Madison let out a small laugh. “When I’m actually able to get in it, and am able to shut my mind off, it’s not bad.”
Madison’s attention went to a woman dressed in a black suit, a young girl at her side. The girl’s hair was long and blonde, like the adult version. The woman was striking, slim and above-average height with blue eyes that were stunning from a distance. Would the woman expect her daughter to grow up and be like her, wearing a suit, prepared to face the corporate world, or to be a wife and mother foremost?
“You look deep in thought,” Cynthia said.
“It’s nothing.” Madison avoided eye contact with her friend, her thoughts still on the mother and her daughter.
What if she wanted to grow up to be a mechanic or didn’t see any need to get married? Would her mother approve?
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I never did the love and marriage thing. I’m a failure. It was probably my fault he cheated on me. My mother thinks it is.
“Maddy? Hello.” Her friend waved a hand in front of her face.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just thinking about this case and Terry. I wonder how he’s making out.” She lied to Cynthia, and it didn’t feel good, but she had to protect herself.
Cynthia nodded, pretending to buy the line, but Madison knew she didn’t.
“What about the case?” Cynthia adjusted her glasses.
Madison knew she had to push aside the personal vortex last night’s experience had churned. She had spent a few hours tossing on the couch afterward and the resultant headache from her pinched neck would be a reminder of it for most of the day. This would be two days in a row with a headache.
He had no right to show up like that.
Madison twirled her cup, watching the woman and the girl again. Cynthia turned to see where she was looking.
“What are—”
“Cynthia, do you ever feel like a huge disappointment?”
“Sometimes, but I don’t allow myself to wallow in it.”
“I feel like maybe I’ve made some wrong choices in life.” Madison stalled there and raised a pointed finger. “If this conversation leaves this table, I will kill you.”
Cynthia laughed. “You always threaten, but good luck pulling that off.”
Madison’s lips rose slightly, but the smile faded quickly.
“What’s wrong, Maddy? You mention choices you regret. We all have them. We have to move on.”
“Oh, it’s stupid things. Like would everyone have been happier if I were married—”
“Whoa! Stop there. What train are you on? This isn’t my Maddy.” Cynthia put her cup back on the table, deciding against taking another sip. “What’s bringing all this up? And who would be happier? Your mother on your case again?”
“Yes. No. It’s just—”
“I’m missing something.”
She put her fingers in his hair as they kissed. Mouths both open. Hungry.
“I blame it on the wine last night.”
“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy.”
Madison looked at her friend. Cynthia would be the only person who could understand the situation. She knew about Toby Sovereign and about how things had ended. She wasn’t around then, but she knew the story. She knew that because of it, Madison couldn’t trust another man and that she didn’t believe in love and marriage and a happily ever after.
“After you were asleep last night, my past came by.”
“Your past?” Her eyes got large. “Oh?”
“Yeah, oh.” Madison took the last sip of her cappuccino.
Cynthia shifted in her seat. “We’re talking about Toby here?”
“Unfortunately yes. He showed up two nights ago wanting to talk about the suicide case.”
“The one you believe is a homicide.”
Madison nodded. “Last night wasn’t for business.”
A devilish smirk lifted Cynthia’s face. It faded when she read Madison’s. “What happened?”
“A huge mistake.”
“You had sex with him on the couch.”
“It’s not funny, Cyn. This man—”
“I know he ruined you for everyone.”
“You make it sound so dramatic.”
Cynthia adjusted her glasses again and bobbed her head.
“Fine, maybe when it’s put that way.” Madison’s heart raced at the thought of telling Cynthia about the kiss. She would keep it basic, leave out the emotions, the resurfaced wounds. “He kissed me.”
“Did you kiss him back?”
Madison slapped the table. “Shh.” She wasn’t even sure who would overhear or who would care. She couldn’t keep the truth from the person that mattered most—herself.
“Well? Did you?”
“Maybe I did.”
“Did you like it?”
Madison went to look back at the little girl and her mother, but they were gone. “I ended it. I’m not going down that path again. I can’t do it.”
“He wants to get back together?”
“I—” Madison’s cell phone rang.
“Please don’t leave me hanging.”
Madison answered her cell. “Detective Knight.”
Cynthia shook her head and started to smile. The expression was terminated when she pressed her mouth to the cup.
“I’ll be right there.” Madison hung up, clipped her phone in its holder and rose from the table.
“Where are you go—”
“Hennessey’s other girlfriend, the one who showed up at the station waiting for her next fix. Well, she found it and she’s being rushed in a bus to the hospital right now.”
-
Chapter 43
MADISON CALLED TERRY AND GOT a hold of him on his cell. He’d meet her at the station and they’d head to the hospital together.
A young officer stood in the emergency waiting room, hands poised high on his hips and he rocked on the balls of his feet.
