Chapter 19
19
“How was your date the other night?” Brad asked casually as the detectives settled at their desks.
Mark grinned, leaning back in his chair, memories of the evening flashing vividly in his mind. He glanced up to find not just Brad but Sam, Aaron, Elizabeth Perez, and John Sullivan, all watching him curiously. Letting out a long breath, he shook his head. Typically, he wasn’t one to share details about his personal life, especially not in the squad room, but these people weren’t just his colleagues—they were friends. And after years of having no social life to speak of, he supposed they deserved to hear something.
“Karen and I had dinner at my place,” he finally answered, the words coming out a bit more guarded than he’d intended.
“A home-cooked meal? Nice!”
“Benji and my dad were gone, so we had some alone time.”
Sam blinked as his head jerked back. “How did you get so lucky? Our Eddie and Hope are never on the same schedule, so we still get a babysitter if we want to go out. But an evening at home? Sounds like heaven.”
Mark smiled, his thoughts drifting back to that night. The warm glow of her in his kitchen, the way they’d laughed and shared stories over dinner, the quiet intimacy that settled between them afterward. “Yeah, it worked out,” he said, his voice softening. “Being alone gave us time for just ourselves.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he’d said too much. His eyes flicked around the room, meeting the gazes of his colleagues, and suddenly, he felt exposed. “Okay, that stays here,” he added, sitting up a little straighter. “I’m not one to talk about someone I’m interested in like that. I don’t want to disrespect her.”
Brad raised his hands in mock surrender, his eyes wide. “Whoa, Mark, relax. We get it. No one’s thinking anything but good things about you and Karen.”
Aaron nodded in agreement. “Yeah, man. You’ve met a great woman, and we’re happy for you. That’s all.”
Mark glanced around the room, seeing the understanding in their faces, and his shoulders finally relaxed. He let out a breath, his tension easing. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to snap. I just… want to make sure everyone knows I care about her. Karen and I, we’re exclusive now, and I want to see where this goes.”
“Good for you,” John said with a nod of approval. As a cousin to the sheriff of Accawmacke County, John’s quiet words carried weight in the room.
Elizabeth and Sheila, another detective, smiled warmly at Mark, offering their silent support, and he gave them a quick chin lift in appreciation. But even as he returned his focus to the theft cases in front of him, his mind wasn’t on work. It kept drifting back to that Saturday night.
He could still see Karen after they’d had sex—her hair tousled, her smile lazy and soft, and how her body felt next to his. And their goodbye kiss… a kiss that was impossible to stop. It had stirred something profound inside him that still simmered in his veins. We go to her house. I’ll bring more condoms . However, she had promised to keep some at her place just in case.
A wider smile crept across his face as the memory of her teasing promise returned. He was thrilled they’d get another chance to be alone again this next weekend, but the thought of planning an overnight somewhere—just the two of them—was already taking root in his mind. Maybe if she could arrange for someone to watch the girls, it could happen sooner than he thought. The idea filled him with a quiet anticipation, one he couldn’t shake as he tried and failed to concentrate on his work.
Brad looked over their desks and lifted his brow.
“What?” Mark asked, narrowing his eyes.
Brad chuckled and shook his head. “Nothin’, man. Just nice to see you smile?—”
“Stowe. Robbins,” dispatch called over the radio. “Get ready to roll out.”
Mark scrubbed his hand over his face as they pulled into the driveway of an older house along a narrow lane. The worn planks on the side were weather-beaten, and a few shutters hung slightly off-center.
“I’m getting fucking tired of this shit,” Brad said, looking out the windshield. “This is not the typical house that someone would consider breaking into. And what the preliminary report said, how the hell did the thieves know they would get cash here?”
“That’s why I keep trying to figure out the randomness of these break-ins,” Mark grumbled.
Once knocking on the metal frame of the screen door, the inner door opened, and they were greeted by a gray-haired man who appeared to be in his sixties. His expression was etched with a scowl even as he invited the detectives inside. “Come on in. I’m Walter Carter. Let me see to my wife.” He turned away from them and faced a woman standing next to the kitchen counter.
Once they entered, Mark immediately noticed the older, worn furniture. The exception was a recliner sitting in the corner that appeared new. His wife walked into the room on unsteady legs, and her husband moved to help ease her into the chair. “You know the doctor said you should use your walker, Caroline,” he admonished gently.
She snorted and shook her head. “I’m not going to start using something as a crutch. Maybe when we go out, I will, but not now,” she replied stubbornly. As she looked up at the detectives, her scowl matched her husband's. “Honest to God, Detectives. We don’t hurt nobody. We help people when we can, and now somebody comes in here and robs us! Tell me how that makes sense!”
Mark and Brad quickly discovered that the Carters had driven across the bay for a doctor's appointment earlier that morning. “I had back surgery over two months ago,” Mrs. Carter said. “This was one of my regular scheduled doctor visits to see the surgeon.”
