by Cole Baxter
"Okay, we'll interview them all and see if they spotted anything suspicious." Amber walked with him to the front of the store. Mahoney joined them a moment later.
"Thanks, sugar. Sorry it's putting you to so much trouble."
"It's my job, Ray." She smiled. "I'll be in touch," Amber added as she and Mahoney headed out to her car. Once they were in, she said, "Did you get anything useful?"
Mahoney pulled his notebook out. "Selma Waterson, blonde hair, brown eyes, age twenty-six. Single mother. Worked until six p.m. last night, then went to her second job at Fired Up and waited tables until eleven. She didn't notice anything in particular while she was on shift at the gas station."
"Great."
"Bob Takahashi, black hair, brown eyes, age nineteen. Seemed more concerned with his hair than the break-in. Claims he spent the entire shift on the register and stocking cigarettes behind the counter. Took his break at midnight but went out the front doors and ate a sandwich from the convenience store and drank a fountain soda." He glanced down at his notes. "A Mountain Dew."
"Okay . . ."
"No one else was available for me to speak to in the store. Though Bob did mention an Ellie Greene and a Vince Kelley as also working last night."
"Yes, I got that information from Ray." Amber nodded and glanced at the clock on her dashboard. "Let's grab a sandwich while you tell me the rest."
She drove over to Abrams' Delicatessen, which was on Panic Pond Road just down the street from the police department, and they ordered a couple of pastramis on rye and then sat down at one of the clean tables. They took a few bites, and then Amber nodded to him as she took a sip of her soda.
"Okay, go ahead."
Mahoney wiped his mouth and then pulled his notebook out. "Since no one else was there from the night before, I headed into the diner and spoke with the employees over there. The cook, Terry Gordon, forty-three, African American, has been at the diner since it opened five years ago. Worked until six p.m. and didn't notice anything unusual."
"Who was cooking last night?" Amber took another bite of her sandwich.
"Denise Farley. She wasn't available for me to speak to. I did speak to the two waitresses, Brenda Taber, nineteen, blonde, a recent graduate of Liar's Public. She worked last night till nine and doesn't like the night manager, Vince Kelley. Claims he hits on her. Other than that, she didn't have much else to say."
"Okay, and the other?"
"Sarah Cline, twenty-three, brunette. Taking a semester off to save some money for a new car. Local girl, born on Liar's Island. She was off yesterday, but she agreed with Brenda Taber about Vince Kelley. Seems he gets pretty flirty despite the fact that she's in a relationship. She had no information on the robbery."
Amber thought it was interesting that both girls spoke about Vince being kind of a douchebag, but since the information had nothing to do with the robbery, she shoved that aside. So far, they hadn't really learned much from any of Mahoney's interviews. "Okay, I have a few leads to run down that Ray gave me, so we may need to head back out tomorrow and do a canvas of the area even though it's Sunday. I'll clear it with Chief Lee once we get back."
"Sure. Anything you want me to start on when we get back?" Mahoney asked as they got back in her car.
"Yeah, can you track down Ellie and Nick and get a more thorough statement from them about their activities last night?"
"Sure. You don't want to come with me?" Mahoney glanced at her.
"I trust you to handle it. I'll head in and talk to the chief. Just let me know when you're back and we'll go from there, okay?"
"No problem." Mahoney nodded. "What about Denise Farley?"
Amber considered, but since the diner closed at ten, she didn't think her statement was super important right at that moment. It could wait a day. "We'll catch her tomorrow."
"Okay, do you have the contact information for Ellie and Nick?"
Amber nodded and handed him the list Ray had printed. They pulled into the police department parking lot and Mahoney headed for his car while Amber went inside.
Chapter Three
After updating Chief Lee on everything they had so far and what Mahoney was up to, Amber went back to her desk. She typed up all of her notes on the case and was just finishing when Mahoney returned.
"Hey, Mahoney." She nodded at him. "What did you get?"
