He motioned Luke over and Henderson came out to join the party.
“It’s safe. Go ahead and open it.”
Henderson slipped on a pair of surgical gloves, jogged over and retrieved the box. Even though Toni knew it wasn’t going to blow up, she still suffered a moment’s suspended breath when he bent to pick up the box. But he brought it over without any problem. “You mind if we open it?” he asked her.
“You go ahead.”
He eased open the wrapping, like a kid savoring the treat of a birthday present. In this case, she knew he was preserving evidence and swallowed. Inside was a shipping box that you’d get at the post office. He slipped off the lid and revealed the contents.
“Holy shit,” said Luke.
Toni would have said something similar if she could have spoken. Even though she’d seen the X-ray, viewing what was inside that box was still a shock.
The plastic fashion doll sported lots of blond curly hair. The doll wore the fashion doll equivalent of a business suit in purple, with matching purple plastic pumps. And, in pursuit of a verisimilitude which Toni found particularly cruel, they’d added a chunk of play dough to the doll’s nose to make it bigger.
But the most striking feature of the doll was the toy dagger sticking out of her chest; it looked like something from a kid’s pirate game, and surrounding the dagger a starburst of red felt pen spread from the hole in the torso.
“I’ll get it straight to forensics,” Henderson said.
Luke held onto Toni’s arm. She wasn’t sure she needed him to, but she was scared to pull away in case she collapsed to the ground.
“Can you grab a ride back with these guys?” he asked Henderson.
The pale eyes glanced from his partner to Toni and he nodded. “No problem.”
“Come on,” Luke said, pulling her along with him as though he knew her legs might not hold her up much longer.
Toni drew in a lungful of hot Texas air. He opened the passenger door of the unmarked car and she climbed in. As they headed out onto the highway she said, “That was from the murderer wasn’t it?” Of course it was a stupid question, but she needed to say the words. And hear the answer.
“Yeah.”
“Nobody’s ever hated me that way before.” She loathed the way her voice trembled, so she swallowed and tried again. “I’ve had people mad at me, like Nicole was that last day— But this—” She couldn’t finish. Everything she wanted to say sounded melodramatic and contained the word evil.
But it was evil. She’d been murdered in effigy.
She stared at the dusty plastic dashboard in front of her. There was a smell of stale coffee in the car, but the vehicle was neat enough.
“We’re going to get that bastard,” he said with suppressed savagery.
“This was different from the note. Doing that to the doll was so vicious.” Toni tugged the seatbelt to give herself room to breathe. It was tight as though it had permanently formed itself around Henderson’s emaciated frame and was now too lazy to give any extra slack. “I can’t believe they did that thing with my nose.” She touched the feature in question with her fingertip as though he might doubt to which nose she was referring. “That was beyond cruel, picking on my worst feature like that. I would have figured that was supposed to be me, without the big nose.”
He glanced at her sideways. “I like your nose.”
“No one could like this nose.” Even her mama had never been able to come up with anything better than to tell her it had character. As she liked to retort, so did Jimmy Durante.
“I do. It’s an I-take-no-crap kind of nose. Larger than life. Like you.”
She was sure he was lying through his teeth in order to take her mind off the fact that some psycho had made a Voodoo fashion doll in her image and then stabbed it to death, but Toni felt ridiculously complimented.
When she turned to look out the passenger window so he wouldn’t see her smile, she realized she had no idea where they were going.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I want you away from the hotel for a while. It’s not safe. I plan to bully you into getting out of here and going home. I can’t concentrate if I’m worried you’ll be attacked.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Strictly speaking, there are no real substitutes for sexual satisfaction.
-- Dashiell Hammett
Can I make a request?”
He glanced at her, looking wary. “Sure.”
“I really need a drink. Somewhere with people, but anonymous, you know?” What she most needed was all the stuff that goes with a drink. Social interaction, a convivial atmosphere, feeling anonymous.
“I think I can find someplace.”
“Okay then.”
They pulled up at a small Italian restaurant, the kind every big city has, where it’s almost a secret among locals to keep the tourists out.
The place was busy and noisy but not loud, in the way the best restaurants are. She felt better the second they walked in. The smell of garlic and rich tomato sauce was comforting and the atmosphere was relaxed, intimate. Even better, there was not a Lady Bianca rep in sight.
Adjoining it was a bar, a cozy area of tiny tables and stools against the granite slab.
“This okay?”
“Perfect.” He led her to a quiet corner and they sat down. The table was so small their knees bumped and they quickly rearranged themselves.
“What’ll you have to drink?”
“Truth is I’m a lightweight drinker. Normally I’d order a glass of wine, but I’ve been stabbed to death in effigy. More than overripe grape juice seems required.” She glanced up at the blackboard where the drink specials were listed. “A martini, please.”
“Gin or vodka?” he asked, thereby slicing through her patina of sophistication faster than the booze would sluice through Toni.
“I have no idea.”
He seemed amused by her. And not for the first time. “Never had a martini before?”
