Almost Dead

CHAPTER 46

 

“Where’s Kitally?” Lizzy asked, looking out the window toward the cars parked outside the downtown office. “Did she know we had a meeting planned?”

 

“She knew about it. I’ll give her a call.” Hayley left a message on Kitally’s cell, then hung up.

 

“I have class in an hour,” Lizzy said, “and I need to go over a few things, so we’ll have to do this without her.”

 

“OK, what’s first on the agenda?”

 

“I have good news and bad news.”

 

“Let’s start with the good.”

 

Lizzy opened the newspaper. There was an eight-by-ten picture of Jacque Victoria Mason, her dog, Gracie, and Kitally. The headline read, “New Hero! Pet Detective Saves Pug!”

 

Hayley smiled.

 

“The article talks about Kitally being the new pet detective in town. It’s great publicity.”

 

“We’re never going to hear the end of this from Kitally, you know?”

 

“I know.”

 

“So, now for the bad news.”

 

“The Dow case,” Lizzy said and then watched Hayley closely. Not too surprisingly, Hayley didn’t so much as flinch.

 

“What about it?”

 

“Mr. and Mrs. Dow have filed a suit against us.”

 

“On what grounds?”

 

“Mr. Dow claims you ruined his Mercedes and broke his arm. He’s claiming damages of over one hundred thousand dollars.”

 

“He’s an idiot.”

 

Lizzy tapped her pencil against the desk. “Did you drive your Chevy into his Mercedes?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Did you use your stick on him?”

 

“It’s an expandable baton.”

 

“Did you use your expandable baton on Mr. Dow?”

 

“Yes.” Hayley stood. “I’ll be right back.”

 

Lizzy nodded. Waited.

 

Hayley returned with a file and a mini-cassette recorder. She set the recorder on Lizzy’s desk and pushed Play.

 

For the first minute or two, there was nothing more than muffled noises. Then they heard a man scream out in pain.

 

Lizzy winced.

 

The next voice was Hayley’s. “What did you give her?”

 

“Nothing, I swear.”

 

“Bullshit. Was it Rohypnol? Tell me what you gave her or I swear I’ll break both your legs.”

 

“Gamma 10,” the man blurted. “I didn’t give her much.”

 

More muffled sounds, car doors opening and closing.

 

Hayley hit the Off button and then opened the file and handed Lizzy photographs she’d taken of Mr. Dow exiting the club and then Mr. Dow helping Kitally outside the bar.

 

Lizzy leaned back in her chair. “Why is this the first I’ve heard of Kitally being drugged and taken captive? Not to mention you crashing into the man’s car?”

 

“You’ve been busy.”

 

Lizzy eyed her for a moment, then shrugged and said, “I’ll give his wife a call, tell her what we have, and see if she wants to come have a listen for herself. We’ll see where we go from here.”

 

“Any luck with the Shelby Geitner case?” Hayley asked.

 

“Not so far. Apparently Shelby has a friend who told Detective Chase that Shelby was spending time with a new boy in town. Nobody seems to know anything about him. As soon as I can figure out who the source of this new information is, I plan to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, we’ll keep the cameras rolling around the perimeter of Kitally’s house and see if anything turns up.”

 

Hayley nodded.

 

“In other news,” Lizzy said, “Pam Middleton called today.”

 

Hayley sighed. “How’s her daughter doing?”

 

“Not well. And she’s not going to get any better unless a miracle happens and Christina Bradley decides to help her.”

 

“How’s Mrs. Middleton holding up?”

 

“As well as can be expected, I guess,” Lizzy said. “It’s tough to imagine what that might feel like—having a daughter so sick, and knowing there’s one person in the entire world who might be able to save her, but there’s nothing she can do to make it happen.”

 

“Maybe we should say screw it and give her Christina Bradley’s telephone number and place of work.”

 

Lizzy shook her head. “It would be unethical. And it wouldn’t guarantee a happy ending, in any case.”

 

“I have to say, I am surprised,” Hayley said. “I really thought Christina would step up to the plate and try to save her little sister. I guess I read her wrong.”

 

Lizzy knew what Hayley meant about reading people wrong. Lizzy had been off her game for a while now. It took her much too long to figure things out lately, even when the answer was right there in front of her, staring at her like an old cat, just waiting to be paid some attention.

 

The silence stretched out between them until it was deafening. Lizzy tapped her pencil against her desk and then heard herself say, “I miss hearing his voice.”

 

“I know,” Hayley said. And for the first time in forever, the tough girl looked slightly uncomfortable. “I miss him, too.”

 

“I don’t even know why I said that,” Lizzy said. “It does no possible good. Talk. Everybody wants me to talk about it.” She shook her head. “All I know is it’s not real. Not to me.”

 

Hayley gave her a nod of understanding.

 

“I’m feeling so damned helpless,” Lizzy said next. “Shelby’s out there somewhere. But where? Here we are, sitting in a warm office while she’s out there with some lunatic. And then what about the kill list? Two people on the list are still alive, but for how long? And what are we supposed to do about it? I can’t exactly move in with them. I feel as if my hands are tied.”

 

“I still can’t believe the authorities fell for the snake scene,” Hayley said. “It was so obviously staged. Two people don’t sit down to watch television and then let their longtime pet snakes sneak up on them. It’s ridiculous.”

 

The door to the office opened, and a young woman walked inside at the same moment the phone rang.

 

Lizzy picked up the call while Hayley went to talk to the woman.

 

“Is this Lizzy Gardner?”

 

“This is her,” Lizzy said into the receiver.

 

“This is Sandy, Dean Newman’s girlfriend.”

 

“Hi, Sandy. What’s going on? Did you hear from Dean?”

 

“No. He still hasn’t come home. I’ve been looking through his things, trying to find any clue that might tell me where he is. It took me a while to find his passwords. I finally found them, though. Long story short, I found a list of the people he planned to apologize to. I thought you might be interested in seeing the list.” The woman’s voice cracked. She was crying. “Are you still looking for Dean?”

 

“I am,” Lizzy told her. “The list that you have . . . can you email it to me?”

 

“Yes, of course.”

 

“My email is on the card I left with you. Do you still have my card?”

 

“I do. I’m looking at it right now.”

 

“If you could forward the list, that would be a big help.”

 

“You will call me, won’t you? You know . . . if you find Dean . . . you’ll call me?”

 

Lizzy cradled the phone. “Of course I will. You’ll be the first one I call.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Lizzy hung up the phone. Dean Newman was dead, and they both knew it.

 

“Lizzy,” Hayley called from the door, “this is Christina Bradley, the person Pam Middleton has been looking for.”

 

Lizzy walked up to Christina and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

 

“You, too,” the young woman said. It was hard for Lizzy to get a fix on her attitude, beyond the fact that she looked as if she hadn’t slept in a week.

 

Hayley said, “Christina just told me that after I paid her a visit at the day care center, she went straightaway to a private lab to have blood work done. She just got the results back from the lab.”

 

Judging by the expressions on their faces, it wasn’t good. God, when would all this end? How would she break the news to Mrs. Middleton? How in the world do you tell someone that all hope is lost?

 

But then Hayley smiled, an occurrence so rare it never failed to take Lizzy by surprise.

 

“Looks like she’s a match,” Hayley said.

 

Chills swept over Lizzy. She looked at the girl standing next to Hayley, peered into her clear blue eyes, and realized she didn’t need to ask the question. The answer was right there in Christina’s eyes, shining as brightly as the northern lights. Christina Bradley was going to do everything she could to save Pam Middleton’s younger daughter . . . her sister by blood.