by T. R. Ragan
As she drew closer to her office door, she slipped her key from her coat pocket. Shadowy movements reflected off the paned-glass window. She glanced over her shoulder. Nothing but dancing tree branches. Shit. Her imagination was getting the best of her.
Her hands shook. Not enough sleep. Her nerves were shot. No matter which way she turned the key, the metal grooves wouldn’t match up. Damn lock. She dropped the keys. Murphy’s Law, she decided, as she pulled a glove off and then stooped over to pick up her keys.
A hand gripped her shoulder.
She reached between her legs and snatched the guy’s leg, bringing the intruder to the ground in an instant.
Hot coffee sloshed in a wide arc, hitting the side of her face and her jacket. Lizzy pivoted on her feet and reached over her shoulder for her gun.
“Don’t shoot!” Jessica’s eyes were wide with fear. A styrofoam cup rolled to the middle of the street.
Releasing her hold on the gun still strapped in her holster, Lizzy released a stream of frosty air, making a hissing noise as she straightened.
She offered Jessica a hand up. “I thought you learned your lesson the other day.” Lizzy looked past the girl. “Where’s your car?”
“My brother dropped me off on his way to work. You weren’t here so I decided to grab a cup of coffee. When I saw you, well, you know the rest.”
“Did I hurt you much?”
“I’m fine.”
Jessica didn’t look fine as she rubbed her elbow and straightened her spine in an attempt to get the kinks out.
Lizzy reached for the keys on the ground. This time, because that’s the way Murphy’s Law worked, she managed to get the key into the lock on the first try. Opening the door wide, she waited for Jessica to enter first.
Jessica wrinkled her nose. “Sorry about your coat.”
“No worries.” Lizzy went back to the street to pick up the styrofoam cup and saw the same damn green Jeep parked up the street in front of the café. No way.
Leaving the cup, she walked toward the Jeep, increasing her pace when she saw that the driver wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings.
Same woman. Same baseball cap. Same ponytail.
Only three car lengths away...almost there.
The woman glanced out her window then, prompting Lizzy to break into a full-fledged run. She was close enough to see the woman curse under her breath. Lizzy lunged for the closest door handle and jerked the door open, but the driver had already started the engine and hit the gas hard.
The Jeep rammed into the car parked in front of it, causing the door to pull Lizzy forward. Lizzy bounced off the back bumper and hit the ground with a thud.
The Jeep backed up. Tires squealed. Lizzy rolled to her left, sending a jolt of fiery pain through her body. She choked on the acrid smell of burnt rubber.
Gray skies and dancing trees hovered overhead, and then faded to black.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:32 AM
Hayley Hansen stared at the popcorn ceiling and wondered how much of the toxic fibers one would have to inhale before it caused serious illness, or better yet, death. She lay on her bed fully clothed. Although, why she bothered, she didn’t know. Dressed or not, it wouldn’t stop her mother’s drug dealer from collecting payment. As she often did on days she knew Brian might visit, Hayley prayed to a God she no longer believed in. But whether the creator and overseer of the universe existed or not, didn’t matter. He was all she had left, the only one she could talk to.
Please, she began her heartfelt prayer, let this be the day Brian overdoses on heroin. Please, oh please, your divineness, let Brian, spawn of the devil, wake up today, walk outside, and be the instantaneous recipient of a stray bullet, the fatal result of a drive-by shooting.
She wasn’t asking for a miracle. Drive-by shootings happened every week in her neck of the woods. It could happen. Her mother had been sober, doing so well for so long, until Brian came along and taught her mom how to “chase the dragon.”
The sound of a car door opening and closing alerted her to the fact that once again her prayers had gone unanswered. No keys needed here. The front door creaked open followed by the familiar sounds of footsteps plodding across old floorboards.
He was coming.
