The Lady Killer (6 page)

Dan looked at her thoughtfully. “Is that why you’re alone?”

“Yes, pretty much. I don’t want to be controlled by a man. I want to live my own life and not worry about someone else, or their needs coming before mine.”

“It sounds to me like you always pick the wrong guys. Not all of us have a need to control or be taken care of, and some of us never watch porn.”

She got nervous because he was getting too personal, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. “Okay, you may be right, but for right now I need to concentrate on my job. Let’s go, and I’ll drop you back at your car. Thanks for the beer.”

“Any time, Detective.”

CHAPTER 5

“M
an, someone looks grumpy this morning! What’s the matter, didn’t you get enough sleep?”

“Roy, I haven’t even gotten to my desk yet, don’t start. It’s been over three weeks since Sheila Lawson’s murder, and we aren’t any closer to solving it. When you add in the other five victims, it has been almost six months. Do we have anything new to work on?”

“We got all of her financials and traced all credit card transactions. Nothing is showing up like a red flag, and nothing connects with the other victims. Murf has been working on the Butt Men but can’t find anything that ties them to each other or the victims. None of them have had the same arresting officer or judge. One guy never even went to trial. A couple of them pulled the same Public Defender, but no one is in the same anger management group. They don’t use the same gyms, or hang out at the same bars. Nothing fits together.”

“There has to be something that we just aren’t seeing. What are the odds of our killer grabbing random butts to plant at crime scenes to distract us, and they all just happen to be domestic violence offenders?”

Roy nodded his head agreeing with her. “About like winning the lottery.”

“Exactly, so there has to be a connection, maybe a file clerk or court stenographer.”

“I hate to say it, but with the internet being what it is these days, anyone could be looking up domestic violence and pulling reports on these guys.”

“Okay, and then he follows them around until he gets enough cigarette butts to plant at his next murder scene? Does that make sense to you?”

Roy frowned thoughtfully before he spoke. “Nope, not at all. Neither does hanging naked women and torturing them, but I’m not a psychopath. Somehow it makes sense to him. To catch him, I’m afraid we’re going to have to start thinking like him.”

“I’ll work on that right after lunch! Where’s Murphy this morning?”

Roy had a half smile on his face. “He had one more lead to cover on the Butt Men, then he’ll be in. Do you worry that much about me when I’m not here?”

She whipped her head around and gave him a glare. “Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, but I’ve seen the way he runs around here getting you coffee and such. I think the boy might be sweet on you.”

“Answer the phone, Burns, and stop being crazy. He’s just a baby.”

“Homicide, Detective Burns….. Okay, we’ll be right there!”

Her heart sank as she watched him hang up the phone. “Don’t tell me.”

“Yep, another one, let’s go! I’ll call Murf and have him meet us there.”

When they got to the address, they found police cars everywhere and the whole building roped off with yellow crime scene tape. A crowd had gathered in the street, and the uniform cops were trying to get them to move along. Peterson took in the scene with a long, sweeping glance and noticed a very well dressed couple standing just outside the entrance to the building. They both seemed distraught, and Murphy was talking to them.

The building looked like it had been some kind of storefront and warehouse combination. It was different than most of the previous scenes, because it was attached on both sides by other buildings, instead of free standing. The street was fairly busy during the day but mostly deserted at night. All of the surrounding buildings were vacant. This was another secluded area and probably accessed from the rear with an ally. There had to be some way for the killer to get a vehicle near the building, without being detected. He couldn’t be bringing these women willingly to isolated buildings at night.

Murphy approached them as they walked toward the front door. She was impressed by how quickly he had gotten there and taken control of the situation. “Good morning, Murphy, what have you found out so far?”

He had an unusually pained look on his face. “Well, it’s not going to be a good morning, I can tell you that much. Do you want the bad news, or the really bad news?”

“Lay it on me, and start with the high class couple.”

“They are the ones who called the police. She’s a realtor and was showing the building to the guy who’s with her. When they entered the front they didn’t see anything, until they went back into the warehouse. That’s where they found a body, panicked, ran out of the building and called the police on her cell. Both of them are pretty shaken up and want to know when they can go home. That’s the bad news! Now do you want the really bad news?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “There’s more?”

“Oh yeah! While CSU was blocking off the area where the body was found, a couple of the patrolmen were checking out the rest of the building, just on the off chance that some clue got left behind. They found a padlocked walk-in freezer and noticed that it appeared to be running. That seemed peculiar in an abandoned building, so they got bolt cutters and opened it up. They found a second body in the freezer!”

Laura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “A second body, you have to be joking, right?”

Dan shook his head apologetically. “No, I wish I was. It’s the same guy, the bodies are staged the same. The one out in the warehouse is exactly like the ones we’ve seen before, but the one in the freezer looks like she died from being frozen, not by asphyxiation. We’ll have to get a final word from Dr. Foote on that, but there’s no tape on the mouth and the nostrils are open. Other than that, she had been tortured the same way as the others. The one in the warehouse has a women’s designer suit under the body. We don’t know if those are her clothes, or just one of his signs that he leaves behind. There’s no underwear lying around, so I’m thinking the suit is a plant. The one in the freezer has a small dog under her body. There are cigarette butts in proximity to both bodies but not the same brand.”

