Don't Say a Word

by Beverly Barton

  “These cameras are all motion-activated and set to run together. For our review, I’m going to set them to stop and wait if any one camera picks up movement,” Will told her, fully concentrating on the controls. “I’m going to set the start time to six o’clock a.m. yesterday.”

  Julia leaned down close behind Will and watched over his shoulder as the videos fast-forwarded, stopping periodically at brief appearances of the judge and Maria going in and out of the house. No one else showed up until around eleven thirty p.m. when a vehicle turned in at the front gate.

  “That’s a Lincoln, right?”

  “Brand-new model,” Will replied, brows knit, not looking at Julia. “Silver-gray. Single passenger. Enter Ginger.”

  My my, but Will Brannock was quite the professional when on a case. Didn’t waste words, didn’t even speak in complete sentences. Just short and pertinent phrases. A verbal slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am. Gone was the joking, smiley guy facetiously asking her to name state capitals. The Serious Detective was now on the clock. Truth was, that was a good thing; this was somber business. Will was a professional. She admired the way he was leading the investigation.

  Refocusing her attention on the monitors, from one camera she saw the car stop at the front gate. Then another picked up their purported Ginger rolling down her window and smiling lasciviously up into the camera lens. She was a female, all right, and yes, about as female as you can get: very pretty young girl, long, coppery hair flowing in loose curls sprayed to look soft, and a low-cut gold dress that would win an Academy Award for Best Obscene Gown and which showed a lot more of Ginger’s goodies than most people wanted to see, especially Julia. Will might have a different response to that stimulus, but he wasn’t drooling on the keyboard, so she guessed he wasn’t overly interested in Ginger’s impressive six-inch cleavage. Will was on point, all right.

  Julia watched the mystery woman punch the buttons on the security box. She kept smiling sexily up at the camera, certainly knowing exactly where it was. Her full lips were painted scarlet, of course, and her eyes were all smoky with black eye shadow and mascara. She said something into the microphone, which they couldn’t hear, but it was highly provocative; count on it. Last but not least, Busty Belle blew a kiss to whoever had answered the call up at the house. Julia hoped she didn’t pull down her top and show her boobs, just to spread some icing on her sexy little cake.

  “Looks like the judge liked to order out for dessert,” she said to Will.

  “Yeah. It appears Ginger knows her way around this place pretty damn well. She’s a regular, all right. We need to get her in for questioning.”

  Julia watched as the girl waited for the gate to open, and then drove on through. “Hey, Will, zoom in on the license plate. That would simplify finding her.”

  Will punched some buttons, stopping the image of the vehicle just before it left the frame, and hit another button. The Tennessee license plate appeared on the monitor. Turning to look back at Julia, he said, “This surveillance panel is something else. I know this security company. It’s out of Atlanta. They monitor these systems from their home base and call in the authorities if any alarms are set off.”

  Julia picked up the phone on the desk and pressed the phone-log button. She punched through the list of calls. “No call came in to ask if the judge was okay, but we need to interview the security company and find out if there have been any security alerts in the last couple of months. As clean as this scene looks, the perp might have been casing the place for weeks.”

  “Right.” Will was jotting the license number down on a notepad. Pulling out his cell phone, he said, “I’ll get Quantico to check out this plate and then I’ll put a call in to the security company. Go ahead, run the tapes. Yell if anything else comes up.”

  Julia watched him walk out into the library, already punching numbers on his cell phone. She could hear him talking as the monitors stopped again and the woman got out of the Lincoln underneath the side porte cochere. Her skirt was very short, twelve inches at the most, and her red heels were almost that high. She was an obliging call girl, out to do her duty, by hook or by crook. The woman climbed the steps on those ridiculous spike heels. How, Julia couldn’t imagine. It must be like walking on two reinforced ballpoint pens.

  Ginger looked directly into the camera at the side door and made some very suggestive movements with her mouth. She obviously thought that her judicial client was working the monitors. She looked extremely relaxed and comfortable, even eager to get her particular brand of show on the road. Oh yes, she’d been out to visit Lockhart before, probably plenty of times, and probably every time Mrs. Lockhart was enjoying her mama’s balmy weather way down yonder in N’Orleans.

