Текст книги "Damsel In Danger"
Автор книги: Olivia Jaymes
Жанры:
Триллеры
,сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
Chapter Fourteen
‡
“This is it,” West said as he pulled into the apartment complex parking area. “I hope she’s home.”
“According to Jared she works at night as a waitress so the best chance we have of talking to her is during the day. What I hope is that she actually knows something about this case. Who might want Roger Gaines dead and why?”
“I wish I were that optimistic, brother, but this job has made me cynical as hell.”
Jason climbed out of the SUV and looked at the building in front of him. Made of red brick with white trim, it looked like every other apartment building around with floors of doors lined up one by one. Anita Hazlitt lived on the third floor.
“Does that look like what I think it is?” West pointed to a door on the third floor as they approached the stairs. “What was the apartment number again?”
“303,” Jason replied grimly, taking the stairs two at a time. It looked like they were too fucking late. Yellow crime scene tape crisscrossed the apartment door.
“Fuck,” West hissed under his breath as they stood in front of the taped off entrance. “This is not good. Not good at all.”
“We’ll go see Seth. Hopefully Anita Hazlitt is okay.”
“I got a bad feeling about this. It’s too much of a coincidence.”
“What are you doing here? What do you want?” a feminine voice from behind them asked.
Jason whirled around and must have scared the young woman because her face turned pale and she practically fell over her own feet stepping back. West caught her arm and kept her from sprawling on the concrete. Tall and slender with short dark hair, she appeared to be in her early twenties.
“Easy there.” West patted the woman on the shoulder and then reached for his badge. “We’re the good guys. I’m Westin Anderson, Head of Detectives in Tremont and this is my brother Jason. We’re sorry if we scared you.”
The girls seemed to relax slightly but she still clutched her purse to her chest like a shield. She peered at West’s badge and then nodded. “Why are the cops from Tremont here? Sheriff Reilly said he was releasing the apartment to me this morning.”
Clearly they needed to talk to Seth and find out what had happened here.
Jason hooked his thumb at the door. “You live here? With Anita Hazlitt? We need to talk to her. Are you a friend?”
“I’m her roommate. Lita George.”
Her gaze darted back and forth between Jason and West as if she expected them to do something evil or violent. Jason held out his hand and gave her his best non-threatening smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lita. Do you know when Anita will be home? We really need to talk to her.”
“Is this about one of her cases? I always knew that she was going to get in trouble one day and I was right.”
Cases?
“Actually this is about her boyfriend Roger Gaines.” Jason watched for any change in Lita’s expression when he mentioned their victim’s name.
Lita rolled her eyes. “Did Roger tell you Anita was his girlfriend? She’ll get a big kick out of that. They were friends but she thought he was pretty geeky. Everyone did.”
“When you say cases, Lita, what did you mean by that?” West asked, giving Jason a sidelong glance. “What kind of trouble is Anita in?”
“You really don’t know, do you?” Lita tilted her head in question and tears welled up in her eyes. “Someone shot Anita yesterday evening while she was walking home from a friend’s place. I knew this was going to happen. She took too many chances and now look what’s happened.”
Full-fledged tears were running down Lita’s face and although Jason had a million questions for this young woman, the first thing he needed to do was comfort the poor thing. She’d obviously been through a great deal if what she said was true.
“How about we go inside and sit down? West will make you some tea,” Jason offered. “Seth said he was releasing the apartment? They searched it for clues?”
“Yes, he called me this morning and said I could come back and get my things. I don’t want to sleep here alone.” Lita shuddered but reached into her purse and pulled out a set of keys. “I’m going to move in with my parents until they catch whoever did this.”
They followed Lita into the apartment and sat down on the couch but Jason’s fingers were flying over his cell phone, texting Seth to find out how serious the injuries were and if they had any suspects. West took off his cowboy hat and set it on the side table while Lita settled on a chair to Jason’s right.
“If you point me in the right direction I’ll fix that tea for you, ma’am,” West offered.
Lita scrubbed at her cheeks and shook her head. “I don’t really need it but I guess I should be offering you something since you’re the guest. I think we have some sodas in the refrigerator.”
Jason shook his head, sympathy welling up inside him for this young woman. She’d been through the wringer and when he told her about Roger it was only going to get worse. He needed to be as gentle in his questioning as possible.
“We don’t need anything. I’d like to hear about what happened to Anita and why you thought it might have something to do with her cases. Can you tell me about that?”
