The Lady Killer (19 page)

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“No, that’s my ace in the hole, if I ever need to blackmail you, or something.”

She looked deeply into his eyes for a moment and then back down at her drink. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

Feeling brave, he reached over and took her hand. “Are you ever going to let me get any closer, Laura?”

“It’s complicated right now. I’m so worried about this psycho hurting people I care for.”

“Is that the only reason, or do you just not like me that way?”

She looked at him briefly, blushed and then stared at her wine. “Dan Murphy, I think that you are one of the most wonderful people I know.”

“Great, then I’ll take that as a maybe I might be interested someday. Hey, there’s hope!”

They drove back to the precinct to get his car, and then he insisted on following her home. When they got there, he walked her up to her apartment and asked if he could come in and talk to her for a minute. “I’m worried about you, Laura.”

“Thanks, it’s nice to know that I have you in my life to protect me.”

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’ve come up with an idea.”

She was afraid it might be something romantic and answered cautiously. “I’m listening.”

“We need to have a secret code.”

She threw her head back and laughed really hard, for the first time in a long while. “Are you trying to rival Ralph Foote in ways to cheer me up?”

“No, actually, I was serious. Hear me out. Let’s say that I called you on the phone, and you were in trouble, but couldn’t say so because of who you were with. You could call me Burns, and I would know that you needed help.”

She looked at him, trying to decide what was really going on in his mind. “You are serious about this, aren’t you?”

“I’m dead serious. Suppose the killer showed up here at your apartment, and you needed help, and I just happened to call. That would be our signal.”

“What if the killer was looking at my phone and saw your name on my caller ID, instead of Burns?”

“Change it in your contacts section.”

She gave him a pained look. “You know me and phones.”

Dan was exasperated and reached for her phone. “Give it to me.” He played with it for a minute, then handed it back and called her.

She looked down at the screen and saw “Lumpy” in the caller ID, and then she laughed again. “Who is Lumpy?”

Dan was afraid that she wasn’t taking him seriously enough. “You know, like in the movie ‘Scrooged’. Haven’t you ever seen it?”

“Yes, it is absolutely one of my favorite movies, but I think you are far more handsome than Bill Murray.”

He was surprised to hear her say that and half afraid that it was only the wine talking. “Do you think so? I think he’s pretty cool and looks like Richard Burton.” He waited for her to get his little joke, but she didn’t laugh. “Anyway, if you are ever in trouble when I call, just say ‘hello, Burns’, and I will know you need help.”

“Can I start calling you Mr. Bond?”

“No! And you can’t start calling me Lumpy either. It has to be our secret.”

She looked at him seriously. “Thanks, Dan. I can see that you’ve put a lot of thought into this, I really do appreciate you taking care of me.”

“We have to keep you safe.” He bent over, kissed her on the cheek and then walked out the door. “See you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER 13

L
aura woke up early, and laid there thinking about that one, sweet kiss on her cheek. It was innocent, like a boy on a playground might have given you when you were five. Dan was a complication in her life. On one hand, he was more than she wanted to deal with. On the other, he was something delicious that she wanted to explore. All she needed was the courage to try again. Suddenly, the reality of her current cases came intruding in on her consciousness. “God, you have to stop daydreaming and get to work. Besides, if you go in there you get to see that gorgeous hunk.”

She shook her head as she realized that she was talking to herself again and wondered where she was going to get the energy. This psycho was wearing her down. Was it prophetic on Captain Rutledge’s part that he had hired Dan for their department? She remembered how hard she had fought against having a new guy to train. Now, it turned out that he was desperately needed to help fight her latest nemesis, but she had no idea who that was. Laura got out of bed and jumped in the shower. She was tired of her waking thoughts constantly being about this psychotic murderer.

When she got to the office, Dan was by himself in the break room. She was happy about that, because she wanted to have a talk with him. “Hey, thanks for the help you gave me last night. I know that we broached on some interesting topics, but I really am afraid of this psycho. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you, because of your association with me. We just don’t know who this guy is, or when he might be watching us. So, I think we should act totally professional toward each other when we’re at work.”

He looked deeply into her eyes. “And when we’re not at work?”

She could feel herself blushing. “Let’s take that one day at a time. My top priority is solving these murders. Until then, I can’t pursue a personal life. It isn’t that I don’t think about you that way, it’s just that now isn’t the time or the place.”

He gave her a sultry smile. “Well, then that gives me a whole new incentive to work extra hard on this case.”

Just then, Roy came walking up to them. “I hate to interrupt you love birds, but the Captain wants to see us in his office.”

“Thanks, Roy. I want to ask you a favor.”

“Sure, anything for you.”

She looked at him seriously. “We need to stop all references to any type of relationship between Dan and me. I think his safety could be at stake.”

“You’re right, my apologies to both of you. We don’t know who this guy is. From now on, I’ll be nothing but professional.”

