Flashpoint (40 page)

A dragon tattooed over the anklebone might explain it. A killer intelligent and cool-headed enough to consider the practicalities of dismemberment was not likely to leave a tattoo for easy identification.

Sonora sat back in her chair. “I'm confused, Mr. Winchell. Do you and your wife live in Cincinnati?” From his accent, they'd have to be Southern transplants. Unhappy in Ohio, like other Southern transplants. It would be interesting if they were from Kentucky, home of bourbon, racehorses, her partner Sam, and various and sundry body parts.

“We run a diner in Clinton.”

“Clinton is where?” Sonora asked.

Sam scratched his head. “Tennessee, isn't it?” His area of the country.

“Yes sir, right outside of Knoxville. That's where I grew up, Knoxville. I … we bought the diner four years ago. It's just a little place in downtown Clinton. But it's a beginning, and for us … for me, anyway, it's a dream come true.”

Sonora noticed that Winchell was clenching his fists. She figured the diner was a point of contention in the marriage. Dream fading in the day-to-day grind of reality.

“Julie up and decided a while back she wanted to go to this conference here. In Cincinnati.”

Sonora knew where here was.

“A restaurant conference?” Sam asked.

Winchell looked at his feet. “Nope. This was one on running a small business—tax advice and everything geared for people whose business is small-scale.” He shrugged. “Pretty much a waste of time if you ask me.”

“Did she?” Sonora said.

“Did she what?”

“Ask you.”

He grimaced. “Julie is a independent female, which I admire, usually.”

Lip service, Sonora thought.

“I didn't really think we could afford it. Especially not the airfare. Julie said she'd drive and keep expenses down and we could take this off on our income tax.”

Sonora nodded. “So it was already a sore subject when she left.”

He opened his hands wide. “It was settled. But then the transmission went out on the Mazda. My opinion was, she ought to call it off. Car repair bill coming in …” He took a breath. “Her point was we'd already made the deposit to the people running the conference and we weren't going to get that back. The airfare on short notice was ridiculous. So she did a car rental—got a weekly deal. That way she wouldn't leave me without a car, and she'd have wheels while she was up there. Here, I mean.”

“Pretty determined to get away,” Sam said mildly.

Winchell's hands hung heavily between his knees. “She said she needed some time to herself.”

“How far is it?” Sonora asked. “You say the conference was here, in town. How far from Clinton?”

“It's about a four-hour drive, give or take.”

“Okay,” Sonora said. “So then what happened?”

“She, umm, she didn't come home.”

Sonora nodded, kept her voice gentle. “That much we figured. It would help if you could go into a little more detail. When was the last time you talked to her?”

“Well see, what happened was kind of odd. I was supposed to pick her up at the car rental place, she was going to be driving down late that Sunday afternoon, after the conference. But she didn't call and she didn't call. I couldn't get her at the hotel. We'd sort of fixed the time around six, that I would pick her up at the car rental place around six o'clock. And since I didn't hear from her, I just went on out there, see if she'd show up. And she didn't.”

“How long did you wait?” Sam asked.

“About forty-five minutes. I had both the kids with me. All excited because Mommy was coming home. But Mommy didn't come home.” His voice broke and he rubbed his chin hard. He was getting a five o'clock shadow and the stubble of beard rasped against his fingers. “Nobody at the rental place had heard anything from her. If it had been just me, I'd have waited longer, but the baby was getting tired and Terry was fussy. So I went on home.” He took a breath. “The minute I get the car in the garage I hear the phone ringing. So I run for it, leave the kids strapped in their car seats. But whoever it is hangs up. Fifteen minutes, and it rings again and it's her. Julie.”

Sam nodded. Winchell bit his lip.

“She was upset, I tell you that from the get-go. I could tell she'd been crying.” He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair.

Sonora wondered if the gel made his fingers sticky. It had dried, so maybe not.

Winchell opened his eyes. “She told me that something had happened. She said she couldn't come home for a while, she had to take care of it.”

