Women's Murder Club [09] The 9th Judgment Read online

  “I feel like an ass,” Jim Morley said when we’d taken seats at the table. “The bedroom door was locked. That was weird. I said, ‘Hello Killy? Is that youuuu?’” He made a gagging noise and shook his head. “Why is it you never think it could happen to you?”

  Morley went on to say that he’d gone through the guest room and gotten into the bathroom that way.

  “You saw the burglar?” I asked, hoping against disbelief.

  “Nah, the lights were out in the bedroom,” Morley said. “She pleaded with me, asked me to give her some privacy, and that’s what convinced me it was a friend of ours, Laura Chenoweth. She and her husband, Jesse, are going through a rough patch, and I thought they were making up, you know, in private.

  “Anyway, the newspapers keep referring to Hello Kitty as a man, right?”

  I was reeling from this new information.

  If Hello Kitty was a woman, it was our first real lead. A blind lead to be sure, but something!

  “I just tossed the jewelry from the party on top of the dresser,” Dorian Morley said. “I didn’t even know we’d been robbed until I went to put my jewels in the safe.”

  She lowered her head into her hands and began to cry softly. Her husband said to us, “A lot of the jewelry belonged to Dorian’s mom. Some of it was her grandmother’s. What are the chances of getting it back?”

  I was still stuck on the idea that our cat burglar was a woman. I heard Conklin say that so far none of the stolen goods had surfaced from the previous Hello Kitty burglaries, and then Dorian Morley lifted her head and said, “It’s not just about the jewelry, Jim. It’s about the fact that a murderer was inside our house. Inside our bedroom.

  “What if you had challenged her instead of walking away? My God, Jim, she could have shot you!”

  Chapter 52

  BEING SUMMONED TO Tracchio’s office is always an adventure. You never know if you’re going to get a high five or a front-row seat on a meltdown.

  Tracchio hung up the phone as Jacobi, Chi, and I took seats around the curve of his mahogany desk and watched him pat his comb-over. I don’t dislike Tracchio, but I never forget that he’s a bureaucrat doing a job only a real cop should do.

  “The mayor has me on his speed dial,” he was saying as his assistant brought him a fresh cup of tea. “I’m in his ‘favorites’ list, you understand, one of the top five. This morning, I made it to number one—when he saw this.”

  Tracchio flashed the morning’s Chronicle with its photo of Claire leaning out her car window under the headline “Get a Gun.”

  I flushed, both scared and embarrassed for my best friend.

  “One of our own said this,” Tracchio said, his voice rising. “Told our citizens to carry guns, and the mayor says that all of us, and that includes you, you, and especially you,” he said, stabbing a pudgy finger at Jacobi, “don’t know your ass from a lemon tart.”

  Jacobi half rose to his feet in defense, but Tracchio put out a hand to silence and seat him.

  “Don’t say anything, Jacobi. I’m not in the mood. And I’ve got something else to show you.”

  Tracchio opened a folder on his desk, took out a sheet of newsprint, turned it around, and pushed it toward us. “This is going to run in tomorrow morning’s Chronicle. The publisher sent an advance copy out to the mayor, who passed it around.”

  I read the headline: “An Open Letter to the Residents of San Francisco.” Tracchio leaned back and said, “Go on, Boxer. Read that out loud.”

  “‘An open letter to the residents of San Francisco,’” I read obediently. “‘I have a proposition to make. It’s very simple. I want two million dollars in cash and a contact person I can trust. Once I have the money, I will leave San Francisco for good and the killings of the women and children will stop. I expect a published reply and then we’ll work out the details. Have a nice day.’ It’s not signed, but I guess we know who wrote this.”

  My head throbbed at the idea of it.

  “Sir, you’re not really thinking we’re going to pay off the Lipstick Killer?” I asked Tracchio.

  “Not out of our budget, of course, but a private citizen has already stepped forward with the cash, yes.”

