Courting Trouble

“You can find out where she lived, how hard can that be?” Bennie didn’t wait for an answer. “Tell me about the last time you saw Willa. You said she ran to your house from the gym. Did she have anything on her? A purse or a gym bag? Keys? The police found no identification on her.”

Anne flashed on Willa, huffing on her front step. “No. Her hands were empty.”

“Do you need to show ID or a membership card to use your gym?”

“Yes.” Anne finished the thought. “So Willa would have had to bring her ID and her purse with her, to get into the gym. It may still be there, with her keys, and the lockers are usually unlocked. I never leave my stuff there. I bring just my keys, membership card, and a dollar for a bottle of Evian.”

“We’ll follow up on that, too.” Bennie paused. “Another thing. Did you really have a date last night? Was that true?”

Anne avoided Mary’s eyes. “No date. I haven’t gone out in a year. Kevin Satorno was my last date.” She had to get Bennie back on track. “That’s why I know Willa wasn’t the intended victim. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was Kevin and he wanted to kill me. He’s been in prison, probably following my career, maybe even reading about me and Chipster. The Philly papers are on-line. And the sawed-off shotgun, the attack at the front door, everything is the same as before, in L.A. He’s probably been watching my house since he escaped.”

Bennie cocked an eyebrow. “Then why didn’t he see you leave for the shore last night? Why didn’t he see Willa come over?”

“Maybe he wasn’t watching at that moment, and I didn’t go until it was almost dark, a little after nine o’clock. I hung around, we talked a little and played with Mel. I lent Willa my shirt and a pair of clean shorts, since she’d come straight from the gym. What time did the murder take place, do they know?”

“About eleven o’clock, they think so far.” Bennie mulled it over. “And your hallway light didn’t work? How do you know it didn’t burn out this morning, when you turned it on?”

“I never used it, not once. I doubt there’s even a bulb in it.” Anne kicked herself for not checking. “Bennie, I’m telling you, it was Kevin who came to shoot me last night, just like before, and I’m certain he thinks he killed me.”

Judy was shaking her head slowly. “But Bennie could be right. It’s at least a logical possibility somebody meant to kill Willa, for some reason. We know so little about her.”

Mary shot her a sidelong look. “No, I think Anne is right. An attempt was made on her life, just a year ago. Kevin was the one who tried to kill her before, and he’s escaped from prison. He’s obsessed with her, he’s a stalker. She’s the much likelier victim. No doubt.”

Eeek. Our first fight. Anne could feel battle lines being drawn. Mel chose her side, even though he had fallen asleep on Mary’s desk. Loyalty Cat.

Bennie raised a hand like a traffic cop. “Hold on, let’s table the discussion for a minute. There’s another assumption I don’t like, Murphy. If the killer is Kevin, why do you assume he’s still in town? If he’s a fugitive and he killed you, why wouldn’t he just run? His job is done and he doesn’t want to get caught. Any murderer would bolt.”

“Not an erotomanic. That’s not the way they think. Kevin views himself as linked to me, romantically, forever. It’s all imagined, of course, but it’s strong. He’ll want to see where I worked, maybe even see you guys.”

“I agree, stalkers are in a league of their own,” Mary said quietly. Her brown eyes flickered, and she raked a dark-blond strand back with manicured fingernails. “You know, once I had a problem with . . . someone.”

“Really, you?” Anne looked over in surprise, though she knew the statistics. Three out of every ten women will be stalked in their lives. So she and Mary did have something in common, after all. She just wished it were something good, like compulsive spending.

“My case was a little different, because I didn’t realize I was being stalked. But I remember, you have to be careful how you deal with a stalker, and it’s no win. If you go to the cops, it makes him crazy. If you don’t, you’re unprotected.”

Right. It was so nice to finally be understood, and by somebody who wasn’t court- appointed. “That’s why I never should have gotten the restraining order against Kevin. It punctured his delusion that I loved him. It was the ultimate rejection, one even he couldn’t deny, and it became a declaration of war.”

