Chapter 5 #2
Caring for Jarek was a path that would lead nowhere. Somehow, she needed to keep an emotional distance between them.
Before she threw caution to the wind and did something she’d regret.
Jarek had to swallow the urge to pull Di into his arms for a kiss.
For one thing, she’d punch him in the face if he dared to make such a move.
For another, he had no idea why he found her so attractive.
Sure, she was beautiful, but she’d lied to him, had stolen evidence from a crime scene, and was more prickly than a porcupine.
Not to mention being a giant pain in the behind. Yet the way she’d jumped in to defend him was touching. He hadn’t expected that. He’d also been far too aware of her closeness as she’d dressed his wound.
“Look out, your favorite detective has arrived.” Di’s low warning had him turning to see Andrews come up the front porch and into the house. The guy’s expression was a mask of anger and annoyance, as if it was Jarek’s fault that he’d been dragged out of bed at this hour of the morning.
“What happened here?” Andrews demanded, glaring at Jarek. “You shot a man?”
“A gunman who broke into my home and fired at me first.” He nodded toward the stairs. “You’ll find the body of Brian Stewert, a.k.a. Stewey, on the landing.”
Andrews’s face reddened to the point Jarek feared he’d have a heart attack.
Wouldn’t that mess up his retirement plan?
The detective hitched his belt and lumbered up the stairs, which creaked alarmingly under his bulk.
He caught Di’s amused glance and had to look away to keep from laughing out loud.
A dead man lying in his upstairs hallway should not be funny.
Barely five seconds later, the detective returned. “I see he was armed when you shot him, which helps your case. I still need your weapon, Brooks.”
“I gave it to Tyler.” He nodded at the rookie officer. Tyler Parker was only six months through his rookie year. “I know the drill.”
Tyler had his service weapon in an evidence bag and picked it up so Andrews could see it.
“And why do you think this is related to the first dead guy?” Andrews demanded. He glanced at Di and added, “Other than the woman being here for both incidents.”
Di took a step forward, anger flashing in her eyes, but he shot her a warning look.
Getting Andrews riled up wasn’t helpful.
“We found a witness who claims Brian Stewert is a friend of Gilbert Levine. They shared an apartment together prior to Levine’s gun charge.
Shortly after that, Stewert was arrested for possession with intent to sell.
He did six months in jail before being released.
Now, they’ve both been involved in shooting incidents.
It’s logical to consider they were working together. ”
Andrews had looked annoyed at the information from their witness, a connection the detective might have discovered on his own if he’d bothered to work the case.
But the older man didn’t say anything. He simply turned and glared at the officers.
“Make sure we sweep this place for evidence. I want all the slugs and shell casings accounted for.” Then Andrews turned back to him.
“You’re on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. ”
“I understand.” Jarek tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
“Did you hear about the drive-by shooting last evening? Shots were fired from a beige Chevy nearly hitting us as we were passing by. It just so happens the vehicle listed on Gilbert Levine’s arrest was also a beige Chevy.
The plates don’t match, but we have reason to believe Gilbert’s buddy Stewey was using his car.
And that he likely swapped the plate out for a stolen one to avoid being caught.
I issued a BOLO for the older model Chevy with a plate starting with the letters PK. Has anyone found it yet?”
“I heard about the shooting and the BOLO.” Andrew’s tone was clipped. “Nothing has been reported so far. Anything else you care to share? Like why these guys want to blow you and your girlfriend away?”
Di took another step forward, her fingers curling into fists.
As much as he couldn’t blame her for wanting to slug the guy, that wouldn’t help their situation.
He frowned and shook his head, then glared at the detective.
“Knock it off, Andrews. She’s not my girlfriend; I told you we served together in Afghanistan.
She stayed here because, as you so succinctly pointed out, someone is determined to kill her.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any evidence to explain the motive behind these attempts against her. ”
“Against us,” Di corrected. “It’s clear that whoever is behind this knows Jarek is involved. Almost as if they have some sort of inside information.”
Her meaning wasn’t lost on Andrews, who grew even more red in the face. “What exactly are you accusing us of?”
