Jaded (9 page)

She patted Bea’s hair and rocked her. “Where is your mother, Bea?”

Squinting eyes stared up at her. “She no come home last night. I’m afraid.”

Jade shushed her and continued rocking. “I know you are, sweetie, and I promise you it will get better. You’re safe here.”

Bea broke down and cried more. Jade did what she came there to do, comfort and reassure. But as Bea’s tears began to soak her shirt sleeve, anger swelled. It was one thing to victimize an adult, but an innocent child?

Fernando Mendoza needed to go to jail for this. He’d managed to slip through the cracks by intimidating his children to lie. But this time, Sister Josie told Jade, there were witnesses. Now the little girl had to put her faith in the justice system.

After several long minutes, the girl’s sobs turned into deep, troubled breaths. She was asleep. Jade closed her eyes and thought back to her years on the run with Tina. The so-called system had not stepped in and helped two homeless girls. No, the system failed them on so many levels she’d stopped counting. Jade learned early there was only one person on this earth she could trust. And so she worked her fingers raw and did what she had to do.

Exhaustion crept over her and, feeling safe here in the shelter, Jade let the fatigue take over her body. She fell into a troubled sleep.

Several hours later, Jade woke with a start. It took her several seconds to get her bearings but Bea’s soft snores against her shoulder calmed her. Gently, Jade moved the little body from hers and rearranged her on the bed, covering Bea with a Little Mermaid blanket. The child’s innocence was lost forever and without intense counseling she would no doubt repeat in her adulthood the cycle of violence, picking a man who showed he cared with his fists.

Despite the lost hours of sleep, Jade made her rounds visiting the few children who called the shelter home this week. Although the shelter was sponsored by the Catholic church, it was donations that kept it afloat, and Jade donated heavily and regularly. She also made sure she mentioned it when appropriate to the members at Callahan’s. Guilt money was a beautiful thing.

Jade wasn’t surprised to see the handsome detective leaning against her car when she left the shelter several hours later. Her stomach did a slow roll, but she ignored it. “Following me, Detective?”

He smiled. “As a matter of fact, I am. Why did you call Andrew Townsend at seven p.m. the night of his murder?”

Jade stopped in front of him and crossed her arms over her chest. It was common knowledge at the club that they had a date that night. “I was confirming our dinner date.”

“Did you have dinner with him?”

“Yes.”

“What else did you do on your date?”

Jade pulled down her sunglasses and winced at the bright sunlight, then slid them back up again. “Do you want to know if I had sex with him?”

“Among other things.”

“First of all, let me explain again, Detective. Callahan’s is not a brothel. I am not a prostitute. Nor are any of the other ladies employed there. If I had sex with Andrew Townsend, or any other man I might date, that is my business and would be my choice as a consenting adult. Not to turn a trick.”

“Do you have sex with your dates?”

“How is my sex life pertinent to finding who killed Mr. Townsend?”

“Did you like him?”

“Andrew? No.”

“Why not.”

“He was a bully and he had no manners. Men like that deserve a swift kick in the ass.” She moved around the car to the driver’s door. “I have to go home.”

Jase followed around and stood between her and the door. He raised his hand slowly to her face. She didn’t flinch, and he smiled. Gently, he pulled the sunglasses away from her face. “The swelling has gone down.”

“That happens when you take mass quantities of anti-inflammatories and sleep on a block of ice.”

Jase ran a fingertip along the swollen curve of her lip. “Does it still hurt?”

She slapped his hand away. “It hurts enough.”

Jase stood back and allowed her to get into her car. He watched her drive away and smiled. He was getting to her.

He sat in his car and booted up the laptop, then keyed in to the monitoring site. After he put in the necessary data the screen lit up with the area street grid, and the flashing dot on the screen that was Jade. Looked like she was going home.

He called Ricco. “Hey, man, anything from the coroner?”

“Yeah, the prelim came back. Cause of death: asphyxiation. The guy choked on his balls!”

Jase grimaced. “I thought as much. Was the stab wound significant?”

“Hmm, says here, puncture to the left lung. Blade size: four inches long by one-sixteenth by half an inch wide. No distinctive marks. One jab.”

