Headliner,
I’ve done as you asked. As you can see, I am sharing your story with my readers. Since I’m giving you what you want by writing this and will continue to tell the rest of the story in subsequent blogs, I’m asking you to leave my friends alone. They have done nothing to deserve your wrath.
Bart Kosik
Bart gave the blog a final proofing and published it. He sent Detective Richard Conlin and his partner a copy, each to their respective email addresses, and then wondered if he had done the right thing. He didn’t think he had printed enough of the story to excite the media, but he intended to get the rest of it out the next day while he could still maintain exclusivity.
He left his office and saw RayAnn on the couch facing the coffee table, a game of solitaire spread out in front of her.
“Thought I’d let you know,” he said, “I gave this guy what he wants and just published a story about him on my blog.”
“Yeah? Do the cops know you did that?”
“They do now; I sent them a copy. I don’t care what they think anymore, I can’t live like this.”
“Do you think the guy’ll back off now?”
“No, but if I tell his story, maybe at least he’ll leave Jen alone.” Bart hoped that he and Jen wouldn’t have to fear bodily harm as long as he gave Headliner what he wanted.
She nodded. “I don’t blame you. I would have done the same thing.”
“I’m going to get some sleep. Do you need anything?”
“Coffee should do it,” she said.
“Well, if you’re hungry, you know where the kitchen is. Make yourself at home.”
He went up to his room and couldn’t resist peeking in at Jen. She was sleeping on her side, one bare shoulder with a tiny spaghetti strap of black satin exposed above the quilt she was covered with. He walked quickly away, imagining how the rest of the gown looked on her tall, slender body.
29
The moment the girl took a seat across from her, Lisa knew something had changed in Kelsey Blasko. The girl was on edge today, shifty eyed and ill at ease. Lisa offered her tea and when she accepted, chose a calming brew to give her. After she handed her the tea, she asked, “Kelsey, what would you like to talk about this morning?”
The young woman took a sip of tea and closed her eyes.
“I can see something’s bothering you. Would you like to tell me about it?”
Kelsey’s opened her eyes. They were glistening with tears. “You were right all along.”
“What was I right about?” Whatever had happened, Kelsey was finding it so painful she was having a hard time talking about it.
“I went to The Blu with my aunt and some friends of hers Saturday night. It’s that bar on the top of the Pfister hotel.”
Lisa knew the place. The view was magnificent and the creative drinks, memorable. “I’ve been there. Go on.”
She whispered, “He was there. Alan.”
If Kelsey had seen the man out for a romantic evening with his wife, that would explain her mood.
“He was at the bar with some other men.” Kelsey took a deep breath. “They were all doctors. Him, too.”
So the man had lied about his profession. Lisa wondered what else he had lied to Kelsey about. “So he wasn’t honest with you.”
“I paid the waitress to look at his lanyard and get his name for me. The name on his nametag was Lyle, not Alan. He told me his name was Alan Prescott. His real name is Dr. Lyle Felhaber.”
“I’m surprised that when you first met him, you never tried to look him up online.”
“I’m not into that kind of computer stuff. And I trusted him.”
“What did you do?” If her lover was a doctor, his medical background supplied an even stronger reason to suspect he had something to do with Kelsey’s procedure.
“As soon as I got home, I opened the hotel’s website. I found out that the only event for doctors last night was one sponsored by The American Society of Reproductive Medicine. They were giving an award to some doctor—not Lyle—who had come up with a new, more effective combination of fertility drugs.” Kelsey’s eyes met Lisa’s. “It’s hard to get used to calling him Lyle. Now we know, right? He probably had plans for me all along and never cared about me at all.”
Lisa’s heart went out to her. “How do you feel about him now?”
“I don’t think I could ever prove what he did to me, right?” She reached for a tissue. “I started thinking, what if we were wrong about everything? What if instead of taking eggs from me, he put someone else’s in me? What if I’m pregnant?”
“I think Dr. Butler ran a pregnancy test on you, didn’t she?”
“I couldn’t remember, so I called her this morning. They ran one on me, and she said the result was negative. She suggested that to put my mind at ease, I use one of those home detection kits. But she really doesn’t think I’m pregnant.”
“Did you take a home test?”
“I did and it was negative. I think I’ll do one again in a week, to be sure.”
A nasty suspicion crossed Lisa’s mind. “Did you check out Lyle’s specialty?”
“He’s a fertility specialist, like the rest of those doctors I saw. He has an office in Mayfair.”
That was it. The answer they were looking for. “You know what that means, Kelsey.”
“Yeah. We know for sure he had something to do with my abduction.”
That was the first time Kelsey had referred to what happened to her as abduction. Every other time it had come up, she glossed over it, shrinking from giving it a name.
“We have to share this with TJ, you know.”
“No. I’m not ready for that.”
Lisa was perplexed by Kelsey’s reluctance to nail the bastard. She expected the girl to be angry, ready to rip his head off. Instead, she was trying to avoid making him pay for what he had done. “Why protect him?”
