Compulsion Page 11

  “Cathy said we can start as soon as Johnnie comes back,” Vicky announced. “Then we can eat and strategize.”

  Mr. Rupert joined them on the couch and they chatted until Johnnie returned. Cathy asked everyone to relax. She said a short prayer and began, looking at Toni.

  “Okay. I’m still getting that there is a person who is extremely obsessed with you and I sense danger. I’m also seeing numbers, but I have no idea what that means. Random numbers like two, five, thirty. The feeling is that this person has some control issues.”

  Toni felt frightened. This could be anyone and she’d have no idea. How could she protect herself from an anonymous person? She scooted closer to Boggs and linked her arm in hers. “Do you get anything else, Cathy?”

  Cathy was quiet and closed her eyes. After a few minutes she smiled, then looked at Toni. “This is strange, but there’s one more thing. I have a strong feeling that you met or came into contact with this person not long ago, within a couple weeks. Sorry, that’s all I have for you today.”

  “Wow,” Toni said. “That’s amazing. Thank you so much. You helped us so much the last time, and you were incredibly accurate. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure this out.” Even to her own ear, she sounded much more positive than she felt.

  Cathy blushed. “It’s not me, really. I just give what I get. I hope it helps.” She took a sip of her soda. “Now, on to other important topics. Have any of you seen the new bartender at the Cat’s Meow? And do you know if she’s single?”

  Everyone laughed and Toni began handing out the subs. While the women ate, they talked about the new bartender, the upcoming Pride Day festivities, the softball team and, eventually, Toni and Boggs’s new loft. After about an hour, Cathy had to leave.

  “Thanks so much for the food and company,” she said as she stood to leave. “This has been so much fun. It’s rare that I get a chance to just sit and chat with friends. Let me know the next time you all go out and if I can, I’d love to join you.”

  Toni assured her that they would and after she’d gone, she cleared off the coffee table and brought fresh drinks for everyone. They had their notebooks ready and Toni retrieved her own notes from her briefcase and joined them on the couch.

  Vicky took charge. “Okay, first let’s share what we have and then we’ll talk about the info we got from Cathy. I talked to Anne this morning and she still doesn’t think we have enough to get warrants for bank records on Judge Smith or Butch. She’s going to run a few searches and see if she gets anything interesting on Judge Crayton. That’s all I’ve got.”

  “Well, I ran dry myself,” Patty said. “The forensic computer guys haven’t touched Tucker’s hard drive yet. They said it might be another week before they can get to it. And Mike took the afternoon off. I had a burglary this afternoon, so I didn’t get anything else done.” She looked apologetic.

  “Don’t feel bad,” Toni said. “The only thing I got was a list of Butch’s clients over the last couple years.” She handed the list to Vicky. “There are a lot of big names on there, but no one that stood out to me.” She shrugged. “Oh, I did accomplish one more thing. I got a gun today.” She lifted her shirt and turned. “See?”

  “Captain Billings gave her a temporary concealed-carry permit,” Boggs added. “And you should’ve seen her at the range. Shit. And I thought I was a good shot.”

  Toni felt her face flush. “It was only at twenty-five yards,” she insisted. “And it’s got great balance. Nice gun.”

  Boggs hugged her. “I don’t think it was the gun, babe.” She looked at the others. “She shot dead center, every shot.”

  “I missed one,” Toni admitted.

  “An inch off dead center is not a miss.” Boggs laughed. “My woman’s an ace,” she teased.

  “Hey, Toni,” Patty said, “will you go to the range with me sometime? I really need the practice and maybe you could give me some tips.” She looked hopeful.

  “I’d love to.” Toni smiled at her. “It’ll be fun. Maybe this weekend, okay?”

  Patty nodded excitedly.

  “What kind of gun?” Johnnie asked.

  Toni told her and she asked to see it. Toni carefully removed it from her holster, easily popped out the magazine and expelled the cartridge in the chamber before handing her the gun, butt first.

  Johnnie smiled. “You’ve been shooting a long time, huh?”

  “Mostly in high school and undergrad,” Toni said. “I haven’t really shot in a long time.”

