Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (22 page)

“I think we may
have hit pay dirt,” he said.

“How’s that?”

He
explained that the CSI analysis had confirmed that the drug
in the blue plastic bag was definitely cocaine—and with
a relatively high 60 percent purity at that. In addition
, they’d found a 250-gram box of lidocaine powder
plus a set of digital scales in the hall closet
. Lidocaine powder is an anesthetic often used by drug dealers
as an agent to dilute their cocaine. In other words
, the dealer buys an ounce of reasonably high-grade coke
, adds an ounce of lidocaine, mixes well, and then, voilà
! They turn around and sell it as two ounces of
coke. Most of the coke I’ve ever seen on
the street tested somewhere around 15 percent purity because of
all the times various dealers had “stepped on it” through
the distribution process.

“So with coke of that amount and
purity—that and all that lidocaine, no doubt somebody was
running a commercial enterprise,” I said. “This was well beyond
personal use.”

“Oh, yeah. And who do we know who
’s got a known connection to the drug world?”

“Josh
Bannister.”

“Give the man a prize. And whose prints did
the CSI unit find all over the apartment?”

“Josh Bannister
?”

“Right again.”

“Wait a second,” Toni said. “Bannister and Judie
Lawton were a couple. At least we think they were
. It stands to reason that Bannister’s fingerprints
would
be
all over the apartment.”

“True enough. But except for Bannister
and Judie Lawton herself, we didn’t find any other
prints. And another thing: the ME says Judie Lawton’s
probably been dead between thirty-six to forty-eight hours
.”

“Puts it Monday or Tuesday,” I said.

“Right. And Josh
Bannister—”

“Bails out on Tuesday,” Toni said slowly, realizing the
implication. “He goes on a surprise vacation to parts unknown
.”

“Exactly. And now he’s disappeared—nowhere to be found
.”

“Sounds pretty suspicious,” Toni said, “but geez. Killing his girlfriend
? And doing it this way? I don’t get it
.”

“People kill each other all the time for a lot
less than ten grand,” Ron said. “Husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends
, it doesn’t matter. People get pissed at each other
and do some nasty, brutal things. Maybe they had some
kind of falling out. Maybe she was trying to rip
him off, and he got wind of it. He wanted
the drugs back, but she stuck to her story and
claimed ignorance.”

“So what,” Toni said, “he tortured her? With
a damn cigarette?”

The line was quiet a second, then
Ron said, “Well, somebody surely did. And Bannister’s looking
pretty good to me.”

“Or,” I said, “maybe whoever
supplied
the coke is after both of them. They caught up
with Judie, and they’re still looking for Bannister. He
knows this, so he’s making himself scarce.”

“That could
be too, I suppose,” Ron said. He looked at me
and smiled. “Except for one little thing.”

“What?”

“The ME
’s office had a look at the rope they peeled
from around Judie’s neck. One of them got a
little suspicious and they compared it against the pictures of
the rope pattern on Sophie’s neck. Guess what?”

“Don
’t tell me—” I started to say.

“Bingo. The patterns
match. The ME thinks they’re the same.”

“Holy shit
!”

“Holy shit is right. They’re trying to match up
the fibers they recovered off Sophie’s body—that way
they can tell for sure.”

I leaned back. “We might
be looking at the same killer? For both girls?”

“Very
possible.”

I looked over at Toni. “Son of a bitch
.”

We thought about this for a second, then Toni said
, “Who’d want to kill both girls—three months apart
?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” I said. “The
indication is that it’s drug related. Some sort of
a rip-off.”

“Yeah, but who’s ripping off whom
?” Yoshi asked. “And where’s Bannister fit in?”

“He was
either the victim of the rip-off, and thus the
potential murderer,” I said, “or he was a co-conspirator
along with the girls, and thus the next potential victim
.”

“Either scenario neatly explaining the fact that he’s suddenly
nowhere to be found,” Ron said.

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“And
both have lots of unanswered questions,” Ron said, and I
nodded.

Suddenly, Toni looked up. “I just thought of something
. Not to be an alarmist, but does this mean that
Nicki Thoms could be in some kind of danger? I
mean, think about it. Her sister is dead. Now, her
sister’s friend is dead. We don’t really know
what’s going on, but it seems like it might
have something to do with drugs, right? Is there something
about this group of vanishing friends that’s causing someone
—Bannister maybe—to feel the need to see them all
dead? And if that’s the case, is Nicki next
?”

Oh shit. I hadn’t thought of that.

“Well,” Ron
said, “I’d be lying if I knew the answer
to that question with any certainty. Knowing Nicki like we
do, who’s to say where she was or what
she saw.”

I started thinking fast. “Do you need her
around now? For your investigation?”

“Why? You got a sudden
urge to stash her away somewhere?”

“Yeah. We’d better
get her out of here until we get this thing
solved.”

He thought for a moment, then he nodded. “Go
ahead. Better safe than sorry. Keep me posted, though.”

“Okay
. Meanwhile, it sounds like we need to find Josh Bannister
, doesn’t it?”

