Gray turned to Mia. “Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“No. I need to be here. Besides, I don’t have anywhere else to go.” She darted a glance at Langley. “Go ahead. Do what you need to do. I’ll just wait.”
Langley looked down and away as Gray brushed past him and into the entryway, where D’Augostino was examining the front door with gloved hands. “Lieutenant,” he said with a slight nod. “I saw your vehicle, so I thought I’d come over.”
“Come over?”
“Yeah. I live a couple buildings over.” He squinted at the door. “No signs of forced entry here.” He righted himself. “What about broken glass?”
“We have plenty of that,” Gray answered mechanically, and then stepped in D’Augostino’s path as he tried to walk past him. “Did you hear any kind of disturbance?”
He shook his head. “No. Like I said, I saw your car and thought something might be going on. This is a quiet building. Lots of young professionals, and everyone needs to work in the morning. It’s unusual to see police here.”
“Did you hear anything else earlier tonight? The buildings are close.”
“You mean did I hear someone breaking in?” He shook his head. “No. I just got home about an hour ago. I was about to go to bed when I saw the squad lights. So what’s going on? Langley says it’s connected to Valentine?”
“We don’t know. Someone sent a threatening email to Mia, warning her off the case.”
D’Augostino gave a low whistle. “She okay?”
“She is now. She’s with me. Here.”
D’Augostino hadn’t expected that answer. His face wrinkled as if he’d eaten something sour. “She’s here? Lieutenant, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job—”
“Then don’t.”
Gray turned, but D’Augostino held his arm. “Gray. Lieutenant. I know you want to protect her. Hell, I think Mia’s great, too. But we’ve got all these irons in the fire with the Valentine case, and she keeps getting mixed up in it, and we’ve gotta ask ourselves why. First her sister is killed, then Mia’s fingerprints are all over that gun used in the copycat crime, then she gets an email warning her off Valentine. Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious? And I’m not saying that Mia’s going around shooting people, but if she’s somehow mixed up in the case, we don’t want her tainting the investigation.”
Gray lowered his voice, glancing behind his shoulder to make sure Mia wasn’t listening, and said, “If I kick her out of here, I can’t be sure she’s alive in the morning, you understand? I think someone attacked her last year for a reason. She knows something that’s going to blow this case open, and I’m just waiting for her to remember what it was.”
“Even if that’s true, the prosecutor’s going to have a hard time explaining that to a jury.”
Gray fought the adrenaline coursing through his veins. “I don’t give a damn about a jury or a prosecutor. Mia is one of Valentine’s victims, too. Maybe you could live with yourself if you sent her home and something happened. If so, then she’s goddamn lucky I’m the one looking out for her.”
He was halfway to the living room when he heard D’Augostino mutter something. Gray froze, turned in place and eyed his colleague with a cutting gaze. “What was that, Sergeant?”
D’Augostino looked conflicted, but then said, “The chief might think differently.”
“Is that a threat?”
The sergeant met Gray’s glare with one of his own. “No, sir.”
A cell phone chimed, and both men turned to see Mia standing in the hall, watching the exchange with interest. She fumbled for her phone with clumsy fingers, glanced at the number and left the room without another word.
“Enough talking,” Gray said. “It’s time to work.”
* * *
“Mark,” Mia breathed, relieved he’d called her back. “Someone’s broken into Lena’s apartment.”
“You’re kidding me.” Mark cursed. “What happened?”
“There’s a broken window by the fire escape.”
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know yet, but that’s not even why I’m calling. Someone packed Lena’s apartment. There are boxes all over the place. We need to talk to the landlord.”
Silence. For a moment Mia thought she’d lost the connection, and she pulled the phone away from her ear to check that he was still there. “Hello? Mark?”
“I’m here.” He sounded weary. “I packed the apartment. The landlord had nothing to do with it.”
“What?” She felt as if the floorboards were shaking beneath her. “You packed Lena’s things?”
