Heartbreaker

Chapter 5

Laurant didn’t believe him, not at first anyway. Tommy recounted what the man had said to him in the confessional. She didn’t interrupt, but with each new detail she could feel her body stiffen. For a second or two, she was actually relieved that she was the target and not her brother. Tommy had enough to deal with now. "You’re taking this awfully well."

Her brother had made the remark in an almost accusatory tone of voice. Both he and Nick were waiting for her to absorb the information, watching her intently as though she were a butterfly trapped under a glass.

"I’m not sure what to think," she responded. "I don’t want to believe it’s true… what he said."

"We have to take the threat seriously," Nick cautioned.

"This other woman he talked about… Millie. He told you he killed her a year ago?" she asked.

"He bragged about it."

A shiver ran through her. "But was her body ever found?"

"He said he buried her deep, where no one will find her," Tommy answered.

"We’re running the name through VICAP," Nick interjected. "Their computer system stores information on unsolved homicides that have been reported. It looks for possible matches. Maybe we’ll get a lucky break."

"I believe what he told me. I think he did kill that poor woman. He wasn’t making it up, Laurant."

"Did you see him?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "I ended it when he told me you were his next victim. I jumped up and ran out." He paused to shake his head. "I don’t know what I thought I was going to do. I was pretty shook up."

"But you didn’t see him? He had already gone? How could anyone move that fast?"

"He hadn’t left."

"He cold-cocked him," Nick told her.

"He what?" she asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"He knocked me out," Tommy explained. "He was waiting for me and he got me from behind. I don’t know what he used, but I’m lucky he didn’t crush my skull. I went down hard," he added. "And the next thing I knew, Monsignor was leaning over me. He thought I’d passed out from the heat."

"My God, you could have been killed."

"I’ve taken worse hits playing football."

Laurant made Tommy show her where he’d been struck. When she touched the lump at the base of his skull, he winced. "It still stings," he said.

"Maybe you should let a doctor look at that."

"I’ll be all right, but damn, I wish I had seen his face."

"I want to listen to the tape. Did you recognize the voice?"

"No."

"Maybe I will."

"He mostly whispered."

Tommy was frightened. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he next spoke.

"Nothing’s going to happen to you, Laurant. We’re going to make sure you stay safe," he fervently promised with a nod toward Nick.

She didn’t say anything for a long while but simply stared at the dripping faucet in the sink across the room. Her head was reeling.

"You can’t be blase about this," Tommy warned.

"I’m not."

"Why are you so calm?"

She put her elbows on the table, bowed her head, and pressed her fingertips against her temples. Calm? She knew she was an expert at hiding her emotions-she’d done it for years-but she was surprised her brother couldn’t see how shaken she was. She felt like a grenade had just gone off in her head. Her quiet, peaceful world had just been blown apart. She was anything but calm.

"Tommy, what do you want me to do?"

"I’ll tell you what you can’t do. You can’t take any chances, Laurant, not until this is over and they’ve caught him. You can’t stay in Holy Oaks."

"How can I leave? My best friend is getting married, and I’m her maid of honor. I’m not going to miss that. And you know my store is set to open in two weeks, and it still isn’t ready. Then, there’s the public hearing coming up about the town square. People are depending on me. I can’t just pack up and leave."

"It would only be temporary, until they catch him."

She shoved the chair back and stood. She couldn’t sit there another second.

"Where are you going?" Tommy asked.

"I’m going to make a cup of hot tea."

"Tea? It’s ninety-eight degrees in the shade, and you want hot tea?" She scowled at him and he backed down. "Okay, okay. I’ll show you where everything is."

They watched her fill the teakettle with water and put it on the burner. After she’d gotten a tea bag out of the canister and put it in the cup, she leaned her hip against the counter and turned back to her brother. "I have to think about this."

"There’s nothing to think about. You’ve got to leave. You don’t have a choice in this, Laurant. I won’t have you-"

Nick quietly interrupted, "Tommy, you ought to call Sheriff Lloyd."

"Yeah, you’re right." He’d forgotten about the sheriff until Nick reminded him. "And maybe while I’m gone, you can talk some sense into her," he added with a frown at Laurant. "She can’t be difficult about this. She has to understand this is serious."

"I’m not being difficult," she argued. "Just give me a minute, all right?"

