A Thorn Among the Lilies (27 page)

C
HAPTER
61

T
hey sneaked up, guns lowered to their sides and pointing to the ground. Leah made a wide arc for the front door, being careful to stay out of the way of the cabin's window that looked out on the forest. Dan and Chris broke away as everyone separated. Leah saw Dan making an opposite arc to the one she did, and Chris disappeared into the trees to take point at the corner of the cabin between the finished part and the unfinished part. From there, he'd be able to see into the annex where Leah assumed Luanne was keeping Scarlett Graham.

Making it to the front door, Leah didn't even hesitate before kicking the door in. It only took one kick to do it. Quickly, she swept the room with her gun. It was like a small living room. She saw the closed door that led outside to the annex in the process of being built. The living room was clear.

She shouted, “Police!” and moved farther on, finding the kitchen. Another small room. A quick glance around with her gun in hand, she discerned it empty as well.

Then she heard a voice call out: “I hope there's more than one of you, cuz if there ain't, you're dead, little girl.” It came from one of the bedrooms down the hall. Leah quickly moved to a position beside the hall where she was safe from any gunfire. She still had her weapon close by her side and pointed down.

“Suspect is in the house!” Leah yelled. “I repeat: Suspect is in the house!”

Chris came running in through the front door.

“Take the other side of the hallway,” Leah told him. “Luanne!” she called back. “You're way outnumbered. Give up now and it will be easier on you.”

“Easier on me?” she laughed. “Don't tell me 'bout the law bein' easier on anyone. What do I get for murder one in this state? Seven years? I doubt it can be much more than that when my sister's killer only got five years. You
do
realize my sister was murdered and the killer only got five?”

“I know what happened to your sister,” Leah said. “I know it seems like the drunk driver got off too easy, but this is no way to handle it.”

Leah looked at Chris. “How's Scarlett?” she whispered.

“Alive. Spooked out of her mind, but alive.”

“And her eyes? They look like the picture?”

He nodded. “Let me tell you, the picture doesn't do it justice. Her wrists and ankles are bound and she's lyin' on that cold concrete floor of the annex. Dan's takin' care of her.”

“At least she's safe,” Leah said, realizing she'd said it loud enough for Luanne to hear.

“Safe's a funny word to use,” Luanne hollered. “I would not be usin' the word
safe
if I was in your shoes right now. You've seen what I've done to those other women!”

“Luanne! I'm comin' down the hallway now. I expect you to give yourself up!” Leah yelled.

“What you expect,” Luanne screamed back, “and what you get ain't always the same things. I expected justice when it came to my sister's killer. What I got was something completely different.” To Leah, she sounded on the verge of hysteria.

Luanne shrieked the passage from Song of Solomon. Leah suspected she knew the words by rote:

2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”

 

2:2 “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”

2:3 “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”

2:4 “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

 

2:5 “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.”

 

There were three doors along the hall. One was probably a washroom, the other two likely bedrooms. Leah had no idea which one Luanne was in. “Cover me,” she whispered to Chris. He nodded and started creeping up behind her. Then, to Luanne, Leah said, “Why did you do it, Luanne? Those folk you killed were innocent.”

“My sister was innocent!” she screamed back.

“And why the eyes?” Leah asked. “Why did you stitch up the eyes?”

“Did you not read the report on my sister? She was blinded in the crash. It's only fair game that my victims are blinded before they are killed.”

“I'm going for door number one,” Leah whispered to Chris. Once again he nodded and crept up behind.

“I can hear you, my little police friend,” Luanne said. Leah still couldn't figure out which room she was in.

“I'm not trying to hide, Luanne,” Leah said. “I want you to come out so that this doesn't end in another tragedy. Can you do that for me?”

Laughter filled the house, just short of sounding psychotic. “Another tragedy. This has been one tragedy after another. You think me coming out will end that? I ain't dumb.”

“What were the crosses for? The ones you put in the victims' pockets?”

“I put them there in hopes that they would find justice when they finally met the Lord, because God knows there ain't no justice down here on earth.”

The first two doors down the hall were both open. Probably the bedrooms. Problem was, both doors were in line with each other. Leah couldn't check out one without putting herself in harm's way of the other. She nodded to the one on the left. “You take that one,” she whispered to Chris. “I'll take this one. On three. One, two . . . three.”

They both stepped into the openings of the doors and raised their weapons, sweeping the rooms. First going for the corners, then for the furniture, and lastly for the bed. Anywhere someone could be hiding.

Leah let go of a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. “She ain't in this room. She must be—” She crouched into a firing position just as the air was filled with the sound of a gunshot. Everything went black as Leah felt herself being thrown back into Chris.

“That's one down,” Luanne said. “How many more to go? I know I've heard at least two of you. How many cops does it take to catch a killer? So far at least two.”

