-

Forty-Six

Kelly had hardly slept last night. How could she have when she’d been so busy tossing and turning, wondering what else Christine from Sweet Tooth Bakery had to share? Or maybe it was the sugar intake after eight at night when she finally had eaten the cookie she’d bought.

She shook that notion aside. It had definitely been about Christine. Kelly wished she’d made arrangements to meet Christine when her shift ended. But there had been the call about Bob’s Wireless… That had sent her off on another path for a signed subpoena.

She’d already run this morning, had eaten, and was fully caffeinated when she set out for the bakery at seven thirty.

Christine greeted her with a serious expression and gestured for her to bypass the line that went from the doors to the counter. Some customers grumbled as Kelly brushed past them. They didn’t want to hear her pardons or apologies. When she got to the front, Kelly saw that Christine was working with three other women. Kelly stepped to the right of where Christine was posted.

Christine finished up with the man she’d been helping and directed the next person in line to wait on one of the other cashiers. That garnered her nasty glares from the coworker positioned beside her. If Christine noticed, she didn’t seem to care. She approached Kelly. “It’s crazier than normal in here this morning. I can’t talk long. Can I see that picture of that younger guy again?”

Kelly figured Christine meant the delivery guy and pulled it up on her phone. She held it out for Christine to see.

“His name is Ben Cummings,” Christine started. “He used to work here.”

That got the skin tightening at the back of her neck. “Do you know his address?”

Christine pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I can’t give you that.”

Kelly nodded. “Phone number?” she tried.

“I’m sorry, but his name’s all I can give you. I better get back to work.” With that, Christine returned to her register and called for the next in line.

Ben Cummings. Kelly had a name, but she’d resist the urge to celebrate until she had Cummings in custody. It didn’t stop her from grinning like the Cheshire cat as she made her way to the door. A man stepped to the side of the line, and she bumped right into him.

She held up her hands, half-annoyed, half-apologetic. The man was built like a truck. Then she took notice of his face, and his name came right to her. “Marcus Mayfield?”

He looked at her quizzically, as though trying to place her. Kelly was sure he’d tried to put her from his mind years ago. He had been the prime suspect in an old murder case, one that she was only privy to through her mentor, Harvey Barkhouse. All that had been about six months before she became a detective. Mayfield had been cleared of all suspicion, and the case had gone cold.

“Excuse me.” She brushed past him and could feel his eyes on her back as she left the bakery.

She got into her department car and requested an APB be issued for Cummings, then fired off a text to Jack to let him know about the lead.

Her phone beeped with a reply from Jack that read, Follow it through. Keep me posted.

Will do, she keyed back.

She glanced at the bakery again and could see Mayfield looking back at her through the window, his face still furrowed in uncertainty. The woman Mayfield had been suspected of killing had been strangled, but she had regained consciousness before dying. First responders had rushed to save her life so there weren’t any photos of the crime scene before the victim was removed. But if Kelly remembered correctly, she had been found naked in her living room. Her mind slipped to Banks’s murder scene—how he was positioned and how the scene had looked overall. It was imaginable that’s how that woman would have looked when emergency services arrived. But surely, she was reaching to think that the unsolved murder had any connection to this current investigation.

Strangulation and decapitation were two very different MOs, though their unsub had no qualms about using both. Maybe Mayfield did factor in somehow… She’d never even thought of him with the West or Sullivan cases, but then again, she hadn’t had a full body or a clear indication of strangulation.

A seed of doubt started to germinate in her gut as she recalled why Mayfield had been a suspect in the first place. If she remembered correctly, his parents and three children had all been wiped out in one fell swoop by a drunk driver.

She got out of the car, intent on racing back inside and dragging Mayfield in for questioning when her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID.

Speak of the devil…

“Detective Harvey Barkhouse,” she answered with a smile. “I was just thinking about you.”

“I’d say great minds,” he said, then rushed on. “But I’m pretty sure I’ve got a DB you’ll be interested in.”

Another dead body?

“Hit me,” was all she said.

“Name’s Ben Cummings. He was strangled and found next to a dumpster downtown.”