  “Chief, we can’t let anyone pay off a murderer. It opens the way for every freak with a gun and a sick idea—”

  “She’s right,” Jacobi said. “You know that, Tony. Giving in to him is the worst thing we can do.”

  Tracchio leaned forward, smacked the flat of his hand down on the newsprint, and said, “You all listen to me. Several innocent people have been shot dead in the last couple of weeks. Forty men and women are working this case around the clock, and we’ve got nothing. Nothing. Except the chief medical examiner saying that people should start packing.

  “What choice do I have? None. This letter is going to run,” the chief said, glaring at each of us in turn, “and I can’t stop it. So figure out how to catch this psycho. Set a trap. How you do it is up to you. I know it’s hard. That’s why it’s called ‘work.’ Now, I need my office. I’ve got to call the mayor.”

  Chapter 53

  I JOGGED BACK down the stairs with Chi and Jacobi, the three of us wrapped in our own mortified silence. Yes, Tracchio’s drubbing was humiliating, but far worse was the fact that the city was being held hostage by a psychopath. And Tracchio was in such a bind, he was giving in to a terrorist.

  Apparently the giving-in was already in motion. Someone in the mayor’s inner circle had stepped forward with two million dollars to pay off the Lipstick Killer before his letter even ran. It was insane, completely magical thinking to believe that if we handed the killer his millions, he would leave town. And even if he did, where would he go? What would he do when he got there? And how many more crazies would be inspired to commit murder for pay?

  When Jacobi, Chi, and I walked into the squad room, all eyes turned to us, the silent question hanging in the air like a thundercloud.

  What did the chief say?

  Jacobi stopped at the head of the room. He was livid, biting off each word as he said to the six men staring up at him, “The Lipstick Killer wants two million bucks to stop the killings. The chief wants us to set a trap.”

  The gasping and commentary were as loud as that thundercloud breaking into a downpour. “That’s enough,” Jacobi said. “Boxer’s in charge. Sergeant, keep me posted. Every hour. On the hour.”

  I sat down at my desk across from Conklin, and Chi dragged up a chair. I filled Conklin in on the beat-down we’d taken from Tracchio as I dialed Henry Tyler. I was passed from automatic menu to Tyler’s personal assistant, then to Muzak as I was put on hold.

  Henry Tyler is a powerful man, the associate publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. His daughter, Madison, had been kidnapped a while ago, a sweet, precocious little girl, some kind of musical prodigy.

  Because of Conklin’s work and mine, Madison Tyler had not been found dead in a ditch. Instead, she was playing the piano, going to school, and romping with her little dog.

  Tyler and his wife had been so grateful to Conklin and me for saving Madison’s life, Tyler had said he owed us a big favor. I hoped he’d remember that promise—and then he was on the line.

  Chapter 54

  “MR. TYLER,” I said into the phone, calling up a mental image of the tall, gray-haired man. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been in the park with his little girl. He’d been laughing.

  “Lindsay, I’ve told you, call me Henry,” Tyler said now. “I’ve been expecting your call. It’s too bad it has to be about this guy.”

  “We’re glad he’s surfaced,” I told Tyler. “It’s an opportunity, but only if we have time to work up a plan. Can you stall him, Henry? What if you don’t run his letter tomorrow, maybe give us another day?”

  “How can I do that? If I don’t run his letter and he kills more people, it’ll be my fault—and I can’t live with that. But, Lindsay, I can get the money for him. I was hoping you could be our go-between.”

  �
�You’re paying him the two million?”

  “It’s cheap any way you look at it,” Tyler said to me. “He could have asked five times as much, and paying him off would still be the right thing to do. He’s going to keep killing kids and their mothers unless we give him what he wants—you know that. I’m sure that he’s had this payout in mind from the beginning.”

  I was startled to hear Henry Tyler say he was going to pay off the killer and even more stunned at his conclusion: that the Lipstick Killer’s spree had been about the money all along.

  “Henry, what worries me is that buying off the killer won’t stop him from killing, and it will only encourage others to make similar threats.”

