The Next Victim (35 page)

Mindy breathed evenly, the sleep of innocence. At times like this, she seemed still a child.
His
child. Erling loved his family. He didn't want to lose them.

Erling couldn't sleep. The lumpy couch was uncomfortable--too narrow to position himself any way but facing out, and too short to fully extend his legs. But it was the internal discomfort that kept him awake. Would Deena ever forgive him?

Finally abandoning the idea of sleep, he rose, left Deena a note telling her he loved her, and drove to work.

He was at his desk by seven. Michelle arrived half an hour later.

"Did you spend the night here?" she asked, joking.

He shook his head. "On the living room couch."

She stuck her purse in the bottom desk drawer and popped the lid on a cup of coffee. "Not by choice, I take it."

"I told Deena about Sloane Winslow."

Michelle nodded and sipped her coffee. Erling was grateful she didn't push for details.

"I told the lieutenant, too," Erling said.

"What did he say?"

"The case is going to be reassigned." Erling hadn't been canned or sent up for formal reprimand, but the lieutenant's seething displeasure had burned to Erling's core. "Until then," he said, "I want to wrap up what we can."

"Am I off it, as well?"

"I'm not sure." Erling knew Michelle would have to be a fool not to suspect him, but he pushed ahead anyway. It was either that or wallow in shame. "I've been going through the file on the murders," he said. "John O'Brien still looks good for them. We assumed Sloane was the primary target and found motive. Now, with the Hayley Hendrix connection...it does raise questions. I don't know what his motive might have been in targeting Olivia, but the witness report, the shoe print, the gun--they all point to O'Brien."

"But they don't directly link him to the crime."

Erling leaned back in his chair. "We know John O'Brien was at the Crazy Coyote. And his sister showed up at Hayley's apartment. There's also that slip of paper with the Logan Foods phone number in her wallet. Seems like O'Brien's an even better bet now than before."

"We're missing something," she said. "It hangs together but it doesn't make sense."

"Maybe O'Brien killed Hayley," Erling speculated. "Then Olivia found out and threatened to turn him in. Or blackmailed him."

Michelle shook her head. "Why kill Olivia when Sloane was around? Besides, he was asking about Hayley at the Crazy Coyote
after
she had been killed."

"Covering his tracks, maybe. If he killed her, it's only smart to act like he doesn't know where she is." Erling was clicking the end of his pen, a nervous habit that drove Michelle nuts. He stopped as soon as he caught her looking at him. "Could be Olivia shared her suspicions about John with Sloane, and that's what she and John were arguing about at dinner that night."

"So he killed them both." Michelle seemed to be trying the theory on for size. From her expression, it wasn't going well. "What about the other girl? Crystal Adams. John was asking about her at the Crazy Coyote, too. And the sister, Kali, recognized the name."

"Too bad she's not sharing." Erling stood up. "We need to talk to people who knew Olivia. Friends, family, people she worked with."

"We should have done that a long time ago. We would have, in fact, if you hadn't been so eager to blame it all on John O'Brien."

Erling looked down at his hands, then raised his eyes to hers. "I fucked up, okay? I'm trying to make it better."

Michelle nodded slowly. "Okay."

Not a resounding show of support, but it was better than nothing. "What say we start with that inn where she worked over the summer? You think they serve breakfast? I haven't eaten since last night and I'm starved."

Erling drove while Michelle pulled together a list of contacts for Olivia's friends. They had only a couple of names, but he knew the list would grow. Focusing on Sloane had been a mistake. A misstep that occurred because he'd been personally involved. That was why he should have stepped away from the case at the start.

"What about O'Brien's murder?" Michelle asked, closing her notebook. "How does that play in all this?"

"Are you thinking that's what happened? That he was murdered?"

Michelle frowned. "I know we wrote it off as the sister having trouble accepting the truth about her brother. But her points are valid. The housekeeper confirmed that John never ate mayonnaise and that the lights in the house were off when she came to work that morning. And he did have a doctor's prescription for Valium. Wouldn't he just take that instead of something he'd picked up illegally?"

