"I don't know, Frank. If it was your wife and kid I mean, you'd be in shock."
"Sure, the guy's knocked out. He said he sat down on the stairs for a while. You know, gathering himself. But for forty-five minutes?
Something doesn't wash. I think he spent the time cleaning up the crime scene."
"What's the motive? Jesus, Frank, you saw her face.
Why would he do that to his own wife?"
"You know why. She knew something, she found something, and she made the mistake of telling Lake.
Think about it, Wayne. If Lake killed them it would explain the absence of clues at the crime scene. There wouldn't be any strange cars in the neighborhood or prints that didn't match the Lakes or the neighbors.
"I don't know."
"Yes you do. He killed that little girl. His own little girl."
"Christ, Frank, Lake's a successful lawyer. His wife was beautiful."
"You heard Klien. The guy we're looking for is a monster, but no one's gonna see that. He's smooth, handsome, the type of guy these women would let in their house without a second thought. it could be a successful lawyer with a beautiful wife. It could be anyone who isn't wired right and is working in some psycho world of his own where this all makes sense."
Turner paced around the room while Grimsbo waited (quietly. Finally Turner sat down and picked up a picture of Melody Lake.
"We aren't going to do anything stupid, Frank. If Lake is our killer, he is one devious motherfucker. one hint that we're on to him and he'll figure a way to cover this up."
"so, what's the next step? We can't bring him in and sweat him and we know there's nothing connecting Lake to the other crime scenes."
"These women weren't picked at random. If he's the killer, they've — all got to be connected to Lake somehow.
We have to reinterview the husbands, go back over the reports and recheck our lists with Lake in mind. If we're right, there's going to be something there."
The two men sat silently for a moment, figuring the angles.
"None of this goes in a report," Turner said. "Lake could stumble across it when he's here."
"Right," Grimsbo answered. "I'd better take Solomon's interview with me."
"When do we tell Nancy and the chief?"
"When we have something solid. Lake's very smart and he's got political connections. If he's the one, I don't want him beating this, I want him nailed."
Nancy Gordon was deep in a dreamless sleep when the phone rang. She jerked up in bed, flailing for a moment, before she realized what was happening. The phone rang again before she found it in the dark.
"Detective Gordon?" the man on the phone asked.
"Speaking," Nancy said, as she tried to orient herself.
"This is Jeff Spears. I'm a patrolman. Fifteen minutes ago we received a complaint about a man sitting in a car on the corner of Bethesda and Champagne. Seems he's been parked there for three successive nights. One of the neighbors got worried.
"Anyway, Officer Demuniz and I talked to the guy. He identified himself as Peter Lake. He claims he's working on the task force that's looking into the murders of those women. He gave me your name."
"What time is it?" Nancy asked. The last thing she wanted to do was turn on the light and scorch her eyeballs.
"One-thirty. Sorry about waking you," Spears said apologetically.
"No, that's okay," she answered as she located the digital clock and confirmed the time. "Is Lake there?"
"Right beside me."
Nancy took a deep breath. "Put him on."
Nancy heard Spears talking to someone. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Nancy?" Lake asked.
"What's going on?"
"Do you want me to explain with the officer standing here?"
"What I want is to go back to bed. Now, what's this about you sitting in a parked car in the middle of the night for three straight nights?"
"It's Waters. I was staking out his house."
"Oh, fuck. I don't believe this. You were staking him out? Like some goddamn movie? Peter, I want you at Chang's in twenty minutes."
"But "Twenty minutes. This is too stupid for words. And put Spears back on."
Nancy heard Lake calling to the officer. She closed her eyes and turned on the bedside lamp. Then she raised her lids slowly. The light burned and her eyes watered.
"Detective Gordon?"
"Yeah. Look, Spears, he's okay. He is working on the task force. But that was heads-up work," she added, since he sounded young and eager and the compliment would mean something.
"It sounded suspicious. And, with the murders… "No, you did the right thing. But I don't want you to mention this to anyone. We don't want what we're doing getting around."
"No problem."
"Thanks for calling."
Nancy hung up. She felt awful, but she had to find out What Lake was up to.
Lake was waiting for her in a booth when Nancy arrived at Chang's. The little cafe stayed open all night for cops, truckers and an occasional college student. It was a safe place to meet. There was a cup of coffee in front of Lake.
Nancy told the waitress to make it two.
"Why don't you clue me in on what you thought you were doing, Peter,"
Nancy said when the waitress left.
"I'm sorry if I was out of line. But I'm certain Waters is the killer.
I've been tailing him for three days. Believe me, I did a great job. He has no idea he was followed."
"Peter, this isn't how things are done. You don't go running off with some half-baked idea you picked up from "Magnum, P. I." The task force is a team. You have to run your ideas by everyone before you make a move.
"More important, you don't know the first thing about surveillance. look how easily you were spotted by the neighbor. If Waters saw you, and it spooked him, he might go to ground and we'd lose him forever. And, if he is the killer, you could have been in danger. Whoever killed your wife and daughter has no conscience and he has no compunction about taking a human life. Remember that."
"I guess I was foolish."
"There's no 'guess' about it."
"You're right. I apologize. I never thought about blowing the case or the danger. All I thought about was…"
Lake paused and looked down at the table.
"I know you want him, Peter. We — all do. But if you don't do this right, you'll ruin the case." Lake nodded thoughtfully. "You've gone out of your way to help me, Nancy, and I appreciate it. I'm finally starting to cope with losing Sandy and Melody and you're one of the reasons." Lake smiled at her. Nancy did not return the smile.
She watched Lake carefully.
"I've decided to go back to work. This little incident tonight has convinced me I'm not very valuable to the investigation. I thought I could really help, but that was ego and desperation. I'm not a cop and I was crazy to think I could do more than you're doing."."
"Good sign.
I'm glad to hear you say that. It's a healthy "That doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the case altogether. I'd like copies of all the police reports sent to my office. I still might spot something you miss or offer a different perspective. But I'll stop haunting the station house."
"I can have the reports sent, if O'Malley says it's okay. But you'll have to keep them strictly to yourself.
Not even your associates should see them."
"Of course. You know, you've really taken good care of me," Lake said, smiling again. "Do you think we could have dinner sometime? just get together? Nothing to do with the case."
"We'll see," she said uneasily.
Lake checked his watch. "Hey, we'd better get going. We're going to be dead tired in the morning. I'm paying this time, no arguments."
Nancy slid out of the booth and said good-bye. It was late and she'd had little sleep, but she was wide awake. There was no question about it now.
With his wife dead less than three weeks, Peter Lake was coming on to her. And that wasn't the only thing bothering her. Nancy wanted to know the real reason Peter Lake was tailing Henry Waters.