“I can give you a hundred now.”
She nodded. “That’ll do for starters. Let me see what I can find out.”
All Wynan said when I got back in the car was “Good. Fast work.” As we drove out of Reno, I told him word for word what had been said in Simon’s apartment.
A slow chuckle emerged. “You told her that the man got you pregnant? Wait ’til Joe hears that.”
He would soon, I hoped, but kept that thought to myself. “I was trying to keep her interested enough to help me. Seemed like a good thing to say at the time.”
Another chuckle. “You should have been a detective, Red. You do have the instincts.”
“I was an investigative reporter before I went into teaching. That probably helped. But I don’t want to be a detective. I’m happier being a detective’s girlfriend.”
Wynan dropped me off in front of my house and delivered a parting shot as I opened the car door. “You know not to trust either of these people, right? Especially if they ask for a lot more money.”
“I know, Wynan. But we need help to find Joe if he’s still alive, and these people might be able to provide it.”
His eyes squinted. “Don’t worry so much, sweetheart. Joe’s still alive. I’d bet on it.”
But, of the six messages on my answering machine, not one was from Joe. Four were from faculty, full of concern about Boerum’s appearance. The last one from Phyllis almost made me cry—I was already close to tears when I entered my house and found only my dog to greet me. Her voice trembled.
“Red, I know you plan to go to that damned speech tomorrow night, but please, please be careful. People are going to get hurt, and I don’t want one of them to be you. You’re too important to me.”
I walked into the kitchen, gave Charlie his food and brewed myself a strong cup of tea. I sat at the kitchen table, sipping and wondering if I could work up any appetite for dinner. Charlie came over and put his soft head on my knee. His brown eyes looked up at me, entreating. He missed Joe as much as I did. I stroked his fur.
“He’ll be back soon. He always comes home, right? And when I tell him about the baby he’ll be happy, won’t he? He’s a good man. He likes kids. He loves me.”
Charlie nuzzled the side of my leg.
“For Christ’s sake, Charlie, the man is thirty-nine years old. By the time the baby’s born, he’ll be forty. It’s time he settled down. It’s time he started a family, right?”
Charlie’s chin came back on my knee as if to signal agreement. I resumed stroking his fur.
The phone rang.
“See you got home safely,” said Simon.
“I did. Thank you again for introducing me to Veronica.”
“Glad to help. Ronnie’s gone out to check out a few possible leads. If she gets any information about your green-eyed fellow she’ll call in the morning. Nice story about him being a pimp. Even I was convinced at first. But it was good for her, because she has no use for cops. And undercover cops especially.”
Oh, Jesus, Simon had figured it out. My heart rate increased. “What makes you think I’m looking for a cop?”
“I know you are. And given your desperation, I figure it’s that Morgan person. The part about the green eyes clued me in. But don’t fret. I didn’t mention anything to Ronnie to scare her off. I’ll keep your confidence.”
No point attempting deception. “Thank you, Simon.”
“I do like the sound of thanks coming from you, Meredith. By the way, are you really pregnant?”
Had I really come to trust my old enemy? It seemed so. “Yes. I am. But it’s still a secret, and the Morgan person doesn’t know yet. It’s one of the reasons I need to find him.”
“Good enough reason, I guess. Ronnie will do her best. So congratulations and get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”
Chapter 17
Simon’s word was good. The phone rang at eight thirty the following morning just as I was about to leave for school. Simon put Veronica on the phone.
“I think I may know where your deadbeat guy is,” she said, her voice low and hoarse.
“That’s great, Veronica. May I call you Ronnie?”
“Sure. Anyhow, this girl I meet for coffee sometimes after she’s finished working told me about a tall dark-haired guy, with eyes like emeralds, she said.”
I could hardly breathe. “That sounds like my guy. When did she see him?”
“She didn’t say, just that she thinks he’s good-looking and that he works for one of the pimps in Reno. He drives a van and brings girls up from Cali and Vegas.”
“Does that give you any idea of where he might be?”
I could hear her inhale. “I think I know where this pimp keeps his girls when they’re not out on the job. But I have to tell you, honey, he is one mean mother. You don’t want to mess with him. Also, I don’t know when your Green Eyes works for him or what days he’s in Reno.”
“Could we go to the place where this pimp keeps his girls?”
Long pause.
“I really need to find this guy, Ronnie. Do you think you can help?”
Another long pause. “Maybe…maybe. But just you and me. No one else can come with us. Not Simon, and not that black dude I saw you driving away with last night.”
“I promise it will just be me.”
“Another thing. We’re gonna have to dress you up like a working girl. You go into that neighborhood looking like you did last night and they’ll be sure you’re police or a social worker. Either way, they’ll scatter, and if you ask a lot of questions, you could get hurt bad.”
The idea of dressing like a prostitute confounded me. What would I have to wear? Fishnet stockings and a low-cut top? Too much mascara and lipstick? I was embarrassed to even think about it.
