FATAL FORTY-EIGHT: A Kate Huntington Mystery (The Kate Huntington Mysteries Book 7) (11 page)

“I’m afraid so, my dear. At least until our visitors leave.” He pushed it between her teeth and tied it snugly behind her head. Then he backed away from the bed and reached under his jacket. His hand came out holding a small gun.

Despite the warmth from the straightjacket, a cold shiver ran down her spine. She knew nothing about guns. This one looked like a toy, but somehow she doubted it was.

He watched her staring at the pistol. “Snub-nose .38. Compact but quite lethal.”

Muffled ringing. He fumbled a cell phone out of his pants pocket with his left hand.

“It’s okay now,” he said into it. “You can call the agent…No, I am
not
doing anything illegal here.”

She snorted behind the gag. He waggled the gun at her.

“It’s like I told you, I didn’t want the media to find me again. They hounded me to death after Millie passed. I’ve moved all my personal stuff out now, put it in my car. So go ahead and tell the agent it’s okay, but tell her not to let them touch anything!”

A pause. “Can you try to find out when they’re coming? So I know how long I have to sit out here in the car.”

Liar!

“Thanks.” He disconnected.

He held the phone up in the air and smiled. “An old buddy from where I used to work, happy to help out a retiree.”

She raised her eyebrows at him.
Now what?

He interpreted the expression accurately. “Now we wait.” He slid his butt down the wall and sat on the floor. “You may as well get comfortable, my dear. Oh, and when our visitors get here, not a peep out of you, or I’ll shoot you. And then I’ll kill them.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

5:30 p.m. Saturday

Judith had called everyone back to the station to regroup. They were once again sitting around the conference room table. Only Charles was missing. Kate was relieved to hear that Judith had convinced him to go home.

“Tolliver found zip in the mug shots,” Judith told them. “So this guy’s probably never been arrested for anything major.”

“Nothing new from the canvassing,” Rose said. Judith nodded.

“I finally caught up with all my staff,” Rob said. “Two of them think they saw this guy. One left a bit early, saw him out in the parking lot, headed toward the building, around four-forty. The other saw him going into the trauma center a couple minutes before five. He was wearing light blue slacks and a navy sports jacket.”

Judith nodded again.

It dawned on Kate that the lieutenant already knew all this. Everyone would have reported whatever they’d found to her right away. This meeting was to bring everyone else up to speed.

She gave her head a slight shake.
Damn, my brain is tired!

“Are they sure it was this guy?” Rose was asking. She tapped the copy of Charles’s drawing sitting on the table in front of her.

“Liz e-mailed the picture to them.”

Kate hid a smile. Rob, the technophobe, would have no idea how to scan a picture and attach it to an e-mail.

“Pam, the one in the parking lot,” Rob said. “She wasn’t positive. She just got a quick look at his face as he passed her. Laura was much surer it was him going into the center.”

“Don’t tell us nothin’ new,” Mac grumbled.

“What he’s wearing,” Rob said a bit defensively.

Judith held up her hand. “What he was wearing yesterday. And it’s good to have witnesses who can put him at the scene. It’s confirmation that he is our perp.”

“And evidence to use in court,” Tim said. “So he was in the building for almost twenty minutes before he went into the center. Doing what?”

“Watching for the staff to leave,” Kate said. “If any of them had stuck around until after five, he would have been a no-show again.”

 Tim gave her an approving smile. “Most likely.”

“I’ve got a couple of my detectives at these ladies’ houses,” Judith said, “taking their statements.” She pointed at Skip and SA Wallace. “These two have been checking out recently rented apartments in the area. They’ve eliminated most of the new tenants. But there’s one place they haven’t been able to get into.” She tilted her head at Skip.

He started filling them in. Kate zoned out. She had already compared notes with him by phone a little while ago. She followed Tim’s line of vision to his partner’s face.

SA Wallace hadn’t said a thing so far, which was out of character. Instead she was letting the “civilian” give their report.

Kate narrowed her eyes at the young woman. She seemed to be hanging on Skip’s every word as he described their efforts to gain permission to enter this apartment.

