“And then what did you do?”
I bit the inside of my lip. This was going to lessen my cool quotient in Eliot’s book.
“What did you do?” Eliot repeated. I could tell he already suspected that whatever I was about to tell him wasn’t going to be good.
“I might have tattled on him to Fish.”
Eliot resumed chewing. “That’s all?”
“Isn’t that bad enough?”
“No,” Eliot shook his head. “The guy is an idiot. You should have told on him.”
“Everyone else seems to think it’s immature.”
“You are immature. It’s one of the things I like about you. You just don’t care what other people think.”
That was another good point.
“What else happened today? Did you go to the conference at the sheriff’s department?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Jake cornered me and threatened to punish Derrick the next time I followed him to a crime scene.”
Eliot looked surprised. “Do you think he’d really do that?”
“No,” I scoffed. “I called his bluff. I told him he was too good of a guy to do that.”
“And?” Eliot raised an eyebrow.
“And? And then he kind of blew up.”
Eliot smirked. “He yelled at you?”
“Pretty much.”
“And then?”
“And then nothing. We went to the conference. He gave me absolutely nothing new. I went back to the office and wrote a boring retread. I listened to Marvin swear off women. I did some research on that tip you gave me about the body from two weeks ago. I stopped at her house on my way home. You gave me a great gift. And now we’re going to have sex.”
Eliot’s mouth dropped open. “That’s quite a list,” he said after a second. “I’m not quite sure where to start.”
“Let’s start with the sex,” I suggested.
“In a second,” Eliot said. “We just ate. Let’s digest the food so we don’t cramp up.”
“That’s swimming,” I protested.
“Close enough.”
Great.
“Why is Marvin swearing off women?”
“A stripper told him he was a bad kisser. I thought strippers weren’t supposed to touch customers?”
“I think it depends on the establishment. I personally don’t know.”
“Would a stripper taking money from a guy and then kissing him equate to prostitution?”
“Did they have sex?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
“How do you know so much about this?”
“I had another life before you knew me.”
I narrowed my eyes in his direction.
“No, I never slept with a prostitute,” he said, answering the non-verbal question at the forefront of my mind.
“Have you slept with a stripper?”
Eliot ignored the question. “What’s the name of the Oakland County victim?”
Oh, he’s good. “Sophie Lipscomb.”
“What did her family say?”
“They said she’s not a stripper.” I’m better.
Eliot sighed. “Is this going to be a thing?”
I thought of the shirt. “I guess not, but only because you got me the coolest shirt ever.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
“What? That I can be bribed?
“That you can be bribed with Star Wars merchandise,” Eliot countered. “Back to Sophie Lipscomb. What did her family say?”
“Her mom didn’t want to talk,” I said.
“You still got something, though,” Eliot said knowingly.
“I talked to her brother outside. He said she wasn’t dating anyone. He said the night she disappeared she was at a speed-dating thing her friends made her go to. She answered a call and said she had to leave. That was the last anyone saw of her.”
Eliot thought about what I said. “Have the cops tracked her phone call from that night?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. It’s Oakland County. They hide crime whenever they feel like it.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“The brother said that they found the speed-dating place in our personal ads,” I said. “I’m going to start with the owners tomorrow.”
“It sounds like you have a handle on things,” Eliot said.
I regarded him for a second, tipping my head to the side as I watched him. “You know something.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Oh, you know something,” I repeated. “What do you know?”
“I thought you wanted to have sex?”
“Once you tell me what you know I’m going to have any kind of sex you want,” I offered.
“Any kind?” Eliot cocked his eyebrow, intrigued.
“Within reason. Let’s not go crazy. I’m no stripper, after all.”
Eliot sighed.
“What do you know?” I pressed.
“I see that the sheriff’s department isn’t releasing the name of this victim.” Eliot was playing at being coy.
“No,” I agreed. “They’re having a news conference at 3 p.m. tomorrow -- purposely late -- to announce it.”
“What if I told you that I had the name of the second victim, which means you would have practically a whole day to track things down before the other media vultures get it?” Eliot looked a little too pleased with himself. I was so excited, though, that I really didn’t care.
“I would say the kinky stuff is back on the table.”
Eliot smiled widely, pushing to his feet and grabbing my arm. “It’s bed time my little Sith queen.”
“Wait!”
“What?” Eliot looked confused.
I pushed a piece of paper toward him. “Write down the name so I have it tomorrow morning.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I do,” I countered. “I just figure one of us is going to oversleep tomorrow, and I want to make sure I have that name to start working on the story first thing tomorrow morning.”
Eliot sighed but quickly wrote Ellie Parker on the paper. Then he looked up to me expectantly.
“Come on,” I ordered.
“Where are we going?”
“To see if that T-shirt is true.”
“Best thing I ever bought,” Eliot sighed. “Seriously.”
