Blood Lies (23 page)

I stood absolutely still, afraid to breathe. Seconds passed. Nothing.

My eyes darted around the room and fixed on the small window across from me. I had no idea if the hinges would shriek or if the window would even open at all. Even if it did, I would face a ten-foot jump to the cement below.

What choice do I have?
I thought.

The knuckles rapped harder on my door. The banging propelled me into action. I ran across the floor on tiptoes, sliding to a stop at the window. My hand shot out for the latch, prepared to smash the glass if need be. As I touched the cold metal, a voice from the other side of the door stopped me. “Ben.”

I froze again.

“Ben, it’s me.”

Alex?

I ran back across the floor, unlocked the door, and threw it open. Alex Lindquist stood at the doorstep, her face creased in a look somewhere between shock and relief. “Ben, I didn’t know how else to reach you—”

I cut her off with a bear hug. I’d forgotten how tiny she was. I lifted her off the ground and swung her effortlessly inside the apartment. Closing the door quickly with my foot, I lowered her to the ground and kissed her cheek, drinking in her familiar vanilla-scented perfume. “Alex, thank God!”

“That new beard tickles.” She laughed. “I take it you’re not mad I came.”

Reluctantly, I freed her of my embrace. “I am. You shouldn’t have come. What about Talie?”

She glanced away. “She’s with Marcus this week,” she said quietly.

“Alex, I’m not safe to be around.”

She pursed her lips, and her eyes lit with amusement. “This is not news to me, Benjamin Dafoe.”

“But the manhunt for me is getting hotter by the second.” I grabbed her hand. “We have to leave. Now. Did you drive?”

She nodded. “I’m parked out front.”

“Great.”

I led Alex down the stairs and onto the main floor. Scurrying past Dotty’s apartment, I brought a finger to my lips. With relief, we reached the front door without running into anyone.

Outside, I stopped where I’d chained my bike to a tree. I looked over my shoulder at Alex. “Don’t suppose you have room for—”

“Plenty.” She pointed the fob she was holding to the SUV parked on the street and clicked the remote to unlock it. I wheeled the bike to the back of her car and tossed it in through the hatch.

I climbed in beside Alex. As she pulled away from the curb, I sank into the heated passenger seat. Feeling the smooth quiet hum of the car’s engine, my heart rate settled for the first time in hours. I looked over to Alex. “Joe told you where to find me?”

She nodded. “I had to call twenty clinics in Vancouver before I found where Dr. Peter Horvath was working. Then it took me another day to reach Dr. Janacek, but he wouldn’t speak to me on the phone. We met early this morning at his office.”

I smiled at Alex’s ingenuity. “How did you convince Joe?”

“I said I was your best friend in the world,” she said, reddening slightly. “And that you needed my help.”

“Right on both counts.” I reached out and squeezed the back of her hand on the steering wheel.

She glanced at me. “Ben, I get the feeling he knows you’re not Peter Horvath.”

“It’s all over the news in Vancouver.” I let go of her hand. “Besides, Joe knows the whole story.”

She nodded and turned back to the road. “As I was leaving, he said something to me that I didn’t understand. He wouldn’t explain it, but he said you would understand.”

“What’s that?”

“He told me you could use an ‘Eliska’ of your own right now.”

Giddy with relief and Alex’s proximity, I burst into laughter.

Alex reached over and punched me on the shoulder. “What’s an Eliska?”

“I guess you could say Eliska is Joe’s muse.”

Alex shook her head and sighed. “As Talie would say,
whatever
.”

The reality of my situation crept back to me, as sobering as the storm clouds that now threatened the previously blue skies above us. “Alex, they all know I’m here, and who I’m pretending to be.”

She nodded. “Why don’t we leave?”

“Not yet,” I said. “There are still questions I have to answer.”

“Let’s find those answers in a hurry, huh?”

I resisted the urge to kiss her. “I don’t even have a place to stay.”

“I’ve got a hotel room downtown. Great view of the city—”

“Alex…”

“Come on, Ben, this is no time to act prim and proper,” she snapped. “What choice do you have?”

“This has nothing to do with propriety. What if the cops find me hidden in your hotel room? Or worse, what if Emily’s killer finds you with me? It’s too dangerous.”

She dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand. “I’m all grown up, Ben. I’m willing to take my chances.”

“And Talie?”

Alex hesitated, but then she shook her head. Slowing at the next red light, she turned to me with eyes afire. “Tell me you wouldn’t do the same for me if our roles were reversed, Ben, and I’ll drop you off right here on the corner.”

I swallowed the lump from my throat. “Let’s go see this supposed view of yours.”

“Now you’re talking.”

