Night Prey

by John Sandford

  "Hey. Davenport. There's no toxicology," Greave said with asperity.

  "There's nofuckin toxicology. You look up toxicology in the dictionary, and there's a picture of the old lady and it says, Not Her."

  " "Yeah, yeah...."

  "She wasn't poisoned, gassed, stabbed, shot, strangled, beaten to death... what else is there?"

  "How about electrocuted?" Lucas suggested.

  "Hmph. How'd they do it?"

  don't know. Hook some wires up to her bed, lead them out under a door, and when she gets in bed, zap, and then they pull the wires out."

  "Pardon me while I snicker," Greave said.

  Lucas looked back at the apartment building. "Let me think about it some more."

  "But Cherry did it?"

  "Yup." They looked down the lawn. Cherry was at the other end, kneeling over a quiet lawn mower, fiddling, watching them. "You can take it to the bank."

  Lucas glanced at his watch as they got back to the car: they'd been at the apartments for almost an hour. "Connell's gonna tear me up," he said.

  "Ah, she's a bite in the ass," Greave said.

  They bumped into Mae Heinz in the parking ramp, getting into her car.

  Lucas beeped the horn, called out, "How'd it go?"

  Heinz came over. "That woman, Officer Connell... she's pretty intense."

  "Yes. She is."

  "We got one of those drawings, but..."

  "What?"

  Heinz shook her head. "I don't know whether it's my drawing or hers.

  The thing is, it's too specific. I can mostly remember the guy with the beard, but now we've got this whole picture, and I don't know if it's right or not. I mean, it seems right, but I'm not sure I'm really remembering it, or if it's just because we tried out so many different pictures."

  "Did you look at our picture files, the mugs... ?"

  "No, not yet. I've got to get my kid at day care. But I'm coming back tonight. Officer Connell is going to meet me."

  Connell was waiting in Lucas's office. "God, where've you been?"

  "Detour," Lucas said. "Different case."

  Connell's eyes narrowed. "Greave, huh? Told you." She gave Lucas a sheet of paper. "This is him. This is the guy."

  Lucas unfolded the paper and looked at it. The face that looked back was generally square, with a dark, tight beard, small eyes, and hard, triangular nose. The hair was medium length and dark.

  "We gotta feed it to the TV. We don't have to say we're looking for a serial killer, just that we're looking for this guy on the Wannemaker case," Connell said.

  "Let's hold off on that for a bit," Lucas said. "Why don't we take this around to the other people who were in the store and get it confirmed.

  Maybe ship it out to Madison, and anywhere else the guy might have been seen."

  "We gotta get it out," Gonnell objected. "People gotta be warned."

  "Take it easy," Lucas said. "Make the checks first."

  "Give me one good reason."

  "Because we haven't gotten anything unique to this guy," Lucas said.

  "If we wind up in court with a long circumstantial case, I don't want the defense to pull out this picture, hold it up by our guy, and say, Seeþhe doesn't look anything like this." That's why."

  Connell pulled at her lip, then nodded. "I'll check with people tonight. I'll get every one of them."

  Koop was at Two Guy's, working his quads. The only other patron was a woman who'd worked herself to exhaustion, and now sats legs apart, on a bent-up folding chair by the Coke machine, drinking Gatorade, head down, her sweat-soaked hair dangling almost to the floor.

  Muscle chicks didn't interest Koop: they just weren't right. He left them alone, and after a couple of tentative feelers, they left him alone.

  Koop said to himself, Five, and felt the muscle failing.

  A TV was screwed to the wall in front of the empty stair climbers, tuned to the midday news program, Nooner. A stunning auburn-haired anchorwoman said through a suggestive overbite that Cheryl Young was dead of massive head wounds.

  Koop strained, got the last inch, and dropped his feet again, came back up, the muscle trembling with fatigue. He closed his eyes, willed his legs up, they came up a half inch, another quarter inch, to the top.

  Six. He dropped them, started up again. The burn was massive, as though somebody had poured alcohol on his legs and lit it off. He shook with the burn, eyes clenched, sweat popping. He needed an inch, one inch..

  . and failed. He always worked to failure. Satisfied, he let the bar drop and pivoted on the bench to look at the television.

  "... believed to be the work of young drug addicts." And a cop saying, "... the attack was incredibly violent for so little gain.

  We believe Mr. Flory had less than thirty dollars in his walletþthat we believe it was probably the work of younger gang members who build their status with this kind of meaningless killing...." Good. They put it on the gangs. Little motherfuckers deserved anything they got.

  And Koop couldn't wait any longer. He knew he should wait. The people in the building would be in an uproar. If he was seen, and recognized as an outsider, there could be trouble.

  But he just couldn't wait. He picked up his towel and headed for the locker room.

  Koop went into the lakes neighborhood on foot, a few minutes before nine, in the dying twilight. There were other walkers in the neighborhood, but nothing in particular around the building where he'd killed the woman: the blood had been washed away, the medical garbage picked up. Just another door in another apartment building.

