Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Carol Ericson

  Rachel, behind the counter, waved and held up a finger.

  Kyra waited on the sidewalk like a buoy, interrupting the flow of the pedestrian wave that surged around her.

  Rachel stepped outside and locked the door. Turning toward Kyra, she dropped her keys in her purse. “Thanks for coming out. I’m doing okay, but locking up at night always got to me, even before my phone was stolen by a serial killer.”

  “I can understand that. Do you want to sit somewhere?”

  “Uncommon Grounds? They’re open until ten.”

  As they walked through the door of the coffeehouse, Kyra said, “You know, we think your phone was lifted here, maybe when you were waiting for your coffee.”

  “That could be, and it makes me feel a little better. It means I probably wasn’t targeted specifically, just a crime of opportunity.”

  Kyra’s lips twitched.

  “What?” Rachel nudged her arm. “Why are you laughing?”

  “I’m not laughing. Jake... Detective McAllister was right about you. You’ve got good instincts.” Kyra pulled out her wallet. “It’s on me.”

  When they got to the counter, the clean-cut guy from the other day took their order. Kyra glanced at his name tag. “Still here, huh?”

  “Ma’am?” Jordy tilted his head, his dark, rather close-set eyes making him look like a bird.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. You probably see hundreds of people all day. I was in the other afternoon and you mentioned you don’t always work at this store because you don’t look the part. It’s the hair.”

  “Did I?” His brow furrowed. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”

  “That’s all right. I’d like a peach iced tea and...”

  Rachel ordered her frothy concoction and they stepped to the side after Kyra paid for their drinks.

  Kyra tapped the counter that lined up against the window. “There are charging stations here and everything. We figured you may have set down your phone or plugged it in and forgotten it.”

  “I don’t know about charging it, but I do have a habit of carrying it in my hand and then putting it down, so it’s possible.” She sighed. “Anybody could’ve picked it up in here.”

  Rachel already knew about Kelsey’s connection to Melrose, as she’d had her nose piercing done by Gustavo in the shop, but she didn’t know about the Uncommon Grounds coffee cup in Marissa’s car. Of course, that cup could’ve come from a number of Uncommon Grounds sprinkled around the city.

  Rachel tugged on Kyra’s purse strap. “Can you get the coffees? A table by the window just opened up. I’m going to grab it for us.”

  Kyra nodded as Rachel spun around to nab the prime table. There seemed to be just as many people using this place as their office during the night as there were during the day.

  When her name was called, Kyra picked up both drinks and carried them to the table where Rachel was texting. “New phone?”

  “I gave up on ever finding my other phone, and I don’t know if I’d want to use it if I did.” Rachel hunched her shoulders. “Everything was backed up on the cloud, so I was able to restore all my stuff.”

  “The wonders of technology.” Kyra reached into her bag and pulled out the composite drawing of Sunny’s john. She flattened it on the table. “We have a sketch of someone of interest to the case. Have you seen this guy around here?”

  Rachel smoothed her hand across the face. “He kind of looks familiar, facially, but I’d remember someone with that hair...even here on Melrose.” She picked it up and held it close to her face. “Can I keep this?”

  “Of course. I have others. Ask Gustavo.” Kyra stirred some sweetener into her tea. “Tell me what’s worrying you.”

  Rachel recited some of her fears and tried to brush them off. But this hadn’t been her first encounter with the seedy side of LA and she’d been feeling rattled.

  They chatted for almost an hour until the talk turned toward Rachel’s future employment. “I already applied for the dispatcher job, and Detective McAllister said he’d make sure my app gets fast-tracked.”

  “That’s great. Have you followed up with him?”

  “No, do you think that’s okay?”

  “He’d expect it.” Kyra tapped her cup. “Do you want another?”

  “No, but I am going to hit the ladies’ room.”

  When Rachel left the table, Kyra picked up her cup and swiped her thumb through the moisture on the outside. The blue print circling around the cup listed the locations of Uncommon Grounds in the LA metro area. Her finger traced a line through West Hollywood and trailed to Studio City.

