10:15 p.m.
Turn here.”
“Are you sure?” Dan asked.
Jess leaned forward. She felt like a kid at Christmas. It was only a temporary apartment but she couldn’t wait to see it. “This is it. Lori said to turn just past the house. The driveway goes around behind it to a detached garage. The key’ll be under the mat at the top of the stairs.”
Dan turned onto the narrow drive. “Your sister says this guy’s a recluse?”
He wasn’t happy that Jess had taken the apartment, but she was desperate. She needed her space. She needed her sister off her back and she needed out of the temporary limbo she’d been in since returning to her hometown. It was time. Time to move on with her life.
“He goes to church every Sunday. Her preacher suspects he’s the person who leaves a wad of cash in the collection box, but he can’t prove it.”
“Should we offer our lab services?” Dan shifted into park. “We can check for prints. Nail down the perpetrator.”
“Funny.” The garage looked fairly large with a staircase going up one side. It was hard to see with nothing but the moonlight, but there seemed to be a lot of trees. “Looks well maintained.” Lori had told her the place was immaculate. The man, Mr. Louis, seemed a little shy but well-mannered and normal looking.
But then so were a lot of monsters… like Eric Spears. Ha ha. Jess wasn’t even going there.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Dan suggested, as if he’d read hers.
“Stop.” Jess opened the door and climbed out. She snagged her bag and went to the rear hatch door to grab an armload of packages from Doree. She was now one hundred percent certain she had no limit left on any of her credit cards. If her house in Virginia didn’t sell quickly she was going to be cash poor and eyeball deep in debt.
The thought was beyond depressing. “You know.” She watched while Dan gathered the rest of the bags. “I may need a raise.”
He laughed. “We can’t talk about work right now.” He hit the key fob and the door closed. “I’m officially off duty, which means I’m your friend, not your boss.”
“What a cop-out, pun totally intended.” Jess glanced at the back of her new landlord’s house. The windows were all dark. “I hope he won’t have a problem with my coming and going all hours of the night.” She hadn’t thought of that. Tomorrow she would need to have a heart-to-heart with her kindly benefactor. He might not realize what he’d gotten himself into.
At the stairs, Dan insisted, “I’ll go first.”
Was he never going to get over this whole protective thing? “Suit yourself.”
Out of habit, Jess counted the steps as she climbed. Sixteen. Wide treads with a comfortable rise. Iron so there was no worry about rotten boards since they were exposed to the weather.
Dan moved the welcome mat, used his cell phone to light the landing so he could spot the key. “Here we go.”
It was foolish but she felt a little giddy as he unlocked the door. He reached inside and flipped a switch. Jess squeezed past him. Her bags hit the floor.
The apartment was one big open space. Hardwood floors. Soft sandy-colored walls. Clean white ceiling. There were windows on all sides, which she liked. The kitchen was small. Just a few cabinets, a sink, fridge, and stove filling one corner. An old-fashioned table, the metal and red Formica kind with the matching metal and red vinyl chairs, stood nearby.
On the far side of the room near the only other door was her brand-new bed. It was massive. She walked straight over to it, hopped on, and dropped onto her back. “Heavenly. Air-cooled memory foam.” She smoothed her hands over the lush comforter.
“There’s a card.” Dan sat down on the end of the bed and tossed her a large white envelope.
Her name was scrawled on the front. Jess tore it open. “It’s from Lori and Harper.” She laughed. “The linens and comforter are housewarming gifts. There’re towels in the bathroom. I never even thought about that.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Just the bed.”
“Speaking of bathrooms.” The mattress scarcely moved as he got up and walked over to the door and opened it. “Not bad.”
She had to see it. Jess rolled off the bed, groaning at the loss of the glorious support to her weary muscles. She joined him at the bathroom door. There was a claw-foot tub, a century-old pedestal sink, black-and-white-tiled floor, and a big leaded glass window. There was even a small linen closet.
Marvelous… except…“Where’s the other closet?” Jess turned and went back out into the main room. The bathroom was actually a square that had been carved out of the space. The matching square next to the bathroom made for a kind of L-shape in the big room. A curtain hung there. She drew it back and gasped.
Shelves and rods lined the walls, along with a nice row of built-in drawers, and at the back was a massive triple mirror. “Now this is a closet.”
