Choked Up

by Hank Edwards

  Jake's phone buzzed, and he looked at the display. "Excuse me." He left the room as he held the phone to his ear.

  Pearce heard Jake say "Hello," but the rest of the conversation was lost as he walked quickly down the hall. Suspicion roiled within him, and he looked at Bata as he contemplated his options. He could flat-out ask Bata how much he knew about Jake's background and whether or not he could be working alongside Morgan, or he could waste time in his efforts to find a clue connecting Jake to Morgan while Calvin's life hung in the balance.

  "You have a question, Agent Pearce?" Bata asked.

  Before Pearce could respond, Jake hurried through the doorway. "Calvin's car was found."

  Pearce was already moving toward the door. "Where?"

  "The parking lot behind the community center where he works," Jake replied. "Patrol car found it and matched the plate to our alert."

  "That's not good," Pearce said as he followed Jake out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. He remembered Mark was in the bathroom and cursed. "I need to let Mark know."

  He'd just turned away from the elevator when he saw Mark hurrying toward him along the hall.

  "What is it?" Mark asked. "Something happen?"

  The sight of Mark's face tightened with concern ignited an internal struggle within Pearce. He wanted to keep Mark close to him, to know he was safe, but was that what was best for Mark?

  "They found Calvin's car," Jake explained, and Mark paled.

  "We don't know he's been taken," Pearce added. "His car's still parked behind the community center."

  Mark nodded, eyes wide. "But it looks more likely that it's the case now."

  Bata had followed them to the elevator. "I will remain here in the office with Mark. Once you have done a high-level processing of the scene, contact me, and I will relay all information to the team on their way in."

  "No," Mark said. "I'm going, too."

  "Mark…" Pearce started.

  "I was in Calvin's car recently," Mark said quickly. "I can tell you if there's anything out of place."

  At that moment, the elevator arrived. Pearce looked to Bata who stared back, waiting for him to make the decision.

  "Fine," Pearce said. "But you do exactly as I say, understand?"

  "I know, I know," Mark said and stepped into the elevator behind Jake.

  Pearce followed Mark and exchanged a look with Bata as the doors closed. He wondered if Bata might have some idea of what was troubling him.

  "This is bad," Mark said in a quiet voice.

  "He might have had car trouble," Pearce suggested.

  "His phone's been off for hours," Mark said in rebuttal.

  "Battery could have died and the charger's in his car," Pearce said.

  A heavy silence filled the elevator for the remainder of the descent. When the doors opened on the garage, Mark stepped out, and Pearce held Jake back.

  "Don't share anything with Mark without clearing it through me," Pearce said in a low voice.

  Jake shook his head. "He needs to know the truth."

  "When I think he's ready for all of it, I'll tell him. Until then, keep it simple and to the point."

  "Yeah? You do that with your emotions, too?" Jake asked as the elevator doors shut.

  Pearce stepped up close to Jake, but Jake didn't back down. He stared hard right back at Pearce.

  "You and I are partners on a case," Pearce said. "I'm not taking any personal-life advice from you, nor do I want to discuss it with you."

  "If you were trying to keep your personal life and your professional life separate, you shouldn't have slept with the witness you were ordered to protect in the first place."

  Pearce clenched his fists as his face heated up. His temper was very close to erupting, and he had to force himself to step back from Jake and break eye contact. They were not doing Calvin any good by arguing.

  "I'm not discussing this with you," Pearce said, his statement punctuated by the elevator doors opening again to reveal Mark standing there, looking worried.

  "What happened to you two?" Mark asked. "I turned around and you were gone. Scared the shit out of me."

  "Sorry." Pearce brushed past Mark and strode across the parking garage, his long legs forcing Mark and Jake to hurry to keep up.

  Jake had the keys and unlocked the car doors as they approached. Pearce got in the passenger seat, slammed the door, and clicked on his seat belt. Mark got into the seat behind Jake, and Pearce stared straight ahead, his thoughts a blur of anger and frustration.

