“Yes.”
Again the two men were quiet.
Then Healy said, “Yeah. Me too. Which means that whoever did them knew about the house.”
“Which they bought under her maiden name to keep it a secret.”
“Which makes Lutz look pretty good for it,” Healy said.
“It does,” Jesse said. “On the other hand, a lot of money changed hands.”
“So maybe his lawyer knew,” Healy said.
“Or his manager,” Jesse said.
“Or one of the wives.”
“Swell,” Jesse said. “We’ve got all the suspects we had before.”
“We?” Healy said. “Whaddya mean, ‘we’? I’m just stopping by on my way from work.”
Jesse nodded.
“Thank you for your support,” he said.
38
They were drinking white wine by the window, at the table in Sunny’s kitchen, in the little bay, when Spike came into the loft with the stalker. From under the table Rosie gave her ferocious gurgling bark. Jenn took in a sudden breath and froze. The stalker was a middle-sized well-dressed man in his middle thirties with a neat beard. He face was rigid, and very pale.
“Timothy Patrick Lloyd,” Spike said, “according to his driver’s license. Lives in the Prudential Center. His business cards say he’s the CEO of Spot-on Marketing. He’s got six twenties in his wallet.”
“You’ve met Spike,” Sunny said. “I’m Sunny Randall, and, I assume, you know this young woman.”
Lloyd’s eyes were busy. He looked at Sunny, shifted to Jenn, looked quickly away, scanned the loft. Rosie came out from under the table and sniffed at his pant leg. He looked down at her and away. Jenn continued to stare at him.
“He doesn’t have a weapon,” Spike said, and closed the door and leaned on it.
Sunny said, “So tell us your story, Mr. Lloyd.”
“I’m here against my will,” Lloyd said.
His voice was thin and tight. Sunny nodded at the phone on the kitchen counter.
“Feel free to call the police,” Sunny said. “Nine-one-one would work.”
Lloyd’s eyes shifted to the phone and back.
“I just want to leave,” he said.
“You do know Ms. Stone,” Sunny said.
He didn’t look at Jenn.
“She’s on Channel Three,” he said.
“And Jenn, you know Mr. Lloyd,” Sunny said.
“No,” Jenn said.
“But you recognize him.”
“No.”
“He’s been following you around,” Sunny said, “since I met you.”
“I don’t think it’s him,” Jenn said.
“It is,” Sunny said.
Sunny looked at Spike.
“It is,” Spike said.
“I’ve never followed anyone,” Lloyd said.
“I don’t know him,” Jenn said.
“Did he rape you?” Sunny said.
“Rape?” Lloyd said. “Rape. Jesus Christ, I never raped anybody.”
“No,” Jenn said. “He didn’t.”
“He didn’t rape you.”
“No.”
“What the hell is this?” Lloyd said.
“I could probably convince him to tell us his side of things,” Spike said.
“What are you going to do?” Lloyd said.
“Vee have our vays,” Spike said.
Sunny saw Lloyd’s fists clenched at his sides. A touching moment of bravado, Sunny thought. Sunny had seen Spike in action. Lloyd had no chance. Sunny shook her head.
“He didn’t rape you,” Sunny said to Jenn.
“No,” Jenn said.
She had looked at no one since Spike brought Lloyd in.
“Did anyone rape you?” Sunny said.
“Of course someone raped me,” Jenn said.
“And someone is stalking you,” Sunny said.
“Yes. Don’t you believe me?”
Sunny looked at Spike. He shrugged and stepped away from the door.
“You’re free to go, Mr. Lloyd,” Sunny said.
Lloyd started to speak, looked at Spike, and said nothing. Spike opened the door, and Lloyd went out. Sunny looked down at Rosie, who was sitting by the kitchen counter, looking hopefully upward. Spike closed the door after Lloyd. He went to the counter and opened a cookie jar and gave a dog biscuit to Rosie.
“Well, don’t you?” Jenn said. “Don’t you believe me?”
Rosie chewed up her dog biscuit. Sunny reached down to pat her. Then she looked up at Jenn.
“The question’s too hard for me, at the moment,” Sunny said.
39
Jesse talked with Conrad Lutz in the coffee shop of the Langham Hotel.
“You’re still around.”
“Yeah,” Lutz said. “The family wanted me to sort of stay around until there was some sort of closure on the case.”
“They paying the tab?” Jesse said.
“They are,” Lutz said.
“At the Langham.”
“Well, I’m already here,” Lutz said. “You know?”
“Nice duty,” Jesse said.
“Sure.”
Lutz stirred some sugar into his coffee.
“You didn’t mention a prior connection to Weeks,” Jesse said.
“How prior?” Lutz said.
“You busted him for public indecency in White Marsh, Maryland, in 1987.”
Lutz nodded slowly.
“Not bad,” he said.
“Why didn’t you mention it?” Jesse said.
“I was supposed to be his bodyguard. I wasn’t supposed to be going around telling tales on the poor bastard.”
Jesse nodded.
“Tell me about it,” he said.
