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The address he'd given me turned out to be way over to the southwest on Baseline Road. I knew that until sometime in the fifties or sixties, that entire area had been commercial Japanese flower gardens. Pictures I'd seen showed miles of color blending into a rainbow. The smell must have been an overwhelming experience, but I’d never know because now the gardens were gone, and buildings had taken over. The information online didn't tell me what the building I sought was used for, but it confirmed the fact that it was huge. Parts of the structure were two stories tall, and the building covered half a block. If we had to search the whole place, we would need a lot of uninterrupted time. On the plus side, at least it didn't have any close neighbors.
As well as looking up the address, I decided to do a little checking to see what I could find out about Blake. I contacted a couple of friends and asked them to dig up what they could on the hunky thief. I quickly discovered that information about him on the internet was sparse. He had a webpage where he posted short stories he'd written about a time-traveling PI. I read a few excerpts and had to admit they were pretty good. The site also mentioned that he could be hired to find things, but naturally, it didn't mention he was willing to steal whatever a person was looking for if the fee was right. Since I didn’t find any evidence he had ever been arrested, I assumed he must believe in keeping a low profile, and if we were going to work together, that was good. I decided to put off making a decision about whether I would help with Blake's job until I had seen the building. I considered heading over there to take an advance look, but decided I could see everything I needed to when we scouted it out together.
That left me with a free evening. Catching up on some of the TV series I liked seemed like a great idea. I'd just finished running the popcorn popper and was ready to see what was newly available for streaming when Kit showed up. I thought, “Oh great, here goes my evening of TV,” when he said. “This is fantastic! Popcorn and TV seem like the perfect way to spend the evening.”
I made another batch of popcorn for him, and we settled in to watch some TV.
~ * ~
As always, when I woke in the morning, Kit was gone. I didn't know whether I was pleased or pissed when I realized he'd left a yellow rose on the pillow before disappearing. One day soon, I needed to give some consideration to what I was going to do about the situation with Kit. For months now, he was the only man I'd been with, and I was pretty sure that wasn't healthy. It couldn't be a good idea to fall in love with someone when there was no possibility of a future. At this point, I wasn't even sure I wanted a future with just one man, but those were thoughts for another day.
Today I wanted to check with Arnie to find out what Devon Cantwell had been up to. I also wanted to try to get John to talk to me about his pursuit of what he considered a serial killer. If he opened up about his case, I'd think about sharing what I knew about why the people from the restaurant were being killed.
After a leisurely breakfast, I called Arnie. He didn't answer, so I left a message. A few minutes later, he called back. “Sorry I didn't answer. I had my phone on vibrate, so I knew I'd gotten a call, but Devon was just backing out to make one of his trips to the cemetery. I wanted to get on the road behind him before I took the call. I'm sure that's where he is going, but I didn't want to take a chance of losing him in case this was the one time he went somewhere else.”
“No problem. I just wanted to check with you to find out if there's been any change in his activities lately.”
“There hasn't been anything definite. He did have his car serviced day before yesterday. The tune-up could mean he was planning a trip, or it could just mean he thought it was time to have routine maintenance done. I'm keeping a close eye on him either way.”
“That's what I needed to know. He has to make his move one of these days. Just be sure to keep me posted. If he does make a trip, I want to know soon enough that I can follow him.”
“I got that. Don't worry, he isn't going anywhere without my knowing.”
Once I'd talked to Arnie, I checked my email and took care of everything that needed an answer. My late nights were catching up with me, so I lay down on the couch for a nap. I wanted to be well rested when Blake and I checked out the building tonight.
I'd been asleep only moments before the dream began. Even in my sleep, I was miserable when I realized I was dreaming of the day Clive and Alice had taken me from the children's home. I'd been so sure I was through with those dreams, and now I was starting right back at the beginning of those horrible times. I tried to force myself awake, but soon lost all touch with reality and was enmeshed in my first day of real torture. We were barely inside the house before Alice took all my clothes, and I was forced to spend my first two weeks in their house completely naked. It was a good way to demoralize a kid. I wasn't raped during that time, but both Alice and Clive took every opportunity to touch me in inappropriate ways. The dream had almost progressed up to the first time Clive had forced himself on me before I woke up.