Reluctantly, he got up and went to make the call. Nick used his mobile phone to alert the police that Laurant was there. Then he called his superior. While he was talking to Morganstern, she made her tea and carried it to the table. Then she sat down again.

"You need to get one of these," he said as he put the phone back in his breast pocket. "We would have known where you were and could have gotten hold of you while you were on the road."

"In Holy Oaks everyone knows where everyone else is. It’s like living in a fishbowl."

"The sheriff didn’t know where you were."

"He probably didn’t bother to ask anyone. He’s very lazy," she said. "My neighbors knew where I was going and so did the two men who were looking after the store while the workmen were there."

She picked up the transcript of the conversation the police had made, began to read it, and then put it back down.

"I’d like to listen to the tape now."

Unlike her brother, Nick was anxious for her to do just that. He left the kitchen to get the cassette player, and when he returned he put it in the center of the table.

"Ready?" he asked.

She stopped stirring her tea. She put the spoon in the saucer, took a breath, then nodded.

He hit the play button and leaned back. Laurant stared at the whirling cassette as she listened to the conversation that had taken place in the confessional. Hearing the stranger’s voice made the horror more real to her, and by the time the tape ended, she was nauseated. "My God."

"Did you recognize his voice?"

She shook her head. "It was such a low whisper, I didn't get all of

what he said. I don't think I've heard him before. I'll listen to it

again," she promised, "but not yet, all right? I don't think I can…"

"Some of what he said was deliberate… calculated. At least

that's what I think. He wanted to spook Tommy."

"And he succeeded. I don't want my brother to worry, but I don't know how to stop him. It isn't good for him… the stress."

"You've got to be realistic, Laurant. A man tells him he's going to kill his sister after he gets his kicks, and you don't think he should worry?"

She threaded her fingers through her hair in agitation. "Yes, of course… it's just…"

"What?"

"It isn't healthy for him."

Nick had noticed her slight French accent when she first spoke to him, but now the accent was more pronounced. She might have looked calm and collected, but that facade, like a thin layer of ice, was cracking.

"Why me?" she asked, sounding genuinely bewildered. "I live such a boring… ordinary life. It doesn't make any sense."

"A lot of weirdos don't make any sense. There was this case a couple of years back. This pervert did six women before they finally caught him. You know what he told them when they asked him how and where he chose his victims?" She shook her head.

"At the grocery stores. He'd stand out front and he'd smile at the women as they rushed past him. The first one who smiled back… that's the one he wanted. Ordinary women, Laurant, leading ordinary lives. You can't look for reasons with these guys, or waste your

time trying to figure out how their minds work. Leave that to the

experts."

"Do you think the man in the confessional is a serial killer?"

"Maybe," he allowed. "And maybe not. He could just be getting started. The profilers will know more after they've heard the tape. They'll have some insight."

"But what do you think?"

"There's a hell of a lot of inconsistencies here."

"Such as?"

He shrugged. "For one thing, he told Tommy he did the other woman a year ago, but I think he was lying about that."

"Why?"

"Because he also said he's gotten a real taste for it," he reminded her. "The one statement conflicts with the other."

"I don't understand."

"If he got off on it-torturing and killing the woman-then he did her recently and not a year ago. He wouldn't have been able to wait that long."

"Nick, what about the letter he said he sent to the police?"

"If he wrote it, and if he mailed it, then they'll get it tomorrow or the day after. They're ready," he added. "And they'll run it for prints, but I doubt he left any."

"I don't suppose they found any prints on the cassette, did they?"

"Actually, there was one, but it wasn't our man's. The kid who checked him out at Super Sid's Warehouse had a record, so his prints were on file. It was easy to track him to the warehouse," he explained. "His probation officer helped him get the job."

"Did he remember who bought the tape?"

"Unfortunately, he didn't," he answered. "Have you ever been to one of those stores? The traffic going through there is unbelievable, and it was a cash-only counter, so there wasn't any credit card receipt or check to trace."

"What about the confessional? Did they find any prints there?"

"Yeah, hundreds."

"But you don’t think any of them are his?"

"No, I don’t," he replied.

"He’s very smart, isn’t he?"

"They’re never as smart as they think they are. Besides…"

"What?"

"We’re going to be smarter."