That was an interesting thought. The waitress returned with six or seven pads of butter on a little plate and set it down for him. Jacob gave her a smile. Thinking all was well, she walked away to take the next table’s order.
Isabelle had never seen anything like this before. The body was so brutally mutilated that all the signs pointed to the killer having known and hated her. However, the designer gown and the way that the body was placed into position suggested that the killer loved her or showed remorse. Possibly even both. It just didn't add up. Unless it was a lover...maybe there was a fight in the home and she'd lost. That was a possibility.
Isabelle made all her thoughts into notes on a separate page in her notebook; she didn't want Stephens to scoop her on her ideas. She really preferred to work alone, that's when she did her best work. She smiled. Wouldn't it be such sweet revenge if she solved the case without her partner's help? That would be a nice slap in the face for him. She grinned.
Stephens was looking at the body now. He could do as he pleased. She didn't care. After the introduction he'd given her at the Barn, she refused to work with him. They finished with the crime scene and headed back to the Barn. She was ready to sit at her desk and begin her investigation. She was not at all prepared for Stephens' actions. He pulled her roughly out of the car and slammed her against the side.
"I have two more months here before I transfer to the FBI. I'm not going to stand here and watch you fuck it up for me. You're new here, so let me make it easy for you. You do what I say, I leave in two months, story finished. Do I make myself clear?" He didn't even wait for a reply, but instead spun around on his heel and marched inside. He was really starting to get good at that. That and pissing her off. She stood there for a moment in shock before she straightened herself and walked in after him.
Anyone watching would have thought she was calm, but an ocean of fury was roiling just beneath the surface. Wow, he couldn’t even park the car in the lines. That was just sad. Isabelle was just thinking about going after him to let him know what a poor job he’d done, when she noticed that the keys were still in the ignition. Oh yes. Payback would be a bitch.
Isabelle drove home. She had a laptop there as well, and could access everything that she needed to find the people in the young woman’s life. She spent a good two hours tracking down the girl’s identity, and as many people as she could that might have had something to do with her death. Melanie Carver had a lonely life. It seemed that she was a homebody and only had a good rapport with her boyfriend, and an old friend of the family that worked with her at a music school. Other than Melanie’s address, Maverick Lamb had his parents’ address listed. Perfect. Isabelle would start there. She jotted it down and headed out. She wondered what her partner was doing right now, and smiled. She was going to crack this case all by herself.
A woman in a maid’s uniform opened the door for her and gave her a disapproving look. Isabelle tried her most winning smile, but the woman’s stony facial expression didn’t change.
“Hello, I’m detective Isabelle MacIntosh and I’m looking for Mr. Maverick Lamb.” The woman stood to the side of the door and let her in.
“If you wait here, I will fetch him.” When she was gone, Isabelle took the time to look around the house a little. This family was obviously very well off. Melanie didn’t have any money, so it couldn’t have been for that. The only motive that she could think of was a lover’s spat and a crime of passion. A tall man walked in the other end of the room, and Isabelle instantly felt her skin crawl. She was usually a good judge of character, and this man was bad news.
“Maria says you needed to see me?” He looked at her like she was beneath him. Isabelle was not used to being looked at that way.
“Yes, I need to know where you were two nights ago.” His eyebrows shot up.
“And why exactly do you need to know?”
“Your girlfriend, Melanie Carver, was brutally murdered two nights ago.” Whatever he had expected her to say, that wasn’t it.
“I see. Let’s go in to the drawing room to talk.” Isabelle followed him and spent the next hour questioning Maverick. When she left, she was certain he’d done it. He seemed like an angry evil presence, brooding in the corner, just waiting to strike. By the time she got back to the Barn, she had a lot on her mind from the interview and wanted nothing more than to sit at her computer for a spell and go over all of her gathered information. She found that making spreadsheets usually helped her out when she was working an investigation. Elliot gave her a dirty look as she sat down. Ah ha. So he’d noticed that their squad car had been missing. It gave her a little boost. She went to work, however, and didn’t pay much attention to him for the rest of their shift. She finished her spreadsheets and the notes that she’s transcribed, just as the five o’clock chimes went off. She made sure to double save everything before turning off her computer. Grabbing her keys and her coat, she hurried out of the Barn and almost made it to her car without interruption.
