Joe scrubbed a hand over his five o’clock shadow as he walked into the bullpen that served as an office for the five detectives on the Pinecrest force. After a day in court, he was looking forward to checking in, signing out, and going home.
Then he saw Nikki.
From across the room she looked pale, definitely not a good sign. Thoughts of going home vanished as he walked toward her. Getting closer didn’t ease the foreboding in his gut.
Before he could say anything, she turned and saw him. The foreboding turned to certainty that something was seriously wrong. He smiled as he got closer hoping to ease the worry in her eyes. “What’s going on? Did Stiles get a lead on the case?”
She shook her head and looked down at the mug of coffee she held. “No, I called him. Someone broke into my house.”
Joe knew he shouldn’t care. Knowing and actually doing are two separate things. Every protective instinct he had jumped to attention. “While you were there? Are you alright? Did they catch him?”
Nikki looked up at him and offered a small smile along with a determined tip to her chin. Joe felt the room tilt a little. How could someone look so needy and so strong at the same time?
“No, I wasn’t there. I found out when I got home from work. And no, they haven’t caught the person.”
“You forgot one question,” he said when she stopped talking. When she met his gaze, he raised an eyebrow and asked again. “Are you alright?”
She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I’m not physically hurt if that’s what you’re asking. Emotionally, who knows?”
“I can only imagine. You’ve had a pretty rough week or so. When things settle down you’ll feel better.”
“If I’m alive when they settle.”
Joe could tell she regretted her words the moment they were out of her mouth. She couldn’t hold his gaze. Her hands shook as she lifted the mug and held it to her lips.
“You really don’t expect me to let that go, do you?” he asked, hoping the light tone would ease her discomfort.
A sigh escaped her lips as she cradled the mug and stared at its contents. “No, I just wish I’d learn to keep my mouth shut around you.”
“Why?” He still wanted an explanation of her prior comment, but first he needed her to trust him.
“Because you have more important things to do than listen to me whine.”
Joe pulled a chair up so he could see her expressions easier, especially when she kept trying to hide them from him. “First of all, I can’t remember ever hearing you whine about anything. Second, I asked you to talk to me, so it was my choice to spend time talking to you. Third, and what I personally think is the biggest problem, high school was a long time ago. I hope you don’t think I’m holding a grudge.” Guarding his heart, maybe. Holding a grudge? No, it wasn’t the way he lived his life.
He leaned forward and pushed her hair away from her eyes so he could see her expression. “Come on, Nikki. I don’t have enough friends to be throwing any away. What do you say?”
She lifted her head and pushed her hair behind her ear as his finger fell away. The sad smile she offered twisted something inside him. Joe prayed it was just a cop’s concern for a victim, though his conscience didn’t believe him.
“I don’t deserve your friendship.”
“Well, tough, you’ve got it anyway,” he said, resting his forearms on his thighs folding his hands to keep from reaching for her hands. “So, what was this about being alive when things settle down?”
It took her a few more breaths before she answered him. Having learned patience with victims, he didn’t push just waited.
“Whoever broke in left me a note. I think it’s from the same person that killed Darin. That’s why I called Detective Stiles.”
Her knuckles were white from the death grip she had on the mug. Joe reached over and pulled one away. He was surprised to find it so cold. “What did the note say?” He kept his voice soft and encouraging despite the fact he felt like bolting off to find Stiles and demand answers from him instead of Nikki.
“Eenie, Meanie, Minie, Mo; Down by two; Three more to go. Which one’s next? No one knows. Eenie, Meanie Minie, Mo. Whoever wrote it crossed out the Meanie. I’m afraid of what that might mean.”
If her mind ran along the same track as his, he was afraid it meant exactly what they were thinking. Brenda was dead. He gave the hand he still held a squeeze. “No wonder you’re afraid.”
“I am afraid, but also confused.”
“The ‘down by two’ part?” he asked and she nodded. “Yeah, I was wondering about that, too.” After a moment of silence, Joe offered an explanation. He didn’t like it, but Nikki needed to know how serious this was. “Maybe you were supposed to be the second one.”
Her brown hair shimmered as she shook her head in disagreement. “No, they were already outside. I know I was meant to find that note.”
