Rookie Instincts, page 9
Aria brought up his texts, found herself and attached the pictures of Brandy and Tony. “Are you sure you weren’t a detective in another life?”
“This is personal, Aria. When I heard that dirtbag threaten Brandy and slap her, I wanted to wring his neck with my bare hands. My sister made a lot of mistakes in her life, but she didn’t deserve this ending. None of them did.”
“The work you did tonight is going to go a long way to help solve your sister’s murder.” She drummed her fingers against his phone. “This doesn’t end with Tony, though. He’s just a grunt. We need to get to the top dog.”
“I figured as much. That’s why I didn’t take down the little weasel where he stood.” Grayson punched his fist into his palm, and all sorts of muscles rippled beneath his T-shirt.
Either his body had responded to the hard labor on the docks in spectacular fashion, or developing properties and making oodles of money was more strenuous than she’d imagined.
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to check that she’d received the text with the picture attachments. She pushed to her feet and sauntered into the kitchen, which could barely accommodate the two of them side by side.
“Thanks for turning this information over to me.” She placed her phone on the counter next to the bagged bottle.
“Who else?” He shrugged.
“You could’ve given it to the PHPD or my director or supervisor, Rihanna. Thanks for trusting me with it.”
He turned to face her, his blue eyes kindling. “You’re the only one I trust right now, Aria. You’re the only one... I wanted to see.”
His low voice vibrated, touching a chord deep within her. She swallowed and ran her tongue along her bottom lip. Bad move.
His gaze followed the sweep of her tongue and instead of sealing her lips like any professional FBI agent would do, she lodged the tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth and met his eyes.
He tilted his head and brushed his knuckle across her cheek, a question in his eyes.
Her knees weakened along with her resolve, and she swayed toward him, pinching the material of his shirt between her fingertips. Was that a yes? She wanted it to be a yes.
His hand slid to the back of her head, cupping it in his palm, his fingers entangled in her hair.
Her lashes fluttered as she parted her lips, her heart thundering in her chest.
When he pressed his mouth against hers, it soothed an ache in her core she hadn’t even realized she’d had until this moment. His tongue slid into her willing mouth, and she melted against him as he wound an arm around her waist to pull her closer to his body.
Their kiss deepened. Her arm encircled his neck. His pulse throbbed against the pads of her fingers as she skimmed them along the warm flesh of his throat.
Her phone buzzed on the countertop.
Grayson jerked away from her, leaving a blast of cold in his absence. “I’m so sorry. I...”
She dove for her phone, heat washing into her cheeks. In her confusion and haste, she didn’t even check the display.
“Hello?”
Axel’s voice, clipped and professional, greeted her. “Where are you? You’re not in your room.”
She stuttered some inanity and Axel cut her off. “Never mind. I’m not your daddy, but I thought you’d be interested in this piece of news, superstar.”
Superstar? She felt anything but right now. She wiped her hand across her mouth, rubbing away Grayson’s kiss.
“What news?”
“We got the rapid DNA van out here and you know that tissue you picked up at the Chloe Larsen murder site?”
“Yeah.” Aria’s gaze darted to Grayson, making a big deal out of washing a few dishes in the sink.
“It contains DNA.”
“I figured it would. It’s a tissue.”
“Ah, let me finish.” Axel paused for drama and a drumroll if he could have it. “We also collected DNA from beneath the fingernails of the third victim, and guess what?”
Aria sucked in a breath. “They’re a match?”
“They are a match, which means we have the killer’s DNA. Now we just have to find someone whose DNA is a match to the tissue and the skin, and we’ve got our guy.”
Aria pressed her hand against her heart and grabbed the back of Grayson’s T-shirt. “I’ve got news for you, too, Axel. We found our guy and, with the DNA at the crime sites, we’ve got him dead to rights.”
Chapter Nine
Aria touched her tender lower lip, still feeling Grayson’s mouth against hers. She’d literally been saved by the bell...or the buzz. No telling how far she would’ve gone last night under that man’s spell.
