Apocalypse Island (16 page)

“You know why.”

Wolf’s temper flared. “You still think I murdered that guy and killed Siri to keep her from talking. You’re all full of shit, you know that? I
loved
her. I couldn’t kill her.”

“Where is she then?”

“You’re the detective. You find her.”

To Jennings, Wolf looked pathetic. Like a half drowned puppy. “I want
you
to tell me,” he said. 

“I wish I could,” Wolf said. “You don’t know how much I want to put an end this whole fucking nightmare. Jesus, why don’t you just arrest me if you think I killed her and those other girls.”

“I’d like to, Danny, but I can’t. Not enough physical evidence. But we’re working on it.”

Wolf stared at Jennings.

“So, Danny, how’s it going with the shrink? Getting some stuff off your chest?”

“I don’t know. He’s an asshole. We’re just talking trash.”

Jennings stared.

“I didn’t murder those girls, Jennings.”

“What
kind
of trash, Danny?”

“Confidential.”

Jennings smiled and held Wolf’s eyes. “We can subpoena his records, you know.”

“So do it.”

“Just talk to me, Danny. You know, I might be the only friend you’ve got.”

“You don’t sound like a friend.”

“Believe me, if I wasn’t you’d be in lockup right now.”

“All right, goddamn it, there’s a lot of shit in my head. I’m having these...dreams.”

“Dreams?”

“Yeah, dreams.”

“What about?”

“Dead people. Monsters. I don’t know, Christ.” Wolf looked up at the ceiling and exhaled a weary sigh.

“Dead people and monsters, huh?”

“Yeah, but I swear to you I didn’t kill those girls. I keep having these dreams... Shit, never mind. You wouldn’t understand.
I
don’t understand.”

Jennings waited, staring at Wolf.

“Nothing makes sense.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I’m running and someone’s chasing me... I don’t know, something terrible happened.” Wolf could almost see it, if he just concentrated he might be able to understand if what he’d seen on that long ago night had been real:
a dead woman with a cross carved on her chest.
The urgent sound of bloodhounds. But was it him they were chasing or someone else?
Try as he might the only thing he could see clearly was that he’d lost Jennings. Hell, he was just as lost. “There’s this big guy,” he said. “All covered with hair.”

Jennings sat forward with interest. “Is this someone you see in these dreams of yours?”

“It’s more like I’m seeing through his eyes or something. Listen, Jennings, I can’t explain it. I don’t know how all that shit got in my head, and I don’t know how to get it out. It’s driving me fucking crazy.”

“Have you seen this big guy doing anything?”

Wolf thought of the dream where he was carrying a dead girl in his arms, but no way in hell was he going to tell Jennings about that. He shook his head.

“Why don’t I believe you, Danny?”

“Don’t. It’s all I’ve got.”

“What about Siri?”

“What about her.”

“Tell me about her.”

Wolf licked his lips. “I don’t know what to say. I was in love with her and I just can’t seem to get past it. That good enough?”

“Love’s a funny thing, ain’t it, Danny? People do some pretty stupid things for love.”

“I told you, I didn’t kill anybody.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to convince yourself?”

“Am I under arrest?”

“Not yet. You can go, but remember, my men are on you.”

Wolf got up to leave.

“By the way, Danny, our office has received several complaints from residents of your apartment building. They’re hearing noises.”

Wolf remained silent.

“They say it sounds like someone’s being murdered in your apartment. What’s that all about?”

“I told you it’s the dreams,” Wolf said. “I’ve been having them for a long time and I don’t know how to make them stop. Call the prison, they’ll tell you the same thing.”

“Already have. Seems you’ve got some serious shit going on in your head.”

“Can I go now?”

“Sure. But on the other side of that door you’ll find a technician with a cotton swab.”

“What?”

“DNA sample.”

“You’ve already got one.”

“We want another one.”

“Why?”

“Just want to be sure, that’s all.”

“What, you think my DNA changed overnight?”

Jennings grinned.

“Don’t you need a subpoena?”

“Nope. Your ass belongs to the State of Maine.”

Wolf headed for the door.

“Oh, Danny?”

“Yeah.”

“Pleasant dreams.”

Wolf left the office.

