In the Shadow of the Arch

by Robert J. Randisi

  He stepped into the parking lot and approached the man.

  "Can I help you?" he asked.

  The man stared at him blankly. Keough took out his ID.

  "I'm a police officer."

  "Somebody hit my car," the man said. He was a portly man in his late thirties wearing powder blue shorts, a white belt, and a shirt with orange-and-yellow flowers on it. Those clothes, Keough thought, should have been on a retired man living in Florida.

  "Did you see who did it?"

  "No," the man said. "I just came out and found it this way. Look, there's glass all over the ground."

  The man's tail light had been smashed and there were pieces of red glass on the ground, but there were also shards of orange glass that had not come from this car.

  As much as Keough didn't like coincidences, he loved hunches, and now he had one.

  "Wait here," he said.

  "But what-"

  "Wait," Keough said "I'll have somebody come out and take a report."

  The man opened his mouth, but instead of speaking he just grabbed his head and started dancing around, looking down at the rear of his car.

  It's just a car, Keough wanted to tell him.

  ***

  He found Steinbach inside with Neibuhr and told him his hunch. They found the uniformed cops and had them go out and take a report from the man in the parking lot.

  "And I want the glass," Keough said.

  "What?" Wells asked.

  "The glass on the ground. I want you to collect it."

  "Don't we need a lab-"

  "Just pick it all up and put it in a paper bag. Take it back to your station and I'll get it later. Okay?"

  "Whatever turns you on, Detective."

  The two cops turned to leave.

  "And get pictures."

  "Of what?" Wells asked.

  "The back of the car."

  "With what?"

  "Your station must have a Polaroid."

  "It does," the younger cop said. It was the first time he'd spoken.

  "Then use it."

  Wells nodded and gave his partner a dirty look, and then they went out to the parking lot.

  "Can I go?" Neibuhr asked.

  "Can we get in touch with you here?"

  "I guess-sure."

  "Okay, go ahead."

  As the guard walked away, Steinbach said, "What do you want to do?"

  "Try another hunch."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Come on," Keough said. "I'll tell you on the way.

  When they reached the street, Steinbach, who was driving, said, "Which way?"

  "Right."

  "Why right?"

  "It would be easier," Keough said. "Remember, he's running. He's not going to wait to cross over and turn left. Right turn on red, remember? No waiting. He'd go right."

  "And then where?"

  "That's what we're going to find out."

  They drove past some small shopping centers, but Keough didn't feel that the killer would have stopped at any of them.

  "Why not?" Steinbach asked.

  "A Toys'R'Us maybe," he said, "but none of these. I don't think you'd normally find a mother with a stroller at Office Depot, or something like that."

  "So he just keeps driving."

  "I think so."

  "Maybe he lives around here somewhere," Steinbach said. "Maybe he's already home."

  "Maybe," Keough said. "Let's just go a little further. What's ahead?"

  "Lindbergh," Steinbach said. "Also, he could get on the highway up here, forty-four."

  They drove on, coming to the point where Lindbergh intersected Watson. "Stay on Watson, or take Lindbergh?" Steinbach asked.

  "That looks like a large shopping center up ahead," Keough said. "Let's try that."

  "I think I know what you're thinking," Steinbach said. "He was trolling and got interrupted."

  "Trolling?"

  "Okay, so I read some of the psychobabble."

  "Go on."

  "You think he's desperate for a victim because he was interrupted."

  "I think it's possible."

  "Only if his killing is a compulsion," Steinbach said, "and, at the moment, he's in the thrall of that compulsion."

  "You really did do your homework."

  They drove across Lindbergh and past IHOP, and Steinbach pulled into the parking lot near Borders Books.

  Keough squinted. "What's going on over there?"

  "That's a Sunset Hills police car," Steinbach said. "Something happened."

  They drove over to check it out. Two uniformed cops were talking with someone. They couldn't see who because there was a group of people around them.

  Steinbach stopped the car and they both got out and approached the assemblage. They confronted the two officers and showed their ID.

  "Detectives Keough and Steinbach, from Major Case. What have you got here?"

  He didn't really have to ask, though. He could see now that the policeman were talking to a young, blond mother dressed in shorts and a halter top.

  "Some guy tried to grab this lady and her kid," one of the cops said.

  "Where's the child?" Keough asked.

  The woman said, "He's in the car. The man tried to push me into the car after I buckled my baby in."

  "What happened?" Keough asked.

  "I started kicking and screaming and he ran off."

  "Did he get in a car?" Keough asked the woman.

  "I-I think so. I'm not sure."

  "Officer," Keough said, "we're in pursuit of this guy. Take a statement from the lady, a full statement complete with description, and send us a copy, will you?"

  "Sure, but-"

  "We've got to keep going," Keough said, cutting him off. "We may have a chance to catch this guy."

  "If you do," the woman said, "I'll identify him."

  "Thank you, ma'am," Keough said.

  Keough and Steinbach ran for their car, with Steinbach getting behind the wheel again.

  "Which way now?" he asked.

  "Back out the way we came, then make a right?"

