They ate in silence until TJ asked, “Okay, somethin’s goin’ on. Wanna fill me in?”
“Gemma’s given me permission to be here,” Lisa said, “because what she has to tell you is something we’re working on in her sessions. It’s a rather controversial topic, and she felt I could help her explain it.”
Before she could elaborate, TJ interrupted. “Just get to it, okay?”
Lisa felt torn. They had to have this conversation, yet she could see TJ was stressed and resented being called out to Pewaukee. “All right. Gemma’s been coming to see me because she’s having a difficult time dealing with sleep paralysis episodes. Are you familiar with them?”
TJ made a face. “Not some of that woo-woo crap, is it?”
“No, it’s very real. In fact, I’ve experienced it myself.” Lisa explained the phenomenon of sleep paralysis and its connection to OBEs. She took time to talk about the differing opinions between the mental health community and the paranormals on the topic. She told TJ what Gemma had seen and pointed out that even if there hadn’t actually been an out-of-body experience, Gemma might well have picked up on a subtle communication between the siblings.
“I’ll let Gemma tell you more about it and how it relates to what you’re working on.” Lisa sat back in her chair.
Gemma told TJ about the episodes in which she felt like someone was holding her, then how they had evolved into what she believed to be out-of-body experiences. After she told TJ the detailed account of being in the Krause living room, her hands began to tremble. She recounted what happened the night with Jorge and what she had seen going on between Drucilla and Lucian in Drucilla’s bedroom.
When Gemma finished talking, TJ turned to her. “Crap, that would scare the bejeezus outta me. Shoulda’ told me about it.” She wiped her face with her hands. “Makes sense, though. Lucian and his sister, they’re too weird to live.” She stood and began to pace. “Gotta get those DNA results. If the intruders in the Jackson murder were related, we might have our murderers.”
“But how could we ever prove they had a reason to kill Norman?” Gemma asked.
“Have you checked out his work computer?”
“I haven’t had time. But I doubt if he would have anything personal in it. I have it with me at the hotel. I’ll look in it tonight.”
“Anybody else he would have confided in?”
“Not that I can think of. We’ve been over this before; Norman spent most of his free time on his writing.”
TJ frowned.
“I think he found out about Lucian and Drucilla having sex, and they killed him to keep him quiet,” Gemma said.
TJ hated to burst Gemma’s bubble. It seemed unlikely that Norman had found out about their sex life and even less likely they would have killed him because of it.
Chapter 44
Craig Jackson had just backed his SUV out of the garage and stepped out to pull the door down when a dark figure approached him. In the light from the headlights, he recognized Donald Braun. He hadn’t seen Braun in years. They had avoided each other since the incident disbanded their swingers’ group. He wasn’t happy to see him now and wished he had taken time to get the garage door opener fixed so he could have avoided this confrontation.
“Man, you scared the crap out of me,” he complained.
“If you would return my calls, I wouldn’t have to hunt you down. We have to talk,” Braun said.
“Sorry, I’m on my way out.” Jackson, weary of funeral talk and visiting in-laws, needed to get out and had been headed for his favorite club. Braun could only be here to dredge up ancient history, a topic Craig was in no mood to rehash.
Braun grabbed his arm before he could pull the garage door down. “I know you’ve got another swinging group started. How fucking stupid are you?”
Craig tore his arm out of the other man’s grip. “Breaking up the original group wasn’t my idea, remember. Sondra and I missed the get-togethers. It’s none of your business what I do with my social life.”
“You call that depravity a social life?”
Craig sneered. “You’re calling it depraved now? You liked it well enough then.”
“Right. I used to like it. And look what I got out of it. It destroyed my marriage; Vicky isn’t the same woman any more. She’s been fucked up ever since those two romantic idiots killed each other.”
“Newsflash, buddy. Vicky was screwed up long before those two bought it.”
“I’d tell you to go to hell, but Vicky’s missing. She went up to the lake a few days ago and I haven’t heard from her or been able to get in touch with her since. One of the neighbors up there has a key to the place and checked for me; her car is there, but Vicky isn’t.”
Sondra’s death had brought back memories of the earlier deaths for Jackson and added a nagging fear to his grief. What was Braun insinuating? “She probably went somewhere with one of her friends.”
“Impossible. I checked our credit cards. She hasn’t used them since the night she left.”
If something had happened to Victoria too, what did it mean? Were they all in danger? Craig reached into his car and turned off the engine. “I need a drink.”
Braun followed him into the house.
After pouring the drinks, Craig asked, “So, why come to me with this?”
“You and I were friends once, right? And it sure looks like someone’s after all of us who were in the group back when Lilly and Art killed themselves.”
“I didn’t see you or your wife at Sondra’s funeral.”
“I was out of town,” Braun said.
Jackson drained his drink. “So what are you thinking?”
“I don’t know what to think. I reported her missing, but I’m not sure how much those yahoos up there will even do about it. They drive around and try to look important, maybe do a few drug arrests in the summer, but investigate a missing person? Not in their job description. They gave me some crap about adults having to be missing three days before they’ll do anything, so they haven’t done squat. The time’s up, so I’m going up there tomorrow and put some pressure on them.”
