The Lady Killer (16 page)

After she stepped out of her car, she just stood there letting the sun warm her face for awhile, before she had to go into the gloomy precinct building and face those files. As she walked into the lobby, the desk officer called to her. “Detective Peterson?”

She turned and looked toward the desk. “Yes, Annette.”

“I have a delivery here for you. It just came in.”

She froze in her tracks when she saw a long, narrow, white box sitting on the counter. “Where did this come from?”

“A florist just delivered it. Got a cute guy on the hook? He must have been a first date. The vase with the two dozen red roses is later on in the relationship.”

Laura took out her phone and called Ralph. “I just got a flower delivery here in the lobby! Please send someone up here from CSU immediately, and make sure it’s some you trust.”

“I’ll send Jim up right away. Have you opened it?”

“No!”

Ralph didn’t want her doing that alone. “Wait until I get there.”

She hung up her phone and turned her attention back to the desk. “Annette, did you get a description of this delivery guy?”

“Why, did I do something wrong?”

“No, but I need to know how many people have touched this box since it arrived.”

“Just me and the delivery guy, as far as I know. We should have video of him on our lobby camera. I’ll get a copy of it for you right away.”

Ralph and Jim arrived in the lobby and handed her a pair of gloves. She opened the box carefully. Inside was a single, long-stemmed, red rose along with a type written note that read,
“You are getting too close, be careful”.
Ralph took the box from her and handed it to Jim. “Take this down to the lab and dust for prints. As soon as you get something, let me know. Annette’s prints are on file, so we can rule them out immediately.”

“I’m on my way, shouldn’t take long, Dr. Foote.”

“Thanks, Jim.” He turned his attention to Laura. “And how are you doing, young lady?”

“It was a good day, until I walked in here.”

“I say that to myself every day. We need to go talk to the Captain.”

When they walked into Rutledge’s office, he knew that it had to be bad news. “Seeing the two of you at the same time isn’t a good sign, is it?”

“Sorry, Captain, but Laura just got her anniversary rose delivered here.”

Rutledge was infuriated and looked at Laura. “By who?”

“A florist, Sir. I have the name, and Annette is getting us a copy of the lobby video, but he was just the delivery boy. Ralph and Jim are going to take care of any prints.”

“Call that florist immediately, and find out who sent that rose to you. Get any records they have, and I want a copy also. This guy isn’t going to invade my precinct like this!”

“Unfortunately, I think he invades it every day. He works here, Sir. I’ll get everything to you right away. Right now I would like to go update my team about this latest development.”

“Go ahead, Laura, and keep me informed of your every move. This is another direct threat, as far as I’m concerned, and worse than the first one. Ralph, I want anything you can get from that box and note.”

When she got off of the elevator, Dan and Roy were waiting for her right at the door. “Hey, Murf and I just heard the news about the rose! Are you okay?”

“How did you guys hear about it already, when it just barely happened?”

Dan looked at Roy. “Burns heard it from Stacey Morgan.”

“Roy, who is Stacey Morgan?”

“She’s the Lead Detective who works in SVU and specializes in domestic violence. Short, blonde, cheerleader type, remember? We’ve been pumping her for information on our DNA subjects. She knows about the case, so she called me wanting to know if I knew anything more. I told her we hadn’t even heard about the rose yet.”

“Murphy, call down to Annette, and ask her how she happened to leak this to Stacey. Make sure to tell her that from now on, any correspondence directed to me is completely confidential!”

“Got it!”

“Burns, how well do you know Stacey?”

“Pretty well. I’ve worked with her on different cases over the years.”

“How much does she know about this case?”

“Just what Murf and I needed to tell her, so we could get more info on the Butt Men.”

“I’ve only met Stacey a couple of times. Do you trust her?”

“Yes, I’ve known her for about five years. She is good people.”

“Okay, don’t tip our hand about thinking that it’s a fellow officer, but let her know that we want to keep this all confidential and not to talk about it to anyone. You can tell her that we don’t want anything to leak out to the Press, okay?”

“Sure, I’ll tell her right away. Gosh, this is creepy. We don’t know who to trust any more.”

“Tell me about it! I’m going to call the florist and see who sent that rose.”

When Dan came back to Laura’s desk, he found her sitting there with her mouth open and the phone still in her hand. “What happened? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“I may have. The florist said the rose was sent to me by Emily Anderson!”

Dan made a small gasp. “For real?”

“That’s the name on the invoice. Burns, here’s an address for that florist. Run down there and get a copy of the invoice. If they have a security camera get a copy of the video, and get your ass back here, ASAP!”

Dan watched Roy leave. “What can I do?”

“Did you talk to Annette?”

“Yes, Stacey just happened to call right after you and Ralph left the lobby. Annette said she didn’t know it was confidential, and that from now on she would keep her mouth shut. Take it easy on the girl. She doesn’t know that we suspect an insider. I’m sure all the women who work here are scared to death of this guy and constantly talking about the case.”

“Exactly right! And our guy could be casually standing by a desk, or water cooler, and be hearing the gossip. I could just kiss you for figuring that out!”

Dan’s face lit up with a big grin. “Any time, Detective!”

Laura knew she was blushing and felt very uncomfortable. “Sorry, Murphy, I didn’t mean to make that sound like sexual harassment.”

“Believe me, I wouldn’t find being kissed by you to be any type of harassment.”

Laura got up from her desk quickly and announced that she needed to see Ralph. Dan stood there and watched her leave. He thought about how much he wanted to kiss her, and how chicken he was to even try. Maybe when this case was over, he would get up enough courage to ask her out to dinner.

