by Vivien Chien
After I put her collar on, the two of us exited the apartment and Kikko, now having livened up, scuttled over to her favorite tree trunk to give it a good sniff. There was a toy fox terrier that had just moved in three apartments down and I suspected that Kikko was excited to mark her territory.
I needed to talk this over with Kimmy, and Megan … and probably Adam. Adam could help me figure out what to do in regards to Detective Bishop. Without the original affair photos, it would be difficult to prove that Anthony Bianco would have a motive for killing Margo.
Trying to imagine my conversation with Adam, I ran potential scenarios of what he might say. And I knew without a doubt, the first thing he’d say was, “There’s nothing connecting Anthony to the crime scene besides your word. You were the only one who remembers seeing him talk to Margo that night.”
Then I could see him reminding me that both Sabrina and I had withheld evidence from the police, and that was maybe the only evidence that would convince Bishop of foul play enough to make him look into someone other than Robert Larkin and me.
I cursed the situation, which startled Kikko, and she stared at me as if to say, “What did I do?”
Giving her a reassuring coo, I encouraged her to keep sniffing, and we went on our way around the cluster of buildings to the next group of apartments. We spent about twenty minutes ambling around when Kikko decided she was ready to return home for more nap time.
As I removed her leash and pulled out her bag of treats, I convinced myself that what I needed was a confession from Anthony Bianco. But just exactly how was I going to pull that off?
Getting into the car, I sat for a minute before turning the engine on. My mind was moving a thousand miles a minute. Though I had more information than I’d had this morning, it still wasn’t enough to come completely clean with Detective Bishop. In the excitement of everything going on earlier that morning, I’d never gotten the chance to call him like I’d planned to.
I turned the car on, checking the time. I decided to make a pit stop before heading back to Asia Village.
* * *
As I trudged along down Ridge Road, I realized the error of my ways. Thinking there wasn’t going to be much traffic on the way to Parma was a mistake I’d never make again. But I was almost there and had to keep going at this point. To calm my nerves, I practiced the apology I would recite to Nancy upon my return to the noodle house.
I finally pulled into the parking lot of the Parma police station and let out a heavy sigh. Here we go, Lana.
Stepping into the vestibule, I reminded myself to breathe normally and to remember that I was, in fact, an innocent person trying to be a good citizen. There was no reason to appear as if I’d been caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
A woman, slightly older than myself, with her hair in a French braid that looked as if it was tugging at her scalp, stared up at me as I approached the plexiglass partition that separated us.
Her muted voice came through the slot at the bottom of the plastic wall. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, I was wondering if I could speak with Detective Bishop? My name is Lana Lee, and I wanted to update something on a statement I recently gave for a murder investigation.”
She sized me up, appearing unimpressed with my professional adult voice. With little emotion, she gestured to a grouping of chairs across from her counter. “Have a seat. I’ll see if the detective is available.”
I smiled a thanks, and turned to see the cluster of chairs that had undoubtedly seated several a nervous visitor.
Feeling the tension in my throat, I cleared it—perhaps a little too loudly—and the dispatcher flicked her eyes up at me with what I couldn’t deny as annoyance.
I folded my hands in my lap and circled my thumbs anxiously one around the other, trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to gain her attention. Though she hadn’t gotten up from her seat, I didn’t imagine her to be much bigger than myself. However, I still wouldn’t want be caught alone with her in a dark alley.
A few minutes later, I heard a door open, and footsteps coming in my direction. I turned around to see the detective approaching me with papers in one hand and a pen in the other.
I stood when he’d reached my seat. “Hello, Detective Bishop.”
“Miss Lee,” he replied with a nod.
“Sorry to bother you midday, but I didn’t think I should wait any longer.”
“My dispatcher told me that you had an addition to make to your statement.”
“Yes,” I replied. “You see, I—”
He thrust the paper and pen at me. “No need to recite it to me verbatim, Miss Lee. Writing it down on this form will be satisfactory. I have some things to attend to. Why don’t you go ahead and turn this into the dispatcher when you’re finished. I’ll call you if I have any questions.”
I pursed my lips at his dismissal, but let’s face it, I wasn’t going to talk back to an officer of the law. I forced a smile. “Sure thing, Detective.” I took the pen and paper from him and sat back down.
He left without saying anything further.
Detective Bishop hadn’t bothered with a clipboard, so I awkwardly knelt at the coffee table that was centered between the chairs. It was too far away from the seat to be of use, and I didn’t want to drag it across the linoleum and annoy the dispatcher further.
I quickly scribbled down the information about finding the identity of Anthony Bianco, and emphasized that he was the last known person to be seen with Margo Han while she was still alive.
I capped the pen and rose from my crouched position, taking the paper over to the counter where the dispatcher had been eyeballing me. “All finished then?”
I nodded and slid the paper and pen through the slot.
She took them from me and wished me a nice day.
I’d made it halfway through the parking lot when I heard a man’s voice yell, “Hey!”
