John laughed. “You have no clue, do you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“She was checking you out from the moment we walked in the room, and she barely gave me a glance, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Sam stopped. “She was not checking me out. Women don’t… check me out.”
John laughed again. “God, you are so naïve. No wonder it’s taken you this long to figure out you’re gay.”
“I think I should be offended,” she said. “Shouldn’t I?”
John placed one hand on her back and gallantly opened the door for her. “No, you should not be offended. I think it’s rather sweet, how innocent you are.”
Chapter Forty-six
Tori heard the door open and looked up, seeing Sam’s reflection in the mirror. She grabbed a couple of paper towels and turned, drying her hands as a slow smile appeared on her face.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Sam said. She moved closer, stopping only when their bodies nearly brushed. “I missed you,” she said quietly.
“Yeah? No fun hanging out with Sikes?”
“John has proven to be quite fun to work with, but I want my partner back.”
“Good.” Tori’s eyes softened and she dropped them briefly to Sam’s lips. “I missed you, too.”
Sam reached out one hand, lightly grasping Tori’s arm. “Please say we can make an early night of it. I so want to be alone with you, Tori,” she whispered.
“Me, too. But I don’t know about an early night. CIU is coming aboard. We’re supposed to meet with them at three. We need to get everyone together and go over what we got.”
“Okay. We met with Dr. Ferguson today. She told us much more about the case in Fort Worth than Detective Gardner did.”
“Oh?”
“It was brutal. She’s going to fax her report to Jackson. John called and briefed him.”
“Good.” Tori hesitated, wondering if she should tell Sam about Adams. Hell, she had to tell someone. “I talked to the bartender at The Pink Lagoon. About Jason Branson, the case that Adams and Donaldson had, the transvestite.”
“How did it go?”
“He fingered Grayson. But there was something else. I’m not sure that it merits mentioning in front of the others, though. He knows Adams. He knows him as Carl,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“He said Adams comes in every Saturday night.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Adams goes to a gay bar?”
“Not just any gay bar. One that caters to the transgendered crowd.”
“Carl?”
Tori shrugged. “If this is just something personal with Adams, then it’s not any of our business. But if it has anything to do with this case-”
“You’ve got to tell Malone,” Sam said. “It’s too much of a coincidence. Maybe that’s why he didn’t follow through with the investigation.”
“Yes, I’m sure of it. He didn’t want to be found out. But still, we hadn’t fingered Grayson. He would have been just a description that would have gone nowhere.”
“You still need to tell Malone.”
“Yeah, I know. But shit, Adams? He’s like Mr. Homophobe. I can’t believe it.”
“This is so weird, Tori. What if Grayson’s message was for real? What if Adams does know more?”
“Then he’s fucked.”
“Come on. Let’s get it over with. We only have thirty minutes before CIU shows up.”
The squad room was quiet. Sikes and Ramirez were both staring at their computers, John occasionally interjecting something. Donaldson was sitting alone, absently tapping a pencil on his desk.
“Where’s Adams?” Sam whispered.
Tori shrugged. “Had a doctor’s appointment this morning but I’ve not seen him all day.”
Malone stuck his head out of his office. “We need to meet, people. In the conference room. CIU will be here at three.”
“Lieutenant, can I have a word?” Tori glanced around her. “In private?”
He nodded, then stood back to allow her into his office. “Kennedy, make sure you have enough copies of the file. Travis is bringing two other detectives with him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Malone shut his door and watched Tori as she fidgeted with the silver bracelet around her wrist. He studied it, wondering when she’d gotten it. He’d not noticed it before. Then he smiled. Kennedy, no doubt.
“What’s up, Hunter? Something you don’t want to share with the team?”
“Yeah. It may have a bearing on the case, may not. It might just be delving into someone’s personal life, which I hate.”
“Spill it. We don’t have time for niceties.”
“I saw the bartender. He described Grayson, then fingered him when I showed him the picture.”
“Good. But that’s not why you’re here. Out with it, Hunter.”
“Adams goes there. Every Saturday night. They know him as Carl.”
“What the fuck?” Malone leaned forward. “Are you shitting me?”
