She's Not There
Page 12
“Yes. Let me give you my home phone number.” She wrote it on the back of one of her business cards and handed it to Maggie.
Maggie walked out, her long braid trailing down her back. Lisa breathed a sigh of relief. She refreshed her coffee, wishing she’d made a bakery trip on her way to work. Food was so damn comforting.
44
Lisa was making great progress on her calls Monday evening. By eight o’clock, she had more than six interviews set up for Saturday and one for Friday evening. The sister of one of the missing women told Lisa that her sister was alive-and-well and living in Montana. Another one eliminated from the list.
Lisa got up from her desk and saw Phanny looking at her with hope all over her face that there may be a walk in her near future. Lisa felt bad for the dog because lately she’d been nervous about after-dark outings and had just been letting Phanny out for a few minutes before she went to bed.
Maggie called to give her the good news that Stephen Fischer was in jail. The bad news was that he wasn’t talking and had an excellent criminal attorney representing him. Lisa didn’t really care. Although she was hoping to see him pay for what he’d done, their main goal had been keeping Helen safe.
Lisa’s doorbell rang at five after eight, and she opened the door to Maggie and her partner. She brought them into the kitchen where she had hot cocoa waiting for them.
David Lassiter looked about ten years older than Maggie, making him near forty. Lisa didn’t think she’d ever seen him before and she knew most of the Oconomowoc police by sight. He had a dark complexion, his deep-brown hair edged with a tiny bit of gray at the temples. His eyes were deep and brooding, his lips a natural deep rose that would make women envious; summarized—the man was sexy.
Maggie introduced them, and they sat down at the table as Lisa poured steaming mugs of cocoa.
Maggie stirred marshmallows into her mug. “I told David about your group and what’s been happening since you started the interviews. I’ll let him give you his impressions.”
David was staring raptly into the cup he held in front of him. “I don’t think anyone’s made me cocoa since I was five.’
Maggie laughed. “I guess that’s one impression.”
Lisa crossed her legs under the table. David’s sensual looks made her uneasy. He smiled at her, and ridiculously, she felt her face heat up. She didn’t doubt he knew the effect he had on women.
“I’m sympathetic to your mission,” he began, looking directly into her eyes. “But I’m not comfortable with civilians playing detective games. That said, like many other people, domestic abuse was part of my life growing up. My father’s favorite pastime was hitting my mother. She died of cancer at forty-two. I’ve always believed it was because he took away her spirit to live. So, when Maggie told me your story, I had mixed feelings about it.” He paused, adding a few more marshmallows to his cocoa.
Maggie flashed him an impatient look. “David and I have decided to do whatever we can to help you. Let us know what you need, and if it’s something we are able to help you with, we will. But along with that will be a couple conditions.”
“I expected that,” Lisa said, “and I think I can speak for everyone and say that given what happened to TJ, we won’t be objecting to whatever conditions you feel are necessary.”
David said, “Good, because they’re non-negotiable. The first is that all of you remain safe. You’ve made an attempt to do that by pairing up, but that’s not good enough. You must never leave the other alone—not even for a minute. Your friend TJ’s untimely trip to the ladies room? I don’t think we need to tell you nothing like that can happen again. You’ll all have to be extremely vigilant in protecting each other.”
Lisa hadn’t felt completely safe since the incident. “You won’t get any argument on that, Detective.”
“The other condition may sound extreme, but Maggie and I are in agreement on it. Since all of you live alone—we want you to pair up together until you reach the point of handing this over to the police.”
Lisa felt her face burning again. “You’re not serious!”
Maggie explained, “Lisa, TJ’s been attacked, you’ve unearthed a murderer, and who knows how many more you’ll force out of the woodwork. It’s likely TJ’s attack had to have something to do with your interviews. If nothing else, it was an attempt to get you to back off. It could be one man you’ve interviewed or someone else who’s involved in these disappearances. It doesn’t matter which it is; you all live alone—you’re sitting ducks.”
“I’ll have to talk to the others about it.”
“Lisa, you can’t do this fast enough as far as we’re concerned,” Maggie said. “We don’t recommend you stay with friends or relatives for the obvious reason that none of you would want anyone else jeopardized.”
Lisa busied herself by bringing out a plate of cookies.
David grabbed one. “I don’t want any of you alone during the night and no one goes out at night alone. For any reason. I know this will be a big sacrifice, but with Maggie and myself on board, you should get this done faster than you’d planned.”
“What about your concern that we were working with two men who were possibly murderes? This would force us to live with them.”
Maggie frowned. “You’ve already said you trust these men—you can’t argue it both ways, Lisa.”
Weeks of forced togetherness. Lisa got up from the table muttering, “Living with TJ will be interesting as hell.” She turned to the stovetop to refill their mugs.
David expressed a sly smile. “Why stay with TJ? You could do the boy-girl thing again; you’re all adults.”
