Alone & Lonely, page 14
“I can see why those particular cases would interest you.”
She kept her mouth shut, her fingers clenched tightly into fists. Grace needed to figure out what she was going to do because after six months of the way work had been, she wasn’t sure she could handle it much longer. Especially if it kept affecting her and Amya the way it had, not to mention the rest of the family. She’d missed out on so much lately.
They pulled up outside the apartment, and Grace didn’t wait to get out of the cruiser. She needed to focus on work and stop thinking about what a mess her life was right now. Link followed her as they walked up to the third floor of the apartment complex. Grace knocked. They heard someone call from the apartment, and Grace listened as heavy footsteps came closer.
When the door opened, they were met with a short, portly woman, who had less hair on top of her head than she did on her chin. Her eyes had this gray quality to them as if she couldn’t really see them. Grace was about to speak, but Link stepped in.
“Mrs. Ramusken, we’re here to talk to you about your neighbor.”
“Oh right, come in.” She waved them inside.
Link stepped through the doorway first, and Grace followed. When the door shut, her muscles tensed. She always hated being stuck in an unknown apartment and only one way out. At least she had Link with her. They moved over to sit on the aging couch while the woman took the big fluffy chair that was obviously her preferred place to sit.
“I was so sorry to hear about Miss Felicity. I was visiting my sister in Chicago and saw it on the news briefly. That baby was cute as a button.”
Grace was once again about to speak, but Link shot her a look. Apparently he was taking charge on this interview.
“Mrs. Ramusken, you told our officers on the phone that you had some information about Felicia and another neighbor?”
“I do. I always watched out for her, pretty girl like that. You can’t be too careful with the perverts living in this place. When I figured out she was pregnant, I made sure to check in on her as often as I could. She was such a sweet thing.”
“So you visited her often?” Link asked.
Grace took out her notebook and started scribbling things on it in case anything they talked about was helpful.
“About once a week until I left to visit my sister. It’s such a tragedy what happened to her.”
“It is,” Link answered. “What would you talk about?”
“Oh this and that. She was getting ready for the baby and didn’t seem to have much family support. No husband to speak of. No daddy for that precious little baby.”
Grace tensed unwillingly. Even though there was a dad, and Felicia didn’t seem to be partial to women, the assumption being there always got her back up. She let it go.
“What specifically would you two talk about?”
“I’d bring her food sometimes, just dinner here and there to help her out. She was working a lot until a few months ago when they put her on bed rest.”
Grace wrote that down even though she already knew it. Felicia was unemployed and had been for three months due to medical problems according to her old boss, and with the hospital records, they could readily see she’d been told to go on bed rest.
“Did Felicia ever mention Andrew’s father?”
“Only that he wasn’t interested in the baby.”
“Did she ever mention the potential for adoption?” Link asked.
Grace perked up at that question. She’d wanted to ask it, but she hadn’t been sure Link would pursue that line of questioning.
“Only once or twice, briefly. I don’t think she ever truly considered it.”
Link nodded. “All right, was there anything else you wanted to tell us?”
“I called because of Felicia’s neighbor just below her.”
“Oh?” Link asked, leaving the question open for elaboration.
“He has been obsessed with Felicia since she moved in here last year. I’ve caught him taking pictures of her through the windows, peeking in her windows. He follows her around the complex when she goes on walks.”
Grace wrote more notes as she listened carefully.
“This guy gives me the creeps. I’ve reported him to management several times, but they never do anything. Can’t be bothered to lose a good paying tenant because he might be off the wall a bit.”
“Do you know his name?” Link pressed for more information.
“Hal, I think. I only met him once, and that was three years ago when he moved in.”
They spent another ten minutes with Mrs. Ramusken before making their way down a floor to Hal’s apartment. They’d run the address to get his full name and check for any priors, of which he had nothing other than one speeding ticket and a couple parking tickets. Nothing that would tip him off to being a sexual deviant like Mrs. Ramusken was convinced.
Link also took lead this time, which Grace didn’t seem to mind since they were working more his case than hers. When no one answered the door, he knocked again, this time a little more forceful. Finally, on the third knock, Hal opened the door. He looked like they’d woken him up, his black hair tousled, his cheeks red from sleep.
“Are you Hal Galveston?”
“I am. Who are you?”
“I’m Detective Link Abrams, this is Detective Grace Halling. We wanted to talk to you about your neighbor Felicia Erikson.”
“Uh…yeah, sure.” He brought them into the dim apartment, hitting the light so they could see.
Hal moved to the kitchen to make coffee before sitting on the couch. Grace and Link took the chairs nearby.
Link looked Hal right in the eye. “What do you know about Felicia?”
“She was sweet. We dated a while back, until I found out she was pregnant because it definitely wasn’t mine.”
“And she was okay with that?”
“We’d only gone on like three dates before she found out, and she was completely honest with me. She’d rebounded with her ex shortly after their divorce was finalized and got a nice surprise for it. He didn’t believe her that it was his.”
“Did you?”