“What was
it
?” Sonora asked.

Sam gave her a look. He thought she interrupted too much.

“I don't know,” Winchell said.

Sonora frowned. “How come you don't know?”

Winchell leaned forward, close to Sonora. “See, used to be, her first question would have been the kids. Are they okay, you know, the whole worried Mommy bit.” His shook his head. “She didn't even ask. Not at first.”

“Did you
ask
what the problem was?” Sonora said.

Sam rolled his eyes.

Winchell looked at his hands. “I don't … we didn't get to that.”

“You mean you had a fight,” Sonora said.

“It wasn't a fight.”

“What was it then?”

“I just … here she is going on about how she can't come home, and not word one about how I'm making out with the kids, who I've had on my own all this time, with precious little help.”

Sonora exchanged looks with Sam. Shocking—married people having a fight. Next on Oprah. She wondered how often Julia Winchell had handled the kids on her own with precious little help. Knew better than to ask.

“She got mad and hung up.”

“And you haven't heard from her since? Nothing at all?” Sam asked.

Winchell shook his head. “No, and it's not like Julie. She's no grudge-holder. She'd 've called me if she could. Now if it was her sister, that'd be something else. But Julie, she gets mad fast, then it blows over. And even if she was mad at me, she'd call just to see about the kids and talk to them. Only thing that's kept me going is I know she's got to be alive, I just don't know where or what's going on.”

Sonora cocked her head to one side. “How do you know that?”

Butch Winchell smiled at Sonora—a social smile from a man who looked like he needed last rites of the heart. Sonora had seen other men look that way, killers some of them. She studied his sad eyes, the large white hands (
the better to strangle you with, my dear
). The fingers were artistic and delicate compared to the chunky heaviness of the rest of him.

He scratched his cheek. “
Somebody's
using our credit cards. The limits are all run up.”

2

Winchell was not a stupid man. He should not have missed the endless possibilities—none good—of his credit cards maxing out. He just wasn't ready.

Sonora stacked the Polaroids, smiled at Winchell in a non-committal way. Pity would scare him, right about now. It would be better all around if he was thinking straight.

“Just a few more questions, Mr. Winchell. Details to clear. You said Julia had—has a sister. If you could give us a number, I'd like to give her a call. Also, what about her hotel? Did she check out, have you been over there?”

Winchell's lips went tight. “She's staying at that Orchard Suites place down by the river. According to them she hasn't checked out, but she won't answer any calls and the guy as much as told me nobody'd seen her. But he wouldn't let me into her room. She's using a credit card that's just got her name on it, or they might've let me in. They don't seem to care that I'll be footing that bill.”

“Speaking of which, we'll need your credit card numbers, the last statements.” Sonora cleared her throat. “Also, was your wife hospitalized any time recently? Her latest medical records might help us out.”

Winchell pushed his glasses up on his nose. “With the babies, she was. I can get that for you.”

Sonora smiled again. “Sooner the better.” She checked her watch, waved a hand at Sam. “Detective Delarosa can get this going for you. Maybe get some of the basics faxed. Sam?”

He nodded, gave her a watchful look, turned a gentle smile on Winchell. “There's a phone we can use out here.”

Not going back to his desk, which butted right up to hers. Good Sam, Sonora thought. He, at least, had picked up on the significance of the hospital records. He always hated asking that question, because sometimes people cried.

Sonora took the picture of Julia Winchell and her two babies and headed for her desk.

She settled into her chair, checked her watch. Two o'clock. Two hours till shift change. The peculiar Friday feel of restless energy and ennui was thick. Sunlight streamed through the windows like a beacon.

Sonora dialed a number she was beginning to know by heart. Listened to it ring. Conversations with Smallwood were getting more and more frequent.

She'd met him months ago, on his day off, when he'd left Caleb County, Kentucky, to tell her about a local murder that dovetailed with one of her own. She'd been going through a bad time then, and his voice on the other end of the line had gotten more and more welcome.

