Delusional

by Terri Breneman

  By five thirty the gang had arrived. Patty had opted for a Coke until she saw Vicky open a Hefeweizen. “Are we off duty now?” she asked.

  “Hell, yes,” Vicky said after taking a hefty swallow. “Damn, this is good. I wouldn’t suggest getting snockered, Patty, but go ahead and try one of these beers.”

  Toni burst out laughing. “Snockered? Did you actually say snockered?”

  “Yes, Miss Queen of Vocabulary, I did.”

  “What kind of beer is that?” Johnnie asked.

  “It’s a wheat beer,” Boggs said. “German. I used to drink it all the time when I was stationed there. Want to try mine to see if you like it?”

  Without answering Boggs, Johnnie instead went over to Patty and grinned. Patty had opened her beer and taken a sip, but she immediately handed it to Johnnie who took one small sip, then a larger one. “Hey, that is good.” She handed the bottle back. “I think I’ll have one of those myself.” She headed into the kitchen.

  Toni appeared at Patty’s side. “You okay there, sweetie? Looks like you’re in shock.” Toni knew that she had a huge crush on Johnnie. Patty didn’t respond to Toni’s question.

  “Guess Johnnie liked your germs better than Boggs’s,” Toni whispered.

  Patty could only nod and grin.

  Boggs was heading out to the deck to put the burgers on the grill. She stopped at the sliding glass door and turned around. “I suppose I should be the proper hostess and ask you all how you’d like your burgers.” She paused for a moment. “But it really doesn’t matter what you say, because they’ll turn out however they turn out. Sorry.” With that she slid open the door and went out.

  After finishing their meal, they headed downstairs to the game room. As usual, Johnnie sat on the last stool at the bar. She lit a cigarette. “I love this place,” she said as she exhaled smoke.

  Boggs went behind the bar. “What can I get for you?”

  “Rum and Coke sounds good,” Johnnie said. She motioned for Patty to sit next to her. “What are you having? I’ll buy this round.”

  Patty grinned from ear to ear. “I think I’ll have another one of those German beers. Thanks, Johnnie. I’ll leave the tip.”

  Boggs got their drinks. “And how about you babes in the back?”

  Toni and Vicky were sitting on the large sectional couch.Toni was on one end with her feet stretched out. Vicky was sitting in the corner section, with her feet pulled up underneath her. She shook Toni’s foot. “I think the bartender is flirting with us.”

  “You think so?” Toni giggled. “Bet you ten bucks I can get her in bed before the night’s over.”

  “Hey,” Boggs yelled. “What are you guys whispering about?”

  “Oh, nothing, hon.” Toni winked at Vicky. “I think we’d both like another Hefeweizen.”

  Boggs brought over their drinks and set them on the coffee table. She sat next to Vicky and put Toni’s feet on her lap. “Okay, Vicky, tell us about the last one.”

  “His name was Joshua Andrews and he was a principal at a high school. And here’s the weird thing—he was a widower. And unless he was totally on the down low, as far as we can tell he was straight. He’s got two kids, both in their twenties.”

  “Now that doesn’t make sense,” Toni said. “But everything else was the same? The stone, the myrrh oil and the Bible?”

  “Yeah, exactly the same,” Vicky said. “I’m going to do some more poking around, but there was nothing in the house that gave any indication that he was gay. I talked to his daughter on the phone and she’s driving in tomorrow morning from Chicago. His son is flying in tonight from L.A. He’s supposed to call me when he gets in town.”

  “Well, that sort of throws a wrench into our theory,” Toni said. “Maybe there’s something else that this Mr. Andrews did that set our boy off. Maybe he’s involved in some organization that the killer finds offensive.”

  “I’m checking into that,” Vicky said. “And maybe I’ll get a better idea after I talk to the kids. Not that they’d know if their dad was sneaking out to hook up with men,” she added.

  “True,” Toni said. “What about the license plates?”

  Patty turned around in her barstool so she faced the others. She got out her notepad and a large file from her bag. “I ran another check on the plates. The second witness was pretty sure the last three were six, six, six.”

  “How appropriate,” Toni said.