“Where the hell were you today?” Elliot was leaning against her door, making it impossible for her to get in and drive home.
“Talking to a suspect. Is that alright? I mean, it’s only my job, gosh I hope I did ok.” The sarcasm needled him to no end.
“And why were you doing it without me? Did you not realize that we’re partners?”
“No, Elliot, I am fully aware of that fact, are you? Move. I want to go home.” He didn’t have a scathing comment that he could fling in her direction, so he moved. Isabelle went home.
***
“So, what did you gather yesterday?” Elliot was waiting for her at her desk with coffee and donuts. That was a big change. Apparently he wasn’t above bribery. Isabelle took the coffee and a donut before explaining that she’d gone to talk to the victim’s boyfriend.
“I personally believe he did it, but he’s a damn good actor. It seemed like all my questioning and my news about Melanie was coming out of left field. Unfortunately, we don’t have any substantial evidence for a search warrant. There has to be something that I’m missing. I know it’s him.”
“I don’t know if I’d present your case to the DA that way. He only wants cases he can try, which means enough evidence to hold up in court. No, we need to work him a little more, or we need him to slip up. We can make it a stake out if you want. You haven’t been on any of those yet have you?” Something was wrong with Elliot and Isabelle was going to find out what. First he acted like he hated her and couldn’t wait to be rid of her, now he was treating her jovially, like a friend even.
“Yeah, a stake out sounds good. Let me just grab my notebook.” It was a good thing that she hadn’t taken her coat off yet, because that would have been just one more thing that would have slowed her down. She opened the drawer and yanked her notebook out quickly. “You driving or am I?”
“I’ll drive. I know this area a little better than you do.” Unfortunately, that much was true, but Isabelle would rather yank all her own teeth out with pliers before she admitted it to him. “Where to?”
“Well, he was living with Melanie for a while, but she broke up with him earlier the day she was murdered, so he’s living at home with his parents now. It’s 2846 East Castle Drive.” The address wasn’t even fully out of her mouth before Elliot gunned it and peeled out of the parking lot. Isabelle checked her watch, 9:30. “If we hurry, we can follow him to school. He has a 10 o’clock Psychology class.” Elliot’s foot seemed to have gained twenty pounds when he hit the gas because the cruiser shot forward with the speed of an approaching train. “Slow down, it’s right up here. The brick house.” Isabelle pointed out the driver’s side window at the Lamb residence. Elliot turned off his lights and pulled up a few car lengths behind the red Mustang that was registered in Maverick’s name. They weren’t sitting there five minutes when the aforementioned came out the front door with a backpack on his shoulder. He was dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, and looked like any other student going off to class. His hair was r
uffled, and his eyes had bags under them, almost as if he hadn’t slept too well the night before.
“Alright, target in sight, and we’re off.” Elliot sounded like he couldn’t be more excited. What was wrong with him today? Maybe he was on drugs. Or some kind of medication. Yes, that had to be it. They followed Maverick’s Mustang all the way to campus, parked a little ways down from him, then followed him on foot. He didn’t take any detours, however, and they found themselves sneaking in the back door of a lecture hall, and hiding in the last row of the stadium seating that was half full of students. Maverick never left class. Isabelle was itching to catch him doing something he shouldn’t…anything at this point, but he was behaving like a model student. It irked her to no end. She barely stayed awake during the lecture, and had to actually nudge Elliot awake when it was over. They let him get ahead of them in the halls, and kept close to taller people in case they had to duck. Maverick went to another class.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not sitting through another lecture. It took everything I had in me to fight to stay awake. I honestly don’t know how any of those kids did it.”