When she burst into the lab, Ralph was a little startled. “You look flustered. Is the note that came with the rose bothering you?”

“Yes, but not as much as the stupid thing I just said to Dan!”

Ralph wondered why she was so upset. “What on earth did you say?”

“He came up with a great theory, and I told him I could kiss him for it. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I could have killed myself!”

“Hmmmmm, you say things like that to me all the time without causing yourself bodily harm. Pray tell, what is the difference? Could it be that you actually want to kiss him?”

She gave him a disapproving look. “Okay, fun is over! The rose was sent to me by Emily Anderson.”

“Amy’s previous assistant, who you suspect of being a man?”

“Yes! Anything on Amy’s crime scene yet?”

“Only that I put her time of death around five in the morning. She hadn’t been dead very long when we found her, less than twelve hours.”

Laura grimaced. “Something is bothering me about all of this. We found the body so fast and in a place that we would never have looked, because it was vacant and already used twice before. Who called it in to the police?”

“I don’t know. I was just two blocks from there when I got the call. A beat cop was on the scene when I arrived.”

“What were you doing in that part of town?”

“I got a call saying that uniforms had found a dead body in the street. When I got to the address, there was nothing, not even a patrol car. That’s when I got the call for our latest.”

“He’s playing with us again, Ralph! Don’t you see? He wanted you close to the real scene. I need to track down that beat cop. Did you get his name?”

“Let me look it up and give him a call. I also called the delivery guy, and he’s coming in to give us his fingerprints. There were only two sets on the box. One was Annette’s, the other is probably his.”

“Thanks, Ralph. You always go the extra mile without being asked.”

She went straight from the lab to the Captain’s office and was surprised to see Dan in there with him. Her heart skipped a beat, as she briefly wondered if he was reporting her for making that comment.

Captain Rutledge waved to her to come in. “Detective Peterson, Murphy has brought me some incredible news about the origin of that rose. He’s very afraid for your safety, and so am I. Were you on your way in here to tell me the same thing, like you are supposed to be doing?”

“Yes, Sir, and to tell you that I think this whole thing was planned as a game. Ralph got a phony call about a body, which put him within two blocks of the crime scene. A beat cop was there when Ralph arrived. He just told me that we found her body only about twelve hours after being killed, which considering that it was a vacant building, no one should have been in there looking. I truly believe psycho boy manipulated this whole thing and is sitting back laughing at all of us.”

Captain Rutledge slammed his fist down on the desk in frustration. “You’re right, Peterson, this is some kind of perverse mind game he’s playing with us! How does he know all that he does about the things that go on around here? He would have to know what Ralph is doing, as well as dispatch and other departments. As much as I have my finger on everything that goes on around here, I would have trouble orchestrating all of this!”

“Actually, Sir, Murphy gave me the clue on that one. We have a closely knit group of women who work in this building, and they’re all afraid of this guy. They protect themselves by keeping each other informed about the case. I’ll give you an example. By the time I got from the lobby to your office this morning and back upstairs, Dan and Roy already knew about the rose delivery, which had just happened about fifteen minutes earlier.”

“Well, if they knew, then the gossip train isn’t confined to just women.”

“Correct, and all our guy has to do is either eavesdrop, or be in the confidence of one or more women, and it all gets channeled straight to him.”

“This is like a case of the plague. Only we can’t quarantine this building and keep everyone inside. We all have lives to lead. The sad part is that outside of a small handful, we don’t know who we can trust. What’s your next move, Detective Peterson?”

“Burns is on his way back here with the invoice and any video evidence. I’m going to invite Ralph up and have a joint strategy session in our break room.”

“Could I invite myself to your session?”

Laura gave him a respectful nod. “I would be honored to have you, Sir.”

“Call me when everyone is there, and I’ll come up. Nice work you two.”

Dan followed Laura to the elevator. “Hey, I didn’t mean to be telling on you in there. I’m just worried about you. This whole Emily and the rose thing is scaring me.”

She smiled up at him. “Don’t worry; I know that you were just being protective.”

Dan looked relieved. “As long as I know we’re okay.”

When they got back to their office, Roy was just walking in with the invoice and a DVD. Laura put in a call to Ralph and the Captain, and they all met in the break room. Dan put the DVD in. Everyone watched intently as they saw someone, who looked like the picture of Emily Anderson, conducting business at the florist. The person had on a black pantsuit, large, ugly shoes, what was assumed to be a wig and black gloves. Laura let out a discouraged sigh. “Well, the gloves explain why there were no prints on anything. Still, that’s pretty brazen to allow yourself to be captured on video. What do you think, Sir?”

“I think you are absolutely right, Detective. That’s our boy, and he’s playing a very perverse game of mind twist with us. Burns, what do we have on the transfers from Indiana? Is there anything we can work with?”

“Three all together, Sir, but one of them isn’t even in our precinct. The second has a report of excessive force and was demoted from detective to beat cop, before he transferred here. But the third guy, Michael Vitale, has a dropped domestic violence charge in his file.”

“Good work, Detective Burns. Give me the files on the two possibilities, and I will personally start checking their schedules against the times and dates of our other murders. What’s the next topic for discussion, Laura?”

She appreciated the fact that he didn’t take over her meeting, just because he was the big boss. “Thank you, Sir. Ralph, who did you get the call from about the body in the street?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t even know. The phone rang as usual. I picked it up and was told that uniforms had a dead body. I got the address and left right away. It came in just like any of my calls. I had no reason to question it. From now on, I’ll be sure to get a name.”