“It’s Jared Howard. He’s really good. If you want, I could give you his number.”
Rainey wanted everything she could get on this guy. “Sure, that would be great.”
Dara picked up a pen and a small rectangular card, from a decorative mug in the center of the table. Feme Sole provided blank “Call Me” cards for their patrons. While Dara wrote down Jared’s information, Rainey looked around the room again. It wasn’t wise to focus on one suspect until all the other options had been eliminated. In the corner, opposite Rainey’s table, a small dark man was watching her. When he realized she was looking, he quickly diverted his attention to the dance floor. Dara handed Rainey the card and dropped the pen back into the cup.
Rainey held the card so it was visible on the camera. She was sure a background check was in progress, and that was confirmed when Danny’s voice sounded in her ear.
“We’re running Howard now, Rainey. Turn back to the man in the corner. We need a close up if you can get one.”
“Thank you,” Rainey said, pocketing the card. “Dara, do you know that man in the corner over there?”
Dara followed Rainey’s gaze. It wasn’t hard to pick out a man in this crowd of women. Dara shook her head from side to side. “No, I don’t know him.”
Rainey stood up. “Well, I’m going to go get a better look at him. I just wanted to ask you one more question. I know you knew Lisa Jones. Phyllis told me. Did you also know Kim McNatt?”
Dara studied Rainey’s face. She answered cautiously, “Yes, I knew Kim, intimately if that’s what you’re getting at.”
Rainey smiled to ease Dara’s anxiety. “Just trying to connect all the dots. Both women were seen here with you, then, at this table?”
Rainey’s question was as much for Danny as it was for the woman in front of her. It didn’t help Dara’s apprehension.
“Do you think these murders might have something to do with me?”
“The victims were connected to this club and you are part owner. It’s just a piece of the puzzle.” Rainey started to turn away, but looked back at Dara. “Watch your back, Dara. He’s close.”
Rainey crossed the floor toward the man in the corner. He was on his cell phone, pretending to be in deep conversation, but he was watching her approach. A tall, statuesque, redhead, nearly half Rainey’s age, suddenly obstructed her path. She smiled seductively at Rainey.
“Hi, my name is Ashley.” The redhead’s drawl was pure central North Carolina. “I certainly know who you are. Could I interest you in a drink, Agent Bell?”
Danny said, in Rainey’s ear, “Oh good, lord. That woman is a lesbian? No wonder I can’t find a woman like that. They’re all at the gay bars.”
“Thank you,” Rainey said, “I appreciate the offer, but I’m a little busy right now.”
Ashley smiled and leaned closer, slipping a card in Rainey’s blazer pocket, and whispering in her ear, “I’d like to keep you busy for a couple of hours. Call me.”
The earwig erupted with different voices.
“Oh, good God,” was Danny voice.
Rainey was sure it was Sheila that said, “Steady, girl.”
James let out a quiet, “Oooooo.”
Paula was the voice of reason, “Settle down, boys.”
Rainey realized her camera was level with the Ashley’s cleavage. She smiled and leaned into the redhead, giving the boys in the truck a close up. More gasps and whoops quickly followed.
“I’m flattered,” Rainey said, “but I’m taken.”
Ashley was not fazed. With a big beauty queen smile, she said, “Well, variety is the spice of life. If you get tired of that little blonde, you give me a call. By the way, I’m a natural,” Ashley winked, “redhead that is.”
Rainey laughed and shook her head from side to side. “I bet you are, Miss Ashley.”
Ashley went back to a laughing table of girls. Rainey continued toward the corner. The guy wasn’t there. Rainey was alarmed.
“He’s not there anymore. Sheila, do you see him?”
“No, he was under me. He could only have gone out to the lobby.”
Rainey went through the doors and ran into Phyllis coming the other way.
“Phyllis, did you just see a guy with dark hair come through here? He was alone.”
Phyllis, ever observant, said, “Yeah, he’s over there by the window.”