Releasing her hand Joe leaned back, certain he wouldn’t like the answer to his next question. “How do you know they were outside?”
“She searched the house before calling it in,” Stiles said coming up to stand beside him.
The pout on Nikki’s face resembled that of a child who has been caught doing something wrong and is trying desperately to figure out how to say they didn’t mean to. Joe figured steam must be coming out of his ears, because Stiles continued before he could comment, drawing his gaze to the man.
“Yeah, that’s what I told her. It was about as stupid and dangerous a move as you can get.” Nikki’s hand appeared between them.
“Hey guys, I’m right here. Stop talking about me like I’m not.”
Joe stood and glared down at her. “Do you know how lucky you are to still be here? Jesus, Nikki.” Every nerve in his body tensed as his hands curled into fists. For the first time, Travis’s fear of losing him hit home like never before.
Nikki stood to face his anger. Before she could speak though, he stepped back putting an invisible barrier between them.
“I’ve taken self-defense classes, and I took a weapon with me. I just reacted, Joe. I wasn’t looking for trouble.” It was obvious her words fell on deaf ears. It almost seemed like he drew shutters over his hot angry eyes closing her out. Then he turned his attention back to Detective Stiles and Nikki felt totally abandoned.
“We were discussing the strange wording of the rhyme,” Joe said. “I told her the person could have been waiting for her and that’s why it said ‘two down.’”
Pushing down her disappointment from Joe’s dismissal, Nikki turned her attention to Detective Stiles’ reaction. He considered the comment for a moment. When Nikki could tell he didn’t really agree she offered her idea.
“We don’t know when they left the bag, so it could be any of the others. I haven’t spoken to Rochelle since this morning and not to Alicia at all. Did you call them to check?” She turned so she faced the detective and not Joe. If he wanted distance, she would give him distance.
Detective Stiles nodded. “I spoke to Ms. Stuyvesant shortly after we found the bag, but I’ve been unable to reach Ms. Braeborne, her office said she was attending a political function with her fiancé.”
Nikki shook her head. “They only crossed out one name. If Rochelle and Alicia are okay, maybe Joe’s right.”
“Or maybe it’s someone linked to all of you,” Joe said.
Turning to face him, Nikki hoped he didn’t mean who she thought. She had been so certain with Darin gone her life would finally be calm and safe. How could everything have gone so wrong?
“Who?” Stiles asked.
Joe was right, there was only one answer.
“Darin,” she answered for Joe.
Everything and everyone Darin touched withered from his caustic personality and uncanny con-man capabilities. He had touched so many people in her life, that the repercussions were probably endless.
“Your uncle,” Stiles said.
She nodded.
“What’s the connection?”
Nikki didn’t want to say the truth out loud. She almost wished Joe would take over. She knew he could tell the story. When she glanced at him, his eyes remained shuttered and he raised an eyebrow as though in challenge. When she was younger, a challenge like that would have her ducking her head and looking for the closest place to hide.
You’re not a child anymore, not even a scared teenager.
Tilting her chin up, she turned back to the detective.
“When we were seniors in high school the girls all had a crush on my uncle. They had a dare amongst themselves to see who would sleep with him first.”
The detective gave her a doubting stare. “Okay, say I buy this story, who won? Brenda James?”
Nikki shook her head. “As to being first, no. But they all slept with him.”
“And you know this because...”
“Because they told me.” Nikki crossed her arms and sent a defiant glance first at the detective then at Joe. She was tired of everyone treating her as if she were some poor, helpless, waif. “Yes, I agree it was sick. Sick for him to go after young girls and sick for them to tell me about it.
“Why did he do it? Because, he was a womanizer to the enth degree who preferred his women young or married. Why did they do it? Who knows? They were teenage girls and a mature man paid them attention. In their minds, it probably added to their belief that they were better than everyone else was.
“Why did they tell me about it? If you’d asked me that back then, I would probably have said, out of habit. I was kind of the,” she waved her hand in the air as if looking for the right word. “I don’t know what to call it, historian, secretary, keeper of secrets for the group, take your pick. They knew I wouldn’t tell anyone because unless I was with them, I was your typical quiet, shy, brainiac.”
