by KB Winters
“And that’s all?”
“What else would it be?”
I knew I was treading on thin ice, but what was the point in asking what was wrong with me if she didn’t actually give a damn.
“That’s why I’m asking.” Sadie said and took a bite.
“Finding Molly would solve my problem, Sadie. That’s my biggest worry, the only concern I have in this world. That’s it.”
I glared at Kat for a long time but she was unaffected, or just plain oblivious. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. I was on my own.
“We’ll find her,” Sadie said, her voice strong and certain. “I promise.”
Yeah, I think she believed that. The problem was, Molly could be alive today, but that could change at any moment.
“She’s not your problem, Sadie. I know there are a lot of other things going on that you all need to address. Molly is my concern.”
“Molly is our concern as well,” Jasper assured me. His voice was full of frustration, though, as if he couldn’t believe I was worried about my sister. Didn’t I know there was a double murder investigation going on, his tone suggested, that would—very likely—bring all kinds of law enforcement agencies to their door?
He merely said, “But right now, we have more immediate concerns.”
“Yeah, I just said I understood that.”
I didn’t need them to explain to me that I wasn’t their priority, but I also didn’t need to burn bridges, so I grabbed a fork full of mashed potatoes and shoved it in my mouth with a smile. “No worries,” I said around the mouthful before turning my focus back to the food.
Eventually the meal was over—finally—and most of the family retired to Sadie’s parlor. Maisie left for work, leaving me with Ava Rose in the empty dining room. Without the familiar warmth of her father, the baby fussed until I rose from the table when the staff came to clear the dishes and bounced her in my arms while I paced the length of the dining room.
“It’s all right, baby girl. Your daddy will be back soon enough. I promise.”
My cooing didn’t help, and she started to fuss with a little more force, squirming as she tried to work up some tears but she couldn’t. Ava Rose didn’t know exactly what was wrong in her world, but she knew something was, and that tore at my heart.
“How about some mashed potatoes? They are one of the seven wonders of the world, and I know you’ll love them.” The bowl with a few scoopfuls remained to be cleared away, and I stuck my finger in before the maid whisked it away. I let Ava Rose taste it, tentatively at first and then she began licking the soft, buttery mash in earnest until she quieted down.
“See? You’re already becoming a woman, soothing your soul with food. Just wait until you find ice cream!”
The food helped, but nothing would soothe her until Cal came to get her. It was a new development over the past few days, this attachment to her father, but not totally unexpected considering she was trying to figure out why the familiar sounds and scents of her mother were no longer a part of her daily life. Hoping the deep timber of his voice would help, I paced in front of Sadie’s office, working hard to tune out any details I shouldn’t hear, but that, of course, was impossible.
“We need to get that footage before law enforcement does,” Jasper growled. “Our people were crawling all over that hotel, following Bonnie and Mueller, and that will draw questions we don’t need. Not right fucking now, anyway.”
I leaned in closer, eager to hear more, but Ava Rose grunted a familiar song that meant she was filling up her diaper.
“All right, I guess we’ve heard enough.”
We made our way upstairs to Cal’s suite of rooms where I bathed the little girl, changed her into pajamas and read to her until she fell asleep, between taking appointments for work on my phone.
This was my life, and I imagined it was no different than what Molly thought she’d be doing for the church, which made me think that maybe, just maybe, I was in the same level of danger as my sister, just in an altogether different sort of way.
Chapter Ten
Jameson
“This is Agent Marshall and I’m Agent Beck.” The redheaded woman was extremely attractive, except for the scowl on her face. “You’ll be working with us directly on this investigation.”
“Okay.” There wasn’t much else to say. I’d been scheduled to meet up with this duo last week, but they’d been out of the office by the time I changed out of my patrol uniform. They’d left no information or instructions when I showed up at their office for our appointment. Basically, they wasted my damn time. Two days of training spent answering phones.
Finally, though, we were face-to-face. “What do you need me to do?” Might as well get this part out in the open up front.
Agent Marshall didn’t say much, but I had a feeling his dark eyes missed nothing. He let Agent Beck take the lead, so I listened carefully and kept my mouth shut.
“I already know about your connection to the Reckless Bastards, Ellison, and I don’t really care about that unless I have a reason to. Do I have a reason to give a damn?”
I blinked at Agent Beck’s blunt words and shook my head. “No ma’am.”
“Good. If you have any leads, experience, or connections that’ll help us figure out who murdered the vics, use it to help, otherwise it’s totally irrelevant to me.”
Her words should have brought me comfort, but they didn’t because they didn’t quite ring true. Her words sounded like something she’d rehearsed to put me at ease.
“Got it.”
“I’ll go check out Mueller’s home and his office at the church and connect with you two later.” Marshall shook my hand, gave a short nod, and then left on his own.
“Don’t mind Marshall. He’s all about the grunt work, doesn’t give a shit about the glory of the collar. He’s a good lawman, and more importantly, he’s trustworthy.”
Beck’s big blue eyes looked at me closely, as if she were studying me, and her pink lips pulled into a phony smile I was happy to return while I tried to figure her out.
