DEAD BY WEDNESDAY (13 page)

“The past two hours of my life have been the best two hours that I’ve ever had,” he said. “And based on those two hours, I’d say you’re exactly my type.”

Her face was sort of muffled by his coat but he could feel her nod her head. Five minutes later he pulled up to her apartment.

“I think it might be better if I go in alone,” she said. “Less questions from Raoul and all.”

“Just tell me that we’re okay, Carmen.”

She leaned across the car and kissed his cheek. “It’s all good, Robert. Thank you so much.”

“Okay. Then I have one more thing to tell you. When I talked to Sawyer earlier, he confirmed that there was a puddle of brake fluid in your parking lot. Then, while we were at the apartment, I got a text. Your brake lines were definitely tampered with. Looks like somebody took a hacksaw and cut through both the front and back lines.” He stopped, letting her absorb the information.

“So, it was deliberate?” she said, her tone flat. “Someone deliberately tried to harm me, maybe even kill me.”

“Looks that way.”

She turned to him, her dark eyes big. “Who would do something like that?”

“I don’t know. We don’t think it was Sage. He’s got an alibi.” He waited for her to throw out an
I told you so
but she said nothing. “We’re going to need a list of all your clients.”

“Jamison won’t go for that,” she said.

“Your boss almost lost OCM last year to a bomber. I think he’s developed a healthy respect for working with the law. Besides, he cares about you.”

She nodded. “He still won’t be happy. I’m not happy. I just can’t see it being any of them. I help them. They know it.”

“Family members then?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.” She looked at her watch. “Speaking of family, I better get inside.” She looked up. “What if Raoul had been with me today? What if he’d been injured because someone has a grudge against me? I couldn’t bear it, Robert.”

He started to pull her close again, but she resisted.

“I have to go,” she said. “I need to talk to Raoul. He needs to understand what’s going on. We both need to be watching.”

“How are you going to get to work in the morning? I could swing by and give you a lift.”

She shook her head. “Thank you, but no. A cab will work just fine.” She opened her door.

He opened his. When she started to object, he held up a hand. “Give me a break here, Carmen. At least let me walk you to your door.”

She smiled. “I’m not used to having someone do things for me.”

“Yeah, well, I hope you’re the type that adjusts to change quickly.”

* * *

R
AOUL
WAS
ALREADY
in bed when he heard the apartment door open. He glanced at his clock. Carmen had worked really late.

He heard footsteps in the hallway and then a knock on his door. “Hi, sis,” he said.

She came in and kissed him on the forehead, like she used to do when he was a little kid. “How was your day?” she asked.

He didn’t think the cop had told her about his visit to the school and the conversation about Speedy’s. He knew his sister. She would not have waited until ten o’clock to have a conversation with him. “Pretty good,” he said. “Band practice went better,” he added, because she was always interested in that.

“Just a few more days until the concert,” she said.

“Yeah. Thursday at seven. I have to wear black pants and a white shirt.”

“No problem. Hey, do you have a minute?”

He was in bed. “I guess.”

“I had some bad luck today,” she said. “This morning, when I was leaving for work, I discovered that somebody had vandalized my car. They painted a white strip along the side of it and broke out the backseat window.”

Oh, man. It was going to be embarrassing riding around in something like that.

“Can we get it fixed?”

“Of course. But that’s not all. This afternoon, when I was driving to an appointment, my brakes went out. I couldn’t stop for a red light and another vehicle hit me.”

He sat up and jammed pillows behind his back. “Are you okay?”

“I am. Got checked out at the hospital and everything is just fine. But here’s the thing, Raoul. The police think that somebody cut my brake lines. Somebody wanted me to get in an accident.”

That didn’t make any sense. Everybody loved Carmen.

Raoul felt a pain in his stomach. Everybody didn’t love him. JJ and Beau hated him. They also knew where he lived and the kind of car his sister drove. Were they crazy enough that they would have spray painted her car and then messed with the brakes?

The pain became sharper when he realized that he’d just recently had a conversation about Carmen with somebody. With Apollo.

If the guy was crazy enough to shoot up a car lot, then he was probably crazy enough to cut some brake lines. It didn’t make sense because Apollo had said that he was a friend of Hector’s. But maybe he’d been lying. Maybe he’d been nice to Raoul just so that he could get close to Carmen? He seemed to be about Carmen’s age. Maybe they’d gone to school together? Maybe she’d turned him down for a date or something and he’d been pissed for a long time and was finally getting his revenge?

