Jennings sent out a couple of email inquiries and went back to searching the web.
Chapter 43
Bad Medicine, Danny Wolf’s band, played that night in a dark and sprawling cellar in the Old Port section of Portland’s waterfront district—a place known simply as The Cavern Club, a name that harked back to the early sixties Hamburg, Germany and a then little-known pop group that would change the world.
In an era when heavily synthesized dance pop music with its speaker shattering low-end pulses dominated the club scene everywhere it was rare that a traditional band could draw in such a crowd and generate so much excitement.
As usual, The Cavern Club was packed with a variety of offbeat patrons that ran the gamut from purple-haired, seventies-style punks to more than its share of darkly attired club goths, vamps and Marilyn Manson wannabes.
Danny Wolf was on stage going through the motions but his heart wasn’t really with the program. The combination of heavy drinking and sleepless nights had caused his body to lose some weight in recent weeks, and along with the weight he’d begun to lose the power in his singing voice and the sharp conviction that was the unique signature of his rhythm guitar playing. All he could think about were the dead girls and the horrifying possibilities their deaths posed.
It seemed that most of the crowd did not know or care about Wolf’s fears or inadequacies. They were here simply for the celebration and the eclectic energy that was a part of Portland’s burgeoning night-scene.
For the last song of the second set the band tore into Can’t Stop the Music, an original Danny Wolf song, a scorching pop/blues number that had recently been recorded. It was getting a fair amount of airplay on local radio and had gone viral across the internet. The snare drum, hammered precisely on the back-beat, was making a sound like an ax splitting firewood. The bass guitar’s low, dissonant notes blended so closely with the hypnotic thumping of the kick drum that one got the feeling they were the same pulsing instrument. In the opening lines the lead guitar slashed through the rhythm section like audible lasers, Mike Stilton’s nimble fingers gliding effortlessly up and down the fingerboard of his sunburst Fender Telecaster.
In the two-plus months since Danny Wolf had replaced Johnny Redman as Bad Medicine’s front man, the band’s following had grown dramatically. The bars they played were packed every night. Part of it was Wolf’s songwriting abilities, but the biggest reason for this resurgence in popularity—everybody connected with the band knew—was Wolf’s good looks and charismatic stage presence coupled with his infectious singing voice. He was a natural tenor with a powerful voice that was smooth as glass, yet amiably gravely. Sort of Don Henley meets Ryan Adams.
“When the feeling’s right and the band’s real tight, can’t stop the muuussic,” Wolf sang in his soaring and infectious tenor. Out in front of the stage a huge crowd of revelers swayed and clapped along to the driving beat and the contagious melody. “When the night is long and the emotion’s strong, can’t stop the muuussic,
There’ll be one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, but can’t stop the muuussi—” And then the music did stop. Wolf’s hands dropped from the neck of his blonde Stratocaster as if they’d been slapped out of the way by an invisible force, and his voice faltered, mid-sentence. Jay Morse, Bad Medicine’s drummer, Rudy Dunn, the bass player and Mike Stilton, the lead guitarist all looked at each other with panic on their faces, and then they too began to falter. The crowd watching the stage was also looking slightly bewildered.
Wolf, on the lead microphone, noticed none of this. At the back of the room, through the haze of dim lighting and the pressing crowd, a woman with flowing black hair dressed in a gauzy white gown walked toward the stage, the crowd parting in her wake as if for a deity. She was the manifestation of Wolf’s darkest dreams, the stuff of his most absurd nightmares; she stopped and stood in the center of the dance floor staring at him with deep, dark eyes that had the power to wrench a gasp from his throat. The woman raised her hands in a gesture of appeal. Her presence was so strikingly real that Wolf was momentarily frozen on the stage. It seemed that Siri Donovan had once again come back from wherever she’d gone to haunt and taunt him. Wolf closed his eyes and then reopened them and in that moment the crowd closed back in around her and she was no longer visible.
No fucking way, Wolf thought. You weren’t really there. It was all in my sick mind.
But then he caught another glimpse of her, at the back of the room, walking away from the stage, her gauzy gown trailing behind her, her sinuous movements stirring deep and primal emotions within him.
“Siri!” he called out over the band’s PA system, but she kept on walking. “Siri, is that you?”
When she didn’t answer or turn back Wolf pulled the Stratocaster over his head and dropped it to the floor with a loud discordant jangle. He bolted from the stage and pressed through the crowd toward the back of the room.
“A little pause for the cause,” Mike Stilton told the crowd in a tentative voice. “Stick around.” The other three band members left the stage.
Wolf was searching through the throngs for a woman—a ghost woman—who could not possibly be real. The cold realization that he would never find her struck him like a lance through the heart. She was a phantom, a ghost, perhaps she’d never been real to begin with, but someone conjured from his deepest darkest yearnings.
