Chapter Five
Kane
I took the last sip of my coffee which had long since become cold, and threw the empty cup in the backseat of my car. By now, my car surely stunk of fast food and caffeine, but I couldn’t take the time to clean it. I needed to keep an eye on this damn black widow.
There was no way in hell I could take my eye off the ball.
Not yet.
My phone rang, forcing me to jump in response. I grabbed it, looking down at my captain’s name and sighing.
Fuck.
“Garrick.”
“Where are you?” O’Leary asked me, his tone telling me he wasn’t in a good mood.
“I’m not due to clock in until two.”
“That’s not what I asked,” he said, his voice barely more than a grunt.
“Does it matter? What do you need?”
“Garrick, I told you not to pursue this,” he said, the gruffness gone and instead he sounded worn out. “Stop following her.”
“She’s guilty, Cap,” I said. “I know I can pull her in and stop her from doing this again.”
“Look, all you got are some crazy, unsubstantiated claims from a down and out journalist,” he said. “Wrap up the case, put it to the cold case team. There are plenty of murders happening every day in our city.”
He hangs up before I can respond. But there was something here, I just couldn’t put my finger on it, and it absolutely drove me crazy.
I checked the clock on my dash. It was just past one. I needed a shower before I started my shift. Maura or Maurelle, whatever the hell her name was, had to wait. I put the car in drive and headed to my apartment.
Cursing as I ran to get my ringing phone, et from the shower, I grabbed it from the bed and looked down at the name. Sighing, I knew this call wasn’t going to be one I was going to enjoy.
“Detective Garrick,” I answered.
“It’s Stanley Dale.”
No hello? What was wrong with people today?
“Yes, how are you?”
“Where have you gotten to in your research, Detective?”
“I’m working on it, Stanley,” I said. “Give me time. I can’t arrest her without solid proof or she’ll get away. I promise you, I’m working on it. Give me time.”
He was silent for a moment, almost as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to tell me what it was.
“What is it, Stanley?”
“I may have found something out,” he said. “I might have a really good lead but I can’t tell you my source.”
“What is it?”
“She never puts anything in her name, you know that right?”
“Yes, I am aware. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“The name she uses is the same, which she never does. When she gets married she uses a different name, which is why she’s gotten away with it for so long, but when it comes to her property holdings, it’s always the same name.”
“Sure, I knew she used another name for her house,” I said. “Are you saying there are more properties?”
“Yes, many more, in different states.”
He sounded panicked on the other end, like he was scared he was going to be caught or give something away.
“Stanley, where are you now?” I asked, reading into his panic. There was only one way he’d be this rattled and that was if he was going to do something illegal.
“Don’t worry, Detective. I’ll find you the proof you need.”
He hangs up before I could reply. I hit redial but it was going straight to voicemail. God fucking damn it. I quickly grabbed a pair of pants and a shirt and got dressed as quickly as I could, feeling real panic that Stanley could be walking into a trap with me not having any way to find him again.
Racing down the stairs to my car, I got in and all but sped my way to the precinct. As I ran to the stairs to get up to my floor, my heart was in my throat as I rushed past our admin girls who I usually greeted and toward my desk. I didn’t even know where to begin to find him.
Calling our tech department, I prayed I got the only one who knew how to work magic. Finally, I heard chewing on the other line and then her young and impatient voice.
“Tech department.”
“Who taught you to answer the phone when you were eating?” I grunted into the phone, almost sick from the sound.
“Oh, good afternoon Detective, it’s nice to hear your voice too.”
“Enough with your childish attitude, Petra, I need help.”
“Obviously or you wouldn’t have called me.”
I took a deep breath before I continued. “I need you to ping a phone number.”
“Sure, give me a sec,” she said, clicking away on her computer. “Shoot off the number.”
I did and waited for her.
“The phone isn’t actively pinging.”
“Well it’s turned off.”
“Jesus,” I heard her moan, and I could almost see her banging her head on the desk. “Obviously, if it’s turned off, it’s not going to be pinging with cell towers, Detective.”
I ignored the retort of the young techie, and sighed. “Well, what about where it last pinged? I need to know where he is.”
“Sure, I can check that.”
