Deadly Target (Detective Sarah Spillman Mystery Series Book 6)

by Renee Pawlish

  “Whoever did it is going to pay,” Ernie finally said.

  “You can say that again.”

  “These shootings will be all over the local news,” Spats said. “And it might hit national.”

  “Not yet.”

  “We’ll have the press to deal with. You know it’s coming.”

  Ernie nodded. “And they don’t like hearing ‘no comment.’”

  Spats eyed him. “You’ll be okay with Deborah North?”

  “Sure.” Ernie waved a hand. “I won’t let her get to me again.”

  The silence resumed. They sat for another minute, watching TV. Then Spats stood up.

  “Well, I should let you go. It’s going to be an early morning.”

  Ernie walked him to the door and held it open. “If you need anything, call.”

  “Yeah, man, you too.”

  Ernie watched Spats walk to his car and back out the driveway. When the car’s tail lights disappeared, he shut the door.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Detective.”

  Rizzo’s voice echoed into the detective’s room. Ernie hadn’t even sat down at his desk. Liz had been tense this morning, and then was upset when he still couldn’t manage to talk rationally about what she’d brought up last night. So, instead, they’d argued about it, with Ernie growling at Liz that of course he spent a lot of time with Sarah. They worked together, for God’s sake, she was his superior, and he couldn’t help it. Ernie couldn’t understand why Liz was pressing the issue right now. He had no energy for it, when he had this investigation. He’d left the house in a foul mood, and he’d brooded about Liz’s unspoken jealousy as he drove to work. She was being ridiculous. But, then, a thought kept nagging at him. How did he really feel about Sarah? Was there more to his feelings than he realized, and had Liz picked up on that? As he stood at his desk, he’d hoped to have a few minutes to get a cup of coffee and gather his thoughts before he had to talk to the commander or anyone else, but that was not the case. He shrugged and walked to Rizzo’s office, then stood in the doorway.

  Rizzo looked up at him. He had bags under his eyes, but his jaw was locked with determination. “I hope you got a little sleep. I know I barely did.”

  “I got enough to keep me going. How’s Sarah doing?” Ernie asked.

  Rizzo sat back in his chair. Sunlight streamed through a window and glinted off some of his awards, and pictures of him with local dignitaries. He picked up a white stone paperweight and turned it in his hands. “She made it through the night, so that’s a good thing.”

  “Good,” Ernie said.

  “The doctors think she’ll be awake sometime this morning, so we’ll want to get her statement when that happens. The detective who’s there will let us know when she’s alert.” He kept fiddling with the paperweight. “I think she’ll be okay.”

  Ernie leaned against the doorjamb, full of relief. “She’ll be back on the job before you know it.”

  “Yes.” Then he turned to business. “Harry knows how this goes, that we’ll want to check her home office. He’s expecting a call from you. He can meet you at their house so you can check Sarah’s office and pick up her personal laptop.”

  “Thanks, I’ll do that.”

  Rizzo nodded as he stared past Ernie. “Do you have all the detectives working the three shootings coming in this morning?”

  “Yes. We’ll touch base, compare notes, and then I’ll start working on Sarah’s shooting.”

  “I want to talk to everyone first,” Rizzo said.

  Ernie wasn’t surprised. There was a lot going on, and one of Rizzo’s own had been assaulted. Rizzo had to keep things running smoothly.

  “I’ll wait for you,” Ernie said.

  “Chief Follett is holding a press conference at eight.” Rizzo finally set the paperweight down. “I don’t expect you to be there: he’ll handle everything. But watch out, I don’t want any leaks.”

  Ernie had figured Follett would handle the press conference. Follett never saw a camera he didn’t want to be in front of.

  Ernie nodded curtly. “There won’t be any leaks.”

  Rizzo’s desk phone rang, and he glanced at Ernie. “Let me know when everybody’s here.” Then he answered the phone.

  Ernie walked back to his desk. Spats was there, a coffee cup in his hand.

  “Sarah made it through the night,” Ernie announced.

  “That’s great news.” Spats couldn’t resist a smile. “She’s a fighter, you know? Nothing stops her, not even this.”

