Major Crimes (14 page)

“Well, when you put it that way.”

“Consider this Dira as being in the same category as Drew.”

“What? Don’t bother?”

“Don’t bother.”

“Why not?”

I could almost see steam coming out of the phone from Freddy’s head. He spoke through clenched teeth. “I had one of my investigators check her out. She’s clean. No record. And because I said so!”

“Okay, okay.” The thought of Dira actually killing someone was ridiculous. She was not exactly the killing type. She wasn’t the speaking type either.

I hung up with Freddy, but I knew he was annoyed with me since he didn’t give me his usual “ten-four” conversation ender. I shuffled into the kitchen to make myself a chai latte. It sounded fancy, but it only required me to heat up some milk in the microwave and put in two scoops of a powder mixture. It wasn’t as good as the kind you get in a coffee shop, but it wasn’t half bad either. The warm milk relaxed me.

I plopped down on my couch with the chai and pushed the button on the television remote.
The Bachelorette
was on. It was just what I needed—relaxing and entertaining without my having to think for a change.

Pulling an afghan over me, I curled up wondering who Kaitlyn would pick. It reminded me of my own love life at the moment. There was Kris, who hadn’t called me in a long time. There was Bryce, who I liked more than I wanted to admit. Then there was Randy, who I despised, but I was forced to deal with as the father of my child.

Drifting off to sleep, I dreamt about being in a room with my three suitors, all of whom were dressed in medieval knight costumes. On their respective horses, holding their lances, and about to kill each other for my hand.

Chapter 18

Bryce

Definitely a Freudian slip. I cringed as soon as the words left my mouth. I did not mean to say I loved her.
I’m such a dope!
I squeezed my eyes tightly and banged my head against the palm of my hand.

The last thing I needed was to freak Chelsey out. I hoped I covered it up well with what I said afterward. I didn’t even know why I said it. It sort of just slipped out. I chalked it up to being in the middle of a nightmare from a food-induced unconsciousness when she called and being half asleep when I answered.

Frank and Geri weren’t in the room when I had woken up. I got up from my chair and looked out the front door. Their car was gone. I paced the hallway, kicking a few toys out of my path as I pondered my next move.

If I was going to help solve the crime, I needed to help Chelsey collect DNA. For that, I needed a disguise. I grabbed my keys and headed out to my vehicle. Remembering that I saw a few items that could be useful at the pharmacy the previous day, I drove there.

Down to my last fifty bucks, I tried to make the money stretch. I couldn’t go to the ATM to get more money, the cops would know I went there. It was possible they had already frozen my accounts. I couldn’t go to my apartment for money. There was probably a stakeout there.

Searching every aisle at the pharmacy, I realized it wasn’t going to stock much in the way of disguises. If only it was closer to Halloween. I found a pair of glasses and a hoodie for under ten dollars on the clearance shelf, so that’s what I went with. Hopping back into the Tahoe with my costume, I headed for my temporary home on Sandals Avenue. I had an idea, but I needed Frank to help me with it.

Back at the ranch—the red-brick ranch—I saw Frank’s Chevy in the driveway.
Cool. They’re home.
I pulled up in front—I felt like there wasn’t a reason for me to park blocks away any longer, no one knew I was there, and no one knew what I was driving, except Chelsey. Then I thought better of it. What if Chelsey was confronted by my brothers in blue and she slipped about the slightest detail? I pulled around the corner and parked four houses away.

As I walked back to their house, I could see Frank and Geri unloading groceries.
As if they needed any more groceries!
I lent them a hand. Inside, I unpacked the groceries, but I didn’t know where to put anything.

“Just take the stuff out of the bags and put them on the kitchen table, Bryce. I’ll put it all away.” Frank seemed tired.

“No problem. I’m glad to help. I hate to bother you, but I was wondering if I could trouble you for one more favor.”

“It doesn’t involve killing anyone, does it?”

