by Becky Durfee
Jenny gripped the wheel as she spoke to Zack in the passenger seat. “I told Detective Brennan that I think Rachel may have had a thing for Luke Thomas, although I can’t be sure that was who she was talking about. Her roommates made the comments that he was younger, he was always there and that he was incredibly tall. I remember that Luke frequented Shenanigans often, and that’s the place we’re focusing on.” She shook her head, squinting, unable to rid herself of the feeling that Luke was an innocent man. “I realize he probably doesn’t drink while he’s there, being an athlete and all, and I guess it’s possible he’s also religiously opposed to alcohol. But I don’t know. I’m just not buying that he’s our guy. I got the distinct impression from Sonya that he’s too harmless, and I can’t get past that.”
“Do you think Rachel was trying to implicate him in the vision?”
“I can’t figure that out. At the end of it, I saw how that whole ‘all for all and one for one’ misquote happened, which is the message she had for her roommates when I first got there this morning. Maybe she just thought it was funny and she wanted Lauren and Bella to always remember it? Maybe she wanted me to know she had a crush on Luke so I could tell him that? Or maybe she was trying to point him out as a suspect.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “I just don’t know.”
“Maybe you’ll get an indication tonight when we go to Shenanigans.”
“I hope so,” Jenny said. “This cryptic stuff is too hard for me to figure out.”
“Well, I was productive while you were in there, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Oh, yeah? What did you do?”
“I did a little research into residential facilities around here, and I found a place called White Oak Psychiatric. It looks like they would provide good care for our friend, Sir Walter James Southerland the Third.”
With all that had been going on, Jenny had almost forgotten about her promise. “That’s fantastic,” she said sincerely. “Do they make house calls?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, will they go out and get him? Or do we have to arrange for him to come in?”
“Uh,” Zack replied, “I haven’t called them yet. I have no idea how this works. I can call them now, though…we have a little time to kill before we get back to the hotel.”
“That sounds great.” Jenny felt relieved at the notion of something being handled without her having to be the one to take care of it. Between this killer, John’s relapse and now Sir Walter James Southerland the Third, she was feeling overwhelmed.
After a long phone call, Zack filled Jenny in on the details. “He’d need to come in voluntarily, since none of us are legally in any position to have him committed. They’d do an evaluation on him to see what he needs, and if they decide that residential treatment is appropriate, we can arrange that—if he’s willing, of course.” He tossed around some figures, letting Jenny know what the cost would be. While it wasn’t cheap, they could easily afford it thanks to the inheritance she’d received from Elanor.
Elanor. Jenny still missed that woman dearly.
She pulled her car into a parking space at the hotel as she said, “Depending on how things go tonight, maybe we can head back out to Buford Park tomorrow morning. I’m not sure what time Jeremy comes with breakfast, but if we get there early enough, we can hopefully catch him. That way, we can have Jeremy’s help when we try to convince Sir Walter to go to the facility.”
“Sir Walter. You’re on a first name basis with him now?”
They got out of the car and walked toward the hotel. “His name is too long and takes too much effort. I don’t have that much energy right now.”
“I like how he made himself a knight,” Zack said. “The sir part of it is a nice touch.”
Jenny laughed as they passed through the sliding glass doors. She waved to the desk worker as she told Zack, “I think I need a nap before we go out tonight; it might be a late one. I want to call and check on the baby, see how Mick is doing and then I am going to call it quits for a few hours.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said.
The elevator ride was quiet, and Jenny felt herself growing more tired by the second. Bed was going to feel fantastic.
The doors opened, and Jenny fished around her purse for the room key while they walked down the hall. “What’s that?” Zack asked.
“What’s what?” Jenny looked up and saw a piece of paper wedged between the handle and the sill of their door. Glancing around quickly, she didn’t see anything similar on the other rooms. Suddenly, her fatigue was gone and her heart was racing.
Upon closer inspection, the paper was a sheet of loose leaf with ragged edges, indicating it had been ripped out of a spiral notebook. “Don’t touch it,” she said. “Not with your fingertips, anyway. Don’t get any of your prints on it.”
Zack took several pictures of the paper before using his shirt as a buffer between his hands and the sheet. He removed the page and unfolded it to reveal the same smiley face they had seen the night before on the windshield.
“My God,” Jenny whispered. “He knows where we’re staying.”
Security was at the door in a matter of minutes. “I just want to make sure nobody is in here before we go in,” Jenny told them. “Somebody has been leaving little notes and messages for us everywhere we go. We’re essentially being stalked, and I don’t know what this person is capable of.”
“I’m so sorry about this,” the hotel manager said, her auburn hair pulled back into a small, tight ponytail. “The safety of our guests is my number one concern; I never want any of our guests to be uncomfortable.”
Jenny couldn’t help but feel like the manager was trying to avoid a lawsuit, or maybe a bad review. “It’s not your fault,” she said, “and I don’t necessarily feel unsafe. Once we get in the room, I can use the deadbolt and the chain to make sure no one can get in. I just want to make sure there’s nobody already in there waiting to ambush us.”
