Panic Room

by Patti Larsen

  She handed it to Ray, who was surprised by how heavy it was. Some kind of metal painted black. She turned it over, noting the flecks of bone matter and brain tissue smeared with blood.

  They had their murder weapon. Now, to find the murderer.

  ***

  INT. – THE PANIC ROOM – NIGHT

  Gerri hung up the phone with a sigh. At least they knew how and what. It was the who and why that still plagued her. She turned, looked down at the now right side up body. Someone had taken the courtesy of covering the congressman’s staring face with the same handkerchief Gerri used to wipe clean the plastic credit card sleeve. More possible evidence interference, but at least Linda Barnes had stopped moaning from the sight.

  As Gerri looked up, she realized she’d forgotten all about the panel she’d noticed at the back of the room, the wall seam just split enough to make it visible. Hoping it was a back way out of this place, knowing it was likely a bathroom or something innocuous, she circled the body, squeezing past Doug Divers who grinned at her—if he copped a feel he’d be on the floor with the congressman—and to the panel.

  When she slid it sideways on silent tracks, she stared into the open door of a safe. Not at all what she’d been expecting. The compartment was deep enough the door remained partially open on the other side. Gerri reached out with the ever present plastic sleeve wrapped around her fingers and pulled the safe door open the rest of the way.

  It was one of those modern affairs with a keypad on the front and a small dial, the door heavy, imposing, though she was sure a dedicated safe cracker with an hour to kill would probably make short work of breaking in. There were some stacked papers, one of which looked like a will, some cash, a small iron box that rattled when she shook it.

  And an empty space, conspicuous by the absence of something tall and narrow that should have stood against the side between a black binder and the wall of the safe.

  Another binder? Seemed likely. Gerri looked down at the ground, spotted the culprit. Retrieved it. But when she opened the binder, the three metal rings gaped at her like toothy jaws, the contents missing.

  Whoever broke into the safe—if the congressman hadn’t been forced to open it himself—had left behind money and, if her guess about the iron box was correct, jewelry, in favor of taking some paperwork.

  Gerri set the binder back on the floor, surprised to find a smear of blue appear on the plastic protecting her fingers. She sniffed it, caught the faint odor of chemical. But, it hadn’t been there a moment ago. Ink?

  Of course, dummy. Safety ink. Gerri spun, eyes immediately going to everyone’s hands, scanning the room, gaze searching in hopes of wrapping up this murder with one set of stained fingers.

  Only to gape as the blue dye, its time allotted, appeared in an almost magical bloom of color on everyone’s hands but hers.

  Correction. Everyone’s but hers and the captain’s. And that damned TV host, Doug Divers.

  They all seemed to notice her attention at the same time, Meredith, Alan, even the mayor all looking down at their accusing hands. The congressman’s wife seemed lost by the appearance of it.

  “What’s this?” She held her hands out to Gerri, looking broken. “What’s happening?”

  The mayor glared at Gerri who swallowed hard. Captain King crossed in front of him and shook his head at the detective.

  God damn it. The mayor was a murder suspect.

  “Mrs. Barnes,” Gerri said, “that blue ink means all of you who have it have been in the congressman’s safe—or at least in this room—at some point this evening.” Screw the captain’s angry look. She had a job to do. One to which he had assigned her. Doug Divers grinned like this was the best show he’d ever been to as she went on. “I need to ask each of you what you were doing here and what you were looking for.”

  “Stand down, Detective,” the mayor said. But she shook her head and caught the resigned understanding in Captain King’s face.

  “No, sir,” she said, quietly but with the resolution they’d learned she was best at. “I can’t do that.” She looked around again, wishing she had a gun, a knife, something. Anything. “It’s likely whatever was stolen from that safe is the reason the congressman is dead.” Gerri hesitated, then threw caution out with the possibility she’d have a job when this was over. “I’m going to have to search all of you.”

  Captain King and Doug Divers. The only two people in this room she could trust. As her decision to move ahead took over, her suspicion grew. When the phone rang after a long, tense moment of quiet, she skirted the wall with her back to it, reaching the handset and jerking it loose, eyes unblinking.

  “Go,” she said

  “Detective Meyers?” A foreign voice, a young man. “I’m Tim Sanders with Safety Room.”

  “I have a question,” she said. “The blue dye in the safe?”

  He paused. “Does someone have it on their hands?”

  Gerri just grunted.

  “Then that person triggered the security protections,” he said. “But you knew that already.”

  “How long does it take to appear?” How long had she been inside the panic room? And she still didn’t have TOD.

  “About an hour,” he said.

  Gerri looked down at the body. Leaned in and pulled the handkerchief from his face.

  The blue traces on his cheek told her what she needed to know.

  So, she did have TOD. And that meant everyone in the room had their hands in the safe around the time the congressman died.

  The mayor stared, horror on his face. Meredith seemed equally upset. The congressman’s wife began her keening all over again as Gerri’s heart sped up.

  “Have Detective Jackson check everyone at the party for the blue dye,” she told the tech. “How long before you can get us out of here?”

  “Minimum two hours,” he said. “I have a ton of electronics to bypass.”

