Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper [101]
But as Isabel herself had said, the simplest thing wasn't always the smartest thing.
So what was the smartest thing?
Studiously not looking at him, Isabel said, “Okay, we're agreed that the note doodled by Tricia Kane suggests she was one of Jamie's clients.”
“More than suggests,” Hollis said. “The only thing on that old highway of any interest is Jamie's playroom.”
“Agreed, but that doesn't mean Tricia was a client. We don't know why she was meeting Jamie. Hell, maybe she was painting her.”
“There were no sketches of Jamie or anybody who looked like her among Tricia's work. Besides, do you really think Jamie would commission a painting of herself in full S&M ensemble?”
“No.”
“Then what other reason could they have for meeting there?”
“Maybe Tricia was interested in buying the building. It was one of those Jamie planned to sell after what happened with Hope Tessneer.”
“We checked that out,” Mallory said. “At least as far as we could. Jamie kept her official appointments in her date book, and that included appointments to show her own properties during the last couple of months. No appointment listed for May sixteenth.”
Rafe spoke finally, saying, “Odds are, Tricia was a client. Or a potential client. You did say at least one of Jamie's partners could have been from Hastings.”
Isabel nodded. “I did say that, yes.”
Hollis looked from Isabel to Rafe curiously. There had been no opportunity to discuss what they had found out from Paige, since both Mallory and Ginny had been in the room and other officers had come and gone fairly steadily, but it didn't take a sixth sense to feel the tension between them.
Hollis had been debating whether to tell them about the visitation from Jamie, though she had pretty much decided just to tell Isabel later, when they were alone. After all, it wasn't as though she could provide anything new in the way of information or evidence.
Rafe said, “Then Tricia might have been a regular.”
“Another Hastings blonde with a secret sexual life?” Isabel leaned back in her chair with a sigh. “And it seemed like such a nice little town.”
“I said the same thing,” Hollis murmured.
“It was a nice little town,” Rafe said. “And will be again. Just as soon as we catch this bastard.”
“And all we've got to help us catch him,” Isabel reminded the group at large, “is a fairly useless profile and what we know about the victims.”
“You haven't revised the profile as you've gotten deeper into the investigation?” Rafe asked Isabel almost idly.
“Not really. This guy leaves so little behind that the only real thing we have to study are the victims he kills. All single white females, all smart and savvy, all successful. Beyond that, and until now, all we really had connecting them was the color of their hair. Cheryl Bayne's disappearance puts the importance of that into question—definitely.”
“But even before then,” Mallory said, “we found Jamie's secret. And her secret playroom.”
Isabel nodded.
“Which could have been an aberration as far as the victims go, having absolutely nothing to do with the killer or his motivations. But then Hope Tessneer's body turned up, having very likely been a . . . toy . . . for our killer after she died, probably accidentally, and probably at Jamie's hands. Connection. And now this note, which is a pretty fair indication that Tricia Kane was or planned to become involved in Jamie's S&M games.”
“Another connection,” Rafe said.
“But there is absolutely no sign that Allison Carroll led anything but a perfectly traditional sex life. Also no sign that she even knew either of the other victims.”
Rafe shook his head. “Maybe we missed something. Or maybe there was nothing there to miss. Maybe she was as good at keeping secrets as Jamie was. As Tricia was.”
“Regarding Tricia, there were no regular withdrawals from her bank account in the last few months,” Mallory noted. “But that isn't to say she might not have sold some of her sketches or paintings for cash. A couple of her friends mentioned that she'd sold things to them. She