A few more clicking sounds later. “You got a pen?”
“Just send the location to my phone.”
“I hope you like driving,” she said. “It’s about an hour away.”
“I’m leaving now, text it to me.”
I hung up and headed back down to the garage to get into my car. Let the Captain dock my pay for the day.
There was something twisting in my gut that was telling me Stanley was in trouble, and I needed to get to him before he ended up on a metal slab down at the County Coroner’s office.
Maurelle
I saw the figure on the security camera before I heard the silent alarm ping on my phone.
He snuck through my window and let himself through the house.
How the hell had he found this one? I suppose putting them all in the same name had been a mistake, but how did he find that name in the first place?
I’d been so damn careful.
“Driver, change of plans,” I said. “Take me back to the summer house.”
A swift turn and we were back on our way to the house I’d just left. He must have followed me.
Damn it. I was losing my touch.
I couldn’t allow him to find my records in that house. I’d kept everything, including all the information I’d had at the house on Mulberry, here. My entire house of cards would tumble if they found this property.
And I just couldn’t afford that. Not yet.
I got out of the car once we had gotten to the carpark and headed inside, turning off my alarm system, not that he would have heard it anyway. I put my bag down on the side table and pulled out my gun.
It was so unladylike to shoot, but I’d had no time to develop a poison that would go unregistered in his system.
I honestly hadn’t put much thought into the idiot looking into me.
He was on his last nerve with his boss, so I was guessing that was why he had so much time to investigate me.
The little twerp had unraveled secrets I’d long since buried, and it annoyed me that he’d done it so quickly.
Not only that but to have given the information to the only detective to actually have half a brain was dangerous. There was something about Detective Garrick that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I knew he wasn’t someone to be underestimated.
That both scared and excited me at the same time.
I took my heels off to move through the house unheard as I watched on my phone for where the cameras were picking him up. He’d found my office, and probably thought he’d found the motherload.
Fool.
No one actually keeps their important stuff in an office. That would be too easy.
I moved down the hall and toward the door he was behind. My heart was hammering, and I felt a little giddy at being able to catch him in the act.
As I approached, I could hear him shuffling through the business and estate papers I had on my desk. I pushed the door open, silently I moved inside the room and closed the door with a click. Stanley jumped and turned around, his eyes bugging out of his head.
“Care to tell me why you’re snooping through private property?” I asked him, my gun trained on him.
“You wouldn’t shoot me,” he said, his voice weak. “It’s not in your nature.”
“Sure, I don’t like guns but when in need, they come in handy,” I said. “And as far as the police are concerned, you’re an intruder and I feared for my life.”
“You won’t get away with it,” he said, feeling a little more confident. “They’re onto you now.”
“Are they?”
“Yes, Garrick has all the proof he needs to bring you down.”
“Then why hasn’t he? Why isn’t he here with you now? Perhaps he’s been leading you along all this time.”
Stanley smiled, and it annoyed me that he thought he had me. “The fact that you know who I’m talking about tells me he’s on your trail too. He’ll find the piece he needs, and he’ll bring you to justice.”
“Justice?” I repeated the word as if it were poison to my ears. “There is no justice in this world. If you did some real investigative work, Stanley Dale, you’d know the people I’ve taken out are no upstanding men. They are filth, and they deserved every bit of pain I brought them.”
I pushed back the pain of my past, a brief glimpse into what I’d kept hidden for years was all he would ever get to see.
“I’ve got everything I need Maurelle, and now, so does he. It’s a matter of time before he brings you down.”
“Whatever you think you have, it won’t be enough.
There’s always one detective who thinks they can grab me.
You aren’t the first to unravel my true identity but you never gave it to him, did you?
You never gave him the full file you did on me.
You think I didn’t know when you hacked into my original name and got the file on who I was when I was young? ”
“You didn’t stop me.”
“No, I needed to see how easy it was for you to get everything you needed,” I told him.
“Never mind, I erased the trail after you were done. You may have printed it out for safe keeping, but the original file no longer exists. There’s no way to prove your ramblings, especially not now that you’ve lost the faith of your boss and everyone at the newspaper.
No one will ever believe you. Matter of fact, no one will ever see you again. ”