All the Pretty Girls

by Riley Edwards

  “I’d say yes, but she wasn’t sticking to me, she was on Meadow. Hell, she whined when Meadow drove away.”

  “Well, you’re fucked. Your dog likes your woman more than you.” He laughed.

  “That’s a problem. Sally’s not mine. She goes to Gabe next week.”

  “Maybe she has to take a shit,” Ben added, stopping at my desk to give Sally a rub down. “I had a Golden Retriever that would circle and act weird when he was constipated.”

  “Really? We’re talking about the bowel movements of canines?” Mike laughed. “I’m so happy I’ve never had a dog. That’s worse than new parents talking about the color of their baby’s shit.”

  “Since you’re all here and I would like to stop talking about dog shit and my sex life, I think I found something.” I pointed to the list in front of me.

  “Hold up. We were talking about your sex life? What’d I miss?” Ben asked.

  “Meadow spent the night last night. Though Nick’s grumpy today, so either he was denied, or it was so good he’s pissed he had to get out of bed,” Mike helpfully told Ben.

  “Shit. I’m pissed I gotta roll outta bed every morning and leave my hot wife to come in here and see you assholes. So, I can’t say I blame him for being less than pleased. By my calculations, it’s been at least a year since he’s been laid.”

  I would’ve been pissed that Ben and Mike were discussing my sexual activity or lack thereof if I didn’t find it so interesting that Ben was mostly right about the last time I’d been with a woman.

  “It is a tad disturbing that you’ve paid that much attention to my personal life and when I’m having sex,” I told him.

  “The neuroscience behind human sexuality is fascinating. You can learn a lot about a person by their sex drive, lack of, or when they’re unable to find a sex partner.”

  “Sometimes your brain scares me,” Mike laughed. “Your poor wife. Do you study her as closely as all of us?”

  “Lucky for her I study her more. Trust me; she loves that I know how to crawl into her mind and pull out what I need. Besides, Nick’s easy, he can’t hide the symptoms of sex deprivation.”

  Christ.

  “We’re moving along,” I told them. “The case.” I pointed to the list again.

  “The case is interesting and all. But I have to know, what are the symptoms?” Mike asked.

  “My dry spell is none of your fucking business,” I snapped.

  Mike and Ben threw their heads back and laughed. Assholes. When Ben recovered, he said, “First symptom, extreme hostility, and bitchiness. Friend, a year is not a spell, it’s a drought.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Wow. Nice greeting.” Kristy smiled and held out a folder. “I cross-referenced those names. You were right. All the bars that used cloud-based storage - while the companies were all different, when cross checked, all of the smaller companies did indeed purchase space from Fusion Telecom.”

  “Fuck!”

  “There’s your connection.” Kristy smiled, and I took the folder from her.

  “Conference room?” Mike asked.

  I grabbed the papers off my desk and followed Mike and Ben into the other room. Sally padded along behind me, hackles still up. If I’d had time, I would’ve taken her home. I didn’t like the way her ears were at attention and she was on alert.

  “What’s the connection?” Ben asked, breaking my concern of Sally.

  I looked at the whiteboard. Becky’s picture had already been added to the other fourteen women we couldn’t save.

  “Fifteen dead women. All found after a night out at a bar. Eleven on the seventh. Four on the twentieth. All security footage erased. Fourteen, if you count Meadow’s attack, were stored on a cloud server; two stored on an onsite computer. Each bar used a different small company to buy their space. All fourteen of those companies bought space of Fusion Telecom servers to resell to their clients. How much you want to bet that Fusion had access to the two onsite computers as well.”

  I spread out the papers that Kristy had given me, Ben and Mike scrutinizing the data.

  I grabbed the landline on the table and dialed Kristy’s office extension, hoping she was back in her office while ignoring the knot that was growing in my gut. All the murders tied back to Fusion Telecom, the very place Meadow was at right now.

  “Keep a lid on it, Clark,” Mike said as if he’d read my mind.

  “Hello?” Kristy answered.

  “How many women does Fusion Telecom employ?” I asked, placing the call on speaker.

