Skin Deep

by Michelle Hanson

  I turned off the water, grabbed a towel off the rack, and stepped into the frigid air. I swiped my hand over the foggy mirror and stared at myself for a moment, then buried my face in the stiff towel. It absorbed the water that dripped from my scalp.

  After I combed my hair, I put on my pajamas and walked out of the bathroom. Cait sat at the desk, her focus solely on my laptop. She had managed to open a few programs—none that I recognized, but she seemed to know what she was doing. Every few minutes, she would type a series of keystrokes, and the laptop would grind and groan in protest as another program slowly opened.

  “Well?” I said as I pulled back the comforter on the bed. We hadn’t discussed the sleeping arrangements, but I certainly wasn’t going to sleep on the floor. And she was in the only chair in the room.

  “Well,” she repeated with a sigh. “Somehow he got past the firewall. I don’t know how.” She shrugged and turned to me. “Whoever he is, this guy is good. He definitely knows his stuff.”

  “More than you do?” I smirked as I sat on the bed and draped the covers over my lap.

  “No.” Cait laughed and turned her attention back to the laptop.

  “Will the TV bother you?” I asked as I reached for the remote control on the nightstand.

  Cait paused, as if my question needed time to register. “No,” she said, her eyes on the laptop. “Are you hungry? We can get room service again.” She picked up the menu from the desk and tossed it onto the bed. It was the same menu as the last time I was here.

  “I’m not all that hungry,” I said. “But if you are, order without me.” I sank deeper under the covers and propped the pillows against the headboard.

  “I’m not,” she said.

  And that was the rest of our evening. She, with her nose buried in my laptop, and me with my eyes glued to the television. As much as I wanted to lie in bed and watch a few hours of mindless television, I couldn’t. My thoughts drowned out every show—regardless of how high I raised the volume.

  My mind wandered to each victim before it got to Wilma Reynolds. I needed to read her case file before I could accurately compare her death to the other victims. Even comparing her death to Lathan Collins’ victims was useless for now. I decided to use this downtime to think about the two people I did know: Lathan Collins and Ryan Novak.

  How did they fit together? Why would Novak want those case files? Each thought led to a dead end. Unless Novak had been coerced into taking those files, I knew deep in my gut there was no way he could be involved.

  By midnight, Cait turned off the desk lamp and turned down the comforter on the opposite side of the bed. The springs popped as she lowered herself onto the mattress and pulled the covers over her head. There had to be at least two feet between us, but I could still feel the warmth of her body. As soon as she lied down, my eyes began to close. And for the first time that night, I felt safe enough to fall asleep.

  We both slept in the bed like well-behaved adults. Neither of us crossed the invisible line down the middle. My mind wasn’t on sex, and I doubted hers was either.

  We didn’t talk much in the morning. We both showered—separately—and aside from the occasional side step as we got dressed, it was like the other wasn’t there. I assumed she was lost in her own mind, trying to make sense of my laptop. I was busy rehearsing the speech I was about to deliver.

  When we got to work, Cait and I sat in Flu’s office—her, calm as usual, and me looking like a high school student about to be suspended. I silently repeated the plea I had rehearsed all morning. I was prepared to beg Fluellen not to take me off the case. I would bargain that another detective could take lead and that we wouldn’t need Cait. The other detective and I would be just fine. We could solve the case and move on to the next homicide.

  But I knew it wouldn’t slide. Cait was better suited for this case than I was. If anyone was going to be traded in for another detective, it was going to be me. Cait had the know-how and cyber expertise needed to keep this little engine of ours running. I was the sidekick—and easily replaceable. The only thing I had in my favor was the admiration of my colleagues. And if I didn’t solve this case soon, I would lose that too.

  I stared at Flu’s empty chair. He was close to thirty minutes late. Maybe he was talking to Novak on the phone. Or maybe he had stopped by the bakery to bring in pastries for everyone. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, and had I known Flu was going to be late, I would have gone to the cafeteria this morning. But here Cait and I sat, in total silence and starvation.

  Flu walked into his office and closed the door. Our meeting was supposed to start at nine. Here it was, nine thirty, and he didn’t even have a box of doughnuts to offer as an apology.

  “Thanks for waiting,” he said as he sat in his chair and loosened his tie. “Agent Porter, Evans here stopped by my house yesterday. Did she fill you in on what we talked about?”

  “No.” Cait shook her head and looked at me. It was a sore subject between us—the fact that I had purposely kept information from her that she had a right to know about. First with Abi, now with Novak. “I was unaware she saw you yesterday,” Cait added.

  “Oh.” Surprise caught in Fluellen’s throat. “She came by to discuss the findings from your research,” he said. “It seems that one of our detectives, who retired in April, was the last person to sign out evidence for a closed case,” Flu said. “The evidence was never returned, which has brought some cause for concern.”

  “What evidence?” Cait looked at me and then back to Flu.

  “Lathan’s,” I said as I kept my eyes on Flu.

