I CALLED GRIMES on the way back to the Best Western. We were supposed to be a team. One with questionable locker room chemistry.
“Yeah?” Elated to hear from me. Go team.
“I talked to the first officer on the scene and he recalls Peck telling him that Krista was walking away from where her car was parked when she was struck.”
“You talked to Officer Baines?” He hadn’t gotten any happier.
“Yeah.”
“Who told you you could do that? I’m running this investigation. You should have contacted me first.”
“It was by accident. Baines is a friend of Leah Landingham. He showed up at Leah’s house while I was there.”
“Why were you at Miss Landingham’s house?”
“We agreed I’d ask her how she learned what Peck said that wasn’t in the police report. Remember?”
“That’s a simple phone call. Not a visit to her house.”
“Grimes, neither one of us is wearing a badge anymore. I’ll let you steer this investigation, but when it comes to questioning a witness, I’ll do it my way.”
“You’re not letting me do anything, Cahill. And I’m not going to let you take advantage of a vulnerable woman who’s grieving. I know your history. Especially with the Landingham family.”
I was pretty sure Grimes was a Christian. And I was pretty sure he’d passed over the forgiveness part. My one-night indiscretion with Krista had done far more damage to my life than it had done to his police investigation, but he couldn’t forgive me. Neither could I, but I’d leave final judgment to my maker. If he allowed me in his presence when the time came.
But some fights were best left internal. And the older I got, the thicker my skin grew.
“You want to know what else I learned today or would you rather stay up there on your high horse?”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Partners. “Leah and I went to Krista’s house and had a look around. Did you know that Krista had files of cold cases in her home office?”
“She had copies of murder books there?”
“Not full murder books, but extensive summaries that looked like she’d written up on her own.”
“I’m not surprised. She was in charge of the cold case unit in MIU.”
“Yeah, but Colleen’s file is missing.”
“That’s the case she was working on. The file’s probably on her desk at Figueroa Street. No big mystery there.”
“Well, this is a mystery.” I told him about the cold cases in drawer three of Krista’s file cabinet and empty drawer number four. “Come on, Grimes, doesn’t that seem a little strange to you? Krista kept extensive, meticulous files and Colleen’s case and the other cold cases that would fill drawer four of her file cabinet are all gone?”
“Maybe she hadn’t gotten to those cases yet.” His voice lacked its conviction of a minute ago.
“But you know she was working Colleen’s case. If she was going to have copies of any cold cases at her house, that would be number one. Plus, her laptop is missing.”
“That’s police property. I’m sure SBPD has possession of it.”
“Her personal laptop. We looked everywhere in the house and her car and Leah’s sure it wasn’t with Krista’s personal items given to her by SBPD.”
“Hmm.”
“Plus, the file cabinet was unlocked despite Krista having a key for it on her key chain. The lock had a couple scratches on it that could have come from someone picking it.”
I didn’t tell him about my expertise in the field. There were some things you didn’t even tell your partner.
“One other thing.” I sensed Grimes was ready to take a ride on my natural suspicion for a while. “A letter arrived at Krista’s house this week from a man in Oceanside thanking her for going down there to talk to him about something he saw in Santa Barbara a long time ago.”
“What did he see?”
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t talk to me on the phone. That’s why I’m going to pay him a surprise visit. I’m driving to Oceanside tomorrow.”
Maybe I should have told Grimes that Leah was coming with me. Maybe he’d think I was taking advantage of a vulnerable woman.
Grimes didn’t say anything. No doubt weighing whether to use his “I’m in charge speech” again. Finally, “Okay.”
“What did Detective Mitchell tell you about the discrepancy between what Dustin Peck told us about which way Krista was walking and what was in the report?”
“Nothing. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. All communication has to go through Captain Kessler now. Supposedly word came down from the chief. According to Kessler, Police Chief Miss Transparency didn’t like Mitchell trading information with some ex-cop PI.” Grimes bit down hard on his words. I was glad his anger was directed at someone else for a change.
“What did Kessler say?”
“He wants me to put my requests, as he called them, in writing going forward. He’s a politician. He’ll stonewall me until they solve the case or until he can find a way to make himself and the department look good. In that order.”
“What do we do with what I discovered today about the missing cold case files and the letter from the guy in San Diego?”
“I’ll give it to SBPD. Our directive hasn’t changed. We’re going to continue to try to help find the killer. If the information only flows one way now, that doesn’t matter. We don’t have badges.”
“Say I’m right about the missing files and the computer.” Grimes wasn’t going to like where I was going, so I’d try to have him lead me there. “Who do you think would know that she had the files and her computer might be important?”
“Quit playing games, Cahill. You’re not that clever.” His words less harsh than those for the police chief. He was warming up to me. “I know you think that it would have to have been someone from the department who took the files and the computer. If they were indeed stolen.”
“So, do you think we should share that information with SBPD when we aren’t sure who is friend or foe over there?”
“I may not yet know who the foe is over there, but I know who my friends are. That’s why I’m sitting on a stool in Paddy’s Pub right now.”
Paddy’s Pub was a cop bar on State Street when I was on the job. Chief Siems bought it after he retired.
“Mitchell’s meeting you?”
“My sources are my own.”
I ignored the opportunity to give Grimes my definition of a partnership. Maybe I’d use his from now on.
“I’ll check in when I get back from Oceanside.”