Acquainted With the Night (18 page)

“I see.” Alex felt deflated. “I’d like to thank you for all of this, Mr. Edgarton. And I want you to know that we’re still working this case vigorously. I still hope to see you very soon.”

“I will look forward to that, Miss Ryan.”

Alex looked at her notes for a few minutes, playing with the fountain pen in her fingers. What did any of this mean? Laurel was still in Georgia, wealthy and promoting her late brother’s book, Stephanie was seriously involved with another woman, and no one from Alex’s professional past seemed interested in coming after her.

But someone had sent CJ that note. Someone desperately wanted them apart, and was willing to try murder to achieve it.

She tried not to think about Tony, but her thoughts continued to circle back to him. He had alibis for both attempts on her life last year, but it didn’t matter if he’d hired someone. It would be so easy for him to find some defendant with the talents necessary to hire, bribe or threaten into helping him.

She put the pen down and closed her eyes to think. Maybe she should look for people arrested during the period just before the first attempt who seemed likely to be able to help him. The problem was that it could have been someone from any time period, and the district attorney prosecuted people from jurisdictions other than just the suburban city of Colfax. It could have been a perp from Sherill Heights or Bear Creek, or even someone arrested by the sheriff’s office in the unincorporated part of the county.

Alex hated to give the task to Chris, already working the caseload she shared with Frank alone, so she sighed and began logging on to her records program. She reminded herself to call Rod Chavez later, and give him a similar job with his database from Roosevelt County. In fact, she mused, since the sheriff’s office also ran the jail that all of the municipalities used, he would have access to more information than she would, at least booking information. She smiled a little to herself.
And that’s what he gets for offering to help.

What they were trying to find might not be there… What exactly it would mean if she did find what she was looking for, she put off thinking about.

Chapter Seventeen

When Alex looked up from her computer screen, she saw to her surprise that it was dark outside. The switch to daylight savings time had happened last Saturday, so darkness meant it was really too late for her to still be at work.
Oh, well,
she thought
,
logging off
, at least it sets a good example for my detectives, seeing me in here slogging away as they leave for the night.

To her faint surprise, she saw Chris still at her desk, staring at her own monitor. Alex got up, stretched, and walked out to her.

“I can’t afford this much overtime for you,” Alex greeted her.

Chris looked up, startled. “Oh, Captain. Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on putting in for this.”

Alex said sternly, “You clock every minute you work, Detective. The Feds have rules about that kind of thing. And besides, I thought you had someone to go home to now. I don’t want to start getting threatening phone calls from Beth.”

Chris laughed, and Alex joined in. The thought of Beth making threats to anyone, much less Chris’s boss, was equally amusing to both of them.

Chris said, still chuckling, “Beth told me nicely to stay away. She’s studying for a final exam in—what was it? Oh, yeah, pharmacology.” Chris shook her head, adding, “You should see the kind of stuff she has to memorize. Medications. Calculations for intravenous drip rates. Jesus. Anyway, I’m not allowed home before nine p.m.” She grinned. “She says I’m too distracting.”

Alex said dryly, “You can spare me your smugness. How about I buy you dinner, then send you home? It ought to be safe for you by then.”

There was a moment’s pause. The memory of what happened between them hung suspended for a moment, then Chris said quietly, “I’d like that. You know you can trust me, right?”

Yes
, Alex thought. She hadn’t always thought so, but she knew it now. Even with CJ gone to wherever she was, she knew she could trust Chris. And herself, as well. “Of course,” Alex said. “I think we can be friends, Chris. All right?”

Chris began to log off. “I have this tremendous craving for homemade pizza,” she said cheerfully. “Can we go to Romano’s?”

“You’re as bad as my nephew,” Alex said. “Yes, you may have pizza.”

Ten minutes later, as they were waiting at their table in the restaurant, Chris said, “Can we talk about work for five minutes? I promise after that we can talk about anything else.”

“Sure. What have you got?”

“I guess you could say I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news, I suppose, is that Judy Soames checks out. She is who she says she is, and it looks like the relationship is real. They haven’t been hiding it. I guess since Morrow is the boss, she can sleep with her employees at will. Anyway, it looks like she was telling us the truth. But here’s something interesting: Soames’s father has a record.”

