Alfred Hitchcock sat on the large overstuffed ottoman and stared down at the robotic vacuum with disdain as it moved slowly across the floor, and Sidney tried not to laugh. The cat was not as big a fan of the machine as she was.
After Ike had left for work she’d showered and put on a clean, comfy pajama set that was littered with tiny coffee cups. Then she’d twisted her copious curls into a bun on top of her head and spent the entire morning being a domestic goddess. She’d cleaned up the kitchen, washed and folded two loads of laundry, cleaned out the litter box, and scrubbed both bathrooms.
She’d discovered that cleaning the house was a good way to clear her mind. And after the fight she and Ike had at breakfast, her mind needed a lot of clearing.
She didn’t blame Ike for being angry with her. She understood his position perfectly. But she stood by her decision to warn Ronan. It had simply felt like the right thing to do. The decent thing. She only wished Isaac could see that.
She was fluffing the throw pillows and straightening up the sunroom when her cellphone rang. It took her a moment to locate it in all the cleaning chaos, but once she did she smiled at Simon’s picture on the screen.
“Hey big brother! How is your morning going?”
“Sidney?”
The voice was definitely not Simon’s.
It was slightly familiar somehow, but it was the distinctly panicked tone that truly puzzled her.
“Yes?” Sidney could hear the caution in her own voice. “Who is this?”
“Sidney, it’s Jamie.”
“Jamie?”
Wait. This was not computing in her brain.
“Jamie Rooney. From the gym? And from Hope House?”
Jamie Rooney? What?
“Yes, of course.” Sidney’s brain was clogged. Fogged over. What was happening? “I’m… I’m sorry, I thought my phone said—”
“Sidney, something’s happened. Simon needs your help.”
What?
Okay, so it was her brother’s face she saw when the phone rang after all?
“I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“A woman has been murdered, Sidney. A woman from Simon’s past. And now Simon has just been arrest—”
“What? What the hell is happening? Why are you calling from my brother’s phone? What is going on here?”
None of this was making any sense. She had so many questions and she couldn’t get her thoughts together to comprehend what she was hearing.
“Sidney! Please pay attention.”
Jamie shouted.
It was stinging, like a slap to Sidney’s face, and she shut right up and listened more closely.
“I have been here at Simon’s place for nearly a week,” Jamie continued, her voice tight with tension. “Yesterday, the woman he was seeing in Japan, Cassie Hinton, was murdered. Earlier in the day, she had been here at Simon’s. Today she is dead. And Simon has just been arrested.”
Sidney’s stomach seized and jerked like it was trying to expel breakfast.
“Arrested?”
“But he didn’t do it, Sidney. I know he didn’t because he’s been here with me twenty-four seven!”
Sidney’s head was spinning like a tornado. Too much information at one time. She pushed it all aside and made herself focus on what was important.
“Okay, Jamie, I have so many questions, but I won’t ask any of them right this second. What I will do is call Isaac. We will hire a lawyer for Simon and then we will get on the road to Dayton. Keep Simon’s phone close. I’ll call you back with updates.”
“Okay. And Sidney?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I don’t know anyone here in Dayton except for Simon, and if he hadn’t told me to call you, I would be lost right now.”
Jamie’s voice finally broke, and Sidney could hear all of the raw vulnerability and the fear. There was so much she wanted to say. But now was not the time.
“Thank you for calling, Jamie. I’ll be in touch.”
“This case is making me crazy, partner.” Pete massaged his temples.
“You and me both, man.” Isaac dropped his pencil and took a swig from his water bottle. It wasn’t just the firefighter case that had him battling a major headache this morning though. He was out of sorts because of the argument with his wife at breakfast.
He hated when he and Sidney argued. It happened so rarely. Maybe that was why it just felt so wrong.
He’d been angry about her decision to warn O’Dwyer of the coming crack down on document forgers in the area, but he knew that he’d been a little too harsh in the things he’d said to her.
That jab about prison.
That had been over the top. Said with bite, to make a point. What he’d said was true, but the way he’d said it bothered him.
He needed to make this right.