I was alarmed. “No. Not at all. Why…I mean, I hope you didn’t think that I’d want someone killed.”

Frank smirked. “Boy, you sure are jumpier than a cat at a pit bull rodeo. You need to relax a little.”

“Sorry. I was wondering if you had a way to find home addresses. I’d like to talk to someone that was with us at Savoy’s that night.”

“Do I have a way to look someone up?”

I waited for a punchline, but realized one wasn’t coming. “Yeah.”

“Do I have a way to look someone up?”

I wondered if the question was rhetorical or if Frank was repeating himself due to old age. “Yeah.”

“Boy, of course I have a way of looking someone up! Haven’t you seen my man cave? Do you really think I couldn’t find someone’s address?”

“I mean, I knew you could, I was wondering if you would.”

“What’s his name?”

“Solomon Aaron Ritter.”

“No problem. Let me put this stuff away and I’ll get it for you.”

“Great. Thanks. Oh, I almost forgot. Chelsey asked me to take a look through some pictures that are on the Internet from the night Archie was murdered. Do you have a computer I could use for that?”

“Sure do.”

“Thanks. One more thing. Chelsey suggested we look through that video from the entire night at Savoy’s to watch everyone entering and exiting. Would you have the whole video or should I get that from Chelsey?”

“I can get the video from the whole night.”

“Thanks again.”

I waited patiently while Frank put all the groceries away. He disappeared into his basement and reappeared with Solar’s address on a piece of paper for me.

“Thanks a lot, Frank.”

“Do you need me to come with you? Bring one of my guns?”

I thought back to the rifles circa World War One in his basement. Plus, with how tired he looked, I didn’t want to bother him any more than I already had. “No thanks, I’m good. I might get back late tonight though, is that okay?”

“Boy, I ain’t your father. I’m not going to tell you what time you should come back and go to bed.”

I laughed. It was stupid of me to ask permission to stay out late, but I wanted to be respectful of my host. I didn’t want to wake him by coming in late. My problem was that I didn’t have a key to get in.

“I didn’t mean to…I mean, I don’t have a key to get in and I don’t want to wake you.”

“Oooohhh! Oh, oh, oh.” Frank went to a wall in the kitchen where eight thousand keys hung from a sign that read “Keys.” He pulled one off the rack and handed it to me. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. Sorry to impose.”

“Stop with the apologizing already. And for the love of God, stop thanking me.”

I nodded. “Thanks. Uh, I mean…” I shrugged.

Frank shook his head and shooed me off, so I left.

Based on the address Frank gave me, I guessed Solar lived in a modest home in Coral Beach. I had to be extra careful because I was certain there was a shoot-to-kill order on me there. The hour-long drive gave me time to think about what I would say when I saw him. I ran the risk of him calling the cops on me, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

* * *

Finding Solar’s house was a breeze thanks to the GPS in the Tahoe. I scanned the area for anyone tailing me or watching Solar’s house. Not seeing anyone, I parked several houses away, put my glasses on, pulled on my hoodie, and then exited my vehicle.

I stared at the ground while I walked, in case any homeowners had surveillance on their houses. I had seen what Frank’s equipment could do, so I was more cognizant of the fact that random cameras could provide facial recognition should the feds be called in to investigate the case.

Knocking on the door, I took a deep breath and prayed Solar didn’t give me up when he saw me. He opened the door moments later.

“Dude! Bryce! Man, how the heck are you?” He was one of those guys who started his hand high up behind his head to go in for the handshake.

I met his hand in a firm grip. “I’m good, how about yourself?”

“Oh man, I’m good. Come in, come in.”

Entering his house, I scanned the living room. There were pictures of his parents on the fireplace mantel. If he killed them, would he have pictures of them up in his house?

“Dude, what brings you out here tonight?”

“I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”

“Sure man, shoot.”

“I guess you heard I’m a wanted man.”

