Life in Death (2 page)

“What happened?”

“Someone murdered her.” Detective Cobb answered, his tone even.

“Where do you have her file?” Jack stood and walked to the door. “I’ll get it for you.”

“It should be in my bottom cabinet drawer.”

Jack and Detective Nicolet left the room. Detective Cobb flipped through the pages of his notebook as though she wasn’t there.
He’s a real people person.

Detective Nicolet returned a short time later with a cup of water and set it down in front of her.

“Thank you.” She took a couple of sips to calm her nerves. The Detective met her eyes and projected compassion and… something else. A low heat enflamed her belly for a brief moment, stirring something in her that had once been familiar.

“Kari, I’m sorry. I can’t find the file,” Jack said from the doorway with a hint of accusation in his tone.

"I'll go get it." She hurried back to her desk. A quick survey of her filing cabinet revealed nothing, but a bright pink post-it note stuck to a file—Patience’s file—caught her attention.

Kari,

Andrea Foster called. Patience is gone! You’d better call them ASAP.

Mina

The note wasn’t dated.

The room around her swayed. She held onto her chair and fought off the urge to pass out, before sticking the note in her pocket.
When had Mina taken that message?

Detective Cobb and Detective Nicolet entered her cubicle, taking up all the space and sucking up all the air until Kari felt she couldn't breathe. The older man’s eyes followed her. Heat rose in her face under his scrutiny.
Did he suspect her or did he study everyone that way?

She sat at her desk and reviewed Patience’s history. “We got a call six months ago on our hotline about a neglected child. I paid a visit and found the house uninhabitable. The power and water were off. Patience had to relieve herself in a bucket in the corner of the room and take care of her daily hygiene with bottled water and a sponge. We removed her from the home and placed her in foster care with Andrea and Scott Frost.”

“You got an address and home number on the Frosts?” Detective Cobb asked.

Kari scribbled down the information and handed the paper to him.

“What can you tell us about these foster parents?” Detective Nicolet leaned against her desk.

Kari searched her brain for details about Andrea and Scott Frost.

“Scott Frost works for the city in waste management. Andrea is a homemaker. They’ve been married for ten years. They don’t have any children of their own, only foster kids, but they’re model foster parents. They’re polite, their home is always clean, and the kids are well cared for—"

“Until now.” Detective Cobb crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her.

“—and they’ve always been very good about accepting every placement,” she continued, ignoring the rude cop and turning her attention to Detective Nicolet.

“Should we give them an award for that?” Detective Cobb asked.

Where’d they get this guy?
Her ears burned with anger.

“What my partner means is… Do they have a choice as to what placements they accept?” Detective Nicolet’s softer voice calmed her.

“Yes, because some placements are more difficult than others.”

Detective Nicolet raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Kids no one else wants. Kids who have developmental disabilities, medical problems, behavior problems, or all of the above.”

Jack stood at the doorway of her cubicle, which now felt the size of a sardine can. “These kids run the gamut. Some are violent; some smear their own shit on the wall; and some force younger kids to give them blow jobs.”

"Jesus H. Christ.” Detective Cobb's face contorted in disgust.

So he’s not a total jerk.

Judging from the look on Jack’s face, he rather enjoyed unnerving the brute detective and so did she.

“We just have a one more question,” Detective Nicolet said. “How many kids do the Frosts have now?”

“With Patience, they had six.”

“Thank you for your time.” Detective Nicolet extended his hand to Jack first, then Kari.

Jack and Detective Cobb left the cubicle area together leaving Detective Nicolet and Kari alone.

Detective Nicolet smiled. “I wish we could have met under more pleasant circumstances. Please give me a call if you think of anything else.” He offered her his business card. Their hands brushed and his cologne—vanilla with a mix of sandalwood—teased her nostrils. A shiver ran down her back, and she wanted to inch closer to him to get another whiff. Instead, she thanked him.

“Hello?” Detective Cobb called.

Detective Nicolet rolled his eyes before he turned to leave.

She understood. Detective Cobb had climbed under her skin in the short time they’d been together. She couldn’t imagine him as a partner.

The heat in her belly returned for a moment. It had been a long time since she’d been that attracted to a man. Far too long. As much as Kari wanted to shut the world out and indulge in some not-work-related day dreaming, the note in her pocket pricked her conscious. She had to talk to Mina.

She found Mina in the break room with April Mascarenas. Ugh. Kari hated her.

Mid-thirties, shoulder length platinum blond hair—thanks to Ms. Clairol—and sky blue eyes, April Mascarenas, twice divorced, just married her landscaper, Jesus, ten years her junior. He had movie star good looks and rumor had it he married April to get a green card. April said he married her because of how great she was in the sack. April forever gushed shameless and randy stories of their sexual escapades, whether you wanted to hear about it or not.

Kari easily tired of April’s stories, maybe because she hadn’t dated in eons and had no stories of her own to tell. And she never understood how Mina and April ever became friends; they were polar opposites. Mina, the smaller, classier, and prettier of the two women, with auburn hair and ice blue eyes, had been in a committed relationship with her girlfriend the past couple of years. Kari wasn’t sure if they were still together.

“Mina, I need to talk to you right now,” Kari said from the doorway.

“You’ll have to wait. She’s on her break,” April said, a smug look on her face. She wore a short-sleeved teal colored spandex dress, like one you’d wear for a night out, not in an office setting. Kari ignored her.