Next she checked out the kitchen. The cabinets were clean. She would need dishes, pots, and pans and most everything else.
Mostly she would eat out. Not a big deal. Whatever minor details remained outstanding, she was just glad to have a place. She owed Lori and Harper big time. She turned back to admire her luxurious king-size bed. How the heck had they gotten that thing here from the store much less up the stairs?
“I could help you put away your stuff.”
She jumped at the sound of Dan’s voice. She’d been totally lost in thought. And she was really tired. “That can wait until tomorrow.”
“You sure about that?’ He glanced over at the half dozen bags. “We wouldn’t want those snazzy outfits to wrinkle.”
That was a point she couldn’t deny. “You just want to see the underwear I picked out. I know you.” She skirted around him and went to gather a couple of the bags.
“Actually,” he picked up a few bags himself and followed her to the closet space. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you here without more information on this guy.”
“Stop being paranoid.” Jess pulled the first of her four new outfits from the bag. She was glad Doree had included the silk-encased hangers with each outfit, otherwise she wouldn’t be hanging anything. Just another item she would need. Not necessarily silk-encased.
“Wells is picking you up in the morning?”
“She is.” Jess sent him a scowl. “You need to remember to call whoever’s in charge over there at the lab and tell them I need my car back by lunch.”
“I’ll call,” he promised. “Have you charged your phone?”
Jess hung the ivory two-piece suit. She loved the belted jacket. “I will. There’s a bag over by the bed that Lori brought from her place. It has all the stuff I bought last night. The charger’s in there somewhere.”
While she took care of her fledgling wardrobe, he plugged in her phone. Evidently he intended to make sure she was reachable.
The fridge door opened with a squeak. “You want me to run out and get you some bottled water or something?”
“Go home, Dan.” She reached into the last bag and removed the shoes. The first pair were gorgeous Mary Jane pumps in a sleek ivory with four-inch heels. The second pair, black stilettoes, the kind of shoes every woman needed. Perfect for any occasion. “I’ve got this under control.”
She opened the first drawer and sniffed. Surprisingly, there was a floral liner that smelled faintly of peony. Took all of two minutes to store her new, silky undergarments there. The few cosmetics she’d picked up at Walmart, and the shampoo and body wash went to the bathroom next and she was done.
“If you’re sure you’re okay,” he said finally.
Setting her hands on her hips she turned to face him. Just then, with nothing but a historic light fixture providing the room’s ambience, Dan could have been twenty years younger. He looked so sweet standing there all worried and reluctant to leave her alone in a strange place with a strange old man right next door.
But she wasn’t twenty anymore and all that reluctance was getting on her nerves. “Go home!” She strode straight up to him and took him by the arm. She ushered him to the door. “I’ll see you in the morning and we’ll go observe the autopsy or something.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll call you when I get home.”
“And I won’t answer. I’m about to try out that shower.”
Reluctantly, he walked out the door and hustled down the stairs.
Leaning against the door frame, Jess watched until he was in his fancy Mercedes and backing away. Once his headlights disappeared, she closed the door and locked it. The dead bolt, too.
Shedding her shoes and clothes as she went, she made her way to the bathroom. She turned on the shower spigot and climbed into the claw-foot tub. With a whoosh of metal on metal, she drew the curtain around her and lifted her face up to the gloriously warm water. Turning her back, she let the water soothe her weary muscles. She stood beneath it until she felt ready to melt. The fluffy new towel made fast work of drying. She dabbed on a little moisturizer and opted not to dry her hair. She could fight with it in the morning.
With teeth brushed and the borrowed robe Lori had sent along, she claimed the Grayson file from her bag and climbed onto her new lush bed.
She spread out the crime scene photos and studied the images. “Who was this angry with you, Gabrielle?”
The woman had no living siblings. Her brother had died as a teenager. Her father had passed away two years ago and her mother was vacationing in the Mediterranean. She wouldn’t be back to Birmingham until late tomorrow. No cousins, no extended family here at all.
Maybe Lori would find something during her interviews with the friends.
Jess stared at the photo she had borrowed from the house that showed Larry and Gabrielle Grayson with their brand-new baby boy just a few short months ago. They looked so happy. How had this happened to two people who seemed so much in love?