  “Well, you handle it better than most instructors I’ve seen.” Johnnie held the gun, pointing it down at the floor. “Wow. This does feel good. And it’s a nine millimeter, just like my duty weapon. This would be a nice off-duty pistol.” She looked down the sights. “Would you mind if I loaded it so I could feel the weight and balance?”

  Toni handed her the magazine. “I think we can trust you,” she said, chuckling.

  Johnnie got up and went toward the front door. She put in the magazine, chambered a round and removed the magazine. She held out her hand and Toni gave her the extra cartridge, which she quickly snapped into the magazine. After reinserting the clip she leveled the gun toward the door in a shooting stance. “This is really nice. I think I might get one. How about if I join you and Patty at the range? I’d like to try it out.” She engaged the safety and handed the gun back to Toni.

  Toni double-checked the safety and returned it to her holster. “Sounds like fun. And I’d like to try your duty weapon if that’s okay.”

  “Maybe we can all go on Saturday,” Boggs said.

  Toni noticed that Boggs seemed a little jealous and she couldn’t blame her. A few months ago Johnnie had made it abundantly clear that if Boggs weren’t in the picture, she’d be the first in line. And Johnnie was very smooth, that voice like butter. Even though Toni had felt a connection with her, it was Boggs who held her heart and soul. She snuggled closer to Boggs. “I would love that, honey.” She felt Boggs relax just a bit.

  “Okay, ladies.” Vicky drank the last of her beer. “Back to business. What did you find out, Johnnie?”

  Johnnie had gone to the kitchen to get a beer. When Vicky held up her empty bottle she got one for her and asked the others. Back on the couch she opened her beer and began. “I went to see Bert last night and she was thrilled to be able to help us. Or help Toni, I should say.”

  Toni rolled her eyes and the rest laughed.

  “Anyway, I showed her Tucker’s picture and she recognized him immediately, said he came around a couple nights a week. She’d assumed he was selling ecstasy.”

  “How come she never reported him?” Patty asked.

  “She said he never caused any problems and he was a nice guy. When I told her that the drugs had caused an overdose she freaked out a little. I had to assure her that she wasn’t in trouble at all.”

  “I’m glad you did that,” Toni said. “She’s nice and I wouldn’t want her to think that we’re after her.”

  “Yeah. She looks hardcore, but she’s on the up and up. I asked if I could use her as kind of an informant of sorts. She liked the idea.”

  “Does she think Tucker’s been replaced?” Boggs asked.

  “She hadn’t noticed anyone, but she wasn’t looking. Apparently Tucker had a routine, come in on Friday and Sunday nights like clockwork. So she’ll keep an eye out this weekend and let us know.”

  “What about Dead Granny? Did you find any relatives here?” Vicky asked.

  “Still working on that. Dead Granny had four kids and who knows how many grandkids. Hopefully, I’ll have something to go on by the end of the week. I have an agent working on that.” Johnnie paused. “And the cameras here are all set, one outside the front door and one in the parking lot. They’re set on a twenty-four-hour loop. The windows and the front door are wired. If the alarm isn’t shutoff in thirty seconds, a signal is sent to the police and all of our cell phones. We’ll get a text message that says ‘Toni Alarm.’” She gave them the shutoff code. “Not to
o original, it spells out Toni.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Okay,” Vicky said. “Let’s talk about what Cathy told us.”

  “Oh, wait,” Boggs said suddenly. “I completely forgot. Remember the anonymous letters that Toni’s been getting?”

  “You know who that is?” Toni asked. She’d been getting these letters for almost six months now. They started innocently, just saying how wonderful she was, and they were all signed “Till We Meet Again.” A few months ago gifts began arriving, and she’d gotten a chocolate rabbit and Peeps near Easter. Although there was never anything threatening, she thought they were creepy. She didn’t even open them anymore but instead gave them directly to Sam Clark, the chief investigator at work and Boggs’s boss.

