Damaged Amazon

by Kim Pritekel

  At least, if that’s how she still was. Twenty years could change someone, especially after what Nora had put Sarah through.

  She shook her head as she studied what was left of her lunch. “Damn,” she whispered, surprised she’d said anything out loud.

  “What? Everything okay?” Sarah asked, taking a sip of her drink.

  “Yeah. So”—Nora shook her thoughts out of dangerous territory—“what do you think? About the places we saw today and the people you talked to?”

  Sarah let out a sigh as she sat back in her seat. “Well, honestly there wasn’t a lot that was helpful, but I did find that Ellis White guy interesting. The bouncer at the club.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Something about him,” Sarah said, grabbing a napkin and dabbing at the corner of her mouth before tossing it onto the flattened wrapper that had held her sandwich. “Shifty fella. I also found it interesting that he’s the best friend of Ronnie Garcia.”

  “Son of Penny,” Nora added.

  “Neighbor lady. I know that Penny and Shannon seemed to be sort of close, or at least Penny was trusted enough to keep tabs on Bella, but do you know if Ronnie hung around there much?”

  Nora shook her head. “No. From what I understand, he’s not around much at all. He’s a truck driver so isn’t in town much.”

  “What about—”

  Sarah was interrupted by the ringing of Nora’s phone. “Crap, it’s LJ. I better take this.” Nora put the phone to her ear. “Hey, LJ, everything okay?” She listened to him, her eyes cutting to Sarah who looked on. “Okay, I’ll tell her… No, I think you did the right thing, that’s what she’d prefer, is my guess. Okay, yeah, see you soon, bye.” She ended the call and set her phone down.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Something was hidden inside of Sam,” Nora said softly. “LJ thinks you need to see it.”

  “Who’s Sam?”

  “Bella’s favorite teddy bear.”

  ****

  The women arrived back at the farmhouse in record time, once again Sarah pulled the Mustang up behind LJ’s truck.

  “I have to say,” Sarah said with a grin, “I love your house.”

  Nora chuckled. “Finally somebody does. My family says it’s too far out here.”

  “Nah.” Sarah pulled the key from the ignition and undid her seatbelt. “It’s so quiet and peaceful out here. I think that would be fantastic after a long, hard day at the department.”

  “Well,” Nora said quietly, sparing her a glance before opening her door, “you’re welcome here anytime.”

  Shocked she’d said the words out loud, Nora quickly climbed out of the car and hurried toward the house. It was already dark, the dashboard clock in the Mustang claiming it to be after seven thirty.

  “Hey, LJ,” Nora greeted him as he stood on the back porch.

  “Bella’s asleep, so we have to keep it down,” he said, raising a hand in greeting to Sarah who was coming up the walk. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Nora’s brother led them inside and to the living room where a pink plastic thumb drive box lay open on the floor next to the couch, a thumb drive just visible inside.

  “When it fell out, this is where it landed,” he explained, looking from Nora to Sarah. “I didn’t touch it.”

  “That’s great, LJ,” Sarah said, squatting next to the plastic box, no bigger than a Zippo lighter. She pushed to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”

  Left alone, Nora looked at LJ. “How did it fall out of a teddy bear?”

  “Well, uh,” LJ hedged, glancing over at her as he readjusted his baseball cap. “Oreo’s claws kind of ripped a seam.”

  “And, why exactly was Oreo in here?” Nora asked, hand on hip and eyebrow raised.

  “Well, I just might have gotten her shots and just might have gotten her a litter box and might have even gotten her food and toys.”

  Slowly, Nora folded her arms over her chest. “And, where might this kitten be now?”

  “Upstairs in bed with Bella,” LJ said with a boyish grin.

  “Damn it, LJ!”

  “I know and I’m sorry, sis. I promise, I wasn’t trying to pull shit in your house, but…” He glanced toward the stairs that led to the second floor. Lowering his voice, he continued. “I came across the bodies of what I assume to be Oreo’s mom and one of the other kittens today,” he explained. “Torn to shreds.”

