Harlan Coben - Just One Look

But he did.

On a calm fall evening Veronique Baltrus was savagely attacked. Her assailant got away. But Veronique recovered. Already good with computers, she now upped her ability and became an expert. She used her new knowledge to hunt down her assailant – he continued to send her e-mails discussing an encore -and bring him to justice. Then she quit her job and became a police officer.

Now, even though Baltrus wore a uniform and worked a regular shift, she was the county’s unofficial computer expert. Nobody in the department but Perlmutter knew her back story. That was part of the deal when she applied for the job.

“You got something?” he asked her.

Veronique Baltrus smiled. She had a nice smile. Perlmutter’s “thing” for her was different than the rest of the guys’. It was not built simply on lust. Veronique Baltrus was the first woman to make him feel something since Marion ’s death. He wouldn’t take it anywhere. It would be unprofessional. It would be unethical. And truth be told, Veronique was waaaaay out of his league.

She gestured down the corridor toward Charlaine Swain. “We might have to thank her.”

“How so?”

“Al Singer.”

That, Sykes had told Charlaine, was the name Eric Wu used when he pretended to be making a delivery. When Charlaine asked who Al Singer was, Sykes jolted a little and denied knowing any Mr. Singer. He said he opened the door anyway out of curiosity. Perlmutter said, “I thought Al Singer was a fake name.”

“Yes and no,” Baltrus said. “I went through Mr. Sykes’s computer pretty thoroughly. He’d signed up for an online dating service and had been corresponding fairly regularly with a man named Al Singer.”

Perlmutter made a face. “A gay dating service?”

“Bisexual, actually. That a problem?”

“No. So Al Singer was, what, his online lover?”

“Al Singer doesn’t exist. It was an alias.”

“Isn’t that common online, especially at a gay dating service? Using an alias?”

“It is,” Baltrus agreed. “But here’s my point. Your Mr. Wu pretended to make a delivery. He used that name, Singer. How would Wu know about Al Singer unless…?”

“You saying Eric Wu is Al Singer?”

Baltrus nodded, rested her hands on her hips. “That would be my guess, sure. Here’s what I think: Wu goes online. He uses the name Al Singer. He meets some people – potential victims – that way. In this case, he meets Freddy Sykes. He breaks into his home and assaults him. My guess is, he would have eventually killed Sykes.”

“You think he’s done this before?”

“Yes.”

“So he’s, what, some kind of serial bisexual basher?”

“That I don’t know. But it fits the action I’m seeing on the computer.”

Perlmutter thought about it. “Does this Al Singer have any other online partners?”

“Three more.”

“Have any of them been assaulted?”

“Not yet, no. They’re all healthy.”

“So what makes you think it’s serial?”

“It’s too early to say for sure one way or the other. But Charlaine Swain did us a huge favor. Wu was using Sykes’s computer. He probably planned on destroying it before he left, but Charlaine flushed him out before he had time. I’m piecing it together now, but there’s definitely another online persona in there. I don’t know the name yet, but he’s working out of yenta-match.com. Jewish singles.”

“How do we know it’s not Freddy Sykes?”

“Because whoever accessed this page did so in the past twenty-four hours.”

“So it had to be Wu.”

“Yes.”

“I still don’t get it. Why would he go to another online dating service?”

“To find more victims,” she said. “Here’s how I think it works: This Wu has a bunch of different names and personas at a bunch of different dating sites. Once he, shall we say, uses one, like Al Singer, he won’t dip into that dating pool again. He used Al Singer to get to Freddy Sykes. He’d have to know that an investigator could track that down.”

“So he stops using Al Singer.”

“Right. But he’s been using other aliases at other sites. So he’s ready for his next victim.”

“Do you have any of the other names yet?”

“Getting close,” Baltrus said. “I just need a warrant for yenta-match.com.”

“You think a judge will grant it?’

“The only identity we know Wu accessed recently is the one at the yenta-match site. I think he was seeking out his next victim. If we can get a list of what name he used and who he contacted…”

“Keep digging.”

“Will do.”

Veronique Baltrus hurried out. Wrong as it felt – he was, after all, her superior – Perlmutter watched her go with a longing that made him remember Marion.

Ten minutes later Carl Vespa’s driver – the infamous Cram – met Grace two blocks away from the school.

Cram arrived on foot. Grace did not know how or where his car was. She’d just been standing there, looking at the school from afar, when she felt the tap on her shoulder. She leapt, her heart pounding. When she turned and saw his face, well, the sight was hardly a comforting one.

Cram arched an eyebrow. “You rang?”

“How did you get here?”

Cram shook his head. Up close, now that she was able to get a really good look at him, the man was even more hideous than she remembered. His skin was pockmarked. His nose and mouth looked like an animal’s snout, what with the sea-predator smile locked on autopilot. Cram was older than she’d thought, probably nearing sixty. He was wiry though. He had the wild-eyed look she’d always associated with serious psychosis, but there was a comfort to that element of danger right now, the kind of guy you’d want next to you in a foxhole and nowhere else.

“Tell me everything,” Cram said.

Grace started with Scott Duncan and moved on to arriving at the supermarket. She told him what the unshaven man had said to her, about him darting down the aisle, about him carrying the Batman lunchbox. Cram chewed on a toothpick. He had thin fingers. His nails were too long.

“Describe him.”

She did as best she could. When she was done, Cram spit out the toothpick and shook his head. “For real?” he said.

“What?”

“A Members Only jacket? What is this, 1986?”

Grace did not laugh.

“You’re safe now,” he said. “Your children are safe.”

She believed him.

“What time do they get out?”

“Three o’clock.”

“Fine.” He squinted at the school. “Christ, I hated this place.”

“You went here?”

Cram nodded. “A Willard graduate, 1957.” She tried to picture him as a little boy coming to this school. The image would not hold. He started walking away.

“Wait,” she said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Pick up your kids. Bring them home.”

“Where will you be?”

Cram upped the grin. “Around.” And then he was gone.

Grace waited by the fence. The mothers began to flock in, gather, chat. Grace folded her arms, trying to give off a “keep away” vibe. There were days she could participate in the clatter. This was not one of them.

The cell phone rang. She put it to her ear and said hello.

“You get the message now?”

The voice was male and muffled. Grace felt her scalp tingle. “Stop looking, stop asking questions, stop flashing the picture. Or we’ll take Emma first.”

Click.

Grace did not scream. She would not scream. She put the phone away. Her hands shook. She looked down at them as if they belonged to someone else. She couldn’t stop the shake. Her children would be coming out soon. She jammed her hands into her pockets and tried to force up a smile. It wouldn’t come. She bit her lower lip and made herself not cry.