The May Day Murders (18 page)

Ann realized that she no longer felt
tired as she checked the time. It was just a little past eleven.
Deciding that she could never fall asleep after all the excitement,
she went over to the fridge, took out a can of diet Pepsi and went
into the family room. After switching on the eleven o’clock news,
she went over and plopped down on the sofa.

Ann began thinking about her date with
Jerry Rankin and concluded that she had truly enjoyed herself.
Besides his being handsome and a lot of fun, she had been equally
impressed with Jerry’s impeccable manners and the way he had
managed to comfort her after that terrifying phone call. His offer
to be there for her whenever she needed someone had been awfully
considerate of him, too. Although she could never see herself
actually calling him up and bothering him with her troubles, it
nevertheless gave her some piece of mind knowing that at least that
option existed.

One thing troubled her, though. It was
pretty obvious that Jerry Rankin was more than just a little
interested in her. She could be wrong of course—and maybe she was
just flattering herself—but Ann couldn’t help but sense that he
wanted more than just a casual relationship with her.

And that was bad.

Because she was quite certain that she
wasn’t ready to start a relationship with Jerry Rankin, or anybody
else for that matter. And if he were as interested in her as she
suspected, it would ruin everything. At this point in time, she
needed a friend, not a lover. If Jerry could consent to being just
friends, she would be more than happy to go out with him on that
basis—in fact she would look forward to it. But if he was expecting
more, then they were just going to have to part company now before
somebody got hurt. It was as simple as that.

So when he called tomorrow, Ann
resolved that she would approach Jerry with this. She wouldn’t rush
into it, of course. She would test the waters first, then let him
know how she felt. Hopefully, he would understand her position. She
liked Jerry Rankin; she might even be capable of falling in love
with him someday if she allowed herself. But she wasn’t about to
let that happen now. And if she could convince Amy that Jerry was
only a friend, maybe she could avoid her making a big fuss over
him. She knew that if Amy thought there was something more to their
relationship, she might well fly off the handle. Amy still resented
the divorce and wanted her and Sam to get back together again. The
last thing she wanted was to see her mother get seriously involved
with another man.

Ann didn’t like sneaking around behind
Amy’s back. She had always taught her daughter how important it was
to be honest and straightforward about things, no matter how
difficult it might be sometimes to tell the truth. For this reason,
Ann had already decided she was going to tell Amy about her date
with Jerry soon—perhaps even tomorrow—providing that Jerry was
willing to keep things on a friendly basis. Karen no doubt would
disapprove, but she didn’t care. Amy had a right to know what her
mother was doing. And besides, Jerry had mentioned that he wanted
to meet her. How could that ever happen if Amy didn’t even know he
existed?

She took a sip of Pepsi and watched the
weather report. Smithtown was presently being hammered by
thunderstorms, but the meteorologist gave his assurance that the
storms would stay to the south of the state and avert central Ohio.
By morning it was supposed to be fair and turn much colder in
Columbus.

Ann reached for the romance novel she
had been reading and read until she had to fight to keep her eyes
open. Then she decided to go to bed, stopping at the bathroom on
the way. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she
happened to notice that the mini blinds were fully open as it
occurred to her that this was the second time in the last week that
they hadn’t been in their usually closed position. The first time
she’d given it little thought, aware that Amy occasionally opened
the blinds as well as the window a little to vent out the steam
when she took a shower—

But Amy hadn’t taken a shower today
because she was running late for school earlier that morning and
hadn’t had time.

Then she had gone straight to Amanda’s
after school instead of coming home first.

Ann felt a pang of dread as she
struggled to recall if the blinds had been open when she had gotten
ready for her date with Jerry Rankin. She was almost certain that
they had been closed then; otherwise she would have noticed.
Wouldn’t she have? Of course she would have. Being modest by nature
her entire life, she had always made a point of closing the blinds
whenever she was in the bathroom.

So someone had opened the blinds while
she had been out with Jerry.

But who?

A thought suddenly came to mind: Amy.
Perhaps Amy had come home while she’d been out with Jerry. She
hadn’t mentioned it on the phone when she’d spoken to her earlier,
but that was no real surprise. It probably hadn’t seemed worth
mentioning …

Ann looked at the bathroom window. It
was closed and locked. So if Amy had come home earlier, it hadn’t
been to take a shower. The window would still be cracked
open.

So why had Amy come home,
then?

Had she come home to do something she
shouldn’t have been doing? Ann wondered. Like sneaking boys in, or
drinking with her friends? That might explain why she had seemed so
suspiciously “cheery” on the phone earlier. But surely Amy wouldn’t
have taken that great of risk, Ann thought. She would have had no
idea how long she and Jerry would be gone or whether she’d have
enough time to pull off some kind of caper. And besides that, it
would have been nearly impossible for her to avoid being found out
somehow if she had been drinking alcohol in this house. Amy was
much too sloppy and careless to have been able to cover her tracks
so well.

Ann heaved a sigh of exasperation as
she closed the blinds. Whatever had happened, she was going to get
to the bottom of it. Tomorrow she would have a few questions to ask
her daughter about all of this. And if Amy tried to lie her way out
of it, she would be able to tell.

And if Amy told her that she hadn’t
come home and she was telling the truth, then what?

Ann didn’t even want to think about it
…

She turned off the light, went upstairs
and went to bed.

It took Ann Middleton a very long time
to get to sleep that night…

CHAPTER 12

Radiant sun poured through Sam’s
bedroom window when he finally decided to get up. He’d heard the
phone ring earlier and his answering machine come on, but he hadn’t
been able to make out whom the caller was or what he was saying.
He’d felt too wasted to get up and check it out at the time but now
realized that the call might have been important and that he’d
better go see what it was all about.