Turning around, I saw that it was Detective Bishop, and he was jogging toward me with a frown on his face and what I assumed to be my new report clutched in his hand.
I met his frown with one of my own, but let him speak first.
“Are you kidding me with this?” he said, shaking the paper in his fist. “I distinctly remember telling you to stay out of it. But you can’t seem to follow instructions.”
“Well, I didn’t do it on purpose,” I lied. “I was signing up for a new class, and I ran into him while I was there. I learned his name and figured you should know who he was. It could help the investigation.”
He scowled. “First of all, Miss Lee, I don’t need your help in solving a murder investigation. I’m the trained professional in this scenario. Not you.”
“I never said I was,” I replied. It came out timidly, but I hadn’t meant it to.
“Second of all, I hope you understand how serious it is for you to try and falsely incriminate someone else. I don’t have time to play games with you, and this smells of you trying to throw me off.”
“I would never do such a thing,” I said, feeling my face warm. “I really just want to help, Detective.”
“More like help take the attention off you and that janitor, Larkin.” He jabbed the papers in my direction. “Mark my words, Miss Lee, if I find out at all that this is fabricated in any way, I will make sure that you see the inside of a jail cell for obstruction.”
I stood staring at him as he challenged me with his eyes to say something else. I didn’t. With satisfaction, he spun on the heel of his cheap dress shoes and stormed back into the building.
This time, I knew it was a threat, and I didn’t think anyone else would mistake it for anything less.
CHAPTER 31
Rushing back to Asia Village feeling frazzled, I worried less about the speed limit when I realized just how long I’d been gone. I still needed to stop at the bank, and fortunately it was on my way back to the plaza, so I didn’t have to go out of the way.
I was no longer concerned with being fo
llowed because I knew the only person it would be was Bridget, and I needed to talk with her anyway. Where was a stalker when you needed one?
When I returned to Ho-Lee Noodle House, I found Kimmy and Nancy lounging at the hostess station having what appeared to be an amusing chat. I watched the two women and wondered if one day, Nancy would be Kimmy’s mother-in-law.
I glanced around the dining area and noted that only two tables were filled, and they were both in mid-meal. I approached the women, trying to appear as if I weren’t out of breath, and laughed. “Well, looks like my worries about a lunch rush weren’t necessary after all.”
Kimmy gestured to the two tables of customers. “These are the first people to come in since you left. It’s been pretty slow in the plaza all week, really. I’m not that surprised.”
Nancy nodded in agreement. “It’s this nice weather we’re having. Everyone likes to be outside. Pretty soon, it will be too late to get some sunshine.”
The three of us acknowledged the truth in that statement, and then Nancy excused herself while she went to check on our customers. When she was out of earshot, Kimmy grabbed my arm and steered me toward the lobby area so we couldn’t be overheard. “Where have you been? You took forever.”
I filled her in on my impromptu visit with Detective Bishop.
“Damn,” she replied. “You might have just made it worse for yourself, Lee. I wish you would have told me you were going, I would have talked you out of it.”
“It’s too late now,” I said with a sigh.
“Well, forget about that for now. We have other things to think about it. What happened with the handwriting? Did they match?”
“They did,” I told her. “And I think Bridget could be in danger.”
“Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let’s go take down Anthony Bianco ourselves. Forget that stupid Detective Bishop. We’ve got this handled.”
I huffed. “We can’t do that. Technically we don’t have concrete proof.”
“Yeah, but he was there that night and he’s probably the one we want anyways,” Kimmy said. “We can try and get him to confess somehow and record it on our phones. Then you can take that evidence to Bishop.”
“And how do you suppose we’d get someone to confess to committing murder? Maybe if we had the photos, we could use that angle, but with no evidence to go on, we just sound like crazy people. Then he’d probably call the cops on us, and Bishop’s hopes of getting me into a jail cell would become a reality.”
Kimmy threw her hands up. “Well damn. I don’t know what else we can do, Lana. We’re so close to getting this damn guy. You’re right there, if only we had that picture to prove he was into some shady stuff, then we’d be set. We could really use that Sabrina chick right about now. Hell, if she had just gone to the cops with the photo, there’d be no need to implicate ourselves in the snooping around we’ve done.”
“That’s what Adam said too. That’s why he thinks she’s guilty of something. But now all I think is that she’s guilty of helping Bridget suck me into this mess.”
“Okay, we have to come up with something. Let’s do this. Obviously, we’re both stuck working for the time being. Let’s finish our shifts, think of a plan before the end of the day, and then we can get together after work to figure out what our next step should be.”
With a sigh, I concurred, and she left the restaurant wishing me a speedy afternoon.
* * *
One of the conclusions I came up with that I couldn’t work around was that we needed evidence of the three photos that started this mess. If Bridget called me back, I could set up a time to meet, confront her, and ask her for the originals. She had to have kept a copy for herself. Maybe she could shed some light on where the heck Sabrina had been hiding too.
I also considered that Kimmy and I may need to get back up to the school and find some information on Sabrina. I doubted that anyone in the administration office would give me personal details about an intern, but maybe I could play the part of cousin again.
