Missing: The Body of Evidence Read online

  Nancy hurried to her car, her temper vying with thoughts he could be right and all it would take would be for her to snap out of her mood, but her stubbornness won the day. Tyres crunched the gravel as she sped away. In the rear-view mirror, she saw Logan questioning John, but Kyle stood watching her all the way to the exit.

  ‘If I want to wallow in the trough, then I damn well will. Stuff Logan and the job... and stuff you, Kyle.’

  Nancy knew exactly where she was going; she just wished she could be sure that where her life was heading was as clear. She wondered if a man would be shedding the tear that rolled down her cheek at the indignity of what she had just heard.

  Her foot eased off the gas as she approached the address of Kelly’s attorney.

  Chapter 61

  With the receptionist busy, her eyes scanned the list of office numbers and name plaques on the wall. Room 201 was there, but with no name alongside. The line was ten deep at reception and she sat in the rest area of the foyer. Nancy picked up one of a neat fanned-out pile of advertising brochures from a low table display and flipped the pages. These were furnished-managed offices with no lease, just an easy in and easy out rental agreement, with an answering service thrown in.

  She made her way to reception and stood in line. A young girl with headphones had her back to reception and was busy answering the phone. Nancy thought it was quite clever how different names would pop up on the young woman’s screen for her to change hats answering the calls.

  ‘Yes, how can I help?’ A tall skinny blond asked.

  ‘Kurt Gerritson, room two-zero one.’

  The woman typed on her keyboard.

  ‘Sorry, he left on Friday.’

  ‘Do you have a forwarding address?’

  ‘Sorry, nothing listed. There’s just a contact number for messages.’

  Nancy flashed her badge.

  ‘Can you give me the number?’

  ‘Sure.’

  Nancy took down the number and thought it looked familiar.

  ‘How long did he rent the room?’

  ‘He took out the rental for the minimum one month. Still has two weeks to go, but he’s handed back the keys.’

  ‘Did he have many visitors?’

  She typed on her keyboard and looked at her computer screen.

  ‘Sorry, no visitors. We have only one phone call listed and a few off hours voice mail messages for him to return a call.’

  ‘And who was the call from?’

  ‘Detective Logan.’

  Her body tingled at the revelations.

  ‘How long do you save the information before deleting?’

  ‘We save it to archive and clear it out every three months, but we save the paper contracts.’

  ‘Well, just make sure you don’t delete early. We may need the information. Do you mind if I make a phone call.’

  ‘Anything to help the police.’

  Her answer caused Nancy to give a silent prayer that Logan and Kyle wouldn’t show up as they had done at the crematorium. Flashing a badge when suspended was bound to be illegal. The woman pushed a handset over to her and she dialled her attorney. Nancy gave him Kelly’s attorney’s name and asked him to check it out for her against the bar list.

  ‘Sorry, not listed in this state and I’ve never heard of him. Have you got the name right?’

  ‘Oh, I’ve got the name right. Talk to you later.’

  Nancy replaced the handset, thanked the woman and trudged out of the foyer deep in thought. Nancy stopped for a cup of water next to the exit and noticed that a guy stood at a machine.

  The guy reached his hand to take something from the machine.

  ‘Mind if I take a look’ Nancy asked.

  ‘Sure, here take this one, you never know when you may need our services.’

  She looked at the calling card and scoffed. ‘Good Times. Wedding Reception Planners.’

  ‘Damn, it’s that simple.’

  The card was not much different from Kelly’s attorney’s card, but with different wording. Cursing that she was on the wrong side of the demarcation line as far as colleagues were concerned, the idea that as a team they could be on the home run weighed heavily in her deliberations as she made her way to her car. Cast adrift and left alone, she knew she would struggle to make that last mile, as if she was running out of energy in a marathon. All it would take, she thought, was a stupid phone call to Logan, and with the resources of the department behind her, the truth surrounding the professor’s mysterious death could be in reach.

