Blue Baby

by Arnold, Carolyn

  “The one and only.”

  Ryan apparently thought of himself as a gift to the world. It reminded her how lucky she was to be single. Without life’s subtle reminders, she might’ve started feeling sorry for herself. Not that she necessarily wanted a committed relationship, but having someone to rely on did hold some appeal. It never used to be that way for her. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she wasn’t getting any younger. She was in her forties—an age she thought was ancient in her twenties. She’d also made the mistake of thinking it was a long way off. But the years passed by quickly like the adage claimed: The older you get, the faster time goes.

  “We’re agents with the FBI. Dawson”—Paige gestured to Zach—“and Miles. We’re here to ask about the man who attacked you and your friends last night.”

  Ryan straightened, and with his good arm, he pushed the table to the side of his bed. “The FBI is involved?” His face broke into a grin. “That’s awesome. The FBI is really on this?”

  “We’re interested in the man who attacked you. Can you tell us anything about him?” She watched his grin melt away.

  “You haven’t caught him yet?”

  “Can you tell us what he looked like?”

  “Dark hair and brown eyes. Strong. Kind of like a ninja or something the way he took us all down. But if I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him.” The fury extinguished in his eyes under Paige’s gaze.

  “You might want to wait until you get your swinging arm back.” Paige pointed to the laid-up arm.

  “How do you know I favor my left?”

  “You looked awkward holding the water cup in your right. You have a watch on the nightstand and aren’t wearing it. My guess is it’s because you normally wear it on your left.”

  Ryan glanced from her to Zach. “Whoa. It’s awesome you could tell all that.”

  “Yes, well, it comes with the job. Is there anything else you can tell me? How did the woman react to this man?”

  “The woman? You know about her? Of course you do, you’re the FBI.”

  Paige let the silence pass.

  “I was this close—” he pinched his fingers to within a quarter inch of each other “—to hooking up with her.”

  Paige chose to disregard his caviler attitude toward sex. “Did she seem to know him?”

  “Yeah, I’d say so. He called her by name when he first got there, if I remember right. She dropped all of us and went over to him. Like a moth to a flame.”

  Paige glanced at Zach. This confirmed the killer was familiar with his victims. He had strayed from his prior method of operation by supplying the wedding gown and likely the ring, but he must have known Penny was sad and heartbroken on a certain level, though they didn’t know what her situation was yet in that regard. Ryan didn’t realize how fitting his words were: like a moth to a flame. And as the saying goes, reality was just as deadly.

  “So she left you guys for him?” Zach asked.

  “She did. It was like we were invisible then. Brad was angry because he’d bought her three drinks.”

  What were three men doing crowded around one woman? Paige thought of this before, but it struck her with intensity now. Penny was good-looking, but in the real world, she would go home with one guy. The three men were described as friends and were supposedly all hanging over Penny before her killer showed up. “Let me get this straight. You were going to hook up with her if the other guy hadn’t shown up?”

  The cocky grin was back. “Oh yeah.”

  “But Brad had bought her three drinks. I bet he thought she’d be going home with him.” And there it was in the reflection of his eyes. The three men were predators. “You were going to rape her.”

  “What? No.” Ryan squirmed, rubbing at the cast on his arm, then scratching the back of his neck. “We weren’t going to… We are all friends. Whoever got her, we would have been happy for the guy.” He recovered enough to showcase another grin. “May the best guy win.”

  “It’s actually may the best man win, not that I think any of you are real men,” Paige spat.

  “Hey!”

  “The three of you were going to rape her. Weren’t you?” she pressed again. Zach put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged free of his grasp. “That’s why you attacked the man as a pack. That’s why all of you were hanging on to her.”

  Ryan rubbed his jaw. “Please, leave.”

  “We’ll leave once you answer the question.”

  “What question? Were we going to rape her?”

  Paige held his eye contact.

  “No! I know it sounds so awful to say it, but she wouldn’t have been there drinking like she was, dressed like she was, if she didn’t want a little action. Wait, is she claiming we hurt her? Last we saw her she was quite fine—literally. But she was all over this other guy. She left with him.”

  Rage was pulsing through Paige’s system, but she tried to suppress it enough to get back to the original point of their visit—to get closer to their killer. “Did she call him by name?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Is that a no, then?”

  “Yeah, that’s a no.”

  “All right. But she definitely knew him, you said.”

  “Yeah. She went straight to him.”

  “He had dark hair, brown eyes, and was strong?” she confirmed.

  “Yeah.”

  “And if he hadn’t come along you and your friends were going to rape Penny?”

  “Ye— No.”

  Paige stormed out of the room. She generally possessed control over her emotions, but this type of guy drained it from her. She paced a circle in the hallway.

  “What happened in there?”