They all walked into the Captain’s office together, and he asked Dan to shut the door. “I have some extremely important news that we need to keep among ourselves. Detective Peterson and I made a plan to secretly tail Michael Vitale. It turns out that he has some very interesting friends. Last night he went out to a bar with the other suspect David Benson, Detective Stacey Morgan and another SVU detective named Della Warren. I personally find this connection between our two suspects and Stacey, who knew immediately about the rose delivery, very incredible!”

Roy looked amazed and perturbed at the same time. “Sir, you don’t suspect Stacey of something, do you?”

“Burns, I know that she’s your friend, but it looks suspicious to me.”

“But, Sir, she has been here for years.”

“I’m not saying that I think she’s the killer, Burns! I’m saying that she might be leaking information to this guy without knowing it. I also find it interesting that out of all our transfers the only two who are suspects, just happen to know each other socially.”

Laura thought about that for a moment. “Sir, could it be a coincidence that they all wound up at the same bar together last night? Was it a known cop bar?”

“Yes, it was. That’s why my friend will continue his tail for a few nights. I’m telling all of you this, so that we can limit the amount of information we feed to Stacey.”

“You know, that could also work to our advantage, Sir. Maybe we could use her to feed him information that we want leaked out.”

The Captain nodded his head in agreement. “Excellent idea, Peterson, as long as we do it so that her safety isn’t compromised.”

Roy couldn’t keep quiet. “With all due respect, Sir, if she’s hanging out with a serial killer, shouldn’t we warn her?”

“We are walking a fine line here, Detective Burns. Any variation in the way someone acts towards him, could warn him that we know who he is. Believe me, I have wrestled with this since I found out late last night. But if we alarm her, we might risk him running and never being caught. That might relieve our immediate problem, but it could unleash him on another unsuspecting city. I think we have a shot at catching him, if we play our cards right.”

“This might be one of those greater good compromises, but I just want to voice my objection. We should let her know that she’s in danger.”

“I understand your feelings, Detective Burns, but for right now, the best we can do is to keep our eyes on the situation. Do not say anything to her, and that is a direct order.”

Laura felt bad for Roy. “I know you like Stacey, but we can’t risk compromising this case. We will do everything we can to protect her. Now let’s get back to work.”

They returned to their office and started working. When Laura sat down, she noticed two files on her desk that she couldn’t remember being there the night before. Suddenly, Roy yelled out, “Hey, has anyone seen the two files I had out on the buildings managed by Searchlight?”

“Burns, I think these are them over here on my desk.”

He walked over to Laura’s desk and picked up the files. “Yeah, these are the ones. What are they doing on your desk?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. They weren’t here last night when Murphy and I left for the bar. Also, my change purse, which I keep in my top drawer, is now in the middle drawer. I think someone has been in my desk.”

Dan walked over to her desk, holding the top of a diet soda can with just his fingertips. “Anyone have an idea who this belongs to? This wasn’t here last night either.”

Laura and Roy looked at the soda can and said that it wasn’t theirs. They all looked at each other, and Laura motioned them into the break room. “Do you guys think someone was in here last night while we were gone?”

Dan looked at Roy. “What time did you leave here?”

“I left right after you two. I wanted to get home to have dinner with Sara and the kids.”

Laura was worried about the situation. “Guys, if someone was in here going through our desks, they could have all kinds of information about our case. I’m just relieved that I had the photo file with me at the bar, and brought it back in here today. Do you think I’m being paranoid?”

Roy shook his head. “Boy, that’s all we need right now. We’re already handicapped on this case. Now, if we have this guy going through our desks, we’ll never get ahead of him.”

“I’m going back down to see the Captain. Can you two look over your desks, and see if anything else is missing or disturbed? Murphy, please take that can down to Ralph and have him check for prints right away.”

“Sure, and then Burns and I will go take an inventory of our desks.”

Laura entered the Captains office with an exasperated look on her face. “Sir, I think someone was messing around our desks last night while we were gone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Files and a change purse I keep for the vending machines were moved. Murphy had an empty diet soda can on his desk, and none of us drink diet soda. He’s taking it to Ralph for prints. I think whoever did it, used my change to buy a soda and then made themselves comfortable while going through our desks.”

Captain Rutledge looked frustrated. “Damn it all, Peterson! We need to find out who was in there. I’m having Ralph’s team install a camera there today! Ralph can monitor the footage each morning when he comes in, and let us know. This nutcase is attacking us on our own turf! If it’s war he wants, then war he will get.”

“Thank you, Sir. I would feel better knowing that we had some surveillance up there. Just make sure that it isn’t obvious, and the recording device is well hidden.”

The Captain nodded with approval. “I’ll have Ralph stage some scenario, so we can hide what we’re doing. It will just look like a work crew of some kind.”

“I’m starting to feel like I’m in a James Bond movie, instead of a precinct!”

When she got back to her desk, her phone rang. It was Ralph letting her know that the prints on the can belonged to Stacey Morgan. After thanking him, she asked him to notify the Captain. Dan and Roy came over to her desk and informed her that they both thought someone had been going through their things. “Guys, the prints on the soda can belong to Stacey!”

Roy looked shocked. “Man, you have got to be kidding me! What in the world would she be doing going through our desks?”