Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Her phone rang as she was sliding out of the booth. Baltimore PD flashed on her screen. “Kenna Banbury.”
Jax held out a hand, and she accepted his assistance getting to her feet.
“This is Lieutenant Parse. I work with Detective Langley.”
“How is he?” Kenna walked with her husband and their friends to the entrance of the restaurant, a haze of grease and smoke in the air.
“All patched up. It’ll be a long recovery, and he’ll ride a desk for a while, but he’ll be back to it soon enough. He says that’s because of you.”
“All I did was put pressure on it.”
“Sounds like enough to me,” Parse said. “So when Langley told me he scratched the guy who attacked him and to let you know we’re running the DNA on a rush, I figured you’d want to know that there’s another body.”
Kenna stopped before the door. “Someone else was killed?”
“All I know is the victim is older, and he’s in a motel. I’ll text you the address if you’re interested.”
“Why hand me a case?”
“Langley said you were asking about other deaths connected to the scene he took you to.”
“Are you the superior who ordered him to show us around?”
“We all have our jobs.” Parse paused. “Who I am doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme. What matters is getting guys like this off the street.”
“We agree about that.” And now she was pretty sure this lieutenant might be connected to Dominatus.
“Figure we agree about more than just that, but who has the time to find out?”
Kenna was tracking with him. She’d never been a cop, but there was still a camaraderie between people who solved crimes.
Except for the animosity between the police or feds and the private investigators they considered hacks, she figured they were still all on the same team.
If he’d looked her up, or just took his detective’s word for it, either way it got her the access she needed.
“The scene is secure?” she asked him. “You know I’m pregnant, right?”
“Cops all over, no sign of the killer. It’s secure, and they know you’re coming.”
That was a little presumptuous. She could go take that nap she’d been thinking about and send Ramon and Zeyla, but Kenna wanted a look at the scene herself, and it wouldn’t take long. “We’re on our way.”
“Sending the address now.”
“How long do you think to get the DNA results?”
“Who knows, but Langley said tell you first.”
Kenna said, “Tell him thanks.” She hung up and turned to Jax, Ramon, and Zeyla, explaining there was another death connected to the case.
“Field trip.” Zeyla pushed the door open and scanned outside for a second, like a bodyguard.
Ramon shook his head, following her out.
Kenna went out with Jax right behind her. “The lieutenant told me that Langley scratched the ghost when he was getting stabbed.”
Ramon glanced back at her right as he reached the sidewalk. “It’s what I’d do. Even if you’re gonna get murdered, you might as well make sure the cops can find out who did it. Except in my case, it would be you guys.”
The traffic noise swelled along with thoughts about losing any of them. All of it rushed at her in a way she hadn’t been expecting. “Maybe don’t get murdered, though. Yeah?”
Zeyla said, “It’s not on my bucket list.”
“Isn’t on mine, either.” Ramon lifted his hands, which opened the sides of his jacket so she got a look at the gun holstered on his hip. “So don’t worry about that, mama.”
Jax just shook his head. “Good to know no one is planning to get murdered.”
“I’m more worried about what we can’t plan for,” Kenna said. “But that’s why we pray. So we can cover the things we don’t have control over.”
Ramon looked like he might have something to say about that, but Zeyla pulled on the door handle of his car. “Let’s go.”
Kenna buckled her seatbelt. “The cops are putting a rush on the DNA test.”
“Great.” Jax started the car and pulled out. “If it gets a match to someone in the system and isn’t either falsified or squashed by someone who doesn’t want the assailant’s identity to get out.”
“I’m trying to live on the bright side, where there is truth—and time enough to take a nap.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Kenna shifted in the seat so she could look at him without tweaking her neck. “Are you really all right with everything that’s going on?”
“No way. Not at all.” He shook his head, his jaw tight. But he wasn’t angry. It looked more like frustration. “I’m not okay with murder, or bombings, or kidnappings, or us being involved with any of that.”
“Uh, you know what we do for a living, right?”
“You know what I liked? Solving crimes at the kitchen table, from Wyoming.”
Kenna smiled. “That was good. I mean, hands on and in person gives you so much more insight into what really happened, and nothing beats interrogating a suspect yourself. But watching the video and reading all the case notes? Why can’t we just solve crimes from home?”
“You wouldn’t get bored?”
“I don’t think that happens with work and a baby, and a crazy extended family. Ramon and Zeyla can do the legwork. If we need Amara, or Bruce, or Maizie, they can pitch in.”
“While we stay home?”
“Right now, that sounds amazing.” She closed her eyes.
“Because you get to take a nap?”
She chuckled. “It sounds…settled. In a way I haven’t been in a long time. More settled than even marrying you or knowing we’ll be a family of three in a few months.”
“I know what you mean.” He pulled onto the street. “Guess this is where the murder was.”
