“Wow, such a busy bee, our chief of police,” Vanessa muttered. “Doing everything but his job.”
They had reached interview room three, but before she could open the door, her phone pinged. Checking it quickly, she saw it was a text from Ava.
Working late again tonite. Ok if I sleep over at Katya’s?
Vanessa frowned. She didn’t like Ava working late, not while there was a potential serial killer running around loose at Wonderland, and this was the third time in the past week that Ava would be sleeping over at her friend’s house. “Hang on,” she said to Donnie. “It’s my kid. Go on in, but don’t start without me.”
He disappeared into the room, and she remained in the hallway and texted Ava back. Who else is with you tonight? I don’t want you leaving work alone.
Her daughter’s reply was quick. Supervisor works till close. Katya’s dad is picking us up. Will be lots of people around, don’t worry.
Vanessa supposed that was okay. Jerry, still in town for another couple of days, had volunteered to hang out with John-John until she got home, and he’d picked up the seven-year-old from day camp already. Based on the looks of things, it was going to be a long night with Glenn Hovey. Having Ava over at her friend’s house, where there was parental supervision, was better than leaving her at home by herself. She texted back. Ok, that’s fine. Let me know when you get to Katya’s. You guys have fun. Love you.
Love u 2.
Vanessa put her phone away and pushed the door open to the interview room. Donnie was seated across from Sherry and Glenn Hovey.
“Mr. Hovey, it’s nice to see you finally. We’ve been looking for you,” she said. “Mrs. Hovey, it’s good to see you, too.”
“Can I smoke?” Sherry Hovey didn’t bother to say hello. In her pruned hands was a pack of Marlboros and a pink plastic lighter. She shot Donnie a dirty look. “This numbnut here says I can’t smoke.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, you can’t,” Vanessa said. “But there are designated areas outside. In fact, you don’t even need to be here. It would be better if we could talk to your son alone.”
“I’m not going nowhere. Anything you say to him, you can say in front of me, otherwise we’re calling a lawyer.” She turned back to Donnie. “Can I at least get some coffee?”
“Sorry, we’re fresh out,” the detective said with a smile.
Glenn Hovey looked nothing like the old picture Vanessa had seen in his room earlier that day, nor did he resemble his employee picture, which must have been at least five years old. The Glenn Hovey sitting in front of her was a man of medium height, maybe five nine, with about sixty extra pounds on him, most of which were around his middle. His hair was thinning and his pink scalp was visible beneath the few light brown wisps that remained. He was wearing a beige golf shirt that was too short and too tight, and there was a stain on it right where his belly began to protrude. In the quiet of the interview room, Vanessa could hear a faint wheeze, and thought the man probably had asthma.
Sherry Hovey drummed her nails on the table. “I told Glenny you were here to talk about the Wonder Wheel Kid and Homeless Harry. But he doesn’t know nothing about either.”
Vanessa ignored her. “Where’ve you been the last little while?” she said to Glenn.
“For Christ’s sake, he was in Vegas,” Sherry Hovey said. “That’s where he was arrested. His car is still there. How are we supposed to get it home, by the way? And who’s going to pay for it?”
“Mrs. Hovey, if you want to stay in the room, you will have to be quiet,” Vanessa said firmly. “This is a police investigation and if you interrupt again, I will ask this fine young detective here to call you a taxi.”
The woman opened her mouth to say something again, but her son gave her a look, and she shut it.
“What were you doing in Las Vegas, Mr. Hovey?” Vanessa asked again.
“Playing poker.” Glenn picked a loose thread off his shirt. “Big tournament just off the strip. It’s how I supplement my income.”
“How’d you do this time?”
“Pretty good.” A smiled lifted the man’s chubby cheeks. “Eight thousand.”
“Eight thousand!” Sherry Hovey smacked her son in the stomach, which jiggled, almost comically. “You didn’t tell me that. We can finally buy a new stove.” She extracted a cigarette from her pack. Across from her, Donnie shook his head, and cursing, she put it back.