  Zach’s question was direct and nonjudgmental. But she was starting to tire of being kept in line by men. Brandon had claimed he’d relinquished his control over her. He’d permitted her to see other people, to move on with her love life. Zach had confronted her about the relationship, reminding her of the confines existing with the job. Jack always told her what to do, whom to speak with and when. First, he had her and Zach investigating one thing, and then he pulled them in another direction. Essentially, her entire life was at the mercy of men. And to see the cockiness in Ryan’s eyes, to hear him talk about hooking up with Penny, knowing his friends planned on doing the same thing… It was enough to push her over the edge.

  She pointed toward Ryan’s room. “Guys like him think they can do whatever they want. They prey on women like Penny, who are vulnerable and looking for affection. They are cowards who don’t have confidence in their natural abilities to get laid.”

  Zach placed his hands on her upper arms. The way he was searching her eyes, she guessed what he was thinking.

  “No, I was never raped, but I had a girlfriend in college who was. It was spring break in Cancun. She came back broken. Three guys tagged her, drugged her, and raped her.”

  “Sorry, Paige.”

  “Hey, don’t be sorry for me.” She stepped out of Zach’s reach and gestured to Ryan’s room again. “He and his friends need to be stopped. They need to be taught a lesson.”

  “It looks like our unsub did a good job of that.”

  Paige shook her head. “No, not good enough. We need to have a tox screen run on Penny and see if she was drugged by those guys. We need the proof, and then they will be taught a lesson.”

  “But they’re not the ones who killed her.”

  “They didn’t help her chances of escape, though, did they? If they slipped a date rape drug into her drink, she would have had zero chance of fighting back.”

  “Sounds like a stretch to me. I doubt it would pass the DA.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t have to. It might be enough to give these guys a wake-up call.” At least she hoped it would.
<
br />   “All right, well, if she was drugged, it would have set in before she left with our unsub.”

  “We need to go to the bar.” Maybe Jack’s personal situation was affecting his clarity. Since when did he settle for a third-party’s accounting? “Even if she didn’t appear fall-down drunk to witnesses, they could have slipped it into her last drink. It can take some time for them to kick in and they could have written it off as the effects of the alcohol. Ryan said they were this close, so they would’ve been getting ready to leave. We need to speak to the other two guys and see what they have to say.”

  “Can you—”

  “Keep it together? I’ll try.” And she would. Try, that is. No promises and no guarantees, but at the end of the day, she realized her responsibility was to ensure justice was brought to the killer, not to the potential rapists. But, if at all possible, she’d scoop them all up in her net.

  -

  Chapter 32

  THE PRINCIPAL AT BEN FRANKLIN Elementary was a woman by the name of Jan Silva. She wore her hair pulled back into a tight bun. Wrinkles lined her mouth and brow, the former indicating she’d spent the bulk of her life scowling. She attempted a smile when her secretary let us into her office, and while I assumed it was sincere, the expression was obviously an effort. It was hard to tell if this was due to her personality or the fact that she had just been notified of Penny’s murder.

  “The news of Penny’s death has put a dark cloud over the school,” she said. “The students loved her. I loved her. Please, take a seat.” She gestured to two chairs across from her. Thick veins, age spots, and thin skin marked the woman’s hands. She seemed too old to be in the workforce.

  Jack and I sat down.

  “We’d like to know more about her personal life. Can you help us?” Jack asked.

  Jan nodded. “Penny was an open girl. You always knew how she was feeling. Like an open book, as they say.”

  “And how was she recently?” I leaned forward, catching a subtle whiff of perfumed soap.

  “She had mood swings, but remember, she wasn’t in all the time. She was a substitute teacher. In other words, we’d call her if the regular teacher was ill or away for some reason.” Jan paused as if I needed time to assimilate what she said.

  I nodded, and she continued. “As for her mood lately, I’d say she was pretty down.”

  “Do you know why?”

  Jan accompanied her return nod with a verbal response. “Yes, I do. If you ask me, the girl made too big a deal out of having a boyfriend.”

  “She was down because she was single?” I asked.

  “Nope. She was down because she got dumped. I heard her speaking to other members of the faculty. She said the rejection cut to the core. Dramatic? Yes, but it never stopped her from doing her job.”

  I latched onto the fact that Penny had opened up to her coworkers. “She had some close friends here, then? Could we have their names?”

  “Bethany and Carrie. They are both working today. I can have them summoned to the office.” There was the hint of a smile.

  I smiled back at her and was about to answer, but Jack beat me to a response. “That would be helpful, thanks.”

  JACK AND I HAD TO wait until recess for the teachers to come to Jan’s office. Bethany came in first, her eyes misted with tears and her countenance shaky. Carrie seemed to be holding it together better than her colleague.

  I stood to let Bethany take my seat, and Jack relinquished his chair to Carrie.

  “We understand you were close to Penny Griffin,” Jack started.

  Bethany sobbed as Carrie spoke. “We were.”

  “Do you know if she was involved with anyone at the time of her death?”

  “I told you not long ago, Agent,” Jan chimed in. “She was—”

  Jack silenced Jan with one look.