“Yeah man, that sucks. I was wondering how you were holding up.”

“I’m hanging in there. I was wondering if you saw anyone strange that night at Savoy’s—especially women.”

“Ya know, the cops were here asking that same question.”

“About a woman?”

“Nah man, about anyone strange.”

“And?”

“Well, I didn’t really think of it at the time, but there was this one chick. I thought she was checking you out. Staring at us all night. But I realized she was really staring at Archie. I don’t know if that qualifies as strange.”

“It could. What did she look like?”

“Dude, I just remember thinking that she was young to be checking out old Archie, but ya know, that dude had a way around women. They flocked to him. So I thought maybe she was just interested in him or something.”

“Do you remember anything else about her?”

“Not much, man. Brown hair, normal looking, nondescript. I mean, nothing stood out. Normal build, normal height. Maybe just that she was a lot younger than Archie.”

Archie’s teenage daughter came to mind. “Too young where she shouldn’t have been at a bar?”

“I don’t know. I’m so bad at guessing ages, man.”

“Just try. Teenager? Twenties? Thirties?”

“Maybe between eighteen and twenty-five. I know, I’m not helping. So dude, why do they want you? What are you doing? Hiding out from them?”

“They think I did it.”

“So they didn’t find the real killer yet? Dude, that sucks.”

I nodded.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard, man.”

The “dudes” and “mans” were starting to try my nerves, especially because Solar was too old to be using them in every sentence. He struck me as someone who smoked a little too much back in his day—and I don’t mean cigarettes. But since he said it was stupid that the cops wanted me, Solar started to grow on me. “Why would you say that? You believe I didn’t do it?”

“I know you didn’t, man.”

“Why? How?”

“Well, it’s like this, man. You’re like a cop, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it was all too sloppy for a cop.”

“Uh huh.”

“See man, a cop would’ve known how to clean up the crime scene. Or have it so the body was never found. A cop wouldn’t actually incriminate himself by being right there when the body was found, ya know?”

“True.”

“So, maybe one of them is setting you up.”

I hadn’t thought about a fellow cop setting me up. So far our lead was on a woman. The only woman cop who hated Archie, Tina, had an iron-clad alibi. “Would you know of anyone out to get Archie?”

“Maybe you should ask yourself if you knew anyone out to get
you
.”

Not having any enemies, except maybe a criminal or two I had locked up in the past, I didn’t think that Archie’s murderer could be someone out to get me. I assumed all along that the perp was someone with a vendetta against Archie. All those stab wounds. The murder was much too personal, it was absolutely about Archie and not about me.

“Nice theory, but the evidence is pointing toward someone who knew Archie personally and had anger issues toward him. Know anyone like that?”

“Naw, man. But I really think you should explore the cop thing. I think it was one of their own, ya know? Like I said, too sloppy.”

“I wish the investigators saw it the way you did.”

“Maybe they are protecting the real killer. Maybe it’s their friend. Just doesn’t make sense that they think a cop did it.”

That theory made sense. Maybe the cops did know who really killed Archie and maybe they were protecting someone. But who? I thought back to the video of the woman. Was she young enough to be Archie’s teenage daughter? It would make perfect sense why someone would protect her. Some of those cops knew Archie and his family well. I was sure some were close enough to have watched Brittany grow up. She was brunette. But why would she kill her own father? Were there family secrets I didn’t know about? Did I need to know them? Not really, I didn’t need the
why
, I needed the
who
. What I desperately needed was enough reasonable doubt so a jury wouldn’t convict me.

I thanked Solar for his help, shook his hand, and walked back to the Tahoe.

After the hour back to Hamilton Township, I felt like crashing. It was late, I was no closer to finding a killer, and the stress was getting to me. I did one final check for tails. Not seeing any, I parked down the street from Frank and Geri’s.

Tiptoeing inside, I locked the door behind me. I crept down the hallway to my bedroom and passed out on the bed.