Oh well, I had meetings to get through before I could take off for Reno and find out what Veronica had in mind. We agreed to get together at Simon’s apartment at four and start our search as soon as it was dark outside.
Nell was bustling when I got to the office. She and Wynan had settled on a small country inn with a large courtyard lined with maple trees that would turn a blazing orange for their October wedding. She was pushing paper around her desk, making neat piles and setting up file folders for all the elements of her ceremony.
“Are you planning on bridesmaids?” I asked, enjoying her flushed face and the excitement in her eyes.
She stopped, hands poised on a pile of folders. “I was thinking of asking you and Sadie to be my bridesmaids. My daughter-in-law is going to stand up for me as matron of honor.”
Dear Nell. I knew she was going to do that. I was happy that she considered Sadie as good a friend as she considered me. I was glad to say yes, but not ready to tell her I would probably be conspicuously pregnant by October. “What colors do you want us to wear?”
“Well, my daughter-in-law wants to wear lavender, so I was wondering how you’d feel about you and Sadie wearing purple.” She bit her lower lip, the first sign of apprehension I had seen.
“I can’t speak for Sadie, but think I would love to be in a royal color. Suitable to my status, don’t you think?”
“Not to mention your hair color, your highness.” She smiled back.
Much as I wanted to hang on to that moment of frivolous girl talk and avoid all the serious stuff, my conscience took over. “What’s on the schedule this morning?”
“Editorial staff from the student paper are due here in fifteen minutes, and that detective Norman O’Hare wants to see you at eleven.”
“Did he say why?”
“Nope. Just wants a few minutes.”
Rosie’s news staff was clearly feeling a bit rudderless with their leader still stuck in the hospital.
“I think we’ll know how to cover the speech okay,” said the assistant editor, a stocky boy with dark cu
rly hair. “But I really want to try to get an interview with Boerum and Rosie has forbidden that. She said absolutely not. She thinks the woman is too dangerous and that her interview with Boerum is what put her in the hospital. Although we can’t figure out why.”
Obviously, Rosie had told her staff about questioning Boerum on Los Angeles when she met with them in her hospital room.
I sympathized with their eagerness to be thorough, but agreed with Rosie. “None of us is sure why Boerum would have set an attack dog on Rosie, or even if he is part of Boerum’s staff. But Rosie was shot hours after her telephone interview, and since she almost died, she and, for that matter, I would prefer you stay away from trying for any personal approaches to the woman.”
The boy looked annoyed.
“I know. It would make a better story if you could get some information that helped explain Boerum and her beliefs, but Rosie’s right. Stay away from her and her assistants as well.”
“How about interviewing some of the Purists on campus?” asked a girl wearing frameless glasses.
“Take your best shot,” said the curly-haired boy before I could answer. “They clam up when you even try to get anything substantial out of them.”
I remembered my visit with the Purist vice president. The boy was right, but I appreciated the frustration I saw in front of me. We had trained these students to be hard-charging journalists, yet violence had intruded and made us timid. Damn, I hated that.
“Do as much research as you can and make sure your readers have a clear picture of what she actually said and how the crowd reacted. You’ll get a good story.” And, I prayed, a non-violent one.
The group filed out, muttering to themselves.
I called after them, “Remember, you run a prize-winning student newspaper. Make me proud. Make Rosie proud.”
At eleven, Norman O’Hare filled the doorway to my office.
“Coffee?” I said, motioning him to a large chair near the couch.
“No thanks,” he said, easing his bulk into the chair and looking solemn.
“What’s up?” I asked, dreading bad news about Joe.
“We think we might have identified the man who attacked Rosie Jenkins.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he shifted in his chair, “but we don’t think he works for Boerum. We think he might be a grad student here at the U.”
“Really? Who?”
“We don’t have a firm ID yet, but if he’s a student here, that suggests the shooting may have been about something personal. Maybe an old boyfriend or someone who wanted to be Rosie’s boyfriend and got turned down.”
“Rosie doesn’t have a boyfriend right now. She was dating someone last year. Could it have been him?”
“Rosie says no. Last year’s boyfriend graduated and got a tech job in China. We checked him out and he’s still in Beijing.”
“So why…”
“Because one of the tenants came upon this guy fooling around with the buzzers in the entrance to the apartment building, and he asked which apartment belonged to Jenkins.”
“And the tenant thought he was a student?”
“The guy was wearing a backpack and said he was answering an ad offering to sell a couch. He was big, older than most students, but dressed in a football jersey. That’s why the tenant thought he might be a grad student here.”
“And, of course, Rosie doesn’t have a couch for sale.”
“Right.”
“Did the tenant describe the man?”
“Vaguely. Like I said, big. Dark-haired. Maybe in his forties.”
“A number of men on campus fit that. Did Rosie say she knew anyone like that?”
“She said no one came to mind, but she wasn’t sure. As you say, a number of men fit that description. That’s one of the reasons I’m on campus, Red. Unless you can think of who the guy might be, I’m heading up to the graduate school office to go through some of their files and see if I can get any photos for the tenant to look at.”
