Marked for Murder

by Colleen Helme

  Worried that I might faint from shock, Dimples helped me to his car. He opened the passenger side door and practically shoved me inside, then closed the door and hurried into the driver’s seat. He glanced my way, ready to push my head between my knees if I so much as twitched.

  “I’m okay. It’s just been a terrible shock.”

  “I’m sure it has. So who do you think did this if it wasn’t Manetto?”

  “Is that what Bates thinks? Why would he think that?”

  “After Bates arrived at the scene and identified Chris and Ethan, he called the chief and told him that Chris had been found with the body. The chief told Bates that Ethan was working with the prosecuting attorney’s office.

  “I don’t know what Ethan was doing for them, but it involved Manetto. Since Chris is Manetto’s attorney, you can see why there’s some suspicion that Chris, or Manetto, had something to do with Ethan’s murder.”

  “Is that why they took Chris to the station? I thought you said they weren’t arresting him.”

  “They’re not. They don’t have any evidence for an arrest, but the neighbor saw Chris with the body, and she thought he may have had something to do with it. They’re just covering all their bases in case something shows up.”

  “We have to go to the station. I have to fix this.”

  Dimples shook his head. “I don’t think they’ll let you in on it. You need to tell me what you know.”

  I swallowed, not sure what to do. Should I tell Dimples everything? Could I trust him to help me? Maybe I should take this straight to Uncle Joey and leave Dimples out of it.

  I glanced at Dimples, picking up that he held his breath in anticipation of my answer. He was my partner, and he’d do what he could to help me, but, if Manetto was behind this, I had to do the right thing.

  I wanted to defend Uncle Joey, but I held back, knowing it would weaken my position. “Okay. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  Dimples exhaled with relief. His gaze shifted to the street behind us, and I turned to see the crime scene van pull up. As they opened the back doors and pulled out a gurney, Dimples started the car, thinking that we needed to talk somewhere else.

  He drove a few blocks away to a residential neighborhood and pulled to the side of the street. After he turned off the car, I began, explaining the whole sordid story of Ethan’s involvement with Strickland, and ending with his refusal to go through with the plan. I left out Ramos’s midnight visit, instead saying that Ethan had second thoughts because Chris had done nothing wrong.

  “Ethan said that Strickland doctored the recording of Chris that he’d given him. He told Strickland that, if he used it, Ethan would tell everyone it was a fake. Ethan was the only person to dispute what Strickland did with the recording. Now, with Ethan out of the way, Strickland can use it against Chris to get to Uncl… uh… Manetto.”

  Dimples could hardly believe my story. How could a prosecuting attorney be capable of messing with the law? I was accusing him of murder. This was insane.

  “You have to remember Strickland’s goal,” I said. “Strickland wants Manetto. He must think that the end justifies the means. When Ethan wouldn’t go through with it, he must have cracked.”

  “It makes sense,” Dimples admitted. “But he’s sworn to uphold the law… this goes against everything he’s supposed to hold dear.” He shook his head and let out a deep sigh, both disgusted and amazed that Strickland had carried it so far. “If he did this, he’s just as bad as Manetto.”

  “No,” I said, anger in my tone. “He’s much worse, because he’s supposed to be the good guy.”

  Dimples couldn’t argue with that. “So what do we do now?”

  “I need to talk to Strickland.”

  Dimples didn’t like it, but he knew I was right. As long as Ethan was part of the conversation, I’d know if Strickland was the killer without even asking. And if he wasn’t? I’d probably figure that out too. But would it prove anything? Would it help Chris? That was another story.

  Then there was the fact that he was getting married tomorrow. He had the next two weeks off, and he wouldn’t be there to help me. Besides the threat to his wedding, how could he enjoy his honeymoon knowing that I was in trouble? Maybe he should postpone the wedding until this was over.

