As she crawled, she started muttering to herself. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, I’m sorry.”
Dremmel wondered what she was sorry for and to whom she was apologizing as he looked down at her exposed back. A tattoo he hadn’t noticed sprang up from below her belt line. A fancy, symmetrical design with no words. Her colorful hair drooped to her right side and he saw her round, meaty neck. Now he knew what to do. He changed his grip on the knife, squatted down next to the terrified girl, and then drove the blade down through the center of her neck. He put his weight behind the blow and felt the resistance as the blade bounced off vertebrae and sliced through her wind-pipe. The tip of the knife popped out the little indentation in the front of her throat as she collapsed flat onto the ground without another sound or movement.
Dremmel took a deep breath and fell back against the wall. Trina’s lifeless eyes stared directly at him as more blood seeped out of the stomach wound onto the hard terrazzo floor.
“Shit,” he muttered. He had lost a perfectly good test subject, and now he had this mess to clean up.
One thought cheered him slightly. He could focus on Stacey Hines in a few days, and he doubted she would act like this girl.
Fourteen
John Stallings felt rested after a day off. He’d spent Saturday talking to various prescription drug dealers in the downtown area and looking for Peep Morans without success, but he would keep the little shit on his radar until he found him. The other dealers would’ve given up anyone to keep from losing their freedom. Stallings had only used the threat of arrest to scare each of the bloodsuckers, but they had all been specific about who they dealt to, and none of them recognized the photos of either of the girls.
Stallings spent Sunday with the kids, shooting hoops with both of them, kicking the soccer ball with Charlie, and watching in stunned silence as Lauren displayed her gymnastic talent at flipping, tumbling, and stopping his heart all at the same time. Patty Levine had gotten her interested in the sport, and the girl had shown a real knack for it. He wasn’t sure he was happy about it considering the danger in some of the stunts, but she was happy, even if a backflip took two days and three hours off his life.
Now, at seven in the morning on a Monday, he thought his early entrance would give him a jump on any leads they might have developed on his brief time off. Rita Hester had ordered a general shutdown of the investigation for the mental well-being of the detectives involved. That was the kind of thing an administrator did-assign two people to cover leads for one day while everyone else, including Tony Mazzetti, recharged their batteries. It made sense, but the Rita Hester he knew as a regular officer would’ve bitched and moaned as much as he did when he was told to take a day off.
Now, he had to give her credit. He did feel better and energized, and he still wanted this guy so badly his stomach had burned the whole day he was off trying to be the father he never had. Even Maria had interacted with the family, briefly leaving her computer to watch Lauren’s tumbling display.
He’d barely made it through the door when he noticed Patty Levine hunched over something on her desk.
“You’re in early,” he said, slowing at her desk.
“Catalogs, catalogs, catalogs.” She slapped a pile on the side of her desk. “The search for luggage never ends.”
“You are dedicated. I like that. Anything new?”
“I’m not sure. Mazzetti and the L.T. have been huddling in the conference room for the last ten minutes.” She looked down the main squad bay of the Land That Time Forgot to the only room big enough for a table and ten chairs. By default it became the conference room.
“Ten minutes. What time did you guys get here? I thought I was early.”
“They were here when I walked in at six-thirty.”
Stallings nodded and padded on toward his desk. He had his own notes to go over and see where he should look next. First he’d like to find Peep Morans and see where that led. Then he would carefully canvass the city neighborhood by neighborhood, talking to former runaways he knew. Once they figured out he wasn’t trying to find new runaways, they opened up and helped him as best they could. So far it hadn’t led to anything significant. But Jacksonville was a big city. In fact, it was the biggest in square miles in the entire United States thanks to some consolidation of government in the sixties when the city and county merged.
He intended to try a couple of unofficial safe houses in the north part of town. He’d work his way out to the outlying communities as he needed to, but he felt he’d find a lead closer to the center of J-Ville.
As he was starting to look up info about Peep Morans on the ancient computer at the edge of his scarred, stained desk, Rita Hester popped her head out of the conference room and motioned him in.
Stallings felt the other detectives watching him as he slowly walked down the center of the room, his shoes sliding on the cheap, thin carpet. Every cop wants to know what’s going on and who knows what, that’s part of their curious nature. They couldn’t hide their jealousy that Stallings was about to find out something they didn’t already know.
Involuntarily, he straightened his shirt and adjusted the pistol he wore exposed on his belt just to annoy Tony Mazzetti. He stepped into the conference room and saw Mazzetti sitting at the lone, long table with photographs of the first victim spread out in front of him.
“Sit down, Stall,” Rita Hester nodded to the seat across from Mazzetti.
“What’s up?”
Mazzetti wiped his bloodshot eyes-apparently he hadn’t taken yesterday off-and said, “I think we’ve identified the first victim. A tip from the TV sketch. We need you to drive down to Bunnell and talk to her aunt to make positive ID.”
“Why me? I thought you guys wanted me talking to runaways.”
Mazzetti looked at him and said slowly and flatly, “You’re good at talking to people. This will be a death notification, and God knows what could happen.”
The lieutenant added, “Take Patty with you. It’ll be good experience. I’ll turn you loose on the city later in the day. The pimps could use a break.” She smiled, but he heard the subtle warning: Don’t take things too far.
William Dremmel had spent the weekend getting his life back in order. Now, as he sat at his Walmart pressboard desk, crammed in what used to be a utility closet at the community college, he felt like things might be back on track. He had no students scheduled to meet with him today, and that was just as well. His right eye had turned from a dark blue to a splotchy yellow from Trina’s well-placed punch. All he had to do was get through today and tomorrow at the school; then he’d have a few days for his face to heal up. The scratches on the left side of his face were mere red lines now, barely visible. He had a good story made up about playing basketball if anyone asked.
He pulled out the thick textbook he used to teach his Biology One class in case someone wandered in his office, but the second book was what he was really studying. It was a compilation of white papers on prescription drugs published by Johns Hopkins University. He also had his own journal out, making notations on his findings so far. He really needed to figure out the right drug combination, available in the pharmacy, that allowed more conscious thought and wakefulness but less activity. He wanted a more listless subject who could still be awake much of the time. Once he had them in the right stasis, he could work on the formula for a maintenance dosage.
Young, wild-looking Trina was a real disappointment. Not only had she behaved like a spoiled child, cost him a night’s worth of sleep, and wrecked his plans for a decent test run, he had a lot of cleaning up to do. He had mopped the floor in the living room, where it looked like she had lost a gallon of blood. Then he wiped down the floor, TV, and table surfaces with Clorox to cover any specks of blood he had missed.