“I want a warrant for it. Call Judge Culling—she likes me—and get it signed off. I want to search the residence of one Jade Devereaux.”

“But it wasn’t the murder weapon.”

“It could have been the knife used to whack his balls. Besides, she’s lying to me about seeing him later in the evening. I want to know why. I don’t know, but the woman has some baggage and she’s hiding information. Was there any DNA on the victim other than his?”

“Nothing traceable except soap. There was no semen, so if Townsend had sex he showered and changed, or the killer was the one who washed him down. Probably to get rid of any trace evidence. You think Jade screwed him, then cut his balls off and shoved them down his throat?”

Jase laughed. “If she did, he must have been lousy in the sack.”

“Yeah, remind me never to piss off a woman like her in bed.”

“Keep me posted,” he told his partner, then hung up.

Jase watched the beep that was Jade’s car on the grid turn toward the club. So, she’d changed her mind.

Moments later, Jase drove by the back lot of Callahan’s. Save for Jade’s BMW, the lot was empty. Jase pulled in beside her car and followed up on a few leads.

According to Jade and Mac, Genevieve was the last person to see Townsend alive. Ricco had left her several messages with no return calls. The address Ricco had for her hadn’t checked out this morning. Jase smiled. Looked like it was time to encounter Jade Devereaux again.

Jase hopped from his car and strode up to the back door. He wasn’t surprised when he tried the door to find it locked. He knocked. A minute later, a small slot in the door opened and Jade’s swollen eye peered at him.

“What is it now, Detective?”

“I need your girl Genevieve’s address.”

“I gave it to you.”

“It’s bogus.”

The metal slat closed and the door jerked open. “What do you mean, it’s bogus?”

“Just what I said, my partner went there this a.m. to have a chat with your girl. It was an empty warehouse in Santa Clara.”

Jase followed Jade in and she shut the door behind him and bolted it. She moved down a long hall through the kitchen and into a short vestibule that opened to her office. Interesting. It was a fake panel from the inside. Two entries.

Immediately, Jade sat down at her computer and pulled up a file. Irritated, she picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Hi, Genny, it’s Jade. When you come in this evening, please bring a utility bill with your name and address on it for my files. Thank you.”

She turned to Jase. “I don’t like to be lied to.”

“Neither do I. Do you have a knife you carry with that gun of yours?”

Her head snapped back. “A knife? As in a steak knife, that kind of knife?”

“Exactly, but something on a smaller scale, say four inches.”

Jade stared at him for a long time. She’d forgotten to ditch the damn knife! It was right there in her drawer, attached to her key chain. “I don’t recall.”

Jase sat down and made himself comfortable. “I thought you were going home. Why are you here?”

“I have work to catch up on, especially since I don’t plan on coming in tonight.”

“A date?”

“Hardly, Detective. In case you haven’t noticed, I look like someone used my face for a punching bag. I can’t be seen by anyone here in this condition. The bruises will only get darker as the week goes by; hopefully I’ll be able to cover those with cosmetics, but not the swelling. So I get to take a little unplanned vacation.”

“Who will run things with you gone?”

“Thomas is quite capable of handling the club for a few days.”

“When’s the last time you had a vacation?”

“That’s a strange question for a detective to ask a person of interest.”

“Off the record.”

“I took my sis—I took a trip to San Diego a few months ago.”

“You have a sister here?”

“No, she’s away. College.”

“Does she know what you do for a living?”

“Just what
do
I do for a living, Detective?”

“Officially or unofficially?”

“Since you seem to know all, why don’t you give me both versions?”

“C’mon, Jade. You can’t expect me to believe after what I saw last night and what I overheard last night that you aren’t running girls through this place.”

“Did it ever occur to you, Detective, that I might use people’s perception of me to further my position?”

Jase sat back in the chair and relaxed like he had all day. “Explain.”

“Last night I was followed by a man who had two misperceptions of me. One, that I was someone named Ruby; and two, that I was a prostitute. I couldn’t get rid of him even though I am not this Ruby person. But to gain leverage in a volatile situation I allowed him to think I was on the clock. He thought I had another client, and because of it he left.”

“He left because you pulled a .357 on him.”

