First Born (17 page)

Her thoughts were muddled. She clutched the crucible while pleading with the heavens that she just wanted to go home. Her mind flashed on Li Liu’s battered face and then suddenly she heard her father’s voice encouraging her as she climbed to the top of the slide at Piedmont Park, her small hands clutching the cool metal rails before plunging down. “You’ve got it, Lily.” She felt her stomach drop as she fell through a spinning hole in space.

Seth bolted upright with a stiff neck and an awful headache. He had left the Atlanta Police building in a stupor. He had called in sick to work because he didn’t want to explain anything to anyone, not even his good friend, Reggie. He meant to just rest on his futon, but he slept for over an hour.

He took his phone off the charger and powered it on. When he saw several missed calls from Lily, he felt terrible he had let his battery die. As he retrieved the first message, he stopped in his tracks.
Why the hell was she so stubborn?
He had told her not to go out to Mr. Liu’s, that he would do the training. But apparently, she had set up a meeting with him. He listened to the rest of her messages. If he had known she was riding a motorcycle and Mr. Liu had “no-showed” at the park, he wouldn’t have fallen asleep.

Each time he tried her number, it rolled to voicemail. “Shit!” He felt like the walls were closing in on him. Something was wrong. He ran out of the house to gray spitting skies. Broken branches littered the path to his car. Yellow rivers of pollen flowed down the galley of the curb. Exhausted, he hadn’t even heard the storm.

Seth drove by the Ansley Park Manor. Larry stood at his mailbox with the front door ajar behind him—no Shih Tzu in sight. Seth drove past without the guy even noticing. When Lily’s phone rolled to voicemail again, Seth broke out in a cold sweat.

Driving too fast, he entered the interstate headed toward Kennesaw. His heart thumped inside his chest as if he were hooked up to an amplifier. He cursed himself as he pulled off the exit ramp. The phone rang. With a wave of relief, he picked it up to answer, but noted the number.
Koko.
He tossed the phone back down on the seat. The headache hit him with sharp spasms at his temples. He breathed through it as he passed Town Center Mall. Ten minutes later, he headed up Stilesboro Road. As he approached Mr. Liu’s property, he saw flashing lights. His stomach muscles knotted. Officers directed traffic around Mr. Liu’s driveway, which they had blocked off except for law enforcement personnel. Seth slowed to a stop next to the officer.

“Move along, sir.”

“Mr. Liu?” Seth asked.

“Sir, this is a crime scene, you need to move along.”

“Is the man who lives here okay?” insisted Seth.

“Move along, sir,” commanded the officer.

One minute she stood naked and bloody, the next, she had disappeared into the trees. When Caldwell viewed the blood spatter inside the studio, he tasted bile. They knew that at least two shots were fired. They found one bullet in the wall by the sliding door. The other met its mark—Lily Moore. At least it had looked like a bullet wound. The whole scenario had been chaos.

What did Li Liu know and what the hell just happened?

There were blood smears in the galley kitchen where a fight had taken place. The CSI team looked at the disarray of the kitchen and analyzed the marks in the kitchen cabinets, presumably made from a foot kicking the wood. They surmised it was Liu making tea when he was surprised from behind. The front studio had been vandalized—the property damaged by the use of an archaic Chinese halberd. There was no sign of Li Liu on the premises. However, unique feathers were all over the main studio floor and walls. They looked similar to the ones found at the Miller scene. Instead of footprints, they noted an almost human print comprised of slightly longer toes with claws according to Tiny’s analysis. He’d been learning a lot about paw and claw prints lately from the experts consulting on the case.

Caldwell now surveyed the property damage and blood while the CSI team sifted through rubble. He had never met Mr. Liu, but had seen his picture in Arthur Moore’s file. He was one of
them,
and that made it so much more personal. Caldwell tried to keep his rage down to a simmer. Lieutenant Lake was inside the studio, combing over the scene for the hundredth time. Lake had been uncharacteristically quiet.

The KPD’s forensics team was working on collecting blood evidence to see if there was a DNA match for Moore and Liu. Tiny showed up to consult. When he eyed the mud and puddles, he forewent his fancy stilts.

