“But he’s right, Alex. I’m not a cop. I don’t belong here.”
Alex’s lips brushed mine before he kissed me and pressed his forehead to mine. “Yes, you do. A badge only makes things official. I’ve known from our first case that you have good instincts. I wouldn’t want to do this job without you. Remember that.”
Looking into his soulful eyes, I felt like I could remember those things the next time Stephen shot me a nasty look or said something rude about me being on a case. “Okay.”
“Good.” He stood up and motioned toward the door. “Mind if I open the door now? People are going to start thinking something wild is going on in here.”
“You know, for a serious guy, you sure do have a way of making light of a lot of things.”
“Do you actually think I’m making light of the possibility of us having a middle of the day rendezvous right here in my office?” he said with a wickedly sexy smile I couldn’t help but love.
“Just open the door and let’s get back to work, Officer Montero.”
He slowly swung it open and there stood Craig with his hand in the air poised to knock. His eyes shifted from Alex to me and then back to Alex again. “I just wanted to see if I could talk to you.”
I quickly stood to leave. “I’ll go. Maybe I’ll make a coffee run.”
Craig turned to look at me and shook his head. “Uh, actually, I wanted to talk to the two of you, if that’s okay.”
Alex and I exchanged surprised looks and he invited Craig in to join us. The most junior member of the Sunset Ridge police seemed hesitant, as if he was reconsidering his idea to come to speak to us, but then shuffled over to the seat I’d just occupied and plopped down.
I slid behind him and sat down next to him, curious as to what Craig wanted to speak to us about since I had the feeling it had nothing to do with the case. Alex sat back down behind his desk and waited for Craig to begin talking, but he said nothing and instead just stared down at his lap.
We exchanged another set of glances as we both wondered why he’d come in to talk and wasn’t talking. Finally, Alex said, “Did you want to tell us something about the case? Would you rather wait until Stephen joins us?”
His immediate reaction showed he definitely didn’t want that to happen. Shaking his head, he quickly answered, “No. I want to talk to you two only.”
“Okay, that’s fine. What’s up?” Alex asked, but Craig still said nothing.
So I gently patted him on the forearm and leaned in next to him. “The first case is always a very exciting one. I remember the first time I worked with Alex, and that was probably way less cool than what you’re experiencing because I wasn’t a real cop like you.”
Craig turned to look at me with a wide-eyed stare. “It is exciting, but you’re so much better at this than I am, Poppy.”
“Oh, that’s not true, Craig. You just need to believe in yourself.”
He shook his head again. “Stephen obviously doesn’t believe I’m any good. He said I should stay here while he went to speak to the victim’s boyfriend. He doesn’t even want me there when he speaks to people regarding this case.”
I glanced over at Alex as Craig sat there dejected and wanted to help him. “Some people are just used to working solo. I’m sure he thinks you’re a great person to be on a case with.”
My supportive words didn’t appear to be having much effect, if the frown deepening on Craig’s face was any indication. I really wasn’t the best choice to defend Stephen in any way, so I looked over at Alex and silently urged him to jump in to help Craig.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and said, “It’s always tough to be a rookie, but you’ll get the hang of it. You’ve been around here for a while, so you’re probably more knowledgeable about how to conduct an investigation than you think. Give yourself a chance to learn the ropes.”
“I guess. I just thought that I’d be doing more of what you guys do together. I mean, you never just leave Poppy behind, do you?”
“No, but we’re different people than you and Stephen. I believe in you, Craig, and I know Poppy does. Just give it a little time.”
I quickly moved to shore up Craig’s confidence. “Oh, yeah. I totally believe in you. You’re going to be fine at this. You just have to believe in yourself.”
A smile lit up his face, and I saw that we’d done some good. “Thanks, guys. I will.”
Craig stood up to leave, but Alex stopped him by asking, “Can you bring the preliminary report on the knife? Stephen told me he’d get it to me, but it would be a big help if you could while I’m here.”
“Sure! I’ll bring it right over. It should be ready by now,” Craig said as he hurried out of the office to do as Alex asked.
Once we were alone, I quickly asked, “Why did you ask him about the report on the knife? I thought it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.”
He didn’t answer but simply smiled. Was his distrust of Stephen so thorough that he didn’t even believe that he’d get the report to him in a timely fashion?
I had no chance to press him for an answer before Craig reappeared with a sheet of paper. Handing it to Alex, he beamed, “Hot off the presses. It just came through the fax machine.”
After one glance, my partner looked up at me and then said to Craig, “Can you help with something else? I have to find a woman named Crystal Sendona. I don’t know if she lives in Sunset Ridge, but she lives in the area. Can you get me an address for her?”
I’d never seen Craig smile so broadly. Thrilled to be actively participating in the investigation, he nodded eagerly. “I’m on it. Just give me a few minutes.”
He hurried out of the office, leaving us alone once again, and Alex handed me the forensics report on the knife. “Take a look.”
I scanned the report and saw that the lab had found no fingerprints on the decorative handle of the knife or the blade. There was no residue from any medical gloves either.
