The skin Gods jbakb-2

by Richard Montanari

  "Hi," the young woman said.

  Seth turned, as if he hadn't noticed her. She was even prettier up close. She wore a powder-blue dress and low white heels. She wore a string of pearls and matching earrings. She was about twenty-five. Her hair was gold-tipped by the summer sun.

  "Hi, there," Seth replied.

  "Are you with…" She waved her hand at the crew, the lights, the sound truck, the set in general.

  "The production? Yes," Seth said. "I'm Mr. Whitestone's executive assistant."

  She nodded, impressed. "This is really exciting."

  Seth looked up and down the street. "Yes, it is."

  "I was here for the other movie, too."

  "Did you like the film?" Fishing, and he knew it.

  "Very much." Her voice rose in pitch a little when she said this. "I thought Dimensions was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen."

  "Let me ask you something."

  "Okay."

  "And I want you to be completely honest with me."

  She held her hand up in a three-finger pledge. "Girl Scout promise."

  "Did you see the ending coming?"

  "Not in the least," she said. "I was completely surprised."

  Seth smiled. "You said the right thing. Are you sure you're not from Hollywood?"

  "Well, it's true. My boyfriend said he knew it all along, but I didn't believe him."

  Seth frowned dramatically. "Boyfriend?"

  The young woman laughed. "Ex-boyfriend."

  Seth grinned at the news. This was going extremely well. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then thought better of it. Or at least, that was the scene he was playing. It worked.

  "What is it?" she asked, circling the hook.

  Seth shook his head. "I was going to say something, but I'd better not."

  She cocked her head at a slight angle, began to color. Right on cue. "What were you going to say?"

  "You'll think I'm being too forward."

  She smiled. "I'm from South Philly. I think I can handle it." Seth took her hand in his. She didn't tense up or pull away. This was also a good sign. He looked into her eyes and said: "You have very pretty skin."

  13

  The Rivercrest Motel was a tumbledown, twenty-unit pay and play on Thirty-third and Dauphin streets in West Philly, just a few blocks from the Schuylkill River. The motel was single-story, laid out in an L-shape with a weed-blotted parking lot and a pair of out-of- order soda machines flanking the door to the office. There were five cars in the lot. Two of them were on blocks.

  The manager of the Rivercrest Motel was a man named Karl Stott. Stott was a hard fifty, late out of Alabama, with an alcoholic's damp lips, pitted cheeks, and a pair of navy tattoos on his forearms. He lived on the premises, in one of the rooms.

  Jessica handled the interview. Byrne hovered and glared. They had worked out this dynamic in advance.

  At just past four thirty, Terry Cahill arrived. He hung back in the parking lot, observing, making notes, walking the property.

  "I think those shower rods were installed two weeks ago," Stott said, lighting a cigarette, his hands a little shaky. They were in the motel's small, shabby office. It smelled like warm salami. On the walls were posters of some of Philadelphia's major attractions-Independence Hall, Penn's Landing, Logan Square, the art museum-as if the clientele who frequented the Rivercrest Motel were tourists. Jessica noted that someone had drawn a miniature Rocky Balboa on the art museum steps.

  Jessica also noticed that Karl Stott already had a cigarette burning in the ashtray on the counter.

  "You've got one going already," Jessica said.

  "Pardon me?"

  "You've already got one lit," Jessica repeated, pointing to the ashtray.

  "Jesus," he said. He butted out the old one.

  "A little nervous?" Byrne asked.

  "Well,yeah," Stott said.

  "Why is that?"

  "What, you kidding? You're from Homicide. Homicide makes me nervous."

  "Have you murdered someone recently?"

  Stott's face contorted. "What? No."

  "Then you have nothing to worry about," Byrne said.

  They would run a check on Stott anyway, but Jessica red-lined it in her notebook. Stott had done time, she was sure of it. She showed the man a still photograph of the bathroom.

  "Can you tell if this picture was taken here?" she asked.

  Stott squinted at the photo. "It sure looks like one of ours."

