Angels (Nevada James #3) (Nevada James Mysteries) (11 page)

Chapter 15

Molly and
I finished our lunch and went our separate ways. It was getting too late to
head out to the women’s crisis center. I decided to go there first thing in the
morning. I wound up arriving just before 10:00 am. That was as close to “first
thing” that I ever got.

Vanessa
was behind the counter at reception. Today she wore a bolero cardigan and she’d
put her hair into pigtails, which made me do a double-take when I saw her. I
hadn’t seen anyone wearing pigtails since junior high school. I couldn’t
remember the last time I’d seen an adult try them. I wondered if it was a new
trend I wasn’t aware of. I didn’t know anything about trends. I’d barely
bothered to brush my own hair this morning, although I was pretty sure there
weren’t any more tangles in it.

Vanessa’s
eyes widened slightly when she saw me. “Oh, Detective James,” she said. She
squinted. “Did something go wrong with your stitches? The one looks new.” She
pointed at her cheek.

“I had
an itch,” I said. “How are you, Vanessa?”

“I’m
fine, thanks. Would you care for a coffee?”

“Not
really.”

She
nodded. “Forgive me if this is an awkward question, but why are you here? I
told you that the person you were looking for hadn’t been here.”

“Ah.” I
held up a finger. “But it turns out she
had
been here.”

Vanessa’s
eyes widened slightly. “Well, okay,” she said. “Like I said, maybe I was away
from the desk at the time.”

“Any of your
usual replacements here now?”

“I guess
all of them are,” Vanessa said. She frowned. “I couldn’t tell you who might
have been sitting up here when your friend came by.”

“She
wasn’t really my friend,” I said. “It doesn’t  matter, anyway. I doubt she just
hung around the front desk. She’d have talked to someone for a while. You must
have records, right? Of what your people are doing? Maybe you could look
through them and tell me who Krystal saw.”

“Well,
that assumes she gave us her real name,” Vanessa said. “There are plenty of
people that don’t. It’s not a requirement.”

I
nodded. “That makes sense. Anonymity is an important thing. I’m a pretty big
fan of it, myself. But someone here called her on the phone, so I know she gave
her real phone number.” Even though it was a burner, it was still a real phone.

“Oh,”
Vanessa said. “I don’t think I can search by phone numbers, though.” She looked
at her computer screen. “I mean, I don’t think that’s a searchable field.”

I
couldn’t tell if Vanessa was trying to stall me or if she was just a little
slow. But stalling me didn’t make much sense. She had to have figured out I
wasn’t leaving any time soon. Unless she told me to, of course. I wasn’t a cop
anymore; I had no legal authority here. If she told me to leave and I didn’t,
I’d be trespassing. That didn’t seem to have occurred to her, though. I’d have
to hope it wouldn’t.

“Maybe
you could poke around in there a little bit?” I asked.

Vanessa
frowned. “I think I should ask for help.” She picked up her phone and pressed a
button. After a moment she said, “Ma’am, can you come out front? I’ve got
someone here with a few questions.” She waited. “Yes, ma’am.” She hung up the
phone and looked at me. “She’ll be right out.”

Working
whoever Vanessa had just called in for backup might prove to be harder than
dealing with Vanessa had been, but now I was stuck. I waited until a
grey-haired woman in a dark pantsuit came through a partition and stepped into
the reception area behind Vanessa. “I’m Esther Cromwell,” she said. “Can I help
you…” She tilted her head at me. “Aren’t you Nevada James?”

“I am,”
I said. “And you’re Esther Cromwell.” That was a name you didn’t hear every
day. “
Esther
. Your parents went with one of the classics.”

Esther
smiled faintly. “And I’m guessing yours were flower children.”

“Something
like that.”

Esther
looked at my face. “Well, I’m not sure what happened to you, but you certainly
appear to need some help. I’m not sure what we can do for you, though. You must
have the resources of the entire police department behind you.” She nodded at
me. “That’s good stitching, by the way. I’ve seen much worse.”

“I’m
hoping the second time is the charm,” I said. I took my phone out and pulled up
Krystal’s photo. Looking at it still bothered me. I showed it to her. “Do you
recognize her? She was in here…I don’t know when, but she was in here.”

Esther
looked at the picture and nodded. “Krystal Harris.”

“She was
murdered,” Vanessa told Esther, her eyes wide.

“Ah,”
Esther said. “I’m sorry to say that doesn’t really surprise me.”

“Oh?” I
asked. “Why is that?”

“She was
an addict,” Esther said, “and she was involved with some very bad people. The
first time she was in here she’d been beaten up.”

I
nodded. “I’m told that was a drug buy gone wrong.”

“I
couldn’t say,” Esther said. “She spoke with Samantha when she was here. Sam
referred her to a drug treatment program and tried to get her to file a police
report about the attack, but I don’t know if she ever did.”

