“The lieutenant is in a meeting with the acting chief this morning, so we haven’t been
able to fill him in on the burglary at Maya’s last night,” Mark said to Nicolai.
“These are the cards left with the flowers Dr. Richardson received?” Nicolai asked,
motioning to the two cards on the table.
“Yes, I had the handwriting examined by Wanda, one of the crime lab techs. She also has
a sub specialty in analyzing script,” he explained to the agent before continuing, “she believes the card was written by the same person.”
A knock on the door and LeDoux stuck his head inside the room. “Casanova you have a
call from a Ms. Arlinda Nyoni. Sounds important--can you take it?”
“Yeah sure tell her to hold on,” Jordan told LeDoux, before turning back to Mark. “I’d
better take this.”
“Well it is too late,” LeDoux smirked “she said if you would like to speak to her you
know where to find her,” he told Jordan gleefully.
“Oh damn I forgot the time. I was supposed to take Arly out to lunch. I need to go and
make a call.” Jordan hastily gathered the evidence collected on the table.
Mark recognized the name of Maya’s college friend, and he had no idea Jordan was still
in contact with the woman.
“We can wrap up and take a late lunch if that helps. I’ll put this stuff back,” he told his partner.
“Yeah okay. Thanks man.” Jordan walked quickly out of the room.
No sooner had Jordan left, than Nicolai turn toward Mark with a serious expression on
his face. “We may have a problem, Detective,” Nicolai said without preamble.
Immediately catching on to what he was referring to, all remaining humor over Jordan’s
predicament left. “In what way?”
“I believe the person who burglarized Dr. Richardson’s home is responsible for the serial
killings. And if I had to venture a guess, I would bet the floral arrangement was from the same person.” Nicolai told him calmly, with little or no inflection.
“Shit!” With lightening speed, Mark raced out the door with the FBI agent close on his
heels. When the agent grabbed his arm, Mark swung around, a fierce expression on his face.
“What the hell? I need to get a hold of Maya. Now!”
“Dr. Richardson is safe. If I didn’t feel she was, I would have contacted you last night.
She’s safe,” Nicolai calmly reassured him.
“Listen, you can come with me if you want. Or you can stay here. Either way, I’m going
to Imani House to check on Maya. If you’re coming, then on the way you can tell me how the
hell you know this shit.” He reached inside his pocket, and took out his cell phone to call Maya.
“Hey Dal, where’s Maya?” He asked without preamble, and waited as Dalia transferred
the call. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, and opened them just as quickly when Maya came on the phone,
“Hey, baby, how are you doing?” He listened for a moment before responding. “Good.
Sweetheart I want you to do me a favor. Who’s working security?”
“Rowan’s here today.”
“Great. I need for you to stay at the House, and make sure Rowan doesn’t let anyone
unfamiliar in there until I get there okay?”
“What’s going on, Mark?” She asked, her voice fearful.
“There’s nothing to worry about, Maya. We need to talk to you. I’m on my way, stay
where you are,” he told her, trying his best to keep the anxiety out of his voice. After a few moments of talking, he flipped the receiver down on his phone and turned to Montgomery,
who’d stood discretely away as he spoke with Maya.
“Well, are you coming? And will you tell me what the hell you do exactly? Who the hell
are you?” He demanded.
“I’ll tell you on the way to Imani House. Let’s go,” Montgomery said, and the two men
left the precinct together.
CHAPTER 43
“Is either Phillips or Halstan around?” One of the homicide detectives asked LeDoux as
he sat at the desk that faced Jordan’s.
“No, you just missed them both. Detective Halstan and the FBI Agent left a few minutes
after Detective Phillips. Why? Something I can help you with? Leave a message for them?”
“I have a name for their latest John Doe,” the detective said, glancing at his notepad.
“Leslie Dikes. Dikes was a small-time pimp, one of his ‘girls’ came in to give us a positive ID”
“Leslie Dikes you say? Not exactly the type of name one would associate with a man of
his, well, occupation, eh?” LeDoux said on a laugh.
“No shit.” The detective laughed with him. “I think the female who identified him called
him Rocky or something like that. He probably thought it was more fitting. At any rate, in the end, his image didn’t help him out too much.”
“Yes you are right about that one. In the end none of that matters at all, eh?” LeDoux
agreed with a Gallic shrug.
* * * *
Mark turned to the agent as soon as he’d put on his seat belt and asked, “how do you get
your information? Do you have ESP or something?” He joked, and glanced away as he looked in the rearview mirror, to reverse out of the underground parking garage.
When his comment was met with silence, his glance stole back to Montgomery, as the
man looked straight ahead with no expression, and no denial.
“Damn I was just kidding. That’s not it. Is that it? ESP? Give me a damn break,” Mark
laughed in disbelief.
Nicolai saw the astonishment on Mark’s face, and a rusty laugh escaped before he knew
it.
The double look of surprise on Mark’s face at the sound of laughter coming from him,
made him laugh even harder. After a few moments, his rustic laughter died out.
“What I am
