by Ladew, Lisa
“I-I had an informant call me, wanting to know how much money she would get if she gave a piece of information that would solve a murder.”
“Murder? Jesus Christ. Who is the informant? How did you get an informant already?”
“I don't know. Assistant Chief Foley said it would happen because of the undercover work.” Her voice raised stridently. “But listen – this is important!”
“Okay. Sorry.”
“The woman’s a hooker. She said that last week she slept with someone who was bragging about killing a guy. She said the guy's name was Tim Hardy.”
The dread fell away as excitement filled Kara. She remembered the name. Tim Hardy was the boyfriend of the second victim of her stalker, the one who had disappeared. Even as the excitement filled her, it was overlaid by a dull and heavy feeling – something bad was coming.
“She said that the guy said the dead body was buried in a shed in his backyard and the cops hadn’t caught him in eight years. She never got the guy's name and that’s why she said she never reported it before, but she said she saw him on TV last night.”
Ivy's voice dropped even lower. “Kara, it's Zane. She saw Zane being interviewed about the bomb on TV and recognized him.”
Kara turned in her seat, her body going suddenly cold, as if it had been doused in ice water. A gray shed sat behind her. She dropped the phone to the concrete and stood up slowly. She walked to the shed, every step feeling like she was under water. Even her breath became liquid lead to her throat. She open the shed door and winced as the hinges creaked loudly. The shed was almost completely empty except for an ancient lawnmower pushed into the very back corner. A shovel leaned against one wall. She looked at the ground and saw it was packed dirt. Her hand snaked out against her will and grabbed the shovel. She looked at it like she had never seen a shovel before, but what she really was doing was looking right through it. She was looking into her mind’s eye as it showed her the scar on Zane’s left arm. She remembered the profiler saying he would not have gone to a doctor for the gunshot wound.
The shovel broke through the dirt on its own accord, but then Kara put her weight into it. She lifted one spade full of dirt and then another, her mind on terrified autopilot. She struck something and swallowed hard. then pushed away the dirt and peered into the hole she had made. It was a bone. A long bone. Probably the femur of a human.
No. No. No. Kara's mind was feverish and frenzied, unable to process the information that was coming to her. Inside her head she screamed in the negative. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be true. She dropped the shovel and backed away from the shed, thinking only that she had to get to her phone.
Hooker. Body. Shed. It's Zane. She saw him on TV. Scar on his arm. The implications rocked Kara and she tried to take a deep breath, tried to think clearly, but she couldn't.
Behind her, she heard the telltale snick of a screen door opening, interrupting her agitated, partial thoughts. She whirled around to face Zane. He had a large steak knife in his hand and he was smiling at her and gesturing with it.
In her head, all she could see was knife training during her recruit class. The guy with the knife always made it to the cop and stabbed him, sometimes before the cop could even get his gun out of his holster.
Kara's right hand shot to her waist of its own accord, but her gun wasn’t there. She was off-duty. In the small of her back. In an instant her hand was there, guided by the training she'd done a thousand times. She unsnapped the holster and the gun was in her hand, it’s weight heavy and somehow comforting. For the second time she trained her gun sights on Zane's chest. A tear dropped down her cheek but she never noticed it.
Confusion crossed Zane's face immediately and he took a step backwards, his palms open in front of him, the steak knife held in place by one thumb. “Is this a joke, Kara, because it’s not funny?”
“Drop the knife, Zane.”
“Sweetheart, what is going on? Just tell me.”
“Drop it!” she screamed, the tears flowing easily now.
The knife clattered to the concrete and Kara noticed tears dripping into her mouth. Sirens wailed in the distance and quickly entered the neighborhood. They stood like that, neither knowing what to think of the other, until they heard sirens stop in front of the house. A car door slammed and heavy footsteps pounded at the front of the house. Kara could hear the dogs barking madly inside.
“Back here,” she yelled as loud as she could, “Come around to the back of the house!” she screamed, her voice breaking. She didn’t want either dog to be shot if they tried to defend their home.