“So we’ve finally got the company’s representative’s okay and we’re meeting the real estate agent there at six-fifteen.”

“Good work, you two,” Judith said.

SA Wallace tore her eyes away from Skip’s face and looked over at Judith. “We make a good team.”

Kate’s stomach clenched. The bitch actually had her hand on Skip’s arm.

Rob’s gaze swiveled back and forth between them. He cleared his throat. When Skip looked his way, he tilted his head toward Kate.

By the time her husband got Rob’s nonverbal hint and glanced her way, she had schooled her face into a neutral mask.

Skip patted Wallace’s hand and gently moved his arm out from under it. He lifted his wrist up, making a show of checking his watch. “Better get going.”

Kate stood up. “I’m going too.”

Tim also stood. “We might as well all go. The whole set-up sounds a little off.”

“That’s what
we
thought,” Wallace said. Her gaze was fixed again on Skip’s face.

She missed the glare Kate shot her.

Judith held up her hand again. “Me, Canfield and the FBI should suffice.”

Kate turned the glare on her.

Judith heaved a sigh. “Okay, you can come too.”

~~~~~~~~

A low buzzing sound brought Sally out of the half-stupor she’d slid into.

Her captor jumped to his feet. He pulled a small gizmo out of his pocket and grinned at her. “Transmitter’s under the doormat. I do believe our guests have arrived.”

He closed the distance between them in two strides and jerked her off the bed. His left arm went around her neck. He pulled her head back and put the gun to her temple.

“Not a peep,” he hissed in her ear.

Sally could hear people moving around on the other side of the wall. Occasionally a low rumble of conversation, the words not discernible.

She couldn’t help herself. She tried to wiggle free.

He tightened his hold, jamming the barrel painfully against her head.

Her cheeks were wet. She realized she was crying.

A voice that sounded like Kate’s.

A sob escaped Sally’s throat but was trapped by the gag. It came out as a low moan.

An insistent “Shhh” in her ear.

More rumbling that sounded like Kate, ending with “…kinda strange.”

Yes, Kate! It’s strange. Please notice that this place is strange!

The shuffle of moving bodies shifted, became fainter. Then the thunk of the apartment door closing.

“Shhh,” he said again and held her perfectly still for what felt like two full minutes. Total silence reigned.

Abruptly, he let go of her neck and circled around her. The gun disappeared under his jacket. He took her by the shoulders and eased her back down onto the bed.

He stared at the pillow on the bed for a moment. Then he propped it up against the small wooden headboard. “There. Now lean back against that, sitting up, to rest. That way the gag won’t get knocked loose again and choke you.”

She shook her head vigorously.

“Now I know it’s a bit uncomfortable, but I think this is for the best, my dear.” He sounded like a father telling a child she couldn’t have ice cream before dinner.

He patted her shoulder, then headed for the spot on the wall. His hand went inside his jacket, pulling the gun out again.

Sally didn’t know whether to pray that someone was still out there, or that they weren’t. She didn’t want anyone to get killed on her account. Her cheeks were wet again.

But nothing happened when the door in the wall swung open. He stepped through and it swung closed again.

Sally stood up and walked around the bed. She bent her knees, carefully lowering herself to the floor, and went back to prying bits of styrofoam insulation off the wall behind the bed with her toes.

When there was a decent-sized patch of wallboard showing, she pounded on it with the heel of her foot.

Please Dear Lord, let there be another human being on the other side of this wall!

~~~~~~~~

7:00 p.m. Saturday

The women were dragging their feet when the group re-entered the police station. Skip wasn’t feeling all that perky himself.

“All that for nothing.” Julie’s voice was dejected.

Best get her back up on that horse.

Skip stopped walking. Julie and Kate stopped too and turned back toward him. Lieutenant Anderson and SSA Cornelius kept going.

He glanced at his watch. “We’ve still got a dozen apartment buildings we haven’t checked for new tenants. Should be able to get them done before it gets too late to be knockin’ on folks’ doors.”

Julie groaned.

Kate scowled at him. He avoided eye contact with her.

His wife wasn’t exactly the jealous type
per se.
But she was painfully aware that women sometimes threw themselves at him. And when she wasn’t so tired and stressed out, she also knew he would never cheat on her.