She could run. Been there, done that. It only made things worse. Nothing good came out of prolonging the inevitable. If she ever found the courage to abandon her mother, leave her to fend for herself, she supposed she could escape. But could she live with herself? Her mother wasn’t to blame. Her mother had done the best she knew how. Her grandparents, on the other hand, had been in a league all their own. Talk about ending up with the short stick. Her own life was a weekend in Disneyland compared to what her mother’s childhood had been like.
More footsteps sounded in the hallway. Probably Mom just making sure it was Brian, the rapist drug-dealer, and not some other dispossessed soul running amok in her pigsty of a house.
Hayley’s bedroom door clicked shut. Yeah, it was Brian alright. Although her gaze remained on the ceiling, Hayley knew it was Brian standing in her room. She always smelled him before she saw him. A heady combination: cigarettes, stale beer, body odor mixed with remnants of puke and urine from whatever hellhole he came from.
Always the same.
She would never look at him if she had a choice. But she didn’t. If she closed her eyes or tried to drift off to some distant nonexistent planet, he’d catch her off guard and try using his own personal shock treatment to wake her up.
Nope. She never shut her eyes.
Confused, she sniffed the air and had to summon every bit of power within to stop from gagging. There was a new smell. Oil? Rotted potatoes? A dead animal?
Oh, please God. No.
“Go ahead,” Brian said to his friend. “You first.”
Chapter 13
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:05 AM
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Jessica said as she helped Lizzy off of the pavement and back to the office.
“I’ll be fine.” Although the way Lizzy’s head throbbed and her ribs ached made her wonder if it were true.
Jessica held the door to the office open. Then she followed Lizzy around her desk, making sure Lizzy was seated before she completely fell apart. “Oh, my God,” Jessica cried. “When I heard tires screeching I looked out the window and saw you rolling across the street. I thought for sure the car hit you. When you didn’t move afterward, I thought you were dead.”
Jessica was as white as a ghost.
“Jessica, you need to calm down.”
“You need a doctor,” Jessica said. “That knot on your forehead is the size of a tennis ball.”
“Listen to me,” Lizzy said. “I need you to go back to that coffee shop and see if there were any witnesses.”
“There were three people huddled over you by the time I got to you,” Jessica said. She pulled a business card from her back pocket. “This man gave me his card and said to tell you to call if you needed any help.”
Hopeful, Lizzy took the card. She frowned. It was from an attorney. If he’d seen the license plate or the driver, he would have stuck around and followed them back to the office. “This is a good start,” she said, “but I still need you to go back to the coffee shop before all potential witnesses are gone.”
Jessica wrinkled her nose. “You didn’t recognize the person in the car?”
Lizzy grimaced as a stab of fiery pain shot through her skull. “No.”
“I really don’t think I should leave you right now. You don’t look good. You were unconscious.”
“I’m fine.” Lizzy pointed a finger toward the door. “Go check it out. Now. Please.”
Jessica’s gaze darted toward the door and then back to Lizzy.
“That’s it.” Lizzy began to lift herself from her seat. “I’ll go myself.”
Jessica was at the door before Lizzy could move another inch. “Man, you are one stubborn lady. I’m going. I’m going.”
<
br /> Jessica walked outside and picked up the empty styrofoam cup still rolling around on the pavement before heading for the coffee shop.
Lizzy released a string of colorful words as she stood and then dragged herself to the bathroom to see the damage. The bump on her head wasn’t nearly as big as Jessica made it out to be, but it was definitely the worst of her injuries. She cleaned her wounds and applied salve to a half dozen scrapes.
The phone rang just as Jessica returned. Lizzy hobbled out of the bathroom.
Jessica had answered the phone. She was holding the receiver to her chest, mouthing words Lizzy couldn’t make out. Taking the phone, Lizzy held the receiver to her ear and sat gingerly back on her chair. “This is Lizzy Gardner. What can I do for you?”
She glanced at her watch. The first hour of her day already felt like an entire week. It was Victor, the man who refused to take no for an answer. “What can I do for you, Victor?” she asked again when he remained silent for too long.
