by Karen Rose
Lucy’s expression showed her skepticism as to Hyatt’s intent. JD agreed with her.
‘So to get to the point, Peter,’ Daphne said, articulating each word. ‘The file.’
Lucy looked around the room. ‘What file?’
‘What file?’ JD and Stevie said at the same time.
‘The file we found in Bennett’s condo when we did our search,’ Elizabeth Morton replied. ‘It was on his desk. It’s a file about you, Dr Trask.’
Hyatt reached backward to pull a thick folder from his desk. ‘Copies,’ he said and handed the file to JD.
JD put the file on Hyatt’s desk and began sorting. Lucy stood at his side, looking over each page as he did. ‘Oh my God,’ she murmured. ‘What is this?’
‘Looks like everything you ever did,’ JD said, turning the pages. ‘College transcripts, articles on your arrest and trial, your move here to Baltimore. Everything.’
She leaned over his arm, riffling through the pages. ‘No, not everything. The articles about the trial are here, but the one on the verdict isn’t.’ She turned to look at Elizabeth Morton. ‘Did you remove it?’
‘No,’ Elizabeth said. ‘We saw the article on the trial and called Daphne over to see it.’
‘I was there in case they found any patient records,’ Daphne said when Lucy frowned at her, puzzled. ‘We have to protect doctor-patient confidentiality. We all made a few calls and dug up the story in a short time. We pretty quickly determined you’d been fully cleared of any wrongdoing in the accident.’
‘Then why this?’ she asked, anger making her voice tremble. ‘Why sandbag me?’
Hyatt sat behind his desk. ‘I wanted to be sure you truly had nothing to hide. If you’d minimized your role or denied it happened, then I wouldn’t have approved your participation in this case. But if anything, you made yourself look worse.’
‘Worse than what?’ Stevie asked.
‘Worse than she needed to,’ Daphne answered cryptically.
‘So I’m to participate?’ Lucy asked sardonically. ‘To what do I owe this honor?’
‘I asked him if you could be our native guide,’ Stevie said. ‘Bennett had ongoing ties to his hometown – your hometown. We wanted your help.’
‘But if he’d had cause to blackmail you, I couldn’t approve it,’ Hyatt said. ‘You were upfront about it. No danger of blackmail.’
Lucy’s pale cheeks darkened in anger. ‘Good to know. And if I refuse?’
Hyatt shrugged. ‘Somebody left a human heart in your car today. I’d think you’d want that man caught.’
‘Like it or not,’ JD murmured, ‘you’re a key to this. This killer picked you. And for what it’s worth, Stevie and I didn’t know about this.’
She jerked a nod. ‘I believe you. Thank you.’
Relieved, he turned to Morton and Skinner. ‘Was this the only file? Or did he have others on his other women?’
Lucy winced. ‘How many other women?’
‘At least forty in five years,’ Stevie said and Lucy winced again.
‘What’s the hometown tie?’ she asked.
‘At least three of you are from Anderson Ferry,’ JD said. ‘We’re checking the rest of the names on the list.’
‘Three of us? Gwyn, me, and who else?’
‘Brandi Bennett,’ he said and her eyes widened.
‘Brandi Bennett is from Anderson Ferry? No way.’
‘You didn’t know her there?’ Hyatt asked.
‘No, but she was much younger than Gwyn and me. What was her last name?’
Stevie checked her notes. ‘Stackhouse.’
‘I knew of the family. They had a lot of kids. I didn’t really know any of them.’
‘Did he have files on the other women?’ JD asked again.
‘Not that we found,’ Elizabeth said. ‘Only Dr Trask. Why would he have a file on her?’
‘Hate’s the easy answer,’ JD said. ‘Because she broke his nose. But I’d ask why now? The articles were stamped by the Anderson Ferry newspaper just three weeks ago. Was anything else found in the condo?’
‘Nothing to indicate a struggle,’ Elizabeth said. ‘We got his credit card and bank records. Guy paid a hell of a lot of alimony to the first wife.’
‘What about the crime scene, Drew?’ Hyatt asked.
‘We took casts of the tire tracks we found in the grass,’ Drew said. ‘The tracks were made by a wheelchair, like I thought. But we never found the chair.’
