Trail of Secrets

by Sandra Robbins

  Seth ended the call and turned to Callie. “He’ll check on Herman and call me in the morning.”

  Callie smiled at him. “Thanks, Seth. My heart went out to that man as I listened to him tell his life story.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Maybe today has been more productive than we expected. I met a man who may give you a lead on that racketeering case, and you found Uncle Dan’s note about sending Hope’s DNA to the TBI lab. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could solve both cases?”

  Seth chuckled and started the car. “It would be, but don’t get your hopes up. I’ve been disappointed many times when I thought I was onto a hot lead, and it turned out to be nothing. It takes a lot of patience and time to solve most of our cases.”

  “I know. Uncle Dan has told me that many times. But I think twenty-five years is long enough for Hope’s case to go unsolved. I’d love to be able to tell him it’s solved when he wakes up from his coma.”

  Seth darted a glance at her profile and smiled. He recognized the determined jut of her jaw and knew she shared the tenacity of her uncle. She wouldn’t give up until she’d found out Hope’s identity. “I want that, too. But in the meantime, Mom called and said she’s going to be out for the evening. Want to do the drive-through at that rib place?”

  Callie nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  Forty-five minutes later they walked into the kitchen at Seth’s home. He set the container with their dinner on the kitchen table and glanced over at Callie, who was already pulling some plates from the cabinets to set the table. He watched her work for a moment, and his heart twisted in his chest.

  A feeling of déjà vu settled over him, and he closed his eyes. How many times had they spent evenings together here or at Dan’s home, working together to get a meal on the table? He wished he had known then how special those times were to become to him and how quickly they could vanish without a word of warning.

  She glanced up at him, and their eyes locked. He stared at her for a moment before he turned away. “I’ll get some soft drinks out of the fridge.”

  “Okay.”

  He brought two cans to the table. They sat down, and she began to eat. He stared down at his plate for a moment, then he bowed his head and silently offered his thanks for the food God had provided. When he opened his eyes, she was staring at him.

  “Is anything the matter?” he asked.

  “No.”

  She dropped her gaze to her plate and began to eat again. He had just raised his fork to his mouth when his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and stared at the displayed number. “It’s Max Prince.”

  Callie put her fork down and sat up straighter. “Maybe he’s seen Herman.”

  Seth pulled the phone to his ear. “Hello.”

  “Seth, this is Max. I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you.”

  Seth’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. “What is it?”

  “We answered a call that the body of a homeless man had been found near the abandoned warehouse I was telling you about earlier. When we got there, I recognized the victim. It was Herman Miller. He’d been shot.”

  Seth closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oh, no. Do you have any suspects?”

  “No. As usual with the street people, nobody heard or saw anything. Thought I’d let you know.”

  “Thanks, Max. I’ll talk to you later.”

  He disconnected the call and sat there staring at his phone. Callie leaned forward and touched his arm. “What did Max say?”

  He took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. “They found Herman shot to death near the warehouse where he slept.”

  She shook her head, and tears began to trail down her cheeks. “No, that can’t be,” she whispered. “I just talked to him a few hours ago. Why would anybody kill him?”

  “Maybe he knew something they didn’t want him telling anyone.”

  She picked up her napkin and wiped at her eyes. “Do you think he might have been killed because he talked to me?”

  Seth shook his head. “I don’t think a conversation that lasted only a few minutes would have been a reason for him to be killed. He didn’t divulge any secrets, did he? Like who burned his shop down?”

  “No.”

  “Then I doubt if it did.”

  She picked up her plate, walked to the trash can and dumped her food. When she set her plate in the sink, she gripped the side of the counter and stared down for a few moments. “Hope and Herman, two people I’d never heard of before coming back to Memphis, and my heart is breaking for both of them. It’s so unfair. What harm could a young woman and an old man do to anyone?” She turned back to Seth. “Do you think we’ll ever find out the truth about either one of their deaths?”

  Seth wanted to reassure her, and he knew that’s what she wanted, too. But he had worked the Cold Case Unit long enough to know that some cases were never solved, and some families never received the answers they wanted. “I don’t know, Callie.”

  She brushed at her eyes with her fingers and nodded. “I think I’ll go upstairs. Tell your mother good-night for me when she comes home.”

  Before he could say anything, she hurried from the room and ran up the stairs. A few minutes later he heard her bedroom door close, and he sat back down at the table. He glanced down at his plate and discovered his hunger had disappeared.

  He pushed the plate away, rose to his feet and walked out the door into the backyard. With his hands thrust in his pockets he stood underneath the night sky and gazed up at the stars twinkling above. Pictures flashed like a slideshow in his mind—a homeless man whose face he couldn’t see as he walked down the street pushing his cart; Dan lying in a coma, still in a hospital bed; Hope’s lifeless body on a medical examiner’s table and Callie walking away from him two years ago. So much tragedy. All of it had impacted his life, and he didn’t have a clue what he could do about any of it. Suddenly he felt alone. “God, have You left me? Why can’t I find the answers I need?”

