Lizzy Gardner #2_Dead Weight (22 page)

Ask Ruth Fullerton about Frank’s relationship with his daughter Hold off a few days before telling Detective Roth about the pictures Have Jessica or Hayley follow Carol’s friend, Ellen Woodson Find out if Hayley heard anything re: Burning Man There were three new messages from the WWW group. Nothing important. Lizzy looked at the clock. It was time to get ready for exercise. Instead of working out on the treadmill, she planned to give Melbourne’s brain a workout. Following him around wasn’t doing anybody any good. It was costing Andrea Kramer a lot of money for Lizzy to get toned.

Although Lizzy liked money as much as the next guy, she preferred to do actual work for the money she earned. Besides, she was tired of doing push-ups and lunges. A hike here and there, a good ol’ walk down the street, maybe even a bike ride might be alright, but exercising every day with an egomaniac health guru wasn’t her thing.

She needed to take a lesson or two from Hayley. That girl would never waste her time doing something as stupid as working out every day in the hopes of learning one little tidbit about a case. No, Hayley might get carried away more often than not, but she knew how to take the bull by the horns and get the work done.

Hayley was absolutely right.

Lizzy was losing her mojo. Starting today, though, she planned to get it back. After taking the bloody photo of Diane Kramer to Detective Roth for analyzing, she needed to ind a way to get into Vivian Hardy’s apartment.

Chapter 29

Pumped Up Kicks

If there was one thing Jessica didn’t want to be when she grew up, it was a private investigator. After sitting in her car for three hours, her butt was sore and her neck was stiff. She had borrowed her mom’s car and she was parked a few houses away from Ellen Woodson’s house.

Well, she reconsidered, if she ever
was
a private investigator, instead of a psychologist or a criminologist, she would have to pay someone else to do surveillance. .as Lizzy had done when she’d assigned her this tedious, boring job.

Why couldn’t Hayley do this? What was Hayley doing in her free time?

That’s the person they should be watching, Jessica thought. They should be watching Hayley.

She’d been following Ellen Woodson in hopes that she would lead them to Carol. Today Ellen had gone home for lunch instead of to the mall like she’d done the other two days. A three hour lunch seemed a bit much and Jessica thought about leaving.

The good news was that while Jessica was sitting here, she’d gotten a head start on one of her classes that wouldn’t begin for another few weeks. The professor had been kind enough to let her students know what their irst assignment would be. Among other classes, Jessica would be taking Introduction to Criminal Justice and Society at California State University Sacramento.

She put her book away, afraid she might fall asleep if she read another word about societal response to criminals. She drank from her water bottle and then turned up the music and tapped her ingers against the console in rhythm to “Pumped up Kicks” by Foster the People. She listened to the words and smiled when she realized she was listening to the CD Hayley had made for her.

Before Foster the People could sing the second verse, Ellen Woodson came out of her house rolling a piece of luggage behind her. The woman looked around suspiciously before opening her trunk and shoving the luggage inside.

Holy Moly!
Jessica couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

This was the longest lunch Ellen had taken so far. And now luggage?

Jessica was a glass-half-empty sort of person and she igured hell would have to freeze over before Ellen Woodson would do anything remotely out of her regularly scheduled day.

Trying not to get overly excited, Jessica kept her head back against the headrest and made sure not to make any sudden moves.

Although both sides of the street were lined with parked cars, as far as she could tell, her car was the only one with somebody in the driver’s seat. If she made any fast moves, Ellen might see movement and then she would know they were on to her. The music suddenly sounded too loud, but there was no way she was going to risk leaning forward and turning the volume down. The moment Ellen Woodson shut her trunk and climbed in behind the wheel, Jessica felt safe enough to turn the music off. Her hands were shaking. She felt as if she was following a criminal instead of a harmless bank teller.

Ever since Jessica was shot six months ago, she’d been a little wary about investigative work. That had happened right after she’d started working for Lizzy. Thinking a math tutor was Spiderman, the serial killer roaming the streets of Sacramento at the time, Jessica had brought a gun into the math tutor’s house. Instead of inding a serial killer, she’d found herself in the middle of a crazy sex scandal. One of two men shot her. The men, it turned out, spent their weekends searching for a poor lonely soul to dress up and play with. They threatened their victim with his life while forcing him to perform sexual acts. They ilmed the whole thing and then, of course, turned around and sold the video to thousands of perverts around the world.

