CHAPTER 21
For over ten years now, Lizzy had been volunteering her time teaching defense strategies to young girls and boys. High schools in Placer and Sacramento Counties were accommodating, opening up their gyms and cafeterias after school for a few hours a month. No charge.
Tommy had been a regular volunteer for the last couple of years. He was fantastic with the kids—super energetic, with an infectious passion for self-defense. They loved him. He’d turned twenty-five last week. He owned his own karate school, which is where he could be found most days. No matter how busy Tommy got, he always took the time to help Lizzy out. As far as Lizzy was concerned, he was one of the good guys.
A good guy with tough romantic instincts, though. Tommy had a thing for Hayley. Everyone knew that. The part that surprised Lizzy, though, was that he hadn’t given up yet. Hayley wasn’t an easy person to gauge, or get along with, for that matter. It was true that since Brian Rosie’s death, Hayley seemed different. She was still far from chatty, but not as silent as she used to be. Still, if you looked close enough, it was easy to see that a subtle darkness continued to simmer and brew just beneath the surface.
Today’s class had been held at Crestmont High, not far from her office on J Street. Lizzy had been holding self-defense classes at this particular school for years, so she knew most of the regulars. Her class size had grown from an average of seven kids to double that in the past few years. Some of the kids invited her to birthday parties and other family events.
It was almost five. Time to lock up. She was surprised to see Tommy still there, talking to a group of girls in the far corner of the room. He’d recently opened a second karate school and therefore he usually hurried to his car the moment class ended.
But not tonight.
One of the girls was crying. Something was wrong.
Lizzy joined their small circle, made eye contact with Tommy, and lifted a questioning brow.
“It’s Shelby,” he said as he stepped out of the group and pulled Lizzy with him. “She’s missing.”
“Since when?”
“According to her friends, Shelby was at school yesterday and everything seemed fine. Apparently Shelby tutors math and so when she didn’t come straight home from school, her mom figured she’d be home later. By dinnertime, her parents knew something was wrong. That’s really all I know. One of the girls over there said that all of Shelby’s friends were being questioned by authorities at school today. Rumor has it that they found her car on the side of the highway.”
“OK, thanks, Tommy.”
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” Lizzy said. Her ears were buzzing. This couldn’t be happening. “I just can’t imagine Shelby putting herself in a situation where this could happen. She’s been coming to my classes for years. She’s smart, tough, and she’s a fighter.”
Tommy started to pull Lizzy into his arms, then backed off when she stiffened. “I’m sorry. You looked like you could use . . .” He trailed off.
Lizzy shook her head. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I didn’t mean to get all weird on you.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I get it. You’ve been put through the wringer. No need to explain. You need time.” He waved a hand through the air. “Look around. You’re a decent person doing a decent thing by helping these kids. They look up to you. Hayley and Kitally do, too. So do I.”
“Thanks. I’m going to go talk to some of the girls, see what I can do to help. See you next week?”
“I’ll be here.”
After Tommy walked off, Lizzy talked to the remaining girls. They were all just as baffled as Lizzy. Shelby had just turned seventeen. She was a junior and had been dating the same boy for three years. A nice boy, they all said. Lizzy had met him a couple of times when he picked Shelby up from class.
Then Lizzy remembered. The buzzing in her ears was back. Last week—maybe the week before that, Lizzy wasn’t sure—Shelby had tried to talk to her after class. She’d asked a few questions about relationships and love, and Lizzy realized now that she hadn’t really listened to her. She’d been caught up in her own thoughts, could hardly remember a word of what Shelby had said.
After everyone left the gym, Lizzy locked up and then made her way across the parking lot, keeping an eye on her surroundings as she went.
Goose bumps crawled up her arms. He was out there . . . watching her.
She stopped. Looked at the row of windows in the building across the street. Shadows danced within. Her gaze roamed the area, darting from tree to tree, building to building, then to every car parked on the side of the road.
“Who are you?” she said out loud. “What do you want from me?”
There was no answer.
She got to her car, climbed in behind the wheel, locked the doors, and started the engine. There’s nobody out there, she told herself.
Nobody out there, in all the world.
“Jared,” she said suddenly, surprised by her own outburst. “Come back to me.”
She tried to imagine him sitting in the seat next to her, but no image of how things used to be came to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember happier times. When she wasn’t sitting in the hospital with him, it was as if he’d never been. These non-feelings didn’t make any sense. And yet every once in a while, she would feel a glimmer of hope, and for a moment, never longer, she shut her eyes and dared to imagine that everything would be all right. It was pure insanity. She was living in a tornado of confusion, a constant war between logic and irrationality.
