Hot Blooded

  "I might have the Cliff's Notes," Montoya admitted, and when Bentz started to smile, "Hey, I had a lot of shit to get through in college. So I used the notes and the Internet. It saved me a bundle on books."

  Bentz dusted his hands and reached for his coffee cup. "You said somethin' was botherin' you."

  "Yeah. I've been tryin' to track down the two guys from Houston—Annie Seger's boyfriend and her brother. They're both supposed to live around here, right—one in White Castle, the other in Baton Rouge? Both have jobs and they're both AWOL. Missing in action. Why?" He took another swallow from the alcohol-free beer and made a face. "I hate to say it, but I'm startin' to buy into Wheeler's theory that it has something to do with Annie Seger's death. Maybe she didn't commit suicide."

  "You think John killed her?"

  "Yeah," Montoya said, "and I think he's either Kent Seger or Ryan Zimmerman."

  "Okay, then what about motive?" Bentz flashed him a mirthless smile. "And don't try to sell me that it's all about money, cuz I'm not buyin'."

  "Me neither. Not this time. But there's something we don't know about Annie Seger," Montoya said, then drained his bottle and set it on the table near the tub of glittering rosary beads, "but we damned well better find out." He climbed to his feet and asked, "Where the hell are Zimmerman and Seger?"

  "Good question." One Bentz couldn't answer. Yet.

  "I've got a bad feelin' about this."

  "Just now?" Bentz snorted. "I've had a bad feelin' all along."

  Voice mail picked up. Ty didn't even get a chance to talk to Estelle Faraday. He just had to leave a damned message. Again. "Estelle, this is Ty Wheeler. I've talked to the police here in New Orleans and given them all the information I have. If you haven't put two and two together yet, it looks like the serial killer here is somehow tied to Annie's death. Family secrets be damned, Estelle. People are dying. If you know anything about this and are holding back evidence, you're guilty, and the police will charge you with the appropriate crimes. This is serious. You can either talk to me or the New Orleans Police Department, but if another woman dies, I will personally hold you responsible. You've got my number." He slammed the receiver down and walked into his living room. He'd dropped Sam off at the station an hour earlier, and her program was due to hit the airwaves in an hour.

  He nipped on the radio, listening to the tail end of Gator Brown's program. Hot jazz flowed through the speakers, the kind of music that wound Ty up rather than calmed him down. But, then, tonight he was restless. On edge. Feeling the electricity of the storm rolling in. He checked his watch. Navarrone was supposed to meet him, share information with him.

  But he hadn't shown up yet. Not that Ty was worried about him. Navarrone was a creature of darkness, felt more comfortable in the camouflage of the night after years of working with the CIA.

  Whistling to his dog, Ty walked outside, felt the wind kicking up and watched the Bright Angel bob against her moorings. The moon was blocked by clouds, and the heat was oppressive. Muggy. He felt as if he was wearing a second thick, damp skin.

  He thought about John, lurking somewhere in the depths of the city. Waiting. Ready to pounce.

  So where are you, you son of a bitch, Ty wondered, as Sasquatch sniffed around the shrubbery. And what the hell are you doing tonight?

  Estelle Faraday sat by the pool in the darkness. The water glowed a bright aquamarine, compliments of a single, flat submerged bulb. A tall, glass pitcher of cosmopolitans was sweating on the table and her stemmed glass, nearly drained of the pink concoction she'd claimed as her most recent favorite drink, was in one hand. It tasted more bitter than usual, tainted, but she didn't care. What possibly could be wrong with vodka? Sipping her drink, she tried to drive the demons from her head.

  But they were still there, relentless, clawing and screaming at her brain.

  She'd feared it would come to this, prayed that her worries were ill founded, but she knew now they weren't. Ty Wheeler's urgent messages on her voice mail convinced her. He wasn't going to give up. She'd suspected as much when he'd shown up here in Houston. Even so, she'd threatened him, foolishly hoping that he'd back off.

  Instead, he'd called her bluff.

  But then, he hadn't been the first.

