Every Dark Corner (The Cincinnati Series Book 3)

by Karen Rose

  Kate gave the girl her notepad and a pen. ‘Write the names down. I’ll talk with them to confirm your alibi.’ She waited until Chelsea had done so, then continued. ‘You were on the scene this morning when the first responders showed up.’

  Chelsea nodded unsteadily. ‘Yeah. I got back from the library after midnight and Sid wasn’t here, but that wasn’t unusual. Sometimes she’d come in at three, four o’clock in the morning. Especially when she’d been partying. But I woke up at six this morning and she still wasn’t back. I called her cell, but there wasn’t any answer.’

  ‘Did it ring?’ Kate asked gently. ‘Or go straight to voicemail?’

  ‘Straight to voicemail,’ Chelsea whispered, then cleared her throat. ‘I texted, but nothing, so I was worried. I went to the lane and—’

  ‘What lane?’ Kate interrupted.

  Chelsea rolled her eyes. ‘Lovers’ Lane. It’s where you go to get screwed or high.’

  ‘And the college allows this?’ Mrs Siler asked, horrified.

  ‘No, not on paper, anyway,’ Chelsea said. ‘But they don’t patrol there, especially during the summer break, and the cameras are always broken. After those two girls were kidnapped off the campus last year, they fixed all the cameras, but students just broke them again. The school gave up after a few repairs and things went back to the way they were.’

  ‘How did you get to the lane?’ Kate asked her.

  ‘I have a car. When I got there, I saw Sid’s bike. Her motorbike. And then I saw Sid.’ Her voice broke and tears began to run down her face unchecked. ‘I ran over to her, tried to wake her up, but she was cold. So cold.’ She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked. ‘I tried to find a pulse, but there wasn’t one. I . . . I called 911. I didn’t know what else to do. I should have gone down there last night. I should have looked for her when she wasn’t back by midnight. Dammit,’ she cursed hoarsely. ‘Why didn’t I go to check?’

  ‘Because she’d always come home before,’ Kate said gently. ‘And she was probably dead by midnight, so there wouldn’t have been anything you could do. But now you can. You can tell me who sold her the drugs.’

  Chelsea’s wet eyes widened. ‘You think her dealer killed her? That doesn’t make any sense. He wouldn’t kill a customer. He wouldn’t kill his income. He’s not a stupid man.’

  ‘So you do know him?’ Kate murmured.

  Chelsea jerked a nod. ‘You’re going to find my stuff. It’s not a lot. I didn’t use like Sid did. I couldn’t afford it, but mostly I didn’t need it. I used when I had finals. When I needed to stay awake and alert. But I hadn’t used in a while because that’s how Sid started too, and she’d gone out of control. I kept begging her to go to the clinic, but she kept saying no. That she’d quit when she got her degree. When she got published,’ she spat. ‘Goddamn that advisor, always pushing her to publish, publish, publish. “Publish or perish.” Such a fucking joke. Sid perished anyway.’

  ‘What’s her advisor’s name?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Dr Sanderson. She’s relentless.’

  ‘She called us,’ Mr Siler said dully. ‘She sounded ripped up.’

  ‘Sidney said she liked her,’ Mrs Siler added. ‘Was she lying about that too?’

  ‘I’ll check it out as soon as we’re done here,’ Kate told her, as kindly as possible, then turned back to Chelsea, firming her voice. ‘Now for the tough questions. Who was her dealer?’

  Chelsea closed her eyes. ‘I want to tell you. God, I want to tell you! But if the others find out, I’ll be . . . I don’t know what I’ll be, but it won’t be good.’

  ‘You’re worried about being shunned?’ Kate asked, eyebrows lifted.

  ‘No. I’m worried about being beaten up. Or worse. If I tell you, he’ll go under. If he goes under, the supply disappears and then the low-ends move back in. Everyone will be mad.’

  Kate didn’t doubt that Chelsea believed it. ‘Well, I can tell you that if you keep your silence, the “or worse” will happen anyway. Whoever killed Sidney is snipping off loose ends. You are her roommate. You’ve now been seen in the company of a federal agent. How long do you think it’ll take before word gets back to him? He’ll come after you next.’

  Chelsea paled. ‘But I don’t know anything!’

