Fatal Intimacies (Romantic Suspense) (3 page)

6

As
Thomas Garcia closed the file on his desk, a sense of achievement flowed through him in a way he hadn’t felt for years. The suspect was in the interrogation room and the arrest was about to be made.

The case had been an old one. Two men got into an argument outside of a strip club in downtown Seattle. One of the strippers, named Diamond, had apparently been dating one of the men and sleeping with the other.

But Diamond, unfortunately, had been shot when her lover pulled out a firearm and let off six rounds. Killing her and her boyfriend. That left no witnesses, and a case that grew so cold, every detective that caught it thought to put it in the open-unsolved drawers in the basement.

It wasn’t until Garcia followed up on the case that they had their big break. Though the initial investigators had interviewed everyone at the club, they didn’t interview everyone that had been there that night. Garcia painstakingly went through the club’s credit card receipts at the bar and found
one for near the time of the murder. When he followed up and went to the man’s house, he admitted that he had been in his car, with one of the strippers, and had seen the shooting but was too frightened to come forward. He gave them an excellent description, which led to a composite sketch pasted on every news channel for a night.

Using
the sketch, the man’s own brother turned him in for the five thousand dollar reward money.

And now, after six hours of interrogation, the suspect had gone through in detail the night of the murder. Though he claimed it was in
self defense. But that didn’t matter. Something for the lawyers to fight over. Garcia had gotten his collar.

As Garcia rose from his desk and grabbed his suit coat to head home, three uniforms walked by. They stopped and clapped, hooting obscenities. He nodded, smiled, and said, “Thank you.”
He hoped he wasn’t blushing.

Out in the parking lot, he climbed into his black Mercedes S Class and headed home.

Home was nothing more than a condo, but it was a condo overlooking Puget Sound. An inlet of the Pacific, Puget Sound had the appearance of a large lake with all the benefits of an ocean. Including the mournful cries of humpback whales, which Garcia listened to late into the night several times a year.

But he didn’t feel like being alone right now. Stopping at a red light, he picked up his phone from the passenger seat and texted his fiancée, Miriam.

Can i come over?

Aren’t we hanging out tomorrow?

Garcia hesitated a moment.
Yeah, nevermind

No, it’s fine. Come over

The drive to Sandy Hill was long. Garcia had his window down and listened to jazz on his phone connected to the car stereo. The air was salty from the ocean wind blowing in and the city glowed like a gem in his rearview mirror as he climbed the hill to Miriam’s house.

The house was really a mansion.
A gift from wealthy parents for Miriam’s graduation from Harvard. She had always wanted to live in Seattle, and her mother’s company owned several salons out here. They’d met one day at the mayor’s house. A mixer for some charity that rang fake to Garcia. But the mayor was a personal friend. A former cop that had been there when Garcia needed him. So he’d went and Miriam had been the center of attention in a $4000 Donna Karen dress. His own black suit with white button down shirt suddenly didn’t look as glamorous that night.

Garcia stopped in front of the house on the gravel driveway that looped around the porch and went back out onto the street. He walked to the portico and rang the bell.
Miriam answered, dressed in her workout clothes.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.”

He walked in and pecked her on the cheek. She turned and headed through the atrium and front room.

“Make yourself at home,” she shouted. “Be out soon.”

“Okay.”

With his hands in his pockets, his strolled around the mansion. Several works of art were up on the walls and a suit of armor from the Middle Ages sat in a corner. Something her father had given her for no particular reason that Garcia could discern.

He sat on a leather couch and tapped his fingers on the armrest. A good twenty minutes went by before he rose and followed Miriam back.

She had an exercise room packed with top of the line equipment. She sat on a bike and peddled with earbuds in her ears. He walked to her and she noticed him and took one of the earbuds out.

“I’ll be done soon. You know I need my workouts.”

“Yeah,” he said, glancing to the mirrored walls. “I just didn’t want to be alone right now.” A long pause. The emptiness was filled with the metallic whirling of the bike. “I closed a big case today.”

“That’s nice,” she said, toweling her neck.

“Yeah, it was that one at the strip club that everyone thought was a dead case.”

She didn’t reply, and instead placed her hands on the front bars and ducked her head low. “Sweetie
, I really need to concentrate.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

Garcia walked to the front room, hesitated a few seconds, and then left the house. He got into his car and drove back along the coast to Puget Sound, taking the scenic route.