‘He didn’t ditch it after setting up the body,’ Stevie said, ‘but pushing an empty wheelchair around the park seems like a risk. If anyone saw him, they’d remember that.’
‘He could have ridden away in it,’ Drew said. ‘But then there are no tracks leading from the scene. He had to stay on that path all the way back to the parking lot or he stashed the chair in one of those apartments.’
‘No surveillance cameras in the parking lot?’ Hyatt asked.
‘None that work,’ Drew replied. ‘Your apartment security sucks, Dr Trask.’
She nodded, but said nothing.
‘What about the body, Dr Trask?’ Hyatt asked.
‘So far, only the injuries I’ve already reported.’ Her tone was cool, clearly unmoved by Hyatt’s explanation of his actions. She was still very pissed. ‘We’re waiting for DNA confirmation that this is indeed Russ Bennett.’
‘His current wife, Brandi, corroborated the scar and the broken bone,’ Stevie said.
‘It’s him,’ Hyatt said. ‘Mulhauser called me. He spoke with Bennett’s orthopedist who confirmed that Bennett had broken his arm in exactly the same way and same place. We’ll do the DNA to dot the i, but we can be confident that Bennett is dead.’
‘His body was flash frozen,’ JD said. ‘We need to get a list of area food-processing plants with freezers. His killer had to have had access to a big one.’
‘Skinner and I will follow up on that,’ Elizabeth Morton said.
‘And my clerk will run checks on the women on Bennett’s delivery list,’ Hyatt said. ‘Any one of them may have had motive. What about the first ex-wife?’
‘She had motive five years ago when he was cheating on her,’ JD said. ‘But why would she kill him now? He was paying her a lot of alimony.’
‘She’s too small a woman to have moved the body,’ Lucy added.
‘But we’re going to see her before we go out to the parents,’ Stevie told Hyatt. ‘To do the notification and check her out.’ She looked over at Daphne. ‘What about Bennett’s medical office? Do we have a warrant to search there too?’
‘Grayson’s working on it,’ Daphne said. ‘That’s more complicated than the condo. We’ll call you when we get a judge to sign. Peter, if you’re through grilling Lucy for shits and giggles, I’ll be on my way,’ she said to Hyatt, who once again looked annoyed.
JD’s respect for Daphne increased tenfold.
‘You all know what you have to do,’ Hyatt said irritably when Daphne had departed in a cloud of gardenia perfume. ‘Everybody go. Except Mazzetti and Fitzpatrick. You stay. And close the door.’
‘Wait for me outside the office,’ JD said to Lucy in a low voice. He watched her go, then closed the door and turned to a placidly staring Hyatt. ‘That was a test, wasn’t it? Not just of Dr Trask, but of us.’
‘And you passed,’ Hyatt said. ‘Barely. You,’ he pointed to Stevie, ‘did okay. You, Fitzpatrick, are a hothead and you lead with your emotions. Get your head in the game, and I don’t mean the one you’ve already engaged. Now get to work. Be back at oh-eight.’
Fuck him. Lucy marched toward the ladies’ room, hands clenched into fists, too angry for much more articulate thought than fuck Hyatt. It was all she could do back there to keep her voice civil, and she’d only done so for Fitzpatrick, who’d seemed as furious with his boss as she’d been. Hyatt had manipulated her past for his own benefit.
Use me. Test me. Bring up my dirty little secrets like that. Fuck you, Hyatt.
‘Lucy, honey, wait up.’
&nbs
p; It was Daphne. Lucy had to force herself to stop, draw a breath so that she wouldn’t be sharp with the assistant DA, who she’d come to appreciate the first time she’d testified on one of Daphne’s cases. The woman was smart, sassy, and used her twang to put people at ease and sometimes to make them underestimate her. Then, if they were guilty, she decimated them.
They were three for three, Lucy and Daphne. Three cases so far, and three convictions. Daphne Montgomery was new, but she was good.
Daphne put an arm around Lucy’s shoulders. ‘You okay, baby girl?’
It made Lucy wistful. Nobody’s called me that in a long time. ‘Yeah, I’m okay.’
‘I just wanted to be sure you knew that nobody appreciated that dickhead Hyatt.’ Daphne grinned when Lucy laughed in spite of herself. ‘See, I knew I could make you smile. Seriously, Mazzetti and Fitzpatrick did not know. You got that, right?’