A white Volkswagen Passat rolled into the parking lot. Behind the wheel was a young man. Clearly not a threat. Lizzy watched him drive up close to her car, stop, and roll down his window. She cracked her own.
“Ms. Gardner? My name is Derek Murphy,” he said. “I’ve been trying to reach you for days.”
Before she could tell him to get lost, he said, “I work for Channel 10 News, and we want to do a human interest story on you. You know, the story behind the story.”
She hit the Roll-Up button on her window and drove off.
Forty-five minutes later, after being told she could go ahead and enter Detective Chase’s office, Lizzy opened the door, but then started to back out when she noticed he was on the phone.
Detective Chase waved her in, gesturing toward the chair in front of his desk.
Lizzy shut the door and took a seat. While he finished his conversation, she glanced around, taking note of the framed certificate on the wall. Apparently he’d graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
If she were trying to figure out what sort of man he was, judging by the pictures, she would guess he liked to fish and golf with his buddies. A man’s man. Her gaze left the wall and settled on the bronze trophy sitting on the credenza to the right. Apparently Detective Chase received a Top Cop Award and was honored by the president of the United States. Shocker. She didn’t think Chase had it in him.
Chase hung up the phone and said, “Gardner.”
“Detective Chase.”
“How are you holding up?”
The big man was trying to come across as if he cared. “I’m doing OK.”
“You don’t look OK.”
“Thanks.”
“What brings you here today?”
She had two reasons for the visit, but she decided to start with, “Melony Reed.”
Blank face, no expression. “Haven’t heard the name.”
“She came to see you because she was scared.”
“About what?”
“All her friends from high school were dying. Does that ring a bell?”
“That happens, you know—people’s friends die.”
“Yes. I know. Thanks for the reminder.”
He shrugged.
“Melony Reed hired me to investigate why so many of her friends are disappearing.”
“So have you solved the case? It’s been at least a week, hasn’t it?”
“So you do remember.”
Another shrug.
“Did you know Melony died recently, slipped and fell on the knives sticking straight up out of her open dishwasher?”
No shrug this time. Instead Chase appeared a bit uneasy.
“You can’t deny that that’s a lot of accidents in a short period of time.”
“Quite a coincidence. I’ll give you that.”
“Why did you send her to me?” Lizzy asked.
“Because I know how you like to solve murder mysteries.”
Detective Chase, it seemed, was back to his old dickish self. Lizzy didn’t flinch. “You sent her to me because you thought she was a joke. You didn’t believe her.”
“You’re wrong. I believed her when she told me that her friends died. But as I said, people die all of the time. Melony Reed was going through a divorce. There were a lot of contested financial issues, and she ended up losing everything. It was easy enough to see that she was experiencing some kind of midlife crisis—”
“She was only thirty.”
Chase sighed. “Listen. If you add up all of the homicides, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, we’re talking thousands of crimes every year. And that’s just right here in Sacramento.”
“Ahh, you’re busy, so you just decided to brush her aside.”
“Not every death is a murder.”
“She came to you for help, and you did nothing.”
“Sounds like she went to you, too. What did you do to help Melony Reed?”
Lizzy didn’t have an answer.
“Am I supposed to drop everything anytime Lizzy Gardner walks into my office?” He leaned back in his chair. “Though you do seem to have some clout around here. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a call from Jimmy Martin any second now.”
“Stop being an ass.”
“Are we done here?”
“Not yet,” Lizzy said. “What do you know about Shelby Geitner?”
“Now I know we’re finished. There’s the door.” He leaned forward and began shuffling through the papers on his desk.
“I know Shelby personally. I’ve been to her house. She would never run away, let alone put herself in a position to be kidnapped.”
“Who said anything about being kidnapped?”
“I heard it through the grapevine, Detective. You should get out there, hit the pavement—you learn things that way.”
“Listen, Gardner. I don’t care if you and Shelby talked on the phone every day and had coffee on Sundays. Keep your nose out of my case.”
“Is that a threat?”
He took in a breath. “Listen. I want to find Shelby as badly as you do. I know Shelby’s father. We’ve played golf together. We’re in the process of locating and interviewing witnesses, re-canvassing the crime scene and booking evidence, searching criminal databases. In other words, we’ve got it covered. I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of my way.”
“Wow. Detective Chase is being polite and asking nicely.”
“Is it working?”
“Maybe. Answer four questions and I’ll think about backing off.”
He actually smiled. “Ask the questions and I’ll think about answering them.”
“Any suspects?”
“Not yet.”
“Did you find her car?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think someone was waiting for her in it after school?”
“Looks that way.”
“Did she put up a fight?”
“Absolutely.”