“Come on!”
Ten
It took a monumental effort to climb out of bed the next morning. My muscles were sore and I’d only enjoyed about six hours of sleep, but it was totally worth it.
I left Eliot slumbering while I showered and dressed for work. When I made my way to the kitchen, he’d finally climbed out of bed and was nursing a cup of coffee from my Keurig. “I can’t believe you’re up before me.”
“I’m excited,” I said, slipping the piece of paper with Ellie Parker’s name on it into my purse. “How did you get this, by the way?”
“A guy who knew the family came into the shop looking for a gun yesterday afternoon,” Eliot explained. “He told me all about it.”
“Did he give you anything else useful?”
Eliot sipped from his cup of coffee before answering. While he did, I couldn’t help but admire his sleep-tousled hair and the way his boxer shorts dipped dangerously low on his hips. How is it that guys wake up looking exactly the same as when they went to sleep but women somehow disintegrate during the night? Eliot followed my gaze and frowned. “How can you even think of that after last night?”
“Think of what? How do you even know what I was thinking about?”
Eliot smirked.
“Fine. Are you going to answer the question?”
“The guy didn’t know much. She’s the daughter of a friend. She worked at some shoe store on Gratiot.”
My interest was piqued. Whenever I could go into a shoe store under the guise of working I was definitely interested. “The shoe warehouse thing in the strip mall?”
“That’s the o
ne. Do you know every shoe store in the county?” Eliot teased.
“Only the good ones. What else?”
“She was taking classes at the community college part time while she worked. He didn’t know a lot about the specifics of the case.”
“Do you know what city she lived in?”
“What? Oh, Fraser.”
“Okay,” I nodded. I moved to his side and kissed him quickly. “Thanks for this. And for the shirt.”
Eliot watched as I picked up the bag containing the shirt and headed for the door. “Why are you taking the shirt to work with you?”
“Because I can’t wear it to work. Fish would have a fit.”
“But why are you taking it?”
“I’m wearing it to dinner tonight.”
Eliot’s smile tightened.
“You didn’t forget about dinner, did you?” I asked.
“No,” Eliot shook his head. “I’ll be there.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I thought you were kidding about wearing that to family dinner.”
“Oh, I would never kid about that,” I laughed. “I think my mom’s head might actually implode when she sees this one.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Eliot looked worried.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell her you bought it for me.”
Eliot sighed. “I don’t know why I’m fighting this. I should have known the minute I bought it that you would use it to torture your mother.”
“Torture is such a harsh word.”
“What word would you use?”
“I didn’t say torture was the wrong word. I just said it was a harsh word.”
Eliot shook his head as I left out the back door. I was ready to take this case head-on, especially since I had a head start. I love Fridays.
WHEN I got to the office I went straight to my desk to avoid any further shenanigans with my co-workers. Don’t get me wrong, I like messing with Duncan and Brick (especially Duncan), but I didn’t have time for it today. I had a six-hour head start, and I was going to make it count.
I grabbed a copy of today’s paper, flipping through it until I found the personal ads. I had never paid much attention to that page before, so it was a learning experience when I started reading. “Some of these are a little pathetic,” I said to no one in particular.
It took me a few minutes to find the ad I was looking for, the one promoting speed dating, and then I carried the paper over to my friend Erin’s desk.
Erin, who is always dressed appropriately and shows up on time for work, seemed surprised to see me. “It’s 9:30.”
“I know.”
“It’s 9:30 in the morning.”
“I know.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I work here.”
“You’re always late, though,” Erin pointed out. “Or you go straight to a story to pretend you’re not late.”
That was a vicious lie. Kind of.
“I got a tip,” I admitted. “Where’s Fish?”
“He’s in the morning reporters’ meeting.”
Crap. I bit my lower lip. I hadn’t made a reporters’ meeting in months. If I suddenly showed up now, Fish would try to make attendance mandatory for me again. No one wanted that. “You didn’t see me,” I said hurriedly, starting to move away from her desk.
“He’s going to be in there for at least another fifteen minutes,” Erin said. “Didn’t you come over here to ask me something?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, although my eyes were trained on the conference room door at the far end of the newsroom. If that door showed even a hint of opening I was gone. “Have you ever done this?” I slid the ad in front of Erin, tapping on it to make sure she knew which ad I was talking about.
Erin glanced down at the ad and frowned. “I thought you were with Eliot. Are you two having problems?”
“What? No.”
“Then why are you considering speed dating?”
“I’m not considering it for myself,” I said. “I know that one of the victims happened to have gone to this event before she was killed, though.”
“One of the victims?” Erin furrowed her brow. “There’s more than one victim?”
I have such a big mouth. “There might be two victims,” I admitted. “Do not tell anyone that, though.”
Erin looked properly chastised. “So you might break a really big story?”
“Yes.”
“And I might be helping you?”
