Running of the bulls

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

6:49 p.m.

Maggie Cain.

She had lied about her relationship with Wolfhagen. She was under investigation by the FBI. She must have known that Boob Manly had pleaded guilty to the Coles’ deaths, and yet she had overlooked him for Wolfhagen, Lasker, Schwartz. And now this. Now Marty had an eyewitness who could place her at Wood’s home on the day of her death. An eyewitness who had seen her leaving with a box big enough to house a head. An eye witness who had seen fear on her face. Rage.

Maggie Cain was the biggest mystery in this investigation.

As many questions as he had about Wood and Gerald Hayes, the Martinezes, the Coles and Mark Andrews, his thoughts always returned to Maggie and to everything she wasn’t telling him. Had she hired him to research a book on Wolfhagen? Or did she have other motives?

He thought of Roberta and her warning about the three women. Was Maggie Cain the woman with murder in her heart? Or was that Linda Patterson?

He looked across the street to Wood’s home.

The crush of reporters was gone and now only the birds remained, dozens of them, roosting in the pale white eaves, swooping down in twos and threes to pluck insects from the umbrella of trees that canopied the shady street.

Despite all the streetlamps and all her neighbors-and knowing she might be seen-Kendra Wood had left her house naked, joined her naked friends in their dark car and was driven off into the night. But where did they go? To which club?

Did they all have the same tattoo?

Marty pulled out his cell and called Skeen’s private number at the M.E.’s office. It was late. Chances are he wouldn’t be in.

But Carlo answered. “Skeen.”

“It’s Marty. Got a minute?”

“For you, I’ve got three. What do you need?”

“Gerald Hayes. Have you done him yet?”

“Finished him two hours ago.”

“Tell me he had a tattoo. Tell me it was like Wood’s.”

“He had a tattoo. It was like Wood’s.”

Marty closed his eyes. “Where was it located?”

“On the head of his penis.”

The deaths were connected. Things were moving. Patterson and Hines would be comparing notes, consulting Vice for a list of possible clubs. “What was the tattoo a picture of, Carlo?”

“My best guess?”

“Your best guess.”

“I think it was a bull. There was a tiny gold hoop going right through the center of it, just like Wood’s.”

Marty lowered the phone from his ear. Cars shot by on the street. He looked behind him and saw, at the street corner, a man in a wheelchair blowing kisses at the sky. “I need you to do me another favor.”

“Shoot.”

“Edward and Bebe Cole. Did you do their posts?”

Skeen was silent for a moment. “That was what? Eight, nine months ago?”

“Seven.”

“I don’t think so,” Carlo said. And then, remembering: “No, I know I didn’t. I was at a conference when they were murdered. Hatlen did them.”

“All right,” Marty said. “Would you mind pulling their files? See if they had the same tattoo?”

“Will do.”

“And thanks, Carlo.”

“Don’t mention it.”

He clicked the phone shut, stepped to the curb and flagged a cab. The driver was straight out of the Third World, with a bright red turban wrapped around his head and a grisly black beard that hugged his pock-marked face in thick dark coils. Marty gave the man his address, repeated it, and hoped he’d get there before nightfall.

He looked out the side window and watched the city skate by. Skeen was right. Though crudely rendered, Wood’s tattoo had been a picture of a bull. What looked like a smudge with points on the top, actually was a bull with horns. The tiny hole had gone clean through its snout.

A Wall Street bull.

Marty leaned back against the seat and thought of Gerald Hayes. There was a time when he had been one of the most prominent men on Wall Street. A time when hedonism and greed had marked an era. Then, the bulls on Wall Street had known no limits. They had stolen and cheated and deceived a nation. So why not push things beyond the boardroom and the DOW and prove themselves elsewhere? Screw hedge funds. Why not hedge your life, take things farther and create the ultimate club, where the price of initiation was a tattoo, a tiny gold hoop and God knows what else?

But the membership wasn’t exclusive to only those who controlled the money on Wall Street-Wood’s involvement proved that-which led Marty to believe that this club was more about power than anything else. And what better symbol of power than a bull?

