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When I got into the office, I found Travis’s report waiting for me. I read it over with interest, finding nothing new. Travis had told me everything, yet he had taken the time early in the morning or late last night to drive all the way out here and make it official.
I knew he was trying to make amends. My accusation that he wasn’t taking the case seriously was unfair. Yes, it was my father and not his who had wound up dead at the wrong end of Rossi’s gun, but that didn’t mean Travis had no skin in the game.
The one additional piece of information that was contained in the written report was Mike’s last name. Travis hadn’t told me that last night. I minimized the report and called up the criminal database. If Harper had any connection to Rossi in real life, he would probably have been picked up for something at some point.
At first blush, there were three Mike Harpers with criminal records in the city. The first one was too old, and the second one was too young. The middle one looked like a good prospect. He was in his late thirties with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. His mug shot looked vicious, and I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley without my gun.
It was difficult to think of him as someone Stacia would turn to as a friend. But easier to believe that he had access to a body she could dress up as herself. The charges ranged from public disturbance to assault but nothing approaching the severity of murder. He’d been to jail twice, most recently three years ago. That was right about the time of Stacia’s disappearance, and I wondered if the two events were related.
I called up the details of the most recent arrest. He had been caught breaking into a hospital, scaring a night nurse and stealing a bunch of pills. The pills were never found, but the cops had him on surveillance video, pushing a gurney, pretending to be an orderly.
I wondered if the pills were just a distraction, and the real prize was the body he had been seen pushing. There was nothing in the police report about a missing body, but that didn’t mean Mike hadn’t stolen one.
I put in a call to the hospital, explaining who I was and what I wanted. “Were there any clerical errors or misplaced bodies or patients on the night of...” I checked my screen for the evening in question.
“Let me get you our police liaison,” the receptionist said.
I waded through red tape, reassuring the hospital that I wasn’t planning on filing charges. It was frustrating to say the least, and finally I snapped.
“Look, I don’t care if you made a mistake or not. All I’m interested in is whether there was a missing body. We have a suspect, and if you can help me connect the damned dots, I would appreciate it.”
The police liaison clammed up. I heard a keyboard clacking, and a moment later, he came back with the answer. “On that evening, there was a commotion in the lobby. A woman who was presumably intoxicated came into the waiting room and started berating the nurse on duty. Our guards attempted to subdue her when she passed out. We conducted an examination and determined that she was sleeping peacefully. She was left on a gurney in the hallway.”
“And?” I pressed.
“That’s the end of the report,” the hospital representative replied.
“Where is she? What happened?” I continued to search for answers. “Was she arrested?”
“I don’t have that information,” the spin doctor insisted. “I suggest you check your files.”
I had a pretty good idea what happened. Stacia had turned to her “friend” Mike Harper to help her get out from under her father. When Mike didn’t happen to have any similarly sized corpses available, he made one out of a destitute drunk woman in the hospital. He stole some pills to give himself an alibi for breaking in and somehow managed to remove the fresh corpse from the premises without being seen.
Harper took the body to a prearranged building, called Stacia, and told her to bring a spare firefighter’s uniform. Together, they dressed the body and lit the building on fire. Stacia hurried back to the firehouse, where she waited for the alarm to ring. Going into the blaze like a champion, she snuck out the back, never to be seen again. Until recently.
Meanwhile, Harper ran into some bad luck being caught on camera for stealing the pills. He kept his mouth shut about the murder and the disposal of the body and served a short sentence before hitting the streets again.
All indications were that he was caught up in Rossi’s drama again, even though he wasn’t one of the few who had been rounded up at the most recent apartment fire. Rebecca hadn’t said anything about Mike Harper, either, which meant that he probably wasn’t active. Or maybe he was active behind the scenes.
Either way, I got the feeling that Harper was a cold son of a bitch. He might have a soft spot for Rossi’s daughter, but no good friend commits murder to help out. There were other ways they could have gone about it, including turning themselves into the FBI in the first place.
I didn’t like Stacia, and the thought of Travis spending any more time with her was abhorrent. If she was cooperating with the police for the moment, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t turn her back on them the next. She was a self-serving mafia princess, and I wanted her as far away from my man as possible.
I gave Chief Clark a briefing as soon as I gathered all the information. It was light on evidence and heavy on supposition, but the timeline fit. I was pleased that Travis had taken the extra step of making his report official. That looked good, considering the fact that we had allowed him to talk to Stacia alone. All our butts were covered in one simple act that he had probably done just to placate me.
