“So he was definitely here a few times,” Jordan summed up their findings. “That’s something. I don’t think we’ll get more out of the people here. You guys want to join us for something to eat?”
“Sure.” Derek winced. “After taking a bath in hand sanitizer, right? Yikes.”
Jordan couldn’t argue with him. “It hasn’t changed, no doubt. You want to call Kate?”
“Yeah, let’s call it a night.”
“Where’s Ellie?”
He shrugged. “No idea. I haven’t seen her since we came here.”
Jordan looked around the crowd. “I’ll text her. The D&T, later?”
“Sure, let’s do it.”
She sent a quick text and then spotted Maria Doss talking to another patron.
“Hey, honey, want to dance?”
She quickly removed the hand from her backside. Her glare and the grip around his wrist obviously were enough for the man to get the message, but not before calling her frigid, and worse.
Jordan shook her head to herself and went to join Maria. Still no message from Ellie.
Maria hadn’t seen her either, and the uneasy feeling in the pit of Jordan’s stomach intensified rapidly. “Let’s find her,” she said.
* * * *
“I want protection,” the young woman said, nervously lighting a cigarette, as she and Ellie stood outside at the back of the building. “Can you do that?”
“That depends on what you are going to tell me. If you are in danger, we will help you.”
“You better. I don’t want to get killed, like Rena.”
Ellie kept Jordan’s earlier summary in mind. “You told the police that Rena had been taking a detour the past few days before she was killed. Do you think she saw anything?”
“I know she did. She told me.”
“Rena witnessed the murder?”
“I don’t know! She said they were fighting, beating up one of the homeless people in the park. Since she had heard about some having been killed before, she ran. That’s all I know.”
“She ever mentioned someone named Harry Travis?”
“Not to me.”
“You saw him here at the bar?”
The woman’s eyes widened when she looked at the picture. “That’s not his name when he’s here, and you bet I saw him. He came to see Rena a few times.”
At this point, Ellie couldn’t help feeling frustrated. Too many detours and diversions, and omissions that could have helped them move forward.
“Why didn’t you ever mention him?”
“No one asked me about him. Everyone thought it was Ryan who killed her, well, I thought that too. Rena didn’t want to be just the mistress, and well, he didn’t like anyone talking back to him. Do you think someone else might have done it?”
“We don’t know yet. But I’d like you to come to the station with me and make a statement. Don’t worry. We’ll make sure no one knows.”
“No one knows what?” Jordan asked, and she didn’t sound amused.
* * * *
“I know, right? I’m sorry, I was in the middle of something there. I know it’s not much, but…”
“It’s something.” Jordan finally softened her stance somewhat. “Someone thought Rena could identify them, and either Travis or Lemont took care of it. Lemont’s involved either way, but it might be Travis who actually killed her. Then they took care of that loose end too. Now if only we knew what they saw, it might all unravel, and not look good for Bob Stanton and his guys.”
“It’s still all theory,” Ellie sighed as they sat over pizza and wine, much later that evening, not yet ready to set the workday aside for a moment.
“It’s coming together.”
“You were worried about me.” It wasn’t a question.
“Considering all that happened in that place, can you blame me? I know you can take care of yourself. I also know I had half a dozen patrons grabbing my ass or trying to. It wouldn’t be a loss to anyone if the city shut down that joint.”
“I don’t blame you. I agree.” Ellie leaned back in the booth. “It’s just going so slow. I mean we know Stanton is an ass who beats up and intimidates women, and we’re pretty sure he had a bit of drug trade going on the side. Yet, we can’t bust him until we prove the latter without a doubt, and that could take forever.”
“Welcome to detective work. The lucky breaks are few and far between,” Jordan supplied helpfully. “Tomorrow, we need to do that cake tasting by the way. If we actually want to have a cake for the day.”
“That should be okay. At least the dresses are all ready to go.”
“They made a few changes to mine,” Jordan admitted, blushing a bit.
“Oh, really?” Ellie couldn’t imagine what those would be.
“Yes, really. I’ll go back to the gym a little more often after the wedding, so for now, they won’t have to change it back…That was a bit startling. Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not laughing.” She might have not been able to hide the smile soon enough. It was hard enough to get Jordan to eat breakfast on a regular basis, and there as no doubt she had been under a lot of stress lately. Ellie tended to reward herself when that happened. Jordan mostly did the opposite. “You could use that couple of pounds.”
“Well, good, I have some to spare.” Maria Doss slid into the booth. “Also, I was hearing cake which might be the best thing of the day.”
That, they could all agree on.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time Bob Stanton was due to return from his family trip, Dr. Melissa Adams had done the autopsy on Harry Travis, a man of medium health and not so many secrets. The bullet that had killed him came from the same gun as the one that had killed Marco Raynor.
That morning, Ryan Lemont’s lawyer signaled that his client was interested in a deal.
Ellie and Waters met with A.D.A. Esposito before the scheduled meeting.
“He better help us unravel this mess completely,” she said, “before we give him anything. If he didn’t stab Rena Kelly, he hired someone else to do so, likely Travis, before he got him killed too. I can offer him a few years off the sentence, but that’s it.”
