"Just coffee."
"Gotcha."
She could feel those wintry blue eyes on her back as she turned and walked away.
Knowing he was watching her sent a shiver down her spine.
"That guy at booth six is… " Bobbie Sue Banks, one of the diner's other waitresses, shook her head. "I don't know who he is, but he's kind of spooky, don't you think?"
Spooky was just the right word. There was something just the slightest bit off about him.
If she didn't know better, she might have thought he was some kind of alien. She remembered an old Twilight Zone episode in which the aliens had looked just like everyone else, except one hid a third eye under his hat and the other one hid the fact that he had more than two arms under his coat.
"Well, lett's hope he's a big tipper." Vicki glanced over her shoulder at the booth in the back only to find that the mysterious stranger was no longer sitting there.
Frowning, she looked around the diner and then she saw him through the front window, walking down the rain-swept street with Sharlene Tilden, who had been sitting at table two. Sharlene was a cashier at Perry's Market. She came in for dinner every night at the same time. Sharlene was divorced and it was rumored that, since her divorce, she slept around, but that was none of Vicki's business. Anyway, she didn't believe it for a minute.
Sharlene had never been the type to indulge in casual sex.
With a shrug, Vicki tore up the stranger's order and went to clear Sharlene's table.
The stranger was back again the following night, sitting at the same booth in the back corner of the diner, one arm flung over the back. Once again, he wore black jeans, a black T-shirt, and a long black coat. Once again, it was as if all the darkness in the world had gathered around him.
Taking a deep breath, Vicki pulled a pencil out of her pocket and went to take his order.
"What'll it be?"
He lifted one shoulder and let it fall in a negligent shrug. "The special will be fine."
"Are you gonna stick around long enough to eat it tonight?" she asked, jotting his order down on her pad.
A wry grin lifted one corner of his mouth. "I might."
"Do you want coffee again?"
His gaze held hers for a long moment. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, something primal and sensual that made her heart skip a beat and sent a rush of sexual awareness to every nerve and cell in her body.
"Sure." His voice was soft and low, and far too intimate.
With a nod, she dragged her gaze from his and went to turn in his order. Standing near the counter, she glanced around the room, noticing for the first time that Sharlene wasn't there. Vicki checked her watch, then shrugged. It was always possible that Sharlene had decided to eat dinner at home. She did that once in a while, though not often. She had told Vicki once that she wasn't crazy about cooking and she hated to eat alone.
Vicki noted the other regulars. There was old Bert Summers, who owned the local newspaper, and Judy West, who worked over at the Pear Blossom Creek Curl and Dye Beauty Salon. Judy was always trying out "a new look." Tonight, her shoulder-length hair was pink and teased into a beehive that made it look just like cotton candy. Jovial Rex Curtis, who owned and operated the car repair shop across town, was avidly reading the sports page; Maddy Malone, who was a teller at the Pear Blossom Creek Bank and Trust Company, had her nose buried in a book. Vicki had always thought Rex and Maddy were made for each other.
A pretty redhead sat alone at table five. Vicki didn't remember seeing the woman in the diner before, but that wasn't unusual. A lot of their customers were travelers passing through town who stopped in at the diner just long enough for a quick cup of coffee or a bite to eat.
Vicki turned away when Gus called her name to tell her that her order was up. As she carried the tray to the far side of the room, she noticed that the stranger was gone.
Tonight, he had left a twenty dollar bill under his water glass.
Biting down on her lower lip, Vicki looked over her shoulder.
Somehow, she wasn't the least bit surprised to discover that the pretty redhead was gone, too.
Chapter 3
Victoria slept late Sunday morning. Looking at the clock through one bleary eye, she saw that she had missed early Mass. With a groan and a sense of guilt, she threw back the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
Yawning, she slid her feet into her slippers, pulled on her fuzzy pink robe, and padded into the kitchen. She turned the fire on under the old-fashioned coffeepot that had belonged to her grandmother, opened the curtains over the window, then went out front to pick up the paper, glad to see that it had finally stopped raining. She stood there a minute, enjoying the beauty of a crisp fall morning. After a good rain, everything always looked fresh, as if the earth had been reborn. The grass looked greener and brighter, the sky more blue. Even the birds seemed happier as they flitted from tree to tree singing their early-morning hymns to another new day.
Returning to the kitchen, Vicki poured herself a cup of coffee, added a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar, then sat down to read the paper.
She read the headline, blinked, and read it again.