“Nothing.” Her sweet, innocent tone didn’t fool anyone. “Just voicing my concern about how the gunman showed up here at a cop’s house in the middle of the night.”
She had a point, but Jarek didn’t for one minute believe anyone from inside the Newburgh police department was involved.
He flashed her another exasperated look, silently begging her to drop it, then turned back to Andrews.
Being the intermediary between the two was getting annoying. “Do you need anything else from me?”
Andrews continued glaring at Di for a long moment, as if he wanted to pursue the issue of an inside leak. Finally, he turned toward Jarek. “No. We can take it from here. I’ll ask the officers to canvass the neighborhood. Maybe they’ll learn something helpful.”
“Okay.” He strove for an amiable tone. “We’re going to find another place to stay since this is now a crime scene. I would appreciate it if you would ask one of the officers to board up the back door before leaving. If you need me, call my cell.”
“Yeah. Fine.” Andrews turned away without saying anything more. Jarek watched him go, wishing he had more confidence in the detective’s ability to get to the bottom of this.
But he didn’t. Which meant he and Di would need to continue working the case on their own. A surefire way to torpedo his promotion, but he couldn’t in good conscience walk away without trying to find out who was behind these attacks.
Pablo Hernandez? Or someone else?
“Do you have a backup piece?” Di asked in a low voice. “Because if not, I have a spare with me you can use.”
Somehow, he wasn’t surprised she carried a spare. He glanced at her duffel wondering what else she carried in there besides protein bars. Hand grenades? Tear gas? A knife for sure, but other weapons? He decided not to ask. “Yeah, I have one upstairs. I’ll grab it when I pack my bag.”
“Okay.” She crossed over to where she’d dropped her duffel. “While you do that, I’ll call Rex to ask him to find a place for us to stay.”
“We could try one of our police safe houses,” he suggested. “We have three located throughout the city.”
“Nah, I think we should let Rex arrange something for us.” When he frowned, she added, “I don’t really think Andrews is involved, but it can’t hurt for us to fly under the radar moving forward.”
“Okay.” He headed back upstairs to his room.
His spare weapon was in a lock box on the top shelf of his closet.
He grabbed the gun along with extra clips and tossed them into a duffel that was similar to Di’s.
After a stop in the bathroom for his toiletry kit, he stepped around Stewey and headed back downstairs.
He wished Stewey had survived. Questioning him would have been helpful. In his experience, guys like Stewey were eager to talk in exchange for a deal. Too bad, the guy wouldn’t be talking any longer.
Stewey was their only lead. Other than the disposable cell phone that couldn’t be used as evidence.
He joined Di outside on the front porch.
The earlier thunderstorm had moved on, leaving a damp freshness in the air.
Di leaned on the porch railing, staring out into the distance.
He paused beside her. “What do you think? Should we use my car or get a rental?”
She pushed away from the railing. “I think we should get a rental, but we’ll have to use your car in the meantime since they’re not open yet. We might want to stop and get breakfast. It’s going to take Rex some time to make the arrangements for a new place.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” He led the way to his vehicle in the driveway.
After tossing his duffel into the back, he held out a hand for hers.
Closing the hatch, he headed around to the driver’s side.
“I should have told you that it would be better for us to stay in a house, rather than an apartment. I know there are several apartments available on those home share sites and that they’re generally cheaper. ”
“Rex knows we need a house, not an apartment.” A wry smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “He’s on board with lowering the chance of innocent victims being hit if we happen to get found again.”
“Yeah.” He sat for a moment watching as the responding police officers split up to canvass the neighborhood.
Those neighbors who knew him would be happy to cooperate, but he doubted the officers would learn much.
His neighbors were likely asleep and had only awoken to the sound of gunfire.
By then, Stewey was dead. And if there was an accomplice, he had likely taken off at the first sound of trouble.
It went against the grain to drive away, leaving the legwork to others. Not that he’d be allowed to work a case where he’d shot and killed an intruder.
When had this gotten so complicated? Oh yeah, the minute he’d teamed up with Di Milbrath.
