Seams of Destruction (2 page)

“Since I’m going to be staying at your place for a few days before leaving for Milan,” Mitch said, as he settled in behind the steering wheel. “I need to swing by my house and pack a suitcase.”

Jade nodded, not caring one way or the other what they did. Her whole body felt numb. She was horrified at what was happening to her. She was a suspect in a murder and had just spent a night in jail. She was so relieved to be out, she was willing to go along with anything. Besides, she knew she didn’t have a choice in the matter. She had to do whatever the man beside her said.

Slowly the numbness began to wear off and as Mitch maneuvered his car through the traffic, she studied him out of the corner of her eye. He had short, dark-brown hair, which had a tendency to wave. His jaw was square with a dimple in his chin. She couldn’t see the color of his eyes because he wore a pair of Ray Bans to protect them from the sun.

Thinking of sunglasses reminded her to get hers out of the case they were in and she dug in the large handbag laying on her lap. She found what she was looking for and slipped them into place on her nose.

They drove in silence and Jade saw they were headed into Long Beach. They pulled up in front of a modest house and Mitch got out. He walked around the front of the car, swung open the passenger door, and held out his hand to assist her. This time she took his hand and stepped out of the car.

As they moved up the sidewalk together, he said, “I grew up in this house. My brother and I inherited it after my mom died. I bought him out and then bought several other properties that are rentals. One of my friends in real estate told me they would be a good investment. Did you know real estate values here in LA went up sixteen percent this year?”

She shook her head. She didn’t really care about real estate values. She only wanted to get out of the mess she found herself in. Somehow she had to prove to the police that she hadn’t killed Reannan. But how? No one had paid the least bit of attention to her when she said she hadn’t done it, that someone else had been in the warehouse that night. Someone who had driven off in Reannan’s car.

Mitch unlocked the door and held it open for her and she stepped into the front entryway. The house felt cool because it was shaded by the surrounding trees.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Again, she shook her head.

“This way,” Mitch said, pointing down a hallway. He stepped around her and led the way to his bedroom.

“Sit down,” Mitch said, motioning to the neatly made bed.

Jade sat down on the black and brown striped bedspread and looked around. Brown drapes hung at the windows. There were no frills to break up the masculine décor of the room.

She was tired from spending a sleepless night in jail. The hard bed in her cell and the noise of people coming and going all night had made it impossible to sleep. In addition, the horror of being a suspect in Reannan’s murder had kept her tossing and turning all night. She was tempted to lay back on the bed. When Mitch went into a walk-in closet for clothes, she gave in to temptation and stretched out for a little rest. In a moment, she was sound asleep.

Mitch stared in surprise when he walked out of his closet and found Jade asleep on the king-sized bed. He felt like he had stepped into the fairy tale of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” She must be exhausted from her stay in jail. He felt no sympathy for her. She got what she deserved. She was a suspect but she was being allowed to leave the country. Sorrento must have some kind of pull with the Chief. He knew the Chief too well to think he might have been bribed.

He folded and packed his clothes in the suitcase laying on a nearby chair. When he had everything he wanted, he closed it. Stepping back into the closet, he took a hanging bag containing a suit and draped it across the back of the chair.

Deciding not to awaken the sleeping woman, he went into the kitchen and pulled out the makings for a sandwich. He put it on a plate and set it on the kitchen table. Walking to the refrigerator, he reached in for a beer.

While he ate his lunch, he mused about his new assignment. It was hard to believe the beautiful model could be capable of murder. But in his experience, a beautiful woman usually felt she could get by with anything. He had to admit he had seen a lot of strange things in his years in the LAPD. She said she hadn’t killed the woman, but isn’t that what they all said? According to Chief Castillo she certainly had motive. He knew many murders had been committed by someone in a jealous rage. According to the Chief, it looked like that was what Jade had done.

He wondered how long she was going to sleep. He decided to let her nap a little longer before he woke her. He did a few things around the house he thought needed to be taken care of before he left. When he was finished, he went back into his bedroom. Jade was still asleep.

Her hair with its streaks of lighter color fanned out on the bed. He couldn’t help but stare down at her. He wasn’t looking forward to this assignment. The model was incredibly beautiful and looked so innocent and peaceful. In spite of her height, she appeared fragile. But he wasn’t about to let her appearance fool him. He mustn’t forget she was a murder suspect and his job was to make sure she was brought to justice.

As though sensing his presence, even in her sleep, she slowly opened her eyes. They stared at each other for a long moment of time.

