Night Victims n-3

by John Lutz

  She seemed to mean it. Her voice was different from any other time he’d heard it, a slight quaver making her sound as if she were cold.

  Horn stepped aside, letting a knot of pedestrians who were going in the opposite direction pass by. Then he moved into the display-window-corridor entrance to a menswear store so he could hear better. “I didn’t think scared was a word you knew, Nina.”

  “I got up this morning, dressed, and was about to leave for work, when I checked my bedroom window to make sure it was locked.”

  Horn felt his hand tighten on the phone.

  “It was locked,” Nina went on, “but I noticed something in the upper right-hand corner. Someone had scratched-etched is more the word-a design there. A spiderweb.”

  “You’re sure.”

  “No mistake about it. It’s rather artistic.”

  “But it’s on the outside of the glass?”

  “If it weren’t, I wouldn’t still be in my apartment talking to you.”

  You might still be in your apartment. Dead. He found his gaze fixed on a pair of two-tone loafers with oversized tassels in the show window and knew he’d remember them the way he’d always remember this phone call. The human mind was something, with its overlapping layers of thought. Why would anyone wear a pair of shoes like that?

  “What’s this mean, Horn?”

  “You know what it means. You got the desired result through your newscast. Attracted the killer’s attention. Now he’s playing with you. Trying to frighten you.”

  “He succeeded more than I thought possible.” The chill in her voice again.

  “You want police protection?”

  “Yes.”

  No hesitation. Horn knew she realized the Night Spider didn’t have to spend his time etching windowpanes. He could have used his glass cutter and masking tape to unlock the window, then entered her bedroom while she slept and taken her as one of his victims. Spent his idea of quality time with her.

  “Should I stay here, Horn?”

  “For the time being. You’re probably safe enough. He obviously wants you alive for now so he can continue his terror campaign.”

  Silence. Then, “Yeah, I guess that’s true. How long do you think that part of it will go on? I could make a story out of it.” Her fear was slackening somewhat. Thinking ratings again. She wasn’t short on guts. “The police protection might make a good angle for my newscast. Or maybe I shouldn’t mention it. Do you think I should mention what he did to my bedroom window?”

  “You can mention the window, but not the protection. That’d only make your guardian angels’ job more difficult.”

  “Do you really think he’d try for me if he knew I was under police protection?”

  “I’m sure of it. In fact, I think it would make an attempt more likely.”

  “Jesus, Horn!”

  He can’t ignore a dare. .

  “Nina, there’s something we need to talk about.”

  The Night Spider sat on a bench just inside the entrance to Central Park and watched children using the playground equipment. And watched their mothers and nannies.

  Nina Count is afraid. Right now. This second.

  He played with that fact in his mind and was aware of warm sunlight on the part of his face that was exposed. He wore a short-sleeved shirt, but with the collar turned up, a Mets baseball cap, and oversized orange-tinted glasses that made the park’s foliage a more vivid green, and the flesh of the women and children all the more vital and sumptuous.

  Nina Count is afraid. She knows it’s begun.

  He could have taken her last night, as he dangled like death outside her window, watching her sleep through the web he etched in the glass. He’d used soap on his diamond glass cutter so it was silent. Nina Count hadn’t stirred. She lay on her side, partly covered with a white sheet that might become her shroud. One languid bare leg was extended, pale even against the sheet. He guessed she’d be a natural blonde, though these days, with all the improved dyes and techniques, it was difficult to know. He’d find out for sure soon enough.

  When he was almost finished with the web, he had to fight the desire to tap on the glass and wake her, give her a glimpse of him outside her high window, so close to her. Only a thin pane of glass between Nina and everything she’d ever feared.

  But he’d resisted and quietly ascended to the roof. He used his line, slender but strong, and, from the ground, invisible as a spiderweb, to traverse dark space to the adjacent roof.

