Edward Lee - Dahmer's Not Dead

“North, ma’am.”

North, she thought. It was an evening of amalgams. The Great Bear of the north. North on Rowe Boulevard. All the while, chasing down a man named North.

“I’m there, Sergeant, heading north.” It was difficult to drive with the car phone crimped under her chin. “What’s he doing now?”

“Heading north, still north, ma’am. Just follow my lead and I’ll have you pulling up right behind him.”

Seconds ticked by. She thought she might’ve lost the connection. “Sergeant, you still there?”

“I’m still here, ma’am, and… He’s turning. He’s turning left on…””

“On what, Sergeant!”

“He just turned left on Chambers, ma’am. Take a left on Chambers. And…keep your eyes open for his vehicle, because he just parked.”

“Good job, Sergeant. Thank you for your expertise. I can take it from here,” she said, turning left on Chambers herself.

“Call me back if you need a pinpoint, a plat-grid. I’ll probably be able to give you the exact address.”

“Thank you,” she said, her chin crimping the phone to the point of ludicrousness. “I know his make and model. I’ll be able to see it on the street.”

Helen hung up, a kink in her neck. Chambers Road. Wait a minute, she thought. Chambers Road intersected Taylor Avenue, and Taylor Avenue was where—

That’s where…Tom lives.

It was too coincidental, wasn’t it? There was no way. Nevertheless, she sped down Chambers until she saw North’s Gold Dodge Colt. Parked precisely at the corner.

The corner of Taylor.

I do not believe this!

Helen pulled up and parked directly behind the Colt. Then she got out and walked to the corner. A hundred feet away was the entrance to Tom’s condo building.

No, no, no, she thought in grueling slowness as her heels ticked down the sidewalk. Just last week she’d seen Tom kissing a male lover on the steps of the entrance. And now—

Helen stopped stock-still.

A scene repeated in part. There he was, Tom, standing at the entrance, with Matthew North.

Helen viewed the entrance as if through gauze. No, Tom and North weren’t kissing. They were conversing, Tom with his hands in his pockets, North standing with a hip cocked, listening.

“Hey!” she shouted. Her frozen breath gusted outward.

Tom turned, a flabbergasted look on his face. North’s face, however, looked like the face of a kid caught shop-lifting.

Tom: “Helen, what are you—”

North stalked off. Under his breath, he muttered “Shit.”

“Shit is right, buddy!” Helen close to screeched. “And that’s what you’ll be in a world of if you don’t stop right there!”

North had tracked halfway across the front lot before he frowned, stopped, and turned. “What?” he asked, splaying his hands.

“What?” Helen was incredulous. “I just got the DA to drop charges on you, and this is how you repay me?”

North jerked his head, shot back a lock of dark hair. “Look, lady, I gotta eat, ya know? It’s a tough world, and, yeah, I got found another service to work for. But it’s just until I can get a legit job, I swear.”

Helen wanted to grab his jacket collar and shake him. “I could care less what you do for money, but you tell me this, Mr. North. What’s a male prostitute doing at the home of the Deputy Medical Examiner for the State of Wisconsin?”

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” North claimed, not too convincingly. “It was a bum call or something, or a wrong address.”

“Bullshit!” Helen simmered as she glared at him. Arresting him would be weak in court—she couldn’t swear under oath that she’d heard a proposition—and she didn’t have time to take him to Headquarters. Grilling Tom was more important.

“Listen to me,” she asserted, pointing into his face. “You’re going straight back to your apartment, and later on I’m coming by and we’re going to have a long talk. And you better be there, Mr. North, because if you’re not I’m going to have a statewide dragnet out on you, and you think I’m bluffing… Try me!”

“I’ll be there, I’ll be there,” North sluffed, then slouched for his car.

Helen’s fists clenched till her fingernails were nearly cutting her palms. She trod back toward the apartment steps, where Tom stared at her.

“Helen, what in God’s name—”

“You got a lot of gall, Tom,” she spat. “Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re in?”

“What? That guy? I never saw him before in my life. We were just…chatting.”

“Then why don’t you tell me what you were chatting about?”

Tom brushed his hair back. “Jeeze, this does look bad doesn’t it? All right, look, the guy rang my buzzer, so I answered the door. Said he was from some ‘service.’ I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, and, honestly, Helen, I’ve never seen him before.”

“ Honestly?” Helen huffed. “That’s great coming from a guy who lied to me, who cheated on me for over a year!”

Tom glanced down at the pavement. “We’ve already been through all that, Helen. And like I said, that guy—”

“Why are you sweating, Tom?” she cut in. “It’s cold out here, but you’re sweating. Is there something you’re nervous about?”

Tom hesitated, scratched his nose. “I’m on duty tonight; I just got out of the shower, and my hair’s still wet.”

“Uh-huh. Bad job lying, Tom. You better tell me everything right now, otherwise it’ll be a lot worst later.”

Tom shook his head. “Helen, this is getting out of—”

“Jesus Christ!” She couldn’t believe his stupidity, either that or his stubbornness. “Don’t you know that you’re under investigation for conspiracy and accessory to murder, and maybe a hell of a lot more!”

Tom’s facial reaction shrunk. “This is uncalled for, Helen, and you know it. This is a disgrace. Like a lot of prejudiced people, you can’t handle the fact that I’m bisexual. You’re just like Limbaugh and Gingrich and all these other radicals who want too dissolve the constitutional rights of people who are different. I’m under investigation for accessory murder? Why? Because I’ve had gay affairs? This is the end of the line, Helen.” Tom turned briskly, walked for the front door. “If you harass me one more time, I’m going to sue you.”

The apartment’s entry door, then, slammed so hard in her face that the glass panes popped out and shattered.

««—»»

So you’re going to sue me, huh?

Well, maybe he would. But Helen thought it only fitting that she give him more fuel for the cause.

She knew she was washed up. With all this publicity, and the case going to hell in a handbasket? Even her own boss had no more faith in her. I’ll never make deputy chief, she realized, unless I solve this case. She stared hard at the inside of her windshield. And even if I do, I don’t give a damn.

For a woman whose ideals were more soundly rooted in ethics than anyone she knew, she figured it was time for a little of the reverse. Tom, she thought. If you think I’ve violated your constitutional rights, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

She had to know, she had to know for sure, and there was no legal way to do what she knew she needed to do.

Tom had said he had duty tonight. All she had to do was wait.

And it wasn’t a long one. Less than an hour after their blowup out front, Tom trudged down the steps and out the entrance door. Stomped to his car. Drove off.

Helen stared at dark bushes and nightscape for ten more minutes, then she got out.