Part 6 (2/2)
”No, I work for a newspaper. Can you tell me what happened? Please?” she coaxed gently, selecting a pastry from the plate and taking a bite. Sugar powdered her lips.
Sally's stomach growled. ”Oh. Well, I was in the park, you know, working,” she answered, licking her lips as she eyed the pastries. ”Reggie said there'd be a lot of h.o.r.n.y guys there an' they'd get inta doin' it in the woods, what with it bein' Halloween and all.”
Meredythe licked the sugar from her fingers. ”Go ahead, have one. Who's Reggie?”
Sally grabbed a pastry and bit into it. ”He's, ah, was my cousin,” she mumbled as she chewed. ”He brung me here to work for him.”
”Is he the one who died?”
”Yeah, that big, black dog kilt him.”
Meredythe sipped her coffee as Sally finished her first pastry and grabbed another.
A big, black dog. Interesting. For an instant, the wolf from Meredythe's dream appeared in her mind. Ruthlessly, she ripped the memory apart and returned her attention to her companion. ”Do you remember anything else about the dog? Was it wearing a collar? Did it have any distinguis.h.i.+ng marks?”
She sucked sugar off her fingers. ”Distinguis.h.i.+ng marks?”
Meredythe rested her elbows on the table and cupped her coffee cup in both hands. ”You know, white patches.”
Sally shook her head. ”Naw. It was all black and I didn't see no collar, but it was pretty dark.” Then her face brightened. ”I could see that it had really thick fur. It didn't look like any of the huntin' dogs my dad used ta raise. It kinda looked like one of them sled dogs. Yeah, that's it, a sled dog.”
”What about the guy who hit you? Was he the dog's owner?”
She shook her head. ”No, Reggie hit me on accounta I was gonna give a freebie to a john.”
Meredythe c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. The dog was protecting Sally? No way. ”What exactly happened last night?”
The young prost.i.tute licked the last of the sugar from her fingers and locked gazes with Meredythe. ”Well, first this guy walks outta the bushes naked, an', well-he looked so good I told him I'd do him for free. That's when Reggie jumps outta the bushes and starts slappin' me around for givin' it away. Then that black dog came outta nowhere an' kilt Reggie. He jus' tore his throat out. I thought I was gonna be next. That's when I fainted.”
Her pimp watched! Meredythe shuddered mentally. ”Did you see the dog's owner?”
”I didn't see n.o.body 'cept that naked guy. An' he was gone before the dog came. Do you think there's wild dogs runnin' around the park?”
Setting her now-empty cup on the table, Meredythe frowned and nibbled her fingernail. A dog appearing out of nowhere and rescuing a prost.i.tute from a beating by her pimp? It didn't add up. ”What did the man look like?”
”What man?”
”The one who came out of the bushes?”
”Oh, him.” After a gulp of coffee, Sally smiled whimsically. ”Well, he was kinda tall but not real tall-six feet maybe. An' what a body, all muscle! Wide shoulders, nice chest, great abs. An' his d.i.c.k-”
”Er, what about his facial features?”
”He was handsome, I think. It was kinda dark so I couldn't see him too good. An' he had lotsa dark hair. It was real long and curly. An' his chest was covered with hair too. An' his eyes were gray. I remember 'cause the moon came out, an' they looked like silver.”
Unbidden, the picture of a dark-haired, gray-eyed man leaped into Meredythe's mind. She slapped it away. What a ridiculous thought! Thousands of dark-haired, gray-eyed men lived in New York.
”Do you remember anything else? Did he have any tattoos or anything?”
Sally shook her head and eyed the last pastry.
Meredythe smiled warmly. ”Go ahead. You can have it. Who found you?”
Sally grabbed the Danish. ”Some homeless guy tripped over me.”
”Do you remember what he looked like? Was he the same man as earlier?'
”No way. The john smelled...woodsy. Yeah, like at home in the pine trees after it rained. The guy who tripped over me was old and stank worse than rotten eggs. The smell's what woke me up 'cause he was bendin' over me. Then he saw Reggie lyin' there with blood all over him and kinda screamed a little and then he ran away quicker 'en you can say jack s.h.i.+t. I started screamin' all over again an' a cop heard me. He's the one who called the ambulance. He was a nice guy, for a cop.”
Woodsy? Again a pair of silvery-gray eyes appeared in her mind. Cursing mentally, Meredythe pulled her attention back to the young prost.i.tute. ”What was the homeless man wearing? What did he look like?”
Sally shrugged. ”I don't know. He was dirty an' he stank. He made me gag so I closed my eyes. But I think he was wearin' a long brown coat.”
Frowning, Meredythe scrutinized the young woman who was now licking the last crumbs from her fingers, puzzling over all she had learned. A naked man comes out of the bushes and they agree to have s.e.x for free. Then her pimp appears and starts beating Sally because she's giving out freebees. A big black dog appears out of nowhere and rips the pimp's throat out. Sally faints but comes to when a smelly homeless man bends over her. What's going on? Is this the serial killer's work? Does he or she use a dog to murder his victims?
Meredythe grabbed a pencil and tablet. She had to check if there were dog prints at the other murder sites. Or was this some Halloween thing? Or was there a rabid dog loose in the park?
As Meredythe scribbled away, lost in her thoughts, Sally rose. ”Thanks for the coffee, but I gotta get home now.”
Meredythe shook free of her musings. ”What? Hey, come back here. I have more questions.” She shoved her tape recorder, tablet and pencil into her pocket and rose to follow Sally, but the waiter grabbed her arm.
”Wait a minute, lady. You gotta pay the bill.”
”s.h.i.+t!” she snapped, digging into her backpack for her wallet. Shoving a couple of bills into his hand, she muttered, ”Keep the change.” She slipped past him and hurried out the door. Craning her neck, she pushed past pedestrians. When she reached the corner, the light changed and traffic surged. Across the street, a woman in a short orange skirt hurried down to the subway.
”d.a.m.n it!”
A well-dressed, silver-haired woman hmphed and stared down her nose at Meredythe as she hurried by.
Defeated, Meredythe turned and walked back the way she had come. The other pedestrians ignored her as she talked to herself. ”I probably got everything she knows anyway. I need to see Kim again. He knows more-if I can get him to tell me about it.”
Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number. ”Alice? I'll be late getting to the office today. I'm chasing a lead on the story Mr. King gave me. If you need me for anything, page me. I'll check in later and let you know what I'm doing.” Severing the connection, she dropped the phone back in her backpack and hailed a cab.
As the black limousine glided quietly through New York City's morning traffic in the direction of Columbia University, Dr. Bleddyn Glyndwr sat comfortably ensconced in the plush seat silently perusing the marked columns in the small stack of newspapers piled next to him. His lips twitched every now and then at unexpected wit. When he finished, he looked up into his companion's amused stare. ”I never knew Meredythe had a sense of humor.”
”You never had the chance to know her at all. This time...”
With a weary sigh, Bleddyn laid his head back and closed his eyes. ”Don't start lecturing me again, Rhys. I've agreed. I need to get to know her first-and let her get to know me.”
”Then make sure you control that d.a.m.nable temper.”
A ghost of a smile appeared on Bleddyn's lips as he remembered a stinging slap.
”Who's going to tell Meredythe to control hers?”
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