  “I understand, Lindsay. We have to trip him up somehow. That’s why I’ll be working with you.”

  My headache had gone molten right between my eyes. I was a cop, nothing more. I couldn’t see through walls or into the mind of a psycho. While it was flattering that Henry Tyler thought I could stop the Lipstick Killer, it was obvious the murderer was smart—too smart to fall for your basic van full of cops waiting for him to pick up a briefcase of money.

  The worst-case scenario was the one that seemed the most likely: Killer gets the cash. Killer gets away. Killer continues to kill. And he inspires terrorism all over the country. There weren’t enough cops in America to cover an epidemic of sickos killing for money.

  “I want to be sure I understand,” I said to Tyler. “You haven’t been in touch with the Lipstick Killer. He doesn’t know you’re going to give him the money?”

  “He doesn’t know about me at all. He’s paid for us to run the letter, and he’ll be waiting for a response by way of a return letter in the paper. I can stall, get the money, and write a reply to run the day after tomorrow.”

  “So we have two days.”

  “Yes. I guess that’s right.”

  “You’ve got a new secretary starting tomorrow morning,” I said to Tyler. “I’ll be with you round the clock.”

  Chapter 55

  THERE WAS A pile of doughnuts in the coffee room, and I went for them. I hadn’t eaten a square meal in almost two weeks, and hadn’t had more than five consecutive hours of sleep in that time, either. As for exercise, zero, unless my brain running 24-7 on a hamster wheel counted for something.

  I sugared my coffee, went back into the squad room, and saw Cindy sitting at my seat, smiling over the desk at Conklin and shaking her bouncy blond curls.

  “Linds,” she said, getting up to give me a hug.

  “Hey, Cindy,” I said, hugging her a little too tightly, “Rich and I have something to tell you—off the record.”

  “That Hello Kitty is female?”

  I glared at my partner, who shrugged at me.

  “That’s not for publication,” I said, swinging down into my seat, watching Cindy pull up a chair. I piled my doughnuts on a paper napkin and placed my coffee cup on a file folder.

  “I had put together this whole list of social-register guys who could climb up the side of a house,” Cindy said, pulling a sheet from her computer case. “Duke Edgerton, William Burke Ruffalo, and Peter Carothers are rock climbers. They were on top of my all-star list, but now they’re the wrong gender, right? Since Kitty’s a girl.”

  “We have no idea if the woman in the Morleys’ house was Hello Kitty or a party guest Jim Morley didn’t know,” I said to Cindy, “so let’s not get crazy and print that, okay?”

  “Hmmmm.”

  “Cindy, we will not be able to vet a single lead that comes in if you print that Hello Kitty is female.”

  “The Morleys had fifty guests last night,” Cindy said. “You think the word’s not going to get out?”

  “There’s a difference between rumor and a police confirmation,” I said. “But you already know that.”

  Cindy sniffed. “What if I say, ‘Sources close to the police department have confirmed to the Chronicle that they have new information that could lead to the identity of the cat burglar known as Hello Kitty’?”

  “Okay,” I said. “Write that. Now just in case your boss didn’t already tell you—”

  “Henry? Oh, he did. What a scorcher, huh? A letter from the Lipstick Killer going into the front section.”

  “Well, you’re up to speed. Is there anything else, Cindy, dear?”

  “I’m off to interview Dorian and Jim Morley. This is a heads-up.”

  “Thanks,” Conklin said.

  “Off you go,” I said to Cindy. “Have fun.”

  “You’re not mad about anything?”

  “Not at all. Thanks for the list.” I waggled my fingers.

  “See you later,” she said to Conklin. I turned my face when she touched his cheek tenderly and kissed him. When Curlilocks had gone, I lifted my coffee, opened the file folder, and spread the morgue pictures of Elaine and Lily Marone out on the desk.

  “Let’s get back to work,” I said to Conklin. “What do you say?”

  I hung icicles from every word.

  Chapter 56

  “I TOLD HER nothing,” Conklin said to me.

