Read Craving Vengeance Online

Authors: Valerie J. Clarizio

Tags: #murder, #investigation, #valentines day, #undercover, #slayings, #homicide detective, #back alley, #holiday adventure, #nick spinelli, #valerie j clarizio, #craving vengeance, #murdered cupids, #nick spinelli mystery, #shannon ohara, #singing cupid, #singing telegram

Craving Vengeance (6 page)

BOOK: Craving Vengeance
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She’d wanted to explain the whole Joshua
thing to him before she headed off to the church, but he didn’t
give her the opportunity. And now she had to go and face Joshua
again, at least for a few hours. Shannon sighed. Joshua was far
more excited than she was to be working together tonight on the
singing valentines and flower delivery fundraiser. Apparently, he’d
made the request to Father Daniel that he be assigned to work with
her, just like in years past. It didn’t surprise her that Father
would grant the request; he and Joshua were fairly close. And
unfortunately, at this very moment, she was stuck, and agreed to
meet Joshua at the church.

She started the car before she closed her
eyes and leaned her head back onto the seat. She needed a minute
yet. Visions of Joshua scooping her up into his arms and kissing
her replayed in her mind. He’d caught her so off-guard. In fact, it
happened so quickly she didn’t even realize who’d scooped her up at
first. But it took only moments to recognize his scent, his touch,
his kiss. She blew out a sigh and fought the urge to smack herself
in the head for having responded to his kiss at first, but when
realization set in, she ended the kiss just as abruptly as it
started.
No credit for that.
She’d give anything to start
this day over again and change her initial reaction to Joshua’s
surprise visit.

She wondered if someone, other than Anna, had
seen her and Joshua together and told Spinelli. She’d wanted to
tell him herself, before anyone else had a chance, but by the time
she’d returned to work from dropping Joshua off at his hotel, it
was time for the custody hearing with the Clarkson’s. She’d gone
down to the precinct the first chance she had, but evidently, it
was too late.

Shannon sucked in a deep breath and blew it
out in an attempt to clear her mind. It didn’t work. Probably
nothing would erase the kiss she’d shared with Joshua or the
coldness in Spinelli’s voice when he spoke to her through his
knotted jaw.
Why in the hell did Joshua suddenly show up,
unannounced, after nearly two years on hiatus, and today of all
days?

She pulled a tissue from the box on the front
seat and blotted her eyes dry, then swiped it over her cheeks. She
checked her makeup in the visor mirror before she signaled and
pulled out of the parking lot.

She arrived at the church at a few minutes
after 4:00 and headed downstairs for her assignment. The sweet
scent of roses greeted her in the cool stairwell. She stepped
through the doorway into the social hall to find a room filled with
red. Bouquets of long-stemmed red roses and red heart shaped boxes
of chocolates covered the rows of banquet tables lined up
throughout the entire length of the room. Sadness rippled through
her.
Likely none for me today.

Shannon always enjoyed spending time in the
social hall. She liked visiting with the other parishioners as they
congregated in the hall after the church services concluded. It was
something she and her family had done ever since she was a child.
Oh, what she’d give to have her older sister, Claire, here right
now. Claire would know how to fix this mess with Spinelli. Why did
she have to live so far away? Maybe she’d call Claire later, after
her nephews went to bed so Claire would have time to talk
uninterrupted. Shannon loved her nephews, but they could be quite
the handful at times. She shook her head. She really shouldn’t
bother her sister on Valentine’s Day. She might have plans with
John, her dear, sweet husband. He was the nicest man. Shannon
envied Claire when it came to her family. She always hoped to find
a husband as loving and sweet as John seemed to be. Tears stung her
eyes.
I had that man until I blew it today!

Shannon blinked rapidly to clear her blurry
vision. When the room came back into focus she found ten or so
women, all dressed in red. They looked over their clipboards, which
likely detailed their evening’s delivery information. Shannon
headed toward the table at which Father Daniel and Sisters Lora and
Pat sat. She would get her instructions from them.

Men of all ages, sizes, and shapes milled
about the room in their cupid costumes. They looked a little more
like toga party goers than cupids, but the wings, bows, and quivers
of arrows helped place their identity. Shannon giggled. She
supposed the church couldn’t very well send out naked cupids, as
depicted in the legend.