  “As you’re aware, the Lathan Collins case is very sensitive, especially within our department,” Flu added.

  “I’m aware,” Cait confirmed. “Who signed it out?”

  “Detective Ryan Novak,” Flu answered. “He was with West JPD for over twenty years. Heck of a guy. Someone I could really count on. All of us—we all liked him.”

  “Okay….” Cait shrugged.

  “I asked Evans to hold off on pursuing an investigation into Novak until I’d spoken to him. Last I knew, he was in Florida enjoying his retirement.” Flu said.

  “Did you talk to him?” I interrupted. As much as Cait needed the backstory, I also needed to know the conclusion of this saga. We had yet to disclose my web chat with the Casting Call Killer, and my stomach was being rather vocal about my accidental hunger strike.

  “No,” Flu answered. “I called his number, but it went straight to voicemail. I’ll call again after lunch, but if I don’t hear back from him by tonight, then we can consider him a person of interest—not a suspect,” Flu stressed.

  “You have your first solid lead, and you’re going to wait until tonight to pursue it?” Cait asked. “I realize this detective may have been your friend, but there are corrupt cops everywhere—we’ve all had the wool pulled over our eyes at one time or another.”

  “I understand your apprehension, Agent Porter, but you don’t know him like we do,” Flu said.

  “That may be so, but I know what he’s capable of,” Cait snapped, polishing the bomb before she dropped it.

  “Cait…,” I said, a plea so deep in my eyes that it landed in the back of my skull.

  “What are you talking about?” Flu directed his question to Cait, but she ignored him. “Evans, what’s going on?”

  Here it was. The last few seconds of my career—regarding this case anyway. After this, I would be placed with some rookie detective in order to show him how to properly bag evidence and the importance of proofreading case reports. Cait and the newly assigned detective would remain on the case. Maybe it would get solved; maybe it wouldn’t. All I knew is that without me on the case, the victims would be forgotten. The case wouldn’t be solved for them. It would be solved for recognition and a pay increase.

  My heart pounded in my chest as I watched Cait answer Fluellen’s question. All of her movements were in slow motion. Her lips parted to speak, and I braced myself for the impact of the
explosion. “Someone hacked into Lena’s laptop yesterday,” she finally said. “We aren’t certain who it was, but if Detective Novak is your only person of interest, we have to assume it was him.”

  “Hacked? When?” Flu asked me, a layer of disbelief coating his face.

  “Yesterday evening… after I saw you.” Maybe if he knew it happened after I saw him, he wouldn’t be so quick to react. He wouldn’t think I was keeping part of the story from him.

  “Are you all right?” Flu jumped into protective mode.

  “I’m fine. I stayed with Agent Porter last night. I’m fine,” I assured him.

  “Well… what happened?” Suspense and frustration held Flu on the edge of his seat. Did he mean what happened with my laptop? Or what happened between Cait and me? Because not a damn thing happened between us last night—and I was pretty sure nothing ever would.

  “With my laptop?” I asked and Flu nodded. “I was at home going through Missing Persons Reports. I wanted to search through the women who had been reported missing during July. I came across a dozen or so that matched our other victims. After a few hours of reading reports, my screen went black. I thought the battery died or something, so I shook the mouse… and then he appeared on the screen.”

  “He?” Flu paused. “‘He, who?”

  “The Casting Call Killer—at least, I assume it was him.”

  “The one from the videos?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded.

  “What did he want?” Flu asked.

  “I was looking for the third victim. Cait—Agent Porter and I think there’s a fourth victim out there, someone we haven’t seen a video of yet.”

  “But you just said ‘third,’ not ‘fourth.’ Which is it?” Flu asked.

  “Both,” Cait interjected. “We think the fourth victim was actually the third murder… if the Casting Call Killer is mirroring Lathan Collins.”

  “So you searched Missing Persons Reports to see who else was abducted in July?” Flu asked. “Smart. Go on.”

  “As I was looking for potential victims, the Casting Call Killer took control of my laptop, and a series of news articles filled the screen,” I said.

  “On what?”

  “Wilma Reynolds.” I paused to see if Flu would remember the name. “The woman who drowned in Mirror Lake. The one who wasn’t bagged properly by the dive team?”

  “Oh….” Flu hung his head in shame. “Yes. She drowned, though, didn’t she?”

  “Maybe she didn’t?” I shrugged.

  “We’ll reopen her file,” Flu said, “and talk to her family too. Have Abram run a scan for police calls from her address since May. Look for anything—prank calls, reports of suspicious activity in the neighborhood. Anything seems like a coincidence to the family may be a lead to us,” Flu ordered. “Where’s your laptop now? Have I.T. run a scan on it.”

  “It’s here,” Cait said. “I looked it over last night, but I couldn’t find much. I gave it to I.T. already. Abram’s out sick, so Kevin has it,” Cait said and I smiled.