“I doubt
it,” I said. “She wasn’t really the type. But you said that was the first time.
She’d been in here more than that?”

“Yes. I
couldn’t tell you exactly how many times. Sam would know.”

“Can I
talk to her, then?”

“I’m
afraid not,” Esther said. “She’s been out sick for a few days now.”

“She
sounded awful on the phone,” Vanessa told me.

“That’s
too bad,” I said. “Is there any way I could reach her?”

“I’m not
sure what she could tell you that I can’t,” Esther said. “Is there something
specific you’re looking for?”

I wasn’t
sure how much I wanted to tell them. You should never show someone your cards
if you don’t know what game you’re playing. Or if you’re playing a game at all.
“Krystal may have had some information about other crimes,” I said. “There’s a
chance she told Samantha something about them. Knowing whatever that was might
help me track down whoever killed her.”

Esther
nodded. “That does make sense,” she said. “But you’ll have to forgive me, Ms.
James. Your name used to be in the papers quite a bit, you see. My
understanding was that you were no longer with the police department.”

Busted.
“I’m not,” I said. “It’s kind of a long story how I got involved with this.”

“I see.
Do you care to share that long story with us?”

“Not
really.”

“And if
I don’t miss my guess,” Esther said, “I also understood you were committed to a
psychiatric hospital a few years ago.”

“Oh,
my,” Vanessa said.

“Well,
I’m not sure
committed
is the right word,” I said. “I was in a facility
for a while, I guess.” How was I supposed to respond to that line of
questioning? “I got better.”

“Be that
as it may,” Esther said, “if there are any questions to be answered, I think
perhaps we’d be more comfortable dealing with actual police officers directly.
I don’t mean to be rude, of course.”

“Of
course,” Vanessa repeated.

“That’s
understandable,” I said. “The captain of the homicide division owes me a favor.
I’ll have him get involved directly to put your mind at ease.” That was the
biggest bluff I’d tried in a while. There was no way I was getting Dan Evans
involved in this. I didn’t want him to even suspect what I was doing. But
neither Esther nor Vanessa knew that.

“My
goodness,” Vanessa said. She looked up at Esther. “I’m not sure we want the
police walking around in here. It might make the women uncomfortable. This is
supposed to be a safe space.”

Esther
considered that. “Perhaps you’re right,” she said. She looked at me. “I can’t
give you Sam’s personal information, but I can ask her to give you a call when
she’s feeling up to it. Would that be acceptable to you?”

“It
would,” I said. “And it would be best if she did it as soon as possible. Krystal
died because she knew something she wasn’t supposed to. If she told Sam
whatever that was, then Sam could also be at significant risk.”

“Very
well,” Esther said. “I have a meeting shortly, but I’ll give her a call this
afternoon and let her know what’s going on. You’ll leave your number with us?”

I hated
giving out my real phone number, but this was a call I didn’t want going to
voicemail. Knowing what Krystal had said could go a long way toward breaking
this whole thing wide open. “No problem.”

“Then I’m
sure she’ll be in touch with you shortly, Ms. James,” Esther said.

“She’s
very conscientious about these things,” Vanessa told me. “Sam’s the best.”

Chapter 16

Back in my
car I went through the business cards I’d gotten from the food bank again,
hoping maybe I’d missed one. I hadn’t, though. Until I managed to talk to
Samantha from Second Star I had nothing else to go on.

And that
left me with nothing to do but drive around in circles. Or I could go home and
watch Netflix for the rest of the day. I really liked some aspects of not
having a job. Not needing to be anywhere at any certain time was nice. So was
not answering to anyone. I’d never done well with authority. But my days were
empty, for the most part. It was my own fault for having so few friends and no
social life to speak of, but I tended to get hopelessly bored. I was dangerous
when I was bored. That bottle of Grey Goose in my cupboard started calling my
name.

Luckily
for me, my phone rang an hour later as I was parking at a Chinese restaurant.
I’d decided to actually get a table and eat inside like a normal person, rather
than getting my usual take-out. Sarah Winters was on the line. “Hey,” I said.

“Hey,”
she replied. “I have something interesting for you. Maybe.”

“I like
interesting,” I said. “What is it?”

“Oh,”
she said. “First, did you by any chance pick up a cell phone at Krystal
Harris’s house? Fulton and Harrison were making some noise about it. They were
surprised she didn’t have at least a burner or something.”

“There
may have been a phone,” I said. “I may have accidentally put it in my pocket.”

“Shit,
Nevada,” she said.

“I’ll
stop by and turn it in as soon as I remember it,” I said. “How silly of me.” I
hoped Sarah understood from my dry tone that I didn’t give a shit. I didn’t
want to have to explain it to her.

