Before he could press her for details, her call went through. "Yes, I'm trying to reach Special Agent Hank Tobias. Do you have a number for him?"
"I can connect you directly to his office."
She covered the mouthpiece. "Oh, God. He's real." "So we're toast."
The call was answered in a crisp, businesslike manner. She asked to speak to Tobias but was informed that he was unavailable. "Can someone else help you?"
"Ms...." She strained to remember, and miraculously recalled the name. "Myrick."
"Please hold."
She looked across at Chief and shook her head remorsefully. "I'll take full responsibility. It was my mistake, Chief. I'll make certain they understand—"
A voice she recognized interrupted her. "This is Lucy."
"I saw Melina last night," Jem Hennings answered in reply to Tobias's question. "Why? What's this about? Has something happened to her? Oh, Jesus, don't tell me something's happened to her, too."
"We're not jumping to any conclusions," Tobias told him calmly. "I had an appointment with her this morning, and she failed to keep it. I'm just trying to track her down."
"You had an appointment with Melina? What for? What's she done?"
Sidestepping the question, Tobias asked his own. "Do you know where she might have gone this morning? We've checked her office. She hasn't reported in."
"The gym. She told me she was going to work out this morning."
"What gym?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know where her membership is."
After directing Patterson to get someone on that, Tobias turned back totem Hennings. "What time did you see her last night?"
Hennings divided a confused gaze between him and Patterson, who was speaking softly into his cell phone. "Uh. Let's see, about ten, ten-thirty. We had dinner at her house. Relaxed for a while. She was beat. After the week she's had. You know about my
fiancée
, Gillian, right? Melina's sister?"
"We had a lengthy discussion with Senior Corporal Lawson this morning."
"Oh. Then you know. Are you investigating Gillian's murder?"
"We just wanted to ask Ms. Lloyd some questions." "About what?"
"You haven't heard from her since last night?"
"No. I told her I'd check in on her sometime today, but we didn't make specific plans."
"Was she alone when you left her?"
"Against my better judgment. She'd taken a long bath and was going straight to bed. In fact, she ran me out so she could do just that. Personally, I thought she should have had someone staying with her. At least for the next few days. She's very independent, though. Wouldn't hear of it."
Tobias kept his expression impassive. Patterson ended his call and reported that one of Melina's employees had volunteered to call the gym she frequented.
"It's not like her to skip an appointment," Hennings continued. "She's a professional woman. Her business is keeping appointments. But I guess that after what she's suffered this week, she's not her usual self."
"In what way?"
"Absentminded. Distracted. She'll be mortified when she realizes she forgot your appointment. You might try calling her on her cell," Hennings said, trying ever so hard to be helpful. "I have the number."
"So do I." Tobias had called it several times but always got her voice mail.
"If you've called it, you probably got her voice mail," Hennings said. "It used to annoy Gillian that Melina wouldn't answer. She leaves her phone off so it won't disturb her clients."
"You seem to know her almost as well as you knew your
fiancée
."
"They were so close, to know one was almost to know the other. It was Gillian I fell in love with, but I'd already come to consider Melina my sister, so I want to help any way I can," Hennings said earnestly. "What's this about? Is she in some sort of trouble?"
Tobias withdrew a business card from his suit jacket pocket and gave it to the stockbroker. "You can help by calling me immediately if you hear from her."
"That's it?"
"For now."
"I'd like to know what's going on."
"We just want to talk to her."
"You'll stay in touch with me?" Hennings asked anxiously. "You can count on it."
Out in the corridor as they were making their way to the elevator, Patterson said, "Lawson wasn't exaggerating. He is a Class-A asshole."
"Who is tripping all over himself in his eagerness to help." "You think he was lying about leaving her house last night? Was he there this morning?"
"I don't know about that, but it wasn't him who slept in the guest room bed."
"How do you know?"
"He has light, wavy hair."
"Pardon?"
Tobias's cell phone rang. "Yes?"
"You're gonna love me."
"Why's that, Ms. Myrick?"
"I just spoke to Melina Lloyd."
"Black, six feet two inches tall, dynamite dresser. Her words. Gorgeous. Also her word. A Denzel Washington type." Melina reiterated for Chief the physical traits of Hank Tobias as described to her by Lucy Myrick. "She doesn't know Patterson because he's from the Dallas office."
"And when you asked your Patterson about his flight down this morning, he lied."
"So maybe I won't be sent to federal prison after all."
"I don't think so," Chief agreed. "Because our Tobias wasn't
that tall, and he sure as hell was no Denzel Washington." "Off-the-rack suit, cheap shoes. Not what I'd describe as a
'
dynamite dresser.
'
"
"As anyone with a personal shopper would know." "Would you please let up on that?"
"Your shopper knows her business." His eyes were on her butt. "Perfect fit."
The new things had been delivered a half hour earlier. She'd specified casual, so the saleswoman at Neiman's had sent two pairs of slacks, one skirt, and sweaters that would go with them. She had included a lightweight wool jacket, three sets of underwear, two pairs of shoes, and a nightgown. A smaller bag had been filled with cosmetics and toiletries, along with a cheeky note from the shopper that read, "Have fun!" She'd taken a quick shower and put on a pair of the new slacks, exchanging her Tweety Bird shirt for a silk and cashmere blend pullover sweater.