Mr. Carter shook his head and said, “Just the dumbest luck that somebody breaks in while we’re not here.” He looked at the detectives and said, “We don’t go many places, so how the hell somebody took a wild guess that we wouldn’t be home, I don’t know!”
“Don’t be daft!” Mrs. Carter bit out. “Somebody knew we were gone.”
Prescription drugs had been taken, and like the previous break-ins, forensics found evidence of a broken back door. There were not many pills in the narcotics bottle she had, and she admitted she had only taken a few when she’d first come home. “Don’t like the way they make me feel,” she said.
“Ma’am, who knew that you had a doctor's appointment today? Neighbors? Relatives?”
“Are you implying that my good neighbors or my relatives came in here and robbed us?” Her voice was filled with righteous indignation.
“No, ma’am, not at all. But a simple word mentioned somewhere—a church group getting prayer requests about someone’s surgery… a neighbor bringing food… There are ways that someone might find out when the house will be empty.”
Mr. and Mrs. Carter looked at each other before he admitted, “My sister goes to the Baptist Church down the road, and Caroline has been on their prayer list, so it’s certainly not a secret that she had surgery and therapy and doctor's appointments. Hell, the visiting nurse and therapists from the county know. And we have a neighbor who brought food the other day.”
At the mention of a visiting nurse, Mark's head snapped up from where he’d been staring at his notes. “Visiting nurse?”
“Yeah. She comes by and helps coordinate all the therapy and doctor appointments. Um… Karen something.”
“Drummond,” his wife provided. “Karen Drummond.”
A slither of nerves moved along his spine when he heard Karen’s name coming from a victim’s lips. Not bad… but uncomfortable, like a wool sweater that made the wearer itch.
Brad looked down and checked his notes. “So, the only things you’re missing are the prescription pills and cash that you kept in your nightstand?”
“Yes, our prescription pills are kept on the kitchen counter so we can remember to take them when we get up in the mornings. I don’t like to go to the bank too often, so I usually withdraw some cash once every couple of months in case I need some. I don’t like carrying it in my wallet, so I have it in my nightstand drawer. Can’t imagine how somebody went straight to it but guess maybe that’s a common place for people to keep things.”
As Brad continued asking questions, Mark began thinking about past cases, but he locked down any more uncomfortable thoughts until he got back to the station and looked at the other files.
Once back in the station, he sat at his desk, pulled up the files, and started to review the information.
Before he had much time to peruse the information, Colt called a meeting. He, Brad, Aaron, and Sam met with Pete and Jeremy, two of the members of the drug task force in the county. “I wanted to call this meeting and include Pete and Jeremy because it seems like in almost every case of break-ins, one of the common themes had to do with prescription drugs. I wanted to get their input.”
Pete offered a shrug, then shook his head. “It’s hard to say what might be going on. Certainly, prescription drugs have been taken from almost every one of these break-ins, but the amounts of drugs taken would not constitute a way for anyone to make much money just from those.”
“Do you think the prescription pills taken are just ancillary? And perhaps it’s the other items in the home that are first and foremost what the thieves are after? Cash. Cards. The gun,” Mark asked.
“Again, it’s hard to say,” said Jeremy. “Several years ago, we had a ring of teenagers that were being used to steal drugs.”
Colt growled. “Fucking hell, don’t remind me. Carrie’s, and now my son, was involved in that.” He looked over at the newer members of the staff and quickly added, “He wasn’t involved in any of the thefts but stumbled on the ring and tried to find out what was going on.”
Pete, who was around at the time, said, “Hell, your son almost single-handedly busted up the drug ring, giving us the evidence we needed.”
“Are you sure we can’t talk him into helping us now?” Brad asked.
Colt snorted. “If he decides to go into law enforcement, I’ll be proud. But I have to tell you, part of me wishes he would take a much safer job.”
“I hear you,” Sam said. “Sometimes I think I want my kids to do anything other than law enforcement.”
After bouncing around a few more ideas, Pete and Jeremy left, leaving the other detectives still sitting at the table.
“I want to go back over the cases,” Mark said. “I know finding a common denominator has been difficult, but I want to make sure we haven’t missed anything.”
“Sounds good. Keep me informed on anything you discover,” Colt said.
Aaron and Sam headed out of the station to investigate another case while he and Brad returned to their desks. Brad was staring at him, and Mark knew his partner was hoping for a clue as to what he was thinking. But for now, he just wanted to review the information, allowing his thoughts to settle.
After an hour of staring at the victims' interviews, he leaned back, cracked his neck, and sighed heavily. Looking across the double desks, he found Brad’s gaze pinned on him. Not wasting any more time, he said, “There is one thing that is starting to stand out, and now that I’m looking for it, it seems strange that I hadn’t noticed it before.”
Brad leaned forward and placed his forearms on his desk, his gaze not leaving Mark’s face. “Okay, give it to me.”