  Ernie went to a coffeemaker on a table in the corner, fixed a cup, then came back to his desk and sank into his chair. “This will be at least a two-cup morning.” He gulped some coffee. “Or maybe three.” He heard voices behind him. He swiveled around as Detectives Hackman and Lattimore came into the room. As they were exchanging quick greetings, Oakley walked in.

  “What do we have so far?” he asked.

  Lattimore started to reply, but Ernie held up a hand. “The commander wants to take point on this.” He stood up and waved toward Rizzo’s office. Rizzo saw him through a window that looked out to the corps of detectives and held up a finger. When he finished his call, he came into the room. Ernie stepped aside. Rizzo took a moment to survey everyone, then began.

  “It’s been a hell of a last twelve hours or so,” Rizzo said. “First of all, I’m sure you’d all like to know how Sarah’s doing. I just got off the phone with Harry, and he said she’s resting. The doctors feel confident that she’ll be okay, but right now she’s out of it.” A murmur of approving voices sounded, and Rizzo held up a hand. “As for who shot her, I’ve got Ernie taking lead on that investigation, as well as the other two shootings last night. You all will report to him, and he’ll report to me. I’ll keep Chief Follett apprised, and he’ll deal with the press.” He made eye contact with each detective. “And there will be press, but I don’t want you talking to them, even if it’s tempting. No comment, understand? They can get updates through the Chief or our media people.” A round of nods.

  “I’m assuming there’s a press conference today?” Spats asked.

  Rizzo nodded. “At eight. The Chief and the media team will handle it. You all keep working the investigations.”

  “One of the channels already has Sarah’s name,” Lattimore said, his tone irritated. “I saw it on the early news. Man, those reporters don’t miss a beat.”

  Ernie snorted at the pun.

  Rizzo held up a hand again. “There’s nothing we can do about that, except try to protect Sarah’s privacy. The Chief will tell the press about Sarah, and I’m sure he will be cautious in what he says. In the meantime, we’ll have all the resources at our disposal. No one gets away with trying to take down one of our own.” Another round of approving nods. Rizzo turned to Oakley. “What do you have on the Armistead shooting?”

  Oakley perched on the corner of Ernie’s desk and looked at Rizzo. “So far, we don’t have any witnesses, other than the wife. She was so distraught last night that I didn’t get that much from her. I want to talk to her again, see what else she might be able to tell me this morning, now that she’s had a little time. I’ve got people looking at her background, to clear her, and we’re getting warrants for phone records and electronics. Then we’ll comb through that. We’re looking at the victim, Nick, as well, his background, anything that might give us a clue to why he was murdered. I’ll report what we find.”

  “Keep on the SUV angle,” Rizzo said.

  “You got it,” Oakley nodded. “I’ve got a couple of detectives checking with businesses and neighbors near the gym to see if anyone has surveillance video.”

  “Good.” Rizzo turned to Spats. “Where are we with that young man who was shot?”

  “Cody Sheen. I talked to Cody’s parents and sister last night, and I want to follow up with Cody’s mom and his sister again today.” Spats explained how he’d spoken to Dave Sheen at Charlie’s Restaurant, and the mother and sister at their house. He steepled his finge
rs. “The father, Dave, had some issues with his son, wasn’t that close to him. His wife, Leah, and Cody’s sister, Caitlyn, might know more about Cody, if he was in with the wrong crowd, someone who might’ve wanted him dead, but I didn’t get into all that last night. Leah called me a while ago, said she had a lot to do today and offered for her and Caitlyn to come down to the station around noon. Cody’s Dad, Dave, can’t make it. She said he’s with his parents this morning.” He held up his hands. “I’ll take what I can get, and hopefully they can shed more light on Cody’s murder. Cody was in some trouble in high school, and I want to see if that spilled over into college, even though his dad didn’t seem to think so. Once we wrap up here, I’ll be getting warrants for Cody’s phone records, and I’ll track down his roommate as well.”

  “What about Cody’s friends, other co-workers?” Rizzo asked.

  Hackman raised his hand. “I’ve got a couple of detectives working with me, and we’ll go over everything we find out with Spats.”

  “Good.” Rizzo thought for a moment. “What’s the possibility of a connection between Sarah’s shooter, that boy’s killing, and Nick Armistead?”

