by Debra Webb
Pause. “I take it Dan hasn’t reached you.”
Jess started moving toward Hayes’s car. Harper was waiting. “About?”
“Meredith Dority was found dead in her mother’s home this morning. My sources say it looks like a homicide.”
Oh God. “Thanks, Gina. I should call Dan.”
I didn’t know. Jess thought of the look of horror on Dority’s face last night as she’d uttered those words.
Dan’s phone went straight to voicemail. Hearing his voice in the recorded greeting made Jess want to cry.
This nightmare just kept expanding and escalating.
13
Birmingham Police Department, 11:00 a.m.
“Good morning, Tara.” Dan smiled at his receptionist who was busy with a call. She glanced up at him but the return smile was slow in coming.
He’d been MIA all morning. The decision was a confident move for a man on the verge of losing his job. Dan had enough personal leave time and vacation days saved up to take the next three months off with pay, a couple of hours was nothing. Anyone who needed to reach him knew how.
“Good morning, Chief.” Shelia, his secretary, offered him a handful of messages as he reached her desk.
He’d called his secretary half an hour ago to say he was on his way in. He’d missed a call from Jess while he was on the line with Shelia. He’d tried to call her back but he’d gotten her voicemail.
“Let’s hope it stays one,” Dan replied as he accepted the messages. “Would you get Chief Harris on the line for me, please?”
“Chief Black is waiting in your office.” Shelia winced. “I told him you were on your way in.”
“That’s fine,” Dan assured her. “I’ll call Chief Harris after Chief Black and I are finished.” Shelia and Tara were worried about him as well as their jobs. This was a difficult situation for all of them. “Thanks, Shelia.”
At his door, Dan hesitated a moment. He’d supported this city for two decades, dedicated to the goal of making Birmingham a better place. None of that mattered to men like Pratt. Dan had stopped taking the mayor’s suggestions on how to run the BPD and suddenly he was the enemy. There had been friction for a couple of years, but the real trouble had started more recently. The mayor might take this position from him, but he couldn’t change what Dan had done for the city.
Whatever happened, Jess and the baby were his top priorities now.
With renewed purpose, he opened the door and strode into his office. Harold Black stood behind Dan’s desk gazing out his window.
“Like the view?” Dan dropped his briefcase on his desk and waited for the other man to get out of the way.
Harold moved around to the front of the desk and settled into one of the chairs. “I was surprised to find you weren’t in your office this morning.”
Dan lowered into his chair. “I had personal business. Do you want my secretary to start forwarding you my calendar?”
Harold heaved a sigh. “No need for the hostility, Dan.”
Somehow, hostility seemed fitting at the moment. “What is it you want, Harold?”
Harold propped his elbows on the chair arms and steepled his fingers. “Let’s start with your whereabouts this morning. According to the officer on Chief Harris’s surveillance detail today, you departed the apartment the two of you share around eight. Did you have breakfast with someone?”
Fury shot through Dan. “Whatever it is you have to say, I suggest you move right to the point. I have some catching up to do.”
“Meredith Dority is dead, Dan. Murdered.”
The fury died instantly. Though their marriage had been a mistake for both of them, they had parted on good terms. Meredith was—had been—a good person, a caring person with whom he’d had a lot in common. After the divorce, they had remained friends, until now.
How could she be dead?
“This morning? What happened?” Dan braced for the painful details.
“You may or may not be aware, but her mother fell and broke her hip three weeks ago. That’s the reason Meredith took a leave of absence from her position in Montgomery. She’s been helping her mother.”
Dan shook his head. “I had no idea.” He hadn’t heard from Meredith in a long while before last week. They were both busy people, time slipped away.
“Her mother was asleep in her bedroom,” Harold explained. “The doorbell woke her. She, of course, requires assistance getting in and out of bed so leaving her room was impossible. She did, however, hear the confrontation. The visitor and Meredith exchanged heated words. Mrs. Dority heard their raised voices, the slamming of the door, and then her daughter crying.”
