Chapter 6

For the first time in twelve years Jake walked into the bullpen at the stroke of nine. Jake’s normal time was seven-thirty. Louie sat at his desk, facing the squad room door as he sipped from a cup of coffee.

“How nice, you decided to join us today, Lieutenant,” he said over the rim of the cup.

“Oh, shove it, Louie.”

“Aren’t we grouchy today? If you’d listened to your hormones, you’d be in a better mood.”

Jake stared him down. He didn’t flinch. “Lieutenant, let me get you a cup of coffee.”

“Louie, back off.” Jake turned and left the squad room as the other cops stared after him. Louie followed him into an empty office.

“Hey, what gives?” he asked.

“Between us, Louie. No gossip.”

“Okay.”

“I watched Mia pull out of the garage this morning. I turned to close the garage door and when I turned back, do you know what I saw?” Jake’s face turned red. Louie was afraid he’d blow a gasket.

“No, what?” Louie asked.

“Chloe Wagner pulled out from down the street. She started to follow Mia. I jumped in my car and cut her off before she could find out where Mia lived. When I confronted her, she said she was on her way to work. She had the balls to ask about Mia, by name. How the hell did she know her name?”

“Don’t know, maybe she’s stalking you? But who the hell stalks a cop?” Louie pulled at his nose.

“There’s something off about her. I want to review every last piece of evidence today in Shanna Wagner’s file. See if we missed anything. We need to close this one and get rid of Chloe. After we finish the interviews on the Adams case let’s go through Shanna’s together.”

“I’ll make the time.”

Jake nodded.

“So, Mia spent the night again?” Louie slipped in.

“Get your mind out of the gutter. It’s not what you think.”

“Hey, what do I think?” Louie scowled all the way back to his desk.

Jake ignored him. As they stepped back into the squad room, the captain called Jake into his office.

“Take a seat.” McGuire pointed to a chair.

“What’s up, Captain?”

“I’m getting pressure from the other shifts. Their lieutenants want to settle in. Pick out your office. You have first choice because of your seniority and ranking.”

“Okay, I’ll do it now. Are they all set up or do they need to be outfitted for phones and computers?” Jake thought the corner office at the other end of the bullpen would offer privacy and a nice view of the downtown area. He liked this old shop town, even with all the empty factories. Some enterprising people were now trying to convert them into interesting businesses while grabbing the tax breaks being offered by the city.

“It’s turn-key, go ahead and pick one out.”

Jake started out of the captain’s office.

“Is something bothering you, besides Spaulding?” McGuire asked.

“I’m distracted with my cases—my sister’s, Wagner, and Adams.” Guilt speared him. Mia had filled his whole weekend. He hadn’t even thought about Eva.

At some point, I’ll need to discuss Chloe with the captain, but not before I calm down.

“Do you have anything new on the Wagner or Adams cases?” McGuire asked.

“No, I took the weekend off. We’ll be doing the follow-ups this morning.”

“I’ll let you get to it then.”

He nodded, turned, and walked back to his desk.

“What did McGuire want?”

“I’m supposed to pick an office. You’re not going to go ballistic on me, are you?” Jake smiled to lighten the blow.

Louie stared at him for the beat of five. “No, I’m not going to go crazy. It goes with the rank. But I can’t help wishing it was me.”

“You’re not going to miss me?”

“No. I’ve been looking forward to this day for years. I thought I’d be the one in the office.”

Louie always psyched himself out when it came to taking tests. It never failed—he worried his way to a low score. He’d done the same thing throughout high school. A brilliant detective, Louie had taken the sergeant’s exam for the third time two weeks ago, around the same time Jake had taken the lieutenant’s exam. He offered up a little prayer in hopes that Louie passed this time around.

“Next week you’ll get to pick the office right next to mine. When you do, we won’t be partners any longer. They’ll give each of us someone to train, God help us.”

“Yeah, like that would happen.”

“If you want it, it’ll happen,” Jake said. “Let’s do the follow-up with the two friends who went out with Chelsea Adams. You left messages on Friday for them. Did either of them respond? Have we heard back from the lab yet on the car?”

“Slow down, Jake, I’m on top of everything. I haven’t gotten any lab results yet. I’ll check my voicemail before I call the lab again. The M.E.’s report should be in later today.” Louie rubbed his chin.

“Let’s book an interview room for tonight around six o’clock. I’m pulling Chloe in after work. I want her to understand we’re not kidding around. Let’s start messing with her head,” Jake said, catching Louie’s expression. “What?”

“Are you doing this because she got under your skin, or because of the case?”

“She can’t be following me—or Mia—around. I want to make it clear to her that stalking is a criminal offense. But more, what we need is to solve the case for Shanna.”

“We’re trying. It’s not like we’re not working it,” Louie said.

“Remember a few months ago when we were leaning toward the guy she worked with, even though he had an alibi? Let’s take another look at him. Review every statement in the file to see if we can pick up the trail again. The last time I saw Chloe, she made a point of mentioning how he kept in touch with her. It’s weird. Shanna broke it off with him a month or two before her death,” Jake said.

“I’ll book the room.”

“Damn, it was stupid to date her in the first place. I don’t know what got into me. At some point, I’m going to have to let the captain in on it.”

“Document it, Jake. You never know when someone’s going to snap,” Louie said.

“Let’s leave it for now. We’ll record the interview tonight. That will make it official.”

“If you say so.” Louie shrugged. He backed down. It wasn’t his life. Jake would handle Chloe his own way.

After checking his voicemail, Louie noted calls from both Julie Cahns and Jora Stein, recorded their numbers on his pad, and then booked an interview room for six o’clock. He returned Julie Cahns’s call first.