  Jake pulled out of the garage and onto the vacant street. As he drove, he tightened and released his grip on the steering wheel. Pearce saw from the corner of his eye as Jake turned his head to look at him.

  "You've developed quite an attitude around me lately," Jake said. "Do you mind telling me why?"

  "Not right now," Pearce replied.

  "Just pretend I'm not here," Mark said.

  "You shouldn't be here in the first place," Jake replied.

  "Don't talk to him like that," Pearce said.

  "Well it's true," Jake shot back.

  "It doesn't matter. I don't want you talking to him."

  "At all?"

  "For now."

  "Fine," Jake said.

  "Fine."

  Pearce looked out the side window and fumed. He knew he couldn't voice his suspicions to Jake himself. If he was working with Morgan, that would tip them off. Pearce would need to work with Bata to figure out the likelihood of Jake being involved in these murders, and then he'd have to piece together some evidence. For now, he needed to try to keep Jake as close as possible to watch his every move. That would mean, however, that he would have to go back to acting more comfortable around him.

  Though, to be honest, he was a naturally confrontational person, as any of his partners in the past could attest to, so he had that on his side.

  Pearce took a deep breath and looked at Jake.

  "I'm sorry," he said, hating how the words felt in his mouth. "This case is very personal, and now it's… complicated."

  Jake nodded and stared straight ahead. "I get that. But if you let it affect you like this, then Morgan's won, even if he stops killing people."

  Pearce studied Jake's profile for a moment, taking note of his clenched jaw and hands gripping the steering wheel. "You're right. I'll try to keep my head in the case."

  "We've made some missteps," Jake said. "But we're close. I can feel it."

  Pearce nodded. "We are close. I just hope we're in time."

  "We don't know anything yet," Jake said. "Almost there."

  Pearce looked back at Mark and gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile, receiving one in return.

  Twenty minutes later, Jake pulled into the parking lot behind the LGTBQ Community Center. A patrol car sat idling at the far end of the lot, and Jake pulled up alongside. They got out and flashed their badges. Pearce explained that Mark was with them as a consultant. The officer led them over to where yellow tape had been strung between orange traffic cones to surround Calvin's Monte Carlo.

  "Stay behind the tape for now," Pearce said to Mark.

  Mark's gaze was fixed on Calvin's car, but he nodded and stood with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket.

  Pearce stepped over the yellow tape to join Jake and the patrol officer in time to hear the man say, "I left everything just the way I found it. Didn't touch one thing."

  Pearce heard Jake respond, "Good work," as if he were quite a distance away from them. From where he stood, he could see a red silk scarf lying on the driver's seat. A cold pit opened up inside Pearce as he stepped closer and peered in the window. The scarf was the same style, color, and material as those used in the other murders.

  "Same type of scarf," Jake said from beside Pearce. "Just no body to go along with it."

  "Not yet." Pearce looked at the backs of the shop that ran in a line along the far edge of the parking lot. He pointed to the patrol officer and asked, "I didn't get your name.
"

  "Benson," the officer replied, stepping up.

  "Officer Benson, I'm Agent Pearce." He pointed toward the row of stores. "Any stores over there have surveillance cameras aimed back here?"

  "Some might," Benson replied. "The Community Center does for sure, I know that."

  Pearce checked their position from the Community Center. It was a good distance away, but if the cameras were pointed in this direction, there might be something they could use. The model of the car used to take Calvin away, or maybe the grainy glimpse of a face. If Morgan's murdering sidekick had grabbed Calvin, they could get an image of him.

  And Pearce could see whether or not Jake Perrin was working with Morgan.

  "We need to get that video as soon as possible," Pearce said. "Who's your emergency contact for the community center?"

  "Let me check," Benson replied and turned away as he radioed in the request.

  "Think the video would be worth anything from that far away and in the dark?" Jake asked.

