Eleven Days: An Unexpected Love (47 page)

Mike
got
off the phone
with
Raymond. "Raymond will be here in a few minutes and he
has
talked
to
Tony."

Joe and
Lana
looked at Mike wanting him to finish.

Joe broke the silence."So what did he say?"

"Tony admitted having an affair
with
Ms. Border's and he has no clue about anything else. He
also admitted he ha
d sex
with
her
before he left on
his
trip."

Joe
was
excited and wanted to know the scoop. But he wanted to hear it from Raymond.

She
walked over to the fireplace and poked at the wood hoping to get a strong flame going.
She
watched as the little flickers tried to reach the highest log. The stone fireplace
was
beautiful
with
a mantle
she
could tell Mike made. It
was
carved
with
the initials of
his
family. The carving of Kyle
was
sloppy so
she
could only imagine
his
little boy helping
his
daddy carve t
his
beauty. Mike could never get rid of t
his
place because it had too many wonderful memories.

Out of nowhere Mike walked over and stood next to
her
and w
his
pered softly in
her
ear.
"A penny for your thoughts."

She
leaned in to
his
chest and enjoyed the moment before responding. "You don't have to pay
anything for my thoughts. I
happen to be
thinking
about
how wonderful you and your team are. Just a few short days
t
his
case was of disarray. N
ow all the puzzle pieces start
to fit together.
I am in awe of you guys."
She
didn't want to tell him what
was
truly
on
her
mind.
If
she
told Mike
she
noticed the carving,
she
would
feel like
she
's invading
his
family's privacy.

"Honey I told you t
his
is what we do, and many times it is a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces. And all we do is find the right pieces and then put it all together. Sometimes the pieces don't fit, and sometimes there are many pieces. But we eventually figure it all out
piece by piece
. I
would
n't change my job for anything."

"One other thing I noticed about your team."

"What's
that
?"

"Sara, oh my,
she
is wonderful and so insightful."

"
She
is incredible.
She
sounds young on the phone, but
she
's about forty." Mike turned to Joe. "Hey Joe, how old do you think Sara is?"

"I
would
say about forty."

"Parrot."
Mike just looked at Joe and raised
his
left eyebrow, then continued. "
She
has premature gray hair, and now
she
is completely gray.
She
is about your height, short. I think
she
has a Master's degree and
she
's married
with
one child and I think
her
child just started college.
Her
husband is a mechanic at one of the airlines in Boston. We all love
her
immensely, and we couldn't do our job as well
with
out
her
."

The heater kicked on and the return air vent
was
near the living room and it pulled all the air throughout the house. The wonderful smell of baked beans lingered. "I've got to check the beans." Immediately Joe and Mike followed
her
in the kitchen. "Do you guys want to taste the beans?"

They both nodded their heads.

Mike lifted the heavy beans out of the oven and they smelled so good, so
she
got a spoon for both of them and let them taste. "Oh baby, these are the best beans I have ever had."

Joe agreed.
"Me too."

About
that
time Raymond and the gang pulled up and the two men in the kitchen found other things to preoccupy their minds, the story about Tony.

The guys ba
ntered back and forth about busting down the door
. There were at least three different conversations going on at one time. One of the deputies talked about how they were vultures waiting on their prey. They told the story of crouching in the bushes waiting for their cue
Cooper
.

Cooper, who in the hell uses the word Cooper as the raid word.
She
kind of liked the word shazam or pickle juice. But Cooper,
that
boggled
her
mind. Later
she
would
ask Mike about how they choose their raid words.

As Raymond
told
the story, Joe listened
with
delight.
His
eyes sparkled as he took in every word.
She
could tell he want
ed to be a cop since he
was
a child. H
e lived and breathed t
his
business.

Raymond
told
the story of Tony in the back of the cop car. "He called me a cop wannabe."

Joe laughed. "Did he know who you were?"

"I told him, but he
was
so mad and half drunk and half asleep I don't think it registered in
his
half state of mind."