She felt herself go cold, and she pinched her eyes shut. So close, but so far away. Another lead slipped through her fingers.

Harvey went on. “I just saw the APB.”

That had to be the fastest turnaround on an APB yet. “Cummings was a person of interest in a serial murder investigation,” she informed him.

“The case you’re working with the Feds?”

She didn’t know why his knowing bothered her, but she felt a pang of guilt as if even her thinking of leaving Miami PD would somehow be viewed by him as a betrayal. She should know him better than that; he’d always wanted what was best for her. Twenty years older than her, he was like her work dad, looking out for her where he could. They’d stayed in touch over the years, despite their jobs keeping them so busy. They’d meet for beers and catch up. He was married to his high school sweetheart, a doll of a woman, and they had three kids. All of whom grew up to be spoiled brats in Kelly’s opinion, but that she kept to herself.

“You heard about that?” she asked.

“Everyone’s heard. Loose lips around here, Kel, you should know that,” he said lightheartedly.

She smiled, realizing she was being paranoid. “True enough.” Her mind switched back to the news that Harvey had called to deliver. “When was Cummings found?”

“Yesterday afternoon.”

Damn. “So the autopsy’s been conducted?”

“Just heading there now actually,” he said. “I thought you might want to join.”

“You bet.” Kelly ended the call and jogged to the department car.

AN ME BY THE NAME of Anita Barnes was charged with conducting the autopsy on Ben Cummings. Kelly had sent Jack another quick update to let him know about the turn of events and that she was going to Cummings’s autopsy with Harvey.

She met up with him outside the morgue.

“You’re looking a little frazzled,” he told her.

She smirked at him. “Oh, don’t hold back. Tell me what you really think.” Harvey tended to state the obvious, flattering or not. She had been up and at it early this morning, and her thoughts were all over the place, as was her hair. For those two reasons, it was back in a ponytail and probably what Harvey’s observation had hinged on. She only put her hair up when she was concentrating deeply on something. She wished she could counter with some smart comment on his appearance, but it appeared life was agreeing with him—as it always had. No matter his caseload, Harvey had a knack for separating business from his personal life. For that, he didn’t have the deep wrinkles so many cops had by the time they were in their fifties. He hadn’t let himself become hardened over the years but had managed to find a balance of caring enough to get the job done but not so much as to upset his health. In addition to her granddad and Jack, Harvey was her hero.

Ever the gentleman, Harvey got the door for her, and they entered the morgue. Barnes greeted them with a dip of her head. She wasn’t as talkative as Lily, but her work ethic was the perfect blend of efficiency and thoroughness. And she got right down to business.

The Y-incision was made, the organs weighed and measured, everything was verbalized for an audio recording Barnes was making, and it would all be catalogued.

Kelly’s gaze rarely left Cummings—or the pale, bluish version of him that remained. She wondered what secrets he was taking with him to the grave and if she could wrestle them back to life somehow. It was the how that lingered overhead like a dark cloud. Really, there was only one possible way that she could think of to get more information: she needed to talk to Cummings’s wife.

When Barnes finished up with Cummings’s body, Kelly didn’t feel any further ahead than when she’d arrived, save one thing. The COD hadn’t changed from what Harvey had told her on the phone, but there was trace under Cummings’s fingernails and he had some defensive wounds. He’d fought back, which meant that their unsub hadn’t struck in a surprise attack this time.

They had found trace under Banks’s nails, too, but nothing had come back definitively on what it was yet. There was no evidence that he’d fought back. He’d been caught off guard. Why was the approach different with Cummings, then? It was possible that someone else had killed Cummings, but the time and the cause of death were awfully convenient and coincidental. His murder lent itself to Cummings being used by the unsub to deliver the head, and once that was done and his usefulness ran out, the unsub had killed him. That made sense. But it was also possible that the two had been in a partnership and there was a falling out. That might explain the defensive wounds.

Harvey turned to Kelly once they were out on the sidewalk. “I’m going to need you to share what you know with me.”

“I’m going to need to take charge of this case,” she said.

He put his hands on his hips. “I’ve started this, and I’m finishing it. You know how I work.”