“And now?” Stiles asked.
Nikki couldn’t help the sad smile that came with realizing something ugly about yourself or someone you cared for. “Now I would have to say they liked shocking me. So, I guess using the term friends where the four of us were concerned was probably a misnomer.”
The phone on the detective’s desk rang and he picked it up. He spoke in what she expected was cop shorthand and then hung up.
“I need to go check something out. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please wait here Ms. Sterces, I have more questions,” he said
She watched him walk down the aisle. He glanced back with a strange expression on his face. She couldn’t decide what it meant, but had a feeling it wasn’t good.
“I had started to wonder if you would ever figure it out.”
Nikki jumped, having forgotten the silent figure a few steps away. She glanced at Joe then back down the aisle, but the detective had disappeared. “Figure what out?”
“The Evil Meanies,” Joe said.
This time Nikki didn’t glance, she faced him full on. “That’s an awful thing to say.”
He shrugged. “But true and it’s what everyone called them when you weren’t around.”
She tried to find some part of her to defend them, but she couldn’t. Nodding, she sank into the chair behind her. “But true.”
She released a heavy sigh and shook her head. Looking up at Joe, she grinned. “Why did you even go out with such a sap?” Her heart warmed a little when he tilted his head and grinned back at her.
“Because you were a cute sap?”
Nikki couldn’t help it, she laughed. God, it felt good to laugh again. Even if it was at herself. “Thanks.”
He came back and sat next to her. All vestiges of whatever had made him mad earlier were gone. She was glad. She had the feeling she was going to need all the friends she could get the way things were going.
“Well, you were cute. Tortoise shell glasses and all.”
Nikki buried her face in her hands for a moment, the vision his words brought to her mind comical. “Oh, those glasses. They were awful,” she said, still chuckling. Then the light heartedness disappeared replaced with regret. “And I guess they didn’t work too well, either.”
“Come on, Nikki. I think you knew before now what they were like. Why did you put up with it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. We’d been friends so long it was hard to walk away. As kids, we had so much fun. Then in high school, everything started to change. The three of them were always competing against one another. The thing with my uncle was just one of their dares.”
Nikki thought about that for a minute. “I never thought about it before, but that dare was different.”
“Besides not including you, how was it different,” Joe asked.
She glanced at him and smiled. “You don’t get it, do you?” He continued to look at her with questioning eyes. “My main function in the group was bringing everyone together. All I remember is moving here and having no friends. I wandered to the playground down the street from my parents’ house. I saw three girls who looked as lonely as I did. I asked if they wanted to play and, as they say, the rest is history. As we got to know each other better, we fell into our respective rolls. Mine, looking back on it, was to be the good girl.”
Joe looked at her and lifted his hands. “And that was bad?”
Nikki laughed. “It means, when they wanted to do something that their parents wouldn’t let them, all they had to say was, ‘Nikki’s going’ or something similar and the restrictions were lifted. It definitely wasn’t a compliment.
“Anyway, the point is, I didn’t participate in the dares. I just listened to their versions of what happened. They never considered me competition.”
She could tell by the set of his jaw and the hand he lifted then dropped back to his side, Joe wanted to say something but decided not to. He had always disliked the girls. He felt she allowed them to walk all over her and back then, he would have been right, but in her mind, it was better than having them think she was nobody. Now, well now, she didn’t let anyone walk over her. She was just explaining how things had been.
“Anyway, let’s get back to the dare. Instead of bragging about being the first or favorite to the whole group, they each came to me separately and made me swear not to tell the others.”
“But they all knew about each other when I was over at your house the other day. At least they sure seemed to.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I was too upset with them at the time to realize that point. I never told anyone. Maybe they told each other after I left.”
They sat in silence for several minutes. Nikki drew comfort and strength from Joe’s presence. It felt a lot like when they were dating and would spend time sitting out on the too small swings at the playground stargazing.
Thinking about the stars made her glance out the window. Night had settled over the station. Joe shouldn’t be rehashing their past with her; he had a son who needed him waiting at home.
“It’s almost six,” she said glancing at her watch. “Won’t Travis be expecting you home?”
