“Sadly, it’s the only plan we’ve got.”
Stevie could hear the heartache in CC’s voice.
The room took on an eerie silence. Everyone sat around the table playing with their food, except for Jamie, who had begun to drum her fingers on the table. Stevie smiled at the nervous habit that her sister usually exhibited. You really do become one another. She shook her head in wonderment. The slight distraction did nothing to ease the steadily growing tension. Everyone jumped when the theme song for Dragnet blared out.
“You really need to stop screwing with my phone,” CC informed her wife. She snatched the device from the leather holder clipped to the waistband of her sweatpants. “Yes, Max?”
“You’re having way too much fun reprogramming that gadget,” Stevie said to Jamie with a snicker.
“I can’t help it. It’s fun and it bugs her. Emma helped me pick out the tunes.” Jamie gloated.
“Max and Leigh are on their way.” CC ended her call. “They claim they need to talk about a case. I suspect they just want to check on us.”
“Probably.” Val readied her own phone. “I’ll alert my team.”
Stevie felt a shiver pass through her. Little things were adding up in a disturbing manner: Having visitors monitored, just in case. Having the house watched. All of the protective measures made her nervous. It was the knowledge that they were a necessity. Stevie was accustomed to CC’s job being risky. She had lived through far too many close calls with her. She was never certain if it was the high risk of Caitlin’s career, or if just maybe her sister had a propensity to attract trouble.
After CC had cleared and cleaned the dishes, she was left with nothing to do but sit and wait. Her fingers drummed out a catchy little tune on the table. She knew it was driving Stevie and her wife nuts. She just couldn’t stop. She blew out a terse breath when she heard the knock at the door. Even though she had told Max they’d be on Stevie’s side of the house, she still checked the monitor. It was Max and Leigh, and she let them in.
“Coffee?”
“Sounds good,” Max said as they made themselves comfortable. “How are you holding up?”
“Sitting around waiting for something to happen doesn’t suit me. What’s going on with Wayne? Maybe we should go next door?” She thought Stevie and Jamie might not want to hear the gory details of their latest case.
“Stay here,” Stevie said. “It will give us something to talk about.”
“She’s right, honey.”
“How about you, Deputy Dawg?” Leigh teased. “Up for a little shoptalk?”
“Deputy Dawg? Do you guys sit around trying to think of these clever monikers?”
“Yes.”
“Any reason why?”
“It’s your whole Fed need-to-know bull,” Leigh said, her eyes narrowing. “You blow into town and only tell us anything when you deem it necessary.”
“We could have been on top of this long before now, if you had just paid us a visit,” Max said. “Instead, you follow our partner and her family before you let anyone know what’s going on. I don’t like it.”
“All right.” CC felt proud at the way Max and Leigh were determined to cover her back. “But we’re all on the same page now. What can you tell me about Billy?”
“The head nurse at MacLean is like a drill sergeant,” Leigh said excitedly. CC had to admit the lady was eager. “Like most consolers, she’s recovering herself. Doesn’t take any crap. Ryan lasted longer than she thought he would. She really didn’t have any patience for a spoiled rich white boy from California. Ryan stuck it out for a while, whining the whole time. Then he decided enough was enough, and he walked out. He wasn’t there under a court order, so he was free to go. According to Nurse Nancy, good riddance. She’s not interested in wasting her time on someone who’s just doing enough time to get his platinum card back from Mommy and Daddy. She did confirm what Vergas had said. He didn’t score that quality of blow from anyone there. She keeps her ear to the ground, and she hasn’t heard of anything remotely close to that high grade being out on the streets.”
“Billy boy didn’t have any money,” Max said. “The room he was staying in was prepaid last week. Too low rent for cameras. Desk clerk, who’s nothing more than a strung-out teenager, doesn’t remember who paid for the room. It might have been Ryan or Bat Man. That’s it. What’s happening on your end?”
“We’re waiting for the devil,” CC said grimly.