Lita’s fingers plucked at the upholstery on the chair arm. “I think a murderer that she was investigating shot her because she was getting too close to the truth. You see, Anita likes to investigate unsolved cases. You know…murders and missing people. That’s how she met Roger. They were both in some online group and found out they lived pretty close to one another. They’d meet up about once a week and exchange information. Talk about their research. It was pretty much her whole world when she wasn’t working. She was really passionate about it and I guess he is too.” She slapped her head and groaned. “Has anyone told him about Anita? I don’t have his number but I can get it from Anita when she wakes up. He’ll probably want to visit her in the hospital.”
Jason exchanged a glance with his brother. Lita needed to be told the truth.
“Roger Gaines was shot three days ago,” Jason said as gently and calmly as he could. “They found his body in the motor inn in Tremont. Do you know what he was doing there?”
Lita’s face paled and her hands trembled as she scraped her fingers through her short hair. “He’s dead? Are you sure?”
Very sure.
“I mean…are you sure it was Roger?” Lita said softly, more tears spilling over at the news.
“Yes, we’re sure. That’s why we wanted to speak to Anita. We wanted to know who might have wanted to hurt Roger. Did she ever talk to you about him?”
“Now and then. Like I said they worked on cases together. But they weren’t romantic or anything,” Lita added hastily. “It wasn’t like that even if Roger said it was.”
“Roger didn’t tell us that Anita was his girlfriend. Roger’s friend Brad Enright did. Did you ever meet him or hear about him?” West asked, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees.
“No. Never heard of him.” Lita frowned. “You’ll have to ask Anita when she wakes up. She had surgery last night. I stopped by this morning but she’s still asleep.”
Jason’s phone vibrated. A text from Seth.
“Excuse me. I need to take this.”
Jason stepped into the next room which turned out to be the kitchen to see what Seth had to say. His answer was quick and to the point.
Anita Hazlitt had been shot walking home from a study session with friends last night. Serious injuries but doctors were optimistic. No witnesses. Why was Jason asking?
He’d call Seth and give him the whole story when they were done talking to Lita. Punching out a brief reply, Jason rejoined West and the young woman who looked even more frightened than she had when they first met her.
“Lita, do you know what case Anita and Roger were working on?”
This was the best lead they’d had so far. Perhaps Anita and Roger had been onto something. Or someone. Someone willing to kill to keep them silent.
“No, I didn’t really listen that closely.” Lita grabbed a tissue from the box on the end table and blew her nose. “But I think I know how I can find out. Anita was a little strange about the cases she worked on. She didn’t leave anything around the house about them.”
Which meant Seth’s investigators wouldn’t have found anything to help them identify the shooter.
“Where did she keep things?” West asked. “At work? Maybe her parents’ house?”
Lita stood and walked over to a desk in the corner of the living room and rummaged through the middle drawer. “She’d never trust anyone that much. She kept everything hidden in her car.”
As someone who had worked in the DEA for years, Jason knew very well there were several places a person could hide secrets in a vehicle. If Lita didn’t know exactly where, Jason was sure he could find it.
Lita held up a single silver key. “This is to her trunk. She keeps everything under the spare tire.”
Jason had to temper his excitement and stay calm despite wanting to grab the key and race down the stairs. This could be the “what” he and West had been waiting for.
A suspect and a damn motive.
“You lead the way and we’ll follow.” He and West stood, allowing Lita to walk ahead of them toward the door.
They needed to see whatever was hidden in Anita’s car. Then they needed to talk to Seth and see if he had any suspects, plus let him know what they’d found out and how the two murders were probably linked. And last but not least, talk to Anita if and when she woke up and was able to speak and answer questions. That might not be for awhile.
But at least now they had a direction – a lead. Something they could work until they found the killer or another clue. They were in a better position than they’d been driving here.
Finally things were looking up.
*
“So how do you know Jason?” Brinley asked as she and Logan Wright played blackjack out on Jason’s back deck. It was another gorgeous sunny day and neither one of them had wanted to stay cooped up in the house. The repairmen had come and gone and now she had a shiny new door with a whale of a lock that would take a battering ram to knock it down.
Logan dealt her two cards, one face up and one face down before dealing himself the same.
“Work,” Logan grunted, his eyes on his cards – a two and a ten. “He’s actually pretty close friends with Reed Mitchell but then we all started helping each other about five years ago. He was a damn good agent.”