“Hmm?” Joe looked up. Nikki pointed at her watch. “Shit. Sorry.”
Nikki grinned at the reminder of younger days when his mother would hear him slip up like that. “I think I’ll survive the language, Joe. I do work in a high school.”
He cocked his head. “It had better not be Travis you’re hearing that kind of language from.”
“No. He’s a good kid. Reminds me a lot of you.”
“I find that hard to believe. He looks like his father and has his mother’s heart.”
The melancholy in Joe’s voice twisted Nikki’s heart. “I’m sorry, Joe. I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories.”
He waved her apology off. “You didn’t.”
Nikki didn’t believe him, but she didn’t push.
“But you’re right. I should be getting home.” He turned to walk away then turned back. “You shouldn’t go back to the house tonight.”
“I don’t plan on it. I’ll get a room at a hotel as soon as Detective Stiles says we’re done.”
“You could stay at the apartment. The sofa’s new. Never been slept on.”
She shook her head. “I think seeing his teacher in school is more than enough for Travis, but thanks for the offer.”
He nodded then walked down the aisle. When the door closed behind him blocking her view, Nikki felt totally alone. She picked up the mug she had held earlier, and started to take a sip, but stopped when the cold liquid touched her lip. It had been bad enough hot, she didn’t think her stomach could handle it cold.
As she set the mug down, the door to the office opened again. Nikki looked up hoping to see Joe’s face. Instead, Detective Stiles walked toward her a grim set to his mouth.
“I need to go over a few things with you,” he said.
Nikki swallowed the sigh she felt and sat back down. “Okay.”
“You said you went in the front door of the gym and left the same way, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a key?”
“To the gym? Why would I?”
“Your friend owns it. Sometimes they give friends special treatment.”
“You obviously don’t know the same friends I do,” she told him shaking her head. “I didn’t have a membership. The few times I went there I paid for a day pass.”
“So you don’t have a key, or the lock code for the back door.”
“No. Why?” Nikki heard the irritation growing in her tone, but couldn’t hide it. What was he getting at?
“We found something in the snow behind the gym.”
Nikki waited still unsure what he wanted.
“Do you own a silver compact, Miss Sterces?”
A chill raced up Nikki’s spine. “Yes,” she said reaching for her purse. “My mother gave me one shortly before she died.” she searched the purse but couldn’t find the compact so she dumped the contents on the detective’s desk. The compact was gone. “I take it, that’s what you found?”
He nodded. “Any idea how it got there?”
Nikki took a moment to think back to the night before. “I went in the front door and asked if anyone knew where Brenda was. A couple of people pointed to the locker room so I went there. I looked around but didn’t see her so I set down my gym bag. Brenda came out of the restrooms. She was in a foul mood. She made a sarcastic remark and walked out.
“I followed her to the office. Her mood went from foul to depressed to angry. She grabbed my coat and ... I dropped my purse. Yes, her attack shocked me and I dropped my purse. The compact must have fallen out then.”
“How do you account for it being in the alley behind the gym?”
“I don’t know, Detective. I didn’t know it was missing until just now. If I’d known I would need an explanation, I hope I would have come up with something more creative. Unfortunately, the truth is usually not that exciting.” Nikki held his gaze waiting for his take on her explanation.
“All right. I’ll accept your story, for now.”
Nikki wanted to toss him a sarcastic remark but decided it wouldn’t help her situation. “Is there anything else? Paperwork I need to--”
The phone on his desk interrupted her question. His expression, an emotionless mask, didn’t change. Nikki thought she saw a slight slump in his shoulders, though.
“Is something wrong?” she asked when he hung up.
He scribbled something on a pad of paper then turned to her, his expression as unreadable as ever. “It’s a police station, something’s always wrong. I need to go. I’ll have an officer take you to a motel for the night.”
“Is it something about Brenda? Have you found her?” Hope sprang eternal, her mother used to say. Nikki hoped it was true.
“I can’t say.” He started down the aisle then called over his shoulder. “We’ll finish this tomorrow, Ms. Sterces.”
As he disappeared behind the door, Nikki wondered whether he was making a statement or warning her. She realized all too soon why he might be warning her.
They found Brenda and he thinks I’m guilty.
~~~~