No matter how angry he was, no matter how much he disagreed with her decision, Sidney was his whole world and he needed his world to be harmonious again. He would give her a call as soon as he got a chance.
He let go of a heavy sigh and picked up his pencil again. He was going over the notes he’d made last night while manning the phones at the Crisis Center. Part of him — the logical part — knew that his scribblings meant nothing. But the other part of him — the part that dealt in the unknowable, metaphysical, psychic crap — wouldn’t let it go.
There was something to this hunch. He could feel it in his gut. The fire at the Pryor Brake Plant six months ago was way too similar to the fire at the Cuyahoga County Canning Factory.
That fact had him wondering if there had been any other mysterious fires lately that could also fall into this pattern. Or were these the only two?
Determined to find out, he placed his fingers on his computer keyboard just as his cellphone rang.
An image of his Sidney lit up the screen, and his heavy heart.
“Hey, darlin’. I was planning to call you on my lunch hour so—”
“Ike, Simon’s in trouble,” Sidney cut him off with a panic-filled voice. “We have to go to Dayton!”
“Wait. Whoa.” Isaac held up a hand as though she could see the gesture over the phone. “Hold on now. Slow down, Sid, and tell me what’s wrong with Simon?”
He could hear her take a deep breath and blow it out. Then she started to talk again, and he could tell that she was trying not to panic.
“I got a frantic phone call from Jamie Rooney. You remember her?”
“Your abused friend from the gym. Yes.”
“Yeah, well, she called me from Simon’s phone and told me that Simon has just been arrested.”
“Arrested?”
“Yes!”
“What on Earth for?”
“Murder apparently.”
Isaac shook his head as if to clear out his ears. “Do what? Who the hell did he supposedly kill?”
“You remember him telling us about the woman he was in love with in Japan? The married one?”
“Yeah.”
“Her! She’s dead and Simon’s been arrested for her murder.”
“Wait, so this woman’s not in Japan anymore?”
“All I know is what I’ve told you, Ike. I don’t know any more than that.”
“Okay, okay. Listen, what I need first is for you to calm down. I know that you’re worried, but I can tell you with confidence that Simon is all right for now.”
“How can you say that, Ike? He’s been—”
“Sidney, he’s at the police station and he’s being questioned. I can guarantee you that he is sitting in an interrogation room right now. Is he having fun? No. But is he physically safe? Yes. Simon is okay for the next several hours, all right?”
Sidney huffed out a frustrated breath.
“In fact, if it’ll make you feel a little better about the situation, I will call the Dayton Police Department myself and ask about Simon’s status.”
“You will?”
“Yes. They won’t tell me anything, and they may even get pissed at me for the intrusion, but at least they’ll know that Simon has family ties to law enforcement in the area. Might help them be a little more polite during his questioning, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, Isaac, yes please. That would make me feel so much better.”
“All right. I’m also going to call a friend of mine. He’s a criminal defense attorney and he’s one of the best in the state.”
“Okay. Thank you.” She sounded slightly relieved.
“You don’t have to thank me, darlin’. We both know Simon didn’t do this.”
“But Isaac, we have to go there. I want to be there to support him. And I know that you’re still angry with me, and I know what you’re basically saying is that there’s nothing I can do to help him, but—”
“I am not still angry, Sid. That’s why I was going to call you at lunchtime. And I did not say there’s nothing we can do to help Simon. There is plenty we can do. Or at least… there’s plenty I can do.”
He was referring to his psychic abilities, and his mind was already running over the ways he could best use them to help Simon.
“I’ll go talk to Lt. Hayes and see if I can’t get a day or two to go down to Dayton, all right?”
“Okay. Good. Thank you.”
“I’ll be home as soon as I can. You going to be okay until then?”
“Yes. I’m going to go throw a few things into a bag, because even if your lieutenant doesn’t let you have the time off, I’m going to Dayton to see about my brother.”
She made it sound like a threat, and Isaac grinned.
“I’ll get the time. You just sit tight. I’ll be home soon.”
“Okay.”
The call ended and Isaac took a few moments to text his defense attorney friend.
“What’s going on, Ike? Did I hear you say Simon and murder in the same sentence?” Pete sounded concerned.
