Chapter 12
We stopped at the bar to order our food and get some drinks to take with us. Mal told me to surprise him with the drinks, so I whipped us up a couple of cocktails my father called a Frustration. It seemed appropriate, given the way things were going, and my father said it was one of those drinks that would make all your frustrations disappear.
As I was mixing up our concoctions, Debra came over to talk to us. “How was your afternoon at the zoo?”
“It was nice,” I said. “The weather cooperated and the trip brought back a lot of fond memories.”
Mal excused himself to hit up the men’s room and, as soon as he was gone, Debra leaned into me and her questions turned interrogative. “So, how’s it going with Mal? I have to give Cora credit. He’s pretty hot, don’t you think? And he seems to really like you. Do you like him? Have you kissed him yet?”
Debra’s voice was low, but not low enough that Billy didn’t hear. He smiled and shook his head.
“It’s going fine,” I said. “Slow but steady, and yes, yes, and yes.”
“I’m happy for you, Mack,” Debra said. “I thought you and Duncan were going to work out, but if not, I’m glad you found someone else.”
“Thanks,” I said, wondering if Duncan and I ever were going to work out.
Mal returned, and as soon as Billy handed us our drinks, we headed upstairs to the Capone Club room. The group had changed some since our last visit. Carter and Holly, his girlfriend, were gone, as was Tad. And both of the Signoriello brothers were gone as well. Alicia was in the bar, but she was downstairs hanging around Billy as usual. There were two additions to the group: Nick and Tyrese, both of whom were local cops from Duncan’s district.
“Welcome back, you two,” Cora said as Mal and I walked in.
“Thanks.” I greeted Tyrese and Nick and then introduced them to Mal, watching closely for any signs of recognition. If they knew him, they didn’t let on.
“What have you two been up to?” Nick asked. Though his question sounded innocent and friendly on the surface, I sensed, and tasted, an undercurrent of something in his voice. During one of the cases I’d worked with Duncan a few weeks ago, Nick had hinted that he was interested in dating me, and I wondered if that might be the cause. Or maybe he thought I was two-timing Duncan.
“We went to the zoo,” I said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now and given what an unusually nice day it was weatherwise, Mal and I decided to make an afternoon of it.”
I saw a frown flit across Nick’s face, but it was there and gone in a flash. I made a mental note to take him aside later and talk to him about it.
Cora said, “We have some exciting updates on Tiny’s case to report.”
“Fill us in,” I said, settling into one of the empty chairs. Mal took the one next to me.
“Carter just called me,” Cora continued. “He and Holly went to talk to Anna Hermann’s parents. They gave them that spiel we cooked up about him working on a true crime story highlighting Lori and Anna’s case, and they agreed to let him copy Anna’s diary. I also found out where Anna’s brother, Erik, is living and got some updates on his status. He’s married now, has a degree in chemistry, and he’s teaching at UW Milwaukee.” Cora handed me a piece of paper with two addresses written on it. “That first address is his residence, and the second is his office on campus.”
“That’s great,” I said. “I’ll see if I can go and talk to him either tomorrow or Monday. Maybe Carter can come with me and we can continue with the pretense of the book thing.”
Cora then handed me another piece of paper. “This one is the address of William Schneider, the so-called strange neighbor who lived in Lori’s neighborhood. He still lives there, in the same house.”
“I’ll add him to my itinerary,” I said, hoping I’d be able to do it all. Depending on whether or not we were able to interpret the latest letter, my time might be otherwise occupied. I looked around at the faces in the room. If I didn’t figure out this last letter, one of them might turn up dead. I felt the panic start to build again and forced it deep down inside me somewhere, mentally locking it away.
“Maybe you should let the cops do what they do,” Mal said. “Something like this is their territory. They have cold case squads, don’t they?”
“Ya,” Tiny said. “But dey told me dey don’t have any new leads in my sister’s case so dey aren’t working it.”
Mal frowned. “But if the cops don’t have any leads, what do all of you hope to accomplish? Certainly their resources are better than yours.” I began to wonder if he and Duncan were in cahoots together on this matter.
