by Liz Bradford
He took another swig of his coffee. He pulled the station door open and walked through.
“Hey, Adam!” He turned his head and saw his cousin, Jocelyn North, who was the department’s forensic photographer coming up the stairs from the lab.
“Hey, Jocelyn.”
She fell in step with him as he walked toward the squad room. “How’s Ella? She looked really shaken last night.”
“She’s doing all right. Had a rough night but was doing better this morning.”
“Glad to hear she’s having a better morning. Where is she? Wait, don’t tell me the fewer people who know the better, I’m sure. Tell her I’m praying for her.”
“Will do. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.” He held the door open for her, and they entered the squad room. “What do you have for us?”
“I have the pictures of the crime scene from last night printed out.” She held up a manila folder. “Nothing too exciting. I’m going to take the individual evidence pictures when I go back down. The lab has the knife right now looking for fingerprints and taking samples of the blood from where she nicked the guy.”
“Excellent.” Proof that the guy that grabbed her last night was the same as the guy from seventeen years ago.
“Hey, Gavin; Becca,” Jocelyn greeted the other detectives.
“Hey, guys,” Adam said.
Gavin and Becca both said hello.
Jocelyn handed over the folder and the detectives looked through the stack of pictures and pulled out a few and to add to the white board. Adam walked over to his desk but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a bouquet of daisies sitting on his desk. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Why were there flowers on his desk just like the ones he had gone in the store to buy for Ella last night? “Hey guys, who put those flowers on my desk?”
“No idea.” Becca turned from putting the pictures on the board. “They were there when I got here this morning.”
“Some of those were on the ground at the crime scene last night, right?” Jocelyn asked.
“Yeah, that’s why I was away from Ella for that moment. I ran in the convenience store. I knew they had a little section of flowers and wanted to get some for her. But I dropped them when I saw the attack. Totally forgot about them.”
Gavin said, “Maybe someone saw you dropped them and picked them up for you.”
“Maybe…” He took the few last steps to his desk and was about to pick them up when he saw an envelope under them. He had not left that on his desk yesterday. “Maybe not…” He pulled a pair of gloves out of his desk, slipped them on, and carefully pulled the envelope out from under the flowers. Becca, Gavin, and Jocelyn all came over and gathered around his desk. Jared soon followed when Becca called him over. He opened the envelope. A single folded sheet of copy paper was inside. He set the envelope down and unfolded the paper. The note was typed in large letters. He read it.
She got away this time, but you can count on that NOT happening again. You tell your little girlfriend her days are almost over. And if you get in the way, so are yours. I may not know where she is staying, but I will find her.
His stomach dropped. He was going to be sick. That man had been at his desk. And had once again threatened Ella’s life. The heat from his anger started in his toes and worked its way all the way up to his head. He dropped the letter back on the desk and ran his hands into his hair. “Who saw him? Who put these flowers on my desk? Somebody had to have seen him!” He looked at his friends. They all looked confused. He hadn’t read the letter out loud. Becca stepped over and put a hand on his shoulder and leaned over his desk and read the letter. Her fingers tightened on his shoulder. He locked eyes with her. The fear in her eyes reflected how he felt.
Gavin moved toward them and used a glove to slide the letter and envelope into an evidence bag. He did the same for the flowers. “Is there anything else out of place on your desk?”
Adam looked. Everything else was just as he had left it the day before. “No. Just the envelope and flowers.” He felt paralyzed. He stood there as his friends flew into action in response to the threat that had just been delivered. Gavin had put the bagged letter face up on the desk. The words stared up at Adam and seemed to mock him. He swallowed past the lump that had formed in his throat.
Becca’s voice broke into his head, “You need to call Amelia.”
He looked at her. She was right.
Jared asked, “Do you know if Ella was going to work today?”
“No, she didn’t sleep last night. Pretty sure she’s planning on taking tomorrow off too.”
“Ok, call Amelia so she knows what’s going on, but she needs to stay with Ella,” Jared said.
He pulled his phone off his belt. How was he going to tell them? Amelia answered on the third ring. “What?” He must have woken her. After the late night she had, she had still been in bed when he left for the station at nine.
“Hey. Mornin’ to you too. We have a problem.”
“What is it?” Concern replaced the annoyance in her voice.
“I just received another threat on Ella’s life.”
“And yours too,” Becca added just loudly enough for Amelia to hear too.
“Yours?”
He read her the note and explained the flowers.
“Do you want me to come in?”
“No, Sarge said to stay with Ella. Please keep her safe.”
“You know I will.”
“I know.”
“Okay. Keep me posted.”
He hung up the phone and felt the anger rising. “Someone had to have seen something. Someone doesn’t just waltz into the detectives squad room with flowers and not have somebody notice!” His cheeks and ears burned.
