moment, it was like it was really happening. Gary's mouth was dry and he started to get hard.
If the mean girl was tied up in his room, he could ask her why she was being mean to him. No, not his room.
Mom would find her when she came to clean. But some place. He could put her someplace where no one could find her. Only he would know where she was.
And she would have to do what he said. She would have to kiss him if he wanted and learn to love him. That was the most important. Love him like Donna loved Steve. Love him for ever and ever.
Marjorie Dooling's shoulders shook convulsively each time she sobbed into her boyfriend's shoulder. Tommy Berger held Marjorie and tried to comfort her. Dennis Downes waited patiently. He understood the shock ariorie experienced -when she saw Sandra Whiley's face, because he had experienced the same feeling that morning in the park.
'I'm sorry,' Marjorie apologized, trying hard to stop her tears.
'You take your time,' Downes answered compassionately. 'Do you want some water?'
Marjorie nodded and Downes poured some from a pitcher he made certain was on his desk before he brought her back from viewing the body.
Marjorie sat down. 'I'll be okay,' she managed after taking a few sips. 'It's just ..
She shook her head, at a loss for words.
'What made you call the police?' Downes asked, giving the girl an easy question to distract her from her grief.
'I saw the sketch on the front page of the afternoon Clarion. It looked so much like Sandy.'
Downes nodded. 'You two share a dorm room?'
'No. We live in a boardinghouse near the campus.'
'Did you worry when Sandy didn't come home last night?'
'We, uh, spent the night at my place,' Tommy answered.
'When I got back to the room this morning, Sandy wasn't there,' Marjorie told Downes. 'I figured she was studying or something.'
'When was the last time you saw her?'
Marjorie looked at Tommy.
'About ten-thirty,' he said. 'We all went to the Stallion.'
'Tommy and I wanted to leave. We offered to drop her off at the house because we came in Tommy's car, but she wanted to stay.' Marjorie's eyes teared again.
'If she'd only come with us ..
Downes waited patiently while Dooling gathered herself.
'Sergeant Downes, I was wondering ... When they found Sandy, was she wearing a necklace?'
'Why do you ask?'
'Sandy always wore a medallion around her neck. A Crusader's Cross. It would be for her mom. I know she'll want it. Sandy's grandma gave it to her and it was her lucky piece.'
Sandy Whiley wasn't wearing anything around her neck when the first officer arrived on the scene, but it seemed to Downes that one of the officers had found something resembling the jewelry Dooling had described. He would check on it later. For now, the medallion was evidence and would have to be held until the killer was caught and convicted.
Business was usually slow at the Stallion at four in the afternoon, and the stunning summer weather was keeping all but the staunchest regulars outdoors. Dennis Downes spotted Arnie Block and Dave Thorne chatting behind the bar as soon as his eyes adjusted to the darkness inside the tavern. Downes was in uniform and the bartenders stopped talking when he sat down.
'Hi, Sergeant,' Block said. 'The usual?'
'Not today, Arnie. Were you and Dave on duty last night?'
'Yeah. We were both here.'
Downes took out a photo of Sandra Whiley that Marjorie Dooling had given him when he followed her back to the boardinghouse.
'Do you remember seeing this girl in here?'
Arnie studied the photo. 'She looks familiar, but I don't know if she was here last night.'
Thorne frowned. 'It could be ... Yeah. Her hair was a little longer, but I'm sure.. .' He took the photo from 'See that medallion around her neck? She was playing with it at the bar. It's definitely her.'
'When was she in?'
'It had to be around eleven. In fact, I'm sure of it, because I remember seeing her leave shortly after the fight broke up.'
'What fight?' Downes asked.
'Oh, it wasn't anything. Gary Harmon was yelling at a woman. Arnie calmed him down.'
'What's with the girl?' Block asked.
'We're trying to trace her movements. She was murdered sometime after she left the Stallion.'
'No shit!' Thorne said, looking more closely at the photograph. 'Hey, she's not the girl they found by the wishing well?'
Block and brought it closer.
Downes nodded.
'Jesus. A couple of customers were talking about that earlier. We thought it might be the other one.'
'What other one?'
'The woman Gary was hassling. I saw the sketch in the Clarion and it looked a little like her.'
'What happened?'
'Do you know Gary?' Arnie asked.
Downes nodded.
'Then, you know he's a little slow, and he'd had one too many. He tried to hit on this girl. She shot him down and he didn't take it too well. He grabbed her by her tee shirt and yelled in her face.'
Arnie shook his head.
'What kind of tee shirt?' Downes asked, remembering the way Whiley was dressed.
'Uh, a Whitaker State one. The one with the rearing horse on it.'
'Was she wearing jeans?'
'I think so.'
'And you thought Gary might have killed this girl?'
Downes asked. ' 'Not really,' Block said with a laugh to show how ridiculous the whole thing was. 'Gary just gets excited sometimes and acts like a kid. I mean, he did threaten to kill her, but no one took him seriously.'
Chapter NINE.
Dennis Downes was normally an easygoing guy, but the possibility of busting the only serial killer in the history of Whitaker County had him on edge. Seated next to Downes in the passenger seat of their patrol car was Bob Patrick, whom everyone called Pat. Pat was tall and thin with wiry muscles. His face was narrow and pock marked and his eyes were close-set, making him look scary and mean. Pat wore his hair long and greasy in an Elvis Presley, fifties' duck's-ass style that was a little intimidating because it was so weird. Everything about him screamed 'tough cop,' which was why Downes brought him along. Pat was as psyched up as his partner.
'Jesus, Dennis, I think you're definitely on to something here,' he said, as Downes drove toward Gary Harmon's house. Following them was another patrol car with two more officers.
'It's got to be him,' Downes responded confidently.
'I talked to Karen Nix at her dorm around six. She and Whiley aren't twins, but they're the same type. Blond, long hair, slender. And they were both wearing jeans and that Whitaker tee shirt with the horse.
, 'The way I see it, Harmon has this fight with Nix. He stays mad like a little kid would and broods about the put-down. Then, he gets a weapon and waits outside the Stallion for her. The door opens, out walks a blonde.
Only it's the wrong one. He follows her, waits for his chance ..
'And kills her, just like he threatened.'
'There's something else. A few weeks ago, Harmon was arrested for peeping a coed's room at the