  "The car's near a lamp," Pearce replied and pointed toward the pole nearby. "Also, Calvin could have parked closer and whoever took him may have moved the car."

  "Good thinking."

  Benson approached again, his expression tight. "Our first contact on the list is Calvin Gilbert."

  Pearce swore. "That does us no good. Is there a secondary contact?"

  "Erik Hamill," Benson said with a grimace.

  Pearce closed his eyes and hung his head.

  "Fuck," Jake said in a low voice.

  "Anyone else listed?" Pearce asked.

  "Sorry, no," Benson replied. "We only require two contacts."

  "Any idea what time the center opens?" Jake asked.

  "I'll check and see," Benson replied. "And I'll start making calls to the other stores here, see if anyone else has a camera in the back."

  "Thanks," Pearce said. He looked at Jake. "He's got us running scared."

  "Yeah, for now," Jake said. "Think the last two victims coming from this center was intentional?"

  Pearce glanced to where Mark stood watching him closely. "I think Calvin is a way to hurt Mark and, in turn, me. I'm still not sure how Erik fits in. He's been the odd man out this whole time."

  "True," Jake said. "He didn't match the physical description of the other victims, and he wasn't kept as long."

  "Yeah," Pearce said, distracted as he tried to think of a way to get some answers faster. He had a bad feeling about where this would end up, and each minute they stood there was a minute less Calvin had to live.

  30

  Pearce waved to the patrol officer and watched the man drive off before turning toward the hotel. Mark was already walking toward the lobby doors, but Pearce remained in place. When Mark reached the doors, he realized he was alone and turned. With a frown, he walked back to Pearce.

  "What's going on?" Mark asked.

  "I can't stop thinking that I've missed something," Pearce replied. "Something minor, but important."

  "About the case overall or one specific piece of it?"

  "Yeah."

  They shared a tired grin.

  "I need to follow up on some things," Pearce said.

  Mark reached for his phone. "Want me to get a Lyft car or something?"

  "I don't know if you should come along." The knot inside him tightened once again.

  Mark leveled a steady look at him. "I've been along for the ride this far. It's not right to shut me out now."

  "We're right here at the hotel," Pearce said. "You should go inside and sleep, and I'll join you later."

  Mark shook his head. "Not until Calvin's been found." He turned away to walk toward the parking garage just behind the hotel, saying over his shoulder, "Were you planning to take your rental?"

  Pearce looked up to the overcast sky as if for some kind of guidance before he followed. By habit, he'd picked up the keys when they'd headed out the night before, and he was grateful for it now. He'd left Jake to process the scene at Calvin's car with the excuse of wanting to get Mark back to the hotel so he could sleep, and that had been his true intention. But, if he was being honest with himself, Pearce was glad to have Mark with him. He didn't like to admit it, but working with a partner he was comfortable with made things happen. Some of the previous interviews he'd conducted with Jake by his side felt incomplete, and now he intended to try to fill in some missing spaces. Jake, and Bata for that matter, would give him hell for it later, but this needed to be done.

  It took him longer than he'd hoped to find where he'd parked the car. Once they were seated inside, Pearce said, "Give me a minute," and looked through his notebook. He always took thorough notes, and he was never more grateful for that than this moment. He found the page he was looking for, which included the street address he wanted. He read the address to Mark who tapped it into the maps app on his phone to act as navigator. Pearce started the car and headed for the exit.

  "You've spent time in the case room," Pearce said. "Tell me what you've noticed about the victims."

  Mark gathered his thoughts a moment before speaking. "Erik Hamill doesn't match the victim profile."

  Pearce nodded. "You noticed it, too?"

  Mark nodded. "Not at first. Then I started really looking at the pictures while I was sitting in the case room."

  "I noticed it right at the start, and so did Jake."

  "How are you feeling about Jake? That argument on the way to look at Calvin's car was pretty heated. You still don't trust him?"

  "Not entirely," Pearce admitted. "But that's without evidence."

  "Just your gut?" Mark asked.

