The One That Got Away (25 page)

“Do you have a few minutes to discuss some issues?” Greening asked.

“I have more than a few minutes,” Zoë answered.

“Do you need privacy?” Jarocki asked.

“If you don’t mind, Doctor.”

“No problem.”

When the therapist returned to his room, Greening took a seat across from Zoë on the sofa.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’ve discovered there are only so many DVDs one person can watch back-to-back.”

The inspector smiled and jerked a thumb in the direction of the groceries. “Hence the shopping list.”

She smiled back. “Hence the shopping list.”

“Look, I know it’s tough, but it goes with the territory, I’m afraid. Just hang in there. Stick to the rules, don’t do anything reckless, and you’ll be fine.”

The bruising to her throat, which she felt every time she swallowed, guaranteed she wouldn’t be doing anything reckless. As long as Greening and the SFPD did their part and caught the Tally Man.

“Do you have everything you need for now?”

“Yes, your officer brought over the rest of my things last night. What’s the latest on the investigation?” she asked.

Greening’s smile fell away and she knew the direction of this conversation before it started.

“We have your place staked out should he return. Our people have been through your apartment looking for forensic and trace evidence but haven’t found anything useful.”

“I could have told you that. He’s careful. He doesn’t make mistakes.”

“He does—or you wouldn’t be here now.”

His answer took the sting out of her. “What about the investigation in Mono?”

“Sadly, that’s at a standstill. Whatever he used those sheds for, it wasn’t to bury bodies. The dogs found no trace. The forensic team did find some possible blood evidence, but it’s so degraded, it won’t be of much use. The detectives there are working with the people at the Smokehouse to see what customers were there the night you and Holli were. If he ate there, we could have a credit card record, which could lead us to him. Also, they might be able to track down a witness who saw something.”

It was maddening to hear. Everything was so tenuous, built on
maybes
and
possiblys
. She could feel her anger building up inside.

“None of this sounds like you’re any closer to finding him.”

“I know it’s hard, but this is how police work goes. If you ever get into it yourself, you’ll see this is the harsh reality of how it works. You don’t kick down doors every five minutes. There’s no instant gratification. It’s about long, hard, diligent work. We’re doing all that we can, but it’s going to be slow.”

If that was how law enforcement worked, then maybe being a cop wasn’t for her. It was why she liked her mall job. Something happened or it didn’t. When it did, the culprit was dealt with at that moment. The crime was solved as quickly as it occurred.

“So, do you have anything positive to tell me?”

“Yes, and it’s the main reason I came by to talk to you. I think we’ve found a connection between you, Holli, and Laurie Hernandez. Or at least the reason behind why the Tally Man targeted you.”

A chill ran through her. It served to cool her growing frustration with Greening.

“I’m sorry to say this, and I don’t mean any disrespect, but it looks as if he targets women behaving badly.”

Zoë flushed.

“Sorry, it’s just our working theory.”

She waved off his apology. “What do you mean by ‘behaving badly’?”

“Checking into Laurie Hernandez’s background, we found that she had a string of petty offenses to her name—theft, disturbing the peace, public drunkenness. And according to the witnesses I interviewed, she was hard to get along with. Things of that nature.”

Laurie Hernandez’s résumé sounded eerily familiar, but she saw one problem with it. “That wasn’t true of Holli and not of me, really. I had a clean record before the Tally Man.”

“Yes, but think about your night at the Smokehouse. You were being loud and raucous. The two of you were playing up to Craig Cook. The Tally Man would have witnessed this and found your behavior distasteful. You were breaking his rules.”

She sagged under the weight of shame, embarrassment, and guilt. They’d gone to Vegas only to let off a little steam. Yes, they’d been a pain in the ass with their antics at the Smokehouse, but they didn’t deserve to die for it.

“We were only passing through Bishop that night. How would he have targeted us?”

“He could have been in Vegas, but I don’t think so, seeing as he had an established place where he took you two. My feeling is that it was an impulsive move on his part. He was at the Smokehouse, and he acted.”

Impulse control. It seemed it wasn’t a problem confined to people suffering with traumatic-stress disorders. The what-ifs started building in her head. If she and Holli had behaved themselves, would the Tally Man have ignored them? If they’d taken a different route or driven at a different time, would they have avoided him altogether? If they’d driven at a different time . . . If they’d flown . . . If they’d stopped somewhere other than the Smokehouse . . . One what-if was harder to swallow than the others.

“If the Tally Man selected us based on our behavior at the Smokehouse, a few hours difference either way, and we would have never run into each other. None of this would have happened.”

She looked at her life over the past fifteen months and the shift it had taken from PhD student to mall cop, from content to miserable, from sociable to lonely. All of it was due to a random encounter. Tragic didn’t begin to describe it.

“Unfortunately, that’s how these things happen,” Greening said. “ ‘Wrong time, wrong place’ describes a lot of victims of violence and crime. It’s not right. It just is.”

“Do you think that’s how he got Laurie Hernandez?”

“Possibly. It looks as if he grabbed Laurie on her way home from work. There wasn’t an incident at her work that day involving her, which leads us to believe he selected her, then studied her before abducting her. The theory is that he encountered Laurie at some point, didn’t like what he saw, then decided she was next. I’m guessing when you escaped, he learned that he couldn’t be so impulsive.”

“Glad to have been of help.”

“Well, predators like these aren’t created perfect. They develop their methods from their errors.”

“What does this big discovery mean?”

“Obviously, we know there are other victims, and we have a victim profile we can use. We’ll search for missing women who have a history of petty crimes and poor social behavior and connect some dots to a suspect.”