“You did.” His response was distracted as he continued to text.
“Is Sid’s brother okay?”
“Not really. He’s sitting in an interrogation room down in Dayton right about now I’d imagine. Suspicion of murder.”
“Holy shit.” Pete shook his head. “There has to be some mistake.”
“I’m sure there is.”
Isaac set his cellphone aside and picked up the office extension and asked dispatch to connect him to the Dayton PD.
“Sgt. Whitford, Dayton Police Department.”
“Yes, this is Detective Sgt. Ike Taylor with the Cleveland PD. I understand my brother-in-law, Major Simon Fairchild, was brought in for questioning on a homicide case. I was wondering if you could give me an update on his status?”
It took a full fifteen minutes of listening to the standard informational hold-recording before Sgt. Whitford came back to the phone to tell him Simon was still being questioned.
That’s it.
That’s all the information he could get out of the man. But his call had accomplished what it was intended for — to let the Dayton PD know that Simon had friends in blue places.
Isaac hung up the phone and finally looked at Pete. “I’m gonna go talk to Lieu. See if I can get a day or two.”
“Yeah, I heard. Hey, if need be I’ll pull Runyan and Spencer in to help with this firefighter thing. You go take care of your family.”
Isaac nodded and got up. “Thanks.”
He crossed the pit and knocked on Gavin Hayes’ open door.
“Hey, Lieu, you got a minute? Oh.”
He stopped short when he saw his boss on the phone. He was about to step out when Gavin waved him in. Isaac stepped further into the office trying not to eavesdrop.
“I’m only saying no for now, sir,” Gavin stated. “And I do realize that means I might very well be giving up this opportunity for good. But that’s a chance I’m going to have to take. I simply feel that the homicide division is where I’m most needed at this time.”
Gavin met his gaze and Isaac realized that he was speaking to Chief Branson and turning down the captain position.
“Of course I do, sir. And I thank you for thinking of me.”
Gavin hung up the extension and let out a heavy sigh.
“How’d he take it?” Isaac couldn’t stop himself from asking.
“Better than I expected. He said that while he doesn’t understand my obsessive loyalty to homicide, he does appreciate it, and he knows that this homicide unit is better for it.”
“That’s good at least.”
“Yeah.” Gavin seemed to breathe easier then and he gave Isaac his full attention. “What can I do for you, sergeant?”
Isaac clasped his hands together. “Well, sir, I know this is incredibly short notice, not to mention all kinds of inconvenient timing. But I think I’m going to need a couple of days if you can spare me. I’ve got about three personal days, I think. Or I can use vacation time if you really want me to.”
Gavin looked up at him. “You seriously want time off right now? Right in the middle of this firefighter thing?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I have a family emergency.”
“Is something wrong, Ike?”
“Yes, sir. I just got a call from Sidney. Her brother’s been picked up by Dayton police on suspicion of murder.”
“What?” Gavin’s voice held an incredulous note to it. “Well, there has to be some mistake. The Simon Fairchild I’ve met and talked to on several occasions would never harm a woman. He had very strong feelings about his sister’s abuse, and violence against women in general.”
“I know, sir. That’s one of the reasons I want to go and see if I can’t help clear up whatever this is.”
Gavin gave him a hard, scrutinizing look. “Okay, I understand your desire to want to help your brother-in-law out of a jam. But don’t go sticking your nose in another department’s investigation, Ike.”
“Sir, that is not what I have planned.”
“Oh, no, I know what you have planned. You’re thinking you can slide down there, muscle your way into the investigation, and then use your psychic skills to save the day.”
Isaac puckered his lips in an effort not to smile. “Well, I would try to talk my way in, not muscle my way.”
“Uh huh.” Gavin nodded.
“Sir… it’s Simon. The man has become like a brother to me. We’re close. I trust him. I know he didn’t do this, and I have to help him if I can.”
Gavin sighed. “Go. And keep me posted. If I can help form here, let me know.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Isaac turned to leave.
“Ike?”
He stopped in the doorway and looked back at his boss. “Yes?”
“Don’t get into trouble with the Dayton police.”
“Of course not, sir.”