“How long was this guy clean?” Jamie asked. “Sometimes, after being clean for a period of time, an overdose is common.”
“Less than two weeks,” Max said. “And this guy has been using since he was a teenager. I’m surprised he’s lived this long. Then again, cutting heroine with drain cleaner…”
“Drain cleaner?” Jamie’s eyes widened. “I’ve heard of a lot of funky things added to drugs to spread the batch out, but drain cleaner? That had to hurt. Not to mention it’s insane.”
“No kidding,” CC said. “Could a person survive that?”
“If treated right away, sure,” Jamie answered after thinking about it for a moment. “But that would depend on how much drugs he had done.”
“He was shooting up a lethal level of speed balls. And he kept shooting up, despite the fact his intestines were probably twisted in knots.”
Jamie groaned with disgust. “If he had stopped after the first injection, drank some milk, and got medical help, he might have had a chance of living. But the high is more important than any pain they’re going through. Someone knew how to get to this guy.”
“Like offering a kid a pony.”
“I doubt he enjoyed the ride,” CC added her two cents, not missing the way Stevie had withdrawn from the conversation. She couldn’t fault her. Everyone else at the table was accustomed to chatting about these matters the way most people discuss the latest reality show.
“Stevie why don’t we—” she began to say, eager to change the subject. Stevie had been through enough. There was no need to expose her to anymore. CC’s pesky cell phone decided to blare out another tune. “Yeah, Brooks.” She didn’t bother to hide the fact that she was miffed. “We were just talking about Billy Ryan.”
When she had informed him about Ryan’s death, Brooks sounded just a little too excited. She was about to explain that the guy did indeed die of an overdose, in hopes to cool his jets. She had no intention of mentioning the drain cleaner. If there was something to her theory, there was a chance Brooks could get overzealous and blow it. When they had Beaumont where they wanted him, then and only then, would she be able to focus on the who and why.
“I’ve got another one,” Brooks said before CC got the chance to update him. “Happened about a week ago. Professor Archibald Harden. He taught at the University of Wisconsin.”
“Our boy didn’t have any ties there,” CC said quickly, purposely not using Fisher’s name.
“Harden taught at the University of Texas back when Simon was a student there after he left San Diego,” Brooks blurted out. The guy sounded absolutely rabid. “In fact, Simon almost failed his class. Naturally, Simon blamed the professor for ruining his GPA. Harden complained to the dean that Simon tried to set his office on fire. There wasn’t any proof, so Simon walked. But Harden has testified at Simon’s hearings a couple of times.”
“I think I remember him. How in the hell did you dig this one up?”
“I’m looking under every rock,” Brooks explained. “It’s like he’s working down a list of everyone who’s ever pissed him off.”
“Since nothing in his life has ever been his fault, that can’t be a short list. How did the professor pass on?” CC’s head throbbed. She tried to convince herself to just ignore the information.
“Carbon monoxide poisoning.”
“I see.” She thought about it. Between the location and the lack of trauma involved, as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t see the connection. “Was there an investigation?”
“No. The cops blamed it on a faul
ty flue in the fireplace. The thing is, the guy lived in faculty housing and the batteries for the detector were missing.”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “You know how that goes. People are always forgetting to replace those things, or the remote goes dead, and instead of dragging their fat asses out to the store they clip the batteries from the smoke or carbon detectors. They always plan on replacing them. They never hurry because deep down we’re all convinced we’ll never need them. If we didn’t have a small child in the house, I doubt we’d be as diligent as we are.”
“I guess.” Brooks sounded reluctant to accept her explanation. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”
CC said her goodbyes and returned her attention to the group who were staring at her. She shifted uncomfortably. She hated being the center of attention. Lately, it seemed to be a constant. She didn’t like it one bit. She just wanted to enjoy her life, spending time with her family and doing everything she could to ensure the snarky Mrs. Stern spent the rest of her natural life behind bars. If CC could ensure Stern’s prison employment consisted of cleaning the toilets for the next sixty years, that would be a bonus. Instead, CC was hiding, and everyone including herself was wondering just who she had pissed off enough to exact this over-the-top revenge. Once again, only one name came to mind.