"The housekeeper didn't see signs that anyone else had been there, did she? Aside from the jar of mayonnaise."

Michelle shook her head. "No, she was clear there was only one plate and one glass on the counter. She put them in the dishwasher when she cleaned up. But if his killer wanted to cover his tracks--"

"Our best bet is going at this through the victims we're sure about--Hayley, Olivia, and Sloane." Erling slowed for a dip in the road. Tucson was full of them. Every winter when it rained, some fool got stranded in three feet of water because he ignored the sign warning about entering when flooded. "Any word on Hayley's family?"

"Minneapolis police are going to show our sketch to the woman we think might be her mother. She's apparently an alcoholic with a taste for abusive men. The daughter was placed in foster care."

"When's the officer going to get out there?"

"Today." Michelle gazed out the car window. "I talked to Hayley's coworkers again. She wasn't much of a party animal and she wasn't into drugs. A couple of guys at the club apparently came on to her, so that's something we need to follow up on."

"Was John one of them?"

"I don't think so. Too bad the Crazy Coyote isn't the sort of place that asks for a resume. Then maybe we'd know more."

Erling tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. "Ditto with the apartment." The rental application Hayley had filled out hadn't been of any use aside from listing a Minnesota driver's license, which had put them on the track of the woman they were hoping turned out to be Hayley's mother.

"She and Olivia seem like a strange pair," Erling noted. Olivia's mother had confirmed the girls knew each other. "I wonder if they met through the friend who gave them the poetry books."

"The handwriting isn't John's," Michelle pointed out. "At least not according to his friend Reed Logan. And it
was
Kali who told us to check for the books."

Kali, again. Bad enough the woman was a thorn in his side; she could also be involved in some way. But Erling couldn't fathom how, and that made her meddling all the more irksome.

"I was thinking," Michelle said, "that maybe the books come into play as more than showing the girls had a common friend."

"Why would--"

"A guy who's stalking them, maybe. Someone who doesn't take rejection. A jealous lover. It's a long shot, but it's unusual for friends to have identical volumes of poetry from the same guy."

"We don't know it's a guy."

"Friends don't write inscriptions like that." Michelle consulted her notes. "The books are unusual. The hand tooling on the cover, the velvet ribbon page marker--it's got to be a small-press specialty item. If they were purchased locally, maybe we can find out where."

Erling's heart stopped. Hand tooling. Velvet ribbon. What was it Deena had said about the poetry book she'd discovered in Mindy's room?

"I think it's worth looking into," Michelle said, slipping her notes back into her pocket. "What is it? What are you thinking?"

Erling shook his head.
Don't start imagining the worst
, he told himself.
Lots of girls read poetry
.

"Nothing," he told Michelle.

But he couldn't forget Deena saying that Mindy had a new poetry book.

And a new guy.

"Kali O'Brien?"

"Yes," Kali answered warily. She'd assumed when she opened the door that the leather-skinned man on John's doorstep was a salesman or a neighbor who'd only recently learned of John's death--not someone who knew her name.

The man thrust a large envelope into her hands. "Have a good day." He turned and headed to his car.

Kali ripped open the envelope and skimmed the contents. A formal complaint, filed by Carmen Escobar on behalf of the Perez family.

With a trembling hand and growing agitation, she read the words of the complaint in greater detail. She'd been hoping the talk of a civil suit had been just that--talk. Idle grumbling borne of grief. Not so.

Kali's blood was boiling. She was certain it was the attorney, Carmen Escobar, who'd planted the seed for the lawsuit in the first place, and she'd done it purely for financial gain.

Her own financial gain.

These cases almost always settle...It would be in both of our interests to settle this matter...The Perez family is willing to be reasonable
. The smug tone had infected the attorney's voice in every conversation. She'd been less interested in alleging John's guilt than in making veiled extortion demands.

Well, Carmen Escobar had a surprise or two coming.