  “The number traced out to the Elite Escort Service. The address is downtown, near the river, I think.”

  “Well, surprise, surprise. Maybe we ought to pay them a quick visit. See how many pretty women we can run in tonight.”

  That got a grin out of Serious Will. “The security company got no alerts or calls last night, only a couple in the last six months—once when squirrels got into the cameras. Another time, Mrs. Lockhart’s dogs messed with a camera wire. They’re concerned over the lapse in this system.”

  “Well, duh. I’d say they’ve got a major breach of security here.”

  Will returned his gaze to the monitors. “Okay, let’s sit down and watch the surveillance all the way through. Odds are we’ll get a glimpse of the killer. I hope to hell we will.”

  Julia sat down in the other swivel chair. No one else appeared on the films, not even a dark-cloaked figure lurking around in the shadows, which was probably exactly what the killer did. “It looks like the call girl’s the only lead we’ve got.”

  Will nodded and pulled out his cell. “Right. Let’s give them a call. Get her full name.”

  “Give me the number.”

  Will stood back, handed her his phone, and watched her dial the number. She hit speaker phone so he could listen in. Two rings and then a husky come-hither-sucker female voice came on the line. “Elite Escort Service. How may we help you?”

  “This is Detective Julia Cass at the Chattanooga Police Department.” Her own title sounded strange rolling off her tongue; she’d said Nashville PD for so long. But it was the first day she’d used it out loud, so there you go. “I need to speak to whoever is in charge.”

  Loaded silence. “May I tell her what this is all about?”

  “It’s about a joint TBI and CPD murder investigation. I’m sorry, that’s all I can tell you at this time.”

  “Oh shit. I mean, one moment, please.”

  Several minutes later, a different female voice answered. Billy Goat Gruff, as if she had smoked three packs a day since she was two. “This is Donatella Casey. I’m the owner of Elite. How may I help you?”

  “You can help me by telling me which one of your girls serviced Judge Lucien Lockhart last night.”

  “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  “Ms. Casey, please don’t play games with me. You either cooperate or we’ll have to come down there and take you downtown for questioning.”

  Donatella was suddenly eager-beaver agreeable. “Her name is Ginger. She won’t be available until tomorrow morning.”

  “Ginger who?”

  “Ginger Jones.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “She’s in Charlotte for a party. She’ll be there overnight.”

  Surprise, surprise, Julia thought. “We need to see her first thing in the morning.”

  “All right. I’ll arrange it. Is she in trouble, Detective?”

  “We’ll need to talk to you, too, Ms. Casey.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “Tell Ginger it wouldn’t be wise to try to skip out on us.”

  “Oh, she won’t. I’ll see to it.”

  “We’ll be there at eight o’clock sharp.”

  Julia hung up the phone and smiled at Will. “Okay, Brannock, we can talk to her tomorrow
morning. Hope eight’s not too early to drag yourself out of bed.” She started to make a crack about his redheaded “friend” but decided against it. He wasn’t in such a jovial mood anymore. But neither was she.

  “Good, that’ll give us time to go over the videos for the last two weeks. I’ll take half and you can take half. Do you have the equipment to play these kinds of DVDs?”

  “I have a laptop.” Julia grimaced as he handed her a handful of DVDs. “Great, I do love the movies.”

  Will smiled. “Then you’re in luck. Have fun tonight.”

  “Same to you, Special Agent.”

  J.D. Cass didn’t make it home to his rental house on Signal Mountain until almost six o’clock. If Julia was already there, he hoped he wasn’t in the doghouse with her for not picking her up himself. God knows, he’d made her wait often enough when she was a young kid and he was responsible for her upbringing. He regretted that sometimes, now that he was older and had a teenage daughter to raise. Zoe was a handful, a lot more headstrong than Julia had ever been. But now, now that he had Audrey Sherrod in his life, everything was better than he ever could have dreamed. Even his daughter was behaving herself, following Audrey’s very ladylike example.