Brinley had no doubt about that. Jason would excel at everything he did. That’s just who he was.
“Do you all do dangerous things?”
Logan chuckled at her question. “That’s why I joined in partnership with Jason and Jared. I have a wife and kids and wanted to make sure I spent many happy years with them. But if you’re asking if we’ve done dangerous things the answer is yes. But I don’t think that’s your real question. I think you want to know if we miss it.”
She had a lousy poker face apparently. “Do you?”
“Sometimes. There’s an adrenaline rush that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Brinley didn’t think she’d felt an adrenaline rush like that in her entire life. Ever.
“Do you think Jason will go back to the DEA?”
“Doubtful. I think he’s done with government bureaucracies. But maybe that’s a question you should ask him,” Logan replied. Her casual questioning clearly didn’t fool him. He tapped her cards. “Are you holding?”
It appeared Logan was done answering personal queries about Jason. She shook her head. “Hit me.”
Logan scowled and didn’t deal the card. “You’re supposed to stay on anything above sixteen or seventeen. You’re going to go over.”
“You don’t know that for sure unless you’re cheating,” Brinley answered with a teasing smile. “So hit me.”
A slow grin spread across Logan’s face. “I like your style, Brinley Snow. Fearless. I’m not too fond of rules myself. You want a card, you got it.”
Holding her breath, she waited as his hand seemed to move in slow motion. She was far from fearless. Stupid was probably a better word for it.
Three of spades. Logan laughed and shook his head.
“You have the luck with you today. Let’s see if I do.”
Logan dealt himself a king of clubs. Busted. She’d won. It was…unexpected.
“You looked shocked,” Logan observed, gathering the cards up to reshuffle the deck. “If you thought you were going to lose why did you do it?”
That was an excellent question. One she wasn’t sure she could explain but she’d try without going into all the gory details of her personal life.
“I was tired of playing it safe, following the rules,” she said finally after a long pause. “It’s what I’ve done my whole life and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. And a card game with nothing riding on it seemed like a good time to try it out.”
“You kind of remind me of my wife Ava,” Logan said, rubbing his chin. “She got tired of that too. Her family had put her in a neat little box of who they thought she should be.”
That sounded very familiar. “So what did she do?”
Logan flashed a wicked grin that probably melted the panties off of most women. “Took a ride on my motorcycle.”
I just bet she did. The hotter than firecrackers lawman probably had to beat them off with a broom before he was married.
Brinley cleared her throat and tried to hold in her laughter. “Is that some sort of euphemism?”
Logan gave her a blank look and then realization dawned along with amusement. “Nope, it was a real Harley. She said it felt like flying and she was right. There’s nothing like the feeling of freedom. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking about starting to color outside the lines.”
Brinley liked the way he phrased it. Coloring outside the lines. It wasn’t that she wanted to go on a crime spree and knock over a bank; she just wanted to take a few chances for a change. Stay up late. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Show up late to a movie and miss the previews.
Take a chance with a sexy wounded lawman named Jason Anderson.
“Hmmmm… A Harley riding second grade teacher. I would certainly make an impression on the parents.”
“If you’re going to take chances you have to stop worrying about what other people think about your decisions.” Logan leaned forward, a smile playing on his lips. “I’m going to tell you a secret. Most people are so damn worried about themselves they don’t have time to worry about what you’re doing. And the few that do? They’re not worth worrying about, always with their noses in other people’s business. It’d be a better world if we stopped judging everybody by what they drive or how they’re dressed. That’s just my two cents, of course.”
“I haven’t taken many chances in my life,” Brinley sighed, knowing Logan was right. “I’m a big fraidy-cat.”
“Funny, but you don’t act like one. You’ve taken this entire murder thing in stride. Most people would have started drinking or curled up into a ball and watched twenty hours of television straight. You, on the other hand, stood up and told my stubborn partner that you wanted to help find the killer. That, my new friend, takes guts. No fraidy-cat would do that.”
“You’re a nice man, Logan Wright.”
“Don’t let that get around. I have a reputation to protect.” He began to shuffle the cards. “Are we still playing?”
Brinley grinned and slapped the table. “Absolutely. I’m going to play like there are no rules.”
Words to live by.
