Guilt

CHAPTER 27

Milo gave his card to Sommers, asked him to call if Wedd showed up.

Sommer said, “Sure, but like I said, he’s not here too much.”

We tried the remaining four apartments in Wedd’s building. No answers at the first three units. A woman came to the fourth door towing an I.V. line on wheels. Something clear and viscous dripped into her veins. Her hair was a gray tangle, one shade darker than her face.

“Sorry …” She paused for breath. “I never leave … don’t know anyone.”

“He lives downstairs in Three,” said Milo. “Had his car stolen a while back.”

“Oh … that.” Her jaws worked. She could’ve been any age from fifty to eighty. “People were … surprised.”

“Why’s that, ma’am?”

She inhaled twice, braced herself in the doorway. “At nights … the lights are … super-bright.”

“Anyone trying to break into a car would be conspicuous.”

“Yes … funny.”

She labored to smile. Succeeded and hinted at the beautiful woman she’d once been. “It … happens.”

We returned to the unmarked. Milo put the key in the ignition but didn’t start up.

“Groot’s instincts were good, the Bimmer’s a likely scam and Clark Kent’s shaping up like a bad boy with a second pad. Think he’s the daddy?”

I said, “He’s got women coming in and out constantly, but Qeesha’s the only one seen more than once or twice. That says beyond casual and the last time Sommers saw her, she was conspicuously pregnant and looked angry. Maybe because Wedd wanted her to terminate? If she was pressing Wedd for money, it could’ve motivated the car scam: He finds her wheels, gets her temporarily out of his hair, uses the insurance money for his own new drive. A pimped-up SUV just like Heather saw at the park that night.”

“At the park ’cause he’s doing advance work, taking care of business. Qeesha hassled him, he killed her and the baby. Ditto Adriana, because she knew too much. Clark’s sounding like a real bad boy.” He frowned. “With no criminal record.”

“The timing works,” I said. “Qeesha left Idaho a couple of years ago, plenty of time to hook up with Wedd, get pregnant. What I find interesting is Adriana didn’t follow her to L.A. but she did leave home, right around the same time. Reverend Goleman suggested she needed a life change. Meeting Qeesha, seeing her independence, might’ve inspired Adriana. She’d run the day care at the church. She found child-care work with the Van Dynes, then the Changs. San Diego’s close to L.A. so it’s not illogical she and Qeesha would reconnect. Maybe that post office box of hers was her own bit of naughty intrigue, allowing the two of them to correspond in secrecy. Allowing her vicarious entry to Qeesha’s world without actually participating. But four, five months ago that changed when Qeesha called for help and Adriana went down to L.A. with the Changs-a break of her usual routine. That’s the same time Sommers saw Qeesha pregnant and unhappy. What if Qeesha sensed she was in danger-she’d seen something frightening in Wedd’s attitude-and wanted support? Or a witness?”

He looked over at the building. The painters had paused, were sitting at the curb eating burritos. “… Those bugs. Wax. If Wedd’s our guy, he’s something other than human.” Head shake. “All those women, he’s got some kind of charisma going.”

“Women who aren’t seen more than once or twice.”

He stared at me. “Oh, no, don’t get imaginative. Too early in the day.”

He started the car but kept it in Park. His left hand gripped the steering wheel. The fingers of his right hand clawed his knee. He rubbed his face.

I said, “Sorry.”

“No, no, now it’s my head’s going in bad directions. What if the baby wasn’t unwanted, Alex? What if it was wanted in a bad way? Literally. For some kind of nut-cult ritual.”

His normal pallor had leached to an unhealthy off-white. I felt my own skin go cold.

He said, “Dear God in Heaven, what if that poor little thing was farmed.”