We drove a while in comfortable silence. “What’s next?” Alex finally asked.

“Not what, who.”

“Okay, who?”

“Malcolm Davies or Drew Isaacs.”

She tilted her head. In profile, frown lines formed at the corner of her eye. “I remember you telling me about Isaacs, but who is Malcolm Davies?”

“My brother’s former crystal-meth supplier. I think he dated Jenny before Aaron.” I went on to tell Alex about Jenny’s HIV, and how I suspected Aaron had acquired the virus from her.

She sighed quietly. “It just keeps getting more complicated.”

I nodded at the window.

Downtown, we pulled into the underground parking lot of the Sheraton hotel a few blocks from the YMCA where I stayed. Leaving my bike in the hatch, we walked into the hotel and rode the elevator in silence to the twenty-ninth floor.

Alex slid the card into the key slot in the door. The lock clicked and flashed green. She opened the door, and we stepped into the spacious bedroom. As advertised, the tinted windows offered a spectacular view of downtown Vancouver and the snowcapped mountains that stood guard over the northern border of the city. Turning from the window, I noticed the room had only one king-sized bed. Alex followed my stare. “I could ask to change for a room with two beds,” she offered.

I shook my head. “That would only draw attention to the fact that you have a guest. Is this okay with you?”

She grinned. “I had a male roommate for a year in med school. I survived.”

I chuckled. “Did he?”

“Barely.” She looked away. “But I married his best friend.”

The reference to her husband tensed my spine. “Is Marcus still asking about me?” I said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Didn’t mention you when he picked Talie up on Saturday,” she said. “Anyway, I think he’s preoccupied. He was out of town on business most of last week.”

I wondered whether his business involved following me to Vancouver, but I kept the thought to myself. Anxious to change subjects, I said, “I need to make a phone call.”

“Want me to leave?”

“No. You just have to stay quiet.”

Alex flashed her perfect teeth in the warmest smile I’d seen in weeks. “Not my forte, but I’ll give it a whirl.”

I pulled the cell phone from my pocket and plopped down on the side of the bed. Still standing across from me, Alex watched as I dialed Michael Prince’s number collect. Janelle transferred me through. “Benjamin, how are you?” Prince said.

“I’ve had better weeks,” I said coolly.

“How can I help?”

“Michael, I’ve been mulling over your attitude toward the attorney-client privilege.” I waited for some response but he didn’t comment. “I thought you told me it applied uniformly to all clients.”

“It does.”

“Yet it didn’t prevent you from discussing the details of my case freely with my cousin Kyle.”

“I didn’t discuss a single detail of your case with him.” He sounded as unfazed as ever.

“Is that right?” My grip tightened as I felt my heat rising. “I heard you were his source for all kinds of details about Maglio and the Whistler development.”

“Depends on your perspective.”

“I don’t have time for your goddamn legal doublespeak!” I snapped.

Alex fired me a cautionary glance.

“Listen, Ben,” Prince said calmly. “Kyle and your brother were potential investors in the NorWesPac development. As, we’ve established, was I. Under the circumstances, Kyle has the right to know certain details about the project and its subsequent unraveling. This is very different than disclosing sensitive information about one client to another.” He paused. “Are you following?”

“I get it.” I exhaled heavily, involuntarily swayed by his rationale. “You’re saying you found a legal loophole, through my cousin, to supply me information I needed without compromising the privilege of another client.”

“You can read into it what you want.” Prince’s tone suggested he agreed with my assessment. “I merely gave your cousin details he was entitled to anyway, primarily by validating what he already knew to be the case.”

“Is that right?” I said, unable to remember which details Kyle had known before and after his conversation with Prince.

“It is.”

“Well, Michael, would you help me
validate
something that I’ve heard to be the case?”

“Depends what it concerns.”

“Your client, Philip Maglio.”

“You know that I, I cannot—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said. “But I also know that you told me there was no way that Emily could have infected Maglio. And yet, by all accounts they were an item for almost a year.”

Prince said nothing.

“In which case, there are only two possible explanations. One, Maglio already had HIV. Or two, he’s gay and Emily was his beard.”

“
Beard
?”

“The woman who provides a cover story, like when a gay Hollywood star gets married to quell rumors.”

“I am not privy to Mr. Maglio’s medical history,” Prince said. “However, I will say that in his business, appearances can be very important.”

I took the evasive comment as confirmation of Maglio’s homosexuality.

“I understand the police are now looking for you in Vancouver,” Prince said.

“You understand right.”

“So you haven’t found your brother yet?”

“No,” I said quietly.

“Perhaps it’s time to return to Seattle to let me deal with the charges?”

