“You ready, Mommy?”
“I’m ready.”
Two hours later, Cyndi opened her eyes to find Harper curled up beside her, looking as sweet as an angel. The sun had begun to set, casting shadows across the living room. Working her way off the couch without disturbing Harper was a delicate task, but she managed it.
Cyndi was standing in the kitchen taking some aspirin with a glass of water when Jason finally came into the house. She glanced at the clock on the microwave.
“You were gone a long time.”
“I know. I asked a friend in the lab to run a quick test on it to see if the stain was blood.”
“And?”
“It came back positive for human blood.”
The glass in Cyndi’s hand fell into the sink with a loud crash. A sharp piece of blue glass caught the palm of her hand, spraying blood into the sink.
“Cyndi! What happened?” Jason was at her side with a kitchen towel in a matter of seconds, wrapping it around her hand.
“It’s nothing. I just dropped the glass.”
“You’re bleeding. Did you break it yourself?”
“Nah, it just caught me as it smashed. It’s a scratch, Jason.”
She pulled her hand away and unwrapped the stained towel. “See? The bleeding has already stopped.”
Jason started tossing pieces of broken glass in to the trash can. “Not sure what’s up with you the last couple of days. First the ankle, and now your hand.”
“Must be the weather or something.”
“The weather. Right. Damned sun needs to stop shining.”
Cyndi swatted her husband on the arm with her uninjured hand. “I’m going to get Harper up from her nap. Why don’t you order dinner?”
“You want your usual?”
“Of course.”
It had been a heck of a couple of days. Her ankle throbbed, and her hand hurt like the dickens. Her heart ached too. Human blood on Jade’s purse could only mean one thing, and Cyndi was not looking forward to hearing the rest of the lab results.
Chapter Six
Cyndi: Hello, ladies! It’s 3 a.m., do you know where your husbands are?
Angela: DUI patrol tonight.
Jessy: Off duty and sound asleep. He has a cold…
Cyndi: Aww…poor baby…I bet he whines the way Jason does. Big bad cop man dropped by a tiny little virus!
Jessy: Don’t you know it!
Diana: Well, Donnie is home too but he just got in about 2 a.m. He and a couple of the guys on his shift were out serving warrants so they started after dinner instead of at the usual 9 p.m.
Cyndi: After a little Chinese food take out, I tucked Harper into bed, and Jay and I watched some TV. At least we started out that way. Wink, wink.
Angela: I swear you two are a couple of horny teens trapped in adult bodies! I’m lucky if Matt puts out once a week…you two can’t keep your hands off each other for four hours!
Cyndi: I guess I just got lucky, Ang.
Diana: I’ll say. Donnie is always too tired or at work. Might be why I stick with the sex line job! LOL
Jessy: This being stuck at home all day thing gives me plenty of time to watch soap operas. The perfect reminder of all the romance missing in my life these days. Sam’s been working a lot of doubles to make up for my lost income.
Diana: Any luck on the job front?
Jessy: None.
Cyndi: I am so sorry, Jess…I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose your job like that after so many years.
Jessy: Downsizing is a beautiful thing…grrr…
Angela: You could always go work with Cyndi.
Jessy: LOL Not too sure I could pull that off…I don’t exactly have Cyndi’s youthful figure. If I danced, people would pay me to put clothes back on!
Cyndi: You are much too hard on yourself, Jess…you are absolutely beautiful!
Jessy: Thanks, Cyndi, but I know you are only being your nice self.
Angela: Cyndi and I had lunch today. Well, we met for lunch, never actually got to eat though.
Diana: Where did you go?
Angela: Sugar Shakers!
Jessy: OMG, Ang! Are you joining the ranks of police wife exotic dancers?
Angela: Oh, hell no!
Diana: Then why were you there?
Angela: Cyndi is playing detective.
Cyndi: Angela…
Diana: What are you investigating?
Angela: One of the Sugar Shakers girls has gone missing. Police think she ran away, but Cyndi thinks something else happened.
Jessy: That true, Cyn?
Cyndi: The girl was a runaway with a fake ID and a pimp named Markus. The cops came in and were asking questions on Friday night.
Diana: So why not let them look for her?
Cyndi: They asked the wrong questions. No one is willing to show concern for Jade. Even her best friend won’t make waves…
Jessy: Why not?
Cyndi: Everyone there has something of their own to hide…
Angela: Ain’t that the truth? LOL
Cyndi: Not funny. Anyway, we found something.
Diana: What do you mean?
Cyndi: We found Jade’s pocketbook behind the trash dumpster. It had blood on it.
Jessy: Are you sure?
Cyndi: Yes, I took it home to Jason and he ran it over to the crime lab. Presumptive tests say it’s human blood. They are running it for DNA next.
Angela: I’m sorry, I know you are worried about her.
Cyndi: I really am. She is just a kid…I would guess sixteen maybe seventeen, although the club thinks she is eighteen and the fake ID in her wallet said she was twenty-one.
Diana: Has anyone tried contacting her family?