“But she’s from here. I think you need to call the Tosa cops.”
Braun gulped his whiskey. “Yeah. I have to do that.”
Neither of them vocalized their reluctance to have the swingers’ tragedy come to light again. The suicides weren’t sensationalized in the media back then, but these were different times. Now, in the twenty-first century, the media would not only glom onto it, they would name names and dramatize every gory detail.
“Do you really think what happened to Sondra is connected to what happened sixteen years ago?” Jackson asked.
“I do now. Vicky thought so, but I always told her she was imagining things. I should have taken her concerns seriously.”
“Do we need to be looking over our shoulders?” Fuck, every one of them who were in the group back then could be at risk. “Maybe it’s just the women someone has a beef with.”
“You tell yourself that, Craig. See if it lets you sleep tonight.”
“All right, all right. But who would start doing some freaking revenge murders after all this time? Why wait sixteen years?”
“I thought about that. It seems like it all started when Norman Teschler’s house blew up.”
“What would he have to do with it?”
“He’s our neighbor. Vicky used to have a thing for him.”
“So what? He wasn’t a regular member. He just came that one time.”
“Right, but he screwed every woman in our neighborhood, and women talk. He probably knew every sordid detail.”
Craig’s eyes narrowed. “You’re thinking someone blew the dude’s house up because he knew about the suicides? You’re crazy. It’s not like it wasn’t common knowledge.”
Braun shrugged. “What else could it be?
”
“Could be there was something wrong with Teschler’s gas connection.”
“I’m wasting my time here.” Braun gulped the rest of his drink and stood to leave. “Keep your doors locked.”
In Pewaukee, where Lisa’s office was located on the south edge of Pewaukee Lake, the sun made a temporary appearance, peeking out from between large storm clouds. Lisa had gone home, leaving TJ and Gemma to lock up when they were finished talking.
TJ looked out at the marshy shore of Pewaukee Lake. “Guess we’re in for more freakin’ rain.” She, Lisa, and Gemma had gone over and over the implications of the Krause siblings’ sexual relationship. TJ, although intrigued, had no idea where to go with the new information. If it even was new information. She couldn’t deny having a healthy skepticism no matter how Lisa tried to support it with her shrink logic.
Gemma said, “Tell me how you met Lisa.”
TJ hadn’t expected that request. “Long story. We got together because we were the only two people who believed there was somethin’ suspicious about abused women goin’ missing.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I was just curious.”
TJ sat heavily in one of the chairs near the window. “Nah, it’s okay. It was just such a fucked-up time, you know?”
Gemma took a chair across from TJ, her gaze questioning.
“Lisa, me, and two of the guys whose wives went missing got together to try an’ find out what was goin’ on. One of the guys was a client of mine. Eric Schindler. He sat in jail for a long time for killing his wife. He got out when I found some new information. Got him out on a technicality, really. I knew he didn’t kill her and while I was lookin’ into his wife’s disappearance, I found out there were other women who’d gone missing.
“Lisa worked part time for the Women’s Center an’ found out through their records that the number of abused women gone missing was off the charts. Then she had a client that disappeared. Lisa went to the police, but they blew her off. I found out about it and talked her into gettin’ together to investigate on our own.”
Gemma asked, “Why wouldn’t the police do anything about it?”
“Nothin’ they could do ‘cause there wasn’t any evidence—no bodies. Said they had to look at each missin’ woman as a separate case.” TJ closed her eyes, remembering. “If they woulda done something then, lotta people might still be alive.”
“Like your child’s father?”
TJ didn’t remember sharing that information with Gemma, but it wouldn’t have been hard to put together. “Yeah. Him, for sure. The four of us even lived together for a while out at Eric’s place after we found out the killer was onto us. Lisa and Eric are still together. Jeff and me? Our thing didn’t end too well.”
TJ could see Gemma still had questions. But she had run out of answers, especially the answer to what had happened to the man who killed all those abused women. That one was off-limits. She stood to leave, signaling the conversation was over.
They left Lisa’s office, locked the door behind them, and headed for their cars. Parked on the opposite side of the street, TJ sat for a minute, her mind locked in the past, remembering Jeff Denison and what he had meant to her. Her heart ached for him as it had nearly every day since, and she still felt guilty that she hadn’t been there for him, hadn’t prevented the son-of-a-bitch from killing the sweetest man she’d ever known. She watched as Gemma started her car and drove off.
Her reverie ended abruptly. After Gemma pulled away, a car parked a few spaces behind her pulled out quickly, falling into place behind Gemma’s Murano. A coincidence? Unlikely, since TJ hadn’t noticed anyone getting into the car. Someone had already been in it, watching Gemma, and was following her. TJ forced the Mini into a hasty U-turn and fell into place behind them.
His shift had ended by the time Haymaker returned to the station defeated by the fact that no one he approached knew the name of the guy who had been shadowing Madison Chapman. The guy was a ghost. His days of hanging out at the deli ended when Chapman quit coming in. It was another dead end.