“Sounds like a vague search.”

“It is and a wide one. The Tally Man isn’t confined to one location, as evidenced by the fact that he abducted you in Bishop and Laurie Hernandez here in the city. We don’t know if he’s California-based or national. So we are up against it. But again, this is how police work goes.”

“What I can’t wrap my head around is how petty this all is,” Zoë said.

“Petty—yes. Surprising—no. Name one psychopath who has a noble, cogent, or understandable reason for killing people. They’re damaged people inflicting more damage on innocent bystanders. We’ll never be able to understand it.”

Nothing Greening told her filled her with confidence. The Tally Man looked to be holding the SFPD and everyone else at bay. She asked the one question that mattered to her most. “How long am I going to be stuck here?”

“A week. A month. I can’t say.”

She shook her head.

“You’re here for the duration, until something breaks.”

“Let’s hope it breaks soon.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Marshall Beck let himself into Urban Paws for what was probably the last time. There was no coming back from what he was about to do. He’d miss it. Of all the jobs he’d worked, this was the most enjoyable. The charity performed a selfless service for the betterment of creatures that couldn’t help themselves. But for all his love of this place, it had broken his heart today.

That morning, Kristi Thomas had entered his office with a pensive look on her face and closed the door behind her.

“I need to have a word with you, Marshall.”

She took the seat across from his desk. Her hands were clasped tightly enough for the whites of her knuckles to show.

“I’ve got bad news. We conducted the last of our behavioral testing on the fighting dogs.”

He knew what was coming before she said it.

“Only three of the twelve dogs passed. Brando wasn’t one of them. Tom and Judy said you and Brando worked well together during the rehabilitation sessions, but Brando didn’t show a safe temperament during socialization testing. I know you really bonded with the dog, and you were hoping to take him, but that won’t be possible. I’m really sorry, Marshall.”

He knew this outcome was a possibility, but he’d expected Brando to keep his composure. He guessed the dog was too proud to play by the rules. He understood and respected him for it.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“Brando and the other dogs will be euthanized at the end of the week, in accordance with the court order.”

“Can the test be done again? Can I conduct it? Can I appeal the decision?”

“No, the dogs can’t be retested. You can appeal the decision, but I don’t think it’ll do you any good.”

“I see.”

“I know you had your heart set on Brando, but there are the other dogs. They’ll need loving homes with dedicated owners. I hope you’ll consider one of them.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said without any intention of doing so. “Can I still work with Brando until his time comes?”

Kristi smiled. “Of course.”

Although he wanted to, he couldn’t be angry with Kristi. She was following the rules. This was the fault of the recently deceased Javier Muñoz and a shortsighted judge. “Thank you for letting me know.”

“I know it’s of little comfort, but just know you gave Brando a taste of humanity in his final days.”

The conversation had stuck with him all day. Brando’s final days were a long way off. He would make sure of that. He let himself into the Assessment Annex. The dogs stared at him through the moonlit room. Were they aware that this was their last week of existence?

“I wish I could save you all,” he said.

He unlatched Brando’s pen, and the dog stepped out. He looped the slip leash over the animal’s head and walked out to his Honda Pilot.

Loading Brando into his vehicle, he said, “You’re safe. We just have one more person to collect before we can leave.”

Dr. Jarocki’s Napa house backed on to Alston Park, which was a nice feature for a homeowner but a terrible one for home security. It left the doctor’s residence open to a simple breach from the rear. Marshall Beck had scouted out his approach the night before.

He left his Honda parked in front of the house, with Brando inside. He’d be going in through the rear, but coming out through the front. Zoë was small enough to carry the half mile through the park, but getting her over the fence would be problematic. Audacity worked best. Just toss a blanket over her, carry her out to the SUV, and toss her in the back, the same way someone would handle a bundle of athletic gear. If he acted as though everything was normal, people would behave accordingly.

He’d been forced to wait for an hour before making his move. A Napa Police Department squad car was sitting outside the house when he drew up. He didn’t get the feeling it was a permanent fixture. The guy made no contact with the house and was more preoccupied with doing paperwork. This was for show. The cops hadn’t bothered with full protection, just periodic drive-by checks and drop-ins. He was proved right when the officer drove away.

He waited another twenty minutes to see if the sentry would be replaced. When there was no changing of the guard, he slipped from the SUV, leaving Brando inside, and circled around to the park.

He cut through the freshly trimmed grass. When he reached the fence, he searched for the
X
he’d spray painted on his first reconnaissance to mark the backyard. The last thing he wanted to do in the dark was leap into the wrong yard.

He found the
X
and pressed himself to the fence. It was six feet high and easy for him, with his height, to peer over. He surveyed the neighboring residences. Both were dark. He had to look three houses down to his left before he saw light spilling from the interior. It looked to be an early-to-bed crowd around here, for which he was grateful.

Jarocki’s place was more active. Zoë was in the kitchen, cooking from the look of things. Windows glowed in one of the bedrooms, but the drapes were drawn. Zoë’s activity in the kitchen meant he had to keep to the right side of the house to remain hidden.

He didn’t have to worry about security lighting. He’d checked out that situation during his recon. The man staying with Zoë had none on his property, although his neighbors did. Beck had tested the range by waving a branch at various points along the rear fence until he found the limits of the sensors. As long as he kept within a specific zone, he wouldn’t trip them.

He edged over to the right side of the fence where it intersected with the neighbor’s property, and climbed over in a single, deft move. He dropped to a crouch and paused, watching Zoë work. She was at the sink overlooking the backyard. If she looked up or caught movement, it would be game over for him. He waited until she turned away, then dashed forward.