Sandra Brown - Low Pressure

He disconnected, made himself a potted-meat sandwich, and washed it down with a glass of milk.

When he went back into the living room and saw how funny Moody looked with his head lying to one side like that, he got the inspiration to take a picture and text it to Bellamy, using the old geezer’s phone. That way she wouldn’t have Ray’s number, which Rupe had told him to keep just between them.

That done, he now realized how bushed he was. He’d had a long night and a busy morning. Before he addressed the problem of moving Moody’s body, he decided to get some rest.

He went into his bedroom, opened the closet, and knelt down on one knee. To the naked eye, the corner of vinyl flooring looked like all the rest, like it was still glued to the concrete underneath. Only Ray knew that it could be easily peeled back because it was he who’d pried it loose the day after he’d moved in.

He’d chipped away at the concrete underneath, until he’d dug out a shallow depression. It didn’t need to be deep, only large enough to hold a pair of panties, and there wasn’t much to them at all. They were lighter than air. You could see through the material.

Taking them from their hiding place, he admired them as he had the first time Allen had crammed them into his palm. Ray remembered it like yesterday. Allen had been nervous. No, more than nervous. Scared. Moody and another detective had parked at the curb and were coming up the walk.

Allen was talking fast. He was sweating. “You gotta hide these, Ray. Okay?”

“That girl’s panties?”

“Hurry. Take them. Hide them.”

Ray stuffed them down his pants and into his own underwear, then patted his clothes back into place. Allen watched, nodding approval. “Soon as you can, get rid of them. Burn them. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

Then the cops knocked hard on the door. Allen wiped his damp upper lip, clapped Ray on the shoulder, and went to answer the door. Moody read him his rights while the other detective put cuffs on him. Then they took him away.

The whole time Allen was incarcerated, they never talked about the panties again. Allen never asked if he’d burned them, and he’d never admitted to breaking his promise. He couldn’t bring himself to destroy them. They were his most prized possession. They were the last thing his brother had ever given him.

He didn’t take them out of their hiding place very often. Not as often as he wanted to. But if killing Moody wasn’t a special occasion, he didn’t know what was.

He stretched out on his back on his bed and put his hand inside the panties, then held it up to the window and looked at his splayed fingers silhouetted through the sheer fabric. He sighed with contentment and rolled onto his side for a doze.

The cramped cockpit of a fighter jet had never made Dent claustrophobic, but being inside an interrogation room at the Austin Police Department was an unsettling reminder of the last time he’d been here, being hammered by Dale Moody. It mattered little that Moody was dead. He still felt like clawing at the walls.

Beside him, Bellamy looked pale and shaken, and often anyone speaking to her had to repeat what they said before it registered. Her distraction was understandable. Seeing the picture of Moody with his neck open had been a shock.

Because everyone in the department recognized her as a celebrity, and as the surviving daughter of the recently deceased Howard Lyston, the detectives were deferential.

Nevertheless, sweat had begun trickling down Dent’s rib cage as soon as they were ushered into the interrogation room to give their statements. He kept a tight grip on Bellamy’s hand, admittedly as much for his comfort as for hers.

Haymaker had called the police department from his house. Speaking to a homicide detective, he’d told him about the gruesome text message, identified the victim as retired police officer Dale Moody, and given the detective the number of Gall’s cell phone.

“It’s believed a guy named Ray Strickland has the phone, and that he’s the one who sent the text. He’s being sought for a suspected assault, so you’ve already got a report on him. The three of us are leaving now and will be there soon.”

When they arrived at the police station, they’d been immediately met by the homicide detective with whom Haymaker had spoken, Nagle, and another named Abbott. To Dent they looked interchangeable. Same age. Same height and body build. Similar sport jackets.

They’d taken Bellamy’s phone from her, looked at the picture that had been texted, and had admitted that they didn’t yet have an address for one Ray Strickland, but that they were trying to locate him by triangulating the cellphone signal.

“We’ve also issued a BoLO.” Which Haymaker had translated to Dent and Bellamy as be on the lookout .

“Why would this Strickland want to kill Dale Moody?” Nagle had asked.

Haymaker had handed over the copied Susan Lyston case file. “It all goes back to this.”

Now, more than an hour later, they were still talking, answering questions, painstakingly telling the entire story. At one point, a uniformed officer had stuck his head in and summoned Abbott into the hallway. Nagle urged Bellamy to continue.

She was retelling him about her conversation with Moody at the funeral reception when, suddenly, Abbott returned and announced, “Moody’s body was discovered inside Strickland’s residence.”

“How’d they find it?” Nagle asked. “The cell phone?”

“No, we got a tip on where he lived.”

“From who?” Nagle asked.

“Rupe Collier.”

“What?” Bellamy and Dent exclaimed in unison.

“Yeah, seems Mr. Collier took pity on Strickland after his brother was killed in prison. He found him living on welfare. He gave him a job, set him up in a duplex, where he still lives. He said Strickland’s never bothered anybody. A loner, but no troublemaker. Fairly good mechanic as well as a glass man. Does windshield work for him.”

The detective glanced uneasily at Bellamy. “But, according to Mr. Collier, ever since your book came out and gained so much attention, Ray’s been missing work days. He’s been belligerent toward his boss and co-workers. Mr. Collier says he’s talked to him several times by phone, trying to persuade him not to dwell on the past.

“But he says Strickland grew increasingly agitated and had recently made some threats against the two of you and Dale Moody. Yesterday, he took off with a car belonging to Mr. Collier. He made several attempts to speak with him by phone and talk him into returning the car before he was forced to report it stolen. Strickland didn’t answer his phone and never called him back.

“Then, a short while ago, Mr. Collier retrieved a voice-mail message from Strickland, which had been left very early this morning. He said that Moody was dead and mentioned that he might have to move because of the mess. Mr. Collier called nine-one-one immediately and gave them Strickland’s address.”

“What a guy,” Dent muttered. But the detectives didn’t hear him because Nagle was asking Abbott about Strickland’s state of mind when he was taken into custody.

“He wasn’t.”

“He’s at large?”

“ ’Fraid so. We’ve got the license plate number for the car. Shouldn’t take too long to bring him in. He’s been upgraded to an armed-and-dangerous.”

“How did he manage to get away?” Bellamy asked.

“According to the first officers in, they found him in the bedroom, asleep on the bed. They surrounded him. He was startled awake and launched an immediate attack with a knife, apparently the murder weapon. They said he was a wild man. Didn’t heed their orders to drop the knife.

“One of the officers was wounded. He took the blade in the shoulder. Deep and dirty, but it looks like he’ll be okay. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Strickland made good his escape.