“They lied to her,” Cliff said. “Told her she had cancer and only a few months to live.”
“The idea was to focus her,” Betty said. “Give her a reason to apply herself. The risk, of course, was that she’d just give up, but Dr. Samuels ‘sensed a stubborn spirit inside Alice,’ his words; and felt that with a deadline on her life she might finally focus. If she did, they’d eventually tell her she beat the cancer, another reinforcer he called it, and she might finally be on her way to a productive life. And it seemed to be working. Dr. Samuels said it was almost like a light went off. She checked out of the Institute two months ago, she rented an apartment and got a job at the Best Buy in Hollywood. And she let us buy her a car so she could get around. She seemed to be doing so well the doctors said we could visit. So we drove up to Hollywood about a month ago and surprised her.”
“Crappy apartment,” Cliff said. “I wanted to get her something nicer but she said she was happy.”
“The cancer-scare therapy seemed to really be working so we hoped that maybe this time…” Betty trailed off at the obvious reality of the situation. Alice’s focus wasn’t on getting a job and straightening out her life, it was on seeking revenge.
“What kind of car did you get her?”
“A white Prius,” Betty said. “She really cares about the environment.”
The irony of someone who cuts off men’s cocks caring about global warming wasn’t lost on Syd. “You know the license number?”
“Sorry, no.”
“Do you know Alice’s address and phone number?”
Betty frowned. “I don’t remember her apartment address, do you, honey?”
He thought about it. “No, I think I threw it away when we got home. It was near a famous corner, though. Just a couple blocks south of Hollywood and Vine. It was on Vine, though, I remember that.”
“How about a phone number?”
Betty looked embarrassed. “She wouldn’t give it to us. She said she would call us if she wanted to talk to us.”
Syd knew they could canvas the buildings south of Hollywood Boulevard but that would take time. Syd’s best bet would be to figure out who Alice’s next victim might be and get to him as soon as possible.
Syd asked, “How many boys raped Alice that night?”
“Three,” Betty said. “Adam, of course. Colin Wood, it was his father who offered the settlement and the third boy was…” Betty shook her head, unable to remember. “Cliff, do you remember?”
He thought about it and then shook his head. “No, sorry, I don’t.”
Syd reached inside her backpack and pulled out the list of names she’d culled from Wood and Devlin’s phone books. She handed it to Betty. “Do any of these names seem familiar?”
Betty went over the list. “A number of them, but I don’t know which of them might have been the third boy.”
She passed the list to Cliff who glanced at it, then shook his head. “Sorry.” He started to hand it back to Syd then stopped. “Wait a minute,” he pulled the list back. “This name here, Blake Hunter, I remember the name Blake. I had an Uncle Blake, and I remember thinking about that when we heard the name eleven years ago.”
“So, Blake Hunter was the third boy,” Syd asked, excited. “You’re sure?”
“No. I’m not sure. I remember the name Blake is all. If there was more than one Blake, I’d have no idea which one it was.”
Syd took the list, double-checked. Just one Blake, Blake Hunter, and he lived in Malibu. Syd stuffed the list back in her backpack, stood up. “Mr. and Mrs. Waterman, thank you very much.”
“Detective,” Betty said, “Do you think Alice is right? Do you think we sold her out?”
“Don’t ask her that,” Cliff said. “She won’t give us an honest answer. I mean, you can’t really, can you?” Cliff asked Syd. “You’re just going to say what we want to hear.”
“And what is it you want to hear?” Syd asked.
“Betty wants to hear that we did the right thing,” Cliff said. “Which we did.”
“Let me ask you this,” Syd said. “When the lawyer offered the cash settlement, did you ask Alice which she would prefer, the money or a trial?”
“Of course not, she was just a kid, besides she was in no state of mind to decide.”
Syd nodded. She knew what she should say, and Syd also knew the truth. She chose. “You did do the right thing, for you. You spared yourself the embarrassment of everyone learning in open court that your daughter was promiscuous. But you did a terrible disservice to your daughter. You prevented her from fighting back against the men who raped her, from punishing the men who raped her. The men she is punishing now. So not only did you betray Alice, you are responsible for turning your daughter from rape victim into a murderer.”
Cliff stared at Syd, stunned by her honesty. Betty was shocked too. But it didn’t stop her from turning to her husband with an, I told you so glare on her face.
“Is that what you wanted to hear, Mr. Waterman?” Syd left without waiting for an answer.
Syd drove quickly. With luck she was just over an hour from Malibu. Of course, she could call dispatch and have the place surrounded in a matter of minutes, and she almost made that call. But Syd wanted to catch the Lady in Red herself. Not for the glory of the capture, but so she could have a chance to talk to her.
And now Syd had an answer for the question, why now? Why had Alice Waterman waited eleven years to get revenge for the rapes? Because she was given a death sentence by one of her shrinks. And since she thought she was going to die, she had nothing to lose by killing the men who attacked her. She wouldn’t be risking jail or the needle for her murders because she was doomed already.
Except the diagnosis was a lie.
A trick to help poor Alice straighten out her life.
Syd felt a growing affinity with Alice Waterman. And seeing the house she grew up in tonight, the weak mother, bullying father, hearing about how she was betrayed by her parents and abused by men only made Syd want to meet her more.
She’d still have to arrest her, of course. She had no illusions about somehow helping the Lady in Red get away with murder. But she felt a bond with Alice, a bond she wanted, needed to share.
Now the only question was, what to do about Ryan? She wanted to share these feelings with him. Wanted to tell him about who she really was, why she understood the Lady in Red.
Could they actually be a couple if he didn’t know all of her secrets?
More importantly, were they even a couple now? What was he doing, right now, with that bitch, Anne?
One way to find out, Syd decided. Call him.
She picked up her cell phone and hit the one on her speed dial.
FORTY-FOUR
The trouble started on the elevator. Ryan and Anne were alone and Anne shot Ryan a mischievous look. “Should I hit the Stop button?”
Ryan laughed, the memories flooding back.
When they were married, Ryan and Anne loved to make love in public. Trader Vic’s was the first time, but so exhilarating they found themselves daring each other to have sex almost anywhere. Anne climbed into Ryan’s lap when they were stuck in a traffic jam on the 405 and, to the delight of Fed Ex driver stuck next to them, she pulled out his cock, pulled down her panties and mounted him. The Anne-on-Ryan’s-lap became a favorite position. They used it in movie theatres, Starbucks’ bathrooms, during the half-time show at a Rose Bowl game, and in the back row of a lecture hall during one of Professor Moylan’s interminable Psych classes.
They also used a variety of other positions depending on where they were; standing when Ryan pinned Anne to the wall in the Travel section of Barnes and Noble, missionary when Ryan took Anne golfing and she couldn’t find her ball in the woods, doggy style in the back of L.A. County Natural History Museum’s dinosaur display, and reverse cowgirl when Anne dragged Ryan into the empty break room of a Ralph’s grocery store.