  If it sounds too good to be true, it’s usually false. The saying kept rolling around in her mind. The clairvoyant turning up before Kelly’s attorney and making her statement had thrown the wrench in the works as far as continuing the investigation was concerned. What with that, Mary having a similar description to the woman on the stairway sitting with David when Kelly moved out, and a tenuous connection to Astral, Nancy was sure Mary had to hold the key to open up the case. The witness hadn’t been able to recall an exact description of her, but Nancy was carrying a strong hunch that somehow the clairvoyant was complicit in the whole affair.

  Thoughts played inside her head as if to the accompaniment of someone tapping on a snare drum, clouding the issues. She despaired at not knowing if she could trust anyone with her suspicions. Logan, Kyle, Brogan; they would probably think she was just a neurotic-female-conspiracy theorist, clutching at anything and prepared to throw in red herrings to try to clear her name. As for Bill, she wasn’t even sure if he also was complicit in engineering her situation. Nancy thought back to the sun-grained photo hanging on her dad’s wall. Much as she didn’t like to accept it, her dad was the only wall she could bounce her thoughts against and hopefully come up with some answers, in spite of the malaise gumming up her thought process.

  The lack of a good sleep was starting to kick at her. With heavy eyelids, she knew she needed her wits about her to follow Mary. The journey to the crematorium and to Kelly’s office had been unforeseen, though useful, diversions. Mary would have to wait. With Logan reporting that the surveillance van had packed their tent and bugs and done a disappearing act, she couldn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t go and rest awhile at her apartment. Nancy stared at the business card, tore it into little pieces and, making sure no one was watching, tossed the fragments over her shoulder, only for the wind to blow them over her like confetti. Nancy shrugged her shoulders and wiped some of the fragments of the card from her shoulder, not sure if it was a good omen, or if it signified being showered with crap from a great height. She looked up toward the sky, half expecting a pigeon to finish off the way she felt.

  Nancy opened her car door and eased onto her seat. Taking out her notebook from her purse, she flicked from the days notes through to the telephone number taken from the professor’s business card and back to the off-hours number given her by the receptionist for the attorney’s messages. Her eyes rolled. The number was the same.

  Chapter 62

  Having driven around every cul-de-sac in the area, Nancy was satisfied there was no surveillance vehicle to worry about. Now, as she turned the key in her door, she was nursing the dread as to how the search team had left her apartment. Stuck to the door like some parking ticket was a note advising her that the lock had been changed and to collect the key from the police station. Nancy scoffed as she tore the note; her eyes rolled at what she already knew as she trudged along the hallway and into the living room, hoping the search team had left things as they had found them.

  Apart from the missing computer, everything was in its place. After a scan of the room, she heaved a sigh of relief that they had left things tidy. The picture of the cabin on the wall was slightly askew and she reached out to remove it. Sure enough, there was no listening device on the back of the frame.

  The painting evoked memories of her weekend at the cabin, ones that stabbed at her mind like a drill hammer. She moved briskly to the hallway and stowed the picture away in a closet. Returning to the
living room, her shoulders drooped. With closer inspection, she could see remnants of fingerprinting dust, first on the door handle, then on the light switch and the arms of the computer chair. She twitched her nose at the sight of her hands soiled with dust from the frame. Nancy flopped her backside onto the sofa and glanced at her watch.

  Dad was due any minute during his coffee break. His tone when she had phoned him on the payphone had been curt. A stickler for cleanliness, she knew he wouldn’t allow her any slack for the circumstances. At the age of thirty-six, she couldn’t get her head around the fact that she felt compelled to rush around with a damp cloth to make things presentable for him. Working her way methodically through the apartment with the cloth, she entered her bedroom.

  Her cheeks flushed at seeing all her lingerie drawers open as if she had been burgled. Starting at the bottom drawer, they had opened each one without closing them to save valuable time during the search.