“Coffee.” Max set a mug in front of her with a clunk. “You looked like you needed it.”
“Thanks, Max.” She picked up one of the little thimbles of creamer he’d dumped next to her cup. “Do I look that out of it?”
“You look like someone who’s been working her tail off. Way to make a splash on this team.” He put down his own cup and plopped into the chair next to hers at the table set up in their war room at the PD.
At least Max didn’t think she looked like an agent who was mooning over a victim’s brother. Let him think her exhaustion was all about the case—not that the murders hadn’t robbed her of sleep, too.
Opaline had set up her computer at one end of the table and was clicking furiously on her keyboard with her long nails. She sighed. “Not exactly like home, but it’ll do, and I wholly approve of the new scenery. I rate the Port Huron boys in blue a solid seven.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Do these poor guys know they’re being ranked and judged? There’s a name for that when men do the same thing to women.”
“It’s called standard operating procedure.” Opaline straightened the flowered clip in her hair, the ends blue this week.
Alana entered the room, closely followed by Amanda, and she took a seat next to Opaline. “Did you get all the pictures and graphics Amanda sent you?”
“Yes, ma’am. Created a slide show and everything.” Opaline wiggled her fingers in the air. “Good morning, Carly, Rihanna, Axe.”
Opaline’s voice trailed off as her sister Selena followed Max into the room. Then she ducked her head and checked some cables going to the projector.
Aria took in the mask that had dropped over Selena’s face. What was it with those two? Having four brothers, Aria would kill to have had a sister growing up.
Alana rapped on the table. “Axel, the door, please.”
Axel tipped his chair back on its legs and reached across with his long arm to push the door closed.
“I’m sure you’ve all heard the exciting news by now.” Alana folded her hands and practically beamed at them. “We have DNA from murders two and three, connecting those crimes—a discarded tissue from the Chloe Larsen scene and skin under the fingernails of the third victim.”
Opaline brought up the first slide with a picture of the baggie containing the used tissue Aria had picked up at the second crime scene. Next to it was a close-up picture of the third victim’s violet-polished nails, blood and tissue beneath them.
“Even more exciting, because this particular DNA is not in CODIS, we have a suspect along with the suspect’s DNA. That suspect’s DNA has been delivered to the rapid DNA van and we should have the results shortly. If the suspect’s DNA matches that on the tissue and the skin from the fingernails, we have our guy.”
Rihanna clapped and then looked around. “For being the media liaison, it seems I’m the only one out of the loop. Who is this guy and how’d we get a line on him?”
“Sorry, you were with CPS this morning, Rihanna, not that we want any of this getting out to the media yet.” Alana touched Opaline’s shoulder. “Show them what we have.”
Tony Balducci’s picture appeared on the screen, and Alana ID’d him. “This is Tony Balducci. He works at the docks, and he has no criminal record except for a few minor infractions as a juvenile. Someone working at the docks overheard him talking about the murders and threatening another young woman. We got his DNA from a beer bottle that he discarded.”
“Sweet.” Rihanna smoothed her thumb over her eyebrow. “Wait, isn’t Chloe Larsen’s brother, Grayson Rhodes, working undercover at the docks right now? Did we get this from him? Did you get this from him, Aria?”
“I did.” Aria dropped her chin to her chest and relaxed all her muscles in the hopes that she could keep her blush at bay.
Alana came to her rescue. “Like I said, we’re waiting on the DNA results to come back and then Max, Carly and Aria are going to bring him in. Do it without fanfare, but I’ll let you decide how.”
The next slide showed the two young women walking into The Tavern. Alana used her red penlight to circle Brandy’s face. “This young woman may be in the same line of business as the other three. Her name is Brandy, and that’s all we have. Max and Selena are going to track her down. Her friend’s name is Rita, and we don’t know whether or not she’s involved. Find Rita, maybe you find Brandy.”
