Icy Stares (Guess The Killer Book 1) Page 4

  “Oh sure.” Shandling leaned forward. “None of this is new. I’ve heard Nadine’s tale of woe a hundred times. The first time I heard it, it was just … devastating you know. You look at her, and she’s just falling to bits.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Our old Captain looked into it. There’s nothing there. The shit she was saying about this guy who kidnapped her – like he was some local myth or something –”

  “I didn’t get that part.”

  “Every time she tells the story it gets bigger. ‘I was only twelve years old’ then breaks out the water works.”

  “Her exact words.”

  “Sounds genuine when you first hear it. But it’s all bullshit. A total act. Complete performance.”

  “But why…?”

  “She is … a freak. Shit. Maybe she thinks something did happen to her. But, I tried to talk to her before about it. She was at my house for a whole weekend. Talked it out for hours and hours. Eventually got her to take her glasses off and … be fine.”

  “I know, those glasses –”

  “Part of her act. She was wearing them again on Monday. Asked her ‘WTF’ and she just shrugs her shoulders and walks away.”

  “Where is Sal in all this?”

  “Sal? Who knows. He has his own issues.”

  “Like what?”

  “The Captain used to complain about him not taking on the cases he’d been assigned to. He follows no protocol. Doesn’t show up for meetings. Doesn’t answer his phone or respond to basic emails, memos that sort of thing.”

  “In other words he’s hopeless.”

  “Sal is a jackass. Like there’ll be a downtown shooting and an uptown stabbing within the same hour – I’ll get given the shooting and he’ll get the stabbing – but when I turn up to my crime scene, he’s already there, fully involved. Claims he got the wrong message or whatever, but it’s bullshit. He’s a loose cannon. Does what he wants.”

  “Are there any other freaks in this department I have to worry about?”

  “Two’s plenty for your plate for now,” Shandling answered.

  “So how am I expected to handle this then? Am I just supposed to go along with this nonsense? Surely not.”

  “It’s alright. I’ll go find them, bring em’ back in for you. I’ll get them sorted out. Knock their heads in, so to speak.”

  “They’ll listen to you?”

  “I know what buttons to push.”

  “Well, gees. Thank you so much, Taylor. Gold stars all around.”

  Shandling stood up. “I’d like to bring Justin into this as well, if that’s okay.”

  “Who is Justin again?”

  “Detective Justin Hodge. He’s part of … one of the task forces. Mid-thirties. Built. Good looking.”

  “Rings a bell.”

  “Well, he’s supposed to be Nadine’s boyfriend, so that’s why I’d like him in on this.”

  “Wait, Nadine has a boyfriend? Who works here?”

  Taylor leaned over the desk. “Says it right there. Top of her file.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Nadine hadn’t been in the mood for food, but it turned out food was exactly what she needed. The contents of her plate were sweet, light, tasty. Her milkshake flooded the insides of her stomach with a cold suppressing calm. Nadine absorbed the restaurant’s atmosphere. The furniture was comfy and nice to look at. The temperature was just right. The other people here weren’t local – they’d come from all directions, in all manner of circumstance. Some were at the end of their adventures, others at the beginning. She wondered where she was. In the context of her life.

  “How are they then?” Sal asked. “The pancakes?”

  “Good, yeah,” Nadine replied.

  He wasn’t eating anything.

  “So what do you think this guy’s planning? What happens when you don’t email him before midnight?”

  “I don’t know,” Nadine shrugged. “He’ll come after me.”

  “It feels bigger than that though, doesn’t it?”

  “I guess … I…”

  “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Sal shifted in his chair. “I’ll be outside.”

  Nadine stared at him skeptically as he stood from the table, and walked through the restaurant’s entrance. She could see him through the windows outside. On the phone. Lighting a cigarette.

  She looked down what was left on her plate.

  Suddenly the appetite left her.

  She signaled to the waitress, who hurried over.

  “What can I get for you?”

  “I’m finished,” Nadine replied. “I’d like to pay.”

  “Your friend took care of it already.”

  “He did?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you.”

  Nadine left a ten-dollar bill on the table and walked into the car park outside.

  Sal was still on the phone.

  “… I told you she’s moved out already … She’s not there … She’s not … She’s bloody not…”

  Nadine walked past him in the direction of the car.

  She looked down at her own phone. Justin was ringing.

  Nadine glanced back at Sal who hadn’t seen her. Grumbled a little.

  Then answered the call. “Hello?”

  “Nadine…” She could hear he was driving. “… I just spoke with Taylor. McGuiness is about to drop the hammer on you.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve been stirring things up again or something. I hope it wasn’t because of my proposal. I know it must have freaked you out.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Nadine said.

  “Seriously, I’m really sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “Did you hear me? I’m not having this conversation.”

  “Can you tell me where you are? I’ll come get you.”

  Nadine held the phone away. A look of contempt breaking out across her face.

  “Nadine…? Hello –”

  She ended the call. Shut her phone off.