Apparently he wanted her to watch his wife, a woman named Valerie Hunt, from noon to one every day for the next two weeks. Valerie worked for a law firm in Carmichael, less than fifteen miles from Lizzy’s office.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” she said after he promised to pay her three thousand dollars in cash, assuring her the money would be delivered to her office by the end of the day. Ten hours of work for three thousand bucks. It was a no-brainer.
“Yes,” she said into the phone as she delicately raised her arm to make sure it still worked. The pain hovered between tolerable and excruciating. She winced. “I understand. You’ll call the office periodically for updates. Yes,” she said again, rolling her eyes and making Jessica smile. “I have a duty to protect your confidentiality. I’m a professional. Besides, you haven’t told me much and you’re paying in cash. I’ve never seen your face and your telephone number comes up as restricted.” The last tidbit was a lie. Since the feds had wired her office yesterday, Lizzy was fairly confident they’d be able to trace the number on the black box sitting next to her phone. The red light was already flashing. But she didn’t need to tell Victor that and lose out on the three thousand dollars. She had yet to show a profit. And she didn’t want to borrow any more money from her sister—not that Cathy would loan her any more money now that they were no longer on speaking terms.
Lizzy would bet her favorite boots that Victor was using a false identity. But so what? After Victor finally said goodbye and hung up, she placed the receiver on its cradle and leaned back in her chair.
“That man is annoying, isn’t he?” Jessica said. “I told him you were out, but he said he’d wait...as if he knew you were close by. Do you think this Victor guy is watching us?”
Lizzy turned toward the window so fast she put a kink in her neck and hurt her bruised ribs in the process. Her eyes darted from building to building, rooftop to rooftop, then window to window as she looked for movement or any sign whatsoever of somebody peeking through blinds or curtains.
Jessica moved to her side and stared out the window, too. “Do you really think he’s out there? You think he might be watching us, don’t you?” Jessica chewed on her bottom lip. Her brows slanted inward. “Why was the woman in that Jeep trying to run you over?”
“I don’t know who she is, but I don’t think she was trying to kill me. If she was, she could have easily taken me out.”
“She was wearing a baseball cap, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” Lizzy said. “Did you see her?”
“I did. I saw her in the coffee shop right after my brother dropped me off. She wasn’t wearing any makeup. My guess would be that she’s in her forties.”
“Did anyone else get a good look at her?”
“The only one who remembered anything about her was the lady behind the counter. She said that the woman in the baseball cap ordered a dulce de leche with toffee sprinkles. Nobody else saw her.”
“Thanks, Jessica.” Lizzy swiveled her chair back behind her desk and turned on her computer. “That same woman was parked outside my apartment yesterday. She’s not that good at disguises. I would appreciate it if you could help me keep an eye out for her, okay?”
“If I see her car again, I’ll try to get the license plate number.”
“Perfect.” Still waiting for her computer to warm up, Lizzy looked at Jessica. “Are you planning to be here all day?”
“All week if you need me.”
“What about classes?”
“Nope. I don’t have to be back to school until the middle of next week.”
“Great.” It wasn’t spring break, but neither was it any of her business, so Lizzy decided to let it go.
Jessica grabbed a roll of paper towels from the top of the bookshelf lining the wall behind Lizzy’s desk. She handed Lizzy a couple of paper squares and gestured toward the coffee stains on her coat.
Lizzy swiped at her jacket, but most of the coffee had already soaked in. She tossed the towels in the garbage and then reached for her backpack on the floor.
As Jessica shuffled through yesterday’s mail, Lizzy unzipped the front of her backpack and pulled out a piece of paper. “I have a job for you,” she told Jessica. She placed the paper on her desk and used the palm of her hand to flatten the creases. “We need to find out everything we can about these girls.”
Jessica left what she was doing and came back to hover over Lizzy’s shoulder. Jessica drew in a breath.
“What is it?” Lizzy asked.
