Deadly Guild (Detective Sarah Spillman Mystery Series Book 3)

by Renee Pawlish

  I walked up to the officer near me, and he noted the badge clipped to my belt. He gave me a curt nod as I told him my name and he noted my arrival in a notebook.

  “No one’s been in the parking lot since we got here,” he said.

  “Good.” I left him on guard duty and cautiously walked up to the body, mindful of tainting evidence. The man in the suit straightened up.

  “You look great, like you didn’t even go to bed.” Ernie brushed imaginary dirt off his hands and gave me an appraising look.

  “I’m fine,” I said.

  He tipped his head and studied me. “Okay,” he said slowly, the assessment continuing.

  I shrugged that off and looked down at the body. The woman was lying on her side, faded jeans shorts hiked up almost to her rear. Her yellow blouse had smudges on it. A cheap black heel was on her right foot, her left foot bare. “Where’s her other shoe?”

  He shrugged. “Dunno.”

  “What have you got so far?”

  Ernie gave me another little look, then squared his shoulders, acting as if all was okay. And it would be.

  “Not much,” he said. “She’s probably late teens, maybe early twenties. You ask me, she had a rough life up to this point, so it’s hard to say. Nothing in her pockets, no ID on her.”

  “No money?”

  “Nada. Maybe she was robbed. And those two,” he pointed to the couple hanging around at the other end of the lot, “say they don’t know her. I don’t believe them.”

  “Great,” I muttered. I glanced around, then pointed at the couple. “You interview them?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. The officer talked briefly to them, told them not to go anywhere. I want a crack at them.” He tipped his head. “Unless you want to question them.”

  “We’ll get to them in a minute. Where’s Spats?”

  “He’s talking to the motel manager. Up front. Did you see the office?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but not Spats. Who reported the body?”

  “An anonymous call. The dispatcher said it sounded like a woman. She said there was a dead body behind the motel, gave the motel name, and hung up. The call came from a gas station down the street.”

  “Don’t get involved,” I muttered. “I’d like to find whoever called it in and see what she knows or saw.”

  “That would be helpful,” he said dryly. “Dispatch sent a car here, and these two officers found her. They cordoned off the area and called in homicide.”

  “We’ll need to interview whoever’s working at the gas station, find out what they can tell us about the 911 caller.”

  “I’ll stop by there later.”

  I crouched down and carefully put a hand on the ground. Even though the early morning held a chill, the asphalt still felt warm, and a faint oil smell hit me. I studied the body closely.

  As Ernie had said, the woman looked as if life had been cruel to her. She was skinny, with a thin nose, heavily made-up eyes that didn’t hide dark circles under them, and long, scraggly blond hair. Still, looking past that, there was something attractive about her. She probably had been cute in high school, then life had taken her down a dark path. Dirt was under gnawed fingernails, and a red ring adorned her right pinky finger.

  “Did you see this?” I got down on all fours for a better look at the ring.

  Ernie bent down. “Some cheap thing.”

  “Looks like plastic to me, brand new. Something she bought to make herself feel pretty?”

  “She needed more than that. No other rings or jewelry, and not even a tan line on her finger, where she might normally wear a ring, even if she didn’t have it on tonight.”

  “She’s also got a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist.” I looked closer. “What is that, a strawberry?”

  “Looks that way to me. What did a strawberry mean to her?”

  I leaned back and assessed her again, then moved in close so I could get a good look at her arms. “It looks like track marks there.”

  “Yeah, she uses.” He stared at the motel. “How much you wanna bet she’s turning tricks to pay for her habit.”

  I couldn’t disagree. Most women in this particular night-life need some kind of chemicals to get by, something to ease the pain of the lifestyle, then something to ease the withdrawal symptoms. A vicious circle. I ran a hand over my face. “I won’t bet. I’d lose.” I shifted and stared at the back of her head. Her hair at the lower skull was singed, and I could see two small penetrations in her skull. She’d been shot. The gun had exploded so close to her head that it charred her hair, and there was gunpowder residue. Two point-blank shots. “Someone really wanted to make sure she died.”

  “Maybe a twenty-two? The bullets would rattle around in her head, but not exit.”

  I nodded and glanced up at him. “This looks like an execution.” I gestured at the asphalt near her. “There’s no blood. She was killed somewhere else and dumped here.”

  Ernie gnawed his lip. “I didn’t want to say anything, see what you concluded. But yeah, that’s what I think.”

  I looked at the woman again. “Who would want to execute a prostitute?”

  “Good question. She pissed off the wrong person, they shoot her, end of story?”

  “When we find out who she is and talk to her acquaintances, we might find that’s true.”

  “That’d be a quick wrap-up to this case.”

  “Two shots to the head,” I mused. “I don’t know.” Still careful not to disturb anything, I continued a close-up examination. “Look at the cuts here, on her elbow and her knee.” I pointed to a couple of the gashes. “The one on her knee looks deep. Where did she get those?”

  Ernie bent down. “They’re not really bleeding, so I’d say these are postmortem. Did she get those wherever she was killed, or when she was dropped here? The coroner should be here any minute, maybe he can tell us.”