“No, sir. Marty, that’s the bartender, said when Adams and Donaldson came in asking questions, that Adams was extremely nervous. They asked a couple of questions, then left. He said Adams was there the night Branson was killed. He indicated that Branson and Adams may have had contact.”
“Contact? What the hell do you mean?”
“He said that Adams… Carl liked blondes. Lisa was a blonde.”
“Jesus Christ,” he murmured. “You don’t think Adams whacked him, do you?”
“No. But I think they may have been involved… physically, at some point. It’s none of our business what Adams does with his free time, but in this case, he let a murder investigation go down the drain because of it.” Tori leaned forward too. “Lieutenant, what if they could have fingered Grayson then? How many lives could have been saved, not to mention two police officers?”
“Fuck, Tori. Since the bartender fingered Grayson, Travis and his crew will be going over the case with a microscope. Adams and Donaldson will get their asses busted. We’ve got to come clean with Travis. He’s got to know everything. I’m not going to let them bring down our whole team just because Adams screwed up.”
“I agree. But this is not going to be pretty.”
“Adams hasn’t shown up today. I’m going to have Donaldson call his house. Let me talk to Travis in private. It might help some. Send Donaldson in, then go brief the others.”
“Yes, sir.”
When Tori was at the door, Malone called her back.
“Tori, thanks, you did a good job. Let’s hope we can put an end to this soon.”
Tori took a seat next to Sam and across from Sikes and Ramirez, who were both reading through the report that Sam had given them. Tori flipped to the end, noting that Sam had added their notes from the Fort Worth case. Absent was any mention of the Branson case.
“Detective Travis will be here with CIU in a few minutes. They’re going to… assist us. But it’s still our show. Malone says they are making all their resources available to us, so I know you all feel better about that.”
“Yeah, right,” Sikes said with a laugh.
“I got some news today that I wanted to share with you before CIU gets here.”
“Where’s Donaldson and Adams?” Ramirez asked. “Are they still on the team?”
“Adams AWOL,” Tori said with a shrug. “The Lieutenant was having Donaldson try to get in touch with him.”
“AWOL?”
“Look, let’s just go over this quickly. When Malone gets here, we can discuss the case.” Tori cleared her throat, then looked at Sam, who offered a slight smile. “I opened up the Branson case. That was the transvestite that Adams and Donaldson had a month or so ago. I went back to the bar today and spoke with Marty Stevens, the bartender. Good news is he remembers Grayson being at the bar the same Saturday night that Branson was killed. He also said that Grayson had been harassing Branson. Branson, by the way, was transgendered and went by
Lisa
.” She looked at Sikes, who snorted. “I knew I could count on you for adolescent background noises, John.”
“It’s not that. I can just imagine Adams questioning this guy.”
Tori nodded. “Which brings me to the next thing. If you’ll look at the file on this case, you’ll see that they questioned only the bartender and only then, a few questions at best. Reason being, Adams was a regular at the bar.”
“What the hell? Adams at a gay bar?”
“He went by Carl.”
They all stared in silence, then John broke out into a smile. “I’ll be goddamned.”
Tori nodded, then grinned. Soon, chuckles replaced smiles and then laughter rang out.
“It’s not really funny,” Sam said. “But Jesus… Carl?”
“So, was he like…”
“I don’t know,” Tori said. “I don’t even want to think about it. It’s not any of our business other than the investigation was compromised. Which brings us back to why we’re here in the first place. Where the hell is Grayson? Where’s he hiding? We can most likely pin this murder on him. Hopefully, the one in Fort Worth, too. But still, where the hell is he, and how do we find him?”
A quick knock on the door and Malone preceded Travis and two other detectives inside.
“You all know Detective Travis. This is Morris and Fields.”
“Hunter, good to see you again,” Travis said. “Kennedy.”
“Hello, Detective Travis.” She stood and offered her hand to both Morris and Fields, then pointed at the others. “Sikes and Ramirez.”