“I know what you mean. I simply conserved my energy and didn’t fight the impulse at all. I hope I didn’t snore too badly.” Isabelle gave him a look.
“I suppose we can wait out here until it’s over. There’s a little coffee bar over there.” Elliot pointed and she followed him. They both ordered large coffees with extra shots of espresso. They were going to need it if Maverick had a whole day of classes ahead of him. Six coffees later, the doors to the lecture hall opened again, and students began pouring out. Both detectives had their eyes peeled for their suspect, but they never saw him leave. Elliot offered to take a quick peak inside. He came back from the door shaking his head.
“That bastard gave us the slip.” Isabelle was double checking all the students that had just poured out of the classroom. “I can’t believe I was so stupid!”
“Hey, now. It wasn’t your fault. Neither one of us saw him slip out, don’t beat yourself up about it ok? We’ll find him.” Elliot reassuring? He most definitely was on some kind of medication. Isabelle opened her mouth to say something when her cell phone rang.
“MacIntosh.” Elliot watched as her eyes got big. “We can be there in fifteen minutes.” She clicked the phone shut. “You’re not going to believe this, but they found another body. It’s over in the park, same as Melanie. We better get going. When I find that bastard, he’s going to regret he was ever born.”
Elliot dodged cars, bikes, and pedestrians like he was playing Grand Theft Auto on the way to the crime scene. Isabelle couldn’t decide if she was happy to have another death to pin on Maverick, or if she was going to toss her cookies when she looked at another young woman brutally raped and murdered. Some days it really sucked to be a detective. Her knuckles were white as she held on to the seat for dear life. Her notebook lay forgotten in her lap, but it didn’t stay there for very long. Elliot hit a hard corner and it went flying into the back seat. She had to give him credit for his defensive driving skills, no matter how much it wanted to bring her coffee back up.
As they got closer to the crime scene, the caution tape became clearly visible. The cordoned area was much larger than the last victim’s, and that made it hard for Isabelle to believe the poor girl was still in one piece. Elliot parked, and got out of the car. Isabelle fished her notebook out from the floorboard of the back seat and followed after him. She had almost gotten up to the crime scene when he came back towards her and pushed her back towards the car.
“Hey, what are you doing? The crime scene is that way.” Isabelle pointed back in the direction he’d come from and tried to push past him.
“I don’t think you should go over there. Bells, listen to me. You don’t want to go over there.” She was miffed that he’d called her that again, but she didn’t know if that bothered her more, or the fact that he was clearly not going to let her get past him. She rocked back on her heels and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Elliot, I’m a detective. It may not be a pretty crime scene, but it’s still my job to look at it. If you wouldn’t mind getting out of the way, I would really appreciate it.” Elliot sighed and stepped out of the way. He could console himself with the fact that he’d attempted to warn her. Isabelle smirked at him as she walked by and pulled her notebook out of her pocket, ready to take notes. Isabelle was watching her feet as she gingerly made her way to the body. So far, she’d only seen it out of the corner of her eyes. When her feet stopped at the foot of the victim, her gaze travelled up the young girl’s body and rested on her face. Bile rose in the back of her throat, and her eyes rolled up in her head. Elliot caught her before she hit the ground, but she would have no recollection of that later.
***
“Bells, hey, wake up.” Isabelle’s eyes fluttered and her hand crept to the back of her head. She let out a painful moan.
“What happened?” Elliot helped her to her feet and over to the ambulance. “Wait a minute. Why do I have to go in the ambulance? I’m fine. Just tell me what happened.”
