Fear Nothing (Detective D.D. Warren #7) - Lisa Gardner Page 0,69
asked.
“Fuck you!”
“You invited us in,” D.D. said mildly. “Said we could talk crime.”
“I’m a reporter! I look for the truth. Something you might want to give a try. I mean, unless you don’t really mind women being murdered in their own beds.”
“How do you know that?”
“Please, that detail is common knowledge. What you should know, without me having to tell you, is that Shana Day is just as crazily clever now as thirty years ago.”
“How would you know? She never wrote you back.”
“She didn’t. But again, trick to this trade is to keep on digging. I tracked down some of her fellow inmates—”
“She’s in solitary.”
“They all share a corridor. Think they don’t talk across the hall? Let alone cross paths in medical, or on their way to visiting hours. There are opportunities enough to socialize, even in solitary. It’s not like they have anything else to do.”
“Who did you talk to?” D.D. asked, eyes narrowing.
“Please, like they’d even be willing to talk to you. As you can imagine, they’re not so partial to law enforcement. Whereas, a good-looking guy like me . . .”
“Just tell us what they said,” Phil spoke up.
“Shana has a friend.”
“Who?”
“A fan. From way back. Maybe even someone she knew in the neighborhood, or foster care. No one really knows, but a supporter from all those years ago, who keeps in touch, even performs small favors for her.”
“Such as?”
“For starters, spies on her sister.”
“Dr. Adeline Glen?”
“Yep. Shana’s obsessed with Adeline. Her sister’s job, apartment, car. Adeline has everything Shana’s ever wanted. Course she can’t let it go.”
“And how do Shana’s former fellow inmates know all this?”
Sgarzi shrugged. “Things Shana said, alluded to. But also . . . Things Shana would know. Including about her fellow prisoners. Apparently, her little friend would research for her, because if anyone got in an argument with Shana, suddenly she would start making very specific threats. You know, stop humming that same goddamn song, or the next time your drunken whore of a mother takes your six-year-old son to Billy Bear’s day care, they’ll both be sorry. Crap like that. But very detailed crap. Enough so, the other girls did what Shana said. She spooked them then, she scares them now. I’m not kidding. Research among yourselves. Shana’s rep reaches far beyond prison walls. She may have her sister and all the prison officials thinking she’s some depressed lonely soul, but take it from me, it’s all an act. She’s running the biggest con in MCI history. Pathetic prisoner by day. Homicidal genius by night.”
D.D. stared at Sgarzi. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to think.
“One hundred and fifty-three,” Phil said.
“What?”
“One hundred and fifty-three. You’re the supposed expert on Shana Day. Tell us what that number means.”
Sgarzi frowned at them. “Hell if I know.”
“You research Harry Day, Shana’s father?”
“Course.”
“Then, what did it mean to him?”
“You mean, like a lucky number?”
“Was it?”
“Beats me. I’ve never run across mention of a lucky number before.”
“Address?” D.D. asked. “Significant to him or his victims?”
Sgarzi shook his head, looking as confused as they felt.
“What about for Shana?” D.D. pressed. “Your cousin, her foster family, where did they live?”
“Not at one hundred and fifty-three anything.” Sgarzi’s gaze suddenly sharpened. “So what’s the significance? Is it a clue from the Rose Killer? A code you have to crack? I can work on it. First dibs on the story, though. Full quid pro quo.”
“Please,” D.D. informed him. “You gotta pay to play, and so far, you haven’t told us anything we didn’t already know.”
“I gave you Shana’s friend.”
“What friend? You mean her imaginary friend? The one she talks to but no one has ever seen? You might as well have told us to track down Casper the Friendly Ghost.”
“She’s got eyes and ears beyond prison walls.”
“Already knew that.”
“She spies on her sister.”
“Knew that, too.”
“Really?”
“Dr. Glen isn’t as dumb as she looks. Wait, she looks plenty smart. And she is a professional psychiatrist with few illusions about her own gene pool. Come on. We want something good. Why do you think Shana is connected to the Rose Killer?”
“For starters, the whole removal of skin. And not just because Harry Day was known for keeping such things as trophies, but because I know what Shana did to my cousin. Come on, fourteen-year-old boy. Of course I had to sneak in my uncle’s study and look at the photos. I mean . . .” Sgarzi’s voice broke off. For all his bravado, thirty years later, his composure grew