Marked for Murder

by Donna Raider

  “I would like that.” Jerry nodded. “We could have lunch together.”

  “I have a luncheon engagement.” Mika smiled.

  “We’ll plan on Monday afternoon.” Jerry nodded.

  “Darius, would you send an email to the others to let them know we will only meet half a day on Monday?” Mika asked her co-chair. “They may have something they would like to do.”

  Darius nodded. “May I join you?”

  “Of course,” Mika said.

  “I prefer it be just you and me if you don’t mind,” Father Jerry objected.

  “I…” Mika started to argue, but simply shrugged her shoulders, casting Darius a confused look.

  Father Branch caught Father Jerry by the arm, determined not to let the man get away without meeting with him. He wanted to know why the handsome priest was so friendly with Mika Cross.

  ##

  A light snow had covered the city when the Cross family awoke Saturday morning. Everyone gathered in the dining hall and shared their experiences of the week.

  Leah’s crew had accomplished their goal for the week, and even Stiles was happy with where they were on the production schedule. Leah was scheduled to ride with Carlie next week to get the feel for the action in the next episode.

  Mika informed them her meetings were going as planned. She did not tell them of her increasing worry over the bitterness that was arising from the discussions.

  Adam had arrived on Friday, but Sara and their oldest son were absent.

  Rachel and Jacob had received scholarship offers from several colleges for advanced degrees. They were discussing the pros and cons with their parents. After breakfast, they helped Regina and Matt with their science projects.

  Hannah and Mark were playing with Eve and Paul.

  Amber was taking Adam to the Lexus dealership she had purchased in White Plains, about thirty miles outside New York.

  “I sold the one in Maine,” Amber explained. “I needed to reinvest so the government wouldn’t take all the money.”

  They all agreed that they would go to The Rink at Rockefeller Center and ice skate in the afternoon. The four youngest children stayed with Nana. Mika and Leah were just beginning to teach Hannah and Mark to skate. Adam and Amber took turns with Rachel and Jacob in teaching Hannah and Mark to improve their skating skills.

  Like most Saturdays, the family ended the day sprawled out in the TV room, watching the latest Disney video.

  ##

  At ten o’clock on Sunday, James always made two trips to get the Cross family to the cathedral. Mika rode with their five sons. Leah and their daughters, with Nana, followed them on the second trip. Amber always rode in the car with the extra space. Today she rode with Leah, as Sara wasn’t home for the weekend. The priest seated her sons inside the cathedral and went to wait on the curb for her wife and daughters.

  Watcher curiously observed the white limo pull up to the curb of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He watched six incredibly handsome males disembark from the car. Watcher guessed the female was the mother of the others. She seemed to be instructing everyone else. They entered the cathedral.

  Soon the woman returned to the curb. For the first time, Watcher recognized the woman as Mika Cross. Cross was on his list.

  Soon the same white limo pulled to the curb and deposited some of the most beautiful females he had ever seen. From the youngest to the oldest, each one was gorgeous in their unique way. The most regal brunette was indescribably beautiful. She looked very familiar to him. He couldn’t quite place her. She lowered a veil over her face before entering the church. He could tell by the way Mika Cross held her arm that the brunette was her wife.

  Watcher slipped into a seat in the last pew just as the service started. He surveyed the congregation. Bishop Cantrell was on the dais. Father Darius, Father Branch, Father Halcyon, and Father Williams were all in attendance. They were all conspicuously seated on the front row of the church. Cross and her family discreetly sat at the back of the church.

  Father Joseph Williams was removed as co-chair of the steering committee under the guise of ill health. The truth was accusations of the old priest’s pedophilic activities were surfacing more and more frequently. The diocese wanted him removed from any office where he would be visible. He would be reassigned to some hole in the wall in Montana, on the other side of the continent. The final decision wasn’t made yet. Watcher was waiting for further instructions.

  After the service, the white limo made two more runs, returning its precious cargo home.