Kali and Sabrina had reluctantly agreed that a reasonable out-of-court settlement would be preferable to a protracted and public trial, despite their belief in John's innocence. But that was when it appeared as though Olivia was an unintended victim, and a sympathetic victim at that. Before Kali learned about her X-rated extracurricular activities. Before she discovered that Olivia hung out with a stripper and fellow porn actress who'd also been murdered. Rightly or not, those revelations were bound to color the jury's perceptions.

Kali wasn't happy about springing any of this on Olivia's mother. In spite of the lawsuit, Kali felt nothing but sympathy for Mrs. Perez. She hoped that sharing the information with Carmen Escobar would be enough to convince the attorney to back off. She wasn't counting on it, though. Kali's sense was that Carmen didn't care whose name got dragged through the mud, or whose nose got rubbed in the filth, as long as Carmen herself came out ahead.

Kali tossed the notice onto the table and stomped around the kitchen for a few minutes before calling Sabrina.

"I thought Carmen Escobar was urging a settlement," Sabrina said after Kali had filled her in.

"She was. Still is, I imagine." Kali wondered if Carmen could have been behind the broken window and the threatening phone call. She wouldn't put it past her. "Filing suit is Carmen's attempt to push us in that direction. But her victim isn't going to play for the jury as the innocent, hardworking student she's imagining."

Sabrina laughed. "That's for sure."

"I learned something else interesting," Kali said and then told Sabrina about Erling's involvement with Sloane Winslow.

"Holy moly. You've been busy. So what's next?"

"I'll file a response to the complaint and hope Carmen Escobar sees the light. We have bargaining chips we didn't have before."

"I hope it's enough."

"Me too. I've got some names of people in the porn business, names Wayne Clark gave to John. I'm talking with one of them later today. I'm hoping to find out why John was interested in Hayley and Crystal. I'd also like to talk to Olivia's brother again. When I showed him the photo, he claimed not to recognize either girl, but I think he was lying. If I press him about Olivia's acting career, he may open up. I'm sure he wasn't telling the whole story."

"Anything I can do to help? I'll be back down there later this week."

"Everything's under control for the moment. How are things at home?"

"From the mom perspective, pretty good. All three boys seem to be handling John's death fairly well. They miss him, but they aren't dwelling on it."

"That's good." Kali waited for Sabrina to continue. When she didn't, Kali took a deep breath and prodded, "And from the wife perspective?"

"This thing with Peter has really turned my life upside down. Sometimes I'm so angry I find it hard to be civil. But I love him, too. And that makes me even madder. What kind of pathetic person am I to love such a louse?"

"You told me the other day that he was a decent guy."

Sabrina sighed. "He is. That's what makes it so hard. He's a really good guy and a great dad."

"And you said he was getting help."

"Yeah, he is. He's really trying to make it up to me, too. But I'm having trouble overlooking what he's done."

Kali was in no position to give advice on matters of the heart. She wasn't sure she'd ever truly been in love. Maybe this was what love was--enduring the peaks and valleys of disappointment, but caring anyway.

She thought of Bryce and the trip he'd made to Tucson just to see her. The look in his eyes when he'd answered her phone and heard a man's voice. The way the hurt had been tempered by tenderness when they'd kissed good-bye at the airport.

Human relationships were messy, no way around it.

"I imagine kids complicate things," Kali offered.

"Yeah, it's not like I can just walk away, even if I wanted to. Peter will always be a part of our lives. And the boys deserve a dad." Sabrina was silent a moment. "About the lawsuit--if we agree to settle, we'll get whatever's left over sooner than if there's a trial, right?"

"Assuming there's anything left in John's estate after the settlement."

"But they'll ask for more if we go to trial, won't they?"

"Probably. Why?"

"No reason really. It's just...Peter was asking."

"Hold on, Sabrina. Whatever you inherit is yours, not Peter's. An inheritance is separate property."

"Whatever."

"No, not whatever." Kali reminded herself not to yell. "This is one of the times you need to use your brain."

"There you go again acting like you know what's right for everybody."

"Sabrina, please--"

"I don't want to argue with you, Kali. Let's just drop it."

"Fine."
For now
, Kali added silently. But she wasn't about to let Sabrina do something foolish.