My mind drifted back to Robert Larkin and I wondered if there was any way he could be of help. Being a staff member, he may be able to get what I needed to track down Sabrina.
Around quarter past five, my mother and grandmother strolled into the restaurant, and I held back the urge to scream. I’d forgotten all about our intended shopping trip for that evening.
I had to figure out a way to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I had about fifteen minutes before I was supposed to meet Kimmy.
“Oh hey, Mom,” I said casually. “What are you doing here?”
My mother’s eyes widened. “What do you mean what am I doing here?” She sauntered up to the hostess podium giving me her best mom glare. “We are going shopping tonight. Did you forget about Mommy already?”
“I thought you said tomorrow,” I said, smacking my forehead. “I already have plans tonight.”
She clucked her tongue at me. “No, no, tonight. We are going tonight. We are already here,” she said, waving a hand of dismissal at me and storming toward the kitchen.
My grandmother shrugged at me, smiled, and followed after my mother.
“Crap,” I mumbled. “Now what do I do?”
Hopping off my stool, I went into the back to somehow convince my mother that tonight was not going to work. I found her and my grandmother in the kitchen, chatting with Peter.
“Mom,” I said, interrupting their conversation. “Really, I can’t do tonight. You told me Thursday so that’s what I had planned.”
My mother wagged a finger at me. “I am getting old, but not that old, Lana. I know we said we would go today. Now go get your purse, it is almost time to go.”
“It’s my fault,” Peter blurted out.
We both turned to him, equally surprised.
“What is your fault, Peter?”
He let out a theatrical huff and bobbed his head back and forth. “I didn’t want to tell you, but Kimmy and I are having problems and Lana is trying to help us. I need to pick out a really good present to win back Kimmy before it’s too late.”
If I could have started clapping, I would have. Peter knew this was exactly the sort of thing my mother would cave for—the man admitting that he had erred.
My mother assessed him. “If this is true, maybe I should help too.”
“No, Mom,” I said, taking a step forward and putting a hand on her shoulder. “That would probably embarrass Peter. It’s better if it’s just the two of us.”
My mother looked to Peter for confirmation.
He nodded. “Yeah, Mama Lee, it would be too weird. Can I just borrow Lana tonight, and then I promise even I will make her go shopping with you tomorrow.” His eyes slid toward me.
“Okay, okay,” my mother said, throwing her hands in the air. “You young people go do young people things.” She relayed the story to my grandmother who nodded and declared, “Buffet!”
My mother accepted the suggestion and they said their goodbyes.
Peter and I stood in the kitchen, silent and maybe waiting for the other to speak.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Yeah, yeah, you owe me.”
CHAPTER 32
I met up with Kimmy after work and told her about what had happened with my mom showing up and Peter saving the day.
“Wow,” Kimmy replied. “I’m totally surprised by that.”
“Me too. He told me that I owed him, so I’m sure I’ll have to deal with that later, but I can worry about that another day. Right now, we have more pressing issues to be concerned with.”
“So, what’s the game plan?”
“Well, Bridget hasn’t called me back yet. I sent her a text message to let her know that it’s me calling her in case she didn’t recognize the number or listen to the message. I don’t know what she does for work, so maybe she’s busy right now. In the meantime, we need to head to Barton’s and see if we can find out about Sabrina.”
We decided to drive together, so we
could hash things out on the way over. I filled her in on the rest of the plan, which was to get some contact information on Sabrina by pretending to be a family member.
Kimmy agreed it was a good course of action. “Maybe I should be the cousin this time though. You didn’t do very good with your last acting performance.”
The parking lot at Barton’s was practically full, so it was good we’d driven together. There was a spot toward the back of the lot, and I hurriedly parked the car before anyone else could come by and take it.
Classes must have just been starting because there were a ton of students in the common area. We made our way through the maze of people ambling around, and stopped in front of the administration office. Both of us shocked by what we saw through the windows.
It was Sabrina Hartford.
She was unfortunately sitting next to Grumpy Pants, and I dreaded having to acknowledge the woman’s presence. Kimmy agreed to go into the administration office without me and ask Sabrina to come out and talk with us.
My blood was boiling. Here I was worried about the slim possibility that she had been kidnapped and there she was acting as if today were just another day. Now I was convinced without a shadow of a doubt that she was working with Bridget Hastings. The sneaky little rats.
A few minutes later, Kimmy came out of the administration office with Sabrina in tow. I reminded myself to keep cool because we were in public and I couldn’t afford an outburst with Grumpy Pants in the immediate vicinity. Knowing my luck, she’d have me escorted out of the building.
As Sabrina approached me, appearing rather confused, I folded my arms across my chest, and gave her the best look of disapproval I could muster. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?”
“Huh?” she asked, her upper lip curling. “What do I have to say for myself? Nothing?”
“Where the heck have you been?” I asked. “My friend Kimmy and I were looking for you the other day and they said you were a no call, no show.”