Death Grip

by Elaine Viets

  ‘On her laptop,’ Lisa said. ‘She backed up her files daily and sent me copies for insurance.’

  ‘May we read them?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, of course. Anything that will help. I figured you’d want it, so I made you a copy on this thumb drive.’ She held up a purple thumb drive. ‘Would you like it, or Ms Richman?’

  ‘I’ll take it,’ I said. ‘I’ll have time to look at it when I’m on call next.’

  As soon as I volunteered, I felt a knot in my stomach. Now I was actively investigating the case, as Jace’s pseudo-partner. If Greiman found out, he’d have me fired.

  I put the thumb drive in my purse.

  ‘Would you like more coffee, Ms Richman?’

  I did, but I didn’t want Lisa distracted by hostess duties. ‘Thank you, no,’ I said.

  ‘We can read it in the diary, but what issues did she have with Mr Bellerive and when did they start?’ Jace asked. He quietly crunched on a cookie while Lisa spoke.

  ‘Rosanna lived at Briggs’s house. She had her own apartment off the kitchen – a sitting room-office, bedroom and galley kitchen. It was nicely furnished. Free room and board was a good deal, and her salary was generous.’

  ‘Did you search her apartment, Jace?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes. We didn’t find anything. But we didn’t know it was Rosanna’s apartment, either.’

  ‘I still have the key,’ Lisa said, ‘if you’d like to search it again.’

  ‘I’ll have to ask Briggs’s permission,’ Jace said, ‘and I don’t think he’ll give it.’

  Lisa picked up the thread of her narrative. ‘To answer your questions, the problem started six months ago, about a month after Rosanna was working there. Briggs became handsy – if he gave Rosanna instructions, he’d put his hand on her arm, or her shoulder. She’d politely brush it off, and his hand would “accidentally” touch her bosom. He’d guide her through a door with his hand around her waist, and it would slip to her behind. She asked him several times to stop. She had her cell phone on, so some of those exchanges were recorded. She sent them to me, of course. They’re on that thumb drive, Ms Richman.

  ‘Four weeks into her employment, Briggs asked her out. Rosanna said no. She knew he dated a New York model, Desiree Gale. They weren’t officially engaged, but she was his main girlfriend, lover, whatever they call adults who see each other all the time. My daughter knew he treated Desiree like a princess. She’d served them late-night suppers of champagne and cold lobster.’

  ‘Did Ms Gale ever stay the night?’ Jace asked.

  ‘Yes, occasionally. Briggs also liked to go out late at night and pick up young women. Nobody from the Forest – he’d go to St. Louis or one of the suburbs to find them. My daughter thought some of these women might have been prostitutes or hitchhikers. They would spend the night, too, and sometimes she would hear screams coming from Briggs’s bedroom – and not screams of delight, if you know what I mean. Rosanna worried about those girls and thought her boss might have been hurting them – on purpose. She always checked to make sure the girls left. Briggs usually sent them away by Uber, and Rosanna could hear the drivers pull up near her rooms. She was always relieved when they left.’

  ‘How old were these women?’ Jace asked.

  ‘They were young – very young, in their early twenties or maybe even underage. My daughter wasn’t sure. Rosanna told me late one night, she heard someone rummaging in the kitchen like a hungry bear. Rosanna put on her dressing gown and found one of Briggs’s pick-ups. She asked the girl what she was doing. The girl, whose name was Destiny, said she was hungry. Rosanna fixed her a ham sandwich and gave her an apple, a bag of chips, and a soda.

  ‘Destiny stuffed the chips, apple and unopened can of soda in her backpack, and ate the sandwich like she was starving. My daughter fixed her another sandwich and opened a Coke. She sat down at the table while Destiny wolfed down that food. Destiny was a rather pretty blonde, with very white skin. She wore a grubby white tank top, cutoffs, and flip-flops, and her feet were dirty. Destiny had a thick navy-blue wool scarf wrapped around her neck.

  ‘My daughter thought that was odd. Why was this young woman wearing a heavy navy scarf with such summery clothes on a warm night? She asked Destiny if everything was OK, and the girl said yes. “Are you cold?” my daughter asked. “Is that why you’re wearing that scarf?”