Hal shrugged. “Didn’t see any reason she’d lie to me, and she didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would jump into bed with a bunch of different guys either. She barely kissed me on our second date.”
Grace looked around the apartment, taking in what she could see of it. He had a camera settled on the kitchen table. When the coffee was ready, Hal got up and poured himself some.
“Are you into photography?” Grace asked. “My daughter is thinking about learning.”
Hal sat back down. “I’m a photographer for the newspaper. It’s why I was sleeping. Most big events happen in the evening, at least what I’m sent to.”
“Do you ever do portraits?” Link stepped in, following Grace’s train of thought.
“Sometimes. I did some for Felicia if that’s what you’re asking. She couldn’t afford maternity photos and wanted some. It seems to be the new hot thing on the market right now. Not really my style or my thing, but I know some photographers make bank doing those kinds of shoots.”
“Did you take any photos of Andrew after he was born?”
Hal nodded. “I did. I went up to her apartment when he was only a week old and took some. I hadn’t even gotten them back to her yet. I suppose I could send them to her mom or her ex. He’ll end up with Andrew, right? When you find him?”
“We have to find him first, Mr. Galveston,” Grace stepped in. “Did you see anyone else going to visit Felicia since she had the baby?”
“See? No. Hear? Yes.”
“What did you hear?”
“Floors aren’t exactly insulated well here, and since she’s right above me…I heard her talking with another woman, a voice I didn’t recognize. The conversation was heated, including some yelling. Andrew must have been a little over a week old at that point. I’d already done the photos. I didn’t hear a lot of what they were saying since everything is muffled, but they were not happy.”
“Did you see the woman leaving?”
“Yeah. She got into some big black SUV thing. I didn’t pay too close attention to what because I wanted to make sure Felicia was okay and I had to go to work. I checked in on her, she was fine. Upset, but fine, and didn’t want to talk about it. So I went to work.”
“Did you get a look at the woman?” Grace asked, interrupting Link.
“White. Brunette. Hair midway down her back. She was wearing a winter jacket and jeans. That’s about it.”
“That’s helpful, thank you.”
When they were back in the cruiser, Grace read over her notes while Link drove. As he pulled into the station, she let out a sigh. “So now we have a mysterious pissed-off woman.”
“We do.”
“You want to take on that one? I could use the extra time to find my missing lawyer.”
“Sure thing.” Link smiled at her. “Want to meet up tomorrow to talk about it?”
“We can do that. I’m sure I’ll be here all day again.”
Link snorted. “Think about a transfer, especially because I’m pretty sure Delwin will get the captain position.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Link shook his head. “I’m not. She’s wanted one from the get-go, and it was never going to happen in Homicide, especially after…well, it was never going to happen in Homicide, which was part of why she transferred.”
“Do you know who else is interviewing for it?”
“A sergeant from Warrants, but that’s quite a leap for a change, and one of the Captains who still works the streets, so he has no experience in detective work.”
“Oh. No one else?”
“No one else wanted it, not with the way Humbard left it.”
“Great.” Grace tightened her jaw. She hadn’t thought about that. Moving up had never really been on her radar, so she hadn’t put much thought into the politics behind it all. “I’ll consider it.”
“I’ll put a word in with my captain, if you want.”
“Sure, why not? What harm can it do?”
“If Delwin finds out?”
“On second thought, you’re right. Let me think on it first.”
Link smiled at her again. “You got it.”
They walked into the building together and then went their separate ways. Grace was definitely going to find time to talk to Amya as soon as she got a chance. They needed to reconnect.
Road Blocks
“You got a minute, Halling?”
Grace glanced up from her desk toward the door that led into the hallway and to the rest of the station. Link stood, leaning in the doorway, staring right at her. She shuffled over to him, and they moved into the hall and away from Missing Persons.
“What’s up?”
“I got another lead.”
“Oh?”
Link shrugged. “Forensics finally got back about the computer. Seems she was dating someone or trying to date someone. One of the phone numbers she was texting matches up with a name on a dating website she had her profile up on.”
“Oh really?” Grace crossed her arms. “Which site?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe. Was she only on one?”
“So far as we can tell. You want to go check this guy out?”
Grace glanced at her desk through the open doorway. “Sure. Let me wrap this up in the next five minutes. I can meet you out at the cruiser.”
“Sounds good.” Link turned and walked away.
It didn’t take Grace the five minutes she’d thought it would to finish up the research into Leon Gross. He really had just vanished. He’d pulled cash from his accounts, but as soon as he were on a cash only trail, it was far harder to track him. Grace left a note on her desk that she was going out with Homicide to check on a lead rather than telling Paige because she knew how that would go.
When she got into the cruiser, Link handed her a handful of papers with a driver’s license photo on it, name, physical details along with his record. Grace skimmed it as Link pulled out of the parking lot.
“So…do we think this is a decent lead or not?”
“It might turn into it. He doesn’t have any priors, at least, nothing that might put murder and kidnapping on the radar.”
“I see he was arrested for public indecency.”
“Five years ago.”