Looking up from the paper, I joked, “So the murderer wore leather gloves on a hot August night or the knife magically ended up in her chest somehow.”
“Maybe someone threw the knife at her like in a carnival sideshow?” he asked with a shrug.
I handed the report back to him. “What does it matter how it got there? There are no fingerprints on it, and in the end, that’s not what killed her anyway. Were you looking for something particular in this report?”
He shook his head. “No. I was hoping there would be fingerprints we could use, but more importantly, I wanted to get a look at the report for myself. I didn’t want to have to hear about it secondhand.”
Now I was confused. “Why wouldn’t you get to?”
A strange look came over his face. “Because I’m not the lead officer on this case.”
Craig reappeared once again with another sheet of paper I suspected had the information about our next interviewee on it. “Here you go, Alex,” he happily chirped. “She lives right here in town. Are you going to speak to her now?”
I knew by the leading sound of his voice that he hoped he could join us when we went to speak to Crystal Sendona. Not that I didn’t want Craig to come along, but two police officers and me showing up at a woman’s house might scare her half to death.
Thankfully, Alex picked up on his hopefulness and came up with a way to let him down easy. “Thanks, Craig. We are going to see her in a little while. I’d say you should come with us, but I don’t want to step on Stephen’s toes in this. We all have to work together, and in the end, you are his partner. I know I wouldn’t like it if Poppy joined someone else without my knowledge.”
Craig nodded his understanding, I suspected mainly because he trusted Alex. “I get it. I definitely don’t want to make him think he can’t have faith in me even more.”
Alex stood up and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry. You guys will get used to working together. And the four of us are going to solve this case and you’ll get to chalk up a win for your first investigation.”
&nbs
p; Those supportive words had the exact effect I hoped they would, and Craig left happy to be a part of his first case. When I knew he was out of earshot, I said to Alex, “That was nice of you. He’s a good person. I’m glad you said those things. You meant them, right?”
“I did. Craig’s a good guy. He has good intentions. He’s green, but everyone is in the beginning. I think he’ll get much better as he learns more, and that will help his confidence.”
Turning around to make sure no one was outside in the hallway, I quietly said, “Why do you think Stephen is acting like he is toward Craig?”
“It’s obvious. He doesn’t think he needs to work with him since he’s a rookie when it comes to investigating.”
Hearing that made me feel bad for Craig. The guy had been dying for the chance to be more than crowd control at crime scenes and a traffic cop, and now that he had finally been given that opportunity, Stephen was cutting him out. It made me dislike Stephen even more than I already did.
“I hate that. That’s not okay, Alex.”
He looked down at me and shook his head. “No, it’s not. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s another reason.”
“Like what? He’s just a jerk?” I asked, my defensiveness for not only me but also for Craig rising inside me.
Alex didn’t answer immediately, but I saw in his expression he had something else in mind than Stephen being just an ignorant ass. Intrigued, I stood up and closed the door.
Turning back to face him, I said, “You can’t just leave me hanging like this. Please share with your partner so she has a clue as to what’s going on, okay?”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, dragging the whole thing out and making me even more curious. Sometimes he could be so dramatic.
When he didn’t speak up, I said, “Come on! Don’t hold out on me. What are you talking about?”
“I have nothing concrete, so that’s why I haven’t said anything yet, but the way he acted at the crime scene made me wonder. Jumping to conclusions is one thing, but he was pushing that witch stuff pretty hard from the moment we got there without any evidence. Then it seemed very important to him for him and Craig to investigate our victim’s personal life. He was adamant about it when I went to speak to him this morning. I didn’t care that he wanted to choose that route and have us look into her professional life, but he was insistent on it because he wanted to give Craig firsthand experience with that facet of the investigation.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not sure, but the fact that he left Craig here instead of giving him that experience in interviewing people in her personal life he was so adamant about strikes me as odd.”
In my mind, I wondered what Stephen could be up to, but also I liked the idea that Alex saw him as someone he might not be able to completely trust. It wasn’t a professional feeling at all, and I knew it. It was personal, and as much as I didn’t want to be like that, that’s how I felt.
Plus, his treatment of Craig rubbed me the wrong way. The guy just wanted to learn the job the best way he could, and it was his partner’s responsibility to help him. That Stephen had pretty much abdicated the job irritated me.
I got lucky when Alex agreed to let me work with him as his partner, and this showed me how fortunate I’d been.
Alex opened the door and held out his arm. “We’ll have to see what happens with that issue. For now, it’s time to go talk to Crystal Sendona and see if she can shine any light on who this mystery ex-boyfriend of Amy’s is.”
As I passed him, I said, “Maybe we can also find out why Tamara had such a problem with her dating him. Maybe it was jealousy, but maybe it was something else.”
Smiling, Alex walked with me down the hallway. “Maybe. Something tells me if we can find out his name, we might be able to figure out why she wouldn’t have approved of him.”
I still mentally placed my bets on pure, run-of-the-mill jealousy. After spending just a few minutes with Tamara Ridgeway, I could definitely see her as a jealous woman.