Erin usually wrote features, so the idea of breaking a big story was a novel one for her. “Yes.”
“No.”
“No what?”
“No, I’ve never been speed dating.”
“Do you know anyone who has?”
“A girl I’m kind of friends with went to this one, I think.”
“Do you know where it is?’
“It’s at that restaurant downtown.”
“Right here in Mount Clemens?”
“Yeah.”
“Which restaurant?”
“That one that keeps changing ownership on the corner,” Erin said. “I can’t even remember what it is now. A few months ago it was a cowboy bar with one of those mechanical bulls.”
“I know which restaurant you’re talking about,” I said. “It’s an Irish restaurant now.”
“Does that mean they serve cabbage and potatoes?”
“I think it means they serve a lot of whiskey,” I offered. “I wonder how often they do this.”
“I have no idea.”
“Okay,” I said finally and started to move away.
“If Fish asks if you were here?”
I paused. “Tell him you didn’t see me, but I called and I have a big story I’m working on.”
“That’s all you want me to tell him?” Erin looked suddenly nervous.
“It will be fine.”
I raced back to my desk and gathered my purse and coat. I was about to head out of the building when I hesitated and veered into the advertising department instead. I glanced around the room, looking for anyone I recognized. Editorial staff and advertising staff usually don’t mix. Editorial staff has an attitude because they provide the copy and the advertising staff gets all the accolades. The advertising staff basically looks at the editorial staff as a bunch of prima donnas. Neither side is wrong.
Once my eyes fell on Evelyn, an older ad representative who was generally friendly, I went to her desk. “I need help.”
Evelyn seemed surprised by my sudden appearance. “You need to place an ad?”
“No,” I shook my head and handed the personals ad page to Evelyn. “I need to know if two people placed personal ads in our paper.”
Evelyn pursed her lips. “Why?”
“It’s for a story.”
“What kind of story?”
“A big one.”
Evelyn shook her head tiredly. “No, I mean is it a good story or is it a bad story?”
Cripes. “I’m trying to track down two murder victims,” I said. “You could be helping solve two heinous crimes.”
Evelyn sighed. “You’re always so dramatic.”
“So? Will you look for me?”
“I’ll look. What are the names?” She wrote down the two names as I told her and then fixed her eyes on me. “This might take a while.”
“I figured,” I nodded grimly. “Call my cell phone if you get anything.”
“Fine.”
“And Evelyn?” I paused at the doorway that led to the hallway. “It’s very important that you keep this between us.”
“Why?”
Because I don’t trust my co-workers not to try to scoop me. “Because this is a very serious story with a very dangerous killer at the end of it.”
Evelyn nodded solemnly. “I understand.”
I didn’t roll my eyes until I was already outside of the building. I should probably feel bad for manipulating a co-worker. I don’t, though. Instead, I headed to the librar
y to do some research. I had to be far away from the office for the day -- and I saw a trip to a shoe store in my immediate future, too. If I stayed in the office, Fish would know I was up to something, and that wouldn’t go over well for anyone. I was not going to let him assign Duncan to “help” me this time. This story was all mine, and I had to make as much headway as possible before 3 p.m.
Eleven
Five hours and two new pairs of shoes later (Steve Madden boots are one of my weaknesses), I was sitting pretty. The employees at the shoe store had been more than willing to talk on the record about what a great friend and worker Ellie Parker had been.
Not only that, another pattern had emerged: Both women targeted had been twenty-something blondes with blue eyes. That’s a type.
I knew what Sophie looked like from her obituary photo. Thankfully, the workers at the store had not only supplied me with a verbal description of Ellie, they also emailed me photos of her from their phones on the spot.
I emailed Fish to tell him to save the center spot of the front page for me, but I declined to go into further detail until I returned to the office. If he was angry, he didn’t acknowledge it -- and I was flying too high from my scoop to care.
When I got to the sheriff’s department the same two cops from my previous visit were again ensconced in their protective bubble. I didn’t even bother approaching them. Instead I texted Derrick and waved happily to my audience as he escorted me through the door and into the department’s inner sanctum.
“You just aren’t happy unless you’re causing trouble, are you?” Derrick remarked.
“Wait until you see the shirt I’m wearing to dinner tonight.”
Derrick raised his eyebrows. “Is your mom going to have a fit?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Well, that will be fun at least. You’re not going to give me a hint?”
“You have to see it to believe it.”
“Actually, now I can’t wait.”
Derrick led me to the conference room, already filled with area media representatives. I recognized Derrick’s girlfriend, Devon, right away. “Are you two still dating?”
“Yes. Don’t be mean to her.”
“And why do you date her? And just because she has sex with you is not an acceptable answer.”
“I happen to like her,” Derrick replied. “She’s really smart and she’s really pretty. And she has sex with me.”
The Preditorial Page Page 7