Opaline clicked through more slides, showing the ballistics that matched the weapon for all three murders. She commented, “Max got the ballistics reports this morning and it confirmed the same gun was used in all three murders, a .22 caliber, small but deadly.”
“I’m going to let Aria talk about motive. Our contact at the docks overheard some conversation between Balducci and Brandy, which led him to take that picture.” Alana sat. “Take it away, Aria.”
Aria stood and circled the table to take Alana’s place next to Opaline. “When Balducci was talking to a very upset Brandy, he told her she had nothing to worry about if she followed the rules. He mentioned that the other women had gotten greedy and had to be dealt with.”
Max whistled. “So, drug smugglers dipping into the product?”
“That’s what it sounds like. Balducci also mentioned a name for the women.”
Selena asked, “You mean Maddie Johnson—the name on the other vics’ IDs?”
Aria braced her fingertips on the tabletop. “No. He called the women ‘blah boaties.’”
Carly made a sound in the back of her throat and wrinkled her nose. “That makes me sick. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? ‘Blah’ because all the women looked alike? Nondescript brunettes with brown eyes?”
“And ‘boaties’ because they must be smuggling the drugs across the water.” Max flattened his hands on the table, the whites of his nails standing out against his dark, brown skin, his two thumbs touching. “That hints at something big. This Balducci character is small-time. He’s a cog in the wheel. We need to find the person spinning that wheel.”
“When Axel and I are on the hunt for Brandy and Rita today, we’ll check out the boat rentals at the pleasure dock. See if a Maddie Johnson has rented any boats recently.”
Axel said, “While we’re out there, if we have time, we’ll take a boat to Canada ourselves. I think the most common trip from Port Huron is across the St. Clair River to Point Edward. Might be a good idea to see what’s over there.”
“Anything else, Aria?” Alana stood beside her.
“That’s it.”
“We all know what to do. Aria, Carly, Max, decide how you’re going to bring in Balducci without making waves. Axel, Selena, find those young women so we don’t have another victim on our hands.” She tipped her head at the last slide, a picture of all three dead women. “Remember why we’re doing this.”
Chairs scraped and voices murmured as the meeting ended. Aria traipsed around to the other side of the table and pulled out the chair next to Rihanna. “Can I talk to you about something?”
“Absolutely. You’re the hero of the hour.” Rihanna pushed back from the table and crossed her legs, her knee-high boots squeaking as she swung one long leg over the other.
“Is there any way we can use rapid DNA for Danny and his uncle, Grayson Rhodes?” Aria held her breath.
Rihanna blinked her dark lashes. “We can’t request it for a standard DNA test.”
“If CPS can’t ask for quicker results, can they just use what they have? Grayson showed you his pictures of him and his sister with Danny, right? He described the toys attached to Danny’s car seat because he bought them for him. Isn’t that enough to prove he’s family?”
“I don’t doubt he is, Aria, and neither does CPS, but there’s protocol to follow.” She tilted her head, wrapping one of her curls around her finger. “He really got to you, didn’t he?”
Rihanna had no idea.
“It’s just that I want to do something for him after he did all this for us. He brought us Tony Balducci. Even with Balducci’s DNA from the crime scenes, we wouldn’t have been able to ID him because he wasn’t in the Combined DNA Index System. We’d still be flailing around if Grayson hadn’t stalked Balducci at the bar and eavesdropped on his conversation—at great danger to himself, I might add.” Aria flushed as her final words rang out, louder than she’d planned, turning a few heads.
“I’ll tell you what.” Rihanna patted Aria’s hand. “I’ll talk to CPS and see if Grayson can visit Danny with the foster family. The evidence he showed us is compelling enough that we all believe he’s Danny’s uncle. Danny even has those same impossibly blue eyes...but then, you probably know all about those eyes, don’t you?”
