The medical examiner looked up and let her blue eyes focus on Mazzetti. “See these bruises?” She pointed to the girl’s throat. “There is a faint pattern that shows a ligature strangulation. It was a decorative belt or strap. The other girl, Kathy Mizell, was killed the same way.” She straightened her lithe frame and stretched. “Based on the marks around her throat I’d say you boys have a real live serial killer.”
Mazzetti thought to himself. Tell me something I don’t know.
THIRTY-ONE
Buddy felt quite satisfied with himself. He’d planned things out and so far everything had fallen into place. Lexie was relaxed and giggling on the chair. He had the cord in his belt line and pulled it out. The jar was between them on the windowsill. It was like lining up a great golf shot. He had his left hand near her throat and right hand closest to the jar. After he was done using the heavy cord around her neck he’d be able to slip the jar in front of her face very easily. After his last few attempts he needed one that went smoothly and didn’t scare a month off his already sketchy life.
In his head he started the countdown. He flexed his shoulders and arms, knowing they could be in for a workout, his heartbeat revved to the point that it sounded like a hammer in his chest. Lexie felt hot to the touch. Her pupils were dilated. She was definitely an angel worthy of worship.
He gently tilted her head back as he stroked her graceful neck. Her eyes closed. Then he committed. He wrapped the cord around her throat and pulled with all of his might. It was important the first contact with the cord was shocking.
This was a very odd situation for Yvonne Zuni. She was seated in front of Lieutenant Rita Hester with senior IA investigator Ronald Bell sitting across from her. Lieutenant Hester leaned back in her massive padded leather chair, her dark eyes shifting between them, her poker face never gave a hint of what she was thinking. Sergeant Zuni realized it was the lieutenant’s years on road patrol and actual, practical experience that gave her the ability to intimidate someone without saying a word or, in this case, even moving a muscle.
Sergeant Zuni, like many of the female members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, looked up to Lieutenant Hester as a role model. On the street she’d cracked so many heads with a nightstick she’d been given the nickname The Brown Bomber. As an administrator, she got the most out of her people while developing a reputation for protecting them. She had also been John Stallings’s partner many years ago in road patrol. That was an important tidbit to keep in mind.
Every time Sergeant Zuni looked across at Ronald Bell she couldn’t help but think of their fantastic weekend together. He’d stayed over Friday night after their wonderful meal at Gi-Gi’s, then met her again Saturday night when she was done at the crime scene at Pine Forest Park. After drinks at an island-flavored bar near Jacksonville Landing, they’d gone dancing and ended up at his lovely riverfront home. It was only three blocks from her parents’ house. She didn’t bother to mention that to Ronald.
He made her feel like a princess, catering to her every desire, and as a result, it had been the best weekend she’d had in years.
Right now, midday on Monday, Sergeant Zuni was seeing a different side of Ronald Bell. Sure, he was devastatingly handsome and dapper in a sharp Armani suit. But she didn’t like what he was saying, even though she realized he had a different job from hers.
Bell looked at the lieutenant and said, “We’ve gone as far as we can go on the investigation without being overt. We’re gonna need to start interviewing people and seeing if anyone talked or tried to sell the drugs on the street.”
Sergeant Zuni said, “Are you trying to say you think one of my detectives not only stole the pills but then tried to sell them for profit?”
Bell gave her a smile, but it was not like the ones she had seen over the last few days. “So you think it’s possible that one of your detectives took the drugs for personal use?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But is it a possibility?”
The sergeant didn’t know what to say or how she should feel toward this man who only yesterday she had thought was something special.
Bell said, “I could narrow down the suspects.”
At the same time both the sergeant and lieutenant said, “How?”
“I checked the JSO medical records for everyone who was present in the squad bay.”
Sergeant Zuni interrupted him. “Wait a minute. You can’t check personal medical records for just any reason.”
“No, but I can check the records of JSO employees who have to go through a physical every two years. And I have a very good reason. A bundle of diverted prescription narcotics worth a small fortune is missing. That’s not just any reason.”
Sergeant Zuni caught a glimpse of the smugness that rubbed John Stallings and many of the other detectives the wrong way. Right now she didn’t much care for it either. She kept her mouth shut. She had to trust Lieutenant Hester to come to her aid before this got out of hand.
The lieutenant said in a very even tone, “What’d you find, Ronald?”
“I think Patty Levine is a plausible suspect in this theft.”
Sergeant Zuni almost sprang to her feet. “How in the hell did you reach that crazy conclusion?”
This time it was Bell who kept a very even tone. “At her last physical, Detective Levine listed the prescriptions she was currently taking. Those include Ambien and hydrocodone.”
The lieutenant said, “What is hydrocodone?”
“The most common drug you’d recognize from that generic name is Vicodin.”
Sergeant Zuni said, “So you’re telling me because she followed the rules and admitted to exactly which drugs she was legally prescribed, now you’re going to drag her name through the mud. That seems like pretty thin evidence to skewer a good cop on.”
“Another way to look at is that she knew there was a drug screen and decided that no one would check if she admitted it. She wrote on her own form that she only used the painkiller occasionally for back pain and never on duty. But that was more than two years ago. There’s no telling what her drug problem’s like now.”
Sergeant Zuni kept her mouth shut. Like a mother tiger, her first instinct was to protect her cub. She needed time to know how to go about that the best way. Finally she said, “So what happens now?”
Bell gave her that smug smile and said, “Think she’ll talk to me?”
Sergeant Zuni knew she’d wasted her entire weekend.
Lexie Hanover was excited and nervous. She’d only had two serious boyfriends in her entire life. Her first boyfriend, Elby Harris, had stayed with her three years until he graduated and went off to Auburn. She’d loved him and was not unhappy that she had lost her virginity to him. In the big scheme of things, losing your virginity on a king-size bed while his parents were out of town was not such a bad thing. It certainly wasn’t romantic, or at least how she had fantasized losing her virginity, but it was much better than the backseat of a Trans-Am or the bed of a pickup truck.
Lexie’s only other boyfriend was a guy named Chuck who had an adorable miniature Doberman he brought by the clinic. He was older than her, about twenty-seven, and had led her to believe he was crazy about her. He took her on a weekend to Savannah and out to dinner four different times. Somehow it had shocked Lexie to learn he was married and that was the reason he never took her back to his place. She tried not to let the experience jade her toward men. Lexie focused on how experienced he had been and how much she had enjoyed the things he did to her. It opened her eyes to the advantage of dating a man who was perhaps a little older and more mature. Maybe that’s why she was attracted to Buddy. So when he suggested she close her eyes while he stroked her neck, she listened