In Your Name, page 18
‘This is getting out of hand. What were you doing at Crimson Lake this morning?’
‘I told you at the time, I was out for a walk and being curious.’
Moran shook her head and gestured to the barman, ‘Two more please.’
Lucas scowled and went to leave.
‘This is about Mechanic, right?’
Lucas stopped and reached for the remainder of his drink. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I think I do, Lucas.’
‘No you don’t, Detective. Mechanic is gone, probably dead. You can read it in the case notes.’
Moran reached down and swung a heavy bag onto the bar. It contained several buff-coloured folders.
‘I have,’ she said.
Lucas stared at the files as new drinks were slid in front of them on paper coasters.
‘I spoke with your boss, Hastings.’ She dropped the sentence like a grenade in his lap.
‘You did what?’
‘Yup, he sure likes to talk. I told him we could use his help because we might have a copycat killer similar to Mechanic. His office sent me a whole load of useful material.’ She patted the bag and smiled.
Lucas gulped hard on his second drink.
‘This is outrageous, I’ll have you—’
‘Yes, I’m sure you will. Then there are these.’
Moran pulled a wad of newspapers from a second bag and thumped them down in front of Lucas. Certain pages were marked with yellow Post-its. Moran flicked them over.
‘So here’s the first ad: MECHANIC WANTED IN EXCHANGE FOR PRECIOUS POSSESSION. Then another: MECHANIC TO ATTEND CENTENNIAL PARK, PRECIOUS POSSESSION IS SAFE, COMPLY TO AVOID DAMAGE. Then PRECIOUS POSSESSION IS BROKEN. And so on and so on. Do I need to read them all?’
‘So what?’ Lucas stared into the middle distance slurping his drink.
‘That’s what I thought until I found this one.’ She folded the paper over so only the ad was visible.
YOUR PRECIOUS POSSESSION IS SAFE
IT WILL BE RETURNED IN EXCHANGE FOR YOU
BUY THIS PAPER AND AWAIT INSTRUCTION
Moran stabbed her finger at the advert.
‘Then it all began to make sense.’
‘I don’t know why you’re showing me this shit.’
Moran allowed the silence to drift between them.
‘Do you know what the key to all this is?’ She waved her hand across the files and the papers.
Lucas said nothing.
‘The precious possession. Now what do you think that could be, Lucas?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ His standard response was wearing thin.
‘If I put all this together,’ she patted the stacks of newspapers and files, ‘and throw you, Harper and Bassano into the mix, I come to one conclusion.’
Lucas waited, his stomach churning.
‘The precious possession is Dr Jo Sells and you have her held somewhere.’
‘That’s absolute horseshit and you know it.’
‘I don’t think it is, Lucas. You snatched Jo in order to flush Mechanic out into the open. Only she didn’t play ball did she? And that’s why we are stacking up the bodies in the morgue. “In Your Name”, Lucas, that’s what it says. It’s written here in the newspapers and scrawled on the walls in blood. And here is the clincher. If I follow the chronology I reckon Mechanic posted this ad in the paper after you took her sister.’ Moran forced the page under Lucas’s nose. It read:
PUT HER BACK
‘That’s right isn’t it? You snatched Jo, and Mechanic started her latest killing spree until you return her sister. “Put her back or I continue filling body bags in your name.” That’s what she’s telling you. Those poor people are on a slab because of you.’
Lucas stared into his drink, unable to respond.
‘I can’t figure how you knew Mechanic was in Vegas. But then in the scheme of things it doesn’t matter. You’re here, Mechanic is here and her sister Jo is here, somewhere.’
Lucas drained his glass.
‘Are you going to talk to me, Lucas?’
‘I still don’t know what you mean. This is crap and you know it. You’re overreaching yourself, Detective, and it’s beginning to piss me off.’ He had no option but to go on the offensive.
‘Save the bullshit for your disciplinary hearing.’
