Where Dreams Begin (38 page)

“Let’s remember who we’re talking about here,” Luke advised. “Felix Mendoza, and Bobby Clyde Flowers, who pimped underage girls, and Ford Dolan, who got his kicks punching Violet Simms around. Most of the public would be honored to be named an accessory in those murders.”

“Don’t try the victims. We’re not in court,” Garcia cautioned. “We’ll find Violet and have a nice little chat, but something tells me we’ll be back here before the day is out.”

“The office closes at five o’clock,” Pam offered agreeably.

“Wait a minute,” Catherine interjected. “Violet has an alibi, but it’s possible Ford was lonely without her and hit on a prostitute. That she appears to have been the Lady in Red may be nothing more than a gruesome coincidence, rather than proof of a direct link to Lost Angel.”

“That’s really good,” Dave enthused.

Garcia responded with a low chuckle. “That’s precisely why I insisted you be here, Mrs. Brooks. I knew you’d come up with a theory no one else would.”

“It’s actually quite logical,” Luke argued. “Ford couldn’t speak without insulting anyone within earshot. If he approached a prostitute, then it’s likely he did it with language several notches below crude.”

“Nothing surprises the whores in this town,” Salzman countered, “so I doubt that Ford could.”

“But you didn’t know him,” Catherine insisted. “We did.”

“That’s not a point in your favor,” Garcia warned, and after a nod to his partner, the detectives left.

“I refuse to believe it’s one of the kids,” Luke exclaimed.

“So do I,” Dave agreed. “But it makes me real uneasy to think that it might be.”

“The kids stick together,” Pam reminded them. “If they wanted to kill someone, they’d hunt him down in a vicious pack.”

Luke nodded. “You’re right. Now, while you’re all here, I need to tell you what Pam and I were discussing before the police arrived. Dave, you’ll leave for a better job soon, and Mrs. Brooks plans to teach in a high school in September. I’m seriously considering an offer from an Ivy League university that’s shown a flattering interest in me over the years. Pam won’t remain here without me, which means in a few months, all of us will be gone.

“If the Lady in Red hasn’t been caught, our intrepid detectives are sure to consider our mass exodus suspicious, so for the time being, let’s not discuss our plans with them.”

Catherine was too stunned to speak. There were tears in Pam’s eyes, but Dave reacted with anger.

“What’s going on here?” he cried. “A week ago you and Cathy were a couple, and now you’re considering job offers back east without telling her? I don’t believe you, man.”

Dave slammed the door on his way out, and unable to remain in the same room with Luke, Catherine followed. Feeling unsteady, she sank down on the steps and tried to think what to do. It had never occurred to her Luke might leave Lost Angel, let alone the state.

Hearing the door close a second time, Dave turned around and came back. “That rotten son of a bitch,” he yelled. “I’ll bet anything you name that he knew he was leaving the whole time he was with you. You know that, don’t you?”

Catherine shook her head. “No, I don’t believe that at all. Luke has been a rock here, and if he shatters now, then he shatters. But that doesn’t change the fine man he is.”

“Love!” Dave fumed, and clearly exasperated that she would defend Luke, he walked away with a long, brisk stride.

Catherine wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth. She missed Luke terribly, ached for him, but the thought of him moving to the East Coast was so unexpected, she didn’t know what to do.

Maybe what he needed was a complete change of scene, but what she needed was the man she knew him to be. Fearing his departure might be imminent, she could no longer justify waiting to tell him about the baby. She just hadn’t expected to be forced to do it that day.

Pam would be gone before the end of Luke’s afternoon session, and rather than go home at four, she would stay and wait for a private conversation with him. She doubted anything he could say would equal her fears, but just getting the dreaded confession over with would be a relief.

She tried to stand and still felt too shaken to walk. She sat to rest a moment longer and wished someone would bring her a strawberry shake.

Shortly before four o’clock, Pam Strobble crossed the street to Toby’s house. After quickly admiring the stunning mural, she drew Catherine aside.

“The detectives just picked up Luke for questioning,” she whispered.

“My God, have they arrested him?”

“No, but I don’t like it. He told me to cancel his afternoon session, but I’ve always wanted to lead it myself, and with everything going to hell here, I might as well. Could you cover the office for me until five?”