"I went to see Ellie Green first. She's currently living with Selma Waterson. She's a thin, delicate-looking young woman, twenty-four years of age, nervous, a bit on the shy side, with light brown hair and gray eyes. She worked until five a.m. with Bob and Vince. Vince had her sweeping and straightening the aisles. She's the one who discovered the theft in the liquor aisle, but at the time, she wasn't aware that was what happened. She made a comment about how much liquor had been sold thinking someone was having a party, but then Bob said they hadn't sold any that night beyond a few cases of beer."
"Hmm, okay." Amber added that to her notes. "And Nick Deakin?"
"Nick Deakin, thirty-six, tall and pale. He's been at Kelley's the longest of all the current employees." He checked his notes. "Six years. He was there till eleven. I asked about the liquor section, but he said it was full when he left because that was the last thing he straightened before getting off shift."
"Okay, so that means it definitely happened after eleven then." Amber nodded. She typed it all into the computer and sighed. "Okay, so can you get comprehensive background checks done on" —Amber looked down at her notes— "well, let's just get them on all of the employees, both the convenience store and diner sides, and see what pops. Oh, and go ahead and do one on Ray Kelley too. I know he's the owner, and I don't think he's involved, but I want to be thorough. Check out the store's financials too and make sure they're in the black and this isn't some insurance scam."
"Sure thing. Might take a day or two to get everything, though."
"That's fine," she replied.
"I'll get right on it then," he said as he headed back to his desk and got busy.
Amber picked up the report she'd been correcting earlier that morning and finished making adjustments, then she typed up a clean, error-free report. She printed two copies, one for herself and one for Chief Lee. She got up from her desk and put the report in the chief's inbox. Once that was finished, she started looking into the three boys Ray had caught shoplifting. First up was Leonard Terenbrock.
She typed his name into the system to see if he had any priors. She couldn't recall his being picked up for anything, but that didn't mean he hadn't been picked up elsewhere, like Seattle, but she had a feeling his record would be clean. As she suspected, nothing came up for him, so she decided to check social media and see what she could find.
She found his Instapix page and checked out his posts. Leonard, AKA Lenny T., was a gangster wannabe. A millionaire's kid who had more money than brains, apparently. He was a sixteen-year-old blond boy with messy hair and gray eyes. In most of the pictures, he was with the other two boys from the pictures Ray had given her. They were all flashing some sort of finger sign in the images and their tongues were either hanging out of their mouths or they had sneers on their faces. Typical teenager stuff.
She checked My Friends and Snap Time, along with a Google search to see if anything else came up for the kid, but it was mostly just a repeat of what was on Instapix. The kid posted nearly everything going on in his life, from where he was to what he ate. There was even a rant about getting caught 'liftin' booze', but he’d said that they'd been let off with a warning from the 'effin' effer' who owned the station, who Amber figured was Ray. The website the rant was posted on was known to censor certain words, so it amused her to see his way around that and she snickered.
From Lenny, she moved on to Fredrick Brandon, AKA ‘Fish’, and she could see how he'd gotten the nickname. His bulging green eyes and pale skin kind of reminded her of a fish. He had close-cropped black hair and was about a foot taller than Lenny. Like Lenny, he was sixteen. His parents were also loaded.
On his social media pages, she could see that he, Lenny, and Jake all attended Lyre's Prep, an exclusive all-boys junior high and high school.
There was a sister school, Lyre's Academy, which was an all-girls junior high and high school. Amber, of course, had not gone to the elite private school. She'd gone to Liar's Public along with the rest of the lower- and middle-class students on the island. There had only been about forty students in her graduating class. As far as she could recall, that was about average on the island.
It was nearing five p.m. when she typed Jake Thornwood into the system. Surprisingly, he had a juvenile record. It was sealed, but after checking in with the chief, who went to bat for her and got the clearance, she was finally able to legally open the file. Skimming through it, she saw that he'd been picked up for arson on several occasions from the ages of ten to fourteen. Instead of being sent to juvenile detention, he'd been given community service and had to go to anger management counseling. He was a year older than the other two boys and more muscular too. This kid looked like a thug. She clicked a few more keys on the computer and found that he'd had a couple of speeding tickets and owned a black Dodge Charger with up to date plates. She checked out his social media but couldn't find much on them. Of the three, it appeared that he was a little more private, rarely posting on any of the sites. Finally, she closed the tabs on her computer and stopped for the day.