Dan felt ill. “I—”
Harold held up a hand for Dan to wait. “No more than three or four minutes later there was another, quieter discussion. The next thing Mrs. Dority heard was a struggle and then nothing.”
Dan couldn’t speak for a moment. His entire being ached for the pain Meredith had suffered and for the agony her mother endured not being able to help daughter. “How...?” He couldn’t bear to say the rest.
“She was strangled.”
Jesus Christ. Who would do this? “Was this a robbery?” The elderly were far too often targets. Under normal circumstances, Mrs. Dority would have been home alone.
Harold stared at him for a long moment before answering. “Nothing from the home was taken.”
“Why the hell wasn’t I notified? Whatever happens tomorrow or the day after that doesn’t matter. Right now,” Dan banged his fist against the desk, “I am still the chief of police. Why didn’t you call me about this?”
He had never required that his division chiefs keep him abreast of their activities day by day as long as he was kept up to date within a reasonable timeframe. He didn’t need blow-by-blow accounts. He trusted the people he placed at the highest levels within the department, but this was different. He should have been informed of Meredith’s death.
“Dan.” Harold’s face was grave now. “Mrs. Dority recognized the intruder’s voice.”
Comprehension hit Dan square in the chest.
“She said the man she heard arguing with her daughter was you.” Harold held up both hands when Dan would have butted in. “Before you say anything, I need to advise you that you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can—”
“I know my rights, by God! Yes, I stopped by to see Meredith this morning.” Dan worked at relaxing his tense muscles. Meredith was dead. Jesus Christ. He couldn’t believe Pratt would have anything to do with this. Spears maybe, but why? “Yes, we argued.” What had he been thinking?
“Was she expecting you?”
Dan shook his head. “Jess ran into her last night and Meredith said something that leads me to believe she was being coerced into the accusations she made.”
“What did she say to Chief Harris?”
“I guess she overheard Jess sharing our future plans with Sylvia and Gina.” Dan refused to share the news about the baby with Harold. “Meredith seemed distraught and said something to the effect that she didn’t know. Her companion, a male Jess didn’t recognize, urged Meredith not to say more. Meredith and I hadn’t spoken since she went public with these ludicrous allegations. I felt it was time we cleared the air.”
Harold shifted in his chair. “Are you certain you don’t want to call your attorney before we discuss this any further?”
“Are you officially questioning me?”
Harold rubbed at his temple. “Let’s call this a pre-interview.”
Dan closed his eyes and shook his head. Unbelievable.
“What do you want me to do, Dan?” Harold held out his arms in a helpless gesture. “I have no choice. Someone has to do this. If you’d rather I call in someone else, that’s what I’ll do.”
Dan nodded. “You’re right. Let’s just do this. I arrived at her mother’s home around eight-thirty this morning. I never made it past the open doorway. Meredith wouldn’t invite me in. She said she couldn’t. I aske
d why and she wouldn’t say.”
“Did you sense Meredith was afraid of you in any way?”
“Of course not! She kept looking toward the street as if she were afraid someone would see me there.”
“When she asked you to leave, did you?”
Dan shook his head. “No. I demanded to know why she’d fabricated these stories about me. She kept repeating that she had no choice, she had no choice. I tried reasoning with her. I offered her police protection. She wouldn’t tell me anything. She continued to demand that I leave. She said she couldn’t be seen talking to me.”
“So she thought someone was watching her?”
“That was my impression.”
Harold scrubbed his jaw. “Dan, you must understand how this looks.”
“In retrospect going there was a bad idea. Frankly, I’m dumbfounded, Harold. I can’t understand why she did this or who would want to hurt her.” He exhaled a frustrated breath. “How’s her mother?”
“Devastated, as you can imagine.”
“I can’t have her thinking I did this.”
“A neighbor saw your rental car leaving the residence within the timeframe the ME believes the murder occurred.”