Sgt. Gale appeared at the side of the house, quickly assessed the situation, and pulled out her handcuffs. Within a second, a cuff was slipped one over Zane’s outstretched hand.
Zane's eyes pleaded with Kara as he let Sgt. Gale pull both arms behind his back and restrain him. Two uniformed patrol officers ran into the yard and Sgt. Gale pushed him towards them. “Put him in one of the patrol cars,” she ordered.
The two officers obeyed and Kara finally relaxed her stance and dropped her arms, the certainty that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life slamming into her hard.
Chapter 23
Sgt. Gale took three steps towards Kara and looked closely at her face. “Price – what is wrong with you? Did he do it?”
Kara put her gun back in her holster, feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. “I don't know,” she said simply.
Uniformed officers swarmed the yard. Sgt. Gale turned around and glared at them. “The man is arrested. Get back. Give us a minute! Most of you can clear the scene. I want you and you to stay but wait up front till I come get you.”
She turned back to Kara, something like concern in her eyes. Kara's knees gave way beneath her and she dropped to the ground.
Sgt. Gale rushed to her quickly. “Is the body in the shed?”
“Yes.”
“Then he did it.”
Kara looked up at her, beseechingly. “Or he was framed and this is all a set up.” She looked around wildly. “It has to be a setup, doesn’t it? It’s too neat, too clean to not be. And I was the key. Mr. X used me like a … a tool from his toolbox!”
Sgt. Gale’s eyes bore into her, a deep knowing of the hurt in Kara's soul mirrored in them.
Kara looked up at the sky and felt the tears flowing again. “Oh God, this is going to ruin his life! And it’s all my fault!”
Sgt. Gale grabbed her by the shoulder. “Kara, look, if he’s being framed, he’s as much of a victim as you are. It’s not your fault.”
“I brought this trouble to him. It is my fault. I decided he was guilty. I convicted him in my mind and in my heart, even if it was only for a second. I pulled my gun out and when you saw that, you arrested him without even giving him a chance to talk.”
Sgt. Gale shook her head adamantly. “Listen, it doesn’t matter what you did. I would’ve arrested him no matter what. It’s the law! If someone has a body in their shed and someone else levels an accusation against him, you arrest him whether he’s the mayor or the president or the chief of police.”
She leaned in close to Kara and spoke softly, her words full of conviction. “Look Kara, this stinks no matter what. I’m not convinced that he isn’t being framed, and he never was a good suspect anyway. But he was a suspect and we haven’t been able to clear him yet. This is a complication, but I promise you this, I won’t leave until I figure out if he really did it or if he was framed.”
Kara nodded, her heart aching in her chest, unable to even be happy Sgt. Gale was talking to her like a regular person. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to use it against him?”
Sgt. Gale nodded.
“He has a scar on his upper left arm. It’s long and jagged, not like a gunshot wound at all, but it’s there.”
Sgt. Gale’s eyebrows furrowed and Kara knew she was storing it up for proof of guilt. She clutched at Sgt. Gale’s arms. “You promised you wouldn’t. I only told you
so you can find out where he got it from, not so you can use it to convince yourself of his guilt!”
“Got it. I’ll find out where it came from. With any luck he has medical records to back up whatever he says.”
Kara pushed to her feet, still unable to believe that this was happening. She grabbed her phone off of the concrete of Zane's back porch and swayed in place, wondering what to do now. She knew Sgt. Gale wouldn’t let her hang around the investigation, but where should she go? What should she do?
The dogs barking from inside the house caught her attention again. She pushed open the back patio door and walked into the kitchen, petting Kevin and Lucy on the heads. She felt horrible for getting their master arrested. She saw the two steaks on the counter, pushed far back against the wall so the dogs couldn't get to them. She walked over to them in a daze, and put them in the refrigerator. No one would be eating them now.
