The Next Victim (28 page)

"Settle what? You've accused my brother of murder. And now you're asking to be paid off
not
to forge ahead with those accusations."

Carmen's smile was controlled. "I don't see it that way at all. I'm trying to save both sides--the Perez family as well as yours--the aggravation and expense of a trial. If we don't work something out now, between ourselves, you know damn well the court is going to try to herd us into a settlement down the line. Only by then we'll both have invested a lot of time and energy."

True, the judge would order a pretrial settlement conference. That was standard procedure. And by then, Carmen Escobar would have logged in countless hours of trial preparation. Better for her that she get her cut now, with relatively little expended effort.

In all fairness, an early settlement would be easier for Kali, too. But she didn't intend to settle. Certainly not until she knew more about what had really happened when Sloane and Olivia were murdered.

"They lost their child," Carmen said. "Their only daughter. She was the light of their life. Do you have children of your own, Kali?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"The loss of a child, no matter what the child's age, is a blow like no other."

"I'm not without sympathy," Kali said. "I can understand that Mr. and Mrs. Perez must be grief-stricken. But my brother had nothing to do with their daughter's death."

"It's not simply the emotional loss," Carmen continued, "as unspeakable as that is. There's the very real financial loss to consider, as well. These are poor people. Olivia was the first in her family to go to college. They were counting on her being there to help them in the years ahead."

"We don't know that she would have," Kali pointed out. "She certainly wouldn't have been obligated to."

Carmen's smile widened, revealing sharp incisors. "I think you'll find that most jurors are not sympathetic to that position."

She was probably right. Emotional arguments often had more sway with jurors than reasoned ones. Jury trials were a crapshoot anyway. In Kali's experience you could never tell what the outcome would be.

Still, Kali wasn't going to be railroaded into an early settlement. "I'm truly sorry for the Perez family's loss," she said. "But paying them is out of the question. My brother didn't kill Olivia Perez or Sloane Winslow."

"Keep in mind," Carmen said, "that in a civil trial the jurors don't have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt." She smoothed a hand over the surface of the small conference table. "And since John is no longer around...well, they're likely to think helping the Perez family is, to put it bluntly, no skin off his nose."

"That's a disgusting thing to say."

"It's the truth." Carmen leaned her forearms on the table. Her eyes were fiery. "I have no doubt I'd prevail at trial. And if we go that route, we're going to ask for a lot of money, believe me." She sat back. "I grant you, a trial will take a toll on everyone. I'm particularly concerned about putting Olivia's parents through that. So we're ready to compromise. I think they'd be willing to look at a lowball offer. Maybe in the ballpark of, say, a quarter of a million."

"Absolutely not." Kali pushed back from the table. She was seething inside. She'd settled cases in the past, but she'd never felt manipulated as she did now. "And you'd better look at the evidence again before you get so cocky about winning."

Carmen raised an eyebrow and smiled smugly.

"Do you really think my brother would kill his best friend's sister over a silly job?"

Carmen looked her in the eye. "Actually, I'm thinking maybe there's more to it."

"What do you mean?"

"It seems a friend of Olivia's was killed a couple of weeks earlier. A young woman by the name of Hayley."

Kali felt sick. How had Carmen learned about Hayley? "Nothing ties John to that murder," Kali said.

"Well, not directly. But Hayley's wallet was found in a Dumpster several weeks ago. It wasn't until after they had an ID on the body that they put it all together, of course."

"So?"

"There was a slip of paper in her wallet with the phone number for Logan Foods. I think we need to look at the possibility that it was Olivia your brother was after."

The thought had been lurking in the muddy depths of Kali's mind ever since she'd learned Olivia was one of the girls in the photo. But to hear it spoken aloud, especially by Carmen Escobar, sent ice water through her veins.

"Perhaps your brother was somehow involved with both young women. In fact, I've already got someone looking into it." Carmen smiled again. "It's a story that would certainly get media attention."

Kali was on her feet without realizing she'd actually stood. "You're way out of line."

"I'm trying to be fair and share information with you," Carmen responded. "In the hopes we can reach an amicable agreement."

Whatever happened, it wouldn't be amicable.