Detective Burns thanked Murphy for his good analysis and then turned to Laura. “Are you okay, Peterson? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

She was standing there just staring at the wall. “No, I’m alright, Burns. I’m just trying to process all of this in my mind. There are two crime scenes in the same building. The previous one had two bodies, but not by choice, because it looked like the guard surprised him. But this was planned this way. Murphy, do we have ID’s on these women?”

“Yes, both their purses have been left at the scenes, like all the rest. I phoned them in to see if we could get some kind of hit on them, and you’re not going to believe what I found.”

“Should I be sitting down?”

“Maybe, the one in the freezer was reported missing seven months ago!”

A look of total disbelief came over her face. “So, the one in the freezer must have been his first victim, which means the one out in the warehouse is number eight, instead of seven?”

Dan shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, that’s the way I’m seeing it. The warehouse one is pretty fresh, so she was probably killed last night. Considering the freezer woman has been missing seven months, she was probably killed right away in that freezer and just preserved.”

“That means that he is either very brazen or upset that his first victim wasn’t found. Maybe he had to stage a second one here, so that we would look around and find the first.”

Dan shook his head. “What bothers me is, if he wanted her found, why padlock the door? Why not leave it open for someone to find her?”

She was impressed with his reasoning. “Good point, Murphy, where did Burns go?”

“I saw him go over and talk to the two people who found the scene. I think he sent them home. Then he went inside the building with Dr. Foote when he arrived. Do you want to go have a look?”

The thought of facing another gruesome crime scene made her cringe. She had a hard time dealing with this man’s brutality toward women. “Not really, but it’s my job.”

They walked through the front door and looked around at what appeared to have been some kind of deli type store front. Through the back, they entered the warehouse and saw the first victim. The suit, which was laid out beneath the body, was on hangers and looked brand new. Laura picked up the sleeve with her pen to find a tag hidden there. She raised her eyebrows when she saw the extravagant price. “So, this is just a sign like all the rest. What is this guy trying to tell us? He must be sending a message of some kind.”

She walked over to the freezer and met Ralph on his way out. He was dressed in a parka. “If you’re going in there, don’t stay too long. It’s literally freezing in there. In fact, it’s well below freezing. I sent someone to find the breaker and shut it off, so we can work.”

“Is this the same guy?”

“It appears that way. The body is in the same brutal condition that all the others have been found in, except for no glue, tape or slashed throat. The dog beneath the body looks like one of those dust mop types. She has a pink, rhinestone collar and a pink bow to keep the hair out of her eyes.”

“The dog is female also?”

“Yes, I didn’t give that much thought, until you mentioned it. The dog is female also. Hmmmmm, interesting. What do you make of that?”

“I’m not sure, but I know this guy is trying to make a statement of some kind. He leaves something different at every scene, and that one item is the only thing that’s different, other than the type of rope. The women are all treated exactly the same. Their clothes are missing, and the purse is left behind, so we’ll know immediately who they are. I told Detective Murphy that the killer might have placed the second victim here, because he was upset that the first victim hadn’t been found. Dan thought that he didn’t want her found, or he wouldn’t have padlocked the door. So, he must have wanted her found now. The question is why?”

Ralph shrugged and bit his lip. “That I can’t tell you, but there is one big difference about our freezer girl; psycho boy built a shrine to her. Go in and take a look.”

When Laura entered the freezer, she saw the body hanging with the dog beneath it. On the back wall was a shelf with candles, artificial flowers and a framed picture of a woman, who looked somewhat like the victim or at least a sister. There were also six frozen roses, placed one on top of the other. She turned around and called Ralph back in. “Did you see these?”

“Yes, like worship or something.”

“There are six of them. Is there any way to tell how long each one has been here? I’m thinking this top rose looks to be in pretty good condition, compared to the rose on the bottom of the pile. What if he has been returning and placing a rose on her altar every month?”

Ralph looked impressed. “Interesting observation, I’ll have CSU check on that theory. You always think differently than almost any other detective I know.”

She looked at the picture sadly. “Why kill someone you loved enough to build an altar to?”

“There’s a fine line between love and hate, as the old saying goes.”

She nodded in agreement. “Maybe this guy was jilted by his first victim, and that set him off on a string of revenge murders. Thanks, Ralph, let me know if you find anything else on this one.” She couldn’t stop staring at the altar. “He left her alone in here to freeze to death, while in extreme pain. What could she possibly have done to make him hate her that much?”

“Whatever it was, it looks like he’s still very angry.”

“Well, so am I! This has to stop! Ralph, I want pictures and then everything bagged except the walls and floor!”

Laura left the walk-in with determination in her stride. This psycho wasn’t going to get the best of her. She thought about the suffering these poor women must have gone through, and an empathic shiver ran through her body. Looking around, she found her two partners. “Okay, guys, enough is enough! We are going to hit this one hard. We have a fresh start in daylight. Burns, I want you to run down everything you can on the current victim, Julia White. Call the Captain, and fill him in on what we have found. Ask him not to release any news about finding the freezer victim, because I want to devise some kind of trap. Then have him set up a hidden surveillance team on this building for the next few nights. Maybe we can flush this guy out.”