  “Whatever,” I said back. My mind was splitting, I think, literally. Hello Kitty. Lipstick Killer.

  Lipstick Killer trumped everything.

  “I didn’t even mention the Morleys to Cindy.”

  “I believe you. It’s over. She’s going to run the story about Kitty being female, and the phone lines are going to burn up all over again.”

  “Cindy got a tip from one of the Morleys’ friends. She did it all herself.”

  “Can we please move on?”

  I didn’t want to believe Conklin hadn’t spilled the new info to Cindy, but I did. I do. He’s honest. We’ve been partners for more than a year and, in that time, I’ve put my life in his hands more than once—and he’s put his in mine. Crap. Images of the two of us working through bombings and firestorms and covering each other while trading shots with homicidal punks washed over me.

  We had a bone-deep connection as partners, and then there was what Claire called the “other thing.”

  There was still a lot of spark in our relationship that had never been fully resolved. I remembered us grappling half naked on a hotel bed, an action that I’d stopped before it was too late. I recalled confessions of feelings. Promises to never discuss them again, that we had to keep our relationship professional, that it was the best and only way.

  And now Rich was head over heels in amour with Cindy. That had to be why I was being a bitch. Had to be that, because I love Joe. I love him a lot—and Cindy and Rich are perfect together.

  I took apart my stack of doughnuts and gave the chocolate one to Conklin.

  “Wow. The chocolate one. For me?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m hormonal. All the time.”

  “Just take it easy on yourself, okay, Linds?”

  “I’m trying.”

  Conklin got up from his seat, came over to my side of our abutting desks, and sat in the chair Cindy had just vacated.

  “Are you sure about Joe?” he asked me.

  I was mesmerized for half a second. Conklin’s good looks have that effect on me, and there’s also something about the way he smells. Whatever the heck soap he uses.

  “I’m sure,” I said, looking away.

  “He’s the one?”

  I nodded and said, “He’s the one.”

  I felt Conklin’s lips on my cheek, right there in the squad room, a decidedly unpartnerlike gesture, but I didn’t care if anyone saw it.

  “Okay, then,” he said.

  He went back to his chair and put his feet on the desk.

  “If Hello Kitty’s a female, what changes? Why would she shoot Casey Dowling?”

  Chapter 57

  IT WAS THEIR lunch break, and Sarah had left the building first. Now Heidi entered the diner and saw Sarah at a booth near the window.

  Heidi broke into a smile, waved, and slid across the red leatherette banquette so she could sit next to Sarah and hold her hand. She kissed Sarah q
uickly, then looked over her shoulder, making sure there were no other teachers around.

  “Happy birthday, darling,” Sarah said. “You’re a flirty thirty.”

  Heidi laughed. “I don’t feel any different than when I was twenty-nine. I thought I would.”

  Menus were brought to the table and hot open-faced turkey sandwiches were eaten quickly because the lunch break was short and there was a lot on their minds. Heidi blurted, “If we could be together for real, without being afraid of getting fired, or of Terror or Beastly going ballistic, do you think we’d feel differently about each other?”

  “You mean, would we care less about each other if we felt safe?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No. I think it would be better. Will be better. That’s a promise. Look, Heidi—”

  Three waitresses came out of the kitchen, the one in front holding the cake, cupping her hand in front of the thirty small pink candles. The waitresses clustered at the head of the table and sang, “Happy birthday, dear Heidi. Happy birthday to you.”

  Applause sounded up and down the length of the narrow diner, and Heidi looked at Sarah, squeezed her hand, and then blew out the candles, every one of them on the first try.

  “Don’t tell me what you wished for,” Sarah said.

  “I don’t have to. You know.”

  The two hugged, Sarah’s heartbeats picking up speed as she thought about the gift in the pocket of her jeans.

  “I have something for my birthday girl,” Sarah said. She dug into her pocket and came out with a packet so small only something really good could be inside. Heidi exchanged a mischievous glance with Sarah, peeled away the silver wrapping paper, and held the small leather box shaped like a round-topped trunk.