Cora said, “We have a few tricks up our sleeves. I can access information with my computer that isn’t strictly legal. And then we have Mack here, and her special powers.”
“Special powers?” Mal said, looking at me and arching his brows.
“You didn’t tell him?” Cora said.
“I told him,” I said, “though I didn’t go into a lot of detail.”
“Are you referring to this disorder you have?” Mal asked.
“More of a gift than a disorder,” Cora countered. “She can sniff out stuff ordinary people, including the cops, can’t. And I mean that both figuratively and literally.”
Dr. T, who up until now had remained quiet, said, “Mack does have a rather unique ability with her synesthesia. I’ve done a little research on it and while her case is a rather extreme one, it’s a legitimate disorder. Mack’s senses are not only cross-wired—a typical finding among synesthetes—they are also extrasensitive. She is able to pick up on things normal humans can’t.” She shot me a look then and added, “Sorry, I don’t mean to imply that you’re abnormal, but you are kind of unique.”
“No offense taken,” I said. “But Mal does raise a valid point. My abilities are very time sensitive. I may be able to pick up on something that was moved within the last hour, or the remnants of a smell from something that was here within the last day or so, but we’re talking about a twelve-year-old murder case here. I don’t know how useful my senses are going to be in that situation.”
“Yeah, but you can do your lie detector t’ing,” Tiny said.
“Lie detector thing?” Mal echoed, giving me a questioning look.
“Yeah, I can often tell when someone is lying about something because I can pick up on subtle changes in their voice.”
“Good to know,” Mal said, looking a little wary. Considering that he and I had already had this discussion a short time ago, I had to admire his acting skill. “But I’m still concerned about you messing with potential murderers. I mean, this crime-solving stuff you guys do here is interesting and fun when you’re sitting in this cozy room and doing it from a safe distance, but going out and stirring up an old case that’s never been solved could be dangerous. At the very least, you should have someone go with you.”
“You’re welcome to come along,” I said.
“You should have a cop go with you,” Nick said. “Both to protect yourself and any evidence you might dig up.”
I was a millisecond away from slipping and saying that Mal was a cop when Mal saved me. “Nick is right,” he said. “I don’t mind coming along with you when I can, but I won’t always be able to do it because I’ve got to work during the week. So you should probably take Nick or Tyrese along with you.”
“What about Duncan?” Nick asked.
“What about him?” I countered.
“Why wouldn’t you take him with you?”
“Things are a bit strained between us right now, both personally and, for him, professionally.”
Tyrese gave Nick an elbow in the ribs and said, “Dude, you know what the chief said about Duncan using Mack and what he called her voodoo magic. Hell, the guy nearly lost his job over it.”
“That’s true,” I said. “And I don’t want to put either of you in the same position, so maybe it’s better if you don’t come with me.”
Tyrese considered this a moment, shrugged, and then said to me, “What we choose to do on our off hours is our own business. We’re allowed to look into cold cases on our own time so if you turn up something useful, we can find a way to make it look like we dug it up ourselves so your involvement won’t be known. Mal is right; you really shouldn’t be doing this alone, Mack. I’m willing to help you out during my off hours.”
I looked at the papers Cora had given me with the addresses on them, and thought about the latest letter. I had no idea what the letter meant and didn’t think sitting around agonizing over it would help. Sometimes doing something else and letting my subconscious figure out a problem works best. So I might as well spend Sunday following up on Tiny’s case. “Okay,” I said to the three men who seemed determined to help me. “Who’s free tomorrow?”
Nick frowned and said, “I’m off work but tomorrow is my sister’s birthday and I promised I’d come by her place for lunch.”
Tyrese said, “I’m free.”
“As am I,” Mal added.
“So which one should we tackle first?” I asked. “Maybe we should go up to Waupun and pay a visit to Lonnie Carlisle.”
“I can arrange that,” Tyrese offered. “I can tell the prison officials that I want to talk to him regarding a case we’re investigating. Essentially, that’s the truth.”
I considered this, and nodded. “See if you can set something up for tomorrow. Shoot for a time around one in the afternoon.” Then I turned and looked at Mal. “Would you be willing to come with me to talk to Erik Hermann in the morning?”
