Kill Count (Detective Marcy Kendrick Book 4), page 18
“Perfect timing,” he replied, leaning down to kiss me before going to answer the door. He returned a few minutes later carrying two boxes that smelled heavenly. “Let me get us some sodas.” He put the boxes on the coffee table and then headed to my kitchen.
By the time he returned, I was sitting up and had made room for him next to me.
He set the drinks on the table next to the boxes and put the plates he’d also grabbed on his lap. “What kind do you want?” he asked, opening the first box. “Got a meat lovers with mushrooms and tomatoes added, and a four cheese.”
“Can I have one of each?”
He fixed my plate and then handed it to me.
Just as I was about to take my first bite, my phone sprang to life playing the song “Calling All Angels” by Train. I put the pizza back on the plate and picked up my phone. “Hey, Angel,” I answered.
“How are you feeling?”
“Beaten, battered, and bruised, you?”
“Same, but probably not as bad as you.”
I chuckled. “So did you hear from CSI? Did they find something?”
“Just like you suspected. They found a tracker under your back bumper.”
“Damn it.” I had really hoped I’d be wrong. “We’ll need to confront her.”
“Let’s play it by ear. Now that we know she may be compromised, let’s do some digging.”
That reminded me. “I’ve actually already got Stephen digging into her. You know I’ve thought there was something off about her for a while, so I had him start looking.”
“Excellent. Let’s wait and see what he finds. Maybe we can use that to force her to confess, and we can finally get somewhere real on this case.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I’ll check in with him tomorrow. I haven’t told him about the accident, just that we couldn’t make it over today with the hard drive. I didn’t want him to worry.”
“Okay. Do you need anything?” Angel asked.
“Other than a new car? Nope.” I sighed. “I really loved that car.”
“I know how you feel,” he replied, and I knew he was thinking back to the accident he’d had almost a year ago that had him on the injured list for a while.
“Yeah, I’m sure you do. I’ll have to get a rental, I guess.”
“I can pick you up tomorrow if you need me to,” he offered.
I glanced at Frank and then said, “I think I have it covered, but if I need you to, I’ll give you a call in the morning.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment but, eventually, said, “Okay, well, then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Angel.” I hung up and put my phone on the table.
“Everything okay?”
I nodded, glad my head wasn’t hurting too much when I did that anymore. “Yep. I was hoping you’d drop me at the station tomorrow morning on your way back to Santa Monica,” I said before picking up my pizza and taking a bite.
“Be happy to, babe. Though if I had my druthers, I’d keep you here tomorrow, and we’d both call in for a sick day.”
I laughed. “Your druthers, hmmm?”
He nodded. “Yep.” He grinned and picked up the TV remote, turning on the preshow to the baseball game. “You wanna watch, or are you tired? Do you want me to turn it off?”
“I’m fine, and no, don’t turn it off. I probably won’t watch all of it, but I’m happy to sit in here with you.” I leaned into him, and he wrapped his arm around me.
It was a good way to spend the evening, especially after the day I’d had.
The next morning, Frank drove me to the precinct and dropped me off with a kiss and a promise to see me later that night. He’d offered to pick me up from work, but I told him I was calling for a rental this morning. I couldn’t be without a car. He fussed over me driving with the sling, but seeing as it was my left arm that was immobile and not my right, I told him I’d be fine.
“Bad news,” Angel said, the moment he saw me.
My brow furrowed. “What now?”
“You know that hard drive we were taking to Stephen?”
“Yeah?”
“Tech screwed up. The files were all corrupted on it.”
“What? How do you know?” I set my purse down and sank into my chair.
“They made another copy, thinking we could try again, but this time decided to check the actual files. They were copy-protected. So they stole it for nothing.”
I pressed the spot between my eyes and then pinched the bridge of my nose. “So I lost my car and dislocated my shoulder for nothing.”
“Yeah, Howard’s very apologetic about that. He said the commander read them the riot act over not checking and just assuming it was all good.”
I sighed. “I guess it’s just as well. At least they won’t know exactly what we have on them.”
“True.” Angel nodded.
I glanced at the box of evidence sitting on his desk. “You know, considering what we now know regarding a certain detective, we should get this evidence locked up properly. I don’t want any of it to go missing.”
“Good point,” Angel agreed. “I’ll take it down to the evidence room.”
“Thanks, Angel.” I smiled as he stood and picked up the box. “I’m going to call my insurance and arrange for a rental, and then call Stephen so we can go see what he’s got on you-know-who.” I didn’t want to say her name and have someone overhear.
“Sounds like a plan.” He strode away with the box.
I picked up the phone and started making the necessary calls.
28
GETTING THE DIRT
MARCY
“Icould have driven,” Angel said, glancing at me with a frown. “And I could have picked you up this morning.”
“I know, and I appreciate it, but Frank drove me in.”
“Oh.” He turned and stared out the window.
“Angel, what is going on with you?” I sighed. “I feel like you’re angry with me because of Frank.”