  "Stupid," he said aloud. He looked around to see if anyone had heard.

  Nobody close enough. Stupid, but the pressure was terrific. And different. When he went after a woman, that was sex. The impulse came from his testicles, he could literally feel it.

  This impulse seemed to come from somewhere else, well, not entirely, but it was different. It drove him, like a child looking for candy....

  Koop carried his newly minted key and a briefcase. Inside the briefcase was a Kowa TSN-2 spotting scope with a lightweight aluminum tripod, a setup recommended for professional birders and voyeurs. He swung the briefcase casually, letting it dangle, keeping himself loose, as he started up the apartment walk. Feelers out: nothing. Up close, the arborvitae beside the apartment door looked beaten, ragged, there were footprints in the mud around the shrubs.

  Inside, the lobby light was brighter, harsher. The management's response to murder: put in a brighter bulb. Maybe they'd changed locks?

  Koop slipped the key into the door, turned it, and it worked just fine.

  He took the stairs to the top, no problem. At the top, he checked the hallway, nervous, but not nearly as tense as he was during an entry.

  He really shouldn't be here... Nobody in the hall. He walked down it, to the Exit sign, and up the stairs to the roof access. He used the new key again, pushed through the door, climbed another short flight to the roof, and pushed through the roof door.

  He was alone on the roof. The night was pleasant, but the roof was not a particularly inviting place, asphalt and pea-rock, and the lingering odor of sun-warmed tar. He walked as quietly as he could to the edge of the roof, and looked across the street. Damn. He was just below Sara Jensen's window. Not much, but enough that he wouldn't be able to see her unless she came and stood near the window.

  An air-conditioner housing squatted on the rooftop, a large graymetal cube, projecting up another eight feet. Koop walked around to the back of it, reached up, pushed the briefcase onto the edge of it, then grabbed the edge, chinned and pressed himself up on top, never breaking a sweat or even holding his breath. A three-foot-wide venting stack poked up above the housing. Koop squatted behind the stack and looked across the street.

  Jensen's apartment was a fishbowl. To the right, there was a balcony with a wrought-iron railing in front of sliding glass doors, and through the doors, the living room. To the left, he looked through the knee-high windows into her bedroom. He was
now a few feet higher than her floor, he thought, giving him just a small down-angle. Perfect.

  And Jensen was home.

  Ten seconds after Koop boosted himself onto the air-conditioner housing, she walked through the living room wearing a slip, carrying a cup of coffee and a paper. She was as clear as a goldfish in an illuminated aquarium.

  "Goddamn," Koop said, happy. This was better than anything he'd hoped for. He fumbled with the briefcase, pulled out the spotting scope.

  "Come on, Sara," he said. "Let's see some puss."

  Koop had two eyepieces for the Kowa, a twenty-power and a sixty.

  The sixty-power put him virtually inside her room, but was sensitive to the slightest touch, and the field of view was tiny: with the sixty, her face filled the field. He switched to the twenty-power, fumbling the eyepiece in his haste, cursing, screwing it down. Jensen walked back through the living room and in and out of the kitchen, which he couldn't see. He settled down to wait: he'd begun carrying a kerchief with him, with just a dab of her Opium. As he watched her windows, he held the kerchief beside his nose so he could smell her.

  While she was out of sight, he scanned the living room. Huh. New lock.

  Something really tough. He'd expected that. She also had a new door.

  It was flat gray, as though awaiting a coat of paint. Metal, probably.

  Jensen had bought herself a steel-sheathed door after his visit.

  Jensen showed up again in the bedroom and pulled the slip over her head, then stripped off her panty hose. She disappeared into the bathroom, came back out without her bra. Koop sucked air like a teenager at a carnival strip show.

  Jensen had large, rounded breasts, the left one a bit larger than the right, he thought. She went back to the bathroom, came back a moment later without underpants. Koop was sweating, watched her digging something out of a dresser drawerþa towel? He couldn't quite tell.

  She disappeared again.

  This time she didn't come back right away. Koop, feverish, heart pounding, kept his eye to the scope so long that his neck began to hurt, while running through his mind the sight of her body. She was solid, and jiggled a little when she walked, not quite a roll at her waist, but a certain fullness, she had an excellent ass, again the way he liked them, solid, sizable. With a little jiggle.

  He took his face away from the eyepiece, dropped well below the level of the vent, lit a Camel in his carefully cupped hand, and looked down at the metal surface under his arm. He was not introspective, but now he thought: What's going on? He was breathing hard, as though he'd been on the stair climber. He was beginning to feel some kind of burn..

  Goddamn. He squeezed his eyes shut, imagined catching her on the street, getting her in the truck.

  But then he'd have to do her. He frowned at the thought. And then he wouldn't have this. He peered over the top of the vent, she was still out of sight, and he dropped back on his elbow. He liked this. He needed this time with her. Eventually, he'd have to get with her. He could see that. But for now...