  “Hold on.” There was the sound of the tapping of her keyboard before she said, “Damn. More than I thought. Fusion has 482 employees including executives and 290 are women.”

  “Narrow that to single women, between thirty and forty,” Ben told her.

  “Okay. Two hundred and eleven.”

  “Still too many,” Mike said. “Narrow that to women with no children.”

  “That will take me a few minutes,” she said.

  “Hit us back when you have a list,” Ben said and disconnected the call. “Let me grab Joel and Mandy.”

  Sally roamed around the room, and the knot grew. Fuck. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I pulled my cell out of my pocket and sent a text to Meadow.

  Me: Good day?

  A normal everyday text. Nothing that would alert her to the fact I was ninety percent sure she worked with the woman that had attacked her and killed fifteen women.

  Meadow: Better now that I’ve heard from you. Killer meeting. Boss is pissed. I’m going down to the sub shop to grab lunch before I’m stuck printing more reports and don’t get to eat. Seems I worked up an appetite. ?? How’s your day? Catch any crazy bad guys? xoxo

  Me: Glad you’re hungry. Plan on packing snacks tomorrow. My day is fine. See you tonight.

  Then I couldn’t stop myself.

  Me: I love you, Meadow. Please be careful. Watch where you’re going and who’s around you.

  Meadow: Everything okay?

  Me: Everything is fine. I just need to know you’re safe.

  Meadow: I’m safe. xoxo

  I hoped to God that was the truth. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to her.

  Chapter 22

  Peace offering

  “Is it true?”

  Shit! Rory. She scared the hell out of me again, and we almost had a repeat performance of the great mustard molestation. I had been enjoying my lunch, sitting on the bench outside of the sub shop, happy to be out of the office when Rory plopped down next to me.

  After Nick had texted me, Beth stormed out of her office red-hot mad. No, she was more than that, whatever is more than red-hot mad is what she had been. The stack of files she had in her arms were tossed on my desk, and some had scattered to the floor. I was about to finally tell her where she could stick her bitch ass attitude when Mr. Klein stepped out of her office in time to witness her temper tantrum.

  He pulled her back into her office, and the entire floor heard Beth screeching through the closed door. When she reemerged, she had her black designer bag hitched over her shoulder and a tight pinch on her face. She’d stormed out of the office, and Mr. Klein informed us that Beth was no longer employed by Fusion Telecom. I guess I’d been wrong; upper management had seen what a bitch she really was. It probably didn’t help she’d lost several clients over the last few months.

  “Yeah. Mr. Klein fired her. He said she’d be in later to get her personal items, but he’d sent her away to cool off.”

  “It’s about time. That woman is terrible. So, tell me about Mr. Hunk that picked you up for lunch. That’s still going on, right?” Rory giggled.

  Yes, she giggled like a high schooler.

  “Yeah, it’s still going. Nothing much to tell,” I lied.

  “There has to be something. Your cheeks are red. What does he do?” she asked.

  “He works for the FBI,” I told her, ignoring her comment about me blushing. God, I hoped I wasn’t, and she was only kidd
ing.

  “FBI? Is he working on the serial killer case? Do they have any leads?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. He doesn’t talk about work, and I don’t watch the news,” I told her. I would never break Nick’s confidence, nor would I tell anyone that I’d met Nick because the FBI thought I was the killer’s first victim. The thought made me shudder. She was still out there, killing people. She’d killed poor Becky last night.

  It felt wrong having Rory ask about the case like she was. She had a look of amazement rather than outrage.

  “You don’t watch the news? Shit girl. There is a crazy person stalking bars. I heard that he rips off the victim’s faces, can you imagine?” My hand instinctively moved to my scar before I could pull it back; Rory noticed and flinched. Damn. Not her too. “Sorry. That didn’t come out the way I meant it to.”

  “It’s alright.”

