The Lady Killer

by Paizley Stone

  When she got stuck on something, she liked to run it past Ralph. He had a different way of looking at things. She went upstairs, grabbed Murphy and they headed back to the bar. It was about quitting time for the office crowd. Maybe they would get lucky and run into Nancy, or someone who knew her. When they walked in, she scanned the area for a blonde. Sam was behind the bar dusting off the bottles of liquor. “Good afternoon, Sam. How’s business doing today? It doesn’t look very busy.”

  Sam gave her a big smile. “Hey, Detective, what’s up with you? Caught the bad guy yet?”

  “No, I’m still looking for leads. Haven’t seen Nancy?”

  “You know, that’s the strangest thing. She shows up here with Sheila every day for about a month, and then nothing. Maybe it’s my breath, huh?” He chuckled at his own humor.

  “Sheila came in here before she knew Nancy, right?”

  “Oh yeah, she was a regular. Kept to her self, unless she was discussing a case with one of her co-workers. I wondered about her. She was beautiful and always alone, until Nancy came along. Didn’t look like the lesbian type to me, but what do I know. Times have changed so much since I was a kid, it’s hard to tell what anybody is any more. You know what I mean?”

  “Unfortunately, I do. Did Nancy talk to anyone while she waited for Sheila?”

  “Now that you mention it, there was a guy. He bought her a drink once. Personally, I thought she could do better than him. She might have had those big ugly glasses, but she had a real tight body. I’d have taken her home, but my wife probably wouldn’t let me keep her.”

  “Probably not, Sam, you dog! Do you remember the guy, and have you seen him since?”

  “No, he was a one timer. You know the type. In the area for a meeting or something and stopped in to have a drink. I was just relieved that he had to listen to the rant about Sheila being late, and not me. Come to think of it, Bob had to listen to Nancy one night not too long ago, when she waited for Sheila for about three hours. Then she got mad and left.”

  Laura’s interest was aroused by the thought of another witness. “Who’s Bob?”

  “He works with me when we’re busy and covers my nights off.”

  “Where can I find this Bob?”

  Sam looked around. “You’re in luck, here he comes right now. Hey, Bob, this is Detective Peterson. She wants to talk to you about that Nancy lady, who used to meet with Sheila.”

  “Hi, Bob, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about Nancy?”

  “Sure, Detective Peterson. Shame what happened to Sheila. She was a looker and real nice too. What can I help you with?”

  “Sam told me that you recently saw Nancy come in by herself and wait for Sheila. Can you tell me when that was?”

  Bob grabbed a towel and leaned back against the liquor cabinets. “Yeah, it was a Saturday, been about a couple of weeks.”

  Laura frowned. “You’re sure it was a Saturday?”

  “Yep, I have Friday off and that’s my only early day. I come in about three and relieve the lunch person. Nancy came in about four or so. She said she was waiting for Sheila, and then they were going to grab a bite. I hadn’t talked to Sam, so I didn’t even know she was dead. By seven, when Sheila hadn’t shown, Nancy was pissed! I had been listening to her complain for almost three hours, so I suggested that she go ahead and eat something. She had been sitting there nursing two glasses of wine, and I thought if she ate, she would shut up! She kept going on about all the self-centered and inconsiderate people in the world.”

  “So did she eat?”

  “No, she just paid for her wine. Said that she was fed up with Sheila, and that she was never coming back again. Then she just stormed out. I haven’t seen her since.”

  Laura wondered how much of this story was just Bob’s bravado. “Considering the amount of customers that come in here, you seem to have a pretty accurate memory of something that happened a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Hey, that bitch yakked my ear off for almost three hours, and didn’t even leave me a tip! A guy remembers that kind of thing. Right, Sam?”