“When did this come in?” Kari waved the note at Mina. She always wore her emotions on her sleeve and didn’t care who knew it.

“You're such a drag. If you’re going to interrupt our break, at least make it good." April yawned and strolled past Kari out of the room.

Mina walked over to her, took the note, and reviewed it. “I put this on your desk last night.”

“You were in the office last night?”

“Yes. I wanted to catch up on some work.”

“There’s no date. When did you take this message?

She frowned. “You won’t like my answer.”

“Kari, I need to see you,” Jack’s voice loomed from behind them.

Kari’s stomach tightened.
What did Mina mean by ‘you won’t like my answer’?
But the answer to that would have to wait. When the boss called, you jumped to attention if you wanted to keep your job.

“Let’s talk later,” Kari whispered. She wasn’t ready to let Jack in on any of this until she had all the facts. The note seriously concerned her though.

Mina had always been the consummate professional, conscientious and detail-oriented. This lapse wasn’t like her and came at the worse possible time.

Kari followed Jack to his office. He closed the door and took a seat behind his desk. Rather than speak, he rubbed his temples with his fingers. Perspiration formed on her forehead and a frown creased her face. This day kept getting worse.

“Do we have any exposure here?” Jack asked.

“No.” Could she be caught in this lie later? Her friendship with Mina was worth the risk. They'd been friends since college. The least she could do was wait until she had all the information before filling Jack in on the details. “The foster parents have a good track record. We’ve never had any complaints on them.”

“You saw the Frosts last when?”

She took a couple of deep breaths and prepared herself for the rant to follow.

“A couple of months ago.”

“Two months ago?” His voice boomed. “You’re supposed to visit once a month.”

“You dumped part of April’s caseload on me, remember?” She folded her arms across her chest. “She's back from her honeymoon now, so you can give her back her workload.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” He shoulders slumped and voice softened.

The machinations behind his eyes whirled with thoughts. “Go through the file with a fine tooth comb. This is the first homicide this office has been involved in. We need to get out in front of this. Bring any anomalies to me.” He stood, which meant she could go.

Kari hurried to Mina’s cubicle, but she wasn’t there.

“She took off,” April said from across the aisle.

Kari did her best to ignore April and refused to turn around and face her.

“She didn’t say a word to me.” April didn't seem to care that Kari didn't want to talk. “Smart girl, that one. I bet she went to meet Veta for some mid-morning nookie.”

“That’s just great.” Kari rummaged through Mina’s desk until she found a black marker and a sheet of paper. She scribbled a note for Mina to come see her when she returned and taped it on the front of Mina’s computer screen.

April read the note from her vantage point.

"What's the emergency?" She bit into her Snicker’s bar, chocolaty nougat crusting the corners of her mouth.

"It doesn’t concern you.”

Kari went back to her desk with a cup of coffee. The liquid scalded her tongue and burned all the way down her throat, but would be worth the buzz once it hit.

Patience had originally been April's case. Something tickled the back of Kari's mind and nagged her to take a closer look at all of April's files. The hefty pile on her desk consumed the afternoon. Pages of hand written notes filled her notepad. A sharp pain shot through her neck and served as a reminder that she had not moved or stretched for several hours. Kari massaged her neck and read through her notes.

There were definitely some ‘anomalies.’ It seemed April’s caseload consisted solely of Liberian kids. All the kids were removed from their homes for neglect within a few days of each other and all had been placed with the Frosts.

How strange.

Even though she didn’t like April, she’d still allow her to explain the placements before Kari went to Jack. She rounded the corner toward April’s desk, but got sidetracked by Mina’s familiar voice as she finished a phone call. Mina motioned to Kari that she’d only be another minute. Kari looked across to April’s office. Now she had disappeared.
Did people work around here?

“Did you see my note?” Kari asked as soon as Mina hung up the phone. “Why didn’t you come and see me?”

“I got that call right when I got back.” Mina fumbled through her papers.

“When did you take the message about Patience?”

“Kari, I screwed up.”

“
When
?”

“A couple of weeks ago.”

“What?” Kari gritted her teeth.
Two weeks ago.
If she’d gotten the note two weeks ago, she would have contacted the police and maybe, just maybe, Patience might still be alive.

“I took the note, then it got wedged in between some files. I found it last night. I admit it. I’m sorry.”

Kari lowered her voice. “The little girl’s dead.”

“Oh, my God.” Mina gasped, color drained from her face.

"How could you lose a note when a little girl was missing? Why didn't you follow up with me in person?" Kari hated accusing her friend, but she couldn't comprehend how Mina could have made such a grave mistake. A mistake that ended in the murder of a child.

Tears welled up in the corner of Mina's eyes, and she hung her head. "I'm so sorry. We've been swamped with April's caseload, and I just got overwhelmed. I can't believe she's dead."

“I have to tell Jack about this. I don’t have a choice.”

“But he’ll bring me up on misconduct charges. I could be fired.” Silent tears spilled over her dark lashes.

“I’ll stand with you. I promise.” Kari hugged her and meant it. She didn’t have very many friends, but those she did have, she didn’t abandon. More than friendship, she’d made Mina her son’s godmother. “Where’s April?” Kari asked.

“Is she in trouble, too?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I just need to ask her a few questions about some of her cases.”

“She’s out for lunch.”

“Tell her to come see me immediately.” She headed to Jack’s office.

Every social worker dreaded this nightmare. One that woke you from your sleep, had you pacing the floor at 3 a.m., and kept you up the rest of the night.