by D. A. Brown
“I’ll bet you your right nut, you’re correct.”
Tommy grimaced. “I don’t want to be that right. I’ll be out of nuts.”
“This family is giving me all kinds of creeps.” Sophia glanced into the living room. “I’m going to take a look around.”
“Sure. I gotta make a phone call anyway.” Tommy opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch.
Sophia walked into the kitchen where a lone officer stood by the back door. He was easily a foot taller than Sophia with sandy blond hair and deep brown eyes.
“Hey, it’s Tim, right?”
The officer pointed at his name tag. “Tim Johannes. We met a few months ago at that rape on Broadway. That was a nasty one.”
He lowered his voice. “Hey, so why are you guys out on this one? This isn’t a sex case, right?”
“It started out that way. Photos of this little girl showed up on some child porn site.”
“Isn’t that an ICAC issue?”
“Funny you should mention that, but yes,” Sophia said.
Sophia scanned the room. Her eyes came to rest on a picture of the family tucked into an alcove. She bent down and picked up the ornately framed photo. It was the first time she’d seen Grace, this tiny little girl who had suddenly become the center of attention of half of the department. The picture had been taken on a boat, maybe on Lake Chelan. Ginny Halifax stood on an ice chest behind her husband, her hands on his shoulders. George stood next to his mother, his right hand reaching up and clinging to her left hand. Barrett sat in front with his legs pulled to his chest. His smile was forced, not easy like his father’s. Stewart held Grace with his arms extended, as though he was displaying her to the camera. She wore a tiny orange life vest over a blue, one-piece bathing suit covered in yellow seahorses. Blonde, curly hair partially covered her face. But her eyes were lifeless little pools of blue, sitting atop perfect cheek bones. It was a bizarre photo to display in a family area. Certainly they had something happier to frame.
Sophia slapped the officer on the shoulder. “Hey, I’ve got to find my partner. It was nice seeing you again.”
“Maybe sometime we can chat when we’re not at a crime scene.” He sank his hands into his pockets and smiled.
“That’d be nice.”
Stinson walked into the kitchen, sliding his phone into its holster. “Let’s get out of here. Patrol can deal with this bullshit until the feds get here.”
“Did you reach Stewart Halifax?”
“The phone forwarded to his office and according to the very helpful nurse, he was out of surgery two hours ago so either she’s lying, or he’s lying. I’m betting on both.”
“Any doctor worth his salt, has a very devoted and loyal nurse.”
“Probably banging’ her, too. Shit, I would after meeting the wife.”
Tommy and Sophia moved quickly down the hall and out the front door.
“Maybe we should mention to the homicide guys that we think this might be a little drama produced by Barrett or his father. This is going to hit the news any minute and it’s going to be hard to walk it back if it’s not a good kidnapping.”
“Not our problem.” He pulled her by the sleeve through the front door. “Leave your car parked around the corner and come with me. I grabbed a pool car. Let’s go see if that that little shit bird Barrett’s at school.”
Tommy inched the Crown Vic around several patrol cars and headed north to the freeway. Sophia’s phone rang within minutes of leaving the Halifax house. It was Shelly Torres, a reporter with a local alternative newspaper and a friend of Sophia’s from college. Shelly was like a chihuahua with a rag when it came to certain stories. She liked to write about bad cops, the scandals in city government and get exclusives on active investigations. Sophia had lost track of the number of times she’d said ‘No’ to Shelly. But Shelly still asked because that was her job and it was the stuff that brought in the advertising dollars and occasionally, a Pulitzer.
“Hey, Shell. What’s up?”
“Sophia, I heard about David. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks but you know I can’t talk about the investigation.”
“I know. Is there anything you can tell me? Your media guys are being more tight lipped than usual, and you know I have a pretty good relationship with them.”
“It’s not my case. It’s a homicide.”
“Ok, fair enough but can you at least confirm that he left some sort of suicide note at your house?”
Sophia shut her eyes.“How the hell did you hear that?”
Shelly laughed. “Well now, you know I can’t tell you that.”
“Off the record, and you’re not hearing it from me,” Sophia glanced over at Stinson, who was frowning at what he was about to hear, “He didn’t leave a note at my house.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
“Fucking leaks piss me off.”
“It’s the bedrock of my business.” Shelly said.
“Your paper isn’t exactly a friend to this department. You must have something pretty impressive on someone to get a nugget on a homicide.”
“Just good sources. I’m not interested in blowing the investigation. Just want to confirm something.”
“Well, you heard wrong. Look, when I can, I’ll see what I can pass on. It’s way too early right now to comment.” Sophia waited for a question about Grace’s disappearance.
“Ok, so on a personal note, how are you really doing?”
“I’m fine but busy. We’ll talk in a couple of days, OK? I really have to go.”
“Call me.”
Sophia ended the call. “I don’t want to hear it, Tommy.”
“Actually, I thought you handled that pretty well.”
“Well, slap me on the ass and call me shocked. Did I just get a compliment from Tommy Stinson?”
“Are you really OK, or was that just some bullshit you were dishing out to that reporter?”
