“We have to go back to the alley and see what else we can find. I say that’s ground zero.” What she didn’t add was that she hoped Sovereign was gone by then.
-
Chapter 27
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING NOW?” Terry jogged to keep up with Madison.
Hadn’t I made myself clear enough?
“We’re going back to the alley,” Madison said.
“You do have a problem letting go, don’t you? Two murders aren’t enough. Now you want to take over Sovereign’s investigation?”
She stopped walking and spun to face him. “His case is really ours. Zoe was wearing that man’s clothing. She was in that alley.”
“At least her phone was.”
She rolled her eyes. “We need to figure out why, and the only way we’re going to do that is to go back to where his body was found.” She resumed walking, her strides eating up feet of the hallway at a rapid rate until she reached the station’s lot. “There wasn’t much by way of evidence where we found Zoe. She was hit with something, and it has to be in that alley.” She unlocked the car and slipped behind the wheel.
Terry got into the passenger seat. “They’ll still be working on the scene.”
“I’m counting on it.” At this point, she even suspected that Cynthia and Mark would have joined Samantha and Jennifer. That alley would be littered with potential evidence. She needed to know if they’d found anything else and if the information from Zoe’s phone was ready. She couldn’t wait much longer.
Ten minutes later, she had parked on the street near the alley. Officer Tendum—a rookie—was guarding the perimeter. She barely looked at him before sliding under the tape. They had their history, and it wasn’t a good one. First of all, she found his attitude deplorable. And second, Tendum was why her friend and training officer, Higgins, had been shot during a recent investigation. Tendum wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, but as far as she was concerned, he might as well have been. Higgins was recovering and had been assigned to modified duties when his “backup” should have protected him. Tendum should be stationed behind a desk, not entrusted with protecting a crime scene.
“Detective Knight,” Tendum called out.
She was already a few feet away. She ignored him.
“This isn’t your case!” he yelled.
Terry reached out and touched her forearm. It was hardly effective at stilling the rage that pulsed through her system. Tendum had the nerve to tell her what was and what wasn’t her job? He’s the one who had failed to use his authority to kill the man who’d shot Higgins.
When an officer is shot in the line of duty—even off-duty—it’s traumatic. When that shooting could have been prevented and the appropriate action wasn’t taken, it was inexcusable. That was the case here. Yes, the perp had put his weapon on Tendum after shooting Higgins, but Tendum shouldn’t have hesitated. Instead, he’d frozen and let fear render him paralyzed. Meanwhile, Higgins had been bleeding out on the ground.
She’d never forgive Tendum. Higgins could have died, and Tendum would have let the man walk away. Not to mention another civilian had paid with her life because he had failed to handle the situation properly.
Cynthia was hunched over and picking up a piece of blood-soaked newspaper. It dangled from her hand, ready to be inserted into an evidence bag. “What are you doing here, Maddy?”
Richards must have come and gone. The body was no longer lying beside the Dumpster.
“I guess you haven’t heard. This case ties into ours,” Madison said.
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be here.” She put the paper in the bag and sealed it closed. Next, she scribbled the location on it and other pertinent information.
“What you think doesn’t matter.”
“Oh really?” Cynthia walked toward Madison.
“You know what I mean, Cyn.”
Cynthia raised her brows and dragged a pointed finger from Madison to Terry. “Can you believe this girl? She pulls out Cyn when she’s put on the spot.”
“It’s not that,” Madison said. “Listen, we need to speak to Jennifer.”
“It’s about Zoe’s phone, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we were just about to call you.”
Madison pointed toward the pile of garbage and debris from where Cynthia had emerged. “Yeah, it sure looked like it.”
Cynthia smirked and shook her head. “You have no patience.” Her gaze went to Terry and Madison followed suit. He was smiling, too.
“Would you guys cut it out and focus? The phone, what did you find?” Her cell chimed, notifying her of an e-mail.
“You might want to get that,” Cynthia said.
“It can wait.”
“If you want to know what was on Zoe’s phone, then no, it can’t.”
Madison rolled her eyes. “Jennifer sent the list to my phone?”
“Yes.”
She opened up the message’s attachment to see Zoe’s contact list. There were fifty names and numbers. Nothing was ever easy. She went back to the note Jennifer had included. Zoe’s recent history showed several calls and messages to various people including Faye Duncan. But correspondence with an Elias Bowers was of a personal nature.
Madison lowered her phone. Cynthia had already gone back to evidence collection, and Terry was staring at Madison. She shared the information with him but remained standing there, thinking everything through.
So Zoe had actually had a boyfriend. How did he factor into her death, or did he even? And if he did, why kill Faye Duncan?
Assuming the vagrant was collateral damage—God, she hated to think of anyone that way—the murders were prompted by either Faye’s or Zoe’s actions.
Their deaths were personal.
Personal. There was something there, but she wasn’t quite grasping what.
Faye Duncan had been passionate about two things: her great-niece and protesting abortion.