“Sure, I’ll be happy to. I wanted to speak with Luke anyway. What time do you suppose he’ll be back?”

Pam just shook her head. “There’s no way to tell, but my husband and I have tickets for a play we’ve waited a long time to see, so I can’t stay and wait.”

“I’ll stay,” Catherine promised.

As soon as the teenagers had cleaned up for the day, she moved her car into the Lost Angel lot and parked it next to Luke’s. She then left a note under his windshield wiper asking him to stop by the office before he left for home.

With telephone calls to field, her first hour in the office went quickly, but once Pam had left for the day, it was unnaturally quiet. Occasionally she would hear the sound of a horn from the street, but otherwise the office was silent. She walked around, stretched and tried to compose a coherent sentence for an opening with Luke, but none of her efforts made much sense.

Another hour had passed before she went into Luke’s office and sat in his chair. She wished she had Violet’s telephone number so she could check up on the shy girl herself. Thinking Luke might keep it in his desk, she slowly slid open the middle drawer, but it contained only an assortment of pencils of varying sizes, pens, a few rubber bands, paper clips and a box of Band-Aids.

She understood why he might need his own personal stash of bandages, but it still made her laugh. There were three more drawers on the right, but the first two held only additional office supplies. About to give up, she yanked out the deep lower drawer.

At first she was merely startled to find a tangle of red satin, but a quick inspection proved it to be a cocktail dress. A long blond wig had been hidden beneath it, and a pair of dark panty hose, and red heels lay at the bottom of the drawer.

Horrified, Catherine shoved everything back into place and slammed the drawer shut with a force that shook the whole desk. The Lady in Red’s disguise had been described to her often enough for her to recognize it at a glance, but that there could be only one explanation for Luke to have it made her ill.

She stood and would have run from the office, but Dave was blocking the door.

“I think you better sit down again,” he urged softly. “We need to talk.”

Unwilling to return to Luke’s place, Catherine collapsed into her usual chair, but she couldn’t stop shaking. Luke had always been so convincing, but dear God, was he truly a murderer?

She looked up at Dave, but his expression was far too serious to offer even a glimmer of hope.

Chapter Nineteen

Dave leaned against the doorjamb and folded his arms across his black Doors T-shirt. “I was running the vacuum cleaner in here last night and the cord caught on the corner of Luke’s desk. I opened the bottom drawer to free it and discovered what I think you just did. Scary as hell, isn’t it?”

Catherine shuddered. “I just want to get out of here.”

“I don’t blame you, but I don’t know what to do, and I need your help. I’m furious with Luke for the way he treated you, but that doesn’t mean I want to see him tried for murder.”

“I can’t believe Luke murdered anyone.” Yet even as she spoke the words, she recalled his steely strength and the fire of his temper. But she refused to brand him a serial killer.

“I don’t want to believe it, either, but those sure aren’t Luke’s running shoes in that drawer.”

Catherine could think of no plausible explanation for Luke to have a copy of the Lady in Red’s costume, so it seemed likely those were the murderer’s actual clothes. That they were stashed in Luke’s desk was damning evidence against him.

Dave shifted his position slightly. “Luke was lucky the detectives didn’t arrive with a search warrant this afternoon. When he gets back, we’ve got to convince him to get rid of his disguise.”

“How can you focus on the clothing?” Catherine cried.

“It’s incriminating evidence. You want Luke to get caught?”

“No, of course not. I want him to get help.”

“What kind of psychiatric help do you imagine he’d receive in prison?”

“Stop it!” Catherine begged.

Dave softened his tone. “It’s Luke we need to stop. Stay here with me, and as soon as he gets back, let’s confront him.”

“Confront him with this horror? How?” Catherine wanted to scream and then run, but she was shaking so badly, her legs would never hold her.

“He’s bound to have something to say about the detectives’ interrogation. Let’s let him talk first, and then tell him what we’ve found. Or, we have another choice. We could call the detectives right now and let them know they’ve got their man.”

“No, I want to hear Luke’s side of this.”

“I think you heard it this morning when he dismissed Felix and Bobby Clyde as men who pimped underage girls and Ford as abusive. If he didn’t actually cheer for the Lady in Red then, he came awfully close.”

