Deadly Sins

by Stacy M Jones

  “I don’t know what I’m saying,” Luke said, sitting up straight in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. There were still too many missing pieces for it to make any sense.

  Turning to Tyler, Luke said, “Go home to your wife tonight. I’m going to get Lisa’s picture out to the media and go downtown and canvass the bars with her photo and see if anyone recognizes her. We can get back at this in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 69

  AFTER TYLER LEFT FOR THE NIGHT, Luke took Lisa’s photo and made some copies of it. He called Ben from the newspaper and asked if they could run a story in the morning edition. Ben explained it was a little late, but he’d see what he could do. Luke faxed him over the photo and a short statement.

  “You don’t know where she went missing?” Ben asked Luke after he received the photo.

  “No. She was headed to a bar downtown and that is as far as we know right now. I’m going tonight to try to track down some leads,” Luke explained.

  “We’ll run it. If you get more details keep me updated. We can add to the story,” Ben said, ending the call.

  Luke made a few more calls to some of the news stations. Hopefully, by the ten o’clock news, Lisa’s picture would be all over the city and people with any information could call into the tip line at the police department. There was a growing reward in this case. Families had put up most of the money. Luke wasn’t sure the last total but he thought it was around $45,000.

  After faxing Lisa’s photo to the last couple news stations, Luke got into his car and drove to the River Market. Luke knew there were at least eight places that had live music on a Saturday night that Lisa could have gone.

  Luke found a parking spot near where they had found the first victim. One by one he canvassed the bars showing Lisa’s photo to the bar staff and the managers. No luck. No one had seen her or at least remembered her. Luke knew it was a long shot.

  He hoped someone would remember seeing her. Little Rock wasn’t a very big town when it got right down to it. People got to know faces if not names after a while.

  Finally, he hit pay dirt on his last stop. It was at Stickyz that he found the information he needed. Luke had been there himself to see a few bands. It was still early enough that the band for the night wasn’t on yet. Most people there were early drinkers or having dinner. Luke walked in, headed straight to the bar, and showed Lisa’s photo to the guy tending bar.

  The bartender barely looked at the photo as he waited on customers. He didn’t say much of anything. Luke encouraged him to take another look.

  The guy finally stopped, walked over to Luke and looked at the photo. “Yeah I know her. She’s been in here on the weekends to see some bands. I don’t know her name. She’s a good tipper and nice so I remember her.”

  “Was she here last Saturday night?”

  “Maybe. There were a lot of people in here so I’m not sure. What she do?” he asked dismissively, lining clean glasses on the bar shelf.

  “It’s not what she’s done. It’s what was done to her. She’s one of the women we pulled from the river. She’s dead,” Luke said matter of fact.

  The bartender stopped, wiped his hand on a bar towel, and extended his hand out to Luke. “That’s awful. She was really nice. I’m Mike, I’m the manager just covering for my bartender until he gets here.”

  Mike pointed to a line of tickets on the bar and said, “Let me get through these orders. Then I’ll go back and pull some receipts from last Saturday. She usually paid by credit card. I’ll see if we have the receipt. It will show what time she paid. You can at least maybe see what time she left here.”

  Luke took a seat and waited. Mike finished up his work and walked into a back room. When he came out, he was carrying a credit card slip.

  “She paid her tab just after one in the morning. It was a pretty hefty bill though. Eighty-eight dollars. It looks like she was buying drinks for someone else, too. She couldn’t have racked up this high of a bar bill alone and still walk out of the place.”

  “Do you know who was with her?”

  Mike nodded. “Yeah, she came in with the same guy a few times. I don’t know if they are an item or what. But same guy, no one else. Actually, you probably know him. He’s a cop. I think his name is Norwalk. He goes to my gym so I’ve seen him around. Just my opinion, but I always thought she could do a lot better than him.”

  CHAPTER 70

  “I’M SORRY MOM IS WORRIED. I can’t just quit in the middle of investigation and come home,” I grumbled to my sister Liv. Cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder, I carried groceries from my car into the house. I couldn’t stand not having any edible food in the house. After my interview with the news station, I hit the Heights Kroger. As far as I was concerned, I was in for the night. I had the massive list of cell numbers to go through for Luke anyway.

  Liv, my little sister by two years, continued to grouch at me. I continued to protest. We were about as different as two sisters could get. She was blonde where I was auburn. She was flighty. I was far more serious. After getting fired from several jobs she attempted, I gave her a job as my assistant. All that really meant was she showed up to my office and read magazines, flirted with my clients and never bothered to answer the phone. She still lived at home, and for all intents and purposes, was my mother’s spy. Too bad she couldn’t put those skills to work on actual paying cases.

  “Women are dying all around you. Why are you making us worry, Riley? You’re being really selfish,” Liv said, laying on the guilt. She had a flare for the dramatic.

  “Tell Mom I’m fine. It will be a little more time. Then I’ll be home like I never even left. How’s my dog?”

  “Perfect. Come home, Riley. We need to talk. I have a new boyfriend. I don’t know if you’re going to be happy about it,” Liv said with hesitation in her voice.

  I knew she didn’t really care if I was home or not. She liked it when she was the favorite and our mother was angry with me. It took the heat off of her.

