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“WHAT DO YOU WANT ME to say, Detective Swanson?” Tonia stood behind the counter at Therapeutic Massage the next day, smacking her lips. “I haven’t heard from Rayne.”
“She hasn’t come in to work?” Jake moved his chair closer to the counter.
“No,” Tonia said. “She didn’t call in and when I tried her phone it goes straight to voice mail.”
“Where does she stay?” Lisa gripped her holster. “Give me Rayne’s address now.”
“I told you last time you need a warrant.”
“I’m not asking.” Lisa touched the counter. “Jake might be in danger. Rayne is unhinged. She had her boyfriend beat Jake up last night.”
Jake nodded.
Tonia glanced at him and shrugged. “And that has nothing to do with the clinic.”
“We think Rayne might be up to something and we need to find her.”
“Is this an official case?” Tonia asked.
Lisa stepped back, sighing.
“If you don’t have a warrant or Rayne isn’t part of an investigation, then I’m not telling you anything.” Tonia patted her large bosom. “I won’t put my job in jeopardy like that.”
The young woman from the last time Lisa was there, approached.
“Now I’m all for helping the police...” Tonia got the clipboard and walked from behind the counter. “But until something is official, you’ll have to find out where Rayne lives on your own. Excuse me.”
Jake gestured to her. “But—”
“Excuse me.” Tonia rolled her eyes and left.
“Ooh she gets on my nerves,” Lisa said.
“What’s wrong?” the younger woman asked. “Is it about Rayne?”
“We need to find her,” Jake said. “She had me beat up last night, and she’s been lying and acting funny. We think she’s up to something.”
“You’re probably right.” The woman put her hands in the pockets of her sweatpants. “Rayne has a lot of issues and she’s dangerous when you cross her.”
“I figured that out the hard way.” Jake touched his bruised jaw.
“Do you know where Rayne lives?” Lisa asked.
The woman nodded. “She stays with her boyfriend Brandon Whitney.” She told the address while Lisa jotted it. “Rayne’s not all there in the head.”
“What do you mean?” Lisa asked.
“Sometimes she’s sweet as pie but then she’ll go off into these rages for no reason.” The woman sighed. “One day we got into a simple argument and she came at me with scissors.”
Jake jerked. “Did you tell anyone?”
“I was scared to. She said she’d kill me if I did.”
“Jesus.” Lisa shook her head. “Thanks for the information. We’ll head over to her place now.”
“Brandon fixes cars for a living,” the woman said. “But Rayne says he’s off on Thursdays so he might be home.”
“Won’t hurt to try.” Lisa read over the address. “What choice do we have?”
****
BRANDON OPENED THE front door wearing out-of-shape socks that extended from the toe and a gray wife beater. A band aid above his right eye served as a reminder of the scuffle with Jake.
“To what do I owe this visit?” he asked, holding a can of grape soda.
Jake straightened his wheelchair over a loose plank on the porch. “Looks like I did a number on your eye there.”
He jiggled the can. “Judging by how you look, I won.”
Jake smirked with his hands in his lap. “I think the jury’s out on that one.”
Brandon stepped forward. “I don’t.”
“Easy all right?” Lisa said. “Where’s Rayne?”
“What do you mean?” He sipped from the can.
“Where is she, Brandon?” Lisa repeated.
“Gee it’s the middle of the day.” He rolled his eyes, gesturing to his watch. “Maybe she’d be at work.”
“We went to the clinic,” Jake said. “She wasn’t there.”
Brandon eased the can from his mouth. “She left for work this morning like she always does.”
“Well she isn’t there.” Lisa shrugged. “And the lady who worked there said she didn’t call in or anything. She also called Rayne and only got voicemail.”
“What?” Brandon got his phone out his pocket and dialed. “This makes no sense.” He put the phone to his ear then lowered it.
“Voice mail?” Lisa asked.
“She got up this morning, made breakfast, and said she was going to work.”