  “Sam found the guy,” Boggs continued. “The last box had an angel statue inside, wrapped in newspaper. Sam noticed it was from a small town in rural Missouri so he called the chief of police down there. Get this, the police chief knew exactly who it was. The guy’s name is Buford Monroe and he’s sixty-seven years old. He tells everyone who’ll listen that he thinks you’re great. Must have seen you on TV. You remind him of his daughter who died a few years ago. His other daughter lives here in Fairfield and when he comes to visit her, he mails something to you. That’s why the postmarks are always from here. He’s totally harmless. Another mystery solved.”

  Toni slumped back on the couch. “Well, that’s a relief. That’s really sweet, don’t you think? That I remind him of his daughter? And to think we thought he could have been a killer a few months ago.”

  She smiled, then realized that there was still an obsessed person out there. “Okay, what about Cathy’s info? She said something about random numbers. That kinda makes sense if we’re talking obsessive-compulsive. These people tend to count in order to calm down, or they have to do something like wash their hands a certain number of times. Maybe that’s what it means.”

  “What exactly is obsessive-compulsive?” Patty asked.

  “Basically with this type of person, it starts with some kind of small obsession, like maybe germs. Then, for example, they’d need to wash their hands. Not once, but many times. In their mind, they’d need to wash five times or to a count of twenty, or they’re not clean. And the thought process is irrational. To them, if they don’t go through that routine, something very bad will happen to them. They’re not always sure what that bad thing is, but they are certain it will happen. As the illness progresses, they engage in more and more compulsions, or behaviors. In really bad cases, they may not even be able to leave their house because of the number of rituals they must complete before they go. Or maybe their hands will be horribly chapped, almost to the point of bleeding, because they have to wash them so much.”

  “My God,” Patty said, shaking her head. “That’s terrible.”

  “I know.” Toni was frowning. “I had one client when I was a psychotherapist who had to check the lock on her back door fifteen times, wash her hands twenty times, check to make sure the stove was off ten times and test her answering machine ten times. It took her almost two hours to get out of her house and once she left, she worried constantly that she’d missed something. It was really sad.”

  “Maybe it will be easier to find this guy if it’s really bad,” Patty offered.

  “Possibly,” Toni said. “But most of these folks hide their illness pretty well.”

  “At least it’s something to look for,” Vicky said.

  “Y’know, Cathy said that you met this person recently, or at least saw them,” Boggs said, looking at Toni. “Can you think of anyone you met in the last few weeks?”

  Toni thought for a moment. “I met your Aunt Francie last week, but I don’t think that’s it.” She laughed.

  “No,” Boggs agreed. “She might be a little eccentric, but I don’t think she’s the one.”

  “Let’s see. I met a new defense attorney last week, Derek Lemon. And we got a new secretary. Oh, I met Judge Crayton at Patty’s party. And we’re already watching her. Do you think that’s who it is?”

  “She’s definitely on the list,” Vicky said as she wrote in her notebook.

  “And I met the owner of Gertrude’s Garage, Doris something.”

  “Doris Jackson,” Vicky said. “And that was odd, if I remember. She said hello and then just left.”

  “There was somebody else, too. What was her name?” Toni could picture her, tall and blond, but the name was a blank.

  Vicky thought for a minute. “Nancy Manford was there. Oh, that’s right. Karen Young. She used to work at a bank and I met her when I was investigating an embezzlement case.”

  “She said she worked freelance now, in advertising,” Toni added. “I think that’s all the people I’ve met in the last few weeks, but maybe I don’t even realize that I’ve met this person. You know, like when you go to a store or restaurant and someone helps you. They might know who you are because of your credit card, but you don’t know them.”

  “That makes it even harder,” Boggs said. “But since we don’t have anything else to go on yet, let’s focus on who we’ve got.”

  Vicky looked at her list. “We’ve got that defense attorney Derek Lemon, Judge Crayton, Doris Jackson, Nancy Manford, Karen Young and the new secretary. What’s her name?”

  “Velda Schmirnoff.”

  “You’re kidding,” Vicky said.

  “Serious.” Toni said. “She’s kinda tall with long dark brown hair. Her face is rather long, but she’s super funny and nice.”

  “Nice means nothing,” Vicky quipped. “Anyway, I think we should start with a background check on each of them. Then maybe we can make some connection between one of them and Dead Granny.”

