Incisions

by Barbara Winkes

  “Of course not.” He’d been lucky, in many ways. Still, he resented Josh for messing up things so badly in the first place, so that he had to come up with a plan B.

  Danny resented Ellie Harding who turned out to be a lot harder to control than he’d thought. He had imagined that with everything that had shaken this department in the past few months, she’d be a little more…complacent. He’d been watching her for a long time, interacting with her friends, drinking, flirting…She had seemed like the best choice, always polite, always a smile on her face.

  “So when can I come over?” Josh asked. His eagerness worried Danny. He knew that his former and now again accomplice had a bit of his own agenda. Danny didn’t like it, but he needed him. Today’s incident had made that painfully obvious. It was lucky that he had turned up again just the moment Danny had use for him.

  “Not before the weekend, I told you. I have to work.”

  “You sure she’s not going to get bored? I could keep her company.”

  “Not necessary,” Danny said quickly. “Didn’t you say you had another job? We do it Saturday afternoon as planned.”

  “Yeah, whatever. You gotta feed her sometime, you realize that?” Josh was clearly amused with the situation. “Man, you suck at kidnappings.”

  “Well, it’s not my first career choice.”

  Danny reached up to touch his face around the tender area where the metal of the cuffs had hit him. “Saturday, two p.m. I want this done before my shift starts. You can keep your mouth shut, right?”

  “Like last time. As long as you bring the money.”

  “You got it. Bye.”

  Money had never been the problem, but the mountain of red tape, and all the hoops they made him jump through, with his dreams still out of reach. They had made it so hard on him. If he had to hire a convicted criminal to finally get a few steps closer—then so be it. He’d be listening closely tonight, getting an idea of where the investigation was at this point.

  Chapter Five

  The visit to Ellie’s apartment had made the facts hit home: Almost twenty-four hours, and there was no trace of Ellie. Jordan called Derek, but only got the voicemail, then Detective Maria Doss whom she knew to be on the night shift.

  “Everything’s quiet here,” Doss told her. “Nothing worth-while from the hotline or TV yet. I’m sorry.”

  This was impossible. Ellie lived a fairly quiet life, not a lot of enemies to make, except when you counted the perps she had put behind bars, or their families. There had to be something in the cases. Jordan picked up the keys and left for the department, changing her mind midway.

  There was another place Ellie often went, before and after the attack, and the man in charge might just be able to help her.

  Carl Roth was behind the counter of his bar Code 7, but he called for his son to take over when Jordan asked him for a few minutes of his time.

  “I assume this is about the officer who’s missing, Harding? I talked to the colleagues in her division already. I never saw her outside the bar though. Hope you find her soon.”

  “Yeah, me too. Did she ever have trouble with anyone here?”

  “You and I know I have a house full of cops on any given night. Don’t you think any of you would have noticed someone who doesn’t belong, especially if they’re starting something with one of yours?”

  Jordan had to admit he had a point, though colleagues came here after work for a drink or two. For sure, no one had noticed her and Ellie sneaking into the bathroom that one time. Was there someone so good at blending in, so unnoticeable that he could have followed Ellie from the bar and attacked her? After his plan didn’t work out, he bided his time until he tried again?

  “Whoever did this had nothing to do with the bar,” Roth said. “Hell, I pretty much know everyone who comes here by name. If they aren’t cops, they are civilians working for the department, or from offices around here.”

  “You’re probably right. Thanks anyway.”

  She remembered Roth and his son coming to Jensen Baker’s funeral, all of a sudden wondering if the kidnapper had too.

  Jordan recalled the sea of mourners who had come to honor the young officer. She had concentrated on Ellie, then had an unpleasant conversation with Bethany. Now she was chiding herself for not paying attention, even though she knew her self-reproach was misplaced. There had been so many people, anyone could have slipped in unnoticed, hiding in plain sight.

  “You’re welcome. Good luck. This precinct had lots of bad stuff happen lately.”

  No shit. She almost said it out loud. Jordan cast another look at the crowd before she left for her original destination.

  Sergeant Bristol wasn’t too happy to see her.

  “Detective Carpenter, why aren’t you home?”

  Jordan had expected questions, and her answers ready. “I thought I could look at the files of Harding’s arrests once more. It’s still our best bet.”

  “Your colleagues have been over every line of these arrests. What do you expect to find that they couldn’t?”

  Something. Anything.

  “I talked to the ex-girlfriend. That’s a dead end, she moved on with her life. Other than that, there’s nothing, no reason whatsoever why someone would want to target her. Are you doing enough?”

  She could tell from the sergeant’s rapidly changing expression, sympathy to irritation, that it wasn’t a good idea to ask that question out loud.

  “Excuse me, Detective?”

  “I didn’t mean…”

  “I hope you didn’t. As you’re well aware, this division just lost one of its officers, and we’re working hard not to let that happen again. Every cop in the city it on the lookout, and every news station has her picture. You should go home for a few hours.”

  “I can’t.” The tortured tone of her voice told him she was chastised enough. Bristol sighed.

  “Fine, look over those files again. Let me know if you find anything.”

  “Of course.”

