Bad Girl and Loverboy

by Michele Jaffe

  “He has white teeth.”

  Ash leaned back in his chair. “What if I told you he was married and living in Seattle during the mid- to late-1990s?”

  Windy dropped into the seat opposite his, her eyes wide with amazement. “Then I could tell you quite a bit more. I think I could even tell you about his first murder.”

  CHAPTER 77

  When Ash told her that Harry had lived in Seattle, Windy’s first thought was that Erica would be pleased, her work did have something to do with the Home Wrecker.

  Ash said, “All I know is that according to his former piano teacher, Harry married a woman named Amanda in Seattle seven or eight years ago. Of course, she also told me that Harry and Eve enjoyed walking in the park and having picnics together.”

  “Sounds like Harry was in the active fantasy life category.”

  “Was and is. If that photo you have is actually of a crime Harry committed, let’s say against his own wife—”

  “And baby.”

  Ash exhaled sharply. “—and baby, then why did he send it to you? Doesn’t it conflict with his policy of framing Eve?”

  “Maybe he did not think we would connect it to the other killings. Maybe he just wanted to brag.”

  “Or maybe he secretly wants you to know all about him. Do you still think the killer brings flowers to get into the houses or have you reinterpreted that, too?”

  “No,” Windy said, laughing despite herself, “that stays. I’m not convinced that flowers alone would get a man into a woman’s house at night, but I haven’t thought of anything else yet. Why?”

  “What if the crime scene photo is his special version of flowers, just for you? Half taunt, half gift.”

  “Can I return it for something I like better?”

  “I think Harry is drawn to you, wanting your attention more than anyone else’s, and at the same time, your attention is the most dangerous. Because you have the skills to spell out what he is doing. So he is confused. He calls out to you, literally. But then hides. Sort of like a teenager with a crush.”

  “And we know how well his last boyhood crush worked out,” Windy said. It reminded her of The Little Prince, taming someone. Get closer and closer, but not too close.

  “I need to ask you a bad question. If by some miracle we picked up Harold Williams tomorrow, could we hold him for the murders? Do we have any proof?”

  Windy thought about it. “No. Well, possibly, if he has a 1985 Camaro IROC-Z28. But nothing that would hold up. Damn. Does that mean we have to proceed as though we’re looking for Eve?”

  “No, it means we’re not going to tell anyone about our suspicions. But I’ll get some more officers out looking for that car.”

  “That’s probably wise. Right now, the only advantage we have against Harry, if it is Harry, is that he thinks we’re looking for Eve. The two Diet Coke cans he left at Nadene’s give me hope that he’s starting to be less careful.”

  “You sound more optimistic than you did this afternoon.”

  “I am. There were starting to be too many tiny inconsistencies in the evidence that I didn’t like. It’s one thing for this killer to manipulate me and my life, and quite another for him to interfere in my evidence.” She was trying to joke, but it was obvious that on some level she meant it.

  “Let’s hope we are on the right track now. Gerald made it clear earlier today that he’s coming to suspect I am the Home Wrecker, trying to ruin his city’s image and screw with his reelection bid next year.”

  Jonah poked his head into Ash’s office. “The mayor is on line one for you again.”

  Ash sighed. “Me and my big mouth.”

  “I’ve got to go,” Windy said, beating a hasty retreat. “I’ll be at home if you need anything.”

  Ash said, “Coward.”

  “I’m going to reinterpret that to mean you’re jealous.”

  Nick Lee and Bob Zorzi were waiting in Jonah’s office when he got there.

  “We didn’t want to bother the boss,” Nick Lee explained, wincing as Gerald Keene’s voice could be heard giving Ash a royal chewing out.

  “Good call. What do you have?”

  “Information you wanted about Nadene Brown’s car. It’s a 2002 Lexus. The patrol cars stationed outside her house saw that one pulling out of the garage Tuesday night and figured she was just going for a drive. Flashed his lights at her for the ‘okay’ signal and she flashed right back.”