"Hey, Mahoney, how far have you gotten on those background checks?"
"Got one completed on Ellie Greene and the financials on Ray and the store. Here you go." He handed them to her. "About halfway in on Nick Deakin's."
Amber took the paperwork and gave it a cursory look then put the file under her arm to take home with her to go over later. "Okay, leave Deakin's for now. You can work on it tomorrow. Chief Lee approved the overtime. We'll pay a visit to the three boys Ray thinks may have done this, but we'll do a canvass of the neighborhood behind Kelley's first."
"You sure it can wait?" Mahoney asked. "I can stay."
"No, it's a Saturday night. Head on home. Chief Lee will have my head if we put in even more overtime, and we're already going to be working Sunday." Most of the detectives were off on Sunday unless there was a case to work on, then the chief approved the overtime or didn't. Most of the time, she didn't since the cases on Liar's Island were generally not all that urgent.
"All right, see you tomorrow then."
"Bye."
Amber passed by a couple of other detectives who were also closing down their computers, preparing to leave for the day. The Liar's Island PD generally closed at five p.m. except for the skeleton staff who fielded 9-1-1 calls and the two or three patrol officers who took care of traffic and random domestic calls. If something took place where a detective was required, then the chief would put in the call to one or two of them. That was a rare occasion, though. This theft was the biggest thing to hit the island in an exceptionally long time.
She headed out to her car, dropped her purse and the file on the passenger seat, then drove the couple of miles down Panic Pond Road to The Waterfront and toward Fired Up to meet up with Leah.
"Hey," she said, sinking into a booth across from her best friend.
"Hey yourself," Leah said, smiling. "I hear you're in charge of the Kelley's theft case."
"Yeah, I am. How did you hear it already?" Amber sighed.
"You know City Hall, can't keep anything secret. Chief Lee apparently pulled some favors to get some kid's juvie record unsealed for you."
"Yeah. Ray Kelley thinks it might be a group of boys from Lyre's Prep behind it." She picked up the menu.
"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" Leah waved a waitress over to them.
"Yeah, seems he caught them shoplifting some booze this past Monday, but he didn't press charges at the time. Anyway, we'll see. I'm going to speak to the boys and their families tomorrow."
"Giving up your day off?"
"Hi, I'm Tara. I'll be your waitress. What can I get you two to drink?" the waitress asked when she reached their table.
Amber glanced up and then over at Leah. "Pitcher of beer?"
"Works for me." Leah nodded.
"Great, are you ready to order?"
"Wanna split a large pepperoni?" Leah asked.
"Sure, that works," Amber agreed.
"I'll get that in," the waitress replied, writing it on her notepad before heading toward the kitchen.
"So yeah, back to the theft. I don't really have a choice. Chief Lee wants it solved, so she's got me and Mahoney on it."
Leah arched a dark brown brow and smiled. "Mr. By the Book Mahoney?"
Amber rolled her eyes. "Yeah, one in the same."
"Fun times." Leah laughed.
"So, what's with all the paperwork you had to deal with?" Amber asked. "That's not usual, is it?"
Leah flipped her long, deep brown braid over her shoulder and sighed. "No, but we've got a group coming from Seattle for one of those corporate team building events. They're going to be staying out at Lyre's Memorial in a bunch of RVs. So, we've got all these permits and crap to get filed. Not to mention making sure there is enough space for them and all that. Just a pain in my ass."
For the next hour, they enjoyed their beer and pizza together as they commiserated over their days. From there, Amber went home, took a long, hot shower, and then went over the file on the store's finances. Later, after watching a couple of sitcoms on tv, she fell asleep on her couch.
