Chapter Twelve
The loud knock at the front door roused Zach, and he startled, sitting up, disjointed for a moment. Josie’s living room. The dead rat. Gone now, thanks to the criminalist who had come and processed the scene quickly and removed the vermin in a paper evidence bag.
Zach pulled himself to his feet, squinting toward the window where the sun was just beginning to rise.
He’d been up most of the night, listening for any strange sounds, unsettled about the whole case, the fact that he’d somehow come to be sleeping in a room just below Josie Stratton.
It almost felt like one of those full-circle moments from the first night he’d stood outside her hospital room as she’d slept the sleep of a traumatized, medicated victim.
But that didn’t feel completely accurate.
Zach had a feeling the path he was traveling with Josie Stratton would go at least a bit farther, and that didn’t spell out positive things for either of them.
It meant she might be in danger, and it meant he had a killer to catch who was still on the loose.
“Hiya, Cope,” Jimmy said, bustling through the door, a cup holder of coffee in his meaty hands. Zach grabbed one of the cups and took a sip of the dark brew before the door was even shut.
“You’re an angel, Jimmy.”
“I keep hearing that. It must be true.”
Zach gestured toward the open doorway that led to the living room. He pushed aside the blanket he’d grabbed from Josie’s linen closet the night before and sat on the couch, yawning, and taking another sip of the life-giving liquid.
Jimmy took a seat on one of the chairs across from the sofa and removed his own coffee. “Sleep any?” he asked before taking a sip and making an appreciative grunt.
“Drifted off for an hour or so. I’m beat.”
“Get on home and get a few hours of sleep. I’m all set here.”
Zach hesitated and Jimmy peered at him from over his paper cup. “Hey, you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. There’s a lot to do today.
You sure you’re okay camping out here for a while?
I can be back after work, around five, and take the night shift.
” He’d called Jimmy the night before, after Josie went to bed, and told him about the break-in and what was left on Josie’s kitchen table.
Then he’d called his boss, cleared it with him to watch Josie’s house for a couple of days until they could be certain she wasn’t in imminent danger.
“You’ll need more than a few hours of sleep this morning to do another night shift here,” Jimmy said, taking a sip of his coffee. “See if we can get one of the rookie third-shift officers to sit vigil.”
The idea of that left an immediate sour taste in Zach’s mouth. A rookie? Watching over Josie? Playing on his phone all night? He’d been a rookie the first time he’d watched over Josie, and he’d taken his job seriously. But… “Nah, I’ll be fine.”
Jimmy was watching him carefully as though there was something different about him he was trying to figure out. He scratched at his prickly jaw. “Your call.”
A door opened upstairs, and a few seconds later, footsteps could be heard descending the stairs. Josie appeared in the doorway, sleep mussed and…beautiful, Zach acknowledged, a robe tied tightly around her waist.
Jimmy stood, walking to her and extending his hand. “Ma’am. Detective Jimmy Keene. I’m Copeland’s partner. I’ll be keeping an eye on your house today, so you don’t have any need to worry.”
Josie glanced at Zach who nodded. Her eyes moved back to Jimmy. “All right. Thank you. And please, call me Josie.” She looked at Zach again. “Thank you again for staying the night. I hope you got some sleep.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. And no problem. I’ll be back later tonight.”
“Okay.” Zach glanced at Jimmy, who was watching them both closely.
“Oh,” Zach said, “I’ll need your cousin’s last name and his phone number if you have it.”
“I do. I have a pen and some paper in the kitchen. Is it safe…”
“Oh. Yeah. It’s been cleaned up.”
She nodded and headed toward the kitchen. “She’s a looker, isn’t she?” Jimmy said, still giving Zach that knowing look.
“What? Yeah, I guess. Stop looking at me like that, Jimmy. Jesus. Yeah, she’s beautiful.
And she’s the victim of a heinous crime who’s now been thrust back into a situation that could spell danger for her.