Grace moved on to the next piece of paper, which was the actual arrest record and report that Link had pulled from their system. It was a standard arrest, and he hadn’t put up a fight. He’d been drunk, downtown, young, and idiotic. Grace snorted. The number of men in particular she had arrested for pissing in public was higher than she had wanted it to be, but she’d worked nights for a long time before switching to days when she was in uniform.
“You think this might be the guy?”
Link shrugged. “I’m not really sure yet. Won’t be until we talk to him, but I’m betting it’s not. I do want to know what happened with him and Felicia, however. If she was up on a dating website, it means she was trying to date. With a new baby in the picture? That seems odd to me.”
“It could.” Grace stared at the picture of their newest suspect again. He had green eyes, shaggy black hair that looked massively unkempt, a chiseled chin and pointed nose. He was not the most attractive man she’d seen, but he seemed to fall into Felicia’s type for men, based on Jonas, Hal, and now this man. “She did try to date Hal.”
“Before she was showing.”
Grace pressed her lips together. “Just because he broke up with her because she was pregnant didn’t mean she wanted to break up because of her pregnancy. If she didn’t want to keep the baby…”
“There’s no evidence to say she didn’t.”
“None that we’ve found yet, but I imagine the thought crossed her mind on more than on occasion. She’s young, single, newly divorced, and about to be a single mom to a baby who’s dad wants nothing to do with him.”
“Jonas hasn’t been given a fair chance to be a dad yet.”
“Bullshit.” Grace’s voice rang through the cruiser, her tone harsh and jaded.
Link turned to look at her curiously. “Did I hit a nerve?”
Grace’s cheeks reddened. He had. She had. And she hadn’t even anticipated walking right into that one. It had been years since she’d been truly angry about her own father, but the thought of a dad just walking away? Yeah, that had hit a nerve.
“Sorry,” Grace muttered. “But she told him about the pregnancy. He choose not to be involved, not to go to appointments, or talk to her or support her.”
“Why would he if he can’t prove the baby is his?”
“You’ve been married to someone for years, and you don’t trust them to at least give you that decency? Nothing about Felicia has told us she was running around on him or he was running around on her. They were both young and stupid when they got married, but they’ve known each other so long, would you not even give one ounce of attention to what she might have said, one moment of maybe she is telling the truth?”
Link’s lips parted, then he locked them shut. Grace huffed and pressed herself into the seat, willing the conversation to end. She hadn’t anticipated it would go this direction, and she was trying to defend her point without bringing her personal life into it.
Grace barreled forward, trying to defend her argument. “I think we need to look more into why Jonas truly might think the baby wasn’t his. There’s more to it than that.”
“There might not be,” Link stated, his voice quiet.
Clenching her jaw, Grace held her tongue, though it was hard and more out of self-preservation than to make her point. She didn’t want to have to talk to Link about the shit her father had pulled, and that was clearly where the conversation was headed if she didn’t shut up.
They arrived at the small apartment complex on the east side of town. It was one of the mid-level complexes. Grace shoved the reports on the dash board as she stepped out of the vehicle right into a pile of slush. Drawing in a deep, slow breath, she closed her eyes. It had been ages since she had done that. Link had gotten her so upset that she hadn’t been able to think about where she was stepping and going.
Shaking her leg off to try and get the cold snowy water out of her shoe, Grace groaned. With a sloshy shoe, Grace followed Link to the apartment and let him take the lead. She wasn’t in the right mindset to do it anyway. As they were led inside to the small living room, Grace noted everything in the apartment. It was pristine, everything put in its spot.
Link sat on the couch with the thin, lanky man. Grace stood near the door, her arms crossed as she observed everything. Link’s voice was clear and precise as he spoke. “How do you know Felicia Erikson?”
Luca sighed and brushed his fingers through his hair. “We went on a date.”
“How many dates?” Link asked.
Grace hardened. She had to pull herself out of her own anger, it wasn’t going to be good if she couldn’t get out of her own head and focus on the case. Listening to every word Luca had to say, Grace took it all in. Perhaps this would help them get some answers.
“One.” Luca closed his eyes. “I knew you’d be by eventually.”
“There were hundreds of text messages exchanged between the two of you.”
Luca nodded. “She didn’t tell me she was pregnant, and it took about a month of talking before she was willing to meet up with me for the date. She told me the day of our date. What was I supposed to do? Cancel it just because of that?”
Link raised an eyebrow at him. “Might have been the better option.”
“I didn’t want to hurt her. She was so sweet and cute.” Luca brushed his hands through his hair and sighed. “I didn’t think she’d end up dead. I saw it on the news. I can’t—I can’t believe that happened.”
Grace ground her molars. Every story was the same, and they were getting no closer to any answers. They hadn’t found any clues as to who might have murdered Felicia or who might have taken Andrew. Link pulled out his notebook.
“What did you tell her after your date?”
“That I wasn’t interested in continuing anything with her. I really wish she’d said she was pregnant. Carrying another man’s baby? That’s a huge turn off, you know?”