BODIES OF TWO YOUNG WOMEN FOUND
NEAR HELLFIRE HOLLOW
FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED
Her coffee forgotten, she quickly read the story. The women had been found by a couple of teenage boys who had been out hunting squirrels in the dense woods near the Hollow. Both women had been fully clothed. There had been no signs of sexual molestation, and no outward signs of violence.
"Except for the two dead bodies," Vicki muttered.
The article went on to say that a large chunk of hair had been taken from the head of each woman, which led the police to believe the murders might be the work of a serial killer since they often collected trophies or souvenirs from their victims.
The story went on in detail about the reaction of the teenagers, both of whom Vicki saw in the diner from time to time. She gasped when she read the names of the deceased.
Sharlene Tilden and Leslie Ann Lewis.
Vicki shook her head in disbelief. She had gone to school with Sharlene and her younger sister, Donna Jean. The Tilden family lived down the street from Vicki. If something so horrible could happen to Sharlene, it could happen to anyone. She frowned as she read the next paragraph, which stated that both bodies had been completely drained of blood.
A cold shiver ran down Vicki's spine. The article stated that as far as the police could ascertain, both Sharlene and the other woman had last been seen at Ozzie's Diner.
The article went on to say that Lewis's next of kin had been notified and then, almost as an afterthought, mentioned that both of the deceased women had been redheads.
Vicki lifted a hand to her own red hair. Surely the fact that both of the victims had been redheads was mere coincidence.
If the story hadn't been so lurid, if it hadn't been reported by the police, she might have suspected it was just another one of the high school pranks that were so prevalent in Pear Blossom Creek in the weeks before Halloween. But the body found near Hellfire Hollow last year had been made out of newspaper, a couple rolls of duct tape, and a wig one of the kids had stolen from the Curl and Dye.
Vicki sat back in her chair. This was no high school prank. Two women had been murdered in two days. What on earth was going on?
Last seen at Ozzie's Diner, the paper said. She could have added that the last time she had seen the two women, they had been in the company of a tall, dark man who was a stranger in town.
She dressed hurriedly after a quick breakfast and went to Mass, where she lit a candle for Sharlene's soul and then, after a moment's reflection, she lit a candle for the other woman who had been killed.
Vicki stayed close to home the rest of the day. Feeling like she needed to connect with her family, she called her sister. Karen lived in St. Louis with her husband, Richard, and their four kids. Richard was an accountant for an insurance company. Most of their conversation was about Karen's kids and how fast they were growing. Richie was six, Lucy was five, Carolyn was three and a half, and the baby, Lori, was already five months old.
After about twenty minutes, Karen said, "Listen, I've got to go, the baby's crying. But you've got to come for a visit real soon, okay? Here's Mom."
Vicki spent the next hour chatting with her mother. As usual, most of the conversation was about Vicki's lack of a prospective husband.
"If you'd get out of that small town, maybe you'd find someone," Mona said.
Thinking of the recent murders, Vicki wondered if that wasn't a good idea, especially since the murderer seemed to have a fondness for redheads.
"I've got to go, Mom."
"You might give that nice Arnie Hall another chance."
"Mom, we've been through all that before."
"All right, dear. Tell Gus hello for me."
"I will. Talk to you soon, Mom. I love you."
"I love you, too, dear. Bye now."
Vicki was in the midst of doing her laundry later that afternoon when Bobbie Sue called.
"Hey, Vicki, any chance you could work for me tomorrow night? Steve's fixin' to take me to the Toby Keith concert over in Pine Grove."
"I don't know, Bobbie Sue… "
"Sakes alive, Vicki, it's Toby Keith! How often does he come here? How often does anyone come here? Please, Vicki?"
"But it's my night off. I was thinking of going to a movie."
"If you do this for me, I'll be your best friend."
Vickie had to laugh at that. It was something they had said since they were children whenever they wanted something really bad. "You're already my best friend." "Vicki Cavendish, I'm down on my knees here." Vicki sighed. She was off on Monday nights, but how could she refuse? Bobbie Sue was obsessed with Toby Keith. She had all his CDs and she played them constantly. "Oh, all right, but you owe me big time."
"Anything," Bobbie Sue promised. "All you have to do is ask."
The murders were all anyone talked about on Monday morning. At the bank, at the post office, when she went to drop off her clothes at the cleaners, it was the main topic of conversation. The police were asking the townspeople to come forward if they had seen or heard anything suspicious, no matter how insignificant it might seem, and to let them know if they had seen any strangers loitering around town.