Craving Vengeance (11 page)

Shannon shook her head.

“Where else did you stop?” Walker asked.

“I pulled into the parking lot up the street
to talk to him for a minute.”

Walker cocked a brow.

Shannon continued, “He made me so furious
when he announced in front of everyone upstairs that we were
engaged, I just needed to get him the hell out of here. I also
wanted to take a minute to make him understand that we were
through. Evidently, he didn’t fully understand that when I gave the
engagement ring back to him two years ago.”

“So you talked for a couple of minutes and
then took him to the Hyatt?”

Shannon nodded.

“What time was that?”

“We left here shortly after 1:00. I talked
with him for five, maybe ten minutes before I drove him to the
hotel.”

Walker glanced at Spinelli then shifted his
eyes back to Shannon. “Did you go up to his room?”

She looked at Spinelli and held his gaze for
what seemed like an eternity. His thudding heart and pounding pulse
was all he could hear. Both faded the longer he stared into her
gaze, though he still wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her answer. The
ring in his pocket weighed down his twitching leg. The silence was
excruciating.
Would she just answer already!

She ripped her gaze from Spinelli’s and
returned it to Walker. “No, I didn’t go to his room. We talked in
the car for a bit, and then I left.”

“
Was he acting strange at
all?”

Shannon thought for a moment. “No. He was a
little upset, but he didn’t act strange.”

“Why was he upset?”

She looked at Spinelli. “I would imagine he
didn’t like that I declined his offer to go to his room, and that I
reiterated the fact that I’m seeing someone else.”

Walker nodded. “Where did you go after you
dropped him off?”

“I stopped at Subway to pick up a sandwich,
and then I came back to work.”

“So you say you ended it and dropped him off
at the hotel, and he was upset with you. Yet he agreed to work with
you on the fundraiser tonight,” Spinelli cut in.

Walker stepped back.

“He’s an adult. He was doing what was best
for the church,” Shannon snapped back. Her condescending tone
shamed him.

“I don’t get it. Why would he want to help
you with your church’s fundraiser?”

“He went to my church. That’s how I met him.
In fact, the reason I haven’t seen him for the past couple of years
is because he was on a church mission trip in Nicaragua.”

Spinelli caught Walker’s sideways glance and
snicker.

He felt like such an ass. The perfect Dr.
Joshua Meyers was on a church mission trip. Reality check. He was
jealous of a dead guy, and he knew if he didn’t shut his mouth
right here and now he’d be minus the woman he loved as well. But
still, why did she kiss the wholesome doctor the way she did this
afternoon?

“Nick, I don’t want to discuss this now. Not
here,” Shannon said as her gaze drifted back to the crime board. He
didn’t really want to either, ever. He hated this type of
confrontation in public or private.

Shannon squinted at the board again. “So,
this is what Uncle Bernie was talking about?”

“Yes.”

“How many cupids were murdered today?”

“Four so far.”

“Four?”

“Yep.”

Shannon leaned forward. Her mouth fell open.
“Is that Mike...” her voice trailed off.

Spinelli, Walker, and Marsh fixed their gazes
on her.

“You know Mike Carter?” Spinelli
questioned.

Shannon’s gaze shifted between the
detectives. Several beats passed.

“Shannon, did you know Mr. Carter?” Walker
asked in a tone a bit more controlled than the one Spinelli used
seconds earlier.

She nodded.

“How did you know him?” Walker followed
up.

She shifted her teary eyes to Spinelli. “We
dated in high school,” she whispered.

Spinelli looked at Walker and Marsh, “What in
the hell?”

Walker stepped toward the crime board and
pulled a photo of Tony Rosso, a clothed photo, not the one of him
sprawled out on his boss’ desk naked but for his wings. He held the
photo up for Shannon to see. “Do you know who this is?” he
asked.

Shannon nodded. “Tony Rosso.”

“How did you know Mr. Rosso?” Walker
asked.

This time she kept her gaze fixed on Walker.
“My Uncle Bernie owns a bar downtown. Tony used to bartend for him.
My uncle set us up, and we went out a few times.”