“I know that’s how you’d like it to go, but the FBI—”

Harvey’s brow furrowed. “It’s not how I’d like it, Kelly; it’s how it’s going to be. Whether the FBI’s interested in the DB or not, I caught this case.”

Kelly knew Harvey well enough to know that once he started a case, he was committed to seeing it all the way through. She supposed there was no reason to bench him altogether. In fact, his participation could be useful. She needed to speak with Cummings’s wife, and Harvey was no doubt already acquainted with her from when he gave the notification. “I’d like to speak with Cummings’s wife.”

“If I come with you,” Harvey stated as a requirement.

“That should be fine.”

“Fine?” He raised an eyebrow. “That’s the way it is, kid.”

There was no point arguing with him; he’d win. She’d always let him win. Life was easier that way, and often, he was right. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.”

Her phone rang as she got behind the wheel, and she answered. By the time the call ended, she had another lead and was making yet another call.

“What is it?” Harvey sounded concerned.

Given the level of worry he expressed in just those three words, it was a miracle he didn’t have wrinkles.

Jack answered her call on the second ring. “The cardholder information came back from Bob’s Wireless,” she told him. “Her name is Roxanne Cabot.”

“Address, phone number, place of employment?” Jack fired at her.

“I should be getting an e-mail with all of that shortly, which I’ll forward to you. I just received the call.” Kelly looked over at Harvey. “Do you need me on this, Jack? If you can spare me, I’m following another lead.” Or two… She wasn’t sure if Mayfield could be considered a lead, but she was definitely going to look into him.

“Well, were there any noteworthy findings at Cummings’s autopsy?” Jack asked.

“The ME concluded that he’d fought back, and she got some trace from under his nails. She’s having it run.” Kelly looked over at Harvey. “Detective Barkhouse and I are headed to talk to Cummings’s wife now.”

Jack was quiet for a few seconds. “You stick with that. The rest of us will take care of following up this lead on Cabot.”

“Thanks.”

Jack hung up without saying goodbye, but she’d detected pride when he’d told her to keep going with her lead. It warmed her up inside.

“Jack?” Harvey asked when she set down her phone.

“Yeah.” She dragged out the word and hitched a brow.

“I’m guessing that was the FBI agent in charge of the serial murder investigation you’re on?” Harvey scanned her eyes.

“You’d be right.”

“Is this Jack Harper by chance?”

Kelly may have mentioned the FBI Academy and Jack once or twice—or a million times. “The one and only.”

“Interesting…”

“What?” She couldn’t read what was going on in that mind of his.

“It’s just interesting that of all the FBI agents to come down here—”

She’d save Harvey some time. “I called him.”

“Ah.” Harvey smiled, and his eyes sparkled.

“What, Harvey?” she asked.

“It’s just that I know you haven’t been happy at Miami PD for a while now. Maybe this is a sign that it’s time for you to move on?”

Harvey was more into signs than she was, and they’d had many a debate on the subject. He was a firm believer in everyone being here for a purpose. Her faith wasn’t as strong in that regard. It failed to explain some larger-scale problems with the world. If we were all here for a reason, if we all had control over our lives, why would anyone choose to be a victim or to live in a third-world country where life expectancy was short and the likelihood of catching a life-threatening disease from drinking water or starving to death was as daily an occurrence as a cup of morning java for most Americans?

“Not sure about that.” She wasn’t going to lie or say that she hadn’t been entertaining thoughts of running back to Virginia and becoming FBI.

Harvey circled a finger in front of her face. “I can read you. You know that, so why are you trying to hide the truth from me?”

Guilt saddled her.

“Only you can make this decision, but it might be time for you to move on. Do what makes Kelly happy. And I know that’s not continuing to work under Ramirez.”

Another strain of guilt snaked through her. “But my mother—”

“I’ll be here. We both know I’m not leaving.” He smiled at her, and she felt a deep sense of peace nestle into her chest. “And I’ll always have your back,” he added.

She reached over and put a hand on his forearm. “I know you will, and I thank you for that.”

They said that family wasn’t always blood, and having Harvey in her life truly made her believe that.