She scanned the room for Joshua. He was
nowhere to be found. She glanced at her watch. It wasn’t like him
to be late, especially for a church event. Shannon shook her head.
He sure had everyone fooled, the good church-going Joshua. Mister
‘I’ll volunteer for the mission trip for the good of the church.’
Even Father Daniel, still to this day, hadn’t realized Joshua’s
true colors. Or maybe he did, and he was keeping him close to try
to save him. Shannon sighed. She never quite fully understood where
she’d gone wrong or why Joshua had volunteered for the trip when he
did. She had loved him, and she’d thought he loved her.

They were set to
get married and begin their new life together, but it didn’t take
long for her to discover his cheating ways. She’d even gone so far
at the time as to work through the cheating issue, but she quickly
learned she was the only party interested in making the
relationship work long-term. She’d felt like such a fool when he
told her he’d be going to Nicaragua, and then he had the nerve to
suggest they could resume their relationship when he returned. It
was as if he assumed she’d just sit around waiting for him, but how
many other women would he tally up in that time? Her anger from two
years ago roared through her as if everything had happened moments
ago.
His parents should have named him Nathanael, the gift of
God, because he sure thought he was God’s gift to women!
Why
could no one else see this?

“Hi, Shannon. Are you looking for Joshua?”
Father Daniel asked as he stepped toward her.

“Yeah. Have you seen him?”

“Actually, I haven’t. Not since he’s been
back. I wasn’t expecting him back until next month, but I did talk
to him on the phone earlier today. That’s when I told him about the
fundraiser, and he volunteered to work. Of course his caveat was
that he partner with you,” Father said with a sheepish smile. “I
figured you’d be okay with that since so much time has passed.”

“No problem. He and I talked earlier today as
well,” Shannon replied. What was she supposed to say? After all, it
was for the good of the church, and due to the abundant number of
clients this year, every available volunteer was a welcome sight,
especially those with beautiful voices such as Joshua. Shannon
recalled how his glorious voice always landed him the lead in the
Christmas pageant before he’d decided to leave her and run off to
Nicaragua with the mission group.

Father cleared his throat. “Yeah, I assumed
you had. Joshua said he was going to pay you a visit at work.” He
shifted his gaze about the room. “I wonder where he is.”

Shannon shrugged.

She visited with the others while she waited
for Joshua. Several more minutes passed. Still no Joshua. She
glanced at her full clipboard. The clock was ticking. There were so
many deliveries to make and so little time. After a few more
minutes, she and Father Daniel decided she’d better just get
started on her own. There were no cupids left to help her.

 

Chapter Eight

 

Captain Jackson
yelled across the precinct as she stepped through her office
doorway, “Spinelli, tell me you guys have something on this cupid
case.”

He, Walker, and Marsh exchanged glances. He
knew they were of like mind, wishing they either had something to
go on or that they were anywhere Jackson wasn’t.

Jackson walked toward them, her gait brisk.
Her short brown curls bounced with every step she took. Her dark
brown eyes fixed on Spinelli. Though she was a small woman, all of
one hundred and thirty pounds, she managed to scare the hell out of
him at times. Her twenty-plus years on the force had hardened her,
but overall Spinelli liked her. She was smart, good at what she
did, and fair.

Jackson stepped up to the board and studied
the pictures of the dead cupids for a moment before she returned
her gaze to Spinelli. “Well?”

He shook his head in shame. “Nothing. We’ve
got nothing.” He glanced at Marsh. “Marsh has been going through
their financials, computer records, and contact lists but is coming
up empty on making any sort of connection between the three of
them.”

Jackson inspected the board again. “So you
think these are just all random cupids?”

“It’s looking that way.”

She glanced at the cell phone in her hand and
tapped the screen a couple of times. “Well, maybe this will help,”
she said as Spinelli’s phone buzzed.

He pulled it from its holder on his hip and
glanced at the text message she’d just sent. “What’s this?”

“The address of dead cupid number four. The
call came through a minute ago.”

“Son of a bitch,” Spinelli growled.

He looked past Jackson to find Walker and
Marsh staring back at him, their jaws nearly on the floor.

Spinelli and Walker drove to the crime scene.
Marsh continued frantically analyzing the records of the murdered
cupids. He needed to find something, anything, because four dead
cupids on Valentine’s Day, and their lack of finding the killer and
preventing a fifth murder, made for an unwanted major news story.
They didn’t need any more bad press.