  Smiling, he realized that he was ultra-eager to see Julia. Until he’d met up with her when she was in town to interview for the CPD detective position, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his sister. In the last couple of years, they’d had just a time or two together. It had been way too long. They called on birthdays and holidays, of course, but no long talks, no quality time together. He’d been shocked when Julia told him of her decision to relocate to Chattanooga, but he couldn’t have been more pleased. He wanted her around. He wanted her to be part of his new life. Now that he’d met Audrey, he hungered for a close-knit family, for a normal life for him and Zoe and Julia. He entered the kitchen from the garage and dropped his keys on the counter.

  “Well, it’s about time you got here, J.D.,” complained Zoe, from where she was sprawled out with her iPod on the living room couch. “Where’s Aunt Julia? I thought she’d be here by now. I made a Roman-style pizza with all fresh ingredients. It’s Audrey’s recipe, so it ought to be really, really awesome!”

  “Good idea. And I don’t know where she is.”

  “You said you were going to pick her up. What, did you stand her up? Like you used to do me?”

  Zoe had not yet forgotten that J.D. often put his work before her. He was a cop; it was going to happen from time to time. But now, Audrey was usually there to fill in for him, which had ended a lot of the animosity between him and Zoe. She loved being with Audrey, anyway. But not as much as he enjoyed it. He looked forward to getting her back in bed as soon as he had the opportunity.

  “Will picked her up for me. I couldn’t leave the criminal court. Judge’s orders.”

  “You should’ve called Audrey and me. We could’ve gone out to get her.”

  “You were at school. And Audrey’s got a successful grief-counseling practice. She can’t just drop everything the minute I call. She had a full day of appointments.”

  “Why isn’t she coming tonight?” Zoe complained. “I haven’t seen her in two whole days.”

  “She’s having dinner with her father. Just the two of them.”

  “Really? Why? I thought they didn’t get along.” Zoe rushed on without waiting for his answer. “Is Aunt Julia pissed off that you didn’t come pick her up? It really sucks that you sent a complete stranger out to get her on her first day in town.” She suddenly smiled. “Even if he’s more smokin’ hot than about any guy I know. My girlfriends think he looks a little like Edward. Dreamy.” Zoe clasped her hands together and seemed to go into some kind of rapture.

  “And Edward is?”

  “Dad, don’t you know anything?” Zoe shook her head, shocked and disbelieving and displaying it with the drama that only a fifteen-year-old girl could sustain. “Twilight? Bella? True love?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s the vampire thing you’re always watching on video? What is it? Some kind of werewolves or bears in the woods, right?”

  “Dad, Dad, you’re so old sometimes. Twilight is absolutely sublime.”

  J.D. decided to ignore the old part. At least she was paying attention in English class. He’d never heard her use the word sublime in a sentence before. But he’d watch that movie, if he could stomach it, just to gain her approval. Maybe Audrey would watch it with him. She liked romantic stuff.

  On the other hand, he didn’t like Zoe noticing older men or calling them hot, or even knowing they were hot. He hesitated, then decided to let that pass, too. He didn’t want Julia to walk into a big dad-daughter tiff. “I got hold of Julia about an hour ago. And she’s not mad at all. She’s already been assigned a case. She said she’ll probably be out here around six thirty or seven.”

  Frowning, Zoe went back to her iPod and called up whatever pop band she was listening to at the moment. Used to be some idiotic group called Black Eyed Peas, of all things. Now it was probably that boy with the weird hairdo that she liked—the Biebs, or whatever his name was. He made Zoe and her friends swoon, according to Zoe. But Zoe was not sneaking out with boys, or sassing him much—yet another thing he could thank Audrey for. Speaking of Audrey, he hoped it went well tonight at her dinner. She and her dad had had a rocky relationship for many years, which had caused her so much anguish, but this private dinner was a step in the right direction. How anybody could push away a woman as sweet as Audrey, J.D. couldn’t imagine.