  “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll like him. Does Mom?”

  “Mom thinks we are great together. Oh hey, another call. I have to go,” Liv sing-songed and then hung up. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

  I pulled the phone away from my ear, staring at the screen wondering if I should call her back. I thought better of it and called my ex-husband Jeff who had been calling me every few hours for the last few days. It’s not that I was ignoring him. I just didn’t feel like explaining why I was in Little Rock. He, my mother and sister were as thick as thieves. It hadn’t mattered that we had been divorced for eight years.

  “Finally. So good of you to call,” Jeff said sarcastically.

  “What’s up? All your message said was you had something important to tell me,” I said impatiently. I moved around my kitchen putting my groceries away, hoping he’d just get to the point.

  “I’m seeing someone,” Jeff said matter of fact.

  “Well good for you. It’s about time you started dating again.”

  “It’s your sister.”

  I set my bag of apples down on the counter. I wasn’t sure I heard him right. “What’s my sister?”

  “The woman I’m dating. Don’t get angry,” Jeff said quickly. “We’ve been spending time together. Over the last few months, it just developed.”

  I couldn’t immediately respond. I wasn’t sure what to say. My ex-husband was dating my little sister. I didn’t really get the connection. Jeff was extremely intelligent, almost nerdy, and my sister, well she was my sister. Intelligent was not really a word I would use to describe her. Bubbly, brainless and buxom usually came to mind.

  “Hey, you there?” Jeff asked cautiously.

  “Yeah, I’m here. Well if you’re happy, go for it,” I said and actually meant it. I was over Jeff. I had been for years. While I couldn’t actually see him with my sister, if it worked for them, who was I to stand in the way. I had no idea my sister was attracted to Jeff. Hopefully, they’d be good for each other.


  “You mean that?” Jeff asked. I could hear the hope in his voice.

  “Yes, definitely. Have fun, but tell them I’m not coming home yet. I know that’s what you wanted, too. Take care of them for me.”

  He said he would, didn’t even argue with me, and we ended the call.

  I had just finished making chicken marsala and a salad when Emma called my name as she walked in the back door.

  “Did you hear they identified the last victim?” Emma asked, hugging me. Then she poured herself some tea from the fridge and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “No, I’ve been out all day. Tell me.”

  “Lisa Cramer. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Sounds familiar to me. She’s from Hot Springs.”

  It did sound familiar. I couldn’t quite place where I heard that name before. Lisa Cramer. I said it over and over again in my head, trying to retrieve how her name was connected. Then it hit me.

  “I think Lisa Cramer was the name of the woman George dated right before Maime. I remember him telling me about her when Maime was harassing me. He said it wasn’t the first time Maime had harassed someone. She had done it to his previous girlfriend.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Emma said dramatically. “I remember you telling me that but couldn’t place it.”

  I fixed my plate and made one for Emma. I carried both to the table and slid it in front of her. I didn’t ask her if she wanted food. Emma always looked hungry. I assumed she’d eat.

  I talked in between bites, updating her about where things were going with Luke and the case. The case itself was clearer than what was happening with Luke. The case still made no sense at all so that was saying something.

  Emma filled me in on the neighborhood gossip. It seemed everyone thought George was guilty and a serial killer. The neighborhood was alive with gossip. All the older ladies were talking about the last time they saw George. They shared stories of seeing him at Kroger and how charming he was. Even how he had been sweet and flirted with them. George didn’t care how old they were.

  Nobody was happy women were dying, but gossip and speculation were commonplace in our Heights neighborhood. They were more than excited for the national news stations that were camped out on the streets, taking photos and live shots, interviewing the locals and making our little neighborhood famous. They acted put off, but you could tell they loved the attention.

  “If I wasn’t stressed enough, Jeff just called me and told me he’s dating my sister,” I said, finally taking the last bite.

  Emma looked up from her plate with a wide toothy grin. Then she laughed. We both did.

  CHAPTER 71

  AFTER EMMA LEFT, I poured more sweet tea and pulled all the cellphone records out from the folder Luke had given me. Sitting down on my couch, I went to work. Carefully, line by line, I went through Shannon’s, Sara’s, Maime’s and Laura’s cellphone records.

  Several numbers were repeated throughout each person’s records. I checked them against some of the numbers that detectives had called or looked up and confirmed. There was a master list of phone numbers with names and addresses for each that I could use as a reference.

  Sara’s were mostly clients. Maime’s and Laura’s were a mix of work and personal. Shannon’s were hard to tell. I guessed a mix of personal and her clients. I wasn’t sure what Luke was hoping I’d find that his detectives hadn’t already. All he said was he hoped a fresh set of eyes looking over all four at once might show something.

  The task was tedious. The numbers started to blur together one indistinguishable from the next. My eyes were starting to glaze over after reading page after page of numbers when there was knock on my front door. I was grateful for the interruption.

  It was Cooper. I had forgotten he planned to come over that night to go over the case again. We weren’t getting a chance to work together as much as we thought so spending some time comparing notes was important.