Could Sylvia Baron be right about the problem being related to the husband? “Why in the world did you want to talk to your husband’s ex?” Jess asked the image of the lovely woman who was now lying on a cold hard slab at the morgue.
What would make a woman call upon her husband’s ex-wife—the ex-wife she had stolen him from? A snob, frankly, who obviously thought she was way better than Gabrielle.
Her cell clanged. Jess swung her feet over the side of the bed and hopped off. She strode to the kitchen counter and checked her screen.
Burnett.
She shouldn’t answer. But knowing him, if she didn’t he would drive back over here just to see if she was okay. “You woke me up,” she lied.
“Blake just called. Lily’s in the hospital. I’m on my way to pick you up now.”
The blood seemed to drain from her body, pooling around her feet. “What happened? Why the hell didn’t Blake call me?”
“Lily told him to call me,” Dan explained. “She didn’t want you rushing over there alone. Blake said she hasn’t been herself lately. Tired and achy all the time. No appetite. Tonight she passed out in the shower and he rushed her to UAB. They’re running tests now.”
“ ’kay.” Jess blinked as her mind ran the possible medical scenarios. “How long until you’re here?”
“Ten minutes tops.”
“I’ll get dressed.”
Jess ended the call. Anxiety tightened around her chest. What if Lil was really sick? What if Dan hadn’t been home and here she was without a car?
She needed her damned car.
And her sister could not be that kind of sick. Impossible. Lily was as healthy as a horse. She wasn’t the one who took risks, not even with her diet. She ate all the right foods. Went to the gym. All that stuff Jess put off.
Where the hell was the bag of clothes she’d gotten from Walmart? She needed the sweats she’d bought for the workouts she wouldn’t do.
“Aha.” She snagged the sweats and a tee. Flip-flops, too. Lil would chastise her for not dressing better. She always said that going to the doctor was one of the times when you wanted to look your best. The first time she had passed along that advice Jess demanded to know why the heck it mattered. If you were sick, who cared how you looked? Lil had promptly explained that looking respectable was important so the doctor would think you were worth saving.
Fear closed Jess’s throat, making a decent breath impossible. She stalled at the foot of her bed. Please let Lily be okay. She could not lose her sister. Jess had too much lost time to make up for.
“Get ahold of yourself.” She evicted as much of the fear as possible. Her sister needed her to be strong and optimistic.
It was likely nothing. For that matter, Lil could be pregnant again.
“Better her than me,” Jess mumbled.
Sweats and flip-flops dragged on, Jess grabbed a clip for her hair. She was out the door and waiting at the street five minutes before Dan arrived.
UAB Hospital, Tuesday, August 3, 12:55 a.m.
By the time the ER physician returned to Lily’s room, Jess was ready to take the roof off the place. She had been sitting on this hard exam table with her sister for an hour at least. According to Blake, the test results were supposed to be back way before now.
Jess leaned close to Lil and muttered, “Good thing you weren’t bleeding about the head or neck.” Their second foster mother used to send them outside on Saturday mornings while she did her weekly housecleaning. She always warned that they’d better not bother her unless one or the other was bleeding about the head or neck.
Lil elbowed her.
Jess pinched her lips together to prevent a giggle. And people wondered why she didn’t want kids. Truth was, after their parents died, no one wanted her or Lil. Jess wondered how her sister had put that aside to have her own children. Maybe Jess was just a coward.
“What’d you find, Dr. Young?” Blake asked as he straightened out of the one not-made-for-comfort chair in the small room.
Dan was kind of stuck behind the door the doctor had left partially open.
The doctor’s name was a perfect fit. He was really young. “Why’s she been feeling so tired?” Jess demanded before the doctor could answer Blake’s question. She made a face at her sister. “And why didn’t she tell me?”
Lil waved her off. “You have enough to worry about.”
Blake cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” Jess offered.
“Your family medical history is a little vague,” Young said, rifling through the file he held. “Your parents are both deceased?” He looked up at Lil. “Car accident?”
Lil nodded. “We were just kids. Our parents were in their thirties, if either one had any health problems I don’t remember.”
Jess shook her head. “None I ever heard about.”
“No grandparents or other close family members?” the doctor asked.
“There’s a maternal aunt,” Jess admitted. “We haven’t seen her since we were kids.” This was not sounding good. “What’s going on, Doctor?”