  She was already immersed in her reading when her cell phone rang. Irrationally hoping it could be Ellie, Jordan shook her head when she realized it was a text message from Kathryn instead. She hit delete without reading it. Kathryn Larson had waited a long time before she bothered trying to make amends…As far as Jordan was concerned, she could wait a bit longer.

  * * * *

  Ellie woke up to a nightmare of nausea and headache. She might have tried to punch the man sitting on the edge of the bed, again, if she wasn’t feeling so weak.

  “Do you need this?” In the dim light of the lamp on the table, she could see that he was holding up a bucket. He stomach lurched, but she managed to take a few shallow breaths and not throw up.

  She was still hungry.

  Carefully, Ellie shook her head. Bastard. She didn’t say it out loud. She desperately needed to win some ground with him, until the next opportunity.

  “Good. I must confess I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning up another mess. If you just can be quiet for another couple days, this will be over soon. I need you to work with me here so we can…” He broke off his sentence abruptly, making Ellie wonder if he had revealed a bit more than he’d intended to.

  “What’s going to happen on the weekend? You’re going to kill me?”

  “Hell, no,” he said nervously. “You got this all wrong. You want something to eat now? I’m afraid it’s not as good anymore as it would have been fresh, but I can warm everything up for you.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry about earlier.” Make no mistake, you’ll be sorry too.

  “That’s okay. I didn’t like doing it either. Be back in a minute.”

  He seemed to have forgotten about trying to alter his voice. She probably had heard that voice before, otherwise, why would he make the attempt in the first place? Ellie couldn’t imagine who he could be. She spent most of her time around cops, on and off work.

  Somebody at the grocery story, the drug store, who the hell was behind this? What would happe
n on the weekend?

  What if the guy wasn’t calling the shots, and Ellie’s fate was about to be renegotiated on the weekend? Did he mean to tell her that she would be free, or that whatever happened to her would be out of his hands?

  “Can you tell me your name?” she asked when he returned with a plate of food, the contents of the brown bags she’d seen earlier, re-heated. “Since I’m going to be here for a bit longer.”

  “No. I’m sorry.”

  “What do you want me to call you?” Ellie bit into a limp fry and winced. Perhaps she should have accepted the food the first time he had offered it to her.

  “You don’t need to call me anything. Just be patient.”

  “Well, you’re not leaving me much of a choice.”

  “Coffee?”

  “Oh, why not?”

  * * * *

  The weekend. In the following period of darkness and solitude, Ellie grew more and more confident that by the end of it, she would be free. There would be another chance to escape, and this time she was going to make it.

  Ellie fantasized about a few extra vacation days. Maybe the airline would even reimburse them for special circumstances. She snorted at the thought. Talk about unlikely.

  It seemed like a long time. She wanted to shower, be home, sleep in her own bed, sleep with Jordan by her side. Ellie reached underneath the pillow, flinching when her finger touched something sharp. The pull-tab. She had almost forgotten about it. Maybe there was still a chance she’d be able to put it to good use. Too bad it didn’t open cuffs. So once again, she couldn’t do anything but wait. It was driving her crazy.

  * * * *

  The next phone call was a bit more promising: The head of the lab called her to discuss the findings from Ellie’s apartment. It turned out that the blood found by the door was hers indeed.

  “There’s something else I’d like to show you,” Anna said. “Could you come down here?”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Jordan was almost at the door when she heard someone call her name.

  “Jordan! Wait.” Officer McCarthy came hurrying after her. “We got something from the hotline.”

  “I was on the way to the lab. Walk with me?”

  “Sure.” Kate hurried to keep up with her. “At a gas station over in Meadows—the woman says she didn’t put it together until she saw Ellie’s picture on TV. A man mid-thirties in the driver’s seat. She says the woman was kinda out of it. She’s sure it was Ellie.”

  “Get her in here ASAP and pull the security footage,” Jordan told her. “I’ll be back with you in a few minutes.”

  “All right. See you then.”

  Jordan watched her retreating back for a few seconds, wondering how Kate managed to stay upright, let alone professional—after all, she’d been working all night as well. Their situation was different though…For McCarthy, the worst possible had already happened, and she was working her way back from there. Jordan had thought she’d hit rock bottom when for a while, the idea of being in closed rooms had brought her close to a panic attack. Darby’s actions, she realized weren’t the worst that could possibly happen to her. Ellie had risked her life to save Jordan’s. If she failed her now, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

  Jordan turned briskly and opened the door to the lab where Anna Crawford was waiting for her.

  “I don’t have long. We got a tip from the hotline.”

  “That’s good, because I don’t have much. Inside the apartment, nothing out of the ordinary, but I thought you might be interested in this.” She held up an evidence bag with a small, heart-shaped golden earring.

  “From Ellie’s apartment? Why?”

  “No. It’s from Tucker Branson’s. It’s been thoroughly cleaned, no traces whatsoever. Officer found it behind a couch cushion.”

  “Yeah, well, there could have been other women in his apartment.”

  As much as Jordan liked Branson as a suspect, she didn’t see the connection here—and she was certain she’d never seen these earrings on Ellie. She would know…wouldn’t she?