  Sam came back over to where they were standing. “Yep, Bob’s right, now that I think about it. That was my late day. I got here about eight and then closed the place. Bob usually leaves about eleven, unless we get real busy. When I came in, Bob bitched like hell to me after she left and didn’t tip him anything. She wasn’t so drunk that she forgot, and she had enough change from her twenty. Bob didn’t even know that Sheila was dead until I told him, and that was after Nancy had left. I feel bad about Sheila too, but I sure don’t miss Nancy. Wow, it’s too bad that Bob didn’t know that you wanted to talk to Nancy. Then he could have called you when she was here. Sorry about that, Detective!”

  “That’s okay, Sam. Just keep my number in case she shows up again. By the way, is there any chance that Nancy was wearing a blonde wig?” Both men looked at each other, shrugged and claimed they couldn’t tell.

  Out in the car, Laura banged her hands hard on the steering wheel. “Damn it! Another dead-end. If Nancy had anything to do with Sheila’s murder, she probably wouldn’t show up a couple of nights later to meet her as usual, unless it was a cover up to give her an alibi. If only Bob had known to called us! We need to talk to that woman!”

  “Is it safe to be in here with you?”

  “Sorry, Murphy, notice I am hitting the car, not you.” Laura answered her phone. “Peterson….. Thanks, Janet, I appreciate the effort.”

  Dan saw the dejected look on her face. “Bad news?”

  “That was our Wiccan High Priestess. You gave her that list of the other victims, and it turns out that no one in their coven knows any of them. Another dead-end! I am so tired of this! It’s like he plants things just to throw us off. I feel like a mouse, and he’s the sadistic cat.”

  “It’s almost quitting time. Do we have anything else to follow up on tonight?”

  “No, I really can’t think of anything.”

  Dan cleared his throat and tried to act casual, even though he was nervous about asking her. “Great, then how about stopping for a beer? We can go to Murphy’s, where all the cops hang out. You might really like the place.”

  She glanced at him and laughed. “Must be something in the name of the place that you like.”

  “Yeah, it has a real nice ring to it. I’ll introduce you to some of my old buddies.”

  When they arrived at the bar it was unusually quiet, and none of Dan’s friends were around. They ordered a couple of icy mugs and headed to a small table in the corner.

  He looked at her for awhile before he spoke. “So, when you dream, Detective Peterson, what do you dream about?”

  “Lately, it has been nightmares since this string of murders started.”

  “How about before this case?”

  “Calm water flowing between cattails on a warm summer’s evening, seagulls crying on an open beach and the roar of the ocean. When we were kids, my mom vacationed alone with my brother and me near the Cape. Dad was too busy to join us, thank God! The only good memories I have are there. That’s where I feel safe.”

  “Those are good dreams to have. So, you don’t feel safe now?”

  “How can any woman feel safe in this city with a twisted psychopath on the loose?”

  Dan felt bad; he had been trying to take her mind off of the case. “Sorry. I guess I would feel much different, if we were finding mutilated men in these warehouses.”

  “No matter how liberated we think we have become, Murphy, there will always be men who cross the line and feel they’re entitled. That somehow women are there only to please them, and they can take what they want, when they want it. I know that this psycho is an example taken to the extreme, but I see the attitude everywhere. The TV commercials don’t help. Every guy that uses a certain product gets a good looking woman with big boobs fawning all over him. That’s my objection to porn. It suggests that women are there just to use.”

  Dan looked at her thoughtfully. “Is that
why you’re alone?”

  “Yes, pretty much. I don’t want to be controlled by a man. I want to live my own life and not worry about someone else, or their needs coming before mine.”

  “It sounds to me like you always pick the wrong guys. Not all of us have a need to control or be taken care of, and some of us never watch porn.”

  She got nervous because he was getting too personal, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. “Okay, you may be right, but for right now I need to concentrate on my job. Let’s go, and I’ll drop you back at your car. Thanks for the beer.”

  “Any time, Detective.”

  CHAPTER 5

  “Man, someone looks grumpy this morning! What’s the matter, didn’t you get enough sleep?”