“You had better wake up or you won’t be able to sleep tonight,” Mitch said.

“What time is it?”

“Almost three o’clock. You’ve been asleep for two hours.”

“Are you packed?”

He nodded. “My suitcase is in the car. I think I’m all set.”

She stood up from the bed. “I guess we should get over to my apartment. I have things I need to do to get ready for the trip.”

Jade followed Matt out of the house and waited while he locked the front door. As Mitch backed out of the drive, he saw the car he had seen behind him when he left the police station. He kept an eye on his rearview mirror and sure enough the car pulled away from the curb where it had been parked, following at a discreet distance.

In a few minutes, they were pulling up in front of her apartment building on Ocean Boulevard. She directed him to the underground parking and when he made the turn in, the car that had been following them drove on by. They took the elevator up to the seventh floor.

They stepped into the entryway. The ocean could be seen a short distance away beyond a spacious patio with a table and four chairs, along with two loungers and a grill.

“Let me show you your bedroom,” Jade said.

“First, I need your passport.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Just following orders.”

Mitch could tell she was upset as she went to a desk and opening a drawer, removed her passport, slammed the drawer shut, and handed the small blue folder to him.

“We’ll get along a lot better for the next few days if you’ll just do as you’re told without an attitude.”

“How many times do I have to tell you I didn’t kill Reannan? I resent being treated like I did.”

She might be beautiful with her flashing green eyes, long sun streaked blond hair and tall, slim body but obviously she wasn’t too smart. She should have left the building after killing the production manager, not stayed and called the police who found her covered in blood when they arrived.

“Now, you can show me the bedroom I’ll be using,” he said.

Jade led him down a hallway. On one side he saw a bedroom with feminine window coverings and matching white bedspread. She pointed to the room across the hall.

“That’s where I’m sleeping.”

The bedroom lacked personality and he had a feeling she didn’t often use it. A faded bedspread covered the bed. A dresser was the only other piece of furniture in the room. There were no drapes at the window, only louvered blinds.

“You want me to sleep in here?” he asked, nodding at the bedroom with the white bedspread, thinking he had misunderstood her.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Chapter 2

Without answering, Jade turned and walked into the kitchen.

Mitch heard her opening and closing cupboard doors. He put his suitcase on a chair and hung the bag with his suit in the closet. The closet had been totally cleaned out. He stepped to the dresser and opened a drawer. Then another and another. All empty.

What was going on?

He went into the kitchen and leaned against the bar that separated the kitchen from the dining room and watched Jade as she stared at the contents of the refrigerator. He wondered if he should ask her about the empty dresser drawers and closet, then decided it was none of his business, so he said nothing.

“Do you mind having hamburgers?” she asked. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“Sounds good to me. I see you have a grill on the deck. Can I grill them for you?”

“Yes, but let’s wait a couple of hours.”

He agreed, but couldn’t help wondering how they were going to pass the time. He certainly didn’t want to sit around trying to make polite conversation with a beautiful woman who was quite possibly a murderer.

“There’s an exercise room and a pool in the basement. Why don’t we go down there for a while? I usually try to work out every day and I haven’t been able to for a couple of days.”

“I wished I would have known there was a pool, I could have brought my swimming trunks.”

“I think I might have an extra one around here.” She left the kitchen and was back in a few minutes with a black pair in her hand.

He took it from her and went back to the bedroom, changed into it, and put a jog suit on over it with the set of handcuffs in one pocket. When he came out, Jade was in a pair of white shorts and a green tank top that matched her eyes.

She handed him a towel and led him out of the apartment to the elevator. They rode down to the basement in silence. The door opened and Mitch saw a pool with sparkling water in front of them. Jade turned to the left and entered a door a short distance away. Mitch followed right behind her. He was surprised to find a room filled with state of the art exercise equipment.

He set his towel on a nearby shelf and went immediately to a weight lifting machine. Jade chose a treadmill and stepping onto it, she started a slow jog.

Mitch looked over the weights and choosing the appropriate ones, he put them on the bar. When he was satisfied, they were stable, he laid down on the bench and began. The workout felt good. It had been a few days since he had exercised. He had jogged but that wasn’t the same as lifting weights.

When Jade was finished with her exercises, she suggested they shower before going into the pool.

“Hold up your wrists,” Mitch said, pulling the handcuffs out of his pocket.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” She gave him a hostile look, but made no move to raise her wrists.

