Chapter Six #3
“Alf’s is worse,” Marshall said. “We’ll both be out for a few weeks. Desk duty when we come back. Just like you.”
Kit scowled. “Desk duty.”
“You’ll survive,” Ashton said. “At least you don’t need crutches.”
“At least you both can hold your own fork,” Marshall said mournfully. “He got my right arm. I can’t even play video games.”
“You’ll survive, too,” Ashton said.
Kit was again aware of how lucky they’d been. “We all will.”
“Thank the good Lord,” Marshall’s wife, Leslie, whispered.
“Amen,” Stacey Ashton said fervently.
“Did you see the guy who shot you?” Sam asked.
Both men shook their heads. “He was in that damn brown Ford sedan with the hood of his jacket pulled low over his face,” Marshall said.
“Also was wearing a surgical mask,” Ashton added. “We know now that he’s got gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. Hopefully that’ll slow the asshole down. I don’t like West, but I don’t want him hurt. And Lennox is just a baby. I don’t want her hurt, either.”
“She’s older than I was when I joined Homicide,” Kit said with a frown.
“You were old at fifteen,” Baz said, joining them with two plates of food. “Eat, Kit. Sam.”
Kit stared at the sandwich on her plate. “What are we gonna do, guys?”
“For now, we’re going to let West and Lennox work,” Marshall said. “West isn’t a great cop, but he is a cop.”
“Why them?” Kit asked. “Why did Navarro assign them? He’s got a dozen detectives. Connor is on disability, and now, so are we. But that leaves him six others besides West and Lennox. Why didn’t he give this case to one of them?”
Marshall sighed. “He moved Wren’s cold case to Seabrook and Paris.
He couldn’t give them Akiko’s case because they, along with Daniels and Kowalsky, are dealing with fallout from the dead man’s list,” he said, referring to Kit’s most recently closed homicide case.
“That only leaves Singh and Villareal to deal with all new homicides, and Singh’s wife is due any day now.
I don’t think Navarro wants to assign them anything big because Singh is taking paternity leave. ”
Kit felt ashamed. “I forgot that about Singh. Okay. So this case is big, but not the only one. I get it.”
“Doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be frustrated,” Baz said. “Navarro’s a good cop and a good leader, but he’s got to follow the rules. Whether he wants to or not.”
“And we broke the rules,” Kit said with a sigh.
“I think most of us would have done the same,” Ashton offered.
“And we knew you were going to do it,” Marshall said. “We could have tried to stop you. But you’re good at getting people to talk.”
“That’s mostly Sam,” Kit said. “People like him.”
Sam rubbed her back. “We’re a team.”
“Aw,” Stacey said.
“Gag,” Baz said.
Marshall laughed—then groaned. “Hurts to laugh.”
“So what are you going to do, Kit?” Ashton asked seriously.
Kit glanced at Sam, who was watching her with a tender expression that made her feel warm and scared all at once. “I told you that I’d have your back,” he said. “If Navarro fires me, I still have my practice and my work at New Horizons. If he fires you, that’s a bigger deal.”
“I know,” she said. “But I still have to do this. The big questions—beyond who killed Mary Sherman—are where she went in LA, did Leo have a role in her death, why was the stalker following Dahlia, and who is the guy with size thirteen shoes?”
“And who is the second shooter?” Baz added. “Although I bet you’re thinking the shoes are his.”
“Crossed my mind,” Kit said. “I wonder if his van was captured on any of the cameras in Mary’s neighborhood.”
“Who is Mary to Akiko?” Sam asked. “I know Akiko really wants to know that.”
“We got a DNA sample from her yesterday morning,” Marshall said.
Kit blinked. “I didn’t know that.”
Marshall nodded. “We went out to your parents’ house after we interviewed Glenda Baker. Got a swab and submitted it, then stopped for a coffee near the station. We’d planned to go interview the victim’s daughters next, but we got shot.”
