Lethal Affair (22 page)

This would be his debut, his coming
out.

He took a pull from the bottle of
scotch in his lap and felt it lay a sizzling path through his
bloodstream.

Need clawed at his thoughts, stark,
compelling, absolute and undeniable. Something at the back of his
brain pulsed, illuminated, then died, the darkness obliterating all
reason. Tunnel vision swept all else aside as his breathing
quickened. This was real, it was happening! He sucked in quick
gulps of air and gave in to his lust.

The lights inside the diner went dim
and the front door opened.

Jolene came out. It was her, right?
Her hair looked darker tied up like that but the body type matched
the general impression he'd gotten that day in the grocery
store.

She was walking briskly. It was later
than usual, the streets all but deserted. He started the motor and
slowly pulled away from the curb.

Drew drove past her three blocks and
parked his car around the corner on a side street. From his glove
compartment he extracted a pair of thick gardening gloves he'd
confiscated from his mother's garden tool basket. He'd spent hours
doctoring the gloves, attaching heavy strips of metal onto the
fingers and across the knuckles. Getting out, he backtracked to the
main drag and went into a long, narrow entryway, climbed onto the
window ledge, and using his gloved hand, broke the halogen light
bulb in its housing. The trap set, he crouched in his now pitch
black hidey-hole.

How apt that it be the entry to
Lambert Hardware, he snickered to himself, anticipation crawling up
his spine and into his festering mind.

*

Rita Lambert was singing along with the
early morning radio as she pulled into the alley behind the
hardware store and tucked her vehicle into the covered niche they'd
built to serve as garage. Today it was her turn to open and give
Joe a chance to sleep in.

She let herself in to the back room
and flipped the light switches. Humming the song from the radio she
busied herself prepping the cash register and powering up the
computer and credit card machines. Done, she made her way to the
front of the store.

Their locale had large windows up
front displaying a number of their best selling garden and power
tools. The entrance was inset between the windows, and pulling a
ring of keys from her pocket, Rita opened the front
door.

What lay in the entryway jolted her
into horrified silence as a scream formed at the back of her throat
and lodged there like a jawbreaker, cutting off her air as shock
waves kicked in.

*

Kylie ran into her parent's store and
straight into her mother's arms. Rita clung and quietly sobbed onto
Kylie's shoulder.

“
That poor girl.” Rita
sniffed, her racing heart calming under the steady soothing hand
that Kylie ran over her back. “Who would do such a
thing?”

The two police officers dispatched by
emergency services had created a parameter, cordoning off the
entrance to the store with yellow tape while awaiting the arrival
of the city coroner. Homicide and forensics units were on their way
as well.

Living close by, Kylie had made it
there in record time, beating out her father who was on his way in
from Gordon Head where he and Rita lived.

Despite the early hour, outside on the
sidewalk a small crowd began to form, everyone straining to catch a
glimpse of the victim. The body still lay where Rita had discovered
it, jammed up against the door frame and lying in a fetal
position.

There was a commotion out front as the
homicide team arrived. Wearing protective shoe covers and gloves
they carefully examined the body and the surrounding area, and
finally the head detective came inside the store and approached
Rita and Kylie.

A large, muscular man, bald but making
up for it with a thick black mustache, his take-charge bearing
commanded instant respect. His dark, soulful eyes were a deceiving
front for a shrewd mind.

“
Mrs. Lambert? I'm Detective
Sargent Ethan Crane. I'm part of IHIT, a supplement of the R.C.M.P.
Stands for Integrated Homicide Investigative Team. I understand you
found the body this morning upon opening. I'd like to ask you some
questions if I may. Would you like to take a seat
somewhere?”

Rita nodded while Kylie brought two
stools out from behind the counter to join the one already there.
All three perched.

“
And you are...?” he asked
Kylie.

“
I'm Kylie Lambert, her
daughter. I live close by so I came as soon as Mom
called.”

“
Alright.” He produced a
pocket size electronic tablet and began punching in data as they
spoke. “Mrs. Lambert, I'd like you to walk me through the steps it
took for you to discover the body. No detail is too small to leave
out.”

Rita took a deep breath, then dove
in.

“
You haven't actually looked
at the victim?” he asked when she finished.

Rita shook her head violently. “I got
a general impression that it's a female. All I saw was the blood.
That was enough for me. I got right on the phone, called 911. The
operator sent the ambulance and police. The paramedics confirmed
she's... deceased. Why aren't they taking the body
away?”

“
This is a crime scene and
there are procedures. Forensics will do their job, then the
coroner's office will remove the body. It is a woman, but her face
isn't recognizable. Once we have an I.D. on her I'll bring around a
photo, see if it's anyone you know or have seen.”

Joe Lambert rushed in from the back
entrance and hugged his girls. Releasing them, he turned to the
detective and introduced himself.

“
This is a social community
of small businesses,” said Joe. “A murder here is
unthinkable.”

“
Mr. Lambert, would you be
up to taking a look at her, see if you know her? There's no purse,
no wallet, nothing to indicate at this point who she is. I must
warn you, it's not a pretty picture.”

In the doorway a member of the
forensics team was taking photos, flash popping to illuminate the
lurid scene in the dim morning light. Kylie watched as her father
bent over the figure. He shuddered, shook his head negatively and
shifted his weight giving Kylie a clear look at the bloody pile of
flesh. A shock of recognition zinged through her and she cried out
in alarm.

Both Detective Crane and Joe looked up
sharply.

A wave of dizziness had Kylie reeling
as slowly she moved toward the body, then squatted beside her, pity
replacing horror.

