Acquainted With the Night (12 page)

Picking up the envelope, she saw that there were two items inside. There was a standard business-sized paper envelope with only “Lieutenant C. St. Clair” typed on it, no return address. Alex’s frown deepened—it wasn’t the type of interoffice envelope they used in the department, yet this one hadn’t been sent in the mail, either. There was no stamp, no address other than the name. Hand-delivered?

She turned the glassine envelope over. There was a single piece of letter-sized paper that had originally been folded in thirds to fit into the paper envelope, she assumed. She read the typewritten lines on the sheet.

I meant what I said before. Leave her right now. This minute. Don’t go back to her, don’t explain, don’t see her. If you don’t leave, I will kill her. I am watching you and I will kill her. I won’t miss a third time.

Alex stared at the words for a full minute, rereading them again and again.

She had always seen the past as a stained glass window, with the scene and colors fixed and unchanging. But the past was really a kaleidoscope—a single turn changed the image. The colors were different, and the picture of the past had been transformed, changed to something else entirely.

One moment and everything had shifted, not the facts, but what they all meant. CJ was still gone, but she hadn’t left Alex to get away from her. She’d left to save her life.

She really had left because of love.

Alex let the envelope slip from her fingers onto the floor again, but wasn’t aware of it. Her mind was racing.

I won’t miss a third time.

The shooting in the park—the bullets had been meant for her. And the first time, that had to be the car that ran her off the road in March. CJ had every reason to think that whoever was threatening Alex was deadly earnest. The first attempt had left Alex battered, the second had left David dead.

A spear of pain shot through her. Her suspicions had been right: the two incidents had been connected, connected to her. David’s death was her fault. Nicole was a widow because of her. She tried to shake off the guilt that suddenly washed over her.

It wasn’t her fault. It was the fault of whoever was trying to kill her.

Alex looked down at the evidence envelope. CJ had preserved it, just in case there were fingerprints or other forensic evidence to be gained from it. She must have thought Alex would find it more quickly than she did. Perhaps that was why she’d left a letter of resignation, hoping to prompt a fast and thorough search of her office. Alex’s first search the day after CJ left had clearly been too been cursory. Alex had been looking for something obvious, a receipt for plane tickets, something, not this hidden note in a file folder.

Some detective I am! Useless!

What did the writer want? For Alex to be dead? Then why warn CJ, why not just finish the job? There had been no attempts in the last eight months.

Jesus,
no wonder CJ told me to be careful. She must have been worried out of her mind.

The thought of CJ, probably frantic with anxiety, hurrying away to protect her, hit her in a rush.
She loved me, she loved me
, Alex repeated to herself in wonderment.
She loved me enough to leave everything and everyone behind, for me.

But unless there was something on the paper or envelope, there were no clues, Alex thought in frustration.

No, that wasn’t right. Memory came back to her in jagged pieces. In the few days between David’s murder and CJ’s disappearance, CJ had been almost beside herself to find out what had happened, urging Alex and her detectives to locate the car and the men who had driven it, far beyond just a desire for justice.

Alex read the note in her hand again.
I meant what I said before.
There had been at least one another note, or an anonymous phone call, before this final threat. CJ must have been frantic.

God, CJ, why didn’t you just tell me?

What did the writer want? Alex thought she knew the answer, and energy flooded through her body.

Aloud she said, “Whoever you are, I’m coming for you. I’m going to find you, you son of a bitch.”

Chapter Eleven

Alex had finished with her usual Monday morning case review with the entire staff of detectives. As they were gathering up notepads and coffee cups, and divvying up the last of the doughnuts, Alex said, “Kelly, Frank, Chris. Please sit down again.”

The others shot a curious look at the trio before filing out. Alex saw Chris give Frank a questioning look, and saw his answering
I have no idea
shrug in return. Kelly Porter as usual just looked nervous.

“All right,” Alex began. “I have good news.”

Chris said, “First a staff meeting without having to put up with Fullerton whining, and now more good news. This Monday keeps getting better and better.”

Frank Morelli eyed Alex and said, “You look like the news is really good, Cap. You must have gotten a good night’s sleep last night.”

