Lovers & Monsters, page 4
“Hello? Earth to Gerri? Hey!”
Curt snapped his fingers directly in front of her face and she jumped, flashing a glare at her partner.
“What?”
“What’s with you?”
“Nothing. What were you saying?”
“I was just speculating about this shooting. But seriously… What’s on your mind partner?”
Gerri sighed. She and Curt had been partners for just over two years and in that time they’d become friends. Maybe not the kind of friend she would tell all of her secrets to, but if push came to shove she knew that Curt would have her back in just about any situation, and she would do the same for him. Still, she’d never mentioned her wild attraction to their boss to him, and she wasn’t about to now either.
“It’s nothing. Just guy stuff.”
“Guy stuff, huh?” Curt glanced over at her as he drove. “Is that dude from the bank that keeps asking you out still not taking no for an answer?”
Gerri grinned. “Nah, he’s harmless.”
“Hmm. Yeah well, if Mr. Harmless keeps it up you let me have a little chat with him. I’ll get him straightened out for you.”
“Gee. You’re all heart, Curt.”
“Don’t spread it around. I got a rep to protect.”
Gerri smiled and rolled her eyes. It was true, Curt liked to play the part of the hard ass, never letting anyone see his soft gooey insides. Especially not their fellow detectives. He liked the fact that he could intimidate the others with his reputation alone. Well, most of them anyway. He couldn’t intimidate Isaac Taylor, and Gerri knew that simple truth was at the heart of Curt’s animosity toward the guy. But she’d never say that to Curt’s face.
When they pulled up at the car wash and got a look at the scene, the phrase that sprang to Gerri’s mind was “war zone.” The entire parking lot was littered with multiple ambulances, coroner’s vehicles, and black and white cruisers. There were paramedics, uniformed officers, CSU technicians and members from the coroner’s offices everywhere she looked. Just outside the perimeter, a couple of news vehicles loomed and she spotted reporters setting up just outside the police tape.
And then there were the bodies.
“Officer Hugh Donnelly, detectives. I was first on the scene.”
Gerri nodded to Donnelly. She’d worked with him before and knew him to be a competent patrolman.
“What can you tell us?” she asked him.
“At least two shooters, three dead and several others wounded. A couple of them pretty seriously. All three dead bodies are inside the building.”
He led them inside the car wash where two of the three bodies lay in the waiting area, one behind the counter. After examining the scene, she and Curt split up and began questioning the eye witnesses.
“I had just left the waiting area when they came in wearing masks and started shooting. I ducked behind the vending machine in the hallway, praying they wouldn’t come down there.”
Gerri took notes and listened to the young man recount what he saw. “They? How many were there?”
“There were two of them.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes, completely sure. The man had an automatic rifle and the female was using some kind of pistol.”
Gerri looked up at him. “A man and a woman? I thought you said they were wearing masks.”
“They were. Like Halloween masks. But they called each other Bonnie and Clyde and their voices were definitely male and female.”
Gerri took note of that information, scribbling it down on her notepad.
“Detectives?”
She looked up to see Officer Donnelly motioning them over. She walked over to the register where Curt joined them.
“What you got, Donnelly?” Curt’s tone was clipped and all business.
“All the cash is still in the register.”
He showed them the open register that still held a full compartment of cash.
“Huh. Now why come inside and shoot the place up only to leave all the cash behind in the register?” Curt looked over at her.
Gerri met his gaze. “Because this wasn’t a robbery gone wrong. It was something more personal.” She looked at Officer Donnelly again. “Do we know who owns the car wash?”
Donnelly consulted his notes. “Yes. Business is owned by George and Helen Aires. They’ve been here in this location almost twenty-five years. Both have been identified as two of the three dead bodies.”
“Who’s the third?” Gerri asked.
Donnelly looked at his notes again. “License found on him lists him as David Stewart. Shirt he’s wearing indicates he works here.”
Curt looked at Gerri. “I’ll pick apart the deceased’s lives, you run their financials?”
Gerri nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Back at the station an hour later, Gerri looked up from her computer. “I haven’t found anything unusual on David Stewart. But three months ago, George and Helen Aires withdrew one hundred large from their joint savings account. But I don’t see any trace of that money anywhere. No large purchases, no vacations. It’s like it just vanished.”
She looked at Curt, who’s eyes narrowed as he listened. “A hundred thousand dollars doesn’t just disappear.”
“Nope.”
“Here’s a hunch. Check the financials on a Jacob Dearborn.”
Gerri jotted the name down on her notepad. “Okay. Who’s Jacob Dearborn?”
“The Aires have a fourteen-year-old daughter named Amanda. And Amanda has a twenty-year-old boyfriend that her parents had charged with statutory rape six months ago. But they ended up dropping the charges for some reason.”
Gerri’s fingers flew across her keyboard and she shook her head.
“If they paid this kid off to leave their daughter alone he didn’t deposit the cash. There’s no record of it in his meager bank account.”
“Either way, I think we need to speak to lover boy.”