“I’m not,” Angel immediately denied. “Mad at myself, not you and Frank. Look, we’ve already talked about this, but I’m still working on it. In my head, I know we’re partners and best friends and that’s all there can be, but sometimes I wish there were more.”
I glanced at him and realized we needed to have a real conversation, so I pulled into the parking lot of the gas station I was closest to and parked the car. I turned to him and really looked at him. “Angel, you know there can’t be, right?”
He nodded. “I do. That’s why I’m angry at myself. I start playing this ‘what-if’ game in my head, thinking up all the ways it could work, but all of them end with you or me quitting the force or transferring, and I don’t want that. Then I think about Callie, and I really like her. Might even love her, but I’m all twisted up about you, and I feel her pulling away, or maybe it’s me pushing her away, I don’t know.”
I sighed. “You have to get over this. You’re going to lose Callie if you don’t.”
“I know. And I don’t want that. How do you deal with this?” He waved his hand between us, bringing up the attraction we both knew was there between us.
“I acknowledge the fact you’re a very attractive man, and under other circumstances there might have been a chance for us to pursue something, but, Angel, those other circumstances aren’t going to happen. I’m not quitting my job, and I’m not transferring to another precinct. You’re not quitting yours either. We work really well together, and you’re my best friend. I don’t want to lose what we have for something that probably wouldn’t work out anyway. I’m a mess. I have a lot of trauma in my life, and it makes my personal life chaotic and complicated.”
“I know that. I understand that—” He broke off and sighed, then looked at me with sad eyes.
“But you can’t relate to it,” I said softly. “You’d want to fix me, or fix it for me. And when you finally realize you can’t, it would break you and then break us.”
“Can Frank?” he murmured.
“Frank’s different. Frank has had a similar trauma in his life. He knows how messy my life is and gets it because his is messy in the same kind of way. We’re broken in the same way, and he doesn’t try to fix me, and I don’t try to fix him. Now will my relationship with him last? I can’t say. But I want to try. I want it to work. However, if you’re going to get mad at me every time he’s around or I bring him up, eventually, I’ll break up with him because of you, and then I’ll end up resenting you, or I’ll have to distance myself from you and lose you as a friend anyway. I really don’t want to do that because you’re important to me, and I need you in my life.”
“I don’t want that either. Frank is a good guy. He’s a great detective, and I’ve seen how protective he is of you, but he lets you be you. You’re good together,” he admitted.
“So are we good?” I asked.
“Yeah. We’re good. I needed this conversation, I think. It helps to get rid of those what-if questions with real answers.” Angel smiled, but it was melancholy. “I think I am going to take Callie down to Mexico, to meet my family.”
“It will be good for you to spend some more time with her away from LA.”
“I think so too,” he agreed. “While we’re here, do you want anything?” He gestured to the gas station convenience store. “I’m gonna grab a soda.”
“Sure, bring me a Dr. Pepper.” I figured he needed a few minutes away from me to get his head sorted.
“Be right back.” He shoved the door open and got out.
While I waited, I sent Frank a text, just telling him that I was thinking about him and to have a good day. A moment later, he replied.
Thinking about you too, TT. I’ll see you tonight. Thought I’d pick up some steaks, and we could grill?
Sounds great. Be safe!
You too!
I put my phone away as Angel returned to the car with two fountain drinks. He handed me one and put on his seat belt. After taking a sip, I put it in the cup holder and then started the car. “Ready to go?”
“Yep. Let’s go get the dirt on Valerie.” He smiled.
I pulled out of the parking lot and headed for Stephen’s apartment.
As soon as we knocked on the door, Stephen yanked it open, took one look at me and pulled me into a hug.
“Ow.” I winced as he squeezed me. “Good to see you too, bro.”
“Are you okay? You didn’t tell me you were hurt and that was why you couldn’t be here yesterday.”
“I didn’t want you to worry. We were T-boned on our way here. I’m fine. Angel’s fine. The bad news is that the hard drive was stolen. The upside is it was a copy, and turns out the files were copy-protected and ended up being corrupted, so you wouldn’t have been able to access it anyway.”
“Do you still have the original?”
“At the station. And maybe if you want to come work with the tech department, you could break into it there, but they aren’t going to let it out of their hands for now.”
“Makes sense. I could come see what I can do that would be legal to get into them, but you know I tend to use alternative methods…” He let his words trail off as he closed the door behind us. “Speaking of alternative methods, I’ve got a slew of shit on Detective Burnett for you, but yeah, not exactly legal or useful in court.”
“That’s okay, I’m looking for leverage to get her to talk, not to jam her up in court if it’s not warranted.”
“Great, so let me show you.” He gestured toward the desk with the computer set up in the corner of the room. He sat down and started pulling up documents. “So these are her financials. I started with ten years ago and worked my way forward. As you can see, about six years ago, there was a minor drain on her account, that was a payment to the funeral home for her dad, then the burial costs. Good chunk of money. But then within the next year, there were medical bills coming in, and she began struggling. Had a bunch of overdrafts and the like.”