  “Ah, damn,” Nora said with a heavy sigh. “I was worried about that. Did Bella see it?”

  “No, I distracted her first. But, I knew that kitten didn’t stand a chance on her own, Nora. If you want, I’ll take her home or whatever, but I couldn’t leave her out there alone as prey.”

  “No, you did good. Let me know how much I owe you for the vet and everything.”

  LJ waved her off. “Bella adores Oreo. It was cute as hell to see her excitement when she was brought inside. They played for hours, which is why they’re both conked out now.”

  Sarah reentered the house, a plastic evidence bag in her hands as well as a pair of latex gloves. She was also on her phone. “Yeah, about an hour and I’ll be there. I’m clear out past County High School, so it’ll take me a bit to get there. Oh, hey, have Carmen meet me outside so I can drop this off and she can get it to the lab ASAP.” She hung up the phone and hurried over to the little plastic box and thumb drive.

  “Everything okay?” Nora asked, stepping back to get out of her way.

  Tugging the gloves on, Sarah carefully placed the items into the bag, sealing it and tugging off the black cap of a marker with her teeth before labeling the bag with time, date, and location. Getting to her feet, she capped the marker and pulled the gloves off.

  “Shannon’s apartment has been set on fire,” she said softly.

  “What?” LJ asked, voice raised in what sounded like shock.

  “Oh God,” Nora gasped, hands covering her mouth. She swallowed back her emotion. “Wow. Okay.”

  “So, I’m heading there now—”

  “I’m coming with you,” Nora said, hurrying over to the kitchen table where she’d set down her purse.

  “No,” Sarah said firmly, suddenly right behind her. She met Nora’s angry gaze. “No, Nora.” She softened her voice as she reached a hand out, briefly resting it against Nora’s cheek. “You’ll be in the way.” Her hand dropped and she rushed toward the door, her evidence in hand. “I’ll call you guys and let you know what I find out.” She hurried from the house.

  Nora was close to crying, the emotions behind her eyes stinging, her stomach threatening to revolt, yet she was absolutely powerless.

  “Hey,” LJ said, stepping up to her. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Nora fell into his arms, the tears coming fast and hard.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sarah arrived at the scene, the night shattered by swirling red and blue. She exited her car and walked over to a group of uniformed officers, recognizing her partner, Mark. “Hey, gang.”

  “Hey,” Mark said, turning to her. Unlike Sarah’s casual attire from her day with Nora, Mark wore his typical and completely stereotypical wrinkled suit. “They put the fire out before it spread too badly to other units.”

  Sarah nodded, looking up at the building, the front wall of the third floor blackened from the flames. The acrid stench of smoke filled the night air. “Anybody hurt?”

  “Nah. The neighbor wasn’t home, and hers was pretty much the only other apartment that was affected.”

  “Good. When can we go in?” Sarah asked, looking around for the person who was in control of the situation for the fire department. She knew the Pueblo guys but wasn’t familiar with the Colorado Springs crews. She saw a woman in personal protective equipment who seemed to be barking out orders to the guys, also dressed in their PPEs.

  “Not sure. Chief Hurley said she’d let us know.”

  Sarah figured the woman she was looking at was Chief Hurley so walked over to her. “Excuse me,” she said, getting
the short woman’s attention. “Are you Chief Hurley?”

  “Yes, who are you?” the woman said, her tone harried.

  “I’m Detective Sarah Sanchez. We need to get into that apartment, so when do we have the all clear?”

  “When I tell you,” the woman quipped.

  “Look, I’m investigating the disappearance of the woman who lives there in conjunction with El Paso County. We need to check out the scene.”

  “Well,” the fire chief said, reaching up and removing the yellow fireman’s hat before running a hand through short, blond hair. “If you and your guys want to chance falling through the floor to the apartment below, go for it. But I’d seriously suggest waiting until I tell you folks it’s safe.”

  Sarah let out an irritated sigh but nodded. She’d been here before and knew there was no reason to argue with the experts. “All right. I’ll be over there,” she said, indicating the group of police she’d just spoken with.