“Honestly Tommy, I’m just numb. I hated David so much after the accident, and I’d been able to maintain that hatred for a long time, but when I saw him the other night looking so weak and shitty, all that anger just kind of subsided.”
“You still loved him?”
“Oh god, no. It wasn’t like that.” She turned away from Tommy.
“I don’t get it. I always figure that when shit heads die in some terrible way, it’s just God doling out almighty justice. Maybe what you would call karma. I’ve never thought of it as a bad thing.”
Stinson smiled and pulled into the school parking lot. It was empty except for a few cars parked along the fenceline.
“A Camry and an Accord. Those are teachers’ cars. These kids drive high-end rides,” Sophia said.
“Yep. Spoiled little bastards.”
Sophia stepped out of the car. “Let’s go and see if anyone here knows what’s going on. Maybe he talked to someone before he left.”
“Fat chance.” Stinson got out, locked the car and lit up a smoke.
“Put that out. It makes you smell like a horn.” Sophia whispered as they neared the front door of the school. Tommy flicked the end of the cigarette, carefully keeping the smoke intact for when they left.
“Jesus, you sound more and more like my wife.”
Sophia tried the door but it was locked. The halls were vacant except for a janitor’s bucket in the hallway along with a large plastic garbage can. She banged on the door. An older black man peered out from a room and squinted toward Sophia and Tommy. Sophia held her badge up against the window.
“School’s closed, officers.” The janitor pushed the door open with one hand but blocked the entrance.
“We need to come in and take a look around for a missing kid.” Sophia pushed past the man. Tommy followed, slamming the door behind him.
“You’re just the kind of citizen we love to talk to.” Tommy put his hand on the man’s shoulder. The man straightened his back and tucked his shirt farther into his pants.
“Hey brother,
any teachers still here that we might talk to?”
“Not really. There’s a couple of teacher’s aids still in the gym playing basketball. I could take you there.”
“Sounds like a plan, my man.” Stinson and Sophia followed the janitor down the hall.
The hallways smelled of cheap perfume and gym clothes that hadn’t been washed in months. High school had been a pretty good time for Sophia. She’d been a band geek who hung with the popular girls.She did well scholastically which also put her in a unique camp, but she didn’t flaunt it. Her parents saw great things for her like law or med school and she often thought she’d let them down becoming a cop. At least she’d finished college and gotten her degree in English from San Fransisco State before moving from San Fransisco to Seattle and applying to the department on a dare. She’d worked for loss prevention at Nordstrom’s between semesters and she was so adept at spotting bad guys her boss had encouraged her to ditch college and become a cop. Once she graduated, she applied to several departments on the west coast before settling on Seattle. It was just far enough away from family to afford her a sense of independence.
Two young men dressed in cut-off sweat pants and soaking wet t-shirts glided around the basketball court. They were jawing at one another, insults flying but mixed with laughter. The younger of the two was black and wore a blue and gold Notre Dame shirt that clung to his toned chest. The second man was white with a stubble of beard. They stopped when they saw the two detectives enter the gym. Fighting Irish spoke first.
“Hey Roger, what’s up? You know the school’s closed right?”
“Yep, but these are cops,” the janitor said. He turned to Sophia and Tommy. “I didn’t get your names.”
“Detective Benedetti. And this is Detective Stinson.”
Sophia addressed the younger man. “And you are?”
“Kenton Charles. I’m a teacher here. Folks call me Ken.”
“I’m Chuck Ferrel, also a teacher.” He started to extend his hand and then pulled it back and wiped it on his shirt.
“I’m going to go back and finish cleaning up. You can find your way out?” Roger walked backwards as though he was afraid to turn his back on the group.
“We’re good. Thanks, Roger.” Sophia said.
“So we just want to ask a few questions about Barrett Halifax.” Stinson looked over at Sophia. “We really need to talk to him about his sister. She’s come up missing.”
“Grace?” Chuck looked at Kenton.
“Is that a surprise?” Stinson pulled out his note pad.
“Well, uh…” Kenton looked at Chuck again.
“Well, uh what?”
“Barrett had his sister with him today. I saw him walk her out to his car.” Kenton lifted his shirt and wiped sweat from his face.
“What time was that?” Sophia glanced at Tommy.
“Probably around five or five fifteen. It was long past the end of school. And it was an early day. Chuck and I came back to the school to hoop. I think Roger was the only other person here.”
“Where was he when you saw him with Grace?”
“Out behind the school,” Chuck said. “It looked to me like he’d been inside and was taking her out to his car. I didn’t think much about it. Barrett’s a pretty squared away kid, for the most part. He’s very protective of his sister.”
“As long as he stays away from the goth squad. Those guys don’t mix.” Kenton laughed but stopped when he saw the look on Stinson’s face.
“Ok, gentlemen. I hate to break up your game, but you’re going to have to come downtown with us. The homicide detectives are going to want to get statements from you.” Stinson picked up the basketball and lobbed it through the hoop. He looked at Sophia and winked.
“Lucky shot,” she said and turned her attention back to Ken and Chuck.
“Did something happen to Barrett and Grace?” Ken asked.
“Well, based on what you two have just told us, they’re both just fine.”