When he got home, he poured himself a glass of wine and sat out on his balcony. The condo was two bedrooms and modern looking with white carpets and plenty of
light, but the view was why he had purchased it.

Puget Sound appeared still as glass. It’d been several days without rain or winds and the waters had calmed. Out in the distance, he could see the twinkling lights of a ship as the sun sank
behind the mountains.

He
exhaled loudly, and took a drink.

7

Jessica could see her sister on the precipice of a cliff. The sky was crimson and there was no sound, but her sister was saying something to her. She looked as sweet and innocent as the last time
Jessica had seen her. No piercings, tattoos or scar art. She reached out for her and Jessica tried to grab her hand, but Michelle tipped backward and fell.

Jessica screamed.

She jolted awake, her shirt clinging to her with sweat. Her surroundings looked unfamiliar a moment, and, slowly, her bed, her closet and laptop that lay next to her came into focus. She was in her room, in her house.

She put her face in her hands, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. The clock on her nightstand said 4:56 a.m.

Convinced she wasn’t getting back to sleep, she rose and changed into her workout clothes. After a drink of water, she headed outside.

The Austin sky was black as coal and the air was cool. But the chill rejuvenated her.
It gave her goosebumps and she stood still a moment and enjoyed it.

When she finally did start her run, she thought back to her dream. She could still see her sister’s face. Her lips were moving, trying to tell her something. But no words came. Behind her was a great expanse of lifeless desert. A red sky above that gave everything a
cherry tint.

Jessica was halfway around the block when her guts felt like they were in knots, squeezed together tightly by a fist. Her entire body lost the will to move and she slowed, and then stopped. Staring down the road that led into the city. The warmth of tears caressing her cheeks was the first thing she felt. She didn’t know what it was and had to reach up and touch them. She felt nothing a
while… and then everything tumbled out.

Her knees felt weak. Her hands were trembling. She sat down and leaned against a fence. The tears came and she began to sob. She saw her sister again. This time at a wedding that was never going to happen.
In a delivery room that wouldn’t be filled with the cries of her children. She saw long conversations they were supposed to have as they grew older. Complaining about husbands they both loved dearly.

She saw an entire life that would never come into existence.

Jessica wasn’t sure how long she sat there and cried, but when it was over, she rose and went back to the house. After a quick shower, she sat in the front room and read until the kids were awake.

“Guys, before you grab breakfast, can you come in here please?”

Ruth ran right in and sat next to her on the couch. Jacob got a bowl of cereal first and then plodded in as if he were about to be asked to do chores.

“I have to leave for a little bit.”

The two children looked to each other. Jacob was the first to speak. “Where you going?”

“Seattle. I won’t be gone long. I had a sister that you guys never met. She’s passed away and I need to tie up a few things there.”

“Passed away?” Ruth asked innocently.

Jessic
a hesitated. “She’s not with us anymore. She’s in heaven.”

“But, when are you coming back?”

“As soon as I can.”

“But, you said you would never leave us. You said you would never leave.”

The young girl’s face was contorting with emotion. Jessica put an arm around her and kissed her head. “And I never will leave you. I’m only going to be gone a short while. I promise.”

Jacob said, “Where
we going to stay?”

“They’ll have another house near here and Aunt Sarah is going to check up on you. And I’ll call you everyday. I’m hoping to be gone a week at the most.”

Ruth began to cry. The type of child’s cry that sounds like they can’t breathe. Jessica pressed the little body against hers. Jacob’s brow furrowed as he watched.

“Guys, I will be back. I promise you. I’m not leaving you.”

“Okay,” Ruth said, out of breath.

They sat in the living room a little while longer, and then Jacob went into the kitchen. Eventually, Ruth gave
her a kiss on the cheek and went downstairs to her room.

What the hell are you doing, Jessica
, she thought to herself.

But
something inside told her that she had to go. The not knowing would be the worst part. She wouldn’t know how her sister died or why. And the police didn’t sound too involved in the case. Maybe with a relative there pushing them, particularly a relative that was a law partner at a decent-sized firm, they might be more willing to move things along.

She wiped the remaining tears away, and went to the office to book her flight.

8

Seattle, from an airplane, looked like a city from the future. The buildings were tall and modern with a rail a few stories off the ground zipping between them. The Space Needle appeared like the centerpiece of some carnival; as if it were a magical place that only a few would be allowed to enter. The entire city had an enchanted feel to it.

The sky was a dim gray with pockets of sunshine coming through.