I looked away from Alex. “I don’t think so.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t trust you, Michael.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve been as forthcoming with you as I can, under the circumstances.”

“Then answer me one more question.”

“If I can.”

“Just exactly how involved are you in Emily’s murder and the cover-up that has happened since?”

“Benjamin,” he said in his father-knows-best tone. “Trust me when I tell you that I have your best interests at heart.”

“Bye, Michael.” I hung up the phone.

Arms folded across her chest, Alex stared at me. “Well?”

“If Maglio killed Emily, it had nothing to do with her exposing him to HIV.”

“So he’s not your prime suspect anymore?”

“He still ties the victims together. One dealt drugs for him, and the other helped to screw up an important business venture.”

“But?” Alex demanded.

“There are others who deserve a very long look.”

“Like?”

Your estranged husband,
I wanted to say, but I merely shrugged in response. I didn’t know how to break it to Alex that I suspected Talie’s father was involved in the murders.

Alex insisted I stay in the room while she went out to pick up food, declaring that she wasn’t prepared to “live on room service from now on.”

As soon as she left, I tried the number Joe had given me for Malcolm Davies. Malcolm answered on the second ring.

“Malcolm, it’s…um…Dr. Horvath,” I stammered, uncertain how best to approach him.

“Doctor who?” he said, seemingly oblivious.

“Dr. Peter Horvath,” I said, relaxing slightly. “We met at Dr. Janacek’s clinic.”

“Oh, yeah. How are you doing, Doc?”

Either Malcolm was a hell of a good actor or he hadn’t seen the news reports on me yet. I assumed the latter. “I’m doing well, thanks. And you?”

“My burns and scars still ache, but that’s life, right?” His tone turned inquisitive. “How come you’re calling me?”

“Going over your chart, I wondered if I’d prescribed you enough painkillers,” I said, fabricating on the fly.

His voice brightened, as if he’d just won a door prize. “Now that you mention it, I’ve been going through them two or three at a time. I definitely could use more.”

“No problem,” I said. “Are you still living on…”

“Powell Street,” he finished the sentence, as I’d hoped he would.

“I am not allowed to phone in prescriptions for narcotics, but Powell is basically on my way to the hospital. Why don’t I drop a prescription off this afternoon?”

“Sure. Thanks.”

“Give me your address and I’ll come by around two-ish.”

Malcolm reeled off his address, and I jotted it down. “Do you mind slipping the prescription under the door?” he asked.

“Why do I need to do that?” I said, trying to keep my frustration out of my tone.

“Because I won’t be home today.”

I punched the pillow beside me. “Malcolm, I make it a policy that I only give narcotic prescriptions in person.” I scrambled to salvage the situation.

“Too bad,” he said with a heavy sigh. “Then it’s going to have to wait until Thursday. I’m out of town for the next couple days.”

I don’t have until Thursday
. “Okay, why don’t I call you Thursday morning?”

“Sounds good, Doc.”

“Oh, one other thing,” I said. “You used to date Jennifer Ayott, didn’t you?”

“Jenny…yeah.” His tone took on an edge. “Why do you ask?”

“Bizarre coincidence, but when I first met her, she mistook me for another person, the same as you did. She thought I looked just like an ex of hers, Aaron Dafoe.”

“Aaron Dafoe,” he repeated slowly.

I waited, hoping Malcolm might elaborate, but he didn’t. “The irony is that Aaron is actually my cousin. We grew together up in Seattle. Small world, huh?”

“Very,” he said quietly.

“I don’t know if you heard, but Aaron disappeared about two years back,” I said.

“I heard.”

“His dad—my uncle—has never gotten over it. Just destroyed him. He spends all his time and money searching for Aaron.”

“He’s wasting his time.”

I went cold. “What do you mean?”

“Listen, Doc, I gotta go.”

“Come on, Malcolm,” I said. “You can’t leave it like that. All my uncle lives for now is closure on his missing son.”

He hesitated. “Are you also Kyle’s cousin?”

“Yeah, same side,” I said impatiently. “Malcolm, what happened to Aaron?”

“I’m not sure.”

“But you know something. Please, Malcolm. Anything.”

He was quiet for so long that I wondered if he was still on the line. “Listen,” he finally said. “My meth lab blew up the same week Aaron disappeared. Just about killed me. Right?”

“Right…” I remembered the roadmap on his chest and belly but I didn’t see the relevance.

“In a meth lab, you have so many unstable gases. So many flammable and incendiary molecules,” he said, sounding more like my old chemistry prof than someone who cooked street drugs. “I was a very, very careful chemist. I’d been doing it for almost ten years, and I never had an accident before. I didn’t make mistakes.”

