T. He actually used two guns, a.45 and a.22. One in each hand like Jesse James.”
I shook my head in amazement. One man takes down two trained, armed officers at the same time, with two different guns? Outside of a spaghetti western or a John Woo movie, that didn’t happen. Drawing, aiming, and shooting with just a single weapon while under fire took an incredible level of skill and training.
“This guy’s either got some kind of special ops military background, or he’s the luckiest idiot in the world,” I said. “Let’s pray it’s the latter.”
“Oh, and get this,” Lavery said. “He yelled out that he liked cops, right before he opened up on them. Tried to warn them off, even apologized to Tonya Griffith.”
Christ, on top of everything else, he was a cop lover?
“With friends like that, who needs enemies,” I muttered. “Okay, round up any video you can get from the transit booth or the street. I’ll head over to the other crime scene.”
As I walked to the corner, I saw an old Jamaican hot dog guy behind the tape waving at me. I changed direction and went to him, thinking he might have some information, but it turned out he was just handing out free water and sodas to all the responding emergency personnel.
“My daughter’s an EMT in the Bronx, mon,” he said with a contagious grin. “Least I could do for all you good folks.”
He refused to take my money, but finally accepted the PBA card I gave him. Maybe it would get him out of a ticket.
As I went through the familiar ritual of looking for my car, it struck me that every time I was ready to throw in the towel as a cop, I bumped face-first into the reason why I did what I did.
Chapter 35
The Platinum Star Hotel was just five blocks west on Sixth. Rolling over there, I constructed a mental outline of my impressions so far.
The most obvious pattern emerging was that after each murder, the killer hid out, then popped up again – wearing different clothes – and committed another murder. He must have a hiding place somewhere in the area. An apartment? A hotel room?
Then there were the words he’d yelled, according to witnesses, about liking cops. Maybe that was just raving. But as cool and organized as this guy was, I had the feeling he knew what he was saying. He’d shot them only because he felt he had to, in order to escape.
That meant he wasn’t just out killing randomly – he was choosing his targets. Further, the Platinum Star Hotel was the third high-end establishment out of three.
My early guess was looking strong. He had an agenda, and it had something to do with wealth.
And unlike typical serial killers, this shooter didn’t operate in secret. He worked in broad daylight, and let himself be seen. Was he trying to send a message? Those kinds of guys were usually out to prove that they were smarter than the police. They wanted to taunt us, let us know that they could kill with impunity and never be caught. So why hadn’t he contacted us or the press?
That was as far as I’d taken those thoughts when I pulled up in front of the hotel.
At least a hundred cops were milling inside a crooked yellow line of crime scene tape that threaded two full city blocks around the hotel. Office workers on the other side of it just stood there, silent and gaping, shell- shocked, braced for whatever was going to happen next. I found myself actually preferring the manic looky-loo curiosity that was the usual at crime scenes.
People were definitely starting to get freaked. And why shouldn’t they? Even by New York standards, the body count was alarming.
I found Detective Beth Peters inside by the check-in desk. She was still cool and crisp, but subdued.
She led me across the white marble lobby to the elevators. The body was covered with a sheet. I crouched down and lifted it away.
The woman lying there was still beautiful, with a mane of blond hair spread out around her head – except for the small black entry wounds in her face and chest, and the sticky pool of blood that had seeped out onto the floor around her.
I stared at the bouquet of flowers on her chest. The fallen petals on the marble around her seemed like offerings in a human sacrifice.
The typed message from the 21 Club crime scene appeared in my mind like a computer pop-up.
Your blood is my paint.
Your flesh is my clay.
“Are you getting anything from this, Mike, about what he’s trying to say?” Beth asked. “Because I’m not.”
I replaced the sheet.
“I’m pretty sure he’s saying, ‘Catch me,’?” I said.
Chapter 36
“Her name was Martine Broussard,” Beth Peters said as we huddled together by the check-in desk. “She was an Air France flight attendant, due out on today’s two P.M. to Paris. Around eleven this morning, a tall guy with black hair comes into the hotel with a bouquet of flowers. The desk clerk tells him he can wait on the couch by the elevator. When Martine comes out, he shoots her point-blank with a gun that was hidden in the roses. Once in the head, twice in the chest. Real charmer.”
I let out a long, tired breath.
“But there’s some good news,” Beth said. “Come on.”
She led me into the large back office behind the check-in desk and introduced me to the hotel security chief, a white-haired ex-FBI agent named Brian Navril. He looked pretty nervous as he shook my hand. After what had just happened, I guess he was worried that he was about to become an ex-hotel security head, too.
“I think I found something that might be useful to you,” he said, motioning us over to his desk. “At least I hope so.”
He brought up the video feed of the hotel’s various surveillance cameras on his laptop and quickly clicked on the square that showed the registration desk. When the screen popped up, he hit Zoom and then Pause.
A relatively clear image appeared of a man in sunglasses and an expensive leather jacket. He was holding a bouquet of roses and grinning, apparently chatting with the check-in clerk.
Beth and I exchanged satisfied looks. Bingo! Finally, a solid lead! With the sunglasses it wasn’t the best of pictures, but not the worst either by any stretch. He had a stack of the already printed photos on the desk, ready for distribution.
“Where’s the clerk?” I said. “I need to talk with her.”
Her name was Angie Hamilton. She was a petite, attractive brunette in her midtwenties, who still looked shaken up as Beth brought her into the office.
“Hi, Angie,” I said. “I’m Detective Bennett. I know this is tough for you right now, but we need to know everything you can tell us about the man who shot Ms. Broussard. You talked to him, right?”
“He asked if Martine Broussard had left yet,” Angie Hamilton said. “He told me they’d just met, and he was bringing her flowers because… because…” She was starting to cry. Beth put an arm around her, murmured sympathetically, and fished a tissue out of her pocket. Angie dried her tears and continued stammering.
“H-he said he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t let her know how he felt. I thought it was so romantic.”
Double score, I thought, catching Beth’s eye. She nodded back. The shooter had asked specifically for Martine Broussard. He had known the victim. Now, for the first time, it was certain that we were looking at a nonrandom shooting. And the odds were greatly increased that this was connected to the other incidents.
We’d caught another break, and it gave us another avenue to run down.