Chapter 44
An angry hand roughly grabbed his shoulder. He spun sharply. Mike Stilton stared at him, and Wolf could clearly see just how pissed off he was. “Danny, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, so help me God I’ll—”
“What, Mike? You gonna fire me?” Wolf said defiantly. Mike was the founder of the band and its undisputed leader, but Wolf knew that Mike wasn’t the one responsible for packing the clubs every night. He knew that he alone was the reason for the band’s new surge of popularity and he was also sure that firing him would be like cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
The anger fell from Mike’s face, replaced with something akin to despair. “You’re acting like a complete nut job lately, Danny. You’re drinking too much, you’re fucking everything that walks and you look sick. Jesus, man what the hell’s wrong with you?”
Wolf lowered his head. “I don’t know, Mike. I feel like my life’s coming apart. I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this.”
“You need help, man.”
“I’m trying, Mike. I’ve been seeing a shrink.”
“Yeah, well it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“I know! Christ, I know. What the fuck do you want me to do?”
“Listen, Danny, me and the boys had a little talk with the cops.”
“I know. They hauled me in for questioning. Why’d you tell them I fucked those girls, Mike?”
“Jesus, we couldn’t lie to them. You know, they think you killed them.”
“I didn’t kill those girls, Mike. I feel terrible that they’re dead.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not what the cops think.”
“What about you, Mike? What do you believe?” He was watching Mike very carefully.
Mike sighed. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. When Johnny got himself murdered I thought that was the end of it. Now I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like this fucking band is cursed.” He shook his head, turned and walked into the crowd.
“Maybe it is,” Wolf said, but Mike kept on walking as if he hadn’t heard.
Wolf pushed his way through the crowd to the bar. The bartender saw him coming and had the drink waiting. It was a straight JD and Wolf tossed it down in a single swallow then ordered another one.
“Hello, handsome,” said a soft feminine voice.
Wolf turned and saw the girl with the green eyes and the lightly freckled nose. She was sitting beside him on a bar-stool, nursing a margarita. Fuck! he thought. I don’t need this. Go away! She had medium-length light brown hair, and she wore a tight little black dress hiked up to mid-thigh show
ing off about half a mile of shapely leg. Her smile was flirtatious, her eyes were amazing. Much too wholesome to be a regular groupie. An inner alarm went off in Wolf’s head. Most of the groupies he knew were lost souls, drunk, drugged and gothic. This one was miles away from all that, and she scared the shit out of him. He wasn’t sure he knew how to behave.
Wolf took his drink and said, “See you later.” He turned to leave.
“Wait a minute,” she said grabbing him by the shirt-sleeve. “What’s your hurry?”
Wolf turned back around. He watched her for another few seconds, those amazing eyes holding him like a magnet. “Time to tune up,” he said. “Another set left to play.”
The girl looked at her watch. “According to my calculations you’ve got almost fifteen minutes left.”
He sighed. “Yeah, so what can I do for you?”
“Just thought we could talk.”
“About what?”
“About what happened on that last song?”
“I don’t know.”
The girl frowned. “Really.”
“Yup, really.”
“Who’s Siri?”
“A girl I used to know.”
“You just called out to her from the stage. She in the crowd?”
Wolf eyed the woman. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. Listen, I’ve got to go.”
“Hey, can I buy you a drink?” She slid forward on the stool and her knee made contact with his leg. A surge of electric energy lanced through him as more of her thigh became visible. He felt his cock respond and pulled away.
He showed her his glass. “Thanks. Already have one.”
She held out her hand. “Name’s Laura. And you’re...?”
He eyed her hand. “Danny Wolf. Listen, lady, you don’t want to know me.”
She self-consciously dropped her hand into her lap. “Oh? Why not?”
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Just moved up from Hartford.” She smiled. “I like your voice.”
“Thanks.”
“I mean it.”
“I know. Thanks.”
She got a bewildered look on her face. “You’re welcome, Danny Wolf.”
Wolf’s hard expression melted and he smiled. He sat on the barstool next to her and sighed.
“So, why don’t I want to know you?” she said.
“Not healthy. Seems I’ve got this aura about me. All the girls I date end up dead.”
Laura flinched. “Wow,” she said.
“Wow is right.”
She gave him a puzzled frown. “You’re not kidding?”
He pursed his lips and shook his head. “I wish I was.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Have you heard of the Cross my Heart killings?”
“You mean the story in the paper this morning?”
“I knew both those girls. I’m the cop’s number one suspect.”
Laura nodded hesitantly. “Should I be afraid?”
“Absolutely.”
“So why aren’t you in jail?”
“Can’t answer that. Probably want to catch me in the act.” He laughed a small unsettled laugh and downed his drink.
“Does that mean you’re guilty?”
Wolf slid off the barstool. “I don’t think you want to find out, lady. If I were you I’d get lost.” Wolf walked into the crowd leaving her to sit and watch him go.
Chapter 45
Totally amazing the way Danny reacted when he’d seen Siri walking toward the stage. Just priceless. And then when she’d turned around and walked away it was the frosting on the cake. And the desperate way in which Danny had gone after her. He’d really loved that girl. But he would never love her again. Never. Ever. That was the truth. Siri was a ghost.
The killer watched from the back of the room as the pretty one at the bar flirted with Danny. The place was filled with revelers, but it was dark back here and it hadn’t taken more than one little push to blind all these brainless idiots. Some of them sensed, however, oh yes, they certainly did. You could see it in their deer-in-the-headlights expressions as they gazed around the room. They weren’t all total losers. Weak yes, and easy to control, like sheep to the slaughter. That was also the truth.