“Not that I can remember.”
“Okay.”
He came back with two. They looked lovely, clear and cool and coma-inducing. Liquid Valium. Exactly what she was going for. “I got one of each. You can decide which you like better.”
“Cool. Thanks.” Toni sipped the first one. It tasted like iced poison.
She reached for the second. Sipped that. It tasted like iced poison.
“Well?”
“Which one’s the vodka?”
“That one.”
“Okay. I’ll have the vodka.”
“Like it?”
“Delicious.” She sipped her liquid Valium thinking next time she’d swallow the pill.
“You’re a bad liar.”
“And a cheap drunk.”
“I’m going to get us a table for dinner. The food here’s great, and you don’t want to be back at the hotel right now.”
“That is true.”
After a few more sips her martini tasted less poisonous and its medicinal qualities were kicking in. She settled back and started to think how weird this was having dinner alone with Luke without ever having been asked.
“So, you don’t have like a doctor-patient thing?”
He looked at her like she might be an olive short of a complete martini.
“I mean, you’re allowed to fraternize with,” she had no idea how she would term herself in relation to his world. The best she could come up with was, “civilians involved in your investigations?”
He’d appeared relaxed, leaning back in his chair, but she sensed he’d never totally relax when he was out. Especially if he was with someone who’d been threatened in a rather creepy Voodoo Barbie way. “Is that what we’re doing? Fraternizing?”
His eyes were so dark. He wasn’t good looking exactly but the man had animal magnetism enough to attract every other animal for miles. He was certainly attracting her.
She sipped again. It was like drinking an icicle, sharp and cold going down.
“Not at the moment. You?”
She smiled as she replied. “Not at the moment.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
And that was pretty much all they said. Somehow, it was all that needed to be said.
Dinner was fantastic, not only because the food was truly good but because Toni wasn’t at a table of ten women in a banquet room of a couple of thousand eating the kind of food that gets served to banquets of two thousand people. She didn’t have to listen to a motivational, informational or inspirational speaker. In fact, in spite of the truly freaky doll thing, just being out of the hotel was like taking a little break from the bad stuff.
Toni ate ravioli that had pumpkin and some kind of cheese in it, a salad that tasted fresh, and Luke ordered some wine. Italian, of course.
They talked like normal people, about normal things. They didn’t talk about the case, until the end of dinner when she said, “I can’t believe it. I’ve been with you for several hours and you haven’t bullied me to go home.”
“Would you go?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll save my energy to catch that sick freak.”
When they returned to the hotel he didn’t drop Toni off out front but drove into the parking garage.
“Are you going to check my room for monsters again?”
He hooked his hand underneath her hair and rubbed her neck in a way that was both soothing and arousing. “Yes.”
She reached for her wallet and pulled out one of the two room key cards the hotel had given her on check in. “Here. It’s still early. I don’t want the gossip. Give me five minutes.” Then she got out of the car and headed for the hotel entrance. By skirting the convention floor completely, Toni was able to get to her room without having to make small talk. And if anyone else had been murdered she didn’t want to know.
Once in her room, she slipped off her jacket, then headed for the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She pushed some of her jars and bottles to the side in case he needed counter space for anything.
She fixed the lighting so one bedside lamp cast a nice glow over the bed. A few minutes later, the second key card slid home and the door opened.
“It’s dark in here.”
“I could turn on another light.”
“Don’t bother.”
He crossed the floor and took Toni’s face in his hands, looked into her eyes and then kissed her. Hot, possessive, somehow sweet. She tasted red wine and pasta sauce and hot, hot Italian man.
She curled her arms around his neck, pressing against him. His gun holster bumped her and she sucked in a breath. Somehow his job was never far from her consciousness.
“Sorry,” he muttered, dragging off his jacket and removing the holster. He pulled a mini toothbrush and toothpaste set out of his pocket. He must have run into the gift store on his way up. She thought he was a little over-exuberant about personal hygiene and then realized he must have needed condoms. Toni was no shrinking virgin, but with a teenaged daughter at home, she was also extremely selective about who she took to bed and it had been a while since she’d taken the plunge. Knowing her daughter was safe at her grandmother’s and Luke and she were in the anonymous comfort of a good hotel snapped all her usual restraints.
Plus, there was a primal need raging within her to celebrate the life that someone was trying to snatch away from her.
When he emerged from her bathroom with his teeth newly clean, she practically attacked the man, grabbing at his buttons, greedy to get to his skin.
He didn’t seem to mind at all but reciprocated with an energy that was as flattering as it was arousing. Every movement spoke of impatience and need. If there was any doubt, he ground his pelvis against her so she knew he wanted her and he wanted her now.
His skin was hot, his body muscular and hard. His fingers were wonderfully clumsy as he went after her buttons, almost growling in frustration as the small size defeated him, until she pushed him away and did them herself.
He managed the skirt just fine and when it slid down her legs with a shushing sound, he followed, kneeling and dragging her panty hose down as he went.
