'Easier to be you if she has some of your clothes. And maybe she wants to hang around the building, even the neighborhood, and let people glimpse her wearing them. Getting people used to seeing her as you. Safe enough, unless you and the other Jill are in the same place at the same time. The people we're after are no doubt careful about that not happening.'
Jill sat down on the edge of the bed, just missing the hem of the dress, and slumped staring at the floor. She looked as if she might start crying. Pearl didn't want that, didn't want to waste time with it.
'They're even stealing my clothes,' Jill said. 'They're stealing me. Madeline said I was halfway to nothing already. She was right.'
'No, we can change that.'
Jill looked up at her with moist eyes. 'I believe you. I have to. These people might follow me anywhere. You're the only chance I've got.'
'It's not just me, Quinn, and Fedderman,' Pearl reminded her. 'There'll be undercover cops looking after you every step of the way, Jill. You've got a whole brigade of guardian angels on your side. Angels who know their jobs. Angels with guns.'
Jill stared again at the worn hardwood floor. 'The only chance I've got,' she repeated in a soft and lonesome voice.
Pearl thought she had it about right.
For the next several hours, Pearl stayed with Jill in her apartment and went over instructions Jill was to follow until the case was resolved and she was again safe. Jill was to inform Tony Lake that Jewel, who lived just upstairs, had become her friend. After that, Jewel would be hanging around Jill most of the time when Tony showed up. Maybe Jill would even invite her new friend to dine with her and Tony. The best way for Jill to be safe was for her to get Tony to think she and Jewel had become a pair, the way it was sometimes with women who were best friends. If he suspected anything, let him suspect they were lovers. That would make it even more problematic for E-Bliss.org to murder Jill and try to pass off another woman as Jill Clark. New best friend Jewel would almost certainly notice the differences in the imposter. Short of murdering both women, which would be way too risky, E- Bliss.org would have no choice but to delay the substitution.
That was what Quinn and his team were counting on-delay while they gathered evidence. While they built their case brick by brick into a wall that would fall on and crush E-Bliss.org in a court of law.
It was only when Pearl finally left Jill, to return to her apartment on the floor above, that it struck her.
Which of the two Jills she'd met today was the original?
39
Deputy Chief Harley Renz, potbelly straining the buttons of his white shirt, sat behind his desk looking like an angry Buddha with a basset-hound face. If he kept putting on weight, he'd soon catch up with Nobbler.
Quinn had filled Renz in on the latest developments in the Torso Murders case, and while Renz was reasonably pleased by the progress they'd made, he was seriously ticked off about Wes Nobbler and the leaks from the medical examiner's office.
Renz's office was too warm this morning, reflecting his mood. Sunlight fairly roared through the window, heating up Quinn's vinyl chair, his right arm and shoulder, and one side of his face. The same sunlight was also harsh on Renz's face, emphasizing his mottled, flushed complexion.
There was a lot of dust in the sunlight, as if Renz had just finished beating a carpet. Quinn had to control his breathing to keep from sneezing.
'I expected Nobbler to be a political animal and put the knife in my back,' Renz said. 'Nobbler's an asshole. But he's a player. What's that little prick Nift doing messing in Homicide's business? He's a physician, for God's sake! What's he got to gain?'
'Aside from enjoying examining dead women,' Quinn said, 'he figures to move higher in the bureaucracy. Maybe be the city's chief medical examiner someday.'
'He's probably the one dumping information on that Cindy Sellers bitch. Damned woman's a bottom- feeder.'
'You're her source,' Quinn reminded him.
'It started out that way; then she turned on us.'
'But you're still talking to her.'
Renz waved a hand dismissively. 'I use her, she uses me, and we try to stay ahead of each other.'
He leaned back, moving his mottled face out of the sunlight, and took a few deep breaths. Quinn thought he might pop a pill next. If he wasn't taking something for his blood pressure, maybe he should. Renz looked like the definition of an impending heart attack.
'The same gun, different kind of broomstick, vaginal, anal…Somebody's screwing with our minds, Quinn.'
'That's how Pearl sees it. I think she might have a point. I also think we might have two killers.'
Renz wearily rubbed his fleshy features, leaving marks beneath both eyes. 'Serial killers don't usually come in pairs.'
'But it happens,' Quinn said. 'A leader-follower kind of relationship. Together they're capable of what neither of them might do individually. And considering E-Bliss, the switch in M.O.s might be part of a diversion to lead us to the assumption that we're looking for a garden-variety psychosexual serial killer.'
'I don't see where it'd make much difference to whoever's killing these people whether we're looking for one or two psychos. The murders are part of a business plan, if what this Jill Clark says is true.'
'It's true,' Quinn said. He told Renz about Pearl coming face-to-face with the other Jill Clark yesterday in Jill's apartment building.
Renz dry washed his face again with his blunt-fingered hands. 'Sometimes I think there are two of everybody,' he said.
Quinn didn't know what he meant by that. Probably another reference to two-faced backstabbers in the NYPD. He should know they could be found wherever there was rampant ambition, which was just about everywhere.
'You sure you're set up well enough to protect the real Jill Clark?' Renz asked.
'She's safe as we can make her. Protection around the clock, and Pearl's staying on the floor above, playing the new best friend. We need more information. And we need to link Tony Lake and E-Bliss with the Torso Murders without Jill Clark becoming a victim.'
'Sounds like she's ripe for it,' Renz said, 'considering what you told me about Pearl bumping into the other Jill yesterday.'
Quinn heard a series of soft pops. Renz was absently cracking his knuckles. It was a new habit that could soon get on Quinn's nerves. People do change their habits, sometimes their M.O.s. Maybe this is another Renz.
'What the hell're you smiling about?' Renz asked.
Quinn hadn't been aware of the slight smile on his face. 'Nothing. Nervous reaction, I guess.'
Pop, pop went the knuckles.
'What would flush them out,' Renz said, 'is if they made a play for Jill.' Quinn knew that was what he was secretly hoping for. 'Unsuccessful, of course. But we need for something to happen before the media learn everything. That'd blow the investigation and we'd all get fed to the wolves.'
'Maybe there's a way to hold the wolves at bay,' Quinn said.
Renz sat forward again, subjecting himself to the hot sunlight. Pop, pop. 'Are you about to show me your devious side, Quinn?'
'That's why you hired me.'
'One reason,' Renz admitted. 'Takes one to catch one.'
'And know one. Let's give the media a suspect.'
Renz's face fell in disappointment. 'Hell, I thought of that. Standard operating procedure. Trouble is, we don't have anyone to give them.'