Jessica seemed off-kilter, her face pale, but then she took in a deep breath and pointed to the last name on the list. “Is that the same Sophie Madison who went missing recently?”
Lizzy nodded.
“That explains the equipment,” Jessica said, pointing to the black box by the telephone. “Are you helping the police?”
Lizzy gestured to the chair shoved close to the wall. “Pull up a chair and let’s talk.”
Jessica slid the chair over, took a seat, and waited.
“Fourteen years ago—”
“You were kidnapped,” Jessica cut in.
Lizzy lifted a brow.
“I was only a child at the time,” Jessica explained. “I liked to play with the next-door-neighbors. Whenever I would leave the house, Mom would tell me to be careful and then remind me of the day you and those other girls were taken, never to be seen again. Except for you, of course.”
“Does your mom know you’re working for me?”
Jessica waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Mom has her own problems. She doesn’t pay any attention to what I do any longer.” She shrugged. “She’s ready for me and my older brother to move out on our own and give her some space.”
Lizzy nodded. “If you don’t feel comfortable working on this case, I understand.”
“Are you kidding me? This is exactly the sort of work that interests me. This is why I want to major in psychology. This is why I came to you looking for a job.”
“Okay, then,” Lizzy said as she looked around for a potential work space. There wasn’t one. “Let me clear this end of my desk off for you. Did you bring your laptop?”
“It’s in the back.”
“Good. We’ll set up your laptop right here on my desk and use internet search engines to find everything we can about these girls. Tomorrow, or later today if we have time, we can go to the library and scour old newspaper articles. We want to print any article ever written about Spiderman’s victims.”
“What are we looking for exactly?” Jessica asked as she helped remove stacks of papers and files from Lizzy’s desk, placing them on the floor behind them. “Do we want details, like how they dressed or what hairstyles they wore? Or should we stick with interviews of friends and family, things like that?”
“Both. We want to learn everything and anything we can about each and every girl: weight, height, personality, you name it. Four of these girls are considered victims of Spiderman, but the other four girls are still considered missing children since their bodie
s were never found.”
Jessica grew quiet as she looked over the list again. Once again, her eyes seemed to water.
“Is something wrong?”
“No,” Jessica answered a little too quickly. “I’m fine.”
The girl was perplexing. One minute Jessica was talking her ear off and in the next she was quiet and mysterious. Knowing she needed to focus on finding Sophie, Lizzy decided once again to let it go. “If one of the girls on the list took dance lessons,” she told Jessica, “I want to know where and when. I want the names of every teacher, coach, friend, boyfriend, hair stylist, places they liked to hang out. I also want a list of each and every doctor these girls ever made contact with.”
“Do you think the parents of the victims will talk to us?”
“It won’t hurt to try. If not, we’ll talk to their siblings or their aunts and uncles. We can’t afford to take no for an answer. Someone will talk; somebody always does.”
“So, what we’re really looking for is a connection between the girls—a commonality whether it be the school they went to or an acquaintance they knew?”
“That’s right. Any connection at all.”
“Got it.” Jessica stood and disappeared inside the file room to get her things.
Lizzy tore off another paper towel and used it to wipe dust from her desk where the files had been. She opened her top drawer and began searching for ibuprofen. The hairs on the back of her neck stirred. Somebody was definitely watching her.
Turning toward the window, she stared out past the street toward the empty storefronts. He was there. She could feel him, sense him, and yet she couldn’t see him.
Her skin prickled.
Where are you Spiderman? Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Chapter 14
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:30 AM
Jared pulled his Denali into a tight spot behind Lizzy’s Toyota. Last night already felt like a world away. He’d never seen his father look so distraught. Dad had always been a conscientious man, a man with a strong sense of right and wrong. Holding a gun to his wife of forty years didn’t compute. Jared’s sister had taken their mother home while Jared stayed with their father. After sobering him up, Jared and his father had a long talk. It was the first time he ever saw his father cry, the first time he realized his father was human like everybody else.