Holy hell. “Did anyone see who came to the house after me? Meredith was alive when I walked away from her door.”
Harold shook his head. “This is bad, Dan. Worse than the business with Allen. The fact that her mother heard you argue with Meredith and then leave only to allegedly return a few minutes later may show premeditation. It’s one thing to kill someone in the heat of the moment. It’s another one entirely to walk away even for a few minutes and come back to do the deed. You know this as well as I do. The DA will argue that you had sufficient time to calm down before you returned to kill Meredith. That’s premeditated murder, Dan.”
“I didn’t go back, Harold.” Fury pounded at Dan again. “I left.”
“I, of all people, know you didn’t do this. The question is can we prove it?”
“Someone had to see something besides my rental car.”
“And if they did, we will find them,” Harold assured him. “Right now, there are two things we must do. We have to rule you out based on physical evidence and we have to prove someone else was close enough to swoop in and murder her in the nick of time to frame you.”
The whole scenario sounded contrived, yet Dan knew it was true.
“Do what you have to do to rule me out, Harold. I never touched her and she never touched me. She struggled with her attacker, there had to be some sort of evidence exchange.”
Harold nodded. “Let’s hope that’s the case. I’ll have a tech come up and take samples for comparison. Meanwhile, I would suggest you call your attorney. The man can’t defend you if you don’t keep him informed.”
“I want to talk to Mrs. Dority.” Dan needed her to know he didn’t do this.
“Stay away from her for now. Anything you do or say will only send the wrong message.”
The intercom buzzed. “Chief,” Shelia said, “I’m sorry to interrupt but your mother is on line one. She says it’s very important that she speak with you.”
Harold stood. “Go ahead. I’ll wait outside for the tech to arrive.”
“Stay. I don’t want anyone suggesting I did away with evidence while you weren’t looking.”
Harold gave an acknowledging nod as Dan thanked his secretary. He picked up the receiver and pushed the blinking light. “Mom, is everything all right?”
“No, Dan, it absolutely is not. You must talk to your father as soon as possible.”
Dan knew from the sound of her voice that nothing too troubling had actually happened. “What’s going on with Dad?”
“He refuses to schedule his checkup. You know how important it is that he sees his doctor regularly. With us both worried sick about you, it’s crucial that he go. That heart attack almost killed him. I don’t want a repeat performance.”
“You’re right. I’ll come by after work today and speak to him.”
“You’re the only one he listens to,” Katherine said, her voice quavering a bit.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get him in for his checkup. You have my word.”
“Thank you, son. I’m counting on you.”
Dan gave his mother one last reassurance before ending the call. Katherine had a reputation for overreacting, but this time he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Everything all right?”
“I don’t know, Harold. I just don’t know,” Dan confessed. When the news about Meredith hit the media, his parents were going to be devastated.
A knock on his office door signaled the tech had arrived.
“You’re sure about this?” Harold asked once more.
“I have nothing to hide.” Dan had truth on his side. He hadn’t touched Meredith. She was very much alive and in tears when she slammed the door in his face.
And Dan still had no idea why she’d set out to help ruin him.
14
Fifth Avenue, Redmont Hotel, 11:20 a.m.
A Birmingham landmark since the early 1920s, the Redmont Hotel had the customary tales of hauntings and mysterious deaths. The classic brick and terra cotta building stood thirteen floors high and sat at the corner of two of downtown’s busiest streets.
Jess had only been inside once. At seventeen she’d come with Lil to pick up Wanda. They hadn’t seen their aunt in years, but the police had called and said someone had to come pick her up. Wanda had been staying with some guy who’d left her at the hotel wasted on drugs and with two days’ rent due. Lil had been so embarrassed. Pooling every nickel they possessed it still wasn’t enough to pay the hotel bill. Jess had borrowed the money from her new boyfriend, Dan Burnett. She hadn’t told him what she needed the money for and he hadn’t asked. When the bill was paid, Wanda had refused to leave the room. She’d been sure her man was coming back. Jess had called Buddy then. He’d sweet-talked Wanda from the room.