PART THREE

LAURA HIGGINS

Chapter 34

After Wolf was gone, Jennings brought the young women in. Her name was Laura Higgins. She was short and built, cute as hell with big green eyes, full lips, medium length auburn hair and freckles on her slightly upturned nose.

“So, what do you think?” Jennings asked.

Laura shrugged. “I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He looked so pathetic. My gut feeling is he didn’t do it.”

Jennings watched her carefully. “You’re a cop, Laura. You’re supposed to be objective.”

“It was just an initial impression.”

Jennings absently scratched at the stubble on his chin. It made a sound like sandpaper on wood. His small black eyes looked like specks of cinder. “Jesus, what is it with that guy? You haven’t even met him and you’re already on his side.”

“I’m not on his side, Rick. It seems to me that you’ve already made the assumption of guilt. I’m just trying to offer a more intuitive approach. I gave you my initial impression. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Jennings nodded.

“By the way, what happened to his head?”

Jennings sighed. “Not important.”

“Rick!”

“Okay, he had a run-in with one of my men—”

“What? Who?”

Jennings stared.

“Come on, Rick. You know I’ll find out.”

“All right, Christ, his name is Cavanaugh. His wife left him and he’s pissed off.”

“Bastard!” Laura said. “Have you talked to him?”

“He’s a hard-headed son of a bitch.”

“Want me to straighten him out?”

Jennings smiled. He knew that Laura Higgins’s size and looks were deceiving, and that inside her compact little body and behind that pretty face there was a fighter, a kid who never ran from trouble, no matter how big. She was just like her old man—her dead old man—and that was what worried him most. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake bringing her in on this case. “I want you to stay miles away from my men, Laura. Especially Cavanaugh. I’ll handle him.”

“Rick!”

“He’s my friend. I’ll handle him. Are we clear on that?”

Laura sighed. “Okay, Christ.”

Jennings narrowed his eyes at Laura. “I mean it, Laura.”

“I said okay. So tell me more about Wolf.”

“You read the trial transcripts?”

“Yeah,” Laura said. “And the whole thing smelled.”

“How so?”

“Let’s see if I’ve got this straight,” Laura said. “First, it was a kangaroo court. There was absolutely no evidence that Wolf killed that guy. Everything was hearsay. The bartender said that Wolf and this guy, Shaun Talbot, got in a little tussle after Talbot grabbed Wolf’s girlfriend’s ass. They were both drunk and the bartender told them to take it out back. He testified that they went out into the alley. He also testified that Wolf’s girlfriend, a woman named Siri Donavan went with them. Evidently she was trying to talk Wolf out of fighting with the guy. They never came back in and the bartender forgot about it, or so he testified. An hour later he went out back to empty the trash and found the guy lying next to the dumpster with his skull bashed in. He assumed that Wolf had been responsible. When the cops questioned Wolf about it he admitted that he’d been in a fight with the guy but that he’d been fine when he and his girlfriend Siri had left the alley. When asked where Siri was, evidently Wolf didn’t know. He said she went home with him but that she’d evidently gotten up in the night and left. When asked if this was normal behavior for her he said no. She was never seen again. You guys tried to pin her disappearance on Wolf too but without a body the charges didn’t stick. The only thing I can say is Wolf must be the dumbest son-of-a-bitch in the world because his own testimony put him in the slammer for five years. He didn’t sound like a dumb son-of-a-bitch to me. If he was guilty then why would he say all that self-incriminating shit? Why didn’t he lie about fighting with the guy? Why didn’t he say that Siri got up every night and went home to her own apartment? Duh! From what I can tell by the transcripts he was totally amazed that she’d done such a thing. He was set up, for Christ’s sake.”

“By Siri?”

“Maybe.”

“A better explanation would be that he killed the guy and then killed the girl so that she wouldn’t finger him.” Jennings said.

“You don’t believe that, Rick. He loved that girl. You can tell by the way he talks about her.”

“Men kill women they love all the time. Maybe he’s a good liar.”

“He’s a shitty liar. Something doesn’t add up.”

“All of this came up at the trial,” Jennings said. “And it all came back to Wolf. The jury believed he was guilty.”

