Silent Victim - C. E. Lawrence [110]
Chuck smiled ruefully when he heard the undercover name Krieger had given herself. “Lottie … like Lotte Lenya.”
“That’s what Matt said,” Diesel replied.
“Interesting,” Lee mused. “A working-class guy who knows who Lotte Lenya is.”
“Not unusual in that world,” Diesel said. “Maybe not quite the icon Judy Garland is, but—”
“I get it,” Butts said. Finished chewing on the fingers of his right hand, he had started on the left one. “A fag hag. She was in that Bond film, wasn’t she?”
“From Russia With Love,” Diesel replied.
“Yeah,” Butts said. “With the knives in her shoes! I remember that scene where she—”
“Okay,” Chuck said impatiently. “Can we get on with it?’
“So you said both Matt and Violet are regulars?” Lee asked. “How long have they been coming there?”
“I’ve only been there a month,” Diesel admitted. “I have a day job,” he said to Chuck, “but I’m moonlighting for some extra cash.”
“Okay,” Chuck said. “So they’ve both been coming there for at least a month, then?’
“Actually, Violet only showed up a couple of weeks ago. Never saw her there before that.”
“Okay, what we’d like to do is get a list of the credit card receipts, so—”
Diesel shook his head. “It’s a cash-only business. It’s just too crazy in there to be dealing with credit card machines and receipts. Sorry,” he added, seeing the disappointment on Chuck’s face.
“I think we should go there this weekend,” Lee said.
Butts stared at him.
“Chances are a lot of the same people will be there, and we can interview as many as possible.”
“He’s right,” Chuck said. “We wanted to try to keep a lot of the details out of the media, but—”
“Good luck with that,” Diesel remarked dryly.
“Yeah, I know,” Chuck agreed. “But as far as the Jack Hammer is concerned, the fewer of the patrons who make the connection that she was there working the case, the better.”
“But some of them are sure to see her picture in the paper.”
“I don’t see how we can avoid that. But we won’t tell the media she was there working undercover. That should buy us some time to conduct a few interviews.”
“As soon as you start questioning people, some of them are bound to put two and two together.”
“But until then, the fewer people who know, the better.”
Diesel scratched behind his right ear, the one with the tiny gold earring.
“It’s not like he doesn’t know you’re after him.”
“Yeah,” Butts said, “but the less he knows about what we know, the better.”
“And what do you know?” Diesel asked.
“I’m afraid that’s classified,” Butts shot back with satisfaction.
Diesel shrugged. “I’m just trying to help, Detective.” Butts didn’t say anything, but as far as Lee was concerned, they could use all the help they could get.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
After Diesel left, they talked about what should be released to the media and when. It didn’t take them long to agree to leave out the fact that Krieger was working with them on the case—though some people would certainly draw that conclusion. Apart from that, they decided to give out as much information as possible, encouraging other patrons of the Jack Hammer that night to come forward. Diesel had promised to do what he could from his end, but he wasn’t scheduled to work until the weekend, and he knew his customers only by their first names—or so he said. Lee believed him, but he could tell Butts wasn’t entirely persuaded.
Chuck leaned back to stretch his spine, groaning as his stiff muscles protested. “Is there anything you can add to his profile?” he asked Lee.
Lee poured himself some more coffee. Awake since before dawn, he was flagging, and needed the caffeine. “I still think he’s reliving some kind of childhood trauma, something very specific.”
“All right,” Chuck said. “So how can that help us?”
“If we can identify how he was damaged, we’ll be that much closer,” Lee said, taking a sip of coffee. It was strong and startling—like Krieger, he thought.
“So how do we do that?” Butts asked.
“Let’s start with the signature aspects of each crime. What do they all have in common besides water?”
“He leaves notes,” Butts said.
Lee took another