“I’m fine, Poppy. Did I wake you up? Sorry,” he said in a low voice devoid of emotion.
But I knew his emotions about this case were exactly what was keeping him up tonight.
Propping my head up on my hand, I let myself wake up for a few moments, worry about the man I loved uppermost in my mind. Finally, when I could think clearly, I asked him, “You haven’t gotten to sleep yet tonight, have you?”
Alex turned his head and groaned. “Not really. I didn’t mean to wake you up, though. Go back to sleep and I promise I won’t do it again.”
I ran my hand over his chest and let it come to rest over his heart. “I hate seeing you so torn up like this. I’m worried that this case is going to drive you crazy.”
He covered my hand with his and smiled at me. “I won’t let it make me nuts, Poppy. I’ll be fine.”
“It’s quarter to four in the morning and you’ve been tossing and turning all night. I think you might have reached nuts level already.”
My assessment made him laugh, and for a moment, he looked happy like I loved to see him. I wanted to see his face light up like that more. This case had only been active for a day and already he was battling insomnia because of it.
“Oh, this isn’t nuts level. Trust me. I’ve had cases that nearly drove me out of my mind until I could solve them. I’m still okay.”
I didn’t believe that whatsoever, but I didn’t want to argue with him either. As his partner, I was the person who needed to be by his side during the hard times, and having to investigate one of your fellow officers definitely qualified as hard.
Leaning over, I kissed Alex’s lips lightly and whispered against them, “I love you, so I’ll be right here for you the whole way.”
He looked up at me with eyes filled with worry. “Good. I can’t do this without you.”
“That’s ridiculous. Of course you can,” I reassured him, knowing that at any time the town council may decide that I couldn’t be his partner on cases anymore.
Alex pulled me down so my head rested on his chest and kissed the top of my head. “I don’t want to do this without you. How’s that? Better?”
“Well, since you put it that way…” I whispered against his neck.
I breathed in the masculine scent of his skin, loving the very essence of who he was. Strong, steady, caring. He knew full well he could investigate any case he encountered without me and do a better job than most cops. Whatever I brought to cases, it wasn’t expertise. I would never delude myself into believing that.
If anything, working with Alex helped me far more than it helped him. For the first time in my life, I had been given the chance to learn how to truly investigate like I’d always wanted to. If the Sunset Ridge town council took that away, I’d be the one who suffered. Alex would still go on doing what he did best—solving crimes. My absence on cases would just mean he would get a partner that probably wouldn’t jump to conclusions as easily as I tended to and was a real cop.
We lay there in each other’s arms, each of us knowing when we returned to the world outside my bedroom in a few hours that the case would be there with all its problems. Alex held me and squeezed my body to his like he was afraid I’d slip away if he didn’t keep me in his arms.
He didn’t have to worry. I wasn’t going anywhere. He wasn’t only my partner in crime. He was the man I loved, and at times like this when he needed me most, I knew my place was at his side.
I listened as his breathing slowed and felt his chest move up and down more slowly, hoping my being there for him would help him finally get some sleep. After a few minutes of lying there in silence, I lifted my head and saw he’d finally drifted off.
Tonight would be less than three hours, but at least he’d get some sleep before returning to the case in the morning.
Alex sat at the kitchen table drinking his first cup of coffee of the day and writing notes in that pad he kept with him at all times. I poured myself a cup and sat down across from him as I prayed to the coffee gods to wake me up.
Lifting his head, he spoke for the first time that morning. “I don’t want to believe a fellow cop did this, Poppy. I can’t.”
The betrayal I saw in his eyes made my stomach twist into a tight knot. Alex wasn’t a naïve person. He saw people for who they were, not who he wished they might be. He knew in his gut, just as I did, that what we’d learned so far couldn’t rule Stephen out.
And his behavior didn’t help to make anyone think he was innocent.
“Tamara and Kellen are still very solid suspects too, Alex. Don’t forget them.”
I took a sip of coffee and relished its taste, letting it slowly make its way into my body and begin to work its magic. I still believed Kellen could be our killer. At the very least, he was a distinctly unlikeable person and someone who didn’t care much about Amy. For those reasons alone, I wouldn’t be bothered in the least if he turned out to be our murderer.
But my reminder of those other two suspects didn’t ease Alex’s mind. He took a drink of coffee and set his cup down on the kitchen table shaking his head and wearing that frown that seemed to never leave him on this case. “I’ve tried, but I can’t get past the fact that he must have lied about how long he was at Mrs. Henderson’s house. She’s a pretty strong witness against him.”
I wanted to play devil’s advocate, but in this situation, I didn’t know how to. Mrs. Henderson had been sure of when Stephen arrived and left. Her certainty left little room for doubt. If it hadn’t been for that ridiculous TV show of hers, maybe there could be some wiggle room.
But there wasn’t.
“Where was he for at least twenty to thirty minutes after he left Mrs. Henderson’s house?” Alex asked and then sighed.
“Maybe we’re missing something here,” I said weakly, knowing we weren’t. Time didn’t lie, no matter how much he may have wished it would.
