He shook his head vigorously. “No, I’d recognize him. This guy had blond hair and he—”
Sherri stepped forward. “Take a look at this picture, Mr. Corrigan.”
He pointed at the phone. “That’s him. That’s the guy. No doubt about it.”
“But he didn’t come inside?” Sherri asked.
“Definitely not. I’d have seen him.”
“Okay,” Frankie said. “You can go, but call us if you think of anything.”
Lou grabbed Sherri’s phone and stared at the picture. “Looks like our boy Chad better have a damn good alibi this time.”
Frankie waited for Corrigan to get out of earshot. He turned to Miller, anger in his voice. “Didn’t I tell you earlier about that shit? You can’t ask for an ID based on one picture. Get a photo spread and do it right next time.”
CHAPTER 19
Scene of the Crime
Frankie headed toward the bedroom. “Let’s take a look at the bodies before it gets too close to lunch.”
“You might skip lunch today,” Miller said. “It’s not pretty.”
“None of them are pretty.”
“It’s awfully damn clean in this apartment,” Sherri said. “My place hasn’t been this clean since I moved in, and maybe not then.”
“My place has never been this clean,” Lou said. “And never will, unless my wife dies before I do.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you keep a cleaner house than she does?” Sherri asked.
“I didn’t say that. But if she wasn’t there, I’d eat out and hire a maid. There’d be nobody to mess it up.”
Frankie walked into the bedroom, shaking his head. “No doubt it’s the same guy. Look at that position.”
Debbie was lying flat on her back, legs spread wide. Elliott’s head was buried in her crotch.
“I think our guy is obsessed with cunnilingus,” Lou said, then he looked at Frankie. “Where were you last night?”
Sherri rubbed Frankie’s back and cooed, “Oh, Frankie, I didn’t know.”
Dave Shu came into the room with Kate. She pushed by them, shooting daggers at Frankie. “Donovan,” she said.
Frankie damn near swallowed his tongue. She would have to come in just then. Goddamnit.
“Hey, Kate. How’s it going? Hey, Dave.”
Dave placed his bag on the floor. “I’ll get the bathroom.”
Kate knelt next to the guy, examining the head wound. “One shot to the back of the head. Small caliber. I doubt he saw it coming.” She slid his head to the side. “One shot to her vagina. Same as last time.” She went back to inspecting the dead guy. “One to his rectum. Say what you want about our killer, he’s consistent.”
“Why shoot them there?” Sherri asked.
“I’d say he’s pissed,” Lou said. “This has sexual pervert all over it.”
Kate stood. “I don’t think so. I won’t know until we get them back to my place, but I don’t think there was any penetration. No semen. Unless he’s ejaculating and then cleaning it up, there’s no indication it’s sexual.”
“Jealousy,” Frankie said. “Or revenge.”
Kate looked at him. “I’d say that’s more like it.” She moved up to the wound on Debbie, leaned down to examine it. “Did you get Alex settled in?”
Frankie smiled. “Father Murphy took care of him. I’m sure he’ll introduce him to some of the kids and make him feel comfortable.”
“He all set with the Donovan name?”
“I think so.”
“Good.” Kate looked at the wound on Debbie again. “Same thing—one shot, small caliber. I’d say he stood at the bottom of the bed, shot the guy, then her. Probably only took a few seconds.”
“So she might have had time to get off a scream,” Lou said.
“Possibly,” Kate said. “It’s another thing entirely if someone admits to having heard it.”
Dave came back to the room. “That bathroom is clean enough to eat from. The drains have no hair. The hairbrush has no hair. I doubt the toothbrush has DNA on it.”
“She couldn’t have kept it that clean,” Sherri said.
“It wasn’t her. This place has no prints anywhere. Not the vanity, the mirror, the toilet, shower, bathroom sink, nothing. Whoever did this knew how to clean and he must have spent a hell of a lot of time here.”
Lou put an unlit smoke in his mouth and pretended to puff on it. “So other than being useless, how’s it going, Dave?”