“I did, but as you can see by my face, that didn’t deter him, now did it? I’m sure he assumed you were my next john.”

“I’m going to arrest him for assaulting you.”

“No, you are not.”

“It’s not your call.”

“Detective, my life is complicated enough as it is. The last thing I need is the likes of Otis Thibodeaux making it worse.”

“If he’s in jail, he can’t.”

“If he had money to join Callahan’s, he has money to buy his way out of jail with a shark of an attorney, and if I’m a hostile witness? Why waste the taxpayer’s money?”

Jase nodded. “The law-enforcement part of me aside, as a man, do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to do nothing to a man who uses a woman as a punching bag?”

Jade smiled. “You cannot be every woman’s knight in shining armor, Detective.”

“I don’t strive to be. Now, explain Hiro.”

Jade sighed. “Mr. Hiro and I go way back. Up until last night he had been a perfect gentleman. Maybe the full moon brought out his frisky side. I doubt I’ll see him again anytime soon. He ditched me.”

“Tell me about Jack Morton.”

She shrugged. “Not much to tell. He bought out Sam Callahan two months ago. My gut says he’s new money, and he’s in trouble. It explains why our membership has taken a slide into the new-flash pool.”

“As opposed to old money?”

“There’s a difference. It’s a rare new-money mogul who doesn’t let everyone know he’s loaded. Their wives? All flash. No subtlety. They wear it like a sign. ‘Look at me, I have money and now I’m better than you.’ The men come in here and think all they have to do is snap their fingers and the girls will drop. We don’t, they get pissed, and we have a problem.”

“Did Townsend expect you to drop for him?”

“Yes.”

“And when you refused?”

“He put his hands on me. I told him if he touched me again, I’d cut his balls off and shove them so far down his throat he’d choke to death.”

Jase froze. “I beg your pardon.”

Jade smiled, the gesture stinging. “Mac stepped in, and even then Townsend pushed. Finally, he left with Genny.”

“Then what?”

“Then I went home.”

“You’re lying.”

“Why do you think so?”

“I heard the nine-one-one tape, and you did a lousy job disguising your voice.”

“Hire a voice expert, and you’ll see it wasn’t me.”

Jase nodded. “Don’t think I won’t.”

“I would expect nothing less from you, Detective. Now please, go do your job so I can do mine.”

Jase slid into the unmarked and called his partner.

“Maza.”

“I have some rather interesting info.”

“Shoot.”

“It seems our Miss Devereaux told Townsend when he wouldn’t take no for an answer the other night, that if he persisted, she’d cut his balls off and shove them down his throat.”

“No shit. A sideways confession?”

“I don’t think so, she was pissed, and she’s too smart. Maybe she didn’t hack him, but the person who did him must have overheard her threaten Townsend and knew we’d find out.”

“You think someone is trying to pin this on her?”

“Maybe. But my gut says she’s involved somehow, I’m just not sure how. I’ll bet my new house she was the one on the nine-one-one tape.”

“I’ve already sent it out for analysis.”

“Good. Did you run down Otis Thibodeaux?”

“Yep, just got it. He likes the good life. Suite nine-twenty at the San Jose Fairmont. You want me to visit him?”

“I’m on my way right now. Do we have any more from the coroner? Or the techs? I need some DNA.”

“Lab is backed up. Most of it’s going to county, where we take a number.”

“You’d think with a San Jose resident as the murder victim they would speed it up.”

“Nah, the sheriff has cracked down on cuts. We wait our turn.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Agreed.”

“Run down a William Trent MacDonald, and Katsuo Hiro—”

“Is that the chap Jade left with last night?”

“Yeah.”

“You know he’s the CEO of SyTech, don’t you?”

That was why he was so familiar. Global SyTech, Japan’s answer to Microsoft.

“I knew he was connected. Be quiet about it, he got a little overzealous with Miss Devereaux last night at dinner. Not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t interrupted.”

“She’s turning tricks in restaurants?”

“It looked that way, but now I’m not sure.”

“Don’t fall for the crack, man.”

Jase laughed. “That’s my line.”

“I’m serious. Even for the hit-and-run master you are, sometimes all it takes is one woman to geld you.”