Daddy's Home

by A. K. Alexander

  She closed her suitcase and overnight bags and put her kitty in her carrier. She would make four stops.

  The first stop was at the coffee house where she’d worked for the past five years, handing over the cat to her long-time friend and unwitting confidant, Hank.

  “Thanks for taking her. She’s a really good cat. I hope she won’t be a bother to you or interfere with your trip out West,” Karen said.

  “No problem, Karen,” Hank replied. “My wife loves cats and hers died last April, so I think this will be a nice gift. She’ll have something skinny to cuddle with in the evenings.” Hank laughed. “And my mother is coming to take care of the rest of the crew while we’re out in California with the oldest. She’s a big animal lover. She’ll be just fine.”

  “Thank you. And thanks for everything.” She gave Hank a kiss on the cheek. He blushed. She hadn’t kissed another human being in years. It felt odd, but pretty good in a way. Maybe she wasn’t tainted by the evil. Doubtful, but maybe.

  “Send me a postcard.”

  She smiled. They both knew she probably wouldn’t.

  Next Karen stopped at the bank and withdrew all her cash—$12,534.17. Not bad. It would do for a bit. Get her started. She’d been frugal and was grateful for that. This was money that she never touched, saving it for a rainy day, putting in a little here and there over the years, making it tight for her, but the knowledge in the back of her head told her to keep doing it. She was sure glad that she had.

  Her third stop was at the post office where she pulled out the photograph she had wrapped in a piece of paper and addressed the priority mail envelope to Detective Holly Jennings. On the outside in neat printing she wrote PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL. She didn’t want anyone but Holly Jennings to open this envelope.

  Karen’s fourth and final stop was the LaGuardia airport where she ordered a glass of wine in the airport bar and ate a hot dog, waiting for her flight aboard Air France to be announced. Karen Whitley was taking a very big chance and was leaving all of it behind—all very far behind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Awakening to blue skies and finding that Chloe was feeling much better by morning helped loosen Holly’s tight muscles. The problem was that Chloe was not entirely better, and Holly had a lot of work to do. What a load of guilt! In all good conscience, how could she leave her daughter with a sitter for the day while she went to work on what should have been her day off? On the other hand, how could she in good conscience leave the day to a killer who could strike at any moment at any place?

  She poured herself a second cup of strong coffee and quietly crept out onto her back patio, not wanting to disturb Chloe who’d fallen asleep again. She was putting off leaving for as long as she could, knowing that before long Chad would be calling and asking for her ETA. But sitting out here, taking in the long grass that needed mowing, looking at it creeping onto her brick patio, she didn’t want to move. She desperately wanted to forget the killer who’d so insidiously made his way into her life and the lives of the Collins and the McKays.

  “Mommy?” a little voice behind her said.

  “Chloe, hi. You feeling better?” She turned around to see her daughter, hair disheveled, wearing her Dora pajamas and still holding her stuffed dolphin.

  “A little.”

  “Good. You’ve got to drink lots of water today and take all of your medicine like the doctor said.”

  “I know. I will.” Chloe came around to the front of the wicker chair that her mom was sitting in and climbed up into her lap—a sure sign that she wasn’t feeling totally better. Suddenly the decision about work was easier.

  “You know what, baby? I’ve got to call Chad, okay?”

  “You’re not going to work are you?” she pleaded.

  “No, not today.”

  “Good.” Chloe smiled and her face brightened a bit.

  “Nope. Today is a day for lounging and watching good movies.”

  “Yea!”

  “But first I have to let Chad know. There is one thing I will have to do later on today, but maybe Megan can watch you for an hour while I take care of it. When I come home, if you’ve been really good, I’ll bring you a treat.”

  Chloe smiled and nodded her head. She jumped off her mom’s lap and asked, “Can I watch Peter Pan?”

  “Peter Pan, hmm? Yes, sweet girl, of course you can.”

  Holly followed Chloe into the house, put in the DVD for her, then went to the phone and placed her call to Chad.

  “Long night?” he said.

  “You could say that. I can’t leave her like this today. She’s still not totally better. But I do want to head back to the hospital and check on Kristy.”

  “Okay.” She heard the edginess in his voice and knew he didn’t totally agree with her going to see Kristy. “If you want, I can come by and watch Chloe then.”

  “Could you? That would be great. I was going to call a babysitter, but if you could do it . . .”

  “You got it. Say around three? I’ll bring you a latte before you head out, jump start your juices.”

  “You’re the best.” The sore feelings she’d had towards him from the day before had nearly diminished. Brooke was another story.

  “Yeah, well, I also want to hear some more about Mister Wonderful.”

  “Nothing to tell.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You should.”

  “Okay, partner, I’ll see you around three.”

  “In the meantime, we’re still working on Darla Monroe’s background. Hopefully I’ll have a full report for you, and we can work at figuring out where she might have run to.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Chad showed up on time, coffee in hand. “Thanks for coming over. She’s asleep in the TV room.”

  “No problem. Glad I could help. I’ve got some interesting info on Darla Monroe.”