“That’s understandable. And whenever you need entry, please feel free to have security escort you to your room,” the manager added. “We will gladly do a sweep for you before you go in.”
The security man opened the door, instructing the others to wait outside while he looked around. After a few tense moments, he returned, declaring, “The room looks empty, but you can come on in and check it out for yourselves, if you’d like.”
“I think I’m going to take you up on that,” Jenny said, walking in and doing her own surveillance with the security guard still there. “I’ll feel better if I see it with my own eyes.” She, too, found nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently, the only thing this person had done was leave a note on the door.
“We can put you in a different room,” the manager suggested. “Perhaps that will make you more comfortable.”
Jenny shook her head helplessly. “I don’t think that will matter. I imagine he’d just find our new room anyway. He seems to know every move we make, somehow.”
“Do you have surveillance cameras?” Zack asked. “Maybe we can get a good look at the person who did this.”
“We do in the lobby,” the security man explained. “Unfortunately, we don’t have cameras in the halls, so this is going to make things a lot more difficult. Lots of people come and go through those front doors throughout the day. Can you give me an approximate timeframe so we can narrow down the search?”
“We’ve been gone a good part of the day,” Jenny said. “I’m afraid the window you’d be looking at is a few hours long.”
He shook his head and grunted. “It’s going to be tough, then. You may have to watch the video yourselves to see if anyone looks familiar.”
Jenny thought about watching several hours’ worth of people coming and going out of the lobby—she simply didn’t have time for that. “I’ve seen the guy’s silhouette before, on another surveillance tape—he’s probably about average height and has a stocky build. Is it possible for you to look for guys fitting that descri
ption who come and go pretty quickly? Then maybe I can take a look.” She put her hand on her forehead. “I’m in town working on the murder cases, and I have a long night ahead of me.”
The man’s eyes grew wide. “You think this is related to those murders in town?”
“It’s possible.”
The manager and security guard exchanged glances. “I’ll get on that right away,” he said excitedly. “If I can take part in bringing that guy down, I’d love it.”
Bringing that guy down. Jenny imagined this hotel security guard had few opportunities to actually bring somebody down. Perhaps this would prove to be an extraordinarily exciting day for him.
Jenny thanked the staff for their willingness to help and then went into the room. With the adrenaline surge subsiding, fatigue was creeping back into her bones. She wanted to be able to go straight to bed, but she had a few matters to take care of first. After a quick pump-and-dump, she put on her pajamas and picked up her phone, dialing her mother. A million emotions hit her all at once when she heard her little son cooing in the background when her mother picked up. “Hi, sweetie,” Isabelle said.
“Hi, Ma. I hear my baby. How’s he doing?”
“He’s okay. He’s been a little fussy—he had a big night last night. He cut his first tooth.”
Putting her hand over her mouth, she felt tears sting her eyes. “He did? He cut a tooth? Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I wasn’t there.”
“There will be plenty more where that came from,” Isabelle assured her.
“But not the first one.”
“Well, you will learn that with teeth come fevers and fussiness. When he starts cutting his molars, you’ll be wishing you were alone with Zack in a hotel.”
The conversation continued for a few minutes; when Jenny hung up, she filled Zack in on the latest, her shoulders hanging low and her eyes sad. “I can’t believe I missed the baby’s first tooth.”
“He’ll never know,” Zack replied. “Or care.”
“I care.” She found herself irritated by her husband’s blatant lack of concern.
Zack glanced up at her. “Who was there when you got your first tooth?”
He had a point, but she didn’t want to hear it. “Maybe I’m being dramatic, but I hate that I’m away from him. He’s only going to be five months old for thirty days, and I’ve been gone for three of them. That’s ten percent.”
“You’re torturing yourself.”
“Do you know how quickly kids change at that age? We may go back to a totally different kid than the one we left.”
“Isn’t this the same kid that you feel the need to get away from sometimes? Just enjoy the break. Besides, a murder investigation is no place for a baby.”
Jenny closed her mouth, realizing that complaining to her husband wasn’t going to change the situation, but her mind still reeled. She wasn’t sure if she was upset with Zack’s nonchalant attitude or jealous of it. Either way, she ached for her baby, even though she knew, at times, he drove her crazy.
Again, she marveled over how conflicted she felt about parenting.
Conflicted. Suddenly, John popped into her head, reminding her of the other phone call she needed to make. She paused a moment, contemplating hopping into the bed and putting the covers over her head and pretending none of this was happening, but she knew she couldn’t hide from what was going on. It was time for the big-girl panties, although she desperately wanted to keep them in the drawer.
Actually, at this particular moment, she wished she didn’t own a pair.
With a sigh and the touch of a button, she dialed Mick. “Hello?”
“Hi, Mick. It’s Jenny. How’s it going down there?”
“Better,” he replied, removing about fifty pounds from Jenny’s shoulders.
“That’s fabulous. What happened?”
