Anyway, any amount he shaved off his child support to Valerie was only fair. Katherine honestly had no idea what Valerie did with all the money Lin gave her. He’d bought the house she lived in outright two weeks after they were married. And now he couldn’t even sell the damn thing until Lindy graduated from high school. And then he had to split the proceeds with Valerie when he did, because he’d bought the house after they were married, so it was considered marital property. That woman had really taken him to the cleaners. And all because he’d had some stupid affair with Annie Dodson. Valerie had a melt-down all over town about it, whining and crying about how it was the second time he’d cheated on her, kicking up so much gossip that Lindy was sure to hear about it eventually. And when Lin decided he couldn’t take being married to Valerie anymore, she’d freaked out about that too.
“I prepared the monthly statements to send to your clients tomorrow,” Katherine said.
“That’s my girl.” Lin swatted her on the ass, then stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray on the table beside his bed. “I’ve got a brunch meeting with Mrs. Harrington tomorrow. I’ll be a little late getting into the office.”
“No worries. I’ll hold down the fort until you get there.”
“Thanks, angel.”
They got dressed and fifteen minutes later, Katherine arrived at her apartment, parked her car inside the garage, and stepped outside to lower the door. Clouds obscured the moon in the dark night sky. At four a.m. even the college kids next door had shut out their lights and gone to bed. She had four hours to sleep before she needed to get up and start the work week. With any luck, tomorrow morning would be quiet, and she could spend some time dozing off at her desk.
She’d pulled out her apartment key, stuffing the car keys into her purse, before she noticed the hooded figure coming out of the shadows. “Marie?” she asked. “Is that you? Did you get locked out?”
The figure came closer, and Katherine felt the first trickles of fear. “Who are you? What do you want?”
Fishing her phone from her purse, she started to punch in 911, getting the first two digits in before the person came close enough for her to see their face. She dropped the phone back into her purse. “Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”
The silver muzzle of a gun flashed in front of her, and she realized too late she should have kept dialing.
Chapter Seventeen
“Katherine Buckingham. Age 32. Executive assistant at Jameson Financial for the last three years. Resident of Grosse Pointe Park for almost as long.” Max LeBec recited facts from the case file to himself as he looked over the crime scene photos. Such a shame. She’d been a pretty young woman. He remembered her the night of Nan’s dinner party joking with Linwood, handling Valerie Jameson with class. It took a special kind of monster to butcher her face that way.
Katherine’s body had been dumped by the fourth hole of the short course at the country club. Probably tossed over the fence along Kercheval Avenue yesterday morning, the thirtieth of July. Anyone could have dumped her there. It also meant the killer was probably aware of the surveillance camera set up at the club’s entrance. The camera had been placed inside the bushes growing under the country club sign, and maybe it could be noticed if someone was paying attention, but it seemed more likely the killer already knew it was there.
Setting up the camera hadn’t been top-secret, but not that many people had been told of its exact placement. Those with firsthand knowledge included two groundskeepers at the club; Andrew Ledbetter, the club’s manager; and the GPCC Board of Directors. Vaughn Humphries, Cameron Pringle, and Linwood Jameson all sat on that Board, along with three other men.
Max picked up the phone on his desk, punching in the number to the Grosse Pointe Country Club, saying when his call was answered, “Mr. Ledbetter, this is Detective LeBec with the Grosse Pointe Farms police. Did the club get the cameras installed along the fence bordering Kercheval?...Good…No. There’s going to be a security guard at the entrance to Provencal at all times until the killer is caught. There won’t be access to the club’s grounds that way…I don’t think we need to worry about the backyards bordering the golf course. As on edge as everyone is, I don’t think anyone cutting through their yards is going to go unnoticed…Yeah, I’m sure most of those homes do have security systems. Especially now…Okay. I’ll check back with you later.”