“Do
that,” she said. “Anyway, you want to hear this?”

“Absolutely.
I’m out of leads. Did you find me three murders?”

“No,”
she said. “I found you two, though. Adam Taylor and Shaw DeMarco. Both of them
were white males in their twenties. They were killed six months apart. Both
were by gunshot, but they weren’t the same weapon. One was a nine millimeter
and the other was a .38.”

“Not a
.32?”

“No,”
she said. “Why? Am I looking for a .32? You didn’t mention that before.”

“It was
just a thought,” I said. “There was one guy that heard the shot…” But that
didn’t make much sense. Someone would have caught two other murders done with a
.32 before now.

“Okay.”

“Anyway,”
I said. “What connects them?”

“This
might be nothing.”

I could
tell by her audible breathing that Sarah didn’t think this was nothing. She was
on the hunt. She sounded excited now, instead of bored out of her skull like
she had been during our previous conversation. “Tell me anyway.”

“They
both had sexual assault charges filed against them,” Sarah said.

I
thought about that. A lot of people had sexual assault charges filed against
them. “Were there convictions?”

“No.
They were both dismissed.”

That was
also fairly common. “Why?”

“Lack of
evidence. One person’s word against another’s. Neither of them even made it to
trial.”

“Christ,”
I said. “You’d think rape would be easier to prove.”

“Like I
said, when it’s one person’s word against another’s, it’s tough. Plenty of
prosecutors won’t even bother and a good defense lawyer is going to get it
thrown out pretty quickly.”

“Yeah,”
I said. That much was true. I’d never been involved in a rape case, but I knew
they had pretty dismal conviction rates. “Tell me about the murders.”

“Sure,”
Sarah said. “They both went down as muggings that ended violently. They were
both outside bars in the early hours. Both victims were deeply intoxicated.
Blood alcohol on Adam Taylor was .212, for god’s sake. I don’t know how he was
walking around.”

I’d
walked around with my BAC that high, but that didn’t really seem relevant to
this conversation. “Muggings?”

“Yeah,
but Shaw DeMarco’s wallet was found in a garbage can three blocks from the
crime scene. A homeless guy turned it in. The money was still in it.”

“That’s
one conscientious homeless guy,” I said. “So at least that one wasn’t a
mugging.”

“No.
We’re just supposed to think it was.”

I
nodded, and then felt silly about that because of course Sarah couldn’t see me.
“Any witnesses?”

“On the
DeMarco killing, yeah. A couple frat brothers reported seeing a woman in the
area, although not actually on the scene. They thought it was weird she was out
by herself so late.”

“That’s
promising, then. Did they give a description?”

“Yeah.
Fuckable.”

“Okay.”
I waited. “Wait…was that it?”

“That’s
it. They were all pretty drunk and that’s the best they could come up with.”

I
sighed. “That’s really no help at all. Anything on security cameras in the
area?”

“Nope.”

“Where’s
the NSA when you need them?” I asked.

“They’re
too busy listening to your phone calls,” Sarah said.

Well,
they probably weren’t listening to
my
phone calls. Not unless
Abercrombie had made a hell of a mistake with his encryption when he’d set my
phone up. But that really wasn’t what she’d meant, anyway. “What about a third
murder?”

“I’ve
got other muggings that went bad. They go back for years. But I don’t have the
assault charges to link them.”

I
thought about it. “Krystal said the third murder was
wrong
,” I said.
“I’ve been wondering about that. Do me a favor. Run the names of everyone on
your muggings list, and I mean just their names, through the database. Look for
assault charges being filed on
anyone
with those names.”

“Anyone?”
Sarah asked. “Why would…oh. You’re thinking mistaken identity here.” Sarah was
a sharp one.

“Yeah.”

“Someone
was going through a list of people who were charged and got off, but this time
they got the wrong guy? I’m not sure who could even access that list,” she
said. “Someone inside the department?”

“Maybe,”
I said. “But I’m thinking someone else.” Someone who would have talked to the
victims, and maybe been involved in filing the initial police reports. I hadn’t
talked to Samantha yet, and that was the only link I could think of between
Krystal and a vigilante killer.

“You
want to tell me who?” Sarah asked.

“Not
yet. When I actually know something.”

“Okay.”

“What
are Fulton and Harrison doing on the case, except wondering why Krystal didn’t
have a phone?”

“Nothing,
honestly,” Sarah said. “It’s on the back burner. In a week nobody’s going to
remember it.”

“I will,”
I said.

“Well,
yeah. I didn’t mean
you
, Nevada. Anything else you need?”

I
thought about it. I’d been a shitty friend to Sarah. Maybe I could at least
make an effort to act like a human being. You know, with actual feelings.
“Um…so how are you holding up, Sarah?”

“Goodbye,
Nevada.” She hung up on me.