Crushed

by Kate Watterson

  It was a hope.

  “I’m afraid not.” Mr. Nichols looked like he wanted to escape as soon as possible and she couldn’t blame him. “I was just looking for the cat. Most of our windows face the back of the house. You know that since your house is just like ours. My wife spoke to him. You could ask her. There seem to be some unfamiliar vehicles parked close by, and I mean all the time. I’ll be blunt and just ask, is everything okay? Since the smoke bomb thing…”

  She didn’t blame him. In this quiet neighborhood, he probably wasn’t the only one who had noticed.

  “Police officers.” She owed him that. “Keeping you safe.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t look happy. “So there is a problem.”

  “We don’t know if there is or not, so we are being cautious. Just lock your doors, since you should anyway. Thank you.”

  “No problem.” He left and she closed the door and handed Jason the vase. “I know you’re going to take this from me anyway. Help yourself.”

  “We need gloves. It is possible to lift a fingerprint from the envelope or card.”

  “With gloves we could smudge it.”

  “Then let’s not open the card.”

  She wanted to wait as well. “The vase is going to have Nichols’ prints all over it, and probably those of his wife, now yours and mine and whoever put in the flowers at the shop and the delivery person, so that is kind of a doubtful option. The card might be a possibility, since it isn’t opened. He was very careful with the picture of the black roses so we got nothing. Besides, if he called it in, the florist probably printed the message.”

  “Called it in? No way. He’d never risk a credit card.”

  That was probably true. Ellie agreed.

  “I think we should take it to the lab first and let them deal with it. I want a print from this jerk. I have a feeling that the handwriting is going to be familiar.” Jason looked vaguely ridiculous holding a vase of yellow roses with a definite scowl on his face. He hadn’t shaved in two days, so that made it more amusing. She could use that twinge of amusement.

  She thought the same thing about a viable fingerprint. “It won’t help unless we have a suspect, but not a bad idea. Though if he’s in the database for a previous crime, we would at least have a name. I bet it isn’t Jack or Ted either.”

  “It will help when we make an arrest.”

  “You are so much more confident than I am.”

  “Between you, me, and Grasso? Oh yeah, we’ll get him.” He carried the flowers to the kitchen and set them on the counter as she followed. “This motherfucker is making me rethink ever giving you flowers in this lifetime.”

  She headed toward her bedroom. “Can you call him something else? I know you do it on purpose to annoy me.”

  He didn’t even blink. “It’s habit. I was on military bases for quite a while. After a few months you come to understand you just say what you mean. With him, I mean it.”

  “I—” She stopped short and took in a breath in shock. “This I do not like. That bastard.”

  Sitting on her nightstand was a vase, an antique one that her aunt had given her, with a single red rose in it.

  “Shit! He’s been inside. How the hell? Don’t move.” Jason pushed past her. “Who is this guy? Houdini? The Invisible Man? What the hell?”

  “I’m starting to think so.” She had to reluctantly agree. “He’s demonstrating he can still communicate and get to me.”

  Santiago said almost savagely, “Tomorrow we’ll hit Parkview Elementary, since the staff and students will be back from spring break. And then we can interview everyone who lives even remotely nearby. We already have his description, so it probably won’t help much, but we can give it a shot. Why couldn’t we catch a break and her friend could at least describe his car?”

  Woodenly Ellie said, “I’m starting to think Fergusson is right and we will know his favorite kind of cheese before we have a name.” The idea someone—especially him—was in her home without her permission or knowledge made her skin crawl. She was hot, and then ice cold and shivering. She struggled to pull it together.

  “I don’t argue any of that. I think we need to take some photos of the drowning victim along with us to the school. No one has reported anyone matching her description missing yet. Maybe all her relatives live out of town, maybe she doesn’t have friends … it’s disturbing. The ME put her age at maybe fifty to fifty-five. She should be missed by someone; children or husband or coworkers or someone. She was definitely not dressed like a street person.”

  Santiago said unemotionally, “When I got out of the military, no one would have missed me. No family, no job, no girlfriend. Any friends I had from school were used to me being gone. I swear no one would have noticed if I disappeared.”

  Ellie knew for a fact he wasn’t as indifferent about it as he seemed. She said, “Well, that is no longer the case. Metzger would in particular be furious if you didn’t show up at your desk on time. He’d try to hunt you down like a Ninja warrior. I get the impression he values you.”

  Santiago didn’t look convinced. “The chief? I think he’d love to terminate my ass if possible, but I’ll take your word for it. We need to bag the vase as evidence.”

  Jason was a challenge in that he went his own way—but he was a very talented detective. Metzger understood that. Grasso was a skilled investigator who had crossed the line, but he’d had some measure of forgiveness since he did the job. As for the vase, she would never be able to look at it the same way and despised that feeling of personal violation. “Let’s stop by and get a picture from the morgue before we head to the school tomorrow.”

  “Ah jeez, the Underworld again?”

  “You’re a homicide detective. What did you expect? I know it is probably useless, but we can look at the footage from the flower delivery and at least find out how he paid by a visit to the vendor. We will maybe get another description to match all the others.”