  “No,” I said. “I can’t let you do that. Billie would never forgive me… or you. I can do this without you. I may not want to, but I can.” I wasn’t so sure about that, but it helped to say it out loud. “Take me back. I need to get my car and head to the police station. Even if they won’t let me in, I can be there as a wife for her husband. You should go back to your plans for the wedding, and let me take care of this.”

  “Shelby… I don’t know if I can.”

  “Of course you can. I have… I have other resources.”

  Dimples sucked in a breath. “Oh… yeah. That’s right, you do.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed, even though I hated doing this to him. “I’ll be fine without you.” It broke my heart to push him away, but it was for his own good. He needed to get married, and there was no way I was going to be the reason it didn’t happen.

  Dimples kept his gaze directed my way, but I refused to look at him. After a moment, he started the car and drove back to Ethan’s apartment building. My car was parked across the street, and he pulled up behind it. “Shelby. I know what you’re doing. But this isn’t over. I’m talking to Billie. I’ll let you know what we decide.”

  I shook my head. “I wish you wouldn’t. I can’t have your wedding on my conscience. I’ll abide by what you decide, but please don’t postpone it because of me.”

  He was thinking that there were other things he could do to help me, and postponing his wedding wasn’t one of them.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Uh… nothing,” he said, but he was thinking about talking to Bates. “Go on. You need to get to the station. I’ll talk to you later.”

  I let out a breath and got out of his car. Across the street, police officers wheeled the gurney with Ethan’s body through the doors of the building. My chest ached with grief as I watched them load the gurney into the van and close the doors. The van drove away, and I wiped the tears from my cheeks.

  Closing my eyes, I gathered every ounce of determination I could find. Reaching deep inside, I vowed that Strickland was going to pay for this. Ethan didn’t deserve to die for Strickland’s vendetta against Uncle Joey.

  CHAPTER 11

  I entered the precinct and made my way to the detectives’ offices. Not finding Bates anywhere, I decided to try the large room where they took suspects for questioning. Through the glass, I caught sight of Chris, along with Bates and Chief Winder. Without knocking, I pulled the door open and stepped inside.

  Bates jumped up. “What the hell! You can’t be in here.”

  I glanced at Chief Winder, hoping he’d back me up, but he just pursed his lips, unsure how to handle this. I took the decision from him by sitting down at the table. “I think I can help.” I knew that sounded presumptuous, but I had to be assertive if I wanted to stay.

  “How?” Chief Winder asked. “With your husband involved, I’m not sure we can trust your input or your premonitions.”

  “I suppose you have a point,” I agreed. “But since Chris didn’t do it, I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

  Bates didn’t like it, but, without proof of Chris’s guilt, there wasn’t much he could do at the moment. Chris had said he’d been home last night, and I could account for that, but it didn’t mean Chris wasn’t involved.

  Bates’s first order of business was to talk to Strickland about the deal he had with Ethan, and get Strickland’s opinion on who he thought had a motive to kill him. I wanted to jump up and down and tell him that Strickland was his best suspect, but I held back, knowing I needed proof first.

  “We’re done here anyway.” Bates glanced at Chris. “You’re free to go.”

  Chris pushed back his chair and came to my side. I
stood as well, keeping my expression neutral, since I needed to keep a cool head for the chief’s benefit. But I wasn’t done yet. I glanced at Bates. “I’d like to talk to Strickland. When are you going over there?”

  His breath caught. He hadn’t said anything about talking to the prosecuting attorney, not even to the chief. But I knew. Still, he wasn’t about to let me come. “You’re not coming with me.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” He glanced Chris’s way, “Because he’s a suspect. Strickland wouldn’t want to talk to you.”

  “I don’t need to talk to him. In fact, I don’t need to say a word. I just need to be there. What could it possibly hurt?”

  “And how do I know you’d tell me the truth if you got any premonitions? This is crazy.” He glanced at the chief. “She can’t be involved. You know that, right?”

  The chief hated to side with Bates on this, but he had no choice. “Go home, Shelby. Bates is right.”