  “Good. Can we go over it when I get back?”

  “Sure. What do you think, an hour or so?”

  “About that.”

  Twenty minutes later Holly was walking down the corridor on the fifth wing of Children’s Hospital. Something was nagging at her as she walked, but she couldn’t put a finger on it. She started to check in at the nurses’ station, when over the loud speaker the words Code blue, room 512 came through.

  “No,” Holly said. That was Kristy’s room. As she ran toward the child’s room, medical personnel swept past her. A nurse with a crash cart ran quickly into Kristy’s room. Holly held her breath. Reaching the open door, she watched as doctors and nurses frantically went to work on the eleven-year-old, trying to save her life. As Holly watched in horror, she was frozen in place by the scene in front of her. What seemed like mere seconds was in reality almost forty minutes. No one wanted to give up on the little girl. But it was futile. She was gone. The doctor glanced up at the clock on the wall and called Kristy’s time of death.

  Holly closed her eyes and fought back the tears.

  “Detective?” It was Dr. Lukeman. He laid a hand on her shoulder. Holly opened her eyes. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could.” Holly nodded, turned, and slowly walked away. With the hurt crushing her heart, she was unable to say a word.

  She made it home and fell into Chad’s arms as she told him what had happened. “She didn’t make it, Chad. He killed her, too.” Chad quietly held her and let her cry. She lifted her head from his shoulder. “We have to get him, Chad. We have to find this monster and nail him to the wall.”

  “We will, partner. We will.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Chad twirled Brooke’s golden hair around his fingers.

  “I like this music,” Brooke said as she put her glass of Pinot Noir on the nightstand. They lay tangled in the bed sheets that had become twisted and scattered during the past hour of heated passion and fulfillment. Candlelight bounced off the peach-colored walls.

  They’d fallen into a pattern of spending their evenings at Brooke’s house, and to keep Chad
’s dog happy, she’d had to give a little and allow him to bring the Shepherd-Lab mix named Pedro. They both were finding great comfort in falling asleep in each other’s arms. So now, on an almost nightly basis, Chad and Pedro left their unkempt bachelor pad and crossed the Coronado Bridge to get to Brooke’s house on the peninsula.

  “Yes, it’s nice.”

  “What’s wrong, hon? I can tell something is bothering you.” Brooke sat up, the sheet falling loosely around her waist. It was hard for Chad not to become aroused again at the sight of her bare breasts. Damn they were pretty, and she was so beautiful. “You’re distracted.”

  “It’s Holly. Kristy died earlier today. Holly was there, and she didn’t take it well. I’m pretty worried about her.”

  Brooke sighed. “I don’t think she’s at all well. This case is taking a heavy toll on her.”

  “It’s got to be rough. It’s even worse that she knew the latest victims.”

  “It’s more than the case. She has some unresolved issues about her husband.”

  Chad shifted under the sheets and sat up straighter. He wasn’t sure that he liked his lover analyzing his partner. It felt like a betrayal.

  “I think that’s changing. Before this latest murder, she’d told me about a new fella she was interested in, and trust me, Holly doesn’t show interest in many men. So maybe this is the real thing for her.”

  “Yes. Hopefully he can help her through this difficult time. She needs some support.”

  “I think so, too. But Holly is very private. She might not even tell him. And who knows how far their relationship has gone or if they even have one. It might be wishful thinking on my part.”

  “You really care about her,” Brooke said.

  “Of course I do. She’s my partner. She’s like a sister to me. Hell, Jack was one of my closest friends. I was even a part of their wedding party. I want her to be happy, and I know that’s what Jack would want for her.”

  “Why do you think she’s so afraid to get involved?”

  Chad had thought about this quite a bit over the years and had a theory, although it sounded nuts, but he believed it was true. He’d never voiced it to anyone. “Jack’s body was never recovered. You see, we were working a big drug case, and we discovered the warehouse where the suspects were storing their supply of cocaine. Or rather, Holly discovered it while out on patrol. Even when she was on the beat, she was always getting herself involved in the big cases, sort of through Jack. He was the lead investigator on this case, and Holly was privy to a lot of the information he’d gathered. She put two and two together before the rest of us did and drove out to the warehouse on her own one afternoon. She radioed Jack and told him what she’d thought she’d found.

  “He and his partner cruised over to the place where Holly was waiting for them. His partner, Warren Emerald, covered the outside. They insisted Holly stay out of it, which she wasn’t happy about, as you can imagine. But she followed orders. They told her to call in for back-up. As she headed for the car to make that call, the warehouse exploded into a big ball of flames.”

  “What went wrong?”

  “Not only were these bastards storing their merchandise in there, but they had a nice little meth lab set up inside.”

  “And the chemicals . . .”

  “Right. You’ve heard the story before. We assumed Jack was killed instantly. No one could have survived that blast. Warren was badly burned and tossed pretty far, but because he was outside the building, he had a fighting chance, at least a week’s worth before the third degree burns became irreversibly infected and he died. Holly was parked out of sight a good hundred feet away, hidden behind her cruiser so no one would spot her. But she was thrown by the blast anyway and suffered a broken arm. After the whole ordeal was over, she was reprimanded pretty hard for not following policy and for getting mixed up in the case at all.”