What was the world coming to? Jessica wondered as she started the car and merged onto the street, careful to stay well behind Ellen Woodson’s car.

***

“I’m glad you’re home,” Lizzy said the moment Hayley walked through the door to her apartment.

Hayley took a step back. “Why? What’s going on?”

“I need to ask you for a favor.”

“No, I’m not going to stop going out at night. And no, I’m not going to put away your dishes, too. If it’s about that candy dish I broke, I’m sorry. I didn’t see it when I pulled out the coffee mug. You really need to organize your cupboards better.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Lizzy said. “You broke my candy dish?”

“It really wasn’t that nice anyhow. I wouldn’t serve my best friend candy corn in that thing.”

“Do you have a best friend?”

“No, but that’s not the point. That dish was ugly. I already did you a favor.”

Lizzy didn’t care about the dish and she knew Hayley felt bad.

Besides, she had other things on her mind. “I need you to help me break in to somebody’s apartment,” Lizzy blurted.

Hayley’s eyes narrowed. “You just gave me a big lecture this morning about being smart and now you’re asking me to show you how to break and enter?”

“I know. It’s horrible of me. And wrong. But I’m not asking you to do it, I’m just asking you to show me the way.”

“You’re serious?”

“Sadly, yes, I am. I’ve been trying to get in touch with Jared all day, hoping he could get me a fast-pass to getting a warrant but he’s working a case right now and even if he had time to call me back, he certainly isn’t going to have time to get me the warrant I need sooner rather than later. Legally the process could take ifteen minutes, depending on the circumstance. The problem is, Vivian Hardy could be in trouble, but she has signed dozens of documents that do not allow the landlord to enter her apartment. Besides, there are no smells coming out of the place.”

“You mean dead body smells?”

Lizzy nodded. “Right. No scent of a decomposing body. The girl really likes her privacy. If she’s inside and alive, I need to talk to her about Diane. She’s my only hope. If she’s not inside, I need to search her apartment for clues, and I don’t think the police would allow me to have access were I to call them and convince them that Vivian might be in danger. I need to do this today. My body can’t take another morning in the gym.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Hayley said. “You’re talking way too fast and you lost me at ‘show me the way.’”

“Why don’t I explain it all in the car? It’s going to get dark soon.”

“Dark is good,” Hayley told her in a calming voice. “You don’t break and enter in the daylight, Lizzy.” Hayley shook her head. “You really are losing it. I knew it was getting bad, but not this bad.”

Hayley shut the door and locked it. “First we need to dress in dark clothes, and I don’t mean a ski mask and gloves, just dark jeans and a dark normal looking shirt. After we’re dressed appropriately, you need to buy me a couple of tacos on our way to the apartment building because I’m starved.”

***

If there was one thing Lizzy didn’t like it was the dark. Dark clothes, dark night, and the dark decaying building didn’t help matters.

This wasn’t fun, but then why did Hayley look so damn calm?
She
was in her element
, Lizzy thought,
that’s why
.

“Which apartment?” Hayley asked after they parked the car.

“154A. Her apartment is upstairs, on the corner.”

Lizzy watched Hayley unzip a slim, black pouch. She pulled out two metal picks. “This is a twisted tension wrench. I also like the short hook, another useful pick.”

Lizzy nodded. Now was not the time to question Hayley on her abundance of breaking and entering equipment. “Come on. Follow me,” Lizzy said. “I’ve knocked on the door twice. I know exactly where we need to go.”

Two minutes later they were standing outside the apartment. Lizzy was about to knock when Hayley stopped her. “What are you doing?”

she whispered into her ear.

“I thought we should give Vivian one more chance to answer before we barge inside.”

“If you want the neighbors to come out and see what we’re up to then go ahead and knock.”

“Just do your thing,” Lizzy said, frustrated. Before Lizzy could get any more nervous than she already was, Hayley used the tension wrench to open the door. She pulled Lizzy inside without a word said, and then quietly shut and locked the door.