“Brooks thinks he’s got another one. A professor who keeled over from carbon monoxide poisoning,” she said.
“He knew your boy?” Val asked.
“Yes, he was in his class at the University of Texas.”
“Simon didn’t fare well in his class?” Jamie’s tone was crisp, alerting CC she hadn’t been fooled by the attempt to keep Simon’s name out of the conversation. The edge in Jamie voice made her nervous, but CC couldn’t fault Jamie for being uneasy. After all, at one point she had been Simon’s teacher. Needless to say, his being arrested instead of becoming a doctor probably was topping his list of bad days.
“Apparently not.” CC wanted to let it go at that, hoping it would put Jamie’s fears to rest. She didn’t like to think about the alternative. If Simon truly was the big bad guy behind this scheme, in all likelihood Jamie could be next on his list. “Look, it’s ridiculous.” CC pretended to dismiss the idea. “We have a bigger problem to deal with. First, we’re out of brownies.”
* * *
The next couple of days passed quickly. CC almost felt like she was on vacation. Except Emma wasn’t there, and an abundance of law enforcement officers wandered about pretending to be laborers. The upside was the roof was finished. Mills and her team did a great job. The only hiccup being they finished far too quickly. Now the team was hanging about just pretending to work.
“Those workers you hired are amazing!” a voice said.
CC jumped when she heard the excited utterance. She had been wandering around the yard, trying to find something to keep herself busy. She blew out a sigh of relief when she spied the Birkenstocks standing on the edge of the lawn. She pondered whether Birkenstock was indeed their last name or just a weird coincidence.
“Yes, they are good,” CC said to her neighbors. “We were lucky to get them.”
“You must give us their card,” Freda, the shorter of the two, said.
“I’ll get it to you.” CC wondered how she was going to get around this one. “I can’t promise anything. They have a waiting list.”
“Good roofers are hard to find,” Ethel said. “We’re thrilled at how much work you girls are doing. The old place really needed it. Poor Mr. Spivey just couldn’t keep up, and he was too stubborn to hire anyone. Where has little Emma been?”
“On a trip with her father.”
“That’s nice,” Freda said. “Word has it, your sister has a new friend,” she added with a wink.
“Wow, no secrets in this neighborhood.” CC had to laugh. At the condo complex, they had met their neighbors but rarely socialized with them. Normally, it was just a nod or a quick hello.
“Not many,” Ethel said. “You’ll get used to it. No one is overly nosy, but it’s good to know you have friends who’ll be there for you. I have to say, seeing another gay couple move into the neighborhood was great. Not to mention, it really boosts the property values.”
“What?” Jamie asked, seemingly joining them from nowhere.
“Didn’t you know?” Ethel laughed. “When we take over a neighborhood, the real estate prices go through the roof.”
“Learn something new every day.” CC shook her head. “So, yes, Stevie is seeing someone new. Val, who’s with the EPA. That’s why you’ve been seeing a sedan with government plates rolling around the neighborhood. Not to worry, she pays for her own gas. Don’t want you to think she’s using your tax dollars to court my sister. She’s been trying to convince us to put in solar panels.”
“Oh, you should,” Ethel said. “We did. Every little bit helps.
“We’re thinking about it.”
“It’s nice to have family so close,” Ethel who was obviously the chatty one of the two said. “There was a time when everyone hid under a rock.”
“Not you,” Freda said with a snort.
“Good Lord, woman.” Ethel waved off her comment. “It’s been over fifty years since I was a wild child. Let it go.”
“More like sixty years,” Freda playfully corrected. “CC, you get that information to us when you get a chance. We need to finish our walk.”
“My God, that really is going to be us some day,” CC wryly said as they waved goodbye to elderly women who were shuffling down the street.
“What information?”