  In Nancy's mind, what they had hoped to find in her thongs, defied credulity. She imagined they had held them up and had a good laugh at her expense, judging by their position. Nancy grabbed hold of her thong and hurried to the kitchen. Tapping her foot on the garbage can, she discarded it and winced at thought of colleagues fingering her underwear. Horrified that her sanctuary had been compromised, Nancy felt as though she would be better selling the apartment and moving to another state to start anew.

  The doorbell sounded and she headed to the door. Looking through the spy hole, she could see it was her dad. She almost fell as she opened the door and he brushed through the doorway, cussing as he ignored her and walked down the hallway.

  ‘That freakin ‘lanky-piece-a shit. Says maybe I planted the bugs.’

  ‘Slow down, do you mean Logan?’

  ‘Yeah, I mean Logan. Told me to butt out. The barefaced gall. What an ass.’ His crimson cheeks and contorted expression told her the call was recent. ‘Lanky bastard. I gave him both barrels.’

  She smiled inwardly, wishing she could have been privy to her dad tongue lashing him.

  ‘Sit down, I’ll make a coffee.’

  ‘Where’s your car?’

  ‘Impounded by forensics, same with my computer. The rental car is parked out back.’

  Nancy left him searching though his aluminium case and to stew in his anger. Waiting for the water to boil, his cussing drifted through her mind. She’d not heard him use the expression ‘Lanky’ before, but it seemed to hang in her mind. She called out.

  ‘Did Logan tell you that the gun that killed the janitor was mine?’

  He didn’t reply. Nancy poured out the coffees, when her dad poked his face around the door.

  ‘Your gun?’

  ‘Yeah, my gun.’

  ‘Holy shit.’

  ‘Yeah, I have an alibi, but he insinuated I could have arranged for the hit. Same with Dean; he reckons my alibi when I stayed at your place is either contrived, or I arranged for the hit.’

  ‘What a dick.’

  Returning to the sofa, they sat and Nancy relayed all the events since she had last seen her dad, but left out any mention of Bill bringing forward his statement to internal affairs, or the fact that he’d given her the Dictaphone with a tracker device.

  ‘Drop it. Contact your attorney and start negotiations to get out of the force. I can put a word in for you at my place.’

  ‘What, work with you? What you do is legal?’

  ‘There are a few gray areas, but we do those on a contracted out basis.’

  Thoughts of working with her dad made her stomach turn.

  ‘So, is the bit that’s not legal where you know Logan and Bill from?’

  ‘I wouldn’t trust either of them. They don’t know the meaning of loyalty.’

  He was obviously not going to elaborate. He jumped up off the sofa and began to pace around. Nancy took a deep breath.

  ‘I know you said not to mention his name, but if I don’t update you on Bill, you’re not getting the full story.’

  He jabbed a look at her and his eyes narrowed, leaving his brow heavily creased.

  ‘You mean he’s going to make his statement early to clear you. A little late in the day wouldn’t you say?’

  Nancy’s mouth froze open, at the thought that he had taken her words and spat them out first. How could he know that?

  ‘Who told you?’

  ‘Never mind who told me.’

  ‘I need to tell you about the Dictaphone with the GPS device?’

  ‘What device? Who?’

  Nancy spewed out the details of her meeting with Bill and him handing her the Dictaphone. A wry smile curled the edges of his lip to one side.

  ‘So the bastard turned you in at the motel? Are you sure he’s going to clear you?’

  ‘We don’t know that, like I told you, the receptionist may have recognized me. So, come on, I’m straight with you, so who told you about Bill making a statement to clear me?’

  ‘Logan.’

  ‘Why tell you he’s going to clear me, and not me or my attorney.’

  ‘Maybe they just want it all to go away. Or more to the point, they could be buying time for us both to back off. Like I said, I wouldn’t trust them.’

  ‘So where do you think Kyle fits into all this if it’s some kind of conspiracy?’

  ‘You know what they say… keep your enemies closer than your friends and all that. Maybe he went off script and got too close.’

  An ice-cold shudder passed through her at the thought that Kyle was part of a plot against her. ‘Went off script’ she thought, could be a possibility. She found it hard to accept his feelings hadn’t been genuine.