“First of all, the Chief requested CIU to assist in your investigation. It’s still your investigation. We have a serial killer, and they want a task force. However, I spoke with my Captain and everyone is in agreement that the more hands you have involved, the messier it gets. So, for now, it’s just us.” He looked at Hunter, who nodded. “Your Lieutenant has filled me in on the latest… development. While it obviously affected the investigation of the Branson case, it doesn’t change the fact that we are still looking for Grayson. Any misconduct will be investigated by Internal Affairs, not us. So let’s move on to Grayson. Right now, he’s holding an assistant DA and it’s our job to find her. When we find Grayson, if he’s still alive, then we’ll put our case together.” He flipped open the file, then looked at Hunter. “With that said, how do we find him?”
“He stakes out his victims at gay bars, other than the ones he had access to from Belle’s Hostel. You would think he would lay low for a while, especially if he’s keeping Charlotte Grayson alive. And I think she’s still alive. If he’d killed her, he would have displayed the body somewhere. He’d want us to know that he’d killed her. I’m no profiler, but I’ve been on the streets long enough to know that he’ll kill again. He has to. That’s his only reason for existing.”
“Where does he get his money from?” Sam asked.
“Good question. He has no job that we know of.”
“Bank accounts?” Travis asked.
“None.”
“What about his mother?”
“She may have given him some, but she wasn’t exactly wealthy. And, of course now, her assets are frozen.”
“I’ll have our guys do a thorough check on his financial background. There has to be something.”
“Okay, good.” Tori flipped through the file, stopping at the list of gay bars they’d checked out. “Page twelve lists possible targets. We’ve staked out Outlaws in the past, mostly because that’s where the girls from Belle’s went. It was where we first spotted him. We also tailed him to a men’s bar called The Brickyard. We know he was at The Pink Lagoon. If we’re going to stake out bars, obviously it’ll have to be men’s bars or Outlaws, that’s the only mixed bar.”
“He knows we’re looking for him,” Morris said. “Do you really think he’s foolish enough to go out to a bar looking for his next victim?”
“Yes, I do. And right now, that’s all we’ve got.”
“And there’s been no contact with him, other than the one phone call?” Travis asked.
“No. I really thought, well, I thought he’d try to contact us again. I think he gets off on it,” Tori said.
A knock on the door interrupted them and Donaldson stuck his head in.
“Lieutenant?”
Malone stared. “Adams?”
“No. His wife said he left like usual this morning.”
“And his cell?”
“Still no answer.”
“Shit,” Malone murmured.
“He may pose a problem, Lieutenant,” Travis said. “I think maybe we should go to your Captain with this and see about bringing him in.”
“I’d really like to talk to him before this all gets out. It would… ruin him.”
“It’s most likely going to anyway.”
“What are you talking about?” Donaldson asked. “What will ruin him?”
They were saved answering by Tori’s cell phone. She moved away from the table.
“Hunter.”
“Detective? It’s Marty… from the bar.”
“Yes. What is it, Marty?” She flicked her eyes to Sam, then Malone.
“Carl was here. He pretty much went berserk when I told him you’d been in asking about Lisa. He… well, he kinda trashed the place… broken chairs and tables. I was afraid he was going to shoot me.”
“Are you okay, Marty?”
“Yeah, sure. He pushed me around a little, but he left. The manager already called the cops, but I thought I should let you know.”
“You did good, Marty. Hang tight. I’ll be right over.”
“Okay, I’ll be here.”
Tori stared around the table, then finally looked at Malone. “Adams showed up at The Pink Lagoon. That was the bartender I spoke with earlier.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing. He apparently lost it when Marty told him I’d been in asking questions. He tore up the place, then left.” She cleared her throat, then continued. “I think we need to go out there and see if maybe there’s more going on with Adams than just this.” She looked at Travis. “Maybe do a little background,” she suggested. He nodded.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Donaldson demanded. “Adams isn’t involved in any of this.”
“Donaldson, Adams is running and we need to find him. He knows something,” Tori said.
“Knows something about what? This case?”
Tori looked helplessly to Malone.
“Donaldson, let’s talk in my office. Hunter, you and Sam head out there. Travis?”
“We’ll do a background and run the financials on Grayson and see what hits. Let’s meet again in the morning.”
Tori walked over to Sikes and grasped his arm. “John, you mind coming, too?”
“Of course not. What about Tony?”
“I think maybe Donaldson might need someone here. Tony, that okay with you?”