  Carrie glanced at Jan, then back to Jack. “We talked when she had a shift but didn’t socialize outside of work. She had a lot of boyfriends but no relationship lasted any length of time.” Carrie paused and took a deep breath. “I can’t believe she’s gone. I don’t think it’s fully hit me.”

  Bethany reached over and took Carrie’s hand.

  Carrie cleared her throat and continued. “She recently broke up with someone she thought would be the one, though.”

  “‘The one’ as in the man she’d marry?” I asked to clarify.

  “That’s right. But I don’t think it was in Penny’s cards to get married. Ever.”

  “Why?”

  “She was too flirty for her own good. Men liked it to a point. The point where they had their way with her and then she was tossed aside. I tried to get her to see how she was actually pushing away what she wanted the most by acting like that.”

  I glanced down at Carrie’s hand, and there was a band on her ring finger.

  Bethany ran a hand underneath her eyes to wipe her tears.

  “Do you know if she was ever proposed to? If she owned a wedding dress?” There hadn’t been a dress box or bridal hanger in Penny’s apartment, but we needed to be thorough.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Like I said, we never socialized outside of work.” Carrie turned to Bethany. “You did a bit, though, didn’t you?”

  Bethany nodded and rubbed both her hands down the top of her thighs. There was no ring on Bethany’s finger, so either she wasn’t married or she didn’t wear her ring.

  “We did a couple times. We had drinks out on the town one night and another night we watched chick flicks and ate ice cream from the carton.”

  “Was Penny upset that night about a breakup?” I asked.

  “Not her own,” Bethany said, pain in her eyes. “I had found out my husband of five years was having an affair. And it was serious. There wasn’t a choice for me as to whether I would forgive him. He didn’t care. He wasn’t looking to make amends.”

  “I’m sorry. How long ago was this?”

  “Six months.”

  I nodded and gave it a few seconds before I handed my phone to Bethany. A photograph of Tara was on the screen. “Do you recognize her?”

  Bethany looked at it and then passed it to Carrie. “I don’t.”

  “Me neither.”

  The phone returned to me, and I repeated the cycle with a photograph of Cheryl. “What about her?”

  The second picture met with the same response as the first.

  “There is something you should know, though. You might find out on your own or already know,” Bethany began, “but Penny had signed up for one of those online dating sites. It caters to people seeking committed and long-term relationships.”

  The term mystery man sprung to mind. Cheryl and Tara both had one. “Do you know if she connected with anyone on there?”

  Bethany shook her head. “I don’t think so, but maybe?”

  “What was the name of the site?”

  “Ideal Partner.”

  “All right, well, thank you.” I handed her my business card. I’d been hoping for nothing short of a miracle, a sparked memory, or dreaming big, a name. I received a dating site.

  -

  Chapter 33

  HE HAD RUSHED THINGS. He had been careless. His need to bring her happiness had surpassed that for personal protection and anonymity. He’d improvised, and he never should have. The knock on the door and the woman crying out to Penny had just been too much to handle. He’d been in the middle of the Big Event and it took all his focus, determination, and willpower to tune her out and carry on. There was no turning back from that point so he’d done his best to carry out his gift for Penny.

  But when he painted her face and tried to form her lips into the semblance of a smile, it fell short. He had failed to give her what she so desired. While investigators might see the smile, he knew it was off. It was
n’t right. Penny died confused, shocked, and unhappy.

  All three of those things didn’t resonate with his being. He was the giver of light and well-being. The two were a package, and that package was one of two things in this world that made him happy. The other was his creativity. His ability to capture the last portrait of a woman dressed in a wedding gown, her makeup and hair done, a smile on her face.

  He dug his fingers into his scalp, pulling his hair until pain overtook reason. He threw a charcoal pencil across the room. It hit the wall, broke into pieces, and dropped to the floor.

  The sketch on the canvas in front of him fell short, as had his efforts with Penny. How could he make the drawing a work of art when he had failed to make the model one?

  Penny deserved better than this. She deserved happiness.

  He tore the image from the book and ripped the page into pieces. He brushed them off the table into the trash can next to it.

  Enough.

  He would start again, combining reality with imagination, this time doing things how they should have been done with Penny. How things would’ve been done had he not been interrupted—and thrown off—by the screeching woman. But he couldn’t have silenced her. It wasn’t like he could’ve answered the door and put on a ruse that he was a friend of Penny’s. The words ridiculous and careless came to mind.

  He’d already taken down three men, and the police were interested in him for that. He had left the parking lot leisurely for the purpose of not attracting the cops’ attention. They’d been pulling in as he’d been exiting. The relief at not seeing them in his rearview mirror had been enough to expel some tension from his neck. The residual strain was because of the three men at the bar.

  But he had seen through them. It was probably why he’d become so angry. Three men. One woman. The equation wasn’t balanced in any sense of propriety. Their intentions toward Penny were misaligned, malicious. As it was, he’d had to support her weight walking up to her apartment. The drug the men must have given her had been kicking in. He was truly her white knight.