I was stunned that the whole dream scenario was beginning again. Obviously, my attempt to control the results of my trauma hadn't worked. Dreaming of the worst moments in the order they had happened and analyzing each dream as soon as I woke up hadn't solved the problem. I'd have to try something else, but now I didn't know what. I thought those first two weeks with my adopted aunt and uncle were the closest I'd ever come to going hopelessly crazy. Now I wondered if these recurring dreams were going to complete the job. It could be time to seek some professional help. I considered most mental health practitioners useless, if not quacks, but I'd do some research, anyway. There had to be an answer out there somewhere.
Putting all thoughts of the past out of my mind for the moment, I called John. It was still a couple of days before he could return to work, so he was free to get together. By then it was mid-afternoon, so rather than meeting for a meal, we decided to grab a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of pie somewhere. I suggested we meet at the Coffeehouse Café. There was a significant pause before he agreed.
Twenty-five minutes later, we were sitting in a booth with both coffee and rhubarb pie on the table before us. We'd finished the delicious pie and were on our second cup of coffee before I said, “I know you're aware of what happened here. Do you want to talk about your theories regarding the man you suspect of being a serial killer?”
He said, “I think my theories are police business and not something we should be discussing.”
“I figured you'd say that, but I happen to know that the department isn't buying your ideas, so discussing them with me could help. You know anything you say isn't going any further than this table.”
Still resisting help, John growled, “I can't help wondering where you get your information. How do you know so much about the murders I've been investigating?”
“A lot of it you told me yourself in that last email before you were kidnapped. On top of that, people were pretty frantic during the time you were missing, making it easy to get access to your files. I needed to know what you were working on that might help me figure out why you'd disappeared. The information you left for me in your apartment helped, too.”
“If you've read my files, then you know everything anyway. There isn't any need for me to talk about it.”
“Oh, stop being an old grump! You know as well as I do that everything isn't ever in the files. Besides, you never know, I might have discovered a few things that you'd find helpful.”
“That right there is one reason I haven't told you about this guy. He is completely ruthless and not someone you should be messing with.”
“That's what you always say, but so far, I'm fine. I'm sure you've figured out I recommended this place to get coffee for a reason. What do you know?”
“I can see you aren’t going to give up on this. I didn’t know about this place when I put together the file you read; I didn't know the killer was connected to what happened here. Since I've been off work recuperating, I've had to do something to keep from going nuts. I've put in a lot of internet time on this. When I finally figured out that all the victims I was attributing to this nut-job had been at the Café the day Judy Cantwell died, I knew that was the connection I'd been looking for.
I've been looking into Devon, Judy's brother. I've also taken a close look at the policeman who showed up that day. I don't have a single clue on how Judy was murdered, but I suspect one of the nine later victims may have poisoned her food. I'll probably never know. For the killings that came after her death, I'm leaning toward the brother as the killer. He has an alibi for one killing and that confused me at first, but now I’m pretty sure it was faked. I should be able to get what I need to bring him in for questioning once I'm cleared for active duty. At this point, I believe Devon is killing the other people that were in the diner that day because they didn't save his sister. Now I just have to prove it.”
Even though John was finally sharing his information, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to share in return. I was still reluctant to expose him to major danger so soon after his recent ordeal. I debated with myself over what to tell him before deciding to tell him some of what I knew, but not enough to help him locate the man. He could do that soon enough on his own. After all, I'd gotten that information through a police source. I wanted to trap Devon before John had a chance to go after him, so I didn't agree or disagree with him and I didn't tell him about the two remaining people on Devon's kill list. This was another bit of information he already knew or could easily find on his own.
The first thing I did when I returned home was to begin putting together a plan to trap Devon. I got so involved that I barely had time to eat a quick sandwich before taking off to meet Blake. When I drove by the address he had given me, I spotted his car parked next to a bakery right across the street. It would be hard to miss his shiny blue Corvette. I made a U-turn and pulled into the small parking lot next to him. Taking a good look at the address in question, I realized for the first time that our target building was a huge Catholic church and school. If we had to search the whole place it would take several hours, even with two people. It would be interesting to find out what Blake planned to steal from a church.