Zoe Bell was somewhat of an unknown at this point. Her mother had said she got on well with men, and she’d had a male contact, Elias, who seemed like a possible lover.
The vagrant, who she was tiring of labeling such, deserved a name. She’d think of him as Charlie until she knew otherwise. Assigning him a label or considering him a John Doe was too impersonal.
She didn’t know anything about Charlie at this point. Nothing.
Her eyes scanned the area, settling on the back door of the soup kitchen. The same soup kitchen where Kimberly Bell volunteered.
How did this all fit together?
“What are you thinking, Maddy?” Terry asked.
She wrested her gaze from the door to look at Terry. “I’m just trying to figure out how the murders and series of events are connected. First, Faye dies and her body is left outside the hospital. Then, Zoe is found in vagrant’s clothing. The reason for this I have yet to understand.”
“Maybe the killer didn’t think we’d identify her that way.”
His theory had merit. The killer wasn’t counting on them to recognize Zoe Bell. That could rule out the mother, Kimberly, right there. Say, she had let Faye die and Zoe confronted her. She could have lashed out, resulting in Zoe’s murder, and Charlie’s because he’d witnessed the event. But what purpose would Kimberly have to conceal her daughter’s identity? Regret, maybe? As if by doing so, it would minimize what she had done?
Another circle.
And standing around wasn’t going to do them any good. “We’ve got to meet this Elias Bowers, figure out exactly who he was to Zoe Bell and whether or not he’s the one behind the murders.”
-
Chapter 28
ELIAS BOWERS WAS A PRENATAL doctor at Peace Liberty Hospital. If Faye had died defending her stance on abortion, it wouldn’t be Elias pushing the buttons. He would have been on he
r side—at least one would think. It was possible the doctor still believed in the right to choose.
Madison and Terry caught up with him at home. According to the hospital, he had just come off a twenty-hour shift.
His Lexus was in the driveway of his bungalow. The property was well maintained and in a nice part of town, but not in one of the fancy neighborhoods where many doctors settled down.
The curtains in the front were all closed. Terry pressed the doorbell and the chime echoed through the otherwise silent home as if it were a yell in a canyon. It told Madison the doctor was sparse on furnishings. He must have put most of his money into his car.
They waited, and still there was no movement from inside.
Madison pressed the bell this time.
“He must be knocked out not to hear this thing,” Terry said.
It was a possibility Madison didn’t like. She imagined Elias in bed, door shut, maybe an air cleaner on, a fan overhead. It’s possible he had even invested in soundproofing his room seeing as he worked long shifts at the hospital.
“Wait…did you hear that?” Terry asked.
She strained to listen. “Ah—”
“There.”
It was the clunk of a gate closing.
“Hello?” A man’s voice called out from the side of the house. He rounded the front and Madison recognized him from his DMV photo. Elias Bowers. Just like Zoe, his eyes were piercing, but instead of being the color of steel, they were as blue as a clear sky. Facial growth shadowed his angular jaw and his build was firm.
“We’re detectives with Stiles PD.” Madison held up her badge. “We have some questions for you about Zoe Bell.”
He raked his fingers through his already-tousled hair. “What about her?”
“Do you have someplace we could sit?” she asked.
His eyes glazed over—maybe from exhaustion?—but they registered confusion. “Ah, yeah, sure. This way.”
He led them to a back deck, where a man was nursing a beer and sitting with his feet up on another chair. There were four empty bottles on the table next to him.
He stood up quickly.
“This is Ben,” Elias said.
Ben acknowledged them with a small wave from hip level. His eyes darted between Madison and Terry.
“They want to talk about Zoe,” Elias explained to his friend.
“Okay?” Ben said, clearly confused. He went back to his chair but didn’t put his feet up again.
“Why do you want to talk about her?” Elias asked Madison. Then his eyes darted to Terry and he dropped onto a chair next to his friend. “Is she all right?”
Coming straight out with it was the best way, she decided. “Her body was found this morning,” Madison said.
Elias rubbed the stubble on his face and his eyes misted. “What happened?”
“We believe that she was murdered. The cause of death is looking to be blunt force trauma.”
“Someone beat her?” His brow furrowed, crease lines etching into his skin with the depth of the question.
“Yes, it appears that way,” Madison said. “When did you last see her?”
“Over a week ago. My shifts at the hospital kept getting in the way.”
Madison nodded. She’d get to alibis soon enough. “What was your relationship like with Zoe Bell?”
He sniffled and looked at Ben, who was shaking his head.
“I’m so sorry, man,” Ben said.
A few seconds had passed before Elias responded to her question. “We were lovers.” He blew out a rush of air. “Heck, we were more than that.” His body was shaking, and his eyes had glazed over.
Ben stepped in for his friend. “He was going to propose to her.”
“So it was serious?” Madison queried the obvious.
Elias met her eyes. “You could say that.” He waited a few beats. “She was a special girl.”
