Chapter 19: The Second Domino

It was two days later when Walt, Alexa, and Stacy met in her kitchen. Unlike previous meetings, they were meeting in the late afternoon.

“Where the hell is she?” asked Stacy. She was frustrated that Nikki was able to slip through the sting that they launched via a secret tip to the narcotics squad.

Alexa and Walt sat quietly. They had both exhausted their contacts and could not generate a new lead.

Alexa started to think out loud. “She never got back into Jacob’s house, so she was not able to retrieve anything she had stashed. She has to be running on the bare minimum. Do you think she reached out to anyone in her former life?”

Stacy said, “No. She hasn’t done so yet, so I think it’s very unlikely.”

“So, who then?” asked Walt. “Her only contact from the prison was busted. She doesn’t know anyone else.”

Stacy dropped her head on the table and rested it on her forearms. Suddenly, she jerked her head up and asked, “What did you say?”

Walt looked confused. Stacy said, “She doesn’t know anyone. You’re right. She doesn’t know anyone, but she knows a lot about someone that she may be able to force some assistance.”

Stacy looked from Walt to Alexa. A light bulb did not seem to light for either one. Finally, Stacy said, “The shrink, Dr. Blasnick. Nikki knew enough about her to get her to sign-off on her release. She may give her a visit and force her to help.”

Alexa said, “I’m on it.” She opened her laptop and with a little bit of effort found an address for Dr. Blasnick. “The map shows that she lives about fifteen miles from here. If we leave now, she should be home by the time we arrive.”

“I’ll drive,” said Walt.

The three exited the house and piled into Walt’s car. Stacy asked, “When are you going to get your own car instead of a rental?”

“Soon, I hope.” He grinned at Stacy and did not offer anything more.

Walt made good time and they found the doctor’s house quickly. He parked in the driveway behind a Porsche 911 with the license plate, “THE DOC.”

“Wonder how she got that?” asked Alexa.

Stacy wasn’t in a talkative mood and was already out of the car and headed to the front door. She rang the bell as the other two caught up.

A minute later a middle-aged woman wearing a smart pant suit answered the door. Her hair was colored a tasteful light brown and cascaded gently down her face.

“How may I help you?” she asked with an aristocratic voice.

“Dr. Blasnick?” asked Stacy.

“Yes,” the woman said cautiously.

“This is going to sound ... well, frankly, it is going to sound bat-shit crazy, but I’ve got to ask. Has your former patient, Nikki, been to see you in the past two days?”

Dr. Blasnick started to offer a high-brow dismissal of such an absurd question when Walt spoke. “Dr. Blasnick, we know about your current ... relationships, as well as what happened to you in high school. We don’t give a shit about any of it. Right now, all we want to know is if Nikki came here and demanded money or other help.”

The doctor’s face went ashen. Walt knew he had hit a nerve, but had Nikki come?

Slowly, the doctor nodded in the affirmative.

Walt continued, “OK, great, thank you. Now just tell us anything she asked of you and we’ll be gone. You won’t hear from us again, and no one will ever know anything.”

The doctor didn’t move. Stacy took over again. She snapped her fingers in the doctor’s face a couple of times and her attention returned to the present.

“What did she say?” repeated Stacy.

“All she said was that the shit hit the fan and she needed money. I keep about a thousand dollars in cash for emergencies and I gave that to her. She was only here for couple of minutes.”

“Did she say anything else? Anything at all?”

The doctor looked up and tried to recall her encounter with Nikki. A long moment later the doctor said, “When I handed her the money, she grabbed it and it sounded like she said something about sleeping with the Mormons.”

“Sleep with the Mormons? What does that mean?” asked Alexa.

The doctor would say nothing more so they left her in shocked silence. The drive back to Stacy’s house was quiet as each tried to think about what the doctor had told them. They picked up food from a drive through and ate in Stacy’s kitchen.

“A Mormon? Like the religious group?” mused Alexa. “How do they sleep? They’re the ones with the holy underwear, right? But what about sleeping? Anything that would give us a clue?”

No one answered.

After dinner, Alexa excused herself. “I need to see another client for a minute. Lady hired me to get pictures of her husband fucking the neighbor. I got ‘em, but then he paid me to get pictures of her fucking the pool boy. I’m going to see them both at the same time and deliver the news. If either wants a divorce they’ll face mutually assured destruction. O’well, what do I care? It pays the bills.”

“Alexa seemed a bit more cynical than usual,” commented Walt.

“I think she’s starting to take this case personally. And it’s probably my fault. I’ve been so focused on making Nikki pay that I think I’ve got her thinking anything less than a long jail sentence and we’ve failed.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think we’ve failed yet. You got us to the shrink. That will lead to the next step.”