She'd been severely beaten, her face a
pulp of raw flesh, eyes swollen shut, nose crushed. Her hair, once
long and jaunty, was now a tangled mass. Bruises lined her arms and
legs as they lay at odd angles.

And there, on her ankle, a small cupid
tattoo. It was what Kylie remembered about her from Will's
barbeque.

Detective Crane crouched beside her.
His tone was gentle. “Who is this, Miss Lambert?”

“
Lillian... something. Not
sure of her last name. She's been in training with my roommate at
the Village Diner a few blocks away.” A new wave of dizziness
washed over her. If this was random, it could just as well have
been Jolene or one of the other waitresses.

“
The Village Diner,” said
Detective Crane as he helped Kylie to her feet. “I know the place.
Had dinner there the other night with the missus. You're sure now,
about this being her?”

Kylie pointed at the tattoo. “It's not
every day you see a cupid tattoo on someone's ankle. It's a pretty
good bet that this is her.”

*

Will and Lyle sat in the office above
the diner, having just spoken with Detective Ethan Crane. Will had
supplied him with Lillian's work application form which gave enough
information for him to locate her family and officially identify
her.

Absently petting Dino, Lyle suggested,
“Let's have a staff meeting, get a buddy system going so none of
our workers leave alone.”

“
Already thought of
it.”

“
What kind of sick
bastard...”

“
Don't go there.”

There was a brief knock on the door,
then Kim stepped in. “Hey Chief, Lyle. What's the
story?”

They filled him in.

Kim's eyes welled. “Besides me, she
was last to leave here last night. She wanted to talk so I let her.
Mostly stuff about wanting to fit in. She might have been a flirt
but she sure didn't deserve that. You think the sicko who did this
was one of our customers?”

Lyle stared out the window at the
street with its cherry tree meridian. Shoppers bustled, going about
their business. It seemed other-worldly to him that this kind of
thing would happen on their turf.

“
Could be she was an easy
target walking to the bus stop,” he murmured, remembering Jolene's
objection to taking a bus home from the Langford location. What if
it had been her? The thought of it set his jaw in a painful clench.
“Jolene goes home that way every night. I'll take her home on the
nights she doesn't come with me.”

“
Good,” said Will. “That
leaves Eileen, Cameron and Millie.”

“
Cameron's husband picks her
up and Millie gets a ride with them,” supplied Kim. “I'll take
Eileen home myself. She'll just have to wait a bit longer 'til I'm
ready to leave, that's all.”

Will rose. “Perfect. Now let's go tell
them.”

Downstairs the women were huddled
around a pot of coffee. Will took charge. “Ladies, I asked you all
to come in early today because I have some sad and somewhat
terrifying news. I'll cut to the chase. Lillian, our trainee, has
been murdered. She was beaten to death last night in the doorway of
Lambert Hardware just a few blocks away.”

Everyone was stunned.

“
Lambert Hardware?”
sputtered Jolene. “So that's where Kylie rushed off to this
morning.”

“
It has a long, narrow
entryway. Whoever did this broke the light bulb and when she walked
by he either lured or dragged her in and assaulted her.”

“
Isn't the Village patrolled
by police at night?” asked Millie.

“
Yes, but they basically do
a loop, so the bastard struck in between. I don't want anyone here
taking chances. No one goes home on their own. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded with numb looks on
their faces.

“
The cops are coming back to
interview each of you. Give them your full cooperation. We wanna
help them nail this creep.”

*

“
Oh my God!” Jolene paced
her living room with Kylie, Lyle and Will watching her. “I called
her a bitch. Is my karma ruined forever?”

Lyle grunted. “Lucky for you I'm your
alibi; otherwise you might be a suspect.”

“
Crane said she was beaten
with gloved hands by someone who could really pack a punch,” said
Will. “Cripes, the guy musta been in a blind rage. They pulled
fibers out of her wounds and Crane said the lab in Vancouver has to
officially confirm it, but his guy here says they're from a common
type of gardening glove that's sold all around the
city.”

“
Crane's not wasting time,”
commented Lyle.

Will shrugged. “They searched the
diner. Said they weren't even sure what they were looking for, but
they had to look.”

Kylie felt sick. Lillian had been
killed by a madman using gardening gloves. It felt too close to
home in more ways than one. Close to her apartment, close to
Jolene's place of work, and front and center in her parent's place
of business. Not to mention the gloves' relation to her line of
work. Was this connected to her somehow? She tried to shake it off
but the niggling idea of it clung and wouldn't let go.

Will scooted over next to her. “You're
awfully quiet. What's going through your mind?”

“
I'm just wondering if it
was a random act or if she was a specific target.”

“
There's no way to know that
right now.”

“
Detective Crane asked me a
lot of questions about my personal life. He says everyone and
everything is relevant. I told him about Drew following me. Us. In
the park and then staking us out here. Will, do you
think...”

“
Hold on. Back up. Where
your mind's going, it's a stretch. If it were him, why would he go
after Lillian? He doesn't even know her.”

Kylie glanced at Jolene and Lyle who
were huddled in a corner deep in conversation. She lowered her
voice to a whisper. “What if he got the wrong girl? What if he was
after someone else, someone who's close to me? And my parent's
store? How coincidental is that?”

Will's brow furrowed. “Do you think
he's capable?”

She gave it serious thought. “When I
first started seeing him he was incredibly charming. A perfect
gentleman. He didn't want to sleep with me at first, but then I...
I kind of threw myself at him. I mean, it didn't seem normal to
date for three months without so much as a goodnight
kiss.”