So, who else was involved? Wolfhagen, Lasker and Schwartz? How many people in how many different positions of power?

The cab stopped for a red light and Marty looked out the front window. The crowds at the street corners were beginning to cross. His gaze lingered on the profiles of people he didn’t know while his stomach tightened.

This case was bigger than him. The people involved in this club obviously were aware of the murders and the police involvement. They knew their cover was threatened and Marty knew they’d go to any length to protect that cover. This was the kind of case that destroyed careers.

This was the kind of case where people murdered to keep others quiet.

At home, he dropped the mail and Maggie’s novel onto the kitchen table, checked his answering machine and found no messages. He went to the refrigerator, grabbed an apple from the top shelf and wondered about Maggie. With Wood’s security system disabled, she’d been able to walk straight into the woman’s house.

He went to his office, sat at his desk, reached for a pen and a pad of paper, and started to outline the facts as he knew them.

Wood came home yesterday at 5:00 a.m. Hines said she’d been a mess and forgot to reset the alarm. Then, at some point, she went upstairs to her bedroom, overdosed on meth and died in bed between three and four o’clock that afternoon. Theresa Wu had seen Maggie leaving Wood’s home that morning, though she hadn’t given Marty a specific time.

Marty took a bite of the apple and chewed. He opened his address book, looked up Helena Adams’ telephone number and called her. It was Theresa Wu who answered. “Theresa, it’s Marty Spellman. Can I ask you a question?”

“If you’re quick.”

“What time did you see Maggie Cain leaving Wood’s home?”

“6:30.”

“You sound pretty sure about that.”

“That’s because, I am. I take my run at that time each morning. If I miss it, like I did today, I run at night. I was leaving when I saw her.”

“Did she have a car?”

“She did. She put the box in the trunk and took off.” Wu paused and dropped her voice to a whisper. “What do you suppose was inside that box?”

“I’m trying to figure that out,” Marty said. He thanked her and hung up the phone.

All right. Wood was alive when Maggie made her visit. But why the visit? Was it an interview for the book? Marty dismissed the idea. Wood never would have scheduled one that early. She’d know she’d be coming home high. So Maggie must have come unannounced. But why so early? What was she seeking? Wood with her guard down?

Marty finished the apple, went back to the kitchen, tossed the core into the trash, grabbed a can of Diet Coke from the fridge.

Maggie knew about that club. He could feel it. She knew about Wood’s involvement and had gone to her home on that specific day and at that specific time so she could catch her at her worst. She wanted the upper hand. She needed something from Wood and she left with it in that box.

Marty was wondering what it could be when the telephone rang.

He picked it up, expecting Jennifer, but it was Maggie Cain. “I’m being followed,” were her first words to him.

There was fear in her voice, an edge of panic.

“Where are you?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. “This was all a mistake,” she said. “I never should have involved you. I had no idea so many people would be involved.” Her voice was unsteady. Marty could sense that she was shaking. “Kendra Wood committed suicide because of me, Marty. She did it because of me.”

Marty felt a river of questions rise up within him but he stamped them down. Now wasn’t the time to ask questions. First, he had to get her to a safe place and then talk.

He listened to the silence for clues. She wasn’t outside-no sounds of traffic. Wherever she was, it was quiet. Good, he thought. She isn’t on the street. “I can help you,” he said calmly. “But you’ll have to trust me. Can you do that?”

Silence.

“Maggie?”

“I don’t know.”

“Will you try?”

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“It won’t work any other way. You’re going to have to trust someone. I’m a third party. I’m impartial to all of this. I think you hired me for that reason.”

It was a moment before she spoke. “All right,” she said. “I’ll trust you.”

“Who is following you?”

“A man.”

“Have you lost him?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think so. I’m not sure.”

“Tell me where you are. I’ll come for you.”

Silence.

“Tell me where you are, Maggie.”

“They’ve murdered someone else,” she said.

Marty felt a needle of ice dart up his back.

“I’m standing over his body.”