  "Just my gut."

  "It's sometimes the best barometer."

  "So now we just need to figure out what it was about Erik that made him a target."

  "Do you think the community center is the key?"

  "Might be," Pearce replied. "But it feels too easy."

  "Even now that Calvin's missing?" Mark's voice caught on the last syllable, and Pearce reached over to give his hand a quick squeeze.

  "We'll find him."

  Mark nodded and looked away, brushing tears from his cheeks.

  "And, yeah, even now with Calvin. I'm still not entirely sold on the community center as the answer, but we need to rule it out completely."

  "Yeah," Mark said with a nod, his emotions back in check.

  Traffic going out of the city wasn't too bad for a Monday morning, and before long, Mark had directed him to a two-lane road in the suburb of Troy. Pearce followed it to a subdivision and wound his way around the curved roads until he parked at the curb and looked up at the three-story apartment building where Erik and his cousin Manny had shared an apartment.

  "Where are we?" Mark asked.

  "This is the building where Erik Hamill shared an apartment with his cousin, Manny Bilton."

  "Manny?" Mark repeated. "His name is Manny?"

  "His name is Manny."

  "Okay then, let's go."

  A woman in her sixties walking a small dog gave them a long once-over, and Pearce smiled and nodded as he followed Mark up the walk. They stood outside the glass foyer, and Pearce pressed the button for the apartment, noticing that Manny had changed the tag to read just his own last name of "Bilton" since he and Jake had last been there.

  There was no response, and Pearce swore quietly. Even if they got inside the building, it wouldn't do them any good; they needed to talk to Manny.

  "It is a Monday morning," Mark said.

  "Yeah, but Manny has a mall retail job, so he might be home. Okay, let's go."

  He turned to head back to the car and stopped in surprise. Manny Bilton was approaching along the sidewalk on a skateboard. He wore cargo shorts and a light jacket, with big, padded headphones over his ears and a plastic shopping bag clutched in each hand. He swerved around the older woman walking the dog at the last moment, earning a shouted curse at his back.

  "Well, well, well," Pearce said.

  Mark watched Manny approach. "I
take it this is a guy named Manny?"

  "This is a guy named Manny," Pearce replied.

  Pearce crossed his arms and stood on the low porch watching as Manny turned easily up the walk to the apartment. Manny looked up, saw Pearce, and rolled his eyes before putting down a foot to stop himself. He stomped on the tail of the skateboard, popping it up and grabbing it with his right hand even as he held onto the shopping bag. He kept the headphones on as he shouldered his way between Pearce and Mark, then fumbled a key from his jacket pocket to unlock the door.

  Tipping his head to Mark, Pearce followed Manny inside. Once Manny punched the elevator call button, Pearce tapped him on the shoulder. With a heavy sigh, Manny nudged his headphones off with his shoulders and gave Pearce a bored look.

  "Don't you need a warrant to enter the premises?" Manny asked.

  "Not if I'm invited," Pearce replied.

  "Like a vampire?"

  "You could say that." Pearce gave him a sarcastic smile. "Thanks for the invite, by the way."

  "Whatever," Manny said, and looked over at Mark. "New partner?"

  "Consultant," Pearce replied.

  Manny smirked. "I bet."

  "Manners, Manny," Pearce said.

  The elevator arrived, and Pearce stepped inside first, then held the door open. "Allow me."

  "You're coming up, I take it?" Manny asked.

  "You're very perceptive," Pearce replied. "Floor?"

  "Three," Manny said.

  "Three it is."

  They rode up in silence, guitar heavy music thumping out of Manny's headphones that now hung loose around his neck.

  "You'll lose your hearing listening to it that loud," Pearce said.

  "What?" Manny asked with a grin.

  Pearce shook his head.

  The elevator doors opened, and Pearce followed Manny out of the elevator and along the hall, Mark bringing up the rear. A blend of old cooking smells lingered, and none of it was particularly appealing.