‘This is circumstantial crap. It proves nothing. It’s nothing but a bunch of adverts which happen to include my name and the name of a probably dead serial killer, plus some writing on a hotel wall. None of this would stand up, none of it.’ Even as he said it Lucas had to admit it was a shitload of circumstantial.
Moran leaned forward and beckoned Lucas to do the same.
‘I’m going make this really simple. Here’s the deal. I keep this off the grid and in return you give me Mechanic. If I declare this to my chief, I’ll be taken off the case as fast as you can say new starter. I’m three streets smarter than anyone else I work with and this one is mine.’
Lucas started to make another lame protest, but Moran put her hand up and stopped him.
‘The alternative is I go to my chief and see what he makes of it all. Maybe he doesn’t share my vivid imagination and it will all blow over, or maybe he’ll put two and two together and haul your sorry asses into the station. What do you think?’
Lucas looked at the stack of paper and back at Moran.
‘You give me Mechanic and I give you a way out. Otherwise I sink you so deep they won’t even bother with your disciplinary.’
Even for a black guy Lucas was beginning to look a little pale.
‘The first thing to do is give her back before more people die,’ Moran said.
Lucas spun his empty glass on the bar.
‘I need to talk to some people,’ he replied.
‘Yes you do, Lucas. But remember we don’t have much time if we are to avoid another early morning wake-up call with ambulances.’
45
Bassano pressed the button on the tail lift and the wheelchair lowered to the ground. Jo sat bolt upright staring straight ahead.
The drive to Victorville had been easy with very little traffic. Lucas went with him to share the driving, however, the seven-hour round trip had taken its toll on both of them. Most of the journey they sat in silence – after all they only had one topic of conversation and that one had been talked to death. The key thing now was to pick up Jo and return her to the Huxtons.
The nursing home was put out by the unexpected nature of Lucas’s call. They normally required twenty-four hours’ notice to discharge a patient early and were pretty shitty when Lucas said he was not prepared to pay the cancellation fee for the remaining days. He would be there in three hours and they better have her ready to go.
They took the precaution of dropping Lucas off before they got to the home. It was Bassano who took her there so it should be him doing the collection. Similarly, Lucas went back to the hotel when they reached Vegas because Bassano needed to do the Huxton trip on his own.
The gravel crunched under the weight of the chair as Bassano approached the house and Jenny-Jay Huxton spotted them through the living room window.
‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,’ she chanted as she ran to them. ‘I didn’t think you’d be back for a little while yet. What a lovely surprise.’
Bassano retrieved a clipboard from the front seat to make himself look official.
‘How come you’re back so early?’ Bassano was going to respond then realised she was talking to Jo.
‘Did you have a lovely time? We missed you while you were gone,’ Jenny-Jay continued chatting to Jo. ‘Mary-Jay has not shut up since you left. She’ll be delighted you’re back.’ Bassano needed to get out of there fast.
‘Mrs Huxton, our apologies for not calling ahead. I hope bringing Jo back is convenient for you?’
‘Yes, of course. We’ve missed her and we’re so pleased she’s back. She’s looking so well, it’s done her the world of good. Hasn’t it, Jo?’ She patted Jo’s arm.
‘Is there anyone else at home?’
‘Me and Mary-Jay, that’s all.’
‘Okay, if we can get Jo into the house I’ll be on my way.’
‘I won’t hear of it, young man, I have some pink lemonade made special. You come inside and take a drink with us.’
‘Actually, Mrs Huxton, I need to get back.’
‘Nonsense, I won’t take no for an answer. Do I need to phone your boss and tell him you refused my lemonade?’
Bassano considered his options. He couldn’t risk a call to the nursing home as they would deny all knowledge of him or Jo, after all, she was supposed to be taking a break in a local rest home not one in Victorville. He needed to placate Jenny-Jay and get the hell out of there.
‘Lemonade would be great, Mrs Huxton.’ Before he knew it he was perched on the sofa looking at the two women in wheelchairs sitting side by side.