She waited while Kelsey stared back at her, defiant. The girl could be clinging to the hope that there was an innocent explanation for the man’s subterfuge. True love, if that’s what Kelsey thought she was feeling, did not die an easy death.
“I’m not protecting him. I just want to wait a while, that’s all.”
“And then what?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I hope you aren’t thinking about confronting him. Kelsey, you realize that could be dangerous, don’t you? Considering what this man has already done to you, if he thinks you know who he really is and what he’s done, there’s no telling what he could be capable of. Dr. Worthington called me today; when you came home you had traces in your body of a serious anesthetic. Felhaber probably administered it by himself, without an anesthesiologist. That put your life at risk.”
“I just have to think about this some more. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“Kelsey, can you explain to me the purpose of waiting?”
Kelsey glanced at the clock. “Looks like our time is up. See you next week.”
Lisa watched her flounce out, wondering what had made the girl change from being upset by the revelation about her boyfriend to wanting to delay his comeuppance. Only one thing explained her actions—Kelsey wanted to be sure she wasn’t pregnant, because the part of her that loved the man no matter what, still visualized having his baby and living with him happily ever after.
Lisa had come across the syndrome too many times to be surprised by it, but watching it take hold of a young woman like Kelsey made Lisa sad that so many otherwise-sensible women let themselves get caught up in relationships that end up degrading them. Not that Lisa was in any position to judge. Her own relationship history hadn’t improved until she met Eric and realized having stability and trust with the right man far outweighed relationships which only provided drama and sex.
She felt burdened by the confidentiality she had promised Kelsey even though breaking it could save the girl from making the biggest mistake of her life. By agreement, she could share something from Kel
sey’s therapy if it helped find the girl’s abductor, but the caveat she had agreed to with Kelsey was she could only share it with her permission. Lisa never could have imagined that Kelsey wouldn’t want to have her abductor prosecuted.
Lisa mulled on that after the girl left the office and on whether there was a way to lead TJ to the discovery about Felhaber without actually telling her.
30
Bart forgot to set his alarm when he finally went to bed, and as a result, didn’t get up until after eight. The guest room bed was made up, and he found Jen downstairs in the living room, exercising with a program on cable TV. She was a sight to see in her black yoga pants and white sports bra. She wasn’t quite a pretty girl, but carried her height proudly and always looked like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine—not that Bart knew what the latest fashions were. He loved that she didn’t hide the smattering of freckles on her nose under a heavy layer of makeup.
She saw him watching her. “Good morning,” she said breathlessly and kept moving her arms like windmills. “I made us some breakfast.”
They were alone; apparently RayAnn had checked out for the day. Bart went to the kitchen and found a pot of oatmeal simmering on the stove and wondered if Jen had been disappointed not to find the usual breakfast staples, bacon and eggs. She had places set for them and small bowls set out filled with things to add to the oatmeal: cinnamon, butter, pecans, raisins, and brown sugar.
She walked in barely out of breath. “Did you write the blog?”
“I published it this morning about two a.m.”
“How do you think it’ll be received?”
“I’ll take a look.”
He went to his office and opened the site. “Holy crap! It’s gone viral already.”
Jen looked over his shoulder. “Have you had that happen before?”
The number of hits on the blog was increasing by the second. “Not like this, I haven’t.”
When the phone rang, Bart had no doubt who was calling.
Detective Conlin snarled, “I thought I told you to hold off on publishing.”
“You did. And I honored that until he started following Jen.”
“If he was following your friend, too, why didn’t you let me know?”
“Because if you wouldn’t give me protection, I wouldn’t expect you to do it for a friend. I had to get my own security for us.”
Conlin changed tacks. “So, did you get a response?”
“I haven’t checked my messages yet.”
“Check them. I’ll wait.”
Bart logged into his email account and scrolled through looking for a message from Headliner. “Yeah, there’s a message.”
“Read it to me.”
Blogger boy,
I see you finally got smart. You talk about my rath? You haven’t seen nuthin yet. I’m waiting for the next installment of your blog. Ur not finished.
Headliner
“At least he isn’t telling you what to write about him,” Conlin said. “When are you doing the next one?”
“Later this morning.”
“I’ll be there at eleven. You have a ghostwriter now.” Conlin hung up before Bart could object.
Bart took time to have breakfast with Jen. He walked her out to her car when she left, then returned to the computer again to begin his next blog installment. He read the messages he’d received from Headliner and after reading them once more, decided the guy’s grammar errors were deliberate. Their inconsistency gave that away.
The next blog was finished again in record time and devoted solely to telling his followers about the woman whose body he’d found next to the garage.
By the time Conlin arrived, the blog was ready to go. The detective read it through without comment.
“What do you think?” Bart asked.
“I have something to add.” He handed Bart a large envelope.
Bart pulled out a sketch of a woman. Her face was one-dimensional and rather generic, but if it were accurate, someone who knew the woman might recognize her. Her hair looked light colored or even blonde, and her small features were attractive. “This is her, right? The woman I found outside?”