  ‘My daughter said Destiny looked fearful and said, “No, I don’t want my boyfriend to see what he did to my neck.” Rosanna figured the girl had a hickey or love bite or something.’

  Or something, I thought. Like bruises from near strangulation.

  ‘The girl was still hungry, so Rosanna fixed her a third sandwich and gave her a bag of cookies. That’s when her Uber driver pulled up outside the kitchen door. Destiny tucked the sandwich and cookies in her backpack and ran out to the car.

  ‘Oh, here’s something else!’ Lisa said. ‘Whenever Briggs had any women stay overnight, he cleaned his own room – dusted and vacuumed it and changed his own sheets. He even washed them. Rosanna said he wouldn’t even let her empty his wastebasket. He took out his own trash. She thought that was very strange.’

  ‘Did she ever see that trash?’ Jace asked.

  ‘No.’

  ‘How often did Briggs bring women to his home?’ Jace asked.

  ‘Nearly every weekend,’ Lisa said. ‘And sometimes during the week. Desiree, the big-time model, stayed over twice. My daughter said the other women who stayed were young and shabby, pathetic little creatures.’

  ‘Did Briggs ever date any of these young women twice?’ Jace asked.

  ‘Never, not in the seven months my daughter worked there. They were strictly one-night stands. After a month of these shenanigans, Briggs asked my daughter out. She told him no. She thought it was a bad idea to date her employer, and she didn’t like the way he treated the young women he picked up. She wasn’t going to be another notch on his bedpost. Besides, she is dating a nice young man named Kevin.’ Lisa lowered her eyes, then said, ‘I’m hoping Kevin gives her a ring on her birthday in May.’

  Jace leaned forward and said, ‘When did your daughter start looking for other work, Mrs McKim?’

  ‘Right after Briggs asked her out. He’d become more insistent, and she was afraid to be alone with him in dark rooms or hallways. She spent many of her days off here with me or Kevin. She was becoming discouraged about the job search. During our girls’ weekend, I told her she could live with me until she found a job. She could have her old room back.

  ‘But my girl had her pride. She said she’d stick it out another month, and then quit. But she didn’t get the chance. That despicable man blamed her for the spoiled meat, and fired her when she came back Sunday night. I couldn’t believe it!’

  Lisa McKim was almost shouting now. She took a deep breath, then a sip of coffee, and said, ‘Of course I believe he’d do something like that. Briggs is a crook!’

  And a killer, I thought.

  ‘Even though he blamed her for the spoiled meat, he still gave her a good severance package – twenty thousand dollars – and a good reference.’

  ‘So he was paying her to go away,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, and despite the money, Rosanna was furious. She’s always loved the ocean, and she told me she wanted to go on a cruise to get her head straight. I offered to go with her, and so did Kevin, but she said she wanted to be alone for a week.

  ‘She emailed me her itinerary. I’ve made you both copies.’ Lisa handed us both a stack of paper.

  ‘As you can see, Rosanna was supposed to take a Southwest Airlines nonstop flight to Fort Lauderdale for her cruise, which left the next day from Port Everglades. Rosanna promised she’d call me when she got to her cruise hotel – she was staying overnight at a DoubleTree hotel. They had a free shuttle to the cruise ship.

  ‘The day Rosanna left, I waited until midnight to hear from her. Nothing. That wasn’t like her. I checked if Rosanna’s flight had been delayed. It had landed on time
in Fort Lauderdale. I called the hotel and she hadn’t checked in yet.

  ‘Now I was really worried. I called her boyfriend, Kevin, and several of her friends. No one had heard from her that day, after she’d told them she was taking a cruise.

  ‘I checked her bank accounts – she’d given me access – and she’d cashed the twenty-thousand-dollar severance check with her phone app. It was in her savings account. But her checking account was untouched. I called Briggs and asked if he’d seen my daughter. He said, “No. She cleared out as soon as she was fired.” I could almost hear the “good riddance” after that, but he didn’t come out and say it.’

  ‘How was your daughter planning to go to the St. Louis airport?’ Jace asked.

  ‘By Uber. Briggs claimed an Uber driver picked her up, but I can’t find out which one – I don’t have the warrants or whatever you need to check that.

  ‘All I know is my daughter was fired – unjustly. She supposedly packed her things, bought a plane ticket and a Caribbean cruise, and vanished on Briggs’s doorstep.’