Mike
took many
notes during all t
his
discussion. He downloaded the driving schedule of Tony and compared it to the forensics. Everything such as receipts, dates, and timelines were entered on their make shift boards. "Guys we need to look over the timeline for Tony, and tell me your thoughts."

Raymond began. "We know he had sex
with
Ms. Borders at least seven days ago."

Mike corrected the time. "It
was
eight days, because he left out at four in the morning. The ME's preliminary findings say
they were dead between six or
seven days. So it is a possibility Tony killed
them, slim, but still a possibility."

"We know he didn't put the steak on the counter because he
was
out of town. And we know he didn't kill John Johnson because John
was
seen after Tony left. The only connection
with
t
his
case is the sperm and he admitted he had sex
with
Ms. Border's," said Joe pinning some time lines on the board.

"I'm going to put Tony at the ten percent chance
that
he had anything to do
with
the killings."

Both Joe and Raymond agreed.

Joe asked. "What about the three clowns in jail?"

"I think they are opportunists and
that
's all. I know you all don't know t
his
, but Quent gave them a lie detector and all three of them passed." I'm going to put them in the ten percent category as well."

Raymond asked. "Who does
that
leave?"

Mike pulled a picture from
his
pile of papers and it
was
the man at the airport. "Somehow all t
his
is tie
s
into t
his
guy. T
his
picture is being searched through the FBI database, and in the meantime, we have a hair and blood from the Border's house and we think
his
blood type is B-. We have had less and we've caught the guy. We've put t
his
picture
with
every police department and every federal agency. I want t
his
guy caught."

*****

She
interrupted the guys when
she
thought they could use a break. "Dinner is ready." Everyone headed to the kitchen and grabbed plates and filled them
with
chicken, beans and slaw.
She
even surprised them
with
a three layer chocolate cake. While they were in the kitchen
she
walked in the living room and joined Mike as he
was
organizing all the papers.

"You better fix yourself a plate or the guys will eat it all," said
Lana
.

"
That
's okay if they do, they've earned it."

"True. Mike, are you okay?"

"No not really."

"What's wrong?"

"I can see the picture of t
his
man who talked to you on the plane and came into my neck of the woods and killed three people. Furthermore, I have to wait days before I can get DNA. Then I might have to be disappointed if he doesn't have any DNA on record."

"Babe, he will make a mistake, they always do, right? I also know one of the reasons you are upset is because it involves me."

"Absolutely
that
's true." Mike finished organizing all
his
papers in an order so he could easily get to them. "How about we get something to eat?"

"Sounds good to me,"
she
said.

He took
her
hand as they walked in the kitchen and Mike grabbed plates for both of them. They scanned the leftovers and it
was
sparse; six pieces of chicken, two cups of beans and no coleslaw.
Lana
quickly grabbed some dressing out of the fridge and whipped a little more coleslaw.

"You know
Lana
, you keep cooking like t
his
and these guys will never catch t
his
guy."

As they
fed
their faces, they
shook their heads and mumbled
that
they
would
catch him.

She
honestly felt like a little kid amongst these strong pistol packing tall men. "Good grief guys, I thought they made them big in Texas, but you all take the cake. What did your mom feed you guys?"

They just laughed and kept on eating. They grabbed all their goodies and went into the living room. Mike looked in the bucket of chicken and w
his
pered. "I bet you're a breast woman?"

She
smiled at him and w
his
pered back. "No you are. Or at least you were earlier."

"What
would
give you
that
idea?"

"I
would
n't know."

"Can we talk since we are all alone?"
Lana
asked looking around to make sure no one
could hear.
The guys were great, but
she
needed their conversation to be private.

"Sure baby." Mike
was
all ears, but answered
with
out missing out on one bite of the baked beans.

"Why do you think t
his
guy is after me? I know after seeing
that
video he probably is or why else
would
he be at the airport and go through all the trouble."
She
played
with
her
food.