The Tangerine Killer (24 page)

Olin actually waited for me. I didn’t think he would. He stood in the squad room looking at the test results that had been added to the giant board. His clothes looked rumpled and he’d taken off his tie. He was frowning as he read.

“Hey,” I said.

He looked up and a smile played in the corner of his mouth.

“Hey yourself.”

“So what’s the verdict?”

“No idea. I’m still waiting for some techno geek to come explain all this to me.”

He pointed at the board and I stepped closer to get a better look. The photographs of the crime scenes reminded me of something out of a horror movie. With all the evidence and speculation displayed it was hard to believe that we were no closer to finding our killer. The new additions showed that the oranges and the maggots had gone through extensive testing including various scans and a chemical analysis.

In one photograph someone had painstakingly removed the skin of one of the more robust oranges and laid it flat so that the design carved into its skin was displayed. I recognized it as the same design that had been sliced from Jill’s skin and suddenly a ton of bricks were sitting in my stomach.

“That’s a dream catcher,” I pointed at the picture. “The same one that was carved into Jill’s skin.”

I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid. Why hadn’t I recognized it before?

“It is? Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t see that,” Olin took a closer look.

“I know. Me either. I have one just like it hanging over the bed in my apartment.”

All the blood drained from Olin’s face.

“So it is someone you know? Someone who’s been in your apartment? Who is it?” his voice rose.

“I don’t know.” I racked my brain, desperately trying to put the pieces together.

“You must know. Think harder.”

From the look on Olin’s face, I was pretty sure I’d just lost whatever credibility I had left with him.

“All this time and you didn’t see it?” he shouted.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know why it didn’t click before.”

I wanted him to stop yelling at me. I’d already offered to trade my life for Parker’s. I couldn’t do much more than that.

“So it’s been one of your boyfriends all along,” he said sarcastically.

“I don’t have boyfriends,” I said quietly.

“I know. That’s why I said it like that. I meant it’s one of the men you fucked and then told to get lost.”

“How dare you. Who do you think you are?”

“You know who I am. I’m the latest in a long line of men you’ve screwed over. How many men have you fucked? Fifty? A hundred? How many guys like Joe are out there planning their revenge against you?”

“You think I’m a whore?” I whispered.

“I know you are,” he yelled. “You slept with me didn’t you?”

“Because I felt sorry for you,” I shouted back.

“Hey! Break it up you two.”

It was Captain Bright. He’d no doubt heard the shouting from his office, as had everyone else in the building. Detectives and officers alike gathered in the doorway to watch as Olin and I tore each other verbally to shreds.
 

“She knows the piece of shit.” Olin hit the nearest desk with his fist. I was glad it wasn’t my face. “He’s been in her apartment.”

“Is this true?” Captain Bright asked.

“I guess,” I said. “I have a dream catcher exactly like that hanging above my bed back home. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”

Captain Bright rubbed his day old stubble thoughtfully.

“We’re going to need a list of any acquaintances that have been in your bedroom.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” I said. “But there are none.”

Olin rolled his eyes. “Yeah right.”

I ignored him and faced the captain instead.

“I don’t invite men back to my place. I go to theirs or we get a hotel room. I like my privacy. I don’t like people touching my things.”

“You’re telling me that no guy’s ever fucked you in your own bed while looking up at that very same dream catcher?” Olin pointed at the photo of Jill’s sliced up back. “Who do you think you’re kidding? We’re not that stupid.”

“It’s the truth,” I shouted. “I don’t care if you believe me or not.”

“All right, all right,” Captain Bright said. “It doesn’t have to be a lover, it could be anyone. A repair man. Someone your landlord sent in. Even your landlord himself. I need a list of names and we’ll have to send a team to your apartment. I hope you understand.”

I nodded. Naples was a good four hour drive. By the time a crime scene team got there to dust for prints and search for hairs and fibers, I’d already be dead or at least at the mercy of the Tangerine killer. It didn’t matter now.

“Good. Now can I count on you two to play nice if I send you both to
Digiteck
Labs? Or are you going to kill each other on the way over?”

Olin looked at his feet and didn’t answer.

“Fine. Whatever,” I said. “What about the trade? Me for Parker remember?”

“Yes,” Captain Bright said. “I agree that it may well be our only option but I’m not just going to sacrifice you to this lunatic. I’m trying to set it up so that we can get the bastard when he shows up. I’m just waiting on the sniper team. Don’t worry, we won’t let him get you.”

Captain Bright patted my shoulder. He seemed certain this exchange would end with everything in our favor. I wasn’t so sure.

