Murder Likes It Hot

by Tracy Weber

  And that’s where the scene unraveled. How would Cherie have gotten Rainbow’s gun?

  Martinez’s voice echoed inside my head. She wouldn’t have. The physical evidence points to the teen.

  That’s because we haven’t found all of it yet, I silently grumbled back.

  I wandered through the diminishing gathering in hopes of learning something else useful. Chuck and Vonnie were gone. They must have had left during The Great Kate and Cherie Standoff. The mourners still present treated me like a pariah, stopping conversation and avoiding eye contact upon my approach. A side effect, I assumed, of my confrontation with Cherie. Hanging around any longer would be a waste of time.

  I wiggled my fingers at Bruiser and stepped outside. I immediately felt lighter, and not simply because of the cool breeze on my skin or the sun, which was momentarily peeking through the overcast sky. Inside the memorial center, the energy had been heavy. Almost strangling. Outside, I could breathe.

  Henderson was gone, but two young adults remained near the cedar tree. I recognized Echo by her duct tape-covered pink coat. She was talking to Jace, Rainbow’s ex-boyfriend.

  Or rather, Jace was talking at Echo.

  His body language wasn’t frustrated, like it was when I first saw them together outside of Teen Path HOME, but it wasn’t friendly either. If I had to give it a name, I’d have called it arrogant. He had the power in their relationship, and he knew it.

  Echo, in contrast, was jittery. Desperate. Her frayed jeans were so filthy they almost looked black.

  When I got within hearing distance, I could tell that Echo was pleading. “You know I’m good for it. I just need a bump.” She smiled and traced her index and third fingers down Jace’s chest. “I can give you an advance payment.”

  Jace shoved her away. “I told you, no more free rides, of any kind. Get the green. You know where to find me.” He turned his back to her and strode across the parking lot, toward the sidewalk.

  I jogged after him. “Jace! Wait a minute. I need to talk to you.”

  He flinched, then half-turned to face me. “How do you know my name?”

  “I’m a friend of Rainbow’s.”

  He rolled his eyes and resumed walking.

  “Hold up!” I yelled. “I need to find her.”

  He stopped moving, but the look he gave me was scathing.

  “Do you know where she is?” I asked. “It’s important. She’s in trouble.”

  “Don’t know, don’t care.” He loped five steps away, then turned back for one final proclamation. “If you do see Rayne, tell her she’d better hope the cops don’t arrest her. Narcs don’t do well in juvie.”

  “Narcs? What are you talking about?”

  He left without answering.

  Echo’s voice came from behind me. “You’re looking for Rainbow?”

  “Do you know where I can find her? She needs help.”

  The girl scratched her fingernails up and down her arms. Sweat dotted her forehead. “Lady, we all need help. Haven’t you figured that out yet? The help I need comes in the form of a C-note.”

  I stared into her bloodshot eyes, conflicted. I couldn’t afford to give away any money, much less a hundred dollars. But that wasn’t what stopped me. If I gave Echo money, she’d use it to buy drugs. I had zero doubt. Could I, in good conscience, enable that?

  Echo’s fingers twitched. “I haven’t got all day. It’s cash or deuces, lady. Take your pick.”

  “How do I know your information is legit?”

  “I’ll take you to her.”

  My internal struggle wasn’t nearly as difficult as it should have been. I told myself that paying Echo for information about Rainbow wasn’t the same as feeding her addiction. She’d find a way to get her fix regardless. Perhaps my “donation” would help both teens. If I paid Echo the money, I’d locate Rainbow and prevent Echo from prostituting herself, at least for one night.

  It was a convenient lie, but I convinced myself anyway.

  I pulled out my billfold and removed two twenties. “You’ll get the rest when I see Rainbow.”

  Echo reached for the money, then hesitated. For the first time, I glimpsed kindness underneath her veil of addiction. “Are you going to turn her in to the cops?”

  I considered lying, but Echo—even in the obvious throes of drug withdrawal—would know I was scamming her. Once I blew her trust, it would be gone for good.