  Sal emerged from behind her. “You’re ready to go then?”

  Nadine nodded.

  He opened her door for her. “Ladies first then.”

  “Fuck you, Sal.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Daphne’s mother was back. Back from her vacation. Sal never thought he’d see the day. Or night, as it were…

  And it was getting to be one of those. Sure he could put the edge of his shovel into Nadine, hit dirt so hard it might as well be concrete, and that would be the end of it right there. But somehow Sal didn’t feel that was how things were going to go. There was something about this woman sitting in the car beside him, and that peculiar VHS tape she’d been sent that…

  Well.

  This could be one for the ages.

  As it were the custom for Sal on special occasions – and there were occasions much less special than this that would necessitate – it was time for him to start drinking, which meant they were making a stop at the drive-thru bottle-o.

  “You want anything?” Sal grunted at Nadine as they pulled in.

  Nadine turned away with a look of mild disgust.

  “There’ll be something if you want it,” Sal settled. Then he turned to the attendant and shot out a seventy-dollar order.

  Sal had to get out of the car and open up the backseat a minute later. He stared away from the machines and lights as his card was being processed. He looked out across the road, to where there were trees. Their dark leaves were blowing in the slow and gentle breeze. It wasn’t deliberate, and he was in the car seven seconds later. But that was the equivalent of Sal staring at himself in the mirror. A point of meditation.

  The whiskey hit his system a short time later.

  “Where are we going again?” he asked his companion.

  Nadine relayed the address into his GPS server.

  It was ten past nine when they finally reached their destination. Sal slowed down the car and they parked on the ro
ad opposite the building. They were right in the heart of the CBD, or Central Business District. Traffic and lights and people everywhere. Sal couldn’t see much of it from where they were. They’d have to get out of the car soon.

  “This is the place, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Over there. Yeah.”

  “You been here again? After it happened.”

  “One other time. I was waiting for my Dad. But I didn’t go inside the building.”

  “He worked there?”

  “He was part of a company that used one of the floors. They’re not there anymore though. They haven’t been there in a long time.”

  “What about your Dad? What’s he doing now?”

  “He’s still around,” Nadine said. “But I don’t see him that much.”

  Sal’s eyelids twitched. “You don’t see him?”

  “Not really.”

  “What, did he do something to you?”

  “No.”

  “So I don’t understand. Why don’t you keep in touch with your family?”

  “Because they’re boring.”

  “Boring?”

  “Yep.”

  Sal had to look away from her. Straight ahead. “I’m going to put that reply from you down to being immature. Stupid, self-centered, and immature.”

  “I’m not the one drinking like he’s twenty-one.”

  Sal’s gaze went sharp. “Don’t. And I mean don’t. Talk to me about my drinking.”

  “Ooh. I’m scared.”

  Sal had to restrain himself. He opened his bottle again and took a swig.

  Heaven as always.

  “It would go a long way if you start talking about what happened that day,” Sal said. “Just so I can feel some fucking sympathy for you.”

  “What do you want to know, Sal?”

  “I want you to make me believe. Make me feel as though I was there.”

  A pause.

  “Alright.” Nadine pushed open her door.

  “Where are you going?” Sal demanded.

  “Since we’re here, Sal. I might as well walk you through it.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Nadine didn’t want to go inside the building. Even though it had been a long time since she’d been here, her appearance had changed and staff had probably moved on, she didn’t want to risk being recognized by someone.

  Sal would say she was being unreasonable. That the odds of someone in the building remembering her were so long that it shouldn’t even have been on the radar. Even then, what did she think would happen if they did recognize her? It wasn’t as though anyone understood the significance of her presence here.

  “What time was it?” Sal asked. “What time on the day it happened?”

  “Five. Six. Seven. Probably around then. The evening. My father was finishing work, like I said.”

  “When were you first aware you were being followed?”

  Nadine touched her chin. “I knew something was wrong when I got to the park. But … I think he started following me from about here.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “There was this guy. A man. He was in the elevator with me. I didn’t know it was him until I recognized his voice later.”

  “Wait … So you’re saying the guy who abducted you … Was inside this building with you.”

  “We were in the elevator together. Or … maybe it’s not him. I don’t know now.”

  “You know if you went to the cops at the time –”

  “Of course I didn’t go to the cops back then! I was bloody twelve years old! I was scared out of my mind –”

  “Okay, okay, relax.” Sal shifted his feet across the pavement.

  Faceless strangers walked by them to either side.

  “What do you think he was doing here?” Sal asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t him.”

  “Forget maybes. We’re working a theory here. Supposing you recognized this guy’s voice for real. Supposing he started following you from here to the park. I mean, he had to have had a reason for being here. Maybe he worked here.”

  “Maybe he still works here,” Nadine said sarcastically.

  “Well. Maybe.”

  Sal looked from Nadine up to the building.

  “What?” Nadine pressed.