Sophia pulled out her cell phone and hung back in the gym. The two men grabbed their bags and followed Stinson.
She called Barrett. He answered right away.
“What’s going on, Barrett?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play me. You know what I’m talking about.” Sophia’s voice was suddenly hoarse.
“I wanted to give Grace a break from my mom.”
“So you took her without letting your mother know Grace was with you? You didn’t think your mother would be worried sick?”
“My mother wasn’t worried. It’s all an act.”
“Where are you?”
“I took her to the park. She’s on the swings. She’s safe.”
“You need to take her home now.”
Sophia hung up, then dialed Andrew MacGrory, the homicide captain, as she slowly walked out of the gym.
“Captain, just wanted to let you know Stinson and I located a couple of witnesses who put the girl with her brother earlier today.” She took a deep breath. “And I just talked to the kid brother. The girl’s with him. She’s fine.”
The silence on the other end was excruciating.
“So you two took it upon yourselves to initiate an investigation on a matter outside of your unit?”
“Sir, this case started with us.”
“This is being investigated as a kidnapping. It’s not your call to make, detective.”
“I have a relationship with the brother.”
“What the hell is going on, detective?”
“I wish I knew. Barrett Halifax took his sister to the park without telling his mother. It was all a misunderstanding.”
She should have waited until she got the teachers to headquarters and then dropped the information on one of the homicide guys. This wasn’t going well.
“Are you at least bringing these witnesses down so one of my guys can talk to them?”
“On our way.”
“And don’t call me directly again. You shouldn’t be jumping your chain.”
Stinson stood outside the car smoking.
“What took you so long? These two apparently have something better to do than go talk to the cops.”
She motioned him away from the car.
“I talked to Barrett.”
“And?”
“He has Grace. He took her to, in his words, give Grace a break from their mother.”
“I hope you told that little fucker that I’m going to kick his ass.”
“Something’s wrong here, Tommy.” Sophia moved upwind from Stinson’s cigarette. “You saw Ginny Halifax. She seemed legitimately upset. But Barrett made it sound like it was all an act. I’m missing something.”
“You’re making it too complicated. Let’s get these mutts down to HQ. This family is just your run-of-the-mill messed up, that’s all.”
Sophia stopped Tommy. “I also called MacGrory.”
“Jesus. Why the hell did you do that?”
“My ass is already sore. I don’t need to hear it from you.”
“It went that well.”
“He’s pissed. ”
“Fuck him.”
“Easy for you to say. My name’s all over this now. Hopefully dropping these guys off will make up for it.” She walked over and got into the car which smelled like the inside of a gym bag.
“That and solving the big mysterious kidnapping.” Tommy climbed into the car, gunned the engine and drove out of the parking lot.
Stinson and Sophia escorted the two men to the seventh floor of headquarters and put them in an interview room. Sophia walked across the hall into the homicide bullpen and let the administrative assistant know there were two witnesses waiting to talk to a detective. The admins curt answer told Sophia everything she needed to know - detectives were expecting the men and weren’t happy.
She took the stairs down to the sixth floor and found Stinson at his desk. It was well past seven o’clock and Sophia suddenly remembered she’d left Bodhi home alone.
She called Candy and begged her to run by the house and feed and water her fur kid.
“That poor dog, having you for a mother.” Stinson propped his feet up on his desk.
“I agree. But I’m too damn selfish to let her go to a better home.” She swore she loved that dog more than any human.
Sophia looked over at Stinson. “New shoes?”
“Not really. I’ve had them for a while.”
“What happened to your favorite ones?”
Stinson blinked. “I still got ‘em.” He took his feet off his desk. “Why are you so interested in my shoes all of a sudden?”
“No reason. I’ve just never seen you in anything but those stupid wingtips.”
Sophia’s cell rang.
“It’s Tim Johannes. Patrol guy. Talked to you in the kitchen a few hours ago.”
“Hey Tim. What’s up?” Sophia hoped he wasn’t moving in for a date this soon.
“I’ve got a license plate for you if you’re interested. The father came home shortly after you left and I grabbed the tag as I was leaving.”
“Was he alone?”
“Yeah. And seemed pretty cool for someone with a missing kid. I’d be losing my shit if that was my little girl.”
Sophia decided to let the homicide guys break the news to the troops that Grace was never missing.
“What’s the plate?”
He gave her the plate and the hit came back within seconds to a black BMW 325i registered to Stewart Halifax. That was the car they saw Barrett get out of the day they talked to him at the school.
“Thanks, Tim. I owe you one.”
“So maybe I stand a chance for a cup?”
“Seems like I’ll be buying.”
“Works for me. Talk to you soon, detective.”
Sophia hung up.
“Who was that?” Tommy said. “And what are you buying?”
“A patrol guy I chatted with at the house. Said Stewart came home acting like it was no big deal that his daughter was missing. And he drove up in a black Beemer.”
“The same one as the kid was driving the other day?”
“Sounds like it.”
“Daddy probably lets the kid drive his car to school so he makes the right impression.”
“And Stewart doesn’t have a care in the world because he knows Grace is with Barrett.”