  “No kidding,” Patty said. “So I weeded out any vehicle that obviously didn’t match what both witnesses said. That means really small cars, trucks and such. Then I took out any that were registered outside a hundred mile radius.”

  “Did you take out those registered to women?” Boggs asked.

  “I was going to,” Patty said, “but Johnnie called me earlier and suggested I leave those in for now.”

  Toni looked at Johnnie. “What was your reasoning?”

  “Well, I was thinking of a case I had a few years ago,” Johnnie replied. “We knew we were looking for a male, so I threw out registrations for women. Later I figured out that his car was registered in his mother’s name.”

  Toni nodded. “Excellent. I never would have thought of that.”

  “I also kept in all colors,” Patty continued. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell color at night. Or it could have been repainted.”

  “Damn, girl,” Vicky said. “You’re sure earning your stripes as a detective.”

  Patty blushed and continued. “That brought us down to eight possibles, and only one is registered to a woman.”

  “That’s not too bad,” Boggs said. “At least it’s a place to start. Read them off to us, just for fun.”

  After Patty had read the list, Toni shook her head. “Joseph Jackson is the name of the guy who lives behind us. What’s the address on him?”

  Patty looked back through her list and read off the address.

  “That’s him,” Boggs said.

  “The guy who keeps repainting his place?” Vicky asked.

  “Yup,” Toni said. “Now that’s kind of creepy if you ask me.”

  “And don’t you think it’s bizarre that Peter is on the list?” Boggs asked.

  “Who’s that?” Johnnie lit another cigarette.

  “Peter Johnson, he’s one of our investigators,” Boggs said. “Been there about a year I think.”

  “So what do you think?” Johnnie asked. “Is it a fluke, or do you get a bad vibe from this dude?”

  “Well, I’m hoping it’s just a fluke,” Boggs said. “But it’s no secret I don’t like the guy. He’s odd.”

  “So are most of the people who work at Metro,” Vicky said, snickering. “Anything more definitive than that?”

  “Not really.” Boggs took a sip of her beer, her brow furrowed in thought. “He acts like he’s too good to do some of the routine scut work, but I suppose his investigations are okay. I’ve never heard Sam complain.”

  “Sam who?” Johnnie asked.

  “Sam Clark,” Boggs said. “He’s the chief investigator, my boss. Maybe I’ll ask him what his gut feeling is about Peter. He can be trusted completely.”

  “Okay,” Vicky said. “Let’s do a background check on all these people so we know who we’re dealing with. Then maybe Patty and I can eliminate a chunk of them through alibis or something. We’ll do it quietly so the guy won’t know we’re looking. I looked through a ton of old assaults over the last six months. I only came up with two that might fit the bill. Both were prostitutes who had their heads bashed in with a rock. The only thing on either report says it was a white male between twenty-five and sixty.”

  “Gee, that’s specific,” Johnnie said.

  “I know.” Vicky shook her head. “And it doesn’t look like the cops did much to find the guy. There was no follow-up on either one. The first victim’s name was Catherine Geneis.”

  “Have you found her?”

  “Unfortunately, she died a month ago of a drug overdose.”

  Boggs sighed. “Well,
that’s not very helpful. What about the second one?”

  “Her name is listed as Irene Levitch. I haven’t been able to locate her.”

  “Did you talk to the cops who wrote the reports?” Boggs asked.

  “Sure did,” Vicky said. “Same beat cop on both. He didn’t remember much,but one thing stood out.He said both prostitutes referred to the man as the preacher guy. He couldn’t remember why, but he remembered that they did. That’s what made me think it was our guy. I asked him to ask around his beat to see if any of the other prostitutes know anything.”

  “Well, that makes sense to me,” Toni said. “Starting with prostitutes. It’s obvious that not a whole lot is done when one of them is a victim. How sad.”

  “I know,” Vicky said. “It used to piss me off royally when I was in uniform. Some of the guys treated the pros as trash. I mean, I know they’re breaking the law and all, but when they’re assaulted by a john, they should be treated like anyone else.”