The city of Cincinnati owes it to her to keep her safe.
We’d do the same for any other citizen.”
Jimmy smiled, his jowly cheeks shifting. “You running for mayor, Cope?”
“Fuck off, Jimmy.”
Jimmy laughed and took a casual sip of coffee, holding it in his mouth for a minute before swallowing it down, his annoying smile reappearing.
“Here you go,” Josie said, reentering the room and holding out a piece of paper to Zach. He took it and slipped it into the pocket of his track pants. “Great. Thanks. I’ll let you know what your cousin says after I meet with him.”
“Thanks again.”
Zach shot Jimmy a look as he headed to the door. “Keep me updated.”
“Yup,” Jimmy called, and from his peripheral vision, Zach saw him take a seat back in the easy chair.
As much as Jimmy annoyed him sometimes with his ability to see things Zach wasn’t interested in telling him, he trusted his partner with his life.
And in this case, with Josie’s life. He shut the door behind him and walked out into the early morning sunshine.
* * *
The apartment building where Aria Glazer had once lived was a large, older home in Hyde Park that had been converted into three units.
Zach pressed the buzzer next to the label that said Glazer/Lewis and waited.
He heard footsteps, and a few seconds later, a pretty blond opened the door, hair in a bun on top of her head, an overly large sweatshirt falling off one shoulder.
Her eyes were red-rimmed as though she’d been crying. “Tessa Lewis?”
“Yes. Detective Copeland?”
“Yes. May I come in?”
She stepped back. “This way.” She turned and started walking toward an open door to the left of a staircase, and Zach followed.
She looked over her shoulder, eyeing him.
“I didn’t expect… I mean, I thought you’d be…
older.” She gave a small nervous laugh as she entered her apartment and turned toward him.
He smiled, closing the door of her apartment. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She bobbed her head. “You should.” Color crept up her neck, and she played with a piece of hair that had escaped her bun. She waved her hand toward a table next to the open kitchen. “Do you want to sit?”
“That’d be great. I appreciate you meeting with me.”
She sat down and so did he. She bobbed her head again, her chin trembling and tears filling her eyes. “I can’t believe she’s dead. Can’t believe someone murdered her.”
Zach grabbed a tissue box at the end of the table and handed it to Tessa.
She dabbed at her eyes. Zach had gone home and showered and managed to grab a couple of hours of sleep, woken by the call that Aria Glazer’s dental records matched those of the DOA from the basement.
He’d delivered on his promise—he’d given that poor girl back her name.
Now he was bound and determined to give her parents and loved ones the closure of knowing why they were grieving and who had committed such a horrifying crime against a young woman with her whole life in front of her.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Zach said, though he’d said the same thing earlier when he’d called Aria’s roommate with the news of the ID, and asked if he could meet with her.
He’d driven to the small town twenty minutes away in Kentucky and delivered the news in person to Aria’s parents.
Working-class people who lived in a small house with a nicely kept lawn.
They’d looked shell-shocked with anguish.
It was the very worst part of his job, hands down.
Tessa sniffled and wiped at her nose. “Thank you. I’ve called a couple friends who worked with us at Aster. We’re going to get together tonight, remember Aria, you know? Just reminisce about her.”
“I’m glad. Is Aster where you first met her?”
“Yeah. We hit it off, and it just so happened we were both looking for a place to live. We found this rental pretty quickly.” Her eyes moved toward the back of the apartment.
“Our friend Genevieve is staying in Aria’s room for now, paying her share of the rent.
I guess she’ll be able to move in permanently. ” Tessa’s voice broke on the last word.
Zach gave her a moment to compose herself.
“I know Aria was your friend and may have asked you to keep secrets for her the way friends do, but if we’re going to solve this case and bring Aria’s murderer to justice, I need you to be totally upfront with me now about anything you know that might help us find who did this, even if you didn’t mention it before. ”
“Like what, Detective?”
“Anything. Was Aria upset about something around the time she disappeared? Even something minor? Did she feel threatened by anyone?”
