by any chance hear a name? How did he pay his bill? And had you ever seen him here before?” Kinsella was finding it difficult to keep the urgency from his voice.

Ellie shook her head. “No, I can tell you I never saw him before, neither did Susie. He was much older than most guys who come here, but not old really. Maybe over forty. Susie must have known his name, but I didn’t. I really didn’t have much conversation, just drink orders, you know, and the music is so loud here. He was very polite, drank gin and tonics, and paid for everything in cash.”

Of course he did, Kinsella thought. This guy is very clever, not about to leave a paper trail anywhere he goes.

Ellie spoke again. “This was strange, but maybe not.”

“What was?” Lawrence asked her.

“Well, he was alone, and a lot of women approached him. But he wouldn’t bother with anybody. Then, all of a sudden, a real sexy looking blonde came in by herself and sat at the bar. He noticed her and he went after her. But she wasn’t interested, and she walked away from him. She did pick up somebody else later because Susie and I saw her dancing and falling all over some other guy. But this man we’re talking about here, he just kept watching her and he looked angry sometimes. And then Susie made her move, because she figured, well he likes blondes. I guess he did. I do know some of the other women who tried him were not blonde, and he had no interest in them.”

She stopped, looking suddenly tired, as if it would be an effort to say anything else. Her shawl had slipped off her shoulders again. Her face reddened and she quickly pulled the shawl up and wrapped it tightly once more around her breasts.

“Why do you stay working here, Ellie?” Kinsella asked her gently. “Surely there are better places, and you don’t seem like the kind of girl for this place.”

She looked him straight in the eye. “I told you, Lieutenant, the tips are great here. I don’t like it, but it’s true that guys come in here with money. They tip very well. I serve them their drinks, I ignore a lot of what might be said, I take my pay and tips and I go home. I need the money. That’s all. I have never picked up anybody here, or anywhere else.”

Kinsella nodded. “Okay. Just a few more questions. You switched sections with Susan, right? Did anything else unusual happen? Anything at all?”

She thought a few seconds. “Nothing. I went back to my regular section and served the man until Susie told me she was leaving with him. He just kept watching her while she was working. Then she went to change, I brought his final tab, he paid and gave me the fifty and he left. And I never saw either one of them again.” She dabbed once more at her eyes, tears now falling freely down her smooth cheeks.

Lawrence handed something to Kinsella. It was the composite of the man identified by the cocktail waitress at the Top of the Mark. “Ellie, just this, please, and then we’ll let you go. You’ve been a great help to us, and I know how upset you are.”

She turned her face back up to him and smiled and nodded her head. “Sure, anything, I’m glad to help. It’s the least I can do for Susie now.”

He handed her the picture. “Could this be the man who was here last night, the one Susan went out with?”

Ellie studied the picture closely before looking up at both men in surprise. “Yes, I’d say it sure does look like him. Yes, absolutely. Where did you get this? It’s perfect really. So you do know who he is?”

“No, we don’t know who he is. Not yet. We know very little so far. But I want to thank you for helping us. We really appreciate your talking to us.”

“Lieutenant, there is one thing. I didn’t actually see Susie leave with him. He went out by himself, and Susie went to change. They didn’t walk out together or anything.”

Kinsella and Lawrence nodded. Here again, nobody actually saw this guy leave with the victim. He was clever enough to cover his tracks all the way around.

Phil had one more question. “Ellie, would you by any chance still have the fifty-dollar bill he gave you?”

But Ellie shook her head sadly. “Fingerprints, right? No, I’m so sorry. I went and spent it this morning, on groceries. Oh, you know I’m sorry, because that might have helped, I guess. Poor Susan.”

She waited until both men had left Maury Cole’s small cramped office. Then, still sitting clutching her shawl, she allowed the shock of her friend’s death to release itself in a flood of heartbroken tears.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

MONDAY – OCTOBER 17th

Monday morning’s news carried Susan Sayles’ gruesome killing, the third in what the police were now admitting was the work of a serial killer. Pictures of the three murdered women were prominently featured everywhere. They were all blonde and they all looked very much alike. All three had been strangled.

Leads were very slim, but a news conference was planned for Monday afternoon, when any new developments would be released.

Over breakfast, Christine scanned a newspaper, finding an article by the city’s most popular columnist. He was right up front today, leading with a garish account of the three murders.

He began with short bios of the murder victims, three totally different women from completely different walks of life, sharing only the fact that they all looked alike. Much was made of the fact that one woman was a prominent medical doctor from Portland attending a conference in San Francisco.