  ‘You knew where she was going,’ Kate said calmly. ‘You knew where to find her.’

  ‘Because her kit wasn’t here! I figured she’d gone out to score. I swear it!’

  ‘And I might even believe you. But Sidney’s killer won’t.’

  ‘But . . . but . . .’ Chelsea sputtered, terror in her eyes. ‘This isn’t fair!’

  ‘Neither is your friend lying in a drawer in the morgue!’ Kate snapped. ‘You’re wasting my time, Chelsea.’ She stood up, took the cuffs from her belt. ‘On your feet.’

  ‘You’re arresting me?’ Chelsea hit a note that made Kate wince.

  ‘Damn straight. Either way you’re going into custody. If you tell me, it’ll be protective custody. If you don’t, gen pop. That’s general population, you know.’

  ‘My roommate had a thing for sociopaths on death row,’ Chelsea snarled, still sitting down. ‘I know what gen pop means. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Agent Coppola. I haven’t done anything wrong.’

  ‘Except buy drugs, however intermittently. And the intermittent nature of your usage is all according to you. Once I search the place, I might find that you’re lying about that.’

  Chelsea flinched and Kate knew she’d scored a direct hit. ‘So stand up, Miss Emory.’ She grabbed Chelsea’s collar, pulled her to her feet, and snapped the cuff on one arm. ‘Last chance.’

  ‘Fuck you,’ Chelsea growled. ‘It’s the Professor. He calls himself the Professor. I don’t know his real name or what he looks like. He wears a fucking disguise.’

  Kate nudged her back into the chair. She didn’t take the cuff off, though. ‘This is a good start. What’s his disguise?’

  ‘He makes himself up to look older. I don’t think most people notice it, but then most people aren’t looking at his face. Most people just want his product. It’s the best around.’

  ‘Which I’m sure we’ll be able to verify in the lab when we find your stash.’

  ‘I want a deal,’ Chelsea said, her chin jutting out stubbornly.

  ‘I can talk to the DA for you. I can’t make a deal myself.’

  ‘Of course you can’t,’ Chelsea muttered.

  ‘I really can’t. That whole law and order thing. I’m the order, not the law. Okay, if no one knows he has a disguise, how did you know?’

  ‘I’m into theater. I do the backstage stuff. One of the times I bought from him, it was hot and his appliances had slipped. I don’t think Sid even noticed. I truly don’t buy from him often, because I can’t afford it.’

  ‘How did Sidney?’ Mr Siler asked. ‘We could barely send her any money at all.’

  Chelsea closed her eyes on a sigh. ‘Sid likes . . . liked to live large. Clothes, jewelry, shoes, vacations. She did what she thought she had to so that she could afford it. She . . . recruited for the Professor. Brought him new clients. Sometimes she bought for them. Kept a little for herself.’

  ‘She was a dealer, too?’ Mrs Siler whispered, her pain as clear as day.

  ‘Sometimes. And sometimes she’d barter . . . things to be able to afford what she wanted.’

  Kate glanced at the parents from the corner of her eye, then met Chelsea’s gaze squarely, unwilling to add to the Silers’ pain by asking the question aloud. The younger woman nodded at her silent question.

  ‘With the Professor?’ Kate murmured.

  ‘No. He didn’t go with anyone. Not that I heard, anyway. At least no one from the college. I imagine he’s doing it with someone. Most people are.’

  Not everybody, Kate thought, sudde
nly realizing it had been more than three long years since she’d done anything with anyone. Cursing at herself, she dragged her thoughts back on track. ‘So how old do you think he really is?’

  ‘Late thirties, early forties maybe. No older than fifty for sure. He moves young.’

  I get that, Kate thought, barely remembering what it was like to move young. ‘Could you tell what he looked like under the appliances?’

  ‘He has blond hair. Dark blond. He wears a wig that’s gray, but his hair is light. His jaw is sharp. Angular. It was the jaw piece that had slipped and exposed his hairline. Just a few millimeters, but enough to see if you were looking. I didn’t want him to know I was looking. If he gets mad, he stops selling for a while.’

  ‘Is that what you meant by him going under?’

  ‘Yeah. Sometimes he’ll go away for a few weeks or longer. Once he disappeared for three months and the cokeheads were walking around campus moaning like zombies. The other dealers’ stuff wasn’t nearly as good.’