  TWENTY

  After Lisa McKim’s impassioned speech in defense of her daughter, we fell silent. Bright, bubbly Rosanna had vanished, and Briggs Bellerive was behind her disappearance. I knew it, and so did Jace and her mother. And there was nothing we could do about it.

  I stared at my empty flowered cup and ate the rest of my cookie. Finally, Jace broke the loud silence with, ‘What did you tell Detective Greiman when you spoke to him?’

  Lisa’s face reddened with anger and her hand trembled so much her thin china coffee cup rattled against the flowered saucer. Finally, she composed herself enough to say, ‘Before I can talk about that man, I’ll need more coffee.’

  ‘May I help?’ I asked, and started to stand up.

  She waved me back into my seat. ‘No, sit back down and make yourself comfortable. I have another pot ready in a Thermos in the kitchen. I’ll bring it right down.’

  Lisa carried the silver coffee pot upstairs. We could hear her rattling around in the kitchen. She was back a few minutes later with a fresh pot of coffee and a full plate of sugar cookies.

  She poured coffee for all three of us, then took a deep breath and said, ‘This is very hard to talk about. I don’t know where to begin.’

  ‘How about if I ask you questions, and you answer them?’ Jace said. His smile was reassuring and his voice was soothing. ‘When did you decide to call the police?’

  ‘The morning after Rosanna didn’t show up in Fort Lauderdale. I stayed awake all night, walking the floors and waiting for her call. In the morning, I talked with her friends. I called Diana, her older sister, and Rosanna’s boyfriend, Kevin. No one had heard from Rosanna after she told them she was taking a cruise.

  ‘By now, I was heartsick. I called 911 and the operator said I should make a report with the detective on duty and sent me to Ray Greiman. He came here in his fancy suit and shiny shoes, a real slick.’ I heard the contempt in her voice. In fact, her sentiments about Greiman echoed mine. It was difficult for me to remain silent.

  ‘He asked me about Rosanna, her hobbies, her friends, and her boyfriends. Especially her boyfriends. He was particularly interested in the number of men she’d dated. I gave him a recent photo of Rosanna, her cell phone provider and bank account information. He said he’d get back to me in a day or two. While I waited for that detective to call me back, I couldn’t eat or sleep.’

  Looking at Lisa, I could see she wasn’t exaggerating her distress. Under her skillfully applied make-up, her face was haggard.

  ‘I was frantic,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear from Greiman for three days. I couldn’t wait any more. I called him and he said he’d talked with Rosanna’s employer.’ Lisa stopped for a moment.

  ‘What did Briggs tell the detective?’ Jace asked.

  The color rose quickly on Lisa’s pale face, until she was nearly stroke red. ‘Briggs lied! That son of a – a B – said my daughter had men at her apartment several times a week. He said one of her most frequent callers was a large black man, built like a football player, and the other male visitor – another muscular man – wore a turban.’

  ‘A turban?’ I said. ‘Like someone from India?’

  Nothing like playing to the Forest prejudices, I thought. Pretty, white Rosanna was consorting with foreign men. Big ones.

  ‘Yes. Briggs said they were drinking and had loud parties until all hours of the night. He had to ask Rosanna to turn down the music in her apartment several times. He told Greiman that if he hadn’t fired Rosanna for incompetence, he would have fired her for her outrageous behavior.’

  ‘And Greiman believed that?’ Jace asked.

  I squeezed my hands to keep my mouth shut.

  ‘Oh, yes! When I protested that my daughter would never behave that way, the detective said, “Well, you are her mother. You’d be the last to know.” I felt like he’d reached through the phone and patted me on my head.’

  I knew that feeling, too. I struggled to keep quiet.

  ‘I was furious, and Greiman told me to calm down, that getting hysterical never settled anything. I said I wasn’t hysterical – that was a very prejudiced word to use when describing a justly angry woman. He told me not to hide behind “a bunch of women’s lib stuff.” Except he didn’t use “stuff.” He used the other S-word.

  ‘When I told him about my daughter’s diary and Briggs’s unwanted touching, he said, “Look, ma’am, Mr Bellerive is a rich and attractive man. Any woman would want to date him. Better yet, get pregnant by him.”