“Good to know.”
“Ready to look at the crime scene?” This time her smile was genuine and so was mine.
“Hell, yeah. I mean, yes ma’am.”
Beck groaned and rolled her eyes as she slid behind the wheel of the dark gray sedan with the government license plates. “Don’t ma’am me, and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Music to my ears,” she said with a playful sigh. This woman was all over the place, an implacable hard ass one moment and a playful flirt the next. I’d have to tread carefully with her; I could feel it already.
“Your academy scores are impressive as hell, Ellison. Top marks in shooting and crime scene psychology, and top of the class in interrogation techniques.” She whistled and shook her head. “Damn impressive.”
“Thank you.” I was surprised she’d taken the time to look up my academy record, and I decided to give Agent Beck the benefit of the doubt, until she gave me a reason to doubt her. “Is the crime scene still intact?”
Beck nodded. “The bodies are gone for autopsy, of course, but everything else is still as it was. The hotel is throwing a shit fit, as businesses tend to do, but when the federal government is involved, they bitch a lot quieter about the impact to their business.”
She rolled her eyes and abruptly parked on a slant before jumping out. It seemed this woman didn’t do anything slowly. “Besides, who wants to rent a room after a double murder?”
“Good point.”
We skipped the elevator in the hotel and took the stairs to the seventh floor because Beck was certain the shooter took the route with the fewest cameras. “The lobby is covered with CC recorders from just about every angle and so are the elevators. Even the halls just outside the elevator have cameras, see?” She pointed them out when we arrived on the seventh floor.
“Take the stairs and you can bypass them all.”
I no
dded and took in the impressive surveillance. “But there was no reason for the killer to assume the stair exit wasn’t right beside the elevator like it normally is. Right?”
“Excellent point,” she said and flashed a smile. “The room is down this way.”
We stepped inside the room and the stench of stale blood, gunpowder, and death permeated the air.
“What are you thinking, Agent Beck? Was the killer here when Mueller and Bonnie arrived or were they let inside?” The door wasn’t kicked in and showed no signs of forced entry, so what were the options? How’d they get in?
Beck took in the room and sighed. “If they were ambushed it would be…I don’t know…neater.”
I saw what she meant. The report stated the priest was found with a gun in his hand, which supported the theory he let the killer or killers in after he and Bonnie arrived, together or separately.
“So, the killer or killers enter the room and shoot Bonnie first. Why?”
“They didn’t want her to hear whatever they needed to discuss with Mueller. That’s my theory so far.” Beck looked under the bed and then up at me. “Why do you think Bonnie was killed first?”
“Crime scene photos showed her blood was darker and indicated some of her blood was on Mueller’s clothes.”
Her smile spread slowly. “You don’t miss a beat, huh, Ellison?”
“I’m trying not to,” I told her honestly. “The report says the gun in Mueller’s hand was the one that killed Bonnie. Any word on fingerprints? Ballistics?
“Still waiting,” she said, distracted. “It doesn’t make sense that he would kill her, though.”
“Agreed.” Then another thought occurred to me. “What if Mueller lured her here thinking she knew something about the priest murders over the past few years? The cops did accuse her at one time.”
Beck rolled her eyes. “That was just shitty police work. Feds wanted a patsy, but it didn’t work out like they’d planned.”
“So you don’t think Bonnie was involved in those murders?”
Beck laughed, and once she realized I was serious, she shook her head. “No. But maybe Mueller believed it and didn’t realize there’s a far better suspect for those crimes than Bonnie. I think she was just a disgruntled housewife.”
“Disgruntled? Why do you think she was disgruntled?”
“You read her bio?”
I nodded, and Beck gave me the story anyway.
“Before the Ashby’s she was a good girl who went to church and only partied when her college roommate—your cousin, I believe—pulled her out of her shell. It was only after her arrest and then getting mixed up with the Ashby family that her life went to shit, and then ended altogether.”
I couldn’t be sure, but there was a hint of venom in her voice when she spoke of the Ashbys. I’d have to look into that.
“I knew she’d been arrested, and that nothing had come of it, but that’s about it.”
Beck turned to me. Her eyes serious. “Aren’t you worried about your cousin though?”
“Nope. Maisie’s a big girl, and she’s married into the Ashby family now, so I have to assume Virgil will keep her safe.”
Beck pursed her lips and opened them with a ‘pop’.
“Calvin probably thought he could keep Bonnie safe as well. But he’s a computer geek, not a real criminal like the rest of the family, which brings me back to the disgruntled housewife angle.”
It was complicated but I understood Beck’s reasoning. “You want me to do more digging into Bonnie?”
She nodded. “Top priority is looking into Dietrich Mueller, but I’m curious why Bonnie Ashby was meeting with him. I’m looking into it, but you might have better luck getting answers.”
She didn’t have to say that she expected me to use my criminal connections to find out, the look she gave me said it all.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use every tool possible to help solve this crime because it was my job and because I remembered Bonnie as a shy, quiet girl who deserved a better ending than a bullet in the head. Some of those tools would be criminal, but not all, because I had more connections than Agent Beck knew. Hell, I could look into her personal life with the connections I had.
