Determinant

by E. H. Reinhard

  She tried to hide a smile. They were the magic words I looked for earlier.

  She took her cup of coffee from the machine and stood at the breakfast bar across from me. “Good, because I’m pregnant.”

  I thought I heard her wrong, but wasn’t sure what the sentence could have been mistaken for. “You’re what?”

  She pointed to her stomach. “Baby.”

  I didn’t know what to say. It was like someone exploded a bomb in my head. Flashes of my life with dirty diapers, swing sets and toys underfoot rushed through my head. Visions of moving in together and nights of less sleep than I already got. The last few weeks of her not drinking now made sense. I remembered the captain talking about family yesterday. My brain had never moved faster. It was taking too much time for me to respond.

  “But we…”

  I know we were careful.

  “And it’s definitely…”

  She interrupted. “If you’re about to ask me if it’s yours, I swear to God I’m going to grab a knife from the kitchen and stab you in the face.”

  It took care of that question. “Are…”

  She interrupted me again. “If you’re going to ask me if I’m going to keep it, again, knife.”

  I sat quiet for a second trying to get my bearings. I needed to buy time. “Come here.”

  She walked over, sat on my knee and put her arm around my neck. “It’s kind of a lot to take in, huh?” She smiled.

  I let out a deep breath, smiled back, and sat quiet.

  “Well, come on, talk,” she said.

  I tried but couldn’t come up with anything.

  She faced me and pulled her head in close trying to read my emotions. “Are you happy? Are you leaving me? You have to say something.”

  I just stared back at her.

  She pulled me closer and kissed the side of my face. “Do I need to go get a knife?”

  I shook my head and kissed her. “No knife.” I smiled. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You’re going to need to say something about the baby part.”

  “It’s life changing.” They weren’t the right words, but I couldn’t think. I didn’t know if I was happy, but didn’t feel upset. I was in shock. It had to be shock.

  It was more news than I could process in such a short period.

  She kissed me again and hugged me. She spoke into my ear. “I know it’s a ton to take in. Take your time. We’ll figure it out.”

  We spent the next forty five minutes drinking coffee and talking. Well, she talked, and I nodded in agreement while I drank cup after cup trying to wrap my head around the situation. It would have to wait, I needed to get to work. I almost forgot my holster and weapon. I did forget my coffee on the breakfast bar. It was a five minute drive to work. As I sat in the station’s parking structure, I couldn’t remember how I got there.

  Chapter 12

  I spent the morning at the station in a complete fog. The afternoon was the same. Hank came and went from my office a number of times. I asked him to deal with getting the statement from Eric Blake, our bartender from Frank’s, and set him up with a sketch artist. I spoke with Jenny Cartwright’s father. From our fifteen minute talk, it became clear that he had his blinders on when it came to his daughter. I was certain I knew more about her life from the file on her than her own father did. He had nothing to offer that would help us on the case. I assured him that I’d keep him informed as we progressed.

  I spoke with Callie twice. She asked me if I was alright at least ten times. I told her I was. It might have been a lie. She said she was going to go home after work. She worked until close. A night alone would give me some time to think, she said. I didn’t fight her on it.

  I was a half hour into sitting at my desk staring at the wall when Hank knocked on the door sill and broke my concentration.

  He walked in, sat and tossed the sketch of our suspect on my desk. I gave it a quick once over. I didn’t recognize the guy.

  Hank spoke up. “Talk to Ed yet?”

  I put my feet up on the file box next to my desk that had been serving as a foot rest. “About?”

  “The weather.” Hank raised his eyebrows. “About the GSW victim from yesterday. You know, police work? Ed said he’d have the autopsy report done sometime this morning? It’s pushing two thirty. Geez, what’s with you today?”

  “Sorry. No I didn’t talk to him. I’ll give him a call.”

  Hank tapped a pen on my desk and rearranged himself in the chair. “Well something damn sure has you off. I don’t even think you noticed the last time I walked in here. You just stared off into space like a zombie.”

  “What? When were you in here last?”

  “When I brought you a coffee, asked you about lunch and told you to snap out of it? You just kind of grunted for a response.”

  I looked down. An untouched coffee sat at the corner of my desk. I felt the side of it. It was cold. “Sorry, Buddy. It’s been a weird morning to say the least.”

  “Well, come on, spill it.”

  I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. I’ll get on the horn with Ed about that report.”

  “Not that easy, start talking.”

  “Hank, I’m fine.”

  “I’ll go get the captain and we’ll head over to the box with you. Get you under the spotlight until you talk. We’ll have ourselves a nice little lock in. I don’t have anything to do tonight. Karen will be playing poker with her friends until at least midnight.”

  I let out a deep breath. Maybe getting the situation out in the open could help. “Alright. Fine. So I woke up this morning to a voicemail from Samantha. She said she wanted to talk.”

  “You didn’t tell Callie your ex-wife called you, did you?”

  I nodded my head.

  “You’re stupid. Hold on, this is going to be good.” He got up from the chair and went to sit on the back couch. “Ok, much better. So how did that conversation go? I bet not so hot.”

