In the Belly of Jonah (32 page)

Disturbed by the sick images of William Tell, I turned more pages, delving deeper into the sick psyche of Salvador Dalí.
Not a master, a monster
, I thought.

Then I saw it.

My heart slammed against my chest. The book was splayed open on the table, exposing Dalí’s “The Weaning of Furniture—Nutrition.” My head was spinning and I was sure I was going to throw up. There, in the picture in front of me, was a woman sitting up, her head slumped forward to her chest and covered with a white cloth. A rectangle had been cut from her center. Two wooden cabinets sat near the water’s edge. It was Jill. Or what de Milo was using Jill for as a model in one of Dalí’s sick paintings.

This was the answer.

The Venus de Milo murderer wasn’t just mimicking works of art. He was mimicking Salvador Dalí.

I fumbled for my cell phone. I had to call home, talk to Agent Kelleher immediately. He’d be home by now.

I felt a hand snake around my head and snatch the cell phone from my ear. For the second time in as many minutes, my heart slammed against my chest.

PANTING, STREETER ARRIVED AT
the CSU library steps.

The agent in charge had told Zack Rhodes he’d be right back after he tried to catch Dr. Bravo in his office. Zack told Streeter the professor wouldn’t be there. He said that Dr. Bravo never worked when he didn’t have to and only during those times he could ogle the coeds in the halls and on the green below his window. Sunday wasn’t one of the best traffic days around the Fine Arts Building.

Zack had been right, yet Streeter was glad to have had the office to himself in which to snoop around, despite the breaking and entering laws he had violated.

Back at the dorm, Streeter had found a note Zack had left on his door for him. There was a change of plans; he had to meet a student about a quick question on a homework assignment in one of the private study rooms at the library.

Having caught his breath, Streeter entered the library and asked the plump lady at the front desk where the private study rooms were. She explained where to find them on the second floor.

There were six rooms in the area where Zack had told Streeter to meet him. He knocked on the first door and a rumpled young man opened the door. Streeter could see the room was not much bigger than six by six and contained a small wooden counter and a desk chair. Not too comfortable, but soundproof. Papers and books were splayed across the counter and on the floor.

“Yeah?” the young man said.

Streeter waved. “Sorry, just looking for someone.”

The man shut the door without reply.

The next two doors were locked and no one answered to Streeter’s knock. The fourth door was closed and a light shown from beneath it. Streeter gave a loud rap with his knuckles.

A male student, half naked, peeked through the crack. A young lady’s voice sounded, “Who is it, Trey?”

“Don’t know,” he answered her. He turned to Streeter and asked, “What?”

“Nothing,” Streeter said. “I’m looking for someone.”

“Well, she’s already taken, dude, so take a hike.”The student hurriedly closed the door.
Kids
, Streeter thought.

The fifth door was open just a crack. Streeter knocked on the door but got no answer. The light was on. Streeter pushed open the door with his elbow, careful not to touch the handle with his fingertips.

He wasn’t surprised by what he saw. Maybe he would even admit to having had a premonition if it wasn’t so damned embarrassing. He preferred to call it an incredibly strong instinct.

Zack Rhodes sat in the chair, head and arms sprawled across the small counter in the tiny space. Streeter tapped his shoulder. Zack didn’t move. Slipping a finger beneath Zack’s chin, Streeter felt for a pulse. Nothing. A band was stretched and tied over Zack’s left bicep, a needle still protruding from the vein in his arm.

“Overdose, my foot,” Streeter said aloud. “De Milo, you’re slipping.”

Streeter punched 9-1-1 on his cell phone, waiting for the ring, when he saw the note beneath Zack’s head. The note was addressed to Streeter. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and slid the note from beneath Zack’s head.

He walked over by the window to get a signal and told the emergency response personnel to get an ambulance to the college library. Then he called Phil Kelleher.

“She home yet?” Streeter asked Kelleher.

“Liv? No, why?”

Streeter glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot. “No call?”

“Not yet,”Kelleher said. “But the note said she was going to the library and would be back in a couple of hours.”

Streeter’s heart pounded. He spun around looking down the rows of books, wondering if he would recognize her from the small photo Lisa had shown him at Liv’s home. “The CSU library?”

“Could be the city library,” Kelleher said. “Why?”

Streeter glanced down and read the note. With shaky penmanship, Zack had explained that he’d killed Jill Brannigan because he loved her and she didn’t love him back. Then he’d killed Agent Henry because she was too close to figuring it out. He was ending his life now because he just couldn’t live with himself anymore.

“Horse puckey,” Streeter said.

Kelleher paused. “Streeter?”

“Oh, sorry, Kelleher. I have another de Milo vic here at the CSU library. The victim left a suicide note. It’s coerced.”