Once again, Kit was touched. “Thank you for getting that swab. There’s some family connection. The resemblance between Mary and Akiko is too strong to be a coincidence.”
“Why now?” Stacey asked, then blushed. “Sorry. I know enough of the details to be dangerous.”
“It’s fine,” Kit said with a smile for Ashton’s wife. “Why now for which thing?”
“For her reaching out to your sister.”
“We wondered that, too. Mary lived in San Diego for at least twenty-four years. Knowing that Mary existed but didn’t reach out, not in all those years that Akiko was in foster care…If Mary was Akiko’s mother, why did she let her grow up with strangers?”
“She would have been fourteen when Akiko was born,” Sam said.
“If she was Akiko’s mother, maybe she didn’t have the resources to care for a baby.
Maybe her family would have kicked her out.
And then, later, maybe she thought that Leo would shun her if he knew.
From everything the Sherman aunts and the twins said, she was a loving woman who wouldn’t have abandoned Akiko to be cruel.
There had to have been a reason she left her in that box at the firehouse. ”
“All possible. I think that’s what I want to focus on now,” Kit said. “Who is Mary to Akiko and why did she come forward now? And if it leads me to the man with the size thirteen shoes, then so be it.”
Leslie was biting at her lip. She glanced at Marshall, who gave her a sad nod. “Go ahead,” he said gently. “We’re all friends. They’ll understand.”
“I…” Leslie exhaled. “I had a baby when I was a teenager and chose adoption. I was assaulted and the thought of raising the child of my rapist…”
“Oh,” Kit whispered.
“I’m not saying that that’s what happened with Mary Sherman—if she is Akiko’s mother,” Leslie hastened to say.
“But I knew I couldn’t raise a baby. And I felt it was in the baby’s best interest not to know that he was a child of rape.
But I’ve never forgotten him. I will always wonder if he’s okay.
If he’s had a good life. If I could find him now…
well, I’d watch over him. But, unless he wanted to know me, I wouldn’t try to contact him.
Unless he was in some kind of danger or risky situation.
Like if I found out that I had a genetic disease he needed to know about?
I’d make sure he knew, even if I didn’t have the courage to say, ‘Hey there, I’m your mother and I gave you away. ’ ”
“You didn’t give him away,” Marshall said. “You gave him an opportunity to have a better life. Not to grow up in that house you were forced to live in. You saved him from being abused, too.”
Oh, Kit thought sadly. Oh.
“You made a courageous choice, Leslie,” Sam said, his voice husky. “And that’s valuable insight into Akiko’s mother. Even if she wasn’t Mary, her mother probably did what she thought was best for Akiko at the time.”
“He’s right,” Kit said, reaching out to squeeze Leslie’s hand because the woman looked like she needed it.
Marshall’s look of gratitude made it worth any discomfort Kit might have felt at touching someone she didn’t know.
But it really wasn’t difficult at all. Leslie needed comfort and Kit was able to give it.
She might never be a touchy-feely person, but she could rise to the occasion.
“Whoever left Akiko in the box,” Kit added, “put a photo of her mother in there with her, and ‘Akiko’ was printed on a scrap of paper and pinned to her blanket.”
“It means ‘bright child,’ ” Stacey said. “Or ‘autumn child.’ I looked it up.”
“According to the firefighters who found her, she was a newborn, just a few days old. It was just a few days after the first day of fall,” Kit said, releasing Leslie’s hand.
“Were they good families?” Leslie asked, her voice tremulous. “Akiko’s foster families, I mean.”
“Most of them, yes,” Kit said, unwilling to gloss over the truth.
Leslie deserved more than a sanitized lie.
As did Akiko. “The first few were good and only ended because of events out of the foster family’s control.
The first family moved overseas when she was two.
Akiko lived with the second family for six years.
But that foster mother got cancer, so she released Akiko back into the system.
She died a year later. The husband was grief-stricken, but he always sent a birthday card to Akiko every year until she turned eighteen.