“Not me. I hired some guys. But yes, I had them pack everything up, and I’m going to move it to storage.” He sighed. “It’s been almost a year, Mia. It’s time for us to face reality.”
His words hit her straight in her gut, and Mia struggled to catch her breath. “What reality? Lena’s missing. She could still come home.”
“Is that what you really think?” His gentle tone didn’t neutralize the cruelty of his words. “She’s gone. We may never know what happened, but she would come home if she could. She hasn’t.”
Mia felt his betrayal like a slap in the face, and she gripped the phone tighter to her ear. This was Mark, Lena’s fiancé. They’d grieved together, and she’d confided in him. “How can you say that?” she whispered. “I thought you loved her.”
“I’ll always love Lena.” She heard him cough away from the phone. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I loved her. I still love her. That’s all.”
The hair rose on the back of her neck, and Mia sat down on a box marked Books shoved into the corner of the bedroom. “That’s not all. Tell me what else.” She heard a woman’s voice. “Who’s that?”
“No one.”
“Dammit, Mark. Don’t lie to me.” She began choking on her own words. “Are you seeing someone else?”
He sighed into the phone. “And what if I was? It’s been almost a year—”
“It hasn’t even been a year. You two were engaged. What’s your hurry?”
She heard a muffled exchange between Mark and the woman, and then the distant sound of a door closing. Mark came back on the phone and said in a hushed tone, “You have no idea what I’ve been dealing with. I never told you this before. I wanted to spare you, but...at the time she disappeared, Lena was pregnant.”
The room swayed again. Mia propped her elbow on her knee and rested her forehead in her hand. Lena had been pregnant? Mia’s heart broke all over again to think that her sister hadn’t confided in her. Had she really known Lena the way she thought she had? Her throat was tight. “Go on.”
“She was about three months along. She told me a couple weeks before.... We were so happy.” His voice cracked. “Then it was all taken from me. I did what I thought was right by paying her lease and keeping her stuff there in case she came back, but she’s gone, Mia. I believe that. I have to move on.” He paused. “I’m sorry if you can’t understand.”
She leaned over fully, as if the effort of sitting upright was suddenly too great. Dragging the tip of her fingernail between the floorboards absently, she thought about Lena’s pregnancy. Now Mia hadn’t simply lost her only sister but a little niece or nephew. She wondered if her parents knew. She wasn’t about to tell them, and a large part of her wished she’d never known, either.
“Mia? Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” she said. “You’re not next of kin, you know. You need to talk to my parents about moving Lena’s things—”
“They already know.”
Oh. Then she was truly the last to find out. She nodded slowly, then realized he couldn’t see her and said, “Okay. Then you have everything figured out.”
“Mia, don’t—”
“I can’t talk about this anymore.” Her voice sounded oddly calm to her own ears. “I had some concerns about the boxes in Lena’s apa
rtment, but you’ve cleared that up. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Come on, Mia.” He sounded exasperated.
“Goodbye.”
She hung up the phone. Time passed, but she couldn’t be sure how much as she sat in place, staring at the floor. When she looked up, Gray was watching her from the doorway. “Mark hired movers to pack up everything in the apartment.” She felt nothing but numb as she relayed the conversation. “Lena’s lease is up next month, and he just told me he didn’t bother to renew it. He said he’ll put her stuff in storage.”
“Mia, I’m sorry.”
The warmth in his normally authoritative voice triggered a tide of self-pity, and Mia blinked back tears. “I’m such a mess today.” She wiped at her eyes with the back of her wrist. “I swear, I’m normally more put together than this.”
“You’re standing in your dead sister’s apartment. It would make anyone emotional.”
The compassion in his gaze momentarily overwhelmed her. She pulled her arms tighter across her chest and looked away. “I think he’s seeing someone else, Gray. He’s given up.” She hated it, but her chin shook and she couldn’t stop it. “He told me—” She stopped short of telling Gray that Lena had been pregnant. Mia didn’t think she could share that just yet. “It was a painful conversation.”
He sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and leaning against the doorframe. “You know—”
“There’s no other point of entry.” Morrison barreled into the room and gave a terse nod to Mia before continuing to speak to Gray. “We checked everything. All the windows are shut, there aren’t any other doors, and nothing else is out of place.”
“So that means...what? The perp came in through the front door?”
“Must have,” said Morrison. “’Cept there are no signs of forced entry on the front door.”
Gray’s face darkened as full understanding hit him. “So either the door was unlocked, or the perp had a key and he broke the window to make it look like a break-in.”
“He wanted us to know this scene was staged,” said Morrison. “He kicked in a sealed window. It took us, what? A minute to figure that out?”
“He wanted us to know that he came in through the front door.” Gray righted himself and placed his hands on his waist. “There must only be a few people who have keys to this apartment. Find them and question them all.”
Mia’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach and she reached for the key ring in her pocket, selecting a prominent leopard-skin-patterned key. “You may as well start with me,” she said. “I handle murder weapons. What’s to stop me from sending a threatening email to myself?”
Chapter 9
Gray wouldn’t conduct the questioning himself. He stood helplessly behind the two-way glass watching as Mia sat with her hands folded on her lap, waiting to be questioned. She’d refused the coffee and the water. It was four in the morning, and her eyes were bloodshot, but she still seemed alert and composed. Better than she’d seemed at the apartment, when she’d started to have what appeared to be a full anxiety attack. She’d clutched at her chest, unable to breathe, but had refused him when he offered to call an ambulance. After a while she’d breathed easier, and then she’d turned away from all of the officers in the room, her face red and her eyes downcast.
That was when Gray had had a crisis of sorts. He’d taken a deep breath, not sure how he should console the beautiful woman in front of him. Touching her could send all the wrong messages—both to her and to the officers in the apartment. To hell with it. He’d wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. She was hurting, and she was innocent, and he couldn’t bear to stand there and watch it.
He’d worried for a moment that she would fight him, but instead she drew closer, resting her head against his chest. She fit against him so perfectly, and he’d fought the urge to tilt her chin and kiss her again. Gray had whispered into her hair, “It’s going to be all right, Mia. I’m going to fix everything for you.” He didn’t know if that was the truth, but he knew he was willing to die trying.
Now she had collected herself and was different. A resolute, stoic woman. If he could see auras, he was sure hers would be a shade called Angry As Hell.
Gray held his breath and downed the last of his cup of station coffee, which was pebbled with grounds. He’d been awake for nearly twenty-four hours now. The Valentine investigation wasn’t exactly heating up, and they needed a break in the case. Officers were tracking a black pickup truck that had been seen around Kate Haley’s apartment building at the time of her disappearance. This morning he’d send a few officers to look around the BPL and surrounding businesses, trying to scrounge up additional clues, witnesses or suspects. The partial fingerprint left at the apartment didn’t match any they had on file, and they wouldn’t have a DNA profile on the blood Valentine left at the scene for several weeks. Blood and fingerprints would help, but only when they’d identified a suspect.
Some of the officers on the case were hoping that Mia might provide the break they needed. Morrison was certain she’d used her knowledge of Valentine to stage a copycat killing and had then attempted to cast suspicion elsewhere by sending herself a threatening email. It wasn’t enough to arrest her, but it was plenty to make both Gray and Mia uncomfortable. Her because her life would be uprooted for as long as any investigation continued. Him because he was developing inconvenient feelings for a bright, sensitive woman who might just so happen to be a criminal.
Gray raised his mug to his lips again before he remembered he’d already finished his coffee. He’d always thought losing one’s mind would happen gradually.
“Anything you want me to ask?” Morrison came up behind him looking stuffed with confidence. This was the part of the job where he got to show off what a hard-ass he could be, and he loved it.