“Really? For what?”

“Apparently Mr. Soames makes a living by stealing other people’s stuff. He’s got one criminal mischief and two second degree burglary convictions, along with half-a-dozen other arrests. He’s seen the inside of Cañon City fairly recently, though he’s out on parole now.”

“Any weapons charges? Auto theft? Assault?”

Chris sighed. “No. I guess the news wasn’t that good. I mean, he knows some people who know some people, probably, but I can’t see him as the bad guy we’re looking for.”

Alex said, “And why would the father of the new girlfriend help Stephanie get her old girlfriend back by killing me?”

“I didn’t think that theory was going to fly,” Chris said. “Oh, well. Just being thorough.”

“I’ve been working on being thorough, too,” Alex admitted. “Remember my thought that Tony has access to some defendants who would be able to pull these jobs for him? I’ve started looking through the arrest records for a year ago, and I’ve got a colleague, Rod Chavez at the Roosevelt SO, doing the same for other jurisdictions.”

Chris said, a touch defensively, “I can do that, you know.”

“I know. But you’re busy and we can help. I’m a real detective, got the badge and everything.”

“You’re so funny. Look, I have to tell you. If Tony Bradford really does have a new girlfriend, then he doesn’t have any more motive for coming after you or getting rid of St. Clair than Stephanie Morrow does. I can see the new girlfriend maybe trying to get rid of you, the ex-wife, but it makes absolutely no sense to get St. Clair out of the picture.”

Alex sighed. She had thought of that, but she felt as if she were searching in the dark. “Maybe, while we’re running all these useless checks on everyone, we should do a background on Tony’s new girlfriend,” she suggested.

“Good idea, Captain. You really are a detective.”

Alex said, “You don’t have to call me Captain when we’re off duty, okay? It’s Alex.”

“Okay,” Chris said softly. “Look, maybe when this is all over, when we get this guy and St. Clair comes home—maybe the four of us could, you know, hang out a little. Beth really liked St. Clair a lot, and we don’t really have a lot of, um, friends who are couples. Gay, I mean. And I’d like a chance to prove to St. Clair that I’m not really a terrible person. Do you think that would be all right?”

Alex smiled. Chris really had come a long way. “I think that would be good,” she said.

Chris exhaled a long, relieved breath. “Another thing,” she said. “I never really, well, thanked you.”

“What for?”

Chris looked away a moment, then said, “It was you who told me it was worth the trouble to find one woman to be with, and stay with. Remember telling me that?”

Alex remembered it vividly. It was part of telling Chris that she wasn’t interested, she only cared for CJ. “I do,” Alex answered.

“You may not believe this, but it was that same night I asked Beth out for the first time.”

“Really? I’m surprised.”

“You know what? I was, too. But you were right. It’s a lot more work to be with just one person, but it’s a lot more—I guess you’d say, rewarding, too.” She dropped her head into her hands and grumbled, “Jeez, I really am completely whipped.”

Alex said kindly, “You know what? You’re not. You’re in love, and there’s not a damn thing in the world wrong with that. In fact, you might say that there’s nothing better.”

“Yeah?” Chris said ruefully. “And what about you, Alex? After all this, are you still in love, too?”

“I am,” Alex said. “Even after all this, I really am.”

* * *

“I can’t believe it,” Nicole said for the third time. “It just seems so outrageous.”

“Which part?” Alex asked. “The note, or the fact that Tony has emerged as the number one suspect?” She shifted the phone to her other ear as she propped herself up on her couch.

“The note,” Nicole answered promptly. “I can’t believe someone tried something like that, and I really can’t believe it worked. What the hell was my sister-in-law thinking?”

“She was trying to do the right thing,” Alex said quietly. “And she didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. I wish she hadn’t gone away, but at least I understand why now. The best news is that I’m pretty sure Roger Edgarton, her trustee, knows where she is, or at least where I can locate her. If we can solve this, I can go and find her.”

