Brandi looked away, an angry flush heating her cheeks. ‘About two months ago.’
‘Why?’ he asked. Stevie had stepped back, giving him the lead.
‘He came home early one day. That damn doorman. Ratted me out.’
‘Mr Herrigan told Dr Bennett that you had a lover in the condo?’ JD clarified and she nodded angrily.
‘Like the asshole didn’t have his share of women. I mean Russ, not Herrigan. Herrigan couldn’t get any from a blow-up doll, he was such a troll. I knew about Russ’s women, I just didn’t care. But what was good for the goose wasn’t good for the gander.’ She faltered. ‘Or the other way. I guess he’s the gander. Anyway, it must have hurt, because you’re not sure it’s his body. Whoever did it must’ve worked him over good.’
‘But that wouldn’t have been you,’ JD said, and her cheeks darkened further.
‘No. I have an alibi. I’ve been here, shooting movies because the prick cut off my credit cards and cleaned out my bank account.’
‘Who might have wanted to hurt Dr Bennett?’ JD asked. ‘Besides you?’
Again she sneered. ‘Any one of the six women he was doing on the side. Russ had a real addiction to sex. Couldn’t get enough. But any woman who bedded him wanted his money. The guy sucked in bed. And not in the good way.’
JD had to fight the urge to clear his throat once again. ‘Do you have names?’
‘No, but Herrigan will. They all have to sign in with the little weasel. I think he used that sign-in sheet to get favors from Russ. Russ tipped him very well. I don’t think Herrigan ever had to make a threat. Russ took care of his buds. Just not his wives.’
‘So you get no settlement from the divorce?’ Stevie asked.
‘I signed a pre-nup.’
‘Sometimes the pre-nup allows for a settlement of cash or assets,’ JD said.
She glared. ‘I know that. Do I look stupid? But Russ wouldn’t agree to that.’
‘You married him anyway,’ JD said. ‘Why?’
‘Because he was
rich
,’ Brandi said, as if JD was the stupid one. ‘I figured I could sock away a nest egg to tide me over till I got a new sugar daddy, but the asshole found my stash and cleaned me out of that too. That’s why I’m doin’ porn. I got
nothin’
.
’
Interesting
. When she got agitated, Brandi had the same little twang that Lucy Trask did. Lucy’s was just more refined. ‘Where did you meet Dr Bennett?’ he asked.
‘At my high-school graduation party,’ she said, daring him to comment. ‘I was eighteen. He was visiting his parents and dropped by to see my uncle who was letting us use his place. I flirted, one thing led to another and we did it in my uncle’s wine cellar. After that, Russ moved me to the city, set me up with a real nice place. Took me on trips to his ski chalet and his beach house on Hilton Head and bought me presents.’
‘Where did you go to high school?’ JD asked and her eyes flashed contempt.
‘Little town in the middle of nowhere.’ She lifted her chin. ‘And I’ll never go back.’
‘Anderson Ferry,’ JD said quietly.
Brandi nodded grimly. ‘Like fucking Mayberry. Nothin’ to do but sit on the front porch in a rocker and scratch your ass. I was eighty before I was eighteen.’ She grabbed the doorknob. ‘I didn’t kill the sonofabitch, but when you find out who did, give ’em a big ole wet kiss from me.’
She started to step back, but JD put his hand on the door. ‘One more question. Did you know of any injuries Dr Bennett had? Any broken bones?’
‘Yes. He skied into a tree in Montana. Broke his arm.’
‘Scary for a surgeon,’ JD commented. ‘He needed his hands to function.’
She shrugged. ‘He got a good doctor. Sports guy. All the ball players use him.’
‘You remember his name?’ Stevie asked.
Brandi’s lips curved mirthlessly. ‘They must’ve done a real number on his face. You’re asking about scars, broken bones. His doctor was Hampton. Hodgins. Started with an H. Can I go now? I’ve got work to do.’
‘Yes,’ JD said, ‘but we’ll want to talk to you again.’
‘I got nothin’ to hide. Literally.’ She slammed the door in their faces.
Stevie knocked on Dorothy’s door and it immediately opened, the neighbor’s eyes wide. ‘Here’s my card,’ Stevie said, handing her one. ‘It’s got both my and my partner’s phone numbers on the back. If you see anything, hear anything, please let us know.’
Dorothy nodded. ‘Are they allowed to do that?’ she whispered. ‘You know, make movies like that, in an apartment? Next to decent people?’
‘They have to be licensed,’ Stevie told her. ‘We’ll make sure the right people check into them. Thank you for your help.’