  "Can you tell which room it might be?"

  Stott snorted. "You mean like, is it the presidential suite?"

  "Excuse me?"

  He gestured at the dilapidated office. "This look like the Crowne Plaza to you?"

  "Mr. Stott, I have a deal for you," Byrne said, leaning across the counter. He got to within a few inches of Stott's face. His granite gaze held the man there.

  "What's that?"

  "Lose the attitude, or we will shut this place down for the next two weeks while we examine every tile, every drawer, every switch plate. We will also record the license plate of every car that pulls into this lot."

  "That's a deal?"

  "Believe it. And a good one, too. Because right now, my partner wants to bring you down to the Roundhouse and stick you in a holding cell," Byrne said.

  Another laugh, but not nearly so derisive this time. "What is this, good cop, bad cop?"

  "No, this is bad cop, worse cop. Those are the only choices you're going to get."

  Stott stared at the floor for a few moments, leaning slowly back, extricating himself from Byrne's orbit. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little-"

  "Nervous."

  "Yeah."

  "So you said. Now, back to Detective Balzano's question."

  Stott drew a deep breath, then replaced the fresh air with a lung- rattling draw on his cigarette. He stared at the photograph again. "Well, I can't really tell which room it is, but the way the rooms are laid out, I'd say this was an even-numbered room."

  "Why is that?"

  "Because the toilets are back-to-back here. If this was an odd- numbered room, the tub would be on the other side."

  "Can you narrow it down at all?" Byrne asked.

  "When people check in for, you know, a few hours, we try to give them rooms five through ten."

  "Why is that?"

  "Because they're on the other side of the building from the street. Lots of times, people like to be discreet."

  "So if the room in this photograph is one of those, it would be six, eight, or ten."

  Stott looked at the water-stained ceiling. He did some serious ciphering in his head. It was clear that Karl Stott had a few problems with math. He looked back at Byrne. "Yeah."

  "Do you recall any problems with your guests in those rooms over the past few weeks?"

  "Problems?"

  "Anything unusual. Arguments, disagreements, any loud behavior."

  "Believe it or not, this is a relatively quiet place," Stott said.

  "Are any of those rooms occupied right now?"

  Stott looked at the corkboard with the keys on it. "No."

  "We're going to need the keys to six, eight, and ten."

  "Sure," Stott said, hooking the keys off the board. He handed them to Byrne. "Can I ask what this is all about?"

  "We have reason to believe that a serious crime was committed in one of your motel rooms in the past two weeks," Jessica said.

  By the time the detectives reached the door Karl Stott had lit another cigarette.

  Room number six was a close, musty space: lopsided queen-size bed with a busted frame, splintered laminate nightstands, stained lamp shades, cracked plaster walls. Jessica noticed a ring of crumbs on the floor around the small table by the window. The worn, dirty oatmeal-colored carpeting was mildewed and damp.

  Jessica and Byrne both snapped on a pair of latex gloves. They checked the doorjambs, doorknobs, switch plates, looking for visible blood evidence. Given the amount of blood generated by the murd
er on the videotape, the possibility of splatters and smears throughout the motel room was great. They found none. None that was visible to the naked eye, that is.

  They entered the bathroom, flipped on the light. After a few seconds, the fluorescent fixture over the mirror flickered to life, settling into a loud hum. For a moment, Jessica's stomach lurched. The room was identical to the bathroom on the Psycho tape.

  Byrne, at six three, looked at the top of the shower rod with relative ease. "Nothing here," he said.

  They poked around the small bathroom-lifting the toilet seat, running a gloved finger around the drain in both the tub and the sink, checking the grout in the tile around the tub as well as in the folds of the shower curtain. No blood.

  They repeated the procedure in room eight, with similar results.

  When they entered room ten, they knew. It was nothing obvious, or even something that most people would have noticed. They were seasoned police officers. Evil had walked here, and the malevolence all but whispered to them.