After the plane had landed, Jessica undid the seatbelt and grabbed her bag from the passenger compartment. She worked her way off the plane and to the baggage claim, retrieving her one suitcase. Afterward, she rented a car.

Only when she was actually sitting in the car did she realize she didn’t have a real
plan. She was going to come up here and pester the detectives working her sister’s case, speak to all her friends, and find out more about her. But as to how she was actually going to go about doing that, she had no idea.

The interstate leading out of the airport was relatively clear for a Monday, but she wouldn’t really
have known if this was normal or not. She googled the Seattle Police Department’s headquarters and inputted the address into the phone.

The city was a contradiction, she decided. After getting off the interstate, she snaked through neighborhoods that appeared rundown, with buildings that could’ve fallen over at any moment. But she also passed upscale condominiums, mansions,
estates with beautiful brown and black horses running freely, and even a few farms. It seemed like anyone that wanted to live here could find their own little corner.

The police headquarters, where the Robbery-Homicide Division was stationed, was a square building with an interesting grid pattern roof made up of interlacing steel beams. Visitor parking was around back and she parked and got out.

The interior was glass and sunlight. The station had certainly been built with an eye toward making the atmosphere seem as uplifting and open as possible. Probably, she guessed, to counter the madness they had to deal with on a daily basis.

The front desk was manned by a woman in a blue uniform who was sipping coffee out of a
paper cup. Her eyes were glued to the computer monitor in front of her and she only casually glanced to Jessica before her eyes drifted back to it.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for a detective that’s assigned to a homicide case.”

“Case number.”

“Um…” She fumbled through her purse before finding the number in a smooth, red leather wallet.
“A A, 4 6 7 1 6.”

The woman typed the numbers into the computer. “That’s Detective Thomas Garcia’s case.”

“Yeah, I think that’s who I spoke with before. Can I see him?”

“We like to have appointments for our detectives, ma’am. If you’d like to set one I can go ahead and do that for you.”

“Please, I’ve come all the way from Texas. The victim was my sister.”

The woman’s eyes came up to her and then returned to the screen. Without saying another word, she picked up the phone and hit a button. “Someone’s here to see you on the Barlow case,” she said. She listened a moment and then hung up. “He’ll be right down.”

“Thank you.”

Jessica sat in the lobby. The chair
s were black and steel and meant to fit the building. But they were incredibly uncomfortable and a metal bar poked into her back. Finally, she decided it’d be better to stand. She rose and walked around, taking in the few abstract paintings that hung on the walls.

“That one’s an imitation of a Dali.”

She turned around to see Thomas Garcia standing in front of her. He wore a suit with no tie and his blue shirt was unbuttoned at the top. His black hair came down straight and the tips danced in front of his eyes.

For a moment, and just a moment, butterflies tickled her belly and she got flustered.

“You guys won’t get sued?” she asked.

He put his hand
s in his pockets, revealing the gold badge clipped to his belt as his gaze drifted up to the painting. “Dali’s dead. Don’t think he’d mind.” He looked to her, their eyes locking. “You wanted to see me about the Barlow matter?”

“Yes. I’m Jessica Barlow. We spoke on the phone.”

He was silent a moment. “I’m sorry about your sister.”

She nodded. “I’ve come up here hoping to find out more about what happened.”

He shrugged. “I’m afraid there’s not that much more to tell you. The investigation’s stalled right now.”

“Stalled how?”

“We ran the se—the DNA recovered from your sister through the national DNA database and didn’t come back with any hits. The prints around her throat were unusable, so the DNA was really what we had to go on. At this point, we’re just following up on anything neighbors may have seen. But so far, there’s nothing there.”

“So what you’re telling me is that you don’t have anything.”

“If that’s the way you want to put it. No signs of entry into the home, so she may have known her attacker. Or he picked the lock.”

She folded her arms. “A young woman is murdered in her apartment with neighbors on every side and you’re telling me the man that did this is going to get away?”

“Who said it was a man?”

She scoffed. “It’s always a man.”

“Ms. Barlow, I’m doing everything I can to follow through with the case. I’ve got a sick partner in the hospital so I’m barely keeping my head above water right now.”

Her mouth nearly dropped open. “How dare you? I don’t care how busy you are, Detective. Find the man that did this. Before he does it to someone else.”

She turned and walked back to the revolving entrance doors. As she stepped outside, she glanced over her shoulder. He hadn’t moved and was eyeing her. His hands still in his pockets with the badge that gleamed from the sunlight cascading through the windows.