“The first one in a long time,” Alex admitted. “You first, Kelly. I’ve a new partner assigned for you, a patrol officer who passed the detective exam and was next up on the promotions list.”

“You want me to break in a rookie?” Porter asked in amazement.

“I have every confidence in you, Detective Porter,” Alex responded. “You’ve been here long enough to know your way around, and I know you’ll do a good job.”

“But, um, what if Fullerton comes back? He’s not fired, is he?”

“He’s not fired, but he’s suspended pending the result of the IA. I’ll deal with whatever happens when it happens. He might be back, he might be fired, he might get demoted. I received permission from Deputy Chief Duncan to fill the position because we need the help now. Don’t worry about Roger. Whatever happens, he won’t be coming back to work with you.”

Porter looked as if she’d just given him a birthday present. “Really, Captain?”

Alex smiled at him. “Really. Your new partner reports Wednesday, and after I speak with her, I’ll send her over to you and you can start filling her in on your open cases.”

“Okay. A woman?”

“Detective Adamcyzk. Yes, she is a woman. And you’re fine with that, correct?” she asked firmly.

Porter gave her the most genuine grin she’d ever seen from him. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay. Get back to work.”

When he’d gone, Alex went over and closed the door behind him. Then she came back and sat down across from Frank and Chris, and passed each of them a file folder.

“Another reason we got an immediate replacement for Fullerton,” she began, “is because you two are getting a cold case back, and I’m making it priority one for you two.”

“Cold case?” Frank asked. “Which one?”

“The murder of David Castillo,” Alex replied grimly.

Chris Andersen exclaimed, “No shit! Please tell me you’ve got a lead.”

“I do,” Alex said. “But it’s going to take a minute to explain.”

She told them to open their folders and said, “What we have now are two things we didn’t have before: a clear motive, and at least a preliminary list of suspects.”

Frank, staring down at the photocopy of the note CJ had received said, “What the hell, Captain? Somebody was trying to kill you?”

“Looks like it. The original note is down at the lab where I delivered it this morning. I told them you two were getting the case back, so they should give you whatever they can get, but I’m not holding my breath. Follow up with them if you haven’t heard in a couple of days.”

Chris made a note, then said, “Okay. What about the list of suspects?”

Alex said, “That one took me a while. Look, you can run a list of everybody I ever arrested, but it makes no sense that they would send this note to CJ.”

Frank said, “I give up. What the hell about this does make sense?”

Taking a deep breath, Alex said, “Someone who wants CJ.”

“Run that by me again?” he asked.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” she said. “First they try to kill me, to get me out of the way. When that doesn’t work, they threaten her, to get her away from me. It’s her they want. I’m just in the way.”

Frank sat back, deeply perplexed. Chris said slowly, “Somebody jealous of you. A stranger who’s turned into a stalker, you think? Or somebody she knows, or knew?”

“I hope to hell it’s the second one, because somebody from the first category is going to be hard to find at this point, given that CJ has disappeared. And if it’s some anonymous stalker, it could be a man or a woman. At least if it’s somebody from CJ’s romantic past, we know it’s a woman.”

“Wait,” Frank said. “What about her family? She’s got money, I know. Maybe somebody’s after that.”

Alex looked at him, surprised that she hadn’t considered that. “I don’t think there’s anything about her money that could be a motive. It’s in a trust, left to her by her grandfather, administered by a lawyer who’s an old family friend. And her mother and her brother haven’t had any contact with her for years, at least that I know of. It’s hard for me to see how getting me killed would be of benefit to her family, but I’ll check them out.”

Chris met her eyes and said suddenly, “She didn’t just disappear, did she? Not the way everybody thought. Fuck, Captain, she left to save you, didn’t she?”

“Looks like it,” Alex said calmly, her voice not betraying her emotion.

“Oh, my God,” Frank said. “Captain—Alex, this is—I mean, it’s awful, but it’s great, too, isn’t it? She didn’t just take off. She had a reason. Holy shit.”