“They want to hire our roofers.” CC couldn’t help but laugh.
“Can’t say that I blame them. Mills and the team did a great job.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Jamie said. “I love spending the long weekend with you, and getting all this work done on the house is great, but—”
“But the reason behind it sucks.”
“More than I can say.”
“I know, James.” CC took a deep breath, fearful she would say something wrong. Her shoulders slumped, and she couldn’t look at Jamie. The guilt she felt was overwhelming.
“This is not your fault,” Jamie said as if she were reading her mind. “None of this is your fault. Maybe you should make an appointment with Dr. Miller. You can’t tell me that you don’t need to vent.”
“My therapist is going to love this,” she said in a low voice.
“What?”
CC jerked her head up, and her heart skipped a beat when she spied Val standing a mere three feet away from them. Based on the uncomfortable look on the woman’s face, she knew that she had heard the comment. “That is not for publication,” CC said.
“I get it.” Val kept her voice low. “Detective, I’m not going to tell anyone. Given everything you’ve been through in your life, if you hadn’t sought help somewhere along the line, I’d be concerned.”
“I didn’t go through the department.”
“Understood.” Val held up her hands, seeming to let the subject go. “We have an issue.”
“The Birkenstocks hired Mills and her crew away from us?”
“No, but they did try. We’ve got a couple of possible sightings.”
“Possible like before, where they were real and you chose not to tell me until I already knew?” CC wasn’t in the mood for games. “Or possible like, it’s a maybe, maybe not?”
“Maybe, maybe not. The Holiday Inn on Beacon Street and Coolidge Corner.”
“He’s still lurking around the neighborhood.” CC felt completely frustrated. “Okay, why don’t we head down to the Holiday Inn and check things out?”
“If it is him, he’s out,” Val tersely explained. It was evident she didn’t appreciate the help. “Which means he could be lurking around. What I need you to do is stay inside. All of you.”
CC shifted uncomfortably. She was unaccustomed to being told what to do. Normally, she was the lead. Everyone turned to her. Handing over complete co
ntrol with so much at stake frightened her. She was prepared to argue. But she knew in her heart this was one of those times in life when she needed to just shut up and listen.
“Come on.” Jamie tugged on her sleeve. “Have you forgotten that we’re out of brownies?”
CC nodded compliantly. She pointed at Val. “You keep me in the loop.”
“I will. If he turns up at the hotel, you can suit up, but remember, you’re just along for the ride. Oh goodie, it’s time for the mail.” They watched Stevie dart outside. “Are you sure there isn’t something going on with them?”
“Geez, you slept with her again?” The blush Val was sporting was all the confirmation CC needed. “Will you stop doing that? As for Misty, no, there isn’t anything going on between them. Stevie’s too shy to ask her out,” she said against her better judgment.
“Shy?”
“Yes.” CC shook her head then it hit her.
“Oh?” The groan Jamie released confirmed her suspicions. CC loved her kid sister. If Stevie had one flaw, it was the way she treated women. When she cared about someone, she was shy; but if all Stevie was seeking was a little fun, that’s all there would be. CC almost felt bad for the clueless woman standing in front of her. Almost. “Yeah, well you kids can work this out after the case is over.” She felt a twinge of regret as she and Jamie hurried into the house. “I think she’s falling for Stevie.”
Jamie shuddered as she began to putter around the kitchen. “I think she’s already fallen for her. But Stevie will have to deal with this. You have enough to worry about. How about a game of chess? I’ll let you be the Heroes. I know you secretly wanted that team.”
“Of course I wanted them. Their pawns are cute little Dalmatians,” CC groused. “Mine are the Hyenas from the Lion King, and my queen is Cruella DeVil. How much does that suck? Thanks for the offer, but Emma and I still have a game going. I’m a couple of moves away from checkmate.”
“You don’t have to sound so happy about it. Remember she is only seven.”
“Going on thirty.”
Chapter 31
Checkmate (Caitlin Calloway Mystery Book 2) Page 25