It didn’t seem as if Danny liked the young woman at the bar much so maybe it would be okay. But the killer was on guard, deeply suspicious of the woman’s motives. Nothing to get all panicky about for now, though. Probably best to just watch and wait and see.
But there was another problem in the room that needed attending. A woman from Wolf’s past. A guard from his prison days. This one could spell trouble. She’d shown up earlier and she was keeping to herself in the back, just staring at Wolf. She’d seen him talking to the young woman at the bar and a very dark expression had come over her face. She was in love with Danny, but weren’t they all. Now she was disappointed and she was getting up to leave. The killer decided to follow her, maybe have a little fun. Just give her a little push and she’d never know what hit her.
This promised to be a fun-filled night.
Chapter 46
Jennings looked at his watch and was surprised that it was almost midnight. He’d been working for nearly four hours and the time had flown. He knew Laura was all right, he’d been keeping tabs on her through the wire. Just the same, he felt uneasy. He’d heard her talking to Wolf a short while ago. Jennings had listened very carefully to their conversation. Wolf had been friendly toward Laura but decidedly uninterested in her advances. Now all he heard was the noise of the crowd and the band playing loudly.
Unable to contain himself, he turned down the listening device’s volume, picked up the phone, and dialed Laura’s cell phone number. She picked up on the third ring. The raucous noise of the crowd and the music seemed doubly amplified.
“Laura, this is Rick. Is everything okay?”
“What’s the matter? Isn’t the device working?” Laura was literally shouting to be heard above the racket in the room.
“Yeah, it’s working.”
“Then you know everything’s okay. What’s the problem?”
“Just a little uneasy, that’s all. I wanted to make sure things were going as planned.”
“He doesn’t like me and he didn’t kill those girls.”
“I heard what he said. Just because he admitted he was a suspect doesn’t mean he’s not a killer. Don’t trust him. Don’t trust anybody.”
“Hey, I’m a big girl and I carry a big gun. Stop worrying, for crying out loud. I’m going home soon. Go to bed. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“Sure you’re okay?”
“Rick!”
“Okay, okay, call me in the morning.”
Jennings hung up the phone realizing just how tired he was. Even so, he wondered if he’d be able to sleep. He removed the listening device from his ear but left the recorder running. He would listen to it in the morning.
Spooky was rubbing against him, begging for munchies, so before going to bed he fixed her up.
He lay down but could not stop his mind. He needed to know why the government had intervened in that first killing and why Robeson was being so clandestine about it. He needed to know why these women were being murdered and why an invisible man with giant feet was showing up at all the crime scenes. And he certainly needed to know why nuns connected to Apocalypse Island had been executed. Instinct told him it was all connected in some crazy way. But how? And what did Wolf have to do with it? He’d found nothing of significance on the internet. For reasons that were beyond him, Apocalypse Island was a deep, dark hole of secrecy.
And as he drifted off to sleep he dreamed he saw a woman floating toward him out of the darkness. She was barefoot, her dress little more than gauze. He lay transfixed, dumbfounded by her presence, wondering how such a beautiful thing had managed to wedge her way into his dreams. She held both her hands out as though she were trying to convey a message. But what sort of message was it? Her presence ma
de him think of Siri Donavon and Danny Wolf. And when she faded away he dreamed of Apocalypse Island.
At the Cavern Club the last set went without a hitch, but Laura didn’t get lost, as Wolf had so bluntly suggested. She sat at the bar and stared at him the whole time, to the point of making him feel self conscious.
When the set was over he went back to the bar and ordered a drink. He didn’t even look in her direction. She hung out anyway, hoping that he’d have a change of heart and would approach her. He didn’t, and after a time he put his guitar in its case and left. Laura left soon after, thinking she might try to catch up, but she didn’t. He had rejected her. Simple, and now she had to find another way to get close to him.
Chapter 47
The killer hid in the shadows watching the club’s exit, waiting for the pretty one to emerge. She was very intriguing. She’d latched onto Danny in the same way dozens of others had done in recent months, with that nearly desperate need to attract his attention.
Demons, the killer thought. All demons. Sent here to corrupt him.
But this one was different. This was no demon. This one might even be more dangerous than the demons.
Danny had humored her for a few moments, but that’s as far as it had gone. He’d simply dismissed her without as much as a second glance in her direction. The woman had been disappointed. No doubt about that. She didn’t look the type men said no to. But evidently she wasn’t damaged enough for Danny’s tastes. Perhaps she was too wholesome, too pretty. Lately Danny had allowed only demon women into his spectrum. These creatures thought so little of themselves that they would allow hack artists to stick dirty needles under their skin and decorate their bodies with blasphemous filth, creatures that would go with almost anyone and engage in unprotected sex or inject themselves with chemicals for the purpose of altering their pathetic realities. The killer was not naive enough to think that any of today’s modern women were virginal, but in the very least they should be educated and clean with some measure of self respect. But these weren’t women. These were demons, and Danny needed to be protected from them.
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