“I’ll look for the girl,” Hayley whispered. “Use your lashlight and start looking for whatever it is you’re looking for.”

Lizzy shook her head. “I’m going with you. I need to make sure Vivian isn’t hurt before I go snooping around her apartment.”

Hayley was already walking off, leaving Lizzy to follow.

The place was small: one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and an even tinier patio with one chair and one dead plant.

Hayley opened the bedroom closet and then went to the bathroom and checked the linen closet. There was also a closet containing a small washer and dryer, one on top of the other. Vivian was not here.

Lizzy headed back to the desk in the corner of the bedroom and began searching through drawers.

“The longer we take,” Hayley told her, “the better our chances of being caught. I suggest you put anything you might want to look at in this bag.” Hayley handed Lizzy a reusable grocery bag she’d found in the other room. “Just shove it all in there. If it’ll make you feel better, you can send it all back to Vivian later or leave it at her doorstep in few days.”

Lizzy’s cell phone vibrated.

“Don’t answer your phone.”

“It’s Jessica. She’s on surveillance. I have to take the call.” She hit Talk. “Jessica, what’s going on? Where have you been? You’re supposed to check in every hour.”

“Lizzy, you’re never going to believe this, but I’ve been following Ellen Woodson on the highway for three hours now. She took a three hour lunch, but it turns out she was packing for a little trip.”

“Where are you exactly?”

“I just passed a small airport. I’m on 99 headed south.”

It was dark, but Lizzy could see Hayley stabbing a inger toward the exit.

“You’re doing great,” Lizzy said. “It’s late so it looks like you might end up having to get a hotel after you follow Ellen to her destination.

Get the address and then head for a hotel and call me.”

“Will do.”

“I have to go now. Great work, Jessica. Call me back in an hour.” She shut her cell phone and tucked it into her pocket.

“I’m leaving,” Hayley said, her voice heated.

“Give me two more minutes.”

There was a
rap tap tap
on the door.

“Shit.”

Hayley disappeared for a minute and then came back. “Looks like nosey neighbors. Happy?”

Lizzy started piling every folder and ile she could ind into the bag.

At the last minute, she grabbed the desk calendar and tucked it under her arm before following Hayley to the door.

“It’s clear,” Hayley said. “I’m going.”

“It’s too soon.” But that didn’t stop Hayley. Nothing stopped Hayley.

Lizzy had no choice but to follow the girl or spend the night in Vivian’s apartment. They were almost to the stairs when a woman called out. Hayley kept walking, but Lizzy was chicken shit and couldn’t do it. She turned back to the woman. “Can I help you?”

“Are you Vivian’s mother?”

“Yes,” Lizzy said without hesitating, “yes, I am. Vivian’s in the hospital with a ruptured appendicitis.”

“Oh, no. Is she going to be alright?”

“Surgery went well. The doctors are expecting a full recovery. We just stopped by to grab a few of her things that she requested.”

“I’m so glad. Hank and I have been very worried about Vivian.”

“No need. She’s good. Thanks for your concern.” Lizzy started walking backwards. “I’ll tell her that you and Hank send your sympathies.”

“We would appreciate it.” The woman smiled and waved.

Lizzy turned and jogged down the stairs and the rest of the way to the car.

Hayley was already behind the wheel. She wasn’t taking any chances. “Give me your keys,” Hayley said with her hand extended, the one with only four ingers held palm up as she waited for the keys. “Now.”

Lizzy did as she said, although she didn’t appreciate her tone or the idea of taking orders from the girl who had way too much attitude today.

Five minutes passed before Hayley said, “You are the worst burglar in the history of burglars. I hope you had a nice chat with the neighbors. Did you make sure she got a good look at you?”

“I’m pretty sure she could pick me out in a line-up,” Lizzy confessed.

“You think this whole thing was funny, don’t you?”

“I do now that we’re safely in the getaway car.”

“Don’t ever ask me to do anything like that again,” Hayley said. “At least not with you. I’ll go alone next time. I don’t know what I was thinking trying to teach you how to do something illegal. Goody two-shoes like you and Jessica are
not
cut out for this type of work.”