  ##

  After everyone was in bed, Mika showered then joined her wife in the sitting area of their bedroom. Leah asked her to run through her latest script. She always learned her lines quickly. Sometimes they made notes on things that would make Leah’s role in the TV series more realistic.

  “I think that’s enough for tonight.” Leah smiled, settling herself on her wife’s lap.

  She kissed Mika slowly, one of those soul-searing kisses that started her blood boiling. Mika slid her hand under Leah’s blouse and gently caressed her soft, smooth skin.

  “Umm,” Leah moaned. “Why are we sitting here when we could be in bed?”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Mika smiled.

  “Let me take a quick shower.” Leah kissed her again.

  Mika was reading the script once more when she heard Leah curse softly, “Dammit, this is the real curse.”

  Mika knew Cranky Leah was back.

  “Darling, I’m sorry,” Leah said as she pulled on her pajama bottoms.

  “It’s just fine, honey.” Mika laughed. “That’s not all I married you for, you know.”

  ##

  “Look who I found in our lobby,” Adam announced as he ushered Carlie Carlyle into his parents’ apartment.

  He stopped as he noticed his parents on the balcony, kissing. “You’ll have to give them a minute. They do that a lot.”

  Unaware that they had an audience, the couple pulled back enough to look into each other’s eyes. “Meet me at Joe’s for lunch?” The priest kissed her again lightly.

  “I would love that.” Leah leaned her head against Mika’s breast, content to hear her heartbeat. Mika gently caressed her back as Leah stroked hers.

  Adam cleared his throat, not sure where they were heading and not wanting them to be embarrassed. They both blushed slightly when they realized they had an audience.

  “Carlie,” Leah welcomed her advisor. “You should have called me. I would have come down. You didn’t have to come all the way up here.”

  “Good morning, Carlie.” The priest smiled. “How about a cup of coffee?”

  “That sounds great.” The detective followed the priest to the kitchen, where she poured four cups of coffee. She handed one to her guest and carried one to her wife, nodding to Adam to help himself to the other one.

  “Leah tells me that today you two are retracing the path you took tracking down a serial killer.” Mika frowned.

  “One of the most vicious criminals I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.” Carlie nodded.

  “According to the script, you were almost one of his victims.” Mika scowled.

  “Yes.” The detective nodded.

  “Please be careful with my wife, she is the most important thing in my life,” Mika cautioned.

  Mine, too, Carlie thought. All weekend she had been looking forward to the time alone with the beautiful actress.

  ##

  Carlie skillfully maneuvered the crowded streets of Manhattan, heading for the Trump Place Apartments on Riverside Boulevard.

  “Your serial killer lived in a ritzy part of town,” Leah commented as she realized where they were headed. “According to the script, he was a resident of Trump Place.”

  “Yes.” The detective nodded. “That was one of the things that made it so difficult to catch him. Like Cross Towers, Trump Place is almost impossible to get into. The rich have their privileges. Privacy is one of them.”

  “I see.” T
he actress nodded, ignoring the slight slam.

  The two rode in silence as Carlie’s car crawled through the traffic jam caused by a capsized bicycle taxi. Leah could sense the tension in her friend but wasn’t sure what was causing it.

  “So,” Carlie broke the silence, “are we going to discuss the elephant in the room?”

  Leah had no idea what she was referring to, so she simply sat quietly, hoping to be enlightened.

  “My date for the Emmy Awards,” the detective continued. “Jennifer, you haven’t commented on her.”

  Leah was surprised that Carlie felt this was something they should discuss. “What about her? Is something wrong with her?”

  “She is a woman,” Carlie said slowly, as if explaining something difficult to a slow learner. “She is my significant other.”

  “What’s wrong with that?” Leah asked.

  Before Carlie could comment, a call came over the radio. “Carlyle, we have a potential homicide at the Arms Apartments. Looks like your bailiwick.”

  “The fun never ends.” Carlie grimaced as she pulled her sedan out of the lane she was in and made a right turn.

  “What do you think it is?” Leah asked.