  Oh, she'd been so naive, she thought as the night closed in and she remembered her daughter—bright, beautiful, and attracted to the wrong kind of boys… not just the wrong kind, but boys she should never have been with.

  And she'd gotten pregnant by one. It seemed a legacy in this family, a damning genetic flaw she'd passed on to her daughter.

  Tears of regret and shame filled Estelle's eyes. She sipped her bitter drink, and when the glass was drained, poured another and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. No one was home. She was alone. Again. Even the maid had taken the night off to be with her children and grandchildren.

  Dear God, how had she ended up alone? she wondered fuzzily. She'd had it all when she was younger. Good looks, money and a future as bright as a newly minted silver dollar. But she'd been headstrong and wanted to show her snobby parents she could make her own decisions.

  She'd never loved Wally. She knew that now. She'd probably known it then, but he was a good-looking, witty boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Never mind that he hadn't gone to Yale or Harvard or even Stanford, oh, no, he hadn't even taken night courses at the local junior college. He'd been raw and wild and spent all his time working on motorcycles. But, in the beginning, he'd been kind to her at a time when kindness was as rare as a torrent in the desert.

  Estelle had found Wally deliciously different. Her parents had been horrified. She'd never intended to marry him, of course, but circumstances had changed her goals.

  "Don't kiss boys, Estelle," her mother had warned her often enough when Estelle started high school. "It's the devil's doing. Remember there are only two types of girls— bad and good. You'll never have any self-respect if you do any of those nasty things. Trust me. Be a good girl. You'll never regret it."

  But Estelle kissed plenty of boys and nothing bad had happened. In fact she'd liked kissing, especially when a boy pressed his tongue into her mouth. Oh, how she'd replayed those intimate kisses over and over in her mind. Though she'd felt a little naughty when her dates had progressed and boys had pawed at her, worming their fingers into her bra cups and stroking her breasts, she'd also liked the feel of her blood running hot, of that darkness between her legs aching. And when a boy had reached beneath her skirts and panties and touched her in that private spot, she'd tingled and gotten moist and wanted more. She'd acted like an animal, gasping and grinding her hips and wanting. She'd read about passion for years, hiding under the covers with a flashlight and feeling her face heat while between her legs she'd felt that funny, achy feeling that left her yearning for more and finally, as she began making out with boys, she realized there was a way to assuage that need.

  So when she began to experiment and allowed a boy— after the fifth or sixth date and promises of love, of course— to touch her, she'd known it was a sin, one she couldn't really confess to the priest, but she couldn't stop herself. She enjoyed it, craved it, thought depraved thoughts about it and wanted it all the more. Unlike her mother's dire predictions, the boys were so attentive, so eager to kiss and touch her, so ready to tell her how beautiful she was, how they loved her.

  Stupidly she'd believed them.

  She'd lost her virginity at sixteen to a boy her mother had thought was the perfect match and afterwards, he'd never taken her out again, never called, and bragged to his friends about his conquest. Her mother had continually asked about Vincent, what had become of him, why she wasn't going out with him and she'd felt the first realization of what her mother had professed.

  From then on, every boy wanted to do it with her. When she'd rebuffed them, they'd gotten angry, reminding her that she'd spread her legs for Vincent Miller.

  In some respects Estelle had enjoyed scandalizing her mother. Until she'd relented and done i
t with a boy she really liked and turned up pregnant. Abortion was out of the question, and as she was a minor, she'd let her mother talk her into lying about "taking a semester abroad at a private school" when in reality she only went as far as Austin, where she gave the baby up for adoption.

  "It's the kindest thing," her mother had insisted, and Estelle had made the single biggest mistake of her life. She'd gone away, had the boy, and watched as the doctor who'd delivered her firstborn had regarded her with cold, judgmental eyes and handed the squalling infant to a nurse who had whisked him away.

  Foolishly Estelle had blamed her mother and upon returning to Houston found Oswald Seger. At least Wally had been kind. Considered her feelings. Hadn't pushed her, and when they had finally gone all the way, he'd called the next day and sent her a single red rose that she still remembered.

  Wally had exhibited a romantic side, along with his love for all things mechanical, and as soon as she was eighteen, they'd eloped.