  “Is it Jamison?” I asked. Jack Jamison was the Department’s coroner. He’s a busy, but very thorough, man.

  “I doubt he’ll come this time of night. It’ll be a backup.”

  I studied the cuts. “They don’t look like defensive wounds. It doesn’t appear that she struggled with her killer.”

  “Nope.”

  I heard voices and stood up. I swiped dirt off my jeans, then rubbed my hands together. A crime-scene crew had shown up, and they were being logged in by the officer at the end of the parking lot. I recognized Todd Siltz and walked over.

  He looked past me, his blue eyes missing nothing. “A dead woman?” He surveyed the parking lot. “How’d she die?”

  “She was shot,” I said, then told him what I knew. “Probably somewhere else. I don’t think you’ll find much, but be thorough. Watch for anything that might tell us where she was killed. She has smudges on her clothes; maybe we can get something from that.”

  He brushed wavy hair out of his face. “You got it.”

  I nodded at the couple watching us. “And put up a barrier so those two can’t see anything.” The techs had a screen they could set up to shield the body from onlookers.

  Todd and another tech I didn’t recognize got to work, and I gestured for Ernie to join me. He lumbered over and we watched the techs for a moment.

  “I don’t think we’re going to get anything,” Ernie said. “It’s a parking lot.”

  I let that hang in the air for a moment, then looked at the waiting couple. “You didn’t talk to them?”

  Chapter Five

  Ernie stared at the man and woman at the end of the parking lot. “No. You want a crack at them?” He glanced at his notepad. “Steve Gibson and Madison McCann. They didn’t see or hear anything.” He grunted. “Right, and I’m the pope.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll work on them in a second.” I pointed at the doors to the motel rooms. “Anybody knocking on doors?”

  “Once I got here, I put an officer on it. So far, nobody heard or saw anything.”

  “Of course they didn’t.”

  “I’
ve got him checking the neighborhood.”

  I let my gaze rove around the parking lot, then spotted a woman with jet-black hair and close-set eyes peering around the corner of the building across the parking lot from the motel. “We have another observer,” I said softly to Ernie. “Maybe the woman who called in the body?”

  He saw where I was looking, and casually turned and gazed in that direction. The woman ducked behind the building. “She spooks easily.”

  “Hold on.”

  I hurried toward the other building, where I’d seen her. As I drew closer, she peeked around the corner again. When she saw me, her eyes widened in surprise. Her face was scarred, as if she’d been in an accident. That’s as much as I noticed before she vanished.

  “Hey!” I yelled. I raced toward the other building. “Hello?”

  I rounded the corner and looked for her. She was at the other end of the building. I hollered at her again. “I just want to talk to you.”

  I ran after her, but by the time I got to the other side of the building, she was gone. I ran west and searched for her. I didn’t see anyone around, so I tried the other direction. Nothing. I listened and heard a loud motorcycle on Colfax, nothing else. I put my hands on my hips in disgust. Why would she run away? Was she the 911 caller and couldn’t afford to get involved, or did she know something about the body in the parking lot? I kicked a can. It rattled loudly on the asphalt. Then I trotted back toward the motel. The couple who had been watching everything snickered as I went by. I whirled around and fixed hard eyes on them as I caught my breath.

  “That woman I was chasing. You know who she was?” I asked, my voice hard with authority and a veiled threat that said they’d better cooperate.

  They were both young, with slack jaws and blank looks, as if they were high. The fear that leaped into their faces indicated neither one wanted any trouble. Both could’ve used a shower.

  “We don’t want no trouble,” he said.

  “Then answer my questions.” I turned to the officer and gestured for him to take notes.

  The young man stared at me, then finally answered. “I seen her around some.” He was probably in his early twenties, with scraggly hair and a crooked smile with missing teeth. He wore tattered jeans and a T-shirt that hadn’t been white in a long time. He slouched and stared at me. “You won’t get nothing from her, or anyone else.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  He snickered. “Come on, lady. Nobody here wants to get into it with the law.” He jerked his head toward the officer. “You got cops knocking on doors, ain’t nobody coming to the door. Once the cops show up, people split or don’t answer. They don’t want their wives or girlfriends or whoever to know that they’re here.”

  I couldn’t argue with that, but I had to try. “What’s her name?” I asked.

  He shrugged, and so did the girl. I judged her to be in her late teens. They stared at me, and I cocked an eyebrow.

  “I dunno,” she finally said. Her hair was cropped short and dyed purple. She had a lot of piercings, some in places I knew had to be painful when she got them. She tugged at the sleeve of a loose-fitting striped blouse. “What’s your name?”

  “Detective Spillman, homicide. You’re Steve and Madison?” That elicited slow nods. They both glanced past me and shifted from foot to foot. “You’re sure you don’t know who that woman is?”

  Madison started to say something, and Steve snarled at her, so she bent her head down. He didn’t want her talking to me at all, which she’d just done. I focused on her.

  “Who is she?”