Behind her, the patio door opened. She heard one of the dogs growl in warning and she turned quickly. Sgt. Gale had been trying to get into the kitchen but she slammed the door shut quickly as Lucy lunged for her. “I’ll have to call animal control,” she said from outside.
“No! I’ll take them with me.”
“I don't think you should,” Sgt. Gale said. “Look Kara, I know that you feel in your heart that he is innocent, but until we clear him you need to stay impartial.”
“Okay, fine. Got it. Impartial. But let me find someone to take them. Not animal control.”
Sgt. Gale didn’t say anything and Kara took that as consent. She looked around the kitchen wildly, her mind flipping through what she knew about Zane. Clint and Kensi were the only two friends of his that she knew. She certainly wasn’t taking the dogs to Kensi. As her eyes flicked around the kitchen, they fell upon a magnet on the refrigerator that was really an advertisement for a dog kennel. She snatched up the magnet and practically cried in relief. She pulled out her phone and called the dog kennel and learned that Lucy and Kevin went there most days to be dog sat while Zane was at work. And the place took night borders. Kara told them she’d be bringing both dogs in within the hour and they said they would look for her.
She turned back to Sgt. Gale who was still looking in the back door from outside. “I’m going to get them out of here. Can I … talk to him?”
Sgt. Gale shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. Until he has been interviewed and ch-” She shut her mouth but Kara knew she had been about to say charged.
God, if she could just explain to Zane why she had done it. Just tell him that there was a body in his shed and that’s why she had momentarily lost her mind and thought that he was possibly the one who was doing all this to her. He didn’t know any of it and Kara’s heart was breaking at the thought that he was hurting and confused and maybe hating her right now.
Sgt. Gale leaned forward until her face was against the screen door. “Kara, listen to me. Don't say a word to him. You know you’ll get in trouble if someone finds out that you talked to him on a personal level after he was arrested for this. I’m protecting you here, you know that right?”
Kara nodded. She knew. “Can you at least tell him I’m taking his dogs to Paws and Claws? So he doesn’t worry?”
Sgt. Gale nodded and Kara began to look for their leashes. When she found them, she took the dogs out the back door, hoping not to have to see Zane. She could just imagine him sitting lost and alone, completely confused. Or angry and accusing. Either way, she didn’t want to see him.
She hurried to her car and put the dogs inside, then drove away without ever trying to see where Zane was or if he had seen her.
***
Kara dropped the two dogs off and drove home slowly, not knowing what else to do. She pushed in her door, taking off her gun and putting it in the safe, not even bothering to look around to see if her house looked secure. At this point she didn’t care. She saw Duke in the backyard and went outside to sit with him. His puppy breath and clumsy puppy paws usually made her feel better, but not this time. Her phone buzzed and she looked at it. Ivy. Ivy had actually left her six messages and Kara scrolled through them, reading them all.
What happened?
What’s going on?
Was there anything in his shed?
I’m at work. Call me.
Kara what is going on? Joe and I are freaking out.
Call me!!!
Kara called, her voice soft and listless as she explained exactly what had happened.
“Do you think he did it?” Ivy asked.
“No.” Kara said blankly.
“Sorry Kara. I feel so responsible.”
“Not your fault,” Kara replied automatically.
“Can I come over to your place after I get done with work?”
Kara was about to say no but she reconsidered. It might be nice to have something to think about other than the monstrous mess she had made. “Sure, I’ll see you then.”
Kara hung up and sat in the yard as night fell and the stars came out. Ivy found her like that, sitting with Duke in the dark at 11:00 at night. Ivy convinced her to go inside, wash up, eat something, and sit on the couch with her to watch old Friends reruns. Kara did it all with the manner of someone who was sleepwalking, or caught in a bad dream. Her mind was stuck in a loop where she saw the sudden burst of emotion convince her that Zane was a killer. She watched it over and over again, no matter what her eyes were actually looking at.
When she closed her eyes, it replayed on the insides of her eyelids. When she finally fell asleep on the couch, she dreamed about it unendingly.