  “Alright. I want you to think about this very carefully. In fact. Come on, Nadine. Let’s go inside. Where we can hear ourselves think.”

  Nadine bit down on the back of her tongue. “I don’t want to.”

  “Nadine.”

  She exhaled. “How are we meant to continue this conversation in there? This is personal shit.”

  “We’re worse off out here,” Sal said. “Come on.”

  Sal proceeded to start climbing the steps to the building’s entrance.

  Nadine winced.

  Her stomach twisted and turned.

  She wasn’t going to get out of this.

  “You son of a bitch, Sal.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Sal could handle the abuse. He was used to women yelling at him.

  At the front of the entrance he didn’t look back as he moved through the circulating door, entering a lobby area. There was a large display of stenciled in letters indicating which company belonged to which floor. It went all the way up into the 30s. Sal looked over the names for a moment, nothing standing out at him immediately.

  Nadine walked past him. “Don’t stand around.”

  Sal raised his eyebrows and followed her into the lobby area where there was a free set of comfy armchairs to one side where they could sit down.

  Nadine dropped into hers as though swallowing a pill with bitter reluctance.

  Sal took much greater joy in his descent. He pressed down the cushion with his hands, felt the back of the chair, and inhaled the scented aromas. He leaned back and rested his arms.

  “I kinda like it here.”

  “You don’t say,” Nadine snapped.

  “What’s the matter? Are we hitting too close to home here?”

  “Yes, we are as a matter of fact.”

  “Then perhaps you might recall some things in better detail.”

  “Like what?”

  “I need to know more about him. Your description earlier was a little vague.”

  “I didn’t see him. I told you. He was wearing a mask.”

  “What about in the elevator?”

  “What?”

  “The man who was with you in the elevator. Whose voice you recognized. He wasn’t wearing a mask, was he?”

  “No.”

  “So.”

  “So what?”

  “Do I really have to get this blunt with you?”

  Nadine inhaled sharply. “He was a white Caucasian, in his mid to late twenties. He had dark hair. He was wearing a suit. His face was … unassuming.”

  “Unassuming?”

  “He looked ordinary. He wasn’t … cute. He wasn’t ugly.”

  “Was he cuter than me?”

  “Are you fucking taking this seriously?”

  Sal chuckled. “Sorry.”

  “You know you’re sometimes just a real –”

  “Is there anything else you remember about his appearance? Anything that was remotely abnormal so to set him apart from any other anonymous person?”

  Nadine closed her eyes. “It was a really long time ago.”

  “Come on, Nadine. There must be something.”

  A pause. Sal waited.

  Nadine’s head spasmed.

  Sal’s lips parted as she caught herself.

  Very controlled, Nadine raised her posture and opened her eyes.

  She stared at him with the coldness of a thousand hailstones.

  “He had a really big dick.”

  Caught off guard, Sal glanced away and coughed into his sleeve.

  Then he could feel more coughs coming. He stood up.

  “Excuse me. I’ll just –” he covered up another bout of coughing. “– men’s room.”

&nbs
p; Nadine didn’t say anything in response.

  Sal staggered away from her, suddenly feeling dirty. He spotted a sign for the toilets, and followed the archway down the corridor till he reached the bathroom door. He opened it and stepped inside.

  “Oh shit.”

  His stomach gurgled and groaned.

  He hurried over to the nearest stall and ripped open the toilet lid.

  Thankfully, the bowl was clean.

  “EAUGH…OUHHH…”

  Up came the pancakes he didn’t eat.

  After taking a moment to breathe, he flushed the toilet and pulled away from the stall. He went to the basin to clean up.

  He splashed water on his face and dried his hands underneath the dryer.

  Sal was annoyed with himself. Annoyed he’d experienced any excitement or pleasure in the anticipation of this case.

  It was true he was looking for something. He had a need for goals and purpose.

  But to use this poor woman’s ordeal as a stepladder to it – who the fucking hell was he? How could he … be involved in this on the grounds of entertainment?

  Sal sighed. He wasn’t a perfect man. And maybe he didn’t need to be.

  But he owed Nadine a little more respect and professionalism than he’d been giving.

  Sal pushed open bathroom door and made his way till he reached the lobby area. Nadine hadn’t moved. She saw him but didn’t smile or stare or show any sign of recognition.

  Sal could solve this. He could solve it tonight.

  They just had to match Nadine’s guy with someone who worked here –

  Sal stopped.

  He’d become aware of a figure on his left, staring across the room to where Nadine was sitting.

  Sal turned slowly.

  It was a white Caucasian male in a dark suit, aged in his mid to late forties.

  He was wearing glasses.

  With a blue tint.

  CHAPTER 19

  The man made his move. One step, two steps, three. Sal panicked.

  “Can I help you with something?”

  The man stopped. Looked from Nadine to Sal.

  He breathed in deeply.

  Then turned away.

  Sal ripped his gun from his holster. “State police! Stay where you are!”