  Tired from sitting around for hours waiting to be called to the stand, he jerked off his tie and unhooked his hip holster. Hell, it was worse twiddling his thumbs all day than working on a case. He placed his weapon in the gun safe in his bedroom closet, and then relaxed in his worn leather recliner in front of the television set. About an hour later, a knock at the door pulled Zoe up from her loud-music morass. She ran to the door with J.D. right behind her.

  “Aunt Julia! It’s so cool you’re staying with us! I made pizza! All by myself!”

  His sister embraced her niece and smiled at J.D. over Zoe’s shoulder. Jasper was jumping around barking, and Zoe dropped down on her knees and gave the dog a big hug. His tail was beating the floor like crazy. Next thing J.D. knew, Zoe was going to want a bloodhound, too.

  “I’m glad to finally be here,” Julia was saying to Zoe. “Wow, you look awesome in that outfit.”

  J.D. examined his daughter’s outfit, not really having noticed what she had on. Purple capris and a loose pink top that had some red sequins and stuff all over it. He guessed it was all right—at least she didn’t wear those too-short tops and shorter-than-short denim skirts anymore. Fact is, now that she was dressing a little more conservatively, he thought Zoe always looked pretty. Even first thing out of bed in the morning when she was so grouchy. She was a gorgeous girl. Same went for Julia. In fact, they looked a lot alike. His daughter seemed to take more after Julia than she did her father. He watched Julia hold his daughter back by the shoulders and admire the lopsided red, sequined heart on the front of her shirt. “I love your top, Zoe. Where’d you get it?”

  “There’s this little store in the mall that has the most awesome stuff like this. Me and my friends love to hang out there. It’s the coolest place in town.”

  Zoe was smiling, very happy; all three of them were. Zoe and Julia had hit it off big-time since Julia had visited them a couple of times for her interview process at Chattanooga PD. “I can’t believe you’re really going to live here in town, Aunt Julia. That’s so cool. We can do things together all the time. Go to the mall, walk Jasper, go to Audrey’s gym and work out. You and Audrey and me.”

  “Thanks a lot,” J.D. said.

  “You’re not a girl, J.D. And you know you’re pretty much a stick-in-the-mud.”

  Zoe laughed at Julia’s remark. J.D. walked over and gave Julia a big hug. “So I’m a stick-in-the-mud—that’s what you think?”

  “ ’Fraid so, but a lovable stick-i
n-the-mud.”

  They all laughed. J.D. sat down. “Well, welcome to Chattanooga. Sorry again about not picking you up. That blasted trial is driving me up a wall. I’m next up, then no, never mind, we’ve got to put so-and-so on first. It’s crazy over there. Lots of recesses and bench conferences. Tam and I have been sitting around all day with little to show for it, except for heartburn.”

  He listened to the two girls talk for a minute or two, and then he had to ask. “So, Jules, how’d you like Will?”

  “He’s okay, I guess. Pretty funny guy, made me laugh, at least until we got to the crime scene. Then he turned into Mr. Solemn.”

  J.D. said, “That sounds like you.”

  Zoe seemed to quiver all over. “OMG, Will’s such a hottie. Presley and all the girls think he’s McDreamy. Everybody thinks so, even Audrey.”

  J.D. frowned. “Audrey thinks that?”

  Julia and Zoe laughed at him. Zoe said, “Yeah, J.D., but then she said nobody’s as handsome as you.”

  “Ooooh,” Julia teased him. “You’ve got her crazy about you already. What do all your other girlfriends say?”

  “He doesn’t have any other girls, Aunt Julia. Can you believe that? Even that awful Holly that he used to hook up with all the time. Audrey’s got him hook, line, and sinker. Even he admits it.”

  J.D. felt sheepish, verging on silly, but everything Zoe said was true. Audrey was not like any other woman he’d ever met. Still, he didn’t like these fifteen-year-olds talking that way about older men. “Where have your friends even seen Will Brannock, Zoe?”