“Absolutely,” Mal said. “What time?”
“Let’s do it around ten. That should give us enough time to talk to him and still drive up to Waupun and get there around one.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mal said. “Can I come along for the Waupun trip, too?”
I looked at Tyrese and he shrugged his indifference. “Sure,” I said. Once again Nick frowned.
Cora reached over and set a hand on Tyrese’s arm. “Can you guys tell us anything about Lewis?”
Now it was Tyrese’s turn to frown. Nick shook his head and said, “It’s an ongoing investigation and we can’t tell you anything more than what you’ll hear on the news. Though many of you should expect to be questioned at some point since you knew him.” Tyrese got up from his chair and grabbed his coat. “It was a crappy thing that happened to him,” he said, looking around the room. “I know it’s going to be hard on all of you.”
“You don’t think his death had anything to do with the group, do you?” Sam asked.
“I highly doubt it. It looks to be an isolated thing as far as I know. I’m not directly involved with the case, but I can’t imagine anyone trying to pick off you guys simply because you spend time trying to solve crimes.” Tyrese chuffed a laugh at the apparent absurdity of the idea, but in the next second his expression turned grim. “Look, I know you guys are going to want to look into Lewis’s death to see if you can figure out what happened and who did it. But I’m going to urge you to stay out of it for now. If you start mucking around with the case by tipping off witnesses or messing with evidence, you might screw up the official investigation.” This was met with mixed emotions judging from the expressions in the room. There was some agreement, some consternation, and Dr. T looked downright rebellious.
Tyrese turned his attention to me. “I’m going to head home now, but I’ll give the prison a call and set things up for around one tomorrow. It’s a little over an hour drive, give it an hour and a half. Should I plan to pick you and Mal up here around eleven-thirty?”
I looked over at Mal, who nodded. “That will be great, Tyrese,” I said. “Thanks.”
As Tyrese was leaving, Carter and Holly came walking in. Carter was sporting a huge grin and carrying a large manila envelope.
“I got Anna’s diary,” he said, holding up the envelope.
“Fantastic!” I said. “Have you had a chance to read it yet?”
Carter shook his head. “We’ve been busy copying it and returning the original to her family.”
Cora asked, “Did you talk to Anna’s parents about the case?”
“Some,” Carter said. “We spent about an hour with them. They’re still pretty raw on the subject, which I guess is to be expected.”
“Ya,” Tiny said, “da pain never really goes away.”
“They did put one caveat on letting me have the diary to copy,” Carter said. “They made me promise I wouldn’t shed their son, Erik, in a bad light in the book.”
“Well, since you aren’t actually writing a book, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Sam said.
Carter flashed a guilty smile. “Except I’m thinking I might actually do it. I haven’t had much luck with my fiction, so maybe it’s not a bad idea to switch to true crime. It’s a hot selling genre, and with the help of all of you I should be able to investigate any number of cases, both current and cold.”
There was silence and another mix of expressions as the group contemplated this. I had mixed feelings myself. And I couldn’t help but wonder how Tiny would feel about having his sister’s brutal murder highlighted in a book that might sell on a national level. I looked over at him, expecting to see doubt or concern on his face, but instead he looked pleased with the news.
“What if Erik Hermann turns out to be the killer?” I asked Carter. “What are you going to do then?”
Carter shrugged. “I’ll cross that bridge if and when I get to it.” He focused on Nick. “Any news about Lewis’s case?”
The next few minutes were spent filling Carter and Holly in on the information and cautions Tyrese had delivered to the rest of us moments before. Carter looked disappointed but resigned, at least for now. Holly simply appeared sad.
Tiny seized the moment by gesturing toward a couple of empty chairs beside him. “Okay den,” he said. “Let’s have a look at dis diary.”
Carter and Holly settled into the empty seats and Carter opened the envelope he had and took out a thick sheaf of papers. He divvied them up amongst all of us, handing each person two or three sheets.
