The Night Stalker_ A Novel Of Suspense Part 16

"I think it's a woman."

"What is she saying?"

"I'm not sure. We need more volume."

Crippen cranked up the phone's volume and replayed the message. We both leaned in to listen. The voice was a woman's, and she sounded as if she was at the bottom of a deep hole.

"Somebody help me!"

"Is that her?" I asked.

Crippen opened his mouth, but no words came out. It was all the answer I needed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

"Call the police," I said.

Crippen was visibly shaken. He picked up the phone on Stone's desk, and mechanically dialed 911. Taking the transcript and police reports, I went into the hall and copied the pages that Stone had highlighted, then returned the originals to the office. I clicked my fingers, and Buster rose from the floor.

"Where are you going?" Crippen asked.

I stopped in the doorway. I was going to Memorial Hospital to visit Ron Cheeks, and talk to him before the police did. I wanted to know why Cheeks hadn't leveled with me about his involvement with Abb Grimes's case. Only Crippen didn't need to hear that.

"I'm going to look for Stone," I said.

"Please call me immediately if you learn anything."

"I will. I'd appreciate it if you did the same."

Crippen nodded absently and I left.

The hospital lot was full. I parked on a residential side street and rolled down the windows. Buster got the hint, and curled up on the pa.s.senger seat. I went inside.

The lobby was filled with pregnant women and half-dead retirees. I got Cheeks's room number from the receptionist, and took a stairwell to the fourth floor. Cheeks was in a single at the end of the hall. I peeked into his room to make sure he had no visitors. Cheeks sat upright in bed watching Divorce Court Divorce Court with the volume jacked up and a big smile on his face. The room was devoid of flowers or balloons or even a single Get Well card. As I entered, he jumped. with the volume jacked up and a big smile on his face. The room was devoid of flowers or balloons or even a single Get Well card. As I entered, he jumped.

"What the h.e.l.l are you you doing here?" Cheeks asked. doing here?" Cheeks asked.

"Bedpan check," I said.

"I'm recuperating. Get out."

"Not before we have a little chat."

"I don't have anything to say to you."

I tossed the copied pages onto his lap and pulled up a chair, the metal legs sc.r.a.ping harshly across the floor. Cheeks grabbed the phone from the nightstand.

"I'm calling security," he said.

"I'm working with the police," I said. "Call Chief Moody if you don't believe me."

"I don't care who you're working for. I'm having you tossed."

"Do that, and I'll tell Moody about you and Piper Stone."

Cheeks's face twisted in a frown. "The b.i.t.c.hy little lawyer? What about her?"

"She disappeared this morning. Left her office and came over here to talk to you about Abb Grimes's trial. That was the last anyone saw of her. She left a message on the voice mail at her office. You can hear her screaming. Where did you put her, Ron?"

Cheeks dropped the phone into the receiver with a horrified expression on his face. "Are you accusing me of abducting her? You're flipping nuts. I'm sick."

A clipboard hung on the edge of his bed. I picked it up, and read through Cheeks's medical condition as recorded by his doctor at nine o'clock this morning.

"According to this, you're perfectly normal," I said, dropping the clipboard. "My guess is, you faked that heart attack, giving you a convenient way to get taken off the case. But Stone figured out you've been hiding something, and she confronted you."

"Crazy talk," Cheeks said.

"Did you speak with Stone this morning?"

His face reddened. "What if I did?"

"What time?"

"You don't have any right to grill me."

"I'm on the case, d.i.c.khead. What time did she come in?"

"Around eight. It was cordial. I got the orderly to get her coffee. We talked for about twenty minutes, then she split."

Cheeks was softening up, trying to placate me. I pointed at the copied pages lying in his lap. "You were actively involved in Abb Grimes's murder investigation. Is that what you and Stone talked about?"

Cheeks hesitated. He blinked several times.

"She wanted to go over some things," he muttered.

"What things?"

"I don't remember."

"She was only here a few hours ago."

"I took a nap after she left."

