by JJ Lamb
He couldn’t even begin to think about what that maniac did to Lolly to get her to leave town. Her resume said she’d come from the Bronx—probably taken off and gone back East.
Now, there was Gina Mazzio. Another Bronx bitch. Vlad would probably want to take care of her, too, even though Tallent had said to let it go.
But how do you stop a stone-cold killer once he’s been let out of the cage?
Chapter 28
Kat Parker sat in the Golden Eye Tech employee cafeteria, across from Cal Cortez. The timing had been difficult, but they’d finally managed to match up their lunch hours. Without thinking about it, they’d both ended up with a Cobb salad, which they were discreetly feeding to each other and laughing. The place was very crowded so they kept a business-like distance, too far to hold hands under the table, which is what Kat really wanted to do.
Thoughts of her future medical procedure plagued her and she knew she should tell Cal about the upcoming surgery. They’d talked about everything else and it was continually popping into her head—she wanted to tell him, but she was sure it would scare him away.
Who wants to get into a new relationship with someone who’s sick?
If they’d known each other longer, had some kind of history together, well, maybe it would have been an easier choice. But they’d just found each other. It seemed like forever since she’d felt so close to another person. She couldn’t bear the thought of him shutting her out for any reason.
Is this really me? Cautious, self-conscious me? Allowing myself to fall for someone in the blink of an eye?
When they’d made love, she’d forgotten she was no longer young, that she was fat. He’d made her feel so beautiful, and important.
She couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was in his soft brown sport shirt—it matched his coco-colored eyes. When she looked at his wavy brown hair, she blushed, flashing on the moment she’d clutched a massive tuft of it, lost in an orgasm. Was he remembering that moment, too, because his face had tinged pink and he smiled at her with dreamy eyes?
“Would you like to have dinner at my house tonight?” she asked, freeing a foot from her shoe, rubbing it across his calf.
“I would love that.” He put his fork down and looked at her with his soft eyes. “I can’t begin to tell you how much our time together means to me. All I want to do is reach across the table and touch you all over.”
Kat thought her heart would burst. “Me, too.”
“I’m not exactly sure what’s happening, but truthfully, I’d given up finding anyone like you.”
He was so calm, so serene, so earnest, she couldn’t help but believe him. “Anyone?”
“Kat, I’ve been divorced for ten years. I’ve dated a lot, an awful lot—meeting people on-line, through friends. You name it, I’ve done it.” He reached for her hand across the table. “But never once has there been the kind of instant spark that you and I have.”
“And I’d kind of given up, too, of ever falling in love again.” She couldn’t help it, she squeezed his hand tightly.
Her iPhone, sitting on the end of the table, buzzed. She glanced at the cell’s window, saw it was from Dr. Tallent’s office.
It must be for the pre-op appointments.
She let the call go to her message box. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her future appointments in front of Cal.
* * *
Kat was back in her office staring at the scatter of notes on her desk reminding her of all the projects she had to work on. Right now, she didn’t feel like tackling any of it. She was still under the spell of her lunch time with Cal.
She stared at her cell. She’d listened to the lunchtime message, knew she had to call the doctor’s office and make her appointments. If she was going to start a new relationship, she wanted to know where she stood with her health.
Might as well get this over with.
“Drs. Tallent, Cantor, and Brichett’s office. May I help you?”
“Yes, hi. This is Kat Parker, returning you call.”
“Good afternoon, Ms. Parker. I was calling to set up your pre-op appointments. Can you possibly come in tomorrow at two for your physical and blood work?”
She wanted to scream, no!
“How long will all that take?”
“About an hour.”
“If I must, I must.”
The receptionist responded with an expected laugh. “I’m afraid so.”
“Yes, I can work that out. I’ll see you tomorrow at two.”
* * *
Mulzini was staring at the television, had been for the last half hour. He couldn’t tell you what movie he’d been watching—couldn’t even remember who the characters were, or what was what in the dumb plot. That’s the way it had been since he saw the doctor. He had trouble concentrating on anything for more than a few minutes.
He’d always been okay with the idea of dying. After all, he was a cop—his number could come up at any moment.
But that was on the job. Now he had to stare down his mortality in a different light—he’d chosen to look death in the face, head-on, and it was pock-marked and charred with time.
Why the hell did I insist on the procedure? Why not limp along? Keep taking tests?
Probably the easiest question to answer he’d ever asked himself.
That’s not me, you idiot!.
Marcia had stayed out of his way as much as possible. Right now, she was in her studio painting. A couple of hours ago, he’d helped her carry in a large batch of pre-stretched canvasses she’d found on sale. He’d complained all the way into the apartment. Not only that, she’d run out of a lot of her favorite colors and the tube-filled bags of pigment seemed endless.
Wasn’t he supposed to worry about lugging things? Guess not. That doc didn’t seem to think so.
He’d made a dumb comment to Marcia, “What are you painting? The Sistine Chapel?”
Bad move.
She’d looked at him with stony eyes that made him cringe.
After everything was set up in her studio and he’d turned and walked away, there was no thank you to follow him out the door.
