Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [643]
“Hold on a minute. Let me find the hotel’s fax number.” She crawled out of bed, careful not to spill her loaded tray. She had gone a bit overboard and ordered too much.
“So you’re not in bed yet?” He sounded disappointed. “I was hoping I’d catch you in your skivvies.”
“My what?”
“You know, your…your pj’s.”
She immediately felt her face flush, but she certainly couldn’t let him know that. “What makes you think I wear any pajamas?”
“I…ah…excuse me?”
She laughed, thinking neither one of them was very good at flirting. She’d let him off the hook this time. Before he could say anything more, she said, “So what’s the something you want to fax?”
She found the hotel’s service guide and started flipping the pages, waiting for him to get back on the business track.
“I was able to clean up the tattoo. There’s a lot more of it than we expected. Once I removed some of the epidermis, the colors started to pop. That’s usually the way it works with tattoos.”
“Instead of a fax, maybe it would be better if you e-mail a digital image of it to me. That way I can see the colors, too.”
“You’re right. That’s a better idea.”
There was an awkward silence.
“I don’t think I have your e-mail address,” he finally said.
She gave him an address he could use, but she didn’t want to wait. “Are you able to make out what it is?”
“The very bottom of it is missing, but there’s a tattoo parlor here in West Haven. When I called the guy who owns it, he recognized the design right away from my description. He faxed me the whole image. I’ll e-mail that to you, too. It’s a long-stem red rose intertwined around a pink-handled dagger.”
“A dagger? And this is what she had tattooed on the back of her neck?”
“More on the right side of her neck toward the back.”
“Is there a way to track what other tattoo parlors offer this design?”
“Good question. I’ll ask,” Bonzado said. “One thing the guy did tell me is that it’s been a popular design for him with what he called D and D chicks.”
“D and D?”
“Dungeons and Dragons. You remember that?”
“Yes, but I thought the game was sort of passé.”
“Actually some of the college kids around here have started playing the game again, only it’s a computerized version. I’ve heard some of my students talking about it, but they don’t call it Dungeons and Dragons anymore. There’re all sorts of versions and spin-offs, ones that they can pretty much design themselves, creating characters by using profiles of real-life people they know, people they’d like to knock off. I’ve heard that one of our English professors seems to be a popular target. You know, just for pretend, to blow off steam. I don’t know if that helps you, but I thought it was interesting.”
“One of the other victims was a Virginia Tech student,” Maggie told him. “That might explain how he meets them. May even explain why they might trust him enough to go someplace private with him.”
“Do you think the killer might be a student, too?”
“A student seems too young to pull off these murders. Although his rage certainly comes out of some part of him that he has no control over, as if he reverts to adolescence. But I’m thinking he has a maturity that kicks in when he needs to hide his slip-ups.”
“I’ll ask some of my students how they hook up to play. If it’s by invitation or if anyone can join in.”
“That’s a good idea. Hopefully you won’t find out there’s a character profile for a Professor Bonzado.”
“Nah, couldn’t be. My students adore me. I have them all under an ancient anthropological spell. Now if only I could do the same to a certain FBI profiler.”
She said good-night without a follow-up comment. Maybe he was better at this flirting thing than she was. As she clicked off her cell phone, she realized she was smiling.
CHAPTER 46
Venezuela
Father Michael Keller stared at the computer screen. With only two citronella oil lanterns lit, the computer screen reminded him of a beacon in the dark room, bringing to light answers he wasn’t sure he wanted. He had been