  “At the Arms, it could be anything.” Carlie exhaled. “Druggie, prostitute, gun deal gone bad. It probably isn’t even my case. We head the high-profile-crime unit, not homicide. They are just short of people today. The flu is running rampant throughout our department.”

  Leah was amazed at the blockade the police had put up around the entrance to the Arms Apartments. Uniformed police officers were keeping sightseers from entering the building.

  Carlie flashed her badge. “She’s with me.” She motioned to Leah then led her into the building.

  “Hey, isn’t that Leah Redman?” someone in the crowd yelled. The crowd pushed forward, overwhelming the line of police officers. Without a twitch, Leah threw up a shield around the officers, holding the crowd at bay. Confused, the crowd backed away from the invisible police barricade. Leah dropped the shield. All she had needed was enough time to get inside and stop the craziness. The shield had been removed almost as quickly as it had been put into place.

  “The body is on the third floor,” a uniformed officer said, leading them to the elevator. “Looks like a suicide.”

  “Why call me?” Carlie huffed as she entered the apartment.

  “Because of this.” The officer opened a closet to reveal the clothes in it.

  Leah sucked in air so quickly, it was almost dizzying. She immediately recognized the clothes in the closet. They belonged to a priest. Her large brown eyes locked with Carlie’s as the detective pulled on gloves and tossed her a pair.

  “Don’t touch anything,” the detective ordered.

  “Has the crime unit been notified?” The detective moved about the room, taking notes on anything that would affect the case.

  “On their way, ma’am,” the officer responded, “but it looks like a suicide, the exit bag.”

  “Exit bag?” Leah raised a questioning eyebrow. “What is that?”

  “Suffocation,” the officer answered proudly, happy to speak with the gorgeous television star. “They tie a plastic bag over their head. Suffocation is caused by the high levels of carbon dioxide that are breathed back into the bag. The body is in the kitchen.”

  “That will be all, Officer Sloan.” Carlie scowled at the uniformed officer as she read his name badge. “We will take it from here.

  “You should probably stay here.” Carlie grimaced at Leah. “I need to check the body.”

  “I’d rather be with you,” the actress whispered. She wasn’t afraid, she just wanted to know as much as possible. Obviously, a priest was involved somehow.

  Carlie nodded and led the way into the small kitchen. The body of an attractive bleached-blonde woman lay sprawled on the linoleum floor, a plastic bag pulled over her head and tied tightly around her neck.

  The detective picked up the woman’s hands one at a time and studied them closely. She checked the tightness of the tie around her neck. She stared for a long time at the face inside the bag.

  “I’ll wait until Dr. Davis gives us a preliminary report,” Carlie said, “but I am pretty sure this isn’t suicide.”

  “What makes you think that?” Leah asked.

  “She is definitely a fan of manicures.” Carlie lifted the woman’s hand so Leah could see it. “Several of her fake nails have been ripped off and are scattered on the floor. That tells me she put up a fight. The real clincher is the bruise on her cheek. It tells me she took a blow to the face prior to being bagged. I just need to know how close to dying that occurred.”

  “If it’s not suicide,” Leah said, frowning, “it must be murder.”

  The medical examiner and crime scene unit arrived at the same time. Carlie cleared everyone from the room until Dr. Ben Davis did the usual preliminary, liver temperature, etc. to determine time of death. “She’s been dead about six hours,” Davis said. “I would put time of death at four or five this morning.”

  The thought flashed through Leah’s mind that while she had been making love to her wife, someone had been murdering this poor woman.

  “I don’t want to remove the bag from her head until I have her on my table.” Davis nodded for his assistants to remove the body. “I am pretty sure you’re right, Carlie, this one was definitely marked for murder.”

  Leah cringed at the use of her TV series’ name. “Sorry,” Carlie apologized, “I am afraid our show has become a pun for almost every murder in the precinct.

  “I don’t have to tell you to fingerprint everything,” the detective spoke casually. “Her purse and ID are on the dresser. That rules out robbery. No needle marks, so I’m guessing no drug deal gone bad. I’m going to check out the priest’s clothes.”