‘I got it. I just don’t understand why he did it.’
‘Well, if it makes you feel better, he’s that way with everybody. Don’t take it personally.’
‘You’re joking. Why is he allowed to get away with that?’
‘Because he’s a good cop. Look, we all hated what he did in there. JD looked like he wanted to smack Hyatt upside his bald head. But it’s good he didn’t. That was as much a test of JD as it was of you. You got that too, right?’
Lucy stared at her. ‘Why would he test Detective Fitzpatrick? Why do any of it?’
‘Well, I didn’t know either, until JD walked in the room and looked at you.’
Stevie’s words came to mind. ‘How did he look at me?’
‘Like you were all that mattered. If he’d sprung to your defense, he would’ve been off the case. For your sake, I’m glad he didn’t. You need him. If a tenth of what I hear about him is true, you won’t find a braver cop.’ Daphne pushed at Lucy’s mouth with her thumb, making Lucy realize she was frowning. ‘Plus, he’s hot. And he’s coming up the hall.’
‘Thanks, Daphne. I appreciate it.’
‘I know,’ Daphne said quietly. ‘And you need to find a different way to tell that story of yours, sugar. You make yourself sound only slightly less guilty than Ma Barker.’
‘It wasn’t any of their business,’ Lucy hissed, feeling her ire rise all over again.
‘No, it wasn’t. But now it is, because some killer’s made it our business. So help JD and Stevie find him so I can put his ass away for ever.’
Lucy drew a breath. ‘Okay.’ She was calm now. ‘Thank you.’
‘Good girl. Here’s my cell and home numbers.’ Daphne slipped her card into Lucy’s jacket pocket. ‘You call me if you need me. I mean that.’ She turned them both around so that they could watch Fitzpatrick and Stevie approach and gave a low hum of approval. ‘I wish I were you, baby girl. That man is somethin’.’
He was indeed. Showered and clean-shaven, he could easily have graced the cover of a magazine. There was something about him, and every last bit of it was masculine. Then again, first fiancé had been the same. And look how that ended up.
‘You might want to try breathing,’ Daphne whispered. ‘I’m told it’s good for you. Now I’ve got to go. Call me.’ She patted Fitzpatrick’s arm as she passed.
When Fitzpatrick was two steps from Lucy, he shoved his hands in his pockets. His gaze was intense and he leaned forward slightly, as if he’d have his hands on her if he could. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said simply. ‘That shouldn’t have happened.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Lucy said. ‘Did you pass your test?’
‘Barely. Stevie’s the star pupil, but I’m learning the ropes. Are you ready to go? We need to get to the first wife so we can get over the Bay Bridge to the Bennetts.’
You’re going home. Lucy wished she hadn’t asked to go along. But she owed the Bennetts a lot. Their son was dead. They’d need support, someone they could lean on.
‘I need to get the bag I packed when I went back to my apartment.’
‘I’ll meet you at the first Mrs Bennett’s house,’ Stevie said. ‘I need to get the list of Bennett’s girlfriends to Hyatt’s clerk so she can run them. I’ll make you a copy, Lucy.’
‘Because I’m your native guide,’ Lucy said dryly. ‘You know, you could have just asked. I would have been happy to help, especially, as Hyatt so noted, because the killer left a heart in my car.’
‘It wasn’t a done deal,’ Stevie said with a sigh. ‘Hyatt said he wanted to talk to you first. I didn’t know he had an ulterior motive. We are sorry.’
Lucy studied their faces. ‘You haven’t asked me what really happened.’
‘Because it’s your business,’ JD said. ‘You’ve had enough for one day.’
‘And it ain’t over yet,’ Stevie added. ‘I’ll meet you there, JD.’ With a wave she was gone, leaving Lucy alone with JD Fitzpatrick for the very first time.
No, that wasn’t true. They’d been alone that day in the autopsy suite. When he’d cried. ‘Who was the child to you?’ Lucy asked softly, before she could lose her nerve.
His eyes widened. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Two years ago you witnessed the autopsy of a child. Who was she to you?’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘A victim,’ he said so quietly she had to lean closer to hear. ‘I didn’t know her. I found her dead in the street.’
‘No one else came. Her parents didn’t come to ID the body. There was no one.’