  "But… that's really going back the way we came. Would he do that?"

  "Right turn's the easiest," Keough said, "and then another right."

  "Ah," Steinbach said, "south on Lindbergh."

  They drove to the end of the shopping center and took the Lindbergh ramp. Now they were heading through Sunset Hills toward Mehlville.

  "He's been out here before," Keough said.

  "Sure he has," Steinbach said, growing excited for the first time. "The South County Mall's out this way."

  "That's where he's headed," Keough said. "We've got to radio ahead, get somebody out there."

  "That's the county," Steinbach said.

  "Gardner," Keough said.

  "Who?"

  "Detective Barry Gardner," Keough said. "He caught the first baby in the Dumpster case."

  Keough grabbed the radio. He had to get a message to Gardner to get out to the South County Mall fast.

  44

  By the time Keough and Steinbach reached South County, cops were there waiting for them. St. Louis County police and mall security shared an office on the southwest side of the mall. The entrance was outside.

  Steinbach parked the car on the J.C. Penny side of the mall and he and Keough walked around until they found the security office.

  "Detective Keough?" a uniformed cop asked. He bore the insignia of a St. Louis County lieutenant.

  "That's right," he said. "This is my partner, Detective Steinbach."

  "We've met," the lieutenant said. "My name's Marcus. You're with Major Case, right?"

  "Usually," Steinbach said, "but we're attached to a task force now."

  "What kind of task force?"

  Keough looked around the office. There was another St. Louis cop, probably the lieutenant's driver, and a mall security man.

  "It's okay," Lieutenant Marcus said, "we cooperate with each other. This is Captain Mason, South County
Mall security."

  "Captain," Keough said. "What I'm about to tell you all has to stay in this room, all right?"

  "Of course," Lieutenant Marcus said, and the other two men nodded their agreement.

  Keough told them about the killer, what he'd done, and what had happened so far on this day.

  "So you think he's in our mall?" the captain asked.

  "Yes," Keough said.

  "Why… if you don't mind me asking?"

  "Because I think he left the Crestwood Mall with a catch-the-tail attitude."

  "Come again?"

  "When a dog is chasing his tail he's just thinking, 'catch the tail, catch the tail,' " Keough explained. "I think this killer is thinking, 'find a victim, find a victim.' "

  "I see."

  "And we need to find him first-or, at least, get in his way."

  "Do you have his picture?" Marcus asked.

  "Yes, but not enough to go around," Steinbach said.

  "How about a description?"

  "We can describe him," Keough said, "but there's a quicker way to do this."

  "How?" Marcus asked.

  "We need to find any blond women-late twenties, early thirties-in the mall, pushing a stroller, and stay with them."

  "What?" Captain Mason asked.

  "He likes blond mothers with strollers."

  "I don't-"

  "Let's not ask anymore questions, Captain," Lieutenant Marcus advised. "Let's just do this before we're too late."

  "All right," Mason said. "I'll radio my men."

  "And I'll radio mine," Marcus said.

  "How many men do you have?" Keough asked.

  "Half a dozen," Mason answered.

  "I've got another two cars at the other end of the mall with two men," Marcus said. "Also, I understand Detective Gardner is on his way."

  "Okay," Keough said, "there's five of us right here, so that gives us thirteen until Gardner gets here. We need to cover all the major exits, just in case a woman fitting our description comes in or goes out."

  Mason had just finished radioing his men.

  "Captain, how many major exits are there?"

  "There are four main mall exits," Mason explained, "several smaller ones, and then the entrances and exits to the department stores."

  "Do you have any covered parking lots?"

  "No," Mason said, "only surface parking."

  "We'll have to check the lots. After that, we'll take a chance on the major exits," Keough said, "the ones directly accessible to the parking lot, and accessible to women with strollers. That means no steps."

  "That cuts it down," Mason said. "I'll deploy my men."

  "Okay," Keough said, "I suggest that we go into the mall and start looking."

  "Let's do it," Lieutenant Marcus said.

  They synchronized their radios so they'd all be on the same channel, and then went into the mall and split up.

  ***

  They found two women in the mall who matched the description-four, actually, but two of them did not have strollers. One had a young child about five or six, and the other was childless, but walking with another woman who was older, darker, and pushing a stroller. Keough made the decision to cover them all.

  The mall existed on three levels. One main level that ran north to south, and two secondary levels, upper and lower, running west of the main stem. When Gardner arrived, he coordinated with Keough, meeting him on the top level of the mall, near a McDonald's, Sbarro's and A&Ws. There was a small food court set up, with tables and chairs. Keough had found one of the blond women there, one with a child in a stroller, had identified himself, and convinced her to sit at a table and wait. By the time Gardner arrived, the woman was becoming impatient.

  "Can't you tell me what this is about?" she asked.

  "In a little while, ma'am," Keough said, as he watched Gardner come off the escalator.

  "I have to meet my husband-"

  "I'll have to ask you to be patient just a little while longer, ma'am," Keough said. "I'm really sorry to inconvenience you."

  "Am I in danger?" she suddenly asked.

  "No, ma'am, not as long as you stay here."