Chris quickly dragged Leah's body into the bedroom he was covering and pulled her around the corner. Luckily, the bullet was only a .22 and hit her in the upper chest, lodging itself into her vest. She'd have a pretty hefty bruise by tomorrow, but she'd live.

“Come out with your hands up, or so help me God I'll shoot you dead,” Chris said to Luanne.

“Big words,” Luanne said back. “I wonder if you have the firepower to back them up? I think I've proven that I do.”

Chris stepped into the hall, keeping his weapon at the ready. Luanne's .22-caliber Beretta was no match for his 9 mm. He allowed the doorway to cut the angle of vision into the room as he slowly moved, looking for any sight of where Luanne was hiding.

Then he saw her. She was behind the bed. He took a shot. She shot at the exact same time and ducked back down. Both rounds must've passed one another midair. Neither hit its target.

“Eeny meeny miny moe, catch a black cop by the toe,” Luanne said, and quickly popped up and squeezed off a round. This one barely missed hitting Chris in the left arm. It was close. Too close.

Chris's heart raced as he tried to think of how to end this standoff. He decided the direct way was the best way. She'd obviously crawled to the edge of the bed; the door being slightly ajar had hidden her clean out of sight.

With a deep breath, Chris used his foot to kick the door all the way open and sure enough, she was standing there with her weapon pointed straight at the doorway. Just like before, the house filled with the sound of gunfire and the smell of cordite.

Only this time, it wasn't Chris who was hit. It was Luanne.

Chris glanced behind him to see Leah on her knees, her gun pointed shakily straight out in front of her. She'd fired off a round before either Chris or Luanne could do so. Leah got Luanne right in the shooting arm (her left arm), knocking her weapon clear out of her hand.

Running into the room, Chris grabbed Luanne, throwing her down onto the bed and cuffing her. As Chris read her rights to her, Dan came inside and told them that, other than the stitches on her eyes, Scarlett Graham seemed no worse for wear. He'd taken the tape off her mouth and undid her arms and legs.

Still a little shaken, Leah set off to the annex to see what she could do for the girl until they got her to the hospital. She knew there was no point in calling for an ambulance way out here—they'd never make it. They'd have to wait until they got into Alvin city limits.

 

Leah held the girl for what seemed like an eternity but was probably closer to ten minutes or so. “It's goin' to be okay,” she kept saying. “She can't hurt you now. We've got her.” She had no idea if her words were bringing Miss Scarlett any comfort, but they certainly couldn't hurt.

Turned out that Dan knew a much easier way back to Alvin than the route the mayor had given them to get here. Dan told them to follow him. Leah asked Chris to drive so she could stay in the backseat with Scarlett. Leah thought Chris probably loved this idea, as he considered her a somewhat reckless driver.

Luanne screamed something awful when they loaded her into Dan Truitt's car and Leah didn't envy him one bit. She had an idea that the woman would probably scream the entire eighty-mile trip back to Alvin.

In comparison to the ride up, the ride back was actually pleasant. They'd put an end to a serial killer's career and the day had turned out to be very nice. The sun had just begun to fall in the west, and streaks of orange and gold were starting to form overhead.

It was a good day to be a cop in Alvin, Alabama.

C
HAPTER
62

E
than sat in his big, squeaky chair behind his desk. Hockey was playing on the television mounted in the corner near the ceiling, but the volume was muted. Leah had no idea who was playing. She wasn't into sports at all, but every so often Ethan would glance up and his attention would drift away from their conversation and to the game.

Leah was sitting on one seat and Chris on another. All three of them had freshly poured cups of coffee. It was still morning. The previous night had seen its share of excitement, so there really was no start time this morning. Leah drifted in around ten. Her chest still hurt and had a huge purple bruise on it from where her vest took the .22 round. She guessed she'd have that for a while.

Ethan was the only one up early. He was already here watching the game when Leah showed up. Chris had come in about twenty minutes after Leah.

Ethan called a meeting in his office.

“I'm gettin' my coffee first,” Leah said. She was on her third cup.

“Sounds like a plan,” Chris said, and waited behind her for his second cup.

Outside, the January day was cold and bright. Green plants grew in front of the window, their big leaves reaching for the sun. Two cardinals ducked in and out of leaves before taking off, following each other in flight. Looking closer, Leah even saw a pink butterfly sitting on a lush green leaf before leaving for places unknown.

“So let me see if I got this straight,” Ethan said, looking at Leah.

“Got what straight?” Leah asked.

“You solved a series of serial killer cold case files brought to you by a psychic?” Ethan asked, finishing the statement he'd started before taking a big gulp of coffee.

“It would appear so,” Leah said. “Although the clues she gave me were vague at best.”

“Even still, I don't believe it.”

