Crushed

by Kate Watterson

  “Well, I’m not her.”

  “Got that one figured out.” He punched up a number on his phone. He ordered two pizzas, and she looked at him like he was crazy, but when they got to his apartment building after picking up the food she understood after they went up the stairs. He said, “This will take two seconds.”

  He stopped and knocked on a door just down from his. An older lady answered and he said, “For you and Dylan, Mrs. Landry. Have a nice night.”

  “Thank you so much.” She reached out and touched his hand. “You know Dylan will be one happy boy.”

  They continued on and Santiago unlocked the door, planted the pizza box on the table, grabbed two plates, and ripped off two paper towels for napkins. He asked if she wanted a glass of wine as he got out a beer. She did, and when they sat down she looked at him inquiringly. Ellie just couldn’t help it. “That should be on a commercial. You do that often?”

  “What?”

  “Be a pizza delivery guy.”

  “Oh, well, she doesn’t have much money and her grandkid lives with her. Dylan likes pizza, and I like pizza, so we get along. He’s a nice little guy. I can’t enjoy eating pizza knowing he would love to have some, so I do it for myself, really. It’s a selfish gesture. If you buy one, you can get the second for half price. There you go. Lukens could probably explain it. Anyway, we got nothing from the UPS guy that really helps other than Grasso didn’t get beaten to death, so I give him credit there. Where do we go from here?”

  There had been times she didn’t like him, but there were times Ellie liked him too much.

  “That’s nice. Not what happened to Grasso, but the pizza thing.”

  “Ellie, we are talking about the case and just go ahead and cave that it is really good pizza. I think it’s the crust. So what do you think happened tonight?”

  She did refocus. “I’m trying to make sense of it but not having much luck. Certainly he can’t expect to kill off every police officer investigating the murders.”

  “I sure as hell hope not, because we’d be leading the list. To think Grasso told me to watch my back.”

  “Something set him off.”

  “Or in that fancy neighborhood someone broke in and it has nothing to do with the case at all. He surprised them and they attacked him.”

  “He doesn’t own a baseball bat.” Grasso had clearly pointed that out on the way to the hospital. “So it isn’t like the intruder picked something at random; he’d brought it. And the alarm system into the house hadn’t been breached, just the garage side door, which isn’t wired in. He was waiting for him.”

  While the subject matter wasn’t pleasant, the pizza was really very good. Santiago was easily on his fourth slice. “Maybe,” he said thoughtfully, “it was a show of power. From the beginning he’s been taunting us, daring us to catch him, and if he could kill an experienced police officer like Grasso who is working with you, how impressed would you be by that? Trying to figure how these wackos think makes my brain hurt, but I’m wondering if the minute Metzger mentioned Grasso’s name in the media, our friend out there decided to go for it.”

  It was a tangible theory, or at least made as much sense as anything else. “I suppose if you are crazy enough for the rest of it, maybe it is possible.”

  Jason used his makeshift napkin and set it on the plate, evidently finished. “I’ve got something to tell you and I was going to earlier, but we had that appointment for Lukens and I sure didn’t want to tell you before that, and then the call from Grasso got in the way. I have to say ahead of time you aren’t going to like it at all. For that matter, I don’t like it much either. Wait, let me correct that. I don’t like it in any way, shape, or form.”

  Serious Santiago replacing his usual wisecracking, irreverent style didn’t bode well. She said slowly, “Okay, go ahead. It can’t be worse than the rest of this afternoon.”

  “It sure as hell isn’t going to improve your day.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, never a good sign. “Someone mailed Metzger a picture.”

  “Of?” A very real twinge of apprehension curled in the pit of her stomach.

  “Us. Let’s say he really won’t be asking you if we are sleeping together again because he doesn’t need to ask. It was taken at your house.”

  She couldn’t believe it, but the look on his face said it was the truth. Whatever she expected him to say, that certainly wasn’t it. “What?” she asked incredulously.