Danny was in Rainey’s ear again. “Sheila, move to the balcony over the lobby. I want more eyes on this guy. Couple two, he’s right behind you, dark hair, khaki slacks, burgundy shirt.”
Rainey moved toward the man. He was typing into his cell phone and didn’t see her until she was right on top of him. He was about her height, clean cut, not bad looking, but his body language suggested he was timid. That was confirmed when Rainey said, “Hello,” and he nearly jumped out the window.
“Hel…Hello, Agent Bell.”
“You know who I am? Now, who are you?”
The guy’s eyes darted around the room. He stammered, “Mike, Mike Hopkins.”
Rainey took a step closer and Mike shrank from her. She pressed him, “Well, Mike-Mike Hopkins, why were you staring at me? You were taking pictures, too. Give me that phone.”
Mike handed over the phone without a word of protest.
Paula’s voice said, “He’s not our guy. Look at that body language.”
Rainey was looking at the pictures on Mike’s phone and becoming increasingly angry. Mike had been taking shots of Rainey since she walked in. He had shots of her talking to Katie and a very compromising looking picture of the buxom redhead whispering in her ear. She began to delete the photos as fast as she could.
“You’re just some creep taking pictures, aren’t you? What, do you go home and plaster your walls with them? Where do you live? I’m sending a car over there to see just what kind of a pervert you are.”
Rainey thought Mike might wet his pants. He started to cry. “I live in Wake Forest, but please don’t send a car to my house. My mom would kill me. I’m just a photographer, a runner really, for Cookie Kutter. I want to be a journalist. I’m studying at State. Honest, I just take pictures and send them to her.”
Rainey continued to delete the photos, more forcefully now. “Well, she won’t get these pictures.”
Mike wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. “Don’t be mad, okay, but I already sent them. That’s what I was doing when you walked up. I’m sorry. Are you going to arrest me?”
Rainey stopped deleting the photos. It was futile, now. Cookie would plaster as many shots of Rainey as she could in a thirty-second sound bite. Katie was not going to like the redhead shot, but maybe she would miss it cowering from the images of her flying on Cookie in a drunken rage. Rainey handed the phone back to Mike.
“Mike, if I see you again, you’ll be pulling that phone out of your nether parts. Lose Cookie’s number. Find a real reporter to work for. Got it?”
Mike snatched the phone from Rainey’s hand and was already moving toward the door, when he said, “Yes, ma’am.”
Rainey watched him leave the club. “Scratch that guy off the list,” she said, “He’s probably going to change his pants.”
James answered, “We’re running him anyway, just in case. Danny sent a car to follow him.”
Danny came on. “We just heard back from Brooks. Howard fits our timeline in San Diego. He moved here eighteen months ago. No criminal record. We’re working on his military records.”
Rainey looked out the window, turning her back to the room, so they couldn’t see her talking. “Danny, he knows where Katie is.”
“Already on it. His picture is being circulated to Katie’s detail and I’ve doubled the guards on her room. No one is getting to Katie. You just watch your back.”
Sheila spoke next, “Rainey, there is a man at the bar. He’s been watching you. He hasn’t looked away since I spotted him. Blue oxford button down, brown hair, your six-o’clock.”
Rainey turned, surveying the room.
She saw the man leaning on the bar. He had his head back, drinking from a beer bottle. He smiled at the woman beside him and appeared not to even notice Rainey, until he peeked. They always peek. His face slackened, the smile leaving him. He turned back to the bartender, and signaled for another beer. Rainey watched as he paid for the beer, and then left it sitting on the bar. He turned to the woman beside him. Rainey could tell he was asking the woman to watch his beer. She distinctly read the words bathroom on his lips.
Sheila saw it, too. “He’s on the move. Heading into the big room, I believe toward the men’s room. Agent Bell is following him. I’m moving… and have eyes on the suspect. Rainey he’s five yards in front of you, heading toward the stage.”
The crowd had thickened considerably. Rainey followed what she thought was the back of the guy’s head, but the strobe lights, firing rapidly, made keeping track of him almost impossible.