  He left behind a sleeping Nina Count, who would look out her window in the morning and know he’d been there, so very near her. Terror would leap through the glass to her and cling to her and bore into her like a parasitic insect that would be her companion for the brief duration of her life.

  Something to think about.

  She’s thinking about it now. She must be because she isn’t able to think about anything else. Not completely. She’s thinking about me at this precise instant.

  Because she knows I’m thinking about her.

  Through the light and shadow and angles of the narrow streets, the greater and lesser terrors of swarming humanity, the raucous, hard-shelled traffic with cars like intrepid beetles dusty or glistening in the sunlight, her fear wended its way to him.

  He closed his eyes behind the bulging, tinted lenses and fed on it.

  30

  Paula knew deep down it wasn’t really necessary to question Harry Linnert again, at this point. But then she knew a lot of things deep down, and there was nothing wrong with a cop playing a hunch.

  She was parked across the street from his apartment building, and occasionally glanced at his windows, which were still dark. It was almost eleven o’clock and she’d checked the apartment twice since eight o’clock. So maybe he was out to dinner with friends, fellow architects or Rugby players.

  She was about to give up and drive away when Linnert rounded the corner up the block and walked toward his building. He was wearing a tan waist-length jacket to protect from the mist and carrying a small bag of some sort by its handle.

  Paula forgot to slump down; he caught sight of her, did a double take, then stepped off the curb and began crossing the street toward her.

  Great! Terrific! Better think of some questions.

  He leaned down and peered in through the window, which she lowered.

  “Paula?” he said. “Officer Paula?”

  “Detective Ramboquette,” she corrected.

  He grinned. “Detective Ramboquette, I’m getting wet.” Bearing down on the et syllables and making it sound like a poem.

  “Get in the car,” she said, making it sound damned official.

  He settled in beside her and the windows immediately started to steam up. Two people in the car now, double the body heat, but still, Paula had to be impressed.

  “More questions?” he asked.

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Am I still under suspicion?”

  There was a hot, musky scent coming off him, one she thought she recognized. “Everybody’s under suspicion,” she told him. “Where are you coming from?”

  “My gym. I’ve been working out. Trying to get the leg in shape.”

  “You’ve been with a woman,” Paula said. “I can smell it on you.”

  His jaw dropped with surprise, then he laughed. “I’ve been with a Nautilus machine. What you smell’s probably the old socks and jogging shoes in my bag.” He leaned toward her. “I can open the bag and prove it.”

  “That’s not the way to respond to questions from the law,” she said.

  “You want to come up to my apartment again and we’ll talk?”

  “No.” Not again. Not yet, not yet. .

  “You don’t usually get questioned by the law in a cozy unmarked police car with the windows all fogged up.” He glanced around. “You know, we could make out in here, Detective Ramboquette, and nobody would see us.”

  “You’re part of an active homicide investigation,” she reminded him. />
  “Is that all that’s stopping us?”

  She turned and looked him dead in the eye. “That’s all.”

  That backed him up but not much. He was grinning widely, obviously pleased. “Do we really have to wait until the case is solved?”

  “We do.”

  “You’re damned serious about your job.”

  “Yeah, I am.”

  He leaned toward her and kissed her lightly on the lips. She couldn’t turn away. Could barely make herself move. She was losing control of the situation here and didn’t like it.

  There was a deafening high-pitched Whooop! that made him jerk backward and bang his head against the window.

  “What the hell was that?” His eyes were wide.

  “Siren,” she said. “For emergencies.”

  She switched on the wipers to allow a view out of the car, and in. Two elderly women who were half a block away were standing and staring at the unmarked.

  “Jesus, Paula.” Linnert rubbed his head where he’d bumped it, then he started to laugh.

  “Get out of here,” she said.

  “Now? Right now?”

  “You betcha.”

  He stirred, started to lean toward her again, then changed his mind and opened the door. He slid out of the car, still looking at her. When he’d gotten out, he didn’t straighten up. “That’s it?”

  “No,” she said. “Don’t leave town.”