  Tact wasn’t one of his gifts and Jason didn’t deny that, so he just laid it plainly in front of her. “We aren’t doing anything, we’re just sleeping, but it’s damning, I guess. He altered it so it looks like you aren’t wearing anything. Don’t worry, it isn’t like Metzger has now seen you naked. I’m happy to say I’m not exposed in all my glory either, but there’s a lot more of me than you. We definitely appear to have been doing something we did not do that particular evening.”

  A lot of women—maybe most women—might have a meltdown, but luckily Ellie wasn’t one of them. She just sat there with undoubtedly a stricken look on her face and then composed herself. “Okay, yeah, that doesn’t improve my day at all. Metzger aside and the fact there will be repercussions from this that will affect us both, he had to get that picture somehow. We have hidden cameras watching for him. That means he must too.”

  “The chief is having your place swept for devices tomorrow. They are going to do my apartment too. He suggested a motel for tonight.”

  “Metzger suggested you and I go to a motel together and he has a picture of us in bed? I’ve really never been so mortified in my life.”

  “He did suggest it. Not a bad idea either. I figure he now knows that ship has sailed, so he’s more interested in keeping the situation under control. He pretty much ordered me to keep you in my line of vision at all times. I intended to anyway, so no hardship here.”

  “I’m so angry, I—I—don’t know what to say. I—”

  She really was fuming mad.

  He interrupted her sputtering. “Ellie, do you want this dangerous man to film you changing your clothes, walking out of the shower, or even brushing your teeth? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be able to use the bathroom and not have a snapshot of it out there for generations to enjoy. I don’t see any signs anyone has been in here, but then again, you didn’t either at your place until he left that rose in your bedroom. I just think maybe a motel is a good idea. He got to Grasso of all people.”

  A very valid argument. Carl looked like he stepped out of a magazine shoot all the time, but he was one tough and competent cop.

  “Let’s just go,” he said. “We can sit and talk about it. This thing with Grasso has me really on edge.”

  He eyed her slender frame and didn’t add that the thought of someone coming after her with a baseball bat would give him nightmares for the next decade. At the least a decade and maybe a lot longer than that would be accurate. “I’ll grab you a shirt to sleep in, though I’d kind of prefer you without it.”

  “That hasn’t worked out so well for us so far,” she shot back, standing to whisk her plate off the table and take it into the kitchen.

  There was a hard argument to make, so he let it go. He was also worried about what Metzger might do.

  He had the urge to apologize but he wasn’t sure what for. Ellie was a consenting adult and he hadn’t made the decision alone. He was going to worry about it later, because right now they had bigger problems.

  “I don’t normally do this, but we’ll leave the dishes in the sink. I’ll be back in two seconds.”

  It was disconcerting to have to wonder if he was somehow being watched as he grabbed his bag and emptied it, tossing in some clean clothes and an extra T-shirt and his shaving kit. He remembered he had an unwrapped toothbrush in the drawer from his recent visit to the dentist, so he took that and put it in as well for Ellie.

  The simple act of walking out to the truck made him nervous, and he wasn’t someone who got nervous easily. Ellie hid
it pretty well, but he could tell she was also on the jittery side, but luckily the vehicle started smoothly and they pulled away safely. He said, “It’s my job to drive and your job to make sure we aren’t being followed.”

  “You do realize someone capable of putting in a hidden camera knows how to use a tracking device on a vehicle, right?” Her voice was somber. “Why do I think that now that a police officer was attacked Metzger is going to ask the state or the FBI for help? I wish Grasso had seen him more clearly, because that would be one very reliable witness.”

  “He was getting the shit beat out of him,” Jason pointed out. “And the guy did it right too, making it impossible for him to draw his weapon. He must have a pad somewhere with a note jotted down that says When assaulting a police officer, break both his arms so you don’t get shot. I’d love to see the rest of his notes.”