  “Roy, I haven’t even gotten to my desk yet, don’t start. It’s been over three weeks since Sheila Lawson’s murder, and we aren’t any closer to solving it. When you add in the other five victims, it has been almost six months. Do we have anything new to work on?”

  “We got all of her financials and traced all credit card transactions. Nothing is showing up like a red flag, and nothing connects with the other victims. Murf has been working on the Butt Men but can’t find anything that ties them to each other or the victims. None of them have had the same arresting officer or judge. One guy never even went to trial. A couple of them pulled the same Public Defender, but no one is in the same anger management group. They don’t use the same gyms, or hang out at the same bars. Nothing fits together.”

  “There has to be something that we just aren’t seeing. What are the odds of our killer grabbing random butts to plant at crime scenes to distract us, and they all just happen to be domestic violence offenders?”

  Roy nodded his head agreeing with her. “About like winning the lottery.”

  “Exactly, so there has to be a connection, maybe a file clerk or court stenographer.”

  “I hate to say it, but with the internet being what it is these days, anyone could be looking up domestic violence and pulling reports on these guys.”

  “Okay, and then he follows them around until he gets enough cigarette butts to plant at his next murder scene? Does that make sense to you?”

  Roy frowned thoughtfully before he spoke. “Nope, not at all. Neither does hanging naked women and torturing them, but I’m not a psychopath. Somehow it makes sense to him. To catch him, I’m afraid we’re going to have to start thinking like him.”

  “I’ll work on that right after lunch! Where’s Murphy this morning?”

  Roy had a half smile on his face. “He had one more lead to cover on the Butt Men, then he’ll be in. Do you worry that much about me when I’m not here?”

  She whipped her head around and gave him a glare. “Is that supposed to be funny?”

  “No, but I’ve seen the way he runs around here getting you coffee and such. I think the boy might be sweet on you.”

  “Answer the phone, Burns, and stop being crazy. He’s just a baby.”

  “Homicide, Detective Burns….. Okay, we’ll be right there!”

  Her heart sank as she watched him hang up the phone. “Don’t tell me.”

  “Yep, another one, let’s go! I’ll call Murf and have him meet us there.”

  When they got to the address, they found police cars everywhere and the whole building roped off with yellow crime scene tape. A crowd had gathered in the street, and the uniform cops were trying to get them to move along. Peterson took in the scene with a long, sweeping glance and noticed a very well dressed couple standing just outside the entrance to the building. They both seemed distraught, and Murphy was talking to them.

  The building looked like it had been some kind of storefront and warehouse combination. It was different than most of the previous scenes, because it was attached on both sides by other buildings, instead of free standing. The street was fairly busy during the day but mostly deserted at night. All of the surrounding buildings were vacant. This was another secluded area and probably accessed from the rear with an ally. There had to be some way for the killer to get a vehicle near the building, without being detected. He couldn’t be bringing these women willingly to isolated buildings at night.

  Murphy approached them as they walked toward the front door. She was impressed by how quickly he had gotten there and taken control of the situation. “Good morning, Murphy, what have you found out so far?”

  He had an unusually pained look on his face. “Well, it’s not going to be a good morning, I can tell you that much. Do you want the bad news, or the really bad news?”

  “Lay it on me, and start with the high class couple.”

  “They are the ones who called the police. She’s a realtor and was showing the building to the guy who’s with her. When they entered the front they didn’t see anything, until they went back into the warehouse. That’s where they found a body, panicked, ran out of the building and called the police on her cell. Both of them are pretty shaken up and want to know when they can go home. That’s the bad news! Now do you want the really bad news?”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “There’s more?”

  “Oh yeah! While CSU was blocking off the area where the body was found, a couple of the patrolmen were checking out the rest of the building, just on the off chance that some clue got left behind. They found a padlocked walk-in freezer and noticed that it appeared to be running. That seemed peculiar in an abandoned building, so they got bolt cutters and opened it up. They found a second body in the freezer!”

  Laura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “A second body, you have to be joking, right?”