  “Except it was probably the killer,” Nick Lee put in.

  “Yeah, I got that. Fantastic,” Jonah said, imagining what the mayor would make of that if he heard. “I’ll radio the license plate to dispatch.”

  “The Lexus isn’t the only car registered to her. She’s also got a 1985 Camaro IROC Z. Kind of a weird car for an old lady.”

  CHAPTER 78

  Windy picked up the message slips from her desk on her way out to the parking lot, flipped through them, saw one marked URGENT from Bill, and shoved the others in her pocket.

  Then she realized she didn’t have a car. This had been the longest day of her life, she thought, and it was only five thirty. As she walked to the street, wondering if she would be able to flag down a taxi, she returned Bill’s call.

  “What is urgent?” she asked him when he picked up. It sounded like he was watching television, probably a golf show.

  “I forgot to tell you. For the surprise I am planning this weekend you need to pack an overnight bag. And pick out a fancy outfit.”

  Windy felt her shoulders sag. “What are we doing, Bill?”

  “I’m taking care of you, and you are being surprised.”

  “I’m not sure this is a good weekend for it.”

  “Why not? Cate will be at her camp-out until Sunday. It’s a great weekend for us to have some time together.”

  “Does it have to be fancy?”

  “I’m afraid it does.”

  “I’m not sure I’m up for anything like that. I’m exhausted. And I might—I might have to work.”

  Now there was a long pause, Bill not sounding so happy. “What do you mean?”

  “We are in the middle of a huge case. I might need to work this weekend. A little.”

  “When is this going to end, Windy?”

  “When we catch the killer.”

  “Since when is your job to catch the killer? Isn’t there a police force there? What are they doing?”

  “They are working on it too. We all are.”

  “This guy must be pretty smart if everyone is working as hard as you are and you can’t catch him.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “Maybe you can explain it to me. This weekend. When we’re together.”

  “I’ll try, Bill,” Windy told him, not sure if she was going to try to explain or try to get the time off.

  A bus went by and he said, “Are you standing on the street?”

  “Yes. Waiting for a ride.”

  “Where’s the car?”

  “In the garage.” It was true. Just not the kind of garage he thought. She could not handle what he would say if he knew.

  “What is wrong with it?”

  “Well—”

  “Did someone break into your car? I told you, you should start parking it in your garage, rather than in the driveway. That’s what it’s for.”

  “No one broke in. The door wasn’t locking properly. And there is something in the garage at home.”

  A tan Lexus pulled up at the curb next to her and the window went down. “Are you taking some air or do you need a ride, pretty lady?”

  Windy was ready to flip the guy off when she realized it was Hank Logan making a joke.

  “Who is that?” Bill asked. “Is that Ash Laughton?”

  “No. I’ve got to go, I’ll call you later,” she told Bill, and said to Logan, “A ride would be great.”

  “How are you?” Harry asked as she got into the car. He had to grip the steering wheel to keep his hands from shaking. His pulse rate was soaring.


  “I’m okay. What are you doing over on this side of town?”

  He was tempted to tell her. Well, I’ve been driving by your office telling myself that I can’t kill you yet, even though I want to, because if I wait a little longer it will be that much more exciting. And then you appeared, standing at the curb. To test me.

  He said, “I was coming to see you. I have a note for you from Roddy.” He pretended to feel around the pocket of his slacks. “I thought it was here somewhere.”

  “Maybe in the glove compartment?” she asked, reaching for it.

  Wouldn’t that be something. Have her open it and watch the packing tape and the piece of Kelly O’Connell’s nose he was keeping as a souvenir fall into her lap. “No, it’s not in there. I must have left it at the office.”

  “Okay.” Windy eased her hand away. “How are you doing?”

  He smiled and said what was really on his mind. “Great, now that I have you in my car.”

  “That sounds menacing.”