“Shit, they didn’t have anybody else to pin it on. Wolf was a convenient scapegoat. Happens all the time. I think he was scammed.”

“By whom?”

“Maybe her.”

“What would be her motive?”

“The fight was over her, wasn’t it? The dead guy was making lewd remarks, he grabbed her ass and it pissed Wolf off. Maybe she knew the guy. Maybe he had something on her. Maybe they were ex lovers. Maybe she took Wolf home, waited for him to pass out and then went back, found the guy and bashed his head in. Wolf
was
drunk, after all.”

“We went through that at the trial. More than an hour passed between the time the bartender sent them outside and when he found the body. That would have meant that the guy hung around in the alley all that time? Wolf testified that the guy was okay when he and the woman left. Why didn’t he go home if he was okay?”

“Good question. According to the bartender, he was drunk too. Maybe he passed out after the fight and she found him and then, well...”

“Or maybe Wolf injured him so badly that he just lay down and died. That would make Wolf guilty of manslaughter, which is what he was convicted of. I think the system got it right. I think Wolf fucked up and killed that guy. Maybe not on purpose, but he did kill him. And in my book that’s manslaughter. And he may have committed murder to cover it up.”

“Did you guys ever look at the bartender?”

“Of course we did. He was lily white. Besides he had two bar maids back up every word of his testimony. Wolf killed that guy. Whether he meant to or not doesn’t matter. He killed him.”

“I don’t think so, Rick.”

Jennings cast his eyes reverently toward the ceiling, as if he was searching for divine guidance. “Listen, I can’t figure the guy out. I know he’s smart but he’s acting like  the dumbest son-of-a-bitch that ever lived. He’s been acting that way since the trial. It was almost as if he didn’t care if he went to prison. Almost as if he doesn’t care what happens to him now.”

“Maybe he doesn’t.”

“The problem is, we still don’t know what happened to the woman. She dropped off the face of the earth, and now, since he got out of the joint these other girls are being slaughtered and he seems to be the only common denominator.”

“Do you think she’s dead?”

Jennings did not answer her. A fleeting image of what he had seen at the city landfill flashed through his mind. He dismissed it.

“You think these cases, Wolf’s manslaughter case, the disappearance of Siri, and the murders of these two women are linked, don’t you?” said Laura.

“I’ve got this sick feeling in my gut that they somehow are.”

“Explain.”

“I can’t. It’s just gut. Maybe they’re revenge slayings?”

“Why would someone kill innocent women just for revenge? It doesn’t make sense. These are ritual slayings, the work of an extremely sick individual.”

“Sick, all right,” Jennings said.

“But intelligent,” Laura said. “This is someone with a lot of self-control.”

“Don’t give him too much credit, girl,” Jennings said. “He’s a fucking nut job. He wants the whole world to know he’s out there and he wants us to be afraid. He’s playing a game. A low life predator is what he is.”

“I think there’s more to this killer than meets the eye,” Laura said.

Jennings’ eyes narrowed in thought. “Listen, the city’s full of young people who decorate their bodies with filth and dress up like every night is Halloween. Think what they’re doing is cool or something, and he’s stalking them. It has to be some sort of religious thing. Doesn’t like the fact that they worship the dark side, and he’s making a statement, taking advantage of their stupidity. The way they dress, the way they act. You want the truth I think they’re asking for it.”

Laura threw her hands up in frustration. “Are you kidding me, Rick? That’s like saying a woman who dresses alluringly is asking to be sexually harassed or even raped.”

“Well, isn’t she?”

“Oh my god, Rick, you’re blaming the victim. That’s dark ages stuff. This is the twenty-first century.”

“Tell that to the human libido. That hasn’t changed in twenty-thousand years.”

“So you’re saying that just because a man has a libido he has the right to—”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that people ask for what they get, period! Wishful thinking doesn’t change who we are inside. If you invite trouble you get trouble.”

Laura gave a sigh of resignation. What the hell was the point?

“Besides, I was just commenting on how weird this town is getting,” Jennings said. “Wait till you get out and about. You’ll see what I mean.”

“I already have, and you’re right. It sure has changed since I lived here. It’s as if Portland slipped through some crazy portal into an alternate universe or something.”