  “I agree with you, Vicky. Makes me mad.” Toni finished her beer and got up to get another. “Anyone else?” Vicky and Boggs nodded. Toni went behind the bar. “How about you two? Ready for another round? I heard Johnnie was buying.” After getting everyone fresh drinks, Toni returned to the couch.

  “So it looks like our guy is on at least number five,” Toni said after sitting back down. “And he waited five days, so maybe that’s not an indicator. I would like to check the dates on all five to see if there’s anything significant though.”

  “Good idea,” Vicky said. “For all we know they could be obscure religious holidays.”

  “Exactly,” Toni said. “There’s got to be a connection. The first two could have been somewhat random if he was practicing, but these murders are definitely planned. If we could only figure out what he’s thinking, maybe we could get one step ahead of him.”

  “Well, I came up dry with burglaries of pharmacies or medical supply places,” Patty said. “I went out two hundred and fifty miles. Nothing.”

  “So that means he’s getting his insulin somewhere else,” Johnnie said. “What about at a hospital? Maybe it’s someone who works there who’s pilfering the stuff in small amounts. You know, like a vial every couple weeks.”

  “I’m not sure how the access to meds works,” Vicky said. “I’m sure that the heavy-duty narcotics are strictly watched, but who knows about insulin. I’ll ask Claire. She’s worked in two hospitals, so she probably knows the routine.” Vicky flipped open her phone and wandered over to the other side of the room and plopped down on one of the overstuffed chairs.

  While they waited for her to finish her call, Toni leaned closer to Boggs and whispered in her ear. “What do you think about those two?”

  Boggs looked at Johnnie and Patty sitting at the bar. Johnnie had pulled her laptop from her messenger bag and it was between them on the bar. They were only inches apart.

  “It looks like Johnnie is about to make Patty’s dream come true,” Boggs whispered back. “What the hell are they looking at?”

  “No clue.” Toni giggled. “Jeez. I’ve got one hell of a buzz. I don’t remember beer doing this to me.”

  “It’s nine percent alcohol,” Boggs said. “Not like regular American beer.” She nuzzled Toni’s neck. “How about us kicking these guys out?”

  Toni kissed Boggs. “I love that about us. After being together a year, we still can’t keep our hands off each other. But if you can hang on a little bit, I’ll let you drive me home after they leave.” She giggled again at her own humor and turned her attention to the bar. “Hey, you guys. Whatcha doin’?” There was no response. She watched as Johnnie whispered something in Patty’s ear.

  “Hey, you guys!” This time she yelled a bit, causing both of them to turn around. She noticed that Patty’s face was flushed.

  “Johnnie’s got the coolest game on her computer,” Patty said quickly, in an obvious attempt to cover her embarrassment. “You play a detective named Fred Firebrand and help him solve a murder. They show you the crime scene and the suspects. It’s animated, so it’s not really gross or anything.” She was talking fast.

  “I heard that was actually a great training tool,” Vicky said as she rejoined the group. “Claire says to tell you all hello. She wished she could be here instead of at the hospital.” Vicky sat next to Mr. Rupert on the couch and scratched his head. “She said that insulin isn’t watched that carefully in the hospital and lots of folks could have access. Narcotics are under lock and key and have to be carefully logged when used, but insulin not so much. There’s some control, of course, but shortages wouldn’t come under the same type of scrutiny.” She sipped her beer. “So I guess that leaves hospital employees on the list of possibilities.”

  “Did you ever find out anything about the Bibles or the myrrh oil?” Toni stretched her feet out and put them on the coffee table.

  “The only thing we know about these particular Bibles are that they’re usually sold in bulk to churches and motels and such. You can’t tell which shipment these came in according to the publisher, but at least we know that he didn’t go in a bookstore and order them.Maybe he took them from a motel or something.” Vicky shrugged.

  “But wouldn’t they have the name of the motel stamped in them?” Patty asked.

  “Hmm. Not sure on that one,” Vicky said.

  “And the myrrh oil?” Toni asked.

  “It has a lot of therapeutic qualities,” Vicky said. “It can be used as an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, expectorant, for mouth ulcers—a bunch of stuff. All three of the health food stores in town carry it. Maybe when we finally get a manageable number of suspects we can show their pictures around. Otherwise, no good leads there.”