Chapter Nine
Crystal Sendona’s house sat on the corner of Rose Street and the street I lived on, Barn Street. We weren’t exactly neighbors since she lived at the far end of Barn toward the Hotel Piermont and I lived closer to the center of town, but I still was struck with how close I lived to an actual witch.
Alex pulled the car up to the front of her house, a cute bungalow type of home painted green with dark purple trim similar to the much larger older homes over on Victorian Row, as my partner liked to not-so-affectionately call the area where the most prestigious members of Sunset Ridge society lived. Crystal’s home had a far cozier look to it than those enormous Victorian homes, and I hoped we’d find its resident friendlier than the well-to-do citizens of town who routinely seemed to be the most difficult witnesses and suspects to deal with.
“I think I’m surprised to have a witch live on my street,” I announced as Alex shifted the car into park.
He looked over at me wearing a silly grin. “Is that very open mind of yours closing just slightly now that you know one lives so close by?”
I didn’t try to stop the scowl that came over my face. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not. I’m not anti-witch. I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay in that closed-minded area you exist in without me.”
“I’ll try to survive. Ready?”
“Sure. Once again, do you think I should do the talking?”
Alex shook his head and frowned. “I think I can handle it. I haven’t had a problem so far.”
I opened my door and got out of the car. Looking across the roof, I saw him throw me a smug look. I hated when he was right like this.
The temperature had climbed to the low nineties, and it wasn’t even noon yet. By the time I reached Crystal’s front porch, beads of sweat already sat on my forehead, waiting for the moment when they’d roll down into my eyes. As always, Alex looked unfazed by the heat, even as he wore his dark blue uniform.
Fanning myself as he rang the doorbell, I asked, “Is this thing with you and the heat something they teach cops in the police academy? If there’s a trick to dealing with the heat while wearing a dark, long-sleeved shirt, I think you should share it with me since I’m beginning to melt from the weather.”
“There’s no trick. Some people are just better in the heat than others. I think it’s my Mediterranean ancestry. Between the Spanish and Italian, I have generations of people who were used to warm weather inside me. You’ve got one hundred percent Irish, and that doesn’t help you with handling the heat.”
More smugness, this time about his ancestry and why he could handle the heat better than I could. It might have been the scorching temperatures, but his coolness about all these things was getting on my nerves a bit.
The front door opened and a young woman in her mid-twenties with long, straight brown hair and stunning hazel eyes stood looking out through the screen door at us. Her gaze focused immediately on Alex in his official uniform and opened wide with a look of fear.
“Officer? Is something wrong?”
“Miss Sendona, my name is Officer Alex Montero. This is my partner Poppy McGuire. We’d like to talk to you about your friend, Amy Perkins. Do you have a few minutes for us to ask you some questions?”
I watched for her reaction to see if she knew about Amy’s death, and it became obvious quite quickly that Crystal Sendona already knew what had happened to her fellow witch. The fear in her eyes faded away, replaced by sadness, and she silently nodded her head before opening the door for us to come in.
One step into her home told me she loved nature. Pictures of meadows and groves hung on the walls of her living room, and a wallpaper border of green and yellow flowers on a white background ran around the length of all four walls up next to the ceiling. In addition, vases full of purple and pink wildflowers stood on the end tables flanking her light green sofa on the far wall and on a cutout between the living room and dining room.
In addit
ion to those clues, I immediately noticed her love of nature extended to her having no air conditioning in her house. Just my luck. We had one person to interview, and of course, her house would have to be as hot as a steam bath.
Crystal appeared to have been blessed by the same genes as Alex since I didn’t notice a drop of perspiration anywhere on her face. Damn my northern European ancestors!
“Miss Sendona, we’d like to ask you about Amy Perkins. We’re investigating her murder last night,” Alex said quietly in a sympathetic voice.
“Yes, of course. I assumed someone would come around at some point since Amy and I were close friends,” Crystal answered, her words laced with grief.
“We apologize for having to do this while you’re mourning. It’s just that the sooner we can find out anything that might give us a clue as to who her killer is, the sooner we can catch him or her,” I explained, knowing what she was going through at that moment as she grieved the death of her close friend.
Clearing her throat, Crystal nodded and offered us a seat in the living room as she sat down in a chair opposite the sofa. “I understand. Whatever I can do to help the police find out who did this.”
Alex and I sat down on the light green sofa that turned out to be much older than it looked and had practically no springs left under its cushions. He quickly caught himself before the piece of furniture sucked him in, but I wasn’t as fortunate and within seconds, I found myself struggling to regain my ability to sit upright.
After my ab muscles performed a full workout in about three seconds’ time, I got myself to the edge of the sofa with the help of Alex’s hand on my back. Embarrassed, I hoped Crystal hadn’t noticed my clumsiness, but she had and even through her sadness giggled at me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. It just reminded me of Amy. Every time she came over, she’d sit down on the couch and would end up on her back just like you just did. And every time she’d say I needed to get new furniture.”
The Witching Hour Page 9