“I spent some of it.” Glenn shifted away from his mother slightly. “Not sure how much is left.”
“Did you go to Vegas with friends?” Vanessa asked. “Or did you go alone?”
“I went alone. But I hung out with friends.” Glenn’s eyes darted to his mother’s face. “Why?”
“What friends?” Mrs. Hovey said. “You got no friends. And how much money is left?”
“I have friends.” Glenn’s face turned red. “I have lots of friends, Ma. Just because you don’t know them all—”
“I’ll need their first and last names.” Vanessa pulled out her black notebook. “I need to give them a call to verify where you were.”
“How much money is left?” The old woman reached for her cigarettes again, remembered, and pushed the pack away again. “You ran through eight grand in a week?”
“Also, I’ll need addresses,” Vanessa said. “What hotel did you stay at? Did anyone stay with you?”
“I—” Glenn paused, his head turning from his mother to the deputy chief, clearly unsure whom he was supposed to be talking to. He finally settled on Vanessa. “Are their names really necessary?”
“Oh, just tell her.” Sherry Hovey tapped her lighter impatiently on the table. She was trembling all over, clearly fighting off a nicotine craving. “Tell her so she’ll stop asking you questions about the Wonder Wheel Kid. You’re looking for his alibi, right?” she said to Vanessa.
Glenn’s wheezing was a bit louder. “I wasn’t even at the park that night.”
“Yeah, and that’s why you’re gonna get in trouble,” his mother said. “How many shifts have you missed? You know we need you to keep that job.”
“My job’s not in danger, okay, Ma?” Glenn looked back at Vanessa. “I wasn’t at the park when the kid’s body showed up. And I wasn’t there when the other kid climbed the Wonder Wheel.”
“It’s a very long drive to Las Vegas,” Vanessa said. “You must have known you’d be gone awhile. Why didn’t you notify anyone at the park?”
“I got my schedule mixed up.” He scratched his head. “I didn’t know I was working that night.”
“And which hotel did you say you stayed at?” It felt like Vanessa was asking the same questions all over again. “Do you have an invoice, anything to verify you were there? What about food or gas receipts?”
“I didn’t stay at a hotel, I stayed with friends. I didn’t keep any receipts. I didn’t think I needed to.”
“Did you give these people your money?” Sherry Hovey’s prune face darkened. “You don’t need to pay people to be your friends, Glenny—”
“Mrs. Hovey, please,” Vanessa said in frustration. She looked over at Donnie, who seemed both amused and fascinated by the two of them. “I’ll need names. Then we can move on.”
“You better not have spent all the money you won,” the old woman said. “You know we need that new stove. Three out of the four burners don’t work. How am I supposed to cook?”
“You don’t cook. Macaroni and cheese from the box isn’t cooking,” Glenn snapped.
“It’s the only thing I can taste,” his mother snapped back. “The chemo killed my taste buds.”
“It’s not the chemo, it’s the cigarettes.”
“You buy them for me!”
“You nag if I don’t!”
Giving up, Vanessa sat back and crossed her arms. There was no point in interfering. Sherry Hovey was too amped up, and desp
ite the warning Vanessa had given earlier, she couldn’t take the chance that the woman might call her son a lawyer if asked to leave.
“You know we need money for the stove, and instead you’re spending your money on people who are just using you,” Mrs. Hovey said to her son.
“It’s my money and I can spend it how I want.” Glenn’s voice had gotten loud. “You have your disability and dad’s pension, which is more than enough to cover the house.”
“Yeah, my house, and I can decide who lives there.” Sherry Hovey’s voice was equally loud.
“You don’t want me to live there? I don’t have to live there!” Glenn’s voice had gone full hysteria. “I’d be happy to leave, Ma! Then you can have the neighbors drive you to all your appointments—”
“Excuse me,” Vanessa said, but neither Hovey heard her.
“You’re lucky I let you live with me,” Sherry Hovey shrieked.
“Let me? Let me? You couldn’t survive there without me! I pay all the bills!”
