Level Five (4 page)

“How did it go today?” he asked once they were both seated and had a plateful of food.

“Tentative at first.
  All we got through were the events of the day she was kidnapped.”  She speared a piece of sweet and sour chicken with one of her chopsticks.  Jake liked using them and knew how to use them properly. She’d never really gotten the hang of them.

“She was taken from her home, wasn’t she?” 

Edie nodded.  “Actually it was an apartment.  She never heard him enter, and initially didn’t see his face.  She was asleep and woke up when she felt a sharp sting in her arm.  He had on a ski mask and clamped his hands over her mouth so she couldn’t scream. Whatever he injected her with caused her to lose consciousness. When she came to she was alone in a basement with concrete block walls and no windows.  That’s pretty much as far as we got today.”

He paused with a bite of cashew chicken neatly held between his chopsticks.  His intelligent eyes held her gaze. “Are you all right?”

She gave a dry laugh.  “Sometimes it scares the hell out of me how well you know me.”  She leaned back in her chair and frowned thoughtfully.  “I’m okay, but she gets to me like none of my other subjects ever have.  Maybe it’s the scars, physical evidence that are a reminder that even though the crime is over, it really isn’t ever over for her.”

“Just like Francine’s crime was never really over for you.  The bad guy was caught but it destroyed your parent’s marriage. You no longer speak to your mother and your father is dead.”

“What are you, suddenly my therapist?” Edie broke eye contact with him and gazed out the window.  “I need to cut the grass,” she said in a clumsy effort to change the topic. As the years had gone by she’d become less and less inclined to talk about or even think about Francine’s murder and its devastating aftermath.

She definitely didn’t want to think about the fact that her mother had remarried and effectively erased her past, including
Edie.  She couldn’t go there. That place held pain too intense to bear.

She definitely didn’t want to think about her father. The past was past and nothing could ever change it.  When Edie had written her book about Francine she’d stamped closure on that trauma from her youth.

She turned to look at Jake, her chin lifted slightly as if to dare him to continue talking about anything but the lawn.

“I’ll try to get to it before bedtime tonight,” he replied.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”  She felt guilty, knew that she’d shut down. But there were still some things she considered taboo in their relationship. Rehashing Francine’s death and all the debris left behind was definitely one of them.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked in an effort to return to the easy relationship she expected between them.

“I got assigned a missing persons case today.”

“Oh really?
  Who’s missing?”

“Her name is Kelly Paulson.  Actually she’s been missing for the last six weeks, but the case has gone cold. They thought maybe some fresh eyes could see something that had been missed.”

“I always knew you had fresh eyes,” she said with a forced grin.  He returned her smile although she thought she saw an edge of frustration in his eyes.  “So, tell me about Kelly Paulson.”

“She’s twenty-five years old, worked as a dental assistant and on April 23
rd
didn’t make it home from work.  Her car was still parked in the lot behind the dental office but nobody has seen her since.”

“She married?  Have a boyfriend?”

He nodded, his dark hair curling charmingly across his forehead. “Boyfriend, but he has a solid alibi for the time of the disappearance. He’s a sous chef at The Lamplight Restaurant downtown. He was on duty that day until seven in the evening when he got home and she wasn’t there.”  Jake shoved his plate away and frowned.

“She was an attractive young woman,” he continued, “in fact she kind of reminded me of you.  She had long dark hair and blue eyes.”

“You know when Colette went missing her boyfriend never gave up trying to find her.  He spent three years waiting for her to be returned.  Would you wait that long for me, Jake?”

He looked at her impatiently. “You still don’t get it?  I’d wait forever for you.”  He stood abruptly.  “I cooked so you clean up and I’ll get started on the grass.”

“Actually, Mr. Wok cooked, but I’ll give you a pass on the clean-up since you’re going to mow my lawn,” she said, trying to tease away the sudden tension in the air. 

“Come on, Rufus, we have man work to do.”  Rufus followed Jake out the back door and a moment later Edie heard the roar of her lawnmower.

It took her only minutes to clear off the table and store the leftovers in the refrigerator, and then she fixed a cup of coffee and stood at the back door.

As Jake mowed the huge yard enclosed by a chain link fence, Rufus ran wide circles around him as if Jake was playing a delightful game with him and the shorter grass was just incidental.

They were the two most important men in her life, one handsome and hot, the other furry and frantic.  Rufus’s love was unconditional and even though she knew Jake loved her deeply, she also knew she frustrated him to no end. 

Unlike a lot of men Jake liked to share thoughts and feelings. Maybe part of it was his training as a detective, but he dug deep, seeking personal motivations and any secrets that might linger in a soul.

What he didn’t understand, what she would never tell him was that some secrets were better off not being told.

               Chapter 5

The mini heat wave of early June had continued and by one o’clock in the afternoon the squad room smelled like a gym locker.  In an effort to make budget cuts, the air-conditioner wasn’t on yet. The only relief against the heat in the room was fans blowing from the ceiling, stirring around the fetid odor of sweat, fast food and frustration.

Jake sat at his desk across from his partner, Teddy Burwell and watched in disgust as the big man picked his oversized teeth with a bent paper clip. 

Teddy did a lot of things that irritated Jake.  He chewed with his mouth open, burped the chorus to old rock and roll songs, and felt obliged to share with Jake each and every detail of his gastric issues.

Despite his irritating habits, Teddy was also Jake’s best friend.  The two had gone to college together and then joined the Police Academy on the same day.  Jake had made detective
first with Teddy following four months behind him.  The two had been partnered together three years ago. Like a good marriage, the two men had become adept at reading each other’s minds and practicing tolerance.

“Haven’t you ever heard of dental floss?” Jake exclaimed, his tolerance level unusually low.