He put down the phone, leaning back into his chair, stretching his arms up over his head, letting out a giant yawn. God, he was tired. This case was getting to him, and not just because four young women were now dead. Either his people-reading skills were failing, or he hadn’t crossed paths with the killer yet. Neither possibility made him very happy.
Vaughn Humphries and Linwood Jameson still topped his suspect list, but neither screamed ‘killer’ to him, and he just didn’t get it. His gut should have told him something by now.
Discouraged, he turned his attention back to the crime file. As with the other murders, indications were Katherine Buckingham had been killed elsewhere. He was still waiting on the autopsy, but the photos said enough. Her genitals had been mutilated, and her breasts stabbed multiple times. Cuts and bruises marred her once pretty face. And he’d bet money that had all been done before the bruising around her neck that indicated strangulation. One thing stood out to him, and that was the “X” carved across Katherine’s face…from her temples to the sides of her chin…the cut marks criss-crossing over the bridge of her nose. Annie Dodson was the only other victim with that particular wound pattern. It must be significant.
Max thought now what he’d thought from the start. The killer was a man. Max had spent time in the Marines prior to becoming a cop, and knew from pulling his fellow soldiers off the battlefield in Afghanistan, it took a fair amount of physical strength to lug a dead human body. Beyond that, Max figured the killer for a resident of Grosse Pointe, and most likely a member of the club. Someone with a deep-seated hatred of women. And the bastard was going to keep on killing until Max found a way to stop him.
A knock on his office door disturbed his thoughts. Sarah poked her head inside the door, saying, “Linwood Jameson’s here. Shall I send him in?”
Max closed the case file, leaving the crime scene photos sitting on top. “Yeah. Let’s see what Mr. Jameson has to say for himself.”
Linwood strolled in with his graying brown hair slicked back, pulling down shades from his deep brown eyes, like he thought he was some cool kid in an eighties flick. He took the chair opposite Max with a smirk. “What can I do for you, Detective?”
Wow. The guy looked like he hadn’t a care in the world. Under different circumstances, Mas would be throwing his hands in the air, asking, “What the fuck, dude?” Instead, he kept his face and voice calm. “Your girlfriend was murdered two days ago,” he said.
Linwood nodded. “I’m aware.”
“You know…” Max pulled out a single photograph from the stack in front of him, and slid it in front of Linwood. “Usually, when a person loses someone they care about, their reaction is somewhat different.”
Looking down at the snapshot of Katherine’s body, Linwood swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. He looked away, pushing the photo back towards Max. “I wish you hadn’t shown me that.”
Max studied his subject, waiting for a sign of something more than carefree indifference. “Why don’t you want to see the photograph, Mr. Jameson?”
“Because that’s not how I want to remember her.”
So maybe the guy had a few emotions bottled up inside. Max watched while Linwood leaned forward, staring down at his hands before stealing a glance at Katherine’s photo. The guy wasn’t the cool customer he made himself out to be. “You said Katherine left your house about four a.m. Monday morning?”
“That’s right.”
“Can you tell me where you were Monday morning between six and eight a.m.?”
“I got a call about 4:30 in the morning from Larry Washington. My daughter Lindy was spendin
g the night there with Larry’s daughter Hadley, and Larry called to tell me Lindy was running a fever of 104. I picked her up right away and took her to the emergency room at Beaumont. We arrived just before five and didn’t leave until after eight. And I have plenty of documentation to prove it.”
“How is your daughter?” Max asked. He’d learned over the years, empathizing with interview subjects elicited better information, but he’d have asked anyway.
“She’s fine.” Linwood settled back into the plastic chair…less the cool kid now, and more the concerned parent. “She has strep throat. I guess it’s making the rounds among her friends. But they gave her some antibiotics at the hospital, and she’s already bouncing back to her old self.”
“That’s good.”
Linwood had been high on Max’s suspect list, and he’d check out his alibi to be sure, but it was hard to imagine the guy would be dumb enough to make up something that could be so easily verified. With Linwood off the list, Max felt his hopes deflate. Every road he turned down seemed to lead to a dead end. “So who do you think killed Katherine?”