Walker drove toward the downtown Hyatt. He
shifted lanes and glanced toward Spinelli. “Well, are you going to
tell me why you were such a prick to Shannon?”

Spinelli stared out the window debating what
to say, if anything.

Walker filled the silence, “In case you
hadn’t figured it out yet, she’s a keeper, and keepers don’t come
around that often.”

Just this morning Spinelli would have agreed
with Walker. The ring in his pocket was proof. But now he didn’t
know what to think. He loved her, and even though they’d gotten off
to a rocky start, he knew from the first moment he laid eyes on
her, he had to make her his. He hadn’t told her he loved her yet.
They’d only been dating for slightly over two months. He’d planned
on using the “L” word tonight. He thought she loved him as well,
but seeing her kissing another man earlier in the day indicated he
was clearly mistaken.

His chest tightened around his aching heart.
His shoulders slumped under the weight he carried. Perhaps he
should unload his burden and tell Walker what had happened. Maybe
Walker would know what to do. He had experience when it came to
commitment. He and his wife Jeana had been married for nearly ten
years.

Spinelli’s head spun to put his thoughts in
order. He couldn’t seem to find the proper words, even just for
Walker. He normally liked to take the direct approach, but he
wasn’t sure he wanted to say the words aloud. The thought of
actually saying them made it seem more real.

He stared out the windshield. Puffy
snowflakes, the kind you get with a common Great Lakes-effect
snowstorm, fell to the ground, making the ground look pure and
clean. He once thought of Shannon as pure. In fact, in the
beginning he thought maybe she was too pure and good for someone
like him, but that all seemed to change about four hours ago. The
windshield started to frost over. A moment ago he could see the
streets of Milwaukee clearly, now he struggled to focus on
them.

Walker pushed the defrost button. The
windshield cleared. Maybe Walker had some sort of ‘defrost’ button
he could use to help him see and understand Shannon’s actions more
clearly.

“Well, are you going to tell me or just sit
there stewing on it?”

“I saw Shannon kissing another man who called
himself her fiancé,” Spinelli blurted before he turned to look at
Walker who kept his gaze on the road. His expression didn’t change.
Walker was good at that. Even in crisis, Walker always looked the
same.

“I see.”

Spinelli’s fists clenched. He sucked in a
breath and expelled it. “When I went upstairs to see if she wanted
to get some lunch, I saw her in the hallway outside her office with
a man, Caucasian, dark hair, 5’10”, about 170 pounds.”

“Get a good look at him, did you?” Walker
asked, his eyes unwavering from the road.

“It’s not funny.”

“I didn’t say it was.”

A few beats of silence passed.

“Are you sure?” Walker asked.

“Jesus Christ, I think I would know for sure
if I saw my girlfriend kissing some other guy.”

Walker inhaled and expelled a breath. “What I
meant was, are you sure he said fiancé? Maybe it was just some old
boyfriend bugging her on Valentine’s Day.”

“They were pressed together so tight I would
have needed a crowbar to separate them. I’d say she was pretty
happy to see him, and I know what I heard. He said, ‘Aren’t you
happy to see your fiancé?”

“The question indicates he wasn’t so sure she
was happy to see him. Maybe she wasn’t. I take it she didn’t see
you.”

“No. She was too busy.”

 

Walker turned his head in Spinelli’s
direction. His look was sober. “You know you’re going to have to
talk to her about this, right? This doesn’t sound like her. I’m
sure there is a reasonable explanation.”

Spinelli stared out the windshield.

“I mean it, Spinelli. Don’t rule her out yet.
Women like her are hard to come by.”

Walker parked the car in one of the transient
spots near the front door of the Hyatt. He flashed his badge at the
valet. The young man nodded. They continued on toward the elevators
and rode up to the sixth floor.

Yellow tape already cordoned off the crime
scene. Debra poked her head out of the doorway of room 602. They
ducked under the tape and entered the room. There he was, their
fourth dead cupid of the day, spread-eagle on top of the bed, naked
as a jaybird. His thin, pillowed, satin wings trimmed with gold
colored garland were sprawled around him. His bow lay next to him
on the bed, and his quiver of arrows leaned up against the
nightstand.

BOOK: Craving Vengeance
3.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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