  “I have to. It’s the only way I can get her help.”

  Echo’s eyes met mine, then flicked to the pavement. “She didn’t kill Gabriel.”

  “I know. Can you help me figure out who did?”

  She hesitated, and for a moment I thought she’d say yes. Instead, her expression grew cold. “Not my problem. Give me another twenty. Sixty down, forty on delivery. We’ll have to drive.”

  Not without backup, we won’t.

  I’d been reckless in the past, but I’d learned my lesson. I sensed Echo was inherently gentle, but I didn’t know her. I wouldn’t risk getting into a car with her alone.

  I pulled out one of my business cards, folded a ten-dollar bill around it, and handed it to her. “This is the last of my cash. I need to get more. Consider fifty dollars my down payment. Do you have a bus pass?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Meet me at the address on this card in an hour. The number five bus stops across the street. We’ll drive from there. I’ll give you another fifty when you take me to Rainbow.”

  Echo snatched the cash with trembling fingers. “Make it two hours. I need to get something first.” I had a horrible feeling that “something” was a tiny bag of white powder.

  “Fine. Two hours it is. Wait for me in front of Serenity Yoga.”

  We parted company. Echo hurried to the bus stop; I got in my car. I ignored the voice in my head saying I’d made a horrible mistake.

  seventeen

  Wherever Echo was planning to take me, we wouldn’t be going alone. I stopped at home and picked up Bella, then drove to Pete’s Pets to grab Michael. I expected at least token resistance from my safety-oriented husband, but he was surprisingly compliant.

  Michael quickly showed Tiffany how to set up the Thanksgiving pet toy display while I said a quick hello to Ed and Lonnie. The little guys scampered up to the door of their cage and sat on their haunches like two tiny soldiers in formation.

  “Sorry, guys. You have to stay here. I promise, as soon as I find Rainbow, I’ll focus on getting you a better home. I know you miss Gabriel.”

  Michael poked his head into the storage room. “I’m ready when you are. If this Echo character is as twitchy as you describe, we shouldn’t make her wait.”

  We left through the pet store’s emergency exit, which led directly into the parking garage where I’d left Bella. I would have brought her inside Pete’s Pets with me, but I was afraid that another dog might already be in the store and I didn’t want to risk her creating a scene. Bella had never harmed another animal, but suffice it to say that one of her ferocious displays wouldn’t earn Michael any repeat customers.

  “I still can’t believe you’re not trying to talk me out of this,” I said to him. “You hate it when I get involved in murder investigations.”

  “That’s not true. I understand why you try to solve crimes. It’s for all the same reasons I fell in love with you. You’re smart and curious, you have a keen sense of justice, and you’re drawn to help people. But you’re also impulsive, and that impulsiveness puts you in danger. Frankly, I’m delighted that you invited me along this time instead of going off on your own.” Michael’s expression turned serious. “Besides, I want to help Rainbow, too. I need to make up for Wednesday night.”

  I stopped at the car and released Bella from her back seat prison. She danced a quick happy dance at Michael’s feet. “You need to let that go, Michael.”

&n
bsp; “How can I? I was a jerk. I didn’t even give Rainbow a chance. I got on my high horse, assumed she was a thief, and insisted that you call the police. I should have kept my mouth shut until you’d spoken to Dale. If I had, everything might have turned out differently.”

  “You weren’t wrong, Michael. Rainbow did steal my wallet, and if we’d let her stay overnight without calling the police, we could have gotten in trouble. Dale explained that.”

  “But I still wasn’t right. Rainbow’s not much different than Gabriella was. She’s been abused, she’s scared, and she has nowhere to go. I broke the law big time to help Gabby, and it cost me a hell of a lot more than the few bucks Rainbow took from you. I practically shoved the kid out into that storm.”

  “You can’t blame yourself. Rainbow made her own decisions.”

  “So did I. And I’m deciding now: you and I are helping her. Together.”