“The detectives who came here after her disappearance asked all those questions.”
“I know, but sometimes in retrospect, and now that you know she was abducted by a person who meant her harm, memories surface, things take on a new context, small run-ins or even relationships that didn’t seem important take on new meaning.”
Tessa bit at her lip before meeting Zach’s eyes.
“She’d been seeing someone—oh, I don’t know—about eight months or so before her disappearance.
I didn’t mention it because it didn’t seem relevant, and it was totally casual from what I could tell.
She’d started dating a new guy she met at the gym—her boyfriend, Chad, who you guys questioned—and she was happy at the time of her disappearance.
The other detective who came here asked about her possibly disappearing on purpose—running away or something—but I told them that didn’t fit.
Aria had gone through a rough patch six months before, dropped the night classes she’d been taking, started drinking a little more than usual.
Nothing too severe, you know? And then it was over.
At the time of her disappearance, Aria was the happiest I’d seen her in a long time.
She even told me she was falling in love with Chad.
No way she would just up and purposely disappear. No way.”
“Aria was taking classes that she’d dropped?”
“Yeah, she was taking some night classes at UC. She stopped going, and when I asked her about it, she said it was no big deal, the timing just wasn’t right, and she’d think about signing up for them again the next semester.”
“Did you mention this to the other detectives you talked to?”
“No. Is it relevant? She’d dropped the classes long before she disappeared. And she was on her way home from work in Hyde Park when she…before she was taken.”
“It might not be. I’m just trying to get a full picture of Aria’s life.
” Zach already knew from the missing person file that the boyfriend had been questioned extensively, but he’d had an alibi.
He’d been visiting an ailing grandmother who subsequently passed away the week Aria had disappeared.
He hadn’t even been in the same city. And regardless, from all accounts, they were a happy couple.
At least, that’s what the file said. “Who was the person she was dating before Chad? About eight months before you said?”
“I don’t know. She was dismissive about it. And I don’t think dating is the right word. I thought it was mostly a booty-call situation. She’d leave all dolled up, but she was always home a few hours later. I thought she was just hooking up with some random.”
Zach made a mental note to see if Aria’s cell phone records from the phone that had disappeared along with her had been pulled from that far back.
He figured they hadn’t been. But they might be able to figure out who the “booty call” was, based on her call logs.
“Someone she may have met at work?” Zach asked.
Tessa shook her head. “We both have”—her eyes widened and she flinched—“had a no-dating policy as far as customers. Too messy.”
“Is there anything else, Tessa?” he asked gently.
Tessa folded the tissue once and then again. “Well, I mean…”
“Anything,” he prompted again. “No matter how small.”
She paused but then nodded. “She might have gotten an abortion during that rough patch.” She looked down, her eyes still on the tissue as she folded it into smaller and smaller pieces.
“I’m not positive, and I didn’t want her parents to know if I was wrong.
They’re real religious.” She dabbed at her nose.
“I heard her on the phone one day when I was getting home. It sounded like she was making an appointment and from the questions she was answering, I got the idea she was pregnant. But then I asked her about it, and she brushed me off. She seemed kind of…I don’t know, off, maybe a couple of weeks later, and that’s when she got that tattoo.
I’d see her touch it sometimes and get this sad look on her face. I had this thought…”
“Tessa, whatever it was, no matter how vague, it might help.”
“Well, after I heard her scheduling that appointment, and then when she came home with the daisy tattoo, I wondered if it was in memory of that baby she didn’t keep.
” She took a deep breath, meeting Zach’s gaze.
“But then she went back to being her old self, she met Chad, and things seemed good. Just a little blip on the radar, you know? Something that was totally in the past.”
“Thank you for telling me that. It might help.”
“She was my best friend, Detective,” Tessa said, her eyes filling with tears again. “I’d never want to tell anyone things she wouldn’t want told, but if it helps you find who did this to her, I know she’d understand.”