  Jessica flipped on the light in the bathroom. This bathroom had been recently cleaned. There was a slight film on everything, a thin layer of grit left from too much cleanser and not enough rinse water. They had not found this coating in the other two bathrooms.

  Byrne checked the top of the shower rod.

  "Bingo," he said. "We've got our tag."

  He held up the still photograph taken from the freeze-frame of the video. It was identical.

  Jessica followed the sight line from the top of the shower rod. On the wall, where the camera must have been mounted, was an exhaust fan, located just a few inches from the ceiling.

  She retrieved the desk chair from the other room, dragged it into the bathroom, stood on it. The exhaust fan had clearly been tampered with. Some of the enamel paint was chipped away from the two screws that held it in place. It appeared that the grate had recently been removed and replaced.

  Jessica's heart began to race with that special rhythm. There was no other feeling in law enforcement like it.

  Terry Cahill stood near his car in the Rivercrest Motel parking lot, talking on his cell phone. Detective Nick Palladino, who was now assigned to the case, began a canvass of the few neighboring businesses as they waited for the Crime Scene Unit. Palladino was about forty, roughly handsome, old-school South Philly Italian-meaning he ate his salad at the end of the meal, had a copy of Bobby Rydell's greatest hits in the tape deck in his car, and didn't take down his Christmas lights before Valentine's Day. He was also one of the best detectives in the unit.

  "We need to talk," Jessica said, approaching Cahill. She noticed that, even though he was standing directly in the sun, and the temperature had to be in the mideighties, he had his suit coat on, tie up, and there wasn't a single drop of sweat on his face. Jessica was ready to dive into the nearest pool. Her clothes were sticky with perspiration.

  "I'll have to get back to you," Cahill said into the phone. He closed it, turned to Jessica. "Sure. What's up?"

  "You want to tell me what's going on here?"

  "I'm not sure what you mean."

  "It was my understanding that you were here to observe and make recommendations to the bureau."

  "That's correct," Cahill said.

  "Then why were you down in the AV Unit before we were briefed on the tape?"

  Cahill looked at the ground for a moment, sheepish, caught. "I've always been a bit of a video nut," he said. "I'd heard you have a very good AV Unit and I wanted to see for myself."

  "I'd appreciate it if you cleared these things with me or Detective Byrne in the future," Jessica said, already feeling the anger begin to diminish.

  "You're absolutely right. It won't happen again."

  She really hated it when people did that. She had been ready to go upside his head, and he instantly took all the wind out of her sails. "I'd appreciate it," she repeated.

  Cahill glanced around the area, letting his scolding dissipate. The sun was high and hot and merciless. Before the moment became awkward, he waved a hand in the general direction of the motel. "This is really good casework, Detective Balzano."

  God, the feds were arrogant, Jessica thought. She didn't need him to tell her that. The break had come from Mateo's good work with the tape, and they had simply followed up. On the other hand, maybe Cahill was just trying to be pleasant. She looked at his earnest face, thinking: Lighten up, Jess.

  "Thanks," she said. And left it at that.

  "Ever think about the bureau as a career?" he asked.

  She wanted to tell him that it would be her second choice, right after monster truck driver. Besides, her father would kill her. "I'm pretty happy where I am," she said.

  Cahill nodded. His cell phone rang. He held up a finger, answered. "Cahill. Yes, hi." He glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes." He closed the phone. "Got to run."

  There goes the investigation, Jessica thought. "So we have an understanding?"

  "Absolutely," Cahill said.

  "Okay."

  Cahill got into his fed car, slipped on his fed aviator sunglasses, tossed a fed smile her way, and, observing all traffic laws-state and local- pulled onto Dauphin Street.

  As Jessica and Byrne watched the Crime Scene Unit unload their equipment, Jessica thought of the popular television show Without a Trace. Criminalists loved that term. There was always a trace. The officers in the CSU lived for the fact that nothing ever vanished completely. Burn it, soak it, bleach it, bury it, wipe it down, chop it up. They'd find something.