“Who’s the victim?” Kelleher asked.

“Zack Rhodes,” Streeter said, plowing his thick fingers through his white crew cut.

“Who found him?”

“I did. I was just over in Zack’s room meeting with him and had to run a quick errand. Zack left me a note that he was helping a student in the library. That note wasn’t coerced. De Milo must have set Zack up, then when he got to this private study room the perp forced him to write the suicide/confession note.”

“Confession to what?”

“The de Milo murders,” Streeter said. “But he was forced by the real de Milo to write it.”

“How do you know it wasn’t something else? A wannabe? A copy cat?”

“Because Zack’s note mentions using heroin to kill Jill and Lisa. We haven’t told anyone about that yet.”

“Why couldn’t he be de Milo?”

“Because Zack left a clue, knowing I’d be the only one to understand it. He said—” Streeter paused, looking at the note. “‘I killed those girls just as surely as I was in the library Monday night.’”

“What kind of clue is that?” Kelleher scoffed.

“A good one. One that Jonah Bravo wouldn’t catch,”Streeter explained. “Zack and I had just talked about it. He swore he wasn’t in the library Monday night. I told him I believed him. That’s when he opened up, told me Dr. Jay’s real name was Jonah. Told me he got the drugs he sold around campus from none other than the infamous Dr. Jay.”

“Heroin?”

“You got it. As well as several others.”

“Need help?” Kelleher asked in his naturally tight tone.

“Yeah, I do. That’s why I was wondering where Liv Bergen was, just in case. Have Brandt check out the city library. If you’ll meet me down here, you can check out the CSU library for me while I’m with the paramedics,”Streeter explained, watching the bubbled lights of the ambulance from his perch at the second floor bay window.

“I thought you said Zack was dead?”

“He is,” Streeter said with a sigh. “Probably a hefty dose of heroin, just like the others. Needle’s still in his arm, poor kid.”

“I’ll be right there. Oh, and Streeter? Brandt’s been working the pickup truck all morning. When I called him about Jonah Bravo, he found a hit. He’s heading to a local judge’s cabin as we speak to pick up the search warrant for both the home and the vehicles.”

“He’s de Milo, and he’s a sick man. I’ll explain it to you when you get here.”

Streeter pocketed the suicide note, along with his hanky, and walked out to the landing to meet the paramedics. The EMT team hurried up the stairs, followed by a small crowd of students and a campus security officer. Streeter pointed down the hall toward private study room number five. Within seconds, the paramedics had Zack on a stretcher, first performing CPR on him and then strapping the oxygen mask over Zack’s nose and mouth. The commotion caused the occupants in study rooms one and four to poke out their heads, like prairie dogs in the spring.

The paramedics hustled Zack down the stairs, out the door, and into the ambulance, the onlookers gawking as they followed, leaving Streeter alone with the prairie dogs and a security guard.

“What happened here?” the portly man asked.

“Overdose,” Streeter answered. Turning to the three prairie dogs, he asked, “Any of you hear anything, see anyone out here?”

“Besides you?” the grumpy, disheveled loner asked. “Nope.”

Romeo and Juliet shook their heads. “Just you,” Romeo said.

The security guard asked, “Who are you and what was your reason for coming here?”

Streeter stepped aside and flashed him his credentials so the students could not see. He whispered, “We don’t want anyone to panic, do we?”

Security guard’s eyes widened as he took a deep breath.

“What’s your name?”

“Dan.”

Streeter patted his shoulder and slipped the credentials back in his pocket. “Will you do me a favor, Dan, and wait right here for Agent Phil Kelleher? Tell him I’m taking a quick look around the library and I’ll be right back.”

“How will I know who he is?” Security Dan asked.

“Tall black man with gray around the temples. He’ll be the only man in this place wearing a custom-made suit, probably gray or dark blue, and looking like he swallowed a prune.”

Dan nodded solemnly.

Streeter added, “And you can tell him I told you the part about the prune.”

Dan smiled and flashed Streeter a thumbs-up.

Streeter said, “And don’t let anyone in that room. Clear out the other rooms, and don’t let anyone down that hall until the techs come.”

“They’re going to dust for prints? The kid was murdered?” Security Dan whispered loudly.

Streeter glanced quickly around them and was careful to answer, “They’re going to make sure they check everything out, just in case. Probably just another overdose.”

Dan hiked his beefy shoulder to his ear. “What are you going to do? Kids.”

“Kids,”Streeter repeated. Security Dan cleared the two occupied rooms along the corridor and turned and gave Streeter the A-OK sign.

Streeter glanced out the windows at the sea of people who were gathering at the foot of the library steps and staring at the ambulance.