The young man walked out of the restroom and across the nearly empty bar floor and plopped back down in a seat at the table between his two friends. He was shorter than most of the fraternity brothers, with dark hair and the circles under his eyes like a student who worked too hard and slept too little. From her surveillance work, she got the idea that he didn’t party nearly as much as the other brothers. But she’d been told he had been there that night and hadn’t helped her brother when he’d needed it most. Having grown up in a household that was told to be secretive so no one would ever figure out exactly what her father did for a living, Lynn was impressed all these boys could keep their mouths shut for so long. And she had used that to her advantage.
She’d already decided that when she was done here she’d deal with Alan Cole. One short trip to Daytona and everything would be done. She could get on with her life and maybe her parents could too.
But first she intended to plunge the three-inch blade of the Buck knife into Bobby Hollis’s neck.
Stallings still felt uncomfortable taking Patty with him when he intended to step so far outside the JSO investigative guidelines. But she had persisted and pointed out the fact that they were partners and he did trust her completely. Looking back on his sixteen years with the sheriff’s office and all the partners he’d had from road patrol through homicide, Patty was the best. She was head and shoulders above most other partners. He had learned early in his career, when Rita Hester patrolled the streets of Arlington with him, that gender had no bearing on being a good partner. The lieutenant of the D-bureau had backed him up in any situation and never talked about anything they did. That’s why he had a hard time getting anything past her now. Not only did she know all the tricks, she knew how far he was willing to go to solve the case.
His other issue taking Patty on some of these authorized assignments was that he did not want to hurt her chances of promotion. He didn’t want her tainted with the accusation of undue force or lying to a superior officer. Stallings was willing to take on those stigmas if it helped him catch a killer or find a missing child, but he didn’t want Patty’s ruined career on his conscience as well.
Stallings drove through the huge parking lot of the apartment complex that housed the fraternities serving all the universities of the area. Loud music came from a dozen different doors in every building and kids were everywhere on the property, drinking beers or tossing footballs. And this was a weeknight.
Patty said, “He has a Dodge Neon registered to him. I haven’t seen it in the lot.”
“Do we want to just barge into the house and ask where he is or keep things a little more covert?”
“Do we have time to stay covert?”
Stallings smiled because he realized Patty was thinking more and more like him. “Not only do we not have time, I intend to scare this fraternity geek so bad that he won’t hold back anything. He’ll have nightmares about this conversation years from now.” He caught Patty’s smile at his comments.
Stallings pulled his Impala across a sidewalk, blocking the entrance to the building where the Tau Upsilon fraternity clubhouse was located. They walked through the front door and saw three young men playing pool in the corner of the empty room.
The boys didn’t even ask who they were. Stallings was sure Patty was a legend among the fraternity for the way she’d handled the smart-aleck boy out on the beach the first day of the investigation. Stallings said, “Is Bobby Hollis around?”
The three boys looked at each other, trying to decide if they should speak with the detectives.
Stallings didn’t raise his voice, keeping it even but putting an edge on it when he said, “I need to talk to Bobby Hollis right. . now.” Just putting a pause between right and now made all three boys scramble to speak first.
The tallest of the three boys said, “I saw him leave about an hour ago.”
Stallings snapped, “What’s his cell number?”
Lynn felt an edge of excitement sweep through her body as she saw Bobby Hollis stand and wave good-bye to his friends. She had sensed he was getting ready to leave for some time and had paid for her drinks. As soon as he stepped away from the table she slipped off the stool and headed out the door in front of him.
She was surprised by how much the temperature had dropped outside. It sent shivers through her as she dug in her purse for the Buck knife. The parking lot was half full of cars, but there was no one outside right now. She saw Bobby’s green Dodge Neon at the far end of the parking lot. Her Nissan was about three cars away. That would be the perfect place to wait and call him over like she was having car trouble of some kind. She could picture what it’d be like to send the knife straight up into his neck and pull it out in a slashing motion as he flopped onto the ground like a fish out of water and blood turned the white sand and gravel of the parking lot a tacky red.
She hustled over to her car and unlocked the door. Moisture clung to her blouse as she waited longer than she’d expected. She should’ve learned that all fraternity brothers take a long time to say good-bye to each other.
Finally, she saw the front door to the bar open and Bobby Hollis walk out. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head. He didn’t even look around the parking lot as he stepped out from the overhang that covered the front door to the bar.
Lynn leaned against her car like she’d had too much to drink and grasped the open knife in her right hand, shielding it from Bobby’s view with her body.
Bobby Hollis conducted his own personal sobriety test that the fraternity had developed. He stood erect and lifted his left foot so he had to balance on his right foot. Then he said the alphabet slowly and clearly. He’d only had four beers, but he couldn’t afford a DUI on his record. He would graduate this year and the job market was already too competitive. He didn’t need some manager at Smith Barney or even Charles Schwab-if all else went wrong-to have to worry about hiring someone who drank too much and got stopped by the cops.
He looked at parking lot to remember exactly where he had parked his car. The first thing he intended to do once he was in the working world was to get rid of that piece of shit and buy something with a little style-maybe not a BMW, but at least not the absolute bottom-of-the-line, basic-transportation American car. He had looked at the Mini Cooper, but was now leaning toward a Nissan Z car.
He felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out of his pocket. He didn’t recognize the number, so he didn’t answer.
He took a deep breath of Jacksonville’s night air and noticed a woman who looked like she might be drunk leaning against a car near his. He wondered if he should offer his help.
Stallings didn’t leave a message on Bobby Hollis’s phone. Instead, he looked at the three boys staring at him from the pool table and said, “One of you give me your phone.”
The boy who had been speaking with them said, “What?”
“I said give me a phone. Bobby didn’t answer and it might be because he didn’t recognize my phone number.” He snapped his fingers to speed them to action.
The boy said, “I’ll call him.” He dug a BlackBerry out of his pocket.
Stallings said, “You can dial, then hand the phone to me.”
The boy did exactly as he was directed.
Lynn’s heart rate increased as Bobby Hollis walked closer and closer. His gaze switched from the Dodge Neon to her. She could tell he was debating whether to walk over and see if he could help her get into the car. She yanked on the door handle with her left hand making it seemed like there was a problem. She still had the knife hidden in her right hand. Once he turned and stepped between her car and the pickup truck parked next to her, she didn’t intend to hesitate. She would turn and face him and before he realized what was happening she’d have the knife rising in a deadly arc.