‘Which is why I was there.’ He took her elbow gently. ‘Let’s get your bag.’
She let him walk her to CSU where she fetched her bags. Fitzpatrick reached for them both, but she held on to the bag that held her violin case. ‘I’ve got this one.’
Fitzpatrick lifted her heavy suitcase as if it weighed nothing. ‘Then let’s go.’
They said nothing until they got to his car and he opened the trunk. Lucy leaned forward and sniffed. ‘It still stinks.’
‘Then we can put your bags in the back seat.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Where addicts puke?’
He laughed, his dimple appearing. ‘That was in the car I drove in Narcotics. So far nobody’s puked in the back of this car.’ He put her bags on the seat next to a pile of old clothes. Then he winked at her. ‘That I know of, anyway. Anything could have happened before I got the car.’
‘Ha, ha,’ she grumbled, surprised when he opened the passenger door for her. But she supposed she shouldn’t have been. JD Fitzpatrick had been the epitome of good manners all day. Which would make his bad-boy mode even more enticing, she knew. That he had a bad-boy mode was not even in question. Of course he did.
And the thought of it turned her on. A lot. Dammit.
He said nothing more, taking them northwest, out of the city. They had at least a half-hour drive ahead of them and she suddenly found herself edgy. It had been a roller-coaster day, and as Stevie had said, it wasn’t over yet.
‘Why did Stevie drive separately?’ she asked.
‘Her daughter graduates kindergarten tonight. If we run late, she’s going to take off so that she doesn’t miss it.’
‘Kindergarten graduation? They do that?’
He nodded, smiling wistfully. ‘Yeah, it’s really cute.’
‘I thought you didn’t have kids,’ she said, then wished the words back.
He glanced over at her. ‘Been asking about me?’
Her cheeks heated. ‘Yes.’
‘Good.’ He glanced at her again, a little longer this time before returning his gaze to the road. ‘I was there when Stevie’s son graduated from kindergarten.’ He cleared his throat harshly. ‘I’ve known Cordelia since she was born. I wish I could be there for her tonight, but she’ll have tons of family there for her.’ He handed her his wallet. ‘Her picture’s in there.’
Lucy opened his wallet hesitantly, feeling awkward handling his things. But the awkwardness fled when she saw the little girl’s sweet smile. ‘She’s adorable.’
‘And happy,’ he said, a little too fiercely. ‘Stevi
e’s a good mom.’
She remembered him saying he’d had no Big Wheel as a child and wondered if he’d not had happiness either. Or a good mom. She wanted to ask, but he’d respected her privacy about her trial. She’d respect his. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.
Besides, if she asked about his mom, he’d ask about hers. She gave him back his wallet and he slipped it in his pocket.
‘So what are my responsibilities as your native guide?’ she asked.
‘To keep your eyes and ears open, tell us if the people we talk to in Anderson Ferry have relationships that aren’t obvious.’
‘I haven’t lived there in a long time. There will be a lot I don’t know.’
‘You’ve kept up, though. You knew Bennett’s mother had a recent heart attack.’
Lucy barely remembered telling him that, but he was a detective. Of course he’d pick up on details. She’d have to keep that in mind. ‘Because I talk to her on the phone and visit with her when she has her doctors’ appointments, here in the city. I haven’t been back to Anderson Ferry in years.’
Again he glanced at her. ‘Why not?’
She hesitated, then shrugged. ‘There isn’t anything there for me anymore.’
‘No family?’
This time she didn’t hesitate. ‘No. None.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay.’ Although it really wasn’t. ‘And you? What about your family?’
‘None to speak of.’
So it was as she’d thought. ‘I can respect that, Detective.’
‘JD,’ he said. ‘My name is JD.’
‘What does it stand for?’
‘Just Deserts,’ he said lightly, a diversion tactic, she knew.
‘No wonder you don’t wish to speak of them,’ she said dryly. ‘I’d wouldn’t either, if they’d saddled me with a name like that.’
This drew a chuckle. ‘JD is just initials,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t stand for anything.’
She didn’t believe him, but let it go. ‘Okay. But you still haven’t honestly answered my first question. Why am I here? I don’t think I can help you with anything in Anderson Ferry. You never even asked me who I still knew. So why am I here?’
‘You asked to come. To be there when we notified the family.’