“Maybe nothing,” he said with obvious hesitation. “Lily’s liver enzymes are a little off.” To Lily he added, “Considering the other symptoms, tremors, achiness, and fatigue, you’ll need to follow up with your family physician for additional testing.” He closed the file. “Could be stress or depression related but it’s always best to take the extra steps to be certain.”
Blake’s gaze connected with his wife’s. Jess knew instantly what they were thinking.
“Are you suggesting this could be something serious?” she asked the question neither Lil nor Blake had the nerve to present. Her heart felt as if it had stopped completely as Jess waited for his answer. Potential problems that affected the liver raced through her brain. Hepatitis. Cancer.
Young shrugged. “Unfortunately, I can’t give you any specific answers. I can tell you that your health isn’t something you want to ignore. See a doctor you trust and check on your family’s medical history. Whatever you’re dealing with here, having that medical history is far more important than you realize. Especially as you get older.”
Between Blake and Lil arguing over who said a year ago that they should get physicals and Dan stepping out of the room to take a call, Jess’s head was spinning from trying to read between the lines of what the doctor didn’t say.
When Young had given the release order and they were back in the lobby, Jess gave an order of her own. “You see your doctor this very day, Lil, do you hear me? And I’ll see what I can get from her.” Their aunt. Wanda Newsom. A woman Jess hadn’t seen or spoken to in better than thirty years. But she knew exactly where to find her.
“Don’t worry,” Lil griped. “I’ll see my doctor. I want to live to see my grandkids.”
Oh God. Grandkids. “We aren’t that old,” Jess complained, no matter what that baby-doctor said. When had a guy old enough to have graduated medical school suddenly become so young? He looked thirteen, for heaven’s sake!
“I’ll make sure she does exactly that,” Blake promised Jess.
Jess hugged her sister and then her brother-in-law. God almighty, her sister couldn’t be that kind of sick. Not Lil.
At the lobby exit, Jess watched Blake hold Lil close as they made their way across the parking lot. Seemed like just last year that Lil and Blake were going to the prom. Jess had pretended not to like Blake. He’d been a total nerd. Deep down she’d actually been a little jealous of how they made everything about being a couple look so easy. Lil had known from the first kiss that he was the one and the two had been together ever since.
Jess had never been that absolutely certain of anything other than getting out of this town.
And here she was, back home… not quite at square one but close.
“You ready to go?”
She looked up at Dan. “Yes.” The weight of the day settled on her shoulders and the urge to cry came out of nowhere. Damn that too young Dr. Young. He was right. They were getting older. Falling apart, one vital element at a time. Jess already had to wear glasses.
Dan gestured for her to precede him out the door. It was late and she was tired. Otherwise she wouldn’t be wallowing in this stinking pity party.
“You’ll let me know the second you hear from Lil what’s going on?” He adjusted his stride to hers as they headed for his SUV.
“Course.”
“Chief Hogan called.” Dan opened the passenger-side door of his SUV for her. “There was another demonstration at midnight. Downtown at Linn Park.”
“Any injuries?” So far no casualties had come of the clashes between the Black Brotherhood and the MS-13, or during the former’s anti-gang rallies. Since busting up Lopez’s little sister’s party, the only homicides had been the executions carried out by the MS-13 against their own members who had been deemed traitors. But that could change any second.
The image of Gabrielle Grayson filled her head. Jess was convinced that her murder had nothing to do with the MS-13 insanity. Harper was right about the emotions that had driven the motive of Gabrielle’s killer. But someone sure wanted them to think there was a connection.
Whoever had murdered her, Jess would get him. Soon, she hoped.
She leaned back in the leather seat and closed her eyes. This night couldn’t be over fast enough to suit her. Somehow coming back here had made her far more keenly aware of her own mortality. Or maybe it was just that she had to look at all the past decisions she’d made—right, wrong, or indifferent.
Like allowing what she and Dan once had to fall apart. And spending most of her adult life far away from her only family.
So much lost time and no way to get a single second of it back.
How did she make sure she didn’t lose any more?
The answer was way too complicated to figure out when she was this tired. She just wanted to watch the lights go by and not think so hard. She’d always loved riding through town at night. The streetlights and the blanket of stars overhead… the endless possibilities. As a teenager she’d been a dreamer. She’d had so many plans. A lot of those plans and dreams she had attained.