With his comment, their age difference became more apparent. Zoe had been twenty-one, and according to his record, Elias was in his early thirties.
“Where did you meet?”
“At the hospital. She came in to visit her aunt—great-aunt. Anyway, she had hip surgery or something like that…” He paused for a few seconds and then continued. “Well, Zoe was all turned around and I helped her find her aunt’s room. The hallways down at Peace Liberty can get pretty confusing when you’re not familiar with them.”
Madison could attest to that. “Did you know her aunt?”
“Yes and no. I know more of her. We weren’t introduced.”
“So, you never met?” she asked yet again.
Elias shook his head. “No, like I said. By the way, how is she doing? I know the two of them were really close.”
He either didn’t know about Faye’s murder or was playing dumb. “She was also murdered.”
“She— What?” Elias’s lips twisted. “What is going on?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Terry said.
“And you thought I could help with that?” Elias looked from Terry to Madison.
She wasn’t about to say he was a suspect…just yet. “You were going to propose to Zoe but never met her aunt? Like you said, they were close.”
“I had brought it up to Zoe, but it never seemed like a good time. I know it sounds crazy, wanting to marry a girl when she didn’t even want to introduce me to her favorite relative, but Zoe wasn’t like other girls. She had a spark in her. Her best friend was her aunt. Maybe in some ways—” He waved a hand. “I’m not finishing that thought. It’s going to sound wrong.”
If he were going to say that Zoe was better dead than having to grieve the loss of her aunt, yes, it would sound wrong. And very bad.
Madison turned her attention to Ben. “Did you know Zoe?”
His gaze was looking over the back lawn. He faced Madison and nodded. Then he turned to Elias. “I’m so sorry, man.”
“I just can’t believe it,” Elias said.
It seemed apparent that Zoe had been killed in that back alley, and if so, they needed to figure out why she’d been there in the first place. Did Zoe volunteer at the soup kitchen like her mother? And what would either of them be doing there at the time of night that Zoe was killed, anyway?
“Did Zoe do any volunteer work?” Madison asked.
“Not that I know of. Her job kept her pretty busy.”
“She worked at Angels Incorporated?” Usually, Madison would have let him say where, but she wanted to see if the name elicited any reaction. The motive for the two women’s deaths had to be buried underneath outside appearances.
Elias’s light-blue irises had turned stormy. “Yeah. She worked in the office there.”
“What do they do there?” Madison asked.
“I can’t say we talked much about business,” Elias said.
Yet, he was going to propose to her? Had Zoe been hiding something? It seemed more likely that a young girl would have enemies over that of an older woman, but what would result in both of them being killed?
“Like I said,” Elias continued, “our relationship was relatively new. She did mention she liked her boss.”
New? But he was ready to make a lifetime commitment. No wonder so many marriages ended in divorce when people gambled like this.
“Where were you this morning between midnight and two?” Madison asked.
“I’m a suspect now?” Elias looked at his friend. “I should have just gone to bed. First a long shift, then a couple beers, and now this? I’m going to have a breakdown.” His eyes went heavenward, and then he ran his hands down his face. He took a moment to compose himself. “I was doing a cesarean section at that time.”
“And around six o’clock three nights ago?” That was the estimate for Faye’s time of death.
“Again, I was at the hospi
tal. I’m usually there. Check with them.”
“We will,” Madison said.
-
Chapter 29
“SO WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?” Terry asked as they walked back to the car.
“Too early to say, but I have a feeling he’s not behind the murders.”
“You’re taking his word for this? That’s something new in the history of Madison.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, shut up.” If he were closer, she’d punch him in the shoulder.
She pulled out of Elias’s drive. “A twenty-one-year-old woman like Zoe had one man she was in regular communication with, according to her phone, but her mother said she got along well with men. She had other contacts in her phone.” She remembered the tally—over fifty.
“We’ll speak with them,” Terry said.
To think of speaking with each one of them was an overwhelming thought. “Fifty-plus people? There has to be another way to narrow things down. Maybe Zoe had a secret life if she didn’t want to tell her boyfriend about what she did for work. There could have been a good reason for that.” They needed to firm up what Angels Incorporated was all about. “It might not be what’s on her phone, but what isn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t there a way to extract a phone’s message history even in the cases where messages have been deleted? If so, maybe our answer may lie in there somewhere. We’ll have to speak to Cynthia and see what she has to say.” She considered calling now, but Cynthia was probably still investigating the alley. “Fire off a text message to Cynthia. Tell her what we’re looking for.” She watched Terry until he pulled his phone out. With her eyes back on the road, she swerved around an SUV, and then pulled back into their lane.
“If you could take it a little easy, I’m trying to text here.”
“Don’t you mean peck?” Madison laughed. He might have been getting faster, but he still tapped each key. She wasn’t the queen of technology, but she believed there were apps out there that made texting an easier process.
“Where are we off to anyway? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for that event tonight?” Terry asked.
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