  He laughed again and shut the door.

  She drove away fast. Her heart was doing a wild dance.

  Dumb, dumb, dumb! Definitely, a dumb thing to do!

  But she wasn’t sorry.

  This looked like it: the Home Away Diner.

  Unimposing little place, Nina thought, as she observed it from across the street. Just another corner diner like a zillion others in Manhattan, windows with booths looking out on the street, menu taped on its tinted glass door, yellow and blue Plexiglas sign that bent around the corner, no doubt backlighted in the evening. A placard on an easel near the door advertised daily specials. It was the kind of place Seinfeld and his friends might use as a hangout.

  As she waited for a break in the traffic so she could cross the street, Nina wondered if Horn knew what he was doing.

  And do I know what I’m doing?

  She saw her opportunity and hurried across the street as fast as possible. Her high heels were in her oversized leather purse; she was wearing her Nikes. Still, she almost wasn’t fast enough. A horn blared and a taxi she hadn’t noticed pulled away from the curb and had to skid to a stop rather than hit her.

  The driver rolled down his window. “Better get a guide dog, lady!”

  Nina gave him the finger and went on her way.

  “Hey! Ain’t you that TV newswoman?”

  “I am,” Nina said, smiling and not looking back.

  “Fuck you, anyway!”

  New York.

  As she entered the Home Away, she saw scrawled on the placard that tonight’s special was going to be veal parmesan, including roll and salad. Something to know, she thought, in case she was abducted by a motorcycle gang and dumped nearby.

  At least it was cool in the diner. There were a few customers, despite the fact that it was the restaurant business void between lunch and dinner. An elderly couple sat in a window booth drinking milkshakes. A guy who looked like a bum was slouched on a stool at the end of the counter, sipping what appeared to be cola with a straw in it. Maybe too drunk to realize he wasn’t in a bar.

  A man who looked like he was from the Middle East was perched on a high stool behind the counter, thumbing through a Sports Illustrated. He stood up when Nina walked in.

  “Whatever he’s drinking,” she said, motioning with her head toward the homeless type using the straw.

  The counterman smiled, put down his magazine, and went to the glasses and taps behind the counter.

  Nina saw Horn sitting in a back booth. There was a woman with him, a fortyish, slender brunette, nice looking in a classy way, wearing a white blouse and what looked like Levis. White slip-on sandals showed beneath the booth’s table. The waitress on her day off. The waitress-psychologist. Jesus!

  Horn had told her about the woman-Marla, was her name. He’d wanted Marla to be in on this because basically it was her idea. At least she’d given Horn the idea. What was going on here? Was Horn stepping out on that stuck-up blond wife of his? Screwing the waitress? Naughty, naughty, Horn! Lucky waitress!

  With misgivings, Nina paid for her Pepsi and walked back to join them.

  Toward the rear of the diner the mingled scents of lunch were still in the air: pastrami and overfried onions, maybe a spicy mustard somebody had spilled. After introductions, Nina sat down. Horn and Marla were on one side of the booth, Nina across from them. A souvenir American flag was tacked to the wall behind the counter. On the wall to Nina’s left was a large, framed black-and-white aerial photo of the Statue of Liberty. That was about it for motif.

  Horn explained the plan. It was simple. Beginning with tonight’s six o’clock newscast, Nina, with occasional advice from Marla, was to step up her campaign of denigrating the Night Spider, heavier on direct insult and humiliation. Then she’d go about her business as usual, driving home after work, maybe stopping for a late snack as she often did, renting a video movie at Hollywoodland near her building, then spending the evening in her apartment and going to bed at her usual time.

  The difference was she’d be protected, surreptitiously, by an army of NYPD undercover cops.

  The difference was a world-class serial killer was going to try for her.

  The difference was, she’d be bait.

  “Bait,” she said, thinking aloud.

  “That’s what you wanted,” Horn told her.

  Nina forced a nervous smile. “I can’t deny it.”