  “Let’s get pictures of each of them,” Patty suggested. “I can pull their driver’s license photos tomorrow. Maybe Bert’s seen one of them before.”

  “Good idea,” Vicky said. “I think Cathy was right when she told Patty that the car fire was tied to drugs. If we can figure out the drug connection, it should lead us to the boss. I hope Bert can help us there, because no one is going to come up to one of us in the bars and try to sell us something. I think they hit the younger crowd.” She looked at Patty. “You’re young enough, but you were on the streets too long and I’m afraid people know you’re a cop.”

  “Hey,” Toni said, “why don’t we get Jessie involved? She’s younger than any of us and has only been on the force a couple months.” Jessie Taylor had helped them out a few months ago right after she graduated from the police academy. She’d been an MP in the army prior to that and proved to be the perfect choice when they needed a bodyguard for Toni. She posed as Toni’s cousin and did a good job.

  Vicky pursed her lips. “I could ask Captain Billings to loan her to us for a few weeks like he did before. I’m sure she’d love to do some more plainclothes work.” She was nodding to herself. “Yeah, that could work. She would fit in perfectly with the bar scene and we still have the fake ID we set up for her before. She was supposed to be a grad student. Good idea, Toni. I’m going to call him right now.”

  While Vicky was on the phone with Captain Billings, Toni stretched out, putting her feet on the coffee table with Mr. Rupert on her lap. “I guess we’ve covered all the bases, at least for now.”

  Boggs put her arm around Toni and pulled her closer. “I suppose, but I hate this not knowing crap. I sure wish we knew who we’re dealing with.” She kissed the top of Toni’s head. “It’d be nice if we were already in our new place. We’d have the security cameras everywhere.”

  “What kind of system does it have?” Johnnie asked.

  Boggs described it in detail while Toni rubbed Mr. Rupert’s head. Patty had opened a fresh beer and was just sitting back down on the couch when Vicky ended her call with Captain Billings.

  “He thinks we’re on to something,” Vicky announced. “As long as Jessie says okay, he’ll assign her to me for a few weeks. I’m going to call her now.” Five minutes later she was s
miling. “She’s totally on board. I gave her the basics and I’ll fill her in on the rest tomorrow.”

  “Perfect.” Toni picked up her beer from the coffee table and took a sip. “I agree that if we can just find the drug connection, we’ll figure this out.”

  “We will,” Vicky said. “Okay. Johnnie will work on the Dead Granny angle. Patty’s going to get photos of the people on our list so far and we’ll get those to Bert. Let’s see.” She looked at her notebook. “We’ve got Derek Lemon, Judge Crayton, Doris Jackson, Nancy Manford, Karen Young and Velda Schmirnoff. I’ll do background checks on all of them. What else?”

  “I’ll do some more digging into Kevin Tucker’s life,” Boggs said, “but without Mike Johnson knowing. I’ll see if I can find another boyfriend or something.”

  “I guess we’re good,” Vicky said as she finished off the last of her beer and took it to the kitchen. “Unless something else comes up, let’s meet again on Friday and catch up then.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot,” Vicky added. “The Eat for Pride thing is going on tomorrow night. If you go to one of the sponsoring restaurants or bars, they’ll donate fifteen percent of your check to an AIDS foundation. Both Gertrude’s Garage and the Cat’s Meow are on the list.”

  “Perfect.” Toni grinned at Boggs. “I guess we’re eating out tomorrow night.”

  The women left and Toni locked the door and reset the alarm.

  “I feel a little better knowing that we’ve at least got something to go on,” she said as she cleaned up the empty beer bottles from the coffee table. “If what Cathy said was right, and I’m betting it is, then we’ve got five suspects. We should be able to figure this out, don’t you think?”

  “I know we can, babe,” Boggs said as she finished off her beer. “And if Bert can figure out who took Tucker’s place, we should be able to make a connection between him and the boss.” She grabbed an empty box from the corner of the living room. “Want to do some more packing?”

  “Sure. Let’s head upstairs and pack some of my clothes.” Toni picked up an empty box. “We can at least pack all my winter things.”