Evil Without a Face (15 page)

“Baker won’t be logging on anywhere, Jessie.”

“Yeah, he will. He’s got his laptop back. In fact, I’m expecting a call from Harper anytime.”

“Baker’s dead, Jess. He got gunned down outside the skating rink.”

“What?” Jess slumped back into her chair. “When did this happen?”

“Sometime around midnight.”

“Who did it?”

“Eyewitnesses weren’t clear. Some even reported seeing two shooters, maybe even a woman.” Sam crossed her arms. “Besides being dead, Baker’s got another little setback. His laptop is missing. Until now we didn’t know what was in the black bag. Thanks for filling in the gaps.”

“Damn it! I thought I had him this time. Shit!” It didn’t take long for her to do the math, but when she did, she narrowed her eyes and glared at Sam.

“Wait a minute. You set me up. You knew about Baker, but you wanted to see what I’d say. You played me like…a suspect.” She thought about it for a minute, then added, “You’ve been hanging around me too long. I don’t know if I should be mad or damned proud.”

“Well, two can play the bluff game, but that’s not how friends should treat each other. Right now, you and me need to stick together. Detective Ray Garza is running his own investigation on the murder of Lucas Baker. And as of now, you top his list of suspects.”

“But I didn’t do it. You know I didn’t do it.” She knew she was preaching to the choir, but she couldn’t help jumping to her own defense.

“When he looks for fingerprints on that note you slipped
Baker and that locker key, I’ve got money that he’ll find yours.”

Jess thought about it for a second, then winced. “No bet. Shit! I’m totally screwed.”

Sam leaned forward and grabbed her shoulder.

“I know you didn’t kill Baker, but the way I see it, we’ve gotta stay one step ahead of Garza. Will Seth work as your alibi? If Baker was killed at midnight, you were with Harper, right?”

Jess shrugged, but after thinking about Harper, more than a few things didn’t add up about her boy.

“I’m not exactly sure what Seth actually does for a living. Believe it or not, he’s not getting rich on what I pay him, but he may not stand up to close scrutiny from the local cops…if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, that’s just great, Jess. You do realize how much trouble you’re in, right? You need an alibi. And preferably not somebody on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.”

Jess got up to pace again.

“Hell, for all I know, Seth has pulled up stakes. I nearly got him killed, Sam. I practically handed him over to Baker on a silver platter. If it were me…I would’ve quit me.” She dragged a hand over her face. “And the address I have for him may not be…exactly his.”

“I swear to God, Jessie. You know the strangest people.”

“Don’t forget, you’re at the top of my Christmas card list. Don’t be casting stones at my peeps.”

Sam grimaced, then looked at her watch. “Look, I’ve got time before my shift. Get dressed. Let’s see if we can track down Harper. First and foremost, you need a legitimate alibi.”

“I do have his cell phone number. Let me try calling first. If he ignores the call, I might consider that a very bad sign.”

Jess went to her bathroom and took her phone off the charger to place a call to Seth. She walked back into the kitchen as his phone rang. On the fifth ring it beeped and
rolled into voice mail without an outgoing message. She tried again and got the same result. Not having a good feeling about all this, she didn’t leave a message.

When Sam narrowed her eyes in question, Jess shrugged and said, “Strike one. He didn’t answer my call.”

“Well, it’s bottom of the ninth with bases loaded. And it doesn’t look good for the home team, Jessie. We gotta find Harper.”

Before she got dressed, Jess wanted Sam’s take on her chances, being a glutton for abuse.

“Sam? What if we can’t find him? Without an alibi, when would Detective Garza come looking for me?”

“Hard to say.” She shrugged. “He won’t know the note is from you. I recognized the handwriting and didn’t say anything. And it’ll take time for the lab to lift prints, but he’ll find a fingerprint match when he conducts his usual database searches. He’ll score a hit on your permit to carry the Python.”

Sam took a swig of coffee and continued speculating.

“But you’re already on his list of suspects after your recent beef with Baker. He could act on that alone and bring you in for questioning as a person of interest. And I’d say you’re gonna look awfully bad when he backtracks Baker’s time prior to his murder. Folks will remember that fight you had at The Cutthroat. Another run-in with Baker on the night of his murder won’t sit well with Garza.”