Chapter Fifteen
‡
“We’ve had this all wrong,” Jason groaned as he, West, and Seth paged through Anita’s notes. They were sitting in the interrogation room at Seth’s station and what they were learning turned everything upside down.
“It’s the house. Roger and Anita were investigating Brinley’s house,” West said, rubbing his temple. “Or at least what happened in that house. How did I not know about this? I’m the damn lead detective in Tremont.”
“I don’t go through our cold cases very often,” Seth shrugged. “I don’t have the manpower, to be honest. Unless something comes up with one of them the chances of getting any resources is slim. It’s sad but it’s the truth. Presley scanned all our files in so if we do have a murder or missing person we can run a query in the database and look for crimes with a similar MO.”
“That would be heaven.” West tossed back the last of his soda. “Can I borrow Presley for a few months? I’d pay her well. If that crazy mayor will let me.”
Seth grinned but shook his head. “She’d love the challenge but she’s been pretty wore out these days being pregnant, having a toddler plus helping out here a couple of days a week. But she’s always happy to train someone on how to do it. A few months ago she worked with Griffin’s admin assistant.”
“I may take you up on that,” West promised, holding up a piece of paper. “But in the meantime I need to pull everything we can about the Barnes murder twenty years ago. This is the best motive we’ve found so far.”
Jason slumped in his chair, his mind whirling with what they’d discovered. “This is not going to go over very well with Brinley. She bought that place as her dream house. I doubt the real estate agent revealed that there had been an unsolved murder there.”
“You didn’t know when you moved in next door?” Seth asked with a frown. “I thought you’d lived in Tremont your entire life.”
“I would have been in college.” Jason stroked his chin. “You too, West. If anyone mentioned a murder there I sure as hell don’t remember it. Gail never talked about it. I admit she and I only had a few conversations when she lived there but she never mentioned that her sister was killed.”
West pushed a piece of paper toward Jason. “Maybe no one mentioned it because they thought they had it solved. According to Anita’s notes the cops always thought Linda Barnes was shot by her husband Wendell, but they could never prove it.”
“Was he arrested?” Seth paged through the notes.
“No, and they never found the weapon. I saw that…here.” Jason pulled out a copy of what appeared to be the original police report. “They picked him up the night of the murder by Tremont Lake. He said he was fishing. At night. They think he was getting rid of the gun. They didn’t have much on this guy except a theory that Linda was spending him into the poor house so he shot her. If that was his only option he doesn’t have great problem solving skills.”
“Murderers rarely do. In a domestic situation we always look at the spouse first,” Seth pointed out. “It looks like Roger and Anita were on to something that might prove his guilt. More motive and opportunity evidence. I guess we know who to talk to next.”
“There’s good news out of all of this.” West nodded to Jason. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Brinley personally. She doesn’t need to fear for her life.”
That fact was already making breathing a hell of a lot easier for Jason. She didn’t need to be babysat every moment of the day but he was still planning to keep a close eye on her.
But now for purely personal reasons.
One thing still bugged him though.
“Someone did try to break into her house when she wasn’t there. Was it the killer? Or was it completely random? I know what my vote is so I think I’ll keep her at my house until we solve this.”
West’s lips twitched. “Better safe than sorry. I’m sure you’ll take real good care of Ms. Snow.”
Seth scratched his head. “Did I miss something here?”
West looked down at the notes in his hand but Jason could still see the shit-eating grin on his brother’s face.
“Jason has a girlfriend,” West whispered, his shoulders shaking with laughter.
“Aww, hell,” Jason growled. “It’s like we’re back in junior high or something.”
If only that was the case. Things had been a whole lot simpler back then. His biggest concern was getting to second base. As a grown man he had more complex desires.
And he could only hope Brinley was his girlfriend. She was the most interesting woman Jason had met in years. Maybe ever.
Now that she was out of the line of fire it was time to turn up the volume on the wooing. Dazzle her with some real romance. She deserved better than he’d given her so far.
Jason was ready to take a chance on Brinley Snow.
*
Jason was flipping burgers at the grill flanked by West and Logan while Brinley relaxed and sipped a glass of wine. A drink she’d desperately needed after hearing about Jason’s day and what he had found. The best news being that she wasn’t a target. Roger Gaines had her address in his hand because of the house. Not because of her.
Of course now her dream home was the scene of some horrific unsolved murder.
That sucked.