“Why would I buy dental floss when this is free and it works just as well,” Teddy countered.

“Thank God your daughters don’t take after you,” Jake said dryly.  Teddy had three little girls he affectionately referred to as Snap, Crackle and Pop.  He was a devoted husband and father who fooled nobody when he spoke about the good old days of bachelorhood.

“Lisa would whoop their butts if any one of them even thought about becoming a mini-me,” Teddy replied.

“I’ll never understand how a smart, attractive woman like Lisa wound up married to you.”

Teddy grinned.  “That makes two of us, bro.  What can I say?  I’m a God in the bedroom.”

“Warner. 
Burwell.”   Chief Decker’s deep voice halted Jake’s acerbic response to his partner.  Both of them jumped to their feet and headed to the Chief’s office.

Chief Darren Decker looked like a caricature of a bulldog. His oversized skull sported a jutting forehead, a smashed nose and jowls that were a barometer to his moods.  If they were tight and quivered, it was a sign of trouble.  Thankfully at the moment the jowls were loose and wobbly as he offered them a smile.  He gestured them into the chairs in front of his desk.

“Where are we on the Paulson case?” he asked.

“Dead ends,” Jake replied.  “We re-interviewed the boyfriend and talked to all her friends and relatives.  We’ve tried to re-trace her activities the last couple of days before she disappeared, but the trail is cold.”

“I’ve got another one for you,” Decker said. “Her name is Maggie Black.  Nineteen years old.  She works as a waitress at the McDonald’s on 210 Highway.  Two days ago she went to work as usual.  According to her mother she never came home after her shift ended at midnight.  At two the mother drove to the McDonald’s and found her car parked there, but no sign of her.  I want you on it.  Mother’s name is Danielle Black and here’s her address.”  He handed a sheet of paper to Teddy.

“We’re on it,” Teddy said as both men stood.  Jake was just grateful for anything that would get them out of the squad room for the rest of the afternoon.

Minutes later they were headed toward Danielle Black’s house.  Jake cranked the air conditioner on high as Teddy popped the top to a diet cola he’d bought from a vending machine on the way out of the station. 

By the time Jake had the car
cooled, Teddy had downed the soda and burped a quick rendition of Blueberry Hill.  “Did somebody tell you that was cute at some point in time?” Jake asked in disgust as he pulled out of the lot.

Teddy dropped his seat back to a nearly prone position.  “I wish that woman would marry you and get you permanently out of your foul mood.”

“I’m not in a foul mood,” Jake replied.

“Yes you are,” Teddy countered.  “Every Monday you’re in a foul mood.  I know it’s because you’ve spent the weekend with Edie. Sunday nights she kicks you out and makes you go back to your place.” 

Teddy adjusted the air-conditioner vent to blow more fully on his face.  “Most guys would envy your arrangement with Edie.  Three nights a week you get to have sex with a smoking hot woman who requires nothing more from you the other four nights a week.  Buddy, you’re living a single man’s wet dream.”

“I’m not twenty-two years old anymore,” Jake replied.  “I’m thirty-four and I want more from life than a part-time girlfriend and my job.” 

“Do you think she’s seeing somebody else when she isn’t with you?”

How many nights had Jake lay in his bed and wondered? What was Edie doing? Who was she talking to when he wasn’t around?  Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights she seemed positively devoted to him, but when Sunday evening arrived she kicked him to the curb, maintaining that she needed her personal time. 

“No,” he finally replied.  “Whatever is keeping her from marrying me, I don’t believe it’s somebody else.  I know the kind of woman she is and she’s definitely not the two-timing type.  What was that address again?”

“7107, there it is, up ahead on the left.”

Jake shoved aside thoughts of Edie.  He had a missing young woman to find and needed to concentrate on that for now.

Danielle Black was an attractive forty-something woman with short dark hair and blue eyes that radiated a simmering alarm.  After they’d introduced themselves she led them into a neat and tidy living room where Jake and Teddy sat on the sofa and she perched on the edge of a chair as if ready to take action at any moment.

“Maggie is a good girl,” she said before a single question had been asked.  “She’d never just take off with friends or go to stay with a boy or do anything like that without contacting me and letting me know.”

“You haven’t seen or heard from her since Friday?” Jake asked as Teddy pulled a notepad and pen from his pocket.

“I spoke to her Friday around five before she left here for work and I haven’t heard from her since then.”  She swallowed hard as her eyes glazed with a hint of tears.  “I tried to file a missing persons report yesterday, but they told me since she was an adult I had to wait forty-eight hours. We never fought.  It’s just the two of us and we got along great.  She was fine on Friday and planning on coming home after work and getting a good night sleep so she could study all day on Saturday.  She goes to Maple Woods Community College besides working.  She’s a good girl. She doesn’t drink or do drugs.”

She drew a deep breath, as if suddenly aware that she’d been talking fast and furiously. They’d scarcely asked her any questions.

“Where’s her father?”

“He died of a heart attack four years ago.”  She jumped up out of the chair as if stung by a cattle prod and began to pace in front of them.  “I’ve called all her friends and none of them
have heard anything from her.  Her car is still at the McDonalds.  It was locked.  I didn’t open it, I was afraid I’d disturb evidence.”  Her tenuous grip on her composure cracked and she began to cry.  “She’s in trouble.  I know she is, I feel it in my heart.  Please, you’ve got to find her.”

“We’re going to do our best,” Jake said.  “Can we get a list of names of her friends from you?”

“I already wrote one.”  She went to the desk and picked up a piece of paper.  As she handed it to Jake, she offered him a trembling smile.  “I watch a lot of crime shows so I knew you’d need this.”

“We don’t know that we have a crime yet,” Teddy reminded her. “Do you have a recent photo of Maggie?”