“Yes,” Alex agreed. “She had a reason. I wish to God she’d just told me, but she didn’t. So now we have to find out whoever it was that sent this note, find out who killed my brother-in-law, so she can come home. So if you look at the next page, I’ve listed the people I think are the best possibilities.”

Both detectives turned the page. Alex said, “I’ve given you whatever contact information I have, and I want you to just listen a minute to what I know about each of them so you can tell me what you think.”

Chris readied her pen again as Alex began.

“Stephanie Morrow. She and CJ lived together for a couple of years, a year or so before we met. She’s a local real estate agent, I’ve got her information there.”

“Why’d they break up?” Chris asked.

Alex cleared her throat, then answered, “A variety of reasons, I think. The precipitating incident was Stephanie’s request to have another woman go to bed with them. CJ refused, and Stephanie moved out.”

Frank made a little choking sound, and Chris gave him a brief elbow in the ribs.

“Better stop doing the visual on that one, partner,” she smirked.

“The interesting thing,” Alex continued, “is that I met Stephanie for the first time the night somebody ran me off the road. I find the timing—let’s say I found it highly coincidental. She was with a woman named Patty Herron the evening I met her. I got her phone numbers this morning from a friend of CJ’s, the one who hosted the party. I don’t imagine Patty is involved, but you never know. She might at least be helpful with possible alibi information.”

“Got it,” Chris said. “Laurel Halliday?”

“CJ’s first girlfriend. She was an economics instructor. They were together for several years, until CJ caught her cheating. CJ hasn’t seen her in twelve years, so I’m thinking she’s a long shot, but anything is possible. I don’t have contact information for her, so you’ll have to do some digging.”

“Do you have a photo? That might help,” Frank suggested.

“Good idea. I don’t know, but I’ll check some of CJ’s stuff at the condo and see if she’s got a college scrapbook or yearbook somewhere.”

Chris was staring at the next name on the list. “Are you serious, Captain? District Attorney Tony Bradford?”

Alex nodded solemnly. “Another long shot, but they have a difficult history together. My ex-husband hates that I’m remarried, and he specifically hates that I’m married to a woman because he thinks it’s bad for his political career for his ex-wife to be gay. He thought CJ was trying to sabotage his campaign during the last election.”

Chris said in disgust, “Yeah, I remember that real well.”

Frank said, “Christ, you seriously want us to investigate the District Attorney?”

“I do. It’s hard for me to believe that he would actually try to kill me, but I’ve heard a rumor or two that he wants to run for a senate seat in a couple of years, and he is not a man of—let’s say, he’s not a man of high moral standards. It’s possible this whole thing was a double-bluff to get CJ out of the way.”

Frank looked at Chris and said, “Well, this is shaping up to be a whole lot of fun.”

“Anybody else?” Chris asked.

Alex hesitated, then said, “There’s one other possibility, but I’m going to check that one out myself. If I turn up anything, I’ll let you know. Meantime, everyone else is fair game. Clear?”

“Oh, yeah,” Chris said, as they gathered their files and notes together. “This is going to be a whole lot of fun.”

* * *

Alex sat in her car outside the townhouse, remembering why she had always hated surveillance assignments. Sitting patiently was not one of her signature skills. It was getting close to dusk when she saw a tall woman carrying a backpack slung over one shoulder walking up the sidewalk to the front door.

On the way to the townhouse, Alex had already established the location of the nearest RTD bus stop, and this pedestrian was coming from the right direction. When she approached the unit and took out a key, Alex saw fair hair shining in the porch light that had come on automatically a few moments ago.

Alex gave her five minutes, then went up and knocked on the door.

“Yes?” She was tall and very blond. Her coloring reminded Alex of Chris Andersen.

Alex showed her badge and ID. “My name is Alex Ryan, Colfax Police Department. Are you Marja Erickson?”

She looked a little worried, but said, “Yes. What is it?”

“I’d like to ask you a couple of questions. May I come in?”

She’d used her badge to make access to the house easier, easier than telling Marja she was a friend of Vivien’s. When they were in the living room, Marja turned to her suddenly and said, “Oh, my God. Is Vivien all right? She’s not—”