“If he went somewhere else after her house, why wouldn’t he say so?” Alex asked, his voice full of stress as his mind raced to find a good reason to explain how Stephen couldn’t have killed Amy, a woman he knew and lied about even to his fellow officers.
He finished his coffee and stood up to take his cup to the sink. “That would be enough time for him to commit the crime and get back to the station. He knows this and still he hasn’t given any explanation after he lied about knowing the victim. No matter which way I think about this, it’s not good, Poppy.”
I heard the frustration mixing with his anguish at the situation, but I had nothing that would help. For as many times as Stephen had been a thorn in my side, I hadn’t wished this on him, and even more, I hated how unhappy this was making Alex. But I had no answer for how he could be innocent yet Mrs. Henderson could still remain correct in her assertion of when he left her house that night.
“We better get going. I want to check out every one of our potential suspects again. I want to make sure we’re not missing something.”
Drinking the last of my coffee, I quickly washed my mug and set it in the dish drainer. “Okay. I’m ready to greet the day now that I’ve had my first cup of coffee. Lead the way!”
Usually, my chipper attitude made Alex smile, even though he didn’t feel the same way about mornings, but today he was too much in his own head to even give me a perfunctory smile and pretend that he was amused by my gung-ho attitude courtesy of caffeine.
Waiting for us right inside the doors of the police station were Derek and Stephen. I saw them through the glass as we walked toward the building and knew Alex did too. I wasn’t even touching him, but I felt him tense up next to me.
We’d barely made it through the doors before he began questioning Stephen. Without even pulling him aside, he asked, “Where did you go after you left Mrs. Henderson’s? Did you go anywhere before you came back here?”
His words were laced with hope, but Stephen didn’t seem to hear it and immediately reacted defensively. Narrowing his eyes, he glared at Alex and snapped, “I told you I came right back her
e. Check my report.”
That answer didn’t deter Alex, though. He continued looking for a way to help his fellow officer, even if he didn’t seem to want that help.
“She says you were gone before her show ended, and that was at ten. If you went anywhere else, just tell us,” Alex said, practically pleading for him to give him anything to work with.
Stephen’s face turned red with rage. He exploded with anger and barked, “She’s nothing but a doddering old fool who can’t remember anything other than people parking in front of her house! I can’t believe you trust her over one of your own!”
Before Alex or Derek could do something to diffuse the situation, he stormed down the hall toward his desk and disappeared out of view. Rude as usual, he was doing nothing to help himself. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I wasn’t.
Alex shook his head but said nothing. Derek simply nodded, as he often did when people behaved just as he expected them to. Never a huge fan of Stephen’s, he may not have believed he was a murderer but he knew very well how difficult he could be.
“I need you to come into my office, Alex. We need to talk.”
As much as I wanted to participate in the case, the look of worry on Derek’s face told me now might be a good time to head across the street on a coffee run. Touching Alex on the arm, I said, “I’m going over to The Grounds. Want me to get you anything?”
“No, I’m good. Just come back when you’re done and we’ll start on going over everything we know about our suspects.”
With a smile, I said, “I will.” Turning to look at Derek, I asked, “Get you anything? A danish?”
Unlike most other days, Derek just shook his head. Something had to be really wrong because he rarely turned down the offer of a danish. It was probably about Stephen looking guiltier by the minute, but I’d find out when I got back.
As I headed toward the door, I heard Stephen banging things around back at his desk like some kind of spoiled child having a tantrum. The contrast between how Alex acted when he was accused of being Bethany’s killer and how Stephen acted now couldn’t have been clearer, and something inside my brain pushed me to finally say what was on my mind.
I marched back to where he sat and found him opening drawers and slamming them shut. He didn’t notice me standing next to his desk, so I waited until he looked up to say my piece. When he finally did see me there, I could barely hold back the words from tumbling out of my mouth.
“You should know that even thinking you might have anything to do with Amy Perkins’ murder is agonizing for Alex. He spent most of the night wide awake tossing and turning, unable to come to grips with the possibility that one of the people he’s believed in all this time wasn’t the person he thought he was.”
Stephen just looked up at me with an angry glare, like what I said irritated him, but he said nothing in return. I wanted to smack that nasty expression off his face he made me so angry.
“I just thought you should know that while you’re accusing him of falling down on the job, he’s hoping every clue that turns up shows you had nothing to do with any of this.”
Once more, he said nothing but sneered at me before he returned to slamming the metal drawers in his desk. I turned on my heels and marched down the hallway to leave him to act like a child. As I passed the receptionist, I rolled my eyes and she did the same in return.
He deserved all the dirty looks he got.
By the time I hit the heat outside, my blood pressure had skyrocketed and the beginning of a whopper of a headache was forming just above my eyes. I needed a coffee and something sweet. Hopefully, that would help ease the pain in my head dealing with Stephen for just two minutes had created.
The line at The Grounds extended almost to the front door, so I waited as patiently as possible for my favorite drink and snack. Pam had told me she was looking to hire some new people part-time because business had picked up so much in the past few months. Leaning around the person in front of me, I saw a young man working behind the counter who I’d never seen there before. That explained the long line and crazy slow service.