Walker pulled another photo from the folder.
“Do you know who this is?” he asked as he held the photo of the
third cupid for her to see.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. She closed her
eyes and sucked in a breath.

“Shannon?”

Her eyes fluttered open. “It’s Chad
Williams.”

“Did you go out with him as well?” Walker
asked.

She nodded and used the back of her hand to
swipe the moisture from her cheeks.

Spinelli stood in disbelief.

Walker cleared his throat. “Let’s take a step
back here. In what order did you go out with these men?”

Shannon twisted off the top of the bottle of
water Walker had given her earlier. She drank nearly half the
bottle in one shot. She sucked in a deep breath and held it for a
moment as if pausing to get her thoughts in order. She set the
bottle on Spinelli’s desk and expelled a breath. “I dated Mike
Carter during the second half of my senior year in high school. I
started dating Joshua in my senior year of college; he was already
in medical school. We dated for a couple of years and got engaged.
It seemed like the next step.” She glanced at Spinelli. “Right
before he left for Nicaragua I broke it off, but he obviously
didn’t take me seriously.”

Shannon paused, closed her eyes, and sucked
in a weighty breath.

She opened her eyes and continued. “After a
while of not dating, everyone seems to want to set you up. Uncle
Bernie set me up with Tony Rosso a few months after Joshua left. We
only went out three or four times. Tony was nice enough but not my
type. A few months or so after that a friend of mine set me up with
Chad Williams. We only went out twice. I guess I wasn’t his
type.”

“Were there any others?” Walker asked.

Shannon shifted her gaze to Spinelli then
back to Walker. “Just Nick.”

All eyes shifted to Spinelli.

“How ya feeling there, pal?” Marsh teased. He
had no couth at times.

“Not funny! You’re such an asshole!”

Silence filled the room. They all shifted
their gazes back and forth.

Adrenaline rushed through Spinelli’s veins.
Was someone going to try to kill him today? Could he have been
poisoned? Reality punched him in the gut, knocking the wind right
out of him. Sweat beaded on his temples. His sweaty hands hadn’t
stopped shaking since he entered the precinct with Shannon. Was it
just nerves or something more? His pulse pounded in his ears. Would
this be the last time he’d hear his own pulse or the sweet sound of
Shannon’s soft feminine voice singing in his ears. He inhaled. The
aroma of bitter coffee and stale pastries wafted through his
nostrils but was quickly replaced by the pleasant refreshing scent
of a fresh spring morning; Shannon’s tantalizing scent. Would this
be the last time he’d smell the confines of the precinct or her
glorious heavenly scent? Would he ever get the opportunity to taste
her sweet flavor again or feel her soft milky white skin under his
fingertips? Confusion filled every cell in his body.

“Nick,” Shannon whispered as she rose to her
feet and stepped toward him.

He zoned in on her big green eyes. She looked
concerned. He lifted his hand and stepped back. The hint of hurt
that darkened her eyes pierced his heart.

He knew he needed to pull it together or
else. He didn’t want to think of the ‘or else,’ but it consumed his
mind anyway.

Chapter Twelve

Spinelli and Walker
questioned Shannon over and over in regard to who would possibly
want to set her up. It didn’t look good for her. In fact, if she
hadn’t spent the night at Spinelli’s, she would have looked guilty
as sin.

Bethany and Debra provided no news about the
murders. All they’d confirmed thus far was that all four men had
been poisoned with cyanide.

Spinelli’s stomach growled reminding him and
everyone else in a half-mile radius he hadn’t eaten all day. He
eyed the chocolates on his desk. No time now.

He looked over Marsh’s shoulder as he sifted
through the financial records of today’s victims.

Walker was busy Googling cyanide. “I doubt
you’ve been poisoned, Spinelli. It says here cyanide induces
fatality in seconds following ingestion, especially on an empty
stomach. On a full stomach it could take up to four hours. Good
thing you haven’t eaten all day. You never know what could be in
your food.”

Spinelli rolled his eyes. “Yeah, good thing.
Where in the hell does someone get cyanide anyhow?”

