It did. And he was.
Chapter 48
AFTER CINDY TOOK a couple of giddy laps around the office to show off her sparkly new engagement ring, she closed her office door and got to work. Line one was flashing, and she answered it as she logged on to her crime-tipsters blog.
She announced her name into the mouthpiece, and the man on the other end of the line announced his.
“This is Red Sanchez.”
“Ray Sanchez?”
“Red. The color. I think I saw something that could help you with that story you wrote about the guy raping women.”
“Okay, I’m listening. Whatcha got?”
Cindy adjusted her headphones and mic, opened a blank page in Word, and typed Red Sanchez in the top-left-hand corner with the phone number she took off the caller ID.
“That large woman who was on the TV?”
“I know who you mean,” Cindy said.
Sanchez was talking about Inez Fleming.
“They didn’t show her face, but I recognized her anyway.”
“When did you see her?” Cindy asked.
“It was night before last. I was walking my dog on Baker Street, right near the corner of Clay. Sadie is old. If I don’t walk her when she whines, it’s a mess on the carpet and my wife goes crazy —”
“Mr. Sanchez.”
“Call me Red.”
“Red, when you saw the woman you think might have been the one who was interviewed on TV, what was she doing?”
“She was doing nothing. That woman was out. I mean O-U-T. I thought she was drunk. Maybe she was drunk. The driver was half holding her up, half dragging her toward an apartment building. Here. I got the address. It’s not too far from my place.”
Sanchez read off the numbers of a house address on Baker Street. It was a few numbers from Inez Fleming’s home address, but then, Inez had woken up in an alley near her building. Cindy typed the house number on her file.
“Red, what do you mean ‘driver’? Driver of what?”
“Sorry. I thought I said it was a taxi. Like one of those minivan types.”
”What color was this minivan?” she asked. “Any marks or signs, or maybe you saw a phone number on the van’s door?”
Sanchez said, “It was a regular yellow-cab-color minivan. I think I did see something, like an ad on the back of it. Like for a movie. The name eludes me. I’ll think about it.”
“What about the driver? Did you get a good look at him?”
“Nah. I was putting my newspaper down for Sadie. I saw this man, he had dark hair, I think. Yeah, I know, that’s quite a clue. Anyway, this man was half dragging this lady along the sidewalk. I thought, ‘Man, is she drunk,’ and by the time my dog had done her business, both of them were gone.”
Cindy thanked Sanchez and asked him to call again if he remembered anything else. Then she called Richie.
“Sweetheart? I think I’ve got a lead on the serial rapist.”
Chapter 49
YUKI AND NICK Gaines were leaving her office on the way to court that Monday morning, a half hour early, as Yuki insisted they be.