“I guess I didn’t just take it. I got good with weapons. I decided no one was ever going to do that to me again.”
Dr. Wilson inclined her head. “Nice,” she said. “You’re a fighter. How are your relationships with men? Do you have sex?”
“Not if I can help it,” Lei said. “I’d like to, but I get all frozen.”
“So are you gay?”
“What the hell? No, I’m not gay!”
“Okay. So have you been to counseling before?”
“Yeah. I went to my Aunty’s when my mom died of an overdose. She sent me to a bunch of them.”
“Was it helpful?”
“Some of them were. Mostly not. The one I went to in college helped me the most. She gave me some things to do when I… disappear.”
“So you dissociate?”
“Is that what you call it? Yeah, I do sometimes. It’s under control though. It doesn’t interfere with the job.” Not too much, I hope, she thought.
“Tell me about the last time you dissociated.”
“Recently.” Lei thought of the pictures on the Reynolds’s computer. “Can I talk about a case?”
“Only if it’s relevant… and, it’s all relevant.”
“Okay. The last time I almost checked out was this afternoon. We found some pictures of the girls who were murdered. I got a really sick feeling, kinda dizzy. I had things to do so I left the room, and when I came back in the other detectives were still looking at the pictures and I got super mad. I just wanted to kill them, and him most of all, the guy who did it.”
“Go on.”
“I know I just said it didn’t interfere with the job but sometimes I think it does. Like today. And the thing that made me have to come in for counseling.”
She took a deep breath and told Dr. Wilson about the stalker, how she thought the murder investigation and the stalker were connected somehow, though she hadn’t yet found the link. She finished with how she’d gone after the stalker with her gun and dog.
“If I had been thinking clearly I wouldn’t have done that.”
“I don’t know.” Dr. Wilson shrugged. “If it had worked, it would have been awesome.”
“Yeah. It would have.” Lei broke into a grin. This was the first time anyone had said anything positive about her action. “I’ll get him next time. Only, the guys are hovering around, taking turns keeping an eye on me. Detective Stevens has been sleeping over to guard me.”
“One.” Dr. Wilson held up her hand, folding down her fingers as she made her points. “The guys think the stalker is a real threat and you’re in danger. Ergo, you should take it seriously too. Two: Stevens may have more than helping in mind when he stays over. Three: maybe these cases are connected and you could bust the stalker and find the murderer at the same time. Tell me again what makes you think they’re connected?”
“I don’t really know.” Lei rubbed her hands up and down her slacks. “I just have a feeling. I’m also freaked out about Mary.” She filled the psychologist in on her budding friendship with Mary, and the other woman’s disappearance.
“It doesn’t seem all that farfetched that this is all connected somehow,” Dr. Wilson said. A tiny line had appeared between her smooth sandy brows. “How often do we have a case of unknown stalking, drowning, and disappearance in Hilo? I wouldn’t be surprised if more comes out when Mary is found.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Well, your time’s up. Let’s get together next week, same time.”
“Okay,” Lei stood up, headed for the door, and then turned back. “This wasn’t so bad. Thanks.”
“Oh, music to my ears,” Dr. Wilson said, laughing. “You did all the work and I get the credit. That’s why I love my job.”
Lei went straight to her desk. She knew she should go back to help with the search, but she hadn’t had time to do anything about Mary. She sat down and called the Puna Police Department.
“I might have a lead on Mary Gomes,” Lei said when she was transferred to the investigator on the case, Lono Smith. “I got delivered a piece of long black hair from someone who’s been stalking me. I thought it might be Mary’s. It was dropped off at my house with a threatening note.”
“Do you have it logged in to evidence?” Lono asked. She could hear the clicking of his keyboard.
“Yes. If you want to compare Mary’s hair and what the stalker left, it’s here at South Hilo Station.”
“On my way,” Lono said. “We move fast for our own.”
“Glad to hear it.” Lei felt her throat close. She cleared it, blinking. “The hair has no follicles though-it will have to be a visual comparison.”
“That’s fine. I’ll keep in touch.” He rang off.
Lei sat back in her squeaking orange chair, did a few spins to discharge stress as she called Stevens.
“Still need me?” she asked when he picked up.
“Nope. We cleared out just ahead of Reynolds and his lawyer,” he said. “I have the computer with me. We’re going to do a more thorough search at the station. You can call it a day-I’ll be by later.”
She sat silently, thinking of what Dr. Wilson had said.
“Okay.”
“What, you feeling all right? No arguing?”
“I’ve decided to rely on my senior officer’s estimation of the situation.”
He laughed. “Oh that’s just great. Now I’m a senior. Just don’t forget that futon.” He clicked off.
She smiled, shutting down her workstation and feeling the triangle of Stevens’ note as she left the building. She headed out to Wal-Mart and bought a set of twin sheets, a new pillow, and a futon. Who knows, I might need it for guests, she told herself, stowing it in the truck.
She remembered the package slip from the other night. She still had time to swing by the post office and pick it up, so she pulled into the crowded parking lot and redeemed the package-a thick bubble-padded manila envelope.
Her name and address were printed on it in block letters. There appeared to be a small box inside. There was no return address, and it was postmarked Hilo. She set it on the passenger seat.
She glanced over at it again and again as she drove home, torn between getting the suspense over with and opening it at home with Stevens or Pono. The sun dropped long red rays to the west ahead of her. She speed-dialed Mary’s phone and it went to voicemail again. Time could be running out for her friend.
“Mary, where are you?” she cried into the phone and snapped it shut. She hit the steering wheel, but it didn’t help-nothing did. Her friend was gone.
Chapter 21
He brushed the ferns aside, making his way to the campsite in the dimming light of sunset. It was a good distance from where he hid the truck, and he’d had to use a wheelbarrow to carry her out there. The faint track of the barrow wheel showed in the dirt, and he dragged a branch behind him, roughing up the ground to erase it.
Just outside the scrim of trees that hid the shelter, he pulled on the ski mask.
He approached cautiously. It never paid to underestimate the prey. But Mary lay still beside the ice chest, the drugged water bottle empty beside her. Her cuffed hands were in front and she had taken off the gag.
He slipped off the backpack he’d brought with the essentials for tonight’s activities.
He walked around her, making sure Mary was unconscious. Her breath had a noisy asthmatic rattle to it that couldn’t be faked. Her skin was pale beneath her tan, greenish in the waning light as if she were underwater. Bruises braceleted her wrists from the cuffs and dappled her arms and face. She’d covered herself in the sheet he brought her in.
The tender bloom of bruising aroused him. He got his camera out and took his first picture. He knelt beside her, gently brushing black hair out of her face, and rolled her onto her side. He took his ruler and surgical scissors