  “Hey Detective.” She turned and met the woman’s gaze as the sound of her voice caught Sarah’s attention. “We’ll hurry.”

  Mumbling to herself, irritated by the wait as well as the woman’s rudeness, she walked back toward the group when her phone rang. Stopping next to a faded yellow seventies-era Volkswagen Bug, she put the phone to her ear.

  “Sanchez.”

  She glanced over her shoulder to see the fire chief weaving her way through the police cars over to her. Her reflective yellow heavy jacket had been unbuckled and hung open revealing a white fitted tee beneath.

  “Hang on,” she said to her unknown caller as she turned her focus to the woman stepping up to her.

  “Your team can head in. Our guys found it sound, but be careful,” the woman warned her. “The heat is still fairly intense. I’d recommend getting a look-see and then getting the hell out.”

  “Great, thanks,” Sarah said with a smile, lifting her phone back to her ear. “Call you back.” No idea who the caller was, she disconnected the call and pocketed her phone.. She waited until the attractive woman walked away before turning to her partner.

  Once inside the ruined apartment, Sarah was stunned. She shone the beam of her high-powered flashlight across what remained of the living room, the walls black from smoke and soot. What was most disturbing however, was that the place had been tossed before lit aflame. Furniture was thrown around, the couch overturned. Books and toys had been thrown, one even making a hole in the wall upon impact.

  “Looks like either someone had one hell of a party in here or they were looking for something,” Mark said quietly.

  Sarah nodded “I agree and wonder if it was stuffed in a teddy bear.”

  ****

  Fort Collins, Colorado

  Detective Leland Masterson carried his third cup of coffee back to his desk, and it was only eight twelve in the morning.

  “Leland, you got a call on two from a Detective in Cheyenne about a Jane Doe.”

  “All right, thanks, Max.” Leland sat down behind his desk with a grunt, his overweight body harsh on damaged knees. He set the Styrofoam cup aside and grabbed for the receiver, pressing the blinking line. “Masterson here…Nah, I don’t have anything right now matching that description. Where did you say she was found?” He shook his head as he sat back in his squeaky chair. “Jesus, that’s terrible. Let me do some digging and I’ll get back to you…You have a good one, too.” Replacing the receiver into the cradle, he turned to his colleague. “We got us a Jane Doe out of Cheyenne. He’s gonna email me the details. Let’s call around to see if we can find a match.”

  ****

  LJ stood in the laundry room with piles of freshly washed clothes folded atop the long countertop that ran the length of the long, narrow room. He was folding his and Adrienne’s clothes but had left Kristie’s unfolded for her own delight. He hated doing laundry, but mostly, he knew it was something his daughter needed to know how to do.

  As if on cue, he heard the front door open then slam shut and the nonstop talking and giggles of a teen’s one-sided conversation.

  “Hey, kiddo,” he called out, leaning slightly out of the room so she’d see him.

  “Jesus! You scared me, Dad. Gotta go,” she said into her phone and hung up. “I didn’t know you were home. Your truck isn’t outside.”

  “Yeah,” he said, reaching over for her laundry, which he’d put into a plastic white laundry basket. “Here.” He handed it to her. “Your mom’s car needed the oil changed, so she took my truck. I’m working on the car for her.”

  Kristie nodded, looking forlorn as she accepted the basket of clean clothes. “You know I hate doing this right?”

  “You know I hate doing it, too, right?” he quipped with a raised eyebrow. They folded together in silence for a moment, Kristie taking the empty, far end of the counter. “So, how did things go with Aunt Nora the other day?” Nora had spoken to him a little about it, but he hadn’t poked and hadn’t sent out a fishing expedition.

  Kristie shrugged and spared him a glance as she folded her zombie pajama pants. “Good. She’s dorky like you. I can see why you guys used to be close.”

  LJ chuckled. “Yeah.” What he didn’t say was, he intended to get close with his sisters again.

  “You knew she’s gay, didn’t you?”

  He nodded. “Yup.”

  “And,” she hedged, “You knew I was gay…didn’t you?”

  “Yup,” he said again, giving her an easy, open smile.