Raoul’s head was spinning. Maybe his sister had almost died because of him. He wanted to tell her about JJ and Beau and about Apollo but he knew how disappointed she’d be that he hadn’t told her the truth before. And when she found out about Speedy’s, she would be crazy mad.

“What are you going to do?” he whispered.

“Keep living my life. And that’s what you’re going to do, too. But we’re going to be a little more careful, a little more watchful, until we figure this out. Okay?”

He nodded and reached his arms out to hug her. She looked surprised and he realized that it had been a long time since he’d hugged his sister.

She grabbed him tight and hung on. “It will be okay, Raoul. I promise.”

It would. He was going to make sure of that.

Chapter Fifteen

Tuesday

Robert was at his desk by six. He made fresh coffee because the guys who had worked overnight evidently liked drinking mud. He was standing in the break area, waiting for the toaster to pop up his bagel, when Lieutenant Fischer came in. He nodded at Robert.

“You’re in early,” his boss said.

Robert nodded and reached for the cream cheese packet. “You, too.”

“Yeah. My wife said she could take the kids to school this morning.”

That reminded Robert of his conversation with Judy Franconi Wright. “Henry Wright was getting recruited by Stalwart Academy. That’s what his mom told me when I saw her on Sunday.”

His boss cocked his head. “Recruited? That school never recruits. It’s a competitive application process with pretty good transparency.”

Robert’s stomach felt weird and he was pretty sure it wasn’t because his bagel was still on the counter. “You’re sure?”

The man nodded.

Robert pulled his notebook out of his shirt pocket and started flipping through pages. “Here it is. Stalwart Academy. Said that some representative had been talking to Henry for the last couple of weeks. He was very excited―evidently music was his life. But she didn’t know the guy’s name. Wanted Henry to get his business card but he never brought it home. She felt bad because she was wondering if the man knew Henry was dead.”

He met his boss’s eyes. “Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the thread that we’ve been looking for. I’m going to that school.”

“If they give you any trouble, drop my name. In addition to the tuition, I just made a nice donation to their new music room.”

Robert was anxious but still he drove carefully. The snow that had started falling last night when he’d been making love to Carmen had continued on through the middle of the night and there had to be at least five fresh inches. Fortunately, it had stopped in time for the plows to clear most of the main roads, although the side streets probably wouldn’t all get plowed until much later in the day.

When he got to the school, it was not quite seven. He pressed the buzzer on the outside door and waited.

“Yes?” It was a woman but she was hard to hear over the static.

He looked up at the camera that was pointed toward him. “Detective Robert Hanson of the Chicago Police. I need to speak with somebody in charge.”

He heard a buzz and pulled open the door. There was an arrow on the wall, indicating that the office was to his right. He walked into the small administrative area and could smell flavored coffee. There were two women sitting at desks. One had a phone to her ear, and he heard enough to figure out that she was talking to somebody about a kid being ill and missing school. The other woman smiled at him.

“It’s pretty early, Detective,” she said.

“I wanted to catch someone before the day started.” There was no need to tell this woman that time was running out. Tomorrow was Wednesday. “I need to talk to someone about one of your recruitment representatives.”

She cocked her head to the left. “I’ve only been here a month. I’m filling in for someone who is on maternity leave. But I guess I didn’t realize that we had recruitment representatives.” She looked at the other woman, but she was still on the phone. “I suppose you could talk to Assistant Principal Bryant. She’s the only administrator who has arrived. I’ll go get her.”

“Perfect,” he said. In less than three minutes, the woman was back, this time followed by another woman.

Assistant Principal Bryant was mid-thirties, and had blond hair that fell straight to her shoulders and a knockout figure. She wore a classy white wool suit with boots that came up to her knee.

He was reminded of what Carmen had said.
I’m not your type.
Well, if he had a type, this woman was it.

And he felt nothing when she shook his hand.

“What can I do for you, Detective?” Her tone was friendly.

“I am investigating the murder of Henry Wright. He was the young man who was killed last week.”

“Of course,” she said. “I read about it in the newspaper.”