Ten minutes later, only three people remained in line in front of me. As the first person told the new hire her order and waited for him to make two cappuccinos and bag up three cheese danishes, the man and woman in front of me began discussing their favorite cooking shows. I listened for a moment, curious about running into more people this week who enjoyed watching others make food.
“I just love cooking,” the woman cooed. “I’m so glad cooking shows have become so popular.”
The irony of someone standing in line at a coffee shop to get food and drink easily made at home while she professed a love for cooking wasn’t lost on me. Amused by this, I chuckled quietly and tried to tune the woman out as she went on and on about her favorite meals I seriously doubted she ever cooked.
“…I was so angry when I went to watch Cross Country and my DVR didn’t get it all. I swear, that machine has one job and it doesn’t seem to be able to get it right. Every time I DVR a show on TV Land, it either cuts off the ending or I get the first fifteen minutes of the next show. It’s ridiculous!” she complained as we waited for those two cheese danishes to find their way into a bag for the woman at the counter.
The man with her asked, “What happened to Cross Country? I didn’t think that was on TV Land. Is it?”
Shaking her head, she huffed out her answer. “It’s not. I have no idea what happened. Something preempted it and my DVR didn’t catch the second half of the show. I’m so irritated. I love that show.”
My mind raced at hearing this. Was it possible Mrs. Henderson had been mistaken on the time she thought Stephen left?
I jumped out of line and bolted out the door. I ran the four blocks to her house in the already sweltering heat of the day, drenched in sweat by the time I got there. Huffing and puffing, I struggled to catch my breath and fought a stabbing pain in my side after my dash there, clearly out of shape and needing to work out more.
That would have to wait, though. Now I had more pressing issues to deal with.
I knocked on Mrs. Henderson’s door and she answered seconds later, giving me one of her tight smiles as she approached me. Through the screen door, she said, “The police really are taking this issue seriously, aren’t they? Good. But where is your policeman friend today?”
“Hi, Mrs. Henderson. Yes, I think they are. I wanted to ask you some more questions about that show you love. Cross Country, right?”
“Yes,” she said, clearly confused by my newfound interest in a topic I’d clearly shown not an iota of caring for just a day earlier.
“You said you DVR’d the show, right?”
“I did. Why do you care about the shows I record, Poppy?” she asked, her tight smile arching down into a frown.
“Have you watched it yet?” I asked, eager to find out if what I suspected might be true.
“No. I was going to tonight. What’s this all about?”
“Would you be willing to let me see what you recorded, Mrs. Henderson? It would help with a case. I’d really appreciate it,” I answered with my most sincere smile.
She didn’t appear to fully understand why someone she barely knew would want to come into her house and watch a recording of her favorite show, but she opened the screen door for me and we walked into her living room. Thank God for the trusting nature that ran so deep in the citizens of small towns.
Grabbing the remote, she began to press buttons to get to her list of recorded shows. “I’m not sure how this could help with a case. This certainly won’t help with getting those people to stop parking in front of my house every night,” she grumbled as she scrolled through the list.
I watched the screen carefully, and when she found the most recent episode of Cross Country, I read the information about when it recorded. It should have said Thursday’s date and nine o’clock, but as I stared at the TV, I saw it said nine-thirty instead. Mrs. Henderson’s DVR had done the same thing
that woman in the line at The Grounds had complained about.
Holding my hand up, I said, “Mrs. Henderson, don’t go to the show yet. This says that it began recording at nine-thirty that night. I thought you said your show ran from nine to ten every weekday night.”
The elderly woman leaned in toward the TV and stared at it for a minute reading the details on the screen. “It does. Why does it say it started at nine-thirty?”
I had no idea what had preempted the show. She shook her head for a moment before it dawned on her what had happened.
“Oh yes, that’s right. There was some man giving a press conference on something nobody cares about, so they had to move the show back. But we got to see all of Cross Country, thankfully. If not, I would have called up the cable company and given them a piece of my mind.”
“So do you have any idea when the officer who came over here that night left?” I asked, my heart beating wildly at the possibility that I may have found out something to help Alex clear his fellow officer.
“I think the show was about halfway through, so I’d say very close to ten.”
And with that, I had something I could give to Alex.
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Henderson. I’ll be sure to tell my partner that the police definitely need to take care of that parking issue for you. Have a wonderful day!”
I got a genuine smile from her before I took off toward the police station, running for the second time that day. I reached my destination in a few minutes, even more exhausted and sweatier than I was just a few minutes earlier, but none of that mattered.
As I came through the doors and felt the wonderful air conditioning hit me, I stopped and saw Alex still in Derek’s office meeting with him. I was eager to give him my news, but I didn’t want to interrupt them.
Derek saw me standing there and called out, “Poppy, I want you to come in here too.”
The frown Alex wore made me think something more had happened, so I wanted to give them my information and hopefully cheer them up. I walked into his office and immediately said, “I have great news, guys! I think I found a clue that’s integral to the case.”
The Witching Hour Page 16