Kara’s eyes popped open and she looked around the dark room. The TV was still playing with the sound on low. Ivy was curled up in a ball next to her on the couch, breathing deeply. She found her phone on the end table and checked the time. 3:02 AM. Something was wrong. She shook her head, trying to figure out what it was. She looked around the quiet apartment. Duke was asleep on his pillow next to the couch, so that was okay. Had she been awakened by a noise? She sat as still as possible and listened. Nothing. She tried to replay what had been happening in her mind when she awoke but she couldn't make it out - she just had the overwhelming sense that something was very, very wrong.
Kara stood up and paced down the hallway, padding silently in her bare feet. Something was wrong with what? With the investigation. They had missed something. Something big, and if she didn’t figure out what it was, Zane was going to pay. A crushing urge to get a look at the investigative file that Sgt. Gale had put together on her stalker hit her. She wondered where Sgt. Gale was right now. At home asleep? At the station? At Zane’s house? Her hands itched and she snapped them shut reflexively. She padded back to the couch and looked at Ivy. She would just let Ivy sleep, and head down to the station to see if she could find Sgt. Gale and get her hands on that file. There was something in there to clear Zane, she knew there was.
Kara pulled on a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and some work boots, strapped her gun on, and pulled the door brace away from the door. She looked at the brace in her hand and shook her head. She couldn’t leave Ivy here alone. What if the stalker showed up and hurt Ivy?
She walked back to Ivy and shook her gently. “Ivy, let me take you home. I need to head to the station.”
Ivy blinked sleepily at her. “Why?”
“Because we're missing something. Because I can’t stay home and sleep while Zane is locked up in the cell block and it's all my fault.”
Ivy sat up quickly and rubbed her eyes. “It's my fault too. I’m coming.”
Kara stepped back and considered but Ivy didn’t give her a chance. She stood up straight. “I can help you and I'm going.”
“Okay, get your stuff.”
Chapter 24
Kara got into her car and thought hard. She knew Sgt. Gale wasn’t at home sleeping. It had barely been twelve hours since she had arrested Zane. She doubted Sgt. Gale had even cleared his house yet so she decided to drive over there first. As she pulled into the neighborhood, she knew she was r
ight. Bright lights shone from the direction of his house and could be seen even from two blocks away. Kara parked her car as close to the front of Zane’s house as she could get, behind a forensics evidence van. She could see the evidence lights that were making the backyard as bright as daylight even better now. As she watched, two men traversed the side of his house, carrying a brown bag between them. The body. Kara twisted her ignition and sat in the silent vehicle, as she and Ivy watched the front of the house for a moment. They were rewarded when Sgt. Gale followed the two men, shouting something. Kara winced. It was three thirty in the morning and Zane's neighbors must have had an eyeful all day and evening, and now they were getting an ear-full also.
Sgt. Gale spotted them immediately and Kara could see the confusion on her face. She jogged over to the car and leaned down to look in Kara's window. “What are you two doing here?” she said, her voice perplexed but not angry.
“Sgt. Gale,” Kara began, trying to figure out how best to start. “I want to take a look at the file. The file on the stalker.” She refused to call him ‘my stalker’ anymore. She was done being this guy's victim. He'd stepped over too many fucking lines and now she was angry. “I know we’re missing something, and I think I can figure out what it is if I just have the papers in front of me.”
Sgt. Gale’s face hardened and took on a look that Kara was more used to, coming from her. “I haven’t missed anything. There are some loose ends but only because people and paperwork have disappeared. Everything else is completely cold and so far my investigation has yielded nothing. But I haven’t missed anything.”
Kara nodded. She knew this firsthand from her own work with the case five months ago. “You’re right. But you’re here working on this aspect of the case, trying to clear Zane's name …” Sgt. Gale looked confused for a moment and Kara shook her head and pushed past it. Zane was innocent, and therefore whatever they found would prove it. “But you’re caught up with the body. Let us look at the file. Please. It’s just sitting there not doing anybody any good. Maybe we can think of a way to turn up something new.”