They waited until they were back in the car before Stevie whistled quietly. ‘The doctor seems to have had quite a fascination with women from his home town.’
‘Lucy, Gwyn and Brandi,’ JD agreed. ‘Maybe there are more.’
‘I never would have guessed that Brandi and Lucy were from the same hometown.’
‘I thought they might be. Brandi’s voice has a similar cadence to Lucy Trask’s.’
Stevie frowned. ‘No way. Lucy sounds nothing like that woman.’
‘Not normally. But when she was upset this morning, she sounded a little like that.’
Stevie was regarding him with a mixture of respect and curiosity. ‘So I learn something new about you both. You’ve got a good ear.’
‘Thanks.’ He waited, but she said no more. ‘What did you learn about Dr Trask?’
Stevie’s expression became thoughtful. ‘That she can lose her composure.’
He thought of the tremble in Lucy’s voice when she’d called about the box. She’d been rattled, as anyone would be. But she’d kept her cool.
And she called me
.
‘She can and did. Why is that surprising?’ He sounded annoyed and didn’t care.
Stevie’s smile was knowing. ‘I’ve worked with Lucy on maybe fifty cases and I’ve never seen her so much as break a sweat. I’ve certainly never seen her upset until today. But she’s entitled. Most people would have cracked, but she didn’t. That she let you see her vulnerable, well, that’s just . . . unique. So, where to now?’
Mollified, JD started the car. ‘For now, let’s go check out the box in Lucy’s car, then get a warrant for Bennett’s condo. We’ll need something for the lab to do a DNA. Then we need to talk to his partner. He might know who wanted to see Bennett dead.’
‘My money’s on one of the six women he was cheating with,’ Stevie said. ‘Or the first ex-wife. A woman scorned and all that. Plus there’s the whole heartless thing. Ripping out his heart is a hell of a metaphor for betrayal. I bet Herrigan will sing like a bird when he finds out Bennett is dead. We’ll have those six names in ten minutes.’
‘I give Herrigan less than five to spill all.’ JD merged into traffic, thinking about Bennett and his heart, or lack thereof. ‘The missing fingers and the broken bones feel like torture, like maybe he had something someone wanted. But taking his heart . . . It was done post-mortem. That’s not torture.’
‘Like I said, it’s a metaphor. A statement. It’s personal.’
‘And it’s personally targeted at Lucy Trask,’ JD said grimly. ‘Why?’
‘She knew the victim, grew up in the same town.’
‘As did at least two of Bennett’s other women.’
‘But why would he hate Lucy Trask?’ Stevie frowned. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
JD sighed. ‘Unless she’s hiding something, like Hyatt said.’ He didn’t want to believe that. ‘She’s seemed upfront, though.’
‘Maybe she doesn’t know what she knows. Maybe Bennett didn’t either. Seems that a man who was that concerned about himself wouldn’t last too long under torture.’
‘He would have caved. Maybe he did. Maybe this killer just likes to maim. Bennett has no heart because he was a betrayer. But the tongue . . . That was done while he was alive. Without a tongue he couldn’t tell them what they wanted to know.’
‘Also a statement?’
‘I think so. He either said or didn’t say something that he should have.’
‘We need to know what that was. Especially if that mark was a number “I”.’
‘Especially if he’s picked Lucy Trask to be number two.’
Stevie sighed. ‘We’ve told her to be careful, and she’s not stupid. Nor has she ever struck me as a woman who would take unnecessary risks.’
‘No,’ he murmured.
Which would be good for her safety and potentially bad for me
. Because mixed in with the interest he’d seen in her eyes had also been an apprehension that he didn’t understand. It had almost bordered on fear. But that he’d deal with later. Number one priority was ensuring Lucy Trask did not become number two on a sadistic killer’s list. ‘But she’s his target.’
‘I know. We could put her in a safe house, but I’d rather have her close by to help us with the forensics.’
‘What about police protection?’
Stevie shook her head. ‘Not likely. If she were a witness against the mob for the state, then maybe, but not for this.’ She shrugged when his frown deepened. ‘Look, I don’t like it any more than you do. Let me call Hyatt, give him an update. Maybe he can give us a few more bodies to do some of this legwork so we can find this guy faster and Lucy won’t need protecting anymore anyway.’
Not likely
. ‘Ask him if Lucy can go with us to notify Bennett’s parents.’
Stevie considered it. ‘By now we should have the faxed affidavits from her hotel and the university saying she was in California the past two weeks. He might go for it.’ Her brows lifted. ‘And then she’d be with us.
Voilà
, police protection.’