  “Dunno,” she whispered.

  Steve glared at me. “Never heard her name.”

  “What do you know about her? What happened to her face?”

  His eyes narrowed defiantly. “She was in a car accident.”

  I thought about pressing the issue, but decided against it. I gestured toward the other building. “You think she saw something?”

  “How should we know?” Madison shrugged.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You didn’t talk to her tonight?”

  She shook her head. “If she saw something, you think she’s going to hang around? What if someone came after her?”

  I glared at her. “Did you call the police about the body?”

  “No way.” Too forceful not to be true.

  “Did either of you see anything suspicious around here?” I went on.

  Madison gnawed her lip, and Steve scratched at a scab on his arm, probably needing another fix. Both finally shook their heads. I didn’t believe them.

  “You here to score something?” I asked, wondering if they were buying drugs here.

  “No,” Steve replied quickly. His serious expression didn’t hide his lie. If he wasn’t buying, he was selling.

  I kept prodding away at him. “The woman with the scarred face, does she buy from you?” He hesitated, and I snapped at him. “Quit dancing around my questions and tell me what you know or I’ll haul your asses downtown and we can discuss this there.”

  He stood straight, scared. “Yeah, she buys some from me. A lot of the women around here buy from me.” He pointed at the motel. “They get with somebody, they make a few bucks, and I hook them up.”

  The officer grunted. “Lovely,” I muttered. “Was she here earlier tonight?” I repeated the question to see if I’d get a different answer.

  He shrugged, and I glared at him. He held up his hands. “I don’t know. I didn’t sell her anything tonight, if that’s what you want to know. Maybe she was around, maybe she wasn’t.”

  “How long have you two been here?” I asked.

  “Not too long,” Madison said. “We were at The Easy Bar, and then we came by here.” She stared at me. “You can even ask the bartender.”

  The Easy Bar was a dive not far down the road. I smiled without humor. “I will.”

  She gulped, probably wishing she hadn’t told me that. Having cops sniffing around asking about them would ruin their drug sales.

  Steve glared at her, then pointed toward the screen that shielded the body. “She was murdered?”

  I didn’t give him anything. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. Do you know who she was?”

  “Dunno,” Madison said.

  “What’s her name?” I barked.

  “Pixie.” Steve’s slow demeanor vanished. He wanted to be believed, and he wanted the interrogation to end. “Just Pixie. I haven’t seen her around much.”

  “Did you see her tonight?”

  “No”

  “You sell to her?”

  He hesitated. “Once or twice, that’s it. I don’t know who she is.”

  “What’d she tell you about herself?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Did she have an accent, like she wasn’t from around here?”

  “No.”

  “So you left the Easy Bar and came here,” I went on. “What’d you do?”

  “We sold to a couple of people here, then sat in my car.” He glanced toward Colfax. “We stayed there until we saw the cop cars.”

  “You didn’t see anything else?” I asked. “Any johns? Cars?”

  “A car or two.”

  “What make or model?

  “I don’t know. One car, one truck.”

  “Did you see the drivers?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “License plates?”

  “I don’t pay attention to stuff like that.”

  I studied him closely. He looked me in the eye and seemed to be telling the truth.

  “Man, it’s cold,” Madison said. “You wanna let us go?”

  I figured I’d gotten all that I was going to out of both of them. I looked at the officer. “You checked their IDs, got their phone numbers and addresses?” He nodded. I turned back to Steve and Madison. “I don’t want to see either of you around here again, you understand?”

  They nodded their heads vigorously. “We don’t want no trouble with the law.” Steve was back to his
slow manner. He put his arm around Madison’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  Both looked relieved that I was letting them go. Maybe they assumed I was going to arrest them, and I probably could have, but I had more important things to do.

  “You get all that?” I asked the officer.

  “Yeah, I’ll write it up and put it in my report. Charming couple. So helpful.”

  “Right, a great conversation.”

  I thanked him and went back to Ernie.

  Chapter Six

  Ernie was talking to Todd, who was fussing with his camera when I came over.

  “What do you think?” Ernie asked. “Do they know anything? Were they involved?”

  “No and I don’t know,” I replied and filled him in on my conversation with Steve and Madison. I glanced over my shoulder. “They could’ve killed her, I guess.”

  “They have some kind of beef with her, so they shoot her?”

  “Then hang around and tell us they don’t know anything?” I wasn’t buying it. “Anything’s possible. My gut says no, but I won’t dismiss it. We need to run background checks on them later. And when we’re asking around, check on them, see if anyone can verify when they arrived here, and if they stayed in their car like they said they did. And we’ll want to check with the bartender at the Easy Bar to see if they really were there.”

  “Alrighty,” Ernie said to me. “I was just asking Todd about getting some prints off the body.”

  Todd nodded and held up his camera. “I’ve taken pics of the body and the area around her. Also some video.”

  “Let’s get her prints then,” I said. “Then we can run them and see if we get a match.”

  Before Ernie could reply, a tall man with a television camera came around the corner, along with a woman in dark slacks and a jacket with one of the local news logos on it.