“That would be her mom’s cancer.”
“Right, but take a look at this.” He zoomed in and widened the screen on a deposit of thirty-five thousand dollars. “And then this one.” He moved to the next month in the document, and there was another direct deposit of thirty-five thousand. “And this goes on almost every month up until last month. She hasn’t gotten one this month yet.”
My jaw dropped. “All direct deposits? Where are they coming from?”
“Now that’s tricky. It’s from an off-shore account in the Cayman Islands. An import/export business. So I can’t say she’s not working for them, but it does seem highly suspicious, right?”
“Right. Do you have the name of the company?” I asked because something about it being import/export was ringing bells in my head, and I couldn’t say why.
“It’s G & G Imports/Exports. It looks like they mostly deal in art. It’s owned by the Gómez family and run by Alejandro Gómez.”
“Angel, why is that name familiar?” I questioned. I’d seen it or heard it somewhere, but I couldn’t place it.
“Remember the receptionist at Samson’s place? She mentioned Samson’s cousin who wanted to clean the place out and get it ready for sale. Didn’t she say his name was Gómez?”
“That’s it.” I snapped my fingers. “Did we ever follow up on that?”
“I did. When I spoke to Samson’s mother, she said Gómez is her nephew, and he was taking care of Samson’s things here for them. I left a message for the man at his business number about when he’d be able to get into the apartment, but he never called back.”
I found it odd that his name had come up again, but this time in regard to Valerie. “So if Valerie was accepting payments from this G & G Imports/Exports, then she had to know Samson, right?”
“Well, not necessarily. Just because Samson is the owner’s cousin doesn’t mean he had anything to do with the business,” Angel replied.
“Okay, maybe, but it’s a pretty big coincidence if she didn’t.”
“True. And we can use it to put pressure on her.” Angel grinned.
“So I also found that prior to her financial trouble, she was very much into the party scene. Not sure if that helps or not, but there’s all kinds of incriminating photos of her doing drugs and stuff.”
“Wow. Okay, can you make me a copy of everything?” I asked.
“Sure. Just give me a second, and remember, this can’t be used in any legal capacity, sis.”
“Yeah, I’m aware.” I shook my head at him.
“Here you go,” Stephen said, handing me a thumb drive.
“Thanks. Wanna grab lunch with us?” I asked as we headed for the door.
“Naw, not today. I’m meeting Yazmine later this afternoon, and I have some work to get done first.”
“Okay, we’ll have dinner soon, yeah?”
“Sounds good.” He hugged me. “Be safe.”
“Do my best.” I smiled, and Angel and I headed down the stairs to my rental car.
“So what now?” Angel asked, clicking his seat belt.
“Lunch and then we confront Valerie with what Stephen found.”
I was so done with this woman. I wanted answers, and I was going to get them, come hell or high water.
29
BREAKING VALERIE
MARCY
It was close to eleven now, so most places were open for lunch. I wanted to go somewhere I could sit down to eat and get my anger at Valerie tamped down before I confronted her. I needed her to talk, and my showing my anger probably wouldn’t do either of us any good.
“Astro Burger or Gina’s Pizzeria?” I asked with a glance at Angel.
“Let’s go to Astro Burger. I’m not in the mood for pizza.”
I continued driving and took the E. Third Street exit and then turned onto West Beverly Boulevard. Once I was parked, we headed into the restaurant, which had a retro vibe to it. We sat down in a booth, and I ordered the bacon avocado cheeseburger, while Angel had a steak sandwich.
“So what’s the plan?” Angel asked as we ate.
I finished chewing my bite of burger and took a drink of my soda. “I want to go see Lindsey and get the tracker Valerie put on my car before we confront her. I want to show her that I know what she did.”
“I wonder if her showing up at the hospital was her guilty conscience making her check on us,” Angel suggested.
“You’re probably right, and I think that’s going to be what eventually gets her to break.”
He took another bite and chewed, looking thoughtful. “I get that she was drowning in debt, but to accept this kind of bribe money… I don’t know how she’s lasted this long without being caught.”
I had my own thoughts about that, but I didn’t want to voice them right now. “I could never. I don’t care how deep in debt I am—I could never do what she’s done,” I murmured.
“Me either,” Angel agreed. “I’d rather get a second job, moonlighting as a security guard or something.”
“Same.” I shook my head. “I couldn’t compromise myself that way.”
“Still, maybe we shouldn’t judge.”
I arched a brow at him. “I can empathize with her situation, and I understand the temptation to do what she did, I’m not judging her exactly, but I know I wouldn’t make the same choices she has. And I think it’s wrong that she’s profited off the deaths of others. Not just Ruby and Samson and who knows who else, but also all those kids who’ve overdosed over the years because they became hooked on El Gato’s product when she could have busted him.” The more I thought about it, I realized I was actually judging her, and I was okay with it. “You know what? I think I am going to judge her. She doesn’t deserve to wear the badge, and I hope IA takes her down when we get her to confess.”