  He peeked back over the edge. She was still out of sight, and he took two more hurried drags on the cigarette and ground it out. Another peek, and he lit another Camel.

  When Sara Jensen finally emerged from the bathroom, she was nude except for a white terry-cloth towel wrapped around her head, she looked like a dark angel. She wasn't hurried, but she was moving with deliberation.

  Going somewhere, Koop thought, his heart pounding, his mouth dry.

  She was bouncing, her nipples large and dark, pubic hair black as coal.

  She took something from the same dressing table where he'd found the jewelry boxþthe box wasn't there anymore, and he wondered briefly where she'd put itþthen sat on the bed and began trimming her toenails.

  He groped in his pocket for the sixty-power eyepiece, made the switch.

  The new lens put him within a foot of her face: she was trimming her nails with a fierce concentration, wrinkles in her forehead and in the flesh along her sides, foot pulled within a few inches of her nose.

  She carefully put each clipping aside, on the bedspread. He let the scope drop to her legs, she was sitting sideways to him, her far leg pulled up, her navel was an "innie", her pubic hair seemed artificially low.

  She probably wore a bikini in the summer. She had a small white scar on her near knee. On her hip, a tattoo? What? No, a birthmark, he thought.

  Or a bruise.

  She finished with the far foot, and lifted the near one. From his angle on the roof, he could see just the curve of her vulva, with a bit of hair. He closed his eyes and swallowed, opened them again. He went back to her hip: definitely a birthmark. To her breasts, back to the pubic hair, to her face: she was so close, he could almost feel the heat from her.

  When she finished with her foot, she gathered the trimmed nails in the palm of her hand and carried them out of sight into the bathroom.

  Again she was gone for a while, and when she came back, the towel was no longer wrapped around her head and her hair fell on her shoulders, frizzy, coiled, still damp.

  She took her time finding a nightgown, walked around nude for a while, apparently enjoying it. When she finally pulled a nightgown out of her dresser, Koop willed her naked for just another second. But she pulled the nightgown over her head, facing him, and her body disappeared in a slow white erotic tumble of cotton. He closed his eyes: he simply couldn't take it. When he opened them, she was buttoning the gown at the neck, so virginal now, when just a moment before...

  "No..." A single dry word, almost a moan. Go back, start over.

  Koop needed something. He needed a woman, was what he needed.

  Koop put Sara Jensen to bed before he left, developing the same sense of loss he always felt when he left her, but this time he closed his eyes, saw her again. He waited a half hour, looking at nothing but darkness, when he finally dropped off the air conditioner and took the stairs, he could barely remember doing it. He just suddenly found himself in the street, walking toward the truck.

  And the pressure was intense. The pressure was always there, but sometimes it was irresistible, even though it put his life in jeopardy.

  Koop climbed into the truck, took Hennepin Avenue back toward the loop, then slid into the side streets, wandering aimlessly around downtown.

  He ran Sara Jensen behind his eyes like a movie. The curve of her leg, the little pink there... Thought about buying a bottle. He could use a drink. He could use several. Maybe find John, pick up another eight-ball. Get an eight-ball and a bottle of Canadian Club and a six-pack of 7-Up, have a party....

  Maybe he should go back. Maybe she'd get up and he could see her again. Maybe he could call her number on a cellular phone, get her up

  .. but he didn't have a cellular phone. Could he get one? Maybe she'd undress again... He shook himself. Stupid. She was asleep.

  Koop saw the girl as he passed the bus station. She had a red nylon duffel bag by her feet and she was peering down the street. Waiting for a bus? Koop went by, looked her over. She was dark-haired, a little heavy, with a round, smooth, unblemished face. If you squinted, she might be Jensen, and she had the look he always sought in the bookstores, the passivity....

  Impulsively, he did a quick around-the-block, dumped the truck behind the station, started into the station, turned, ran back to the truck, opened the back, pulled out the toolbox, closed up the truck, and went through the station.

  The girl was still standing at the corner, looking down Hennepin.

  She turned when she sensed him coming, gave him the half-smile and the shifting eyes that he saw from women at night, the smile that said, "I'm nice, don't hurt me," the eyes that said, "I'm not really looking at you....ss He toted the heavy toolbox past her, and she looked away.

  A few feet farther down, he stopped, put a frown on his face, turned and looked at her.

  "Are you waiting for a bus?"

  "Yes." She bobbed her head and smiled. "I'm going to a friend's in Upper Town."

&n
bsp; "Uptown," he said. She wasn't from Minneapolis. "Uh, there aren't many buses at this time of night. I don't even know if they run to Uptown.

  .. Can your friend come and get you?"

  "He doesn't have a phone. I've only got his address."

  Koop started away. "You oughta catch a cab," he said. "This is kind of a tough street. There're hookers around here, you don't want the cops thinking...."

  "Oh, no..." Her mouth was an O, eyes large.

  Koop hesitated. "Are you from Minnesota?"

  She really wasn't sure about talking to him. "I'm from Worthington."