“Not sure his lawyer will go with that,” Waters returned.
Ellie could only describe Esposito’s look at him as a glare.
“I do my work based on what you give me, so the better you do your job, the less leeway I need to give lowlife like that,” she said.
Ellie did her best to make herself look invisible.
“Well, at least we have something, thanks to Harding.” Esposito sighed. “Let’s see what Lemont has. If it’s not anything big in the first ten minutes, I’m out of there.”
“Thank you,” Ellie mumbled, slightly in awe of the woman’s strict, confident demeanor, until she remembered again that Valerie was an ex of Jordan’s. Talk about a dilemma. For now, though, Esposito was right—they had to do their jobs, nothing else.
“Well, if it isn’t Nancy Drew again,” Lemont greeted her. His lawyer, Ellie could tell, barely refrained himself from rolling his eyes. He didn’t, of course. In the kind of hierarchy he was working in, disobedience could get a person killed. In the case of Harry Travis, even doing everything by the boss’s book could get someone killed, so she could understand the attorney keeping his emotions in check.
“You wanted to meet,” Waters reminded him. Even if Ellie had prodded and insisted, and it was basically due to her that more people were working these connected cases now, the more experienced detective was taking charge. She had expected it, but couldn’t help being slightly disappointed.
“Well, yeah, I don’t get to see so many good-looking chicks on the inside.”
He winked at Esposito who shook her head and got up.
“Forget about it. This is a waste of time.”
“Hey, wait. Lady. Listen. We both know that I’m no choirboy.”
Valerie Esposito had no reservations. She did roll her eyes. “If that’s all you have to sa
y, the meeting is over.”
“I didn’t kill Rena. I know who might have.”
“Well, so do we.” Ellie couldn’t help it. “Harry Travis is on a slab in the morgue. You don’t like witnesses. We know that too.”
“Oh come on, Harry ran into trouble all by himself. I thought the gentleman next to me would be doing a better job so we wouldn’t need to have this conversation, but here we are.” The lawyer looked positively scared now. “You know I met with those bums that patrol the neighborhood. I told you I wasn’t going to do business with them, and I wasn’t. That would cast a bad light on my clients.”
“Sure.”
No one in the room had missed the biting sarcasm in Esposito’s one word.
“You, unfortunately, saw the list. There’s no need to be condescending. We all need to make a living, right?”
“Focus, Mr. Lemont.”
He was still wearing a smile, but Ellie could have sworn she saw a flash of fury on his face. He might deny close associations with Stanton, but they were cut from the same cloth, despising women with authority.
“Can you imagine? They were trying to blackmail me. A guy with a beer gut and a pimply teenager threatening to run me off. You know I have honest business in this city, right? They had a point though—some of those bums at Patton Lake were getting awfully chummy with the police, and some of them might have been rats. That meeting wasn’t about drugs, but I agreed that if they wanted to clean up the park, my guys would stay out of it. Stanton came by one time to ask for a favor in exchange for some things he knew. I told Harry to escort him out, and next thing I knew I’m charged with the murder of that waitress. I guess I was just putting it together as you did.”
“And you know nothing about what was said between the two of them?”
He shook his head. “Would I lie to you?” Ryan Lemont didn’t wait for the obvious answer. “My ass is on the line, all right? I trusted Harry, but obviously he got himself into some shit—sorry, Ladies—that caught up with him.”
“I’d feel better if you had something concrete to give us. I fail to see how this helps our investigation.”
“Wait, I’m not done. There’s a knife that exchanged hands somewhere in that meeting. I saw the two of them together. I asked Harry about it, but he said it was nothing, something Beer Gut had borrowed from him. Wait, did I mention the two of them were cousins? Stanton once asked him to be part of his posse, but Harry had higher aspirations.”
“Like working for you, or murder—or both?”
“I’d say he made a fine choice working for me. The rest is for you to figure out, but perhaps you can find the bloody knife at Stanton’s house. So what am I getting out of this?”
“We’ll see if your story checks out,” Esposito said. “Then we’ll talk again.”
“Hey! You’ll solve two murders because of me, who do you think offed the homeless guy? Doing each other favors, and then Stanton tried to clean up the mess like an amateur.”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll talk later.”
“Don’t dismiss me like that!” Lemont jumped to his feet, rattling his cuffs so abruptly the guard stepped closer to him. “Do you really think that if I had him killed, it would be with the same gun? I’m not that stupid. Are you?”
“We’re done here,” Esposito said tersely. “Time for Mr. Stanton to answer some questions.”
* * * *
“Whatever place he had on the totem pole, I can’t imagine anyone associated with Lemont would do anything without his okay,” Ellie surmised, glad it was Derek with her once more while Waters was supposedly taking care of his condo.
Jordan had watched the interrogation, and she had stayed behind for some follow-up with Valerie Esposito. Ellie suppressed a sigh. Things were happening in this case, finally. She had no reason to worry about Valerie otherwise, with the wedding less than a month away.
“You’re right. It will be hard to prove though.”
“Yeah. Those closest to him are either scared or dead.”