Linwood scratched his chin. “The only two men I know who’ve been involved, for sure, with all four women are myself and Cameron Pringle. I know I didn’t do it, and Cameron has an air-tight alibi for the night Sophie was killed. So who knows? Carolyn maybe? She’s got a pretty vengeful streak beneath her pretty surface.”
“Does she?” Max had thought so too. When he’d interviewed her the first time, he’d caught a well of hostility behind that thin smile she wore so easily; the way she’d made a show of asking if he’d like some lemonade — saying she could have her housekeeper get it for him — but never inviting Max inside her house, never shaking his hand. Making him stand out in the hot sun while she watered her rose bushes, spraying the water his way once, and then saying how terribly sorry she was. At the time, he’d written her off as some racist white lady who didn’t trust a black man inside her house, not even one who was a cop. Later on, after he’d gotten past the emotional reflex, he’d come to see her actions as something more evasive and angry.
He shook his head, wishing Linwood had the answers. “Unfortunately, Carolyn Pringle was on an overnight boat trip with Sally Hamilton the night Katherine was killed. At least, that’s the way she and Sally tell it.”
Linwood threw up his shoulders. “Well then, I’m not sure.”
“What about Vaughn Humphries? Did he ever have any involvement with Miss Buckingham?”
“Not so far as I know. Certainly not that either of them ever admitted to. Vaughn’s spent most of his adult life tied up with Eleanor Dodson. And the only women I know of him dating in between break-ups are Sophie Durning, Emma Elkins, and my dear ex, Valerie.”
“What about Hannah Ransom?”
“Yeah. Vaughn dated her, but that was way back in high school.”
“I see.” Thinking now, trying to work out all the angles, Max tried a different line of questioning. “You said you and Cameron both had affairs with all of the women.”
Linwood nodded.
“Can you tell me the other men in town who’ve had affairs with any of the women? Maybe more than one of them?”
His question was met with laughter, Linwood raking fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair, the gelled strands of it falling back into place. “You got a score card handy?”
Max said nothing, waiting for the man to resume talking.
“That whole group of girls got around.”
“You mean the four victims?”
“Yeah. Them and a few of their other friends.”
“Who else did they hang out with?”
“Charlotte McKibbens, Emma Elkins, Fran Ashcroft. Sometimes Eleanor Dodson, and Carolyn Pringle and her group of friends.”
“And who would they be?”
“Sally Hamilton and Peggy LeRoux. Nan Elizondo used to hang with them, but they had a falling out five or six years back when Nan and Sally’s husband Rick had an affair.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah. I don’t think it meant much to Rick, but Nan thought they were in love.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why she took it so seriously. Rick’s been going through women since he was twelve and discovered girls. I mean, they don’t call him Rick the Dick for nothing.”
“Rick the Dick, eh?” Max glanced down at the file, making mental notes, thinking of new questions to ask. “Who else did Rick have affairs with?”
“Lisa Washington, Eleanor Dodson, Hannah Ransom. Katherine even had a fling with him, but that was a one-and-done.”
Max added Rick Hamilton, Eleanor Dodson, Lisa Washington and Nan Elizondo to his interview list. “And how about the other victims? Who else were they romantically linked with?”
He frowned. “Is this really necessary?”
“I’m investigating a serial killer, Mr. Jameson, one who just butchered your girlfriend. You never know what detail might turn out to be important.”
“Fine.” He paused, taking a breath. “Annie made the usual rounds. Gabe Ashcroft, Rick Hamilton, Cameron Pringle. And as you probably know, I was hooked up with her when Valerie and I got divorced.”
“That was two years ago?”
“Three actually. It took an entire, miserable year before the divorce was final.”
“And what about your ex-wife? Did Valerie make the rounds before or after you got divorced?”
