Jamie Hill Triple Threat (20 page)

Curtis choked on the cracker she'd shoved in her mouth, and took a drink to wash it down. She finally said, “Detective Hottie? He’s definitely cool. You’ll appreciate what I mean when he gets here.”

Crystal
thought about that and blew a puff of smoke toward the ceiling. She had her own hot detective. Curtis could have “Detective Hottie.”

Curtis waved smoke away from her face and moved a chair away from
Crystal
. She looked at her testily and demanded, “Do you think your boys should be exposed to second-hand smoke like that?”

Crystal
inhaled a long drag and expelled it slowly. “Probably not.” She turned her face away and continued to smoke.

A tall, good-looking man wearing jeans and a corduroy jacket appeared in the doorway. His blonde hair was shaggy and streaked with various shades.
Crystal
knew that while he was attractive, those hair shades did not appear in nature. That seemed funny to her. She tried to imagine Jack sitting in a hair salon, getting a foil-weave highlighting, and had to bite back a laugh.

“Hey Mel,” the man addressed Detective Curtis smoothly. “Hear you stumbled on to an interesting case.”

“Oh, yeah,” Curtis replied, and smiled sweetly at him.

Crystal
flicked ashes in the ashtray and looked at the man who had to be Curtis’ Detective Hottie. The look on the female detective’s face all but confirmed it.
Crystal
said, “It’s Detective Dunlevy’s case, actually. And nobody
stumbled
on anything, except me and my kids over a dead body.”

He stepped in and extended his hand. “I’m Brady Marshall from Special Investigations, and you are…?”

“Bored and tired of spending my Saturday in this place.”
Crystal
extinguished her cigarette and looked at him, then gave him a break and shook his hand. “Crystal Cartwright. Mark and
Devon
.”

Marshall
smiled at her and hiked one hip on the edge of the table next to her. “Pleasure to meet you, Crystal. Sorry this is taking so long.” He glanced over at the kids and then back at Curtis. “Melanie, I wonder if you might take the boys out for a walk around the bullpen? I have a few questions for Ms. Cartwright.”

“Sure,” Curtis said, though it was obvious she’d rather stay where
Marshall
was. “Come on fellas, I’ll show you around a little bit.”

“Stay close,”
Crystal
told them.

“They’ll be fine.”
Marshall
smiled at her. He never acknowledged the boys directly,
Crystal
noticed. She disliked him already.

Detective Curtis led the boys out and shut the door behind her.
Marshall
pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered one to
Crystal
.

“No thanks.” She stared at him. Something was bothering her, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was.

He lit up and blew the smoke in the air. “So, I’m trying to get this straight in my head. The vic, David Erickson, lived next door to you. He your ex?”

“Depends what you mean by ex,”
Crystal
replied. “Ex-sperm donor? Yeah, we can call him that. We were never married.”

“You lived next door to him and shared custody of the children?”

“Pretty much.”

“And yet you didn’t know that he had a quarter of a million dollars tucked away in his apartment?”

She chuckled and lit up her own cigarette. “If I would have known about it, none of us would be here today. The kids and I would be someplace a hell of a lot warmer, I can promise you that.”

He chuckled with her, and inquired, “So your relationship with Erickson recently was, what?”

Cr
ystal
looked at him. “What are you asking, detective? Were we fuck-buddies? I’m not sure that’s relevant, and I really don’t like the way you’re questioning me, like I have anything to do with this.”

He smiled and shrugged. “I’m new to the investigation. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Dunlevy yet. I don’t know how much you may or may not have to do with anything. I do know I like the idea of fuck-buddies, so maybe we can talk some more about that.”

She glared at him and blew smoke in his face. “Screw you, you arrogant bastard!”

He grinned and moved closer to her. “You offering?”

Crystal
nearly exploded, but before she could respond Jack returned with his lieutenant in tow. Jack looked around and asked quickly, “Where are the boys?”

Crystal
shoved her chair back from
Marshall
and stood up beside Jack. “Detective Curtis took them out so this…” She searched for the best word. “
Jerk
could question me. And I’ve had about all I’m going to take from him.”

Jack raised a hand to quiet her and looked the other man. “
Marshall
,” he acknowledged.

“Dunlevy,” Marshall replied and nodded. “Lieutenant Reeder.”

“
Marshall
,” Reeder said. “We have a problem here?”

Marshall
smiled and shrugged. “Just questioning the witness, sir.”

Crystal
spoke up “He’s treating me like a damned suspect and I don’t appreciate it.”

Jack glanced at
Marshall
. “She doesn’t know anything about the money or the drugs. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, is all.”

Marshall
smiled again. “She might want to be a little more careful in future about her choice of fuck-buddies, then.”

“Excuse me?” Jack’s eyes flashed.

Marshall
shrugged. “Her words, not mine, when I asked about her relationship with Erickson.”

Crystal
exploded. “He’s turning everything around.” She shot
Marshall
a glare and added, “He’s a total and complete jerk.”

“Now, Miz Erickson,” the lieutenant began.

“My name is Cartwright,”
Crystal
interrupted him. She reached over to put out her cigarette and looked at Jack. “I’m getting out of here.”

“Hang on a minute,” Jack told her. Just then Curtis brought the boys back in.

“Devon needs to use the bathroom, but he wouldn’t let me take him,” she said to
Crystal
.