  ‘Are you saying they are all pissing in the same pot as the CIA with this Astral affair?’

  ‘Who knows? Maybe the two situations are separate; the professor’s death and a cartel at police HQ being on the take. I just can’t believe that…’

  He shook his head as if trying to change the subject in his mind.

  ‘Believe what?’

  ‘Nothing. Are you going to try and follow Mary later today?’

  ‘To be honest, I don’t know what to do. I need some sleep, a shower and a change of clothes before I do anything. But yeah, I’ve no other avenue open to me. So I’ll try and follow her tonight, or at the latest first thing in the morning.’

  ‘Whatever you do, just follow and report back.’

  He rummaged in his open case and handed her a pen.

  ‘Here, keep this with you. If you need to record a conversation just click the top. And thinking about it, switch off the Sat-Nav in the rental car. They can follow you with the GPS it uses. I need to get going, I think it’s time I paid someone a visit.’

  There wasn’t time to ask whom he would be visiting. He picked up his case and hurried out of the apartment without even a goodbye. Nancy just wished she knew who they were he spoke of, but one thing she was sure of, she hoped to flush them out through Mary.

  Chapter 63

  The sleep in her own bed, a shower and a change of clothes had worked wonders and recharged Nancy’s sapped energy. On the drive over to see Dean’s mom, there was no time to feel depressed. A sense of purpose surged through her spirit to have one last go at resolving the whole issue of the situation facing her, before any thoughts of acceding to others to sort out her future.

  Nancy pulled over at the sidewalk, climbed out of her car and walked to the white picket-fence gate. A porch light illuminated the garden, which was well tended with neat flowerbeds. The property’s appearance was at odds with the surrounding single story homes, most of which had overgrown front yards and paint peeling from the fascia boards. Nancy opened the gate, instinctively looking left and right, before walking up the gravel pathway, and stepped onto the veranda. In a room to the left, a soft light flickered behind the closed curtains.

  She bit her lip, not sure if this was the right move, but in her mind, the contract she had signed with the devil down at HQ was worthless. Nancy rolled her neck and had one
last look around. The house may have been on the fringes of South Central, but the area still came under the influence of the Piru Street gang. She rapped her knuckles gently on the door. Nothing stirred inside, and with her palms beginning to sweat, she gave the door a detective knock.

  In an instant light flooded from behind the door and out onto the veranda as the door opened. Nancy took a step back.

  ‘Nancy? Done nearly give me a heart attack with that knock. Step inside.’

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t think you heard me the first time. Sorry for your loss.’

  ‘Yeah, a waste of a life. Ya can sees him if yer likes? He’s in the parlour.’

  The woman didn’t wait for an answer. Dean’s mom turned and hobbled on her bad hip, made worse by carrying her three-hundred-pound frame. Nancy guessed that from the pain she had seen in the depth of her eyes that she was more weighed down by the passing of her son.

  ‘Brung him here to see if I can’t persuade the Lord to save him from the clutches of Satan,’ she said and opened the parlour-door.

  Amazing Grace played softly in the background. Two stout candles burned at either side of a coffin with the lid open. Nancy grasped Lilly’s arm as Lilly’s legs buckled and then she helped her to sit in her armchair.

  ‘Didn’t expect you to pay yer respects, after all he’s done to disrespect ya over the years. Detective Claymore came here askin’ questions. I told him all I knows, which wasn’t much. Gotta say, he looked a mess. He was having more trouble limping than I have trying to get around.’

  Kyle?

  Lilly continued. ‘The gangs are taking so many of our children. I’m guessing no one will ever pay for his death until judgment day.’

  Nancy glanced over at the coffin. The undertakers had done him proud. His death mask gave him a look of peace with a faint smile on his lips. The smile was almost impish, as if he was thinking I know a secret but I ain’t telling ya, just like the teenager that he had been.

  ‘Is there anything I can help with?’ Asked Nancy.