“They said she had shot up in her arm. She was unconscious when paramedics arrived on scene.”
Madison fired a glare at him, and he stopped rocking. “Who found her?”
“Anonymous tip was called in.”
“Son of a bitch!” Madison surveyed the emergency room. “Was the needle recovered at the scene?”
“Yes, and it’s been taken in for evidence.”
Madison picked up her phone and dialed Cynthia. “The needle Sahara Noel shot up with…good…I need you to get on analyzing it…I know…please.” If they could connect what Noel took to what was in Thorne’s system, it might end up providing some more answers. She closed her cell and addressed the officer. “What are the doctors saying?”
The officer continued. “They were trying to resuscitate her, but don’t hold out much hope.”
A door opened and a man in his late fifties came into the waiting area. His hair was the color of steel and his eyes were chestnut brown. He wore blue scrubs and wire-rimmed glasses with round lenses. His mustache was neatly groomed.
He walked toward them and gestured for them to join him at the side of the room. He pulled off his latex gloves and shook his head. “She didn’t make it.”
Madison’s legs felt unsure and her stomach tightened. What a waste of life.
“What do you think she was on?” Madison asked.
“She was experiencing symptoms, I’m sad to say, we’ve seen a lot of recently.”
“Not your standard street drug?”
The doctor slowly shook his head. “It’s a blend with a near hundred percent fatality rate. With most overdoses, they are the result of one drug, and it’s relatively easy to give them another that can counteract the effects. With a cocktail like this, it’s near impossible to treat from a medical standpoint.”
“Am I too late?�
� Alex Commons, a narcotics detective, came toward them, and passed her a judgmental glance as he addressed the doctor. He didn’t even look at Terry.
The doctor nodded his head. “Unfortunately.”
“We’re looking at the same thing?”
“Sad to say we are.” The doctor excused himself and left the three detectives sizing each other up.
“What are you doing here?” Commons asked.
She had a run-in with Commons not long ago when a drug addict factored into a case. She wasn’t inclined to answer his question. “A cocktail is going around killing kids longing for their next high. Know anything about it?”
“Coke, meth, and heroin. Its street name is Oz, also known as The Wizard’s Cocktail. And like the fictional place, everything seems surreal to them and they experience a high like no other where no one, or nothing, can touch them. They are euphoric and untouchable.”
“Until they’re dead.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Why do you seem fascinated by its make-up?”
Commons’s face turned somber. “You mistake my knowledge of it for excitement. There is nothing exciting about it. Twenty kids have already died because of it.”
“Do you have any leads on this? How close are you to shutting this operation down?”
Commons let out a small laugh. “You leave us to do our jobs, you do yours.”
Madison moved in close to his face. “You not doing your job, has interfered with mine.”
“Who the f—”
Terry stepped between them. “She doesn’t mean things the way they come across.”
“It certainly seems she does.” Commons’s cheek held a pulse as he pulled down on his shirt and took a few steps back.
“We have a case,” Terry said.
“And you’re asking for my help?” Commons laughed.
“We are.”
Madison felt uneasiness pulse through her. They needed to find out how Kevin Thorne got this cocktail in his system, a man who never used a drug in his life. She didn’t like where her theories led. Lacy was supposedly the last to see him alive. She had a past littered with drug abuse. Did she bring it to the motel that night? And if so, why? She was trying to change her life around.
“We’ve narrowed it down to a dealer that goes by the street name Harvey,” Commons offered.
Madison thought of the movie by the same name. The main character who was mentally ill could see an invisible rabbit.
“If you have him, go get him,” Madison said. “Shut this shit down.”
“It’s not as simple as that. Harvey is the dealer, not the source. It would be like trying to take out Hitler by killing one of his men.” He let his comparison sit there. “Meaningless and without effect. Many others would stand in his place. However, there is one thing in our favor. The blend makes it pricey, limiting its reach.”
Madison thought of Lacy and Sahara Noel. Neither girl had unlimited funds, but both were beautiful, accustomed to life on the streets, and likely willing to do anything for their next high. But the thought with Lacy didn’t fit. Bates said she refused to have sex with just anyone and about a month before meeting Thorne at that motel room, she wanted to turn her life around. Then the thought struck her, what if Hargrove gave cash to Lacy too? He set her up in a condo and with medical care; it wasn’t a stretch for him to provide her with spending money also. And he did get her a job at the computer store. If she pocketed all her money, it was possible she could pick up the drug for Thorne.
“How much would a hit cost?” she asked.
“Closer to a hundred, which is quite high compared to twenty for a baggie of coke.”
“How close are we to shutting this down?”
“We?” Commons laughed. “Narcotics is close, but not all the way there.”
“We can help you.”
“Why? Don’t you have enough work to keep you busy?”
“We have questions that need answers.”
“Share with me.”