  “Credit card would be nice. But he wouldn’t do that. It’s too careless for him. I’m starting to resent that he’s at least as smart as me.”

  That was a conviction Ellie shared. “If he did that, paid in cash, I doubt he brought them himself.”

  “I think so too, since it sounds just like him. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though. The color and make of his car might help out. There’s a possible lead.”

  “You don’t believe it will pan out.” She folded her arms on the table. “Not for one minute. He paid an old lady to buy flowers and then killed her. He isn’t going to ever, ever park close enough to the shop so someone could identify his car.” Ellie stared at that single red rose, but didn’t really see it. “That first murder … he was nervous. He’s lightening up now, flexing his muscles. If you were him, what would you do next?”

  He was Jason Santiago and unfailingly blunt. “I don’t know. Few people scare me, but he does. I’ve been a police officer for quite a while and we aren’t going to sugarcoat this, Detective MacIntosh. I’m currently your best friend in this world in more ways than one. I want to catch him for myself as much as I do for you. I want someone besides Metzger to care if I disappear. That means my vested interest in your well-being is pretty much a hundred percent.”

  “What makes you think I’d care?” She was pushing him and she knew it.

  “The nights we’ve spent together?”

  Jason was a stranger to commitment. She hadn’t fared all that well either in that department.

  “Relationships are complicated. They aren’t simply about sex.”

  He rose from where he was crouched down by the nightstand and staring at the vase. “I know. I make love to you. Very different. Maybe I’m starting to really hope you’d care about the difference. That bothers the shit out of me, and yes, I said it just that way to annoy you.”

  * * *

  The next morning the florist visit gained them nothing. They’d delivered the flowers. No one answered, so they’d gone next door. Yes, the buyer paid in cash, and no, they d
idn’t have cameras.

  The bleak landscape of their questioning wasn’t heartening, but then again he hadn’t expected too much.

  Jason walked next to Ellie, and it was his policy to say the truth. “Nothing worthwhile.”

  “No.” She didn’t sound disheartened as much as resigned. “He isn’t going to make this easy. Nichols has noticed the surveillance team. I’m sure that my neighbors all wish I’d move away.”

  “I suspect my neighbors feel the same after the car explosion. I’m thinking about buying a house with a big backyard. Get that ferocious dog I mentioned. No flower delivery on his watch. You want to be my roommate?”

  He actually wasn’t sure where that came from exactly. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d thought about buying a house before, but he was afraid of utter solitude. He was moody enough without throwing an empty house into the mix. At least at his apartment in the summer he could sit on the balcony and watch the kids playing in the pool, hear the shrieks of laughter, in the winter see them in mittens and scarves tossing snowballs at each other as they got off the school bus …

  Ellie stared at him as they walked back to her car along the wet sidewalk, not saying a word until she sputtered out, “What? Are you insane?”

  “There are those who think so. But maybe consider it. We could carpool.”

  He always got sarcastic when something mattered to him. Maybe Lukens needed to help him work through that.

  “Oh, now you’ve made it irresistible.” Luckily, Ellie was really used to it. “Carpooling. That will seal the deal. Forget fidelity, undying love and all that drivel, but carpooling will take the day.”

  She was as bad as he was. It seemed practical to point out, “We pretty much are living together right now. Both of us are throwing money away on rent. I know you tried living with someone before and it didn’t work out; I had a similar experience. You could have your own room, your own space. I kind of like the idea. Think about it.”

  “That idea is so flawed I can’t even begin to list the reasons. Not the least of it is if we had the same address, I promise you Metzger would reassign us.”

  She had a point there, he probably would. If it wasn’t apparently obvious how he felt about her, Jason could argue roommates only with his boss, but he’d probably lose that fight. Metzger wouldn’t believe him.

  “You still have your house up north. Use that address.”

  “Do you think anyone would believe I commute four hours one way to Milwaukee from there? Look, I appreciate the offer. Let’s just pretend you didn’t make it.”

  “It was just a thought.” He was reckless from time to time, no doubt about it. His tendency to say what was on his mind had gotten him in trouble before, so she could be exactly right.

  “Well, let’s think about something else. Can we deal with our very real problem first?”

  “So next stop is the friend of the latest victim? Man, I hate saying that. ‘Latest’ and ‘victim’ should not be in the same sentence.”

  Ellie seemed more than willing to change the subject. “Grasso interviewed her, but we both know that maybe she remembers something else now that the initial shock has passed.”

  “Let’s see if she’s willing to talk to us. Grasso gave me her number.”

  She was and she was home since she worked second shift. Marcy Drelling lived in a small house in a neighborhood near downtown. She was midtwenties, tall with long brown hair, and teared up the minute she opened the door. “I should have protected her better. I was there to make sure if the date went wrong she’d have a ride home. He seemed nice. He looked nice. Please come in.”

  Her living room was small but tidy, with a couch and two chairs around a polished table. They both perched on the couch side by side since she chose a chair. “We know Lieutenant Grasso already asked you some questions, but if you could run through it again, we’d appreciate it. We are the detectives actively investigating this case.”

  Ellie always assumed a reasonable and calm demeanor. He didn’t have that same ability to reassure. He probably would have said something very frank like: Can you just repeat your story?