  Two hours. Trapped with a killer who was likely growing more desperate by the moment. She didn’t look at the mayor, hating the fear on his face, the anxiety. Damn it. Let it not be him.

  “Get to it.” She hung up.

  And wished for a gun for Christmas.

  ***

  INT. – CONGRESSMAN BARNES’S OFFICE – NIGHT

  Kinsey looked over the young technician’s shoulder, knowing her attention wasn’t speeding him up any, but feeling rather useless in the whole situation. When he finally looked up and smiled at her, one of those patient but back-off-lady smiles, she smiled back and retreated.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” he said, going back to his computer console, thin framed glasses catching the light from the screen, faint frown aging his maybe twenty-five years another decade. He’d wired it into the panel on this side of the wall. “This could take some time.” He gave her another apologetic smile.

  “No wifi?” She meant it as a joke.

  “Not with a closed system,” he said, shifting inside his light blue overalls, tight across the round paunch of his belly. Too many beers, or not enough exercise. Both? She almost shook her head. Focus, DanAllart. The kid is talking to you. “Unless you want someone on the outside to be able to hack it.”

  Right now, she thought that would have been a preferable setup compared to the Fort Knox issues they seemed to be dealing with.

  Kinsey should have just left. She really wasn’t of any use, and Jackson’s continuing glares just made her feel more unwelcome. Ray and Chase had their heads down with Binks in the corner, leaving the blonde feeling rather left out and a bit pouty.

  The only reason she didn’t just go home stood downstairs, held back by the police. Benedict made it clear the one and only time she’d emerged from the room to find a bathroom outside the evidence zone he didn’t want her involved.

  “Time to go.” He hadn’t touched her, but his intention was clear.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” What, so now he was the boss of her or something? She huffed down the hall, following Candace’s directions. She locked his t
all, lean vampir ass out of the small hall bathroom and stewed there a long time before peeking out.

  To find him waiting for her. It was a dirty trick, she knew it, but the second she spotted Candace and Blake, she made sure Benedict was escorted out of her line of sight.

  The look of disappointment on his face as he descended to the first floor still lingered with her. As did the pity from Candace as she passed Kinsey on the way back to the office.

  “I had a controlling boyfriend once,” she said. “Let me know if he gives you a hard time.”

  Controlling boyfriend. If only. Kinsey wondered what the young officer would do if she found out he was a vampir bodyguard whom her Nightshade grandmother tasked with keeping her safe from harm.

  Kinsey would have traded in for a boyfriend. At least she could have just dumped him. Benedict didn’t seem the type to go away just because she said so.

  She paced away from the tech toward the far corner, head down, jaw tightening as she struggled with her lack of helpfulness. Kinsey was so intent on being a pain in the ass she almost tripped over a pair of polished white shoes parked in the corner. She looked up in surprise when she realized the shoes had legs, knees, a skirt hem. Two small hands clenched at the girl’s waist near the light blue sash holding her empire dress tight under her little breasts, a tiny diamond pendant glistening at the hollow of her throat. Muddy brown hair hung limp, the remains of what had been an attempt to curl it almost gone, hazel eyes too far on the brown side to be considered pretty.

  Her round cheeks and weak chin did little to help, nor did the unruly, thick mess of her eyebrows. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old. A minimal attempt at makeup and an honest expression made it obvious she knew she wasn’t attractive and had learned to accept it.

  “I’m sorry,” Kinsey said, genuinely so. “I didn’t see you here.”

  “It’s okay.” The girl wiped at her bangs in what had to have been a frequent gesture. The thin wisps looked slick with the beginnings of oil from her forehead. “No one ever sees me.”

  Youch. Kinsey offered one hand. “I’m Dr. DanAllart,” she said. “You do know you’re not supposed to be here?”

  A moment of pain passed through the girl’s eyes. “Belle Barnes,” she said. “My parents are in there.”

  The congressman’s daughter? And with a name like that, she had to be furious.

  “I’m so sorry about your father.” Kinsey felt flustered with no idea how to treat this soft spoken and unattractive young woman, radiating resentment mixed with unease.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Is my mother all right?”

  “As far as I know.” Kinsey almost offered to escort her out. But decided against it. How often was Belle ushered from important business and treated like she didn’t belong? “We’re trying to get the panic room door open and let everyone out.” She paused. “You don’t happen to know the code?”

  Belle shook her head, thin strands of hair escaping the bobby pins trying desperately to hold the remains of her updo in place. “Dad was pretty private about it,” she said. It was her turn to pause, lick her thin lips. “Do you know if Alan is okay?”

  “Who?” Kinsey hadn’t gotten a roll call from Gerri, but knew there was a young man inside, an aide of some kind. “Does he work for your father?”

  Belle nodded and blushed, the ugly color moving down her neck in mottled red spots. “Alan Jenkins,” she whispered, as if speaking his name was blasphemy. “I just wanted to check.”

  “As far as I know, everyone else is fine.” Kinsey’s heart went out to this poor girl. It was fairly obvious how she felt about Alan, though knowing what young men were like, Kinsey doubted the feelings were mutual. Then again, she might be shortchanging the guy.