“There's nothing to believe,” Chris said. “Everything she told Leah happened three months ago in Birmingham. All she had to do was read the
Birmingham Times.
”

“Why would she care?” Ethan asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

“If you'd have asked me that a month ago,” Leah said, “I'd have told you she wouldn't and that the whole thing was ridiculous.”

“So, should we put this woman on the payroll? Make her part of the department?”

Leah laughed. “No, I don't think she's that helpful.”

“What you're sayin' then is that you did most of the work.”

Leah thought this over. “Yeah, I guess that's what I'm sayin'. She just gave me the kick in the pants I needed to go investigate a crime from two and a half months ago that had been all but forgotten.”

“Maybe you should be investigatin' more of these cold case files?” Ethan said. “You seem pretty good at them.”

Leah sighed. “I dunno 'bout that. This one damn near killed me.” She touched her chest where that .22 slug had hit her, and winced.

“You know, if you'd have told me you were on a case based on information from a psychic, I'd have pulled you off it,” Ethan said.

“I know. That's why I never told you.”

“So you lied to your superior officer.”

“No, I neglected to tell some elements of the case to my superior officer.”

“Holding back information is . . . Wait, haven't we been down this road before? It doesn't go in a very interestin' direction.”

“How 'bout we say this?” Leah said. “Every time I was round you, I forgot 'bout the psychic part entirely. Besides, I had enough information to continue my investigation after the first day when we found the body in Willet Park. Everythin' was sort of taken out of my hand at that point.”

“I can't stop thinking that, if the psychic knew to tell you 'bout the other body, she somehow knew this new body would show up two days later,” Chris said.

“Madame Crystalle, you mean?” Leah asked. “The psychic?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. I hadn't given it that much thought,” Leah said. “Maybe this is somethin' we should consider.”

“I think it is,” Ethan said. “I simply can't believe she has psychic abilities. What did she tell you?”

“That the number seventy-eight was important (the first body was found in Graysville on Highway Seventy-eight). She gave me a partial on a Welcome to Graysville sign. She told me about the eyes being stitched up, although in not so many words. And she told me 'bout the writing on the bodies.”

“Wait a minute,” Chris said. “The writing was held back.”

“Jeez, you're right.”

“Did she mention the crosses? Did
we
ever figure out the crosses?”

“She did
not
mention the crosses. I simply wrote them off as Luanne's callin' card, so she'd have somethin' on the body to prove it was her. She left the crosses knowin' we'd hold that piece of evidence back.

“Madame Crystalle also said I'd find a body in darkness, which completely explains the Graysville murder far better than the Alvin one.”

“I'm having trouble with her having prior knowledge to the words written on the bodies,” Ethan said.

“Me too now,” Leah said. “I think it's time to pay a little visit to Madame Crystalle. I'll go to her house after hours and try to catch her at home.”

“Before you do that, please tell me our mayor is clean in all this?”

“Basically, Luanne was reenacting the murder her sister went through. She sewed up the victims' eyes so they'd be blinded the way her sister was. She kept them drugged and drunk so it would be similar to being on life support in a coma. For the same reason, she kept them bound. She only kept them for a smaller time frame. One week would go by and then she'd pull the plug—or in her case, shoot them in the side of the head with her daddy's old gun.”

“And she only picked up women who looked like the woman who killed her sister,” Chris said matter-of-factly.

“That's right,” Leah said. “Twenty-somethings with thick blond hair. She'd pluck them from the Six-Gun Saloon because it was an easy place to find single girls. She didn't care if they were alcoholics or hookers. In fact, she probably preferred it.”

“And the mayor had no idea this was going on, even though she was using his cabin as a hideout?” Ethan asked.

“None,” Leah said.

From the other room, the phone on Leah's desk rang. She was sitting farthest from it. “We gonna get that?” Chris asked.

“May as well,” Ethan said.

Chris walked out of his office and answered Leah's desk phone. “One minute,” he said. “Leah, it's for you.”

Leah's eyebrows came down, puzzled. She got up, walked out to her desk, and picked up the receiver. “Hello. Detective Teal here.”

“Detective Teal! Dan Truitt here, how the hell are you?”

“Better.”

He laughed. “That's kind of why I'm callin'. I was wonderin' if you would allow me the pleasure of takin' you out again.”

“Last time you took me out, I got shot.”

“That wasn't a date, and you invited me.”

“Whatever.”

“Would you like to go for another steak? It's all on me.”

“That rightly depends,” Leah said. “Will you let me order my own food this time?”

There was a pause while Leah guessed he was considering this. During the silence, Leah realized something about Detective Truitt had hit a chord with her. “When were you thinkin' of us goin'?” she asked.

“Well, that depends on you. I can work round your schedule.”

“How 'bout you give me a call Thursday and I'll see how I feel for the weekend?”

“That sounds great. I'll call you then.”