“I understand that someone from your school had made contact with Henry in the last couple of weeks to discuss his possible attendance here next year.”

She tapped her index finger against her bottom lip in thought. Her polished fingernails were nicely shaped. There was no wedding ring. “I suppose it’s possible that he knew one of our teachers outside of school and they had some conversation about what it’s like to attend Stalwart Academy.”

“No,” Robert said. “That wasn’t the way it was explained to me. Someone from Stalwart Academy had made contact with him specifically to discuss the possibility of a freshman scholarship.”

She smiled. “I can guarantee you that didn’t happen. Stalwart Academy doesn’t have to recruit,” she said somewhat smugly. “We have a waiting list of candidates every year. And we certainly don’t offer any scholarships.”

It was exactly what Lieutenant Fischer had thought. He stood up. “Thank you for your time.”

She had a stack of business cards on her desk and she reached for one. She flipped it over and wrote a number on the back. “My pleasure, Detective Hanson. Here’s my card and my personal cell phone on the back, in the event that you’d want to follow up. On anything.”

The message was clear. She was interested.

He put the card in his pocket. He wasn’t.

* * *

T
HE
BUS
WAS
ten minutes late and by the time it dropped him off at his corner, Raoul had to run the last two blocks to make it to band practice on time. He didn’t want to be late. With the winter concert only two days away, his teacher was acting crazy about that kind of stuff. He was practically on school grounds when Apollo stepped out of the bushes.

“Hey,” Raoul said, stopping fast. For the past twenty-four hours, ever since Robert Hanson had shown up at his school, demanding to know about Speedy’s, he’d been worried sick about what he’d done. Every time he heard a siren in the distance, he’d envisioned that it was the cops coming to get him.

All the trouble had started with this guy. “I’m late,” Raoul said.

“No worries,” Apollo said. “I remembered that I had one more thing of Hector’s that he wanted you to have.”

“What?” Raoul asked.

Apollo held up both gloved hands. “Can’t say, can’t say. But it’s a big deal. What time does your band practice start tomorrow?”

“There’s no practice tomorrow morning. Our band teacher has a meeting.”

Apollo smiled. “Good. Then meet me here this time tomorrow. That will give me plenty of time to show you and you can still get to school on time like a good boy.”

Raoul didn’t like Apollo’s attitude. “Hey, my sister was in a car accident yesterday. You don’t happen to know anything about that, do you?”

Apollo frowned at him. “No. Why should I?”

Because you’re a creep.
“I don’t know. I just had to ask.”

“Raoul, I only want what Hector wanted for you. Now, meet me tomorrow. You’ll be glad you did.”

He would meet him but that was the last he was going to have anything to do with him. He might have been Hector’s friend at one time but there was something Raoul didn’t like about him.

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

“On Wednesday,” Apollo said before he disappeared back into the snow-covered bushes.

* * *

C
ARMEN
HAD
BEEN
at her desk for less than ten minutes when her office phone rang. “Carmen Jimenez,” she answered.

“Hey, just checking to make sure you made it to work okay.”

Robert. Just thinking about him made her warm. She hadn’t showered before bed. Hadn’t wanted to wash away his scent. Instead, she’d gone to bed naked, something she never did, especially not on a cold winter night. But she’d lain naked in her double bed and imagined what it would be like if Robert was next to her with his warm skin, his strong muscles, his talented fingers and mouth.

It was almost embarrassing and certainly not something she intended to share with Robert. “Yes, got here just a little while ago. I asked Raoul to text me when he got to school and he’s also safe and sound.”

“Good.” He paused. “Can I see you tonight?”

“I don’t want to leave Raoul home alone,” she said.

“Of course. I could stop by. It would probably be late anyway. He goes to sleep at some point, right?”

Was she ready to have a man in the apartment? Raoul was a heavy sleeper, but what if he somehow overheard them? What if he knocked on the door?

She needed to talk to him first. Maybe she could do that at dinner?

“I’m not sure, Robert. I want to. But I have to handle this carefully.”

“I know. I can respect that. But there’s something that I want to ask you.”

“About?”

“Let’s just wait until tonight.”

He clearly didn’t want to talk about it now. “I’ll call you later and let you know if it’s okay to come over,” she said.

* * *

W
HEN
R
OBERT
GOT
back to the station, he made fast tracks to where Blaze, Wasimole and Sawyer were having a heated discussion. He could see the frustration on their faces.