Jared walked over to him and squared himself in front of Adam. “You’re right!” He spoke in a hushed, but serious tone. “And we’re going to move this to the conference room before we discuss it further. You know I understand exactly how you feel right now, but you have to maintain control or you’re off the case.”
“Yes, sir.” Adam silently counted to four and turned towards the conference room. He tried not to storm into the room but paced back and forth as he waited for the other detectives to join him. They had to get this guy sooner rather than later.
Gavin, Becca, Jared, and Captain Baker came into the room. As soon as the Captain closed the door behind himself Adam said, “Wait. Where’s the evidence?”
Becca sat at the table. “Jocelyn took custody of it. She’s taking it down now to get pictures and have it dusted for fingerprints. You trust her, right?”
“Yeah, definitely. The question is who do we not trust? How did this guy get in here and leave it on my desk?”
“That’s what we have to figure out,” Jared said from where he stood by the door.
“What time did y’all get here today and were they there when you did?” Adam asked.
“Becca and I got here around eight. Becca did you say you saw them there?”
“Yep. Gavin, you were here before me? What did you see?”
Gavin answered, “I got here around 7:30. They were already there. I was also one of the last ones to leave. Didn’t finish typing up Ella’s statement until two.”
Becca gave him a cockeyed look. “Did you sleep?”
“A little bit.”
Adam was getting impatient, “But were they there when you left?”
“No. And no one else was here.”
“Captain?”
“I turned the lights on when I came in at seven this morning. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice if the flowers were on your desk.”
Jared said, “So we have a five-hour window in which someone could have come in and put it there.”
“We have security cameras. Let’s pull the tapes,” the Captain said.
Becca chuckled. “Captain, no disrespect, but you do know it’s all digital these days.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
Even Adam smiled. “Sounds like that
’s what we need to do first. See who came in with the flowers and arrest them.”
Gavin replied, “Let’s hope it’s that simple.”
It had better be.
Chapter 16
Adam leaned his head down on his arms that were folded on Jocelyn’s desk. “Well, that was pointless.” After six hours of staring at a computer monitor, Gavin’s warning was ringing true. They had nothing. Gavin, Jocelyn, and Adam had sat in Jocelyn’s office in the basement all day watching hours of video.
“I don’t get it!” Jocelyn said.
They had watched the door to the squad room. Nothing. Not one person had gone through that door between when Gavin left at two and when the Captain entered at seven. After that everyone that entered belonged and no one was carrying flowers. They had looked through the video from the front door and every other entrance to the entire building.
“Okay. So,” Gavin said, “no one came in outright carrying the flowers, but who could have been carrying them hidden?” They spent another hour going back through taking screen shots of every single person that entered the station carrying a bag big enough or a jacket loose enough to conceal the bouquet. They crossed that with people who entered the squad room. They had four possibilities. Two of which they couldn’t tell who they were at all because one hid their head and the other had on a baseball cap. One was a woman, clearly not the attacker, but maybe she was working in cahoots with him. But the other left a weird taste in their mouths.
“That’s Patrick,” Gavin said.
Adam looked at his cousin. Her lips were pursed together, and her head was tipped to the side.
The air in the room was tight. What was his cousin’s husband, a patrol officer, doing?
Gavin broke the silence that was hanging between the three. “Anyone know why Patrick would go up to the squad room? Makes sense that he would bring a bag to work, but why would he go in there. He was a little early for duty, but who would he have gone to see in there?”
Adam rubbed the back of his stiff neck. “He and Scott seem to be buddies. Was Scott in the squad room?” They ran back through the footage. No, Scott, unless he was one of the unidentifiable men. He came in later.
“Sorry, Joc, looks like your husband just made the suspect list.” Gavin bit his lip.
“He’s not the only one though, Jocelyn. We’ve got nothing more to go on yet.” The look on his cousin’s face made him know he had to ask more questions, not questions he wanted to ask. “Is there any reason to believe that he could be involved?”
“Jocelyn,” Gavin interrupted, “You don’t have to answer that.”
Adam looked at Gavin with a furrowed brow. He was right that legally she didn’t have to answer.
Adam’s phone rang. He pulled it off his belt. It was Ella. His heart lifted. He stood and paced to the other side of the room and answered it. “Hey.”
“Hi, Adam.” Her voice was salve to his tired mind. “How’s your day going?”
“Eh, not as productive as I would have hoped. How ‘bout you? You doin’ okay?”
“I guess, I’m so tired, but every time I close my eyes…”
“I’m sure.” If only he could pull her into his arms.
“Well, I called to see if you wanted to come over to Amelia’s for dinner.”
“I would love that!”
“Oh good.” He could hear the relief in her voice.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I think I’m almost at a point I can leave, and I’ll come straight over.” His heart raced at the idea of seeing her. They said goodbye, and he turned back towards Gavin and Jocelyn who were leaning a little too close talking to one another. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything about it. Instead he went back to the question he had asked her before Ella called. “Jocelyn,” the two jumped back from one another, “we have to talk about this at some point, because I can tell there is something more going on with Patrick. And if we need to talk just as family, let’s.”