  Kent had been born ten months later, Annie in the next couple of years. Her horrified parents had cut her off, only to reclaim her at the birth of their grandson. And the rest, as they say, had been history, a history she'd rather forget. She realized when the kids were little that she'd never be happy with an oil worker for a husband, that Wally's fascination with motorcycles and boats was coupled with his inability to balance a checkbook or save a nickel.

  Fortunately she'd met Jason Faraday… well, she'd thought it was fortunate at the time. Now, as she finished her third cosmo and the alcohol seeped into her system, she wasn't so certain. There were other secrets, ones she'd never looked at too closely, ones that haunted her days as well as her nights. She couldn't survive another scandal… there had been far too many.

  Head spinning, she gazed at the pool. Into its clear liquid depths. Into the aquamarine seduction of the smooth water. Nearby stood the statue of the Virgin. Pale in the thickening dusk, her arms spread wide, welcoming, inviting.

  Tears slid down Estelle's cheeks as she finished the pitcher, downing the last of the liquor in one long, biting swallow. She stood and her knees buckled slightly. Her head spun, but she knew what she had to do as she approached the edge of the pool. She thought of those people she'd loved, oh, so foolishly; those she'd lost. All her children. They were gone to her. She'd given them all away, in one form or another, and one had become a horrible monster. What kind of mother are you?

  She kicked off her sandals, then wove her way around the pool to the deep end where the light was the brightest. God the drinks had been strong… almost as if they'd been doctored, but that was impossible.

  Unless… no… her last visitor wouldn't have put anything into the bottle of Absolut. Of course not. Not that it mattered. Not now. Her toes curled over the warm tile lip. She teetered, held steady a second, her mind blurry. Her unsteady gaze fastened on the statue of Mary—Holy Mother—Blessed Virgin. "Forgive me," Estelle whispered, then closed her eyes and fell forward.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  "What do you mean, Melanie's not showing up?" Sam demanded as she made her way to the booth later that same night. She'd spent the day going over the minutiae of Annie Seger's life and had found no further clues to figure out who John was. Aside from the police department, Ty's associate, the never-seen Andre Navarrone, was also trying to piece together the puzzle. Before the killer struck again.

  "Just what I told ya," Tiny said, with a shrug. "Melanie's not coming back. Ever. She got real mad today and stormed into Eleanor's office and quit. Eleanor's fit to be tied because Melanie didn't even give her two weeks' notice." He offered a sloppy smile. "Go figure."

  "What about the policewoman?"

  "She'll be here, I think, but until then, it's just you and me, babe."

  "Babe?" Sam repeated, her nerves already past the fraying point. She whirled on Tiny, and it was all she could do to keep her voice level. "Did you call me babe? Listen, Tiny, I want you to do me a favor, okay? Don't ever call me 'babe' or 'chick' or 'broad' or any other of those derogatory male terms again."

  "Geez, I meant it as a compliment."

  "Well, geez, it's not one, okay?" she snapped, then noticed the wounded look in his eyes and felt immediate remorse. "Oooh, guess I'm a little more stressed-out than I realized. Sorry. You just hit a hot button with me."

  "Yeah, well, I won't do it again," he said, obviously still smarting as he headed into the booth beside hers. Sam glanced at her watch and figured she had just enough time to call Melanie and point out that she was needed before she was on the air. Rather than disturb the setup in her booth, she found a free phone at Melba's desk, dialed and waited, looking over the various and grotesque objects d'art backlit by wavering neon.

  "Come on, come on," she said, glancing at her watch again. Melanie's answering machine picked up. "Hi, I'm out… you know the drill, leave a message after the tone."

  The machine beeped.

  "Melanie? Melanie… are you there? It's Sam. Come on and pick up, would ya? We could use some help down here. Please. Melanie? Melanie…"

  The receiver was picked up.

  "Mel—"

  Then it was slammed down.

  Samantha jumped and decided it was no use. Melanie was ticked, and there was no changing her mind. Not tonight. Obviously she had a point to make. Hurrying back to the booth, Sam nearly collided with the policewoman, Dorothy, carrying a paper cup of coffee as she rounded a corner.