“He’s rabbiting,” Rainey said. “He’s not going to the bathroom, he’s headed for the southwest exit. Is there anybody on that door?”
Sheila’s breathless voice said, “I’m moving to the fire escape over the rear door.”
Danny’s tenseness was clear in his tone. “Slow down, Rainey. We’re moving people into position.”
Rainey pushed her way through the crowd. She could no longer see the suspect. “I’ve lost him, Danny. He’s too far in front of me.”
Rainey burst from the throng and saw the door just ten feet in front of her, the blue-oxford nowhere in sight. She ran to the bouncer at the door.
“Did a man just leave through this door in a blue button down shirt?”
The large woman shook her head. “Nobody’s been out that door in the thirty minutes I’ve been standing here.”
Rainey pushed the door open, surprised to see Roger standing there. He shrugged. Rainey turned back to the dance floor, quickly.
She shouted now, not worried about someone knowing she was wired, “Sheila, he backtracked. Find him. He’s headed for a different exit.”
Danny called out orders, moving his chess pieces into place. Every exit, out of the dance hall, was immediately covered by the undercover cops on the inside and uniformed cops on the outside. Rainey headed for the lobby. She finally reached the bar where he left his beer in care of the woman. The woman was still there, but the beer was not.
Rainey shouted over the din of voices and music, “What happened to the guy that was standing here?”
The woman looked puzzled. “Who? That guy? He just tipped the bartender and left a full beer on the bar. Guess he got what he came for. I saw him leaving with a bunch of girls.”
Rainey picked her way through the throngs of women to the door. “He left, Danny. He’s with a bunch of girls. He used them as a smoke screen. I’m coming out the front door.”
Danny motivated his troops. “Let’s move people. Fan out. Khaki pants, blue oxford shirt, brown hair. Find this guy. Rainey, don’t you go off alone.”
Rainey ran out the entrance and into the street, searching the crowd exiting and entering the bar. Two uniformed cops joined her, the description of the suspect loudly blaring out of their walkie-talkies. Rainey pointed west, toward the alley.
“You go that way,” she said to the cops.
Then Rainey turned and ran in the opposite direction. She stopped at the corner of the building, slowly leaning out until she could see the activity in the well-lit parking lot. A woman sat on the hood of a car, smoking a cigarette, while another stood in front of her, hands on her hips, domestic dispute in progress. A couple leaned against the next building, groping each other feverishly. Two cars sat side-by-side, windows down, with a woman in each. They appeared to be having a conversation through the open windows, rather than either giving up their independence and leave her car.
Roger and Curtis walked up the center of the parking lot. Rainey stepped into view.
“Did you see him?” she asked.
“No, he didn’t come this way.”
Rainey looked behind her. This guy didn’t just vanish. He was here somewhere. She jogged past the entrance to the other side of the building. She found the same results. No one saw which way this guy went.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Rainey said, in frustration.
#
Danny found her seated at the bar in the lobby, nursing a shot of bourbon.
“You took your earwig out.”
Rainey looked up at him. “Yep, needed a moment alone.”
Danny sat on the stool next to her, surveying the room. “I had no idea there were so many beautiful lesbians. No wonder you jumped ship.”
His attempt at humor fell on deaf ears. “How did that guy get out of here?” Rainey asked, followed by her knocking back the remainder of the shot.
“I don’t think it matters.” Danny stood up. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
Rainey followed Danny out of the bar to the van. The back doors were open. They stepped up and James turned a monitor toward them.
Danny pointed at the screen. “Watch this.”
The video started to play. It was Rainey’s perspective on discovering Katie in the bar.
Danny leaned in closer. “Don’t watch Katie. Look at the people at the table.”
Rainey directed her attention to the table and stopped on Jared. Before she ever cleared Gillian, and made her way to Katie, he was watching Rainey. He came in and out of the shot, as Rainey moved around, but he was always watching her. At one point, the camera caught him taking a picture surreptitiously with his phone. Everyone else’s attention was on Katie and Rainey, so no one noticed.