Lisa thought he gave her a meaningful look when he made the bawdy remark, but decided it must have been her libido’s interpretation of his words. She bit back a sharp retort. “I’ll talk to them tonight. Anything else?’
David’s eyes met hers. “Our involvement is officially not happening. If anything goes wrong, we know nothing. Nothing we do for you will be traced back to us. I’m sure you understand that our jobs could be on the line.”
Lisa had expected that would be the case.
Phanny had been sitting with her head on Maggie’s knee during the entire conversation. Maggie, happy with the doggie affection, had been rubbing the dog’s silky ears and stroking her head. “Lisa, I wouldn’t leave your dog alone—just a precaution.”
“Right. I’d been thinking that, too.”
Lisa and Phanny walked the detectives to the door, her head whirling at the implications of this new wrinkle. She wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to the others.
45
It was nearly eleven when Lisa’s phone rang. It had to be Eric, he was the only one she’d had to leave a message for.
“I got your message, Lisa. Is it about Maggie? Did you talk with her?”
“I arranged with Jeff and TJ that the four of us meet tomorrow to discuss it.”
“Can you give me the highlights?”
“We knew if they agreed to work with us on this, they would have conditions.”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s the safety issue.”
“The safety issue has been a big concern of mine from the get-go. We’re already pairing up; what else do they want?”
Lisa decided she might as well tell him. “They don’t like the fact that all of us live alone and think we need to do a roommate thing until we turn this over to the MPD.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected when she told him the news, but certainly not the raucous laughter she heard on the other end of the line. It was contagious. Lisa started to giggle. And burst into laughter. God, it felt good!
When they managed to contain themselves, Eric said, “It’s really not a problem. Everyone can stay here; there’s plenty of room. I’ll park my cars at work so all of you can all have a spot in the garage. How much safer could we be? I have to be out of town this weekend, so I’ll feel a lot better knowing the rest of you are together.”
Eric went on, “It may be a good idea to have someone watching the house for a few days. What do you think?”
“Seems a little extreme, but let’s talk about it when we get together.”
“It might be better if I just do it, rather than give anyone the opportunity to nix it. At least while I’m gone. Then no one ever comes into an empty house by themselves.”
“You’re probably right. Go ahead and arrange it for the weekend. We can see where we are on the subject when you come back.”
“I’ll put it in place.”
46
The next morning, relieved to find out that Maggie Petersen and her partner were willing to help, everyone reluctantly agreed to the terms set out by the two detectives.
Living together quickly became a new item on TJ’s complaint list—another was Eric’s decision to hire a security guard to watch his estate the weekend he’d be gone. She claimed it undermined her skills, but Lisa wasn’t buying it.
She knew TJ’s confidence had been shaken and suspected that she was secretly glad for the additional protection. The fact that if it weren’t for TJ’s fitness and quick reflexes, she might not be alive to be stewing about it didn’t seem to occur to her.
Everyone settled in that night at Eric’s with a minimum of fuss. TJ claimed the guest room she’d stayed in over the weekend and Lisa took the maid’s suite over the attached garage, an apartment with two small bedrooms. Accessible from the loft above the kitchen, it also had its own entry from inside the garage. She found it to be a cozy chamber, decorated in a northwoods flavor with pine furniture and dark green fabric. Lisa tossed Phanny’s bed in front of the gas fireplace in the living room. Excited by the newness, the dog ran from room to room, sniffing and exploring.
The master suite on the first floor had his and hers bedrooms, one on either side of two gigantic closets and a shared bathroom the size of a small house. Eric put Jeff in what used to be his wife’s room. Jeff commented that the house looked like something that belonged in the mountains of Colorado. With log siding, stonework, green-tin roof and leaded windows, the house fit perfectly into the wooded setting surrounding it.
Over takeout food served hastily on the huge, granite-topped island that separated the kitchen area from the living room, Lisa handed out schedules for the next weekend’s interviews.
“There are only about nine left after these. Those are women we couldn’t find current addresses or contacts for. I’m going to call Maggie tomorrow and give her the names. If she comes through with something on them, we can try to get everything done by next Wednesday so we can focus on the short list over the holiday weekend.”
Jeff’s gray eyes narrowed. “Once we have this ‘short list’ won’t we be handing it over to the police?”
TJ scoffed. “We’ll need more than our list to get Milwaukee’s finest off their dead butts.”
Lisa said, “I thought we planned to find some threads connecting the women before we turned over the list.”
Jeff frowned. “If we do that, we’ll be here for weeks.”
Eric stood. “Come on people, where’s your sense of adventure? We need to keep Maggie and David happy for the time being, but once we no longer need their help, anyone who’s comfortable on their own can leave.”
“Can’t be soon enough for me,” TJ muttered.
Explaining the living situation to Richard could be touchy for TJ, but other than that, Lisa had a feeling TJ was content to be right where she was.
The lights were still on in Eric’s house when Danielle drove by at a little after eleven. She knew Eric carried his cell phone with him. Panicky, she suspected he was dodging her calls. Their time together had been so special. Was there another woman?