Apparently, Jess had completely forgotten the unpleasant episode. No matter that twenty-five years had passed, as soon as she saw the building with its name standing high atop it like a southern version of the Hollywood sign, Jess remembered.
Lieutenant Hayes appeared on the sidewalk near her door, and Jess realized she was still sitting in the car.
Meredith Dority was dead. Murdered. Jess hated what she knew Dan was going through right now. Unable to reach him on his cell, she had called the office. His secretary explained that he was in a closed door meeting with Chief Black. Whether the meeting was about Dority or not, Jess doubted anything good for Dan would come of it.
She cleared her head and stepped from the car. She spotted Harper’s SUV. No other official vehicles had arrived. At the front entrance, Jess hesitated and turned back to the street. That tingly sensation that warned someone was watching her scaled her spine.
As if the dark-haired man in the picture Maddie had drawn had suddenly come to life, a black Infiniti with heavily tinted windows cruised down Fifth Avenue. Jess didn’t need to see the driver, she instinctively knew it was him.
For one instant, she gauged the distance between her and Hayes’s car. Could they reach his vehicle in time to follow the Infiniti?
The Infiniti rocketed forward as if she had telegraphed the thought to the driver. Darting between the other cars, the driver made a hard right on Second Avenue and disappeared.
He was watching her again. It was possible he’d never stopped. Either way, he wanted her to know he was close. Gant was right. Spears was feeling the pressure to advance to the finale. Though no one had cornered him, the combined efforts of the Task Force were slowly boxing him in. His time was running out.
He’s coming for you, Jessie Lee! Fear shivered through her. She shook it off and strode determinedly toward the hotel entrance.
She might be his end game, but she also intended to be the end of him.
The marble-floored lobby with its soaring ceiling and glittering chandelier led to the elevator.
The wait for a car to arrive was long enough for Jess to toy with the idea of climbing six flights of stairs. Thankfully, the elevator doors opened before she made the mistake of suggesting the idea to Hayes. As comfortable as her new shoes were, the idea of that many stairs was not appealing.
On the sixth floor, a narrow carpeted hallway led to room 624. Harper waited at the door. “Good morning, Chief.” He glanced at Hayes. “Detective Wells is inside.”
“Crime scene techs on the way?” Jess looked beyond Harper through the open door. The room was a wreck. Her heart rate picked up its pace as she slipped on shoe covers.
“No, ma’am. I thought I’d wait and see how you wanted me to handle the request considering Agent Gant removed our team from the investigation.”
Jess tugged on a pair of gloves. “We’ll take care of that in a bit, Sergeant. Let’s see what we have here first.”
She entered the hotel room and her lungs were suddenly unable to fill with air. Photos of Jess and handwritten pages were posted on every available inch of wall space. On each page, lines were highlighted in yellow. Scattered on the bed and desk were newspapers—old newspapers. Articles and headlines were circled in red.
In the middle of the room, Jess hesitated. A newspaper photo of her hung above the desk. Surrounding the photo were dozens of clippings about Spears and the other cases she had worked since returning to Birmingham. An iPad lay on the desk. The battery was dead.
“Chief, I think these handwritten pages are from a diary or journal.”
Jess dragged her attention from the newspaper clipping to Lori. “Henshaw’s?”
“I think,” Lori said tentatively, “they were written by your mother. Look at this page.”
Pulse accelerating, Jess moved to the wall and studied the first of dozens of pages. She didn’t recognize the handwriting, yet her heart seemed to stumble as she read the words.
Lee didn’t come home this week. I’m worried. I watch my girls sleep and I fear what the future holds for them. Please, God, help us.
A cold, cold darkness slid through Jess. She reached out, touched the yellowed pages. “Where is...” She cleared the emotion from her throat and turned to Lori. “Where is Officer Cook?”