A blond man walked in the room, saw her, and froze. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”
Patty knew the look of someone trying to ask who she was without actually asking.
She smiled and said, “I’m Detective Levine from JSO.” She held out her hand, asking his name without really asking.
He took it and shook it briefly, keeping eye contact with her.
She had to say, “And you are?”
“Oh, sorry, William. William Dremmel.”
“And what’s your job around here?”
“I’m a stock…I do a little of everything. If you have any questions I can probably answer them.”
“Notice any Oxycontin or other narcotics missing?”
“Not really.”
“Anyone suspicious hanging around or asking questions about drug interactions.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Have you seen the photo of the missing girl on TV, Stacey Hines?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Have you seen her in here before?”
“I’ll have to look at her photo again.”
There was something about this guy that set off an alarm deep in Patty’s head. It wasn’t his answers so much as his demeanor. He looked like a nervous guy trying to act cool. She’d make a note of him and his name later.
The man said, “I have to get a few things in here, then head back out to the floor. Do you need anything else?”
She shook her head and purposely returned her attention to the inventory sheets. She didn’t want to telegraph that he had caught her professional interest. He rummaged around on the side of the room, grabbed a box of diapers, and left without another word.
She finished up, talked to the pharmacist for a moment, got on her phone to the office, then headed back out to her car. The clerk had just jumped onto her radar. She’d check him out and see if anything moved him up the ladder to a real “person of interest.” Right now it was just a creepy feeling he gave her.
She didn’t even have to write down his name. It was lodged in her memory: William Dremmel.
William Dremmel was as excited as he’d ever been in his entire life. He’d set up a second bed in his lab. Stacey’s eyes followed him, but she never said a word as he laid a single mattress on the floor opposite her in the small room. He hastily installed eyebolts in studs in each wall, just like Stacey’s restraints. He had a second set of cuffs in his own bedroom. He gave her a smile and wink but no explanation as he left the room.
At his computer in his bedroom he looked up everything he could on the little Denny’s waitress who had said her name was Maggie Gilson. He found a Margaret Gilson with a criminal record, entered a hacker’s site, and discovered Little Miss Innocent had a past for shoplifting, but all three cases had been dismissed. Retailers never followed through if the thief paid off the bill. She was twenty years old but didn’t have any utilities in her name. He’d make her his next project. Just the idea of having someone new to learn about excited him. His erection threatened to rip his pants as he found little nuggets of information about the cute girl.
When he had searched databases enough he swiveled in his seat and picked up the three sheets of paper he had managed to slip from the battered gray metal case that Detective Patricia Levine had carried into the pharmacy. This was so easy he didn’t need to look in the computer. Her schedule, in great detail, was on one page and phone numbers and notes on the others. An envelope with an unpaid water bill was stuck to the last page. It listed her address. Sweet.
Although he didn’t have to dig too deep for information on Detective Patricia Levine, it was still exciting to learn about her without her knowledge. He’d noticed her look at him in a certain way that could mean problems. He had so much to do he wondered what to do first. Clearly he had to act if she started to investigate him. But Lori and her knowledge of Stacey Hines gave him a different worry. Either way he liked these kinds of challenges and knew he could stay one step ahead of the cops on this.
Thirty-six
John Stallings took several seconds to ease the front door of his home shut. The lock clicking sounded like a cymbal in the silent house. He didn’t want to wake anyone, and he was so tired that just standing still at the door almost caused him to doze off. Not only was he exhausted by a day of following up leads and ideas that Peep Morans and Ernie had given him about narcotics dealers who specialized in prescription drugs, but he had a raging headache from lack of food and he was just too tired to eat.
He turned to head straight to his bedroom and noticed Charlie sound asleep on the living room couch. He snored lightly with his body twisted in an odd position that only a kid could sleep in.
Stallings felt a smile wash over his face despite his exhaustion as he bent to pick up the boy and carry him to his room. As he bent down he heard Lauren entering the living room from the kitchen.
“Hey Dad. Where’ve you been?”
“Work.”
“I tried to call.”
“My phone ran out of juice before me. Why? What’s wrong?” He no longer had time to be eased into bad news.
“Just worried, that’s all. Aunt Helen is here.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” It was a question he had asked too often.
“She came by and hung out this evening.” Lauren looked over her shoulder toward the kitchen as if to prove she wasn’t hallucinating about his sister visiting. Then she said, “Dad, you look really beat. Is the case going okay?”
He looked at his thirteen-year-old in a new light. In that moment, this beautiful young girl had done everything she could to assume many of Maria’s roles. She showed interest in his life outside the house, she helped her brother with his homework, gave pep talks to Stallings, often cleaned the house, and always made sure she knew where everyone in the family was. The last thing Stallings wanted was to have another daughter robbed of her childhood. The simple question about the Bag Man case made him hesitate. He didn’t want to suck his daughter into his obsession with this killer. He didn’t even want her to know how far outside the law he’d already gone to gain any information possible. What the hell was he doing in homicide anyway when he had these wonderful kids at home worried about him? Then he thought about Lee Ann Moffit, Tawny Wallace, Trina Ester, and now Stacey Hines and knew why he was on the case. Jeanie. He blew it with his own daughter, but knew he might be able to help someone else’s daughter or at least avenge them. That wasn’t why he started police work, but he was wondering if that was how he’d end his career.
He stepped across the room without answering Lauren and scooped her up in a tight hug. Her spindly, awkward teenage arms wrapped around him as well. As he stood there holding his surprisingly tall daughter, Helen stepped into the room from the kitchen.
Stallings released Lauren. “What’s up, Helen?”
“Just wanted to see the kids. Is that okay?”
His years on the street taught him to read people even though he tried not to use his unique abilities on his own family. Now the sense that there was more to his sister’s visit was overwhelming.
He smiled to put her at ease, then said, “It’s fine with me. Did you get to see Maria, too?”
The hesitation in his sister, her pretty face frozen as she formulated an answer, told him everything he needed to know. He turned abruptly and started quick-stepping for the master bedroom. Behind him he heard Helen call out, “Wait, Johnnie.”
But he was on a mission to find out the truth, and as soon as he opened the bedroom door and Maria sluggishly turned in bed and gave him that familiar grin and sleepy-eyed look he knew what had happened to draw Helen to his house, where she had felt unwelcome since Jeanie disappeared.
Maria gave a breezy, “Well, hello there,” as he moved to the bed and immediately noticed her dilated pupils even with the bright bed stand lamps both burning brightly.