  “Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” Flu said as if his mind was cluttered with more important matters. “Given that information, Agent Porter, you’re right—I’ll go to admin right now.” Flu pushed his chair away from his desk as he leaned back. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  He left a window slightly ajar for us to tell him about Alfa Mike, but all I could do was hope that Cait would let me slam it shut. Flu kept his calm over the laptop hacking, but there was no way he was going to overlook an unidentified user threatening vengeance via the Deep Web.

  “There’s one more thing,” Cait said, her words kicking that window wide open.

  “The Casting Call Killer said I had five days to figure out who is,” I spoke over Cait. Maybe that piece of information would keep Flu from replacing me.

  “Five days?” Flu raised his eyebrows. “Why five days?”

  “We think that’s when we’ll receive another video,” I said. “Five days from yesterday is Thursday.”

  “You’re probably right.” Flu nodded.

  “Along with the ‘five days’ clue,” Cait said, glaring at me, then turned her head to Flu, “it should also be mentioned that I found something when I searched the Deep Web forums.”

  “What’s that?” Flu asked.

  “A user, known only as ‘Alfa Mike,’ made a post that should be considered a threat,” she said. “He wrote, ‘In honor of Lathan’s anniversary, a big surprise is coming.’ I don’t know what the surprise is,” she continued, “but I find it hard to believe that it’s a mere coincidence that these new murders are happening around the exact same time as the anniversary of Lathan’s death.”

  “I find that hard to believe too,” Flu agreed. “Do we have any information on this ‘Alfa Mike’?”

  “None whatsoever,” Cait said. “As far as we know, Alfa Mike and the Casting Call Killer are the same person. And if Novak is the Casting Call Killer, and if the Casting Call Killer is Alfa Mike….”

  “Yes. A equals B equals C. I get it.” Flu wiped his hand over his mouth as he looked past us, his thoughts seemingly drifting into space. “That’s certainly more than I was expecting to hear,” he said, his eyes looking toward the ceiling. Was he thinking about my replacement? “Evans, I don’t like that you’ve become the mouse being played with,” Flu finally said.

  “I’m not,” I argued. “Besides, if you take me off the case, he wins…,” I said, starting my rehearsed plea.

  “Take you off the case?” Flu cut me off. “I’m not taking you off the case.” He leaned forward in his chair. “What I was going to say is that I don’t like that you’re being toyed with, but maybe that works in our favor. For some reason ‘Alfa Mike,’ the Casting Call Killer, Novak—whoever he is—is interested in you. You’re his motivation for contacting our department. It’s only a matter of time before we outsmart him. The more information he gives you, the more information he gives us. And the more information we have to stop him. So I’m not taking you off the case. I probably should, but I’m not going to.”

  “Really?” My voice rose with gratitude.

  “Really,” Flu confirmed. “Instead, I’m going to get a profile on this guy. Porter, I’ll need everything you have on this ‘Alfa Mike’ so that I can pass it along to the profiler.”

  “Sure thing,” Cait said.

  “Okay….” Flu scribbled down a few notes on his desk calendar then looked at us. “Evans, look into Novak. Everything about him—his last known address, bank accounts, cell phone. See who he’s called and who’s called him. I’ll head up to admin and look into his personnel file. See if he has a history of mental-health issues, or if he was ever suspended. I don’t think he was, but who knows?” Flu scratched his chin. “Agent Porter, work with I.T. on the laptop. We have to be quiet about this. I’m not going to ruin a man’s good name because we’re desperate for a lead. If either of you find anything remotely suspicious, bring it to my attention. I don’t care when it is or where I am. This is top priority.”

  Was he serious? He was going to let me stay on the case? Before he could change his mind, I rose from the chair and opened the door. “Absolutely,” I said. “I’ll start now.” Cait didn’t stand from her chair until I’d already had one foot out the door. I wasn’t going to stick around long enough for Fluellen to doubt his decision. Cait knew where I.T. was, so she didn’t need me to show her the way. I was free to sit at my desk and carry on as lead detective. And that was exactly what I was going to do. First, I needed to stop by the cafeteria for breakfast.

  “Lena,” Cait called after me once we were both in the hallway. She was a few steps behind me, but I didn’t slow my pace. Cait doubled her stride and met me at the elevator as I pressed the “down” arrow. “You left in a hurry,” she said, stating the obvious.

  Whether she knew it or not, I wasn’t exactly happy with her. She didn’t have to tell Flu about my laptop or Alfa Mike yet, but she did anyway. She might have thought she was acting
in my best interests, but that was a matter of opinion.

  “I just want to get to the cafeteria before they shut down for lunch prep.”

  “Oh….” She nodded and a silence fell between us. “I knew you didn’t want me to mention anything to Fluellen about yesterday or Alfa Mike,” Cait said.

  “But you did anyway,” I coldly stated.

  “But I did anyway,” she confirmed. “I get why you’re mad, but you have to see it from my side. If something happened to you because Flu didn’t know everything, I would only have myself to blame.”