They cared, but…life happens. She had a few more homes that were just okay, but her last home before she came to us was awful.
She was fifteen and gorgeous. And I guess I don’t need to say more. ”
“No,” Leslie whispered. “Poor Akiko.”
“But she made it to McKittrick House,” Baz said. “I remember her first day. I was there to give Harlan an update on Wren when Akiko arrived with Betsy. She was scared but trying to hide it.”
“And I wasn’t welcoming,” Kit admitted. “My sister Wren had just been murdered, and I wasn’t interested in a new roommate.
Certainly not a new sister. But we came around.
She’s my family now. There are a lot of good foster homes and even more amazing adoptive homes, Leslie.
It’s my hope that your son has a family like I do.
” She tilted her head. “But you said something important, I think. That you’d contact him if he was in danger.
Clearly Mary knew something that put her in danger, which is why she’s dead.
I think that’s why she came forward now.
I think it means that Akiko is also in danger, or Mary wouldn’t have risked exposure. ”
“Maybe,” Ashton allowed. “But Akiko wasn’t shot, Kit. Only you were.”
“True,” Kit said. “And that’s another question. Why only detectives? This shooter was specific. He could have shot Akiko on Saturday, and Sam was right next to me both times. It would have been collateral damage, but he didn’t shoot at anyone but me—either time.”
“I mean, I guess I should be thankful,” Sam muttered. “But I’d rather it had been me.”
“Aw,” Stacey said.
Baz just sighed loudly.
“Stop it,” Kit told him affectionately. “You’re an old softie.”
Baz lifted his chin. “I am not old.”
“And the man with the size thirteen shoes?” Leslie asked, bringing them back on topic. “Was he on her home surveillance video?”
Marshall shook his head. “We checked. There were a number of points when the camera was deactivated, so we believe we know when he was there. None of those times fell during Mary’s three trips to LA.
We requested copies of the neighbors’ surveillance footage at those times to see who was coming and going. ”
“So that’s information West and Lennox will have,” Kit said with a sigh. “I hope they can at least figure that out.”
“West’s not a great cop,” Ashton said. “But he can do that much. Kevin and I have already told him to focus on that.”
“Eat your lunch, Kit,” Baz reminded her. “It’s why you’re here, right?”
“Right.” Trying not to think about Detective West handling Akiko’s case, Kit took a bite and listened as the conversation turned to more personal matters.
Like doctors and surgeries and wound sizes, with Marshall and Ashton trying to one-up each other while their wives looked on with indulgent—and grateful—smiles.
Sam had gone silent, his mouth pinched. Kit lightly bumped her shoulder against his. “What’s wrong? Because you’re not okay.”
“Still thinking about how close I came to losing you.”
He looked at her then, and she could see the vulnerability in his green eyes. And the fear. And something else that she was too afraid to name. She knew it, deep in her heart, but…
Not yet. I can’t. Not yet.
And he seemed to understand that because he smiled gently before stealing a cookie from her plate, making her laugh.
She’d laughed more in a few months with Sam than she had in years. It was strange. But nice.
She was about to scold him for the cookie theft when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She’d been checking every incoming call or text in case it was Navarro. He’d been so upset with her the day before for not taking his calls. It just meant wading through a shit ton of unwanted media calls.
“Hold my plate, please. It’s my phone again.” Doing everything one-handed was a pain in the ass, but at least she still had use of her dominant hand.
“Oh, it’s Connor.” The chatter around her ceased, everyone watching her. “Hey,” she said when she’d brought the phone to her ear. “I’m at Ashton’s house. What’s up?”
“Who’s there?” Connor asked, an edge of excitement in his voice.
She sat up straighter and told him who was in the room. “Do you want to be on speaker?”
“Hell yeah.”
She obliged and everyone leaned forward in anticipation. “What do you have?”
“Dry eyes. I’ve been watching traffic cams for too many hours.”
“And?” Kit demanded. “What did you find?”
“I know where Mary Sherman went in LA.”