It made Brinley want to call that real estate agent up and give her a piece of her mind. Except that if Brinley hadn’t moved into the house then she probably wouldn’t have met Jason. She couldn’t have one without the other.
Brinley took another fortifying sip of her wine. “So she was shot in the hallway? By her husband? I wonder if the house is haunted.”
Jason paused from adding cheese to the hamburgers. “Have you seen any ghosts or had anything strange happen?”
“No.”
Jason grinned and took a big bite out of a slice of cheddar. “Then it’s not haunted. And we don’t know that it was her husband. He said it must have been an intruder because some jewels and money were missing.”
“That makes sense.”
For some reason Brinley didn’t want to think the poor woman had been shot by a man she loved.
“Except that the jewels never showed up in any pawn shops or guys fencing stolen goods. If they stole the jewelry they didn’t do anything with it,” West pointed out. “Why steal something if you’re never going to use it?”
“People steal art paintings just so they can possess them.” Logan plucked a potato chip from the bowl on the table. “It’s what it represents more than the money.”
“So you think the husband did it then?” Huck plopped his head on her knee and she gave him a scratch behind his ears.
“The police seemed to think so but they didn’t have much evidence to go with their theory. At this point I could go either way.” West paged through the file folder he’d brought from police headquarters. “It’s really kind of sad that there’s so little here. It doesn’t reflect well on the detectives working twenty years ago.”
“No witnesses. No murder weapon. Conflicting statements and a victim others really didn’t like much. A cop’s worst nightmare,” Logan mused. “Add in the fact that small town cops didn’t have much in the way of DNA back then. You might want to cut them some slack.”
West’s lips twisted and he shut the folder with a snap. “You’re right. They talked to the neighbors, friends, everyone they could think of. They went over the house with a fine-tooth comb. No fingerprints or hairs that shouldn’t be there, which is one of the reasons they were leaning toward the husband. The whole thing is sad. It tore the family apart from what I can see.”
“Family?” Brinley frowned as Jason piled burgers on a platter and set them in the middle of the table. “Did they have children? What happened to them?”
“One child. A son from Wendell Barnes’s first marriage.” Jason waved a spatula toward the file. “Damian Barnes was a teenager when it happened. Out with friends at a movie. He’s the one that found the body.”
Brinley shuddered. “Ugh. I imagine that would stay with you the rest of your life. Did you know him?”
West frowned and shook his head. “Jason and I were older. In college when he was in high school.” West scribbled something on a piece of paper. “We’ll need to talk to him and the father. And of course Gail Denton. I know she’s over at the assisted living place but I have no idea where the other two ended up.”
Logan piled his burger high with pickles, lettuce and tomato. “Follow the money. From what I read the family is loaded. Would your parents know the Barnes or remember them?”
Jason sat down and joined the rest of them around the table. “That’s a good question. Maybe I should show up at Sunday dinner tomorrow and find out.”
West groaned and slumped in his chair. “Don’t even say that. If you go and start asking questions they’re going to ask where I am. Shit.”
“Why don’t you want to go?” Brinley asked, although she couldn’t keep from smiling at West’s comically tortured expression. From the little she’d heard from Jason the Anderson family was close-knit and quite happy.
“They ask him when he’s going to settle down and give them grandchildren,” Jason laughed and winked at Brinley. “Mom is always trying to fix him up.”
“The only reason she’s given up on you is–” West’s grin immediately died and everyone fell silent, the levity from only moments ago completely gone, leaving a grim tension in its wake.
Jason looked around the table, his expression somber. “We all know why so there’s no reason to pretend. Let’s get back to the case. That’s what is really important.” He turned to West. “Can you find the Barnes family or should I put Jared on it?”
“We can find them. Logan’s right. We’ll follow the money. But it wouldn’t hurt to ask Mom and Dad what they remember about the case.”
Jason shook his fork at West playfully. “We’ll both ask them. Together.”
West took a long draw from his beer. “I hope it’s pot roast. That would make it worth it.”
“Then maybe tomorrow while you two are with your family I’ll go over and give my house a good top to bottom cleaning. I haven’t had a chance since the break in.”
Three sets of eyes swung toward Brinley and she squirmed under their incredulous gaze. Finally Jason spoke.
“Absolutely not. Someone broke in. Why we don’t know, but it still isn’t safe for you to be alone over there. You’ll come with us tomorrow.”
Go with them to meet Mommy and Daddy?
Absolutely not. No way. Not going to happen.