Jared’s expression changed when he was introduced to Rainey. He forced a smile and maintained it until Rainey’s attention was drawn back to Katie. The video continued for a few seconds and then James stopped it.
“That’s all there was of him on the feed. We have him on surveillance from the door camera leaving with his girlfriend right after you went out the back with Katie.” James hit a button on the keyboard and the image changed to the man in the button down shirt. “We also have a good shot of oxford man leaving. We’re running it through facial recognition software.”
Danny stepped away from the back of the van and Rainey followed. Lightning flashed far off in the distance. A storm was coming.
“Rainey, that’s not all we got on Howard. He was dismissed from the military for striking a female officer. They let him resign, calling it stress related. He did use several slurs against her sexuality during the assault.”
“Do you have enough for a warrant?”
Danny scratched his red five o’clock shadow. He’d had a very long day, as well. “I have a car on his house. His Jeep is in the driveway. Someone is in the house. The surveillance team saw the TV come on. Not sure if it’s him, but he lives alone. Could be the girlfriend.”
“No, Dara told me Chelsea would not go to his house without a chaperone, remember.”
“We can get a warrant to match his tire prints to the ones we found at the last scene. It’s a crapshoot though. There were so many tracks in there before we got to the scene. We can sit on him, wait for him to make a move, keep running his info until we find enough, but no, I don’t think I can get a warrant because he took your picture and he happened to live in San Diego.”
“Bring him in for questioning,” Rainey suggested. “He’s the weak partner, he’ll break.”
Paula waddled over to them, cell phone to her ear. She hung up and told them, “We have the connection. Brooks came in tonight and ran Howard’s name through her ‘magic machines,’ as she calls them. Howard was the tech the prison’s new software company sent to trouble-shoot the install. He’s been inside Central Prison. They’re not sure how he gained access to Dalton, but they’re looking into it.”
Danny sprang into action. “That’s enough. I’ll get the warrant.” He pointed at Paula. “Get the team together and coordinate with Detective Robertson on the arrest.”
“What about me? Wha
t do you want me to do?” Rainey asked.
Danny didn’t answer. Paula stepped away, as if she knew this wasn’t going to go well. It seemed the team had discussed it without Rainey present, which was obvious when Danny spoke.
“Go home, Rainey. I don’t want you on this bust. You’ve been drinking and you’re looking for a fight. Come in tomorrow and I’ll let you question him, but right now, you are to go home, or better yet, go stay with Katie in the hotel until we have him in custody.”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Danny?”
“No, I’m not, and if I see you anywhere near the bust, I’ll have you arrested. One of these nice deputies is going to follow you home. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
Rainey was livid. “I had one shot and a couple of sips of the first drink. You’re just looking for an excuse to keep me out of this.”
“And you gave it to me,” Danny answered, adding, “Now, go home and stay out of trouble. We know who he is. It’s over, Rainey. Just go home.”
Rainey stormed off in the direction of her car.
Danny called after her, “Don’t follow us, Rainey. I told them to pull you over if you did.”
Danny conveniently never said where Jared lived, so Rainey couldn’t go there ahead of them. She wasn’t going to the hotel at this hour. Katie was probably still passed out. She thought maybe in the confusion of the moment, while officers were moving to their cars, preparing to leave, she could slip out of the parking lot and avoid the tail. Rainey didn’t need anyone to follow her home if Jared was under surveillance. It felt like an intrusion and a punishment, one she did not deserve.
Rainey reached her car, pushed the button on the remote, and reached for the door handle. She pulled the door open, just as a man stood up from the shadows, behind the car. It happened so fast Rainey didn’t have time to react consciously. Her gun was in her hand and pointed at the man in a split second.
She screamed, “Freeze, asshole!”
Mr. Blue Oxford took several steps back, his hands flying into surrender position. “Whoa! Whoa! I just wanted to talk to you.”
The commotion at Rainey’s car drew other officers’ attention. In a flash, Blue Oxford was surrounded by cops, with weapons drawn.
Rainey Nights Page 27