"I told you this meeting would be a waste." Kali grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

There was no sign of activity around Sloane Winslow's house when Kali pulled up in front. She would have loved to get inside again, but she was afraid to push her luck. Instead, she headed next door to Janet Fisher's.

Despite the late afternoon heat, a slender boy in his midteens was shooting baskets in the driveway.

"Is your mom home?" Kali asked.

"She won't be back until later."

Kali stepped to the side so the sun wasn't in her eyes. "You on the team?"

The boy laughed with good-natured humor. "Do I look like a player to you?"

He had a point. He was only a couple of inches taller than Kali, and his gait was awkward.

"You never know," she said.

He dribbled the ball in a zigzag, then tried a shot at the basket. It circled the rim before rolling off. He gave her a cockeyed grin. "See what I mean?"

"No one's a hundred percent all the time."

He laughed again. "I'd settle for half the time."

The sun was relentless. She gave him credit for being out there practicing. "My name is Kali," she said. "I'm a friend of Sloane Winslow's brother." It was easier to give the boy the same story she'd told his mother. And it wasn't exactly untrue.

"I'm Mitch."

"It must have been kind of upsetting having a double murder next door," she said, sidestepping into the questions she really wanted to ask.

He dribbled again, without looking at her. "Freaky as hell."

"I understand you knew Olivia Perez."

"Who told you that?"

"Your mom."

"Figures." He went for a drop shot and missed.

"Did you?"

"Know her?" He shrugged. "Some."

"I got the impression from your mom that Olivia wasn't very friendly."

"My mother has her own perspective on life. People are supposed to behave the way she thinks they should."

"Sounds like a lot of mothers."

"Yeah, I guess. We had this party here over the summer. It was my mom's idea really. Like something out of the seventies. She invited Olivia, then got all bent out of shape when she didn't come. Can you blame Olivia? Jeesh. Why would she want to hang out with a bunch of dweebie high school kids?"

"Because it might be fun?"

"It wasn't that kind of party, trust me." He shot another basket and this time it went in. "Besides, she had better things to do."

"It sounds like you
did
know her."

Another shrug. "Not really. I went over there a couple of times. We talked about movies and stuff. No biggie."

"Did you ever meet any of her friends?" Kali asked.

"A couple of them. It's not like I was over there that much."

Kali showed him the photo. "Do you recognize these other girls?"

"Yeah. Well, one of them. Her." He pointed to the photo.

"Crystal?"

"Yeah, I think that's her name."

"What can you tell me about her?"

"Not much." Mitch spun the ball between his hands. "She's my age, sixteen. Only she dropped out of school."

"Doesn't seem like someone as smart and focused as Olivia would have much in common with a younger high school dropout."

Mitch looked faintly amused. "There was another side to Olivia," he said knowingly.

"What do you mean?"

"She got around." Mitch looked over his shoulder at Kali, then sank another basket. "Like the party thing. She told me about some big shindig she was at--waiters walking around with free drinks and plates of fancy crap like stuffed mushrooms and skewered shrimp. That's what I meant about her not wanting to come to our stupid party."

"How'd she get invited to parties like that?" Kali asked. She'd considered the possibility that Olivia was stripping and that's how she'd met Hayley. But maybe she was doing more than stripping. Maybe all the girls were.

Mitch shrugged. "That wasn't anything I'd ask her."

"What about Crystal? Did she go to those parties, too?"

"Probably. They were both, you know--" Mitch reddened, but Kali couldn't tell if it was the heat or a blush--"kind of out there."

"Do you know how I might find Crystal?"

"Nope. Except, like I told Mrs. Winslow, I think she'd sometimes grab a free meal at that youth shelter downtown, Sunshine House."

"Like you told..." Kali wasn't sure she understood. "Sloane Winslow was asking about Crystal?"

"Yeah. I guess Crystal and Olivia had a falling-out or something. Crystal stopped coming around. Seemed weird that Mrs. Winslow would care, but she was really worried."

"When was this?"

"I don't know, maybe a week before the murders."

Sloane and John, both. Why the interest in Crystal? "Thanks," Kali said. "Take care out here in the heat."