  I rocked back in my chair. “That’s just the beginning.”

  Hank smiled. “Go on.”

  “So Callie storms off into the other room—I gave her a few minutes, and went after her. I told her that I couldn’t control who called me and it was nothing to worry about.”

  Hank pointed at me. “That’s screw up number two right there. Never try to use logic with an emotion woman. I should write these down for you. It’s been a while since you dated. So then what happened?”

  “She told me she loves me and doesn’t want to lose me.”

  Hank nodded. “So you had to tell her you loved her back. Is that what’s got you all scatterbrained?”

  “Nah, I can deal with that. As soon as I told her, she…”

  Hank interrupted. “Told you she was a man?” He smirked, pleased with himself that he could slip a zinger into the situation.

  I shook my head. “Pregnant.”

  Hank’s head snapped back. “Pregnant?”

  I nodded.

  “Yours and going to have it?”

  I nodded again. “She threatened to stab me in the face with a knife when I started to ask those two questions. So I’m pretty much positive on that.”

  “Damn.” He shrugged his shoulders unsure of what he should say next. “I guess congratulations?”

  “I guess.”

  “You know, my parents were only together a few months when they got married. I’m guessing my mother being pregnant with my older brother had something to do with the shotgun wedding. They’ve been together forty some years now. They’re still married and get along.”

  “Can we leave the marriage thing off the table for today? I’ve had my fill of things to think about.”

  “Nothing gets your mind off of problems like greasy food and dead bodies. Want to grab a late lunch and take a ride over by Ed?”

  I thought about the mounting work on my desk. I hadn’t done anything all morning or afternoon. “Nah, I’ll raid the vending machines in the lunch room. I have too much stuff to do.”


  “Well, what do you need? I don’t have too much on my plate.”

  I sat up and looked over my files and to-do list for the day. “Go down by the forensics lab and see if they found our murder weapon and came up with anything else concrete from the crime scene yesterday. Pax was supposed to be working on that foot print.”

  Hank stood from the couch. “Anything else?”

  I handed him the sketch of our suspect. “Get some copies of that made up, check with the other departments and give them out to the guys in Patrol. I’m going to call Ed and get him to fax over that autopsy report if it’s done.”

  “On it.” Hank walked out.

  I scooped up my desk phone and dialed Ed at the medical examiner’s office. The secretary picked up right away.

  “County Medical Examiner’s office.”

  “Hey, it’s Lieutenant Kane. Is Ed in?”

  “Sure Lieutenant, he’s right here. Hold on a sec.”

  “Yup.”

  “Lieutenant. My crystal ball tells me you’re calling about that autopsy report.”

  “Bingo.”

  “Finished it up earlier, but we had family in identifying the body.”

  “You have positive identification?” I grabbed a pen from my desk to write down the man’s name in the file.

  “Yup. Reggie Robinson, the homeowner. His two sons came in to I.D. the remains. I guess they were in Miami and came home this morning to the scene. They showed up here around eleven. Both of the boys are covered in gang tattoos—just a little FYI there.”

  “Thanks. You have the names of the two that identified him?”

  “Yeah, it’s in the report. You guys heading over to get it or do you want me to send it?”

  “Fax it over if you can.”

  “Alright, you should see it in a few minutes.”

  “Thanks, Ed.”

  “You want the highlights? The report is right here.” I could hear him flipping pages.

  “Sure.”

  “Cause of death was a GSW close range. Let’s see, you already know all that. We had a handful of old tattoos, all photographed. Tox screen shows THC.” The sound of him flipping another page came through the ear piece of the phone. “I have the time of death at five days prior to him being discovered—that’s about it really.”

  “Alright, thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  I hung up and plugged the guy’s name into our computer system to see if he had a record, he did. A DUI two years ago and some disorderly conducts a few years back. There were a number of times over the years he had been busted with marijuana, nothing major. I printed his sheet out, tossed it into the file and took it with me to our station’s fax machine to grab the autopsy report. On my way back to my office my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. It was Callie. I hit talk.

  “Hey.”

  Her voice sounded frantic. “Carl, I just called 9-1-1 from the bar. I didn’t want you to get all freaked out, I’m fine.”

  I stopped walking. “What’s going on?”

  “I just got to work to open up. I was walking up to unlock the place when the restaurant owner next door came from the back running. She was screaming to call 9-1-1.”

  “What happened?”

  “She said that two of her employees were dead inside. They were shot.”

  “Get her, and lock yourselves inside Lefty’s. I’m on my way.”

  I hung up and went to the captain’s office. He hung up the phone as I entered.

  “Kane, grab Rawlings. Double homicide over at Tamboro’s restaurant and bar.”

  “I just got off the phone with Callie. She’s the one who made the call to 9-1-1.”

  “Is she OK?”

  “I guess the owner next door came from the back of the building screaming. Callie called 9-1-1, and then called me. I told her to get the woman and lock themselves in Callie’s bar until we got there.”

  “Good idea. Cars were already dispatched.”

  “I’ll get Hank. I’ll call you.”

  “OK.”

