41

“Lauren.” Captain Maniechwicz stuck his head out of his office and motioned for her and Nolan to come inside. “We need to talk.”

Lauren’s pulse was still racing from her confrontational interview with Melissa. She had swiped back into the Homicide office ready to punch something or someone when the captain summoned her into his inner sanctum.

Nolan had never dealt with the oddities of the Invisible Man yet, but he didn’t get the full measure of his kookiness because his shrine to the Buffalo Bills was packed away. All that was left in the office was the captain’s desk and three chairs. Boxes sat stacked to the ceiling on the far wall. She wondered if his cherished Buffalo Bills flag was stashed away in one of them. Or if he knew that Reese had stolen his Jim Kelly bobblehead.

“Yes, sir?” Lauren asked.

“The hospital detail assigned to you was quite concerned when they couldn’t find you.”

“I’m sorry, sir.” She wasn’t sorry. “I had to get on this. We have to track down David Spencer. And Melissa is playing games. Isabella Colon might still be alive. I think he shot Reese because we were getting too close—”

The Invisible Man held up a hand silencing her. “David Spencer’s Lexus was located in West Seneca about two hours ago, parked on a residential side street. We’ve impounded it.”

“So he’s in West Seneca?” Nolan asked. West Seneca was a first ring suburb that butted up to the city and to Cazenovia Park.

“We don’t know.” The captain shifted his bulky belly against his empty desk. “The district attorney says we don’t have enough for a search warrant of his car, let alone his house, or his work place. Carl Church says we have nothing to tie David Spencer to either Isabella Colon’s disappearance or Shane Reese’s shooting. And he’s right.”

“But Captain—” Lauren sputtered.

“Right now, we have every cop, every detective, every resource we have focused on finding the person who shot Reese. The Evidence techs found no fingerprints on the gun, and even with a rush order at the lab, I doubt they’ll find any DNA.”

David would be too smart to leave any evidence on the gun, Lauren knew. And rifles didn’t have to be registered in New York State. David could have ten of them he bought at a local hunting store, and if he paid cash, there’d be no record.

“What I want from you right now is to take another Homicide car and go to Reese’s house. Grab whatever you think he’s going to need and head back to the hospital. Or go home. No more interviews unless I approve them.”

“Where’s his dog now?” Lauren asked, ignoring that last statement. She wasn’t interested in his approval.

“Joy Walsh went and grabbed him. She turned him over to Reese’s buddy in K9, Evan Harold, for now. Evan said he’d get ahold of you.”

She nodded. Evan was a good guy and she knew he and Reese had been friends since the police academy. When she was done with the captain, she’d check her phone to see if Evan had called her. After she grabbed Reese’s things, Lauren needed to arrange a pick up. She wanted Reese’s dog, Watson, staying with her, even if Dayla had to watch him while she was at the hospital. Evan was a nice guy, but he was still a stranger to Watson.

Her phone had been blowing up since the shooting. The only messages she’d returned were her daughters’ and her parents’, and those were very brief conversations, just to let them know she was okay and Reese was still alive. If Evan had called, his message was probably buried in her inbox somewhere.

“I want to head out right now, so I can get back to the hospital,” Lauren told the captain.

“No more leaving without telling anyone where you’re going,” he admonished. “We’re trying to protect you. That’s why I want a car crew with you at Reese’s house, in case the nut job who shot him is still lurking in the park.”

She wanted to protest that she didn’t need a babysitter. Couldn’t he see Nolan standing right next to her? But she bit her tongue. It was time for her to pick her battles very carefully. “Who’s working?”

“Garcia and Anthony are going to go over there with you.”

It figures, she thought, the two people in the world I least want to be around right now.

Lauren looked over to Nolan. “You want to take a ride over to Reese’s house with me?”

“I am your ride,” he replied. “Let’s get his stuff and we’ll go back over to the hospital together.”

“It sounds like we’re all on the same page.” She turned to the Invisible Man. “Tell Garcia and Anthony we’ll be in the Cold Case office finishing up the paperwork for the interview we just did.”

The captain nodded. “They’re on their way back to headquarters now.”

“Good,” Lauren said. “Are we done?”

The captain’s voice took on a softer tone. “We had to rein Reese in when you first got stabbed, even though there was no clear suspect at the time. Then he wouldn’t leave your side. So I get it, Lauren. I do.”

You don’t get anything. The thought was bitter and poisonous in her brain. Things have changed.

“And one more thing,” he called as they turned to leave.

“Yes, sir?”

His frown followed his eyes as they traveled her up and down. “Change that shirt.”