“Julie Cahns, please.” A man answered the phone.

“Who’s calling?”

“It’s Detective Romanelli from the Wilkesbury Police Department.”

“Oh, yes. This is about poor Chelsea, isn’t it?”

“Yes. You are…?”

“Julie’s brother, Dwayne.”

“Okay. Did you know Chelsea?”

“Yes.”

“Is Julie there?” Louie asked again. He put Dwayne’s name on the list to interview at a later time.

“I’ll get her.”

Louie waited several minutes before Julie picked up.

“Hello.”

“This is Detective Romanelli.”

“Detective, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I was away this weekend.”

“How are you doing?” Louie noted the stress in her voice.

“Not good. I’ve known Chelsea since we were in high school. I can’t put my head around it—I just can’t believe she’s gone.” Julie cried, making her words difficult to understand. “I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time holding it together.”

“Please try, we need to go through the night you all went out to dinner.” Louie asked.

“Okay.”

A half hour later, Louie ended the call. He’d gathered more information into Chelsea’s life, both as a friend and as a mother, but he got nothing new from Julie concerning their last night together. Her story matched Sara’s. Glad to be off the phone, he rubbed his ear to ease the pressure.

“Next one’s yours,” he told Jake.

“She talked for a long time.”

“Chelsea’s her best friend. You could feel her grief.”

“What’s the name of the next one?”

“Let me see—Jora Stein. She worked with Chelsea.”

“Is this her work number or her home number?”

“Work,” Louie answered.

* * * *

Jake got nothing new from Jora either. Nothing exciting happened to any one of them except for Chelsea’s disappearance. No one else but Jora had interacted with anyone outside of their small group, and she had left right after Chelsea. Jora said the guy was an epitome of an asshole. She had never let it get past the stage of talking with him at the bar. Chelsea had left due to boredom, around ten o’clock.

According to Jora, Chelsea never complained about anyone bothering her—not socially, professionally, or personally. A quiet woman, a homebody who went to work then home, Chelsea didn’t care to date. The divorce had left her bitter. Once a week, she’d go out with her friends for a quick meal.

Jake played the conversation over in his mind, frustrated with the lack of leads. Murder was rarely a random act—was this one of those times it was? In his cases throughout the years, with few exceptions, survivors had stated the victim had no enemies. But he always found at least one, if not more. A person didn’t go through life without at least a smudge. He chided himself. It was too early yet in the investigation to classify it. A lot more work needed to be done before he’d give up. Tomorrow they’d dig deeper into the lives of her kids, the ex-husband, the new wife, and her friends.

Jake turned to Louie. “Did you hear back from the airlines yet? If not, do a follow-up call. See if we can’t at least tie that up.” Jake went down his list and checked off everything they’d accomplished today.

“Hmm! You’re leaning toward the new model for this. Did she have enough time to fly in, kill Chelsea, and then out fly out again?”

“That’s where my gut’s leading me. I want to know why she lied. Could be innocent enough, if she didn’t want to say where she had gone in front of her husband.”

“Do you want to take a ride? The bartender over at the golf course returned my call. I’m heading over there now. It’s close to lunchtime. We can grab something to eat there.”

Jake’s personal cell phone rang before he could respond. He took it out of his pocket to check the display and smiled.

“Let me guess—Mia?”

Jake nodded, turning away from Louie.

“I’m in Wilkesbury today. Do you want to meet for lunch?” Mia asked.

“I’d love to. Let me rearrange a few things and I’ll call you right back,” Jake said, as he ran down the list of to-dos in his mind. Everything could wait a half hour or more.

“Great,” she said, before hanging up.

“Change of plans.”

“I heard.” Louie beamed like a proud papa. “Remember, Sophia and I fixed you up.”

“I’ll remember when things don’t work out,” Jake teased. He loved busting Louie’s chops.

“Nice, Jake. See, it’s doomed before it starts if you feel that way. I’ll take lunch at the golf course alone. You do what you have to do.”

Jake tolerated Louie’s lectures most times. He appreciated it when Louie walked away, giving him some privacy. He punched in Mia’s number.

“Where do you want to meet?” Mia asked.

“How about Café Pablo, right off the highway? Do you know where it is?”

“Yes, it’s perfect because I’m in the east end of town today. When do you want to meet?”

“Now is good?”

“I’ll need at least fifteen minutes to write up my meeting notes then I’ll see you there,” Mia said.

“Take your time. Depending on traffic, it’ll take me ten or fifteen minutes to get there”

The day didn’t start out well, but seeing Mia would turn it around. Should he tell her about Chloe? Did she see her this morning? Should he wait—see if it happened again?

“Let me remind you lunch is a half hour, buddy,” Louie said, with a twinkle in his eye. “So, no nooners.”

Jake wiggled his brow. “You’re jealous. I’ll be back when I’m back.” He grabbed his jacket, tossed Louie a grin over his shoulder as he headed to his car for the drive across town.

* * * *

Before Jake reached his car, Louie had Sophia on the phone. “You’ll never guess who’s having lunch with whom,” Louie said when Sophia answered.

“Oh Louie, you’re such a child. Back off and don’t screw this up for him.”

“Geez, Sophia, you’re the second person to accuse me of that today,” Louie said.

“Well, you have a knack. So, it’s working out. It took us what, ten years to get it right?”

“Yep. Also, I wanted to let you know that I might be working late. I’ll let you know for sure after lunch.”

“Okay.”

“I have to run, bye.” Louie hung up, turning his mind back to the business of murder. He bounced between cases. Could Jake be right about Chloe being involved in her sister’s murder? Louie hoped not. Having dated her during the investigation could put a black mark on Jake’s spotless record.