  ‘Can you remember when that was?’

  ‘Not if you take me in,’ Chelsea said, acting tough, but it was an act. Kate could see it. The girl was so scared she was shaking.

  ‘I tell you what,’ Kate offered. ‘You promise to tell me what I want to know, and when we leave here I’ll make it known that you held out on me. That you didn’t tell me anything. I’ll make sure your fellow students hear me. The grapevine will do the rest. Do we have a deal?’

  Chelsea hesitated for only a second or two. ‘Yes.’

  ‘But if you screw me, you will be so damn sorry,’ Kate said seriously.

  ‘I won’t,’ Chelsea insisted. ‘Are we almost done?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Kate turned the facts over in her mind and remembered one other thing she needed to know. ‘Do you go to a gym?’

  ‘Yeah. The one on campus. It’s cheap for students.’

  ‘What about the one just off campus?’

  ‘That’s where all the bodybuilders go.’ Chelsea’s brows shot up. ‘Yes, he dealt there, if that’s what you want to know. I had a friend who worked there, a few years ago now. He said the Professor sold the best, purest ’roids anywhere.’

  ‘Did you ever know a guy named Roy?’

  Chelsea shook her head. ‘Like I said, I don’t go for the bodybuilders.’

  ‘Who do you go for?’

  Chelsea swallowed hard, and for the first time Kate thought she was seeing the real woman behind the facade. There was a blistering, searing pain in Chelsea’s eyes, such that Kate knew what her answer would be before she said it. ‘Sid.’

  ‘Oh,’ Kate said quietly. ‘You were lovers?’

  ‘Yeah.’ New tears filled her eyes and she let them fall. ‘I didn’t want her folks to find out this way,’ she said, as if the Silers weren’t sitting in the same room. ‘She was going to tell them. But she kept putting it off until the time was right. But that time never came.’

  Kate exhaled, feeling the exhaustion that weighted her down. ‘So the advisor . . . ?’

  Chelsea’s chin dropped to her chest and her shoulders shook with sobs. ‘I hate that woman. And I hated Sid for selling out. For selling herself. But I still loved her. Pretty stupid, huh?’

  ‘No,’ Kate said quietly. ‘Pretty human.’ She sighed. ‘I’ll have the officer take you in, and you’ll be put in protective custody. I’ll make sure your neighbors hear me tell the officer to throw you in a cell and let you rot with the hookers. Okay? I’m going to put the cuffs on, but gently. Just for show.’

  Chelsea nodded, still sobbing. ‘Okay. Okay.’ She lifted her eyes to the shocked faces of Sidney’s parents. ‘I’m sorry. I should have checked on her. I should have stopped her. I should have dragged her to rehab. I’m so sorry.’

  The Silers nodded, saying nothing while Kate carefully cuffed Chelsea’s hands in front of her and pushed a few tissues into one clenched fist. She brought the officer into the room and gave him instructions just as she’d promised Chelsea, then called for backup to guard the apartment until CSU could arrive.

  She followed Chelsea and the officer into the hall, noting the other doors on the hall easing open. She cocked her jaw, like she was angry. ‘Maybe a night in a cell will change her mind. Make sure she’s not alone. I want her to have the full experience. Put her in with the hookers and maybe she’ll be more willing to talk tomorrow. If not, I can make it even more fun.’

  The officer gave her a brisk nod of full understanding. ‘I’ll make sure it happens.’

  Kate held the pose until Chelsea and the officer disappeared around the corner, then went back into the apartment and closed the door. She leaned back against it, closing her eyes for a fast few seconds. When she opened them, the Silers were staring at her, worry on their faces.

  ‘Are you all right, Agent Coppola?’ Mr Siler asked quietly.

  Kate wanted to be ashamed that she’d allowed the victim’s family to see her fatigue, but she was too tired to care. I need to sleep. I need to see Decker.

  The thought that this Professor had been operating in the city, selling to the college kids for God knew how long without ever being caught, and that he had contacts inside the hospital, the jail and CPD itself was sobering. And frightening. Because that same clever craftiness had nearly ended Decker’s life today. So no, Kate was not all right.