Women! I’ll never understand them.
Chapter 29
Robert Cantor and Jon Brichett were waiting for Tallent when he finished hospital rounds and returned to his office. They’d been trying to talk to him for days, and until now he’d successfully dodged being cornered. He looked at the two men and knew he was in for a rough ride.
“Sorry to barge in like this,” Cantor said, standing next to his desk. “But it’s way past time we had that talk we’ve been asking for.”
“And good afternoon to you, too,” Tallent said.
“Hey, now don’t get all up tight, Mort,” Brichett said. “We haven’t gotten together to talk about the practice for ages.”
“Yeah, well, take me out to dinner, wine and dine me, and I’ll call that a great meeting.” Tallent hung his jacket in the small office closet and shrugged on his white coat for his patient visits. “But this feels more like a gang bang.”
“Just like you to always go for the gonads,” Cantor said. “But if it’s anything, it’s more like an intervention ... so I’ll just lay it on the line and we’ll get into it.”
Tallent walked behind his desk and sat down. “What do you want?”
“Look, we’re here as colleagues,” Brichett said, smiling. “It’s just that—well, let’s face it, since Annie died, you haven’t been yourself.”
“What you mean is, since Annie took off with another man and divorced me. Isn’t that what you really want to say?”
Brichett looked away.
“Okay, I’m going to dump the whole thing in your lap,” Cantor said. “You’re a real ass and I’m not going to pussyfoot around with you.”
“No one ever accused you of zipping it up.” Tallent moved some papers around on his desk, trying to calm himself.
“What the hell is going on?” Cantor leaned over the desk until he was
practically in Tallent’s face. “You’re overbooking, overusing the Cath Lab.”
“Are you forgetting that the equipment and facility privileges are here for all three of us?” Trying to stall, Tallent looked at Jon Brichett, who sat down in one of the chairs—it was obvious he wasn’t about to dive into this.
“That’s right. It does belong to the three of us, but I have to wait to get on the schedule. It takes so long I have to use Ridgewood when I shouldn’t have to.”
“We’ve never fought over this before,” Tallent said. “Why now?”
“Well, hell’s bells, you’re certainly not losing any money, but my receivables are beginning to look like shit.” Cantor paused for a moment. “Look, Mort, besides all that, you’re not yourself. You’re walking around with your head up your ass.”
Tallent jumped to his feet. “Get out of here!”
Brichett rushed over to Cantor. “Bob, cut that out. You don’t have to be rude.”
“Maybe I do, Jon. Seems it’s the only way I can get this man’s attention.” Cantor turned back to Tallent. “Listen, I’m sorry about the outburst, but we’re worried about you. You don’t seem to be yourself.”
Tallent sat back down in his chair, covered his face with his hands. He swallowed hard, tried to regain his composure. Finally, he looked up at Cantor.
“Look, I know I’m not the easiest person in the world to get along with. I wish I could be more like the two of you. But I can’t. That’s just not my nature.”
“Hell, Mort, you don’t have to be like us,” Brichett said. “But you do need to calm down. You need a break from the practice. It would do you a world of good. When was the last time you took a vacation?”
Tallent turned away from his partners, looked out the window at the city below. When had he’d done something more soothing than just looking out the window—for even a whole day or more? It was either work or living inside his head.
“I don’t know.” Tallent turned back to the two of them. “You’re right. I need to get away.”
Cantor visibly relaxed, his shoulders eased down.
Tallent looked at the two men—Cantor, calmer, but still hot under the collar; Brichett, concerned. “Give me some time to think about it.” He paused. “Meanwhile, I’ll finish up the active cases I have for the next two weeks and go from there.”
Both men nodded at him and left his office.
* * *
The minute Gina and Harry walked into the apartment, she grabbed up her land line and punched in Lolly’s number. It’d been hard to concentrate at her job. Two or three times every day she’d tried to reach Lolly, without success. All her calls had gone to message mode.
“It’s ringing,” she said to Harry. “I hope she’s there this time, I need to speak to her—I’m really worried.”
After four rings, the phone was finally picked up, but no one spoke. Gina heard ragged breathing on the other end.
“Hello. Hello!” Gina said. “Lolly, are you there?” She had pressed the speaker phone button so Harry could listen in. Gina’s question echoed across the living room. Harry sat down on the sofa next to her.
“Hello, Gina.”
It was Lolly—her voice flat and lifeless.
“What happened to you? You disappeared—left your job, your apartment, without a word. I’ve been trying to call you forever.”
The line was silent for a long time. At first Gina thought Lolly had hung up, but she could still hear her breathing.
Goosebumps rode up Gina’s arms.
“Do you remember how you were after Dominick beat you?” Lolly said, her voice low and lifeless. “After you lost so much blood, we all thought you were going to die.” Lolly’s heavy breathing was louder than her voice. “You were so hurt you didn’t care whether you lived or died.”
Chills rode up and down Gina’s body. It was a moment before she could answer. “Yes, of course I do.” Tears welled in her eyes, rolled down her cheeks. “I’ll never forget any of it.”