  He laughed out loud. “You have a very suspicious mind, Windy Thomas.” He started to signal a turn, the turn he’d make to go to her house, and stopped himself just in time. He wasn’t supposed to know the way. “Do you want to tell me where you live, or do you want me to drive off into the sunset with you? Careful, I know it’s a tough decision.”

  She shook her head. “My goodness, you know how to lay on the charm.”

  “Only thing I learned from my daddy, how to talk to girls.”

  She laughed at that, and he laughed with her, even though it was true. He had learned everything he knew about managing women from Charles.

  They had a pleasant conversation, not talking about the investigation, until they reached her house. She turned to him and said, “Thank you for the ride.” And then did the unthinkable. “Would you like to come in? You could meet Cate. She is always trying to make sure I have friends.”

  He thought about what that would be like. Sitting at her table, eating cookies with her and Cate in the kitchen like the two of them had the night before. Having Cate bind Windy’s hands and feet with clear tape. Making Windy sit in a chair and watch as he played with Cate. All kinds of games. Games he hadn’t played with the other girls. Taping Windy’s eyes open if she wouldn’t watch.

  Then he would teach Cate about sitting in one place and counting to one hundred with her eyes closed and her fingers in her ears. And he would let Windy start begging. When it was over, he could collect the cassette from the tape recorder he’d installed outside their house, and listen to it as many times as he wanted.

  He had the knife in the backseat under his coat, a corkscrew in his pocket, and the tape in the glove compartment. All he had to do was say yes. Yes, I would like to come in.

  “I wish I could,” he said to Windy. “Unfortunately, I have plans.”

  It was true. He had other plans for Windy.

  Harry watched her walk up the front path to her house, turn to talk to the policeman who materialized from the side of the path, then go inside. He bet she felt really safe with all those police around. He bet she would sleep really well tonight.

  His palms were sweating so much he could hardly hold the wheel to drive.

  CHAPTER 79

  Windy started her morning on Thursday engaged in a battle with Cate about why she had to wear her underwear inside her clothes, by the end of which Windy wasn’t even sure.

  “Super Friends wear them outside,” Cate pointed out, and instead of objecting that they weren’t underwear, they were costumes, Windy threw up her hands and said, “Do whatever you want.” She wondered if letting your child go to school with their underwear outside was considered child abuse. Not to mention with three armed bodyguards.

  It was a grayish day, the kind that anywhere but Vegas meant rain. Windy had just pulled into the parking lot in her rental car when Jonah flagged her down.

  He said, “Ash was hoping for a word with you.”

  “He made you stand out in the parking lot waiting for me?”

  “He would have come himself but he’s on the phone getting yelled at by Gerald again.”

  Windy grabbed her bag and followed him toward the task force offices. “Has this been going on all night?”

  “No, last night he was outside—” Jonah stopped himself. He wasn’t sure Ash wanted her to know he’d been up all night guarding her house. “Ever since he got in this morning. It turns out that Kelly O’Connell was talking to a phone psychic when the killer came calling, and the psychic called 911.”

  “Did she get a busy signal?”

  “No, I think they about solved that problem. It’s worse. Two officers were sent out about an hour later. Knocked on the door. Spoke to a woman inside. But she was—get this—making choking noises so they left.”

  Windy stopped walking and stared at him. “What?”

  “They thought she had morning sickness.”

  For a moment Windy didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. Harry had been within their grasp. But it wasn’t the officers’ fault. She could only imagine how awful they must be feeling.

  How much Harry must have been enjoying himself.

  “What does Ash want to see me about?”

  “No idea. I just get these scrawled messages that he writes as he eats Twinkies and says ‘yes sir.’ ”

  Windy tiptoed into Ash’s office and stood against the wall. On the speaker phone Gerald was saying, “Because if the Home Wrecker kills again, we are all going down.”

  Ash, looking tired, handed her a piece of paper. She read, Harry Williams’s half sister Misty—

  “Yes sir,” Ash said, writing something fast.