“I was with the Baltimore County police, patrolling the White Marsh Mall. A couple of women came up to me and complained of what was happening in a car in the parking lot. I checked it out and it was Weeks and some kid doing the nasty in his car. I’d have chased them off and let it slide, but the two ladies raised hell and insisted I arrest them for defiling the mall parking lot or something. So I took them in.”
“How’d he handle it?” Jesse said.
“He was embarrassed,” Lutz said. “But I think he knew he could fix it. He pointed out that the girl was of age, and then he started asking me about being a cop and did I see much of this and that sort of thing.”
Jesse nodded. A waitress came by and freshened their coffee.
“Some of it was schmoozing,” Lutz said. “You know, be pals with you, how you see they’re not afraid, and no hard feelings. But in fact he actually seemed interested. Few weeks later he called and asked if we could talk.”
“What did he want to talk about?”
“Police work,” Lutz said. “Weeks was going to do a full-hour commentary on his TV show about police work, and wanted to research it. I said okay. By that time the lewd-behavior charge had sort of gone away. So I talked with him. He rode around in the cruiser with me. I liked him. He was a pretty nice guy. You know? He was interested in everything. He wasn’t full of himself. He seemed to get it. He never got in the way. And finally, when he did the commentary, I liked that, too. He was fair. He didn’t whitewash cops. But he didn’t blackball us, either. He knew the score.”
“He mention being arrested for public lewdness?”
Lutz grinned and shook his head.
“He was honest,” Lutz said. “But he wasn’t crazy.”
“How’d you end up as his bodyguard?” Jesse said.
“He got some death threats. Never clear who they were from. Weeks said that telling the truth in public was inherently risky.”
“So he called you?”
“Yeah. We’d become pretty friendly. We used to talk now and then. Have dinner once in a while. He offered a lot more than Baltimore County was paying. So I went with him.”
“Any follow-up on the death threats?”
“Not till now,” Lutz said.
“You think this murde
r is about that?”
“I don’t know what this murder is about,” Lutz said.
Jesse nodded.
“I talked with the doormen here,” Jesse said.
“Yeah?”
“No one remembers seeing Walton and Carey walking up Franklin Street,” Jesse said.
“Why would they?” Lutz said.
“Nobody remembers you asking about it, either.”
“For crissake, Jesse, they talk to a hundred people a day.”
“Do you remember specifically who you talked with?” Jesse said.
Lutz shook his head.
“Not really. White guy,” he said. “Looked Irish. You know, they all look the same in the monkey suit.”
“Not many Irish doormen around the city,” Jesse said. “If we got them all together, could you pick him out?”
“Probably not, it was a while ago. I just don’t remember.”
“But someone did see them that day,” Jesse said.
“That’s what he told me.”
“And you can’t remember which one it was you talked with.”
Lutz shook his head.
“I should, I know, me being a former cop and all. But…” He spread his hands. “You know how it is.”
“Actually, I don’t,” Jesse said.
Lutz shrugged. Jesse waited. Lutz didn’t say anything else.
After a time, Jesse broke the silence.
“You know anything about any real estate that Weeks might have been interested in around here?” he said.
“Real estate?” Lutz said. “Walton? No, I don’t know anything about that.”
Jesse nodded.
“Why do you ask?” Lutz said.
Jesse shook his head.
“You got something breaking in the case?” Lutz said.
“My ass, mostly,” Jesse said.
40
The window in Jesse’s hotel room looked out onto an air shaft on the West Side of New York. Jesse made a drink and looked at the air shaft for a time. Then he went to the phone and called Sunny Randall.
“How’s your hotel?” she said.
“A bed, running water,” Jesse said.
“You’ve always been a minimalist.”
“I’m on a minimalist budget,” Jesse said.
“How’s the case?”
“Lot of information, none of it useful,” Jesse said. “How about yours?”
“Weird,” Sunny said.
“Good to hear,” Jesse said.
He sipped his drink.
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said.
“I didn’t expect it wouldn’t be,” Jesse said. “How weird is it?”
“You know my friend Spike.”
“Yes.”
“We decided that it was time to put Jenn and the stalker together,” Sunny said. “In a protected environment.”
“And?”
“Spike, ah, apprehended him, and brought him to my place.”
“And?”
“They swore they didn’t know each other,” Sunny said. “He didn’t know her. He wasn’t stalking her. He was an innocent bystander.”
“Jenn?”
“She said the same thing. He wasn’t the stalker. He didn’t rape her. She’d never seen him before in her life.”
Jesse took another drink. He did it carefully so that maybe Sunny wouldn’t hear the ice clink.
“Any chance that it’s the truth?” Jesse said.
“I don’t know about the rape,” Sunny said. “But this guy has been stalking her. I spotted him. Spike spotted him. He’d been grabbed by this very large man and brought to a strange place against his will. I offered him a chance to call the police. He didn’t. Plus, he runs a marketing company that does business with Jenn’s TV station. He’s bought a lot of time there.”
“On-air people wouldn’t have to know the advertisers.”
“No.”
“But why would she deny the stalking?” Jesse said.
“I was going to ask you.”
Jesse looked at his glass. Still plenty left. He glanced at the dark air shaft outside. At her end of the phone, Sunny was quiet.