  “Which is why you sent me to hang out with her all day.”

  He nodded. “Yup.” He shared her full-on smile and accepted the hug she offered. It actually felt good holding his little girl. He rested his chin on the top of her black head, remembering so many times over the years when he had to hold her and rock her when she was crying because she skinned her knee or got her first bad grade or experienced her first broken heart. Now, he held her because he was so proud of her and the woman she’d become. “And,” he added, leaving a kiss on her head before she pulled away, “you can bring Julia around anytime you want, okay? I kinda like the girl.”

  Kristie beamed, nearly blinding him. “Cool.”

  “All right, kiddo. I’m going to take all this upstairs, and you finish up, got me?”

  “Yes, sirree Bob.”

  Gathering the folded piles, LJ loaded them into the laundry basket he and his wife used and headed upstairs to their bedroom where he left her neat piles on her side of the bed and began to put his own clothing away. He glanced out the window when he heard his truck pull into the driveway and felt the slight nervousness in his gut that always occurred when he or Adrienne arrived home.

  As he headed to his side of the closet to hang some jeans, he heard the two women downstairs swap a few words before Adrienne’s advancing footsteps. When she entered their bedroom, she looked tired. He knew she worked long days and had to put out many, many fires in the district throughout the day.

  “Hey,” he said, heading back to the bed for an armful of shirts to hang, which he flipped over his arm.

  “Hi,” she said in return, heading into the bathroom.

  LJ rolled his eyes. By the clipped tone she used, he knew this wasn’t going to be a family night playing Uno around the kitchen table. “Everything okay?” he called to her.

  In lieu of responding, Adrienne walked out of the bathroom, high heels missing and blouse partially unbuttoned. She walked over to where he hung his shirts and tossed something on the shelf where he kept the handful of baseball caps he owned.

  LJ looked down at what she’d left there and groaned inwardly, noting it was the brochure and business card from the townhouse he’d spontaneously decided to look at the day he’d checked out apartments for Kristie. He’d forgotten about it after tossing it into the center console of his truck.

  “What’s this?” she asked, standing near the side of the bed, hands on her hips. “A townhouse for Kristie and eight of her closest friends so they can afford it?”

  He finished hanging his
shirts and ran a hand through his hair. “Adrienne—”

  “Or, were you looking at this place for a more nefarious reason? Maybe Jill isn’t the only whore in the family?”

  “That’s enough!” he roared, pushed to his limits. “We certainly know she’s not the only bitch, don’t we?” LJ’s world rocked for a moment after the vicious slap to his left cheek. His jaw clenched, and he followed Adrienne into the bathroom. “What is your deal? Why do you have to make every goddamn thing so difficult? Our entire marriage, everything is a fight.”

  “Maybe because you either embarrass me or fail me at every turn, Larry. Did that ever occur to you?” she bit back, standing at the counter and reaching up to remove her earrings. “How many damn years did I have to bug you to get your master’s?”

  “And I did, if I recall,” LJ said, feet set wide apart in the doorway and thick arms crossed over his chest.

  “In Literature, Larry!” Adrienne yelled. “Who the hell spends the money and time getting a higher education in Literature? You might as well have gotten a damn degree in finger painting, as helpful as it’s been! I told you.” She turned and pointed a finger in his direction. “I told you to get your master’s in something like Leadership!”

  LJ was incredulous. “Why on earth would I get my master’s in Leadership? Sounds like a damn daycare worker.”

  “Because at least you could move up.” She removed her necklace and tossed it angrily onto the vanity. “I want a man who has ambition, who knows what he wants to do,” she continued, sending him a glare. “And mostly”—she walked over to him, standing within a few inches—“I want a man I can be proud of.”

  He knew his face was beet red and his anger was reaching a very dangerous place. “And I want a woman who isn’t a fucking cunt,” he growled, quickly turning away and slamming out of the room and ultimately, the house.

  ****

  Kristie could only stare at the front door her father had stormed out of. She had definitely heard her parents scream at each other over the years, as she had only moments before, but she’d never seen him so upset.