Walker looked back at his computer screen.
“It says here that after ingestion, certain chemicals can be
changed by the body into cyanide. Products like old artificial nail
polish remover or some chemicals found in old solvents and plastics
manufacturing solutions contain such, but supposedly they’ve been
removed from the market. Walker shook his head. “Who are we
kidding? They probably got it right off of eBay in ready form.”

“Is there anything there about quantity
needed to ensure fatality?” Spinelli asked.

Walker nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t
know...well...it’s hard to tell. I’m looking at some pathologist’s
blog, and he’s got a bunch of mumbo jumbo on there about grams and
milligrams and different kinds of cyanide. The only thing I can
tell for sure is that if ingested, you’d better have your affairs
in order.”

“I think I may have found something here,”
Marsh interrupted as he pointed to some paperwork lying on his
desk.

Spinelli leaned over his shoulder to get a
better look. “What is it?”

“I had the IT Department print out Chad
Williams’ Internet records for the past week and there isn’t much
activity except for him logging onto the Wisconsin Department of
Safety and Professional Services website. But on a couple of
occasions he logged onto
backpage
dot com
.”

“So?”

“Well, the IT Department has a program that
can track keystrokes, and they found this,” he said as he pointed
to a line in the middle of the text-filled page. “Judging from
this, it looks like he logged into his hotmail account and answered
a
backpage
ad for a male entertainer.” Marsh slid his finger
down to the next line of text. “It seems he planned to meet someone
going by the name of Lady Lily. He agreed to meet her at the Morgan
Bank building at 5:00 a.m. today.”

Marsh paused and looked up at Spinelli and
Walker. “The flower of death.”

“Doesn’t the orchid symbolize death?” Walker
asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s the lily. I think I
read that somewhere once.”

The two debated the issue for a moment before
Spinelli cut in, “For crissake, shut up about the damn flowers
already.” His gaze locked in on Marsh. “Have you found anything
like this on Rosso’s or Carter’s computers?”

Marsh shook his head. “Not really, but just
think about Rosso. According to his financial records, apartment,
and the personal belongings we saw, he’s living way beyond the
means of a bartender. Maybe this guy was a male entertainer on the
side, you know, maybe he’s got himself a couple of rich, old, sugar
mommas.”

They stood in silence for a moment. Spinelli
suspected Walker and Marsh were of like mind. It seemed to fit.

“And just look at Mike Carter’s bank
statement. The guy lost his job over six months ago and has been
living with his sister since he ran out of cash. Then suddenly,
bam, a $2,000 deposit was made into his bank account about a week
ago. Maybe it was a payment for services rendered.”

Walker shook his head. “I hear what you’re
saying, but this all seems just a bit far-fetched. How in the hell
would someone be able to specifically contact four of Shannon’s
ex-boyfriends through a general ad on
backpage
? I mean,
really, a shit-load of guys could have answered that ad. How would
the killer even possibly begin to devise a way to reach these four
specific guys? I’ve never been on
backpage
a day in my life.
How would anyone know these guys would be?”

“I didn’t get that far yet. I’m just saying
we’ve got proof one of the vics answered an ad for a male
entertainer, one of the vics was living a lifestyle above and
beyond what his job could support, and one of the vics was
unemployed and received an unaccounted for lump sum payment into
his bank account,” Marsh recapped.

“What about Meyers? He just got back into the
country today,” Walker commented.

“What, the Internet doesn’t reach Nicaragua?”
Marsh asked sarcastically.

Spinelli sighed. There were times he just
wanted to smack the shit out of Marsh, and this was one of those
times. He sucked in a deep breath to calm his temper. He thought
for a moment. He massaged his pounding temples. On top of
everything else, now he had a headache. “How could they possibly be
connected?”

Walker and Marsh’s eyes shifted to Shannon
who sat silent, listening to their entire exchange.

Spinelli cocked his head to the side. “Other
than the obvious. Maybe we need to talk to Sonny Tomes again. See
if Carter and Williams frequented his bar.”

Spinelli dialed Tomes’ cell number. He
answered on the third ring. Music blared in the background.

“Mr. Tomes?”

“Yes.”

“This is Detective Spinelli. I take it you’re
at the bar?”

“Yep. Couldn’t find anyone to fill in tonight
for Tony.”

“I see. So you’re going to be there for a
while?”