I picked up the pages and found the evidence log. I showed Cheeks the word slippers slippers and saw him squint to read what Stone had written beside it. His face got even redder and I pounced. "There were a pair of slippers in the evidence log that somehow disappeared. Were they Abb's slippers?" and saw him squint to read what Stone had written beside it. His face got even redder and I pounced. "There were a pair of slippers in the evidence log that somehow disappeared. Were they Abb's slippers?"

"I guess so."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

Cheeks pulled himself up and killed the TV with the remote at the same time. I could feel him retrenching, readying for a fight. He cleared his throat. "We took over a hundred pieces of evidence out of Abb's house, cataloged them, and stored them in the police warehouse. We separated the clothes and took them to a forensics lab, where they were checked for DNA, hairs, and fibers. We were hoping to use the evidence to identify the victims we found at the landfill."

"Find anything?"

"No. The clothes were clean, and we didn't turn up anything. During the transfer from the lab back to the warehouse, the box containing the slippers got misplaced. I don't know what happened to them, and I'm never going to know. If you tell me that never happened to you during an investigation, you're a f.u.c.king liar."

"It never happened to me," I said.

Cheeks shook his fist a few inches beneath my chin. The strange look in his eyes that I'd seen in the orange grove returned. I touched the automatic control on the side of his bed, and sent him backwards.

"Cut it out," he said angrily.

"I don't like being threatened."

"I'm not threatening you, for Christ's sake."

I decided to take him at his word, and returned the bed to its original position.

"Why did Stone think the slippers were significant?" I asked.

"She didn't say."

"Then what did she want?"

"She wanted to know what had happened to them. I told her exactly what I just told you. The slippers got lost."

"Did she buy it?"

Cheeks shot me a hard look. "There was nothing to buy. buy. The slippers never came up during the trial. They were meaningless. End of story." The slippers never came up during the trial. They were meaningless. End of story."

I took the pages from him, stuck them beneath my arm, and got to my feet. Cheeks was lying through his teeth. He hadn't taken a nap earlier; he'd rehea.r.s.ed this little speech, knowing that his encounter with Stone was going to come back to haunt him. I needed to hunt Stone down, and get to the truth.

"Did Stone say where she was going?" I asked.

Cheeks rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then folded his hands on his chest, and shook his head. I was getting nothing more out of him. He had won this round, but he hadn't won the fight.

"When are they letting you out?" I asked.

"Soon," he replied.

"I may have a few more questions. Where's the best place to reach you?"

"I'll be at home getting my strength back."

"You still live in Plantation?"

"Yeah. I got the house in the divorce."

"How did you pull that off?"

"My wife decided to leave the state."

"Where did she go? Antarctica?"

Cheeks smiled at my joke, then realized it was aimed at him. He looked for something to throw at me, but by then I was out the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

Tucked beneath the windshield wiper of my car was a parking ticket. I had parked in a fifteen-minute zone, and owed the county a hundred and eighty bucks. I'd pay it after I won the lottery. Buster feigned sleep as I started the ignition.

"Some watchdog you are," I said.

My cell phone chimed. I pulled it off the dash and retrieved a voice message that had come in. It was Charles Crippen, and he had a lead on Piper Stone. I called his number and he picked up.

"Have you talked with the police?" I asked.

"They just left my office," Crippen replied. "They're driving to Memorial to interview Cheeks. I wanted to warn you."

I didn't like lawyers, just the way they thought. "I just left Cheeks. Stone visited him this morning, and they discussed the missing slippers."

"Is Cheeks hiding something?"

That was a good question. I'd fallen pretty low since losing my job, but I wasn't going to rag on another cop unless I could prove that he'd broken the law.

"I don't know," I answered.

"I've been doing some digging of my own," Crippen said. "I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I carry some weight in this town. Piper's credit cards and cell phone are both paid for by the firm. I called the credit card companies and the cell phone company, and put them to work."

"Any luck?"

"Piper made two cell phone calls this morning. The first was to a cell phone owned by Jed Grimes. The second was the message you and I heard. The cell company tracked her phone's location using tower pings. Piper's somewhere in Davie."

"You mean her cell phone's in Davie," I said.

"Trust me. Piper and her phone rarely part."