  “Are you having second thoughts?” Marla asked.

  “Sure. Wouldn’t you?”

  “Wouldn’t have had first thoughts, myself.”

  “I’ll play the victim looking for victimizer,” Nina said. “I finish what I start.”

  “Are you looking for a victimizer?” Marla asked, calm dark eyes fixed on Nina.

  Nina laughed. Mind your own business, bitch. “Not hardly. Though I understand that’s how the Night Spider might see me. That is, if I’m playing the role well. The unattainable, therefore, more desirable. The haughty who thinks she’s superior. The eternal brat who needs a harsh lesson. The challenge.”

  Marla was nodding. “You do understand.”

  “Maybe not everything,” Nina said. “I haven’t spent a lot of time around serial killers. Not intimate time, anyway.”

  Horn took a sip of coffee. “You won’t see us, but you’ll be as safe as possible. Even in your bedroom. Especially in your bedroom. The more unaware of us you are, the better. Nothing in your actions will tip off anyone that you’re being guarded. If he goes for you, he won’t get you.”

  “Can you promise me that, Horn?”

  He shook his head slowly. “You know I can’t.”

  “All right. So we understand each other. We all know that sometimes the fish steals the bait.”

  “Not this time,” Horn said. “Not if I can help it.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Nina said.

  Marla pushed aside her coffee cup and saucer and leaned toward Nina. “When you talk about him on the air, question his manhood, suggest he can’t find sex any other way, or that he’s impotent so he has to use a knife. Cowardly’s effective, too, with this kind of asshole. Make it clear you think he’s a coward, and that everyone else-all your viewers-think he’s yellow. And don’t hesitate to say he’s mentally ill. Use the word sick as often as possible.”

  “I know how to get to him,” Nina said.

  “But keep it as a mind-set so your words come naturally,” Marla said. “Don’t script it or make it too obvious. Remember, you’re trying to seduce him. You’re weaving a web.”

  “Like his webs,” Nina said.
/>   “Very much so.” Marla and Horn exchanged glances.

  They both liked the web analogy. And Nina thought there might be something else in that glance. She was always looking for changes in relationships, chinks in armor, potential leverage.

  “If everything’s done right,” Marla said, “this killer will try for you. He can’t ignore a dare.”

  “Everything on my end will be done right,” Nina said.

  “In a way, your job’s easy,” Horn told her. “Simply lean harder on the Night Spider and live your usual life.”

  “There’s a distinction between simply and easy,” Nina said. She looked at Marla. “You were a psychologist?”

  “Yes. A psychoanalyst.”

  “It shows.”

  “Now and then. Like old scars.”

  Nina didn’t ask her why she was waiting tables instead of overcharging an endless line of neurotics by the hour. Nina would find out in her own time and way. Scars were part of her business. You had to find them in order to pick at old wounds. “Interesting work, psychoanalysis.”

  “It can be too interesting.”

  “That why you gave it up? It became too interesting?”

  “Too personal.”

  “Maybe after this you’ll have a career as a profiler.” Nina rotated her right wrist and glanced at the oversized watch she never wore on the air. “I’ve gotta go invent some news.”

  “And make some,” Horn said.

  “One way or the other, huh?”

  “Not the other, Nina. And you don’t have to do this.”

  “You know I have to finish doing it, Horn.” She smiled. “Or finish getting you to finish it.”

  “You set it up that way, Nina. Practicing to deceive.”

  “Jesus! Poetry from a homicide cop! That’s what I find fascinating about you, Horn.” She stood up from the booth and looked down at Marla. “Webs again, hey?”

  “Hey,” Marla said.

  “Men.”

  “Men,” Marla agreed.

  She and Horn watched Nina stride from the diner, tall even in her sneakers, hips switching and long arms swinging with each stride. Arie, the guy behind the counter, lowered his Sports Illustrated and looked. The homeless type at the counter even turned his shaggy head to watch her passing.