“When I was about as bad as I’ve ever been with drinking,” Jesse said, “I snuck it. I didn’t drink in front of Jenn. She thought I was quitting. But I used to keep a pint of scotch in my car, and have a few pops when I was alone. One day we were going someplace and Jenn opened the glove compartment and there was this half-empty bottle of booze….”
Jesse sipped some scotch.
“And she said, ‘Why is this bottle of scotch in the glove compartment?’…and I looked at it and said, ‘What bottle of scotch?’”
“You were caught in something you were ashamed of and you didn’t know what to do,” Sunny said.
“It happens,” Jesse said. “You get caught and you’re humiliated. It’s too horrible, and you say anything. You deny the fact before you.”
“You think she made this up?” Sunny said.
“I don’t know.”
“Why would she make it up?” Sunny said.
“I don’t know.”
Jesse’s room was dark. The small light that had come from the air shaft had disappeared with the day. He put his head back against the cheap fabric covering of his chair.
“I’m going to find out,” Sunny said.
Jesse didn’t speak.
“Focus on the murders,” Sunny said. “I’ll do this.”
Jesse finished his glass. He looked at the bottle. Plenty left.
“There’s a key to her apartment in the drawer of my desk in the police station. It’s labeled.”
“Will you clear me with Molly?” Sunny said.
“Yes.”
“I’ll go get the key,” she said.
They were both quiet.
“We had a good time in Los Angeles,” Jesse said after a time.
“Yes. Things change,” Sunny said.
“Sometimes.”
They were quiet again.
“I think it’s time for us to hang up,” Sunny said.
“Yes.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Good,” Jesse said.
They hung up. Jesse sat motionless for a time, holding the empty glass.
“We’ll always have Beverly Hills,” he said out loud in the silent room.
After a time, Jesse turned on the light next to the bed. Then he stood and made himself another drink. He took it to the window and looked at the air shaft. Then he turned and walked to the dresser and looked at himself in the mirror. The reflection was shadowed by the single light.
“A second-rate hotel with a window on an air shaft,” he said, staring into the mirror. “And a bottle of scotch.”
He raised his glass to his reflection.
“Perfect,” he said, and drank some scotch.
41
Jesse had lunch with Stephanie Weeks in the hotel coffee shop. The room was noisy with families. Scattered among them were a few businessmen, sitting alone, hunched over their meals. Stephanie ordered a Grey Goose martini. Jesse had coffee.
“You don’t drink?” she said.
“Not at lunch,” Jesse said.
“You’re actually staying here?” Stephanie said.
“Yep.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who stayed here.”
“The poor sometimes have to travel,” Jesse said.
“Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I must have sounded so snooty.”
“A little snooty,” Jesse said. “We have a bit of new information about the murders and we’re reinterviewing everyone.”
“What is your new information?” Stephanie said.
“We were wrong on the time of death. When is the last time you saw Mr. Weeks?”
“Oh God, I don’t know. A year? I mean, we were divorced a long time ago. We aren’t enemies, but we’re not pals….” Stephanie smiled faintly.
The waitress came with salads. Stephanie ordered a second martini.
/>
“Goes good with salad,” Jesse said.
“Goes good with anything,” Stephanie said.
“Why the smile?” Jesse said. “When you said you weren’t pals?”
“Except once in a while,” Stephanie said. “We’re pals.”
“How so?”
Stephanie smiled again.
“Old times’ sake?” she said.
“What did you do?” Jesse said. “For old times’ sake.”
“Well,” Stephanie said. “Aren’t you nosy.”
“I’m the police,” Jesse said. “I’m supposed to be nosy.”
Stephanie colored a little. The waitress returned with her martini. She sipped it and took out an olive and ate that.
“Sometimes I think it’s all about the olives,” Stephanie said.
“So what did you do, for old times’ sake?” Jesse said.
“Walton was in many ways a sexual athlete,” Stephanie said. “He never tired. He never ejaculated. He could do sex, it seems, forever.”
“Not always a bad thing,” Jesse said.
“Twice a year, it was good,” Stephanie said. “Not on a daily basis.”
“Did his failure to ejaculate bother him?” Jesse said.
“He never said.”
“Even when you were married?”
“Children were an issue early on, but then…” She spread her hands and shook her head.
“His current wife know about this?”
“About me?” Stephanie said. “I don’t know. I was the least of her problems anyway.”
“He was a philanderer,” Jesse said.
“Relentless,” Stephanie said. “But, hell, so was she.”
“Lorrie?” Jesse said.
“Sure.”
“Revenge?” Jesse said.
“Maybe, but I think she would have fooled around even if Walton were Goody Two-shoes.”
“She promiscuous or did she have a favorite?” Jesse said.
“I don’t know. I didn’t follow it all that closely. Tom Nolan said she was pretty hot and heavy with Alan Hendricks.”
“The researcher.”
“You could call him that,” Stephanie said.
“What else could you call him?”
“Power behind the throne.”
“Tell me about that,” Jesse said.
“More and more, Alan did not only the research but the writing. More and more he decided what the subject matter would be. More and more he was doing the interviews, and writing the stuff, and Walton would say it.”
The Jesse Stone Novels 6-9 Page 11