  “Gee, who knew,” Johnnie said as she lit a cigarette. “I think I should pick up a bottle myself. What did you do, go to all-aboutmyrrh dot com?”

  “Sure did,” Vicky said. “Right after I saw your picture on asswipes dot com.”

  Toni giggled again.

  “Good one.” Johnnie raised her glass of rum and Coke. She looked over at Toni. “I think you got your date drunk,” Johnnie said, winking at Boggs.

  “She told me I could drive her home after you guys left,” Boggs said. “I think I might even get lucky.”

  “You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t pass out on you,” Johnnie said.

  “Hello? I’m in the room here. Just because I’m tippy doesn’t mean you can talk about me like I’m not here.” Toni grinned.

  “Tippy?” Vicky laughed.

  “Yes, tippy,” Toni said. “That’s a little more than buzzed, but not drunk.”

  They all laughed.“Well,Tippy, I guess that’s enough thinking for tonight then,” Vicky said, glancing at her watch. “I think I’ll head home. Claire gets off work in about a half hour and I want to have enough time to shower before she gets to my place.”

  “Maybe you should wait until she gets there and invite her to join you,” Johnnie said.

  “Hmm. Not a bad idea.” Vicky stood to leave. “Who knew you were such a romantic.”

  “I have my moments,” Johnnie said. She shut down her laptop and put it in her messenger bag. She drained the last of her rum and Coke and smiled at Patty. “Want to finish playing Detective Firebrand at my place?”

  Patty’s eyes doubled in size and she merely nodded to the offer from Johnnie. Toni and Boggs walked their guests to the front door, setting the alarm after they left.

  “What do you think about those two?” Boggs asked as she turned off lights in the living room.

  Toni leaned against the kitchen island watching Boggs.“Well, I know that Patty has had a crush on Johnnie for years.” She sipped at her bottle of water. “I’m only hoping that if Johnnie makes a move, she’s serious. She’s such a player. I don’t want Patty to get hurt.”

  “I think Patty knows that. Hopefully if they hook up, Patty will know that it’s not a long-term thing. I’d hate to see her get hurt too. Plus, that would make for some pretty awkward gett
ogethers.” She turned off the last light and wrapped her arms around Toni’s waist. “Ready for bed, babe?”

  Toni tried to suppress a yawn. “Absolutely.”

  Boggs laughed. “Actually, I’m pretty tired myself. Why don’t we just go upstairs and snuggle until we fall to sleep?” She yawned herself. “At this rate, it should take about two minutes.” She took Toni’s hand in hers and led her up the stairs to their bedroom. Boggs took out a pair of jammies from the drawer and tossed them to her. “Here you go, babe.” She stripped off her own clothing and pulled on an oversized T-shirt. By the time Boggs came out of the bathroom Toni was already under the covers.

  “I think there’s room for you in here,” Toni said, patting the bed. Mr. Rupert and Little Tuffy were already tucked in at the top of the bed.

  “Even though I had other ideas earlier this evening, I think this is wonderful,” Boggs said as she slid under the covers. She pulled Toni to her and wrapped her arms around her, careful not to disturb either of the boys. They fit together perfectly.

  “I agree.” Toni turned her head to kiss Boggs, then settled back down in her arms. “I could stay like this forever.” Before she drifted off to sleep, she realized how lucky she was to have Boggs in her life and for the moment, she felt safe.

  Chapter 10

  Toni and Boggs were lounging in their living room at around ten on Sunday morning. Toni had awakened early and they’d made the most of the early morning hours. After showering, Boggs had run out and gotten them breakfast at Hardee’s and lattés from Starbucks. Toni had finished her bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and was working on the Sunday crossword puzzle when the doorbell rang.

  “Who the hell could that be?” Boggs checked the monitor in the kitchen. “It’s the whole gang, for God’s sake. I’m not letting them in.”

  Toni just smiled and shook her head.

  Boggs sighed and opened the door. “This better be good.”

  Vicky barged past her with a cardboard container holding five large cups of coffee from Starbucks. “Since this was a bit unplanned, I figured I’d stop by Starbuckets.” She looked at the cups already on the coffee table.