Leah slowly put her receiver back in its cradle. A smile crept across her face. She felt like a little kid again. Somebody liked her.

“Who was that?” Chris asked as she returned to Ethan's office.

“Dan Truitt. That detective from Birmingham.”

“Did he want some more information 'bout the case you just solved? He was there. You'd think he had everything he needs,” Chris asked.

“Turns out he needs a little bit more,” Leah said, dreamily.

 

Madame Crystalle's real name turned out to be Amira Caspari and she lived up in Blackberry Springs in a highly wooded area. Mostly full of oak and birch, but the area was also home to the occasional willow and cypress, which dotted the landscape, mainly squeezing themselves into the riverbank, their gnarled roots trying to drink up all the water they could.

Her house was a light blue rancher spread over a small area with a circular driveway and a detached garage. Although they weren't in bloom now, it looked as though, in the summer, the area around her house was full of flowers. She also had fruit trees and two walnut trees planted in her yard.

It was seven o'clock, so Leah hoped Amira would be home. Funny, in her head, she kept having to remind herself that the woman was
not
Madame Crystalle and did
not
have special powers. Part of Leah regretted finding this out.

After walking up to the porch, Leah rang the bell.

A minute later, Amira Caspari answered the door looking only vaguely like Madame Crystalle. There were no ribbons in her hair. Her clothes didn't shine and twinkle. She had a track suit on. She looked more like someone's mother.

“Amira Caspari,” Leah said. “I'm—”

“Detective Teal,” she said, cutting Leah off. “I have expected you.” Her Persian accent was thicker than ever.

“You have?”

“Yes, you want to know where I get those clues. But first, did you manage to solve case?”

“Yes, we did.”

“That is good news.”

“It was. It turned out to be the mayor's sister-in-law. She's in custody.”

“Even better news. Please, come in.” Amira opened the door wide and allowed Leah entrance. “Don't take off your boots. Come into kitchen and have a seat and I explain everything. Would you like coffee or tea? I can make you hot or cold. Or special Persian coffee. Good for stomach.”

“No, thank you very much. I am fine.”

Leah was certainly taken aback by the fact that Amira seemed to know she was coming. She wondered again if maybe she was a little psychic after all.

“I shall return shortly,” Amira said. “I must acquire something from my bedroom.”

Leah hesitated. “May I escort you?” she asked, worried Amira may be going to look for a firearm of some sort.

“If you feel you must, I don't mind. I promise is nothing bad. Is simply a scrapbook.”

Leah decided to go with her gut. “Go ahead by yourself,” she said.

“Thank you.”

The kitchen sparkled. Everything had a place. The lights reflected off the silver toaster and microwave, the granite countertops gleamed in the sunlight coming in through the window, which was covered with open shutters. Her bright white fridge hummed along, beside the stove of the same color. The floor was patterned with dark green and white diamonds. It was one of the nicest kitchens Leah had ever sat in.

Amira returned a few minutes later with a large scrapbook.

“First off, let me tell you little secret.”

“I do not come from Persia. I come from Romania.”

“Why do you tell everyone you're Persian?”

“Good for business. People associate Romanians with gypsies and everyone afraid of gypsies.”

She laid the scrapbook in front of Leah and flipped it open. The first page was a newspaper clipping glued front and center of a man having hanged himself in an apple tree. “What the hell is this?” Leah asked, once more thinking this woman had an evil streak she just couldn't pick up on.

“I collect weird crimes. Anything strange. Especially if it happens close by. It helps with my work knowing about strange tragedies since many people come to psychics after deaths of loved ones or friends, especially when the death is not right somehow.

“If I read about car crash where three cars have head-on collision and the next day one of the wives of one of the drivers who died in crash comes to me for reading, I can give her much more accurate account of what happened. It doesn't just help me, it helps them too. I am very intuitive. I can take fact and mold it so that the woman of dead driver ends up with some, how you say? Closure. And I end up with good reputation.”

“I see,” said Leah, who couldn't believe the woman just admitted to being a fraud.

“I subscribe to most newspapers from towns all around Alvin strictly for this reason.”

“I see,” Leah repeated.

“When I saw article for first killing in the
Birmingham Times
with eyes sewn up, I knew it had to be saved. I also know, from the experience I've had reading these types of things, that such a crime is never a ‘one shot.' It would become a serial crime. I tried calling the Birmingham police station, but they didn't want to talk to me or they thought I was crazy—I don't know which.

“I think it was because my English not so good then and all they saw was a gypsy woman telling them about serial killer. They thought I was explaining a vision I saw. They wouldn't take me seriously.

“So when you came to shop, I decided to try and use you to finally get someone to investigate. Sorry if I took advantage. That the next killing happened within days of our meeting was just coincidence.”

“Well, it worked. That's the main thing. I have a question, though?”