  "Oops…" She managed not to slosh. "Years of practice," she explained, then added, "I heard we're on our own tonight."

  "So I've been told." Sam had reached her booth and was opening the door. She glanced into the neighboring area and saw Tiny already at his desk, headphones in place.

  "Don't worry about it," Dorothy said as she held her cup in one hand and opened the door to the booth with the other. "I know the drill, and between you, me and Tiny, we'll do fine."

  "I hope so," Sam said, wishing Melanie weren't so mercurial and stubborn. Despite her flaws, Melanie was always interesting, usually upbeat, and forever hatching one ambitious plan after another. That was her problem, Sam thought, the girl was too ambitious for her own good.

  As soon as she closed the door of her booth behind her, Sam shoved all lingering thoughts of Melanie aside. She had work to do. And a plan. One she hadn't shared with Ty or Eleanor or the police, one she wouldn't try unless she felt safe. But she was convinced that nothing could happen to her. Ty drove her to and from the station, the house was locked, the alarm in place, and here at work, the security guard and police were everywhere.

  But she had to reach John, to help the police catch him before he found his next victim.

  Adjusting the mike and headset, she double-checked the sound levels and made sure the computer display was working properly. At a signal from Tiny in the adjoining booth, she heard the intro music and waited until the last words faded. Then she leaned into the microphone. "Good evening, New Orleans, this is Dr. Sam with Midnight Confessions, a talk show as good for the heart as it is for the soul. Tonight we're going to talk about sacrifices," she said, the topic she thought would most compel John to call. "We all make them. Every day. Usually for a person we love, or the boss, or for something we want. It's all a part of life. But sometimes we feel that we sacrifice too much, that we give and give and give, and it's not appreciated, never enough." Already the lights on the console were flashing. One, two, three and four, blinking as she talked. From the corner of her eye she saw Tiny and the policewoman, talking, nodding, screening the calls. The first name appeared on the screen. Arlene.

  Sam punched the line. "This is Dr. Sam," she said. "Who's this?"

  "Hi. I'm Arlene."

  "Welcome to the show, Arlene. I assume you called in because you have some personal experience with or an observation about sacrifice."

  "Yes, yes. That I do. I'm a mother of three children…" Arlene started expounding about giving everything for her kids and unconditional love while Sam read the other names leaping on
the screen. Mandy was on two, Alan on three, Jennifer on four. The show was half over. So far John hadn't taken the bait.

  Sam hoped it was only a matter of time.

  "You want me to pretend to be Dr. Sam?" Melanie asked and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. Still angry over what had happened at the station, she'd already downed two glasses of wine in rapid succession and now was standing in the kitchen alcove of her studio apartment, slicing limes and mixing drinks. Her boyfriend, dressed in black jeans, matching T-shirt and bulky leather jacket was pacing from one end of the room to the other. He seemed nervous tonight and that same little tingle of excitement that she always experienced around him was heightened tonight She didn't know a lot about him but considered him the ultimate bad-boy, an irreverent man who didn't give a damn about what people thought or social convention.

  The Chardonnay was having some effect She was less tense, her muscles melting a bit, the knife a little awkward in her usually deft fingers.

  "I think it would be an interesting game," he said, looking through her window and adjusting the shades for more privacy.

  "Oh, I forgot you're into games."

  "Isn't everyone?"

  "No… not really." She squeezed some lime juice into a couple of old-fashioned glasses already swimming with gin and tonic water. "You know, you can ditch the shades. It's night."

  "My eyes are giving me trouble again."

  "Oh." She kept forgetting that he had some condition that didn't allow his pupils to dilate properly and he was always trying to filter out excessive light. But here, in the apartment, she'd turned down all the lamps and only a few candles burned. "Whatever you want." She was in no mood to argue. In fact she was starting to mellow out and she thought what might really help was a long night of lovemaking. Sneaking a surreptitious glance at her daybed, she imagined him naked with her, driving into her in that same furious way he had in Sam's bed weeks ago.