  “Maybe you wouldn’t.” Ellie was paying careful attention to her side mirror. “The purpose of that picture sent to Metzger … was it just to show me he’d been there?”

  “I’m not Lukens, and right now don’t want to be her, because she’s with a badly injured cop who is probably really pissed off because I know I would be, but I think he’s just taking control of your life, Ellie. He wants you to be aware of him, 24/7.”

  “I’m not a psychologist either, but he’s winning if that’s the game. I’m not seeing any of the same cars behind us.”

  Jason said caustically, “Well, he’s had a busy day. Maybe he’s taking time off and unwinding with a cocktail or something.”

  “I hope he chokes on it. A rogue olive goes down his throat and ends all our problems.”

  He braked for a light and just in the nick of time, because some distracted asshole ran it and nearly caused a collision with a red van. “But then while justice might be done, we would never know who he is, and that is our main problem. I don’t want him to get hit by a car when crossing against the light or anything like that. I want to know he’s no longer out there because we put him away in a small, dark cell.”

  “I suppose there’s validity to that.”

  “I don’t know about you, but he isn’t adding to my quality of life. Do you have a motel preference?”

  “Let’s shoot for someplace newer that might have security cameras. That’s about it. Clean sheets and decent bathroom and I’ll be fine. I’d say what I really want is my own bed, but I doubt I’d sleep very well there right now. I’m going to call Georgia and see how Grasso is doing.”

  He didn’t have any choice but to listen to her end of the call since he was sitting right there, and he got the impression that as long as Grasso didn’t drive, since he was on painkillers, the hospital was going to release him at his insistence. That didn’t surprise him at all. When she was finished, his comment was, “I’d be happier out of there myself, and there is no given he’s safer with all the people coming and going.”

  She tucked away her phone. “You’ve been watching too much television. The risks the killer takes are very calculated. He wouldn’t do something like that in my opinion. He likes to take us by surprise.”

  “It seems like it. Let’s stay aware of that.”

  He picked out a generic chain hotel several stories high so they didn’t have a ground-floor room. They checked in and got the room keys. One secure door and an inaccessible window facing a city view. He dumped his bag on the floor and dropped on the bed, shutting his eyes. “I’m so insomniac that they could put up a poster of me, but I swear I could go to sleep right now in my clothes. I think you might be a good influence.”

  “If I don’t, through no fault of my own, get you killed.”

  “There is that,” he acknowledged. “If you promise to shoot him if he breaks in, I think I can get in a few winks, and you’re right, it isn’t your fault.”

  Ellie said emphatically, “After today? Oh, I promise if anyone tries to come through that door, he’s a goner.”

  Jason said, “God, I love your pillow talk.”

  Chapter 28

  It was clear his options were slim.

  He carefully thought it over while watching a second news broadcast, furious there was no comment on the attack on a veteran police officer.

  He’d tried to develop a strategy to target Santiago and had come up with a few ideas, but none seemed like they would work. The man wasn’t vulnerable through friends or family. He was also vigilant and street smart, so he had to strike directly.

  Ellie just couldn’t get involved with anyone like a commodities broker or a garage mechanic, because he could handle them easily, he thought with resentment; it had to be another cop.

  What happened next was essentially going to be her fault.

  * * *

  The killer had called her again.

  Ellie was using the hotel’s free Internet to check her e-mail, wearing Santiago’s shirt, drinking a complimentary bottle of water when her phone beeped.

  Unknown number.

  She took a moment before she answered. “MacIntosh.”

  “How’s the lieutenant? Where are you? At your house up north?”

  The sibilant whisper didn’t make her happy at all and made her wonder if the theory that he was trying to disguise his voice was because she knew him wasn’t exactly right. She said shortly, “Why did you do it?”

  “He shouldn’t get the glory. It belongs to you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Then he really wrecked her already awful evening. “How’s your sister?”