  —works at Stardust gets off at twelve thirty—

  Gerald’s voice boomed, “Which is why I think a public appeal is the only way.”

  “Yes sir.”

  We’ve been trying to find her for two days. I can’t get off phone. Will you interview her please?

  “You have got to go on television and beg the killer to surrender.”

  “Yes sir,” Ash said. He sat up and shook his head. “I mean, no sir. Gerald, I am not going on television and begging a mass murderer to do anything. I told you that.” Ash took the mayor off speaker phone and grabbed the receiver.

  Windy nodded and inched into the hallway.

  “I would stand a better chance of catching our killer if you would let me do my job, rather than forcing me to debate with you about press coverage,” she heard Ash saying as the door of his office closed behind her.

  Misty Williams worked in one of the change booths at the Stardust. Windy found her standing in front of the casino, just off her shift, waiting for a ride.

  “I really don’t have time to talk to you,” Misty said, touching up her lip liner in a compact mirror. Men getting out of cars in the pull-through stopped to gape appreciatively at her figure laced into a black velvet corset and body-hugging black lace skirt. She was wearing platform pumps that made her two inches taller than Windy and had long platinum hair that fell almost to her bottom. She brought her black-lined eyes to Windy over the mirror and said, “Besides, I haven’t seen Harold in more than fifteen years. He left like a year after he graduated high school.”

  Her skin was bad, sallow and covered with too much light-colored foundation. Still, with red lipstick on and about thirty coats of black mascara, she was striking. One guy walking by said loudly to his friend, “I’d like a piece of that,” and she flipped him the finger, tough girl, saying, “Keep dreaming, Payless.”

  She said to her reflection in the mirror, “These men, they think they can have any girl. Like I’d ever do a guy who wore cheap shoes like that. You can tell if a man’s got it by his shoes every time.”

  Windy didn’t know what to say to that. She asked, “You must be much younger than your brother.”

  “Half brother,” Misty corrected, wiping lipstick from her front teeth. “Uh-huh, I’m ten years younger. My mother was married to his father first. Big mistake.
”

  “What happened to his dad?”

  “All I know about him is, he gave my mom this ring.” Holding out a finger with a band that had two emerald chips and a small diamond. “And what that tells me is, he was a cheapskate. I mean, look how small that diamond is. I only wear it when I’m going somewhere I don’t really care what I look like.”

  What did she wear when she did care? “Do you know what he did for a living? Why they got divorced?”

  “He was a traveling something, repairman or salesman or something. Mom got tired of him, so she tossed him. Then she married my dad and they had me. Williams is my dad’s last name. He adopted Harold when they got married. Don’t think he didn’t regret it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Harold was like that.”

  “How was your relationship with him? Was he a good brother?”

  “We didn’t exactly hang out, if that is what you mean. I mean, ten years is a big difference. Plus, he mostly hung out by himself in his room. He was weird.”

  “Weird? What do you mean?”

  “Like, you never knew what he was going to do. He scared me and Mom too, something about him, and his size. I was just a little girl but I remember it. So Mom made him stay in his room most of the time. But even still, he was, like, freaky. No one wanted to live with him.” She snapped the compact closed and gave Windy her eyes direct. “You want to know if he was a good brother? No. He was a piece of shit, as a brother, and as a person. Every time things were going good for us, Harold would do something to fuck it up. He made my father leave. He was evil.”

  “Evil how?”

  “Mean. He liked to hurt people. And have you seen him? He is disgusting. No one wanted to admit they were related to him. My mom and I, we were so glad when he finally left. We could get on with our lives.”

  Windy looked at her, tapping her foot and waiting for a man to pick her up from her job, not looking especially happy, and wanted to ask what she’d gotten on with. Asked instead, “Why did he leave?”

  “He just did and good riddance. Maybe Home Depot hired him. They’ll take anyone. We didn’t ask any questions.”