  Today, along with the other standard crime scene procedures, they were going to perform a Luminol test in the bathroom of room ten. Lu- minol was a chemical that revealed blood traces by causing a light- producing chemical reaction with hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying element in blood. If trace blood evidence was present, Luminol, when viewed under a black light, would produce a chemiluminescence, the same phenomenon that causes fireflies to glow.

  In short order, with the bathroom dusted for prints and photographs taken, the CSU officer began to spritz the liquid on the tile surrounding the tub. Unless the room had been washed down repeatedly with scalding- hot water and bleach, blood evidence would remain. When the officer was finished, he plugged in the UV arc lamp.

  "Lights," he said.

  Jessica flipped off the bathroom light, closed the bathroom door. The CSU officer turned on the black light.

  In an instant, they had their answer. There was no trace evidence of blood on the floors, the walls, the shower curtain or the tile, no minute telltale specks of evidence.

  There was blood everywhere.

  They had found the killing ground.

  "We're going to need the registration records for that room for the past two weeks," Byrne said. They were back in the motel's office and, for any number of reasons-not the least of which was that there were now a dozen members of PPD at his formerly quiet place of illicit business- Karl Stott was sweating big time. The small, cramped space had taken on an acrid, monkey-house smell.

  Stott glanced at the floor, back up. It looked like he was going to disappoint these very scary cops, and that notion seemed to be making him ill. More sweat. "Well, we don't really keep detailed records, if you know what I mean. Ninety percent of the people who sign the register are named Smith, Jones, or Johnson."

  "Is every rental on the books?" Byrne asked.

  "What… what do you mean?"

  "I mean, do you sometimes let friends or acquaintances use these rooms off the books?"

  Stott looked shocked. The crime scene techs had examined the lock on the door to room ten and determined it had not recently been jimmied or picked. Anyone entering that room recently had used a key.

  "Of course not," Stott said, indignant at the suggestion he might be guilty of petty larceny.

  "We'll need to see your credit card receipts," Byrne said.

  He nodded. "Sure. No problem. But as you might expect, this is mostly a cash business."

  "Do you remember renting thes
e rooms?" Byrne asked.

  Stott ran a hand over his face. It was clearly Miller time for him. "They all kind of look alike to me. And I've got a bit of a, well, drinking problem, okay? I ain't proud of it, but there it is. By ten o'clock I'm in my cups."

  "We'd like you to come down to the Roundhouse tomorrow," Jessica said. She handed Stott a card. Stott took it, his shoulders sagging.

  Cops.

  Out front, Jessica drew a time line on her notepad. "I think we've got the time frame down to a ten-day window. These shower rods were installed two weeks ago, which means that between the time Isaiah Cran- dall returned Psycho to The Reel Deal and Adam Kaslov rented it, our doer got the tape off the shelf, rented this motel room, committed the crime, and got it back on the shelf."

  Byrne nodded in agreement.

  In the next few days they would be able to narrow this down further, based on the results of the blood evidence. In the meantime, they would start with the missing-person database and see if there was someone matching the general description of the victim on the tape, someone who hadn't been seen in a week.

  Before returning to the Roundhouse, Jessica turned and looked at the door to room ten.

  A young woman had been murdered in this place, and a crime that might have gone undetected for weeks or maybe months was, if their calculations were correct, only a week or so old.

  The madman who did this might have thought he had a pretty good lead on the dumb old cops.

  He was wrong.

  The chase was on.

  14

  There is a moment in Double Indemnity, the great Billy Wilder noir based on the novel by James M. Cain, when Phyllis, played by Barbara Stanwyck, looks at Walter, played by Fred MacMurray. The moment comes when Phyllis's husband unwittingly signs an insurance form, thereby sealing his fate. His untimely death, by certain means, would now produce an insurance settlement that was twice the normal payoff. A double indemnity.

  There is no great music cue, no dialogue. Just a look. Phyllis looks at Walter with a secret knowledge-and no small measure of sexual tension-and they know they have just crossed a line. They have reached a point of no return, after which they will be murderers.