  I wrapped my arms around my husband’s waist and gave him a squeeze. “I love you, you know.”

  By the time Bella, Michael, and I reached the yoga studio’s front entrance, Echo was already huddled outside, looking impatient. Her hands were significantly less jittery than earlier, due no doubt to a recent “bump” obtained from her favorite drug dealer. She flinched away from Bella, then narrowed her eyes at Michael. “You didn’t say you were bringing a search party.”

  She was right. I hadn’t told her I was planning to gather reinforcements because I was afraid she’d veto the idea. She still might, but that was a risk I’d have to take. Michael and Bella’s attendance wasn’t optional. For all I knew, Echo was the killer. If she wouldn’t allow Michael and Bella to come with us, I wouldn’t go either.

  The bravado in my voice wasn’t false. “This is my husband, Michael. He and the dog come with us, or we don’t go.” I pulled out the fifty dollar bill I’d withdrawn from the cash machine. “Do you want this or not?”

  She gave me a foul look, then reached to snatch the bill out of my fingers. I pulled it away. “You’ll get this after we find Rainbow. That was the deal.”

  “Fine. Let’s go. Who’s driving?”

  We opted to take Michael’s SUV. I climbed into the back with Bella while Echo rode shotgun. Michael slid the key into the ignition and looked expectantly at the young woman. “Where are we headed?”

  She stared out the passenger-side window. “Woodland Park. We have a campsite there.”

  I shouldn’t have been surprised. The universe, after all, tends to bring us full circle. I spent the ten-minute drive reminiscing about the last time I’d gone with a homeless person to Woodland Park. The experience hadn’t been pleasant. My friend George—Bella’s first owner—had been murdered, and in trying to figure out who killed him, I’d naïvely followed a homeless man named Charlie to Woodland Park.

  The park had been deserted that cold, rainy afternoon. Frighteningly so for a female yoga teacher accompanying a mentally disturbed man significantly larger than she. Charlie had eventually taken me to the park’s fenced-in horseshoe area. I’d assumed that he had chosen the horseshoe pit as his home rather than one of Seattle’s more populated homeless encampments because he craved isolation. Charlie wasn’t exactly a people person.

  A lot had changed in the past three years.

  The homeless problem in Seattle had gotten significantly worse, or at least significantly more visible. Astronomical rents, decreased social and mental health services, and a flourishing opioid crisis had dramatically increased the number of Seattleites without stable housing. Local homeowners blamed the city council, whose primary response had been to ignore and enable the problem.

  The issue had been simmering barely below boiling for over a decade. The tipping point came when the city closed the Jungle, a homeless encampment located on a 160-acre greenbelt under Interstate 5. In spite of the Jungle’s poor sanitation and abysmal crime rates, over four hundred people in Seattle’s unhoused community called it home.

  Or, at least, they had. After a few well-publicized murders in the Jungle, the area had been cleared out, cleaned up, and fenced off. The individuals who lived there were ordered to relocate. And relocate they did.

  Tent and RV encampments had popped up all over the city. Simply put, the Jungle was now everywhere, including Woodland Park. So when Michael drove past the fenced-off horseshoe area, I was only mildly surprised to see a half-dozen tents and approximately twice that many souls inside it. I doubted Charlie was among them.

  “Is this it?” Michael asked.

  “No,” Echo replied. “You can’t see our place from the road. Keep driving.” She directed us to a lot near the park’s southernmost restroom. “Park here. We’ll walk the rest of the way.”

  I clipped on Bella’s lead, and the three of us followed Echo out of the lot and down a narrow trail crowded by dense underbrush. Pine needles scented the air and crunched under our feet. Bella alternated between pulling me forward and stopping every few seconds to sniff the ground and mark her new territory.

  “How long have you been camped here at the park?” I asked.

  Echo shrugged. “I’m not sure. A couple of months, I guess.”

  “It’s pretty far from Teen Path HOME,” I said.