“Hell no!” He threw his hands in the air, sounding unreasonably angry. “That woman’s a clingy, obsessive bitch. I warned all my friends to stay away from her. Vaughn Humphries took her out a couple of times after we broke up, during his split with Ellie three years ago, but he got tired of her shit real quick and gave her that polite dumping he’s so famous for. You know, the old, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit.”
Max nodded and Linwood kept talking.
“Hannah…she dated Vaughn in high school. Then she dumped him for Johnny Walton. God only knows how many guys she went through in college. Then she had an affair with Cameron after he and Carolyn got married. That was maybe ten years ago. After Vaughn first hooked up with Eleanor. After college, Hannah spent a couple of years with Gabe. Last year, she had a fling with Rick. And I had a fling with her about four years ago, before Annie and I hooked up. Valerie gave me hell for that, but I told her then I only married her because I got her knocked up. And I take my responsibility as a parent seriously. Which is why I divorced her ass when she went all bat-shit crazy about my affair with Annie. I mean, Christ….” He looked at Max like they were old friends now, or like Max was his local bartender, and he could just tell him everything. “Peggy and I were still married when I got Valerie knocked up. And I told her as soon as I found out she was pregnant, I was going to have to get a divorce before I could marry her. What the hell did she expect? It’s obvious I like to play the field a little, right?”
“I’m starting to see why you said I’d need a scorecard.” Max pulled a pad of paper from a desk drawer and began taking notes. “How about Sophie Durning? Who did she hook up with?”
“She dated Vaughn a couple of years ago, during one of Vaughn’s splits from Ellie, but after a while his mother convinced him Sophie really wasn’t the right girl for him, and he went back to Eleanor.” Linwood paused, shaking his head. “We all told him not to do it, that they were just going to end up off again as soon as one of them pissed the other one off, but did he listen? No. Then he dated Emma Elkins a few times, about a year-and-a-half ago, before giving Eleanor one last shot. But he’s totally done with her now. I don’t think there’s anything in the world his mother could say to get him to take her back.”
The bit about Vaughn’s mother got Max’s attention. Men with mommy issues frequently made for likely suspects. “Did she date anyone else?” he asked. “Sophie, I mean.”
“Yeah. I hooked up with her right before Peggy and I got divorced. But that was years ago…before I met Valerie and got her knocked up. For the last year though, Sophie and Gabe had
been hot and heavy. I’m pretty sure he was about to pop the question.”
Max finished writing everything down on his notepad, shaking his head. “Does everyone in this town sleep with everyone else?”
Linwood smirked. “Depends on what circles you run in. It does all seem a little incestuous, doesn’t it?”
“To say the least.
“And what about Katherine? To the best of your knowledge, was she involved with anyone else besides yourself?”
“Like I said, she dated Cameron Pringle right after she moved here. I was still going through my divorce from Valerie then, and my attorney told me not to date anyone until it was final. God, did that ever suck.”
Max nodded. “You mentioned earlier Rick Hamilton had an affair with her.”
“Yeah.” Linwood paused, his face going sad for a moment. “She slept with Rick last year, after some big fight we had over where our relationship was going. And to be honest, she caught me fooling around with Eleanor Dodson. That’s what started the fight, and ended things for good between Eleanor and Vaughn.”
“That’s what ended things between Eleanor and Vaughn?”
Linwood laughed. “Depends on whose version of events you choose to believe, I guess. Eleanor insists Vaughn put the moves on Annie after he found out about Eleanor and me.”
“And is Eleanor to be believed?”
Linwood shrugged. “I have no idea whether Vaughn made a pass at Annie or not. If you asked Annie, she’d just giggle and say maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t, and it was hard to tell if she was too afraid to cross Eleanor and say it didn’t happen, or too afraid to cross Eleanor and admit that it did. All I know for a fact is that Eleanor slept with me.”
“But you patched things up with Katherine?”
“Yeah. I promised her there would be a ring just as soon as I felt ready to take the plunge for a third time.”
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