“We were looking for similarities, such as neighborhoods, size of houses, day or night, ease of getting in for the breaking and entering, and even what was taken and what was known to be in each person’s house. Because there were no similarities that matched them all, we began to wonder if it was simply random. But we both know it’s not random.”
“Right. So, tell me what you’re thinking.”
“In every single case, someone had had a medical issue. One victim was at outpatient physical therapy. Another victim was visiting his wife in the hospital. Another victim had recently had a stroke and was now out of the hospital and rehab. Another victim had recently had a hip replacement. Another victim had had a knee replacement. Another had a teenager who had broken his leg and was on crutches. And the list goes on. But every single one had a medical issue or had a family member with a medical problem.”
Brad nodded slowly. “Okay. But they would’ve had different doctors, different pharmacies, different times that they would’ve been going in and out of their house.”
“Home health,” Mark said, feeling the words like a bitter taste on his tongue.
Brad cocked his head to the side. “Isn’t that what Karen does?”
“Yes.”
Brad held his gaze, and then suddenly, his chin jerked back. “You can’t possibly think she?—”
“No, no, I don’t! But I can’t come up with another scrap of similarity in these cases.”
Brad heaved a sigh. “Why don’t we divide them up and give everyone a call? Let’s ask each one if they were involved in the Eastern Shore Home Health Services.”
Mark nodded, both hoping they would find what they were looking for and terrified at the same time.
By the end of the day, Mark felt his jaw nearly crack as anxiety skittered along his nerves. “Everyone on my list is involved with the ES Home Health services.”
“Same here.” Brad sighed. “We need to talk to them.”
Glancing at the clock, Mark knew the ESHH was closed for the day. “Tomorrow. We’ll go by tomorrow. At least to get an idea of how it all works.”
Brad rubbed his chin. “Look, I know you’re thinking about Karen, but…”
“If you’re wondering if I’m going to talk to her tonight about what’s going on, the answer is no. I’m aware that I need to separate my personal and professional life right now.”
Brad lifted his hands. “I don’t anticipate a problem, Mark. Just let us go talk to her tomorrow to see how things work. Then there’s no question of case interference if someone from her office is somehow involved.”
“You’re right.” Mark stood and grabbed the jacket off the back of his chair, just as Brad had done. They walked out of the station and said goodbye, but Mark sat in his SUV without starting the engine. He knew it would upset Karen if one of her staff were involved, but he couldn’t worry about her feelings while interviewing her. Now, to convince my heart.
That evening, he spent time with Benji and his dad after dinner. If Benji was curious why his dad was letting him stay up a little later on a school night, he didn’t question it. Mark even sat and watched the sports channel with his dad later than they usually did.
When his dad finally said, “These old bones are tired, Son. I’ll see you in the morning,” Mark remained in the living room. Richard walked to the hallway and turned to him with a curious look.
Before his dad could ask if anything was wrong, Mark said, “I think I’ll just keep watching until the game is over.”
His dad continued to stare. “You’ve been mighty quiet this evening. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Just a case at work that’s staying on my mind.”
Richard nodded. “I have faith in you, Son. I know you’ll get the answers you’re looking for.”
His dad headed to his room, and Mark sighed. The thought of walking into Karen’s office unannounced to question her about the burglaries without giving her a heads-up gnawed at him. Sure, I might get the answers I need, but at what cost? The idea of blindsiding her, of mixing his personal and professional lives in such a sudden way, left him feeling uneasy.
As the evening wore on, Mark finally climbed the stairs to his bedroom, his steps heavy with the weight of the decision he’d have to make. After a long, hot shower, he set out his clothes for the next day with a precision that belied the mess of thoughts swirling in his head.
Climbing into bed, he grabbed his phone, staring at Karen’s name on the screen. His thumb hovered over the call button, the familiar urge to hear her voice pulling at him. But he hesitated, torn. How could I call her, hear her laugh, talk to her like nothing was wrong when I knew what tomorrow would bring? It felt dishonest and wrong to pretend everything was normal when he and Brad were going to question her about her employees, her procedures—her life.
Letting out a sigh, Mark set the phone back on the nightstand, the faint glow of the screen fading as he turned off the light. The room was instantly swallowed by darkness, but the weight in his chest remained. He slid under the covers, seeking the comfort of his bed, but sleep refused to come.
His mind wouldn’t stop replaying the possible scenarios. How will Karen react when she sees me walk into her office, not as her boyfriend but as a detective? Will she feel betrayed? The uncertainty gnawed at him, leaving him tossing and turning and unable to find peace. Every time he closed his eyes, images of her confused, hurt expression flashed in his mind.
Fitful sleep was all he could manage, his dreams haunted by the thought of the delicate balance he was risking—his professional duty colliding with the woman who had become more than just someone he was seeing. She was someone he cared about, someone who, if things went well, could be a part of his future. And the thought of jeopardizing that left him restless, caught between two worlds he wasn’t sure could coexist.