“Did the graduate director agree? Those files are confidential.”
“Oh, yeah. Most people at Mountain West cooperate when a crime has been committed. I rarely have to get a subpoena.”
He looked uncomfortable but made no move to leave.
“Norm, what’s the other reason you’re here?”
“The Chief asked me to stop in while I was on campus…it’s about Joe.”
I inhaled and blew out air so forcibly I made a whistling sound. “What about him?”
“We haven’t been able to find him. I mean, Landry and Reno PD haven’t.”
I could almost hear my heart beating. “Do you think something’s happened?”
Norm’s face got heavier. “We don’t know, Red, but the Chief wanted me to tell you that we’re putting together a joint task force, Reno and Landry, and preparing for a full press search tomorrow in every neighborhood we know has sex traffickers.”
“Whoa. Won’t that much activity drive them underground?”
He looked away and rubbed his hands together nervously. “Maybe. But I think our chief wants to try everything. He can’t bear the idea of losing…” Norm’s eyes grew wet and so did mine.
I put my hand over his. He rose and gave me a hug. “Don’t worry, Red. We’ll find him.”
After Norm left, I remained in the chair. Police pouring into the neighborhoods might make things worse for Joe. Now more than ever, I was sure it was imperative I look for Joe tonight.
Without Wynan. Not just because he would support the police effort and oppose my going into danger, but because Veronica had been adamant. Come alone. Just you.
Chapter 18
I stopped off at Rosie’s apartment on my way to the hospital for a short visit before leaving for Reno. Norm had been helpful enough to give me the keys and permission to pick up some of Rosie’s things to make her more comfortable during her hospital stay. Police tape still clung to the door but did not prevent my entry. I had been to the tiny one-room studio apartment once before, so I knew what it was supposed to look like. An appalling sight met me when I walked into the room. What little furniture Rosie had was upended and one of the lighter chairs had been smashed into pieces. Her bed was tossed, the drawers to her bureau pulled out and emptied on the floor. Her clothes were everywhere.
It didn’t make sense. It was obvious Rosie didn’t have anything worth stealing. The only way one could explain the chaos was to assume the intruder had meant Rosie’s attack to look like the result of a robbery.
In the bathroom I found a few of the things she had asked for and her robe was still hanging on the door. I gathered them up and left, calling Nell on my cell phone. “We need to get a crew over to Rosie’s apartment as soon as the police give us permission. It’s a mess here.”
At the hospital, the older police guard was dozing by the door. I gave his foot a nudge and he looked up, apologetic.
“That girl’s still in danger, you know,” I said, without looking at him.
He cleared his throat and shifted his weight. “I’m on it, miss. Don’t worry.”
But I worried about everything as I knocked on Rosie’s door.
Rosie was not in her bed.
“Rosie?”
A voice came from behind the table against the wall. Rosie peeked round. She was on her knees holding an electrical cord. “Trying to get the damn laptop plugged in,” she said, returning to her task.
“Rosie, for Christ’s sake, get back into bed this minute.”
Rosie got up and walked back to the bed. “I’m fine, Red, honestly. I told them they could let me out of here, but they insisted I stay through the weekend. I’m going nuts, and I really want to hear that speech tomorrow night.”
“Maybe it will be televised,” I said, plumping pillows behind her back.
“Not a chance. I checked. But one of my friends in my video class thinks he might be able to rig up his camera and a live feed from the Purist tent. At least he’s going to try.”
“You should be concentrating on getting well, not on Danica Boerum’s speech.”
“I’ve got to figure her out. The more I think about it, the more I believe she had something to do with the creep who attacked me. I can feel it.”
“Norm came by this morning and told me about a big man fussing with the buzzers to your apartments.”
Rosie scowled. “Yeah. Norm was here too. I don’t know any guys like that, but he was well-built, Norm says, and could have been the one who was wearing a ski mask who beat the shit out of me and trashed my place before I escaped and ran down the stairs.”
“And then he followed and shot you.”
“Yeah. When I tried to get away after he grabbed me again. He got pissed because I wouldn’t let him drag me into his black van.”
“Have you remembered enough to know if you could identify him?”
“Yeah, I remember his smell. Sweat and some sickening cologne. And I remember he had a heavy gold chain around his neck.”
“You’ve told Norm?”
“I tell Norm everything. Norm’s become my surrogate father.”
I drove to Reno full of dread. My hands were trembling and my head ached. The familiar route was agonizingly slow. A traffic jam outside of the city brought on a wave of nausea I had to fight back. This was just the sort of act that drove Joe insane: my taking a truly dangerous risk. Taking off on my own with no Joe and no Wynan to protect me. Ready to depend on a woman I had known for only one day and a man who used to hate me. And now it wasn’t just me at risk. What was I thinking?
I took a deep breath. Stop this nonsense. You’re strong and capable and smart and you’re doing what you need to do for the sake of your family.
Red Solaris Mystery Series Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 59
