Mr. Perfect (Page 52)

"Appreciate the help. Your lady friend – is she who you intend to ask about the boyfriend?"

"Yeah. She called me because she was worried when Ms. Dean didn’t show up for work this morning."

"Can you just ask her about the boyfriend, and stall her on the rest?"

Sam snorted. "I’d have a better chance of stalling sundown."

"One of those, huh? Can she keep it quiet? We’re pretty sure this is Ms. Dean, but we haven’t made a positive I.D. yet, and the family hasn’t been contacted."

"I’ll get her to leave work. She’s going to be pretty upset." He wanted to be with her when he told her, anyway. "Okay. And, Detective – if we can’t locate any family locally, we may need your friend to identify the body."

"You have my number," Sam said quietly. He sat for a minute after they hung up. He didn’t have to imagine the gory details; he had seen too many murder scenes in all their bloody reality. He knew what a hammer or a baseball bat could do to the human head. He knew what multiple stab wounds looked like. And, like the sergeant, he knew that this murder had been perpetrated by someone who knew the victim because the attack had been personal; the face had been attacked. The multiple stab wounds were indicative of rage. And since most female murder victims were killed by someone they knew, usually the husband or boyfriend, or the ex-whatever, the odds were overwhelming that Ms. Dean’s boyfriend was the killer. He took a deep breath and dialed Jaine’s number again. When she answered, he said, "Do you know Marci’s boyfriend’s name?"

She audibly inhaled. "Is she all right?"

"I don’t know anything yet," he lied. "Her boyfriend –?"

"Oh. His name is Brick Geurin." She spelled the last name for him.

"Is ‘Brick’ his real name or a nickname?"

"I don’t know. ‘Brick’ is all I ever heard her call him."

"Okay, that’s enough. I’ll get back with you when I hear something. Oh – want to meet me for lunch?"

"Sure. Where?"

She still sounded scared, but she was holding together the way he had known she would. "I’ll pick you up, if you can get me through the gate."

"No problem. Twelve?"

He checked his watch. Ten-thirty-five. "Can you make it earlier, say eleven-fifteen or so?" That would just give him time to get to Hammerstead.

Maybe she knew, maybe she caught on then. "I’ll meet you downstairs."

She was waiting for him at the front of the building when the guard let him through the gate. She was wearing another of those long, lean skirts that looked like a million bucks on her, which meant there was no way she could climb into his truck without help. He got out and walked around to open the door for her. Her eyes were anxious as she studied his expression. He knew he was wearing his cop face, as emotionless as a mask, but she went white. He put his hands around her slender waist and lifted her into the truck, then walked back around to get behind the wheel.

A tear slid down Jaine’s cheek. "Tell me," she said, her voice choked.

He sighed, then reached out and drew her into his arms. "I’m so sorry," he said against her hair.

She clutched his shirt. He could feel her shaking, and held her even tighter. "She’s dead, isn’t she," she said in a trembling whisper, and it wasn’t a question. She knew.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jaine had cried so much her eyes were swollen almost shut. Sam had simply held her through the initial storm of weeping, parked in front of Hammerstead; then when she regained a bit of control, he asked, "Can you eat anything?"

She shook her head. "No." Her voice was thick. "I need to tell Luna… and T.J. – "

"Not yet, honey. Once you tell them, it’ll be all over the building; then someone will call the newspaper or a radio or television station, and it’ll be all over the news. Her family hasn’t been notified yet, and they don’t need to hear it that way."

"She doesn’t have much family." Jaine fished a tissue out of her purse, then wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "She has a sister in Saginaw, and I think an elderly aunt and uncle in Florida. That’s all I ever heard her mention."

"Do you know her sister’s name?"

"Cheryl. I don’t know her last name."

"It’s probably in an address book at her house. I’ll tell them to look for a Cheryl in Saginaw." He dialed a number on his cell phone, and spoke quietly to whoever answered on the other end, imparting the information about Marci’s sister.

"I need to go home," Jaine said, staring through the windshield. She reached for the door handle, but Sam stopped her, holding her in place with a firm hand on her arm.

"No way are you driving right now," he said. "If you want to go home, I’ll take you."

"But my car – "

"Isn’t going anywhere. It’s in a secure place. If you need to go anywhere, I’ll drive you."

"But you might have to leave."

"I’ll handle it," he said. "You aren’t driving." If she hadn’t been so shattered, she would have argued with him, but tears welled again and she knew she couldn’t see to drive. Neither could she could go back inside; she couldn’t handle facing anyone right now, couldn’t handle the inevitable questions without breaking down. "I have to let the office know I’m going home," she said.

"Can you handle it, or do you want me to do it?"

"I can," she said, her voice trembling. "Just… not right now."

"Okay. Fasten your seat belt."

Obediently she buckled the belt around her and sat deathly still as Sam put the truck in gear and negotiated the freeway traffic. He drove silently, not intruding on her grief while she tried to accept that Marci was gone. "You – you think Brick did it, don’t you?"