  “Not really. It’s only a twenty-minute bus ride. I got sick of being harassed by the suits downtown, and Aurora’s walking distance for when I need to … well, you know.” She didn’t meet my eyes.

  She was referring to Aurora Avenue North, a major thoroughfare that formed the park’s westernmost border. Aurora was the home of fast food restaurants, gas stations, used car lots, and pay-by-the-hour motels. It was also a mecca for drug dealing and prostitution. I had a feeling Echo participated in both.

  I pointed to a sign near the path. No camping. No access from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

  “The police don’t stop you from setting up camp here?”

  She shrugged. “They come around and talk to us every now and then, but they haven’t made us leave, at least not yet. They’d rather have us here than out in the neighborhoods where people can see us. A maintenance guy locks up the restrooms at night, but during the day we have access to toilets and running water. And as long as we stick together, it’s pretty safe. Downtown gets sketchy at night.”

  “You’re sure Rainbow’s here at the encampment?” I asked.

  “She was this morning. She’s too freaked out to leave.”

  “Because of the police?”

  “Yes. She thinks they’ll find her if she tries to leave town, but she’s not safe here anymore either. The cops have already harassed everyone within three miles of Teen Path HOME. It won’t be long before they start hitting the encampments farther away. I figure it’s better for you to find her than them.” Echo stared at her hands. “Besides, if Jace finds out I’m hiding her, he’ll cut me off.”

  I consciously kept the judgment out of my voice. “Jace is your dealer, isn’t he?”

  She didn’t reply.

  An uncomfortable thought churned in my belly. “Does Rainbow deal too?”

  Echo harrumphed. “Rainbow? Are you kidding? She’s so clean, she can’t even crap without squeaking.” Her face grew solemn. “She’ll never survive prison. I hope you can help her.”

  In her own skewed way, Echo had Rainbow’s best interests at heart. Echo wasn’t a bad person, just a flawed one trapped in a terrible situation. There had to be some way I could find Rainbow without further enabling Echo’s addiction.

  “Echo, I have a deal for you,” I said. “Instead of giving you fifty dollars in cash after we find Rainbow, why don’t Michael and I take you to a store and buy you a hundred dollars worth of supplies?”

  Her shoulders stiffened. “Supplies?”

  “Food, soap, clothes … Whatever you need.”

  Echo’s face screwed up in anger. “What, now you’re going all social worker on me? I got enough of that crap from Gabri
el. What’s next? An offer to drive me to rehab?”

  The thought had crossed my mind.

  Echo must have read my expression, because she stopped walking. “If I want your lame do-gooder advice, I’ll ask for it. It’s too late to change our deal now.” She thrust out her palm. “Give me the rest of the money.”

  I didn’t move.

  “Now. Or the tour stops here.”

  Michael touched my arm. “Give it to her, Kate. Rainbow’s our priority.”

  I reluctantly pulled out the money and handed it to her. Irony bittered the back of my tongue. I’d just given money I couldn’t afford to an addict, who would spend it on illegal substances that I abhorred. All so I could find a runaway who didn’t want to be found. Worse yet, said drug user would likely give the money to the runaway’s ex-boyfriend, who’d dumped her and taken off with their camping supplies, which was why she’d broken into Teen Path HOME and gotten into this mess in the first place. There was a life lesson—or a who’s-on-first comedy skit—in there somewhere.

  But not for me. At least not now. For now, I just felt like a shit. I had a feeling we all did.

  Two minutes later, it was show time.

  We emerged from the trees into an opening with a dozen or so tents arranged in a circle, like pioneer wagons preparing for battle. The pine scent faded, replaced by the musky smell of rotting garbage and unbathed humans.

  The circle’s center was littered with cardboard boxes, fast food containers, propane cook stoves, and empty potato chip bags. Two brightly painted cylinders hung from a navy blue tent on the opposite side, one with colorful swirls around pink and red hearts. The solar lanterns I’d seen Echo creating at Teen Path HOME.