  “True, but Officer Marshall was here earlier…She swears it belongs to Harding.”

  “When was that? I told you to call me as soon as you know something!”

  “She did. Now let’s go see Branson again,” Derek said behind her. “Come on. I have it on good authority that he’s not at work.”

  * * * *

  Tucker Branson didn’t object coming to the station for the questions that had newly come up, but he was acting cocky. Jordan worried he had reason. If this was another dead end, where did that leave them? No. He was hiding something.

  “Hey, is that even legal? I’ve been working with you guys best I could. I gave you names. What the hell do you want from me now?”

  “I want to know where you got this from?”

  Jordan held the bag with the earring so close to his face he flinched.

  “It’s my girlfriend’s,” he said.

  “Where is that girlfriend? Can we talk to her?”

  “I’m afraid not. Bitch broke up with me, I have no idea where she is.” He shook his head with an indulgent grin. “Now you want her name, don’t you? It’s always the same with you, it’s never enough.”

  “The name, yes,” Derek confirmed. “An alibi for the night Officer Harding disappeared would be nice, too. Any one will do.”

  “Well, I didn’t have anything to do with that. Man, look at me, how do you think I’d pull this off? Narcotics are breathing down my neck. You guys come by every other day. Where do you think I’d keep her?”

  “The alibi,” Jordan reminded him.

  “Oh, yes, sure. I had some friends over, we were watching TV. You can check that too. I can’t believe you’re making such a fuss about an earring. I swear to you, I let it go. I haven’t wasted one thought about that cop until you showed up asking about her.”

  “That may be true,” Derek said, “but if you know something else, anything, now would be a good time to come clean. Just so we know we can still trust you.”

  “I don’t know anything. Check those names I gave you—all of them.”

  “We will. Thanks, Tucker.”

  “Wait…”

  “Come on, Detective. We’re done here.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” she asked when they were outside in the hallway. “He has something to hide!”

  “He has a point too,” Derek said, his calm tone irritating Jordan to no end. “He has been working with the Narcotics detectives. It would be utterly stupid to pull a stunt like this right now.”

  “This is not a stunt we’re talking about. It’s a federal crime.”

  “I’m aware, but you know everyone is on this. I asked Doss to talk to the woman from the gas station. She’s with her now.”

  “What? Why would you do that?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure you’ve been here for most of the night, and so have I. What do you think? We’re going to have breakfast.”

  “No. Derek, no, I can’t…”

  “Yes, you can. Doss and Waters got it covered. You’ll be of no help to Ellie or anyone if you stop taking care of yourself. I know what you’re thinking about, and I know you’re scared, but this is not the same.”

  Jordan sat in the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt, knowing she had lost the argument. He was right, of course. Meanwhile, the clock was creeping closer to the critical forty-eight hour mark. If the woman remembered the license plate, if the security footage showed Branson…

  “How do you know? How can you tell it’s not the same, not just another sick fuck like Darby who thought it’s his time?”

  “We’re doing everything we can. We will find her.”

  He parked the car in front of a diner. Jordan followed him inside, wondering if it had been like that when she had been missing, running on hope and lots of empty reassurances. Of course, that time, Bethany had been on the case as well, contributing guilt and excellent re
sources. Bethany who had offered help.

  To her relief, the diner was mostly empty which might not have been a testimony for the quality of the food served here, but at least, the staff was quick and friendly. The comfort of regular meals had made her feel guilty once before. When she first moved in with the Carpenters, she often thought of her birthparents who were most likely passed out in their trailer after another drunken binge mixed with whatever they could buy from their pusher. Once this was all over, she might talk to Pauline and figure out what to do about Kathryn’s calls and texts. Probably get a restraining order, she thought grimly.

  “I know you’re never going to admit it, but I was right,” Derek said after the waitress had refilled their cups. “There’s only so long you can run on adrenaline.”

  “Works for a while. So, let’s talk about you for a change. Don’t tell me you broke up with your girlfriend before you could even introduce her as such. You keep referring to Maria with her last name only…something is up.”

  “Nothing is up. We’re taking a break, that’s all, and how do you know anyway?”

  “The people you work with are cops too, what do you expect?”

  Derek shrugged, but was obviously not willing to discuss the subject any further. He was saved by the cell phone ringing, listening to the person on the other end after a quick greeting.

  “Thanks, Detective. We’re in the area. We’ll check it out now. Bye.” To Jordan, he said, “We got ID on Ellie on the security camera.”

  “What about the guy?”

  “Doesn’t look like it’s Branson. He’s wearing sunglasses and a cap. They’re running the plate.”

  As far as Jordan was concerned, this was too much of nothing, and all they had was a blurry picture to prove Ellie had still been alive some hours ago.

  Chapter Six

  Long after Derek had left and detectives came in for the night shift, Jordan still sat at her desk, staring at the puzzle pieces on the wall. Tucker Branson, everyone’s favorite suspect who kept slipping through her fingers. Had she been wrong to focus on him? There was still the earring, Ellie’s earring in his apartment. With no DNA, it wasn’t likely to hold up in court. They needed more. They needed to find the guy in the car.