Authors: Marilyn Campbell
"Is Selena the blonde you had dinner with?"
Drew nodded. "Teri told me not to go. I didn't listen."
"Why did she hit you?"
Drew narrowed his brows. His body wanted to go back to sleep and his mind was rapidly losing the struggle to stay alert. "Jealous... crazy jealous. Hates men. Got to warn Teri." His eyes closed in spite of his need to say more. Whatever he was on felt very, very good.
"Just one more thing." Parkins touched Marshall's hand and the patient squinted at him. "I think this Selena might have taken Teri somewhere. What can you tell me about Selena?"
The thought of Teri being with Selena roused Drew sufficiently to answer. "She's a model. Lives in Manhattan."
"Do you know her full name?"
Drew shook his head. "That's it. Teri said... changed it."
"You mean legally?"
"Yeah," Drew whispered before sleep overtook him again.
Parkins didn't have all the answers he'd hoped to get, but he had a hell of a lot more than he'd had an hour before Drew Marshall had come out of his coma.
His next stop was the studio over the Gambini garage. Since Selena was a model, he figured there would be personal information on her in the artist's files for tax purposes. That deduction earned him Selena's address and phone number. Within minutes of returning to the station, the computer identified her automobile. It only took a bit longer to discover Selena's former name.
Selena Lipschitz. She had changed it about a year ago, and Parkins understood the obvious reason for a model to drop that last name. Something told him there was more to it, though. He ran that name through the computer, but there was nothing at all—no police record, no fingerprints on file, not even a traffic violation. Nor did the local tax rolls show any property owned by her in either name.
With Captain Hart's approval, Parkins went after another search warrant—this time for Selena's Manhattan apartment. It was late Saturday evening when he and Detective Morris gained access with the building manager's assistance. The man was certain he hadn't seen Selena in about two weeks and later, the parking garage attendant confirmed the number of days she'd been gone. The timing fit perfectly with Drew Marshall's attack.
A quick tour of the one-bedroom apartment confirmed that Selena had an obsessive personality. Every inch of every room was snow white... except for one wall of the bedroom. There, with brilliantly colored paintings and black and white newsprint, they discovered Selena's tribute to Teri Carmichael Gambini.
And when they read the vow—
I AM THE PROTECTOR
—it appeared that they had the motive for two homicides and one attempt. Parkins realized he had misunderstood Drew Marshall's comment about Selena being jealous. It wasn't a man-woman problem in the usual sense. She was jealous of anyone who got close to her idol, Teri Carmichael.
All Parkins had to do now was find Selena and prove she was guilty of murder. Although he had no doubt that fingerprints picked up in this apartment would match up with those found on the steak knife and in the Gambini bedroom, that wasn't enough to connect her to the brutal deaths of Rico Gambini and William Kidder. Under his friend's direction, Parkins carefully searched the apartment for more solid evidence, but nothing turned up.
Until Morris reminded him how many criminals hide money, jewels, and drugs inside the refrigerator and freezer in ordinary looking containers, and suggested he check it out just to be extra thorough. There, Parkins found the link he'd been searching for—a pair of hands in plastic bags.
* * *
Teri had lost all track of time. Her watch had been taken away and the light was on all the time now. She couldn't even count days or hours by meals any more since it didn't seem that she was being fed on any regular basis.
After she'd been dragged back to the cage, Selena had forced her to drink her special tea, which quickly knocked her out. When she awoke, she was nude and the cell had been stripped bare as well. Only the bed remained—no furnishings, not even linens, were left behind for her to use to cover herself.
Since then she was fairly sure Selena had brought her a slice of bread and cup of water five times, and at least twice more she'd had to drink more of the tea. She hadn't dared refuse to drink it. Selena's crazed eyes promised violence if she disobeyed. Now hunger and depression had her dozing off without the aid of the narcotic. Her one chance at escape had failed, and it looked like nothing short of a miracle would save her now.
Her empty stomach grumbled as she stretched and instantly groaned from the pain that awakened with her mind. Time had passed but she was still hurting from her futile run through the woods. Every muscle in her body ached and one knee throbbed like a migraine headache. The discomfort was the only hint she had that only two or three days had passed.
As Teri sat up, she saw the same scene outside her cage as she had seen every time she'd awakened since her capture. Selena was sitting in the chair, hugging her doll and staring trancelike at Teri. Teri instinctively curled her legs up and tried to cover herself with her arms, but Selena didn't seem to notice. Teri had remained silent each time she'd awakened, for fear of attracting greater punishment, but she could wait no longer. Afraid of the answer, but needing to know what her fate was to be, she asked for something small. "Selena, may I please have my clothes back?"
Selena blinked as if returning from some distant place in her mind, then narrowed her gaze at Teri. The little girl answered, "No. You have to be punished for being bad. We could hurt you, you know, very easily, but we don't want to do that. People shouldn't hurt someone they love."
"You say you love me," Teri cut in. "But you're hurting me by keeping me here."
For a moment Selena looked confused, but instantly shrugged off Teri's accusation. "I told you how smart Juliette is. She thought about how modest you are and how much you like your privacy, and she decided on a punishment that wouldn't really hurt you."
The basement was warm, but Teri shivered nonetheless. She had not guessed that her captivity could get worse without adding physical brutality, but Selena had tapped into a different kind of weakness. First she had stripped her of her freedom. Now she was stealing her dignity.
"If you need to use the potty, you will ask permission, and I'll pass it to you. In another day or two, if you have been very good, I will let you wash and brush your teeth and hair. We'll see how it goes after that."
Teri was stunned by the degradation Selena's twisted mind had invented, but reminding herself that her tormentor was a homicidal maniac made her aware of how much worse her punishment could have been. Her stomach growled again, and hunger won out over humiliation. "Will you starve me also?"