Jess crossed her arms, feeling a sudden chill in the air. “Damn it! I almost forgot about that.”

“I could lie for you, Jess, and say I was with you until after one,” Sam offered without hesitation, looking her straight in the eye. “Harper’s the only one who’d know otherwise.”

“Ah, Sam.” She hugged her friend and whispered in her ear, “That’s a tempting and generous offer, but I can’t let you do that.”

After she pulled back, she added, “Nice to know you’d
drive my Ford Bronco if I ever needed a lame getaway. But if I get dragged into this, I want a cop in good standing to help me. Taking down Baker’s organization is a bigger picture worth pursuing. I hope I can convince you of that.”

After thinking about her predicament, Jess offered her hand.

“I promise. No more lies, Sam. I mean it.” She gripped her hand and shook on their pact. “Now let’s find Harper. Maybe I’m only being paranoid about the kid. He’s probably right where I left him, licking his wounds. My luck has got to turn sometime.”

Jess headed to her bedroom to change, sounding more confident than she felt. Her future rested on Seth Harper—whoever he was.

Downtown Chicago

“Shit, I can’t believe this!” From the secured foyer, Jess tried the buzzer to the penthouse suite again. Nothing. Seth was either gone or not answering. Neither prospect bode well for her. And out of respect for Sam, she didn’t try her usual antics to get buzzed into the building unannounced.

“Are you sure this guy lives here?” Sam asked. “Hard to imagine a kid like that…here. This is a real upscale neighborhood. I doubt any of these people have even heard of
Jerry Springer
.”

“Yeah, I thought the same thing when I first came here. Damn it! I should have listened to my gut instincts.”

“Yeah, I bet the next time you hire an intern as slave labor, you’ll go through a legitimate temp agency to find the next sucker…I mean, employee.” Sam slathered abuse on thick. “Well, what now? You have any clue where to look for him?”

Jess plopped down on a marbled step inside the secured foyer with her elbows propped on her knees.

“No. I tried his phone on the way down, but no answer. I’ve got nothing.”

Sam joined her on the step. “I hate to say this, but maybe he saw the TV news coverage on the shooting. Being hauled into a murder investigation tends to test the loyalties of a new employee, especially during probation period.”

“God, I’m never gonna hear the end of this, am I?” She shot a sideways glance at Sam and grimaced. “Harper’s a damned wimp. How could I have been so wrong about that guy?”

“Look, knowing you, you’re thinking of the many ways to break into the penthouse, and an officer of the law wouldn’t make a good accomplice, so I’m gonna vacate the scene of the crime. I want to get to work early today, see what I can find out.” Sam patted her knee with affection and smiled, not a very convincing display of reassurance. “Call me if Harper shows, and I’ll give you a heads-up if I learn anything new.”

Jess nodded, and her cop friend headed out the glass door. After she left, Jess stood and walked up to the row of buzzers again, cracking her knuckles like a concert pianist. She wasn’t done with Seth Harper. Not by a long shot.

Jess eventually got inside Harper’s building again and went straight to his penthouse suite, but Seth didn’t answer the door. She didn’t take the snub personally. To show no hard feelings, she let herself in by way of a lock pick and made herself at home. But once she got inside, her worst fear became a reality. Seth Harper was nowhere to be found, and there was no trace of him, not a speck of proof that he’d even been there.

No trash. No scraps of paper. Nothing. She even hit the redial button on the suite phone and got 411 information. The place was as pristine as if no one lived there at all. Harper was a damned ghost. She thought about staking out the place to see if he came back, but she knew he’d cleared out for good.

“Damn it, Seth. Who the hell are you?”

Jess tried his phone again, but only got voice mail. This time she left a message, though she didn’t give her SOS much chance of getting to him. Being in the dumper had become a full-time job for her, and she’d never felt so low.

After getting into her car, she drove to her favorite breakfast joint to grab some coffee and read the newspaper for more on Baker’s murder.

Nothing like a little murder over easy with a side order of bacon and home fries at Red’s Grill, a little hole in the wall joint off I-55 on South Kedzie Avenue. She’d discovered the place during a stakeout three years ago. Decent food priced cheap, and patronized by corrections officers, local cops, and the folks they should have been monitoring. A real microcosm of the universe.