He was definitely hung over in a very
bad way and it wasn’t until he rolled over onto his back and saw
Shelly Hatcher lying fast asleep beside him that the events of the
following night began registering in his groggy head. She lay with
her back facing him and the covers drawn up to her waist. Sam sat
up and pulled the covers over her shoulders before slipping quietly
out of bed. After throwing on a pair of sweats, he left the bedroom
and made his way to the den.

When he pressed the message replay
button, Roger Hagstrom’s gruff voice crackled through the tiny
speaker:

“
Get the fuck out of bed, ya
drunk!” his old friend chided. After a short pause, he continued:
“I’ve got a ton of shit to tell you man, so give me a call as soon
as you get your sick ass out of bed. It’s 8:42 now and I’ll
probably be at the station by the time you hear this. Call me
there.”

Sam glanced over at the clock. Just
past noon. He immediately picked up the phone and dialed the number
for the Smithtown Police Department.

“
Detective Hagstrom,
please.”

A moment later his friend
answered.

“
Hagstrom.”

“
What the hell are you doing
back from N.Y.C. already?” Sam said.

Roger’s voice was low as he spoke.
“It’s a long story, but in a nutshell there was a lot more
happening here than there was there, so I took the first flight out
this morning.”

“
What happened?” Sam asked.
He could tell by his friend’s tone of voice that he was onto
something major.

“
I can’t tell you right
now—I’m in the middle of a briefing. Can you get down her in say, a
half hour or so?”

“
No problem. Can you give me
a hint? Something to do with the Bradley case?” Sam prodded,
feeling a surge of adrenalin kick in, in spite of his
hangover.

“
Could well be,” Lieutenant
Hagstrom replied in his typically vague fashion. “I’ll fill you in
when you get here. Gotta go.”

He hung up the phone.

Wondering what the hell had come up to
get the normally complacent Roger Hagstrom so fired up, Sam made a
beeline for the kitchen and quickly got the coffee brewing. He
suddenly recalled that Shelley Hatcher’s car was mired-up in his
driveway and that it would have to be moved before he could go to
the police station.

He went back into the den to get a
cigarette and stood there for a moment debating what he was going
to do about Shelley and her car. He wanted to meet Roger ASAP and
find out what was going on but he also wanted, no, needed to take a
hot shower so that he could feel at least halfway human again. He
wasn’t going to have enough time to get Shelley’s car out of the
mud and shower unless the road had by chance dried out enough to
enable him to get the car out under its own power. The first
priority, Sam decided, was to drive the Jeep down and check out
Shelley’s car.

He started to leave the room and
stopped himself cold as he realized that he was going to need
Shelley’s car keys, which most likely were in her purse. He didn’t
particularly want to go rummaging through Shelley’s purse without
her knowing it, so it looked like he was going to have to wake her
up after all. He’d wanted to avoid awaking Shelley any sooner than
needed and Sam now seriously considered why this was so. The
reality of having to confront her after last night, perhaps . .
?

Yup. You got it.

Sam let out a groan and made his way
back to the bedroom. Shelley was still fast asleep when he entered.
He walked quietly over to the side of the bed and touched her
shoulder.

“
Shelley?” he said
softly.

She mumbled something and opened her
eyes. She smiled when she saw him.

“
Hi,” she whispered
sweetly.

Even after a long and crazy night of
heavy drinking and unbridled sex, Shelley Hatcher still looked like
a million bucks. Her silky blonde hair partially covered her lovely
face and her deep blue eyes were just as wide and enchanting as
they’d been the night before. Her full lips still had that sultry,
seductive look that he had always found hard to resist.

“
How are you feeling?” Sam
asked, testing the waters.

She feigned a groan and replied,
“Tired, but content. Last night was wonderful, Sam,” she purred
with a playful grin.

“
I have to agree with you
there,” Sam said, knowing full well that he meant it. How the holy
hell he was going to deal with all of this later, he didn’t have a
clue. “Unfortunately, I have to go into town on some business now,
so I’m going to try and move your car out of the way. Where are the
keys?”

Shelley thought a moment before
replying. “I left them in the ignition. I figured they probably
wouldn’t get very far if somebody tried to steal it. But you can
probably drive around it, Sam. It’s sort of off to the side in a
ditch.”

Great, Sam thought. “Do you need to be
anywhere in the next couple of hours or so?”

“
No, I don’t have any
plans.”

“
Good. Then why don’t you
just go back to sleep and I’ll take care of your car when I get
back,” he suggested.

Shelley grinned. “I sort of hoped you
would say that.”

Sam just smiled and said, “Okay. I’m
going to take a quick shower then shove off. Just make yourself at
home and I’ll call you if I’m going to be any longer than a couple
of hours.”

“
Thanks, Sam.” She sat up
and gave him a kiss, the sheet falling down and exposing half of
her luscious body. The kiss was short, but long enough to remind
Sam of what had happened the night before.

“
See you later,” he said,
almost regretfully, before turning around and leaving the
room.

* * *

Roger Hagstrom was standing beside his
unmarked car when Sam pulled into the Smithtown Police parking lot.
He pulled up beside his friend and rolled down the
window.

“
What’s shakin’?”

Roger came over to the Cherokee. He
looked as though he’d been put through a wringer. “I need to get
the hell out of here for a while. Had lunch yet?”

“
Fuck, I haven’t even had
breakfast yet!” Sam said.