Jack took a step toward
Crystal
and whispered, “Please try to calm down. This is important.” He said louder, “I’ll take him.” He took the little boy’s hand. “Come on. You too, Mark.” He looked back at
Crystal
. “Wait here. We’ll be right back.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

Jack and the boys departed, and the lieutenant said, “Miz Cartwright, I’m afraid we’ve gotten off to a bad start here. Detective Marshall is one of Special Investigations’ finest, and he’s going to figure out the connection between Mr. Erickson and the money you found. I would offer you this. If you’d like, I could remove Detective Dunlevy from the case and put Detective Curtis on instead. Perhaps you’d be more comfortable with a wo—”

Crystal
shook her head, trying not to object too forcefully. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. We’re comfortable with Detective Dunlevy. You can see my boys get along well with him, which I'm grateful for, seeing as how they just lost their daddy.” She looked at
Marshall
. “Perhaps Detective Marshall and I got off on the wrong foot. If he can help Dunlevy solve the case, I’d appreciate it.”

Marshall
ground out his cigarette in the ashtray and looked over at her. “I apologize if my words were misconstrued. I’m sure we can work together to figure this thing out.” He smiled, but
Crystal
didn’t think it was a friendly gesture.

She looked away and the lieutenant said, “Well, there we go.
Marshall
, get the case file from Dunlevy and look it over. We’ll put a couple men at the apartment building and see if we can track who goes in and out.” He looked at
Crystal
. “How many apartments are there total?”

“Twenty-one. Seven apartments on each floor. If you want someone who knows the building and the residents, see Mrs. Gianelli in 1A. She’s like ninety, but she knows everybody.”

He nodded. Then Jack returned with the boys. “Thanks,”
Crystal
told him, and pulled the kids close to her.

“Yep,” he nodded, and looked at the lieutenant. “I’m going to get these people out of here.
Marshall
, I’ll get you the file. It’s on my desk.”

Reeder asked, “You got them staying someplace safe? You need a black-and-white to watch out for them?”

“Not at this time,” Jack told him. “They’re safe.
Marshall
, I’ll talk to you Monday, unless something else comes up.”

“Right,” he followed them and glanced once more at
Crystal
. “I apologize again for our rocky start.” She knew the words were for Jack’s benefit.

“Yeah, you bet.” She looked at Jack. “Can we go?”

“Call my cell if you have questions or need anything,” he told
Marshall
as he handed over the case file. Then he led her and the boys back outside.

“He’s an asshole,”
Crystal
muttered, and Jack chuckled. He opened the doors of the Explorer for her and the kids.

He got in his side and said, “He’s pretty good at what he does. Hopefully he can figure out who we’re dealing with here, and we can get this mess wrapped up.”

She lit up a cigarette and replied, “I hope so. I want this to be over with.” She looked at Jack and he gazed back at her. “I mean, I want the scary part to be over with.”

He chuckled again and squeezed her hand. “I know what you mean. This hasn’t exactly been the day out I promised you. The least I can do is take you guys out to eat.”

She shrugged. “I don’t really care. We can just go home.”

“We want pizza!” Mark piped up from the back seat.

Jack smiled back at him. “You want video games and the ball pit, you mean.”

“Yeah!” Mark and
Devon
both shouted.

Jack looked at
Crystal
, then back at the two boys. “I’m not in the mood for video games, but you could play in the play area and we could eat a pizza, I guess.”

“Okay!” Both boys agreed.

Jack raised an eyebrow at
Crystal
. “Okay with you?”

“Sure.” He was being so nice to the boys.
How can I not be attracted to a man like this?

“Pizza it is.” He drove toward the restaurant.

“And beer,”
Crystal
mumbled as she sank down into her seat.

“Lots of beer,” Jack agreed.

At the restaurant he ordered a pizza, two beers and two cokes. They went to a booth by the ball pit, and the boys took off to play immediately.
Crystal
slid into the booth. Jack put their jackets opposite them and slid in beside her. She smiled at him and he shrugged. “I can see the boys better from this side.” He reached under the table and took her hand. “Oh, and then there’s this.”

She moved her knee over next to his and wiggled it. “This is nice.”

“So tell me what
Marshall
said to piss you off. I’m trying to decide how polite I should be to him.”

She relayed their conversation and Jack set his jaw. Their beers arrived and he sipped his before he answered. “He does sound like an asshole. Hopefully you won’t have to be around him much. I have to admit I’m glad they brought him on board, though. Once we found that money, they started taking us seriously. They’re going to watch the building. If we can identify somebody Special Investigations is familiar with, maybe we can figure out exactly who is looking for the money.”

“I hope so.” She took a drink. “Of course, then I’ll be forced to make some decisions.”

“I was thinking about that. You could become a foster parent. The state would pay you to take care of the boys.”

“If I had a place to live and a job, maybe. Right now I have neither. And I’m terrified that if I report the boys to the authorities, they’ll yank them away and I won’t be able to get them back. I know there’ll be massive amounts of red tape.”

He nodded. “I’m sure there will be. But as things stand now, you’ll never be able to sign anything as their legal guardian. It would really be best to get it all ironed out legally.”

“Or we just disappear. Who would notice, or care, for that matter?”

Jack studied her face. “You’re not going to disappear.
I
would notice, and I'd definitely care. I’d like to help you find a job and a nice place to live in a good neighborhood. The thing about foster care, as I mentioned, is that the state would pay you to take care of the boys. That extra income would help, so you could make it with one job.”