Caldwell looked off into the gray haze of the woods. The trees stood as wrinkled silent witnesses to what had transpired. He had been the only one who had gotten a visual of Lily Moore. One of the other officers claimed to have seen a dog. This was only partially comforting to Caldwell who insisted that he had seen Larry Jones’s black and white Shih Tzu dart through the trees. He never saw the bike, just heard it. If he hadn’t been preoccupied keeping the adrenaline-charged Kennesaw cops from going into the woods Rambo-style, things may have played out differently.

After he calmed everyone down, he briefed them on the young woman, conveying that she had been attacked recently and could possibly be suffering from amnesia or a head injury.

Officers took Li Liu’s dogs to the Cobb Emergency Clinic for examination. Caldwell remained at the scene while the Kennesaw Police Department’s trackers spread out in grid formation, attempting to pick up Lily Moore’s or Li Liu’s scent.

The rain had stopped now leaving behind a mess for the CSI Unit to decipher.

Officer Ernie Gates came around the corner of the studio with his two bloodhounds. Gates had been in the house and studio talking with Lieutenant Lake. Both men had worked with Li Liu. Caldwell could see they were shaken, but determined. Gates wore a permanent scowl as he encouraged his hounds to pick up a scent from a shirt found in Liu’s bedroom.

Caldwell scanned the woods as his cell phone buzzed at his hip. He ignored it. Two seconds later, it buzzed again. He pulled it out to see it was Seth Moore.

“Simms.”

“D-Detective Simms? It’s Seth Moore.”

Caldwell paced in the driveway of the Liu residence. “Seth, I’m working a crime scene. Could I call you back?”

“You’re at Mr. Liu’s?”

Caldwell paused. “Where are you?”

He heard Moore sniff like he was crying. “Tell me he’s okay.”

“Where. Are. You?” Caldwell’s eyes scanned the property including the crepe myrtle trees by the railroad-tie fence, the overturned rain barrel, shoeing stool and empty hobble by the barn door.

“I’m in the road, out front. Please tell me he’s okay.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to see Mr. Liu. Is he okay?”

“I can’t discuss anything at this point,” Caldwell said, flustered.

“Oh, God.”

“Seth?”

Nothing. Caldwell ran down the driveway, wondering why Seth was here. Did he have his sister? Climbing under the crime scene tape and passing the barricade, Caldwell looked left before turning and spotting Moore off to the right of the driveway, standing in the Georgia red clay on the shoulder of the road. Seth bent at the waist sucking in air.

Caldwell approached him slowly.

Seth straightened up. “Mr. Liu was my dad’s best friend. I need to know he’s okay.”

“This is a crime scene. I want to know why you’re here.”

Sighing, Seth put his hands in his pocket.

“Well?” Caldwell asked.

“I, I spoke to Mr. Liu after Lily’s disappearance. He’s known me since I was a kid. I wanted to talk to him about Lily and my dad. I was coming back up here to discuss classes with him.”

“What classes?”

“He teaches Shaolin Kung Fu and he told me he’d train me,” Seth said. “He wasn’t answering his phone. I’d taken the day off so I thought I would come by. That’s what I did last time.”

Caldwell analyzed his every word and every move. He was trying to determine if Seth knew that his sister had been on the property.

“Mr. Moore?” Caldwell heard the Lieutenant step in behind him.

“Lieutenant.” Seth nodded.

“What’s going on?” Lake asked. Caldwell turned to fill him in on Seth’s visit to Mr. Liu.

“You see your sister lately?” Lake asked.

Seth took a step back, “What?”

“Did you know that your sister would be here?” Caldwell asked.

Eyeing Lake first, Seth Moore stood still, his eyes blinking rapidly. “Lily? You found Lily?” Tears started to roll down his face and he clenched his jaw. “Why didn’t you say you found Lily? Is she okay?” he shouted.

Both detectives stepped forward to block him as he charged forward. He elbowed Caldwell’s chin as he flew past and knocked over Lake. Lake grabbed his leg and Seth spun around, backhanding the lieutenant who flew back on the shoulder of the road.

“Stop!” barked Caldwell. Seth spun around and put his hands out.

“Jesus, Son, calm the fuck down,” Lake said while getting to his feet.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just...where’s Lily? Is she hurt?”

Seth was still, but his eyes were not. Caldwell shook his head to get his bearings after the blow from his elbow.
My God, this bastard’s strong.
“Don’t Move!” Caldwell repeated.

Lake approached him. “Keep your hands out. We’re going over to my car to have a chat. Got it?”