He knew he was going to hate this part of his job. But he knew better than to disobey the Chief’s orders and Castillo had instructed him to handcuff Jade when she was going to be out of his sight. He reminded himself again he was dealing with a suspected murderer.

“Nope,” he said, “just following orders.”

“What if someone comes in and I’m handcuffed to this machine?”

“Hey, that’s a chance you’ll have to take unless you want to go into the men’s shower with me,” he said, knowing what her answer would be.

“No thanks.”

She looked at him scornfully, then held out her hands with clenched fists. He snapped a handcuff on one wrist and the other one to the treadmill. Grabbing the towel off the shelf, he went into shower.

It didn’t take long and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jade was still alone in the exercise room. Even if she had killed the production manager at Sorrento’s, he didn’t want to explain to anyone who he was and why he had handcuffed the model to a piece of exercise equipment. He unlocked the handcuff and followed her to the door of the women’s shower.

“I’ll wait here for you,” he said, leaning up against the wall by the door.

“Are you sure I can be trusted? Maybe there’s a window I could climb out of,” she suggested. “Or . . . maybe you’re some kind of pervert and you would like to watch me while I shower.”

“Sorry, you’re not my kind of woman. Too skinny. I like my broads with more meat on their bones.”

They stared at each other for a long moment and he felt warm all over. She turned and walked into the women’s shower and he couldn’t help but wonder why she affected him the way she did. He had been around beautiful women before and hadn’t felt a thing. But there was something about her.

He heard the shower turn on and a few minutes later, it was turned off. When she came out, her long hair hung in wet strands and she was pulling it up to wrap a rubber band around it. With her hair drawn back from her face, it accented her high cheek bones and green eyes. It was all he could do to keep from staring.

She ignored him as she walked by. She went straight to the pool where she climbed up to the diving board. For a moment she posed on the edge of the board. Mitch admired her slim figure in the black one-piece swimming suit and watched as she dived gracefully into the water.

She wasn’t too skinny. In fact, she was perfect.

He followed her off the diving board a minute later and soon they were both swimming laps. Although she was a good swimmer, she couldn’t keep up with his powerful strokes and after she did several laps, she climbed out of the pool and wrapped herself in a white terry cloth robe and stood waiting for him.

When he reached the end of the pool he pushed himself up on the side with strong, muscular arms. Picking up the damp towel, he wrapped it around his waist and followed her to the elevator.

After they had both showered again and dressed, they met in the kitchen and with unspoken agreement began the preparations for dinner. Mitch took the hamburger out of the refrigerator and unwrapping it, he made it into three patties, two for him and one for Jade. He found seasoning in a cupboard and shook it onto the meat.

She took out tomatoes, onions, and lettuce from the refrigerator and began slicing the tomatoes and the onions. They worked in a companionable silence and Mitch almost forgot the girl standing beside him was a suspect in a murder.

Taking the plate of hamburgers, he went out to the patio. While he waited for the grill to heat, he set the raw hamburgers on the table and went back into the kitchen.

“If you’ll show me where the dishes are, I’ll set the table outside. It’s such a pleasant evening.”

Jade pointed to a cupboard where he found the plates.

“Silverware?”

She pulled out a drawer and he took two knives and two forks.

“Napkins?”

She pointed to a holder filled with paper napkins sitting at the end of the bar next to the wall.

After the table was set, Mitch threw the hamburgers on the grill and watched them cook, spatula in hand. Jade brought out a plate of sliced tomatoes, onions, and lettuce and set it on the table along with a bowl of chips.

“What would you like to drink?” she asked.

“What are you offering?”

“Coke, water, beer, wine.”

“I’ll take a beer.”

She started back into the kitchen, turned, and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name when we were introduced.”

“Mitchell Koehler. Call me Mitch.”

“I was wondering if you could take me by Sorrento’s later so I can pick up my car.”

“Give me your keys and I’ll have someone from my office pick it up.”

She stared at him for a moment, looking as though she was about to say something.

“You must think I’m pretty stupid,” Mitch said before she could form a sentence.

“Why is that?”

“Letting you drive off in your car alone.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way. I just wanted to get my car in the parking garage before we leave for Milan.”

She walked back into the kitchen and returned in a couple of minutes with a bag of buns, catsup, mustard, and a can of beer.

The hamburgers were done and Mitch flipped them out on a plate, sat them on the table, and turned off the grill. Dragging out a chair which faced the ocean, he sat down.

“Great place you have here,” he said as he began to put his hamburger together.