“We have a dead man who had this mix, a cocktail as you put it, in his system at the time of death, but he didn’t die from that. Either himself or someone else, beat him to the nasty side effect of the drugs by slicing his wrists.”
“Someone?”
If she wanted cooperation, she had to give some. “The ruling on the case was suicide, but there is some unresolved evidence in the case.”
“And Winston is all right with you opening that all backup?”
“Winston knows of our interest. Do you want our help or not?”
MADISON AND TERRY HEADED BACK to the station.
“We need to find out who bought Oz around the time of Thorne’s death,” she said.
“I’m not liking where you’re going with this. Somehow we have two homicides to solve now.”
“Don’t forget Sahara, now, so really three deaths. But I think we’ll find her justice when we find out the truth about Lacy and Thorne. Lacy was supposedly the last to see Thorne alive, but there are questions there that begged for answers. The obvious one being what would make her kill him when she was turning her life around?”
“And she was pregnant.”
Madison had filled him in on that fact on the way to the hospital.
“Exactly, and we still don’t know who the father was.”
She hadn’t asked him what was going on in his life. She feared the answers, the conversation that would follow, the possibility she would have nothing to offer in the way of support, but she remembered Cynthia’s encouragement to be there for him.
“How are you doing?”
“We’re doing all right,” Terry said.
“Good. I’m here you know, if you need—”
“I know you are, Maddy. Thank you. We did a lot of talking yesterday. There are a lot of ways things could go. Everything could be fine.”
“Great news.”
“But there is also the chance the baby won’t be.”
Madison didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say. She remembered him mentioning it could be deformed.
“We will love him no matter what and take great care of him. If it means Annabelle has to quit her job, that’s what it means.”
“You’re going to make a great dad, Terry.”
“Oh, don’t get all soft on me.”
She heard a smile in his voice, the hint of positivity. He would be all right—no matter the outcome they would find their way through and she would be there if they needed her.
-
Chapter 44
THEY WERE IN A PART OF the downtown core known for drug dealers and prostitutes. Most businesses had long shut their doors and the buildings remained, only serving as a reminder of what had once been a prosperous area.
The clock on the dash read 11:30 PM.
Madison killed the lights on the car and parked down the end of Second Street.
“If Commons finds out about this, he’s going to kill us,” Terry said.
“Do you really think I care about what he thinks? We’ll get the answers we need and he’ll get Harvey in exchange.”
“He said it’s the small picture.”
“Small for him, not for us.”
“What about all the other people who will die?”
Madison’s heart sank. She had given it considerable thought. Her rationale concluded this was still a positive step in the right direction. Thorne and Sahara Noel deserved justice as Lacy did. Another thing clung close to her mind too. Had Lacy shot up just before her death and if she had, was it the same cocktail? Did she know what she was getting them into?
There were a few people across the street and down a ways. They hung in a cluster under a few streetlights.
Two guys and one girl. The girl wore a fitted jacket and a short skirt, paired with black boots th
at reached mid-thigh. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail.
The guys, pegged in their early to mid-twenties, shared laughter over something the girl didn’t find the same amusement in. One guy had a shaved head and was of average height and a bit to the stocky side; the other had blond hair. The three of them turned and looked at another car that had parked across the street. The occupants stayed inside the car.
“Well, based on Marsh’s description none of these guys are Harvey.”
They had left Commons and Madison worked on Marsh for a description on Harvey. They were told that Harvey was a white guy in his twenties and typically wore a black puffy coat. He had dark hair and eyes. He would be seen on occasion with a tall and “super skinny” white man in his forties.
Madison reached over Terry and opened the glove box. She pulled out a Hershey’s bar and peeled back the wrapper.
“You’re eating a chocolate bar? Right now?”
She answered with a mouthful. “Yeah, why not?”
“And I’m not sure why we’re parked so close. Harvey’s not going to come around if he thinks we’re cops.”
The girl walked away from the group of guys. She glanced at Madison and Terry, her eyes half-mast and darkened. She was seeking a fix, but she must have sensed their presence.
“The female has some brains,” Madison said.
“I think we may have saved her this time. She may not be so lucky next time.” Terry tapped his fingers on the dash, slowly at first and then picked up speed. He got a rhythm going as if he were playing the drums.
“Seriously?” Madison laughed.
“You eat chocolate, I’ll play music.”
The two guys watched the girl walk away. One hit the other in the arm and they both laughed.
“Guys can be such pigs.” Madison stuffed the rest of the bar in her mouth and crumpled up the wrapper.
Terry passed a look from the guys to her full mouth, to the wrapper in her hand.
“Shut up.” Madison laughed.
“We’re not going to accomplish anything by sitting here. You think Harvey’s just going to walk up to us and say—”
“Terry.” She eyed the image in the rearview mirror. He was walking down a cross street. “Marsh said dark hair and a black puffy jacket.”
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