JD inclined his head, saying nothing.
She smiled at him. ‘Way to work the system.’
‘I learned a thing or two in Narcotics,’ JD said mildly. ‘If Hyatt balks, tell him that three of Bennett’s relationships were with women from his hometown. There’s something there. Maybe Lucy can help us find it. Tell him she could be a consultant. At no charge to the department, of course.’
Stevie’s smile widened to a grin. ‘Now you’re getting cocky. She can be our native guide into the wilds of Anderson Ferry and point out all the lions and tigers and bears, oh my.’ She grimaced. ‘Sorry, Cordelia’s been on a
Wizard of Oz
kick. We’ve watched it four times in the last two weeks. I hear Munchkins in my sleep. Gives me a twitch.’
JD chuckled. ‘I doubt we’ll find lions, tigers or bears across the Bay Bridge, but at least Lucy can point out a place for decent crabcakes.’
Monday, May 3, 2.15 P.M.
Arms crossed tightly over her body, Lucy watched as Drew Peterson and the CSU team loaded her car onto a flatbed truck. They’d closed off the parking garage until the bomb squad had arrived, angering many car owners. But better angry than dead.
Luckily there was no bomb. The X-ray had shown the box to hold only a fist-sized mass of muscle, just as she’d suspected. Russ Bennett’s heart was now on its way to the CSU lab. The very thought made her sick.
That Russ’s killer had free access to her car made her far sicker.
How?
And why?
That her car was also on its way to the CSU lab was the icing on top. ‘How long do you have to keep it?’ she asked wearily.
‘A few days, maybe longer,’ Drew said. ‘I’m sorry, Dr Trask.’
‘Sorry for what?’ asked a low voice behind them and Lucy tensed, her heart starting to pound all over again. Fitzpatrick was back, standing mere inches behind her and a hard shiver prickled her skin. The man was so warm and she had been so cold, all day. She had to hold her shoulders stiff to keep from leaning into him and all that delicious heat. Wouldn’t be safe. Wouldn’t be right.
Don’t do it, Lucy
.
‘We have to take her car,’ Drew told him. ‘I’d be surprised if this guy left any fingerprints, but we’re going over it with a fine-toothed comb.’
‘I guess I’ll just rent a car until you’re done with it.’
Fitzpatrick cleared his throat. ‘I have an extra car that’s just sitting in my garage. You’re welcome to borrow it, Dr Trask, for as long as you need it.’
Startled, Lucy turned to look up at him over her shoulder. ‘You’re joking.’
He held her gaze, his eyes totally serious. ‘Nobody drives it. It just sits.’
‘I cannot borrow your car, Detective,’ she said, but even to her own ears she sounded unsure.
His smile was quick and easy, his dimple flashing. ‘Sure you can. No reason to waste your money on renting a car. Unless you’ve got money to burn. Do you?’
She hesitated, that dimple drawing her gaze like a magnet. A little panic bubbled up into her throat. She squelched it firmly. Just because she was attracted to Fitzpatrick did not mean she had to do anything about it.
It’s still my choice. And I choose no
.
‘You don’t even know me. Why on God’s earth would you trust me with your car?’
‘You have any traffic tickets?’ he asked.
‘Of course not,’ she said stiffly. ‘I don’t speed. You know how many autopsies I do on idiots who drove too fast?’
He blinked, nonplussed. ‘I imagine more than I’d like to count.’
‘Exactly. So no, I don’t have any tickets.’ She frowned when he pulled his keyring from his pocket. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Giving you the key.’ He pulled it off the ring, took her hand and pressed the key into her palm. ‘Your hands are freezing again.’
She watched as his hand closed her fingers into a fist around the key, the metal warm from being in his pocket, next to skin. His hand was temptingly dark against hers. He probably worshipped the sun. Skin cancer, just waiting to happen. ‘You’re crazy,’ she murmured, ‘you know that.’
His hand lingered a moment longer. ‘It’s just a car, Lucy,’ he said softly.
She looked up, found his gaze intense and her body clenched in a way it hadn’t in a very long time. It was just a car. He was just a cop. This was just . . . expedient.
And I am such a liar
. She let out a quiet breath. ‘What can I say? Thank you.’
‘I’ll take you to it later.’ He looked over at Drew. ‘The box?’
The box. Warmth fled, cold fear returning, the distraction provided by his car over.
‘Not a bomb,’ Drew said. ‘We’ll unwrap it in the lab.’
‘It’s Russ’s heart,’ Lucy said hollowly. ‘The killer got into my car in a public parking garage. How? And why? Why leave
me
the box?’