He wasn’t the least bit attracted to Julie Wallace. He felt almost fatherly toward her. And Sally needed finding.

Just have to mend fences with Kate later.

He looked at Julie and gestured toward the door. “Come on. Time’s a wastin’.”

~~~~

Kate stood, hands on hips, and stared at the double glass doors by which her husband and SA Wallace had left the building.

What the hell just happened?

Usually Skip went out of his way to reassure her that he wasn’t interested in other women. But this time he’d ignored her completely and sashayed out the door with that girl.

Her stomach churned.

A tap on her shoulder. She whirled around.

Tim backed up a step. “Whoa, who ruffled your feathers?”

Kate opened her mouth, then closed it again. Tim Cornelius was the last person she could confide in.

“Nothing. Let’s get back to work.”

“I don’t know about you, but I need fuel. Chinese okay with you?”

“Whatever.” Kate stomped off toward the conference room.

8:30 p.m. Saturday

They’d gone back through the cases again–the five more recent ones in New Haven, the 2002 student, and the four older ones scattered around the region. Nothing new had popped out at them.

Somewhere along the way, the Chinese food had arrived. Kate had eaten absently while looking through the police case files.

Tim pointed to the last spring roll. “You want that?”

“No, take it.”

Her cell phone rang. She retrieved it from her purse. It was Rob.

“Hey there.”

“Any luck at that apartment?” Rob asked.

“No, it was empty.” Again she got the same nagging feeling she’d had at that place. There was something she’d missed.

“Anything more I can do right now?” Rob said.

She couldn’t think of anything. “No, dear. Thanks so much for all your help today.”

“Hey, I care about Sally too. I’ve worked on a lot of cases with her. She’s…” His voice trailed off. When he spoke again, it was hoarse. “She’s one hell of a lady.”

Kate’s stomach clenched, threatening to heave back the lo mein she’d just eaten. She swallowed hard.

“Yeah, she is. Goodnight, dear heart.”

A beat of silence. “I love you, friend.”

This time it was much harder to squeeze the words past the lump in her throat. “I love you too.”

“Call me if anything breaks. Goodnight.”

Kate disconnected and swiped the wetness off her cheeks.

“Your husband,” Tim said. It wasn’t even a question.

“No, Rob Franklin.”

Tim’s eyebrows flew up.

She wasn’t really in the mood to explain her relationship with Rob, but she figured she owed this man that explanation. She couldn’t leave him wondering if she and Rob were lovers.

“Rob and I have been close friends for years. Decades actually. He and his wife and my first husband and I, we were best friends. And then Eddie was murdered and his killer came after all of us.”

Tim tilted his head to one side. “I can see how having a mutual stalker could cement a friendship.”

She gave him a tired smile. “Thank you for understanding. Not everybody does. Rob and I have never been attracted to each other. We’re more like brother and sister, but the connection’s pretty intense.”

“I envy him.”

Kate had no idea what to say to that. She couldn’t be friends with this man. Because she
was
attracted to him.

The phone shrilled in the silent room. Kate jumped. Adrenaline shot through her system. She laughed awkwardly. “Well, that got my juices flowing again.”

Tim lifted the receiver, then hit the button on the speaker.

“Oh my God!” Jane’s voice, excited. “You’re not gonna believe this.”

“What?” Tim said.

“Okay, maybe I’m wrong. After all, this picture is twelve years old. I mean he was a lot younger then.”

“Who? What are you talking about?” Tim said.

Jane inhaled audibly. “Okay, I found two pics of the father. One’s from his New York driver’s license, and it’s kinda weird.”

Kate leaned over as Tim poked at his tablet. An image came up of a license. The man in the picture only vaguely resembled the one Charles had drawn. His hair was dark, his brown eyes hard behind black-framed glasses. A dark moustache practically hid his thin lips.

Not our man.

But why was Jane so excited?

Her eyes sought the renewal date on the license. The picture was only a year old.

The image on the tablet changed to a newspaper clipping.

“The second pic’s grainy, and it’s older, from eleven years ago.” Jane’s voice was excited again. “Take a look.”