  I found Hank at his desk. We were gone from the station in under five minutes.

  Chapter 13

  Ray sat on the edge of the pool in a pair of black swim trunks. His cell phone buzzed—Viktor again. He’d called six times. Viktor wanted to know what was going on. He got angrier with each voice message. Ray sent the incoming call to voicemail. He needed to call Viktor back, but he needed to have something planned first.

  The guys in the freezer would make it difficult, if not impossible, to take Callie from the bar. The neighboring restaurant would be full of cops. The police would talk with the other businesses and owners. They’d patrol the area throughout the night. They would figure out that the security system at her bar had been disabled.

  He lifted his wine glass to his lips. Ray took in a mouthful and tried to come up with a something. He needed to know where she lived.

  Ray grabbed his phone from the small table a few feet away and clicked through the prompts until he found the last photo he took, the photo of the bar’s employee schedule. Next to Callie’s name for the day, it read open til’ close. He grabbed the time from his Rolex: 2:36 p.m. He finished his glass of wine and dunked himself into the pool.

  After a swim, he went in the house for a shower. He pulled on a white button up dress shirt and donned a gray suit and tie.

  Ray left the house in the Mercedes SUV for downtown Tampa. He needed to be sure Callie was at work. He rolled past the front of the restaurant where he’d left the two bodies. A couple of police cars sat out front. Police tape circled the block. Police officers filled the sidewalk. Ray made a right at the corner in front of Lefty’s. His eyes locked on the bar. The lights were on inside. The alley behind the bar came into view. Two squad cars sat in the back next to the rear door of the restaurant. Two men in suits stepped out of a white Corvette—behind their car sat the blue BMW. A girl sat on the hood. It was her. One of the guys from the Corvette walked toward her. Ray continued past. He made two consecutive right turns and slowed to look down the alley from the other direction. The man from the Corvette was hugging Callie. Ray sped up to make the light as it turned yellow.

  Chapter 14

  Hank and I pulled my Corvette into the back alley behind Lefty’s bar. Someone had parked in my unmarked cruiser in the station’s parking structure. I wasn’t about to search the station for the owner and wasn’t going to take Hank’s pink hybrid. A couple squad cars were already on the scene, two out front and two at the rear entrance of the restaurant. Callie sat on the hood of her car. I got out and went to her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  I looked back over my shoulder. “Hank, you want to go see what’s up in there? I’ll be there in a second.”

  He went inside.

  Callie reached out for a hug.

  I took her in my arms. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

  “I’m fine, Carl. I’m sorry I unloaded all that on you this morning.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I need to go see what’s going on. We’ll talk before I leave.”

  “OK.” She dropped her arms to her sides.

  I headed next door and walked through the back. Officers Weston and Thomas from Patrol stood next to Hank—a pair of silver freezer doors stood open before them. The three stared inside the walk-in. I went to Hank’s side.

  “What the hell.” Hank rubbed at the back of his neck.

  I took in the scene. Two bodies lay at the back of the cooler. Frozen blood covered the entire rear of the room. Flesh clung to the wire metal shelves. A pool of frozen blood lay beneath the two men. I looked away.

  “Did anyone go in?” I asked.

  “I didn’t,” Hank said. “Weston and Thomas were first on the scene.”

  “Did you guys go in?” I asked.

  “No,” Weston said.

  I took a single step into the room and one step to the side—I did
n’t want to disturb any evidence that may have been left within. I stretched my neck to get a better look at the two bodies. One lay face down. A four inch hole was present in the back of his head. An additional gunshot wound exited the middle left of his back. I looked to the other. He faced me. He was slumped into a five gallon pail in the corner. The two gunshot wounds were the same as the other victim—a shot in the forehead and a shot in the heart. I stepped from the room.

  “This was an execution. They were on their knees,” Hank said.

  “Geez,” Officer Thomas muttered under his breath.

  “Do we know who these guys are?” Hank asked.

  “I wrote the names down.” Officer Weston fumbled through his notes. “The owner, Maria Santonio, said the two men are Greg Hart and Bryan Benson. Greg Hart was a cook, Bryan Benson the dishwasher. He just started here last week.”

  “Which one is which?” I asked.

  “Benson is the larger of the two.”

  I wrote the names in my notepad.

  “Is anything missing?”

  “Not sure. The owner is walking around looking with Officer Henry now,” Weston said.

  “You guys take a look around and see if anything jumps out at you. See if this place has any kind of security. I need to make a call.”

  I went to the front of the restaurant’s kitchen and dialed the captain at his desk.

  “Bostok.”

  “Hey, it’s Kane.”

  “What’s the scene?”

  “An execution. Vics worked here. Shot in the cooler. They were on their knees, one in the head, and one in the chest on both.”

  The captain let out a puff of air into the mouthpiece of the phone. “Professional?”

  “Damn well doesn’t seem like a first timer.”

  “Is Forensics there yet?” Bostok asked.

  I glanced toward the back door. Rick leaned against the wall and talked with Hank. “Yeah, Rick is here. They must have just showed up. I’ll talk to you when I get back.”