  Like Emma who never gets to relax over a meal because she’s always taking care of her husband and daughter, Cooper always looked hungry to me. I assumed it was because he was a bachelor whose dining was the equivalent of take-out. My mother never had the ability to cook for less than a brood of people. I realized I was the same way. If I’m just cooking for myself, I have leftovers for days.

  Serving him a plate of food in the living room, I encouraged him to update me.

  “George still insists he’s being framed,” Cooper said, devouring his dinner. “I had him go through Maime’s jewelry to see if anything was missing. There is just enough jewelry missing for all the victims including Maime and Laura. Hardly a coincidence.”

  “Do you think Maime and Laura are dead? We just haven’t found them yet?” I inquired, pulling the blanket around me. It was cold. I thought about starting a fire in the fireplace, but it was too late.

  “I don’t know. I can’t really say for sure. Sara Bloomfield was missing for about a week before she was found. I just heard on the news they identified the last victim recovered. The report said she’d been missing since last Saturday. Luke said the medical examiner thought the victims were being held, which is probably true given what we know. Maime and Laura have been missing for longer than Sara and this other victim. Maybe there’s a reason they are being held longer than the other victims. Maybe we just haven’t found them yet,” Cooper explained.

  Earlier that day, I had told Cooper about what happened with George. Cooper was furious so I was glad he spoke to George without a major fight. Not that I thought Cooper would, but anything seemed possible these days. When Cooper was done with the details he deemed important and relevant, I filled him in on what I found.

  “I talked to Janelle, the reporter that asked the drug question at the press conference. I got a little information that I need to share with Luke. I think the killer is definitely calling in tips to the news.”

  “That’s weird. Why would he tip us off to the drug and the victims being held? That doesn’t make any sense,” Cooper said, looking thoroughly perplexed.

  “Maybe he really wants to be stopped. Some killers have a compulsion to kill, and calling in is a cry for help. For others, it’s a way to keep the media telling their story. They feed off the kill and then the notoriety that follows. Others it’s a cat and mouse game. It shows they are smarter than the cops. Maybe they didn’t think the cops would test for that drug, and for whatever reason, the killer wanted us to know it’s being used.”

  “That’s true. Purvis said it’s not common and definitely not something he would have tested for,” Cooper reminded me.

  “That drug is a pretty big detail to not know about in these cases. It would seem to me the killer wanted us to know exactly how he worked. I can’t imagine what the victims went through. It’s one thing to be strangled and at least be able to fight back. But to be totally immobilized, awake and not be able to do a thing to try to save your own life, that’s the stuff of nightmares,” I said, shuttering.

  Even when I tried to imagine what the victims went through, it was too terrifying to picture. To know you are going to die and not be able to do anything to help yourself. It would be my worst nightmare.

  CHAPTER 72

  COOPER WAS GETTING READY TO HEAD HOME just as Luke arrived. Cooper sat back down on the couch and gave Luke the full update about the jewelry. When Cooper was done, I filled Luke in on the news tips.

  “There’s a good chance the killer is using the media to give us information,” I said. “They have a phone number and email address. Maybe someone in computer forensics can trace the emails.”

  Luke agreed it could be possible. Stifling a yawn, Cooper excused himself and headed home. Before he left, Cooper reminded us he had a full day of surveillance on another case that would take up most of the next day so we probably wouldn’t see him. We made a plan to catch up Monday. Then he left.

  Luke followed behind Cooper and locked the front door. He watched me as I moved over to the couch with my blanket and snuggled up. Luke flipped off the over
head living room light, leaving us just in the soft glow of the hallway table lamp. Luke watched me for a few seconds. Then he kicked off his shoes and emptied the contents of his pockets on the table – keys, cellphone and wallet. He stopped for a moment and looked down at me again. All at once he seemed to make up his mind. In a flash, he pulled his shirt over his head, slipped his pants down to the floor and peeled off his socks. He stood there in his white undershirt and red boxer briefs.

  I let out a giggle and asked, “Are you comfortable now?”

  “No, not yet.” Luke tackled me, pulling my blanket around the both of us and adjusted me so I was lying against his chest with his arms wrapped around me. I laid back into him, resting my head on his chest as he lightly brushed my hair away from my face.

  “We have to talk about us now,” Luke whispered.

  As much as I didn’t want to have this conversation, I knew he was right.

  “Why did you leave me? Did I do something wrong?” Luke asked softly.

  I could still hear the pain in this voice. He was always so much better at this than I was. So much better at being vulnerable and expressing how he felt. He was the first one to say I love you, the first one to tell me how he was feeling. It was harder for me. It always had been.

  “You did everything right,” I finally said between deep breaths. I may have been a journalist who relied on her words, but I wasn’t good at this.

  “Go on,” Luke said, prodding me. He traced his fingers lightly over my arm, snuggling me in closer to him.

  “I thought maybe you were too good to be true. You were perfect for me in every way. I was still dealing with how much George had hurt me. Maime was still harassing me. I didn’t want to love again or get you mixed up in all of that. I didn’t want to leave myself vulnerable to that kind of hurt again. When I felt myself falling in love with you, I wanted to protect you and me so I left. I’m not good at relationships,” I confessed. In some ways it felt good to finally say it.