Aria’s mouth gaped open until Rihanna cracked a smile and said, “I don’t blame you, sister.”
“Thanks, Rihanna.”
Max pounded his fist on the table. “Everyone out, except Carly, Aria and me. We got a bad guy to take down.”
Aria scooted closer to the table, folding her hands to make up for her previous outburst. She shouldn’t be getting so personally involved in her first case, should she? But Grayson deserved a break.
“I verified Balducci’s working today. We can pick him up at lunch, but we don’t want to alarm his coworkers—just in case any of them are involved. Carly, you approach him first.” Max held up his hands. “Sorry, ladies, Balducci is the type of guy who’s not going to expect a female cop coming at him. He’ll probably feel more comfortable with one of you.”
“A lot of the guys bring their lunches and eat at some tables on the dock when it’s not raining or snowing. Even Carly can’t go marching in there without arousing some suspicion.” Aria tapped on her laptop as she entered notes. “There is a lunch truck that comes in, but there’s no guarantee Balducci will get his lunch there.”
“We have to make sure he does. You have a connection at the docks—use him.” Max raised his brows at Aria.
“I—I could ask Grayson if he can get Balducci out to the food truck.” Aria sucked in her bottom lip. Were they exploiting Grayson’s hunger to nail Chloe’s killer?
Carly tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “That would work. I can approach him there and tell him we have a few questions, get him away from the truck, and go in for the arrest.”
“I hope his DNA comes back as a match, because we can’t hold him based on an overheard conversation and, once he’s out—” Max flicked his fingers “—he’ll be gone like a cool breeze off the lake.”
They discussed their plan for another thirty minutes and then Max leveled a finger at Aria. “Can you make that call now?”
“Grayson really does work when he’s there, so it’s better if I text him.” Aria pulled out her phone and sent a text to Grayson asking him to try to get Tony out to the food truck at lunch. She had faith he could get the job done.
Carly rose first. “I think it’s a good idea if we stick around the station. I’m going to get something to drink and work on those drug reports. Anyone want anything?”
Max held up his phone. “My ex-wife’s been trying to reach me about our son. I’m going to step out and call her.”
“I’m fine, Carly. I’m going to nurse this lukewarm coffee Max brought me earlier and do some work in here, if nobody minds.”
“I think it’s ours for the time being.” Carly held the door open for Max, and they both slipped out of the war room.
Aria continued with her notes, taking surreptitious glances at her phone. She and Grayson hadn’t spoken much after that kiss last night.
After Axel’s call, she’d told Grayson about the DNA matches at the crime scenes, but they’d avoided the elephant in the room...and had avoided any additional contact with each other. He’d acted as if she’d had a repellent bubble around her, keeping him a good five feet out of her aura—and that’s the only way she could’ve operated around him.
He’d apologized again when he’d walked her out to her car in the seedy motel’s parking lot, as if he’d pounced on her in a moment of weakness when she’d been a willing participant the whole way.
Something Max had said stuck in her throat. He’d called Grayson a contact and had advised Aria to use him. Would Grayson feel that way when he received her text asking for his help? Would he think that’s why she’d allowed the kiss last night?
Carly had pulled out the chair across from Aria before she even realized she’d returned to the room. “You snuck in here like a cat.”
“No, I didn’t. You were just concentrating so hard on your work, you didn’t hear me.” Carly planted one elbow on the table and cupped her chin with the palm. “You know, I have to tell you, we’re all really impressed with you. You’re a great asset and you fit in like you’ve been on the team for years. Alana is so good at spotting people and recognizing just who we need.”
“Thanks. I have to admit you all intimidated me that first day. All so accomplished.” Aria picked up her phone. “Text from Grayson Rhodes.”
He’d texted just three little words. Count on me.
She didn’t need any more than that from him. She knew she could.
“Good news?” Carly peered at her over the rim of her soda can. “That smile makes you look like the cat who swallowed the canary, or the cream, or whatever.”