Mitch rolled his eyes at her. "I think I know that."

When Kali arrived back at John's with supplies for dinner, she found Sabrina sitting woodenly on the sofa in the living room, staring at the wall. A half-empty glass, which Kali instinctively knew held gin and tonic, rested on the coffee table in front of her.

"You realize you're making a habit of this?" Kali asked.

"A habit of what?"

"Hitting the bottle early."

Sabrina looked up and Kali saw that she'd been crying.

"What's wrong?" Kali asked.

"You were right about the porn on John's computer. It's like that's all he did on the Internet recently."

Kali nodded, recalling the disgust she'd felt when she'd discovered the Web sites. On the other hand, Sabrina's distress seemed a bit over the top. "I know you don't want to think badly of him," Kali told her, "but John was an adult. It's not like he did anything really wrong."

"It's not just that." Sabrina stood, steadier on her feet than Kali would have predicted. "Follow me. I want to show you something."

She was no longer tearful. As she sat down at the computer, Sabrina seemed more frightened than anything. Her hand shook as she clicked the mouse. Whereas Kali had seen just enough flesh to get the gist of John's activities, her sister had apparently watched some of the downloaded videos.

"It takes a minute or so to load," she said.

"Sabrina, I'm not interested in watching this stuff."

"Just wait. You will be."

The video started. There was no sound aside from background music, but the picture quality was better than Kali expected.

The scene opened with two girls in a bedroom, or maybe a dorm room. The redhead was lying on a bed, leafing through a magazine, which hid her face, and listening to music on her MP3 player. The other, a slender blonde, was at a desk, writing. Kali thought at first that they hadn't known they were being filmed, but it soon became apparent that the action was staged. The blonde stood and stretched provocatively, removing her sweater to reveal a black, low-cut lace bra. More stretching and arching for the viewfinder, and then she sauntered over and sat on the edge of her friend's bed, gesturing to her shoulders as though she needed them rubbed.

"Can't you fast-forward?" Kali asked.

"Hold on."

Kali crossed her arms. At least she wasn't watching close-ups of hideously large male organs being worked on by naked women--the type of porn that sometimes made it past her spam filter and showed up in her in-box. Still, she wished Sabrina would just tell her what she'd seen that was so upsetting.

Ignored by her friend, the blonde pouted for a moment, then gently poked the other girl in the ribs to get her attention, causing the girl's robe to fall open. Kali's eyes were immediately drawn to the bare flesh and very full breasts, so it took her a moment to see that the girl had dropped the magazine, revealing her face. And another moment before she recognized who it was.

"That's her, isn't it?" Sabrina asked. "That's Olivia's dead friend, Hayley."

A horrible burning sensation was building in Kali's chest. "Can you pause it?"

"I don't think so. But it's her, I'm sure."

The two women on screen were now busily undressing and caressing one another. The camera zoomed in closer.

"Look," Sabrina said, "there's a shot of her face again."

"It does look like her." Kali had seen enough. "Close it down."

"Not yet." Sabrina tapped her finger, as the action on the screen progressed. Both women were naked now, and they turned to look as a third girl entered the room.

Kali recognized her immediately.

Olivia Perez.

Now she understood why Sabrina had reacted as she had. It wasn't that John sometimes looked at pornography. It was that he'd been watching the naked sex antics of two women he was suspected of murdering.

"Looks like they're from the same person," Michelle said, opening the cover of the book of poetry she'd found near Hayley's bed. "Same quote, same handwriting and signature. Of course, if the girls were friends, I guess it's not so odd." She dropped the little book into an evidence bag and handed it to Erling to label. "Maybe they were dating the same two-timing guy or they have a mutual friend who's short on gift ideas."

Erling looked around the tiny bedroom. The warrant had come through, but so far they'd learned nothing useful from their search. Hayley Hendrix had a thing for eye shadow and nail polish--she had enough tubes and brushes and bottles to open her own beauty shop. She liked blueberry yogurt, rocky road ice cream, and Honey Nut Cheerios. She had $400 in a checking account and $3,300 in a savings account. No sign of drugs or other illegal activities. No computer, letters, or address book.