  Leah made a quick survey of the apartment. It was neat and clean. The furniture wasn’t expensive but was decorated nicely. It was comfortable, homey. It looked like someone had tried to provide a home, a sanctuary, for a loved one.

  Carlie quickly ascertained the wearer of the clothes was over six feet tall, slim, and had coarse black hair. A thorough check of pockets revealed no additional information. She made an unmitigated check of drawers, closets, and shelves, searching for anything that would identify the owner of the men’s clothes in the closet. She came up empty-handed.

  She made a phone call. “How long before you two get here?” she barked into the phone. “I need you to interview everyone in these apartments. Find out if anyone has seen a priest visiting our dead woman. I need an artist sketch.”

  Her team consisted of Ray Benton and Jane Holly, two of the best detectives on the force. She knew they would find something.

  Leah glanced at her watch. She was to meet her wife in fifteen minutes.

  “Carlie, I promised Mika I would meet her at noon for lunch,” Leah informed her friend.

  “Lunch sounds good. I’ll take you. We’re finished here.” Carlie gave additional instructions to the CSI team and led Leah from the apartment.

  Leah knew Mika would be disappointed that they would be dining with company, but she didn’t know a graceful way to prevent Carlie from joining them.

  Once they were in the car, Leah called her wife. “Darling, I wanted to let you know I will be a few minutes late and Carlie is joining us.”

  “I love you too.” She chuckled at Mika’s pitiful groan at the news of someone else dining with them.

  “You know, a priest may be involved in this case.” Carlie glanced sideways at Leah, who simply nodded.

  “Do you mind if I ask Mika some questions before we tell her about the case?” Carlie asked.

  “Whatever you need to do to catch the killer of that poor girl,” Leah replied. “I’m certain Mika will help any way she can.”

  Carlie had never eaten at Vincent’s French Cuisine. It was a little pricy for her pocketbook, but Mika had insisted on her being their guest. The food was excellent. The service extraordinary. The
owner was always in the background, providing whatever they needed long before they requested it. He had bowed and kissed Leah’s hand when they entered the restaurant. He served wine without questioning what they wanted. Obviously, they were regulars at Vincent’s.

  After Leah had settled beside the priest, Carlie began her questions. It was difficult to talk to Mika with Leah sitting directly across from her. Carlie truly only wanted to admire the extreme beauty of the other woman. Dispelling visions of Leah in her arms, she addressed the priest.

  “You have some kind of conference or religious meetings going on in the church right now?” The detective nodded as she spoke, already aware of the answer.

  “Yes.” Mika frowned. “Why do you ask?”

  “Are there a lot of out-of-town priests here for the meetings?” Carlie continued, ignoring her question.

  “Yes.”

  “I assume they are from all over the country.” Carlie sipped the wine. Whoa, that is awesome, she thought as she placed the glass back on the table, watching it as if she expected something magic to transpire.

  “All over the world,” Mika volunteered. “Leah, what is going on?” She turned to her wife, expecting an answer. Leah gently applied pressure to Mika’s thigh, calming her.

  Carlie’s cell broke the silence as Mika waited for an answer. The detective listened, frowning as the caller provided her several minutes’ worth of information. She hung up and addressed the priest.

  “A woman was murdered early this morning,” she explained, watching Mika’s face for any change of expression. “It appears a priest was involved.”

  A dark shadow passed over Mika’s usually pleasant face. “I sincerely hope not.” She bowed her head as if in silent prayer.

  Carlie’s cell dinged receipt of a text. She opened it to reveal a decent-looking photo of the victim. She was glad they hadn’t sent her the usual morgue shot. She held out the phone so Leah and Mika could see the photo.

  “Do you know this woman?”

  “No.” They shook their heads.

  “Her name is Ellen Anthony, age thirty-six,” the detective delivered her next information slowly, watching the priest’s eyes. “She was a medium-priced prostitute.”