He fed her the interesting pieces of the bad and the ugly he came across in day-to-day work and gossip—a sort of cop-to-cop come-on.

“That you, Smallwood?” Sonora pictured him in his deputy uniform, one foot on the desk.

“
Girl.
” The voice was country Southern, and deep.

“Answer me a question.”

“Yes, I do accept your kind invitation to dinner. Or is that supper, in Cincinnati-speak?”

“Pay attention, Smallwood. You remember that severed leg you were telling me about?”

“Always business with you, isn't it? Yeah, I remember.”

“Where exactly was that found?”

“Down I-75 south, between London and Corbin.” His voice got sharper, more focused. “You got something?”

“I don't know. Hope not, actually.” She spread the pictures of Julia Winchell's little girls across the desk. “You ever hear any details on the victim?”

“Nope, but it's not like I would. I know somebody down there, though, she's going with my cousin.”

“Nice to know you fit the typical Southern stereotypes.”

“Let me put you on hold real quick, and I can find something out.”

“Is this a Cincinnati quick, or a long Southern minute?”

“Knit something, why don't you?”

The line clicked, and Sonora balanced the phone on her shoulder, turned in her chair, saw Gruber doing the same.

“We've got to stop meeting like this,” Gruber said.

On hold and stirring up trouble, Sonora thought. He was from New Jersey, dark and swarthy—sad brown eyes. An air of challenge women found interesting. He'd picked up weight, all of a sudden, but he still looked good.

“Is this the secretary? Can I speak to a real cop?” Smallwood, back in her ear. “You there, Sonora?”

“Where else would I be?”

“I could think of a couple places. Anyhow. Results aren't back from the state lab, but unofficially the victim is female, between the age of twenty-five and thirty-eight, leg severed over the ankle, but taken off at the hip joint.”

“Blood type?”

“A-positive.”

“Any scars, tattoos?”

“Not that I know of.”

Sonora made a note.

“You going to tell me what you got?” Smallwood asked.

“Missing person, woman from Clinton, Tennessee, disappeared up here at some kind of seminar.”

“I must be missing something. Why would her leg be showing up in Kentucky? This be because she's from Clinton? Think maybe this leg just kind of migrated on home?”

“Pay attention, Smallwood, and listen to how a real cop thinks. This woman has a tattoo, a dragon, right over the left anklebone. I just thought it was funny. Killer took off the leg at the hip joint, which makes perfect sense, though none of them ever do it, do they? Then he goes and sweats the foot off over the ankle, which makes no sense at all unless there's a tattoo he's trying to hide.”

“You say this vic is from Clinton?”

“Yeah.”

“Cause London's on the way there.”

“Is it?” Her next stop was going to be a map.

“South down I-75. Maybe not such a long shot after all. You getting cop twitches on this, Sonora?”

“We call it instinct, Smallwood.”

“Maybe you want to come on down then.”

“Maybe.” Sonora looked up, saw Sam and Winchell headed her way. “I'll get back to you, Smallwood, and thanks for the help.” Sonora hung up. Smiled at Winchell, who trailed Sam like a baby duck following his mama. Cop imprinting.

She picked up a high school transfer paper she needed to fill out for her son, and waved it in the air. “Just for the record, Mr. Winchell, can you tell me your wife's blood type?”

His eyes went flat. “A-positive.”

Sonora turned the pictures on her desk face down, so she didn't have to look at Julia Winchell's babies.

3

The Orchard Suites Hotel was on the Ohio River in Covington, right across the bridge from Cincinnati. Sam eased the Taurus up and down the parking lot.

“No sign of the rental on this end,” he said.

“What color was it again?”

Sam looked at her. “You mean you've been looking up and down your side and you don't—”

“1995 Ford Escort, red. Just double-checking.”

“Tell me about that leg again. You say it had a tattoo?”

“No, Sam, I said the foot was cut off well above the ankle—”

“That would be the shin.”

“Thank you,
doctor.
Think about it, Sam. Hip taken off at the joint, which makes the most sense.”