Over the next hour or so we read all of the private, intimate details of Anna Hermann’s life. Her writing was flowery and the early pages were a bit immature—understandable, given that she started the diary when she was just shy of twelve—but the words revealed a bright, optimistic personality, an above-average intelligence, and a good amount of social savviness. We skimmed through the first year and a half, where the entries were typical for a young girl. A few of the items were so personal and private they made us squirm: Anna’s detailing of her first menstruation, the delight and anguish she felt over wearing her first bra, the excitement of her first kiss. But the vast majority of the entries were Anna’s surprisingly astute and often humorous thoughts and analyses of the actions, behaviors, and motives she observed amongst her peers, all of whom other than Lori were referred to by initials rather than names. The girl had a wry and critical eye when it came to understanding how the various cliques, social mores, and peer pressures impacted her life and that of her friends. In general, her comments were merely observatory, though the girl definitely had a flair for the narrative. As I read through my portion of the diary entries, I became convinced that Anna had been a very old soul inside a young body.
Tiny’s sister, Lori, featured prominently in the diary, particularly in the last year of the writings. The two girls had obviously been close, tight friends who spent a lot of time together and shared many of their innermost secrets. Through Anna’s eyes and words we experienced Lori’s first crush and first kiss with a boy named Brandon Schumacher. There were a number of other crushes that followed for both girls, but no more kisses appeared in the diary. It was hard to know if that was because they didn’t happen, or because Anna didn’t want to commit them to the page.
In the last entries, written during the month or so before the girls were killed, Anna wrote about her brother’s interest in Lori. According to Anna, Erik spent six months wooing and flirting with Lori, determined to win her heart. But Lori kept insisting that the only feelings she had for him were brotherly in nature and not romantic.
At one point, Anna wrote that her brother’s interest in Lori borders on the obsessive, and described how he constantly questioned Anna about Lori’s activities—where she went, what she did, who she saw—and often spied on the two girls.
Anna mentioned how two girls with the initials D and B had harassed Lori, calling her names, spreading rumors about her, and leaving nasty notes on her locker, because D had a crush on Erik and was jealous of the attention he paid to Lori. It was classic, schoolgirl stuff, peppered with the high emotions and angst so common to teenaged girls.
In the very last entry in the diary, made the day before the girls disappeared, Anna made mention of the fight between Erik and Lori:
I think my brother finally got the message from Lori that their relationship is a friends-only kind of thing. Lori told me he tried to kiss her and stick his hand up her shirt! She rewarded his efforts with a slap to his face. I could still see the red outline from Lori’s hand on my brother’s cheek when he came home. He looked pretty po’d.
Based on what Anna wrote, it wasn’t hard to see how Erik had become a suspect, but while it was possible to imagine him killing Lori in some failed attempt to seduce her, it was much harder to imagine him killing his little sister. Still, he seemed like a good place to start in the morning, if for no other reason than to get some insight into Anna’s life in the days before the murders.
We chatted on for another hour or so about Anna’s diary, offering up theories about what might have happened to the two girls. We quizzed Tiny on what he knew about Lori’s activities during the days before and the day of the disappearance, but he didn’t have much to offer. He knew the girls were supposed to meet up midday to go for a bike ride on the day they disappeared, but other than that, he didn’t know much because he was already out on his own at that point, living in an apartment and working during the day. He apologized for not knowing more, stating that because of a ten-year spread in their ages he wasn’t always up on his sister’s day-to-day life at that point in time.
“All I know is what my parents were told,” he explained. “Da cops said dat da girls must have met up in dere secret spot in the park near the Little Menomonee River.” Everyone nodded. Anna had mentioned this secret spot in her diary, describing it in vague terms that mentioned a tree and a place where they would sit and talk about school, life, boys, and such. It was where the girls’ bodies had been found and if anyone had known where it was, they might have been found sooner.
Throughout our discussion, the letter in my apartment kept intruding into my thoughts, making it hard for me to stay focused. I kept trying to shake it off, hoping I’d be able to put it aside long enough to give Tiny and his sister the attention they deserved. But it wasn’t easy. And with every minute that ticked by, I found myself wondering who would be the next person to die.