  The funny thing was, it was alright. A month ago, if someone had said something like that to me, it would’ve thrown me. I would’ve had to text Veronica Venus, and she’d talk me off the ledge as I cried my eyes out. Now, I found myself forgetting I had a mark on my face. I still hadn’t gone an entire day without remembering, but it was kind of hard to when there were mirrors around. But I wasn’t obsessing and worrying about what people thought or how disgusted they’d be at my appearance. Nick thought I was beautiful and because he did, he’d reminded me that my beauty doesn’t come from the way I look. I was beautiful because I was a good person, and that was what mattered.

  “So anyway. He like stabs them and leaves them for the police to find. I also heard…” She stopped and looked around before lowering her voice. “He drugs the women before he takes them. Makes it easier. No one notices because the women don’t struggle. They just walk out the door with him.”

  How did she know that? Mandy told me that detail had been withheld.

  “Are you okay?” Rory asked.

  Shit. No. I wasn’t okay. It was hard to breathe, and I felt weird like someone was watching me. Which I guess was stupid because there was someone watching me, Rory. She was staring at me as if I’d grown a second head.

  Breathe Meadow.

  Breathe.

  “Yeah. I’m fine. I just feel so bad for all those girls. It gives me the creeps,” I told her.

  My phone beeped in my pocket, and I prayed it was Nick. I didn’t want to be one of those needy girlfriends, but damn I really needed him right now.

  VV21: How’s lunch?

  How’d she know I was at lunch? Did I tell her? I scrolled up to the last message exchange, nothing. I hadn’t talked to her since this morning in the parking lot.

  Me: How’d you know I was at lunch? ??

  I hoped the smiley face took some of the paranoia out of my message. I knew I was being rude to Rory, and normally I wouldn’t answer a message while I was otherwise engaged, but I was feeling freaked out and completely out of sorts.

  VV21: Ummm. It’s lunchtime, weirdo. Besides you’re a creature of habit. I could set my time by you. Desk or sub shop?

  Jesus. I was losing my mind. I smiled and tapped out a reply.

  Me: Damn, you’re good. Sub today. I have juicy gossip!!! Have to wait until after work to spill, but Queen Bitchypants will be a non-issue from here on out. Work just became bearable. I’m done at four today; text you then.

  That reminded me, I should text Nick and tell him Mr. Klein had announced he was letting us all leave early today, probably because Beth was supposed to come back after her time out to pick up the personal items from her office.

  “Boyfriend?” Rory asked.

  “No. Sorry that was rude.” I dropped my phone in my bag. I’d text Nick later; it wasn’t like it was important what time I got done, he would be stuck at work anyway.

  “It’s cool. So, Beth? Did she really have a freak-out?”

  Geez, this girl liked to gossip. I spent the last ten minutes of my lunch telling Rory all about Beth’s break down. It was petty, childish, and impolite of me to talk about Beth behind her back, but she’d been mean to me the last five years. She deserved it.

  By the time I made it back into the office, everyone was talking about Beth’s welcomed departure. I was so busy trying to reorganize the files that Beth had thrown on my desk I didn’t get to leave at four when everyone else did. I was almost done when Beth walked in. For the first time since I’d met her, she had a look of regret on her face. The pinchy sour-puss look had been wiped clean off and was replaced with something that looked like remorse. I stood frozen, afraid if I moved the bitch would be back.

  “Meadow,” she started. “I owe you an apology.”

  “Umm.” I didn’t know what to say.

  “I know I can be intense and a bitch. I blurt out things I shouldn’t say, and I’ve been told more than once I don’t have good social skills. Before I leave, I just wanted you to know I’m sorry for being so mean to you. You’re a nice person and didn’t deserve it.” She stopped and placed a cup on my desk. “Here. A peace offering. A vanilla flavored coffee, extra cream, and two sugars.”

  Say what? Since when did Queen Bitch know what kind of coffee I liked? I eyed the cup and looked back at her.

  “Thanks.”

  “It’s the least I can do.”

  She smiled and walked into her office, or her old office, and started to clear off her desk. I looked at the coffee again and considered tossing it in the trash, but hello, it was a large vanilla, with extra cream and two sugars. I took a tentative sip making sure it was coffee and not something gross. As apologetic as she was, she was still Beth. I wouldn’t put it past her to put vinegar in my drink to get a good laugh at me. However, it was delicious and exactly what I needed to finish putting these files back together so I could leave. If I left within the next five minutes, I’d have time to stop at the store and still be home before Nick.