  But she nodded anyway. ‘Yes, sir, but thank you for asking. I normally would have had that conversation in an interview room at the field office, but Chelsea seemed ready to talk. I didn’t want to give her any time to shore up her defenses.’

  ‘I’m glad we heard it,’ Mr Siler said, infinitely more weary than Kate could ever have been. ‘That their child is using drugs is not what any parent wants to hear, but Sidney was our daughter and we loved her. We would have welcomed Chelsea into our family. We still will.’

  ‘She was always like a daughter to us,’ Mrs Siler said faintly. ‘Now, more so. She’s all we have left of Sidney.’ She broke down then, crying in her husband’s arms.

  ‘Would you like to see Sidney tonight?’ Kate asked. ‘Or we can wait until tomorrow.’

  ‘Tonight,’ Mr Siler managed. ‘Then we can grieve in peace.’

  ‘All right. As soon as another officer comes to guard the door, I’ll drive you to see your daughter, and then I’ll find you a place to stay.’

  Twelve

  Cincinnati, Ohio,

  Thursday 13 August, 7.30 P.M.

  Bottle of wine in hand, he locked the basement door and retrieved his keys. He entered the living room with the bottle angled so that JJ could see the label. ‘One of my best.’

  She was sitting where he’d left her, in exactly the same position, the same expression on her face. If he hadn’t heard her messing with his keys, he never would have suspected. ‘I like that one,’ she said with an approving nod. ‘It’ll go well with the steak.’

  He sighed loudly as he went behind the bar and bent down to search for a corkscrew. And to slip the GHB into her glass. He filled the glasses with rich red wine. ‘I was thinking,’ he said.

  ‘About?’ she prompted when he didn’t go on.

  He swirled the wine, making sure the powder in her glass was dissolved. ‘You shouldn’t have to deal with Mallory’s insolence. I’m sorry, JJ.’

  She smiled at him when he offered her the glass and sat down beside her. ‘As long as she’s taught how to behave, I’m sure I’ll live.’

  No, you really won’t. He gently clinked their glasses together. ‘Thank you for the heads-up today. I appreciate you telling me about Davenport. I suppose I’ll have to find another way.’

  She sipped her wine. ‘That’s going to be tough. I found out that he’s left the hospital.’

  He sucked in a sharp breath. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  She frowned at him. ‘I was
going to. That’s the other reason I came over. But then Mallory picked a fight.’ JJ’s lip poked out in a slight pout, not an attractive look for a woman of her age. ‘He left the hospital around four o’clock. I found out from the charge nurse who came on duty second shift while I was driving over here with our dinner. That we’re not going to eat tonight.’

  Fuck the damn dinner. ‘Did the charge nurse know where he went?’

  ‘No, but she told me who he left with.’

  He waited for a split second, then made an impatient sound. ‘JJ?’

  ‘Will you fire Mallory?’

  Oh, you are gonna suffer, he thought furiously, but kept his expression impatient. ‘I said I’d punish her. If I fire her, who’s going to clean up after Roxy? Who’s going to change her sheets when she vomits and pisses all over herself? You?’

  ‘Hell no,’ JJ said with a grimace. ‘I get enough vomit and pee at work, thank you very much. Will you at least look for a replacement?’

  No way, he thought, wishing he could kill JJ now. But he had too many questions and he didn’t think she’d be terribly forthcoming without incentive, and incentive took time. He had too many things to do tonight to work her over now. He’d dope her up and put her on ice till later.

  ‘I will do that,’ he said. ‘Who did Davenport leave with?’

  ‘Dani Novak,’ she said, then made a face, gulping a big mouthful of wine as if the woman’s name tasted bad. ‘She quit, y’know. She never should have been working in a hospital to begin with.’ Disgust twisted her mouth. ‘Exposing everyone in the ER to HIV.’

  His eyes widened, his surprise genuine. He knew Dani Novak, but hadn’t expected her to be taking care of Davenport. He supposed he should have. Dani’s brother was FBI too. It would make sense that they’d be concerned about Davenport after his near miss that morning. ‘Selfish,’ he agreed. ‘Did you get re-tested?’

  ‘I did.’ JJ shuddered. ‘If she’d given me HIV, I’d’ve killed her myself.’

  ‘I know Dr Novak. She took care of one of my patients when he broke his arm ice-skating last winter. But I had no idea she was HIV positive.’