Two Baltimore Police patrol cars were parked on the side of the street, the officers standing at the hood of one car in conversation. A white van with FORENSICS on the side in big letters across the street indicated evidence collection was currently in process.
Ramon and Zeyla hung back while Kenna and Jax approached the officers and introduced themselves.
One of the officers nodded, set his travel mug on the hood of the car, and headed for the door. “The lieutenant said you were coming.”
She followed him up the front walk of the squat house with peeling stucco siding and the odd missing roof tile. The lawn had been maintained and wasn’t all weeds like the neighbors, which made it more impressive they’d managed to fight that battle and win. “The body has been taken away already?”
“Murder happened at least four days ago, maybe as much as a week. One of the neighbors saw the mail piling up and knocked on the door. Spotted him when they looked in the window.”
“Three notches in the floor and all the blood spilled?”
The officer held the door open. “Guess that’s why you’re here.”
Kenna stepped inside the house and smelled what hadn’t yet aired out. Of course, she didn’t have anything with her to put under her nose so she didn’t have to suffer her stomach roiling every time she got a whiff.
“Oh boy.” Jax made a face. “The victim kept the heat cranked. Either that, or the killer cranked it before he left.”
The forensic tech in the living room, crouched in one corner, wore a full Tyvek suit and face mask. Currently collecting evidence from beside the couch using tweezers and putting it in a small clear plastic container with a screw top lid.
“What was that?” The officer glanced between her and Jax.
“Turning up the heat messes with time of death.” Jax wandered down the hall to the panel on the wall. “It’s warm in here. Eighty-four.”
“Plenty of folks keep their homes warm.” The officer didn’t seem curious about the fact.
“Sure,” Kenna said. “But it also speeds up decomposition so it has to be considered as a factor. The killer could’ve turned up the heat when they left and made it look like this person was dead a lot longer than they really were.”
She glanced around the living room. There weren’t any photos or art on the walls, and only a couch and recliner. One remote. TV somewhere out of sight from where she stood.
Nothing personal whatsoever.
She turned back to the officer. “What can you tell us about the victim?”
“Older male, sixties we figure, but it’s hard to tell. Killed in the same manner as the other crime you’re investigating.”
“Just looking into. Not necessarily trying to solve.” Because they already knew who the perpetrator was. The next task was to catch up to him before he killed someone else and get him in police custody. After that, he’d be bound for an institution that knew how to deal with the criminally insane.
The officer frowned. “Anyhow, he was strung up and drained of blood. Left dead in the pool on the floor. No indications he’d been tortured apart from the kill itself. None of the neighbors saw anything.”
Jax said, “Any idea what the victim did for a living?”
She was wondering that as well. Whether the guy was employed by the Pentagon.
“No idea. The neighbors never spoke to him, never saw him wearing a uniform, or had any clue what he did. He’s lived here a few months, but that’s it. Pays cash to the landlord. Nothing personal in the house. All the mail is junk for the previous resident.”
“Do you have a photo of him?” Kenna asked. “I doubt I’ll know who he is, but I prefer to cross any possibilities off the list that I can.”
The officer went to the forensic tech and took the iPad the tech handed him. He swiped through the screens and showed her the crime scene images with the body.
Kenna took the iPad, looking first at the scene. “It matches the other death. Definitely the same killer, because there’s no way anyone knows enough to be a copycat.” She enlarged the man’s face with two fingers.
“Any idea who he is?”
Kenna didn’t want to lie. “I’ve seen him before, but I don’t know what his name is.” At least not his real one. “Or why he’s here. Or why, or who, might want to kill him.” She handed the iPad back. “Thank you for your time.”
“We’ll get out of your hair,” Jax said.
Kenna would’ve stayed a moment longer, but the look on his face indicated that wasn’t going to happen. She stepped outside first and spotted Ramon and Zeyla on guard at the end of the front walk, with Ramon chatting up the officer at the curb.
He spotted them coming and his body language immediately changed. He strode over and met them at the end of the walk. “What is it?”
Kenna said, “I was wondering the same thing about you.”
“Someone tripped the security system at the RV.” Jax put his arm out. She set off for the car, and he put his hand on the small of her back, then hit the button on his keys to start the engine. “Not getting old, is it?”
“You taking care of me?” Kenna stopped by the car. “Ask me again in ten years. Maybe it will have gotten old by then, but I highly doubt it.” She touched his cheeks. “I like it that you’re here to protect me.”
“It has fringe benefits.”
She laughed.
Jax smiled, but he looked distracted.
Kenna opened her door. “Who’s at the RV?”
“Female.” He scanned the street. “She’s sitting in one of our chairs out front.”
“I’ll call Maizie on the way. See if she accessed the information stored in those photos. We need a break in this case, or we’re going to keep spinning our wheels and getting nowhere.”