Pop Goes the Weasel

Graham, no one saw the man with the van. No one seems to have seen Christine Johnson in Hamilton or St. George, either. It’s truly a baffling mystery. I don’t believe that she ever got to Hamilton. It’s frustrating for us, too. My prayers are with you and your wonderful family and, of course, John Sampson.”
    I thanked Patrick Busby and hung up the phone. I went upstairs and dressed for work.
    I still had nothing really substantial on the murder of Frank Odenkirk, and The Jefe was contacting me daily on e-mail. I certainly knew how the Odenkirk family felt. The media heat about the homicide had died down, though, as it often does. Unfortunately, so had the Post stories about the unsolved murders in Southeast.
    While I was taking a hot shower, I thought about DeWitt Luke and the mysterious “watcher” on S Street. What was the man in the Mercedes doing out there for so long? Did he have some connection with the murders of Tori Glover and Marion Cardinal? None of this was making complete sense to me. That was the truly maddening thing about the Jane Doe murders and the Weasel. He wasn’t like other repeat killers. He wasn’t a criminal genius like Gary Soneji, but he was effective. He gets the job done, doesn’t he?
    I needed to think more about why someone had been lurking outside Tori Glover’s apartment. Was he a private detective? A stalker? Or was he actually the murderer? One possibility hit me. Maybe the man in the car was an accomplice of the killer. Two of them, working together? I’d seen that before in North Carolina.
    I turned up the water, made it hotter. I thought it would help me to concentrate better. Steam out the cobwebs in my brain. Bring me back from the dead.
    Nana began banging on the pipes from downstairs in the kitchen. “Get down here and go to work, Alex. You’re using up all my hot water,” she yelled above the noise of the shower.
    “Last time I looked, my name was on the water and gas bills,” I shouted back.
    “It’s still my hot water. Always was, always will be,” Nana replied.

Chapter 61
    EVERY DAY, EVERY NIGHT, I was out on the streets of Southeast, working harder than ever, but with nothing much to show for it. I continued to search for the mysterious purple and blue cab, and for the late-model black Mercedes that DeWitt Luke had seen on S Street.
    Sometimes I felt as if I were sleepwalking, but I kept at it, sleepwalking as fast as I could. Everything about the investigation seemed a long shot at best. I received tips and leads every day that had to be followed up; none of them went anywhere, though.
    I got home at a little past seven that night, and tired as I was, I still let the kids drag me downstairs for their boxing lesson. Damon was showing me a lot of hand speed, and also some pretty good footwork and power for his age. He’s always had good spirit, and I was confident that he wouldn’t abuse his burgeoning boxing skills at school.
    Jannie was more a student of boxing, though she seemed to recognize the value of being able to defend herself. She was quick at mastering techniques, seeing connections, even if her heart wasn’t completely in the sport. She preferred to torture her brother and me with her taunts and wit.
    “Alex, telephone,” Nana called down from the top of the cellar stairs. I looked at my watch, saw it was twenty to eight.
    “Practice your footwork,” I told the kids. Then I trudged up the steep stone stairs. “Who is it?”
    “Wouldn’t say who it was,” Nana said as I got up to the kitchen. She was making shrimp and corn fritters, and the room was also filled with the glorious smells of honey-baked apples and gingerbread. It was a late dinner for us — Nana had waited until I got home.
    I picked up the phone on the kitchen counter. “Alex Cross.”
    “I know who you are, Detective Cross.” I recognized the voice immediately, though I’d heard it only once before — in the Belmont Hotel, in Bermuda. A chill went right through me, and my hands shook.
    “There’s a pay phone outside the Budget Drugs on Fourth Street. She’s safe for now. We have her . But hurry. Hurry! Maybe she’s on the pay phone right now! I’m serious. Hurry! ”

Chapter 62
    I EXPLODED out the back kitchen door without saying a word to Nana or the kids. I didn’t have time to explain where I was going, or why. Besides, I didn’t really know exactly what was happening. Had I just spoken to the Weasel?
    Hurry! Maybe she’s on the pay phone