“I think I’ve got something,” he said.

All three of them looked up. Blaze and Wasimole looked exhausted; Sawyer looked interested.

He filled them in on his conversation with Judy Franconi Wright and his more recent conversation with Assistant Principal Bryant. When he finished, he rubbed his cold hands together. “Somebody made contact with Henry Wright just weeks before he died. Somebody that we know now wasn’t legit. We need to go back to the families of the other three victims and see if we can find a similar thread.”

Wasimole and Blaze nodded. “We can take Johnnie Whitmore and Ben Johanson, victims one and two.”

“Okay. We’ll take Gabe Monroe. I never did get to talk to his parents, just the grandmother. Hopefully they will be back from vacation.”

Blaze was walking away when she turned. “Let’s try to circle back together early afternoon.” She didn’t need to say anything else. Time was getting the best of them. Wednesday was now less than eighteen hours away.

“Okay,” Robert said.

On the way out of the building, Sawyer eyed him. “Anything you want to tell me?” he said.

“No,” Robert answered.

Sawyer rolled his eyes. “I’m not looking for details, idiot. I know you planned on taking Carmen home from the hospital. How is she?”

Fabulous. Sexy as hell. Inexperienced in a wonderful way. “She said her ribs are a little sore but she got lucky. Real lucky.”

“Lieutenant Fischer assigned it to Vance. He’s a good cop. He’ll figure it out if there’s anything there.”

“I know. I sent him a text last night asking who he was going to assign it to. Vance is a good choice. I’d have been a better one.”

“You’d have been the worse one. Plenty of motivation but not a lot of credibility when it came time for a trial.
Yes, Judge, I am sleeping with the victim.
That never goes over well.”

Sawyer was right. It still didn’t make him happy.

“So, did you ask her?” Sawyer asked.

“No. Yesterday was absolutely crazy. Maybe tonight. I told her I wanted to talk to her about something.”

“You’ll know when it’s the right time. Come on, let’s go talk to Maury and Carol Monroe.”

* * *

W
HEN
THEY
GOT
to the Monroe home, there was no grandmother this time. Maury answered the door. He was wearing dress slacks and a nice shirt, and he had a cell phone in his hand.

“Detectives Montgomery and Hanson,” Robert said as they flashed identification. “I stopped by last week and spoke with your mother. She said you were out of town. I know we didn’t have an appointment but we were hoping we could spend a little time with you and your wife today.”

“My wife isn’t here. She ran to the grocery store,” he said.

“Do you have a few minutes?” Robert asked.

“Sure. We just got home a little while ago.” He led them into the living room. There was a young woman on the couch holding the ugly dog. Robert guessed her age at about sixteen.

“This is my daughter, Trina,” Maury said.

He and Sawyer took chairs. Maury sat on the couch next to his daughter.

Robert remembered that the grandmother had indicated that the sister was having a hard time. “Maybe your daughter would want to do something else for a little while,” he suggested.

Maury looked at his daughter, and she shook her head violently. He patted her leg. “She stays. She feels that she’s been left out of discussions about her brother and that makes her angry.”

Information was a funny thing. Everybody wanted it until they heard something they wished they hadn’t. But it wasn’t his decision.

“We are wondering if during the weeks prior to his death, if Gabe had mentioned meeting anyone new? Maybe someone from a school or something like that?”

Maury shook his head. “He talked about kids sometimes that I didn’t know, but I don’t think anybody was really new. Just his classmates. I think you guys already looked at his computer and his Facebook page.”

Blaze and Wasimole had secured that immediately after the killing. There was nothing on there that made them believe that he had met up with someone. “Where did Gabe hang out after school?” Sawyer asked.

“He usually came home, watched some television, played video games.” Maury looked at his daughter. “Right?”

She nodded. “Sometimes he came to band practice with me. Mr. Reynolds didn’t care if he watched.”

Robert looked up from his notepad. “You play the drums, right?”

“Yeah. Gabe used to screw around with them all the time,” she said. “It used to make me so mad.”

And now, Robert could tell, she felt bad about that.

“Have you ever heard of the Gottart Studio?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. When I was at band camp last year, a couple other kids were talking about taking lessons somewhere. That might have been the place.”