“Consider it done.”
“Good. And if you learn anything useful about the members of the Ashby family, I would be grateful.” Something about her tone was odd. I nodded because I had no loyalty to the Ashby family, and if helping Beck would help my career, well that was good for both of us.
We spent another hour at the crime scene, with Beck looking at every inch of the room while I took photos and notes to refer to later. There was something strange about the crime scene, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I needed some time to myself to figure it out, but I would.
Back at the precinct, I jumped on a computer and did as much digging as I could into the life of Bishop Dietrich Mueller, which weirdly enough, didn’t take all that long. That piqued my interest even more, and I decided to head out and see what kind of intel the streets had on Mueller.
On my way to the car, my phone buzzed with a text from Madison.
Madison: Dinner tonight? On me?
Jameson: Sure, what’s the occasion?
Madison: None. I want to see my friend and celebrate your first day of being a G-man. Who knows?
I laughed out loud at her words and typed a quick response accepting her dinner invitation.
Jameson: Do I have to dress up?
Madison: Yep. MIB Fifth Street Diner. 9pm Don’t be late.
Jameson: Yes ma’am I typed back and shoved the phone in my pocket.
I had a few more hours of work before dinner. And dinner with Madison was just what I needed after spending my day crawling through a bloody crime scene.
Chapter Eleven
Madison
“So, what’s it like working with the Feds? Is it more exciting than working at Glitz PD?” I was so proud of Jamie, getting a shot to work with the big dogs when he was still just a rookie. I wanted to hear all about his first day with the Feds.
Jameson’s mouth kicked up into one of those lopsided smiles that always made my heart speed up just a little bit. He sat back casually in his chair, arm flung around the empty seat beside him.
“So far it has been. They have me working Bonnie’s murder. And Mueller’s.”
“Holy shit, that’s huge Jamie. Congratulations!” I was up and out of my seat before I thought better of it, wrapping my arms around him, squealing and doing a little shake.
“I’m so happy for you.” I secretly wondered if I could get any info from him about Molly, but as quickly as the thought came, I brushed it off. Right now, Jameson was the only person I trusted and I didn’t want to fuck that up.
“Thanks, Madds. You’re more excited than I was.”
I pulled back and took my seat across from him, slightly embarrassed by my emotional outburst.
“That’s a big case, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but why you?” He was a newbie with no investigative experience, straight out of the academy. It was odd to say the least. “Ah, that’s why you’re not all that excited.”
“Stop reading my mind, will you?” He barked out a laugh and took a sip of his craft beer. “Honestly, I don’t know why, but I think the agent in charge believes I was more involved in the MC than I ever was. I mean, I’ll use whatever connections I have to help solve the case, but I don’t want her assumptions hurting my chances at making detective.”
“Welp. There ya go. She thinks you know something you don’t.” I shrugged it off nonchalantly, but I hoped Jameson’s dream of making detective came true.
“Maybe. Time will tell, I suppose.”
A waiter in a white apron came to take our order, and I ignored Jameson’s laugh at my growling stomach and ordered a garden salad and chili cheese fries. “And extra bacon on top, thanks.”
I watched Jameson interact with the guy, chatting with him like they were just two men talking about steak.
Jamie was good with people. He would become a good cop if his family didn’t get in the way.
Jamie ordered a salad, steak, medium rare, and a baked potato. And asked the man to keep the craft beer coming. He nodded, turned and left.
“What are you thinking?”
I blinked and his gray eyes came into focus, half-smiling and half-laughing. “Who said I was thinking anything?”
“I do. You were looking at me like you could see all my thoughts written across my forehead.”
“You’re good with people.” I said matter-of-factly.
“Thanks.” He shook off the compliment with a sigh and took another sip of his beer.
“You know, Bonnie had been going off on her own a lot, like secretly. And in that big ass house of theirs, I never knew if she was hiding in some secret wing or had left. Calvin thought she might have been cheating on him. But Kat thinks she was feeding info to the enemy. I assume she meant Mueller, but I imagine he isn’t—or wasn’t—the only Ashby enemy.”
He blinked. “Wow, thanks Maddie.” He shook his head and typed some notes on his phone before gifting me with a wide smile. “Beck called her a disgruntled housewife.”
I laughed at that accurate assessment. “She was actually. She wanted Calvin to leave his family because of Ava. It’s kind of ugly. Calvin married her because she got preggo. Were they even in love? Who the fuck knows?”
The waiter came by to drop off our salads and I poked at mine with a fork, stabbing a perfect cherry tomato. “It was like all of a sudden, she got angry and bitchy. Calvin thought it was pregnancy hormones, but dude, he’s like twenty something years old, barely older than me, and wears fucking flannels and glasses. What does he know about girl hormones?”
I popped the tomato in my mouth and sighed. “Not a fuckin’ thing, that’s what he knows. Sorry, Jamie. I get a little worked up.”
“No, don’t be sorry. You’re plenty helpful, Madds. You’re not trying to help me make detective, are you?”