“Not right now. But you can trust that I won’t say anything to him about being a person of interest. But don’t let your personal disdain for him cloud your judgment as a detective. Please, Adam.”
“I’ll try not to. I don’t think he’s the rapist, but I have to consider what his involvement is with the flowers.”
“I know.”
“Gavin, do you think we need to do much more today?”
“Well, we should run this all by Becca and Jared at least. But I can do that. I take it Ella wants to see you?”
His heart did a somersault again. He nodded. “She does. Jocelyn, can you print off the pics of the people and the note for me to show Amelia as I think she’ll stay with Ella again tomorrow. And keep all of it backed up somewhere other than the station’s server, just in case this guy really does have connections inside the department.”
“Can do and will do. I want Ella’s attacker caught and punished. Don’t forget that Ella is my friend.”
“I know. I still can’t believe you’ve been friends with her and didn’t tell me.”
“Hey, I watched what happened between you two in high school, and I wasn’t about to stir any of that up in either of you.”
“Fair enough.”
Jocelyn printed off the pictures Adam asked for. They would need to interview each of those they could identify and try to figure out who the other two were, but it could wait for tomorrow since today was almost gone.
Ella kept stirring the sauce. It was the only way to keep her hands from shaking. It had been a long day of nothing. She had helped Amelia sort through baby things, mostly hand-me-downs from Becca and Becca’s sister, Amy. It had been a perfect distraction, but it hadn’t lasted more than a few hours. Then she was back to avoiding sleep. Her nerves were fried, leaving her stomach with a perpetual state of queasiness. O Lord, help. Bring peace to my soul. I’m so weary. I know I need to sleep, but the dreams… She needed to refocus. She had spent the hour after Adam left and before Amelia got up reading her Bible. It had been wonderful, and the Lord had really touched her heart and given her peace, but that peace was once again dwindling.
She was also anxious for Adam to get there. They had talked almost thirty minutes ago, and given the threat he received today, she was more worried about him than ever. Hopefully, he’d show up soon.
Thunder rumbled outside. It sounded like they were in for a doozy of a storm. But the sound of thunder always reminded her of one of her favorite hymns, so she started singing softly.
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r thro’out the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
She sang the last verse and chorus, and a familiar baritone joined in. Without stopping, she turned to see Adam standing at the edge of the kitchen, looking just as exhausted as she felt.
Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
She wished he believed the words he so easily sang with her. Jesus, please draw him to your heart. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He moved closer to her.
She was sure he wanted to hug her, but she turned and attended to the food on the stove. The flashbacks were sitting on the sidelines just waiting to play, but she would do everything in her might to keep them benched. “Rough day, huh?” she asked him.
“You could say that. What did Amelia tell you?”
“Everything you told her.”
Amelia walked into the kitchen. “Any developments? Any idea where the flowers came from?”
“There are a few possibilities. Where are the kids?”
“They’re upstairs,” Amelia said. “Go ahead and fill us in.”
&
nbsp; Ella put down the spoon she was using to stir the alfredo and stepped across the kitchen to where Adam was pulling out a stack of photographs.
“These are the only four people who entered the squad room and could have possibly been carrying the flowers.” Adam laid the pictures out across the counter and held up another. “This is the note.”
The words jumped off the page and hit Ella in the gut. She was already nauseated, now she felt like she might actually throw up. The fear started creeping back in.
She jumped when Adam touched her arm. Despite the fear that resided deep in his eyes, the strength of his presence eased her anxiety. She looked back at the pictures. “Is that Jocelyn’s husband, Patrick?”
“It is.”
“You don’t think he’s…”
“I’m not making any conclusions now, not until I talk to him, but I don’t think so.”
She looked at the other pictures. She picked up the first unidentifiable person and then the other. “It could be either of these guys. They both seem tall enough and built the same way.”
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Gavin and Becca are going to try and identify them, and we’ll interview these people specifically tomorrow. Becca and Jared spent today talking to everyone in the station.”
Amelia asked, “Did they learn anything? Did anyone see anything?”
“Nothing. How can a bunch of detectives not notice anything? Aren’t we trained to notice things that are out of place? I wasn’t there, you think someone would be suspicious of someone at my desk.”
“Unless it was someone who wasn’t out of place?” Amelia took the pictures from Ella.
Ella asked him, “So it has to be one of these four people to have put the flowers on your desk?”
“The only other possibility is someone tampered with the footage. When I left Jocelyn was going back through it to see if there are any glitches or something that would indicate that it had been altered.”
“Either we’re looking at an inside job, or at least someone who has inside connections?” Amelia asked.