‘They don’t shut up their chatter, do they?’ Jenny-Jay called from the kitchen.
Bassano raised his eyes and shook his head.
Jenny-Jay arrived with four glasses of pink fizz.
‘So how come she’s back early?’ This time the question was directed at Bassano. It took him by surprise as he wasn’t expecting to have to join in the conversation.
‘Er, she said she missed you and wanted to come back.’
‘Ah that’s nice. Did you lose your arm in a car accident too? Only Mary-Jay has been dying to ask.’
Bassano couldn’t believe this was happening.
By the time Bassano returned to the hotel it was 6.30pm, he was hungry and the experience had left him shell-shocked. He’d endured the Huxtons’ peculiar sense of hospitality for far longer than expected and was feeling all the worse for it.
All three of them sat in the bar.
‘You said what?’ Harper asked.
‘It was the first thing that came into my head.’
‘You came back because a woman with locked-in syndrome said she’d like to go home early?’
‘Yeah, pretty much. Anyway, the important thing is she bought it.’
‘No, the important thing is, did you deliver the message?’ Lucas was less concerned with the surreal aspects of Bassano’s visit to the Huxtons.
‘Yup, I told her to call Jess to let her know her sister was back. I told her it was really urgent.’
‘Good.’
‘I tried to get her to phone there and then but she was too preoccupied catching up on Jo’s adventures and coping with her daughter’s overexcitement, despite the fact both women were totally fucking inert.’
‘Okay, so now we sit and wait and hope Mechanic hasn’t gone hunting.’
‘We could work out what to do with this?’ Bassano pulled a scrap of paper from his back pocket and handed it to Lucas. When we weren’t having one-way conversations, me and Jenny-Jay did get to talk a little. So I took a chance.’
‘And?’ Lucas unfolded the paper.
‘It’s Mechanic’s phone number.’
Across the city Pachelbel’s Canon in D played through the headphones as Mechanic lay on the sofa mentally enacting the chain of events which would take place at the Bossanova motel later that night.
She’d hoped Lucas would have caved in by now and returned Jo to the Huxtons. But as yet it looked like he was holding out.
The phone rang.
Mechanic looked at the dial details in the small LED window, it was the Huxtons’ number. She picked up.
Jenny-Jay rambled on about how Jo had enjoyed her mini-break and how Mary-Jay was delighted to have her friend back.
‘Is she okay, Mrs Huxton?’ asked Mechanic.
‘Oh yes, honey, she’s fine. She’s so pleased to be home and Mary-Jay is over the moon.’
‘Did the man with one arm bring her back?’
‘Yes, he was ever so nice. He came in for lemonade and we had a nice chat.’
They talked a little longer and Mechanic hung up.
A wave of relief swept through her entire body. Jo was safe and back where she belonged. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
When she opened them they were hard and cold.
She went to the closet, took out several bags and started packing.
Now the fun could begin.
46
Lucas strolled into an ice-cream parlour at the north end of the Strip. It was late evening. He pushed open the door to be met by the sickly sweet smell of sugar and essences which coated the back of his throat.
The place was clean and bright with red candy-cane striped walls and a huge array of ice creams in a refrigerated display cabinet that ran the entire length of the shop. The tabletops were bright red, along with the mock leather upholstery on the chairs. The smiling people behind the counter wore paper hats and crisp shirts with the same candy stripe and when they moved around it made Lucas’s eyes go funny. Harper would hate it.
Moran sat in a corner booth with a bowl of multi-coloured ice cream in front of her the size of her head. She was dressed in her usual all black attire looking completely out of place amongst the knickerbocker-glory décor. Lucas squeezed in beside her.
‘I thought this was a good place to meet. Somewhere we wouldn’t accidently bump into Harper or Bassano.’ She spooned a heap of toffee-coloured loveliness into her mouth.
‘You got that right,’ Lucas said looking around him.
‘So, are we going to be woken by the sound of ambulances tomorrow morning?’