“You do not! You pay the cable bill so you can watch your sex movies on Cinemax!”
“I also pay for the Internet—”
“Yeah, so you can watch more sex movies! I don’t use the Internet! I don’t even have email!”
“Well, you should have email! What person in this day and age doesn’t have email?”
“Excuse me!” Vanessa banged her fist onto the table several times. She wondered if anyone else in the department could hear the screaming match, and then wondered how they possibly couldn’t. “Mr. Hovey, we need to stay on topic. I need to know who you were with in Las Vegas—”
“His name is Sergio, okay?” Glenn was addressing Vanessa but still glaring at his mother. “I don’t know his last name.”
Sherry Hovey’s mouth dropped open again. “Sergio?” she said. “Who is this Sergio?”
“Do you have his phone number?” Vanessa said.
“We correspond mainly by email through his website,” Glenn said. “But I do have his number if you want it. And his address. He’s the one I’ve been staying with.”
Sherry Hovey inhaled sharply and smacked him on the stomach again, sending ripples all through his midsection. “Who is this Sergio? Is this man conning you out of your money? I told you a thousand times, Glenny, you’re too trusting—”
“He’s a hustler, Ma,” Glenn said, and Vanessa watched as a look of horror spread across Sherry Hovey’s face. “He’s a prostitute, and I pay him, okay? You happy now?”
“You pay a man for sex?” The old woman placed a hand over her heart, her eyes twice the size they’d been a moment ago. “Oh, Glenny . . . are you gay?”
“Yes.” There was no denying the note of satisfaction in Glenn’s voice. “I’ve told you that before, Ma, but you never listen because you don’t want to hear it.” He looked at Vanessa and Donnie. “I was with Sergio the whole time. You’re welcome to call him. Anything else?”
“Yes, there’s one more thing.” Vanessa went in for the kill. “Why do you have twenty-four Wonderland ID cards in your bedroom, in the basement, in a locked box, inside the wall?”
“I . . .” Completely caught off guard, Glenn looked from Vanessa to his mother, to Donnie, to his mother, and back to Vanessa again. For once, his mother was quiet. She hadn’t been expecting the question, either. “I . . . you found those? I . . . I collect them.”
“You collect them?” Vanessa leaned forward, pushing her notebook aside to give the illusion that there were no barriers between them. “Meaning, you keep them as souvenirs? Are they your victims, Mr. Hovey? Is Aiden Cole one of your victims? Because his ID card was in there, too. Along with Blake Dozier’s. Why do you have Homeless Harry and the Wonder Wheel Kid’s cards? Did you kill them? Did you kill Blake Dozier before you left for Las Vegas?”
“It’s not . . . it’s not like that . . .” Hovey looked around again wildly, but even his mother seemed not to know what to say. “I found the ID cards at the park. They’re just lost cards. Of boys I knew. Of boys I . . . liked.”
“Liked?”
“You know,” he said. “Boys I saw around, and had crushes on.”
“They all looked the same,” Vanessa said. “All the boys are blond, and quite handsome. You have a type?”
“I . . . I call it the ‘Wonderland look.’ ” Glenn Hovey was wheezing louder now. “Boys that look like that always get hired at the park. They’re eye candy for the teenage girls who hang out at the park all summer. I like looking at them, is all.”
“Oh, Glenny,” his mother said in dismay.
“So what you’re saying,” Vanessa said, “is that every single one of those boys just happened to drop their Wonderland ID card somewhere, and you just happened to come along and pick it up? Including the one we know is dead, and the one we know is missing?”
“Well, they . . . they didn’t all lose them. Some of them . . . some of them I might have taken.”
“Because you killed them and wanted a souvenir?”
“No!” Glenn was starting to sweat. His body odor was detectable. Even his mother was wrinkling her nose. “I didn’t kill them. I just . . . wanted something of theirs. If they’re cute, I take their cards. They leave them everywhere, and it’s no big deal, they can get new ones made up, takes five minutes. I don’t even look at their names. If I took Blake’s, it must have been last summer, because I haven’t taken any cards since . . .” He glanced over at his mother. “Since I met Sergio.”