“You mean a sniper team’s going to have guns pointed in the direction of my son?” Olin’s voice was hoarse.

“He’ll be safe. Don’t worry,” Captain Bright patted Olin on the arm just like he’d done to me.

“Would you like guns pointed at your son?” he asked.

“They won’t be pointed at Parker. We’ll only take him out after Parker is safe.”

That meant the guns would be pointed at me. Parker would be safe when I had been traded. I imagined a trigger happy sniper getting caught up in the action and squeezing one off in my direction. At least it seemed a better death than the one the killer had planned for me.

Olin looked at me and then turned away. If he was worried about the fact that now I was going to be the one with guns pointed at my head he didn’t say.

“So what’s the deal with the maggots?” I asked.

One of the techs who had worked on the oranges arrived and began pointing out numbers and formula. I wasn’t listening. Olin’s words rolled over and over in my head. The way he called me a whore. I knew I deserved a lot of things but I didn’t deserve that. I stole a sideways glance at him but he didn’t look apologetic and he wasn’t looking in my direction. Instead he was focused on a jar filled with maggots.

“So these are medical maggots and as it turns out we can trace them back to the lab that created them,” the tech said.

“Are you serious?” Olin asked.

The lab tech gave him a withering look that implied he was never anything but.

“Can we find out who purchased them and from where?” I said.

“Just what exactly are medical maggots?” Olin interrupted.

I bit my lip and stopped myself from pointing out he was being a rude asshole. The lab tech seemed oblivious to the tension in the room. He continued to waffle on about the maggots.
 

“They use sterilized maggots in wound therapy, especially in cases where all conventional treatment has failed and the patient is facing amputation,” he said.

“Are you serious?” Olin asked. “People actually let maggots eat them alive, on purpose?”

“They have a very high success rate,” the tech said. “They eat up all the dead and infected tissue so that the wound can heal.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” someone behind us muttered.

Captain Bright stepped in front of the jar of maggots that no one seemed to be able to take their eyes off and broke the focus.

“We need to go through the labs records and see if we can find out when these maggots were purchased and by who. It looks a little unlikely that we’ll find the exact purchaser but from the age of the maggots we should be able to narrow down when they were bought and get a list of everyone who took orders during that time.”

“So we might have him then?” I asked hopefully.

“It’s a start but don’t get too excited. He’s not stupid. He’s played us every step of the way. This could just be another game.”

“But what if he didn’t get them directly from the lab? What if they came from a hospital or clinic?” I asked.

“Well it’s the only lead we have,” Captain Bright crossed his arms. “You two, go to the lab. I want to know who handles the maggots, how they are processed and where these nasty little things were sent to.”

He handed the jar of writhing maggots to Olin who hesitated before taking it. His face turned a slightly pale shade of green.

“Don’t you need these for more tests?” Olin asked the tech hopefully.

“That’s not the only jar, sorry,” the tech apologized.

Olin tried to hand it off to me in a sideways pass but I drew the line at maggots. They gave me the serious creeps and I already felt like I was going to throw up. And after the way he’d just treated me, I certainly wasn’t going to hold a jar of maggots for him.

The drive was awkward. What do you say to someone who just called you a whore? Under normal circumstances I would have resorted to physical violence. A good head slap, perhaps a knee to the groin. Not something that would inflict permanent damage but enough to make the asshole think twice before he called any woman a whore again. Now I had all that pent up rage inside me and no way to vent it. Olin had better watch it or he’d end up with a pencil in his eye.

Digiteck
Lab was a long low building made up of strange white domes. It looked like a lunar module or some rather large marshmallows. The surrounding palm trees looked completely out of place. Whoever did their landscaping should have just put out giant boulders and red sand. A large neon sign flanked the road inviting people to stop by and check out their amazing advances in maggot technology.

“This place gives me the creeps.”

Olin broke his silence just as the electric doors swished open. They welcomed us into a blindingly white reception area and his whisper suddenly didn’t seem so silent. It reverberated off the shiny walls and multiplied loudly but the smiling receptionist seemed unfazed.

“How may I help you today?” she said.

Sitting behind the white, glass counter she had the illusion of staring down at us despite the fact that she was seated. Her open mouthed grin revealed teeth as white as the walls around her. Bleached blonde hair was pulled back tightly in a well-controlled bun and her black suit made her the stark focus of the entire room, as I’m sure she had intended. Security cameras blinked down at us from every corner with evil red eyes. I knew we were being watched.

“We are here to check out your amazing advances in maggot technology.”

Olin quoted the advertisement from the sign outside and by the way he had his arms crossed in front of him, I knew he was trying to keep a straight face.