  Gracie worked in Studio City. Marissa, who had a cup from Uncommon Grounds in her car, worked in Sherman Oaks, next to Studio City. Kelsey had gotten her nose pierced here on Melrose, steps from Uncommon Grounds, and Rachel most likely had her phone stolen from this shop. Three of the four victims had a connection to areas with Uncommon Grounds. West Hollywood. Studio City.

  Kyra plunged her hand into her purse, which was hanging on the back of her chair, and dragged out another composite sketch. Why would a killer with a distinctive hairstyle like this visit a prostitute after one of his crimes? One who wasn’t afraid of being caught? That didn’t describe The Copycat Player. Did he even realize he’d been saying Gracie’s name?

  Someone touched Kyra’s shoulder, and she jumped and turned her head.

  “Sorry.” Rachel squeezed her shoulder. “I thought I was the jittery one. I’m going to take off now. Are you ready?”

  Kyra covered the sketch with her arm. “Actually, I’m going to hang out and make a few phone calls.” She scooted back her chair. “Do you want me to walk you to your car?”

  “No, I’m good. There are still a lot of people roaming around, and my car’s in a public lot.” She bent over and gave Kyra a one-armed hug. “Thanks so much. I’m sorry I’m such a wuss.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Call me anytime.”

  Rachel waved at the door and plunged into the steady stream of people on the sidewalk.

  Kyra placed the drawing in front of her again. Maybe he’d worn a disguise for Sunny. The hair. She covered the unique cut with her hand and looked at the face. The glasses. She blotted out the lens on one eye with her fingers.

  Then her heart slammed against her chest. She recognized that face. Had just seen it.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  As the meeting with Castillo wound down, Jake checked the time on his phone and saw several missed text messages and phone calls. He squeezed the back of his neck. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in days, but the hard work was paying off. The lab found male DNA on Sunny’s underwear, and they’d start running it through CODIS tomorrow. If Sunny’s john had been arrested for a felony before, he’d be in the system and they’d have their first real suspect.

  Captain Castillo went around the room, but everyone was too eager to get out of there to bring up anything else to discuss on the case. They’d have a whole new ball game tomorrow.

  As soon as Castillo adjourned the meeting, almost everyone in the room reached for their phones, which Castillo had demanded be silent for the duration of the meeting.

  Jake’s stomach demanded food, so he took a quick leave of everyone and headed to his car. He got behind the wheel and listened to his first voice mail.

  A sheriff’s deputy from the West Hollywood division had talked to a streetwalker who echoed Sunny’s account with her weird john. Jake called him back.

  “Yates, this is McAllister. What do you have on the hooker? Same guy?”

  “Sounds like the same guy. Same night as Kelsey’s murder, and she thinks he was saying a name but she doesn’t remember if it was Kelsey or not.”

  “That sounds promising. Will she come in and make a statement?”

  “She will, but I’m not sure it’s the same guy. I showed her the composite, and s
he said he looked similar but she can guarantee he didn’t have hair like that.”

  Jake ran a thumb along his jaw. “Different hair?”

  “And she thinks her guy had a mustache or some kind of facial hair.”

  “Give me her contact info, and I’ll have her come in for an interview and a session with the sketch artist. If they’re the same facially, he might be wearing a disguise. He’s being careful.”

  Jake ended the call and pulled out the sketch. He grabbed a pen from his console and drew in a more normal haircut for the man. The face looked even more familiar than it had when he’d first seen the rendering.

  Propping it up on his steering wheel, he went back to his phone and returned a call from Billy.

  “Sorry, man. I was in one of Castillo’s meetings. You know how that goes.”

  “Mind-numbing.” Billy took a sip of something. “We got a little more info on Gracie’s habits. She worked in Studio City. Wasn’t known to frequent West Hollywood or Melrose at all. So, that’s a blank. Looks like she’s missing a ring, which I think we can now deduce is his trophy.”