Cyndi: No one really knows where she is from. Lola might know more than the rest of us, but she isn’t talking.
Jessy: How did she end up in Virginia Beach?
Cyndi: From what I have pieced together, her mother had bad taste in men. Picked some real winners…and Jade was always in the way so she left.
Diana: Is Jade her real name?
Cyndi: I doubt it. I am guessing she picked it up along the way.
Jessy: How did you explain the bloody purse to Jason?
Cyndi: I told him Ang and I followed a mewing cat into the alley behind Sugar Shakers, and the purse was visible under the edge of the dumpster.
Diana: Are you going to tell him the truth so they can start looking for this girl?
Cyndi: I don’t know what I am going to do yet.
Diana: Cyndi, you have to tell the police about Jade.
Cyndi: I told you, they already know.
Jessy: But they don’t know about her bloody purse.
Cyndi: They have the bag and they are running DNA on it. If it’s hers, they will know.
Angela: Not if she isn’t in the system.
Cyndi: She is. Got picked up for prostitution a couple times, also had an assault charge a few months back on a john that turned on her. I am pretty sure they have her DNA. Jade said the guy raped her.
Angela: So the prostitute claimed rape, no one took her seriously, and she went right back to the business.
Diana: Doesn’t it always work that way?
Angela: Silver lining I suppose…at least they have her DNA, maybe they will make an ID on the blood and open up an active case on her.
Cyndi: That is what I am hoping…now if I could only explain the note.
Jessy: What note?
Cyndi: The one on my windshield Friday night informing me the girl was gone for good.
Angela: That means you’re asking the right questions to the right people about your friend. Someone got nervous.
Cyndi: LOL I am not so sure about that. Hard to imagine the fifty-year-old dancer with a penchant for feather boas, the bartender who likes to dress in drag, or the ninety-eight pound hula dancer murdering Jade, and then having the peace of mind to make her disappear.
Diana: That is a colorful crew you have over there at
S.S.!
Cyndi: Wait, I forgot illegal bouncer who would give his left nut to avoid a confrontation with the police and not be sent back to Cuba, where he is wanted by the drug cartel for stealing their money.
Angela: I can see why no one wanted to talk to the cops.
Cyndi: If things go the way I want them to, the blood will be enough to make detectives start asking the right questions and someone will figure out what happened to Jade.
Jessy: And you will stop playing detective?
Cyndi: Maybe. I can’t make you any promises.
Diana: Well, I can promise I am beat. Time for me to bid adieu and head to bed.
Angela: Yeah, I guess I ought to call it a night as well. You ladies take care.
Jessy: Night!
Cyndi yawned long and hard as she waited for her computer to shut down. In a perfect world, the police would see that was Jade’s blood and hunt down the bastard who had hurt her. Correction, in a perfect world Jade—or whatever her real name was—would be home with her mother safe and sound without fear of the boyfriend of the month.
The world was going straight to hell in a hand basket.
Chapter Seven
“Got a call from the lab this morning.”
Cyndi dropped the sandwich she was making and turned to her husband. “That was really quick. What did they say?”
“That I better open up an investigation. The DNA came back as a match to a runaway out of Maryland.”
Cyndi’s heart dropped into her stomach, and her hands began to shake. Fortunately, Jason was too busy trying to steal a piece of ham from the deli package to notice. “A murder investigation?”
“Hard to call it a murder based on a few drops of blood on a handbag.”
Picking the bread back up, she continued smearing mayonnaise on it, trying to sound calm. “Did they give you a name?”
“Shannon Mallory.”
So, Jade’s real name was Shannon Mallory, and she was from Maryland. As soon as Jason went to work, she would get on the computer and start searching for Jade’s—Shannon’s—address and phone number. Cyndi still held out hope that the girl had simply tired of the life she was living and returned home to make things right with her mother. Deep inside, she knew a snowball had a better chance in hell, but it wouldn’t hurt for her to hold on to a little bit of hope.
“So, I guess you will start looking into it tonight?”
Jason grabbed a handful of chips from the bag she opened and shoved them all into his mouth at once. Spraying crumbs everywhere, he nodded with an “uh huh.”
“Here.” Cyndi handed her husband a glass of milk. “You are as bad as a little kid. You aren’t supposed to eat twelve chips at once.”
“Live life on the edge, sweetness.” Jason winked as he downed the glass of ice-cold milk in one gulp. “That sandwich got about enough mayo on it? I’m starving.”
“Starving, you are not!” Cyndi laughed as she handed Jason the plate. “But, yes, it is ready. What time are you heading out?”
“’Bout an hour. I need to get something started on this missing person’s case so I can hand it off to a detective.”
“You won’t follow up on it, then?”
“I’ll get the ball rolling, but in the end I have to hand it off. I’m a patrolman, Cyndi. Guns, drugs, hookers, and domestics are my specialty.”
“You have worked missing persons before.”
“Yep, I have, but only in the short term. If I can’t turn anything up on this girl then I have to hand it off. Why does it bother you so much?”