  Than an answer welled up in his heart as a Bible verse came to mind. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

  Seth closed his eyes and smiled. The answers were going to come, and from the way his heart was beating, he didn’t think he had too long to wait.

  * * *

  Seth still felt hopeful the next afternoon when he delivered Callie to the front door of the Midtown Mission. He fought back the uneasy feeling he had about her continued presence at the shelter.

  “Be careful,” he warned for perhaps the fourth time since they left home.

  She laughed and opened the door. “I will, Seth. Don’t worry. You’re going to be just around the corner. If I need you, I’ll call.”

  “Be sure and do that,” he said as she closed the door and walked toward the shelter entrance.

  He waited for a few moments to see if she looked back out the door. When she didn’t, he shook his head and drove down the street. Why was he so jumpy today? Ever since last night he’d had this thought that it wasn’t going to be long before he had the answers he’d been helping Dan try to find for years.

  He pulled around the corner, parked in the same spot from the previous day, and settled back to wait for Callie to return. The clock on the dash displayed 4:50 p.m., and he suddenly remembered he’d forgotten to call the data entry clerk at the TBI office today to ask if there’d been any hits on Hope’s DNA.

  The office closed at 5:00, but he might be able to catch her before she left for home. He dialed the number and waited, but there was no answer. When it went to voice mail, he left his message.

  “Mrs. Riley, this is Seth Dawtry with the Memphis PD. I need some information on a cold case we’re investigating. Judge Dan Lattimer entered the DNA of a young woman he called Hope in the database some time ago. I need to know if there has ever been a hit or a
nyone who contacted you about it.” He rattled off his phone number. “Please call me at this number to let me know. Thank you.”

  He disconnected the call and stuck his cell phone back in his pocket. Then he settled back in his seat, but he couldn’t get comfortable. He squirmed this way and that, trying to relax, but it was no use.

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen, and it was going to be bad.

  * * *

  Callie’s gaze drifted over the shelter’s dining room where the homeless men and women sat, hoping their name would be called for a bed, and tears welled up in her eyes. Even though she’d only met Herman once, she could feel his absence tonight.

  Callie moved among those eating and poured coffee for those who still had cups. She emptied the last of the pot into the cup of a stoop-shouldered man with matted gray hair. He looked up at her with a toothless smile, and her heart melted. Herman’s face flashed in her mind, and she blinked back tears. She returned the man’s smile and headed back to the kitchen for a refill.

  Just as she stepped from the room, she heard the front door open and glanced over her shoulder. Assistant District Attorney Abby Dalton walked into the room, wrinkled up her nose and strode down the hallway toward Dorothy Tipton’s office.

  Callie set the coffeepot on the kitchen counter and smiled at Peggy, who had just taken a tray of rolls out of the oven. “I have to go the ladies’ room, Peggy. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Peggy frowned. “Well, don’t be gone long. I’m short-staffed tonight, and I’m getting ready to draw the names for beds.” She rolled her eyes. “You’d think Dorothy would help me when somebody’s out. But no, her ladyship can’t be bothered to do any of the real work around here.”

  Callie’s eyebrows arched at the snide tone of Peggy’s words, but she suddenly realized she had never seen Mrs. Tipton do any physical work in the shelter, either. “I won’t be gone long.”

  Callie walked from the kitchen and hurried down the hallway that led to Dorothy’s office. She stopped outside the closed door and was about to lean closer to see if she could hear anything from the other side when she glanced over her shoulder and saw the homeless man she’d poured coffee for a few minutes earlier standing at the entrance to the hallway and staring at her from the dining room. She smiled at him and continued to the ladies’ room.

  When she came back out, she looked toward the dining room, but the man no longer stood there. She debated whether or not to stop and try to hear what was being said inside the office and had almost convinced herself to move on when a sharp “No!” rang out from inside.

  She stopped and inched closer to the door. Loud voices penetrated the thin, wooden panels, and Callie strained to hear what was being said on the other side.

  “I’m through, I tell you. I’m not making any more deals with you and your friends. From now on, you’re on your own.” Callie recognized the nasal sound of Abby Dalton’s voice.

  “You listen to me,” Dorothy’s voice boomed, “you’ll do what you’re told. There are a lot of guys you’ve sent to prison who would just love the opportunity to shut you up for good.”

  “Y-you can’t threaten me. I’m an assistant district attorney.”

  Dorothy laughed. “And how long do you think that would last if your boss knew all the kickbacks you’ve taken to let felons off the hook? You might find yourself sharing a cell with somebody who really has it in for you.”

  “And some of those friends I’ve made by letting them off might like the opportunity to shut up a loudmouth like you, Dorothy. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop telling me what to do. Now I’m leaving and I want you to tell your friends their little racket is over, and I’m out.”

  “You’re not leaving until I say you can.”

  Callie pressed her ear against the door as the sounds of a scuffle welled up from inside the office. A chair crashed to the floor. Something made of glass shattered. Callie clamped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had to call Seth and get him to the shelter as soon as possible.