Dave stared at him. “No Asian jokes today?”
“Christ’s sake, I’m not like that. Give me a break.”
He lowered his head. “Sorry, Lou.”
Frankie sighed, as if impatient. His stance and the tone in his voice showed it as well. “You’re sure it wasn’t her?”
“Come here, Donovan. Look at this.” Dave Shu led Frankie to the bathroom and lifted the drain stopper in the sink. “Check this out. No hair, no dirt, no grime. Nobody, and I mean nobody cleans like this. The killer did this as sure as I’m from China.”
“What province are you from?” Lou asked.
“How do I know?”
“Just thought you might be up on your ancestry, that’s all.”
“So if I told you I was from the Hubei province, would you know where that was?”
“Hell no. They all sound the same to me.” Lou and Sherri laughed like hell and wouldn’t quit until Dave joined in.
“All right, Lou, you got me good on that one. But watch out; I’ll be after you.”
“Frankie,” Kate called.
Frankie went to the bedroom. “What’s up?”
She picked up a piece of paper with tweezers. “This was under the woman’s ass.” She placed it in an evidence bag and set it on the bed.
Debbie, Debbie, what a girl.
Her pussy tasted like cinnamon swirl.
Don’t take my word; she’s on the bed.
If you don’t mind eating the dead.
Want to know what happened?
Ask her man.
First he killed her
Then he ran.
Catch him.
Catch him.
If you can.
“So the guy is obsessed with cunnilingus,” Lou said.
Frankie almost choked. If Miller said anything…He turned to her. “Canvas the floor above us. Make note of each apartment, who you talked to, and who you didn’t.”
“Okay,” she said, but she glared at him as she left.
Lou picked at Frankie’s shirt. “I meant to say it earlier, but don’t you look dapper today.”
“Dapper?” Frankie said. “Did you say dapper, Mazzetti?”
“I think I did.”
“Nobody says dapper anymore.”
Kate was back on the floor, kneeling beside the man’s body. “I like the word; in fact, I may start using it myself.”
Dave Shu came into room. “This guy didn’t miss a thing.”
“Actually he did,” Kate said. She was on her knees using tweezers to pluck something off the floor. She held it up for them to see. “This was under Mr. Elliott’s knee.”
“A hair?” Frankie asked.
Lou leaned forward to get a closer look. “Please tell me it’s blonde.”
“Just like Goldilocks,” Kate said and dropped it into the evidence bag.
Dave Shu rubbed the top of Mazzetti’s head. “I know it’s not from you. I would have noticed it missing.”
“A Chinese comedian. That’s all we need.”
Kate moved Elliott’s other leg, looked under it. “Keep at him, Dave. Mazzetti deserves everything he gets.”
One of the other techs came in from the kitchen. “You won’t believe this. The guy wiped down every piece of silverware and all of the glasses. I’m not through with the dishes, but I’m guessing we’ll find the same.”
“Son of a bitch,” Frankie said. “He must have spent the night here.”
“Wouldn’t take as long as you think,” Kate said. “He could run throu
gh silverware in a few minutes. Dishes and glasses a little longer, but not much. If he’s worried about pots and pans, it’s basically handles.” Kate stood and let the tech take more photos. “The question, Donovan, is why he did it.”
“Guess we’ve still got a lot to figure out.”
Kate moved to the other side of the bed and examined Debbie’s wound again. “You notice the difference here? He rushed this.”
“How so?”
She looked at Mazzetti and Frankie. “At the first one, he stuffed socks in their mouths and then posed them. He took time shooting each one exactly where he wanted to. This is different. No socks. No posing. He came in here and shot them in the act. From the looks of the angle, he didn’t even wait until he got behind Elliott. It looks as if he shot him while still walking in. And he shot Parnell from the foot of the bed, where he stood. At the first scene, both shots were pointblank range.”
“More rage on this one?”
Kate shook her head. “I don’t know. Rage. Jealousy. Something. It’s like he couldn’t wait to shoot these two. My guess is that the shots to the rectum and vagina were afterthoughts. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
Kate and Dave packed their equipment and left the room.