Disregarding Chief's compliment, she told him that Ms.
Myrick had promised to contact Tobias immediately. "She assured me that he would call, so I've left my ringer on." "What are you going to say?"
"I have no idea. I guess I'll play it by ear."
"Who knew about your appointment with him?"
"No one."
"Someone."
"Lucy Myrick called last night while I was in the bathtub. Jem and I answered—"
Their gazes connected like two magnets. "Hennings was there when the call came in?"
"He asked me later who had called."
"You told him?"
"I made up a story."
Chief's eye spoke volumes, but they didn't have a chance to pursue the conversation because her cell phone rang.
She checked the caller ID but didn't recognize the number. At least it wasn't
Jem's. She truly didn't know what she would say to him now. On the fourth ring, she answered. "Hello?"
"Ms. Lloyd? Special Agent Tobias."
"I apologize for missing our appointment."
"I arrived at nine."
"Too late, as it turned out."
"Are you all right?"
"I've been better."
"What happened this morning? I was in your house. I saw the mess, the blood. Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Colonel Hart? Is he injured?"
Her eyes sliced to Chief, who was following her side of the conversation. He questioned her pause by raising his eyebrows inquiringly. She shook her head slightly.
When she failed to respond to the loaded question, Tobias said, "I'd like very much to talk to you. Tell me where you are."
"Not yet. Not until you tell me why you're interested in Gillian's murder case."
"Because she was a patient of the Waters Clinic."
"The clinic has a lot of patients. None except my sister was stabbed to death this week. Why did she win that distinction, Mr. Tobias?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out."
"You must have a hunch."
"Not at this point."
"Something flagged your attention to Gillian's murder." He hesitated, then said, "A series of other crimes." "You believe Dale Gordon was a serial killer?"
"No. We checked that out," he answered evenly. "He relates only to your sister's murder."
"Then the common thread is that all the victims were patients of a Waters Clinic? There's your answer, isn't it?"
"It would be, except that they weren't all affiliated with Waters," he explained. "One was a patient of a private physician. One went to another franchise clinic with a reputation as solid as the Waters chain.
"One striking similarity between your twin's case and another in Oakland, California, is that both women had been artificially inseminated within days of their murder, and that the suspects took their own lives before they could even be questioned by the authorities."
"My God," she said, her voice quavering. "How many of these crimes are we talking about?"
He refrained from answering. Neither said anything for a time. Chief's laser blues were telegraphing questions.
Finally Tobias said, "That's all I can say for now, Ms. Lloyd. Meet me and Agent Patterson. Let us—"
"I tried that once. It didn't work out."
"Who came to your house this morning?"
"I don't know who they were. Don't you? Have you asked them?"
"Asked them?"
"When you arrived at my house."
"The house was empty, Ms. Lloyd."
"They were gone?" she exclaimed.
Chief sat up straighter.
Gone?
he mouthed.
Tobias was asking if the imposters were in her house when she left.
"Unconscious. On the kitchen floor," she told him.
He ruminated on that for several seconds, then asked her to describe the pair. She gave him a basic description of both, silently consulting Chief about height and weight. His nods confirmed her assessments.
"I was fooled. At first."
"And then?"
"And then I wasn't. At least I was wary enough to protect myself and get out of there."
"We found one hell of a mess in the kitchen and blood tracks on the carpet in the bedroom."
She explained about cutting her heel the night before. "Do you sleep with your feet instead of your head on the pillow?" he asked.
"Excuse me?"
"There was blood on the pillow in the guest bedroom. And one straight black hair. I presume both belong to Colonel Hart."
She neither denied nor confirmed his guess.
"I've read Lawson's case file, Ms. Lloyd. I know that Hart spent the evening before her murder with Gillian. Had they met before that night?"
"You have Lawson's case file? I thought he'd officially closed it."
"I officially reopened it."
"I see."
"What's the matter? Do you have a problem with that?" "I'll be in touch." She disconnected and flung down the cell phone as though it had burned her hand.
"What's the matter?" Chief looked as tense as a coiled spring.
"They won't let it rest," she said with perhaps more agitation than was warranted. "Thank God I had her body cremated. Otherwise they'd probably be exhuming her. Oh, and by the way, he knows you're with me."
"Who're you calling now?"
She had picked up her phone again and was rapidly punching in numbers. "Clunkers."
"Clunkers?"
CHAPTER 23
I've relocated her," Jem reported to Mr. Hancock. "My men are tracking her as we speak. Please tell Brother Gabriel that I've got it under control." Jem was a little miffed that he hadn't been put directly through to Brother Gabriel and was having to use Hancock as an intercessor.
"I'll inform him the moment his meeting concludes, although he won't be surprised to learn that things are back on track. He has every confidence in you, Mr. Hennings."
"That's the good news." Jem hoped that Brother Gabriel's confidant would pick up on his sad tone of voice. He did.
"There's bad?"
"I think it's something Brother Gabriel should be aware of and take into careful consideration before proceeding." "Go on."
"Christopher Hart is still with her." He let that sink in before adding, "They're presently sharing a room in a tacky truck stop motel. I'm sure Brother Gabriel will reach the same conclusion that I have regarding Melina's unsuitability for the Program."