“Well, after I let John cool down a while, I went into his room and talked to him. I didn’t talk at him, like it must have seemed we were doing at first. He told me he slipped up and made a bad decision, but it wasn’t like he was defending himself this time. He was admitting it. He’d had a bad day—a couple of contractors gave him the run-around, and he felt like he’d disappointed his client. He was feeling really down, and he thought getting high would help him get through it. He did it with the mindset of just this once, but you and I both know that ‘just once’ can get a person into a lot of trouble.”
Jenny listened intently, hoping this conversation would continue to go in a good direction.
“I told him that we weren’t trying to imprison him or punish him by making him go to rehab, but we wanted to make sure he found other ways to deal with bad days instead of turning to crack. I used your approach, telling him that he just needed to talk to the rehab people, and residential care might not be necessary. I let him know we were all there because we were concerned about him, and we weren’t going to let him sink as far as he had been before.”
Jenny released a breath. “I’m so happy to hear this.”
“I also mentioned that he was just the first of us to screw up—that I would inevitably end up taking a drink sometime, and I needed him to kick me in the ass when I did…just like I was doing for him.”
“So, did he ultimately agree to go to rehab?”
“He did. I’ll be bringing him there later today.”
Hanging her head, Jenny felt immense relief. “You don’t know how happy this makes me.”
“Actually, I think I do. Thanks for putting this into motion. I’m not sure I would have ever told you if you hadn’t called. I would have felt like I was ratting him out, but now I see he needed the ass whooping.”
“Just remember this when it’s your ass than needs to get whooped.”
After a little more small talk, Jenny hung up the phone, turned off the ringer and slid under the covers. Unfortunately, she felt a little more awake than she had before the phone conversations. Thoughts of someone lingering just outside her door kept her on edge, although she knew he couldn’t get in through the security measures the room had. Just that fact that he knew so much about where they were was disconcerting. How was he getting all of his information?
Stop, Jenny silently instructed herself. The best way to catch this guy is to get a good nap and hit Shenanigans tonight. In order to calm herself down, she envisioned baby Steve cuddled up next to her, sleeping, his baby breath blowing softly against her cheek. Her anxiety suddenly melted away, and she was able to drift off within a reasonable amount of time—but not before she heard Zack snoring from the chair.
Chapter 16
Jenny admittedly felt nervous as they approached Shenanigans. The prospect of finding the killer was scary enough in and of itself, but her task of striking up a conversation with every male in the bar was a different kind of terrifying. She’d never been a flirt, or even overly-social for that matter. What on earth was she going to talk about over and over again with each guy she saw?
She parallel parked in the same vicinity as the last time, knowing it was well within the sight of the security camera. She patted the roof of the car as she got out, wishing it luck as it sat out there unattended, and she headed toward the bar with Zack by her side.
The same bouncer as before sat on a stool on the sidewalk, one foot propped on the chair leg and one on the ground. He sat cockeyed as a result, looking a little funny, but he seemed to recognize the couple, greeting them with a smile.
Remembering the drill, Jenny fished her license out of her purse. “I know,” she said to him with a grin, “I need to show ID even though I’m old.”
“I never said you were old,” he replied, taking her license and giving it a glance.
That voice, she thought. Oh my God, that’s the voice. Rachel screamed inside of Jenny, feeling as if she was physically bouncing around underneath her skin. Jenny began to tremble as the man studied her license, which stated in no uncertain terms precisely where she lived. House number. Street name. Apartment number. He didn’t need to stal
k his victims or follow them home—the women willingly showed their killer exactly where they could be found.
It suddenly occurred to her that the bouncer had made a comment, but, in her panic, she had no idea what had just been said. Was it something she should have responded to? “I’m addicted to the nachos here,” she blurted, feeling the need to say something—anything. “We had to come back so we could have another plate tonight.”
“They are good, aren’t they?” he asked calmly, his tone indicating he didn’t notice any changes in Jenny’s demeanor. He gave Jenny back her license and took Zack’s.
“Sure are,” she replied as naturally as possible.
“Hey,” he added as he examined Zack’s identification, “are you having any luck on those murder cases?”
“Nope,” she replied, perhaps a little too cheerfully. “None at all, unfortunately.”
The bouncer handed back Zack’s license and said, “That’s a shame. I hope you can catch the guy soon.”
“So do I,” Jenny said with a quick glance down at his large feet, “but so far we’ve gotten nowhere.”
Mercifully, Zack said nothing about narrowing their search down to this particular bar. Once they got the bouncer’s approval to go inside, Zack simply walked in behind Jenny, grabbing her by the elbow once the door had closed behind them. “What was that about?” he asked. “You were acting funny.”
She hoped Zack noticed that only because he knew her so well, and the bouncer didn’t share a similar opinion. “It’s him, Zack. The bouncer.”
“What?”
“The bouncer. He’s the killer. Rachel recognized his voice when he spoke to me. And it makes perfect sense…he sees their addresses when he cards them, and he’s only been targeting older women, not the kids in the dorms. His victims have probably legally changed their addresses. And he’s already awake in the middle of the night—it’s not like he has to get up and go to work in the morning. In fact, he may have killed Rachel on his way home from work last night.”
“You have to call Detective Brennan about this,” Zack replied. “Now.”