  He hung up. Ellie stared at the phone, more shaken than ever, because there was no denying that Grasso had been attacked because of her, and just the mention of Jody turned her body to ice. The chance it had been some random thug intent on a robbery was out the window, not that she’d really believed that anyway. Jason sat up and pushed his hair back. Even with the haircut it was a shade too long. “I heard most of that. Him?”

  She swiveled in the chair. “Yes.”

  He swore softly, “Shit. What did he say?”

  “I have to make a call.” Her hands were so unsteady she almost couldn’t manage it, but she pulled up her sister from her contacts. To her relief, Jody answered fairly quickly for her, since she didn’t cart her phone around with her all the time. Ellie did her best to sound composed, but her voice cracked. “I … I need to say something I don’t want to say … but, look … you aren’t safe right now. No one in our family is safe. You need to tell your husband to put your kids and the dog in the car and all of you have to leave.”

  “Ellie!” It was a gasp.

  “Don’t trust anyone, Jody. I mean it. Just tell me you’ll do it. I don’t care where you go, but go.”

  “You’re scaring me.” Her sister’s voice was small.

  “You need to be scared.” Ellie’s voice wobbled. “Go. We can talk tomorrow.”

  Jason took the phone from her trembling hand and set it down on the desk. He crouched down by the chair, resting his forearms on his knees. “Well, I don’t think I need to ask again what he said, do I?”

  “He wanted to know about Grasso. I asked why he did it and he said Grasso shouldn’t get the glory which I assume means news coverage on the cases. Then he asked about my sister.”

  It was nice when Jason put his arms around her, because she needed to hold on to something. “Ellie, you aren’t doing this to your family, he is. That rat bastard. He’d better hope I don’t find him in a place where there are no witnesses.” Jason’s face was grim. “An eye for an eye has a nice ring to it. I think we have a real lead, Ellie. Take a breath. On the authority of one observant older lady, he was very likely wearing a T-shirt from a specific high school.”

  She rested against him for a minute and then pulled away and looked blankly out the window. Her voice was bleak. “My mother’s cancer was absolutely not my fault. This is. I keep wondering how I got his unwanted attention in the first place. I mean our last serial case was more about you than me.”

  He followed her. “You sustaine
d the most injuries and are a lot prettier than I am. I wonder if it was that article in the paper about you figuring out the cold case. Unfortunately, considering the circulation area is huge, that wouldn’t narrow it down for us. Same thing for the brief interview we did for local TV. Maybe he caught it and took one look at you and decided you were his dream girl. I know that happened to me, and apparently to Grantham too … ever considered growing a few warts?”

  It was nice of him to at least attempt to make her laugh. “You do know your questionable sense of humor surfaces at all the wrong times.” The parking lot below was full of cars, most of them not Wisconsin plates. She stood there, thinking hard. “He really works to disguise his voice. The first few calls I thought he was just being creepy, but I’m starting to really buy into the theory I know him somehow. I think he’s doing his best to make sure I don’t recognize who I’m talking to when he calls. He doesn’t have an accent, which means he’s probably from Wisconsin or Minnesota, or maybe even Iowa, which doesn’t narrow it down too much, but a little anyway.”

  “Let’s not forget South and North Dakota.” Santiago’s voice was wry. “I think we all sound pretty much the same. So he isn’t from New York or Savannah or Sacramento. We are still wandering around in the dark.”

  That was distressingly true. “He knew I wasn’t home tonight. Maybe surveillance will hand us something. He has to know after that picture and the rose we are aware he broke into my house.”

  She didn’t even want to think about that picture, but she had to consider it. If Metzger had it tested for prints, and she would guess he had, then her personal life was not so personal. Rob might keep his mouth shut, but if a different technician handled it, that wasn’t a given. If everyone knew, Metzger had no choice but to reassign them.

  There was a conversation she didn’t want to have in her future. Maybe he’d pair her up with Grasso instead, but the lieutenant usually worked cases alone or gave assistance on difficult investigations. Except he was out of commission right now, and there was a killer out there who really frightened her.