“Something wrong?” Di asked, when they hadn’t moved.
He turned to look at her. “For the record, I don’t believe any of my peers are involved in this. But you are right to question how Stewey found us.”
She shrugged. “I think it’s smarter to keep an open mind.
But yeah, I’ve already thought about that.
If Stewey was in the beige Chevy firing at us as they drove past, the only way he could have followed us was to bail from the car after the shooting, hiding nearby to watch us leave.
He wouldn’t be able to follow our car while on foot, but he may have gotten your license plate. ”
He frowned. “Or he cut through the yards to catch a glimpse of us driving past. We weren’t that far from my house.”
“Maybe.” He could tell by the layer of doubt in her tone that Di didn’t think that was a credible theory. “Either way, we still need to get a new ride. After breakfast,” she repeated, “I’m starved.”
“I could eat too.” He put the SUV into drive and headed out. He had to admire her ability to keep a healthy appetite despite the shooting. She must have had an amazing metabolism, which probably explained her packing protein bars.
There were only a handful of restaurants that opened early in the morning, and they were located down near the riverfront in the touristy part of town.
Not that Newburgh was much of a tourist attraction.
There were a few historic buildings but not many.
The mayor had improved the riverfront, the water cleaner now than it had been for decades.
Yet this town wasn’t nearly the hub of activity compared to the Broadway Street of New York City or the boardwalk of New Jersey.
Still, he liked it there. Maybe because it wasn’t as crowded as the big city. And he’d been able to climb the ladder here too. Well, if teaming up with Di didn’t ruin his chance of being promoted to detective.
“Hey, do you mind if we go through the park?” Di asked. “It looks like a nice place. I’ve lived here for the past five years but never took the time to visit.”
“Sure.” He glanced at her. “Five years? Since getting out of the army?”
“Yeah.” She grimaced. “I tried Chicago but didn’t like it. Plus, my sister and her kids live in Chelsea, and I wanted to be closer to her.”
“Why not stay in Chelsea?” he asked, genuinely curious.
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know, mostly because it’s a little pricey for me.
My sister’s husband is a banker. They live in a really nice house in an upscale neighborhood.
That’s just not my kind of thing.” She shrugged.
“Newburgh has the big-city feel without being overwhelming with the number of people living around me. I like it.”
“I agree. Despite its reputation for being high in crime, we’ve worked hard over the years to make it a safer place to live.” He was surprised she’d chosen Newburgh as her home. Interesting that they had that in common.
Oddly, he was beginning to realize they had more in common than he’d expected. Something he wouldn’t have believed prior to spending the past eighteen hours with her.
“Hey, is that the beige Chevy? It looks like someone backed it into the parking space over there.” Di’s excited comment had him turning to look out her passenger-side window.
Seeing a car sitting in the parking lot near the restrooms had him slamming on the brake, bringing his SUV to an abrupt stop.
Then he shifted the car into reverse, backing up so he could make the turn to get closer.
“No front plate,” Di said, as he pulled up alongside it. “It’s odd that they backed it in, almost as if they did that on purpose to hide the plate number. But it looks similar to the one we saw last evening.”
“It does.” He pushed open the car door and stepped out. He swept his gaze over the area but didn’t see anyone lurking nearby. Di had gotten out on her side and was already rounding the vehicle to see the rear plate.
“This is it! PK9762.” Di held his gaze. “Stewey or his partner must have left the car here.” Her eyes widened. “Is it possible they heard about the BOLO?”
Anything was possible, but he wasn’t going there. He peered into the windows, but of course, the sedan was empty. There wasn’t so much as a fast-food napkin left behind.
“It’s more likely the driver of the car dumped it here after hearing gunfire erupt at my house.” He lifted his phone and called dispatch to let them know they’d found the vehicle.
The biggest problem with stumbling across the abandoned Chevy in Downing Park was that it was one more dead end. Unless there was some sort of trace evidence left behind, they were no closer to figuring out who had teamed up with Stewey and Gil.
He was starting to think that whoever was behind this was working double-time to eliminate any possible witnesses or other evidence that might possibly lead back to him.