Sitting in a booth, she was nearly done with the paper, saving the funnies for last, when her cell rang. She recognized the number.

“Please tell me you’re gonna make my day.”

“First things first. Did you find Harper?” Sam asked.

“No. Not even a precious hair off his thick skull. And I’ve left messages for him on his cell. Nothing. I think he pulled a rabbit on me.”

“Well, then maybe what I’ve got will lift your spirits. I don’t know what this means, but it doesn’t exactly suck.” Sam had an edge of excitement to her voice.

“Go on. Try me, babe. I could use some good news.”

“Chief Keller announced this himself at our shift briefing. You better sit down.”

“Enough with the buildup already.” Jess rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“We got a missing person bulletin today. Get this. There’s a missing girl from Anchorage and they think she’s in Chicago. She flew in yesterday. That’s too much coincidence for us to ignore, Jessie.”

She grinned. She couldn’t help it. “I knew it.”

“Yeah well, don’t get all worked up. I mean, on the surface
it gives me a pretty good idea you were right about Baker’s e-mail on that delivery from Alaska, but we need more than a hunch to point a finger at a dead guy. Allegedly speaking, you didn’t happen to keep a copy of that pilfered e-mail, did you?”

“No. Harper’s got it, allegedly.” She heard the sigh on the other end of the line. “So what do we do now?”

“It would be nice to get our hands on that laptop and find a direct link to Baker, but that’s not likely to happen. For all we know, someone in the crowd stole the computer before the cops got to the murder scene. If that happened, we may never find it.”

She knew Sam was right. The laptop was a long shot, especially with Harper going missing. But when Jess hit the lowest point of her morning, feeling like she’d been dumped back at square one, Sam came up with something new.

“Look, I got an idea, but I think I should pursue it on my own. If you get involved and Garza hears about it, you’re toast.”

“Spill it, Coop. What’s your idea?”

“Chief Keller mentioned the missing girl, Nikki Archer, has relatives who flew into town this morning from Alaska. They’re staying at a hotel in Oak Brook. Get this—she’s the niece of a former pro football quarterback, Payton Archer. They said he used to play here in Chicago, but I’ve never heard of him, have you?”

It took Jess a while to place it, but the name eventually rang a bell—and not in a good way.

“Yeah, I remember him. Media blitzed the guy, but as I recall, he deserved the abuse. He had an ego the size of Alaska coupled with a drinking problem. That’s a nasty combo when you fuel the fire with the kind of money those jocks get paid.”

She added one more thing to her recollection. “And from what I remembered, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.”

“Boy, that sounds familiar.”

“Hey, watch it.”

“Well, I’m playing a hunch of my own, Jess. I volunteered to be Archer’s contact here at CPD. I’m working the case with him while he’s here, see if it goes anywhere. It might be worth a shot.”

“You what? Why would you want to saddle yourself with an egotistical media junkie like Payton Archer? He’s nothing but a prima donna in a jock strap with a penchant for grandstanding. The guy practically turned trash talk into an art form.”

“It’s my time to waste, and the damage has been done. I’ve already been assigned to the Archer missing person case. End of discussion. I’m heading to meet him now. He’s staying at the Marriott in Oak Brook.”

“Well, you just keep Jockboy away from me. Someone like Archer could be a real distraction that I don’t need right now. Don’t get me wrong. Chasing down one poor kid is a good thing, Sam, but Baker had a much bigger gig going on. And that, I’d like to sink my teeth into.”

“Guess you’ll have your hands full with chasing Harper.” Sam’s voice turned somber. “But Jess, if anyone at CPD gets wind of you nosing around Baker’s business again, it’ll get back to Garza. And he doesn’t need much of an excuse to haul you in. Don’t make it easy for him.”

“I swear.” Jess put cash on the table for her tab with the phone crooked against her shoulder. “I’ll behave myself.”

“Oh God, this is gonna get worse before it gets better. I just know it.”

“O ye of little faith.” Jess chuckled as she slid out of the booth and headed for her car. “Like things have been going good till now? How much worse could it get?” She scrunched her face. “Wait, don’t answer that, but I could use a favor.”

She asked if she could use Sam’s home computer and phone to search for Seth Harper. She had a spare key and
needed a place to work since Baker had trashed her own computer. But mostly, she didn’t want to make it easy for Detective Garza to find her.