  ‘“Pregnant!”’ I shouted.

  ‘“Yes, pregnant!” That disgrace for a detective said, “If your daughter had Briggs’s bun in her oven, she’d be set for life. One little DNA test and she’d never have to work again. Briggs told me that she begged him to jump her bones, but he refused. When he turned her down, she started that diary out of spite.”’

  Lisa was so upset she was gasping for breath. I reached over and patted her hand, and poured her more coffee. She thanked me and took a long drink.

  I could feel my fury growing, and I had to keep my feelings under control. It was hard to believe people still talked that way in this day and age – until you heard it. And I heard it a lot from Greiman. He was a good old boy. He always sided with the most powerful person in any debate. It was the secret of his success in the Forest. There was no question who held the power in this contest. Lisa and her mom lived in what some locals called Toonerville, the working part of town.

  Lisa had recovered enough to continue her story. ‘That ignorant detective believed every lie Briggs told him. The two of them smeared my daughter’s reputation. Greiman told me, “A man in Briggs’s position can’t be too careful. He’s super-rich, handsome and connected. Women throw themselves at him all the time. He has to do everything he can to protect his reputation.”’

  Lisa was talking faster now that her anger had surfaced. ‘“And what about my daughter’s reputation?” I said to him. OK, I shouted it. I admit I’d lost my temper again. Greiman said, “Well, Briggs said your girl was kind of a free spirit. Very attractive. Any man would want her – but a bit of a … well, she got around, ma’am. And she wasn’t prejudiced, either. She liked white men, black men, Muslims.” Then he added, “Briggs said he isn’t gay or anything. He likes a pretty woman as much as any other man. But he was afraid her playground was an international destination, if you know what I mean, and not a safe place for a man like him.”

  ‘I had a hard time controlling myself,’ Lisa said, ‘but I realized I had to, for Rosanna’s sake. I asked him if he knew where Rosanna was. He said, “Oh, yes. I’m quite sure Rosanna has run off with one of those men – her night-time party pals – or maybe both of them. She sure did like her dark chocolate.”’

  ‘What!’ I said.

  ‘He did!’ Lisa said. She was defiant now. ‘He really said that. I told him, “Then why hasn’t she used her bank accounts or credit cards since she went missing?”

>   ‘You know what he said? He said, “She doesn’t have to. All a good-looking young woman like Rosanna has to do is put out a little, and any man would pay for her company. And the darker they are, the more they like blondes.”’

  I gasped in shock. ‘No! Not even Greiman would say that!’ Jace looked at me, and I instantly regretted my unprofessional outburst.

  ‘Oh, yes, he did,’ Lisa said. She was trembling with rage.

  Jace took control of the conversation and tried to calm Rosanna’s mother. ‘Mrs McKim, I’m sorry that Detective Greiman upset you. But your daughter’s case has intersected with one of my cases now and—’

  Lisa interrupted him. Her voice was so faint I had to lean forward to hear her. ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Please, no. You’re the detective working the Women in the Woods case, aren’t you? Tell me you haven’t found my baby.’

  ‘No, Mrs McKim, so far as I know, your daughter is not one of the young women found in the woods.’

  I heard those weasel words, ‘so far as I know,’ and hoped Lisa McKim didn’t. We still didn’t know who the other two women were, but their remains were too old to be Rosanna McKim.

  ‘Yes,’ Jace said, ‘I am working the case of the three women found in the woods.’

  Lisa let out a mournful wail.

  Jace interrupted it with, ‘Only one has been identified, and I’m almost certain the other two women are not your daughter, though their remains have not yet been identified. But Briggs remains a person of interest.’

  ‘I knew it! I knew it!’ Lisa said. She looked almost jubilant.

  ‘Mrs McKim!’ Jace raised his voice. ‘Listen and listen closely. There is not one shred of evidence to connect Briggs Bellerive with the disappearance of any woman. Do you understand?’

  She nodded yes.

  ‘Briggs is a powerful man and if you say anything now, he’ll walk away free. Do you understand?’

  Lisa gulped twice, then said, ‘I do, Detective. And I appreciate you and Ms Richman listening to me and taking myself and my daughter seriously. Now let me tell you something: I believe my daughter is alive and that beast is hiding her. You have to find her.