  I grabbed my phone off my desk and sent a quick text to Veronica Venus.

  Me: You’ll never guess what just happened?

  I tossed my phone on my desk and by the time I finished arranging the last file my head was throbbing. Thank God, I was done. The excitement of the day had worn off, and fatigue had set in. I wasn’t surprised, I had been up since about 3 a.m., and was nonstop busy all day. I grabbed my purse out of my bottom drawer and flung it over my shoulder. Forget the grocery store; I was too tired to cook; I’d call in a pizza when I got to Nick’s.

  I grabbed my phone off my desk and noticed I had a text notification from Veronica Venus.

  VV21: What?

  I was so exhausted the words swam on my screen as I tapped out my message.

  Me: Funny story. I’m leaving work now.

  I glanced at my now empty cup and was reminded I had to say something to Beth before I left. But what? See ya around? Apology accepted? Thanks for the coffee? I knew what I wanted to say; good riddance, but that was too mean. Even after all the years of torture.

  Why couldn’t I just be a bitch and leave without saying something?

  I peeked into Beth’s office, and she was on her phone, thumbs flying across her screen. She looked busy; maybe I could slip out without saying goodbye, I wouldn’t want to disturb her. The moment I’d talked myself into leaving Beth looked up. Damn, eye contact, now I had to say something.

  My phone vibrated in my hand, and I was given a reprieve.

  VV21: Tell me, the suspense is killing me.

  Me: Give me five minutes. Text you from the car.

  I hit send and chanced looking back up. Beth’s phone beeped, and she smirked before she looked back down. I knew that smile; it normally came right before she spewed out a nasty comment. I watched as she fiddled with her phone, my headache getting worse by the second.

  I was leaving. She was busy, and I had the shakes so bad I didn’t know if it was my phone vibrating or if all the caffeine I’d had was taking its toll. I needed to get home and take a nap and get rid of this headache.

  VV21: Okay.

  I blinked, trying to
focus on the message. The small letters on the screen danced, and I couldn’t focus on them.

  Damn my head hurt. The more I blinked to clear my vision, the longer it took for me to pull my lids open again. I pitched forward and stumbled trying to find purchase before I hit the floor.

  “Humph.” I knocked into something.

  “Careful, you clumsy idiot.”

  No.

  No.

  No.

  I knew that voice.

  Chapter 23

  Too wrapped up

  “There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s attuned to your emotions. You’re wound tighter than a banjo,” Joel said.

  “He’s right you know,” Mandy added. “Ninety percent of human communication is nonverbal. Sally is astute; she senses a change in your body language. Research shows that canines can detect cardiac episodes and are able to alert their owners before it happens. It was originally thought it was because they could detect a change in electromagnetic waves; however, that’s not the case. It boils down to smell. Humans give off an odor as a result of chemicals being released into our bloodstream before an episode or when we’re anxious. You need to dial it back. She can smell you.”

  “How the hell can I dial it back when the unsub more than likely works with Meadow. She is in a building with a woman that not only tried to kill her but has successfully butchered fifteen other women.”

  “You will because that’s what Meadow needs,” Mike told me.

  Fuck, he was right. Meadow needed me to be clear minded. I had to focus, but I couldn’t. All I could think about was Meadow on the ground in a filthy alley, bleeding.

  “Here are the names.” Kristy trotted into the room holding up a stack of papers. She’d been working double time over the last few hours trying to narrow down names. Once the list was manageable, we’d hand it over to Lance and let his department take the lead. However, with our resources and Kristy, we’d be faster at tightening a suspect pool. “Also, I was thinking. You had me searching for newsworthy events on the seventh and twentieth. If the bodies are found in the early morning hours on those days wouldn’t she be hunting the day before? The trauma would’ve been on the sixth and the nineteenth, right? I’m cross-referencing these names with police reports and hospital visits. I’ll have the results in about a half hour.”