  She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and backed up a step to distance herself from the door. Before she could punch Seth’s number in the phone, her foot struck something behind her, and she stopped. A hand clamped down on her shoulder and squeezed hard. Her legs threatened to collapse, and her heart exploded in her chest.

  A warm breath fanned her cheek, and a deep voice whispered in her ear. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  TWELVE

  Callie breathed a sigh of relief when she turned and stared into the face of her uncle’s best friend and former partner, Captain Anthony Wilson. There was no need to call Seth now. She slipped the phone back into her pocket. “Anthony, what are you doing here?”

  He frowned and shook his head. “Checking on you. I ran into Marty Weaver, and he told me he’d come by looking for an informant last night. He said he saw you working here. Why?”

  She shook her head. “There’s no time to go into that now. Assistant District Attorney Abby Dalton is inside with Dorothy Tipton. They’ve been yelling and fighting.”

  “Fighting?”

  She pulled him closer to the door. “You’ve got to get in there right away and arrest them. I heard them talk about all these felons Abby has released to help Dorothy and her friends with some kind of racket.”

  “You did?” Anthony pulled his gun from his holster. He stepped around Callie. “Stay behind me.”

  Callie jumped behind Anthony and watched as he turned the knob and pushed the door open. He burst into the room with Callie right behind him. Once inside he reached around her and closed the door. “Okay, ladies. Callie tells me you’ve been yelling and making some wild accusations in here. Anybody want to tell me what’s going on?”

  Abby’s and Dorothy’s mouths dropped open, and they stared in disbelief at Callie. “I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Abby said.

  “Neither do I,” Dorothy added.

  Callie stepped up beside Anthony. “They’re lying. You can tell they’ve been in a fight from the overturned table and the broken glass on the floor. I heard everything they said. They’ve been working together in some kind of racket. Abby gets a kickback for dropping charges against prisoners so they can work with them. From the way it sounded, you need to arrest them and find out what they’re involved in.”

  Anthony’s eyebrows arched. “You don’t say.”

  Callie nodded. “Yes, and when you find out, I’ll be glad to testify in court against them.”

  “You’d do that?” Anthony asked.

  Callie frowned. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Anthony sighed. “Because that might prove too unhealthy for you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Anthony turned back to the door and locked it. Then he faced Dorothy and Abby. “I’ve warned you two before that your catfights were going to cause us a lot of trouble. Now look what you’ve done. You’ve left another mess I have to clean up.”

  Dorothy clasped her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry, Anthony. What are you going to do?”

  Callie’s mouth dropped open, and she stared from Dorothy to Anthony in disbelief. “She sounds like she knows you, Anthony. What’s going on here?”

  “Yeah. She knows me all right. She’s my cousin.” He glared at Dorothy before he turned to Callie. “And you should never have stuck your nose into something that didn’t concern you.”

  Anthony took a step toward Callie, and she backed away. “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you arresting them?”

  “Arrest me? Is that what you were after?” The sharp words from Dorothy startled Callie. Before Callie could move, Dorothy stormed over to stand beside Anthony and raised her hand to slap Callie. “You little sneak. You come dow
n here wanting to help, and all you’re doing is spying on us.”

  Callie threw her hands in front of her face and cowered as Dorothy swung her palm toward her. Before she made contact, Anthony grabbed Dorothy’s hand and held it in a tight grip. “There’s no need for that, Dorothy. We don’t want any more noise in here than we’ve already had. I’ll take care of Callie. You take her cell phone and then get back out front. We need to keep everything operating smoothly in the shelter.”

  Dorothy took a step closer to Callie, but she grabbed Dorothy’s arm when she reached out to take the phone from her pocket. “No, leave me alone.”

  Anthony snarled. “Be still, or you’ll wish you had.”

  Callie lowered her arm and watched helplessly as Dorothy pulled her phone from her pocket and slipped it into hers. Then she looked back at Anthony. “I’ll dispose of the cell phone. What are you going to do now?”

  “You just concentrate on keeping everything on track here. If Seth comes looking for Callie, tell him you don’t know where she went. Abby and I can take care of Callie.”

  “Oh, no, not me!” Abby’s shrill voice cried out. “I’m going home. I don’t want anything to do with what you’re planning. From now on, count me out.”

  Before Abby could move, Anthony was across the floor and had grabbed her arm with one hand while the other held his gun to her head. “I’m not counting you out of anything. You’re in this as deep as any of us, and you’ll do what I say if you know what’s best.”

  Tears began to roll down Abby’s face. “Please, Anthony. I don’t want to have any part in killing somebody.”

  “Like it or not, you’re coming with me.”

  Callie’s body jerked in surprise at the exchange between the two. Anthony, her uncle’s best friend, was going to kill her? How could that be? She’d thought of him as a family member since she was a little girl, and now he wanted her dead.

  She glanced around the room for a way to escape. With Dorothy and Anthony’s attention focused on Abby, they had moved away from her. She had to do something.