“Wait a minute.” I sat up straighter. “Are you saying someone booby-trapped your lab?”

“Bingo.”

“Aaron?”

“No.”

“Who?”

“Word was that the same person who rigged my lab also got to Aaron, if you know what I mean.”

“
Got
to him?” I asked. “Who?”

“How does that matter to your uncle?”

I ignored the question. “Was it Philip Maglio?”

“No, closer to home than—” He stopped abruptly in midsentence. “Hey! How do you know about Maglio?”

“Okay, I admit I’ve done a bit of research into this—”

“No. No. No. I’ve already said way too much.” His voice was panicky. “Forget that prescription, Doc.”

I only squeezed out “Malcolm” before the line clicked dead.

I was still staring at the pad with Malcolm’s address when Alex burst into the room. She closed the door with a foot and dropped her grocery bags on the floor. She rushed up and grabbed my hands in hers. “Ben, I think I’m on to something.” Her cheeks glowed, and her eyes burned.

Her eagerness bumped the thoughts of Malcolm from the forefront of my mind. I squeezed her hands tighter. “What, Alex?”

“Say Aaron is HIV-positive.”

“Okay.”

“And say it’s his blood on Emily’s wall.”

“Yeah…” My heart sped up; her excitement was contagious.

“Even in a dried blood sample, any sophisticated lab could test the sample—”

It suddenly clicked. “For the presence of HIV!” I threw my arms around her. “Alex, you’re a genius!” Without thinking, I kissed her on the lips.

She kissed back, her wet lips sliding over mine, but after a moment she broke it off. She stared into my eyes. “But if you’re wrong about Aaron being HIV-positive.”

“Then I’m still no worse off than I was two minutes ago.” I reached out and stroked her warm cheek. “But if the blood is HIV-positive, then it will clear my name.”

Flooded with hope, I hopped off the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to call Helen.”

Alex followed after. “But if you call her from Vancouver, she’ll know you’re here.”

“Believe me, she already knows.”

Alex drove me out to Burnaby, the suburb immediately east of Vancouver, where we cased several pay phones until she chose one at a gas station with the right combination of remoteness and ease of escape.

Alex sat in the still idling car beside the phone booth where I stood. I laid out a pocketful of change on the stand and then dialed Helen’s direct line. After several rings, a woman answered in a New England drawl. “Seattle Police Department, Homicide. Carol speaking.”

“Can I speak to Sergeant Helen Riddell?” I asked.

“She’s out of the office today,” the receptionist said. “Can I take a message?”

“It’s Benjamin Dafoe calling.”

“Oh,” she said as if she’d just swallowed something foul. “I see.”

“I need you to track Helen down on her cell phone.”

“Hold on a moment.”

“That won’t work,” I said. “I’ll call you back in two minutes. If you don’t have Helen on the other line, I’m gone.” I hung up without waiting for her response.

As soon as I phoned back, my call was immediately forwarded to Helen.

“Helen, I’ve got news.”

“So do I,” she said, sounding subdued.

“Me first,” I said. “Look, I’m not sure if Emily did infect Maglio with HIV—”

“Because girls aren’t Phil’s bag?”

“That’s right,” I said without hiding my surprise.

“See, Ben, we do check leads out.”

“Thank you,” I said sincerely. “Now there’s one more lead you better check out.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“You have to test the blood on Emily’s wall for HIV.”

“Nobody doubts that Emily was infected.”

“Not Emily’s!” I said. “The blood streak that you think is mine.”

“You don’t have HIV, do you?”

“Exactly. But I have reason to believe that my brother Aaron might.”

“That’s not necessary, Ben.”

“It is!” I snapped. “If that blood is HIV-positive then you’ll know for sure it came from Aaron and not me.”

“It’s not Aaron’s blood,” she said with quiet certainty.

“You can’t know that without testing it.”

“Yes, I can.”

“How?”

“We found Aaron.”

I froze in midbreath. “Where?
When
?”

“A few days ago, though we only heard confirmation this morning.”

My stomach fell. My hands began to tremble. “Confirmation?” I croaked.

“Off a trail at Mount Rainier, a hiker and his dog found a human bone. From there, it was easy to find the shallow grave in the woods. With DNA and dental records, the lab established beyond a doubt that the remains belong to your brother.”

A wave of nausea ripped through me. I gagged back lunch. “
Aaron…
”

“The forensics experts say that the remains date back at least eighteen months but probably longer, which makes sense considering we found his burned-out car over two years ago.”

The sky spun. I gripped the edges of the booth to support myself.

“Ben,” Helen said gently. “It’s time to come in.”