Conlin nodded.
Bart couldn’t believe his luck. “I can include it?”
“You can. And if you get it out there now, you’ll have a leg up on the rest of the media. We haven’t sent it out yet.”
“When are you releasing it?”
Conlin looked at his watch. “In four hours.”
31
TJ’s phone rang and she saw the call was from Lisa. “Hey, what’s happenin’?”
“I just talked to Kelsey.”
“Yeah?”
She heard Lisa sigh. “What?” TJ asked.
“I have nothing I can share with you.”
“Oh, shit. I know what this is. You know somethin,’ right?”
No reponse.
“I get it, I get it. You can’t tell me. Do we have to play twenty questions?”
“We could do that.”
TJ suspected that Lisa was on thin ice ethically, but could justify the game if it was the only way to protect Kelsey. Lisa must have found out something critical that Kelsey wouldn’t let her reveal. “Crap. Let me think. Did Kelsey tell you she remembered something ‘bout when they took her?”
“No.”
“She didn’t move back to Madison, did she?”
“No.”
“Shit, it must be important if we’re doin’ this. Uh, is she in danger? Somebody followin’ her?”
“TJ, one question at time,” Lisa said.
“Okay, is she in danger?”
“She could be.”
“Should I be sittin’ on her?”
“That might be a good idea.”
TJ couldn’t follow Kelsey on a full-time basis, and RayAnn was already doing nights at Kosiks. “Wait a minute. Is she in danger cause someone’s comin’ at her or cause she’s gonna do somethin’ stupid? Oh, right, that’s two questions. Answer the first one.”
“No to the first one.”
“She’s gonna do somethin’ stupid. Okay, I’m gonna have to ask the aunt to put someone on her. What’ll I tell her?”
“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.”
“I guess I could tell her some of the stuff we have found out, tell her that the follow is for Kelsey’s protection.”
TJ hung up and dialed Rina. She explained that she’d found some things she couldn’t share yet, but that might put Kelsey at risk. “I got other things to do, so you should put one of your guys on her.”
“Of course. I’ll do that right away.”
“That roommate disappearin’ isn’t a good sign. I got bad vibes about that. Did Kelsey ever tell you how she hooked up with Whitney in that apartment?”
“She never mentioned it, but I know she didn’t like living in the dorm. I offered to get her an apartment, but she didn’t want to live alone. Next thing I knew, she told me she found someone with a nice apartment who was looking for a roommate.”
“Okay. I’ll ask her about how she connected with Whitney later. And the guy you have shadow her? Give him my cell number and tell him to keep me posted. I want to know if she goes anywhere out of the ordinary.”
32
TJ left and caught up with Kelsey at her aunt’s stables where she found the girl bent over, grasping the hoof of the tallest horse TJ had ever seen. TJ’s closest connection with horses was when she and Richard went to Arlington Park for the horse races.
Kelsey was working on the hoof with a metal pick while the horse munched hay and ignored her. She looked up when she saw TJ. “Oh, hi. I’m about done.” She finished digging out whatever was causing the problem and lowered the leg. “He had an acorn wedged in there, would you believe it?”
TJ couldn’t imagine standing that close to the horse, much less picking an acorn out of its foot. “I got a couple questions for you.”
Kelsey took her to a neat tack room with a sm
all office in back and offered her a soda from a refrigerator well stocked with assorted cold drinks.
TJ accepted a Diet Coke and asked, “Have you heard about your roommate?”
“She took off; you told me that already. I wasn’t too surprised since she didn’t answer any of my messages when I got home.”
“There was a woman murdered a couple nights ago in Milwaukee. They found her body on the east side in a backyard. She was beaten so bad that they couldn’t tell who she was for sure, and her hands were chopped off.”
“I suppose you want me to think it was Whitney. I saw that on the news. The drawing, too. That woman could have been anyone. I know you think Whitney had something to do with what happened to me, but she was my friend, you know?”
Is this chick really that naïve? “Of course she was nice to you, girl. She wanted something from you. She’s the one who set you up for that operation.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Wake up, kid. No one else had access to you on a daily basis. And someone had to in order to get your body ready to deliver what they wanted.”
“They?”
“Your friend was workin’ with someone. Whitney wasn’t a fertility specialist, was she? It isn’t like one person could have accomplished the whole deal. I checked out her background, Kelsey. She didn’t have medical training or education.”
TJ was sure Kelsey knew the person Whitney had been working with. How Whitney got involved in it and why they set Kelsey up for egg harvesting she had no clue. The whole package was too frickin’ weird.
“So what do you want from me?” Kelsey asked.
“Might help if you’d tell me about this guy you were seein’.”
Kelsey looked away, her mouth rigid.
“Okay, if that’s how you want to play it,” TJ said. “Meantime, we gotta worry about your safety no matter what happened to Whitney. I asked your aunt to put a bodyguard on you.” TJ didn’t wait for a reaction.
Girl Undone (TJ Peacock & Lisa Rayburn Mysteries Book 3) Page 10