Mr. Perfect (Page 61)

She tried another tactic. "If Sam thinks we should be extra careful, that’s good enough for me. He knows a lot more about these things than we do."

"That’s true," T.J. said. "If he’s worried, we should do what he said."

Jaine mentally rolled her eyes. After their first exposure to Sam, T.J. Luna, and even Shelley had all begun acting as if he were the Grand Pooh-Bah. Well, whatever worked; what mattered was that they were cautious.

They walked together into the building, then parted to go to their different departments. Mindful of Sam’s instructions, she called the phone company to arrange for Caller ID and all the other bells and whistles, including call forwarding. It occurred to her that it might come in handy to be able to transfer her incoming calls to, say, Sam’s house.

Sam called Detective Bernsen. "Roger, my gut tells me we have a bigger problem than we thought."

"How’s that?"

"You know that Ms. Dean was one of the List Ladies, right?"

"Yeah, what about it, other than giving the reporters something to howl about?"

"Turns out all four of the ladies have been getting crank calls from the same guy. He asks them which one they are."

"Which one?"

"Yeah. Have you read the List?"

"I haven’t had the pleasure. My wife has quoted parts of it to me, unfortunately."

"The four women are identified only as A, B, C, and D. So this guy asks them which one they are, like it’s important to him. Today while they were at lunch, he called on T.J.’s cell phone and asked the usual question, then said Ms. Dean’s name. No threats or anything like that, just her name."

"Huh," said Roger, which meant he was thinking. "T.J.’s cell phone is in her husband’s name, so most people would think he’s the one who carries it. This guy not only knew the number, he knew T.J. is the one with the phone."

"So he’s either familiar with the ladies or he knows the husband."

"Why would a husband give his wife’s cell phone number to another man?"

"Good point. Okay, the caller knows the ladies. Huh."

"The odds are Marci Dean knew the killer. She opened her door and let him in, right?"

"Right. She had a peephole in the door. She could see whoever came knocking."

"The crank caller disguises his voice, speaks only in a whisper."

"Meaning they might recognize his voice if he spoke normally. You think the killer and the crank caller are the same guy?"

"Either that or it’s a big coincidence."

"Son of a bitch." Like most cops, Roger wasn’t big on coincidence. "Where does this guy know all of them from? They work together or something?"

"Yeah, at Hammerstead Technology, just off I-696 at South-field. He probably works there, too."

"He’s someone with access to their personal information. That should narrow it down."

"Hammerstead develops computer technology. A lot of people there would know how to access the personnel files."

"It couldn’t be easy, could it?" Roger asked wearily. "My gut tells me something about the List set him off, and he’s going to be coming after the other three."

"Jesus. You may be right. You got their names and addresses?"

"T.J. Yother, Mount Clemens, husband’s name is Galan. Luna Scissum, Royal Oak, unmarried and lives alone." He gave Roger the street addresses. "Jaine Bright, the third one, is my next-door neighbor. She’s single, too."

"Huh. Is she your lady friend?"

"Yeah."

"So you’re dating one of the List Ladies? Man, that takes balls." Roger caught his own joke and laughed. "You have no idea." Sam grinned, thinking of Jaine and her stubborn chin with that cute little dent in it, and her almost-dimples and sparkling blue eyes. She attacked life, rather than simply letting it happen; he’d never before met anyone so annoying and funny and sharp. He had major plans for her, the most immediate of which was getting her under him. No way would he let anything happen to her, even if he had to quit his job and become her twenty-four- hour-a-day bodyguard.

"Okay, if you’re right, at least we have a place to start," Roger said, briskly returning to the subject. "Hammerstead Technology. I’ll get the ball rolling on getting access to their personnel files, see what shakes out of the tree, but if you’re right about the computer geeks, this could take a while. Officially, I don’t know what we can do to keep the ladies safe. You’re talking four different towns – "

"And two counties. I know." The administrative hassle would be a bitch. Sam got a headache just thinking about it.

"Unofficially, we’ll work out something. We’ll call in favors, maybe get some guys to volunteer for watchdog duty. The ladies do know to be cautious, right?"

"They’re all supposed to get Caller ID and cell phones today. We might get lucky if he calls one of them again. I also told them not to let anyone in except family, not to accept rides from anyone. I don’t want this son of a bitch to be able to get anywhere near them."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Jaine found herself studying every man she saw at work that day, wondering if he was the one. That one of them could be a killer was almost beyond belief. They all seemed so normal, or at least as normal as any other large group of men who worked in the computer industry. Some of them she knew and liked, some of them she knew and didn’t like, but she couldn’t see any of them as killers. A lot of guys, particularly the ones on the first two floors, she knew by sight but not by name. Had Marci known one of them well enough that she had let him into her house?