With a sudden eerie chill, Catherine recalled the day Ford had accosted her in the parking lot. Luke had sworn he could kill him that day. Could he have carried out his threat?

Felix had been killed around the time she’d met Luke. Dear God, had she fallen in love with a murderer? Luke definitely had a dark side; indeed, it was that stormy part of his nature that had overwhelmed him when Nick had died. But was he a cold-blooded killer who stalked his victims and then sauntered away eating their fried chicken?

She looked up at Dave. “The chicken bothers me.”

Dave frowned in dismay. “What chicken?”

“The part of Ford’s dinner that the Lady in Red supposedly helped herself to, or I guess, himself.”

“I thought it rather bizarre myself. You’d think he’d just want to get the hell out of there, but if he was out stabbing people, his thinking couldn’t have been all that rational. Obviously, an insanity defense makes perfect sense. Then again, Luke has already made plans to move back east, so maybe he fears the detectives are getting too close.”

“Do you think he can just get out of town and leave behind a string of unsolved murders?”

“With the fine record the LAPD has going, he’s got a fifty-fifty chance.”

Those seemed like excellent odds to Catherine, but she hated to think of Luke as a murderer no matter how despicable his victims might have been. It was a horrible legacy to give a child, and that frightened her all the more.

It was after eight o’clock when Luke got a ride back to Lost Angel. He was surprised to find Catherine’s Volvo still in the lot and hastily read the note left on his windshield. With the afternoon he’d had, he was in no mood to talk with her, but it appeared unavoidable.

He hadn’t expected to find Dave sitting on his desk, however, and that changed everything. “I got your note,” he told Catherine. “We’ll have to talk another time. Go on home.”

Catherine didn’t budge. “First tell us how things went with Garcia and Salzman.”

“Tomorrow will be soon enough. Go home.”

His tone had become more emphatic, but Catherine still refused to leave. “Just tell us how much the police know,” she asked.

“We’re dying to hear,” Dave added.

Clearly displeased, Luke drew in a deep breath. “All right, since you insist. The police didn’t check out Ford’s truck before it reached the impound lot. He was the victim, remember, and not suspected of any crime, but when they opened his toolbox to take an inventory, they found a gun.

“Ballistics tests prove it was the one used to kill Nick.”

When Catherine found her voice, it was strained and hoarse. “You thought Ford would come after you, but instead he shot up the mural? Violet begged me not to let Rafael paint her. If I’d just convinced him not to, then none of this would have happened, and Nick would still be alive.”

Luke took a step toward her. “It’s not your fault. Once Violet entered a shelter, where she should have gone months ago, Ford turned his virulent hatred on us. He might have walked in and shot everyone in sight. It’s a miracle only Nick died.”

Seeing she was unconvinced, Luke addressed his next comment to Dave. “Garcia believes Ford’s murder is directly linked to the mural shooting. While no one admitted seeing the shooter, he’s certain someone must have and tipped off the Lady in Red.”

“Give it up, Luke,” Dave chided. “Catherine and I found your disguise.”

Puzzled, Luke glanced toward Catherine, who was staring at him through tear-filled eyes. “What are you talking about? I don’t own a disguise.”

“I was looking through your desk for the shelter’s number to call Violet,” Catherine admitted hesitantly. “Your Lady in Red outfit is in the bottom drawer.”

“Now I know it’s time for you to go home,” Luke replied. “Please leave.”

Catherine shook her head. “I just want to know why.”

“Why is some goofy disguise in my desk drawer? Someone must have planted it there. I’ve already given you my opinion of vigilantes. Even if I agreed with those who move outside the law, there are too damn many evil men who prey on kids for me to kill them all. So what would be the point?”

As usual, he sounded convincing, but Catherine was too frightened to judge clearly. “I’ll never say a word to the police, but you’ve got to get rid of your disguise and promise you’ll not kill anyone else.”

“For the last time, I don’t own a disguise, and I haven’t killed anyone,” Luke argued. “What’s been going on here, Dave?”

Dave shrugged. “There’s no need to play dumb with us. We’re not afraid of being named accessories to your crimes. We just want the Lady in Red to disappear tonight.”