Selena stood and, looking down her nose, spoke in a reprimanding adult voice. "Getting snotty will only make things worse for you." She turned and clomped up the stairs.
Teri barely had a chance to regret her lack of caution when Selena returned carrying a small tray holding one slice of plain white bread and a cup of water—just enough to keep her from dying of starvation for another day.
Without moving from her huddled position on the bed, she tried to make amends. "Selena, I apologize for... getting snotty. I'm just very hungry."
"You should have thought of that before trying to run away." She slid the tray into the cage and returned to her chair.
Teri unfolded her body and fetched the tray. Thirty seconds later, her meal was finished and another physical need became urgent. "I need to go." She saw Selena smirk at her and recalled what was required. "Please may I use the potty?" Selena nodded and got up to pass the bowl for the potty chair to her.
Teri's basic needs forced her to relinquish all semblance of modesty in spite of the psychotic eyes staring daggers at her.
Throughout the day, if it was in fact day time, Selena left her chair for only very brief spells. Otherwise she never took her eyes off Teri. Because of the lack of food and the remnants of the drug in her system, Teri had no energy to do more than lie on the bed. But even though she kept her back to Selena most of the time, she still knew the lunatic was there, watching her every move.
Teri fell asleep, woke up, and slept again. Selena brought two more "meals" of bread and water, but at least she hadn't forced more drugs on her. It wasn't necessary. Teri no longer had the physical ability to defy her. The only thing left to her was survival, and she was beginning to wonder how long that would be important to her.
* * *
Drew wondered what was taking the police officer so long. Sergeant Parkins had promised to come by the hospital to see him in a few minutes. It had been twenty so far. He remembered the officer being there right after he had come to, and he was fairly certain he had answered all his questions. What Drew didn't know was what had happened in the forty-eight hours since then. Had they found Selena? Had something happened to Teri? With every hour that passed, he had grown more impatient, until he had finally called the police station that morning and demanded that someone tell him what was going on.
He pressed the button to call the nurse. He knew his pain medication wasn't due for another hour, but his chest was killing him and the headache seemed to be coming back again. He needed to dull the pain so he could talk to Parkins without wincing with every breath. He also needed it so he could eat his lunch. If he didn't eat, they'd stick that nose hose down him again, and he couldn't stand that. A little voice asked him if those were the real reasons he wanted the medication, and he assured himself that they were. Needing a drug for pain was different than needing it to escape from reality, wasn't it?
This morning the doctor had told him he was doing very well for a man who'd been through what he had. He had already managed to walk down the hall twice without collapsing. And, at his insistence, even the tube in his arm was going to be removed tomorrow. He'd be given antibiotics and painkillers in pill form thereafter. But they wanted to keep him for another week of observation anyway. At the moment, he had nowhere else to go and nothing to wear if he did.
Ann, and her husband had been by and brought him a decent pair of pajamas, and a robe and slippers, but that was the extent of his wardrobe. He had given Ann his apartment key, since she'd offered to pick up some of his personal items, and he hoped she hadn't taken him literally when he'd told her there was no rush.
He was on the verge of calling the police station again when Parkins walked in. "You certainly look a lot better today," he said by way of a greeting.
"I'd be doin' even better if I knew Teri was okay. Did you find her? Or Selena?"
"I'm afraid not. Your doctor suggested I spare you any seriously bad news for another few days, but I think you might be able to help if I fill you in, so..."
"Spit it out, Sergeant. If you don't tell me what's goin' on, I'm liable to have a stroke from worryin'. Whatever you have to say can't be worse than not knowin'."
Parkins nodded his agreement. "I was in Selena's apartment in Manhattan. She hadn't been back there since the night she attacked you, and Teri seems to have disappeared at the same time. The fingerprints in the apartment are the same ones that were on the knife they took out of your chest and picked up in the Gambini bedroom."
"The bedroom? Well, that's possible. They
were
friends."
"Teri's bedroom was torn apart and it looked like she might have packed for a trip. Maybe in a hurry."
Drew didn't believe that, and he guessed Parkins didn't either. "Go on."
Parkins paced around the bed as he continued.
He described the all-white apartment and the tribute wall. "I don't think there's any question that Selena was more than just a devoted employee or friend."
Drew had had trouble breathing before. Now it was almost impossible. "You think she believed she was
protectin'
Teri from me? That's why she tried to kill me?"
"It's a little more than a deduction, I'm sorry to say. We found something else in that apartment—a pair of severed hands. They've been positively identified as Rico Gambini's, and the right one was used at the scene of Detective Kidder's murder."
"Dear Lord!" Drew muttered in shock. "She killed them both... to protect Teri? I wasn't the only one?" He pulled himself upright and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, preparing to get up and leave any second. "So? Have you arrested her? Where's Teri?"
Parkins shook his head with a frown. "I was hoping you might have an idea. The way I've pieced it together, Selena attacked you and went to the Gambini house. She either forced Teri to go with her or told her a story that got her moving willingly. Since her motive has been protection up to this point, we can hope she'll continue to keep Teri safe, but we have to assume we're dealing with psychotic behavior here and—"
"And the motivation could change any minute. Okay, what can I do?"
"We've issued a B.O.L.O., that's 'be on the lookout', for Selena, Teri and the Cadillac, but nothing's come in yet. I'd have to guess they're hiding out somewhere very secure and probably out of this area. There's no telling how far away they went, though. When she applied for her name change, she listed Philadelphia as her birthplace. I confirmed that and got her parents' names off the birth certificate. The father died thirteen years ago, and the mother sold their house four years after that, about the time she married a man named Thomas Nelson. Unfortunately, the data trail went cold from there, until Selena filed for a name change in Manhattan."