Chapter 97
THE NEXT DAY, Jenks asked to meet again. Jill and I went to see him on the tenth floor. We wondered what was up. This time, there was no cat and mouse, no bullshit at all. Leff was there, but he rose, humbly, as soon as we came in. Jenks looked far less threatening in his gray prison garb. The worried look on his face was a clear message. "My client wants to make a statement," Leff announced as soon as we sat down. I was thinking, This is it. He wants to make a deal. He's seen how ridiculous it is to play this game. But he came out with something unexpected. "I'm being framed!" Jenks announced angrily. It took about a half second for Jill's glance to bump into mine. "I have to hear this again," she said. "What's going on?" She looked at Jenks, then at Leff. "We've got your client tied to all three crime scenes; we've got him in Cleveland at the time of the last murder; we've got him lying about a prior relationship with Kathy Kogut, one of the last victims; we've got his book detailing an astonishingly similar criminal pattern; we've got his facial hairs matched to one found in another victim's vagina. And you're claiming he's being framed?" "What I'm claiming," Jenks said, ashen faced, "is that I'm being set up." "Listen, Mr. Jenks," Jill said, still looking at Leff, "I've been doing this eight years. I've built cases on hundreds of criminals, put over fifty murderers behind bars myself. I've never seen such a preponderance of evidence implicating a suspect. Our case is so airtight it can't breathe." "I realize that." Jenks sighed. "And that I've given you every reason to find my plea implausible. I've lied about being in Cleveland, my relationship with Kathy. On the others, I can't even account for my whereabouts. But I also know setups. I've mapped out more of them than anybody. I'm a master at this. And I assure you, someone is setting me up." I shook my head with disbelief. "Who, Mr. Jenks?" Jenks sucked in a long breath. He actually looked scared. "I don't know." "Someone hates you enough to set all this up?" Jill couldn't hold back a snicker. "The little I know of you, I might buy that." She turned to Leff. "You looking forward to presenting this case?" "Just hear him out, Ms. Bernhardt," the lawyer pleaded. "Look," Jenks said, "I know what you think of me. I'm guilty of many things. Selfishness, cruelty, adultery. I have a temper; sometimes I can't hold it in. And with women… you can probably line up a dozen of them who would help put me away for these murders. But clear as that is, I did not kill these people. Any of them. Someone is trying to set me up. That's the truth. Someone has done a brilliant job."
Chapter 98
"YOU BUY ANY OF THAT SHIT?" Jill smirked at me as we waited for the elevator outside Jenks's holding cell. "I might buy that he somehow believes it," I told her. "Give me a break. He'd be better off going for insanity. If Nicholas Jenks wants to narrow down a list of people who might want to set him up, he might as well start with anyone he ever fucked." I laughed, agreeing that the list would be long. Then the elevator door opened and, to my surprise, out walked Chessy Jenks. She was dressed in a long, taupe summer dress. I immediately noticed how pretty she was. Our eyes met in an awkward, silent moment. I had just arrested her husband. My crime-scene team had ripped apart her house. She would have every reason to look at me with complete disdain- but she didn't. "I'm here to see my husband," she said in a shaky voice. I stiffly introduced her to Jill, then I pointed her to the visiting area. At that moment, she seemed about as alone and confused as anyone I had ever seen. "Sherman tells me there's a lot of evidence," she said. I nodded politely. I don't know why I felt something for her, other than she seemed a young, vulnerable woman whose fate had been to fall in love with a monster. "Nick didn't do this, Inspector," Chessy Jenks said. Her outburst surprised me. "It's only natural for a wife to want to defend her husband," I acknowledged. "If you have some concrete alibi…" She shook her head. "No alibi. Only that I know my husband." The elevator door had closed, and Jill and I stood there waiting again. As in hospitals, it would take minutes for it to go down and come back up. Chessy Jenks didn't make a move to walk away. "My husband's not a simple man. He can be very tough. I know he's made enemies. I know how he came at you. From the outside, it must be very hard to believe this, but there are times when he's also capable of tenderness, incredible generosity, and love." "I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, Ms. Jenks," Jill stepped in, "but under the circumstances you really shouldn't be talking with us." "I have nothing to hide," she came back. Then she looked downcast. "I already know what you know." I was dumbfounded. I already know what you know? "I spoke with Joanna," Chessy Jenks continued. "She told me you'd been by. I know what she told you about him. She's bitter. She's got every right to be. But she doesn't know Nick like I do." "You should review the evidence, Ms. Jenks," I told her. She shook her head. "Guns… maybe, Inspector. If that's all there was. But a knife. That first murder. Slicing that poor couple to bits. Nick can't even fillet a fish." My first thought was that she was young and deluded. How had Jenks described it? Impressionable… but something struck me as curious. "You said that you and Joanna talk?" "We have. A lot more in the past year. I've even had her over. When Nick was away, of course. I know she was bitter after the divorce. I know he hurt her. But it's sort of our own support group." "Your husband knew about this?" I asked. She forced a smile. "He didn't even mind. He still likes Joanna. And, Inspector, she's still in love with him." The elevator returned and we said good-bye. As the door closed, I looked at Jill. Her eyes were wide and her tongue was puffing out her cheek. "Whole fucking family gives me the creeps," she said with a shudder.
Chapter 99
I KNEW IT the minute Medved walked in the office. I saw it in his face. He didn't have to say a word "I'm afraid I can't be very positive, Lindsay," he said, meeting my eyes. "Your red count continues to decline. The dizzy spells, the fatigue, blood in your chest. The disease is progressing." "Progressing?" Medved nodded soberly. "Stage three." The words thundered in my head, bringing with them the fear of the increased treatments I dreaded. "What's the next step?" I asked weakly. "We can give it one more month," Medved said. "Your count's twenty-four hundred. If it continues to decline, your strength will start to go. You'll have to be hospitalized." I could hardly comprehend what he was saying; it was all crashing in my brain so fast. A month. That's too close. Too fast. Things were just starting to work out now that Jenks had been arrested. Everything else, everything I wanted to hold on to, was resolving, too. A month-four lousy weeks. When I got back to the office, a few of the guys were standing around grinning at me. There was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk. Wildflowers. I smelled them, taking in the sweet, natural scent. I read the card. There's a hill of these where I have a cabin up at Heavenly. Tomorrow's Friday. Take the day off. Let's go there. It was signed Chris. It sounded like what I needed. The mountains. Chris. I would have to tell him, now that the truth would come clear soon. My phone rang. It was Chris. "So?" No doubt someone in the office, playing cupid, had alerted him that I was back. "Haven't opened your card yet." I bit my lip. "Too many others to sort through." I heard a disappointed sigh, let it linger just a moment. "But on the chance you were asking me away, the answer is, I'd love to. It sounds great. Let's be on the road by eight." "Late riser," he said. "I was hoping we'd beat the morning rush." "I was talking tonight." I had a month. I was thinking, Mountain air, running streams, and wildflowers is a good way to begin.