“No. Never touched the stuff. Wouldn’t even take a cigarette from me. She wanted to make enough money so she could move out to California.” Keri shook her head. “They all want to go to California. They think there’s sunshine and glamorous jobs waiting. I tried to tell her that was bull, but she didn’t want to hear. Kept saying, ‘Keri, you should come with me. We can start over.’”
“When is the last time you saw her?”
“Two days ago. We shared a laugh. Then one of her regulars came up, and she climbed into his truck.”
“What did the truck look like?”
“Red. Fairly beat-up.”
“License plate?”
Two more puffs on the cigarette. “Didn’t think about it. He was a regular.”
“Any details you can give me about him?”
“Only what Hanna told me.”
“Which was?”
“Clean. Nice as any john can be. Never tried to stiff her out of her pay.”
“Any quirks?”
Keri lifted an amused brow. “Baby, all johns have quirks.” The laughter in her gaze vanished. “He liked to call her Bluebonnet.”
“Bluebonnet?”
“Yeah. It bothered her that he never called her by her name, but I told her as far as quirks went, not to worry.”
Bluebonnet. Like the flower found on Christa’s body. “Any details about the john?”
She took a drag and slowly exhaled smoke. “No. She never worried about him, so I never did.”
“What about her pimp? Would he know about this john?”
She flicked the ashes on the floor and inhaled deeply. “Oh, he don’t give a shit as long as Hanna pays him his cut each night.”
“Did she tell you anything else about this guy?”
“Honey, why talk about an easy john when there are other ones that scared her?”
“Did she mention an accent, a tattoo, hair color . . . ?”
“Sorry, baby, no.” She leaned forward. “You think he’s the guy?”
“He’s the last john you saw her with?”
“Yeah, but there could have been others. I had a busy afternoon.”
“And you’re sure he called her Bluebonnet?”
“Yeah. Real sure about that. I can ask around, if you think it would help. See if any of the other girls ran into him.”
Brody pulled out a card and handed it to her. “That would be helpful. Anything you can come up with would be great.”
“Why do you think he called her Bluebonnet? Did he have a thing for flowers?”
“Yeah, he liked flowers.”
Her brow knotted. “This guy you’re looking for . . . has he killed other women?”
He didn’t understand the connection. Yet. “Yeah.”
Tears welled in brown eyes. “She was a good kid. She didn’t deserve to die.” Her hands trembled as she stared at the lit edge of her cigarette. “You’re not really here for Hanna. You’re here for another case like this.” When he didn’t answer, a half smile quirked the edges of her mouth. “The Rangers don’t usually ride to a hooker’s rescue.”
“No.” Hanna’s case wouldn’t have earned top billing under normal circumstances. “I want to find Hanna’s killer. Bad.”
She squared her jaw. “At least you’re honest.”
“She keep a room around here?”
“She stayed in a motel in east Austin. Rented it by the week.”
He recorded the name. “I’ll pay the place a visit.”
“Better hurry. The rent is due today, and if it isn’t paid by six, the landlord will throw all her shit in the Dumpster.”
“I’ll go right now.”
“You have my number. Can you call me when you find this guy? I want to know Hanna had justice.”
“Sure.”
The drive to Hanna’s motel took less than ten minutes, and after showing a wiry, leather-skinned man at the front desk his identification, he found himself standing in Hanna’s room.
“The rent’s due today.” The clerk hovered at the threshold, rattling the key in his hand.
“Don’t worry about the rent right now.”
“If I don’t collect, I’m throwing her crap out.”
Brody stepped toward the man, knowing he had seven or eight inches of height on him and sixty pounds. “I’m gonna have to ask you to leave this room be until I say otherwise.”
He raised his chin. “If I ain’t getting rent, I’m losing money.”
The stale air in the hallway smelled of cigarettes and urine. “Do the best you can. I don’t want anyone in this room until I give the clear.”
“That ain’t fair.”
“Life isn’t fair. Touch this room, and I’ll be doing a room-to-room search of all your tenants and will arrest each and every one I can. That won’t be doing your bottom line much good, will it?”
The man glared at Brody. “Let me know the second you’re done with it.”
“Sure.”
Brody zeroed his attention on the room that had been Hanna’s. A small, neatly made twin bed hugged the right wall. The coverlet was purple and the half-dozen pillows all kinds of pink. A threadbare, brown teddy bear with a torn left ear and missing eye nestled between the pillows. Across from the bed was a desk, which sported a hot plate and a coffee machine. Under it was a small refrigerator stocked with a bottle of water, three sodas, ajar of peanut butter and a half-eaten loaf of bread.
The curtains were tan and stained, likely standard with the room. On the windowsill was a crystal heart, a mug from Disneyland and a glass jar filled with jelly beans.
Brody pulled on rubber gloves and moved to t
he desk, opening the center drawer. Inside was a collection of teen magazines and a guidebook to Southern California with dozens of dog-eared pages. On the right of the small closet hung a collection of skimpy spandex, glittery and gauzy clothes and on the left hung jeans, T-shirts and a sweatshirt from a Houston high school.
He’d seen this story play out a thousand times. Kids getting sucked into a life like this because no one gave a shit about them. As a matter of habit, he reached under the drawer, and his fingers grazed a small book taped to the underside of the drawer. He jerked hard and removed a small red notebook. The edges were tattered and the pages curled but the handwriting inside was neat but full and childlike. He thumbed slowly through the pages. Hanna had given her johns code names and kept detailed records of her appointments. This book was full. A search of the room didn’t uncover another book, but he guessed by the threadbare nature of the first, Hanna had carried the notebook with her when she worked. The current book would be with her now.
The last date entered in the book was a month ago, not so far in the past. There was a chance the john who called her Bluebonnet was in here.
“Who the hell is he, Hanna?”
Jo knocked off work at five. And as she passed the receptionist’s desk Sammy raised a brow. “You are leaving at five? Are you sick?”
Jo laughed. “I’ve left at five before.”
Sammy raised a dark brow. “Yeah, that was the day the building lost power and none of us could work because it was one hundred degrees inside.” Sammy waggled her brows. “Hot date?”
That prompted a genuine laugh. “I must find a dress for a wedding.”
Sammy cocked her head. “The wedding that’s in three days?”
“The very one.”
“This is cutting it close, even for you.”
Jo set her briefcase down. “I didn’t think it would be such an ordeal. I thought I’d find something but so far no winners.”
“Head downtown to Zoe’s on Congress. Her inventory is really cute. And not so young and hip that it will send you running.”
Jo straightened. “I’d hardly call myself old.”