“He called me Cassandra.”
“Cassandra. That’s great, Nicki. Is there anything else you remember?”
“He was breathing hard, like he’d just run a race.”
“Very good. Anything else?”
“There was a movie playing in the background.”
“How could you tell?”
“I could hear a woman talking, only I couldn’t understand what she was saying. She kept talking while the man was speaking to me, so I knew it was a movie.”
“Did you make out what the woman in the movie was saying?”
“No. She was talking in a quiet voice, real seductive. I thought he might be watching a porno.”
Melanie let out a tiny gasp. She’d come to the same conclusion that Lancaster had, which was that the caller from Toronto was masturbating while talking to Nicki.
“Okay, so you think the man from Toronto was watching a porno movie, and that he was out of breath. You said that he asked you what you were wearing, and some other stuff. Do you remember what that other stuff was?”
“He wanted to meet me. He asked me if I was okay with that.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I hung up.”
“Is there anything else you remember? Think hard.”
Nicki gave it some thought and shook her head. “No, that’s it. I guess I should have told my parents. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “The call was from another country. You thought he was a weirdo and hung up, and then you forgot about it. Those are natural reactions when dealing with a situation like that. You did nothing wrong.”
Nicki hugged her mother and then her father, and everything was good between them again. Lancaster walked to the front of the gallery and stared out onto the street. There were no suspicious-acting males lurking about, and he spent a moment adding the things Nicki had told him to what he already knew. It still didn’t make any sense, unless there was a piece to the puzzle that he wasn’t seeing. Pearl appeared by his side.
“We’re hungry. Do you think it’s safe to get lunch?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“The Cheesecake Factory down the street. It’s Nicki’s favorite restaurant.”
“Okay, but you need to let me pick the table.”
“Of course, Jon. Whatever you think is best.”
“Let me ask you something. This guy from Toronto called the landline in your house. Is that number listed in the phone book?”
“The house line is unlisted. I don’t know how he got it.”
Nicki’s stalkers were determined, and they were resourceful. In his experience, that made them the worst kind of adversary.
“Let’s get some lunch,” he said.
Chapter 12
Gel Head
The Cheesecake Factory on East Las Olas was popular with the lunchtime crowd, and there was a fifteen-minute wait to be seated. Lancaster slipped the hostess a folded twenty-dollar bill and said, “I need a secluded table in your restaurant, please.”
The hostess hesitated. “Define secluded.”
“In a corner, backed up to a wall.”
“Let me see what I can do.”
The waiting area was next to the hostess stand. Nicki sat on a bench with her parents to either side and Lancaster standing guard in front of her, facing the entrance. No one was going to get close to her without first going through him.
The hostess appeared holding menus. “You’re in luck. Right this way.”
The Pearls rose from the bench and followed the hostess. Lancaster came up from behind, looking for any sign of trouble. The restaurant was packed, the tables positioned so closely together that it reminded him of a mess hall. Their destination was a corner table across from the noisy bar that ran the length of the wall. When everyone was seated, the hostess passed out the menus and said a waitress would be over shortly.
So far, everything looked normal. But he was not going to let his guard down. While the Pearls read their menus, he studied the other diners. Two groups of people made up the lunch crowd. Families and business people. He didn’t spot any suspicious-acting males — the profile of Nicki’s stalkers.
A waitress appeared. The echo coming off the tile floors made normal conversation impossible, and the Pearls shouted their orders.
“Coffee,” he said when his turn came.
Water and bread were brought to the table. Nicki chose a sesame roll and tore it into small pieces before buttering it. She hadn’t uttered a word since the art gallery and acted withdrawn. Her parents tried to engage her in conversation and got nowhere.
“Am I ever going to be able to go back to school?” she asked. The question caught her parents off guard. To Lancaster she said, “Am I?”
Nicki was looking into the future and not liking what she saw. Projecting was never healthy, and he tried to allay her fears.
“I don’t see why not,” he said.
“When?” she asked.
“As soon as I get to the bottom of this.”
“But what if you don’t figure out what these men want? What then? Do I have to go into hiding like someone in witness protection? I want my life back.”
Helping people in distress was like taking a trip, and it always took time. He tried to find an answer that would calm her down, but came up short. There was no answer that wasn’t an exaggeration or outright lie, and he wasn’t in the habit of telling those.
“I’ll figure out what these men want. That’s a promise,” he said.
“Oh no,” Melanie said under her breath. “I just spotted a creep at the bar watching Nicki in the mirror. He won’t take his eyes off her. What should we do?”
If Nicki’s stalkers shared a common trait, it was a deep fear of being caught, and they were quick to run the moment they sniffed trouble.
“Stop staring at him,” he said. “I don’t want you to scare him off.”
“Whatever you say.”
He glanced at the bar. The creep sat on a stool with his back to them. He wore a dress shirt and blue neck tie, nice slacks, and a pair of expensive shoes. He had a weight lifter’s broad shoulders and tiny waist, and his short blond hair was slicked back with gel. He alternated watching Nicki in the backbar mirror and looking at his cell phone. A plate of untouched pasta alfredo sat in front of him. Gel Head had lost his appetite.
Nicki kicked him beneath the table. “I’m scared.”
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” he said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we’re going to protect you.” To Melanie, he said, “You said before that you have a can of Mace. Please pull it out of your purse and pass it to your daughter beneath the table.”
Melanie passed her Mace to Nicki.
“If he gets near you, spray him in the face,” Lancaster said.
“Got it,” Nicki said.
He addressed her parents. “Has either of you ever fired a handgun before?”
“I have,” Pearl said.
“I’m going to pass you one of my handguns beneath the table. I want you to stick it in your pocket. It’s loaded and doesn’t have a safety, so you need to be careful.”
Pearl’s face lost its color. “What exactly are you planning to do?”
“I’m going outside the restaurant. Once I’m gone, I want you and your wife to put the fear of God into this sicko. Hopefully he’ll run out the door, which will give me the opportunity to confront him. Sound good?”
Some men caved in the face of uncertainty and danger, while others rose to the challenge. Pearl squared his shoulders. “I’m good if Melanie and Nicki are,” he said.
“I’m good,” his wife said. “How about you, honey?”
Nicki held the canister of Mace in her lap. Making her part of the attack plan let her stop feeling like a victim, and she no longer seemed scared.