“Come on.” Vanessa let her disgust show. “That’s really your explanation? Do I look stupid to you?”
“It’s the truth.” Glenn’s wheezing was alarming now, and he was fumbling in his pocket. Pulling out an inhaler, he stuck it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. “I see a card, the boy’s cute, I take it.”
“You realize that’s about the lamest, saddest excuse I’ve ever heard, right?” She rolled her eyes. She stood up, and Donnie followed suit. “We have what we need for now. But you’re not going anywhere. We have a lot of calls to make to verify what you’re telling us. Settle in. You’ll be here for a while.”
Glenn and his mother were both quiet as Vanessa and Donnie let themselves out. But as soon as the door shut behind them, the screaming started up again.
“For the love of all that’s holy, what the fuck was that?” Donnie said, his eyes wide.
“That, my friend, is what happens when you live with your mother too long.” Vanessa sighed. “I love my son, but god help me if he’s still at home when he reaches middle age.”
The screaming match grew louder, and then there was the sound of a chair falling over.
“Should we go back in? Make sure they’re okay?”
“Just wait a moment.” Vanessa cocked her head toward the door. A minute later, the screaming subsided. She waved a hand. “They’re fine. They probably do that every day.”
“Do you believe him? Glenn Hovey, savior of lost Wonderland employee ID cards?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said. “His excuse for having them is so pathetic I almost believe him.”
Vanessa checked her phone as she headed back down the hallway to her office. No text yet from Ava, which made sense, as her daughter would still be at work for a couple of hours before going to Katya’s house. But there were no messages from Oscar, either, and she found herself disappointed.
She wondered where he was.
Opening a new message window, she sent Oz a text.
I miss you.
THIRTY-ONE
Bianca’s skill, Uncle Nick liked to say, was that she was exceptionally good at getting people to do what she wanted them to do. She enjoyed the look on Oscar Trejo’s face as her VP of operations took in the sight of her, dressed only in her red silk robe.
“Are you coming in?” she said with a smile.
He hesitated at the door, holdi
ng the reports she’d asked him to pull together. His gaze was feasting on all the parts of her that weren’t covered by the robe. It had been awhile since he’d seen her in it—well over a year, in fact—but his gaze told her that he remembered exactly what the red silk robe signified, and that she never, ever wore anything at all underneath it.
Bianca knew she looked beautiful. Her long red hair, normally in a bun during the day, hung to the small of her back. Very few people ever got to see her with her hair down—it was a privilege she reserved only for the special ones. Her feet were bare, her toenails painted a fresh coat of red. They matched the silk robe she was wearing.
“I thought you wanted to discuss business.” The hitch in Oscar’s breath was unmistakable.
“We will,” she said. “But I’ve missed you. Things have been so distant between us this past year. It’s time we reconnected.”
“B, I thought I made it clear—”
“I know,” she said. “You’re seeing someone. Well, so am I. That’s never mattered before. Right here, in this moment, it’s just and you me. Nobody else exists.”
“Bianca . . .” The words caught in his throat as she loosened her robe. His eyes went straight to the sliver of skin between her breasts, now exposed.
“Remember the first time we made love?” She stepped back so he could take her all in. “It was the night of my twenty-eighth birthday. I came to you because I was sad and scared and alone, and you did everything you could to make me feel better. You’ve always taken care of me, Oz.”
“That’s not my job anymore.”
“You’ve always made me feel safe,” she said. “That’s why I always come back to you.”
Her robe fell open all the way, revealing her nakedness. She allowed the slippery silk to fall off her shoulders. One of her hands went to her breast, and she fondled her nipple, already hard. The other hand slipped between her thighs, where she touched herself lightly.
“I’ve missed you so much, Oz. There are things you do to me that no one else has ever done. You’re the only real man in my life now. You know that, don’t you? You’re the only one who counts.” She brought her fingers to her lips.