“Agreed.”
5
Isaac had no choice but to set the box down on the floor while he unlocked the door. But when he turned the knob the door’s forward movement was abruptly stopped by the chain.
“Hey, Sid, it’s me. Open up.”
“Sorry! Sorry, sorry.”
The door gently closed again, and Isaac bent to pick up the pizza box at his feet. When the door swung open her smile greeted him with a mixture of apology and relief.
“I’m sorry. I locked the door when you left this afternoon and I forgot the chain was on.”
“No, don’t apologize. If the chain makes you feel safer then, by all means, use it.”
He set the pizza box down on the counter, along with the four plastic bags of groceries he held in his other hand.
“How was your day?” Sidney asked, locking the door once more. She followed him into the kitchen area and began unpacking one of the bags, pulling out a loaf of bread and a carton of eggs.
“Not too bad.” He grinned at her and pulled out a gallon of milk, a box of cereal, a package of bacon, and other items. As he was putting the milk in the fridge he stopped and looked around.
“Did you clean up in here?”
The answer to the question was glaringly obvious. Even the inside of his near empty fridge was sparkling.
“Oh. Yeah I did.” She sighed and looked around. “Not that your place was filthy or anything. It’s just that I needed something to help keep my mind off of my troubles. Is that okay?”
“Are you kidding me? It looks great in here.” He glanced around again. “Well, you know? As great as this sorry place can look, that is.”
His gaze darted to her and he resumed putting things away.
“But you know, you didn’t have to do that, Sidney. I don’t expect you to work for room and board.”
“It’s no big deal. It helped pass the time.”
Isaac could feel her sadness, and he wanted to reach out and touch her face. But he didn’t want to presume anything.
Yes, they had spent the previous night in each other’s arms back when they were holed up in that motel room. Discovering he could touch her without fear of pain, and making love to her… That was something he knew he would never forget as long as he lived. But he also couldn’t forget that this morning when they had been on their way to round two, she had put on the serious brakes.
He forced himself to push away thoughts of their intimate dalliance. This wasn’t the time.
“I’m sorry. You’re probably going stir crazy, aren’t you?”
Sidney handed him a box of pancake mix.
“It’s been a weird few weeks for me, that’s for sure. Oh, what am I saying? It’s been a weird year and a half. Going into hiding from my abusive husband. Witnessing that shooting a few weeks ago. And then my car exploding! Forced into police protective custody and nearly being killed — more than a few times — by a crazed drug lord. And now Damien has finally caught up to me. It’s like my life is cursed!”
She ran a slightly shaking hand over her forehead and then clasped her hands together on the counter.
“I can’t believe he’s found me after everything I did to cover my tracks. If it wasn’t so pathetic it would be hilarious.”
Isaac couldn’t stand it anymore. He reached out and ran the back of a single finger down her soft brown cheek.
“I’m so sorry you’re going through all this, Sidney. But I am going to do everything in my power to shield you from your psycho, wife-beating husband. I promise you that, okay?”
Sidney flashed him a sad smile.
“You’re very sweet, Isaac. But I can’t stay here at your apartment forever. Have you heard anything from the Rocky River Police?”
Isaac grabbed a box of crackers and put it away in the cabinet with a sigh.
“I was actually ordered by my Lieutenant to stay out of their hair.”
“Oh.” Sidney’s whole face fell with that knowledge.
“Hey.” Isaac reached out and placed a finger at her chin, gently lifting her gaze back to his. “Just between you and me? I did manage to put in a call to the detective we spoke with this morning when we reported the harassment and the note you got.”
“You did?”
“I did. Apparently they reached out to the LAPD and asked to speak with anyone familiar with Damien Jarvis. Now, the good thing is, thanks to the incident a year and a half ago that put you in the hospital and him in jail for three months, Damien is already in their system out there. So they had no trouble looking up that old file. They connected Detective Hall at Rocky River to the arresting officer back in LA.”
“And?” Sidney nodded, seeming to hang on his every word.
“And, unbeknownst to you, I guess Damien had actually been arrested for domestic violence before.”
Her eyes grew wide. “He had?”
“Yep. An old girlfriend out there used to make frequent calls.”
“Well, what happened to her? They broke up and he just left her alone?”
Isaac shrugged a shoulder. “Well, that’s all I really know about that situation. Detective Hall said he asked the arresting officer to look into Damien’s whereabouts.”
“To see if he has an alibi for the time that all the weird things were happening here at my place?” she asked.
“More like to see if he had the means and opportunity to facilitate the strange happenings here. See, the guys out there won’t actually engage Damien to ask if he’s been to Ohio recently. That would only run the risk of alerting Damien to your location. And on the off chance that your stalker isn’t him, we don’t want to do that.”
Sidney nodded, looking forlorn as that information settled in her brain. Then she looked up at him.
“Who else could it be if it’s not him, Ike? No one else would send me a note saying they had found me.”
Isaac sighed. “I know. We will get him, Sidney. I promise.”
She nodded again, and he could see she was fighting back tears.