  “You’re right.” Jake drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Coffee?”

  “Huh?”

  “Any coffee cups in Gracie’s car, like Marissa’s?”

  “I didn’t process her car, but I can check on the photos. I did tell you there was no way to tell if Marissa’s cup came from the Uncommon Grounds in West Hollywood or some other store, right?”

  “Yeah, but I’d like to know about Gracie.”

  “On it. You still at the station?”

  “In my car going through my phone. I’m starving. You wanna get something to eat?”

  “I’m meeting up with Megan Wright tonight after she does the ten-o’clock news. Tell me that’s not sexy?”

  “Watch you don’t cozy up too much to the press.”

  Billy chuckled. “That’s exactly what I plan to do, my brother. If you can make an exception for a therapist, I can make one for a reporter.”

  “Whatever. Text me the info on the contents of the car, if you get it.”

  “Will do. Go eat.”

  Jake listened to one more voice mail, this one from Rachel Blackburn.

  “Hello, Detective McAllister. I just wanted to know if you saw my application come through for dispatcher. I—I just had coffee with Kyra, and she told me it was okay for me to check with you.”

  Jake sent Rachel a text, indicating he’d seen her app and flagged it for Personnel.

  Then he cranked on the engine with the intent to take Billy’s advice, and headed to an all-night diner not too far from his place.

  As he sat at the Formica table in a booth to himself, he placed his phone in front of him. He had one more voice mail, which he’d been avoiding. After he ordered some meat loaf, he tapped the final voice mail from the hospital where Matt Dugan lay in a coma.

  He listened to the news of Dugan’s passing and gulped down some water. Should he tell Kyra now? She’d seemed almost sad about Dugan’s condition, but she’d be relieved he wouldn’t be around to make her life hell anymore...or to tell her secrets.

  Molly, who’d been working at this diner for the past twenty years, placed his food in front of him. “I had the cook get you an extra slice of meat loaf, J-Mac. You look like you could use it.”

  “Thanks, Molly.” He dug into the closest thing he’d had to a home-cooked meal in weeks, savoring every bite until his phone buzzed again.

  He glanced at the text from Billy, who must be pouring on the cologne in anticipation of his hot date by now. He wiped his hands on a napkin and tapped his phone.

  He read the text aloud to no one. “Coffee cup from Uncommon Grounds in Gracie’s car.”

  Jake’s fingertips buzzed as he opened the attachment. He studied the photo of the inside of Gracie’s car, which had been left on the street near the house of a friend she was supposed to visit the night she was murdered. The coffee cup sat in the cup holder, a smear of pink lipstick on the lid.

  With a pulse throbbing in his temple, Jake dug into the bag he’d brought into the diner with him and stashed on the seat beside him. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper and smacked it down on the tabletop next to his empty plate.

  As he’d done many times before, he wrote three names across the top—Marissa, Kelsey and Gracie. They still had no ID on the first victim or a car, but he knew Billy would die trying to give that woman a name. Beneath Marissa’s name, he wrote that she had a coffee cup from Uncommon Grounds in her car and worked near Studio City. Under Kelsey’s name, he wrote that she’d frequented Melrose Boulevard where an Uncommon Grounds was located. Now, under Gracie’s name he could add that she worked in Studio City and had a cup from Uncommon Grounds in her car.

  The coffee place could link all three women, although they couldn’t be sure Kelsey went to Uncommon Grounds on Melrose. Same coffeehouse but two different locations—West Hollywood and Studio City. That wasn’t much of a link.

  He tugged on his ear. How had he known about Uncommon Grounds in Studio City? He scrambled in his bag for the altered sketch of Sunny’s client and dragged it out, placing it next to his scribbled chart of the three victims.

  His nostrils flared with the shot of adrenaline that rushed through his body. He’d known about Uncommon Grounds in Studio City because a barista in West Hollywood had told him about it.

  The barista who’d worked in both places and had an uncanny resemblance to the composite sketch.