  Spats shrugged. “It’s on our radar.”

  “A dark SUV was seen by both witnesses near where Sarah was shot,” Ernie said. “So far no one saw that type of vehicle near Charlie’s, or at the third crime scene. There’s a lot of dark SUVs in the city.”

  “No kidding,” Lattimore said.

  Rizzo saved Sarah’s shooting for last. “What was she last working on?” he asked Ernie.

  “She’d just wrapped up the Olinger investigation,” Ernie said. “Pete Olinger was cheating on his wife, then murdered the woman he’d been seeing. I’ll go back through that case, see if I can find anything there. We’ll tackle her work laptop, too. I’ll talk to Harry, check his alibi, and I’ll look around her home office. Harry’s given us the okay. And I’ll check her personal electronics, too.” He pointed to her desk. “I’ll be going through all of that, too.”

  “Yeah, it’s not like we don’t have enemies,” Hackman said.

  “These three shootings almost seem like assassinations,” Spats observed.

  “If it’s one shooter,” Rizzo asked, “anything else that would point in that direction?”

  “We don’t have a lot of answers yet,” Ernie said. “We’d looked at the likely routes to drive from one crime scene to the other, and we’re looking for surveillance video on the routes. We might spot a dark SUV, or we might see several, so that’s going to take some time.”

  Rizzo thought for a second. “What about her phone?”

  “Her cell phone is city property, so we’ll get those records to see if she had any suspicious calls lately,” Ernie said.

  “The crime lab already has it,” Lattimore said. “So far, no suspicious calls. We’re getting a list of all her calls in the last few months from the phone company.”

  Ernie turned to him. “What about last night?”

  “Just a couple of phone calls from Harry. It matches the time he told us.” Lattimore tipped his head at Ernie. “And some calls from you.”

  “I was calling her from the Sheen crime scene,” Ernie explained.

  “We’ll keep looking for anything suspicious,” Lattimore said.

  “Has anyone come across a connection between our three victims?” Hackman asked, sounding frustrated.

  “No, but between all three shootings, we have a lot of people to talk to.” Spats tapped his desk. “It’s going to take some time to get all those statements and start comparing notes.”

  “And phone records,” Lattimore said. “We need to crosscheck all of them to see if one person called them all, or if the three victims were in contact with each other.”

  Hackman ran a hand over his face. “Man, that’s going to be a lot of work.”

  “We’ll pull more detectives in, if we need to,” Rizzo said. “Follow every lead, no matter where it goes. Let’s get a suspect list together for each shooting. I don’t know who that would be for Cody Sheen and Nick Armistead, but Sarah would likely have people who have a grudge against her.”

  “As I recall, Pete Olinger’s wife wasn’t too happy that he’d been caught,” Ernie mused. “Maybe she came after Sarah.”

  “Explore all possibilities,” Rizzo agreed. “We either have someone who had a motive to shoot three people and fortunately for us, he missed killing one …”

  “Thank goodness,” Ernie interrupted.

  Rizzo held up a finger “Or the three shootings aren’t related.”

  “It’s possible,” Spats said doubtfully.

  “I’m counting on you all. Let’s get the person – or people – who did this.” Rizzo glanced at his watch. “We’ll meet at the same time tomorrow morning as well. If anybody needs me, you know where to find me.” With that, he thanked them all, turned and walked back into his office.

  Ernie stood a little straighter. “Any questions?” The room remained silent. He took them all in with an encouraging gaze. “Let’s get going. You all have my cell. Give me updates as you have them, and as the commander said, we’ll meet back here tomorrow morning.”

  Chairs scraped and conversation began as the other detectives left the room.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Once the other detectives were gone, Ernie and Spats got to work at their desks. Ernie gulped down cold coffee, then called Harry.

  “How’re you doing this morning?” he asked when Harry answered.

  “A lot better today knowing Sarah will be okay. You want to take a look in Sarah’s home office today?”

  “Yeah, I need to do that. When are you available?”

  “I can leave the hospital soon. I need to go home, shower, and change clothes. So give me an hour or so?”

  “That’s fine,” Ernie said.