  I shrugged. “Fine. But I’m going to find out who did this to Ethan. It would have been easier to work with you, but I can still do it on my own.”

  With that parting remark, I followed Chris out of the room. He’d been quiet, but I caught that he wasn’t sure my coming was a good idea. He hated putting me in this position, and he didn’t want me to lose my standing with the police. On the other hand, he’d never been happier to see me stand up for him.

  He glanced my way, thinking that we needed to talk, but not here. I gave him a quick nod and led the way out of the building. The tension of holding back our emotions built between us. By the time we got to my car, Chris couldn’t wait any longer. The fortifications around his heart broke, and he pulled me into his arms, clutching me close.

  With his guard down, the guilt and remorse of Ethan’s murder closed in on him, and I caught his self-recrimination that this was his fault. If he’d been a better mentor, he could have figured this out long before now. I’d told him about it months ago. Why hadn’t he taken care of it then? Now Ethan was dead. And it was too late.

  I wanted to tell Chris that it wasn’t his fault, but, deep down, he already knew that. He didn’t need words, he just needed me. As we held each other, both of us were overcome with grief at losing Ethan in such a violent way. After a long sigh, I spoke. “Come on. Let’s go get your car.”

  Chris took a deep breath and nodded. Straightening, he wiped his eyes. Moving to the passenger side of the car, he got in. As I pulled onto the road, I reached over and took Chris’s hand, careful of my blisters, but needing to touch him. There was so much I wanted to say, but, at the moment, neither of us could find the right words.

  Reaching Ethan’s apartment, I parked in front of Chris’s car. Two police cars were still there, but everyone else had left. I spotted a journalist from the paper with another guy who had a camera. Luckily, they were just finishing up and began walking toward their car.

  After a moment of silence, I spoke. “Tell me what happened.” I knew Chris needed to talk about it, but he was having a hard time, so I asked a simple question to get him started. “What time did you get here?”

  He rubbed his hands over his face and pushed his hair back. “When I got to Ethan’s apartment, I knocked, but he didn’t answer. It worried me, so I tried the door. It opened right up, and I went inside.” He swallowed, reliving the moment he’d seen Ethan. “I found him on the floor. He looked bad, but I didn’t know if he was dead. His skin was cold when I touched his neck for a pulse, and I knew he was gone.

  “That’s when the neighbor walked by and saw me leaning over him. She started screaming, so I told her to calm down and call the police. A few of the other neighbors heard the commotion and came running. There was quite a crowd by the time the police got there, and all of them were eager to tell the police I’d been found with him.”

  He shook his head. “Now he’s dead. I should have been looking for clues while I waited for them to show up, but, seeing him like that… I couldn’t think. After the police arrived, I told them what happened and called you after that.

  “At first they told me I needed to stay to give them a statement. Then it changed to telling me I needed to go to the station to give my statement and answer a few questions. I didn’t want to leave before you got there, but they didn’t give me a choice. Dimples arrived as I was leaving. He told me that he’d make sure you knew where I was.”

  “I must have just missed you then,” I said.

  “How much did you see?”

  I swallowed. “I slipped around Bates because I thought you were inside. I saw him… it was awful.” I shook my head to clear it from that horrible vision and continued. “I also picked up why they’re targeting you. They think this is all tied back to Uncle Joey.”

  “What?”

  I nodded and told him everything I knew about why they suspected Chris and Uncle Joey. “Dimples told me all of this, even though he wasn’t supposed to. Chris, I told him everything, along with Strickland’s plan to use the doctored recording against you. He believes me, but, with Bates on the warpath, I need proof, which I’ll only get if I talk to Strickland. Then I can find out who killed Ethan, where the recording is, and what he plans to do with it.”

  “You’re right,” Chris agreed. It reminded him of my bold move back at the precinct, where I’d told Bates I’d go with him. Too bad it hadn’t worked. Now we’d have to figure out another way to see Strickland. But how? “Let’s go back to my office. I called Elisa and told her I was detained, but not why. I’ll need to tell them what’s happened. Then we can figure out what to do.”