‘No she’s back. We don’t know for sure that the Huxton woman made the call to Mechanic, but it’s a safe bet.’
‘Good.’ She shovelled in another load. ‘We need to think through our next steps.’
Lucas pushed the slip of paper in front of her with Mechanic’s number on it. Moran picked it up.
‘Is this what I think it is?’
‘It’s the number the Huxton woman uses to contact Mechanic. Bassano got it when he delivered Jo.’
‘Clever boy,’ Moran said scraping her spoon around the sides of the glass. ‘I’ll trace it, see what comes up.’ She put the paper in her pocket.
‘We need to be careful. Mechanic is a tricky son of a bitch and we can’t risk taking her head on.’
‘Well firstly she’s a tricky daughter of a bitch and secondly now we have the advantage.’
‘How do you make that out?’
‘She knows you three. She played you to perfection which tells me she’s got you guys all worked out.’
Lucas had to acknowledge that was probably true.
‘She doesn’t know about me and that gives us an edge.’
‘I want to kill the murdering bitch and I have two others who want it just as bad. We’re willing to do anything to make that happen.’
‘The deal is you give Mechanic to me in exchange for me not going to the chief, or have you forgotten that?’
Lucas was silent.
Moran waved the spoon at him. ‘You and I need to be clear on this or nothing doing.’
Lucas thought for a minute. ‘How do you want this to play out?’
‘Mechanic is going to be coming after you three. Returning Jo is one thing but if I’m right she’s going to want to make you pay. She’s gonna want her pound of flesh.’
‘Yes I know. That’s why we’re going to go back to Florida to hide out a while.’
‘That’s exactly what she’ll be expecting you to do. If you lie low, she’ll pick you off one at a time and you can’t hide forever. You need to stay here and force her hand.’
‘With what? Are you suggesting we snatch Jo again?’
‘No, I’m suggesting we try a different bait.’
‘What’s that?’
‘You.’
The phone on the bedside table rang.
‘Hello.’ Moran was groggy and rubbed her eyes. The clock said 4.13am.
‘It’s the station, ma’am, I’m patching you through.’
She heard clicking on the line, then a voice she wasn’t expecting.
‘Hey Moran, it’s Mills.’
‘Mills, what can I do for you?’
‘There’s been another shooting. It’s a similar MO to the ones you’ve been looking at.’
‘The ‘in your name’ cases?’
‘Yeah that’s right only this one’s different. We need to get over there.’
‘Okay, where are you? I’ll meet you.’
‘I’m outside your front door. We can go together.’ The line went dead.
Moran got out of bed and ran her fingers through her hair. She looked like a character from a Bruce Lee movie in her black pyjamas.
She unlocked the front door and allowed it to swing open. Mills stepped inside as she shuffled back into the living room.
‘I’ll be two minutes,’ she said.
‘Hey, nice place you have here.’
Moran ignored the comment. ‘How come this has bounced your way?’ she called from the bedroom.
‘There’s nothing doing with those turf-war killings, so the chief said I should get involved in the hotel murders.’
Moran cursed under her breath as she pulled a sweater over her head.
‘He thought it would be good if you and I kissed and made up.’
She returned to the lounge holstering her gun. ‘Not literally I hope.’
Mills shrugged his shoulders. ‘The drug-related murders were bad guys killing bad guys. I mean, you know how it is.’
Moran flashed him a sideways glance which conveyed the simple message of ‘No I don’t.’
‘Ready,’ she said clipping her badge to her belt.
‘You always wear black?’ Mills asked.
‘You always look like you’ve been paintballing?’
The drive took no more than twenty minutes. Mills briefed Moran that the 911 had come in from a guest in the hotel who’d heard strange noises coming from the room below. The whole city was jumpy, and the station control centre was taking about a hundred calls an hour from hotel guests concerned about strange noises. In this case the motel was located about half a block from the Lucky 6 and Crimson Lake so they responded straightaway. An officer investigated and sure enough found two people shot dead.