“Let’s talk about something else,” she said abruptly. “What are you working on? Any new cases?”
He admired the way she was trying to keep it together, and he smiled at her.
“Got a new case today actually.”
He gathered up the empty bags and put them in the cabinet under the sink for later reuse.
“Dead waitress in an alley. She’d been raped, beaten and strangled.”
“Oh, my God. That’s so awful.”
Isaac closed his eyes and shook his head, feeling stupid.
“I’m sorry, Sid. You probably don’t want the details. It was a pretty gruesome scene.”
“I can imagine. I don’t know how you do the job you do, Isaac.”
He blew a puff of air through his nose. “Neither do I sometimes.”
Groceries finally put away, Sidney gestured to the pizza box at the end of the counter.
“You brought dinner.”
Isaac grinned. “I did. And I wasn’t sure what you liked on your pizza so I just got a supreme. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sounds great.”
“But just in case you’re more of a veggie girl, I also got you a small side salad.”
Isaac handed her the small salad container and plastic fork, and Sidney smiled.
“That was very thoughtful. Thank you.”
“Soda?” he asked, opening up the fridge.
“Water, please.”
He handed her paper plates, napkins and their drinks, and then he grabbed the pizza box and led the way into the living room. He set the pizza on the coffee table and took a seat in the chair while Sidney settled on the floor in front of him, between the coffee table and the couch. He pulled his holster and gun off, and then he opened up the pizza box. As he did he noticed his old family photo album lying at the other end of the table.
“I see you’ve been looking at my old pictures.”
Her cheeks pinked up and she looked like a kid who’d been caught sneaking a cookie after bedtime.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t snooping or anything, but…”
“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind,” he grinned. “Although I am a little embarrassed you saw my sixth-grade haircut.”
They shared a laugh before diving into the pizza. Sidney took a bite, and he watched her gaze bounce over to the photo album again.
“Can I ask you a question about those pictures?”
“Sure,” Isaac said, still chewing.
“How come you look so unhappy in most of them?”
Isaac felt winded, as if he’d been sucker punched.
“I mean, you seemed like such a happy child in the earlier pics, but then all of a sudden all the pictures are just, I don’t know… they’re different somehow.”
Isaac cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. How could he explain?
“Well, you hit the nail on the head, Sidney. I was an unhappy kid,” he finally offered. His head shook slightly, and took a breath. “You gotta remember, the damn flashes began when I was eight years old. My whole world was forever different after that. Most of my family was either put off by me or just plain scared of me. Hell, I was scared of myself, you know?”
The words were delivered with a forced smile, but even he could hear the uneasy tone in his voice. Admitting he had been scared of himself back then was difficult.
“Afraid to touch anyone for fear of the pain it might cause. And the flashes themselves were unsettling, to say the least. I knew something was wrong with me and that my parents were embarrassed about it. I just wanted it all to stop. It was a confusing time.”
He looked down, picking at the small square of pizza in his hand before he popped it into his mouth.
“Were your parents really as embarrassed as you say, or was that just your child’s eye view interpretation of things?”
Isaac shook his head as he chewed. Then he swallowed his mouthful and said, “No. They were embarrassed. At least my dad was. My mom? Well, she was more afraid than anything else, I think.”
“Afraid of what?” Sidney popped another piece of pizza into her mouth.
Isaac shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know exactly. When it first started happening she said I had been given a gift because I could see these things. But the longer it went on she came to see it as something sinister. She wasn’t particularly religious at the start, but after a few incidents involving my gift, she was dragging the whole lot of us to church after church.”
He paused for a moment and thought back on that time.
“By the time I was 14 she’d had clergymen of every faith represented in our community to pray over me and the entire house.”
Sidney smiled. “You’re exaggerating.”
“I wish like hell I was. Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal. Lutheran, Jewish. Even Buddhist. Regular exorcisms happened every couple of years.”
His voice held nothing but candor. He had no qualms about being completely honest with her about his abilities and what he’d gone through back then.
“Oh, Isaac.” It was a whisper of sorrow. “That must have been…”
Her sentence dangled on the air between them and he knew she simply didn’t have the words.
“Terrifying?” he filled in, nodding his head. “Every bit as terrifying as the flashes themselves? Humiliating once the kids at school heard about it? Yeah, it was both of those things.”
He was silent for a few seconds, then he looked at her and grinned.
“Nothing like having a holy man screaming down fire and brimstone for the devil to come out of your body when you’re just ten years old and trying to understand what’s going on.”
Sidney’s hand went to her mouth, her eyes wide. “I can’t even imagine.”
“I thought I was bad.” His voice was small. Almost timid. “That the flashes meant I was evil. My dad said it wasn’t a gift, it was a curse so, I thought that meant maybe God had made me bad for some reason.”
He licked his lips and ran a hand over the stubble at his chin.
The whole room felt hushed, as though even the walls were listening.
“It took a long time for me to get that idea out of my head. And I spent one summer going to therapy because Dad insisted.”