At noon, I checked my phone for any messages. Travis was silent, and that hurt. I’d stormed out on him last night in a fit of rage, but that didn’t mean I wanted to remain at odds. A simple good morning would have been nice. We need to talk would even have been preferable to nothing.
I put out an APB on Mike Harper, and spent another two hours chasing my tail, trying to find out who the drunk woman in the ER had been. I couldn’t find any information on her, no one who had filed a missing persons, no hospital record of her name or address. She was the perfect victim for Harper and Stacia, someone who wouldn’t be missed. I couldn’t even tell if he had killed her, or if she’d simply succumbed to her own demons and he’d capitalized on the tragedy.
By the time three o’clock rolled around, I was crawling out of my skin. Travis still hadn’t called or texted, and I was wondering how big of a mess I’d made. Remembering last night, I tried to recall whether he was serious about his proposal.
It had sounded half-cocked when he’d uttered it, as if it was a spur of the moment request to stop the fighting. That’s how I’d treated it when I turned my back on him. It didn’t occur to me for a minute that he really wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. If that was the case, why had he brought up Stacia the moment our bodies fell apart?
I had to know if he was serious. I felt vulnerable, putting myself in the crossfire of our emotional havoc. But I couldn’t concentrate on my work. I’d pushed the ball as far as I could, and there were no new developments on the case.
I clocked out and escorted the dogs back to my car. Arriving at Travis’s apartment, I didn’t see his car in the parking lot. The dogs needed to be walked, so I parked and went to the dog park in the back. We played for a few minutes, giving me time to reevaluate what I was doing.
Travis was important to me. I didn’t know if he still harbored feelings for his ex, but I knew she was no good. It was my duty as a girlfriend and a police officer to steer him clear of a potential mistake. I had to communicate my suspicions and make sure he didn’t go back to her place alone again. If Mike Harper was who I thought he was, and if Stacia was still in touch with him, no one was safe in her company.
Getting back in the car, I drove to the fire station. If Travis wasn’t home, maybe he was at work. He had a strange schedule, and just because he didn’t clue me in ahead of time didn’t mean he wasn’t on the job.
I drove around back to where I knew the firefighters parked. Travis’s car was there, and the sight of it brought relief. I was unconsciously fighting the fear that I would be left hanging the entire night.
Climbing out, I let the dogs off their leashes. They ran into the firehouse, seeking out the man that we were all there to find. I followed slowly, building up my courage to have the conversation we needed to have.
I found Travis halfway across the landing, coming toward the stairs with both dogs on his heels. Duke and Duchess were vying for his attention, but he only had eyes for me. I saw a warm smile spread across his face and knew we were going to be all right. Whatever damage I had done wasn’t permanent. I should have known he was above all that.
We met in the middle and kissed without worrying about who was watching. I slid my fingers up his collar and into his hair, telling him I was sorry without words. Duke yipped, disappointed that I had stolen all of Travis’s attention.
Travis let me go with a grin. “Hey, I see you too, boy.”
“Did I tell you Duchess was assigned to me too?” I asked, realizing that we hadn’t spent any time catching up between arguing and sex.
“No,” Travis replied. “That’s great! Now you’ve got the gang back together.”
“Yeah,” I enthused, remembering the two guys on the street the day before who had been shocked into compliance by my two canine partners. “We work well together.”
“Hey, I’m sorry for...” Travis trailed off, clearly understanding that something had gone wrong but waiting for me to supply him with the specifics.
“No, I’m sorry,” I countered. “I shouldn’t have stormed out.”
We stood there awkwardly, the ghost of the proposal hanging in the air between us. He didn’t bring it up, and neither did I, for fear that it would only make things worse. If he was serious about his feelings, we had the rest of our lives to make things right. And if I was correct and it had been a throwaway remark designed to mend fences, then it was better left alone. I didn’t want to get married for all the wrong reasons.
“Are you working overnight?” I asked.
“I am,” he admitted. “But I could take some time off for dinner.”
“Mmm,” I murmured, finding my way into his arms again. “Sounds delicious.”
Just as our lips touched, the alarm bell rang, sending a jolt of electricity through us both. I tipped forward in shock, and he caught me. Travis’s friend Patrick bounded up the stairs.
“Oh good, Alaina, you’re here,” he said, delivering the news so fast he almost tripped over it. “There’s another apartment fire, this time on the east side of town.”
“Is it Rossi?” I asked.
“Looks like it,” he replied.
I took a minute to mourn the fact that the Rossi fires had become so commonplace that everyone knew what they looked like. But it was only a minute. After that, the dogs and I tumbled down the stairs and back to our vehicle, leaving Travis to suit up for the fire.