“She lied,” Jake said. “Seems like you’d be used to her doing that by now.”
“This isn’t funny,” Brandon said. “What if something happened to her?”
“We’re afraid she’s plotting against Jake,” Lisa said. “If you have any idea where she is then please tell us.”
“I’m as clueless as you.” He stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “We argued last night, but she woke up this morning like she was fine. You don’t understand. It’s not good for Rayne to be out there like this. She’s not in the right frame of mind. What did you do to her,
Jake?”
“I didn’t do a damn thing.”
“She was talking about getting back at you for something.” Brandon pointed at him. “It didn’t come out of nowhere.”
“I swear I’ve never met this woman before.”
“All I know is she had that look in her eyes last night.” Brandon inhaled a sharp breath. “I hadn’t seen her that way since we were in the institution.”
Lisa cocked her head. “Mental institution?”
“Yeah, it’s how we met. We’re bipolar.”
“Really,” Jake whispered. “Rayne forgot to mention that.”
“It’s not something we go around advertising.” Brandon sighed. “It’s been a rough road, but with our meds we can live a normal life.”
“Bipolar people are prone to rages, right?” Lisa asked.
Brandon nodded.
“Does Rayne ever have rages?” Jake asked. “Even on her medicine?”
“Medicine only calms the disorder,” Brandon said. “There are other steps to ensure we don’t succumb to the symptoms or if we do, there are ways to handle them. It’s a process which we learned in the institution.”
“But she can still have rages on her medicine?” Lisa asked.
“Sometimes.”
“As long as this woman is out there running around my boyfriend isn’t safe.” Lisa stroked Jake’s shoulder. “You gotta give us something, Brandon.”
“If I knew where to find her, I’d tell you.” He squeezed the soda can. “I love Rayne more than anything, but I’d never let her hurt anyone.”
****
TWO DAYS LATER
“Lisa.” Dee scampered toward Lisa’s desk.
Lisa bit into her gooey cinnamon roll, batting her eyes. “You know you can’t be here while suspended.”
“I got big news.” She sat on Lisa’s desk, messing up papers. “I was at the grocery store, and guess who was waiting in the parking lot for me?”
“Who?”
“That maroon Mazda that was at my house the other night.”
Lisa dropped the cinnamon roll on the desk. “The one that belongs to the person doing the profile?”
Dee nodded, smiling.
“How do you know it was the same car?”
“It had the Baltimore Ravens sticker in the window.”
“This is Baltimore, Dee.” Lisa wiped icing from her mouth. “Millions of people have Ravens stickers on their cars.”
“So it’s a coincidence that a maroon Mazda with this sticker was at my place and now at the same store the same time I was?” Dee shook her head. “No way. Some dude in a baseball cap was driving it, but I couldn’t make out his face because he had on sunglasses. He took off when he realized I saw him. I got the license plate number and ran the plate. The car is owned by someone named Karleen Rivera.”
Lisa chewed. “It traced back to a woman?”
“Yep, so I figure whoever this chick is she knows this guy. She has to because he’s driving her car.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” Dee got off the desk. “I ran it twice. Also, I checked out her history, and she has a record.”
“Really?”
“She seems to have a temper because she’s been arrested a few times for altercations. One was about six years ago. She threw a drink on a woman at a nightclub. Another was about two years ago. She got into it with someone at a softball game and slapped him.”
Lisa bucked her eyes. “She sounds lovely.”
“She’s Mexican, single and thirty-seven years old. I got her address and home number too. She’s a receptionist for that food distribution company on Wabash Avenue. Isn’t this great, Lisa?”
“Yeah, if it pans out.”
“I’m gonna head over there. Come on.”
“You’re suspended, remember?” Lisa stood. “Go home and I’ll look into it.”
“I’m not sitting at home while this bastard plays with my life like it’s a fuckin’ violin. If you were me would you go home?”
Lisa sighed. “No.”
“That’s what I thought so let’s go.”
Dee pulled Lisa out the room.