But not all… not by a long shot. And tonight the stars hadn’t come out. Maybe that was a sign. Her attention settled on the driver’s profile. She had been so in love with him and they’d fallen apart. Maybe some dreams just weren’t meant to be.
And yet, there was still something smoldering between them. Try as she might, there was no way to ignore it. Maybe it was just a kind of friendship that came with knowing someone so intimately for so many years. Or maybe it was the real thing and they were both too preoccupied to notice.
Great. Just what she needed, another mystery.
The downtown buildings gave way to the neighborhood streets of Forest Park and her new home. Her new, luxurious bed waited inside. There was a lot upside down in her life right now, but today she had taken her first step toward righting things.
Dan was out of the SUV before she had a chance to tell him good night. He walked with her up those sixteen steps. Jess stalled at the door and faced him. There was no way she could trust herself with letting him come inside. No way.
“I still have reservations about this place,” he admitted. “You sure you’ll be okay tonight?”
He wanted to stay. The offer was tempting. Standing this close it was impossible not to feel the tension in his body. He wanted to be with her. To deny she wanted the same thing would be a lie, and lying to herself was not a smart move.
This was just another of those upside down things she needed to right. To do that, she needed a little distance and more time to understand where they needed to go from here.
“Dan, I can’t do this when I’m on a case.” That sounded so very lame, but it was true. She shook her head. “I have to keep that us and this us separate.” She wished she could find the words to better articulate her feelings. “I know what I’m saying doesn’t make sense. But I just can’t be your lover and focus on being your deputy chief at the same time. When the case is over… we’ll see.”
She doubted her explanation made a lick of sense, but she felt what she felt. As foolish as it sounded, somehow when she had no pressing case hanging over her head and they were off duty it was different. Maybe the bottom line was that too much had changed in the past three weeks. She needed to regain her footing before she could feel right about much of anything.
“I understand,” he relented, letting her off the hook. “You’re right. We need to take this slow.” He backed up a step. “Night, Jess.”
Letting him go was the hardest thing she’d done since making the decision to come back here. She was exhausted and worried and there was this gruesome case… but letting him go was the right thing to do.
When he’d driven away, she turned to unlock the door. As soon as she touched it, it swung inward with a low aching creak. The fight or flight instinct kicked in. She jammed her hand into her bag and claimed her Glock.
Beyond the door it was dark as a cave.
But if anyone were in there and wanted to shoot her or charge at her, they’d already had a prime opportunity.
With her free hand she felt for the light switch just inside the door. The glow from the ancient fixture spilled over the room.
Clear.
Relief flooding her, Jess exhaled a jagged breath.
The Grayson file was scattered over the bed and floor. She checked the bathroom and the closet. Clear. Nothing tampered with except the file as far as she could tell. Even if there’d been a breeze outside, she hadn’t left any windows up. The ceiling fan above the bed was off.
The papers hadn’t gotten scattered by a draft.
Back at the door, she examined the locks. Had she forgotten to engage the dead bolt? Evidently. In her rush to get to Lily she hadn’t been thinking. Jess crouched down to visually examine the knob and lock. She shook her head. Telltale scratches warned that someone had picked the lock.
“Damn it.” She slammed the door and set the dead bolt. Getting the locks changed to a newer, less simple system would be the first item on her agenda tomorrow morning. Before that damned press briefing.
The Glock in one hand, she surveyed her new bed. She hoped the bastard hadn’t left her a message beneath the comforter. Jess started that way but the photo of Grayson and his wife lying on the floor amid the pages from the file snagged her attention.
Scrawled across the photo in what looked like blood were three words: You are next.
Fear trickled inside her but the outrage quickly drowned it. “Son of a…” She retrieved her cell phone from her bag and put through a call to Harper. She didn’t bother with a greeting. She was too damned angry. “I need you and an evidence tech at my new place. And, Harper, I want this kept just between us for now.”
Guilt wormed its way alongside the waning outrage. Dan would be furious if he discovered she’d kept this from him. Problem was, if she told him, he’d start smothering her again—not that he’d actually stopped completely. She couldn’t have him treating her differently from his other deputy chiefs just because they had this thing.
Harper assured her he would be there ASAP.
Phone in one hand, Glock in the other, Jess sat down at her vintage table to wait.
That was when she started to shake.