Right now.
She ran into the office, threw open the door to the back room. She dropped to her knees to pull her purse and backpack out from under the rollaway bed.
Felt a sudden, very sharp pain in her side.
BY the time Doris Fitch arrived that afternoon, the hotel parking lot was cordoned off with yellow police tape.
FORTY-SEVEN
JULIE met me at the house. She was standing by her car as I was pulling into the driveway.
“Tell me again,” I said as I got out.
She repeated what she had told me on the phone. That a Whirl360 employee named Kyle Billings, and his wife, had been murdered in their home. The woman had been suffocated with a bag, and I couldn’t help but think of the similarity between that and what Thomas had found on the Internet.
I also couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Billings was the person who created the program that obscured faces on Whirl360.
“Someone like that could have changed that image,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Julie. “That’s kind of what I was thinking.”
“I don’t know what the hell to do,” I said. “You didn’t tell Thomas any of this, did you?”
She shook her head. “Hell, no. I don’t even know if he knows I’m out here. I think this news might get him pretty agitated.”
“I’m pretty agitated,” I said. “You find out anything else?”
“I’m going to make some calls about Allison Fitch. See if she’s still missing.”
“Okay.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “You know you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to get mixed up in whatever the hell this is.”
“Oh, okay,” she deadpanned. “Guess I’ll be off, then. Give me a call sometime.”
I smiled. “Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t know. ’Cause it’s fun?”
I laughed. “Maybe for you. I don’t need this. That your only reason?”
She shrugged. “I kinda like you. I figure, I keep helping out, shit keeps happening, it builds this sexual tension thing we have going.”
“Really.”
“Yeah. Maybe, one of these times we start getting hot and heavy, we’ll actually consummate the event.”
“Consummate,” I said. “I always thought that sounded like soup.”
She smiled. “I like you, Ray. And I like your brother, too. I like helping you out. And I have to tell ya, if Thomas really has seen something online, it’s one hell of a story.”
“So you’re using me,” I said.
“Yes, yes, I am,” she said. “I’m trying to exploit you sexually, and professionally.”
“Works for me, I guess. But I still don’t know what to do now. Calling the cops, that didn’t go well.”
Julie said, “I know, that went badly. But Jesus, this? What happened in Chicago? Someone’s going to have to listen to this.”
“The trick is trying to get someone to hear the whole story before they hang up.”
I slipped an arm around her. As we started walking toward the house, my cell rang. It was Harry Peyton’s office.
“Hi, Ray,” Alice said. “I can’t seem to find your father’s life insurance documents. Would you have those?”
I really didn’t need this now. “Can it wait?” I asked. “How’s tomorrow?”
“Okay, normally, I’d say yes, but I’m taking tomorrow off and Harry’s going to be in court.”
I had a thought. “Is Harry there?” I asked.
“Yup.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll head in shortly.” I ended the call and said to Julie, “I’ve got an idea. You want to hang out here till I get back?”
“What else would I do?” she said. “I’ve only got a job.”
TEN minutes later, I was in Harry’s office with my father’s policy in hand. I’d found it in one of the kitchen drawers. I didn’t really intend to, but, wound up as I was, I pretty much threw it onto his desk.
“Ray, what the hell’s up with you?”
“That’s what you wanted, right?”
“Yes, this is what I wanted. Ray, really, what’s going on? It’s about Thomas, isn’t it?”
I forced myself to sit down. I felt as though I’d had coffee injected directly into my veins.
“Sort of. But not exactly. I mean, it started off with Thomas, but now it’s something bigger. And I need to talk to you about it.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, as if steeling himself. “Fire away.”
I had to take a deep breath myself. “Thomas saw something. Online. He was going through various streets in New York and he spotted something in a third-floor window.”
Harry listened while I told him the whole thing. Thomas’s belief that what he’d seen was a murder. My trip to New York. His call to the landlord. The altered image, the murders in Chicago, and a missing woman.
“Good Lord,” Harry said. “I’ve never heard anything like this in my life.”
“I feel I’ve got to call the police, but I tried that once already, and it didn’t go well.”
“There’s a shocker.”