Gripping the steering wheel with wet palms, she slowed down enough to see that the house sat too far back from the street to make out anything other than the lights. Ridiculous, driving by his house. She was acting like a teenager.
Obviously, he wanted to take things slower than she did. She’d foolishly thought that by keeping him at arm’s length for a while before she’d finally agreed to go out with him, he’d be positively enchanted with her after she said yes. So much for that stupid plan.
She turned around, once more driving slowly past the grounds. From that angle she could see there were no cars in the driveway. When she saw a dark shadow moving toward the house, she stopped the car, looked again and saw nothing. It must have been her out-of-control emotions playing tricks on her. She took a deep breath and headed for home.
Fearing sleep would be elusive, Lisa put on a robe and slippers, and went back downstairs to sit by the fire for a few minutes until the sleep aid she’d swallowed took effect. As she descended, she realized Eric’s house held no aroma of his disgusting cigars—apparently he kept his habit outdoors—or had a smoking room somewhere.
Surprised to see TJ sitting on the sofa and staring into the fire, Lisa sat down next to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Never would have guessed things would end up this way. And we still have a long way to go.”
“It seems to me we’ve accomplished a lot.”
TJ sighed, eyes staring at the glowing embers of the fire. “You’re right. Suppose I’m not done beating up on myself.”
“That’s not like you, TJ. Will it help if I tell you that I give you permission to be officially done beating up on yourself and let it go?”
TJ laughed. “Not sure why I’m letting this drag on. But go ahead—work some shrink magic on me.”
The request for help took Lisa by surprise. “Well, absent any magic or time for therapy, I could take you through a relaxation exercise.”
“I’m ready to try anything. Gotta’ snap outta’ this.”
Lisa had TJ put her head back, put her feet up on the ottoman, then close her eyes and start to take deep measured breaths until she felt at peace and relaxed. Then she talked her softly and slowly through a visualization of TJ confident and proud again, and focused on all the wonderful things she’d accomplished.
When she finished and eased TJ back to their conversation, TJ started giggling.
“I don’t believe it. I wanted to crawl in a hole until all of this was over. I feel great. You did work magic.”
Amused, Lisa said, “Slow down. What we did was just a way to deal with stress. You’ll need to do it more than once and you can do it without me anytime you like. The trick is to relax as much as possible and stay focused.
“I’m glad we had a chance to talk. I haven’t had much time with you.”
TJ rose from the sofa. “Neither has Richard. He thinks I’m staying with my sister for a few days to help with the kids.”
“Do you do that often?”
“Yeah, sometimes when she’s having a hard time. It ain’t easy raising two kids alone. Well, you know how it is.”
“She’s lucky to have you around to help.” Lisa felt the pill kicking in. “Richard’s okay with you being gone?”
TJ stretched as far as her stitches would allow. “He’s been pulling nights to cover for a friend of his. Makes it less likely he’s wonderin’ about me.”
47
Wednesday morning when Eric finally returned her calls, Danielle apologized profusely for calling him so often the day before. “I’ve been looking at a BMW at the dealership in Delafield, and I wanted to check the price with you before making an offer.”
It was a plausible excuse. He knew she’d been looking at cars since she’d gotten her divorce settlement. “I’ll fax you some figures from our books.”
She said,“Tell you what—I’ll treat for lunch at the Machine Shed. You can give them to me in person.”
After their lunch, Eric thought he’d b
een diplomatic. He’d explained to Danielle that he didn’t want a relationship. It had been the right thing to do, but he didn’t feel good about it. Had he gotten through to her?
Funny how he’d been comparing her to Lisa. The two women were about the same height with similar coloring, but other than that there weren’t many similarities. Lisa wore her intelligence like a cloak of honor, and Danielle’s was carefully hidden under expensive designer clothing and chic hairstyles.
He turned into his dealership, glad to be distracted from thoughts of women. He had cars to prepare for shipping.
48
The present
It had been weeks since he discovered Lisa Rayburn had formed some kind of evidence posse that was trying to root out the reason why abused women were disappearing. Meddling cunt. He was keeping watch on her—and her little band of followers. He didn’t know her well enough to be sure if the world would be better off without her, but his world would and that was all that mattered.
After he’d found out they’d all taken up residence at Eric Schindler’s estate, he knew he’d have a difficult time singling out Lisa. But she represented the head of the snake—without her, the rest would shrivel and desist.
He’d been watching Schindler’s place for a few days when he noticed someone else staking it out. Sitting in an old Buick, the guy couldn’t have been part of security. Probably nothing to concern himself with, but he remained aware of the watcher’s comings and goings.
49
Danielle had been separated from her husband for nearly two years before the divorce. Eric was the first man she really wanted in a long time. She knew there had to be another woman in his life. He hadn’t really said he didn’t want to see her again, just said he didn’t want a relationship. In her experience, that translated to another woman in the background.