“But you had every right to go to court!” Judy said, and next to her Bennie nodded.

“You did the right thing. You were trying to protect yourself.”

Anne tried to explain. “Ten percent of women in abuse or stalking scenarios are killed right after they apply for a restraining order. In New York, they found one woman dead—with her restraining order knifed to her chest.” She fell silent at the horrible image. “These obsessive types, they’re different from normal murderers, if there is such a thing. That’s why Kevin will stay in town. He’ll want to be around me, to walk places I walked. To stay near me, even in death.”

Mary shuddered. “I would bet this guy won’t leave Philly before your funeral.”

“True,” Anne said, though she hadn’t thought far enough ahead to a funeral. “But it’s Willa’s body in the morgue. What will they do?” They all looked at Bennie, since she always knew everything.

“The medical examiner won’t release the body for two or three weeks, given the holiday and the backlog.”

“Backlog?” Anne asked. The term applied to bills, not bodies.

“July Fourth, in the City of Brotherly Love? The fireworks are in the ERs. The medical examiner has a small staff, too. They’ll do blood and DNA tests on Willa’s body, but the results won’t be in until next week, since the ID is unquestioned. If we don’t say anything, it’s possible that they’ll release her body for burial, thinking it’s yours.” A pall fell over all of them for a minute, then Bennie continued. “We can’t have that, for Willa’s sake. We have to find Willa’s family, and we have to call the cops, Murphy. Tell them that Satorno escaped and that you’re alive. And that they have the wrong person reported dead.”

“Absolutely not. I won’t tell the cops, but I agree with you about Willa’s family. We can find them and tell them, maybe convince them to work with us to find her killer.”

“No, that’s not tenable. Hear me out.” Bennie held up a finger with the mug slung on it. “Kevin is a dangerous fugitive, and the cops can find him sooner than we can. They have the manpower, the resources, the expertise. They can put out an APB to all uniforms, contact the FBI, interface with the California authorities.”

“You heard what they said, they only have forty cops covering all of Center City. They can’t even cover my house. Besides, I trusted the cops once to protect me and almost ended up dead. They couldn’t even charge Kevin with attempted murder, that’s why he got so little time. I won’t rely on the justice system. It almost killed me.”

Bennie looked grim. “Murphy. You are in real danger from this man, and it’s no time for amateurs.”

“No cops.”

“I don’t agree.”

“It’s not your life.”

Bennie didn’t flinch. “Murphy, you mistake me. I own this law firm, and you are my employee. I am chargeable with your actions, which means that I am responsible for everything that happens here and everything that you do. Like hiring naked men, for starters.” She couldn’t find her smile. “I cannot have this information and not disclose it to the police. It approaches obstruction of justice. They’re investigating the murder of the wrong person, and we have material information about the whereabouts of a major suspect.” Bennie folded her arms, and Anne folded hers, too. Judy and Mary watched the showdown in silence.

“Bennie, if you tell them, I’m outta here.”

“Child, if you leave, you’re fired. And I tell the cops anyway.”

Ouch. Anne had to get better at folding her arms or she was sunk. “Wait, I got an idea. How about we compromise? You tell the cops that Kevin’s escaped, but don’t tell them I’m alive. Then I get to play dead and keep looking for him. You get to tell the cops and let them get busy. This way we’re all working to find Kevin, us and the cops!”

“No, it’s too dangerous,” Bennie answered, but she hesitated. “Let the professionals find Satorno. They know what they’re doing.”

“They can’t even find him in jail! He’s a nobody to the Philly police! You heard the detective!”

Mary nodded. “Like Anne says, none of us can judge her until we’re in her shoes. Even I can’t know what that’s like. If it’s her life at stake, we should do it her way, with her compromise.”

Judy finally spoke. “I agree. Let’s tell the cops he’s escaped, but let’s follow up, too. We run our own murder