“Had you pegged as the sexy underwear type,” he said with satisfaction as he knelt back on his heels to study her. She was wearing her sea foam silk bra and panties, luckily one of her prettiest sets.
“I love great lingerie. It gives me confidence.”
His pants strained across the bulging muscles of his quads, and one other bulging muscle that was making its presence known.
The skin of his torso was golden, his muscles well defined. When he stood his eyes were intent on her. He traced the edges of her panties, slipped a hand inside and they both groaned when he found her hot and wet. And oh, so ready.
He dragged off his pants, briefs and socks in one reasonably smooth motion, and lifted her as though she weighed no more than a couple of pounds, and laid her on the bed.
His hands. They were curious, everywhere, as though he’d learn all her secrets and every one would fascinate him. Always the detective, she thought, smiling to herself.
Of course, she did some detecting of her own.
He used those hands to drive her up to a first, shattering peak, and only then stripped her of her underwear and slowly took her up again.
When he entered her, her body was slick with sweat, trembling deep inside but he held himself in check, driving into her, until she cried out and tumbled over the edge of the world.
“You know they say, ‘now it’s personal?’” she said, mimicking a TV cop. She was snuggled, naked, against Detective Marciano.
“Yeah.” He turned to kiss her swiftly. “Now it’s personal for me, too.”
“Whoever is sending these crude warnings is an idiot. They don’t scare me away.” Then she paused. “I mean, of course they scare me, but not away. They piss me off and make me want to stop this psycho, you know?”
“But you are a stubborn and difficult woman,” he explained.
“There is that.”
He was tracing his fingers warmly over her belly.
“Do you think forensics will find any clues on the doll?”
His hand tracked south. “You know, you watch too much CSI. Most crimes are still solved by common sense and good detective work. There haven’t been fingerprints found on anything, yet. I doubt the doll will yield much of value. We’ll try and find out where it was bought and when. Maybe we’ll get lucky and whoever it was slipped a coupon to the sales clerk for a free Lady Bianca makeover with their name on it.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“No. The killer is psychotic, but smart. Probably watches CSI too.”
“You haven’t used a gender. Don’t you think that using a fashion doll suggests the killer is a woman?”
He shrugged. She felt the movement against her shoulder. “We’ll get a profiler and a psychiatrist to study the notes and the doll. When people get fancy like that they reveal a lot about themselves. He or she is getting cocky. Starting to think they’re too smart for all of us. That’s when they get sloppy. A criminal’s arrogance is the detective’s friend.”
She smiled. “Sounds like a rule.”
“Damn right.”
“What about Orin Shellenbach? Did he check out?”
“Not as a prize human being, but he’s got an alibi for when Nicole was killed. You were there when those four women came into the coffee shop, remember?”
“Yes, of course.”
“They stayed chatting until midnight. Orin never left. All four tell the same story.”
“Well, I’m glad it’s not Orin, but I wish we knew who it was.”
“Me, too.”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
He rolled over on top of Toni and kissed her. They didn’t talk about it anymore.
Much later, when their pulses had slowed and their bodies began to cool Toni felt the heavy drowsiness drag her under. And it was welcome after so many nights of sleeping with one eye open and at least one light on.
“Are you going to stay?” she mumbled.
He kissed her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”
And so she slept. Deep and long and dreamless.
Toni woke to the smell of brewing coffee.
“That is one of the top three favorite scents in the world,” she said to Luke standing there freshly showered and wearing a white hotel robe.
“Morning, what are the other two?”
“The ocean and,” she grinned at him. “Your skin, right under your jaw.”
He chuckled. “Coffee?”
“Only if you want me to live.”
He gestured to the packaged whitener and sugar and she said, “One sugar.”
He dumped the package in the coffee, stirred it with a brown plastic stir stick and brought it over to where Toni sat up in bed. Her silk nightgown was around someplace, but she didn’t feel like searching. She sipped her coffee gratefully.
Luke stared at her for a second and suddenly said, in tones of amazement, “They’re real.”
Toni’s eyes widened and she dropped her gaze to her chest. “Of course they’re real. What kind of detective are you? I come from a line of well-endowed Southern women.”
He shook his head. “Not your breasts. Those I knew were real. It’s your eyes. I thought you wore colored lenses or something.”
She laughed. “Honey, it’s all real. Well, to be a hundred percent honest, I do sometimes clip in hair extensions and of course, I help the color along a little. All makeup does is enhance a woman’s natural assets.”
“Huh. So you don’t wear contacts?”
She shook her head. “20/20 vision.”
“You’re full of surprises.”
She thought back to last night, felt the languorous pull of muscles she hadn’t used in a while. “So are you.”
While she sipped her coffee she watched Luke dress, which he did with smooth efficiency. Kind of like the way he made love.
“Can you check people’s bank balances?”
Frosted Shadow, a Toni Diamond Mystery: Toni Diamond Mysteries Page 18