“I’ve already spoken with her,” Gray said. “She doesn’t remember anything about that gun. She didn’t send herself that email.”
Lieutenant Vic Gomez entered just then. Gray had suggested that another homicide detective handle the questioning. If Mia was lying, Gomez would figure it out. She wasn’t lying, but if she was... Gray’s stomach lurched.
“Anything you want to tell me, Bartlett?”
His spine went rigid as he thought about the kiss he and Mia had shared earlier. Did Gomez know about it? Impossible, he decided. Besides, Gomez didn’t look as if he were playing games right now. He’d asked a question because he wanted an answer, not because he was looking to trap anyone.
“You’re not going to get anywhere,” Gray replied. “She doesn’t know anything. Someone’s setting her up.”
“Oh?” Gomez looked interested. “Someone’s going to a lot of trouble, then. Finding a gun with her fingerprints on it to dump at a crime scene, breaking into her dead sister’s apartment to send an email. What do you think they’re after?”
Gray considered the question for the first time. “Money, probably. Could be a blackmail situation.”
“She got a lot of money?”
Gray thought back to their discussion at the bar on Saturday night, when Mia had lamented the size of her salary. “No.”
“Then maybe she’s just guilty.”
“She’s not.” Gray’s voice was firm. “She came here willingly. Suggested it, in fact. Someone is doing this to her.”
Gomez shrugged. “Only one way to find out.” He nodded to Morrison. “Let’s get this started.”
They entered the room, and Mia followed them with a cool gaze as they pulled out two chairs across the table from her. Before sitting, Morrison adjusted a camera on a tripod and then said, “Okay, it’s recording.”
As they went through a series of formalities—asking Mia to state her name and address and give other mundane factoids—Gray leaned against the table behind him. Anxiety wound his gut. He’d told Mia before they left the apartment that he had three pieces of advice for anyone he cared about who was being questioned by the police: remain silent, remain
silent and call an attorney. Questioning could turn into interrogation quickly. So far Mia was ignoring all three of those tips.
The door opened behind him, and Captain Jason Mitchell came in. He should have been home hours ago. “Lieutenant.”
“Captain.” Gray had always been friendly with Mitchell, but something in his tone caused him to straighten reflexively.
“I need to speak with you.” Mitchell nodded toward the interrogation room. “About that.”
“Sir?”
“You’re working with Dr. Perez, I understand.”
Gray’s stomach tightened as he prepared to defend himself. “Yes, sir. She’s a consultant on the Valentine case. Was.”
Mitchell sighed and eased himself against the table, next to Gray. “What’s this I’m hearing about her handling weapons?”
“Her fingerprints were found on a gun that was used to kill a Globe reporter last year. She didn’t handle the weapon at the scene. Everyone at my scenes wears gloves.”
Mitchell’s face darkened. “She’s a suspect in this case now? This Globe reporter case?”
“Just a person of interest, but I’m not convinced.”
Mitchell watched Mia through the glass with an air of detachment. “I haven’t worked with her myself. I’ve heard good things. But I don’t need to tell you that you’re taking an enormous risk by keeping her close. If something else is going on with her—”
“Nothing else is going on.” Gray said it too quickly, and he saw that he’d triggered questions in the captain’s mind. “She was attacked last year, nearly killed. She doesn’t remember events surrounding that time. She had no reason to kill that Globe reporter.”
“Did she have any reason to possess a stolen handgun? Her sister was killed. Maybe she got one for protection, then lost it or had it stolen. Wouldn’t be the first time a stolen handgun was used in the commission of a crime.”
“The Globe reporter was killed before Lena—her sister—disappeared. If she acquired a stolen gun after her sister’s death to protect herself, then that means someone must have stolen that gun from Mia and planted it at the murder scene of another Globe reporter.” Gray shook his head. “It’s too much of a coincidence.”
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