Lake darted his eyes toward Caldwell before guiding Seth by the arm under the crime scene tape and out of the line of media scrutiny. Caldwell opened the back door of the Taurus parked off the side of the long driveway.

Moore looked like a scared four-year-old as he kept apologizing for knocking Lake down.

“Shut up, Seth,” Lake said. The right side of his face was splotched red from Seth’s hand. Caldwell knew he was already upset about Liu and that Seth’s appearance and outburst had unhinged him.

He watched as Seth scanned the front and side windows taking in the crime scene. Caldwell rubbed his chin. “Mr. Liu was attacked. Your sister was sighted escaping the scene with a bullet wound in her shoulder-chest area.”

“You shot her?!”

“No! She was wounded before we arrived on the scene,” Lake said.

Caldwell’s throat felt tight. “She ran, Seth. From the back door of the studio, I saw that she was injured. When I went to follow her, she disappeared.” He shook his head because he still couldn’t believe it. “But then we heard a motorcycle start up.”

“You know anything about a motorcycle, Seth?” Lake asked.

“Lily doesn’t own a motorcycle.” He glanced out the side window. His eyes followed the two bloodhounds running in the trees. “You haven’t found her?”

“No, we haven’t found her. That’s why we’re shooting the shit with you!” Caldwell said.

Lake seemed to have calmed down from being whacked. “You need to tell us right now where Lily’s been.”

Seth was ashen. “I’m going to be sick.” Caldwell hit the unlock and jumped out to open the passenger door allowing Seth to vomit on to the driveway rather than all over the back seat.

“Shit,” Caldwell said, looking at the spittle hanging off Seth’s chin. As Seth leaned out of the car, Caldwell handed him a napkin from the stash in the center console.

“Sorry,” he said pitifully as he sat back in the seat. Caldwell returned to the front seat and sighed. He felt sorry for him, but he couldn’t completely forget that the kid was holding back on them. He turned his body around so he could look at him.

“We don’t have any information for you about your sister at this time. You need to tell us if you have any idea why the hell she is running from us,” Lake said.

“Someone wants her dead,” Seth answered, his voice cracking. He was watching Ernie and the hounds out the window again.

Caldwell sighed. “We didn’t shoot her, but someone else out there did. She won’t be safe until she comes in. You were with us this morning, but I know you’re not telling us something.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” he said putting his head in his hands.

Lake sighed.

Caldwell’s temples felt like someone had put his head in one of those fancy apple corers. Part of him wanted to shake the kid, the other part wanted to hug him. His eyes were huge, his face tense, completely devastated.

“Can I go?” Seth asked.

“Stay accessible. We may have more questions. We want to know immediately if Li Liu or your sister makes contact. Got it?” Caldwell said.

He nodded. Caldwell dropped him off at his truck. “If we hear anything, we’ll inform you.”

“Thanks,” Seth said.

Ten minutes later the two detectives headed to Decatur. The hospital had discharged Phillip Miller that morning. No one was answering the phone. Time to pay him a visit.

I can’t believe it. Where is she?
As soon as he pulled away from Mr. Liu’s neighborhood, Seth checked his phone. Nothing. Next, he called his mother. Emanuel answered. Seth grimaced. He knew the guy hated his guts. “Hi Emanuel, I need to speak to my mom.”

“Well she’s not here.”

“I guess I’ll try her on her cell.”

“No you won’t.”

“Excuse me?” Seth was pissed.

“She’s in route to China. Her mother is very sick. Maggie doesn’t need your shit right now, Seth.”

“As always, thanks for your help,” Seth said, gritting his teeth. He hung up and tried his mother’s cell. He felt bad leaving her a message about Lily's situation so he told her to call him, that it was urgent.

Emanuel made his blood boil. The
only
thing he had going for him is that he seemed to take good care of Seth’s mom.

Seth weaved through traffic with his phone in hand willing it to ring. He almost dropped it when it did. Koko. He was in no mood, and let it go to voicemail. The headache hit him hard causing him to squint, making his eyes sensitive to the light.

He drove erratically back to town, daring any cop to pull him over at this point. Once in the city, he hit Peachtree Street, which was a nightmare due to the earlier rain. Finally, after an hour of driving, he pulled into Peachtree Place Apartments. As he got out of his car, he knew he wasn’t alone. His problem was standing in the parking lot five feet away, smoking a Marlboro. She was wearing a tight black knit top, jeans, and high heels.