***
Amber sighed as she pushed the intercom button for the Terenbrock estate. She and Mahoney had already stopped by the Brandons’ and the Thornwoods’. That had been a waste of time. The Brandons immediately said they couldn't speak to their son without a lawyer present, so she'd scheduled a time for them to come to the station, and the Thornwoods hadn't been available, according to their butler. Seemed the entire family had gone to Seattle early that morning for the Seahawks game that afternoon.
She was so tired, and her neck hurt from falling asleep on the couch. She should have just gone to bed instead of staying up to watch TV. Coffee hadn't even helped. Now, as she sat outside the Terenbrocks’ gate, she closed her eyes and sighed.
"May I help you?"
Amber blinked and turned to the intercom. "Yes, this is Detective Amber Smith and Detective Jack Mahoney. We have some questions for Leonard. Is he available?"
She'd picked Mahoney up at the station earlier and headed out to the Brandon estate first. Thankfully, Mahoney had been there and ready to go as soon as she had gotten there, and she hadn't had to wait on him, not that his being on time was surprising. He was usually there early.
"One moment."
"Great." Amber sighed again as she waited for the butler to inform the family of their request.
The large iron gates opened. "You may drive up."
"Thank you." Amber drove up the stone drive and parked.
She and Mahoney went to the entrance, but before she could knock, the butler answered the door.
"Detectives, do come in. Mr. Terenbrock and his son will meet you in the drawing room. Right this way." The stately man gestured toward a room to his right.
"Thank you."
Amber entered the room which was exquisitely decorated in creams and gold. She gingerly took a seat upon the expensive looking loveseat and Mahoney sat in one of the matching wingback chairs.
"They will be with you momentarily." The man she assumed was the butler pulled the doors shut, leaving them on their own.
She looked around the room, taking in the opulence of it all. Some people just had way too much money. Who really needs a butler, let alone art that probably cost more than my car? she thought as she gazed at the paintings on the wall. Not that they weren't lovely, but it all made her feel like she was a pauper by comparison.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and Leonard and his father came into the room. Leonard flung himself into the other wingback chair, his leg hanging over the arm, while his father stood with his hands behind his back. A
mber rose and held a hand out for Mr. Terenbrock. Mahoney stood and did the same.
"Good morning, Mr. Terenbrock. I am so sorry to disturb you on a Sunday morning, but we have some questions we need to ask Leonard—"
"It is no problem, though I can't imagine what kind of questions a detective would have for my son."
Amber smiled tightly. "Yes, well, are you aware that your son, along with two other boys, were caught trying to shoplift liquor last Monday?"
Mr. Terenbrock winced but recovered quickly. "No, I was not. I will of course compensate the store—"
"We didn't take nothin'! That old man is full of shit."
"Enough, Leonard." He pulled out his checkbook. "Now, what is the amount?"
Amber shook her head and held up a hand. "No, I'm sorry. I'm not actually here about the shoplifting charge. The owner isn't pressing charges on that. I'm here because on Friday night, the same store was burglarized, and the owner believes that it may have been the same three boys."
Mr. Terenbrock looked irate as he turned to his son. "Leonard!"
"Damn, it wasn’t us. We weren't even on the island on Friday! Jake drove us over to Renton to stay with Valarie! Ask her! We were there all night, partyin' with the college girls." Leonard shot up from the chair. "Ask Val! I swear it wasn’t us, Dad!"
His father pinched the bridge of his nose and winced at his son's language.
"Valarie is who?" Mahoney asked.
"My daughter. I'll get you her number." He removed his phone from his pocket and gave Amber the number. "Is there anything else you'd like to accuse my son of stealing, Detective?"
"Er . . . no, and I never actually suspected that it was your son, sir. We were merely ruling him and his friends out. The scale of the theft seemed a bit large for a group of teenagers."
"Yes, well, Leonard and his friends are, I will admit, a bit rebellious, though it’s merely boys having a bit of fun. I trust that you will not need to bother us again?"