“Great minds think alike,” Ron said. “Just
before we called, Yoshi issued a BOLO for Bannister to
all the jurisdictions up here. If anyone spots him, we
’re going to bring him in for questions. Meanwhile, though
, first thing tomorrow morning, we want to drive up to
Monroe and talk to Bannister’s brother. You still up
for it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sure.”

“Good. We’ll pick
you up at your office at nine.”

There was no
answer on Nicki’s cell phone, so we decided to
jump in the Jeep and head for her condo, just
in case. We called her aunt and uncle on the
way on the off chance that Nicki might have been
there, but she wasn’t. I gave Cecilia explicit instructions
on what I needed her to do and for once
, she didn’t argue.

“She’s at some club or
another,” Toni said as we sped south. “Probably the Genesis
.”

“Wonderful,” I said. Going back to the Genesis was not
high on my list of fun things to do. “If
it’s all the same to you, I think we
’ll try the condo first.” I’d jumped on Highway
99 by our apartment on Lake Union, but I was
going to have to get off again at Western Avenue
only a mile down the road. The freeway actually went
right past Nicki’s condo at the Millennium Towers but
, unfortunately, the next off-ramp after Western Avenue was all
the way on the other side of the stadiums. We
’d have to take the streets.

The closer we got
to Nicki’s place, the more worried I became even
though I couldn’t exactly place my finger on why
. I couldn’t think of any reason why Josh Bannister
would target Nicki. Then again, Sophie and Judie Lawton were
definitely dead and that didn’t make any sense, either
. Worse, of the two sisters,
Nicki
was the one who
, by her own admission, was involved with drugs, not Sophie
. If anyone was likely to be in danger because of
a drug deal, it should have been Nicki.

Ten thrilling
minutes later, we wheeled into the circular drive at the
Millennium Towers. Ron had made the call while we were
on the way, and an SPD patrol car was already
there to meet us. We parked behind them under a
sign that read
No Parking
and hustled on into the
lobby.

“You two, again?”

I turned and saw none other
than Officer R. Bennett standing by the security counter.

“Officer
Bennett,” I said, reaching out and shaking his hand. “We
’re back.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Yes, you
are.” He turned and nodded to the beefy security guard
who manned the front desk. The man walked around the
desk as we all walked toward the elevators. “Keith here
’s going to take us upstairs. If there’s no
answer, we’re authorized to have him open the unit
up with his master key so that we can go
inside and check it out.”

I nodded. “Good. Let’s
go.” I turned to Keith as we started walking. “How
long have you been on duty?”

“About an hour,” he
said.

“Nobody’s gone up to Nicki Thom’s apartment
since you’ve been here?”

He shook his head. “Nah
, not since I came on at four. It’s been
real quiet.”

I nodded. We boarded the elevator, and I
fidgeted the whole way up. I glanced over at Toni
. She was studying me, a look of concern in her
eyes. I bit my lower lip, smiled, and nodded my
head, trying to act reassuring. I’m sure I didn
’t fool Toni.

We knew from our earlier visit that
there were eight units on Nicki’s floor—four to
the north of the elevator lobby, four to the south
. Nicki’s unit was on the north side at the
far northwest corner of the lobby. We walked over and
listened at the front door. There was no sound—nothing
. I rang the bell and knocked. Then we waited again
, but still there was no answer.

I looked at Keith
. “Open it up.”

He nodded and swiped his access card
. A small LED flashed green, and I opened the door
. All four of us stepped into the foyer.

“Seattle Police
!” Officer Bennett called out. There was no response. We stepped
farther inside. The lights were on in the living room
, but the room was empty. A samba was playing quietly
on the stereo. I looked around. Two empty wineglasses sat
on the table next to a nearly empty bottle.

We
took a couple of steps into the living room when
suddenly, I heard a scream come from the other side
of the condo—from the direction of the bedrooms.

“Oh
, shit!” I reached for my sidearm and drew it to
low ready as I sprinted down the hall. Toni, Officer
Bennett, and Keith raced to stay close behind. Visions of
Nicki Thoms with a rope around her neck flashed through
my mind.

I rounded the corner of the hall and
heard another scream come from beyond the closed doors of
the master bedroom. Just as I was about to enter
, Toni yelled, “Danny! Wait!” but it was too late. I
was already moving full speed and my momentum caused me
to crash through the doors just as I flipped the
handle. I burst into the bedroom, gun leveled, with the
others right behind.

Lucas Santos sprang to his feet on
the edge of the bed, bare-assed and quite clearly
cocked and ready for action. He weaved back and forth
, his footing unsteady either as a result of the surprise
or maybe because of the wine. His eyes were wide
open, alarmed. Beneath him, an equally naked Nicki Thoms apparently
took a second longer to figure out what all the
commotion in her hallway had been about. Seeing us suddenly
appear in her bedroom with weapons drawn at such a
“delicate” time, she screamed again—this time out of surprise
—and leapt to her feet herself, yanking the sheet with
her as she did with such force that it upended
poor Lucas and caused him to stumble forward and trip
over the footboard. He crashed to the floor in a
naked heap. I looked down as he lay there, dazed
, and I noticed he had a huge tattoo of a
jaguar on his bare ass to match the one on
his arm that he’d shown us. They both appeared
to be looking up at us, growling. Upside down.