Lou scratched his head and sucked on a dry cigarette. “Guess we’ve got work to do, Donovan.”
“Frankie, can I see you a minute?” Kate asked.
“Be right back, Lou.”
Frankie walked down the hallway. Kate stood at the front door.
“What’s up?”
She reached up and kissed him on the lips, then whispered, “When you’re dressed up like this you make me want to go home early.”
Frankie kissed her back. “Those bodies aren’t going anywhere.”
“Like you’d do that.” She slapped his butt. “See you tonight. We’re good.”
Frankie grabbed her and kissed her softly. “You know I love you, right?”
“Quit saying that. You’re scaring me,” she said, but she smiled. “I’ll pick Alex up. Don’t be too late.”
“See you,” Frankie said. “Thanks.”
Lou had the cigarette lit by the time Frankie got back to the room. “Fuck, Mazzetti, you can’t smoke in here.”
“Who’s gonna complain? Not her.”
“All right. Fuck.” Frankie took out a smoke and lit it. “We both might as well poison the place.”
“CSU is gone. Who’s gonna complain?” Lou grabbed a teacup from the kitchen and used it for an ashtray. “Kate bust your balls about Miller?”
Frankie raised his eyebrows. “I figured she would, but no, she was great. Even hinted at a romantic evening.”
“Be careful. She may have a pair of scissors in the bed.”
“What?”
“You know, like Sharon Stone in that movie. I saw it the other night.”
“That movie is ancient. You just saw it?”
“Kind of. It might have been the twentieth time, but yeah, I just saw it.”
“You know she’s damn near as old as you.”
“Yeah, but she looks better,” Lou said. “And besides, I don’t dream of her as she looks now, only what she looked like back then.”
Miller came back in the room. “Stop dreaming, boys. Focus on the case.”
“What did you learn from upstairs?” Frankie asked.
“Anybody see anything? Hear anything? Smell anything?” Lou asked.
“Nobody ever hears anything,” Sherri said.
“Don’t forget where we are,” Lou said. “Folks don’t talk. They don’t see things, or hear things, or even think things. It’s not good business.”
“And you agree with that?”
“I didn’t say I agree, just that I understand.”
Sherri frowned and shook her head. “I don’t.”
Mazzetti put his cigarette out in the teacup. “Doesn’t matter if you agree. It’s the way things work. We’ve got to live with that and find ways around it.”
“So did you learn anything?” Frankie asked.
Sherri flipped open her notepad. “Four people either weren’t home or didn’t answer. Six heard nothing. One thought she heard a scream.”
“Did she call it in?”
“No way. She thought it was the TV.”
Frankie paced, jiggling his change. “This guy cleaned every fucking thing in the house. Even the goddamn silverware and glasses. Kate had the right question—why?” He pointed to Sherri and Lou. “Think about what Kate said. Why would the killer clean everything. He couldn’t have been in all those places. Possibly the bathroom if you want to stretch things, but no way the kitchen, and certainly not the silverware drawer or the glass cabinet. So why clean them?”
“Because he’s been here before,” Sherri said. Her voice rose, and she smiled for the first time since Kate left. “He’s been in this apartment before and he doesn’t want us to know it.”
“Like Chad Benning,” Lou said.
Frankie nodded. “All right, let’s finish canvasing. How about you and Miller take the floor below. I’ll get the first floor.”
Frankie took the elevator to the ground floor. The first two apartments yielded nothing, the third worse than nothing—an old guy who had conspiracy theories in abundance—and at doors four and five no one answered. Frankie made note to check back with them. He knocked on the door of the next apartment. A middle-aged woman dressed in jeans and a white blouse opened the door.
“My name is Detective Donovan. I’m investigating an incident upstairs.”
“I don’t know anything,” she said, and started to shut the door.
Frankie moved closer and used his foot to stop the door from closing. “If you could just take a minute.”