  That quieted her as Gardner reached Keough.

  "What have we got?"

  Keough took Gardner's arm and moved him away from the woman.

  "We're watching four women, and we've got men on the exits, but we've been here close to an hour now. I think he's gone."

  "Or he was never here."

  "Shit!"

  "What?"

  "I should have thought of this before," Keough said. "I think our man backed into a car over in the Crestwood parking lot. I should have had mall security here check the parking lot for damaged cars."

  "That might not have worked," Gardner said. "There's probably a lot of cars out there with the same sort of dent."

  "Maybe so," Keough said. "It's just something I wish I'd thought of."

  At that moment Keough saw both Steinbach and Lieutenant Marcus come off the escalator.

  "Thanks for getting me such quick cooperation, Barry," Keough said, "but I think we're going to have to call it off."

  "Anything?" Steinbach asked as he and Marcus reached them.

  "No," Keough said.

  Gardner and the lieutenant exchanged a wordless nod.

  "How much longer do you want to do this?" Marcus asked Keough.

  Keough appreciated the fact that the lieutenant had not tried to take over. It was quite a change from what would have happened in New York.

  "I think we can call it off, Loo," Keough said. "I do think, though, that we should have these women walked to their cars."

  "We can do that," Marcus said. "I'll radio the captain to have his men take care of it."

  "Have him send a man up here, too," Keough said. "This lady's been real patient with us."

  "I'll have my driver take care of her."

  "Thanks, Loo."

  The lieutenant got on the radio.

  "What's next?" Steinbach asked.

  Keough scowled. "I think I've pushed this hunch as far as I dare to, Al."

  "It was a good hunch, Joe," Steinbach said. "Look at what happened over by Borders."

  "That might not have been him."

  "It was him," Steinbach said. "I feel it, and you felt it."

  "But he got away."

  "He didn't get a victim, though."

  "Not today," Keough said, "but he's got to be frustrated about it."

  "Fuck 'im," Steinbach said. "Let him be frustrated. From the time we got the call from Crestwood you've been on his ass, and he didn't get one today. That's what matters, partner. We stopped him."

  "She stopped him."

  "Who?"

  "Kate Fouquet," Keough said. "She spotted him, she got mall security to call us. Also, that security guard, and the woman in the lingerie store. They all stopped him."

  "Hey," Steinbach said, "go ahead and give credit where credit is due, at least he was stopped."

  Keough wished he could be as optimistic about the day's events as Steinbach was. Sure, the killer had been stopped today-unless he went right from South County to another mall and grabbed a woman there. Galleria? West County? Could they call all the malls and warn them? No, it wasn't feasible.

  They had to hope that the killer was so frustrated that he left South County-if he was, indeed, ever there-and went back into his hole for a while.

  Lieutenant Marcus' driver escorted the woman to her car and Steinbach said to Keough, "Come on, partner. Let's go. We've got to backtrack and see if we can pick up some evidence."

  Keough nodded, but he had the feeling that their opportunity had slipped away.

  45

  He slammed the door of his apartment and stood with his back against it. He was covered with sweat, but unmindful of the fact. Neither did he smell his own sour, foul odor. All he knew was that he had escaped. He had seen the police in South County, knew they were looking for him. What he didn't know was how they knew he'd be the
re.

  He'd been lucky to slip away, even with a guard on the door. Maybe they didn't have a description of him. Or maybe they weren't looking for him, after all. Could it have been a coincidence? Were they looking for someone else, entirely?

  He smiled and then, moments later, laughter came bubbling out. He staggered into his living room, onto the sofa, and sat there holding his sides, laughing and laughing, not at all sure why. Maybe he was just relieved to have gotten away-but then the laughter stopped abruptly.

  He had not found what he was looking for. That meddling guard had brought attention to him and that bitch from June, in the Galleria parking lot, had recognized him. He'd been forced to run.

  He frowned, trying to remember his flight. He had no idea that he'd been in a sort of trance driving down Watson Road, pulling into the shopping center parking lot, spotting the woman with the stroller coming out of Borders Books. His knee ached, but he didn't remember her kicking him. In fact, he remembered little from the time he'd fled Crestwood up until the time he left South County. Everything in between was a blur.

  All he knew for sure was that he was back home, and he was alone. He had gone out to find a victim, and had come back empty-handed.

  And suddenly he wasn't laughing, anymore.

  46

  It took Keough and Steinbach some time to return to the Major Case Squad office. They had to retrace their steps and pick up whatever information they could from the statements of witnesses-specifically the woman in the Border's parking lot. They'd had no time to question her, and the uniformed cop on the scene-not being a trained detective-had not asked all the pertinent questions. One of them was going to have to interview the woman the next morning. They also had to pick up the bag of broken glass from Crestwood.

  When they got to the Major Case Squad office they found a surprise waiting for them.

  "Gentlemen," Captain McGwire said, as they entered, looking haggard and worse for the wear, "it's about time you got here."

  "Cap," Steinbach said, "we had some trouble-"

  "I heard about your escapades today," McGwire said, cutting him off.