  He thanked Harry, ended the call, and went over to Sarah’s desk. He sat down and stared at her monitor for a moment, then looked around the desktop. She had the usual pens, notepads, and desk phone. Ernie picked up a notepad and leafed through it. He looked up at Spats.

  “Does Katzenbach mean anything to you?”

  Spats glanced up from his monitor. “No, it doesn’t. Just the name?”

  “Yeah.”

  Voices sounded from another room. Ernie listened for a second, then opened Sarah’s laptop. He moved the mouse, and a blue screen with the DPD logo appeared. He hit the keyboard and he was prompted for a password. He tapped the laptop.

  “I’ll get this down to Tara,” he said. Detective Tara Dahl is one of the best techs in the department, and Sarah always turned to her for for IT work. Ernie knew that she would be able to get past the password, and then she could thoroughly check Sarah’s laptop to see if there was anything on it that would help point to a killer. If there was, Tara would find it.

  Ernie methodically went to the desk next, starting on the left. The top drawer was filled with more office supplies and Sarah’s personal effects. The bottom drawer had file notes from her investigations. Even though she would’ve filled out electronic reports, Sarah still had file folders with notes. Ernie pulled one out and began reading it. Sarah had a system for abbreviating words, and it took him a moment to decipher some of what she’d written. But then he picked up on her code. Even so, he saw nothing that stood out, nothing that seemed relevant to her shooting. He put the folder back, took another and scanned through it as well, then a third. Here and there he recognized the name of a suspect or a witness. Her files went back a few years. When he finished, he was no closer to finding her assailant. He closed the drawer, taking small comfort that a clue might be there, something that didn’t seem important now, but might later. He leaned back in her chair and looked across her desk at Spats.

  “Not much here,” he announced.

  Spats shrugged. “I’m scanning through witness statements from the restaurant, and so far, nobody has mentioned seeing a suspicious dark SUV. I think that piece is going to be a bust, but I’ll have
detectives continue to ask about it.”

  Ernie rubbed his chin. “Yeah, who notices a random car?”

  Spats smoothed his tie and typed more. “Cody’s roommate, Austin O’Neil, has a juvenile record, but it’s sealed.” He worked a moment longer. “I wonder if I can get the judge who sealed the record to let me get a look at it, since it’s germane to our investigation.” Ernie shrugged, and Spats picked up his desk phone and made a couple of calls. Then he hung up the phone and clapped his hands together. Ernie eyed him, and Spats smiled.

  “Success?” Ernie asked.

  Spats nodded. “It pays to know some judges. They’re sending me the records. I should have it shortly.”

  Ernie sat for a moment, then tackled the rest of Sarah’s desk. He found another drawer of printed reports from Sarah’s most recent investigations. He began scanning them, starting with her last one, in which Pete Olinger had murdered his mistress, Portia Zywicki. Ernie thought about Olinger. He’d been a good liar, and his alibi – being out of town with friends – had stood up for a while. But then it began to unravel when his phone’s GPS said he was in a different place than he claimed to be. He had excuses for those times, but once Sarah, Spats, and Ernie put their focus on Olinger, they were able to pinpoint where they thought he had killed Zywicki, and they found a gun they were able to trace back to him. It had taken some time, but they’d nailed Olinger. And he’d been so arrogant and so angry with them, and so had his wife, Cindy. Ernie pursed his lips. Olinger was in jail, awaiting trial, but would Cindy have come after Sarah?

  Ernie flipped through the following pages of the Olinger case file, and he found the names of a couple of Pete and Cindy Olinger’s friends. He jotted their numbers down so he could call them later. If the Olingers had a vendetta against Sarah, the friends might’ve heard hints about it. However, he didn’t call them just yet. Doing so now would likely lead to their calling Cindy Olinger, and he wanted to take her by surprise.

  Ernie found a file for an investigation of some doctors, and he came across Monica Walker, a local MD. He narrowed his eyes. Sarah had a complicated past with Monica, and from what Ernie knew, Monica still had good reason to be hostile toward her. According to Sarah, the last time she’d talked with Monica, it was apparent Monica wasn’t ready to let go of any of it. It was feasible Monica wanted revenge against Sarah. He thought for a moment. But would someone in Monica’s position have acted on those feelings? He made a note to speak to her, then moved on.