When a call came in from the front desk to tell him there was someone to see him, he barked, “I’m off, pass him on to someone else.” Then he quickly reconsidered and asked, “Who is it?”
The man who took the seat in front of his desk, although dressed in clothing that hadn’t come off the rack at Sears, looked like he’d had a bad day. His expensive raincoat was rumpled, his tie was askew, and Brian was pretty sure the direction of his hair wasn’t what his stylist had intended. He had a hard time making eye contact, and Brian was pretty sure he smelled alcohol on his breath.
“I need to report my wife missing.”
“And her name is?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. My name is Donald Braun, My wife’s name is Victoria.” He pulled out his wallet and handed him a business card.
Haymaker had interviewed Victoria Braun a few days after Teschler’s house exploded. The Brauns lived right next door to Teschler and had been out of town at the time. Brian’s discouragement vanished as he leaned forward and asked, “How long has she been missing?”
Chapter 45
TJ followed Gemma’s pursuer at a discreet distance, east on the interstate into Milwaukee. He pulled into the parking area of Gemma’s hotel and took a turn around the back before he pulled up at the far end where he could observe Gemma enter the building. TJ parked a few cars away and wrote down the license number.
When she approached his car, the guy had a cell phone to his ear, oblivious that he had been followed. With one hand in a pocket cradling her gun, TJ knocked on the window. She figured him for an amateur, but it never hurt to be cautious. Fumbling his phone at the sound of her knock, he turned and looked at her as if she had descended from Mars. She yanked the car door open. Another mark of an amateur; he didn’t even keep his frickin’ doors locked.
She stuck her PI credentials in his face. “Explain why you’re shadowing Ms. Rosenthal, asshole. The answer better be good or I call the cops.”
“I… I’m protecting her,” he stammered.
“Show me some ID.”
TJ watched as he struggled to dig out his wallet, finally producing a freshly-minted PI license. It looked legit. Benjamin Anthony Bittner’s youthful face beaded with nervous drops of sweat as she handed it back. The newbie had just turned twenty-three.
“Who you workin’ for?”
“You know I can’t tell you that,” he whined.
“Then I make a call,” she said, pulling out her phone. “Explain it to me or the cops, your choice.” She knew the cops wouldn’t give a damn, but he appeared too green to realize it. “Tell you what. I guess the name and you can try not to look surprised—Taylor Harcourt.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he mumbled. TJ shook her head as he drove out of the parking lot. His expression had answered her question. Now to talk to Gemma to find out what the hell was going on with her and Harcourt.
I opened the door to TJ after I heard a knock and peered through the peephole. Since I left her less than a half hour ago, I had no idea why she had come up to my suite. I invited her in, and before I had time to ask, Clyde squawked, “Want coffee? Want coffee?”
TJ laughed, the tension on her face easing. “Crazy bird.”
“I do have coffee,” I offered.
“Sure. We gotta talk.”
After I handed her a mug of coffee, she sat in one of the matching chairs across from the sofa. “It’s time you tell me about Harcourt. You two havin’ an affair or somethin’?”
Other than Norman, Lisa had been the only person I’d ever told about Taylor. I’ve never been a person to have girlfriends; I was always too busy shaping my career to bother. The other women at the agency weren’t my peers, so I had to maintain my role in the hierarchy and remain professional. Chumminess didn’t fit well in the
advertising business. At least it never had for me. I often envied women who had friends they could unload to.
“There’s no affair,” I began, “not now, anyway.”
“I know the guy’s married. Why’s he hangin’ around?”
I was paying TJ to investigate for me. It made sense to let her know about my past, about my ties to Taylor and why he had become a presence in my life again. “I think I’m going to need some brandy in this coffee. Would you like some?”
After I gave her the Reader’s Digest version of my past and present with Taylor Harcourt, our cups of brandied coffee were nearly depleted. I offered her another, but she declined.
“Why are you asking me about Taylor now?”
She leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “He’s havin’ you followed by some two-bit PI just outta high school. I noticed when you left Lisa’s office, so I followed him here. Says he’s hired to protect you.”
I felt like an anvil landed on my shoulders. Taylor had already broken his promise to stay away by being at the hospital last night. Now he’d done it again by having me followed. But I probably shouldn’t have been shocked that his concern for me had led to this.
“Hope you ain’t thinkin’ how romantic it is that he wants to protect you,” TJ said. “I know how guys like this operate. He’s obsessed, not concerned.”
Trickles of fear ran up and down my arms and legs like tiny spiders. My own obsession had prevented me from recognizing Taylor’s, even when Lisa had dropped a few comments hinting at just that. Nausea boiled up from my abdomen and I rushed to the bathroom.
When I returned, TJ said, “Sorry. Must be hard to think about him that way.”
“I thought seeing him again gave me the freedom to move away from the past and get on with my life. Now I don’t know what to think.”
She stood and moved to the door. “You know what you gotta do. You hafta tell him it’s over and mean it, but don’t do it in person. If you aren’t up for it and want me to do it, let me know. It’s your dime.”
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