“Yes of course. Would that be for yourself or perhaps for your friend here?”

She raised a well plucked eyebrow and looked down her perfectly pointed nose at me as though I had some gigantic wound lingering under my clothes that needed the instant attention of some maggots. I fought the urge to reach over the counter and throttle her.

“I certainly wouldn’t let a little thing like some maggots stand in the way of a nice long lifespan,” I said. “Would you?”

“Of course not,” she said. “After all, that’s why we are here. Would you like a consultation? There is of course a nominal fee and little paperwork to sign. Do you have insurance?”

She bent down behind the desk, revealing just enough cleavage to keep Olin occupied and pulled a stack of papers out of her drawer with a little cough. The wad of paper was almost as thick as a telephone book. That was when Olin pulled out his badge and the jar of maggots. He slammed them both on the desk with a stern smile.

“Just let us see whoever is in charge.”

“Of course, why didn’t you say so before?”

She pressed a couple of buttons on one of her five phones and waited for someone on the other end to answer while she picked at a red nail. She gave off an odd vibe, part receptionist, part barracuda. I wondered what her deal was.

“Someone will be with you in a moment,” she said sweetly. “Would you like to have a seat?”

“No, we’ll stand thank you,” Olin said.

She looked slightly crestfallen, as though she couldn’t understand why her body hadn’t charmed Olin. I wondered how she would really feel if she knew that his four year old son had been kidnapped by a crazed serial killer and we were running out of time. Just thinking about Parker made my stomach churn sickly. I was the one he had targeted, why hadn’t he just come after me? I wondered how things would have been different if he had taken me the night he came into my motel room and placed Jill on my bed. Would he have killed me by now and dumped my body in a river like Lisa? Or would I be lying strapped to a steel table with missing body parts? I broke out in a cold sweat.

“Do you have a bathroom?” I asked queasily.

The receptionist pointed to a white door almost concealed by a large potted plant. I wondered whether that was to deter clients from using the facilities or just to make them ask where it was.

“You okay?” Olin asked. For the first time since we’d argued he looked concerned.

“Fine,” I said. “As if you care.”

I tried to make my exit look casual instead of the panicked flee I wanted it to be. The bathroom was stark and as blindingly white as the reception area. I clutched the cold, porcelain sink as the room started to swim around me. I splashed some cold water on my face. I had to shock myself out of this stupid panic.

As I caught my reflection in the mirror for the first time I saw the toll that the last few days had taken. My eyes were sunken pits, my cheeks drawn and pale and I looked scared. I think that frightened me more than anything. I was on the verge of losing it and I couldn’t let that happen. I had to focus, I had to stay strong. I had no choice. Time was running out.

The door to the bathroom opened and two women came in. They were in the middle of a conversation. I fled into one of the stalls and locked the door. I stood there, waiting and listening.

“Did you see how cute he was?” said a woman with a slightly squeaky voice.

“Oh totally hot,” the other agreed.

“He’s a detective though,” Squeaky lowered her voice slightly.

“So? You know what that means.”

“What?”

“Handcuffs!” she began to laugh.

“Uh, you’re so gross Libby. Besides you know why he’s here don’t you?”

“Why? Because of Toby?”

“Don’t you think? Why else?”

Squeaky was almost whispering now even though I’m pretty sure they thought they were alone in the bathroom. I was holding my breath. I wanted to know more about this Toby.

“But he didn’t really do anything wrong. I mean he didn’t know it was wrong at the time. Right?”

“I don’t know. I always get the feeling he’s watching me, he gives me the creeps,” Squeaky sounded a little scared.

“Maybe he just likes you?”

“Yeah, in a crazed stalker way? No thanks.”

“Well we’ve all taken things from the lab at one point or another. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Speak for yourself, I’ve never taken anything.” Squeaky was indignant.

“Okay fine, you never took anything but technically you used company equipment to run your boyfriends sperm count.”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you would bring that up. You know how worried I was that something was wrong with me. Besides at least I didn’t do what you did with the mass spectrometer.”

“I never did.”

They were getting louder now. It was turning into a full blown argument about who had done what with the lab equipment. All I wanted to know was what Toby had done that would warrant their suspicion that Olin had come for him.

“Whatever,” Squeaky finally relented. “I just hope he drags that creep out of here and they fire him. I don’t know what he wanted those maggots for but I’m sure it wasn’t anything good. I mean what kind of person takes maggots home in their lunch bag?”

My heart jumped into my throat as I heard the words I had been waiting for and to the surprise of the two women, I burst out of the stall I had been hiding in. Squeaky screamed.