  Dan shook his head apologetically. “No, I wish I was. It’s the same guy, the bodies are staged the same. The one out in the warehouse is exactly like the ones we’ve seen before, but the one in the freezer looks like she died from being frozen, not by asphyxiation. We’ll have to get a final word from Dr. Foote on that, but there’s no tape on the mouth and the nostrils are open. Other than that, she had been tortured the same way as the others. The one in the warehouse has a women’s designer suit under the body. We don’t know if those are her clothes, or just one of his signs that he leaves behind. There’s no underwear lying around, so I’m thinking the suit is a plant. The one in the freezer has a small dog under her body. There are cigarette butts in proximity to both bodies but not the same brand.”

  Detective Burns thanked Murphy for his good analysis and then turned to Laura. “Are you okay, Peterson? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

  She was standing there just staring at the wall. “No, I’m alright, Burns. I’m just trying to process all of this in my mind. There are two crime scenes in the same building. The previous one had two bodies, but not by choice, because it looked like the guard surprised him. But this was planned this way. Murphy, do we have ID’s on these women?”

  “Yes, both their purses have been left at the scenes, like all the rest. I phoned them in to see if we could get some kind of hit on them, and you’re not going to believe what I found.”

  “Should I be sitting down?”

  “Maybe, the one in the freezer was reported missing seven months ago!”

  A look of total disbelief came over her face. “So, the one in the freezer must have been his first victim, which means the one out in the warehouse is number eight, instead of seven?”

  Dan shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, that’s the way I’m seeing it. The warehouse one is pretty fresh, so she was probably killed last night. Considering the freezer woman has been missing seven months, she was probably killed right away in that freezer and just preserved.”

  “That means that he is either very brazen or upset that his first victim wasn’t found. Maybe he had to stage a second one here, so that we would look around and find the first.”

  Dan shook his head. “What bothers me is, if he wanted her found, why padlock the door? Why not leave it open for someone to find her?”

  She was impressed with his reasoning. “Good point, Murphy,
where did Burns go?”

  “I saw him go over and talk to the two people who found the scene. I think he sent them home. Then he went inside the building with Dr. Foote when he arrived. Do you want to go have a look?”

  The thought of facing another gruesome crime scene made her cringe. She had a hard time dealing with this man’s brutality toward women. “Not really, but it’s my job.”

  They walked through the front door and looked around at what appeared to have been some kind of deli type store front. Through the back, they entered the warehouse and saw the first victim. The suit, which was laid out beneath the body, was on hangers and looked brand new. Laura picked up the sleeve with her pen to find a tag hidden there. She raised her eyebrows when she saw the extravagant price. “So, this is just a sign like all the rest. What is this guy trying to tell us? He must be sending a message of some kind.”

  She walked over to the freezer and met Ralph on his way out. He was dressed in a parka. “If you’re going in there, don’t stay too long. It’s literally freezing in there. In fact, it’s well below freezing. I sent someone to find the breaker and shut it off, so we can work.”

  “Is this the same guy?”

  “It appears that way. The body is in the same brutal condition that all the others have been found in, except for no glue, tape or slashed throat. The dog beneath the body looks like one of those dust mop types. She has a pink, rhinestone collar and a pink bow to keep the hair out of her eyes.”

  “The dog is female also?”

  “Yes, I didn’t give that much thought, until you mentioned it. The dog is female also. Hmmmmm, interesting. What do you make of that?”

  “I’m not sure, but I know this guy is trying to make a statement of some kind. He leaves something different at every scene, and that one item is the only thing that’s different, other than the type of rope. The women are all treated exactly the same. Their clothes are missing, and the purse is left behind, so we’ll know immediately who they are. I told Detective Murphy that the killer might have placed the second victim here, because he was upset that the first victim hadn’t been found. Dan thought that he didn’t want her found, or he wouldn’t have padlocked the door. So, he must have wanted her found now. The question is why?”