Harry’s stricken face stared back at her. He wrapped his arms around her, held on tight.
“Well, that’s the way I was when I left San Francisco.”
“Who hurt you?” Gina said, crying. All she could do was picture herself back in a Bronx hospital after her ex had beaten her to within an inch of her life. There wasn’t a part of her body that hadn’t been in pain.
“I don’t know who he was.”
“When? How?” Gina couldn’t stop herself. She had to know.
“He snatched me at my car in the underground garage after work,” she said in the voice of someone watching a far away reel of information scrolling through her brain.
“He tied me up. My God, he terrorized me, beat me. Raped me.” Lolly began to sob. The words came in short burst. “He cut me...cut up my whole body.”
Gina and Harry were both crying with her.
“Oh, Lolly. Is somebody taking care of you?”
“I don’t want to see anyone.”
“I can fly back, be there with you.” Gina was gulping, could hardly get the words out.
“I’ll come, too, Lolly.” Harry said. “We can both help.”
“No! No one can help me. I don’t want to be with anyone right now. She started crying again. “I just want to be in a dark room where it’s peaceful and quiet so I can stop thinking about dying.”
Gina looked at Harry. He shook his head.
“Listen, both of you. This has to do with breaking into Tallent’s office.” Her voice became desperate. “Stay away from that man or you’ll become a target, too.”
“Lolly! Lolly!”
But Lolly was gone.
* * *
Vlad strutted around, naked. He liked feeling free, he liked the air rushing over his body as he wandered around his apartment.
He ambled into his bedroom. It was clean, cleared of any unnecessary furniture. He looked at the small table behind the headboard where he kept all the different blades lined up according to size. All of them spotless, cleaned to a shine ... except for one.
He’d kept the knife that he’d used on Tallent’s nurse, as is. It was still bloody. The blood had turned black and was splattered across the handle. It had been there too long. Cleaning it would now require soaking. But that’s the way he liked it—that’s the way he held onto the memory.
It was a ritual he couldn’t seem to break. But when a blade was black, uneasiness again began to curl in his groin. Nothing eased it—nothing except sex and the slicing of skin. Female skin.
He re-straightened everything, even though it had already been neat. He carried the used, bloody blade to the bathroom sink. He ran water over it, put it down very carefully, and squirted detergent on it, from the butt of the handle to the tip of the blade.
He thought of the two women on the security tapes from Tallent’s office.
The blonde with the long hair and blue eyes was gone. He’d seen her run away. Too bad the good doctor hadn’t wanted her killed.
It had been difficult not to plunge the knife down deeper into the layers of skin that were like butter. Hard not to kill her.
But the other one, the dark-haired one he’d tracked to Ridgewood Hospital, she was different, she didn’t work for Tallent.
Vlad pictured her flawless, slender body tied up and ready.
Chapter 30
Harry let Gina out in front of their apartment building and drove off to see his brother. She found it weird to think that Paul Lucke was involved with hackers, a group of people she held in fairly low esteem. They made her think of sabotage, cyber viruses, and generally doing very destructive things.
Yet, here she was looking for a hacker to help save people’s lives.
Amazing how prejudices diminish when you need something for yourself.
She looked up and down the street, for no particular reason, while fishing around in her huge purse for her apartment key. She stopped when she saw a tall man across the street, leaning against a tree. He was staring a
t her. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized it was the same man she’d seen in the Ridgewood cafeteria.
When he saw her looking at him, he quickly turned away. Also, there was something off about his body language. He wasn’t only waiting, he wasn’t only looking. He was hunting.
Her eye immediately sent out a warning twitch and her New York instincts went into full alarm. Her fingers curled around the house key and she slipped through the entry in minimum time. She hurried up the steps to their apartment. After double-locking the door, she ran to the window to take another look at the man.
He was gone.
* * *
Vlad had carefully surveyed the small car and driver that dropped off Gina Mazzio. The two of them had kissed before he drove off. He’d seen that same man with her at the hospital cafeteria. That could complicate things. But she was definitely the other woman who’d appeared with Lolly Stenz on the security tape from Tallent’s office.
After he snatched Lolly Stenz in the underground garage, he had been certain that cutting and fucking her would be sufficient to make her give up the name of her partner. But the bitch wouldn’t do it, no matter how much he slashed her. He’d wanted to cut up her face, but he knew that would send her running to the police.
Vlad didn’t like failure. He’d wanted to kill that Lolly woman, but Tallent had said, no, and the doctor paid him a lot of money in the past—he might be good for more cash in the future. So, Vlad let her go. It gave him some satisfaction that she’d never be very attractive in the nude again and that he was the last man to see how beautiful she was.
If there was one thing he d learned growing up on the streets, there was a solution to every problem—you only had to be willing to wait to find it. Vlad was forced to move on when the nurse wouldn’t talk. The next step was to bully his way into Tallent’s apartment, where the good doctor caved and gave him Gina Mazzio’s name; told him everything he wanted to know about her.
Once he found her in Ridgewood Hospital, it didn’t take much to wait and follow her home from work.