She looked up at him through a pair of glasses that looked as if they’d been purchased in the 80s. “I already told you. I don’t know anything.” Then she shoved hard on the door until the lock clicked.
Frankie heard a dead bolt slide into place. He shook his head and moved on. She might have held the secrets to the universe, but he wasn’t staying around to pry them out of her.
Lou and Sherri were waiting for him outside. “We locked up,” he said.
“Get anything?”
“Nothing,” Sherri said. “You?”
“The same kind of nothing as you,” Frankie said.
“What now?” Sherri asked.
Frankie pulled out his phone. “Hang on. I’m calling Stewart.” He dialed a number on his cell, waiting while it rang.
Bruce Stewart answered after four or five rings. “Hello.”
It sounded as if he’d been crying. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Stewart. This is Detective Donovan.”
“Did you find something?”
“Not yet. We’re still questioning people, but I need to know where Debbie worked.”
“Anderson, Bergen and Silverstein.”
“Okay, thank you. And again, I am so sorry for your loss. We’ll be in touch if anything develops.”
Frankie hung up and turned to Lou and Sherri.
“Judging from that smile, you got something,” Lou said.
“Guess where Ms. Parnell worked.”
“Don’t tell me it’s the same building,” Sherri said.
“Not just the same building, the same company as Mr. Chad Benning.”
“Son of a bitch!” Lou high-fived Sherri.
Frankie shook his head. “That’s not how you do it anymore, Lou. You’ve got to bump fists, like this.”
“I’ll tell you what I’m gonna bump—that fuckin’ pervert Chad Benning. Bump him to hell and back.”
“Let’s go get him,” Sherri said.
CHAPTER 20
You Can’t Hide a Secret
Sherri said, “Frankie, how about if I take Krenshaw and show Izzy the picture of Chad, while you guys handle Parnell?”
“Make sure you have an array of photos,” Frankie said. “Or do a sequential. That’s even better.” He turned to Lou. “You han
dle Parnell, I’m going to pester Benning.”
“He lawyered up. Remember?”
“His coworkers didn’t. I can ask them all the questions I want.”
“Ooh, that’ll piss him off,” Sherri said, and then she reached over and snatched the cigarette from Lou’s mouth. She stepped into the elevator, exited on the fifth floor and made her way to Perkins and Mischa. She showed the receptionist her badge. “I’m here to see Izzy.”
The young girl smiled. “She just walked in a few minutes ago. I’ll call her.”
Izzy made her appearance with coffee in hand. She was shorter than Sherri remembered, but she owned a big voice. “Detective, I didn’t expect to see you again.”
Sherri opened the folder. “I have a few pictures. I want you to see if you recognize any of them.”
Izzy went through them one at a time, shaking her head as she passed each one. When she hit the sixth one, she stared for a long time. “I’ve never seen any of them.”
“You’re sure?” Sherri wanted so badly for Izzy to finger Benning.
“As sure as I can be. I might have passed them on the street or in the building, but I don’t know them. Why, do you think one of them did it?”
“We’re not certain of anything yet. It’s early in the investigation.”
“How did her husband take it?”
Sherri lowered her voice. “We’re not allowed to comment on the case while it’s still active.”
Izzy flushed. “I’m sorry. I should have known.”
“Is there anyone else we can talk to that might have known Ms. Krenshaw?”
“Besides me, she didn’t have many friends. If I think of anything I’ll call. I still have your card.”
Sherri got up to leave. “Great. And thanks again for the help.”
***
Lou got off at fifteen and went to the receptionist where Parnell worked. “I’m Detective Mazzetti. I need to speak with Ms. Parnell’s assistant.”
The girl at the desk was barely more than a teenager, but she handled herself well. “That would be Cindy. I’ll have her come right down.”
Cindy showed up in less than five minutes, surprising Lou. “I’m Detective Lou Mazzetti, I’m here—”
Cindy nodded. “You must be here about Debbie. Come with me.” She turned and started down a long hallway, her heels clicking loudly on the tile floor.
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