  “Okay.”

  Chris sent me a grateful nod before getting out of the car. I waited until he was in his car and ready to leave before I pulled out and followed him to his office. We entered his building and took the elevator to the fourth floor. Stopping in front of Elisa’s desk, he asked her to come with us into his office.

  Surprised that I was there, she looked down her nose at my jeans and t-shirt. But all that changed when she saw the look on Chris’s face. A wave of anxiety swept over her. Where was Ethan? She knew Chris had gone to check on him. Had something bad happened?

  “I hate to tell you this,” Chris began. “But Ethan’s… he’s been… killed. I found him when I went over there.”

  After her initial shock, she sank to the couch. With stricken eyes, she caught Chris’s gaze. “He’s dead? Murdered? Why would anyone kill him?”

  “I don’t know, but Shelby and I intend to find out.” At her shaken expression, he continued. “Look, I know this is hard, but I need to let the other junior attorneys know. I need one of them to take Ethan’s place in court this afternoon. Will you set up a meeting with them in the conference room in… say half an hour?”

  “Okay, sure,” she agreed.

  “Good.” He glanced my way. “I’m going to tell Pratt and Larsen what’s going on. I’ll be back before the meeting.” At my nod, he left.

  Elisa blinked back tears, and her breathing turned shallow. “Do you… do you think… it was because… of that thing with the prosecuting attorney’s office?” she asked.

  “What do you know about that?” I asked her.

  “Just… you told me Ethan might be spying on Chris, so I’ve been keeping tabs on him. I didn’t know it had gotten that bad though, or I would have said something to you before now.”

  “It’s okay. Just tell me what you know. I want to find out who killed him, and any information you have will help me figure it out.”

  “Sure.” Now that she had something to do, she calmed down and hurried to her desk. Pulling a notebook from her drawer, she brought it into the office and sat back down. She went over all the times she knew Ethan had gone to the prosecuting attorney’s office. Counting them, it added up to over ten.

  “He was always volunteering to be the one to go,” she continued. “He told me it was because he’d interned there and knew people. I figured it was a girl, so, when I asked what her name was, he said it was Gwen.�
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  “Oh yeah,” I said. “I met her a couple of weeks ago when I went with Ethan to talk to Strickland about a case.” Maybe that was my way in. I could go over there to speak to Gwen and find a way to talk to Strickland at the same time.

  “It’s just so sad,” Elisa said, fresh tears streaming down her face. “Who would do this to him?”

  “I don’t know, but I plan to find out.”

  “I’d better get that meeting set up.” She hurried out, thinking that she needed to get all of Ethan’s files on the case they were taking to court this afternoon and go over them with the junior attorney taking Ethan’s place.

  Chris came back right before the meeting. Elisa told him that everyone was waiting in the conference room, and that she had gathered all of Ethan’s files for their court appearance this afternoon.

  Chris nodded with relief that she’d taken care of things. “Thanks,” he told her. “You keep me going. There’s no way I could do this job without you.”

  She beamed and got back to work, casting a little sideways glance my way and thinking how much she enjoyed working for Chris. He appreciated her. She hoped I’d heard what he’d said, mostly because she wanted me to know how much Chris needed her.

  Chris shut his office door and took a deep fortifying breath, then sat beside me on the couch. “I guess it’s time to tell the junior attorneys. Will you come with me? I’d like to know if any of them knew anything about Ethan’s involvement with Strickland.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I agreed. “But, before we go, tell me how Pratt and Larsen took it. Did you tell them everything?”

  “Yes. They’re pretty shaken. Pratt will represent me if it comes to that, but I’m hoping it won’t.” He squeezed my hand. At my sudden intake of breath, he apologized. “Sorry. I forgot about your blisters. How are they anyway?”

  “Better. I’ll be good as new in a few days.” It reminded me that only yesterday I’d been worried about a stalker and his stupid threats. Now it was hard to care.