Why did it bother her so much? It upset her because she was becoming more and more desperate to find Jade, and Jason working the case would have made that so much easier for her.
“It doesn’t. I was just curious.” She started cleaning up sandwich fixings, hoping Jason wouldn’t push the issue too far.
“You don’t usually show much interest in my work,” Jason said around a mouthful of ham, cheese, and lettuce. “It’s odd, yet kind of nice at the same time.”
Cyndi dropped a kiss on her husband’s cheek. “I am always interested in what you do, my handsome cop man.”
“You are trying to sweet talk me so you can get in my pants. Sorry, Cyn…gotta go to work. You’re just gonna have to wait.”
Cyndi laughed. “You’re onto me. You should be a detective, J.J. You’ve got mad skills!”
Jason swatted her behind as Cyndi passed the little table to put the lunch fixings in the refrigerator. “You’re not kidding, I’ve got mad skills. When I get home from work, I will demonstrate some of my better ones…”
“All talk, I say.”
In seconds, Jason was on his feet, pressing her back against the door that led to the garage as his hands slipped up under her sweatshirt. He let out a quiet growl as his lips claimed hers with all the passion of a newlywed on his honeymoon.
“All talk?” He moaned against her lips a full minute later.
“All talk,” she whispered, her breath coming in short little bursts as her heart raced the Boston Marathon in her chest.
“Harper still napping?”
Cyndi nodded. Jason scooped her up cave-man style and carried her down the hall toward their bedroom. “What are you doing? You have to go to work!”
“Shhh! You will wake the baby.”
“J.J., you are going to be late.”
He pushed open the door and dropped Cyndi on the bed, quickly climbing on top of her. “Nope. Not gonna be late. Trust me.”
Cyndi fell back against the pile of throw pillows she painstakingly arranged on the bed every single morning, and let out a quiet moan as Jason undid his belt and uniform pants before tackling her jeans. Ten minutes later, she lay on the bed drained and satisfied as Jason left her with one last lingering kiss before grabbing his duty belt and running out the door. True to his word, Jason had some mad skills. How did other women get through their days without a man who could make love like her J.J. did?
Her cell phone buzzed. It was still in the pocket of her jeans. Cyndi rolled over and hung her head off the side of the bed in search of her pants. She found them in a crumpled heap and dug out her cell phone. She opened the new message and saw it was from Jason.
Jason: Love you. See you when I get home.
Cyndi: Love you too, stay safe.
Cyndi tucked the phone in her pocket after wiggling back into her favorite jeans.
Harper would be up soon, and she would be annoyed that her daddy left without her getting to say goodbye. Cyndi felt a twinge of guilt for forgetting her little one in lieu of her crazy hormones. After a decade, Jason still had the ability to dominate her completely with his touch.
Her ankle was still sore and quite ugly looking, but it was considerably better than the previous day. She could almost walk without limping into Harper’s room, where she found her daughter standing by the bedroom window clutching her favorite worn-out old teddy bear.
“Daddy’s gone.” She looked up at Cyndi with sad brown eyes.
“He was in a hurry, sweet pea. He didn’t want to disturb you.”
“He left and didn’t say goodbye. Daddy always says goodbye.”
Harper was working up to a full-fledged meltdown. Cyndi recognized all the tell-tale signs from the quaking bottom lip to the rubbing of her eyes that would bring on the tears. Cyndi started to prepare for the temper fit that was about to happen, when inspiration suddenly struck. Grabbing her cell phone from her pocket, she opened it to her last incoming text.
“Daddy sent you a message. Told me to show it to you when you woke up.”
“What’s it say, Mommy?”
“He says he loves you and he will see you when he gets home.”
Harper broke out in a beautiful grin. “I knew he wouldn’t forget!”
Cyndi scooped her little girl up in her arms and hugged her close. “Daddy could never forget you, muffin. He loves you more than anything in the world.”
“Let’s go outside and take a walk, Momm
y.”
“I wish we could, baby, but Mommy has a hurt foot, remember?”
Harper’s face fell instantly before she pulled herself together and stood firm. “I want to go outside, Mommy.”
“How about we go out back and you can play in the yard?”
“But I want to go on a walk!”
“That’s not going to happen, Harp. Out back or stay in, your choice.”
Crossing her little arms over chest, Harper stamped a foot and scowled. “Fine. I’ll go out back, then.”
“Grab your sweater!” Cyndi called after her daughter, who was already halfway down the hall by the time she said the words.
The only answer she received was the slam of the back door. When Cyndi joined Harper outside a few minutes later, the little girl was hard at work in her sweater, digging holes in her sandbox. Cyndi smiled as she settled in the chair swing and watched Harper play. They spent a quiet afternoon and evening entertaining each other until it was time for Harper’s bath and bedtime. By the time her little one was tucked in bed, Cyndi was chomping at the bit to get on her computer and search for Jade’s mother in Maryland.
Undercover in Six Inch Stilettos Page 6