  “Let me find out.” Kinsey left her there, went to the table and used the congressman’s phone. Hit redial for the panic room. Gerri answered a moment later.

  “The congressman’s daughter is wondering about Alan?” She nodded to Belle while Gerri spoke.

  “Something I should know about?”

  “Just that she’s hoping he’s okay.” Kinsey wasn’t sure if it meant anything or not. But the likelihood this aide Alan was into Belle at all—and it was cruel of Kinsey to say, but due to her looks—was to gain the trust and good graces of the congressman.

  “We’re fine,” Gerri said. “I’ll look into it.”

  Kinsey hung up, hoping she’d offered her friend something useful before returning to Belle.

  ***

  INT. – THE PANIC ROOM – NIGHT

  Gerri’s apprehension the guilty party would pull out a gun and shoot them all seemed to be a weaponless cop’s fears and not a possible fact as time ticked on. She lost none of her tension, but did relent in her refusal to allow any of them near her.

  Especially with the new information Kinsey gave her. Maybe it was just coincidence Alan Jenkins and the congressman’s daughter had a thing, but Gerri didn’t believe in random what ifs. And, as she stepped past Doug to talk to the young aide, she noticed not only did Alan have blue all over his hands, it was now on the dark charcoal of his pants and the left side of his white dress shirt just visible under his jacket lapel.

  “What do you have in your jacket?” Sure, he could have simply put his phone away, or reached for his wallet. But, the stiff way he stood when she brought it up, how he turned his shoulders away from her, told Gerri he was hiding something.

  And he smelled like fear, didn’t he? Time to make good on her threat and search them all, staring with Jenkins.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Liar. Her gut growled at him. He seemed very well aware and, though likely a good deceiver under normal circumstances, not everyone held up well under this kind of pressure.

  Gerri refrained from manhandling him only because the captain and mayor were there. Damn it. “How long did you work for the congressman?” If he was new, he might have some kind of ulterior motive, a reason for being here, for luring Barnes’s daughter.

  “A month.” Alan swallowed hard. He must have known how bad that looked.

  “Less,” Meredith spoke up, her voice sharp. Gerri didn’t take her eyes off Alan, circling him slowly in the small space permitting as she went on. “And your resume had holes, as I recall.”

  “The congressman didn’t seem to think so.” He adjusted his suit, nervousness a red flag for Gerri. The more she circled, the more agitated he became. But, was he capable of murder?

  “Belle liked you,” Linda spoke up for the first time since announcing her husband was dead downstairs. Her tone came across as dull, lifeless. Uninterested. “You’re here only because Belle asked him to hire you.”

  “How very interesting,” Gerri said, stopping in front of the young aide, looking down at him. Okay, so she rather liked her high heels at the moment. Even in her boots she would have had four or five inches on him. In these things? Easily another three. “And problematic for me, Alan.” She casually brushed imaginary lint from his lapel, smiling at him. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you befriended the congressman’s daughter and why it was you really wanted a job with him?”

  Sweat. She loved it, not for its own sake. For the scents it carried. The way it gathered and dripped down his temple, the flush of his cheeks, how he cleared his throat and tried to back away with limited room to retreat.

  “It’s a d-dream job,” he stuttered.

  “I bet,” Gerri said, leaning closer. Whispering in his ear. “In more ways than one?”

  Panic bloomed, his gaze flashing around the room. “Fine!” He did step back this time, slamming his shoulders against the wall in the narrow space he had left, cutting off Gerri’s ability to circle. Not that she cared. She was done playing with him. “I had a motive. Okay?”

  “Which was?” The tension in the room behind her grew, washed toward her. Two steps thudded, the sound of someone murmuring. Gerri half turned in time to catch Linda as she lunged for Alan, hands scrabbling at the fro
nt of his jacket, face twisting in rage.

  “You bastard!” She howled the words into the dead air, her scream muffled, inert. “If you hurt my daughter—”

  Meredith pulled her away, held her. Gerri turned back to Alan and grinned.

  “Now or never, sport.” She waited, hovering, pushing at him with the bheast inside her.

  And almost regretted the loss of control when he cracked.

  “I work for Congressman Rickers.” He panted out the information, glancing sideways at the others. “All right? I was sent here, on assignment.”

  Not what Gerri had been expecting. Inter-congressional politics? Jesus, seriously?

  But Meredith seemed to take it seriously. “You little jackal,” she snarled. “What were you after?”

  Why did Gerri get the impression she already knew the answer to that question? And, when she turned to observe the captain and Mayor Price, neither of them seemed overly curious as much as nervous.

  “Congressman Rickers knew Barnes was working on some secret legislation, all hush hush. He wanted to know what it was before it dropped next week.” Alan shrugged, unapologetic but still nervous. “I was supposed to find out.”

  Gerri almost rolled her eyes, sure she’d never be clean of such dirty dealings, only to turn again at the sound of whispering. To see the mayor and Captain King with their heads together. And neither looked happy.

  It was obvious they both knew something she didn’t. And that was unacceptable.

  “Sirs?” She waited for them to speak, but neither would even meet her eyes. Oh, but they would tell her eventually. No way was she letting this go, or allowing either of them to get in the way of her job.