“And you really think it’s Tony?” Nicole demanded.

“Honestly, I don’t know. He’s certainly the leading candidate, but I don’t know.” She blew out a deep breath. “Christ, Nic, I can’t believe he would do this to me. I know he hates that I’m married to CJ, but I just can’t quite believe this about him. And why now? CJ and I have been together for three years. If he were going to do this, why after all this time?”

“Maybe the new girlfriend is the motive,” Nicole suggested.

“Maybe, but I can’t make any sense out of it,” Alex said grimly. “I want you to know this, though, Nic. I’m going to figure this out, for both of us. I promise you that.”

As she lay in bed after turning out the lights, Alex found herself having a mental conversation with CJ.

I really wish you were here so I could talk this over with you,
Alex told her.
You read people so well, and I just feel confused. And you’d know more about Laurel and Stephanie than anybody here would know.

Alex rolled over in the bed.
Are you thinking about me tonight, sweetheart? Do you miss me the way I’m missing you?

It was a physical ache, this loneliness. She’d missed her mother, she’d missed her father, too, but as much as those losses hurt, it was nothing like this. Even knowing why CJ left, understanding the reason, didn’t fill the pain of the emptiness that enveloped her, like a black hole that let no light escape.

She was afraid, too, afraid that too much time had passed. What if Elaine Wheeler was right and they could never get back what they’d had before? Alex tried to imagine something worse than losing CJ forever, and knew there would be nothing she dreaded more than that. And what if she couldn’t solve this case, figure out who was threatening them so that CJ could come home?

Don’t give up on me, sweetheart. I’ll get you back, somehow, some way, even if I have to go to Savannah and threaten to kill Roger Edgarton to do it. Just don’t give up on me.

Chapter Eighteen

Alex tapped on Deputy Chief Paul Duncan’s door and asked, “Are you ready for me?”

He looked up at her, his two index fingers poised over his keyboard. She thought, not for the first time, how challenging it must be for a generation of cops who hadn’t dreamed of ever having to deal with a computer to cope with the fact that it was impossible to do the job without them these days. He seemed to be relieved at the interruption and said, “Alex, come in.”

When she was seated, he gestured toward the window. “Third day raining. Had enough of that yet? If I wanted it to rain every damn day, I’d move to Seattle.”

Alex recognized the weather as an opening topic of discussion for his attempt to reconnect with her after their last, less than cordial, conversation. “We’ll be glad of it come July,” she said. “No such thing as too much rain in Colorado.”

He grunted. “That’s because we sold all our damn water to California.”

Lack of water was another familiar topic in Colorado, so Alex played along. “The good news is the snowpack is at a hundred and sixty percent, or something like that. It shouldn’t be too dry a summer.”

Paul grunted again, and Alex could see him working himself up to whatever he’d brought her over to talk about. “I understand you put the Castillo murder back on the front burner,” he said at length.

Alex knew she shouldn’t be surprised. Word always got around. “Yes,” was all she said.

“Any particular reason?”

“We got a new lead,” she said.

He glared at her. “You want to be a little more forthcoming, Captain?”

Alex folded her hands and looked him in the eyes. “I’ll be happy to explain my reasons and my theory to you, Chief,” she replied, “but I’d like to make certain we’re having a professional conversation. Our last professional conversation diverged into my personal life.”

He sat back and drummed his fingers on his desk. “This murder is very personal to you,” he said, his voice a touch defensive. “You were there, it was Nicole’s husband who died.”

“I’m very aware of that,” Alex said coolly. “I’ve assigned the case to Morelli and Andersen, and I’m treating it like any other case on the Investigations caseload. As a supervisor.”

“You want to tell me what you’ve got?” Paul still looked unhappy.

Alex summarized it for him, from her discovery of the note to the most recent developments. By the end of the story, he was drumming his fingers again.

“You have any idea what kind of political insanity an accusation of murder against our current district attorney would cause?” he demanded.

“A rough idea, yes. Believe me, I’ll let you know if I think we’re anywhere close to getting a warrant. We’re a long way from that now.”

“Keep me informed. I mean that.”