“I think I’m going to sell it.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“It has bad memories for me.”

Mitch wasn’t interested in knowing about those memories. He had a few bad images in his head, himself. He was sure his were worse than hers. Seeing his father in his casket after being shot during a drug bust, he and his best friend, Chase, finding his best friend’s wife in bed with some strange man, Chase taking all kinds of risks in Afghanistan as though he had some kind of death wish, which finally got him killed.

Nope, he didn’t want to add her bad memories to his.

He noticed Jade didn’t put her hamburger on a bun and she passed on the chips. Just had a little fruit and a bottle of water with it. No wonder she was so slim.

“Are we going to have any dessert?” he asked hopefully.

“There’s some vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. I think there are some pecans in the cupboard, so you could make yourself a hot fudge sundae.”

“I’ll do that.”

“If we want to eat for the next few days, we’re going to have to go grocery shopping.”

“I’ll give one of my buddies a call in the morning and we can get your car. After he drives it here, we’ll drop him off at the precinct. Then we’ll go grocery shopping. Or we could eat out if you don’t want to cook.”

“That’s too expensive,” she objected.

He stared at her. Making the kind of money she made and she was worried about eating out. He couldn’t help but feel impressed.

His cell phone rang and he saw it was the Chief.

“Koehler,” he said as he connected with Castillo.

“How’s it going with Jade?”

“Okay. What’s up?”

“We got us a couple more suspects.”

“Really?”

“Our investigation revealed there are two employees who hated Reannan with a passion.”

“Who are they?”

“The shipping manager and the man who heads up the inspection department.”

“Interesting.”

“But you still need to follow all my instructions about not letting Jade out of your sight. At this point, we don’t have proof that any one of our three suspects killed her. However, Jade is still our most likely one since she was at the scene of the crime and she does appear to have the strongest motive.”

“Got ya,” Mitch said and went out on the deck to finish their conversation. “Chief, we’re being followed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. Someone is following us everywhere we go. The first day when I left the police station with Jade, I noticed someone followed us to my house when I needed to pick up some clothes. When we left my house, the same car was parked down the street and when I pulled out of my driveway, the car followed us at a discreet distance all the way to Jade’s apartment building. When I pulled into the underground parking, it drove on by.”

“Strange. Was that the only time you noticed the car?”

“No. The next morning we went jogging and I saw it again. I can’t get close enough to get a make on the license plates. Is there anything you can do to help?”

“If you give me a description of the car and tell me where it can be seen, I’ll have one of the men in the department drive by in an unmarked car and get the numbers on the license plate.”

“Okay. We are going grocery shopping tomorrow and I’ll give you a call and tell you where and when.”

“All right, but give me enough notice to get someone out to the area.”

“Will do.”

“I’ve been thinking,” the Chief said. “Jade said there was someone else in the warehouse the night Reannan was murdered and she thought whoever it was drove off in Reannan’s car.”

“What about it?”

“That stands to reason because Reannan would have driven to the warehouse in her car. The person who killed her must have been with her and then have driven off in her car. I’m sending someone out to Reannan’s apartment today to check and see if her car is there.”

“If it is, what is that going to tell us?” Mitch asked.

“That Jade is telling the truth.”

“Keep me posted, will you, Chief?”

“You’ve got it,” he said and broke the connection.

“Do you get a newspaper?” he asked Jade as he walked in from the deck and replaced the phone in his pocket.

“No, I get all the bad news I want to see either on the TV or the Internet.”

“How about the financial page? Don’t you have any investments?”

“I have a money manager that takes care of all of that for me. I get a monthly statement, which tells me everything I need to know.”

Mitch stood and began to clear off the table. After he carried everything into the kitchen, he rinsed the plates and silverware while Jade put away the leftovers. When he finished, he got out the makings for a hot fudge sundae.

“Do you want one?” he asked, sure she would refuse.

He was surprised when she said, “Just a small one. Hot fudge sundaes are my weakness.”

He dished out the ice cream into two bowls, one small and one large, heated the chocolate syrup in the microwave, and opened cupboard doors until he found a bag of pecans.

“You really know your way around a kitchen,” Jade said.

“Comes from living alone for a lot of years.”

“Haven’t you ever been married?”

“Nope.”

“Ever lived with anyone?”

“Not since I left home, unless you want to call living in the barracks, living with someone.”

“Let’s take these out on the deck and watch the sunset. It’s beautiful as the sun goes down over the ocean.”