Good Morning, Killer

“So when do I meet him?”

“Soon. Maybe. I hope. Things are a little shaky right now. But they can get better.”

Barbara was nodding, absently fingering a picture of Deirdre. Up, down, on, off. It wasn’t her game anymore.

“Tell him about the ski mask. His case, he should know.”

“I will,” I said, and forgot about it.

Ten

Since the night she walked out of the fog, we had been monitoring the use of Juliana’s home computer, thinking the suspect might try to contact her again. Or maybe in her personal communications she would reveal some sliver of the attack that had surfaced from memory. Juliana (JMM3) spent hours online, mostly in chat rooms that seemed to attract local kids. The following transcript, posted on Rapid Start, got my attention:

FD-823 (Rev. 8-26-97)

RAPID START

INFORMATION CONTROL

Case ID: 446-702-9977 The Santa Monica Kidnapping

Control

Number: 5201 Priority: Immediate

Classification: Sensitive Source: Internet Chat Room

Event time: 11:35 PM

Method of contact: Monitoring of personal computer belonging to victim, Juliana Meyer-Murphy

Prepared by: Diaz, Ramon

Component/Agency: Tech support, FBI

Transcript attached.

* * *

[email protected] 11:35 PM

YOU ARE IN CHAT ROOM TOWN SQUARE

MasterMynd: i am so fucked

LiquidFlo: what’d ur mom say?

MasterMynd: grounded don’t describe it

TruHacka03: u hear what happened to ethan?

MasterMynd: what?

Truhacka03: took his car

LiquidFlo: away?

Truhacka03: yeah, fool …

BlackStar01: be that bitch

MasterMynd: where is she?

LiquidFlo: she a ho on Hollywood Blvd

OoRaver4LiveoO: shut up you don’t know shit

OoRaver4LiveoO: is she coming back 2 school?

MasterMynd: if I see her I’ll kick her face

LiquidFlo: might help she damn ugly

MasterMynd: why would someone want to fuck that?

OoRaver4LiveoO: I’m out u guys r jerks

LiquidFlo: whining bitch

XxHipHopxx: they’re gonna expel 6 kids for weed

BlackStar01: no shit!!!

XxHipHopxx: true

MasterMynd: Who?

LiquidFlo: anybody out there know?

XxHipHopxx: Stephanie, Ethan, Kristin-??

BlackStar01: Nahid?

XxHipHopxx: yeah, the towel head

MasterMynd: and she gets off?

XxHipHopxx: she told everything on everybody

MasterMynd: we shoulda done her

BlackStar01: you first

TruHacka03: ugli people should be doomed to hell. ugli people should not go out in public

JMM3: why don’t I do you all a favor and go out and kill myself?Total online activity: 1.25 hours

An hour after reading the report, I was sitting with Juliana on the floor of her room.

“I didn’t mean it. It was just to shut them up. Please don’t tell my mother, she’ll trip.”

“I had to inform your parents, Juliana.”

“That my friends hate me?”

“These are threats.” I was holding up the transcripts. “Threats to hurt you or that you would hurt yourself. We have to take them seriously.”

“Like the school doesn’t know everybody’s smoking weed? They’re not too hypocritical? Because Nahid’s father is a Saudi prince and gave like ten million dollars for the new campus, and he drives to school in a stretch Hummer limousine?” “I didn’t know they had Hummer limousines.”

She grimaced at my grown-up ignorance, looked down at her bare feet, toyed with a flower toe ring, trying to hide her face inside the cascade of hair, wavy and dark like mine. She was cleaned up and dressed in a big white shirt and capri-length tights, and the hoarseness had mostly healed, but she was jumpy, hollow-eyed behind the rainbow glasses, like someone weakened after a bout of pneumonia. If Willie John Black’s condition were a monotone of gray, Juliana’s was a chronic spiking fever. You’re okay for a moment, an hour, half a day; then it knocks you flat.

“They don’t understand,” she said quietly. “You made me.”

“What?”

“Tell.”

“We already knew about Stephanie and Ethan. Basically they confessed, straight out. We got a warrant and found the stash in Stephanie’s locker. They brought it on themselves, you have nothing to feel guilty about.” I waited. “Is it hard at school?” She nodded silently.

“Kids say things about the attack? What do they say?”

“Mostly rude questions.” Her eyes rose warily. “Are you going to arrest those kids from the chat room?”

“We are going to investigate.”

“Don’t. Please.”

“They sent you on a fool’s errand. They did not have your best interests at heart.”

“Your point is?”

“There must be other kids at school you can be friends with. Kids who are worthy of you.”

She was picking at the rose-colored carpeting as if to pull it out in tufts.

“I just want you to know,” I continued steadily, “you have our protection. Nobody is going to hurt you, okay? Take my card again and call me if anything or anyone is bothering you. We have surveillance on your family, and that isn’t going to stop until we catch the guy.” Juliana started to gag. It was as if