  Nonetheless, he listened carefully as Ms. Drelling recounted being backup. “She was nervous, so she asked me to go along. Not with them, but in case he was a frog and not a prince, you know. Like I told the other officer I could see them and could tell she was enjoying herself.”

  If it was him, definitely worse than a frog, but at this point they were just speculating. Ellie asked, “Was there nothing about him that raised any red flags? He didn’t seem nervous or preoccupied? What did she know about him?”

  Marcy was emotional. “He said he was employed in finance, but he’d once thought about being a teacher because he loved kids, and so they really hit it off. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe she was abducted when he dropped her off.”

  Jason wasn’t nearly as sure. “Describe him for us please?”

  “He was tall, light brown hair, a great smile, casually dressed but nicely.” She plucked a tissue out of a box. “Sorry, I’ve been crying just so much. This doesn’t happen. Not to someone I know. This is just on the evening news or something.”

  It wasn’t just on the evening news. Ellie asked, “Did he pay for the drinks?”

  She sniffled. “I think so. I saw him put some bills on the table after she gave me the signal all was well and they left.”

  “He never mentioned exactly where he lived?”

  “Maybe to her, but if he did, she didn’t mention it.”

  “Do you know where they were headed? Was it back to her house or to a restaurant? Did she text you?” The cameras in the bar told them nothing, and both he and Ellie agreed their quarry was too savvy to make the mistake of sitting in full view.

  “It seemed to be going so well I would guess out to dinner, but I don’t know. I know you’re going to ask but no, I didn’t see his car. I arrived first, actually.”

  But her friend could no longer tell them. Dead end there in a very real sense. “We’ll take anything that will help us. You don’t have a last name, but can you tell us anything else you noticed about him? We understand you wanted to be off his radar, but what did he wear? Did he have anything distinguishing about him? A scar? An earring maybe?”

  In court that would be leading a witness, but this wasn’t court. “Yes, he did have an earring. I didn’t see it, but Regina mentioned it. She thought it was sexy. He looked so professional, but then had an earring.”

  Ellie was as usual composed, but Jason could sense her reaction. “That’s very interesting to us. Is there anything else you can add?”

  “I don’t think so. He had a beer and she had what looked like a cosmopolitan.”

  Jason hated to ask this, but in good conscience had to do it. “Do you think he saw Regina give you the thumbs-up signal? Is there a chance she might have told him about you being there for the ‘just in case’ scenario?”

  Marcy was a fairly quick study. She paled. “You think he might try to hurt me?”

  “If he knows you were there and could identify him because you clearly saw his face.” Ellie said it evenly. “If he saw her gesture and asked about it and she explained, anything is possible. This suspect has done it before, and he really fits the description of who we are looking for. Can you go stay with someone? I don’t want to scare you, and if she didn’t give him your full name it would be hard for him to find you. But on the off chance she did, you’d be safer not to stay at your own address until we make an arrest.”

  “Oh God.” She put a trembling hand up to her cheek.

  “If you see him anywhere, near your work for instance, call 911 right away. We can’t know the kind of questions he asked her.” Jason didn’t add that once Regina realized she was in danger of losing her life, she might have told him anything he wanted to know. The initial report said she was strangled to unconsciousness before the bag was put over her head. With someone’s hands around your throat, you’d probably talk.

 
; Marcy nodded jerkily. “I have a friend from work. That way we can drive together.” She took in a shuddering breath. “This just keeps getting more awful.”

  Jason couldn’t agree more.

  Chapter 25

  The move was a hard call, but he’d been trapped in the urgent desire to do something.

  Anything.

  In many ways it was the story of his life.

  So he’d slipped on gloves.

  He’d taken worse chances, and the jealousy was eating him alive. He couldn’t get anywhere close to her. Not sleeping and not eating were both counterproductive to his ultimate goal.

  So no return address and he’d driven over to a very specific spot to mail his special delivery.

  It should arrive in a day or two.

  Then he assumed all hell would break loose.

  * * *

  Ellie walked down to the forensics lab with the card in an evidence bag and handed it over. She’d spent two days with that card sitting on her desk but made Jason keep those flowers. Rob, the technician, who was an icon in the Milwaukee Police Department and the only one she wanted to deal with this, lifted his bushy brows. He was past middle-aged, white haired, wore suspenders every day, and was an absolute wizard at his job. If anyone was going to handle evidence, it needed to be him, but he’d been off for the weekend. He asked, “What are we looking for here? Fingerprints?”

  “And a handwriting match. I haven’t opened it, so for all I know it’s printed, but I somehow doubt it. I brought photos from the victims’ bodies so you can compare. Santiago is bringing you a vase of flowers.”

  “That’s thoughtful of him. I have always liked that boy despite his brash sense of humor and that he has a full head of hair.”

  “He can grow on you, and brash is being kind.”

  Rob chuckled. “He doesn’t pull a punch, I’ll give you that.”

  “The vase is probably going to have all kinds of different prints on it, but I have hopes for the card. I really want one to show up in the database, but I think this perp is homegrown and a Milwaukee pioneer. I doubt he’ll be in there, but one never knows.”