  “That was pretty harsh considering that she lost her husband.”

  “I think that accounts for some of the animosity she feels towards the chief, but he knows and she knows that she’s a damned good investigator. She went back to work after a really short break, just like she did after Chloe’s birth. Back at work before you could turn around. I think it’s what keeps her going. Work and Chloe, that’s her life.” Chad picked up his wine glass and took a sip.

  “So what’s your take on her lack of intimate relationships?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but the body was never found. And I think for the first few years, at least, that she held out some kind of bizarre hope that he was alive. Obviously she knew, we all knew, that he wasn’t, but she freaked out at first, insisted he could have survived the blast, that it had caused him to have amnesia, and maybe he was walking the streets. Maybe he hadn’t gone into the building after all. Crazy, but that’s all I can think of.”

  “People will say and feel some pretty strange things while under that kind of stress and after that kind of trauma. I think you could be right, especially after what happened with Holly and me. I felt terrible about it then, but now I just feel guilty.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about, Brooke?”

  Brooke told Chad all about the visit to the psychic and what she’d revealed to them about the killer and the possible connection between him and Holly. She also told him what Anne had said about Jack and the idea that he might still be alive.

  Chad nearly spilled his glass of wine. “Are you serious? Are you nuts? Of all people to take someone to a psychic. You’re a psychiatrist, someone who studies science.”

  “I study soft sciences, Chad. Granted, psychics are not always useful. But I knew the team was having some difficulty in this case, so I made the suggestion to Holly and she agreed to it. There is proven validity to the use of psychics in some investigations. I thought Anne might help.”

  “You thought wrong.” Chad flung back the covers and slipped into his sweats.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To call Holly.”

  “Don’t do that. I promised her that I wouldn’t tell you about this.”

  “Great! Now my partner and my girlfriend are keeping secrets from me.”

  “It’s not like that, Chad. Okay, look, it wasn’t the best idea, especially after seeing Holly’s reaction and now learning what you’ve told me, but I truly wanted to help.”

  Chad walked over to her side of the bed and softly touched her cheek. “I know you did.”

  “I’m beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t be removed from this case. She is too personally involved.”

  “Policy-wise, she should be removed. If the chief knew that she was friends with the victims, he’d automatically pull her. But just as you promised her you wouldn’t say anything about the psychic visit, I promised that I wouldn’t tell the chief as long as she could stay focused and remain objective.”

  “I don’t see how she could stay objective. Especially after today,” Brooke said. She stood and grabbed her sweater and jeans off the back of her chaise.

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “I’m saying she should be off this case for her own sanity. I think Holly needs a break. I think you and the rest of the team ought to work this thing. She should get out of town.” Brooke headed down the hall and into the kitchen. Chad followed her.

  “I couldn’t backstab her like that, Brooke. I can’t tell the chief or the team what I know.”

  “I’m a shrink, and I’m telling you that she’s too close to this situation, and her involvement is going to hinder this case rather than help it. You wouldn’t be backstabbing her at all. In fact, you’d more than likely be saving her peace of mind.”

  Chad took a couple of steaks from the refrigerator that he had brought for their dinner. Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do what’s best for Holly as her friend, not her partner. The woman needs a break, and if forcing her into it is the only way she will take one, then that’s the way it has to go down.”

&
nbsp; “Maybe you’re right.”

  Brooke handed him the salt and pepper, and he went out on the patio to light the grill. Maybe she was right, maybe Holly did need him to interfere. She was going to hate him for it, but if he didn’t do something drastic, he was afraid that Holly might crack under the strain.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Holly dragged herself to work. She was beaten-to-death tired. She’d cancelled dinner with Brendan and the girls the night before, explaining Chloe’s illness and her need to be with her. Today Chloe was able to go back to school, but was still on her meds. She hadn’t even looked over the paperwork that Chad dropped off about Darla Monroe, and she’d forgotten it at home. Screw it. They all had copies.

  Her mind went back to the day before, seeing over and over again the doctors trying to save the life of a precious child, one who’s life had been so cruelly ripped away from her along with her mother’s. There was a dull pain in the center of Holly’s heart, but she knew that she had to suck it up and put on her game face. Go forward, catch this bastard, and kill him. No way was she going to let him live when she found him. No way in hell was she going to let him get off that easy. She was sure now, as all the evidence was pointing that way, that this had either been a three-member group of killers, or that William James, Darla Monroe and Mr. X at least knew each other. It was up to Holly to tie it all together and find the missing links.

  Walking into the office, she noticed that none of the team was around. She began to feel uneasy and started twisting her earring around. Something was up, and it didn’t take long for her to figure it out when she spotted familiar faces sitting in the conference room as she passed by on the way to the locker room. Through the window she saw Maureen, Chad, Brooke, and Robb. And Chief Greenfield was in there as well. What the fuck was going on? He was supposed to be with his wife.