They arrived at Stanton’s house only to find his mother glaring at them once again. “Bob isn’t here yet. He called me to say he took a later plane.”
“Did he say why?” Derek asked.
“No, he just left a voicemail. He doesn’t have to justify himself, right? You’re trespassing, unless you have a warrant.”
“Actually, Ma’am,” Ellie said, “you’re wrong on both. It’s extremely important that we speak to your son. And,” she held out the paper for Mrs. Stanton to see, “we’d like to take a look around.”
* * * *
“So, how are you doing?” Valerie asked when the official part was over.
Jordan busied herself finishing up her notes.
“Fine,” she said. “Perfect. Why are you asking?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Granted, things were fairly superficial between us, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care, right? With your biological mother helping out on a case, and the wedding around the corner, I can only imagine you’re freaking out about things too good to be true.”
Jordan wondered if it was rude to tell Valerie flat out this was none of her business. Rude, possibly, true, as well. She also wondered if she was really that predictable.
“It’s been challenging,” she acknowledged. “Still great. The wedding part, I mean. I’m sorry we didn’t invite you, but that would have been…”
“Slightly awkward, I get it.”
“I’m glad you do, but it’s not just that. We are trying to keep it small.”
“Yeah, sure, I understand. Anyway, good for you. Harding is making herself at home too, I see. I’m happy for you both.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Now get back to work. I’d love to file some charges that stick by the end of the day.”
“Will do, Ma’am.” Jordan made a faux salute and was finally able to leave the office.
She stopped to greet Mindy, Valerie’s secretary, who was behind her desk.
On her way out, she nearly ran into a man who gave her an angry glare.
“Excuse me,” she mumbled with a shrug, looking back over her shoulder as he strode past her. She was on the other side of the door, a few steps into the hallway, when she heard Mindy call, “Sir, you can’t go in there. Sir—” –and then a scream, as a shot rang out, and then another.
Jordan drew her weapon and went back inside, gesturing to a terrified looking Mindy to get out.
* * * *
Ellie let Derek do most of the search—as for any hints of Stanton’s whereabouts they certainly would be back later. She sat down with Mrs. Stanton in the living room while Derek continued upstairs, hoping to forge some sort of rapport with the woman and keep her from warning her son.
“Listen, I know it must be unsettling to have the police come in like this.”
“Barging in is more like it.”
“I know,” Ellie said, even though that wasn’t the truth. “I know you don’t want us here, but your son got involved with some very dangerous people. He might be a witness to a crime, and those people have a lot to lose.”
“Are you threatening me and my son?” Mrs. Stanton demanded, indignantly. She seemed hell-bent on misinterpreting Ellie. “He is only trying to help his neighbors, but these days, if you do that, you’re the bad person, while others get away with everything.”
“I am not threatening anyone. You can help Bob now if you tell us where he is.”
“I told you, he took a later plane.”
“Can you play me that message?”
“No. I deleted it. I didn’t know you’d need it.”
“Mrs. Stanton, do you know for sure that Bob has left town?”
“You’re accusing him of lying?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he got scared. If he talks to the police now, we can help him.”
The woman gave her a dubious look, and for the umpteenth time, Ellie wished she’d look older, or anything that would make people take her more at her word.<
br />
“I can’t tell you what to believe,” she finally said. “But one thing’s for sure. Every minute that Bob doesn’t turn himself in, it will look worse for him.”
Her phone vibrated, indicating an incoming text message.
“Excuse me.”
Ellie had barely skimmed over the words on the screen when she jumped to her feet. She took a card out of her pocket and handed it to a reluctant Mrs. Stanton.
“I’m sorry, but we need to go. If you hear from Bob, call us right away. You’re doing the right thing for him. Someone has to if he won’t do it.”
She heard Derek coming down the stairs before he joined them in the living room, his gaze serious.
“Ellie, you should come see this.”
“I don’t think we have the time.”
There was another message, and Ellie’s stomach lurched before she opened it.
Chapter Eighteen
When she entered Valerie’s office, Jordan was grateful to find the situation almost under control. The man she’d just run into was writhing on the floor, clutching his thigh.
Valerie held a gun in shaking hands, hers, Jordan assumed. She spotted the intruder’s at a fairly safe distance.
“Show me your hands, asshole,” she snapped at him.
“I can’t. I’m bleeding,” he whined.
“Oh, you can. Move it. Now.”
“I need a doctor.”
“Yeah, I can see that. I don’t think the A.D.A. appreciates you bleeding all over her carpet.”
She phoned security first, as she assumed a possible lockdown was only moments away. “This is Detective Carpenter. I’m in A.D.A. Esposito’s office. We’re okay. The intruder is alive, but he’ll need medical assistance.” Her words brought on an undignified yelp. “Could you please get a medic in here ASAP?” On second thought, Valerie might need one too. Jordan noticed that she hadn’t moved.
“Hey, Val,” she said softly after hanging up with the security guard. “You’re okay?” She couldn’t blame her for being shell-shocked. Having to defend herself against an armed intruder in her own office was definitely not part of the job description.
“You can lay down the gun now. Careful. Sit. He’s not going anywhere.”
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