  * * *

  “JORDY, RIGHT?” Kyra put on her most understanding therapist smile although her heart was thundering in her chest.

  The fresh-faced young man glanced up from wiping the counter, his eyes taking a few seconds to focus on her. “Yes?”

  “I was wondering if you could check in the back for more scones.” She tapped the glass display case of bakery goods. “It looks like you’re out, but I’m hoping you have some left. I’ll even take old ones or frozen ones, if you can heat them up.”

  His features seemed to rearrange themselves on his face, as if sampling a few expressions until he found the right one—friendly, mild annoyance. “None of our items are frozen. All fresh daily.”

  “Ah, that’s why they’re so yummy. Can you please check for me?”

  His brown eyes shifted around the mostly empty store, which he’d been prepping for closing. “I suppose I can check.”

  “That would be great. Thanks.”

  Jordy stashed his towel beneath the counter and made for the back.

  As soon as he disappeared, Kyra dashed to the other end of the counter, the pickup area, and hoisted herself across the counter to grab the cup Jordy had been sipping from for the past ten minutes.

  What if he saw his sketch in circulation and took off? She could at least grab a sample of his DNA before that happened. She dropped his cup into her bag, which she’d left gaping open and slithered back to her side of the counter, landing on her tiptoes.

  She turned to survey the other customers, all too busy packing up their gear, finishing their conversations and getting that last bit of work in before returning to their homes to notice her actions.

  She smoothed back her hair just as Jordy returned from the back empty-handed. “Sorry. We don’t have any scones left. Can I get you something else?”

  “That’s okay. Thanks for checking.” She pivoted, clutching her bag against her body and charging for the door. He’d already flipped the sign to Closed.

  The nighttime air hit her hot cheeks and she walked toward her car on legs she hadn’t realized were trembling. She dipped her fingers into the side pouch of her purse for her keys, sweeping from side to side in the narrow space.

  She stopped and zipped open the large compartment of her purse. Her hand clawed through her wallet, makeup bag, a small notebook and a bottle of ibuprofen. She shook t
he purse, listening for the distinctive jingle of her key chain.

  Panic gripped the back of her neck with a cold hand. Had she left them in Uncommon Grounds? She couldn’t go back there now. What if Jordy noticed his cup missing behind the counter? He’d link it to her request for scones.

  She took a deep breath, her gaze taking in the nightspots on Melrose still open on a weeknight. She could slip into one of the restaurants, call Jake and wait for him there.

  He wouldn’t be too thrilled with her amateur sleuthing, but he’d be happy to get Jordy’s DNA once she told him her suspicions—especially once they got the DNA from Sunny’s clothing tomorrow.

  Another thought seized her imagination. Jordy could have her keys. He’d been near her and Rachel a few times, mopping the floor and wiping down tables.

  She took a deep breath. He wasn’t going to steal her car, and he wasn’t going to wait for her at her apartment. He didn’t know where she lived and wouldn’t get it from her registration in the car. Quinn had cautioned her long ago to black out the address on her registration just in case someone did steal her car. With the blacked-out address, the thief wouldn’t know where she lived...and neither would Jordy.

  Unless he already knew. Had Matt really left those cards at her apartment and car?

  She placed a call to Jake and it flipped to voice mail. “Jake, I’m on Melrose, just left Uncommon Grounds. I had some suspicions about that barista who works there and I managed to take something of his, but now I don’t have my keys. Long story. Meet me at The Ripe Tomato. I think they’re open until eleven.”

  She ended the call and hustled to the corner to wait for the light to cross the street. When she got to the other side, she waited for a group of people leaving the restaurant and coming right at her. She stopped and moved to the side.

  As she did so, someone came up behind her. She felt warm breath on the back of her neck and then a sharp pinch into her flesh.

  Gasping, she spun around—right into the arms of Jordy.

  He grabbed her around the waist and draped an arm over her shoulder. “Whoa, too much to drink?”