“You saw the victim and passed out. And you need to go with the ambulance so they can make sure you don’t have a concussion. You hit your head pretty hard.” Isabelle thought she could believe him about hitting her head, it was still throbbing after all. She gave in and crawled into the back of the ambulance. She had to remember what it was about the victim that made her black out. The doors closed and the techs put her up on the stretcher. They were shining a little light into her eyes to check her reflexes when she suddenly let out a gasp. Now she knew what it was. The victim was a friend of hers. The destroyed face belonged to her neighbor. The young woman that lived in the apartment next to her, and had known her since the day that Isabelle had moved in. Her stomach roiled and she leaned forward and threw up over the side of the gurney. That poor woman had done nothing to deserve what she’d gotten. Isabelle was just thinking about a new line of questioning that she was going to run Maverick through when her cell rang.
“MacIntosh.” It was her captain. She listened for a few seconds before she interrupted. “Sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Honestly, I’m fine. I can handle this. I need to do what I can to solve this.” The captain said a few more words and hung up. She sat there, staring off into space, letting the words sink in. Even though she’d heard them loud and clear, she was refusing to let them be real. The captain wanted her off the case. Just because one of the victims was her neighbor. To anyone else, that logic would be reasonable. To Isabelle, it was unacceptable. This was her first case, and she’d put a lot of work into it. She didn’t want to have to sit back on the sidelines now and watch someone else bask in the glory of her hard work. It just wasn’t fair. Maybe she would go and talk to the captain when she got released from the hospital. Damn, she’d have to wait twenty-four hours in order for the hospital to release her. Concussions were such a pain in the ass. Isabelle sighed, time to start the countdown.
***
Isabelle hopped off the hospital bed with a new spring in her step. She was headed down to the Barn to talk to the captain. He had to change his mind, he just had to. She was in good spirits for the drive, and when she walked into the Barn the atmosphere changed. Her coworkers stared at her as if she’d grown an extra head. Elliot must have mentioned her little fainting spell. The bastard. She squared her shoulders and went up the little winding staircase that led to the second floor and the captain’s office. She knocked on the door and he looked up from the phone call he was having. He motioned her in and finished his conversation quickly.
“Detective MacIntosh. What can I do for you?”
“Sir, I wanted to talk to you about this case. I-“ He cut her off with a raised hand.
“I know what you’re going to ask, and the answer is no. You are going to recuse yourself from this case because one of the victims now is your neighbor. I don’t want you to get too personally involved in this.” Isabelle opened her mouth t
o argue but he held up a meaty hand. “That is a direct order, MacIntosh. I don’t even want you around the station. Take a leave of absence, go on vacation, whatever it takes. I don’t really care, but you have nothing to do with this case from now on, do you understand me?” Isabelle hung her head and nodded. She walked out the door crestfallen. She’d gotten almost halfway across the parking lot to her car when an idea struck her…
She would have to be let in on the case if she was a victim, right? It would be for her own protection. Isabelle smiled. She knew of one place that the two girls had in common. The music school. Starting tomorrow, they would have a new student. Isabelle had a wonderful night’s sleep later that night.
***
“Hello, Ms. Swan. You said you wanted to take piano lessons, correct?” Isabelle was in full disguise and was now enrolling in the one thing both girls had had in common: the piano.
“Yes, ma’am. I just love the music and I want to learn to play.” The admissions clerk smiled and nodded understanding.
“It looks like I have one opening left. It’s going to be Mr. Benner’s class at three in the afternoon, Mondays and Wednesdays. Will that be alright?” The woman looked up at her expectantly. Isabelle nodded. She was too busy trying to place that name. Something about it was familiar. What was it? Then it hit her like lightning. Jacob Benner had been the teacher for both ladies…maybe she’d been looking at the wrong man in Melanie’s life.
“That would be absolutely marvelous,” cooed Isabelle. “When do I start?”
“Tomorrow is fine, Ms. Swan. We’ll see you then.” Clearly the lady was dismissing her. Isabelle took her materials and left. Good. Now she could do a little recon on the old man. Something told her that she would be able to get to the man a little easier if she was his student instead of a police detective. The captain didn’t know it, but he’d just given her the perfect excuse to run her own investigation.
Thrills: Vol.2 Page 12